Todays Classic Car Dr episode begins with Ron's telling of the tale and answers the question of what is the hardest vehicle to repair. A 2000 Ford E150 Van with a new engine that doesn't run and was towed in from another shop. He walks us through some detailed diagnosis and provides the how and why along the way. He also dives into an explanation of how and why a vehicle computer fault code occurs.
He opens the phones with a call this episode that comes from Vic in Idaho with concerns about his 2011 Ford Taurus SHO. With only 6000 miles on the odometer he is concerned about what fluids he should be changing now based on time; 4 years old. Remember, this is Classic Car Dr. Ron explains to all listening his choice of fluids to change and the reasons behind it by discussing some of the ways he maintains his hot rod.
Enjoying these older episodes? Send us your thoughts if you wish. ron@cardoctshow.com
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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 (00:04):
Ron Anian timing belts are still a very misunderstood component.
You don't have to know a lot about them. Think
about a bicycle. You've got two sprockets with a chain.
That's basically a timing belt.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh Lord.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
On the store, the car Doctor.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you've got a full tank twenty gallons twenty four gallons,
you're putting anywhere from one hundred and fifty pounds on
up over that rear axle on the back end of
the vehicle. It gives it more stability.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The phone and call in. The garage doors are open.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
But I am here to take your calls at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now hes Ronnie. Hey,
did I ever tell you what the hardest vehicle in
the world is to repair? Hello, and welcome Ronning any
and the Car Doctor here at eight five five five
sixho nine nine zero zero. That's the Car Doctor's toll
free number is always this hour, same time every week
(01:10):
for you at eight five five five six oho nine
nine zero zero, and it's twenty four to seven. Anytime
day or night. You give that phone number a call.
If we're not on the air. We've also got it
set up for a message system and Fast Tarry Fastarry
dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We'll call you back, hook you up.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Get you in queue, and we'll talk about your problem
here on national radio and solve it for you, and
you'll help educate everybody else on this radio show. I
encourage you to take everything you've learned about cars so
far and just put it off to the side, maybe
throw some of it away and retain some of it,
because you're going to learn something new every week right here.
(01:45):
Mechanics and the people that repair cars all know the
answer already to that question about what's the hardest vehicle
to repair. The hardest vehicle to repair is the one
that someone else tried to and now it's your problem.
Twenty forty one to fifty van was towed into Ari
Automotive this week and all the elements for pain were there.
(02:06):
The check engine light was on, the engine had just
been replaced on one hundred and thirty thousand mile vehicle
and the state inspection sticker showed that it had failed
inspection and it was overdue by five months. So where
do you start to diagnose this? And obviously the point
of diagnosis begins at the beginning. All first steps in
(02:28):
any diagnosis. I don't care whether you're diagnosing a vibration,
a rattle, a squeak, a check engine light, poor fuel economy,
whatever you're working on. All first steps in any diagnosis
begin with gathering information. You've got to learn, you've got
to know what's good, You've got to know what's bad.
(02:49):
During the process of hunting and gathering. As I like
to think of it, with this two thousand and one
to fifty the check engine light was the was the
biggest supplier of information. It had a P zero one
fifty three. The bank two upstream or pre cat oxygen
sensor reported low activity. So right away you think to yourself, Okay,
(03:11):
maybe I've got a bad O two. I visualed it.
Both O two's were rusty and cruddy looking. They appeared
to be pretty darn close to original, and they'd been
in there for quite some time at the very least.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But do you remember the.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Rule I always cite and talk about how just because
a code sets for the left or the right side
of the engine where there's a fault, that you've always
got to look at the other side as well.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know, remember it like this, and.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
In this case a pie zero one fifty three is
the left side O two censor before the cat. There's
also a right side O two censor before the cat,
and you've got to stop to look and think that.
You know, on an older vehicle or even on a
newer vehicle, you've always got to stop to consider why did.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That sensor fail?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And if the left side approached failure and failed, where's
the right side?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Talk about how code set.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
When you get up in the morning and we're into
the cold and flu season in most parts of the country,
maybe on Tuesday you've got some sniffles, you know, you're
starting to get a little bit of a wet nose.
