🚗 Car Doctor Episode Recap: Safety First! 🛠️
with Ron Ananian
This week, Ron dives into vehicle neglect and safety concerns, with real examples from his shop:
🔧 2015 Chevy City Express Van – Tire cords were exposed and flapping, yet the driver was still using it daily.
🔧 Brake Failure – A car had no rear brake pad left, but the owner ignored the noise because “it went away.”
🔧 2002 Honda Odyssey – Rear wheel bearing was so destroyed the wheel was nearly detaching!
💡 Ron’s Message: Times are tough, but skipping car maintenance can lead to serious accidents. Cut a luxury, not your safety.
🎥 Coming Sunday: New YouTube video on diagnosing a tricky no-start in a 2015 Toyota Tacoma, including why aftermarket scan tools failed and only a factory-level tool (Opus IVS) gave the right answer.
📞 Caller Highlights:
🔹 Tom from Wisconsin – Silverado randomly stalls. Ron suggests checking voltage at the ignition switch and fuse block.
🔹 Darryl from Tennessee – No heat in his Lexus. Likely a blend door or HVAC module issue, but needs a scan tool to confirm.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ron an Aian diagnosis took us to the point that
it was in the fuel pump area, likely of fuel point.
But I have to prove it for you, the car Doctor.
The pads you took off is the same basic shape
(00:25):
what you're putting on, absolutely, so then we have to
believe that the pads themselves are correct.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Are opened, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five, nine hundred and now hes running.
I promise I'll be gentle this, so let's start the
conversation there. I want to talk to you a little
bit about taking care of your car, you know, or
(01:07):
how you're taking care of your car. If what we
saw in the shop this week is any indication, because
it was pretty horrible stuff. We had a One of
the vehicles we had come in this week was a
fifteen Chevy City Express Van. It's a small van. I
think it's actually a Nissan conversion or you know effort
joint effort with General Motors. And it's not the brand
(01:29):
or the make or what it is really that's that's
the concern. The concern was the car got kind of
plopped in front of the shop on Thursday morning with
a note attached that said, hey, the right front tire
has got a slow leak in it. Can you fix it?
And when we went to look at that right front tire,
the steel cord that was hanging out of it that
(01:51):
you could actually lift up the flap of the tire
and make the leak bigger. And they were actually driving
this on the road and he was also complaining about
a shake and the steering. Well, yeah, the steel court
hanging out of the right front tire was so bad
it was actually like a flat spot. It was like
a bald spot on the tire. You know, imagine imagine
(02:14):
somebody that's you know, losing their hair and they've got
a bald spot on top and they've got hair around
their head, and that's kind of what this tire looked like.
It had it had a bald spot in it, and
it was it was so badly deformed that every time
the tire made a rotation. It was a thump, thump, thump,
And yet he had taken it to, as he put it,
(02:35):
a couple of mechanics, and everybody told them, yeah, it's okay,
just keep driving it. There's no real problem. I you know,
that's it's wrong on so many fronts. I don't even
know where to begin. And we looked at the front end,
and the front end was tight, there was nothing loose,
but the tire was staring you in the face. It
just you'd have to be you'd have to be looking
at the back of the car saying, hey, the front's okay.
(02:57):
That's the only way you could justify saying that the
tire were okay on this vehicle, because it just that
right front tire was just so bad. And when I
asked David, David, why you know what took you so
long to get it in somewhere? You know, roun dollars
are tight, and we're just we're just concerned. You know,
there's an economy question, and I get that that's sort
of what this open is about. That's sort of what
(03:19):
this conversation is about. You know that I know the
economy is bad. I know that things are tight, right.
I can see it, you know, you can see it
in everybody's face. You can see it in their mannerisms.
The stock market's not doing what it's supposed to. But
that's not supposed to in my book, it can't justify
whether you're safe or not. I can't begin to tell
(03:41):
you the problems that can happen from one bolt spot,
one bad spot, one steel court, hanging out of one
tire on a vehicle that's doing sixty miles an hour,
and this one's typically doing sixty five seventy driving out
to the tip of Long Island, New York every day.
It just it just doesn't work. You know, you've gotta
you've got to stop and look. I can't tell you
(04:02):
about what was the other car. We had three cars
this week. Then there was a car that the brakes
had been grinding so long that it actually smoothed out
to the point that you almost didn't hear the metal
on metal because the pad had worn away so much
that it had sort of smoothed itself out and smoothed
(04:24):
itself to the rotor. And we only discovered it during
the course of an oil change. It wasn't a it
wasn't a vehicle owner complaint. You know, what do you
want to do with the right rear wheel? That's uh,
you know, it has no brakes. You know. I heard
something a while ago, and then the noise seemed to
go away if I kept driving it, so I just
assumed it got better. I really didn't have the money
(04:44):
to check it. Ah, And I think that I think
the real killer this week was the Honda Odyssey. We
had a Honda Odyssey and O two Honda Odyssey left
rear wheel was making a squealing noise. You know, our
tires supposed to tilt an inch out at the top
(05:07):
when you wiggle them like they go clunk and the
whole wheel goes and it shifts out. And the wheel
bearing had failed. And here's the danger. Okay, this was
a front wheel drive Mini van, and this was a
rear wheel bearing that was failing. And there's nothing really
holding that wheel bearing to the car short of the press.
(05:29):
That's there's no there's no internal nut, there's no there's
no axle to bind it anywhere. And the wheel bearing
had failed to the point that the ball bearings were
actually dropping out and out of what I'm guesstimating is
twenty ball bearings that were supposed to be in the race.
We took out seven, which means that wheel was just
(05:49):
a NAT's eyelash from falling off. And again, wheels falling off.
Tires tires are just such, you know, think of the
palm of your hand. That's about the size of the
content patch of your tire on the road. And that's
all there is. And I can't emphasize enough the safety factor.
There's no way you're you're not gonna have a major accident.
(06:10):
There's no way, you know, will you survive if the
wheel falls off, if the tire goes flat at speed,
and then what sort of accident? What sort of damage
will you do to everybody else around you? So, you know,
let's play it smart. Let's have one less eight dollars
Starbucks coffee. Let's buy one less three hundred dollars pocket book.
Let's buy you know, one less extra lawnmower or whatever
(06:34):
we're buying. Let's get the car fixed and maintained. It's
just really that important, you know. I can't stress it
enough as far as you know what's going on, So
just just be aware coming out this weekend on the
YouTube channel. Let me just point this out. We've got
a fifteen to come. We had a fifteen Toyota to
(06:56):
Coma in the shop. I think over the last week
or two we've been talking about it with a few
pump issue. Well, the video that we shot is going
to be posted on Sunday afternoon this weekend at three pm.
It'll be up on the YouTube channel. It's actually you know,
I was saying to Tom before the show, you should
see the video. It's a little rough around the edges.
There's some things we tried to you know, there's some
(07:18):
things we tried that that trying to duplicate or trying
to you know, show you we're talking about it, and
I take you to the wiring diagram. So I'm actually
doing a sidebar piece. I think it works. I think
it's a very effective video to show you what to
look for. And we're kind of excited about it. So
I want you to, you know, get out to the
YouTube channel and look for that, and you know, put
(07:38):
some likes down if you like, and put some dislikes
down if you don't like it, and we'll deal with it.
