Ron starts this episode talking about the full moon and what strange things happen in a repair shop as a result; one of which was the woman who came in at the beginning of the week & wanted to leave her suitcase in his shop : takes a call on a 12 Camry with a hesitation that's been going on for over 8 years: takes a call on a 14 Charger with ABS and Traction Control lights from Montreal. His repair of the week is a 15 Acura MDX with a check engine light & an unusual EVAP system failure. He advises a caller with an 04 Nissan Titan where 2 of the speed sensor cables have been eaten by a critter. He reviews a tech article from Alldata that talks about a Ford Transit that blows fuel pump fuses. He concludes the hour talking about doing headlight bulb work and wrapping headlights with a new product from the Xpel company. ( www.xpel.com/automotive )
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ron Anian. A scan tool is a good device, but
it's an intermediate tool. You can use it to troubleshoot
most of what's going on under the hood. You can
Mammy the Car Doctor. You could check the in service
date of this vehicle. If it was a late model
year cell, by some miracle, you might still be under
extended warranty.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I went to the toileta place in the city and
they said it's not right.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So that's usually the answer.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian 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
the phone and call in.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call at eight five five five, six ninety
nine hundred and now pee running, baby, baby. I want
to talk about It's a full moon week at the shop.
You could tell it was a full moon because it
was just you know, I mean, as many crazies as
(01:02):
you thought you had, I had more, you know. I
think the best story from this week has to be
the woman who came in on Monday, now about quarter
to one on Monday. I don't know this woman. I've
never seen her before. I wasn't working on her car.
I'm not working on her car. I have no clue
who she is. What would you think if somebody came
in and you're an order repair shop and she said
(01:25):
do you work here? And I'm like, yeah, you know,
my right side says the name of the shop. The
other side says my name, ron Yep, pretty sure. I
look at my shirt, Yep, that's me. I work here.
Can I leave my suitcase here? Excuse me?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I live four blocks up the street and I'm going
to the airport on Wednesday, and I thought if I
left my suitcase here, I wouldn't have to walk it
all the way down the street when I go to
get on the train, I can just stop in, get
my suitcase and then go get on the train and
go to the airport. What do you say to that?
And that's that's real, that really happened this week. You know,
(02:01):
fifty something years in order repair and I don't think
i've ever had I'm not a hotel, this isn't a
valat service. We're here to fix your car, you know,
I don't want that responsibility. Can you see this thing
picking up fumes from the shop or something, and it
goes through TSA and it sets off some kind of
an alarm, and she's gonna and they're gonna ask her,
was your bag out of sight in the previous forty
eight hours?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I had it over at you know, disorder repair shop.
You kid me. Every FBI agent in the country will
descend on Waldock, New Jersey, like, come on, what is
this all about? It was that kind of week. Go ahead,
top that. That's the kind of week I'm coming from,
you know, sitting here talking to you today, which I
love to do. Would pay to see that, Tom. It was,
it was what do you say to that? And I
(02:42):
just sat looking at her. I have no clue, you know,
I you know, And the demon inside of me said,
you know, I she will get some black gunpowder, rub
it on the outside of the bag and let her
go through TSA. But you know, women pinned at Newark Airport,
you know, could just see the riot it would cause.
But but I just I don't know what to say
to these people. Half the time. It's please anyway. So
(03:03):
that was the kind of week I had. So I'm
a little I'm a little I'm a little shot, no
pun intended. I'm a little beat up this week. So
be gentle as we go through this hour of the
car doctor at A five five, five six nine nine
zero zero. Let's let's get the garage doors open. I've
got a great story for you a little later on
about a fifteen accurate, some how crazy it was. But
let me start here, Ralph, how can I help you, sir?
(03:24):
Save me?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh hi, Ron, thank you very much for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
You are welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Fan of your Thank you, sir. Moved up here, New
Hampshire and I've been trying to get this car fixed
for about eight years. Okay, it's a twenty twelve Camray
it you know. I had a hesitation. When you drop
down from take forty or fifty miles an hour down
to maybe twenty, you take your foot off the gas
(03:50):
and as soon as you put your foot back on
the gas, it's nothing. It's just like how the engine
dies and it takes five or six seconds, maybe seven,
three four or anything will have and then all of
a sudden the car will take off like a rocket.
So I brought it back several times to Toyota. They said.
The first time, they just reinstalled the computer software, nothing
(04:11):
to do anything. And then one of the times I
got really ticked off at and I said, you know,
it's the fourth time you guys have looked at it
and it's still the same. You haven't taken out for
a ride. And they said, yeah, this time, they said
they replaced the converter. Best I can tell you something
to do with where the flywheel.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Is torqu convert so they put they put a that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Okay, Okay, nothing that they've done three or four times
in the shop has mattered. I now have one hundred
and thirty thousand miles on it, and I had to
live with this hesitation. So so I don't know what
to make of it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, you know, my question is is this engine or
transmission From what you're describing, it sounds transmission in nature
V six or four cylinder.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It's a V six, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So the V six is pretty bulletproof. I mean the
other the four cylinder is not too shabby either, Ralph,
But the V six is pretty bulletproof as as far
as hesitation, the simple things. But it would be in
all gears you would think about throttle bodies. You would
think about air leaks and the intake ducked things like that.
Has anybody tried to diagnose it from let's let's you
(05:19):
guys hear me say this all the time. Let's prove
what's good does the engine? You know, if we looked
at fuel trim ralph. If you went to your doctor
and you said, Doc, I got this weird problem. When
I you know, I do this, this and this, They're
gonna run you through the steps, right, They're gonna do
heart rate, blood pressure, you know, take a blood sample,
They're gonna they're gonna look at all the things, just
trying to gather information. Has has the dealer or the
(05:42):
shop that's working on this try to gather information? Are
they just trying to chase the problem? It's a component,
it's this, it's that, you know, what's what's their approach?
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Ben?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, as I say, they installed the software, then they
did the call converter, and the last time I did
it was a month ago. I had to there's a
thing where you flushed the transmission. I mean that's what
they wanted to do. But they flushed it and put
in a new filter and uh, nothing, nothing works. Any
(06:14):
difference was it. You know, it used to when we
here in New Hampshire, when we went down to like
twelve degrees or eight degrees in the morning, when I
started it up, it wouldn't. You put it in drive
and it wouldn't go on and just engine would race
up until it warmed up and then it would be fine,
all right. But that's the only symptom I could point
to that. I mean, I just don't have any cougar.
(06:35):
Nobody else seems to have any quibi. It seemed to be.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Very It sounds like you need a transmission, Ralph. So
so well, here's why, okay, because the last piece of
the puzzle you just gave me solidified it in my
head without seeing it, without going through some other testing.
So you know, an automatic transmission is about hydraulics. Okay.
(06:59):
You ever watch a bucket loader or a bulldozer work,
you know, the silver pistons come out of the arms,
and that's all hydraulics. And you ever see one where
that where it's it's wet, it's leaking, it's physically wet
running down the sleeve, and that that bulldozer doesn't have
the oof, it doesn't have the hydraulic power, the rubber seals.
The seals are leaking, all right, the hydraulics. You'll actually
(07:20):
hear certain cars with bad transmissions, they'll have a wine
to them. I don't know if this is making any
noise yet, because like on a bulldozer or a or
a bucket loader. As the as the seal leaks, it
allows oxygen to be drawn and it aerrates the fluid
and it creates a wine or it creates a distortion
and sound of how the hydraulics are working. If you
(07:41):
have to sit there on cold days and allow this
vehicle to warm up, you're describing the classic, you know,
the classic hydraulic failure where a seal is leaking and
the either the either the trans is not picking up
a fluid prime or a circuit is not being charged
in terms of filled with fluid to the correct pressure level.
(08:04):
We're a'll actually engage and cause the trans to operate.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I see, does it matter to you that was that way?