And Wednesday morning you get up and you've got a
scratchy throat and your brain is thinking, oh, I'm getting sick.
(04:22):
And Thursday you get up in your coughing, and by
Friday you can't get out of bed because you've got
a fever. Hey, the code set the check engine light
went off. You had conditions that brought yourself up to
that level of failure. You got sick. Over a couple
of days. Time cars do the same thing. It looks
at that oxygen sensor and it decides, hey, is its
(04:45):
nose running? Does it have a headache? Does it have
a fever? Does it have a problem in the way
that it operates. Let me watch this guy. Let me
think about this. Is he getting sick? And if there's
two of them, if they were twins living in the
same house, like two oxygen sensors living in the same car,
(05:06):
computers looking at both all the time along with everything
else that it does, and it slowly decides, hey, the
left side twin number one got sick first. Bang P
zero one fifty three. Now, in the case of this van,
I know that the customer no longer drove it because
they couldn't get it through inspection and they didn't drive
(05:26):
it long enough to see if twin number two would
get sick. And a lot of times that's what happens.
A lot of times it's the debilitating failure, and it
just prevents the vehicle from being driven for a variety
of reasons.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
In this case.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
It was months overdue inspection. They had gotten caught up
in some other issues. It was a commercial vehicle and
they stopped driving it. So most important, we want to
look at the twins. We want to look at both
though twos. If this was a singular two system, we'd
have a different fault code and we wouldn't be as
(05:58):
worried about it. But I want to look at both.
I want to know are both kids getting sick? The
O twos are just old and rusty. He didn't change
them with the engine, and I always wonder why the
engine goes bad, you know, even on an older vehicle.
I always wonder why did the engine go bad? And
when it went bad, what did it take out? But
it doesn't matter. We're going to test the O twos.
Two sensors are little batteries. Okay, for lack of a
(06:21):
better way to say it, now, this explanation only applies
to oxygen sensors. I'm not talking about air fuel ratio sensors.
I'm not talking about anything else. Oxygen sensors, which a
lot of cars still have. They've been going away slowly
over the last six or seven years. The basic idea
for air fuel and O twos is the same, but
the numbers are different. So just keep this in mind
(06:42):
for O twos if you ever want to work on
one and oxygen sensor is a battery, all right. It
produces a voltage that ranges from a tenth to one vault,
which is almost impossible and I've never really seen it,
but in theory that's what they tell us. Typically you
see a tenth to nine tenth of a vault. If
an O two sensor is showing one tenth of a vault,
(07:04):
it's a lean fuel condition. There isn't enough fuel in
that system. There's more oxygen molecules or more oxygen content
than fuel, and it's creating a low voltage. The computer
sees that low voltage and it goes, hey, it's low.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It's lean. Let me add some fuel.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If it sees anything over a half a vault point
five up to nine tenths of a vault, it goes, hey,
it's rich. Let me cut back on the injector on time.
Let me pull some fuel out of the system. The
problem is when a car battery goes bad, a twelve
volt car battery, how does it go bad? It goes
bad low, right, it goes from twelve vaults to ten vaults.
When a two sensor goes bad, it goes low, so
(07:43):
instead of producing a higher voltage, it always produces a
low voltage. So it's not that looking at it. You'll
sit there and say, hey, it's it's a bad O
two until the computer tells you it's a bad O
two because it's tested it. So now you've got to
test it. Testing O two's are really easy. Easiest way
is to just enrich them. You know, a lot of
(08:04):
guys will sit there and they'll pull a vacuum hose
off and say, hey, the O two didn't move, it
must be bad. Listen, I hate to inform you, but
if the O two is bad, if the battery is
bad and it can't produce voltage, it's going to be
low to begin with. If you pull a vacuum line off,
you're adding oxygen to the fuel mixture. And I realize
it sounds a little complicated, but it's easier than you think.
