In this episode of Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, Ron discusses a variety of car repair issues, focusing on two main topics: diagnosing a misfire in a 2007 GMC Yukon and addressing oil consumption in a 2013 Buick Verano.
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2007 GMC Yukon Misfire: A caller named John described a misfire problem in his vehicle, which was showing random misfires on cylinders 1, 5, and 8. Ron guides John to double-check the diagnostic scan, particularly using Mode 6 data to identify marginal misfires that haven’t yet triggered the check engine light. He advises using basic troubleshooting techniques like moving spark plugs, wires, and coils between cylinders to isolate the problem, while stressing the importance of ruling out faulty parts. Ron emphasizes that misfires typically stem from ignition, fuel, or mechanical issues but can also be caused by computer or sensor malfunctions. He suggests looking at the Mode 6 data to identify subtle misfires before they cause a check engine light.
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2013 Buick Verano Oil Consumption Issue: The second part of the show focuses on a Buick Verano with oil consumption issues and other smaller problems. Ron explains that GM's 2.4L Ecotec engines are prone to sticking piston rings, causing oil consumption. Although the vehicle is out of warranty, Ron proposes using a product called Stiction Eliminator, which may help free up the rings and improve oil consumption. The vehicle also had issues with the right front lug nuts, some of which were damaged or missing, so Ron suggests replacing them to ensure safety.
Overall, Ron emphasizes the importance of small details in car repairs and offers practical advice for diagnosing and addressing common automotive issues.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ron an Adium. It's only going to continue in that.
You know, the vehicles aren't going to get any easier
in terms of batteries, their connections, their components. Battery resets
are going to become a very big part of the business.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the new lead.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
The Car Doctor both dealer puts the goal impopable impopo. Oh,
so you're saying, Mercedes is telling you that you have
to buy a new computer from them and they'll flash
it for four thousand dollars. Welcome to the radio home
of ron an Aiuan, the Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one.
This is where car owners the world overturned to for
(00:42):
their definitive opinion on automotive repair. If your mechanics giving
you a busy signal, pick up the phone and call in.
The garage doors are open, but I am here to
take your calls at eight five five five six ninety
nine hundred and now he running, Hey, welcome aboard, and
(01:02):
this is the radio show where if you're we're gonna
get a car fixed, this is the place, or so
they tell me. They tell me that a lot. I
had someone walk in the shop the other day. They said, Hey,
is Ron and any in here? I said no, and
they looked at me. I listened to his radio show
all the time. Well, I'm sure he'll be glad to
hear that. And finally they they just looked at me
(01:24):
and they realized. They said, you're him, aren't you. Yeah,
but don't tell anybody. So this must be the place.
And he had a question and listen. I try not
to do the radio show at the shop, I really do,
because it's just I'd spend all day just answering questions.
I'd never get anything done. So this is the place
to ask questions, which I'm glad to do it here.
I'm glad to do it in the shop at a
(01:46):
slow moment, but I have yet to find that slow
moment when there's nothing to do. They way to do
it here is if you're if you're interested is eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. That's
a twenty four to seven phone number again, eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. You can
call We're live on the air Saturdays two to four
pm East Coast time, or East Coast guys, we're here then,
(02:08):
but you can call a five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero, leave a message and executive producer,
chief cook and bottle washer, Tom Ray, we'll call you
back and get you in Q for the next live broadcast,
and you know, we appreciate you doing it here. You know,
we got a lot of questions out on Facebook, We
get a lot of questions everywhere. But frankly, the problem
is trying to answer all of them. You know, it's
(02:30):
it's unsurvivable. It's an insurmountable task. So we try to
do everything here in one central location so that everybody
can benefit from it and we can get everybody's needs
met here on air. So just keep that in mind.
Speaking of which, let's let's open up the phones early
and let's go over and talk to John in Vernon,
New Jersey. I think that is with an seven GMC yukon. John,
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Thank you? Sarah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I guess you're that guy.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I'm that guy. I'm at tag, I'm at what
can I do for you?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Got a question? In two thousand and seven two seven
GMC yukon five point three Leader it's got a misfire,
but on the scanner it's showing it's just kind of
randomly missing cylunder one cylinder fives under eight and the
friend of mine that looked at it and said, well,
that's kind of strange. So I changed the throttle body
with the sensor, just thinking maybe that has something to
(03:21):
do with it. Nothing nothing corrected, crank sensor underneath by
the starter change that nothing corrected. Car runs down the road,
it runs fine, but it's gotta miss.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So, so whose scan tool are you using?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It was just a friend that has a he's basically
a diesel mechanic, but he just kind of threw it
on there and.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, do you know what? Do you know what brand? What,
what level of tool? Or was it?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Don't I apologize. I think it was a decent one
because it was a big screen and it was dissecting things.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay, so so what fault codes does it show us?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The one that I think it's a seven E is
an Edwards A as an Apple popping up, which is
like a random I think the random engine code, okay,
And the misfire wasn't showing an actual code number. It
wasn't saying a the definitive number. Hey, this is what
to look for. And that's why he thought it was
very strange.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
All right. So what I want you to do is
I want you to get the scan tool back on it.
All right, you haven't. You haven't changed any other parts
with this, John, Everything is now okay, So put the
old throttle body back on if it's easy enough to do.
Put the crank censor back in, and and and that
way we eliminate the possibility of new parts that we
don't know if they were good or bad to begin with,
(04:46):
affecting the diagnosis. All right, let's let's let's go backwards
a minute. All right, so let's go back to square one.
Then I want to put the scan tool back on it.
Clear the code started up if it's if it's showing
a misfire on multiple cylinders, but it hasn't. It hasn't
turned on the check engine light yet. I kind of
want to know why if I if I pull a
(05:08):
if I pull a plug wire off of cylinder one,
how long does it take to show me an actual misfire.
I want to make sure that the computer is capable
of diagnosing this before I count on it to do
a diagnosis. If I have questions in my mind, the
other thing, the other thing you can look at, depending
upon his scan tool. Hence the what what scan tool
is it? Question? There's there's a section of programming or
(05:31):
software I should say in all OBD two vehicles called
mode six. Mode six is there is the mechanical explanation
or how can I put it better than that? It's
the mathematical calculation of each circuit as it's tested. So
(05:52):
for conversation's sake, we could look at Mode six cylinder
misfire data, all right, and you will see it will
tell you the minimum value is x. Let's say the
minimum value is three hundred. That means it can't see
if it sees three oh one, it's not gonna it's
(06:13):
gonna set a missfire. If it sees two ninety nine,
it won't set a missfire, all right, but it's still
going to have a miss. So we can look at
mode six data and if we see a couple of cylinders,
and if I'm ahead of you, just tell me. But
we can look at mode six data and look to
see if we see cylinders to ninety nine, ninety eight
(06:34):
to eighty two to eighty three, they're never going to
set a code, right because the threshold is three hundred.
