Welcome to todays Classic Car Doctor episode! Ron finishes a call from the previous episode about a Ford Taurus with a miss fire fault. The ignition system came 2 ways this year, 2001. A coil on plug stand along version and a coil on plug with ignition wires. It matters not because Ron helps us understand the proper method to test ignition coils and systems using some basic, affordable test equipment.
Next up is a call from NYC regarding a 2005 Honda Civic with a rattling front suspension noise. The chain store that replaced front struts in the vehicle says its not their part and the Honda dealer says it is. The vehicle owner is stuck in the middle and he turns to Ron for the answer. A tough spot for sure but The Car Doctor has the answers and ideas to help.
Lansing Michigan is calling in next; Tim has a low level vibration noise in his ES300 Lexus that no one seems to be able to repair. But Ron has some answers and they are simple solutions. Tune in to find out!
Last today; well, its an Obi-Wan Kanobi moment. "Help me Car Doctor, you're my only hope" from a caller with a 2006 GMC Sierra that won't start in high humidity conditions. Parts have been replaced but testing has not been done to any great degree. Listen in as Ron springs into action to offer several solutions and possibilities for all to learn from.
Enjoying Classic Car Doctor? Or not? Your feedback is welcome. Drop us a line! ron@cardoctorshow.com
Learn more about Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor at our website.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Why don't they need the car docter eight five five
five six nine nine zero zero. Let's get back to
Jason and Wisconsin. Jason, you're there, sir. Yeah, So let
me let me, let me be blunt. This particular vehicle
has an ignition coil sitting on the back valve cover.
This engine also came the other way where it has
coil unplug going an individual cylinder. So let me switch
the conversation a little bit. The e gr comments are
(00:29):
still valid and hold true. This has one coil with
six spark plug wires on it. Correct, Yeah, all right,
the coil you purchased. Does it plug in the same way? Yeah,
exact same thing. Okay, it's it's it's a vertical plug
to a vertical plug in other words, right, okay, because
believe it or not, they do make a horizontal plug
(00:51):
coil and it will actually plug in, but the firing
order is different. And I've seen people have this exact
same problem with a misfire and cylinder one. I just
got to cover that question. So that's number one, number two.
So you put a coil on it and you have
a spark plug wire. Did you happen to put a
spark tester on that wire to see if you have spark. Okay,
(01:15):
so that's step two. All right. Now, I'm not saying
test it with a spark plug laying against the cylinder head.
Do you know what I mean when I say a
spark tester?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
All right. If you google spark tester, you'll see pictures
of a spark plug. It looks like a spark plug
with an alligator clip soldered to the side, but it's
not really a spark plug. It has no electrode. It
has a very large gap. What it does is it
places the same amount of stress on an ignition coil
firing in the cylinder, but it's out of the cylinder,
(01:49):
all right. When a spark plug's in the cylinder, it's
got a little tiny gap on it, thirty five to
sixty thousands, depending upon the manufacturer. When you take that
sixty thousand scapped spark plug and put it out here
in an atmosphere where it's only fifteen pounds of atmospheric pressure,
trying to fire a plug with a small gap across
fifteen pounds of pressure versus one on the cylinder of
one hundred and seventy five A whole different word. So
(02:11):
you've got to stress that coil out just as hard.
Get a spark tester. Do you have spark on that cylinder?
If you have spark on that cylinder and it's still
not running on one, then we've got to talk about
a possible bad injector or an intake leak, a vacuum leak.