That you're now creating a low, lean fuel environment. The
(08:29):
two sensor is always going to show low. You've got
to enrich it now. A couple of weeks ago, out
on the Facebook page, for the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Ron and ENnie and the car Doctor.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I posted a picture of the tool that we use
from OTC and it's picture still up there. And it's
just an attachment to a propane bottle and you take
a piece of steel brake line, crimp it in the
end of the hose. Crimp the end down. See you
can pinpoint it. Shoot a little propane into the air
and the stream the airstream on the intake side. Well,
guess what I enriched the fuel mixture.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I added fuel. The two's didn't. The left side didn't move.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The right side just kind of stuck its head up
and went eh, like a twin peeking out from under
the cover. I don't want to go to school, Ma,
Like you knew the kid was getting sick. Bottom line,
the hardest vehicle to repair is the one someone else
worked on. But you still diagnose it the same way.
You hunt, gather and observe, or you test, gather and
(09:24):
observe however way you want to look at it, and
you try to do simple tests. Simple tests are a
great place to start. Regardless of what problem you're solving,
you always try to break it down to its simplest form.
You take it apart. You learn how it works, and
you ask yourself, how can you test it? And you
remember simple testing always brings big results. Hello and welcome
(09:47):
ronin Any and the car Doctor here at eight five
five five six nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And after that pro paying testing, it was real simple.
It was I never saw the O two's move and
it was a simple matter of replacing them. Well, it
wasn't that, that's simple. They had rusted into the exhaust pipes.
We had to heat them, get them out, tap them
to put the new ones in. But the vehicle went
down the road straight and solid, past inspection, no problem,
ran the two monitor for the OBD two faults and
(10:12):
all was good from simple tests of just doing propain
this radio show, this hour is going to be interview free.
We're here to take your calls at eight five five
five six oh ninety nine hundred. And I want to
point out that if you're looking for podcasts of this
radio show, there are a couple of different places. It's
at cardoctorshow dot com. Keep in mind you can also
subscribe to podcasts over at iTunes, iHeart and if you
(10:35):
get out to tune In dot com you will find
an affiliate list and also able to stream this radio
show at various times throughout the weekend, depending upon what
part of the country or what part of the world
you're in for that matter. But you know, the most
important thing to walk away from this opening conversation is
we're here to take your calls and answer and solve
your problems. And if you're looking for me during the
(10:55):
week ron at cardoctorshow dot com, I try to answer
each and every piece of email.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I do answer them.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Either that or I will direct Harry Fast Harry to
executive produce and get somebody up here on air if
I think it's a good enough problem that I want
everybody to understand and get an education from it, because
that's really what this radio show is about. I apologize
if at times it sounds too technical. There's a reason
for that. Cars really are technical, but we always try
to throw that flavor in to keep it simple, because
(11:23):
our job is to really help you understand your automobiles.
When you go in and talk to your mechanic, you
know what he's saying or have an inkling of an idea,
and it helps you get the car safe, reliable, as inexpensive,
as possible. We'll be back to open up the phones
right after this. I'm ronning Andy and the car doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Welcome back in the car doctor. Here at a five five, five,
six nine nine zero zero. Let's go over and talk
to Vic and Lewis and Idaho. Vic.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Welcome to the card doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Yeah, hither, thanks for taking my call. I've got an
interesting problem because I've got two cars. One I drive
every day and the other one is our what I
call our picnic car. That's our Sundy car. It's say
twenty eleven Ford Taurus show model.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Oh sure, nice car.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
And my question is this, then that car's going on
four years old? Will we ordered and got it new
from the factory or a dealer ordered it for us anyway?
So it's going on four years old, but it's only
got six thousand total miles on it. So my question
is what do I do as far as fluids are concerned.
I don't believe oil goes bad as such just for sitting.
(13:03):
So my question is what do I do with a
brand new car. Literally it's only got six thousand miles
on it as far as fluid changes, I'm thinking radiator
is the only thing I'm thinking of down the road.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Here, well, I'm thinking radiator, break trans oil, all the fluids.
