Week in Review: Orchestrating Chaos in the Shop
In this episode, The Car Doctor Ron Ananian reflects on a jam-packed week at his repair shop. Despite starting with an empty schedule, by Tuesday the shop was overflowing with work—requiring fast decisions and careful coordination to manage the mechanical mayhem.
Highlights from the Shop Floor
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2005 PT Cruiser: A long-neglected vehicle returned with cooling issues. Years after ignoring Ron’s advice to replace the timing belt, the owner finally faced the consequences. Ron installed a thermostat and added K-Seal as a last-resort fix for the aging car.
-
2011 Chrysler Town & Country: Rusted components turned a routine control arm job into a full-blown project. The team had to drop the engine cradle to work around seized bolts—a reminder that even desert-stored vehicles aren't immune to corrosion.
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2012 Cadillac SRX: This first-time customer thought the engine was overheating, but Ron revealed the truth: a stuck-open thermostat triggered a misleading warning due to GM’s default strategy. Minimal maintenance over the years left the car beyond practical repair.
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2009 Toyota Camry: What began as an oil change uncovered a cascade of neglected issues—bad water pump, leaking radiator, cracked belts, and more. Despite the chaos, Ron's team got it back on the road, only to discover a failing alternator minutes before closing time.
Takeaway
Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, highlights how delayed maintenance snowballs into major repairs—costing more time, money, and stress for both customers and shops. This episode captures the unpredictable rhythm of running a repair shop and reinforces the importance of staying ahead on vehicle care.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ron Ananian, I want to talk to you a little
bit about taking care of your car or 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.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Isn't.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Sticking? Busy draft the Car Doctor. I did get a
guy to reflash that computer and he was able to
do it and was peat. It was only five hundred buck.
Only five hundred bucks was in the computer at the
Mercedes A couple of thousand.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
For then the reflash your computer and putting computer.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
At his almost five thousand.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one. This is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors are open,
but I am here to take your call at eight
(00:51):
five five five six ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hundred and now.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Hee, Ronnie. I don't know if I can do this.
I always think of how would I open the show
each and every week, and I was thinking about it
this morning doing my morning errands and getting ready to
come in and let's go, And I said, how would
I explain the week at the shop? Because I know
(01:16):
that's what you guys hearing about. You know, I always
talk about the symphony or the orchestration of a repair shop,
and I think I think every repair shop goes through that.
I've been in a few where I've seen the dramas
as they unfold, and by you know, sometimes by Monday
at ten o'clock, you know how Friday is going to end,
and you know Friday is going to be mad cap
(01:37):
just based on the first two hours of Monday, or
sometimes the first twenty minutes of Monday, you just know
where it's going to go. Most of what I tell
you and talk about, obviously is about my shop, because
that's where I am most of the time. This week
was just it was no exception, but it's worth talking
about because I think it showed a lot of the scenarios,
(01:59):
the the rises and falls of what goes on in
the average repair shop. We take on a certain amount
of cars every week. It's just an average. You know,
we're in business a very very long time, and you
know you're gonna see X number of cars a day,
and by Tuesday at midday, we had taken enough cars
to fill the week in the week coming. I mean,
(02:19):
we were just overbooked. Somehow it happens, and fortunately, you know,
in the universe provides, right. They always say that, you know,
we had nothing on the books for this past Thursday
and Friday, nothing not a job. But yet by Tuesday, midday,
mid morning, whatever it was, we had enough work for
a week and a half. Go figure, So now you
(02:40):
have to orchestrate that. Now you have to organize that.
Now you have to sit down and look at it
real quick, real fast, because the clock is ticking and
minutes count and seconds count. You're trying to figure out
how are you going to get all these cars done
in five days? And now it's Tuesday, so you have
less than five days. And each job has its own personality,
just like people. Each job has its own temperament, and
(03:02):
you start to notice a pattern of why things happen
like they happen. We had one very very long term customer.
She's driving an O five pt Cruiser and I remember
the conversation twelve years ago. It needed a timing belt,
and I told her, you know, it needs a timing belt,
it needs cooling service, it needs some maintenance. It needs this,
(03:24):
it needs that, And she said, you know, I really
don't want to spend any money on it. It's an
older car now, and I'm just going to ride it
into the ground. And I said, that's okay, you can
do that, but understand, when the timing belt breaks, it's
it's instantaneous and you're on the side of the highway
or the side of the road. She said, I understand,
So I'm just gonna I'm gonna take the ride, okay. Well,
(03:45):
twelve years later it kind of came back in a
way because the phone calls started about a week and
a half ago with when I parked my car, it gurgles,
and then I see steam, and then it seems like
it's running high and then I hear the fan running,
and it's not all the time, it's at random. So
(04:05):
mysterious things are starting to happen with the cooling system.