All right, Ok, the injector. Before we get in and
have a conversation and I get you in over your
(02:31):
head and we start talking about injector firing, just take
a mechanic stethoscope or a screwdriver turned backwards, use the
handle end, Listen to it. Does it click if the
injector clicks, does it click the same? Does it sound
the same as the injector next to it? Click? Click, click,
click click click. If that injector is not firing, then
maybe we've got a dead injector. Maybe we've got a
(02:53):
problem with the PCM. And that's a conversation we'd have
to continue next week. All right, So go do those things,
check the gr Remember what I said about the coil,
and we'll go from there. If you have no spark,
it could be that you have a bad spark, plug
wire try switching the wire with another cylinder, or get
a test wire in there and see if that helps you.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Okay, all right, sir, all right, sounds good.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Thanks, You're very welcome. Give us a call back. Let
us know. Hey, make out, Norman, Queens, New York, Good
old New York. I remember New York, New York, a
land far far away. How are you, Norman? How can
I help you today?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Run good afternoon. I have a two thousand and five
Honda Civic. Okay, And on the passenger side, around where
the floor is the ratily sound? What have you hit
a bump? But I want to a dealer indicating that
it's a loose strutch. Okay, But I went back to
the the It's a major chain, pep boys.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I'm an equal opportunity offender, Norman. If somebody makes a mistake,
I just call him on the car. But I don't care.
So I'm a non denomination church. You better watch it
if I get if you get my number. So but yeah,
what pep boys say? Not their not their fault, right.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
No, they they they insist that it's not the structs.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I go back to Honda and they say, listen a
mass technicians said it's the struts. So, first of all,
based on the sound, do you think it's the structs?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Till I hear it, it's hard to say it could be.
I mean, my question would be if Pep Boys doesn't
think it's the strut, what do they think it is?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh, they have no idea, but they know I had
a technician in the car. They're like, oh, that doesn't
sound good. But you know it's not the structs.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
But it's it's not it's not their part. But they
know it's not the strut.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Uh, it is the part that they installed is apt
to market structs that they installed right back in a
few months ago that I went back to them because
Jill and to warranty.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
But but but they're saying that their part's okay, but
they don't know what the real problem is with the
vehicle correct, all right, So that means that they're out
of the picture now because they don't want to get
involved any further. Hopefully you paid with a credit card
because then you can just stop payment on it after
you find out it is the struts. And then the
second part of the comment I have is when you
go to the Honda dealer and they say it's the struts.
(05:11):
Does the handed dealer can they guarantee.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That that's That's a question I asked them. I said,
if you fix it, if you replace back to the
original struts and this still makes the sound, what can
you I mean, where do we go from there? And
the technician there said, well, we'll cross that bridge once
we're there. Well, let's get this strut fit's first, before.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
We just blindly replace the struts. My commentary would be
if I was looking at it and I heard it
and I felt it was strut related, then I would say,
you know what, let's take the struts apart to see
what we see and maybe we'll find it that way.
You know. The other way to think about this is
how are they testing for this noise up in the
(05:53):
air is tough? They need to drive on lift or
they need to support. They need to support the suspension
so they catch the vehicle in a loaded state. Because
you could be describing to me a strut, a sway
bar link, a cradle bushing, a ball joint issue, a
body rattle, a fender problem, a hood issue. There's a
(06:14):
half a dozen things that could be So I wouldn't
just blindly say it's a strup. But there is a
process by which you can diagnose this and start to
eliminate things naturally. You know, as I said the beginning
of the last hour, the hardest vehicle to work on
is the one that somebody already else tried to and
you know it's now you've got to go back and
look over and solve their work and solve the original problem.
(06:37):
So it's a little bit of double duty. It's either
back to the dealer. You've got to get an independent
opinion and work your way outwards from there. Sorry, yeah, sorry, listen,
I understand there's an interesting story, Harry explained to me.
I have to ask you how you happen to buy
this Honda real quick?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh yeah, I'm ashamed to say, I'm ashamed to admit it.
I initially purchased a Toy Corolla back in nineteen ninety nine,
and then by the fifth year of having problems with
you know, like suspensions breaking, and every time I went
to the shop it was like another thousand dollars, now
a couple hundred dollars, and I was so frustrated and
out of the knee jerk reaction, I went to buy
(07:17):
a new car. I traded in the Corolla for the
for the UH, the TN, the Civic, and looking back,
I thought it was a very stupid idea. But I mean,
you know, you know, the other build up, adding up,
adding up, adding, I'm thinking, I'm painful of this and
I just just getting another cars. How to bypass these problems?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know what, Norman? Part of it is too that,
And I said this just I think this hour or
the last hour of this weekend show that Toyota Honda,
they're not the supercars everybody thinks they are. They once were.