I'm thinking to just keep an eye on battery. I'm
thinking that if the vehicle sits that much, a product
like one tank power renew from CRC for the fuel
system and the tank once.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
A year is a great idea. You know, Vick and
I get it all right.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Some of you out there think oil doesn't go bad
from sitting, but in reality, you know, this car is
tougher to take care of than the one that goes
fifteen thousand miles a year because, you know, letting it sit,
moisture condenses inside the engine around the crank case. Moisture
attacks the brake fluid. Moisture gets into every fluid component
(13:58):
part of this.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Vehicle another vehicle like it.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So if it's going six thousand miles a year, the
engine most of the time that it's operated, sounds like
it barely gets up to operating temperature, and if it does,
it's probably not driven long enough for any of the
moisture to boil out of the engine. It never leaves
the brake fluid and it's going to attack the transmission
and the other components as well. Moisture is the biggest
(14:22):
problem when you look at fluids on vehicles that age
from lack of use. If you understand my meaning, you
know this this past spring. It's no secret about the
hot rod. I don't drive it a lot. It's a
it's a hot rod fifty five Chevy. Obviously, it doesn't
go out in the winter in bad weather. And I
had to change the valve covers. And before I fired
(14:42):
it up for the first time this past spring, I
changed the covers. I had the covers off. There were droplets.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm not talking tiny.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You know, there was easily three tea spoons of water
in each cylinder head of just globular water that had
formed over the time. And this vehicle stored in a
heated garage. And I saw that and I went, wow,
look at this. It was a very stark, you know,
visual in your face moisture forms here because and it
(15:15):
really got me thinking about the damage that moisture can
do on a vehicle.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
That sits Oh wow, that really that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
So yeah, so we're talking all fluids as if the
car had, you know, right, a thousand miles even though
this six thousand was accumulated over a period of almost.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Four years, right, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Okay, so all fluids.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
All fluid, all fluids.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Okay, and that because radio is five years they say
or whatever. But the bottom line again, that included radiator.
And then sure this is all wheel drive and all that,
so all that stuff absolutely, And oh boy, I'm sure glad,
I'm sure glad I found that out because I'm thinking
to myself, Wow, this car has never driven hardly. We
drive it. We drove it probably once a week and
(16:01):
go twenty minutes worth of driving up to the market
and back, and then maybe on a Sunday you will
drive it one hundred or two hundred miles and then
put it back in the groundin Noh.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, absolutely you you absolutely positively want to change fluids
on some sort of timetable, more so than mileage, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
The vehicle ages. You know, Vick, if you sat in
the chair and didn't get out of the chair.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
For four years, age you would age sitting there.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Okay. Well, and you're just like the car, and the
car is no different.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Amazing, Well that answers a question. One last quickie show
this car, Like I say, you know a person would
look at his hand. It's just you know, four or
families said, add, no big deal, Well hit the gas pedal.
You'll find out what the big deal is. Oh sure,
on this show, it's amazing twin turbo chargers and all that. Anyway,
is there a performance chip that might give me a
(16:52):
little more performance? It's always been in the back of
my mind. I've read horror stories on performance chips. They'll
screw up the computer, They'll have the dashlight come on constantly,
check engine. So I'm kind of scared of that. But
I wanted to ask you, is there a quality performance
ship that will actually give you a little more performance
and not hurt the car?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I think before I chipped it VIC and you know
there are chip manufacturers out there, but I'm like you,
I'm a little skitterish, especially on a newer vehicle tying
it in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
There's no physical chip you can.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Put into that process, or it would have to be
added in line to the wiring harness and modified that way.
If it's if it's available at all, if if we
wanted to add a performance modification to a car like this,
which is kind of like, for lack of a better
way to put it, giving giving bags of ice to
the Titanic, you don't really need it. I would have
(17:45):
to say that you're better off looking at something like
a K and N air filter kit or an intake kit.
If they make a cann Air intake kit for this vehicle,
you could actually go to Kannefilters dot com and look
up this vehicle and it will show you what sort
of horsepower game you can reasonably expect.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
If I've already put in the cold air and takes
set up.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, then you're probably.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
What you need to be.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah. I think I just better leave well enough a right,
because this thing runs like a streak jack rabbit. Anyway,
you answered my question, and I just want a dad.