But that's coming out, so you can, you know, we
can look forward to that. That was a hard vehicle
to diagnose too, you know, and I talk about that
in the video. One of the problems in diagnosing that
vehicle was it came in as a no start and
(08:00):
it was determined that it had no fuel. And one
of the things you have to look for on Toyota's
on a lot of vehicles, but in case of this,
specifically in case of Toyota, is a mobilizer being activated.
A mobilizer is Toyota's theft system that if it thinks
the wrong key or a screwdriver or something else is
rotating that lock cylinder, meaning it doesn't see the digital
(08:23):
code out of the key to tell it, Hey, it's
Ron with he's the owner and he's got the right
key and he's trying to start it. It will go
into a mobilizer or a fuel cut it. It will
disable the fuel pump. Toyota actually does it two ways,
and I think we've talked about this. Will it will
disable fuel pump for a theft event, or it will
disable fuel pump for an engine critical engine damage, overheat,
(08:45):
poor running, et cetera type of event. So this was
a theft event or that we were getting signals up
because we were looking at it on two of our
aftermarket scan tools. I won't lie. It was the snap
on in the hotels and they were both saying a
mobilizer was active, and it was like contradictory information. It
didn't make sense for reasons that I point out in
(09:07):
the video, and I went to you know, there's always
there's always that final solution. We went to our Opus
scant tool Opus IVS and we looked at it there
and it contradicted the snap on and the hotel. It
said that it wasn't in a mobilizer event. And to
finally put an end to it is to what's right
(09:28):
and what's wrong, because again I'm diagnosing a broken vehicle
using a tool. What's right, what's wrong? And this is
the advantage of Opus right for my repair shops out there.
There's this is something. This is like the final word
the the We were able to upload the factory dealer
software to that tool and looking at it there, we
(09:50):
could see that this was not in a mobilizer event
and it left no doubt. And that's that's really what
order repair is. You can't leave any doubt when you're
trying to make a diagnosis. There's times that you have
to there's times you're in the eighty ninety percent tile
I get that, but if you can leave no doubt,
do so. And that's what the Opus did. It always
does for us. Absolutely a fabulous tool. But we talk
(10:12):
about that in the video as well. So that's coming out,
like I said, tomorrow this weekend, depending upon where we
are and what we're doing. So let me let me
pull over eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. I am running any in the Car Doctor
and I'll be back up before. Oh yes, sir, we
(10:32):
probably should mention that a part of Car Doctor history
went away this morning. Oh no, they blew up the
share it and over in Mahwa where we did the
show several times. Oh yeah, yeah, that's true. You know it,
U it was I saw it on I saw it
streaming on video. I was thinking about that time because
we had done a couple of remotes there for the
dead Man's Curve Wild Hot Rot Party on Labor Day weekend. Yeah,
(10:56):
a couple of years back. I still have pictures of
that event and that was probably that was a real
sight to see the way that thing came down. It's
just crazy. You know. It's funny because you know, I'm
in the area and I heard it, and then the
stream showed it going down. So either the stream was
later the sound was ahead of itself. I'm not sure
(11:17):
which was which. But yeah, that's that's a that's that's
that's a crossroads. No pun intended. So height five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. I'm running any
in the car, doctor, I'll be back right after this.
(11:38):
Whether it's a little red Corvette or you go, you've
come to the right place to get that car fixed.
We're on an ady in the car doctor. Eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. Now back
to Ron. Hey, let's get over and go talk to
Let's go talk to Tom and Wisconsin fourteen Chevy Silverado. Tom.
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Okay, So, we have an issue with intermittent electrical system.
Even while you're driving, well usually at a slower speed,
the whole thing can completely die and we have to
literally pull over. A couple of things we've done so
far to kind of get it to restart was just
(12:22):
raise the hood and look around, put the hood down
and then it would start and maybe be good for
a thousand miles, maybe be good for fifty miles, and
other types of issues, the clock will go to reset,
in other words, lose its time, and there are things
like that. So I think the normal assumption might be
(12:46):
that we have a grounding issue. But we have a
good main ground under the right front fender, and we've
even opened up the dash and try to check that one.
We maybe seem to help for a while. But problem's
been going on for a couple of years now, and
we did check the battery connections here recently and they
(13:08):
look clean too. But so far in the last week
we haven't had any issue with that either. Does that
give you enough to come an idea?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah? Where I where I always go with something like this, Tom,
I always go to the ignition switch. The ignition switch.
The ignition switch cuts the system in half. All right,
go to the ignition switch on A fourteen. It's going
to be a red blue, No red dark blue. I
think it is red dark blue. Wires should be the
(13:38):
power feed coming in from the instrument panel fuse block. Now,
let me let me back up the instrument panel fuse
block on this vehicle on the left side of the
dash is fed from the engine compartment fuse block right now.
But the nice thing is the ignition switch is the midpoint,
(13:59):
all right, So I like to go there, go to
the go to that red, go to that red dark blue.
I would wire in and here I am again right that.
I always say this, that that inexpensive A one ninety
four side marker bulb's socket. Right, Just go get down
to your look at otterport store. Wire in a bulb socket.
(14:19):
I don't care what it is. That bull will be lit.
I don't care if you put it a dark colored bulb,
so you're not staring at this glaring white light for
the next seven months waiting for the problem to happen.
Make it a dull orange, make it an amber, make
it whatever you want. But I know I want to
see that bullb lit. If that bulb is not lit
when the truck dies and the key is in the
on position, that tells me the problem is that way.
(14:43):
It's out towards the engine compartment fuse block, and we're
going to trace that backwards because that instrument panel went dead.
That instrument panel is fed from the underhood fuse block.
And then I'm gonna go to that underhood fuse block
and find that feed and put my bulb there. Right,
I mean, if you want to do it, if you
want to do it all at once, think of it
(15:04):
like this. You're looking for, You're looking for, Where's where
does the vaultage stop coming from? All? Right? If you go,
If you go, get a wiring diagram for power distribution,
and any one of the information systems will have it
Mitchell all data. They all carry these things the manufacturer.
It will show you specifically power distribution into the vehicle
(15:26):
from the battery, where it goes, and where it stops. Right.
Keep in mind that the ignition switch on that vehicle,
like many vehicles today, actually goes to the body control module.
They run a lot of things through the BCM General
Motors does. So if you have power into the ignition switch,
then I'm going to tell you to go to the
(15:47):
other side of the switch and do I have power there.
If I have power there and no power there, it's
a bad ignition switch. If I have power there and
power there nothing, I have power coming in power coming
out of the ignition switch, then I've got a problem.
Where does it go? Which pin is dead. You're obviously
you're losing voltage somewhere. Just you've got to track it down.
(16:08):
And it's either we're going to start to manipulate and
maneuver wiring harnesses, or we're going to start to look
at where things go and where things come from.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
All right, okay, And so you're thinking that when we
find a problem, we might be getting that to restart
just by activating the emission switch.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So that, well, yeah, I'm thinking, you know, nothing you've
said to me so far it convinces me of anything
other than maybe lifting the hood is disturbing something, the vibration,
the shake, the and maybe this is an underhead fuse block.
I've seen quite a few bad underhead fuse blocks on
these vehicles, okay, and they will fail internally and they
(16:50):
will fail. As matter of fact, I'm trying to think
of when we did it. We had a Chevy Traverse.