They once were a better car company, I think than
they are today. But right now, when people ask me
(07:55):
what kind of car to buy, the five major food
groups is Toyota, Honda, four GM, Chrysler in no particular order.
And you know it's there's got to be something there,
And there's a lot of reasons why. Some of it
has to do with tooling and service information, some of
it has to do with parts availability. But I don't
think Honda is really that impervious to problems. So listen,
(08:18):
I'll leave you. I'll leave you with this. You know
what Honda stands for, right No, had one never did again.
So you go get that car fixed and call us back.
Let us know how you make out. We'll go from there.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
All right, sir, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You're very welcome. Norman, good luck to you, and say
he loo everybody in New York for us eight five
five five six nine nine zero zero. I'm running any
of the car, doctor, I'm cruising back right after this.
(09:04):
Why this car is automatic, it's systematic, it's a dramatic.
What's greased lightning? Hey, welcome back. Why aren't they needing
the car? Doctor? And I don't know what that car is,
but it may be hydramatic, grease lightning and all that.
(09:24):
But if it doesn't start, it ends up on my
doorstep or it's junk. Let's get out and talk to
Rick and Lansing, Michigan. Rick, Hello to you and everybody
out there in good old Michigan. How can I help
you today?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Yes, sir, Aron, my name is actually Tim.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Oh I'm sorry, Oh sorry, Tim, So look at it.
Oh you know what? We had two guys in Lansing, Michigan.
All right, we'll start with Tim and Lansing, Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
There we go, Okay, I'm the one with the lexasy
F three hundred.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Okay, and what kind of problem you have, Tim, Well.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I've got a funny noise when the when the car
is cold. It sounds like kind of a v sound
like like that when you drive down the road at
low speed. Okay, it's not it. It's not an engine.
If I take my foot off the gas, that goes away.
I put it in neutral or park, it goes away.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I bet if you something, I bet if I bet
if you sit there with your foot on the brake
and gently apply power to the engine, just bring it
up a little bit, I bet you you can make
it happen. It's like a buzz right, uh huh yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Put your top teeth over your bottom lip.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay. Have you tried have you? Have you tried that
to power break it, to see if you can duplicate
the noise.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I think one of the mechanics that looked at it
did that. And to be honest with you, I can't
remember what he said whether he did or did not
make the noise.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It might be it might be trying it a couple
of times. Because my suspicion is this car has a
loose vibrating heat shield on the exhaust or the engine somewhere. Okay,
and it's not something you know. When things heat up,
they expand that that's why it does it cold. And
when it goes away, when it warms up, does it
(11:04):
get better?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It goes away?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, okay, because things expand. So ideally, what I would
love to see happen here is I would love this
car to be putting a shop on the lift. Monday night,
Tuesday morning, or whatever day of the week it is.
They come in and the car comes down, the guy
gets in it, somebody's under the car. They power break
the car on the lift up in the air very
(11:28):
gently and look for the noise. Or better yet, how
about Monday the car gets dropped off. Look it's looked
at cold. The noise gets replicated, Hey, we know the
noise happens at thirteen hundred do pm. Now it gets
left in the garage on the lift. Tuesday morning, the
car goes up in the air. The mechanics sitting in
it power breaks at thirteen hundred rpm, which which shield
(11:51):
is buzzing. As we say, it may not be a
visible rattle, It may be nothing. If you sat there
and banged around with a rubber mallet that you would hear.