I really appreciate what you're doing for the general public
as far as vehicle stuff. And if I can add
for another second, long seconds, as a kid growing up,
(18:30):
my dad got me a nineteen thirty Chevrolet six hundred
coup Hey. Vic, I'm sorry you, Vic.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I'm sorry, babe. I gotta cut you short. And I
appreciate the sentiment. But the clock's going to take me.
I'm running dy in the car.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Doctor, We'll be right back
Ron Anian timing belts are still a very misunderstood component.
You don't have to know a lot about them. Think
about a bicycle. You've got two sprockets with a chain.
That's basically a timing belt.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh Lord.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
On the store, the car Doctor.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you've got a full tank twenty gallons twenty four gallons,
you're putting anywhere from one hundred and fifty pounds on
up over that rear axle on the back end of
the vehicle. It gives it more stability.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The phone and call in. The garage doors are open.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
But I am here to take your calls at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now hes Ronnie. Hey,
did I ever tell you what the hardest vehicle in
the world is to repair? Hello, and welcome Ronning any
and the Car Doctor here at eight five five five
sixho nine nine zero zero. That's the Car Doctor's toll
free number is always this hour, same time every week
(01:10):
for you at eight five five five six oho nine
nine zero zero, and it's twenty four to seven. Anytime
day or night. You give that phone number a call.
If we're not on the air. We've also got it
set up for a message system and Fast Tarry Fastarry
dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
We'll call you back, hook you up.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Get you in queue, and we'll talk about your problem
here on national radio and solve it for you, and
you'll help educate everybody else on this radio show. I
encourage you to take everything you've learned about cars so
far and just put it off to the side, maybe
throw some of it away and retain some of it,
because you're going to learn something new every week right here.
(01:45):
Mechanics and the people that repair cars all know the
answer already to that question about what's the hardest vehicle
to repair. The hardest vehicle to repair is the one
that someone else tried to and now it's your problem.
Twenty forty one to fifty van was towed into Ari
Automotive this week and all the elements for pain were there.
(02:06):
The check engine light was on, the engine had just
been replaced on one hundred and thirty thousand mile vehicle
and the state inspection sticker showed that it had failed
inspection and it was overdue by five months. So where
do you start to diagnose this? And obviously the point
of diagnosis begins at the beginning. All first steps in
(02:28):
any diagnosis. I don't care whether you're diagnosing a vibration,
a rattle, a squeak, a check engine light, poor fuel economy,
whatever you're working on. All first steps in any diagnosis
begin with gathering information. You've got to learn, you've got
to know what's good, You've got to know what's bad.
(02:49):
During the process of hunting and gathering. As I like
to think of it, with this two thousand and one
to fifty the check engine light was the was the
biggest supplier of information. It had a P zero one
fifty three. The bank two upstream or pre cat oxygen
sensor reported low activity. So right away you think to yourself, Okay,
(03:11):
maybe I've got a bad O two. I visualed it.
Both O two's were rusty and cruddy looking. They appeared
to be pretty darn close to original, and they'd been
in there for quite some time at the very least.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But do you remember the.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Rule I always cite and talk about how just because
a code sets for the left or the right side
of the engine where there's a fault, that you've always
got to look at the other side as well.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You know, remember it like this, and.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
In this case a pie zero one fifty three is
the left side O two censor before the cat. There's
also a right side O two censor before the cat,
and you've got to stop to look and think that.
You know, on an older vehicle or even on a
newer vehicle, you've always got to stop to consider why did.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
That sensor fail?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
And if the left side approached failure and failed, where's
the right side?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Talk about how code set.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
When you get up in the morning and we're into
the cold and flu season in most parts of the country,
maybe on Tuesday you've got some sniffles, you know, you're
starting to get a little bit of a wet nose.
And Wednesday morning you get up and you've got a
scratchy throat and your brain is thinking, oh, I'm getting sick.