Since today I bought it? No, it's twelve.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Or now I've seen you you ever see you ever
see new cars be bad? You know, listen, in my world,
you know what the definition of new is right, never
ever worked, you know, And I can, I can. I
can show you that a half a dozen different ways.
You know, if we had a camera in a television set,
(08:37):
I can't tell you the number of new parts the
new things that I get that are uh, you know
that never ever worked. I mean, this is the way
it is. It sure sounds like it's it's it's or
it's a seal that's out of place.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know, it may not be aware item, it may
be something that isn't properly sealed in terms of but
it's something in the hydraulics in that transmission. If that
trans doesn't engage when it's called for the first four
or five minutes, then we've got some sort of a
hydraulic circuit, cross leak, failure, rubber seal. Something that trans
(09:10):
needs to come out and be torn down to inspect.
Why they haven't done it at this point, I don't know.
I know, eight years is a long time. Eight years
is a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Bro Otherwise the car is Otherwise, the car is fine.
That problem of it not working and it's cold only
there's only a recent time for the last two years.
But it's been you know, honestly, I've had so many
people look at this thing I'm part of them and
tell me something and it's not actually that right.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, it may be now if we're at the
end of our rope, Ralph, if you're kind of at
that point where you know you're not quite sure what
to do and you want to try a band aid
in a can as, I call it. Okay, all right,
there's there's there's a there's a company out there called
Lucas l u c a s white bottle, blue ink.
(09:59):
I think a red label on it. Somewhere. They make
some really neat transadditives. They make an anti slip additive,
and they make a seal enhancer product. All right, and
you know you got nothing to lose. The trans is
already broken in my opinion, you know. The only the
(10:19):
only problem is anytime I tell somebody about a band
aid and a can is you run the potential of
And I don't see why, but I always say this
to be cautious. Could you make it worse?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I guess we're you know, But then again, it's it's
to the point where you can't drive it now anyway
from the sounds of it. So what's what's the difference.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Well, I can, I can drive it, but it's annoying
as all get out right. Stuff on the gas and
it's nothing anywhere right.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Right, Yeah, no, I I understand one hundred percent, Ralph,
I understand one hundred percent. There's nothing, nothing more annoying
than a car that doesn't work right. But you know,
you you could, you could try some Lucas if you've
got an autozoned by you. AutoZone should carry Lucas products.
They carry just about everything else, and I'm almost certain
(11:06):
they have the Lucas. But you'll get out to your
local AutoZone. You'll find it there. You'll find it online
at AutoZone dot com. And give that a try.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
On the corner from me there you go, Yeah, I will.
I appreciate. I appreciate. That's shut your philosophy, by the way,
about taking good care of cars. I take good care
of my cars.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Oh, I understand. I understand. Now you may have to
lower the trans fluid a little bit. You know, you
don't want to overfill the trend, so be careful when
you add that. You may want to you know, I
don't know which I don't know which mechanic you want
to go to but explain to him what you want
to do. But you may want to draw a little
out before you add in. Uh, you know what you're
doing there. And I don't know if in twelve that
car has a dipstick, so you've got to be careful.
(11:44):
It might be a little difficult. You may have to
have a shop do it.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So all right, but actually have a dipstick. Yeah right,
Thank you Ron, very very much.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You're very welcome, philed, good luck to you.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Eight years that's crazy, that's that's I can't imagine the
frustration and trying to fix something for eight years. And
and just god, I can never retire eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero running any of
the car Doctor. I'll be back right after this. Don't
go away where you're vehicle not taking you where you
(12:16):
want to go. Well call Ron. He's the expert at
making your vehicle take you where you need it. Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. And
now back to Ron. Hey, let's get over to let's
go over to Ian and Montreal and let's see what's
going on here. Fourteen Dodge Charger Ian. Welcome to the
car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, Hi Ron, thanks for taking my call. So I've
had this charger since new I've got sixty thousand miles
on it. Last week, my dashboard lights came on for
the traction control on EBS. So I've got a launch
a flat flat scanner, a tablet style scanner, which I
love very much. I plugged it in and the code
(12:54):
that stuck out was see zero zero three A for
Alpha dash sixty two right wheel speed sensor signal compare failure. Okay,
So when I went into the live data and I
compared the left and right, the left signal was a
very nice speed overtime curve. The right signal was flatline,
no signal at all.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So my question is this the wheel sensor that went bad?
I did order a replacement I have, but I haven't
had a chance to install it yet. And do these
sensors just go bad just like that? And is there
any way to test them?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yes, car, Yes, yes, yes to all of it. So so,
first of all, all right, and I mentioned this on
every Chrysler ABS call I think I've I've had in
the last ten years, just because when I hear Chrysler
and ABS, it still sends shivers up my spines. We
had an six Chrysler three hundred c oh gosh, it's
got to be seven eight years ago that had sat
(13:49):
for a very long time and was very rusty. And
this was the generation of Chrysler where they had a
magnetic wheel speed sensor. What a genius idea this was
for ABS. And if the magnet got rusty, if the
magnet cracked, if the magnet lost its magnetic strength, it
just it just didn't work right. And it was so
difficult to diagnose. You actually needed a lampscope. And you
(14:11):
know a lot of time. So as long as we
are talking conventional ABS, and I believe we are, I
believe you have a tone ring, a tooth tone ring,
a physical metal toothed tone ring. This is nothing more
than a pickup coil inside of a distributor. You've got
two wires. You've got two wires coming out of the sensor. Correct, yes, okay,
And if I remember right, the right rear is going
(14:33):
to be dark green, light blue, dark green, dark green orange.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
If I remember right, I don't have the color codes
in my head, but we'll go with that, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So you know one of those is going to be positive.
One of those is going to be negative, all right,
So we could simply follow that wiring harness up underneath
the car. Where does it go? Chrysler has a very
good habit of putting the left and right rear wheel
speeds answer connectors very close to each other.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
They are, They're right, they're going through the same hole
like up underneath, where I guess is bingo.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So why can't we get some jumpers, disconnect them, all right,
and make the right rear sensor feed the left channel
and the left sensor feed the right channel.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I actually tried that, but the connectors are different, the
left connectors and the right connectors are different.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right, Yeah, right, No, you're gonna have to get some
You're gonna have to get some jumpers and spade terminals
and get a little creative here.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, I can make a harness for it.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I can, right, And then at least we prove or
now I don't think. Yeah, I don't think you can
swap censors, but I have been known to swap censors.
What that will prove is that will prove that the
harness going forward is okay, and that will prove that
the controller, the ABS controller is okay. All right, Now,
(15:53):
if it if it stays on. If it now all
of a sudden, well, what we're expecting to see is
we're expecting to see a left rear speed sensor failure
exactly right, because that and that tells us the problem
is either the sensor or the tone ring. You can
see the tone ring right, it's just a notched ring. Look,
you've looked at it carefully. There's no brakes, the no less.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I had to take the brakes. I got to take
the brakes off for everything, and then under the hob
nut to be able to look inside and see the
tone ring. Because the tone ring is right on the
end of the axle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
So if you pull the sensor, can you pull the
sensor out and then take a using a light or
if you have a borescope here here's a reason to
go buy more tools and spin the axle slowly and
look at the tone ring.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
That way, I could try that. Yeah, I've already got
the sensor oute and I have a brand new replacement part.
When I took the old one out, I measured it
with my own meter on the two thousand homes scale.