Does the car have a miss? Yeah? But it's it's
not setting a light yet, So we can actually look
at what's causing or leading up to the setting of
the light before it happens. All right, Mode six, Well
(06:57):
think of it like this. You ever get sick in
your life, yes, sir, all right, Monday morning you wake
up scratchy throat. Tuesday you've got the running nose. Wednesday
you're sick. You're not going into work. Right Monday, your
Mode six counter went, well, he's approaching threshold. Tuesday had said,
he's even closer Wednesday. Wednesday you cross the line, then
(07:19):
go your check engine light came on, and now you're done, right,
And that's the reality of it. So I can find
marginal cylinders, all right, you know, I want to see
you know which cylinder is acting up? Is one cylinder
affecting the others? Is one cylinder got the highest misfire
on it? And by that I mean if I look
(07:39):
at mode six data, and the same can be said
for if I look at misfied data. If I look
at misfied data, and I've got all eight cylinders, show
me misfires. But cylinder one is misfiring thirty two thousand times,
and cylinder two is misfiring ten thousand times, and then
it goes down from there. I'm looking at numbers one
(08:00):
the hardest first, right, and let's just touch on this
if we can. What makes an engine missfire? There's the test,
that's your question. What's the answer you're asking me.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I can't answer that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay, Well, do you have a lawnmower? Yes, Okay, if
your lawnmower's misfiring, how do you diagnose it?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Spark plug?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, spark plug spark so ignition can be a source
of a misfire, right, Okay, If the lawnmower had a
burnt valve or a compression problem, that would make it
missfire mechanical, right, And if the carburetor was partially plugged,
the jet was restricted dirt in the system, that would
(08:43):
make it missfire. Right. So the truth is, a modern
day engine still misfires for one of three basic reasons, mechanical, ignition,
or fuel. Right now, knowing this, we're going to throw
a couple of wrenches into the works. But we understand
that now you and I know this, everybody else too,
(09:04):
right in that a computer could be the cause of this.
But if, for example, the computer was cutting off injector
pulse to number one cylinder. It's a fuel related misfire
caused by electronics, but it's still got fuel in the equation.
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
So, so if you determined that your truck is misfiring
because of lack of fuel, don't just assume it's an injector.
You need to test the circuit, right, all right, you know,
just just some basics. Do me a favorite, Just see
if he has mode six. Don't change any more parts,
(09:48):
and then call me next week and we can we
can do a deeper dive.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
All right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You know, misfires can be tricky. I'll tell you a
real quick story and then I'm going to go. We
had a we had a car years ago that had
a a a random misfire fault, all right. Went through
diagnostics left, right and sideways, and found that the serpentine
belt was slipping on the balancer under load right, And
(10:21):
the cause of the misfire was a bad tensioner. And
you say to yourself, how does that happen? How does
a computer note when an engine's misfiring. It looks at
crank rotation. So it fires cylinder one, then it fires
cylinder eight, then it fires cylinder four. And it looks
at the number of degrees of rotation, how smoothly and
how quickly it transitions from cylinder firing event to cylinder
(10:43):
firing event to cylinder firing event. If the if the
belt is slipping and hopping and skipping, the crank stutters
on rotation, believe it or not?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Right, mechanical, Yeah, that well.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
In a sense, Yeah, that's a mechanical problem. But it's
something extraaneous and it's really far down the road of
diagnostics and what if. But my point is, I'm just
trying to teach you look at everything, consider everything. If
you can prove that it's cylinder one as the culprit,
the first thing I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna take
(11:16):
the spark plug from one, move it to a different cylinder.
I'm gonna take the coil from one, move it to
a different cylinder. I'm gonna take the wire from one,
move it to a different cylinder. I'm gonna magic marker
each of my components. I'm going to write down exactly
who I moved where, and then I'm gonna put it
all back together. And run it and see if the
misfire stays on cylinder one, I know it's not ignition.
(11:37):
I'm down to fuel and mechanical. Right. If it goes
to cylinder three, and that's where I put the spark plug,
I know it's a bad plug. Right, Okay, things like that.
So you got your tools, go use them, all right,
I'll talk to you next week. You're very welcome, John,
You're very welcome, sir. Be well a five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero running any of the
car doctor, I'll be back right after.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
This vehicle not taking you where you 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.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So we had a twenty thirteen Buick Verano in the
shop this week. And you know, sometimes auto repair is
about the details. It's the smallest little thing that you
see or don't see. First time in to the shop.
First time customer Libby came to us her grandfather. I
think her grandfather actually listens to the radio show, and
(12:37):
he sent her in. Again, we're the guys, so here
we are, we're being the guys, and it had a
couple of issues. It It was, you know, there was
an oil consumption problem, and there was a concern over
overall vehicle quality. There was some noises in the back,
some noises up front while driving after a couple of
(12:57):
thirty minutes, and just all kinds of sh going on
with it. So you know, you bring it in. We
you know, we when we intake a new vehicle for
the first time or a new customer for the first time,
we always put everybody through this this this, this look right.
We do a safety checklist and a code scan. What's
going on with the car, you know, listen, no different
than going to the doctor, heart rate, blood pressure, you know,
(13:19):
in some cases blood testing, and you know what's going
on with you, what's going on with the vehicle. And
overall it wasn't a terrible car, you know, for a
for a twelve year old vehicle, it only had sixty
thousand miles on it. They had purchased it two years
prior with thirty eight thousand miles on it. But it
had an oil consumption issue and it had a repetitive
P double O one four setting in an exhaust cam
(13:43):
circuit fault for the exhaust cam solenoid system, and the
oil consumption is what got me. The oil consumption. I
told Chester, and I told I told Libby. I said,
you know, the oil consumption is the biggest problem with
this vehicle because you know, not only is the vehicle
burning oil, it's not leaking it. There is a there's
an external oil leak on this vehicle. It's bone dry,
(14:06):
you know. It's when an engine burns oil like that.
It's going out through the exhaust and it's it's coding
the catalytic converter, and it's coating the oxygen sensors, and
it's going to create a problem somewhere down the road
in the life of this vehicle. I just can't tell
you if it's going to happen. It's sixty thousand miles,
eighty thousand miles, one hundred thousand miles, but it's it
would make sense right that the life of those components
(14:27):
is compromised because you know, catalytic converters don't do well
swallowing oil on a regular basis. They just don't. So
you know, where do you start do you? Where do
you how do you fix this car? How do you
make this car usable? Or do you. One of the
other things that I didn't like about this car was
(14:47):
the right front lug nut. One of the right front
lug nuts holding the right front wheel on was missing
the stam steel cap. You know, lugnuts are such an
important detail to a vehicle, and they are right. It's
the littlest thing. But like I started this conversation with you,
it's the little details. It's the details that count. One
(15:08):
of the right front lug nuts was missing its chrome cap,
the stamp steel cap they put on it. And you know,
the problem becomes that that's a different size. The lugnut's
supposed to be nineteen millimeter, well now it's eighteen and
a half. And the lug wrench won't fit it. So
(15:32):
the problem becomes and somewhere along the way, the previous
repair shops shop or shops had had used a lug
socket and twist it and round it off the lug
and my question becomes, how do you get that off
on the road? What genius would let that out of
the shop. I mean, there comes a point where you
(15:53):
have to say to somebody, hey, you know, one of
the lugnuts is bad. We've got to change it. I
don't think it even is going to object to be
to changing a We have an eight, nine, ten, twelve
fifteen dollars lugnut, whatever it is, if it's explained in
the way that you know what, if this car gets
a flat on the road, whether it's two o'clock in
the afternoon or two o'clock in the morning, you're gonna
have a difficult time, if at all, being able to
(16:14):
get this lugnut off and change the flat and move
on your way. The road is of every unforgiving place.