(04:22):
And Thursday you get up in your coughing, and by
Friday you can't get out of bed because you've got
a fever. Hey, the code set the check engine light
went off. You had conditions that brought yourself up to
that level of failure. You got sick. Over a couple
of days. Time cars do the same thing. It looks
at that oxygen sensor and it decides, hey, is its
(04:45):
nose running? Does it have a headache? Does it have
a fever? Does it have a problem in the way
that it operates. Let me watch this guy. Let me
think about this. Is he getting sick? And if there's
two of them, if they were twins living in the
same house, like two oxygen sensors living in the same car,
(05:06):
computers looking at both all the time along with everything
else that it does, and it slowly decides, hey, the
left side twin number one got sick first. Bang P
zero one fifty three. Now, in the case of this van,
I know that the customer no longer drove it because
they couldn't get it through inspection and they didn't drive
(05:26):
it long enough to see if twin number two would
get sick. And a lot of times that's what happens.
A lot of times it's the debilitating failure, and it
just prevents the vehicle from being driven for a variety
of reasons.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
In this case.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
It was months overdue inspection. They had gotten caught up
in some other issues. It was a commercial vehicle and
they stopped driving it. So most important, we want to
look at the twins. We want to look at both
though twos. If this was a singular two system, we'd
have a different fault code and we wouldn't be as
(05:58):
worried about it. But I want to look at both.
I want to know are both kids getting sick? The
O twos are just old and rusty. He didn't change
them with the engine, and I always wonder why the
engine goes bad, you know, even on an older vehicle.
I always wonder why did the engine go bad? And
when it went bad, what did it take out? But
it doesn't matter. We're going to test the O twos.
Two sensors are little batteries. Okay, for lack of a
(06:21):
better way to say it, now, this explanation only applies
to oxygen sensors. I'm not talking about air fuel ratio sensors.
I'm not talking about anything else. Oxygen sensors, which a
lot of cars still have. They've been going away slowly
over the last six or seven years. The basic idea
for air fuel and O twos is the same, but
the numbers are different. So just keep this in mind
(06:42):
for O twos if you ever want to work on
one and oxygen sensor is a battery, all right. It
produces a voltage that ranges from a tenth to one vault,
which is almost impossible and I've never really seen it,
but in theory that's what they tell us. Typically you
see a tenth to nine tenth of a vault. If
an O two sensor is showing one tenth of a vault,
(07:04):
it's a lean fuel condition. There isn't enough fuel in
that system. There's more oxygen molecules or more oxygen content
than fuel, and it's creating a low voltage. The computer
sees that low voltage and it goes, hey, it's low.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
It's lean. Let me add some fuel.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If it sees anything over a half a vault point
five up to nine tenths of a vault, it goes, hey,
it's rich. Let me cut back on the injector on time.
Let me pull some fuel out of the system. The
problem is when a car battery goes bad, a twelve
volt car battery, how does it go bad? It goes
bad low, right, it goes from twelve vaults to ten vaults.
When a two sensor goes bad, it goes low, so
(07:43):
instead of producing a higher voltage, it always produces a
low voltage. So it's not that looking at it. You'll
sit there and say, hey, it's it's a bad O
two until the computer tells you it's a bad O
two because it's tested it. So now you've got to
test it. Testing O two's are really easy. Easiest way
is to just enrich them. You know, a lot of
(08:04):
guys will sit there and they'll pull a vacuum hose
off and say, hey, the O two didn't move, it
must be bad. Listen, I hate to inform you, but
if the O two is bad, if the battery is
bad and it can't produce voltage, it's going to be
low to begin with. If you pull a vacuum line off,
you're adding oxygen to the fuel mixture. And I realize
it sounds a little complicated, but it's easier than you think.
That you're now creating a low, lean fuel environment. The
(08:29):
two sensor is always going to show low. You've got
to enrich it now. A couple of weeks ago, out
on the Facebook page, for the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Ron and ENnie and the car Doctor.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I posted a picture of the tool that we use
from OTC and it's picture still up there. And it's
just an attachment to a propane bottle and you take
a piece of steel brake line, crimp it in the
end of the hose. Crimp the end down. See you
can pinpoint it. Shoot a little propane into the air
and the stream the airstream on the intake side. Well,
guess what I enriched the fuel mixture.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I added fuel. The two's didn't. The left side didn't move.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
The right side just kind of stuck its head up
and went eh, like a twin peeking out from under
the cover. I don't want to go to school, Ma,
Like you knew the kid was getting sick. Bottom line,
the hardest vehicle to repair is the one someone else
worked on. But you still diagnose it the same way.