It's the only way, the only place I could get
a reading. And it ran about six hundred oms one
way and infinite omes the other way. And when the
when the new part came in, then again it could
(16:56):
be you know, it never ever worked when the new
part came in. I got the same reading them on
the multimeter. So I'm wondering if it's a sensor issue
or if I've got to now go underneath the know,
underneath the spare tire and check that hardness and prove
it back, which well, you really don't want to do,
but you know, you gotta do.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
What you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
You gotta do what you gotta do, you know. The
other the other thing is find the sensor positive wire,
all right, right, and I believe on that, and you
should look at a wiring diagram. I believe pin forty three,
I want to say forty three, forty two, No, forty
two is the negative. Pin forty three is the positive
on that and pin four that should be the dark
(17:35):
green light blue if I remember this right, dark green
light blue. Right, yeah, that's how I recall it. The
dark green light blue should be positive. You should have
twelve vaults there, all right, and if you want to compare,
you should have the same thing on the left side,
right you should have the same twelve vaults, all right,
and that's your positive leg. And then you know if
(17:57):
you've got twelve vaults, yeah, you're either and you can
swap the harness. You can move your positive and negative
legs around, all right, and you can replicate the problem
on the left channel. That tells us that the right
sensor is the right sensor portion down to the wheel
is bad, whether it's the tone ring or the sensor,
and now we've got to look at it. I find
(18:19):
doing resistance checks on abs sensors doesn't always work out.
I don't find it to be reliable, and I've resorted
to the other testing. So but look to Ian, let
me know what happens. If you need more, by all means,
give us a call back. I'm run an Eddy in
the car doctor. We're back right after this. Don't go away,
(19:00):
welcome back. We're on naming the car doctor here eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zeros the
phone number again eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero. You can call leave a message there
by the way during the week and we will call
you back. We're actually setting up a form on the website,
a contact us form sort of like Wednesday night with
the Car Doctor, We're going to try and you know,
record some calls for future shows. So just because the
(19:23):
response is overwhelming, you guys want us twenty four to seven,
so we're trying to have a life end get to
you at the same time, so understand. But you can
get out the cardoctorshow dot com and the contact us
form should be up shortly as well so you can
reach us there. I'll talk a little bit about this
twenty fifteen accurate MDX that we worked on this week
in the shop. You know, as if the woman who
wanted to leave her suitcase, the woman that I don't
(19:45):
know wanted to leave her suitcase for baggage pickup once
she went to the airport two days later, which is
if you cut the beginning of the show. That's what
we were talking about there about the strange things that
happened in the repair shop. We had a twenty fifteen
accurate MDX came into the shop at Ari Automotive this
week and check engine light was on and you know,
normal diagnosis. It had a P zero four ninety seven
(20:05):
and a P one forty five Charlie with one forty
five C both of which point towards an evaporative emission
system with a flow problem that it's not seeing, you know,
it's it's what's basically what's happening is what those folk
codes are saying is when the purge valve opens, when
the vent valve shuts and they're trying to purge the canister,
they're trying to vacuum the fumes out of the canister,
(20:28):
so to speak, they're not seeing a change in state
of the fuel tank pressure sensor. They don't see it
drop as it's supposed to. A fuel tank pressure sensor
on this Acura, like a lot of vehicles, sits around
two and a half volts. It's calibrated for atmosphere, and
then when the system goes into purge, they're expecting that
to go into a vacuum state and the voltage would
be pulled lower. They didn't see that, So it's set
(20:50):
those codes. So some diagnosis later, and you know, we
we we got out our opis scan tool and we
were able to opus. Actually makes it very easy, give
us the ability to one button test the system. They've
taken the factory test and made it made it better
because we were one button and we were able to close,
closed the vent, open the purge and bring up the
(21:13):
individual sensors that we want to watch fuel tank pressure,
fuel tank voltage, and you know purge duty cycle because
of the duty cycled purge event and watch the show.
And you know, first time through, I didn't see a
change in FTP vault. Yeah, it varied a little bit,
but not much. It was like it went from two
point five to three to two point five two, which
(21:35):
is like nothing. So, you know, some diagnosis later and
it came to the conclusion that it's a bad purge valve.
I said, it's the only thing it can be, and
I took it apart and I proved it. You know,
it's rare, but it happens. And in this case, the
purge valve was stuck shut. You know, it was funny.
(21:55):
You could hear the purge valve click up front of
the engine. You could feel the purge valve click. You
could hear the purge valve click. It did everything was
supposed to do. The only thing it didn't do was
allow engine vacuum to be passed through it to allow
vacuum to come out the other side to actually do
the purging. And I had to get out my two
ounce diagnostic bullpen hammer while it was going to its
(22:17):
purge of it and gave it a and all of
a sudden we had vacuum and went, well, look at
that fixed. We need to but no, we need a
purge valve. Now the concern is it's fifteen, it's a
twenty fifteen. It's nine going on ten years old. It's
one hundred and fifty thousand mile vehicle. I looked at
the response rate on the vent valve back at the canister,
and that was getting tired. So I said, you know what,
(22:38):
let's put two solenoids in this. Let's change the purge solenoid.
Let's change the vent solenoid. Accura is weird. I got
to tell you. They they call both of them almost
the same thing. I went out to AutoZone pro dot
com and I started looking up parts, and you know,
autozones taking their description from Acura. That's the way, that's
(22:58):
the way it works. And they list did it as
canister vent I'm sorry, canister purge solenoid and canister purge
control solenoid. Which is which? Which one? Do? I want?
You know? But AutoZone Pro made it easy because they
have pictures of everything there, and I was able to
(23:18):
line it up, and you know, they just they just
made it so that I could find the part I
was looking for. I wanted both, but there was actually
there's actually a third there's a rear canister, purge solenoid,
whole nother animal not what I was looking for, and
it just threw a wrench into the work. So AutoZone
pro it found me the part I wanted, and I
(23:39):
was able to order it, put it in, and the
vehicle was fixed. And you know, it's it's funny where
you need those little bits and pieces of information to
fix a car today. You know, because of what Accura did.
Accura's description reflected over to AutoZone, and they made it
more difficult for everybody to begin with. Sometimes the manufacturers,
(24:02):
I think, I question what and how and why they
do things. You know, one of the worst things in
the world to go look up from a manufacturer is
anything with screws, nuts and bolts, because they list everything
on an individual basis. And again you're back to looking
at pictures and you know, which piece do I need
and how do I need it? So you know, and
(24:23):
again we're AutoZone pro dot com would would really solve
the day. And as it usually does, in the end,
I was able to put this accurate back together, cleared
the code, ran through another test, you see, and that's
I think a critical piece to the puzzle that a
lot of people don't do. I will always run through
a test, and I encourage everybody else to do that.
(24:43):
I always run through a self test. It takes five minutes.
Plug in the opus, set it up, hit the self test,
let it go through again, and you will see everything work.
Now you know, it's not a question, it's it's you
can deliver that car with confidence and say, hey, this
car is fixed. Look, here's the test result before, here's
the test result after. And listen, I'm not I didn't
(25:04):
do that. I don't I didn't think to do this,
you know, for any other reason. I noticed every time
you go to a doctor, they always test you before
they give you the pre in the post. Right, here's
what you looked like before, here's what you'll look like
now you're fixed. Said, gee, why can't we do that
with cars? And that's sort of the way I'm thinking
about it. So another one down the road, another one
for the books, but just as weird as the woman
(25:26):
who wanted to leave her suitcase because she was going
to the airport two days later. So anyway, A five five, five,
six zero nine nine zero zero. I'm running any in
the car, doctor, I'm coming back right after this. Don't
go away.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Just taking's welcome back, running any in the car, doctor,
Let's go to Let's go to Randy in Virginia O
four Nissan Titan.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Randy, welcome to the car doctor. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Oh? Thank you? Well, what I had happen on it
is I squirrel mouse something eight two of the speed
sensor cables after the connection to the harness. And so
what I was wondering is can I do a crimp
connector in there well enough signal get through or not?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Do you think I.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Don't like crimp connectors anywhere in a modern day automobile, Randy,
can you solder? Do you have enough there to solder?
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Maybe if I peel it back a little more.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You know, if you need a connector. There are sources
for connectors. Nissan. I don't believe a lot of the
Japanese car companies for some reason don't sell connectors. And
I think Nissan's right there at the top of the list.