I have to remember that. That's a good ronism for
coffee cups and T shirts at the website. The road
is of every unforgiving points. So we ended up putting
twenty lugnuts on this car because when looking at the
other wheels, I would venture to guess probably eight or
(16:36):
nine lugs were missing, and four or five of the
other lugs the capture rattling around and loose. And I said,
you know, Chester, I said, let's just do this, right,
Let's just put twenty lugnuts on the car. And if
we're gonna drive this thing, let's at least know we
can make it as safe and reliable as we can.
So we adjust the lugnut problem. We changed all the
lugs we were able to, and to their credit, Dorman
(16:57):
Dorman Products dot com. Dorman makes solid lug nuts, which
I think is a genius idea. Right, we can, we can,
you know, put a solid lugnut on. There's no problem
with a cap coming loose anymore. They're gonna work and
they're gonna hold their original dimension nineteen millimeters all day long.
So that solved that problem. The oil consumption was on
(17:19):
my list, and you know, how do you deal with that?
You know, General Motors had problems with this is a
two point four liter egotech and GM had problems back
in the day with this engine. This has a tiny
little orifice, probably forty thousands in diameter in the intake manifold,
and that's part of the PCV or positive crank case
ventilation system that lets the engine breathe. You know, I'd
(17:41):
be willing to bet that it's partially restricted. But you know,
do you take it apart on a bet? Well, no,
I don't think you do. And there's a way around
it if you want to be certain. But I'll tell
you what. Come back after the break and I'll give
you the rest of the story because this is something
you just don't want to miss because you're if you're
(18:03):
driving a two point four liter Ecotech, I can save
your money a five, five, five, six zero nine nine
zero zero. I'm on an aiding in the car.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Doctor.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
I'll be back all right after this. So and here
(18:47):
we are again, we're talking about this twenty thirteen buiqu Perrano.
You know, how do you revive this car? How do
you revive this car? So lots of little issues, but
good bones. Right, the basics are there. The vehicle is
a decent vehicle. And you look at what it would
cost to replace a decent running vehicle today, it's probably
a minimum of twenty five thousand dollars. So solve the
lugnut problem. We talked about that, the oil consumption. You
(19:11):
can't solve the oil consumption easily. There's a couple of
things you can try, all right, now. GM had issues
with this engine, the two point four Ecotech, with sticking
rings in the piston groups. As a matter of fact,
there's more than a few bulletins that talk about and
GM had extended the warranties on these engines. But obviously
this vehicle's out of warranty, even the extension now. But
(19:32):
they were replacing piston and ring assemblies by the dozens,
by the hundreds, by the thousands, and we're not going
to do that to a twelve year old going on
thirteen year old vehicle. It doesn't pay so sticky rings
in the piston groups. Hotshot Secret, one of our sponsors,
as a matter of fact, to be fully transparent and clear,
(19:54):
makes a product called stition eliminator. Stiction is the idea
that oil gets dirty and burnt and gummy and varnishy.
You know, it's a carbon based product oil and stiction
eliminator helps break it down and flush it out. So
we added some stiiction eliminator to this engine. We'll see,
let's see what the results are. You know, if anything
(20:14):
can help break up and free up the rings, because
listen the answers there right. It was a thirty eight
thousand mile car when they bought it two years ago.
The car was ten years old. It went thirty eight
hundred miles a year. That's not a lot. That means
it's sad. A lot that means things have a habit
of getting sticky and stuck. And I guarantee you the
oil change maintenance on this car was not great because
(20:35):
people tend to think, well, I don't drive it a lot.
I only need to change the oil once a year,
once every year and a half, maybe once every two years.
And here's the danger of it. Heck, some people would
probably wait for the oil life monitor. Come on, God
only knows when that would happen. You would hope at
least once a year, but not always. So we put
a bottle of stiction eliminator in it. More at hotshotsecret
dot com. We'll see what that does. I'll report back
(20:57):
in the future. I also put an FC two nineteen
oil fill cap on it. That's the part number out
of ac Delco FC two nineteen. It's a vented oil
fill cap. And what happens is if crank case pressure
builds up too high as a result of a partially
restricted or restricted PCV orifice and to prevent the rear
(21:20):
main seal from popping out or leaking oil, which they're
known to do, that FC two nineteen will vent at
a certain pressure and help keep the engine from hurting itself.
So that's another trick that we resorted to for this vehicle, again,
trying to keep it on the road. The last was coolant,
(21:42):
and again this car showed up. We have very little
service history. The service invoices that were presented with the
car very nicely typed out. But as I told Livy,
I said, you know what, I'm more impressed with the
car than the place that was working on it, simply
because they typed a nice invoice, but they missed a
lot of the basics. And I don't know why that
guide her. Accordingly, the coolant bottle was empty and it
(22:04):
took almost a gallon if I recall correctly, no leaks.
We pressurized the system, didn't find any leaks. Is the
engine burning oil or was it just pure neglect? I
don't know. I know that I can't send a young
driver out on the road with some unknowns because the
other complicating factor is this individual lives about an hour
(22:24):
away from the shop, so it's not something my arm
would reach easily to solve any small detail. What would
we do for you know, when we suspect coolant leaks?
Of course, we put a bottle of caseal in it.
And you know, as much as this may sound like
an advertising hype, it's not. It's real. From the shop
twelve year old vehicle, sixty thousand miles on it. We're
(22:48):
trying to revive it through whatever economic means we can
without going completely crazy, because to put an engine in
it to diagnose some of these other issues at a
hardcore level, we're going to spend more money than the
value of the car. Or perhaps we're just better off
replacing it. I don't know. Let's go simple first. I
(23:08):
think the best part of this repair, by the way,
casel dot com is you guys already know that. I
think the best part of this repair is I got
to give Libby and her sister a class and how
to change or how to add oil to an engine.
And you know it's it's so, it was so. I said,
first you have to open the hood. She says, how
do you do that? Well, I'm thinking, oh boy, I
got my work cut out for me. And I explained
(23:30):
to her, you know, pop the hood release and then
line up with the emblem and it's just a little
to the left of the emblem. You know what. It's
very uplifting to teach somebody that doesn't even know how
to get their hood open, and in six minutes teach
them how to open the hood. Take the oil cap out.
We gave her a little funnel, We gave her a
you know, a five pack of oil with a cardboard box.
(23:52):
And you know, that's what we need to do more of.
You know, don't just fish for the person, teach the
person how to fish. Because when she left, she was empowered.
She was comfortable with opening the hood, she was comfortable
with pouring a cord of oil in it because I
and I taught her how to check the oil level
looking at the dipstick. And Libby's gonna get back to me.
She's going to report back in a couple of weeks
(24:13):
and tell me how the car's doing. And the whole
point of this is, you know, details count oil consumption,
coolant loss, coolant consumption, don't know lug nuts, all the
little things that nobody took the time to explain. Somebody
wrote me an email and it's down here in my pile.
They want to know, Hey, Ron, I love your expression.
(24:33):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. But how do you
find a good mechanic? And look, I'm not saying it's me.
If it's one thing I've been over my thirty plus
years on radio, I've never been self serving. I've never
sat up here and told anybody to ever bring your
car to my shop. And that's not what I'm here for.
But what I'm trying to express is it's the devil's
in the details. It's the shop that finds the twisted
(24:55):
the one twisted lugnut, the low coolant level that nobody
picked up on, the pentotential for engine loss because of
oil consumption, to come up with a better solution than
just ah, put an engine in it. Let's try this.