You hunt, gather and observe, or you test, gather and
(09:24):
observe however way you want to look at it, and
you try to do simple tests. Simple tests are a
great place to start. Regardless of what problem you're solving,
you always try to break it down to its simplest form.
You take it apart. You learn how it works, and
you ask yourself, how can you test it? And you
remember simple testing always brings big results. Hello and welcome
(09:47):
ronin Any and the car Doctor here at eight five
five five six nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And after that pro paying testing, it was real simple.
It was I never saw the O two's move and
it was a simple matter of replacing them. Well, it
wasn't that, that's simple. They had rusted into the exhaust pipes.
We had to heat them, get them out, tap them
to put the new ones in. But the vehicle went
down the road straight and solid, past inspection, no problem,
ran the two monitor for the OBD two faults and
(10:12):
all was good from simple tests of just doing propain
this radio show, this hour is going to be interview free.
We're here to take your calls at eight five five
five six oh ninety nine hundred. And I want to
point out that if you're looking for podcasts of this
radio show, there are a couple of different places. It's
at cardoctorshow dot com. Keep in mind you can also
subscribe to podcasts over at iTunes, iHeart and if you
(10:35):
get out to tune In dot com you will find
an affiliate list and also able to stream this radio
show at various times throughout the weekend, depending upon what
part of the country or what part of the world
you're in for that matter. But you know, the most
important thing to walk away from this opening conversation is
we're here to take your calls and answer and solve
your problems. And if you're looking for me during the
(10:55):
week ron at cardoctorshow dot com, I try to answer
each and every piece of email.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I do answer them.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Either that or I will direct Harry Fast Harry to
executive produce and get somebody up here on air if
I think it's a good enough problem that I want
everybody to understand and get an education from it, because
that's really what this radio show is about. I apologize
if at times it sounds too technical. There's a reason
for that. Cars really are technical, but we always try
to throw that flavor in to keep it simple, because
(11:23):
our job is to really help you understand your automobiles.
When you go in and talk to your mechanic, you
know what he's saying or have an inkling of an idea,
and it helps you get the car safe, reliable, as inexpensive,
as possible. We'll be back to open up the phones
right after this. I'm ronning Andy and the car doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Don't go away.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Welcome back in the car doctor. Here at a five five, five,
six nine nine zero zero. Let's go over and talk
to Vic and Lewis and Idaho. Vic.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Welcome to the card doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Yeah, hither, thanks for taking my call. I've got an
interesting problem because I've got two cars. One I drive
every day and the other one is our what I
call our picnic car. That's our Sundy car. It's say
twenty eleven Ford Taurus show model.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Oh sure, nice car.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
And my question is this, then that car's going on
four years old? Will we ordered and got it new
from the factory or a dealer ordered it for us anyway?
So it's going on four years old, but it's only
got six thousand total miles on it. So my question
is what do I do as far as fluids are concerned.
I don't believe oil goes bad as such just for sitting.
(13:03):
So my question is what do I do with a
brand new car. Literally it's only got six thousand miles
on it as far as fluid changes, I'm thinking radiator
is the only thing I'm thinking of down the road.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Here, well, I'm thinking radiator, break trans oil, all the fluids.