This is a very low level harmonic distortion. All right,
let me ask you this, tim Did you go to
your high school prom?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yes? I did?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Okay, did you sit there when you got bored with
your date? After about three quarters of the way through
the night. You sat there with the water glass and
you went the top of the water glass and you
ran your finger around the glass and you made that
real crazy noise and everybody thought you were the class
clown and how amusing, and you created that harmonic distortion,
that vibration out of the glass.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Well, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I actually
took my date home and married her.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Oh well, there you go.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
But no I didn't. But I know what you're saying, right,
I was.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
The guy at the PROMP. I was the guy at
your prom that did that because I figured out what
harmonic distortion is At that that night I was I
was doonding quantum mechanics and physics. So you know that's
basically what you've got going on here.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
All right, You've got all mechanic do try to run
some screws in to tighten it up.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, once we know which one it is, then we
can look to see is it a matter of you know,
sometimes the shield has started to vibrate under the head
of the ball, so that if you can't tighten the
bolt any further because there's no more thread left, you
take the bolt out. You put a washer on the
head of the bolt. Now you've increased the gap. Now
(13:11):
you've got something to tighten down against, and you'll make
it go away that way, all right, all right, So
let's try those things and see what it gets us.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Okay, all right, let us not tim.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Thank you. You're very welcome, sir. I'm running any in
the card doctor eight five five five six nine nine
zero zero. We got one more to go. We're back
right after this.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You might not ever get.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Welcome back. Run any in the card rock and roll,
and here's our last call of the hour. Rick from Lansing, Michigan. Rick,
I'm sorry for the confusion. It was a way fast
Harry stacked them up. What can I do to help you, sir?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Two thousand and six GMC Sierra four point three automatic
two wheel drive only on high humidity mornings. It won't start.
Crank's over after your crank for a while. You can
smell gas and a pressure tested. The fuel pump once
you get it started, starts fine no matter how wet
or cold or humid it is the rest of the
(14:30):
day and dry morning starts up just fine. I've replaced
the distributor with an updated distributor, brand new rotor cap,
premium plug, wires, plugs blown, all the area back there,
everything clean and dry, checked everything over visually, had it
to the dealership three times, and they wanted to try
to troubleshoot it with my wallet. So they said it
(14:53):
was the fuel pump. But like I said, I had
a fuel pressure on the on the on the system
and you can well you can smell fuel after you
prank it over, so I know it's getting fuel.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, So let me let me, let me, let me
do this because the clock's gonna take us. We got
about two and a half minutes. Do you have a pencil, okay,
A couple of bulletins, all right, and i'd like you
to get I'd like to get your hands on them
and just read them, all right. I want you to
have no pre pre assumed position on this, all right.
This is a tough card. Effects I'll tell you that
right up front. Okay. The first bulletin is double oh
(15:27):
dash double oh six. I'm sorry, double oh, dash O six,
dash O four dash O one four all right. And
then the second bulletin I'd like you to look at
is two dash O six dash O four dash O
five to nine. Both of those bulletins make reference to
(15:49):
or talk about problems just like you're describing with no starts.
They don't mention anything about wet and humidity, but they
talk about problems in and around the ignition system related
to possibilities of coils, caps et cetera, things in your
general vicinity that you're diagnosing. They also talk specifically about
problems with the crank position sensor. One of the things
(16:10):
I would love to see when you're diagnosing this problem
is when it goes into this no start. If you
have a scan tool, does the scan tool show cranking
RPM when the car doesn't start? All right? You know?
I get it that you go in with a hair
dryer and you're drying something out and it starts, and
you think it's this. Listen, I understand Sea to the
(16:31):
pants mechanics better than anybody. I've been there, done that,
still do it all the time. But you know, when
I'm faced with a toughie, I got to go back
to square one. I got to diagnose it. I got
to gather information. So the first thing I'd like to
see is, you know, do I have cranking rpm on
the scan tool? If I have cranking rpm? Do I
physically have spark at the plug? The twenty dollars spark
(16:54):
tester that we always talk about. Stick it on a plug, wire,
crank it over? Do we have spark? I know you
think you don't, but have you physically checked for spark
or lack of spark yet? All right? Okay, so you
know do we have spark? That's number one, Number two,
number three if you don't have spark, and you want
to make the assumption that all your components are good
(17:15):
and new means good, and we know what new really means.