But there are sources out there if you just search
for connectors, or you may find connectors at your local AutoZone.
You could jump online and look online. Just look for
(26:50):
the listing because they will break it down nice and
clear and easy. Just type O before Nissan sensor is
tightened as your vehicle and then go look for ABS
sensor connector or ABS harness connector and see what comes up.
But if not, then you know there are other places
that will sell just connectors. But you don't want to
really use a crimp connect You want to solder it
(27:10):
and heat shrink it so that it's a good weather
tight see on a good clean, clear contact, good connectivity
and all that, because that will affect signal size and
that can cause you know, you'll be the guy who
you'll sell the car and I'll end up at my
shop in two years. Jack got this weird ABS problem
where the right rear wheel locks up or something because
it's poor signal because the wiring harness is degraded to
(27:32):
that point. So, uh yeah, butt connects or not, you know,
they're not a permanent repair in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
All right, okay, well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
You're very welcome, Randy. Good luck to you. Yeah, it's important, right,
you know, it's you've got to look at the unusual
when it when it comes to an automobile, and you can't.
You can't. You know, good practice makes better vehicles. You know,
case in point, all data this month and there, and
they're all data news. They talk about a fix for it.
Listen to this. They had a Ford transit with a
(28:01):
fuel pump issue. Let me find that I had it
here somewheer here. It is a twenty sixteen Ford Transit
went into a shop at one hundred and thirty five
thousand miles. The transit quit running. The owner checked the
fuses and found that the fuel pump fuse was bad,
so he replaced it. A transit ran, but fuse blew again,
so he had it towed back to the shop. The
technician replaced the fuel pump fuse again and went for
(28:22):
a test drive with spare fuses in his pocket. While
on the test drive, he noticed that the fuel filter blocked.
Warning message came on just before the fuel pump fuse blew.
A quick scan of all the modules revealed no codes.
They replaced the dirty fuel filter with no luck. Then
he tested the wiring, everything was fine. Also replaced the
fuel pump, driver module and the fuel pump. Still no luck.
He called all that a tech assist and they came
(28:43):
up with a resolution that they've heard from Ford, and
listen to this right that Ford knows of the issue.
And they not only replaced the fuel filter and the
driver and the pump, but they also replaced the wiring
harness in the fuse box. Before they called Ford, Ford
engineers told the repair shop and the dealership that they
found out a failing alternator. Now, think about that. The
(29:06):
alternator's failing and it caused the fuel pump to over
be overdriven, meaning it put out more than it was
supposed to, cause too high of a draw, and it
blew the fuse. So when you've got when you've got
vehicle electronics, such as a failing alternator can create an
electrical problem for a fuel pump causing a fuse to blow.
(29:29):
You can't put butt connects in it just it just
doesn't work. It's just it's just not practical, all right, Uh,
you know, in this case, from all that, and they
pointed out that the technician put an alternator and a
fuse in it and good long test drive and the
engine ran fine, and the fuel pump fuse stayed intact.
So you've always got it, you know. And I go
(29:50):
back to you know, in looking at this, I go
back to the eighties. I remember General Motors had cars
where the alternators were failing the three point ones or
was it the three eighths the Barrettas. I remember this
on a lot, the Corsicas God the names of cars right,
and the alternators would go bed. They would have bad
diodes and the ripple effect would actually feed up the
(30:14):
wire right into the vehicle PCM and blow the PCM
out of the car, the main powertrain control module. So
you've always got to consider electronics when you're dealing with cars,
and you've always got to consider electrical. Where did I
start the hour? Right? I was talking to Bart's daughter
Taylor Visa via radio, and I said, you know what,
if you want to be a mechanic today, learn electrical,
(30:35):
learn electronics, understand Ohm's law, and you know, be handy
with a vault meter and you'll you'll you'll name your
price in terms of repairing the cars of today and
always have a great career. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. By the way, I'm sorry,
you can find more information about that at all Data
dot com. They've got their tech library out there for
my shops out there that want to read that story.
(30:55):
But it's a great story. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. To repeat myself again, I'm sorry,
I'm running Nady in the Car Doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Don't go away, Welcome back, run Nay
(31:16):
of the car Doctor. Winding it down, let me give
you one lest thought before we go away for the hour.
We're doing a lot of headlight bulb work in the shop.
It's it's interesting, right, and I think as the vehicle
fleet ages, we're seeing more people obviously hanging onto their vehicles.
The cars are expensive and repairs are expensive, and we're
all looking to drive longer. But I think, you know,
(31:39):
I'm in this category where, you know, the older you get,
it's harder to see at night and you've got vision issues.
So we did one this week. We did a we
had to do it. We had an six Toyota Highlander
Hybrid that came in and you know, Terry, she's out
there driving in the dark, and she tells me how
it's hard for her to see at night, and you know,
(32:00):
it's difficult. She doesn't want to go out at night
anymore because it's so hard to actually see. So we
looked at the car. It had. The driver's side headlamp
was so badly clouded over. We were going to clean it,
but we found we couldn't and it wouldn't have paid
off because it was actually a blister in the plastic.
You could see that the headlight the headlamp housing was deformed,
(32:22):
so we had to get her a new headlamp housing.
The right side was new. She had been in an
accident last year and they changed the right side lamp,
so the right side lamp was new, the left side
lamp was new west rather so now she had two
good headlamps. But the bulbs, you know, it's bulb's age.
Right as bulb's age they get to be they wear out.
Bulbs actually wear out. I should say it like that
(32:44):
Peak right, Peak makes a great halogen set of bulbs,
and in this case we use the Peak power vision
gold bulbs. And what a difference it's like night and day.
And then we got into the conversation and Terry asked
me about this. She said, you know, Ron concerned that
my three hundred and fifty dollars headlamp, because that's what
it was from the dealer. We put a factory headlamp
(33:05):
and it was still available, and you know, we put
She said, you know, is it going to happen again?
Is it going to get faded? Is it gonna? I
said it ken, I looked into it and I found
a company that we ordered a kit and we're gonna
we're gonna try it, and it's got some great reviews.
Accompanied by the name of Expel x p e L
Expel dot com. Uh, these guys make raps for headlights.
(33:29):
I thought this was a great idea. Instead of doing
the traditional clean it and wax the headlight, Expel x
p e L expel dot com makes a a lens
or a plastic wrap that fits over the headlight. They
make other they make all sorts of automotive wraps. That's
what the companies, UH claimed. The fame is right. They
do all kinds of protective coatings and layers of protection
(33:51):
for the vehicle, and you know, it's it's I thought
it was a great idea. I never even thought of
that to wrap a headlamp like that. So we're gonna
try that out for and then, of course, obviously you
know we got our power vision goal bulbs from peak
over at our local ATO zone. You can too. And
the point becomes that even the simplest things require you know,
(34:13):
attention to detail it. Details count. What does Jack Reacher
say in an investigation? Details count well? In order to
repair details count too, And you've got to pay attention,
and you've got to you know, And why didn't we
put LEDs? I get that question a lot, and I
know that's on your mind. You can't put LEDs in
every vehicle. Sometimes in LED bulb in a non led
(34:33):
l ed housing will actually distort the light. It doesn't
refract the light correctly, and it can actually be difficult
to drive. I'm I'm I'm learning that lesson the hard way.
I put some LEDs in the suburban, my our suburban,
and I'm not happy with them, and they're gonna come
(34:54):
out and I'm going to switch over to the peak
power vision halogens and you know, I'll probably get a
better light out of that simply because it'll refract correctly.
Inside the factory housing. There's actually a difference you can
actually buy led housings LED or Haligen housings for your vehicle,
you know, depending upon what you want to run in it.
So we learn something new every day.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Not every bulb works in every vehicle, so you know,
just something to look forward to. But if you're suffering
and you've got issues where you can't see at night,
you know what, take a look at the lamps. Do
they need to be clean? How old are the bulbs?