It's up on my YouTube channel, and it would die
at random, and you know, it went again, It went around,
it went around the area, and it ended up on
my doorstep and I proved what it was. I actually
took the fuse block apart, and you can see the
hairline crack inside the fuse block where the where the
(17:12):
copper strip the metal strip just every once in a while,
just you know, fingertip to finger tip, and then every
once in a while it just spread just enough from
vibration and if you smack the side of it, it
went back and connected and the car would restart and uh, you.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Know, just under the hood, kind of on the driver's side,
driver's side.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, Now I'm not I'm not telling you to go
change it by any stretch of the imagination. And and
and let me tell you why I tell you not
to change it. Obviously I don't like wasting money. But
the other issue is, the other issue is sometimes when
we change things. First of all, new doesn't mean good, right,
new means never ever worked. Second of all, we changed things,
(17:55):
we disturb things. We may create another problem that we
don't know, and then we've got big issue. So but
I would I would tackle that power into the power
into the ignition switch. Which way does the bulb light?
The bulbs not lit? Trace it backwards, start looking at
that under her fuse block and inspect the wiring harness
very very carefully. This sounds like a power problem. Let
(18:15):
me know if you need more. I'm run an ending
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(18:46):
Let's uh pick it up where we left off. Let's
go over to Daryl in Tennessee, Oh nine. Lexus Darrel.
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Well, hopefully you can help me fix this problem. Hold
on Lexus four sixty as the electronic climate control and
the heat does not work. Of course, we checked everything
you check all the way down to think I've got
it narrowed down to the HVAC control Manchel, I think
(19:15):
should send the signal down to the four individual blendors
to open and close. But I do not have the
scanner to send the signal down individually and see if
the blendors are opening and closing.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Okay, one, are your tops?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So? Is is this a heat problem or an AC problem?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
It's a heat problem. I have noticed when you turn
the crawl back on, it automatically turn the AC off.
You can turn it back on. Default code is seventy
five degrees, which is what it does if you turn
it down to sixty nine sixty eight sixty nine. That's
where the air conditioner works best. If you turn it
all the way down the load.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
It's like it's it gets.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
A little bit warmer.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Okay, have you and you don't have a scanner. See here,
here's the problem, right, because you've only got half, You've
only got the ability to diagnose half the system.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's it's a question of yeah, this could be the
control head, this could be a bunch of things. Coolant
level correct just out of curiosity, and both sides have
no heat. Both sides are defaulting to seventy five. Yes, okay,
this could be a blend door control problem. Yeah, it
(20:34):
could be all these things. Until you have the ability
to cycle those control doors, there's not much anybody can
do to help you because you're you're you're missing an
essential piece of the puzzle. You know, I've got no
I've got no trick for that one. I would be on.
I would be on with my scan tool, looking at
pressure sensors and looking at can I actuate? What can
I control? You know, how long is this problem going on?
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I just recently mounted the car, so probably.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, can you do this? Would you send me the
VIN and I'll see if I can come up with
a workaround test. But I think it's gonna come down
to that, you need a scan tool. You're just not
gonna You're just not gonna have any choice. Just shoot
an email to me Ron at cardoctorshow dot com with
the complaint and I'll get I'll try to get some
information back to you and give you a better direction
during the course of the week. But you know, because
(21:28):
I hate to leave anybody hanging, but I just don't
think there's a better way to do this one, Darryl.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
I've reached out two or three shots, and then I.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Guess it death.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's a fancy Toyota, you know, it's it's it's nothing
more than a fancy Toyota. Brother. So yeah, I would
you know, because those cars are those cars are dumb
enough that they won't give you enough information, but they're
also they're also smart enough that they'll go to default,
(21:59):
you know, in a situation like this and and do
just what they're doing if it doesn't see something it likes,
just just out of curiosity, does the AC work?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Well, yes, sorry, I run you out of the car.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Okay, all right, you know, just only.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
At sixty eight or sixty nine degrees if you actually
turn it all way down low. I haven't stuck a
thermometer in it. It's probably blowing out. I don't know,
seventy eight to seventy five degrees.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So went back up a second. You're seeing the temperature
control module. If you turn it down to sixty eight,
the AC works. It's cold.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
Oh, it's perfect. If you turn it all the way
down to the lowl like you get in a hot car.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
And you turn it down the low to cool it off,
its ick, it gets warmer.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, I would want to know. I would be thinking
about there are ambient tempt sensors inside that vehicle? Is
I would start. I would be thinking about that. See
there's there's the piece of inform that helps. I would
be thinking about that. Do we have a short a
temp sensor that is not responding? You know when they
(23:07):
see car companies do funny things, Daryl, When they think
you're going to freeze to death or overheat, they'll run,
they'll run heating system to default the middle of the
road so that you don't you don't get hurt, you
don't end up suing them. You know, that's the way
they think. You know, it's it's it's it sounds crazy,
but it's the truth. It's been that way for the
longest time. I remember back in the nineties when GM
(23:29):
was building, they had heater control valves when we were
doing mechanical heater controls, and they realized that if the
system broke, it would default the cold and if somebody
actually froze, you know, in the winter, and GM got
sued over it. So now they put it the other way.
When the heater control went bad, you would boil over.
But then they had problems with that, so they went
to the middle of the road kind of what you're
(23:49):
going through. But I would be thinking about ambient temp sensors,
and I know there's at least one in the back.
I think there's two in that car. I'd have to
look at a diagram, but shoot me, Yeah, I would.
I would be I would be looking at that. Do
you have access to a wiring diagram?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Uh, I'm sure I can get out.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Of one, all right, Yeah, I would. I would take
a look at that. And I would also look at
that control unit, the control head. Just make sure all
your grounds are there. But it sounds like you're smart
enough you've already done that, so you know I would
go that route, But you send me you send me
an email Ron at cardoctorshow dot com and I'll get
(24:32):
you what I can. All right, kiddo, I sure will.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
You're very welcome. Thank you, sir. So happy to have you.
Let's uh, let's yep, okay, Brian, let's go to Brian
in Pennsylvania. Brian us still working on this Mercedes. Welcome back.
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I just want to give you an update. I did
find the guy on that Mercedes that I called you
about a month or so ago about. I did get
a guy to reflash that computer right, and I couldn't
do it, and he was able to do it.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
And it was cheap.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It was only five hundred bucks.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Only five hundred bucks, yeah, which I guess was cheaper
because was it wasn't the computer at the Mercedes a
couple of thousand.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
And for them to do it, it would have for
them to reflashed the computer and put a computer in.
It was almost five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Wow, Okay, Now.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I got we got the computer in, and now we
got the car to ninety nine point five percent. Now
we got it. Where the car runs drives, there's no
check engine lights. The only issue I got. Now, it's
like I drove it around and I put six hundred
miles on them. But if you drive it and you're
on a turnpike or the expressway and you stop on
it like going on an on ramp, it throws a
(25:38):
misfire in cylinder three of P three to zero three code.
So now that's what we're working on.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, And where do you think you're going with that?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Uh, it looks like it's either we change all the
vacuum lines. We did that and that made it better,
and then we're there right now there it's the injector
they think it's and then number three injectors. Yeah, and
I was we did.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I was going to say, I'm thinking this is a
carbon deposit issue or an injector issue. Can you you know,
either either either swap the injector do this, either swap
the injector move it to a different cylinder. Before we
were just replace it just because you know, we start
replacing things, how do we know what the quality is
of the replacement part? All right?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
And that's what they're working on.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, and if it if it stays in the cylinder,
then I would do a fuel system cleaning.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
And then the other question I had for you on
that car. The other issue. I was driving and I
had a my little OBT my thing on there and
I put it on voltage. Now, I was thinking, the
reason I was doing the misfire maybe at at highway
(26:51):
speed is because it only shows twelve point nine when
you're driving, when it's at idol, and then it would
only go up to like thirteen to one. It's a
load on when you were driving that should that car
be like thirteen five or something which load on?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
German?