CRC CRC Chemicals, you know, out on the web, if
you get out the CRC Industries dot com, they make
a product called CRC wire dryer. All right, it's it's
sort of like a seiler for ignition systems when they
get moisture issues. You can try that and then give
me a call back next week. Let me know what happens.
(17:36):
I'm sorry, Rick, the clock's gonna grab me. I'm run
any in the car. Doctor. The mechanics aren't expensive, they're
placelessen see you
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Why don't they need the car docter eight five five
five six nine nine zero zero. Let's get back to
Jason and Wisconsin. Jason, you're there, sir. Yeah, So let
me let me, let me be blunt. This particular vehicle
has an ignition coil sitting on the back valve cover.
This engine also came the other way where it has
coil unplug going an individual cylinder. So let me switch
the conversation a little bit. The e gr comments are
(00:29):
still valid and hold true. This has one coil with
six spark plug wires on it. Correct, Yeah, all right,
the coil you purchased. Does it plug in the same way? Yeah,
exact same thing. Okay, it's it's it's a vertical plug
to a vertical plug in other words, right, okay, because
believe it or not, they do make a horizontal plug
(00:51):
coil and it will actually plug in, but the firing
order is different. And I've seen people have this exact
same problem with a misfire and cylinder one. I just
got to cover that question. So that's number one, number two.
So you put a coil on it and you have
a spark plug wire. Did you happen to put a
spark tester on that wire to see if you have spark. Okay,
(01:15):
so that's step two. All right. Now, I'm not saying
test it with a spark plug laying against the cylinder head.
Do you know what I mean when I say a
spark tester?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
All right. If you google spark tester, you'll see pictures
of a spark plug. It looks like a spark plug
with an alligator clip soldered to the side, but it's
not really a spark plug. It has no electrode. It
has a very large gap. What it does is it
places the same amount of stress on an ignition coil
firing in the cylinder, but it's out of the cylinder,
(01:49):
all right. When a spark plug's in the cylinder, it's
got a little tiny gap on it, thirty five to
sixty thousands, depending upon the manufacturer. When you take that
sixty thousand scapped spark plug and put it out here
in an atmosphere where it's only fifteen pounds of atmospheric pressure,
trying to fire a plug with a small gap across
fifteen pounds of pressure versus one on the cylinder of
one hundred and seventy five A whole different word. So
(02:11):
you've got to stress that coil out just as hard.
Get a spark tester. Do you have spark on that cylinder?
If you have spark on that cylinder and it's still
not running on one, then we've got to talk about
a possible bad injector or an intake leak, a vacuum leak.
All right, Ok, the injector. Before we get in and
have a conversation and I get you in over your
(02:31):
head and we start talking about injector firing, just take
a mechanic stethoscope or a screwdriver turned backwards, use the
handle end, Listen to it. Does it click if the
injector clicks, does it click the same? Does it sound
the same as the injector next to it? Click? Click, click,
click click click. If that injector is not firing, then
maybe we've got a dead injector. Maybe we've got a
(02:53):
problem with the PCM. And that's a conversation we'd have
to continue next week. All right, So go do those things,
check the gr Remember what I said about the coil,
and we'll go from there. If you have no spark,
it could be that you have a bad spark, plug
wire try switching the wire with another cylinder, or get
a test wire in there and see if that helps you.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Okay, all right, sir, all right, sounds good.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Thanks, You're very welcome. Give us a call back. Let
us know. Hey, make out, Norman, Queens, New York, Good
old New York. I remember New York, New York, a
land far far away. How are you, Norman? How can
I help you today?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Run good afternoon. I have a two thousand and five
Honda Civic. Okay, And on the passenger side, around where
the floor is the ratily sound? What have you hit
a bump? But I want to a dealer indicating that
it's a loose strutch. Okay, But I went back to
the the It's a major chain, pep boys.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I'm an equal opportunity offender, Norman. If somebody makes a mistake,
I just call him on the car. But I don't care.