I think that's how you find a good mechanic. I
think the devil is in, you know, working things through
to the point where they make sense, where you offer
(25:16):
people alternatives, especially in tough economic times, especially on an
older vehicle. I think the biggest question I got, or
I get, is how often do you change oil? And
I thought of that with Libby's car, because you know,
thirty eight thousand miles, ten years old. I would love
(25:37):
to have seen some service records, but they had none
because they bought it from a used car a lot.
And I guarantee you that the reason they got rid
of this car, as nice as it was, the undercarriage
had no rust. The top of it need a little
paint work here and there, but that doesn't make a
car run and make it reliable. That's cosmetic. I guarantee you.
The oil consumption was what what bit them, all right,
(25:59):
That was the dog that bit the leg. And I
think with a little ingenuity and a little effort, we
can keep cars going longer and not necessarily having to
overhaul engines initially and trying some of these alternatives as
they may actually help and work. So just just my
two cents, how do you find a good mechanic, give
them the details and watch how they work. Eight five
(26:21):
five five six zero nine nine zero Zero'm running any
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
And one more time. Here we are again. Let's go
(26:44):
to Brad and Iowa. Brad, Welcome to the car Doctor. Sir,
how can I help Hi?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Ron, I've got a question for you, and it's gonna
be controversial, I guarantee you, okay. But I have several vehicles,
a couple of which I got drive during the summer
only that are kind of fun vehicles, and I don't
put many miles on them usually, and then I store
them in the winter time. And I live in Iowa.
So we get cold winters and we go through all
(27:11):
the humidity ups and downs and on and on and on. Well, anyway,
my one little fun car, and I've got several miatas,
and some of them have be eight engines in them,
believe it or not, not stock of course, but anyway,
they get driven very little. I parked them through the winter,
and then spring comes around, I get them up, and
(27:34):
then of course you look online and stuff, and everybody
tells you, oh, you need to be changing the oil
before you take it out of the garage, you know,
and this and that. Well, for example, last year, one
of the cars I probably drove less than one hundred
and fifty miles. Another one I drove maybe less than
a thousand miles. And I pulled the dipstick and I
looked at it, and it looks like you put it
(27:55):
in there yesterday, And it's like, Okay, do I really
need to change the oil on this? I mean there's
almost zero miles you know on the thing. You won't
you won't go change.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And well, yeah, but you won't and you won't like
my answer. Bread. Okay, Uh, I've just you know what
we're gonna We're probably gonna agree to disagree. I want
to talk to you about my hot rod. Okay, all right,
I've got a I've got I've got a small block
fifty five that I did fifteen years ago. Looks like
it's new, like the day I rolled it out of
the rolled it out of the shop the first time
it was done. I look at oil changes in storing
(28:30):
a classic vehicle, but I look at the whole vehicle.
Do you do you rag your exhaust?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay? Good?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Do you mean do you mean in storage? You mean
all right stuff?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I don't put rags in it, but I stuffed, you know,
like uh oh, scratch pads in there or something get
up there? Right.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I worry about mice. I also I worry about condensation
more than anything else. I've been known to put rags
in a couple of rubber gloves over the exhaust tips
when it's all right. And you know, you can learn
a lot at the racetrack. You look at those guys
with their engines. They'll rag the headers and they'll they'll
also close off carburetion and you start to understand why.
And they're worried about the brie in small particulate. But
(29:11):
I always worry about condensation on a vehicle that sits.
I actually had occasion once on the hot rod where
I pulled the valve cover off in the middle of January,
and you'd be you'd be disappointed to see how much
moisture was up there between the hot and the cold
and the cool down and the humidity and everything else.
That the oil just naturally attracts water. And then you
start it comes spring and all that moisture boils out,
(29:34):
and then you go to check the oil and the
oil level looks good. You know, I understand what you're saying,
and I agree with you. It doesn't look bad the
way I the way I oil change the hot rod
has been working for me. I will change it at
the beginning of the season. I will change it at
the end of the season, regardless of how many miles
(29:54):
I go, and that's it. I'll rag in between. I
always start the season with a fresh oil change. I
always end the season with a fresh oil change. I
don't care how many miles I went. I look at
what it would take to reproduce that car, and for
the couple of bucks, I just sit there and say,
you know what, it's It's just good insurance. It lets
(30:16):
me sleep at night. Now, the one other factor, the
one other factor that I like to point out is
and and and in your case, what would it take
to reproduce that V eight miata? Right?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Oh, it's yeah, well it's it's a special one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah. And then the other factor is, you know, are
you starting these cars during the winter months?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
All right, I do. And I'll tell you why. Talk
to an engine builder. All the engine builders I've ever
talked to, the number one component they worry about with
engines that sit, well, there's two. They worry about piston rings,
and they worry about valve springs, and valve springs getting
getting metal memory. As one said to me, that it
(31:02):
will alter the spring. So the idea that you're going
into the garage once a month, cranking it over, starting it,
letting it run for twenty minutes. You know, there's a
maintenance to keeping an older vehicle, to keeping seals lubricated,
to keeping things supple, to keeping things fresh. I you know,
and you can surely do it your way. I've heard
(31:22):
all the arguments about the oil looks clean, but I've
also seen the guys that suffer premature engine failure, and
when they get the oil analyzed, they realize the oil
was broken down and it wasn't as good as it
could be. Your eye is no barometer in terms of
how good the oil is. But when it's dark and dirty,
that tells me it's time. So I don't think, well, what.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
About good about oil that's you've got, that you had
in storage, that's then in a jug that's never been opened,
and let's say it's five years old sitting on the shell.
The reason is there are things that break down in
that oil that sit there over that length of time
that makes it not any good anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I'll tell you what real quick in a minute. I
don't have a degree in oilology, but I have talked
to oilologists, and I think that's their title, and they
will tell you that oil and the additives fall out
of suspension over time sitting on the shelf. And the
last fellow that I talked to was from driven racing Oil.
I can't think of his name, it'll come to me
(32:22):
after a while, but this gentleman explained to me that
oil additives fall out of suspension, and oil older than
two two and a half years old should probably not
be used. And his argument was clear, and I thought
it was a fair explanation. So again, I'm back to
what does it cost to reproduce some of these vehicles?
And I sit there and I say, you know what,
(32:44):
for the price of a quart of oil? Am I
happy that it's so expensive? No, but it's just something
I got to deal with because it's part of the hobby.
So I wouldn't use five year oil. I just don't.
I just don't think it's necessary. Just my two cents bread.
But I appreciate the question, and I appreciate your honesty
and listening to me. I'm running any and the car
doctor we're back right after this. Why this car is automatic?
(33:09):
It's systematic.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
It's a dramatic.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
What's greased lightning? And to pick up that conversation and
to close it out in my mind, you know driven
racing oil? Right? I use it in the hot rod.
I have used it for fifteen years. It keeps the
hot rod running fresh and strong, and I can't say
(33:39):
enough good about it. They've actually researched oil needs on
an engine by engine basis, on a case by case basis.
They have some of the best advice and they make
the most sense. I'm at their website a lot. I'm
just having a mental fluck on the Oh uh Speed,
lake Speed, his name will come to me the general
(34:00):
that's the oilologist, and I love the expression. That's probably
not even the right term, but he's got a degree
in engine oil. You know, it's really fascinating to listen
to some of these guys and they will explain how
oil breaks down and you know, what goes wrong and
the little things that we don't think about. Lake Speed, Yeah,
that's it, Lake Speed, Tom, Thank you so much. I
(34:22):
think that's the coolest name I ever heard. But we've
actually had lake on the show going back a couple
of years. I bet you it's ten years ago. We
should probably reach out and try this again. But it's
the information that he has stored in his head and
the way they look at oil and the way they
break it down. You know, oil's by time and mileage.