In Terry's case, the headlamp bulbs on the left side
were original, and bulbs do wear out. She's seeing the
road ahead much clearer and much brighter, and she's very happy,
(35:37):
so you can be too. I'm run an ady in
the car doctor till the next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless. See you
Ron Anian. A scan tool is a good device, but
it's an intermediate tool. You can use it to troubleshoot
most of what's going on under the hood. You can
Mammy the Car Doctor. You could check the in service
date of this vehicle. If it was a late model
year cell, by some miracle, you might still be under
extended warranty.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I went to the toileta place in the city and
they said it's not right.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So that's usually the answer.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian 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
the phone and call in.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call at eight five five five, six ninety
nine hundred and now pee running, baby, baby. I want
to talk about It's a full moon week at the shop.
You could tell it was a full moon because it
was just you know, I mean, as many crazies as
(01:02):
you thought you had, I had more, you know. I
think the best story from this week has to be
the woman who came in on Monday, now about quarter
to one on Monday. I don't know this woman. I've
never seen her before. I wasn't working on her car.
I'm not working on her car. I have no clue
who she is. What would you think if somebody came
in and you're an order repair shop and she said
(01:25):
do you work here? And I'm like, yeah, you know,
my right side says the name of the shop. The
other side says my name, ron Yep, pretty sure. I
look at my shirt, Yep, that's me. I work here.
Can I leave my suitcase here? Excuse me?
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I live four blocks up the street and I'm going
to the airport on Wednesday, and I thought if I
left my suitcase here, I wouldn't have to walk it
all the way down the street when I go to
get on the train, I can just stop in, get
my suitcase and then go get on the train and
go to the airport. What do you say to that?
And that's that's real, that really happened this week. You know,
(02:01):
fifty something years in order repair and I don't think
i've ever had I'm not a hotel, this isn't a
valat service. We're here to fix your car, you know,
I don't want that responsibility. Can you see this thing
picking up fumes from the shop or something, and it
goes through TSA and it sets off some kind of
an alarm, and she's gonna and they're gonna ask her,
was your bag out of sight in the previous forty
eight hours?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I had it over at you know, disorder repair shop.
You kid me. Every FBI agent in the country will
descend on Waldock, New Jersey, like, come on, what is
this all about? It was that kind of week. Go ahead,
top that. That's the kind of week I'm coming from,
you know, sitting here talking to you today, which I
love to do. Would pay to see that, Tom. It was,
it was what do you say to that? And I
(02:42):
just sat looking at her. I have no clue, you know,
I you know, And the demon inside of me said,
you know, I she will get some black gunpowder, rub
it on the outside of the bag and let her
go through TSA. But you know, women pinned at Newark Airport,
you know, could just see the riot it would cause.
But but I just I don't know what to say
to these people. Half the time. It's please anyway. So
(03:03):
that was the kind of week I had. So I'm
a little I'm a little I'm a little shot, no
pun intended. I'm a little beat up this week. So
be gentle as we go through this hour of the
car doctor at A five five, five six nine nine
zero zero. Let's let's get the garage doors open. I've
got a great story for you a little later on
about a fifteen accurate, some how crazy it was. But
let me start here, Ralph, how can I help you, sir?
(03:24):
Save me?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh hi, Ron, thank you very much for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
You are welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Fan of your Thank you, sir. Moved up here, New
Hampshire and I've been trying to get this car fixed
for about eight years. Okay, it's a twenty twelve Camray
it you know. I had a hesitation. When you drop
down from take forty or fifty miles an hour down
to maybe twenty, you take your foot off the gas
(03:50):
and as soon as you put your foot back on
the gas, it's nothing. It's just like how the engine
dies and it takes five or six seconds, maybe seven,
three four or anything will have and then all of
a sudden the car will take off like a rocket.
So I brought it back several times to Toyota. They said.
The first time, they just reinstalled the computer software, nothing
(04:11):
to do anything. And then one of the times I
got really ticked off at and I said, you know,
it's the fourth time you guys have looked at it
and it's still the same. You haven't taken out for
a ride. And they said, yeah, this time, they said
they replaced the converter. Best I can tell you something
to do with where the flywheel.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Is torqu convert so they put they put a that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Okay, Okay, nothing that they've done three or four times
in the shop has mattered. I now have one hundred
and thirty thousand miles on it, and I had to
live with this hesitation. So so I don't know what
to make of it.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, you know, my question is is this engine or
transmission From what you're describing, it sounds transmission in nature
V six or four cylinder.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It's a V six, okay.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So the V six is pretty bulletproof. I mean the
other the four cylinder is not too shabby either, Ralph,
But the V six is pretty bulletproof as as far
as hesitation, the simple things. But it would be in
all gears you would think about throttle bodies. You would
think about air leaks and the intake ducked things like that.
Has anybody tried to diagnose it from let's let's you
(05:19):
guys hear me say this all the time. Let's prove
what's good does the engine? You know, if we looked
at fuel trim ralph. If you went to your doctor
and you said, Doc, I got this weird problem. When
I you know, I do this, this and this, They're
gonna run you through the steps, right, They're gonna do
heart rate, blood pressure, you know, take a blood sample,
They're gonna they're gonna look at all the things, just
trying to gather information. Has has the dealer or the
(05:42):
shop that's working on this try to gather information? Are
they just trying to chase the problem? It's a component,
it's this, it's that, you know, what's what's their approach?
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Ben?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, as I say, they installed the software, then they
did the call converter, and the last time I did
it was a month ago. I had to there's a
thing where you flushed the transmission. I mean that's what
they wanted to do. But they flushed it and put
in a new filter and uh, nothing, nothing works. Any
(06:14):
difference was it. You know, it used to when we
here in New Hampshire, when we went down to like
twelve degrees or eight degrees in the morning, when I
started it up, it wouldn't. You put it in drive
and it wouldn't go on and just engine would race
up until it warmed up and then it would be fine,
all right. But that's the only symptom I could point
to that. I mean, I just don't have any cougar.
(06:35):
Nobody else seems to have any quibi. It seemed to be.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Very It sounds like you need a transmission, Ralph. So
so well, here's why, okay, because the last piece of
the puzzle you just gave me solidified it in my
head without seeing it, without going through some other testing.
So you know, an automatic transmission is about hydraulics. Okay.
(06:59):
You ever watch a bucket loader or a bulldozer work,
you know, the silver pistons come out of the arms,
and that's all hydraulics. And you ever see one where
that where it's it's wet, it's leaking, it's physically wet
running down the sleeve, and that that bulldozer doesn't have
the oof, it doesn't have the hydraulic power, the rubber seals.
The seals are leaking, all right, the hydraulics. You'll actually
(07:20):
hear certain cars with bad transmissions, they'll have a wine
to them. I don't know if this is making any
noise yet, because like on a bulldozer or a or
a bucket loader. As the as the seal leaks, it
allows oxygen to be drawn and it aerrates the fluid
and it creates a wine or it creates a distortion
and sound of how the hydraulics are working. If you
(07:41):
have to sit there on cold days and allow this
vehicle to warm up, you're describing the classic, you know,
the classic hydraulic failure where a seal is leaking and
the either the either the trans is not picking up
a fluid prime or a circuit is not being charged
in terms of filled with fluid to the correct pressure level.
(08:04):
We're a'll actually engage and cause the trans to operate.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I see, does it matter to you that was that way?
Since today I bought it? No, it's twelve.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Or now I've seen you you ever see you ever
see new cars be bad? You know, listen, in my world,
you know what the definition of new is right, never
ever worked, you know, And I can, I can. I
can show you that a half a dozen different ways.