So I'm a non denomination church. You better watch it
if I get if you get my number. So but yeah,
what pep boys say? Not their not their fault, right.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
No, they they they insist that it's not the structs.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I go back to Honda and they say, listen a
mass technicians said it's the struts. So, first of all,
based on the sound, do you think it's the structs?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Till I hear it, it's hard to say it could be.
I mean, my question would be if Pep Boys doesn't
think it's the strut, what do they think it is?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Oh, they have no idea, but they know I had
a technician in the car. They're like, oh, that doesn't
sound good. But you know it's not the structs.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
But it's it's not it's not their part. But they
know it's not the strut.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Uh, it is the part that they installed is apt
to market structs that they installed right back in a
few months ago that I went back to them because
Jill and to warranty.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
But but but they're saying that their part's okay, but
they don't know what the real problem is with the
vehicle correct, all right, So that means that they're out
of the picture now because they don't want to get
involved any further. Hopefully you paid with a credit card
because then you can just stop payment on it after
you find out it is the struts. And then the
second part of the comment I have is when you
go to the Honda dealer and they say it's the struts.
(05:11):
Does the handed dealer can they guarantee.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That that's That's a question I asked them. I said,
if you fix it, if you replace back to the
original struts and this still makes the sound, what can
you I mean, where do we go from there? And
the technician there said, well, we'll cross that bridge once
we're there. Well, let's get this strut fit's first, before.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
We just blindly replace the struts. My commentary would be
if I was looking at it and I heard it
and I felt it was strut related, then I would say,
you know what, let's take the struts apart to see
what we see and maybe we'll find it that way.
You know. The other way to think about this is
how are they testing for this noise up in the
(05:53):
air is tough? They need to drive on lift or
they need to support. They need to support the suspension
so they catch the vehicle in a loaded state. Because
you could be describing to me a strut, a sway
bar link, a cradle bushing, a ball joint issue, a
body rattle, a fender problem, a hood issue. There's a
(06:14):
half a dozen things that could be So I wouldn't
just blindly say it's a strup. But there is a
process by which you can diagnose this and start to
eliminate things naturally. You know, as I said the beginning
of the last hour, the hardest vehicle to work on
is the one that somebody already else tried to and
you know it's now you've got to go back and
look over and solve their work and solve the original problem.
(06:37):
So it's a little bit of double duty. It's either
back to the dealer. You've got to get an independent
opinion and work your way outwards from there. Sorry, yeah, sorry, listen,
I understand there's an interesting story, Harry explained to me.
I have to ask you how you happen to buy
this Honda real quick?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Oh yeah, I'm ashamed to say, I'm ashamed to admit it.
I initially purchased a Toy Corolla back in nineteen ninety nine,
and then by the fifth year of having problems with
you know, like suspensions breaking, and every time I went
to the shop it was like another thousand dollars, now
a couple hundred dollars, and I was so frustrated and
out of the knee jerk reaction, I went to buy
(07:17):
a new car. I traded in the Corolla for the
for the UH, the TN, the Civic, and looking back,
I thought it was a very stupid idea. But I mean,
you know, you know, the other build up, adding up,
adding up, adding, I'm thinking, I'm painful of this and
I just just getting another cars. How to bypass these problems?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know what, Norman? Part of it is too that,
And I said this just I think this hour or
the last hour of this weekend show that Toyota Honda,
they're not the supercars everybody thinks they are. They once were.
They once were a better car company, I think than
they are today. But right now, when people ask me
(07:55):
what kind of car to buy, the five major food
groups is Toyota, Honda, four GM, Chrysler in no particular order.