And I don't care whether it's a classic or you know,
(34:45):
an everyday vehicle. Six months, six thousand miles, six months period.
Change it before the season, change it at the end
of the season. You're going to run it during the
off months in the winter. You're not gonna hurt that engine,
because the sadness of having to do an engine in
a classic that you may not be able to do
it anymore is just not worth the price of a
missed oil change. I'm running any in the guard doctor.
It's been another absolute pleasure this week, till the next time.
(35:08):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. See you
Ron an Adium. It's only going to continue in that.
You know, the vehicles aren't going to get any easier
in terms of batteries, their connections, their components. Battery resets
are going to become a very big part of the business.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the new lead.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
The Car Doctor both dealer puts the goal impopable impopo. Oh,
so you're saying, Mercedes is telling you that you have
to buy a new computer from them and they'll flash
it for four thousand dollars. Welcome to the radio home
of ron an Aiuan, the Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one.
This is where car owners the world overturned to for
(00:42):
their definitive opinion on automotive repair. If your mechanics giving
you a busy signal, pick up the phone and call in.
The garage doors are open, but I am here to
take your calls at eight five five five six ninety
nine hundred and now he running, Hey, welcome aboard, and
(01:02):
this is the radio show where if you're we're gonna
get a car fixed, this is the place, or so
they tell me. They tell me that a lot. I
had someone walk in the shop the other day. They said, Hey,
is Ron and any in here? I said no, and
they looked at me. I listened to his radio show
all the time. Well, I'm sure he'll be glad to
hear that. And finally they they just looked at me
(01:24):
and they realized. They said, you're him, aren't you. Yeah,
but don't tell anybody. So this must be the place.
And he had a question and listen. I try not
to do the radio show at the shop, I really do,
because it's just I'd spend all day just answering questions.
I'd never get anything done. So this is the place
to ask questions, which I'm glad to do it here.
I'm glad to do it in the shop at a
(01:46):
slow moment, but I have yet to find that slow
moment when there's nothing to do. They way to do
it here is if you're if you're interested is eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. That's
a twenty four to seven phone number again, eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. You can
call We're live on the air Saturdays two to four
pm East Coast time, or East Coast guys, we're here then,
(02:08):
but you can call a five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero, leave a message and executive producer,
chief cook and bottle washer, Tom Ray, we'll call you
back and get you in Q for the next live broadcast,
and you know, we appreciate you doing it here. You know,
we got a lot of questions out on Facebook, We
get a lot of questions everywhere. But frankly, the problem
is trying to answer all of them. You know, it's
(02:30):
it's unsurvivable. It's an insurmountable task. So we try to
do everything here in one central location so that everybody
can benefit from it and we can get everybody's needs
met here on air. So just keep that in mind.
Speaking of which, let's let's open up the phones early
and let's go over and talk to John in Vernon,
New Jersey. I think that is with an seven GMC yukon. John,
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Thank you? Sarah.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
I guess you're that guy.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I'm that guy. I'm at tag, I'm at what
can I do for you?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Got a question? In two thousand and seven two seven
GMC yukon five point three Leader it's got a misfire,
but on the scanner it's showing it's just kind of
randomly missing cylunder one cylinder fives under eight and the
friend of mine that looked at it and said, well,
that's kind of strange. So I changed the throttle body
with the sensor, just thinking maybe that has something to
(03:21):
do with it. Nothing nothing corrected, crank sensor underneath by
the starter change that nothing corrected. Car runs down the road,
it runs fine, but it's gotta miss.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So, so whose scan tool are you using?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It was just a friend that has a he's basically
a diesel mechanic, but he just kind of threw it
on there and.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, do you know what? Do you know what brand? What,
what level of tool? Or was it?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Don't I apologize. I think it was a decent one
because it was a big screen and it was dissecting things.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Okay, so so what fault codes does it show us?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
The one that I think it's a seven E is
an Edwards A as an Apple popping up, which is
like a random I think the random engine code, okay,
And the misfire wasn't showing an actual code number. It
wasn't saying a the definitive number. Hey, this is what
to look for. And that's why he thought it was
very strange.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
All right. So what I want you to do is
I want you to get the scan tool back on it.
All right, you haven't. You haven't changed any other parts
with this, John, Everything is now okay, So put the
old throttle body back on if it's easy enough to do.
Put the crank censor back in, and and and that
way we eliminate the possibility of new parts that we
don't know if they were good or bad to begin with,
(04:46):
affecting the diagnosis. All right, let's let's let's go backwards
a minute. All right, so let's go back to square one.
Then I want to put the scan tool back on it.
Clear the code started up if it's if it's showing
a misfire on multiple cylinders, but it hasn't. It hasn't
turned on the check engine light yet. I kind of
want to know why if I if I pull a
(05:08):
if I pull a plug wire off of cylinder one,
how long does it take to show me an actual misfire.
I want to make sure that the computer is capable
of diagnosing this before I count on it to do
a diagnosis. If I have questions in my mind, the
other thing, the other thing you can look at, depending
upon his scan tool. Hence the what what scan tool
is it? Question? There's there's a section of programming or
(05:31):
software I should say in all OBD two vehicles called
mode six. Mode six is there is the mechanical explanation
or how can I put it better than that? It's
the mathematical calculation of each circuit as it's tested. So
(05:52):
for conversation's sake, we could look at Mode six cylinder
misfire data, all right, and you will see it will
tell you the minimum value is x. Let's say the
minimum value is three hundred. That means it can't see
if it sees three oh one, it's not gonna it's
(06:13):
gonna set a missfire. If it sees two ninety nine,
it won't set a missfire, all right, but it's still
going to have a miss. So we can look at
mode six data and if we see a couple of cylinders,
and if I'm ahead of you, just tell me. But
we can look at mode six data and look to
see if we see cylinders to ninety nine, ninety eight
(06:34):
to eighty two to eighty three, they're never going to
set a code, right because the threshold is three hundred.
Does the car have a miss? Yeah? But it's it's
not setting a light yet, So we can actually look
at what's causing or leading up to the setting of
the light before it happens. All right, Mode six, Well
(06:57):
think of it like this. You ever get sick in
your life, yes, sir, all right, Monday morning you wake
up scratchy throat. Tuesday you've got the running nose. Wednesday
you're sick. You're not going into work. Right Monday, your
Mode six counter went, well, he's approaching threshold. Tuesday had said,
he's even closer Wednesday. Wednesday you cross the line, then
(07:19):
go your check engine light came on, and now you're done, right,
And that's the reality of it. So I can find
marginal cylinders, all right, you know, I want to see
you know which cylinder is acting up? Is one cylinder
affecting the others? Is one cylinder got the highest misfire
on it? And by that I mean if I look
(07:39):
at mode six data, and the same can be said
for if I look at misfied data. If I look
at misfied data, and I've got all eight cylinders, show
me misfires. But cylinder one is misfiring thirty two thousand times,
and cylinder two is misfiring ten thousand times, and then
it goes down from there. I'm looking at numbers one
(08:00):
the hardest first, right, and let's just touch on this
if we can. What makes an engine missfire? There's the test,
that's your question. What's the answer you're asking me.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I can't answer that. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Okay, Well, do you have a lawnmower? Yes, Okay, if
your lawnmower's misfiring, how do you diagnose it?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Spark plug?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, spark plug spark so ignition can be a source
of a misfire, right, Okay, If the lawnmower had a
burnt valve or a compression problem, that would make it
missfire mechanical, right, And if the carburetor was partially plugged,
the jet was restricted dirt in the system, that would
(08:43):
make it missfire. Right. So the truth is, a modern
day engine still misfires for one of three basic reasons, mechanical, ignition,
or fuel. Right now, knowing this, we're going to throw
a couple of wrenches into the works. But we understand
that now you and I know this, everybody else too,
(09:04):
right in that a computer could be the cause of this.