Speaker 1 (27:07):
German cars of that era were notoriously low voltage, all right,
so that that doesn't necessarily surprise me. Number one. Number two,
I wouldn't trust a voltage reading through an OBD two port,
not not not not the split hairs like you're doing.
I'd want to see voltage. I'd want to see voltage
on a meter, all right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
That's what I thought. That's why I thought i'd asked you. Yeah,
that's where we're at right now, where the Monday they're
going to move around injectors and see if it follows,
because we already did the coil pack, so that did nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Is it is it at a shop? Is it at yours.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's at a repair shop that put the motor in,
So that's got it. Sure we're we're at ninety to
nine point five percent. But yeah, that's that computer guy.
That guy took care of me. The guy was so nice,
gave me a warranty and everything, and he even told me,
look at this computer. Don't work. He says. I gave
him the ven number five minutes on the phone. He
said to me, yep, I can do it. And if
(28:03):
you don't want to use your computer, he says, I'll
send you a computer flash to that car. He says,
you can use it for thirty days and if it's
solve solved the problem, he says, you just give me
twenty two hundred hours for the computer.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Where is this guy? Let's give this guy a plug?
Why not?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
This guy's he's in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, out by State College.
But I can't remember the guy's name. What I'll do
is if I'll just send you an email with it
if you want to give the guy a p because
I'll I'll send you an email with the guy's info.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, because those are the guys that are hard to find,
but you know they're out there. So Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
The guy was the nicest guy in the world. I
mean he literally had he had an in and out
and back to me within seven days.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yep. Cool beans. All right, I got to run, Brian,
I'm up against the clock.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Always a pleasure, sir, Thank you. I'm running dy in
the car. Doctor. We are back right after this. Wow,
what a busy hour it's been. You know I should
point out for Brian in Pennsylvania if he's still listening
(29:12):
for that ninety eight Mercedes. You know you could also
when we're talking about carbon cleaning, go out to bgfind
ashop dot com. I forgot to mention this bgfind ashop
dot com if you can find a repair shop that
uses the BG fuel system cleaning that worked really well,
works really well on everything, but it worked really well
on the older German cars like that, because I bet
(29:32):
you that car's got some heavy carbon deposits and just
upgrading or replacing the injector may not be enough. It
may hide the problem temporarily, but I bet you if
you were to take a borscope and look inside those cylinders,
you're gonna see carbon deposits on that car. You know,
it's thirty years old. More than that. And you know,
I bet you that'll make a difference. So but bgfind
(29:55):
ashop dot com for you, Brian, that'll work really well. Hey,
in the car doctor Newspile, get out to if you
go out to our Facebook page, we're gonna be posting
some pictures. Quinn Trimmer trimmor Racing is back at it
again this season. He's got us all over the car
and we're happy to be out there to help help him.
And we're sponsoring part of that car and we're looking
(30:16):
forward to his races down at Wall Stadium in New
Jersey and other places up and down the East Coast.
I understand we're gonna get more information and we have
to have him on the show. You know, we every year,
we keep threatening, but it seems like both of us
are so busy we don't seem to be able to
connect to do that. So I've got to try and
you know, hook up with him and you know, get
him up here to talk about what he's doing, because
he is an up and coming driver. I've been saying
(30:37):
this for years. We've been sponsoring him for a while now,
are being been part of the sponsorship team for a
while and you know, he's you can look I said,
you can look him up on Facebook. Quinn Trimmer, Quinn
trimmor Racing. He's he's growing and that kid's going places.
So a couple of million bucks we could get that
kid into NASCAR. That's all it takes. You know, we'll
(30:58):
just take it out of the back pocket, you know.
Coming up next, I want to talk about you know,
maybe I'll do it next hour. I want to talk
about this six Honda that we overhauld the air conditioning
on and some of the reasons why, Because I think
we need to talk more about system repair. We got
to get back to that. With cars getting to be
more and more expensive, you know, maybe we want to
(31:20):
look at not having the same problem, or solving more
than one problem at once if you've got the system open.
We had this six Honda Odyssey, and I can go
deeper into detailed next hour, But we had this six
Honda Odyssey in the shop this week. It needed a condenser.
It had a hole in it from something hit it
in the road. You could see the stains at the
top of the radiator. The radiator was failing. So we
did a radiator, We did a condenser, and then we
(31:43):
ended up. I pulled the belt off just to spin
it because it had the original compressor on it and
the clutch. It looked like it had been overheating, and
sure enough, the bearing was also getting loud and growling. So,
you know, we put a couple of bucks in it.
We put a couple We put several thousand dollars into
the air conditioning system on this, you know, almost twenty
year old vehicle. You know, Is it worth it? Yeah,
because you know, thirty five hundred four thousand dollars whatever
(32:05):
the heck it was, is a lot cheaper than sixty
five thousand dollars for a new minivan, you know, and
this one only had seventy two thousand miles on it. It
was just old. It was old by time, not by mileage.
So we think more about system component repair, and you know,
do that because maybe it's better to do that than
replace a vehicle. So things to think about. Hey, five five, five, six,
(32:26):
nine nine zero zero, run any of the car, doctor,
I'll be back right after this. Don't go anywhere, and
we come to the end this hour. You know, it's interesting.
(32:49):
Dong Donge just emailed me said, I think he's a
little mad. At me. He said, Hey, Ron, are you
an economist or a mechanic talking about the economy like
that in the open? You know what, based on observations? Yeah,
to me, the economy is down, the auto repair industry
is down. People are not taking care of their cars
the way they were six months ago. That's a change.
(33:09):
The stock market is up and down, and it's day
to day. You never know what it's going to be.
Doesn't mean I'm condemning the president. Doesn't mean I'm condemning
the economy. I'm just an American with an observation. I
thought I was allowed to speak my mind, and just
like he was, so, you know, I think my point
becomes that whatever's going on out their economy wise, you're
not doing what you're supposed to do to your car.
(33:31):
It seems like the first place we cut, the first
place we stop spending money, is taking care of the
car because if it rolls, hey it must be okay.
And I don't know that I agree with that. I
think that's shortsighted. I was noticing this week that so
many people have switched over to leasing rather than spending
money on their cars because they think that's a better
(33:54):
financial situation. I think leasing a car is another way
to sell you a car. I don't think it's necessarily
at or financial situation. I think it puts off the
inevitable that sooner or later you're gonna have to shell
out a bunch of money in order to drive a vehicle.
And maybe it's a good short term solution, but it's
not a long term solution. And I think you get
yourself in that situation because you don't do oil changes,
(34:16):
you don't do the basic service and maintenance, and I
think that's a problem. I think we've got to get
back to some good common sense approach stuff, and I
think we're getting there. But you know, when it comes
to your car, you've got to be talking to your mechanic.