You know, if we had a camera in a television set,
(08:37):
I can't tell you the number of new parts the
new things that I get that are uh, you know
that never ever worked. I mean, this is the way
it is. It sure sounds like it's it's it's or
it's a seal that's out of place.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know, it may not be aware item, it may
be something that isn't properly sealed in terms of but
it's something in the hydraulics in that transmission. If that
trans doesn't engage when it's called for the first four
or five minutes, then we've got some sort of a
hydraulic circuit, cross leak, failure, rubber seal. Something that trans
(09:10):
needs to come out and be torn down to inspect.
Why they haven't done it at this point, I don't know.
I know, eight years is a long time. Eight years
is a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Bro Otherwise the car is Otherwise, the car is fine.
That problem of it not working and it's cold only
there's only a recent time for the last two years.
But it's been you know, honestly, I've had so many
people look at this thing I'm part of them and
tell me something and it's not actually that right.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, it may be now if we're at the
end of our rope, Ralph, if you're kind of at
that point where you know you're not quite sure what
to do and you want to try a band aid
in a can as, I call it. Okay, all right,
there's there's there's a there's a company out there called
Lucas l u c a s white bottle, blue ink.
(09:59):
I think a red label on it. Somewhere. They make
some really neat transadditives. They make an anti slip additive,
and they make a seal enhancer product. All right, and
you know you got nothing to lose. The trans is
already broken in my opinion, you know. The only the
(10:19):
only problem is anytime I tell somebody about a band
aid and a can is you run the potential of
And I don't see why, but I always say this
to be cautious. Could you make it worse?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I guess we're you know, But then again, it's it's
to the point where you can't drive it now anyway
from the sounds of it. So what's what's the difference.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Well, I can, I can drive it, but it's annoying
as all get out right. Stuff on the gas and
it's nothing anywhere right.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Right, Yeah, no, I I understand one hundred percent, Ralph,
I understand one hundred percent. There's nothing, nothing more annoying
than a car that doesn't work right. But you know,
you you could, you could try some Lucas if you've
got an autozoned by you. AutoZone should carry Lucas products.
They carry just about everything else, and I'm almost certain
(11:06):
they have the Lucas. But you'll get out to your
local AutoZone. You'll find it there. You'll find it online
at AutoZone dot com. And give that a try.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
On the corner from me there you go, Yeah, I will.
I appreciate. I appreciate. That's shut your philosophy, by the way,
about taking good care of cars. I take good care
of my cars.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Oh, I understand. I understand. Now you may have to
lower the trans fluid a little bit. You know, you
don't want to overfill the trend, so be careful when
you add that. You may want to you know, I
don't know which I don't know which mechanic you want
to go to but explain to him what you want
to do. But you may want to draw a little
out before you add in. Uh, you know what you're
doing there. And I don't know if in twelve that
car has a dipstick, so you've got to be careful.
(11:44):
It might be a little difficult. You may have to
have a shop do it.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So all right, but actually have a dipstick. Yeah right,
Thank you Ron, very very much.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You're very welcome, philed, good luck to you.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Eight years that's crazy, that's that's I can't imagine the
frustration and trying to fix something for eight years. And
and just god, I can never retire eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero running any of
the car Doctor. I'll be back right after this. Don't
go away where you're vehicle not taking you where you
(12:16):
want to go. Well call Ron. He's the expert at
making your vehicle take you where you need it. Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. And
now back to Ron. Hey, let's get over to let's
go over to Ian and Montreal and let's see what's
going on here. Fourteen Dodge Charger Ian. Welcome to the
car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, Hi Ron, thanks for taking my call. So I've
had this charger since new I've got sixty thousand miles
on it. Last week, my dashboard lights came on for
the traction control on EBS. So I've got a launch
a flat flat scanner, a tablet style scanner, which I
love very much. I plugged it in and the code
(12:54):
that stuck out was see zero zero three A for
Alpha dash sixty two right wheel speed sensor signal compare failure. Okay,
So when I went into the live data and I
compared the left and right, the left signal was a
very nice speed overtime curve. The right signal was flatline,
no signal at all.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So my question is this the wheel sensor that went bad?
I did order a replacement I have, but I haven't
had a chance to install it yet. And do these
sensors just go bad just like that? And is there
any way to test them?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yes, car, Yes, yes, yes to all of it. So so,
first of all, all right, and I mentioned this on
every Chrysler ABS call I think I've I've had in
the last ten years, just because when I hear Chrysler
and ABS, it still sends shivers up my spines. We
had an six Chrysler three hundred c oh gosh, it's
got to be seven eight years ago that had sat
(13:49):
for a very long time and was very rusty. And
this was the generation of Chrysler where they had a
magnetic wheel speed sensor. What a genius idea this was
for ABS. And if the magnet got rusty, if the
magnet cracked, if the magnet lost its magnetic strength, it
just it just didn't work right. And it was so
difficult to diagnose. You actually needed a lampscope. And you
(14:11):
know a lot of time. So as long as we
are talking conventional ABS, and I believe we are, I
believe you have a tone ring, a tooth tone ring,
a physical metal toothed tone ring. This is nothing more
than a pickup coil inside of a distributor. You've got
two wires. You've got two wires coming out of the sensor. Correct, yes, okay,
And if I remember right, the right rear is going
(14:33):
to be dark green, light blue, dark green, dark green orange.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
If I remember right, I don't have the color codes
in my head, but we'll go with that, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So you know one of those is going to be positive.
One of those is going to be negative, all right,
So we could simply follow that wiring harness up underneath
the car. Where does it go? Chrysler has a very
good habit of putting the left and right rear wheel
speeds answer connectors very close to each other.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
They are, They're right, they're going through the same hole
like up underneath, where I guess is bingo.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So why can't we get some jumpers, disconnect them, all right,
and make the right rear sensor feed the left channel
and the left sensor feed the right channel.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I actually tried that, but the connectors are different, the
left connectors and the right connectors are different.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right, Yeah, right, No, you're gonna have to get some
You're gonna have to get some jumpers and spade terminals
and get a little creative here.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, I can make a harness for it.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I can, right, And then at least we prove or
now I don't think. Yeah, I don't think you can
swap censors, but I have been known to swap censors.
What that will prove is that will prove that the
harness going forward is okay, and that will prove that
the controller, the ABS controller is okay. All right, Now,
(15:53):
if it if it stays on. If it now all
of a sudden, well, what we're expecting to see is
we're expecting to see a left rear speed sensor failure
exactly right, because that and that tells us the problem
is either the sensor or the tone ring. You can
see the tone ring right, it's just a notched ring. Look,
you've looked at it carefully. There's no brakes, the no less.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I had to take the brakes. I got to take
the brakes off for everything, and then under the hob
nut to be able to look inside and see the
tone ring. Because the tone ring is right on the
end of the axle.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
So if you pull the sensor, can you pull the
sensor out and then take a using a light or
if you have a borescope here here's a reason to
go buy more tools and spin the axle slowly and
look at the tone ring.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
That way, I could try that. Yeah, I've already got
the sensor oute and I have a brand new replacement part.
When I took the old one out, I measured it
with my own meter on the two thousand homes scale.
It's the only way, the only place I could get
a reading. And it ran about six hundred oms one
way and infinite omes the other way. And when the
when the new part came in, then again it could
(16:56):
be you know, it never ever worked when the new
part came in. I got the same reading them on
the multimeter. So I'm wondering if it's a sensor issue
or if I've got to now go underneath the know,
underneath the spare tire and check that hardness and prove
it back, which well, you really don't want to do,
but you know, you gotta do.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
What you gotta do.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
You gotta do what you gotta do, you know. The
other the other thing is find the sensor positive wire,
all right, right, and I believe on that, and you
should look at a wiring diagram. I believe pin forty three,
I want to say forty three, forty two, No, forty
two is the negative. Pin forty three is the positive
on that and pin four that should be the dark
(17:35):
green light blue if I remember this right, dark green
light blue. Right, yeah, that's how I recall it. The
dark green light blue should be positive. You should have
twelve vaults there, all right, and if you want to compare,
you should have the same thing on the left side,
right you should have the same twelve vaults, all right,
and that's your positive leg. And then you know if
(17:57):
you've got twelve vaults, yeah, you're either and you can
swap the harness. You can move your positive and negative
legs around, all right, and you can replicate the problem
on the left channel. That tells us that the right
sensor is the right sensor portion down to the wheel
is bad, whether it's the tone ring or the sensor,
and now we've got to look at it. I find
(18:19):
doing resistance checks on abs sensors doesn't always work out.