But if, for example, the computer was cutting off injector
pulse to number one cylinder. It's a fuel related misfire
caused by electronics, but it's still got fuel in the equation.
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
So, so if you determined that your truck is misfiring
because of lack of fuel, don't just assume it's an injector.
You need to test the circuit, right, all right, you know,
just just some basics. Do me a favorite, Just see
if he has mode six. Don't change any more parts,
(09:48):
and then call me next week and we can we
can do a deeper dive.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
All right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
You know, misfires can be tricky. I'll tell you a
real quick story and then I'm going to go. We
had a we had a car years ago that had
a a a random misfire fault, all right. Went through
diagnostics left, right and sideways, and found that the serpentine
belt was slipping on the balancer under load right, And
(10:21):
the cause of the misfire was a bad tensioner. And
you say to yourself, how does that happen? How does
a computer note when an engine's misfiring. It looks at
crank rotation. So it fires cylinder one, then it fires
cylinder eight, then it fires cylinder four. And it looks
at the number of degrees of rotation, how smoothly and
how quickly it transitions from cylinder firing event to cylinder
(10:43):
firing event to cylinder firing event. If the if the
belt is slipping and hopping and skipping, the crank stutters
on rotation, believe it or not?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Right, mechanical, Yeah, that well.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
In a sense, Yeah, that's a mechanical problem. But it's
something extraaneous and it's really far down the road of
diagnostics and what if. But my point is, I'm just
trying to teach you look at everything, consider everything. If
you can prove that it's cylinder one as the culprit,
the first thing I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna take
(11:16):
the spark plug from one, move it to a different cylinder.
I'm gonna take the coil from one, move it to
a different cylinder. I'm gonna take the wire from one,
move it to a different cylinder. I'm gonna magic marker
each of my components. I'm going to write down exactly
who I moved where, and then I'm gonna put it
all back together. And run it and see if the
misfire stays on cylinder one, I know it's not ignition.
(11:37):
I'm down to fuel and mechanical. Right. If it goes
to cylinder three, and that's where I put the spark plug,
I know it's a bad plug. Right, Okay, things like that.
So you got your tools, go use them, all right,
I'll talk to you next week. You're very welcome, John,
You're very welcome, sir. Be well a five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero running any of the
car doctor, I'll be back right after.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
This vehicle not taking you where you 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.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So we had a twenty thirteen Buick Verano in the
shop this week. And you know, sometimes auto repair is
about the details. It's the smallest little thing that you
see or don't see. First time in to the shop.
First time customer Libby came to us her grandfather. I
think her grandfather actually listens to the radio show, and
(12:37):
he sent her in. Again, we're the guys, so here
we are, we're being the guys, and it had a
couple of issues. It It was, you know, there was
an oil consumption problem, and there was a concern over
overall vehicle quality. There was some noises in the back,
some noises up front while driving after a couple of
(12:57):
thirty minutes, and just all kinds of sh going on
with it. So you know, you bring it in. We
you know, we when we intake a new vehicle for
the first time or a new customer for the first time,
we always put everybody through this this this, this look right.
We do a safety checklist and a code scan. What's
going on with the car, you know, listen, no different
than going to the doctor, heart rate, blood pressure, you know,
(13:19):
in some cases blood testing, and you know what's going
on with you, what's going on with the vehicle. And
overall it wasn't a terrible car, you know, for a
for a twelve year old vehicle, it only had sixty
thousand miles on it. They had purchased it two years
prior with thirty eight thousand miles on it. But it
had an oil consumption issue and it had a repetitive
P double O one four setting in an exhaust cam
(13:43):
circuit fault for the exhaust cam solenoid system, and the
oil consumption is what got me. The oil consumption. I
told Chester, and I told I told Libby. I said,
you know, the oil consumption is the biggest problem with
this vehicle because you know, not only is the vehicle
burning oil, it's not leaking it. There is a there's
an external oil leak on this vehicle. It's bone dry,
(14:06):
you know. It's when an engine burns oil like that.
It's going out through the exhaust and it's it's coding
the catalytic converter, and it's coating the oxygen sensors, and
it's going to create a problem somewhere down the road
in the life of this vehicle. I just can't tell
you if it's going to happen. It's sixty thousand miles,
eighty thousand miles, one hundred thousand miles, but it's it
would make sense right that the life of those components
(14:27):
is compromised because you know, catalytic converters don't do well
swallowing oil on a regular basis. They just don't. So
you know, where do you start do you? Where do
you how do you fix this car? How do you
make this car usable? Or do you. One of the
other things that I didn't like about this car was
(14:47):
the right front lug nut. One of the right front
lug nuts holding the right front wheel on was missing
the stam steel cap. You know, lugnuts are such an
important detail to a vehicle, and they are right. It's
the littlest thing. But like I started this conversation with you,
it's the little details. It's the details that count. One
(15:08):
of the right front lug nuts was missing its chrome cap,
the stamp steel cap they put on it. And you know,
the problem becomes that that's a different size. The lugnut's
supposed to be nineteen millimeter, well now it's eighteen and
a half. And the lug wrench won't fit it. So
(15:32):
the problem becomes and somewhere along the way, the previous
repair shops shop or shops had had used a lug
socket and twist it and round it off the lug
and my question becomes, how do you get that off
on the road? What genius would let that out of
the shop. I mean, there comes a point where you
(15:53):
have to say to somebody, hey, you know, one of
the lugnuts is bad. We've got to change it. I
don't think it even is going to object to be
to changing a We have an eight, nine, ten, twelve
fifteen dollars lugnut, whatever it is, if it's explained in
the way that you know what, if this car gets
a flat on the road, whether it's two o'clock in
the afternoon or two o'clock in the morning, you're gonna
have a difficult time, if at all, being able to
(16:14):
get this lugnut off and change the flat and move
on your way. The road is of every unforgiving place.
I have to remember that. That's a good ronism for
coffee cups and T shirts at the website. The road
is of every unforgiving points. So we ended up putting
twenty lugnuts on this car because when looking at the
other wheels, I would venture to guess probably eight or
(16:36):
nine lugs were missing, and four or five of the
other lugs the capture rattling around and loose. And I said,
you know, Chester, I said, let's just do this, right,
Let's just put twenty lugnuts on the car. And if
we're gonna drive this thing, let's at least know we
can make it as safe and reliable as we can.
So we adjust the lugnut problem. We changed all the
lugs we were able to, and to their credit, Dorman
(16:57):
Dorman Products dot com. Dorman makes solid lug nuts, which
I think is a genius idea. Right, we can, we can,
you know, put a solid lugnut on. There's no problem
with a cap coming loose anymore. They're gonna work and
they're gonna hold their original dimension nineteen millimeters all day long.