You've got to have a mechanic absolutely positively. You've got
to have somebody that you trust, somebody that you can
sit there and say, hey, you know, what does it
(34:37):
need and why, and to have that conversation I think
is just very very important. But reality is cars are
getting more expensive, Repairs are getting more expensive. We saw
parts go up this week. We saw break parts in
the last two weeks go up anywhere from three to
six percent based on you know, depending upon what part
it is. We're talking about pads, rotors, etc. We're seeing
(35:00):
a lot of things change in pricing, so we've just
got to be aware. So we want to spend our
money wisely, but we need to spend it to take
care of the car. That's the key and that's important.
So the next time I'm running Ady and the car Doctor,
the mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. See ya.
Ron an Aian diagnosis took us to the point that
it was in the fuel pump area, likely of fuel point.
But I have to prove it for you, the car Doctor.
The pads you took off is the same basic shape
(00:25):
what you're putting on, absolutely, so then we have to
believe that the pads themselves are correct.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Are opened, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five, nine hundred and now hes running.
I promise I'll be gentle this, so let's start the
conversation there. I want to talk to you a little
bit about taking care of your car, you know, or
(01:07):
how you're taking care of your car. If what we
saw in the shop this week is any indication, because
it was pretty horrible stuff. We had a One of
the vehicles we had come in this week was a
fifteen Chevy City Express Van. It's a small van. I
think it's actually a Nissan conversion or you know effort
joint effort with General Motors. And it's not the brand
(01:29):
or the make or what it is really that's that's
the concern. The concern was the car got kind of
plopped in front of the shop on Thursday morning with
a note attached that said, hey, the right front tire
has got a slow leak in it. Can you fix it?
And when we went to look at that right front tire,
the steel cord that was hanging out of it that
(01:51):
you could actually lift up the flap of the tire
and make the leak bigger. And they were actually driving
this on the road and he was also complaining about
a shake and the steering. Well, yeah, the steel court
hanging out of the right front tire was so bad
it was actually like a flat spot. It was like
a bald spot on the tire. You know, imagine imagine
(02:14):
somebody that's you know, losing their hair and they've got
a bald spot on top and they've got hair around
their head, and that's kind of what this tire looked like.
It had it had a bald spot in it, and
it was it was so badly deformed that every time
the tire made a rotation. It was a thump, thump, thump,
And yet he had taken it to, as he put it,
(02:35):
a couple of mechanics, and everybody told them, yeah, it's okay,
just keep driving it. There's no real problem. I you know,
that's it's wrong on so many fronts. I don't even
know where to begin. And we looked at the front end,
and the front end was tight, there was nothing loose,
but the tire was staring you in the face. It
just you'd have to be you'd have to be looking
at the back of the car saying, hey, the front's okay.
(02:57):
That's the only way you could justify saying that the
tire were okay on this vehicle, because it just that
right front tire was just so bad. And when I
asked David, David, why you know what took you so
long to get it in somewhere? You know, roun dollars
are tight, and we're just we're just concerned. You know,
there's an economy question, and I get that that's sort
of what this open is about. That's sort of what
(03:19):
this conversation is about. You know that I know the
economy is bad. I know that things are tight, right.
I can see it, you know, you can see it
in everybody's face. You can see it in their mannerisms.
The stock market's not doing what it's supposed to. But
that's not supposed to in my book, it can't justify
whether you're safe or not. I can't begin to tell
(03:41):
you the problems that can happen from one bolt spot,
one bad spot, one steel court, hanging out of one
tire on a vehicle that's doing sixty miles an hour,
and this one's typically doing sixty five seventy driving out
to the tip of Long Island, New York every day.
It just it just doesn't work. You know, you've gotta
you've got to stop and look. I can't tell you
(04:02):
about what was the other car. We had three cars
this week. Then there was a car that the brakes
had been grinding so long that it actually smoothed out
to the point that you almost didn't hear the metal
on metal because the pad had worn away so much
that it had sort of smoothed itself out and smoothed
(04:24):
itself to the rotor. And we only discovered it during
the course of an oil change. It wasn't a it
wasn't a vehicle owner complaint. You know, what do you
want to do with the right rear wheel? That's uh,
you know, it has no brakes. You know. I heard
something a while ago, and then the noise seemed to
go away if I kept driving it, so I just
assumed it got better. I really didn't have the money
(04:44):
to check it. Ah, And I think that I think
the real killer this week was the Honda Odyssey. We
had a Honda Odyssey and O two Honda Odyssey left
rear wheel was making a squealing noise. You know, our
tires supposed to tilt an inch out at the top
(05:07):
when you wiggle them like they go clunk and the
whole wheel goes and it shifts out. And the wheel
bearing had failed. And here's the danger. Okay, this was
a front wheel drive Mini van, and this was a
rear wheel bearing that was failing. And there's nothing really
holding that wheel bearing to the car short of the press.
(05:29):
That's there's no there's no internal nut, there's no there's
no axle to bind it anywhere. And the wheel bearing
had failed to the point that the ball bearings were
actually dropping out and out of what I'm guesstimating is
twenty ball bearings that were supposed to be in the race.
We took out seven, which means that wheel was just
(05:49):
a NAT's eyelash from falling off. And again, wheels falling off.
Tires tires are just such, you know, think of the
palm of your hand. That's about the size of the
content patch of your tire on the road. And that's
all there is. And I can't emphasize enough the safety factor.
There's no way you're you're not gonna have a major accident.
(06:10):
There's no way, you know, will you survive if the
wheel falls off, if the tire goes flat at speed,
and then what sort of accident? What sort of damage
will you do to everybody else around you? So, you know,
let's play it smart. Let's have one less eight dollars
Starbucks coffee. Let's buy one less three hundred dollars pocket book.
Let's buy you know, one less extra lawnmower or whatever
(06:34):
we're buying. Let's get the car fixed and maintained. It's
just really that important, you know. I can't stress it
enough as far as you know what's going on, So
just just be aware coming out this weekend on the
YouTube channel. Let me just point this out. We've got
a fifteen to come. We had a fifteen Toyota to
(06:56):
Coma in the shop. I think over the last week
or two we've been talking about it with a few
pump issue. Well, the video that we shot is going
to be posted on Sunday afternoon this weekend at three pm.
It'll be up on the YouTube channel. It's actually you know,
I was saying to Tom before the show, you should
see the video. It's a little rough around the edges.
There's some things we tried to you know, there's some
(07:18):
things we tried that that trying to duplicate or trying
to you know, show you we're talking about it, and
I take you to the wiring diagram. So I'm actually
doing a sidebar piece. I think it works. I think
it's a very effective video to show you what to
look for. And we're kind of excited about it. So
I want you to, you know, get out to the
YouTube channel and look for that, and you know, put
(07:38):
some likes down if you like, and put some dislikes
down if you don't like it, and we'll deal with it.
But that's coming out, so you can, you know, we
can look forward to that. That was a hard vehicle
to diagnose too, you know, and I talk about that
in the video. One of the problems in diagnosing that
vehicle was it came in as a no start and
(08:00):
it was determined that it had no fuel. And one
of the things you have to look for on Toyota's
on a lot of vehicles, but in case of this,
specifically in case of Toyota, is a mobilizer being activated.