And you know it's there's got to be something there,
And there's a lot of reasons why. Some of it
has to do with tooling and service information, some of
it has to do with parts availability. But I don't
think Honda is really that impervious to problems. So listen,
(08:18):
I'll leave you. I'll leave you with this. You know
what Honda stands for, right No, had one never did again.
So you go get that car fixed and call us back.
Let us know how you make out. We'll go from there.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
All right, sir, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You're very welcome. Norman, good luck to you, and say
he loo everybody in New York for us eight five
five five six nine nine zero zero. I'm running any
of the car, doctor, I'm cruising back right after this.
(09:04):
Why this car is automatic, it's systematic, it's a dramatic.
What's greased lightning? Hey, welcome back. Why aren't they needing
the car? Doctor? And I don't know what that car is,
but it may be hydramatic, grease lightning and all that.
(09:24):
But if it doesn't start, it ends up on my
doorstep or it's junk. Let's get out and talk to
Rick and Lansing, Michigan. Rick, Hello to you and everybody
out there in good old Michigan. How can I help
you today?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Yes, sir, Aron, my name is actually Tim.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Oh I'm sorry, Oh sorry, Tim, So look at it.
Oh you know what? We had two guys in Lansing, Michigan.
All right, we'll start with Tim and Lansing, Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
There we go, Okay, I'm the one with the lexasy
F three hundred.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Okay, and what kind of problem you have, Tim, Well.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I've got a funny noise when the when the car
is cold. It sounds like kind of a v sound
like like that when you drive down the road at
low speed. Okay, it's not it. It's not an engine.
If I take my foot off the gas, that goes away.
I put it in neutral or park, it goes away.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I bet if you something, I bet if I bet
if you sit there with your foot on the brake
and gently apply power to the engine, just bring it
up a little bit, I bet you you can make
it happen. It's like a buzz right, uh huh yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Put your top teeth over your bottom lip.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Okay. Have you tried have you? Have you tried that
to power break it, to see if you can duplicate
the noise.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I think one of the mechanics that looked at it
did that. And to be honest with you, I can't
remember what he said whether he did or did not
make the noise.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It might be it might be trying it a couple
of times. Because my suspicion is this car has a
loose vibrating heat shield on the exhaust or the engine somewhere. Okay,
and it's not something you know. When things heat up,
they expand that that's why it does it cold. And
when it goes away, when it warms up, does it
(11:04):
get better?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It goes away?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, okay, because things expand. So ideally, what I would
love to see happen here is I would love this
car to be putting a shop on the lift. Monday night,
Tuesday morning, or whatever day of the week it is.
They come in and the car comes down, the guy
gets in it, somebody's under the car. They power break
the car on the lift up in the air very
(11:28):
gently and look for the noise. Or better yet, how
about Monday the car gets dropped off. Look it's looked
at cold. The noise gets replicated, Hey, we know the
noise happens at thirteen hundred do pm. Now it gets
left in the garage on the lift. Tuesday morning, the
car goes up in the air. The mechanics sitting in
it power breaks at thirteen hundred rpm, which which shield
(11:51):
is buzzing. As we say, it may not be a
visible rattle, It may be nothing. If you sat there
and banged around with a rubber mallet that you would hear.