So that solved that problem. The oil consumption was on
(17:19):
my list, and you know, how do you deal with that?
You know, General Motors had problems with this is a
two point four liter egotech and GM had problems back
in the day with this engine. This has a tiny
little orifice, probably forty thousands in diameter in the intake manifold,
and that's part of the PCV or positive crank case
ventilation system that lets the engine breathe. You know, I'd
(17:41):
be willing to bet that it's partially restricted. But you know,
do you take it apart on a bet? Well, no,
I don't think you do. And there's a way around
it if you want to be certain. But I'll tell
you what. Come back after the break and I'll give
you the rest of the story because this is something
you just don't want to miss because you're if you're
(18:03):
driving a two point four liter Ecotech, I can save
your money a five, five, five, six zero nine nine
zero zero. I'm on an aiding in the car.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Doctor.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
I'll be back all right after this. So and here
(18:47):
we are again, we're talking about this twenty thirteen buiqu Perrano.
You know, how do you revive this car? How do
you revive this car? So lots of little issues, but
good bones. Right, the basics are there. The vehicle is
a decent vehicle. And you look at what it would
cost to replace a decent running vehicle today, it's probably
a minimum of twenty five thousand dollars. So solve the
lugnut problem. We talked about that, the oil consumption. You
(19:11):
can't solve the oil consumption easily. There's a couple of
things you can try, all right, now. GM had issues
with this engine, the two point four Ecotech, with sticking
rings in the piston groups. As a matter of fact,
there's more than a few bulletins that talk about and
GM had extended the warranties on these engines. But obviously
this vehicle's out of warranty, even the extension now. But
(19:32):
they were replacing piston and ring assemblies by the dozens,
by the hundreds, by the thousands, and we're not going
to do that to a twelve year old going on
thirteen year old vehicle. It doesn't pay so sticky rings
in the piston groups. Hotshot Secret, one of our sponsors,
as a matter of fact, to be fully transparent and clear,
(19:54):
makes a product called stition eliminator. Stiction is the idea
that oil gets dirty and burnt and gummy and varnishy.
You know, it's a carbon based product oil and stiction
eliminator helps break it down and flush it out. So
we added some stiiction eliminator to this engine. We'll see,
let's see what the results are. You know, if anything
(20:14):
can help break up and free up the rings, because
listen the answers there right. It was a thirty eight
thousand mile car when they bought it two years ago.
The car was ten years old. It went thirty eight
hundred miles a year. That's not a lot. That means
it's sad. A lot that means things have a habit
of getting sticky and stuck. And I guarantee you the
oil change maintenance on this car was not great because
(20:35):
people tend to think, well, I don't drive it a lot.
I only need to change the oil once a year,
once every year and a half, maybe once every two years.
And here's the danger of it. Heck, some people would
probably wait for the oil life monitor. Come on, God
only knows when that would happen. You would hope at
least once a year, but not always. So we put
a bottle of stiction eliminator in it. More at hotshotsecret
dot com. We'll see what that does. I'll report back
(20:57):
in the future. I also put an FC two nineteen
oil fill cap on it. That's the part number out
of ac Delco FC two nineteen. It's a vented oil
fill cap. And what happens is if crank case pressure
builds up too high as a result of a partially
restricted or restricted PCV orifice and to prevent the rear
(21:20):
main seal from popping out or leaking oil, which they're
known to do, that FC two nineteen will vent at
a certain pressure and help keep the engine from hurting itself.
So that's another trick that we resorted to for this vehicle, again,
trying to keep it on the road. The last was coolant,
(21:42):
and again this car showed up. We have very little
service history. The service invoices that were presented with the
car very nicely typed out. But as I told Livy,
I said, you know what, I'm more impressed with the
car than the place that was working on it, simply
because they typed a nice invoice, but they missed a
lot of the basics. And I don't know why that
guide her. Accordingly, the coolant bottle was empty and it
(22:04):
took almost a gallon if I recall correctly, no leaks.
We pressurized the system, didn't find any leaks. Is the
engine burning oil or was it just pure neglect? I
don't know. I know that I can't send a young
driver out on the road with some unknowns because the
other complicating factor is this individual lives about an hour
(22:24):
away from the shop, so it's not something my arm
would reach easily to solve any small detail. What would
we do for you know, when we suspect coolant leaks?
Of course, we put a bottle of caseal in it.
And you know, as much as this may sound like
an advertising hype, it's not. It's real. From the shop
twelve year old vehicle, sixty thousand miles on it. We're
(22:48):
trying to revive it through whatever economic means we can
without going completely crazy, because to put an engine in
it to diagnose some of these other issues at a
hardcore level, we're going to spend more money than the
value of the car. Or perhaps we're just better off
replacing it. I don't know. Let's go simple first. I
(23:08):
think the best part of this repair, by the way,
casel dot com is you guys already know that. I
think the best part of this repair is I got
to give Libby and her sister a class and how
to change or how to add oil to an engine.
And you know it's it's so, it was so. I said,
first you have to open the hood. She says, how
do you do that? Well, I'm thinking, oh boy, I
got my work cut out for me. And I explained
(23:30):
to her, you know, pop the hood release and then
line up with the emblem and it's just a little
to the left of the emblem. You know what. It's
very uplifting to teach somebody that doesn't even know how
to get their hood open, and in six minutes teach
them how to open the hood. Take the oil cap out.
We gave her a little funnel, We gave her a
you know, a five pack of oil with a cardboard box.
(23:52):
And you know, that's what we need to do more of.
You know, don't just fish for the person, teach the
person how to fish. Because when she left, she was empowered.
She was comfortable with opening the hood, she was comfortable
with pouring a cord of oil in it because I
and I taught her how to check the oil level
looking at the dipstick. And Libby's gonna get back to me.
She's going to report back in a couple of weeks
(24:13):
and tell me how the car's doing. And the whole
point of this is, you know, details count oil consumption,
coolant loss, coolant consumption, don't know lug nuts, all the
little things that nobody took the time to explain. Somebody
wrote me an email and it's down here in my pile.
They want to know, Hey, Ron, I love your expression.
(24:33):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. But how do you
find a good mechanic? And look, I'm not saying it's me.
If it's one thing I've been over my thirty plus
years on radio, I've never been self serving. I've never
sat up here and told anybody to ever bring your
car to my shop. And that's not what I'm here for.
But what I'm trying to express is it's the devil's
in the details. It's the shop that finds the twisted
(24:55):
the one twisted lugnut, the low coolant level that nobody
picked up on, the pentotential for engine loss because of
oil consumption, to come up with a better solution than
just ah, put an engine in it. Let's try this.
I think that's how you find a good mechanic. I
think the devil is in, you know, working things through
to the point where they make sense, where you offer
(25:16):
people alternatives, especially in tough economic times, especially on an
older vehicle. I think the biggest question I got, or
I get, is how often do you change oil? And
I thought of that with Libby's car, because you know,
thirty eight thousand miles, ten years old. I would love
(25:37):
to have seen some service records, but they had none
because they bought it from a used car a lot.
And I guarantee you that the reason they got rid
of this car, as nice as it was, the undercarriage
had no rust. The top of it need a little
paint work here and there, but that doesn't make a
car run and make it reliable. That's cosmetic. I guarantee you.