A mobilizer is Toyota's theft system that if it thinks
the wrong key or a screwdriver or something else is
rotating that lock cylinder, meaning it doesn't see the digital
(08:23):
code out of the key to tell it, Hey, it's
Ron with he's the owner and he's got the right
key and he's trying to start it. It will go
into a mobilizer or a fuel cut it. It will
disable the fuel pump. Toyota actually does it two ways,
and I think we've talked about this. Will it will
disable fuel pump for a theft event, or it will
disable fuel pump for an engine critical engine damage, overheat,
(08:45):
poor running, et cetera type of event. So this was
a theft event or that we were getting signals up
because we were looking at it on two of our
aftermarket scan tools. I won't lie. It was the snap
on in the hotels and they were both saying a
mobilizer was active, and it was like contradictory information. It
didn't make sense for reasons that I point out in
(09:07):
the video, and I went to you know, there's always
there's always that final solution. We went to our Opus
scant tool Opus IVS and we looked at it there
and it contradicted the snap on and the hotel. It
said that it wasn't in a mobilizer event. And to
finally put an end to it is to what's right
(09:28):
and what's wrong, because again I'm diagnosing a broken vehicle
using a tool. What's right, what's wrong? And this is
the advantage of Opus right for my repair shops out there.
There's this is something. This is like the final word
the the We were able to upload the factory dealer
software to that tool and looking at it there, we
(09:50):
could see that this was not in a mobilizer event
and it left no doubt. And that's that's really what
order repair is. You can't leave any doubt when you're
trying to make a diagnosis. There's times that you have
to there's times you're in the eighty ninety percent tile
I get that, but if you can leave no doubt,
do so. And that's what the Opus did. It always
does for us. Absolutely a fabulous tool. But we talk
(10:12):
about that in the video as well. So that's coming out,
like I said, tomorrow this weekend, depending upon where we
are and what we're doing. So let me let me
pull over eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. I am running any in the Car Doctor
and I'll be back up before. Oh yes, sir, we
(10:32):
probably should mention that a part of Car Doctor history
went away this morning. Oh no, they blew up the
share it and over in Mahwa where we did the
show several times. Oh yeah, yeah, that's true. You know it,
U it was I saw it on I saw it
streaming on video. I was thinking about that time because
we had done a couple of remotes there for the
dead Man's Curve Wild Hot Rot Party on Labor Day weekend. Yeah,
(10:56):
a couple of years back. I still have pictures of
that event and that was probably that was a real
sight to see the way that thing came down. It's
just crazy. You know. It's funny because you know, I'm
in the area and I heard it, and then the
stream showed it going down. So either the stream was
later the sound was ahead of itself. I'm not sure
(11:17):
which was which. But yeah, that's that's a that's that's
that's a crossroads. No pun intended. So height five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. I'm running any
in the car, doctor, I'll be back right after this.
(11:38):
Whether it's a little red Corvette or you go, you've
come to the right place to get that car fixed.
We're on an ady in the car doctor. Eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. Now back
to Ron. Hey, let's get over and go talk to
Let's go talk to Tom and Wisconsin fourteen Chevy Silverado. Tom.
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Okay, So, we have an issue with intermittent electrical system.
Even while you're driving, well usually at a slower speed,
the whole thing can completely die and we have to
literally pull over. A couple of things we've done so
far to kind of get it to restart was just
(12:22):
raise the hood and look around, put the hood down
and then it would start and maybe be good for
a thousand miles, maybe be good for fifty miles, and
other types of issues, the clock will go to reset,
in other words, lose its time, and there are things
like that. So I think the normal assumption might be
(12:46):
that we have a grounding issue. But we have a
good main ground under the right front fender, and we've
even opened up the dash and try to check that one.
We maybe seem to help for a while. But problem's
been going on for a couple of years now, and
we did check the battery connections here recently and they
(13:08):
look clean too. But so far in the last week
we haven't had any issue with that either. Does that
give you enough to come an idea?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah? Where I where I always go with something like this, Tom,
I always go to the ignition switch. The ignition switch.
The ignition switch cuts the system in half. All right,
go to the ignition switch on A fourteen. It's going
to be a red blue, No red dark blue. I
think it is red dark blue. Wires should be the
(13:38):
power feed coming in from the instrument panel fuse block. Now,
let me let me back up the instrument panel fuse
block on this vehicle on the left side of the
dash is fed from the engine compartment fuse block right now.
But the nice thing is the ignition switch is the midpoint,
(13:59):
all right, So I like to go there, go to
the go to that red, go to that red dark blue.
I would wire in and here I am again right that.
I always say this, that that inexpensive A one ninety
four side marker bulb's socket. Right, Just go get down
to your look at otterport store. Wire in a bulb socket.
(14:19):
I don't care what it is. That bull will be lit.
I don't care if you put it a dark colored bulb,
so you're not staring at this glaring white light for
the next seven months waiting for the problem to happen.
Make it a dull orange, make it an amber, make
it whatever you want. But I know I want to
see that bullb lit. If that bulb is not lit
when the truck dies and the key is in the
on position, that tells me the problem is that way.
(14:43):
It's out towards the engine compartment fuse block, and we're
going to trace that backwards because that instrument panel went dead.
That instrument panel is fed from the underhood fuse block.
And then I'm gonna go to that underhood fuse block
and find that feed and put my bulb there. Right,
I mean, if you want to do it, if you
want to do it all at once, think of it
(15:04):
like this. You're looking for, You're looking for, Where's where
does the vaultage stop coming from? All? Right? If you go,
If you go, get a wiring diagram for power distribution,
and any one of the information systems will have it
Mitchell all data. They all carry these things the manufacturer.
It will show you specifically power distribution into the vehicle
(15:26):
from the battery, where it goes, and where it stops. Right.
Keep in mind that the ignition switch on that vehicle,
like many vehicles today, actually goes to the body control module.
They run a lot of things through the BCM General
Motors does. So if you have power into the ignition switch,
then I'm going to tell you to go to the
(15:47):
other side of the switch and do I have power there.
If I have power there and no power there, it's
a bad ignition switch. If I have power there and
power there nothing, I have power coming in power coming
out of the ignition switch, then I've got a problem.
Where does it go? Which pin is dead. You're obviously
you're losing voltage somewhere. Just you've got to track it down.
(16:08):
And it's either we're going to start to manipulate and
maneuver wiring harnesses, or we're going to start to look
at where things go and where things come from.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
All right, okay, And so you're thinking that when we
find a problem, we might be getting that to restart
just by activating the emission switch.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
So that, well, yeah, I'm thinking, you know, nothing you've
said to me so far it convinces me of anything
other than maybe lifting the hood is disturbing something, the vibration,
the shake, the and maybe this is an underhead fuse block.
I've seen quite a few bad underhead fuse blocks on
these vehicles, okay, and they will fail internally and they
(16:50):
will fail. As matter of fact, I'm trying to think
of when we did it. We had a Chevy Traverse.
It's up on my YouTube channel, and it would die
at random, and you know, it went again, It went around,
it went around the area, and it ended up on
my doorstep and I proved what it was. I actually
took the fuse block apart, and you can see the
hairline crack inside the fuse block where the where the
(17:12):
copper strip the metal strip just every once in a while,
just you know, fingertip to finger tip, and then every
once in a while it just spread just enough from
vibration and if you smack the side of it, it
went back and connected and the car would restart and uh, you.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Know, just under the hood, kind of on the driver's side,
driver's side.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, Now I'm not I'm not telling you to go
change it by any stretch of the imagination. And and
and let me tell you why I tell you not
to change it. Obviously I don't like wasting money. But
the other issue is, the other issue is sometimes when
we change things. First of all, new doesn't mean good, right,
new means never ever worked. Second of all, we changed things,
(17:55):
we disturb things. We may create another problem that we
don't know, and then we've got big issue. So but
I would I would tackle that power into the power
into the ignition switch. Which way does the bulb light?