I'm thinking to just keep an eye on battery. I'm
thinking that if the vehicle sits that much, a product
like one tank power renew from CRC for the fuel
system and the tank once.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
A year is a great idea. You know, Vick and
I get it all right.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Some of you out there think oil doesn't go bad
from sitting, but in reality, you know, this car is
tougher to take care of than the one that goes
fifteen thousand miles a year because, you know, letting it sit,
moisture condenses inside the engine around the crank case. Moisture
attacks the brake fluid. Moisture gets into every fluid component
(13:58):
part of this.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Vehicle another vehicle like it.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So if it's going six thousand miles a year, the
engine most of the time that it's operated, sounds like
it barely gets up to operating temperature, and if it does,
it's probably not driven long enough for any of the
moisture to boil out of the engine. It never leaves
the brake fluid and it's going to attack the transmission
and the other components as well. Moisture is the biggest
(14:22):
problem when you look at fluids on vehicles that age
from lack of use. If you understand my meaning, you
know this this past spring. It's no secret about the
hot rod. I don't drive it a lot. It's a
it's a hot rod fifty five Chevy. Obviously, it doesn't
go out in the winter in bad weather. And I
had to change the valve covers. And before I fired
(14:42):
it up for the first time this past spring, I
changed the covers. I had the covers off. There were droplets.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm not talking tiny.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
You know, there was easily three tea spoons of water
in each cylinder head of just globular water that had
formed over the time. And this vehicle stored in a
heated garage. And I saw that and I went, wow,
look at this. It was a very stark, you know,
visual in your face moisture forms here because and it
(15:15):
really got me thinking about the damage that moisture can
do on a vehicle.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
That sits Oh wow, that really that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
So yeah, so we're talking all fluids as if the
car had, you know, right, a thousand miles even though
this six thousand was accumulated over a period of almost.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Four years, right, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Okay, so all fluids.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
All fluid, all fluids.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Okay, and that because radio is five years they say
or whatever. But the bottom line again, that included radiator.
And then sure this is all wheel drive and all that,
so all that stuff absolutely, And oh boy, I'm sure glad,
I'm sure glad I found that out because I'm thinking
to myself, Wow, this car has never driven hardly. We
drive it. We drove it probably once a week and
(16:01):
go twenty minutes worth of driving up to the market
and back, and then maybe on a Sunday you will
drive it one hundred or two hundred miles and then
put it back in the groundin Noh.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Yeah, absolutely you you absolutely positively want to change fluids
on some sort of timetable, more so than mileage, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
The vehicle ages. You know, Vick, if you sat in
the chair and didn't get out of the chair.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
For four years, age you would age sitting there.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Okay. Well, and you're just like the car, and the
car is no different.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Amazing, Well that answers a question. One last quickie show
this car, Like I say, you know a person would
look at his hand. It's just you know, four or
families said, add, no big deal, Well hit the gas pedal.
You'll find out what the big deal is. Oh sure,
on this show, it's amazing twin turbo chargers and all that. Anyway,
is there a performance chip that might give me a
(16:52):
little more performance? It's always been in the back of
my mind. I've read horror stories on performance chips. They'll
screw up the computer, They'll have the dashlight come on constantly,
check engine. So I'm kind of scared of that. But
I wanted to ask you, is there a quality performance
ship that will actually give you a little more performance
and not hurt the car?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I think before I chipped it VIC and you know
there are chip manufacturers out there, but I'm like you,
I'm a little skitterish, especially on a newer vehicle tying
it in.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
There's no physical chip you can.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Put into that process, or it would have to be
added in line to the wiring harness and modified that way.
If it's if it's available at all, if if we
wanted to add a performance modification to a car like this,
which is kind of like, for lack of a better
way to put it, giving giving bags of ice to
the Titanic, you don't really need it. I would have
(17:45):
to say that you're better off looking at something like
a K and N air filter kit or an intake kit.
If they make a cann Air intake kit for this vehicle,
you could actually go to Kannefilters dot com and look
up this vehicle and it will show you what sort
of horsepower game you can reasonably expect.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
If I've already put in the cold air and takes
set up.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, then you're probably.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
What you need to be.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah. I think I just better leave well enough a right,
because this thing runs like a streak jack rabbit. Anyway,
you answered my question, and I just want a dad.
I really appreciate what you're doing for the general public
as far as vehicle stuff. And if I can add
for another second, long seconds, as a kid growing up,
(18:30):
my dad got me a nineteen thirty Chevrolet six hundred
coup Hey. Vic, I'm sorry you, Vic.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I'm sorry, babe. I gotta cut you short. And I
appreciate the sentiment. But the clock's going to take me.
I'm running dy in the car.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Doctor, We'll be right back
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