I don't find it to be reliable, and I've resorted
to the other testing. So but look to Ian, let
me know what happens. If you need more, by all means,
give us a call back. I'm run an Eddy in
the car doctor. We're back right after this. Don't go away,
(19:00):
welcome back. We're on naming the car doctor here eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zeros the
phone number again eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero. You can call leave a message there
by the way during the week and we will call
you back. We're actually setting up a form on the website,
a contact us form sort of like Wednesday night with
the Car Doctor, We're going to try and you know,
record some calls for future shows. So just because the
(19:23):
response is overwhelming, you guys want us twenty four to seven,
so we're trying to have a life end get to
you at the same time, so understand. But you can
get out the cardoctorshow dot com and the contact us
form should be up shortly as well so you can
reach us there. I'll talk a little bit about this
twenty fifteen accurate MDX that we worked on this week
in the shop. You know, as if the woman who
wanted to leave her suitcase, the woman that I don't
(19:45):
know wanted to leave her suitcase for baggage pickup once
she went to the airport two days later, which is
if you cut the beginning of the show. That's what
we were talking about there about the strange things that
happened in the repair shop. We had a twenty fifteen
accurate MDX came into the shop at Ari Automotive this
week and check engine light was on and you know,
normal diagnosis. It had a P zero four ninety seven
(20:05):
and a P one forty five Charlie with one forty
five C both of which point towards an evaporative emission
system with a flow problem that it's not seeing, you know,
it's it's what's basically what's happening is what those folk
codes are saying is when the purge valve opens, when
the vent valve shuts and they're trying to purge the canister,
they're trying to vacuum the fumes out of the canister,
(20:28):
so to speak, they're not seeing a change in state
of the fuel tank pressure sensor. They don't see it
drop as it's supposed to. A fuel tank pressure sensor
on this Acura, like a lot of vehicles, sits around
two and a half volts. It's calibrated for atmosphere, and
then when the system goes into purge, they're expecting that
to go into a vacuum state and the voltage would
be pulled lower. They didn't see that, So it's set
(20:50):
those codes. So some diagnosis later, and you know, we
we we got out our opis scan tool and we
were able to opus. Actually makes it very easy, give
us the ability to one button test the system. They've
taken the factory test and made it made it better
because we were one button and we were able to close,
closed the vent, open the purge and bring up the
(21:13):
individual sensors that we want to watch fuel tank pressure,
fuel tank voltage, and you know purge duty cycle because
of the duty cycled purge event and watch the show.
And you know, first time through, I didn't see a
change in FTP vault. Yeah, it varied a little bit,
but not much. It was like it went from two
point five to three to two point five two, which
(21:35):
is like nothing. So, you know, some diagnosis later and
it came to the conclusion that it's a bad purge valve.
I said, it's the only thing it can be, and
I took it apart and I proved it. You know,
it's rare, but it happens. And in this case, the
purge valve was stuck shut. You know, it was funny.
(21:55):
You could hear the purge valve click up front of
the engine. You could feel the purge valve click. You
could hear the purge valve click. It did everything was
supposed to do. The only thing it didn't do was
allow engine vacuum to be passed through it to allow
vacuum to come out the other side to actually do
the purging. And I had to get out my two
ounce diagnostic bullpen hammer while it was going to its
(22:17):
purge of it and gave it a and all of
a sudden we had vacuum and went, well, look at
that fixed. We need to but no, we need a
purge valve. Now the concern is it's fifteen, it's a
twenty fifteen. It's nine going on ten years old. It's
one hundred and fifty thousand mile vehicle. I looked at
the response rate on the vent valve back at the canister,
and that was getting tired. So I said, you know what,
(22:38):
let's put two solenoids in this. Let's change the purge solenoid.
Let's change the vent solenoid. Accura is weird. I got
to tell you. They they call both of them almost
the same thing. I went out to AutoZone pro dot
com and I started looking up parts, and you know,
autozones taking their description from Acura. That's the way, that's
(22:58):
the way it works. And they list did it as
canister vent I'm sorry, canister purge solenoid and canister purge
control solenoid. Which is which? Which one? Do? I want?
You know? But AutoZone Pro made it easy because they
have pictures of everything there, and I was able to
(23:18):
line it up, and you know, they just they just
made it so that I could find the part I
was looking for. I wanted both, but there was actually
there's actually a third there's a rear canister, purge solenoid,
whole nother animal not what I was looking for, and
it just threw a wrench into the work. So AutoZone
pro it found me the part I wanted, and I
(23:39):
was able to order it, put it in, and the
vehicle was fixed. And you know, it's it's funny where
you need those little bits and pieces of information to
fix a car today. You know, because of what Accura did.
Accura's description reflected over to AutoZone, and they made it
more difficult for everybody to begin with. Sometimes the manufacturers,
(24:02):
I think, I question what and how and why they
do things. You know, one of the worst things in
the world to go look up from a manufacturer is
anything with screws, nuts and bolts, because they list everything
on an individual basis. And again you're back to looking
at pictures and you know, which piece do I need
and how do I need it? So you know, and
(24:23):
again we're AutoZone pro dot com would would really solve
the day. And as it usually does, in the end,
I was able to put this accurate back together, cleared
the code, ran through another test, you see, and that's
I think a critical piece to the puzzle that a
lot of people don't do. I will always run through
a test, and I encourage everybody else to do that.
(24:43):
I always run through a self test. It takes five minutes.
Plug in the opus, set it up, hit the self test,
let it go through again, and you will see everything work.
Now you know, it's not a question, it's it's you
can deliver that car with confidence and say, hey, this
car is fixed. Look, here's the test result before, here's
the test result after. And listen, I'm not I didn't
(25:04):
do that. I don't I didn't think to do this,
you know, for any other reason. I noticed every time
you go to a doctor, they always test you before
they give you the pre in the post. Right, here's
what you looked like before, here's what you'll look like
now you're fixed. Said, gee, why can't we do that
with cars? And that's sort of the way I'm thinking
about it. So another one down the road, another one
for the books, but just as weird as the woman
(25:26):
who wanted to leave her suitcase because she was going
to the airport two days later. So anyway, A five five, five,
six zero nine nine zero zero. I'm running any in
the car, doctor, I'm coming back right after this. Don't
go away.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Just taking's welcome back, running any in the car, doctor,
Let's go to Let's go to Randy in Virginia O
four Nissan Titan.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Randy, welcome to the car doctor. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Oh? Thank you? Well, what I had happen on it
is I squirrel mouse something eight two of the speed
sensor cables after the connection to the harness. And so
what I was wondering is can I do a crimp
connector in there well enough signal get through or not?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Do you think I.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Don't like crimp connectors anywhere in a modern day automobile, Randy,
can you solder? Do you have enough there to solder?
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Maybe if I peel it back a little more.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You know, if you need a connector. There are sources
for connectors. Nissan. I don't believe a lot of the
Japanese car companies for some reason don't sell connectors. And
I think Nissan's right there at the top of the list.
But there are sources out there if you just search
for connectors, or you may find connectors at your local AutoZone.
You could jump online and look online. Just look for
(26:50):
the listing because they will break it down nice and
clear and easy. Just type O before Nissan sensor is
tightened as your vehicle and then go look for ABS
sensor connector or ABS harness connector and see what comes up.