The bulbs not lit? Trace it backwards, start looking at
that under her fuse block and inspect the wiring harness
very very carefully. This sounds like a power problem. Let
(18:15):
me know if you need more. I'm run an ending
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(18:46):
Let's uh pick it up where we left off. Let's
go over to Daryl in Tennessee, Oh nine. Lexus Darrel.
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Well, hopefully you can help me fix this problem. Hold
on Lexus four sixty as the electronic climate control and
the heat does not work. Of course, we checked everything
you check all the way down to think I've got
it narrowed down to the HVAC control Manchel, I think
(19:15):
should send the signal down to the four individual blendors
to open and close. But I do not have the
scanner to send the signal down individually and see if
the blendors are opening and closing.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Okay, one, are your tops?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So? Is is this a heat problem or an AC problem?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
It's a heat problem. I have noticed when you turn
the crawl back on, it automatically turn the AC off.
You can turn it back on. Default code is seventy
five degrees, which is what it does if you turn
it down to sixty nine sixty eight sixty nine. That's
where the air conditioner works best. If you turn it
all the way down the load.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
It's like it's it gets.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
A little bit warmer.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Okay, have you and you don't have a scanner. See here,
here's the problem, right, because you've only got half, You've
only got the ability to diagnose half the system.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's it's a question of yeah, this could be the
control head, this could be a bunch of things. Coolant
level correct just out of curiosity, and both sides have
no heat. Both sides are defaulting to seventy five. Yes, okay,
this could be a blend door control problem. Yeah, it
(20:34):
could be all these things. Until you have the ability
to cycle those control doors, there's not much anybody can
do to help you because you're you're you're missing an
essential piece of the puzzle. You know, I've got no
I've got no trick for that one. I would be on.
I would be on with my scan tool, looking at
pressure sensors and looking at can I actuate? What can
I control? You know, how long is this problem going on?
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I just recently mounted the car, so probably.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, can you do this? Would you send me the
VIN and I'll see if I can come up with
a workaround test. But I think it's gonna come down
to that, you need a scan tool. You're just not
gonna You're just not gonna have any choice. Just shoot
an email to me Ron at cardoctorshow dot com with
the complaint and I'll get I'll try to get some
information back to you and give you a better direction
during the course of the week. But you know, because
(21:28):
I hate to leave anybody hanging, but I just don't
think there's a better way to do this one, Darryl.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
I've reached out two or three shots, and then I.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Guess it death.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
That's a fancy Toyota, you know, it's it's it's nothing
more than a fancy Toyota. Brother. So yeah, I would
you know, because those cars are those cars are dumb
enough that they won't give you enough information, but they're
also they're also smart enough that they'll go to default,
(21:59):
you know, in a situation like this and and do
just what they're doing if it doesn't see something it likes,
just just out of curiosity, does the AC work?
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Well, yes, sorry, I run you out of the car.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Okay, all right, you know, just only.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
At sixty eight or sixty nine degrees if you actually
turn it all way down low. I haven't stuck a
thermometer in it. It's probably blowing out. I don't know,
seventy eight to seventy five degrees.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So went back up a second. You're seeing the temperature
control module. If you turn it down to sixty eight,
the AC works. It's cold.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
Oh, it's perfect. If you turn it all the way
down to the lowl like you get in a hot car.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
And you turn it down the low to cool it off,
its ick, it gets warmer.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, I would want to know. I would be thinking
about there are ambient tempt sensors inside that vehicle? Is
I would start. I would be thinking about that. See
there's there's the piece of inform that helps. I would
be thinking about that. Do we have a short a
temp sensor that is not responding? You know when they
(23:07):
see car companies do funny things, Daryl, When they think
you're going to freeze to death or overheat, they'll run,
they'll run heating system to default the middle of the
road so that you don't you don't get hurt, you
don't end up suing them. You know, that's the way
they think. You know, it's it's it's it sounds crazy,
but it's the truth. It's been that way for the
longest time. I remember back in the nineties when GM
(23:29):
was building, they had heater control valves when we were
doing mechanical heater controls, and they realized that if the
system broke, it would default the cold and if somebody
actually froze, you know, in the winter, and GM got
sued over it. So now they put it the other way.
When the heater control went bad, you would boil over.
But then they had problems with that, so they went
to the middle of the road kind of what you're
(23:49):
going through. But I would be thinking about ambient temp sensors,
and I know there's at least one in the back.
I think there's two in that car. I'd have to
look at a diagram, but shoot me, Yeah, I would.
I would be I would be looking at that. Do
you have access to a wiring diagram?
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Uh, I'm sure I can get out.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Of one, all right, Yeah, I would. I would take
a look at that. And I would also look at
that control unit, the control head. Just make sure all
your grounds are there. But it sounds like you're smart
enough you've already done that, so you know I would
go that route, But you send me you send me
an email Ron at cardoctorshow dot com and I'll get
(24:32):
you what I can. All right, kiddo, I sure will.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
You're very welcome. Thank you, sir. So happy to have you.
Let's uh, let's yep, okay, Brian, let's go to Brian
in Pennsylvania. Brian us still working on this Mercedes. Welcome back.
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
I just want to give you an update. I did
find the guy on that Mercedes that I called you
about a month or so ago about. I did get
a guy to reflash that computer right, and I couldn't
do it, and he was able to do it.
Speaker 6 (24:59):
And it was cheap.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It was only five hundred bucks.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Only five hundred bucks, yeah, which I guess was cheaper
because was it wasn't the computer at the Mercedes a
couple of thousand.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
And for them to do it, it would have for
them to reflashed the computer and put a computer in.
It was almost five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Wow, Okay, Now.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I got we got the computer in, and now we
got the car to ninety nine point five percent. Now
we got it. Where the car runs drives, there's no
check engine lights. The only issue I got. Now, it's
like I drove it around and I put six hundred
miles on them. But if you drive it and you're
on a turnpike or the expressway and you stop on
it like going on an on ramp, it throws a
(25:38):
misfire in cylinder three of P three to zero three code.
So now that's what we're working on.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, And where do you think you're going with that?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Uh, it looks like it's either we change all the
vacuum lines. We did that and that made it better,
and then we're there right now there it's the injector
they think it's and then number three injectors. Yeah, and
I was we did.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I was going to say, I'm thinking this is a
carbon deposit issue or an injector issue. Can you you know,
either either either swap the injector do this, either swap
the injector move it to a different cylinder. Before we
were just replace it just because you know, we start
replacing things, how do we know what the quality is
of the replacement part? All right?
Speaker 4 (26:24):
And that's what they're working on.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, and if it if it stays in the cylinder,
then I would do a fuel system cleaning.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
And then the other question I had for you on
that car. The other issue. I was driving and I
had a my little OBT my thing on there and
I put it on voltage. Now, I was thinking, the
reason I was doing the misfire maybe at at highway
(26:51):
speed is because it only shows twelve point nine when
you're driving, when it's at idol, and then it would
only go up to like thirteen to one. It's a
load on when you were driving that should that car
be like thirteen five or something which load on?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
German?