This is a very low level harmonic distortion. All right,
let me ask you this, tim Did you go to
your high school prom?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yes? I did?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Okay, did you sit there when you got bored with
your date? After about three quarters of the way through
the night. You sat there with the water glass and
you went the top of the water glass and you
ran your finger around the glass and you made that
real crazy noise and everybody thought you were the class
clown and how amusing, and you created that harmonic distortion,
that vibration out of the glass.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Well, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I actually
took my date home and married her.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Oh well, there you go.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
But no I didn't. But I know what you're saying, right,
I was.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
The guy at the PROMP. I was the guy at
your prom that did that because I figured out what
harmonic distortion is At that that night I was I
was doonding quantum mechanics and physics. So you know that's
basically what you've got going on here.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
All right, You've got all mechanic do try to run
some screws in to tighten it up.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, once we know which one it is, then we
can look to see is it a matter of you know,
sometimes the shield has started to vibrate under the head
of the ball, so that if you can't tighten the
bolt any further because there's no more thread left, you
take the bolt out. You put a washer on the
head of the bolt. Now you've increased the gap. Now
(13:11):
you've got something to tighten down against, and you'll make
it go away that way, all right, all right, So
let's try those things and see what it gets us.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Okay, all right, let us not tim.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Thank you. You're very welcome, sir. I'm running any in
the card doctor eight five five five six nine nine
zero zero. We got one more to go. We're back
right after this.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
You might not ever get.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Welcome back. Run any in the card rock and roll,
and here's our last call of the hour. Rick from Lansing, Michigan. Rick,
I'm sorry for the confusion. It was a way fast
Harry stacked them up. What can I do to help you, sir?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Two thousand and six GMC Sierra four point three automatic
two wheel drive only on high humidity mornings. It won't start.
Crank's over after your crank for a while. You can
smell gas and a pressure tested. The fuel pump once
you get it started, starts fine no matter how wet
or cold or humid it is the rest of the
(14:30):
day and dry morning starts up just fine. I've replaced
the distributor with an updated distributor, brand new rotor cap,
premium plug, wires, plugs blown, all the area back there,
everything clean and dry, checked everything over visually, had it
to the dealership three times, and they wanted to try
to troubleshoot it with my wallet. So they said it
(14:53):
was the fuel pump. But like I said, I had
a fuel pressure on the on the on the system
and you can well you can smell fuel after you
prank it over, so I know it's getting fuel.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Okay, So let me let me, let me, let me
do this because the clock's gonna take us. We got
about two and a half minutes. Do you have a pencil, okay,
A couple of bulletins, all right, and i'd like you
to get I'd like to get your hands on them
and just read them, all right. I want you to
have no pre pre assumed position on this, all right.
This is a tough card. Effects I'll tell you that
right up front. Okay. The first bulletin is double oh
(15:27):
dash double oh six. I'm sorry, double oh, dash O six,
dash O four dash O one four all right. And
then the second bulletin I'd like you to look at
is two dash O six dash O four dash O
five to nine. Both of those bulletins make reference to
(15:49):
or talk about problems just like you're describing with no starts.
They don't mention anything about wet and humidity, but they
talk about problems in and around the ignition system related
to possibilities of coils, caps et cetera, things in your
general vicinity that you're diagnosing. They also talk specifically about
problems with the crank position sensor. One of the things
(16:10):
I would love to see when you're diagnosing this problem
is when it goes into this no start. If you
have a scan tool, does the scan tool show cranking
RPM when the car doesn't start? All right? You know?
I get it that you go in with a hair
dryer and you're drying something out and it starts, and
you think it's this. Listen, I understand Sea to the
(16:31):
pants mechanics better than anybody. I've been there, done that,
still do it all the time. But you know, when
I'm faced with a toughie, I got to go back
to square one. I got to diagnose it. I got
to gather information. So the first thing I'd like to
see is, you know, do I have cranking rpm on
the scan tool? If I have cranking rpm? Do I
physically have spark at the plug? The twenty dollars spark
(16:54):
tester that we always talk about. Stick it on a plug, wire,
crank it over? Do we have spark? I know you
think you don't, but have you physically checked for spark
or lack of spark yet? All right? Okay, so you
know do we have spark? That's number one, Number two,
number three if you don't have spark, and you want
to make the assumption that all your components are good
(17:15):
and new means good, and we know what new really means.
CRC CRC Chemicals, you know, out on the web, if
you get out the CRC Industries dot com, they make
a product called CRC wire dryer. All right, it's it's
sort of like a seiler for ignition systems when they
get moisture issues. You can try that and then give
me a call back next week. Let me know what happens.
(17:36):
I'm sorry, Rick, the clock's gonna grab me. I'm run
any in the car. Doctor. The mechanics aren't expensive, they're
placelessen see you
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