The oil consumption was what what bit them, all right,
(25:59):
That was the dog that bit the leg. And I
think with a little ingenuity and a little effort, we
can keep cars going longer and not necessarily having to
overhaul engines initially and trying some of these alternatives as
they may actually help and work. So just just my
two cents, how do you find a good mechanic, give
them the details and watch how they work. Eight five
(26:21):
five five six zero nine nine zero Zero'm running any
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
And one more time. Here we are again. Let's go
(26:44):
to Brad and Iowa. Brad, Welcome to the car Doctor. Sir,
how can I help Hi?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Ron, I've got a question for you, and it's gonna
be controversial, I guarantee you, okay. But I have several vehicles,
a couple of which I got drive during the summer
only that are kind of fun vehicles, and I don't
put many miles on them usually, and then I store
them in the winter time. And I live in Iowa.
So we get cold winters and we go through all
(27:11):
the humidity ups and downs and on and on and on. Well, anyway,
my one little fun car, and I've got several miatas,
and some of them have be eight engines in them,
believe it or not, not stock of course, but anyway,
they get driven very little. I parked them through the winter,
and then spring comes around, I get them up, and
(27:34):
then of course you look online and stuff, and everybody
tells you, oh, you need to be changing the oil
before you take it out of the garage, you know,
and this and that. Well, for example, last year, one
of the cars I probably drove less than one hundred
and fifty miles. Another one I drove maybe less than
a thousand miles. And I pulled the dipstick and I
looked at it, and it looks like you put it
(27:55):
in there yesterday, And it's like, Okay, do I really
need to change the oil on this? I mean there's
almost zero miles you know on the thing. You won't
you won't go change.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And well, yeah, but you won't and you won't like
my answer. Bread. Okay, Uh, I've just you know what
we're gonna We're probably gonna agree to disagree. I want
to talk to you about my hot rod. Okay, all right,
I've got a I've got I've got a small block
fifty five that I did fifteen years ago. Looks like
it's new, like the day I rolled it out of
the rolled it out of the shop the first time
it was done. I look at oil changes in storing
(28:30):
a classic vehicle, but I look at the whole vehicle.
Do you do you rag your exhaust?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Okay? Good?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Do you mean do you mean in storage? You mean
all right stuff?
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I don't put rags in it, but I stuffed, you know,
like uh oh, scratch pads in there or something get
up there? Right.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I worry about mice. I also I worry about condensation
more than anything else. I've been known to put rags
in a couple of rubber gloves over the exhaust tips
when it's all right. And you know, you can learn
a lot at the racetrack. You look at those guys
with their engines. They'll rag the headers and they'll they'll
also close off carburetion and you start to understand why.
And they're worried about the brie in small particulate. But
(29:11):
I always worry about condensation on a vehicle that sits.
I actually had occasion once on the hot rod where
I pulled the valve cover off in the middle of January,
and you'd be you'd be disappointed to see how much
moisture was up there between the hot and the cold
and the cool down and the humidity and everything else.
That the oil just naturally attracts water. And then you
start it comes spring and all that moisture boils out,
(29:34):
and then you go to check the oil and the
oil level looks good. You know, I understand what you're saying,
and I agree with you. It doesn't look bad the
way I the way I oil change the hot rod
has been working for me. I will change it at
the beginning of the season. I will change it at
the end of the season, regardless of how many miles
(29:54):
I go, and that's it. I'll rag in between. I
always start the season with a fresh oil change. I
always end the season with a fresh oil change. I
don't care how many miles I went. I look at
what it would take to reproduce that car, and for
the couple of bucks, I just sit there and say,
you know what, it's It's just good insurance. It lets
(30:16):
me sleep at night. Now, the one other factor, the
one other factor that I like to point out is
and and and in your case, what would it take
to reproduce that V eight miata? Right?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Oh, it's yeah, well it's it's a special one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah. And then the other factor is, you know, are
you starting these cars during the winter months?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
All right, I do. And I'll tell you why. Talk
to an engine builder. All the engine builders I've ever
talked to, the number one component they worry about with
engines that sit, well, there's two. They worry about piston rings,
and they worry about valve springs, and valve springs getting
getting metal memory. As one said to me, that it
(31:02):
will alter the spring. So the idea that you're going
into the garage once a month, cranking it over, starting it,
letting it run for twenty minutes. You know, there's a
maintenance to keeping an older vehicle, to keeping seals lubricated,
to keeping things supple, to keeping things fresh. I you know,
and you can surely do it your way. I've heard
(31:22):
all the arguments about the oil looks clean, but I've
also seen the guys that suffer premature engine failure, and
when they get the oil analyzed, they realize the oil
was broken down and it wasn't as good as it
could be. Your eye is no barometer in terms of
how good the oil is. But when it's dark and dirty,
that tells me it's time. So I don't think, well, what.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
About good about oil that's you've got, that you had
in storage, that's then in a jug that's never been opened,
and let's say it's five years old sitting on the shell.
The reason is there are things that break down in
that oil that sit there over that length of time
that makes it not any good anymore.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I'll tell you what real quick in a minute. I
don't have a degree in oilology, but I have talked
to oilologists, and I think that's their title, and they
will tell you that oil and the additives fall out
of suspension over time sitting on the shelf. And the
last fellow that I talked to was from driven racing Oil.
I can't think of his name, it'll come to me
(32:22):
after a while, but this gentleman explained to me that
oil additives fall out of suspension, and oil older than
two two and a half years old should probably not
be used. And his argument was clear, and I thought
it was a fair explanation. So again, I'm back to
what does it cost to reproduce some of these vehicles?
And I sit there and I say, you know what,
(32:44):
for the price of a quart of oil? Am I
happy that it's so expensive? No, but it's just something
I got to deal with because it's part of the hobby.
So I wouldn't use five year oil. I just don't.
I just don't think it's necessary. Just my two cents bread.
But I appreciate the question, and I appreciate your honesty
and listening to me. I'm running any and the car
doctor we're back right after this. Why this car is automatic?
(33:09):
It's systematic.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
It's a dramatic.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
What's greased lightning? And to pick up that conversation and
to close it out in my mind, you know driven
racing oil? Right? I use it in the hot rod.
I have used it for fifteen years. It keeps the
hot rod running fresh and strong, and I can't say
(33:39):
enough good about it. They've actually researched oil needs on
an engine by engine basis, on a case by case basis.
They have some of the best advice and they make
the most sense. I'm at their website a lot. I'm
just having a mental fluck on the Oh uh Speed,
lake Speed, his name will come to me the general
(34:00):
that's the oilologist, and I love the expression. That's probably
not even the right term, but he's got a degree
in engine oil. You know, it's really fascinating to listen
to some of these guys and they will explain how
oil breaks down and you know, what goes wrong and
the little things that we don't think about. Lake Speed, Yeah,
that's it, Lake Speed, Tom, Thank you so much. I
(34:22):
think that's the coolest name I ever heard. But we've
actually had lake on the show going back a couple
of years. I bet you it's ten years ago. We
should probably reach out and try this again. But it's
the information that he has stored in his head and
the way they look at oil and the way they
break it down. You know, oil's by time and mileage.
And I don't care whether it's a classic or you know,
(34:45):
an everyday vehicle. Six months, six thousand miles, six months period.
Change it before the season, change it at the end
of the season. You're going to run it during the
off months in the winter. You're not gonna hurt that engine,
because the sadness of having to do an engine in
a classic that you may not be able to do
it anymore is just not worth the price of a
missed oil change. I'm running any in the guard doctor.
It's been another absolute pleasure this week, till the next time.
(35:08):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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