Speaker 1 (27:07):
German cars of that era were notoriously low voltage, all right,
so that that doesn't necessarily surprise me. Number one. Number two,
I wouldn't trust a voltage reading through an OBD two port,
not not not not the split hairs like you're doing.
I'd want to see voltage. I'd want to see voltage
on a meter, all right.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
That's what I thought. That's why I thought i'd asked you. Yeah,
that's where we're at right now, where the Monday they're
going to move around injectors and see if it follows,
because we already did the coil pack, so that did nothing.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Is it is it at a shop? Is it at yours.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's at a repair shop that put the motor in,
So that's got it. Sure we're we're at ninety to
nine point five percent. But yeah, that's that computer guy.
That guy took care of me. The guy was so nice,
gave me a warranty and everything, and he even told me,
look at this computer. Don't work. He says. I gave
him the ven number five minutes on the phone. He
said to me, yep, I can do it. And if
(28:03):
you don't want to use your computer, he says, I'll
send you a computer flash to that car. He says,
you can use it for thirty days and if it's
solve solved the problem, he says, you just give me
twenty two hundred hours for the computer.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Where is this guy? Let's give this guy a plug?
Why not?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
This guy's he's in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, out by State College.
But I can't remember the guy's name. What I'll do
is if I'll just send you an email with it
if you want to give the guy a p because
I'll I'll send you an email with the guy's info.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, because those are the guys that are hard to find,
but you know they're out there. So Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
The guy was the nicest guy in the world. I
mean he literally had he had an in and out
and back to me within seven days.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yep. Cool beans. All right, I got to run, Brian,
I'm up against the clock.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Always a pleasure, sir, Thank you. I'm running dy in
the car. Doctor. We are back right after this. Wow,
what a busy hour it's been. You know I should
point out for Brian in Pennsylvania if he's still listening
(29:12):
for that ninety eight Mercedes. You know you could also
when we're talking about carbon cleaning, go out to bgfind
ashop dot com. I forgot to mention this bgfind ashop
dot com if you can find a repair shop that
uses the BG fuel system cleaning that worked really well,
works really well on everything, but it worked really well
on the older German cars like that, because I bet
(29:32):
you that car's got some heavy carbon deposits and just
upgrading or replacing the injector may not be enough. It
may hide the problem temporarily, but I bet you if
you were to take a borscope and look inside those cylinders,
you're gonna see carbon deposits on that car. You know,
it's thirty years old. More than that. And you know,
I bet you that'll make a difference. So but bgfind
(29:55):
ashop dot com for you, Brian, that'll work really well. Hey,
in the car doctor Newspile, get out to if you
go out to our Facebook page, we're gonna be posting
some pictures. Quinn Trimmer trimmor Racing is back at it
again this season. He's got us all over the car
and we're happy to be out there to help help him.
And we're sponsoring part of that car and we're looking
(30:16):
forward to his races down at Wall Stadium in New
Jersey and other places up and down the East Coast.
I understand we're gonna get more information and we have
to have him on the show. You know, we every year,
we keep threatening, but it seems like both of us
are so busy we don't seem to be able to
connect to do that. So I've got to try and
you know, hook up with him and you know, get
him up here to talk about what he's doing, because
he is an up and coming driver. I've been saying
(30:37):
this for years. We've been sponsoring him for a while now,
are being been part of the sponsorship team for a
while and you know, he's you can look I said,
you can look him up on Facebook. Quinn Trimmer, Quinn
trimmor Racing. He's he's growing and that kid's going places.
So a couple of million bucks we could get that
kid into NASCAR. That's all it takes. You know, we'll
(30:58):
just take it out of the back pocket, you know.
Coming up next, I want to talk about you know,
maybe I'll do it next hour. I want to talk
about this six Honda that we overhauld the air conditioning
on and some of the reasons why, Because I think
we need to talk more about system repair. We got
to get back to that. With cars getting to be
more and more expensive, you know, maybe we want to
(31:20):
look at not having the same problem, or solving more
than one problem at once if you've got the system open.
We had this six Honda Odyssey, and I can go
deeper into detailed next hour, But we had this six
Honda Odyssey in the shop this week. It needed a condenser.
It had a hole in it from something hit it
in the road. You could see the stains at the
top of the radiator. The radiator was failing. So we
did a radiator, We did a condenser, and then we
(31:43):
ended up. I pulled the belt off just to spin
it because it had the original compressor on it and
the clutch. It looked like it had been overheating, and
sure enough, the bearing was also getting loud and growling. So,
you know, we put a couple of bucks in it.
We put a couple We put several thousand dollars into
the air conditioning system on this, you know, almost twenty
year old vehicle. You know, Is it worth it? Yeah,
because you know, thirty five hundred four thousand dollars whatever
(32:05):
the heck it was, is a lot cheaper than sixty
five thousand dollars for a new minivan, you know, and
this one only had seventy two thousand miles on it. It
was just old. It was old by time, not by mileage.
So we think more about system component repair, and you know,
do that because maybe it's better to do that than
replace a vehicle. So things to think about. Hey, five five, five, six,
(32:26):
nine nine zero zero, run any of the car, doctor,
I'll be back right after this. Don't go anywhere, and
we come to the end this hour. You know, it's interesting.
(32:49):
Dong Donge just emailed me said, I think he's a
little mad. At me. He said, Hey, Ron, are you
an economist or a mechanic talking about the economy like
that in the open? You know what, based on observations? Yeah,
to me, the economy is down, the auto repair industry
is down. People are not taking care of their cars
the way they were six months ago. That's a change.
(33:09):
The stock market is up and down, and it's day
to day. You never know what it's going to be.
Doesn't mean I'm condemning the president. Doesn't mean I'm condemning
the economy. I'm just an American with an observation. I
thought I was allowed to speak my mind, and just
like he was, so, you know, I think my point
becomes that whatever's going on out their economy wise, you're
not doing what you're supposed to do to your car.
(33:31):
It seems like the first place we cut, the first
place we stop spending money, is taking care of the
car because if it rolls, hey it must be okay.
And I don't know that I agree with that. I
think that's shortsighted. I was noticing this week that so
many people have switched over to leasing rather than spending
money on their cars because they think that's a better
(33:54):
financial situation. I think leasing a car is another way
to sell you a car. I don't think it's necessarily
at or financial situation. I think it puts off the
inevitable that sooner or later you're gonna have to shell
out a bunch of money in order to drive a vehicle.
And maybe it's a good short term solution, but it's
not a long term solution. And I think you get
yourself in that situation because you don't do oil changes,
(34:16):
you don't do the basic service and maintenance, and I
think that's a problem. I think we've got to get
back to some good common sense approach stuff, and I
think we're getting there. But you know, when it comes
to your car, you've got to be talking to your mechanic.
You've got to have a mechanic absolutely positively. You've got
to have somebody that you trust, somebody that you can
sit there and say, hey, you know, what does it
(34:37):
need and why, and to have that conversation I think
is just very very important. But reality is cars are
getting more expensive, Repairs are getting more expensive. We saw
parts go up this week. We saw break parts in
the last two weeks go up anywhere from three to
six percent based on you know, depending upon what part
it is. We're talking about pads, rotors, etc. We're seeing
(35:00):
a lot of things change in pricing, so we've just
got to be aware. So we want to spend our
money wisely, but we need to spend it to take
care of the car. That's the key and that's important.
So the next time I'm running Ady and the car Doctor,
the mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. See ya.
Host
Ron Ananian
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