But if not, then you know there are other places
that will sell just connectors. But you don't want to
really use a crimp connect You want to solder it
(27:10):
and heat shrink it so that it's a good weather
tight see on a good clean, clear contact, good connectivity
and all that, because that will affect signal size and
that can cause you know, you'll be the guy who
you'll sell the car and I'll end up at my
shop in two years. Jack got this weird ABS problem
where the right rear wheel locks up or something because
it's poor signal because the wiring harness is degraded to
(27:32):
that point. So, uh yeah, butt connects or not, you know,
they're not a permanent repair in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
All right, okay, well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
You're very welcome, Randy. Good luck to you. Yeah, it's important, right,
you know, it's you've got to look at the unusual
when it when it comes to an automobile, and you can't.
You can't. You know, good practice makes better vehicles. You know,
case in point, all data this month and there, and
they're all data news. They talk about a fix for it.
Listen to this. They had a Ford transit with a
(28:01):
fuel pump issue. Let me find that I had it
here somewheer here. It is a twenty sixteen Ford Transit
went into a shop at one hundred and thirty five
thousand miles. The transit quit running. The owner checked the
fuses and found that the fuel pump fuse was bad,
so he replaced it. A transit ran, but fuse blew again,
so he had it towed back to the shop. The
technician replaced the fuel pump fuse again and went for
(28:22):
a test drive with spare fuses in his pocket. While
on the test drive, he noticed that the fuel filter blocked.
Warning message came on just before the fuel pump fuse blew.
A quick scan of all the modules revealed no codes.
They replaced the dirty fuel filter with no luck. Then
he tested the wiring, everything was fine. Also replaced the
fuel pump, driver module and the fuel pump. Still no luck.
He called all that a tech assist and they came
(28:43):
up with a resolution that they've heard from Ford, and
listen to this right that Ford knows of the issue.
And they not only replaced the fuel filter and the
driver and the pump, but they also replaced the wiring
harness in the fuse box. Before they called Ford, Ford
engineers told the repair shop and the dealership that they
found out a failing alternator. Now, think about that. The
(29:06):
alternator's failing and it caused the fuel pump to over
be overdriven, meaning it put out more than it was
supposed to, cause too high of a draw, and it
blew the fuse. So when you've got when you've got
vehicle electronics, such as a failing alternator can create an
electrical problem for a fuel pump causing a fuse to blow.
(29:29):
You can't put butt connects in it just it just
doesn't work. It's just it's just not practical, all right, Uh,
you know, in this case, from all that, and they
pointed out that the technician put an alternator and a
fuse in it and good long test drive and the
engine ran fine, and the fuel pump fuse stayed intact.
So you've always got it, you know. And I go
(29:50):
back to you know, in looking at this, I go
back to the eighties. I remember General Motors had cars
where the alternators were failing the three point ones or
was it the three eighths the Barrettas. I remember this
on a lot, the Corsicas God the names of cars right,
and the alternators would go bed. They would have bad
diodes and the ripple effect would actually feed up the
(30:14):
wire right into the vehicle PCM and blow the PCM
out of the car, the main powertrain control module. So
you've always got to consider electronics when you're dealing with cars,
and you've always got to consider electrical. Where did I
start the hour? Right? I was talking to Bart's daughter
Taylor Visa via radio, and I said, you know what,
if you want to be a mechanic today, learn electrical,
(30:35):
learn electronics, understand Ohm's law, and you know, be handy
with a vault meter and you'll you'll you'll name your
price in terms of repairing the cars of today and
always have a great career. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. By the way, I'm sorry,
you can find more information about that at all Data
dot com. They've got their tech library out there for
my shops out there that want to read that story.
(30:55):
But it's a great story. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. To repeat myself again, I'm sorry,
I'm running Nady in the Car Doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Don't go away, Welcome back, run Nay
(31:16):
of the car Doctor. Winding it down, let me give
you one lest thought before we go away for the hour.
We're doing a lot of headlight bulb work in the shop.
It's it's interesting, right, and I think as the vehicle
fleet ages, we're seeing more people obviously hanging onto their vehicles.
The cars are expensive and repairs are expensive, and we're
all looking to drive longer. But I think, you know,
(31:39):
I'm in this category where, you know, the older you get,
it's harder to see at night and you've got vision issues.
So we did one this week. We did a we
had to do it. We had an six Toyota Highlander
Hybrid that came in and you know, Terry, she's out
there driving in the dark, and she tells me how
it's hard for her to see at night, and you know,
(32:00):
it's difficult. She doesn't want to go out at night
anymore because it's so hard to actually see. So we
looked at the car. It had. The driver's side headlamp
was so badly clouded over. We were going to clean it,
but we found we couldn't and it wouldn't have paid
off because it was actually a blister in the plastic.
You could see that the headlight the headlamp housing was deformed,
(32:22):
so we had to get her a new headlamp housing.
The right side was new. She had been in an
accident last year and they changed the right side lamp,
so the right side lamp was new, the left side
lamp was new west rather so now she had two
good headlamps. But the bulbs, you know, it's bulb's age.
Right as bulb's age they get to be they wear out.
Bulbs actually wear out. I should say it like that
(32:44):
Peak right, Peak makes a great halogen set of bulbs,
and in this case we use the Peak power vision
gold bulbs. And what a difference it's like night and day.
And then we got into the conversation and Terry asked
me about this. She said, you know, Ron concerned that
my three hundred and fifty dollars headlamp, because that's what
it was from the dealer. We put a factory headlamp
(33:05):
and it was still available, and you know, we put
She said, you know, is it going to happen again?
Is it going to get faded? Is it gonna? I
said it ken, I looked into it and I found
a company that we ordered a kit and we're gonna
we're gonna try it, and it's got some great reviews.
Accompanied by the name of Expel x p e L
Expel dot com. Uh, these guys make raps for headlights.
(33:29):
I thought this was a great idea. Instead of doing
the traditional clean it and wax the headlight, Expel x
p e L expel dot com makes a a lens
or a plastic wrap that fits over the headlight. They
make other they make all sorts of automotive wraps. That's
what the companies, UH claimed. The fame is right. They
do all kinds of protective coatings and layers of protection
(33:51):
for the vehicle, and you know, it's it's I thought
it was a great idea. I never even thought of
that to wrap a headlamp like that. So we're gonna
try that out for and then, of course, obviously you
know we got our power vision goal bulbs from peak
over at our local ATO zone. You can too. And
the point becomes that even the simplest things require you know,
(34:13):
attention to detail it. Details count. What does Jack Reacher
say in an investigation? Details count well? In order to
repair details count too, And you've got to pay attention,
and you've got to you know, And why didn't we
put LEDs? I get that question a lot, and I
know that's on your mind. You can't put LEDs in
every vehicle. Sometimes in LED bulb in a non led
(34:33):
l ed housing will actually distort the light. It doesn't
refract the light correctly, and it can actually be difficult
to drive. I'm I'm I'm learning that lesson the hard way.
I put some LEDs in the suburban, my our suburban,
and I'm not happy with them, and they're gonna come
(34:54):
out and I'm going to switch over to the peak
power vision halogens and you know, I'll probably get a
better light out of that simply because it'll refract correctly.
Inside the factory housing. There's actually a difference you can
actually buy led housings LED or Haligen housings for your vehicle,
you know, depending upon what you want to run in it.
So we learn something new every day.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Not every bulb works in every vehicle, so you know,
just something to look forward to. But if you're suffering
and you've got issues where you can't see at night,
you know what, take a look at the lamps. Do
they need to be clean? How old are the bulbs?
In Terry's case, the headlamp bulbs on the left side
were original, and bulbs do wear out. She's seeing the
road ahead much clearer and much brighter, and she's very happy,
(35:37):
so you can be too. I'm run an ady in
the car doctor till the next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless. See you
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