And I got to tell you a pt cruiser, man,
if you haven't put a head gas get in that
thing at least twice by one hundred thousand miles, there's
something wrong with the car. Well, this one's got one
hundred and ten on it. So for whatever reason, the
head gasket had survived. We looked at it. She brought
it in, We looked at it. We drove it for
(04:26):
four days. Didn't see a blessed thing wrong with this vehicle.
But you know, in order to appease her, we had
to come up with a decision. We had to come
up with an answer of what were we going to try?
And I said, you know, the most logical thing is
it's one of two things. It's a pt cruiser. Now,
it had been in an accident, go four years ago,
(04:46):
and they had put a new radiator in and a
couple other cooling system components, cooling fan assembly. So trying
to eliminate, you know, let's go on the fact that
parts have been working for four years. They looked, okay,
I didn't see any leaks. The radiator look pretty clean
on the inside. Let's go somewhere else. We put a
thermostat in it, right, and we put a thermostat. We
(05:09):
put a bottle of K Seal in it, because here's
the perfect car for CA seal. You hear me talk
about using it all the time. Here's the perfect car
for it. All right, an older vehicle. You're suspect of
certain things going on. You're not sure if we've got
a head gasket issue or not, but you're looking to
give some guarantees to the woman who's in our mid
eighties and this is probably her last car. She's probably
(05:31):
not going to buy another one. So we dumped the
bottle of case seal in it thermostat cool. It burned,
the air shipped it. Let's see what happens. The Juri
will decide this week because she's out driving the car. Now,
we had another one. We had an eleven town in Country,
a Chrysler Town and Country that came in. It needed
control arm bushings. Their front lower control arm bushings were bad.
(05:53):
They had gone to get tires and they were told
it needs control arm bushings in order to do the alignment.
And you know, in this case it was control arms.
But here's a cards An eleven, a twenty eleven that
had sat for four years out in Arizona and for
whatever reason, everything rusted. We wanted to pull the axles
(06:14):
to get the control arms out, to get the knuckle
up and off. We couldn't get those. I mean nothing.
We had no amount of force, no amount of heat
to safely warm things up. Nothing we could do could
get those axles out. We ended up having to lower
the front engine cradle in order to do control arms,
especially the one on the driver's side. The bolt hits
the transmission. Good design drama. Right then we had a
(06:39):
Cadillac get dropped off, a twelve Cadillac first time customer.
She overheated another overheat or thought it was an overheat.
A twelve Cadillac SRX that had a hot light come on.
It said engine overheating AC disabled, the cooling fan was
running all the time, and the temperature gage was disabled.
She left it. We looked at it. It had a
(07:02):
P zero one twenty eight thermostat rationality fault, the traditional
thermostat failure. Well, GM's strategy and here's where you know
understanding how a manufacturer comes up with a strategy of
how the system operates. What do they want the system
to do. You've got a warning on the dashboard that
says AC disabled due to high engine temperature. It's telling
(07:25):
you what happened, but it's a lie because actually what
happened was the thermostat was hung open. It really wouldn't
get over one hundred and sixty five degrees. It's supposed
to be one ninety four and because of that, the
system goes into default. GM commands the fan on all
the time, it turns off the cool and temp gage
and they come up with that warning message to get
(07:47):
somebody to take it into a shop to get it fixed.
Think about that for a minute. The manufacturer is telling
you the exact opposite of what's going on. But then,
you know, when you get a new customer, it's kind
of hard because you're not quite sure what they're thinking.
So here's this twelve Cadillac that everything was original under
(08:09):
the hood. When I tell you everything was original, everything
was original, I think maybe they changed the battery, which
obviously they would have had to. So now you've got
to explain to a first time customer that doesn't really
understand what the shop is about. And I think it's important.
I think you have to understand what the shop is about.
(08:29):
What are you dealing with, all right? Who are you
talking to, what's the expertise level, what's the quality of
work being done? And maybe you're not into that. Maybe
it's just price, and that's okay, all right, I mean,
everybody's allowed. But I noticed, you know, I know, and
again I'm not sure if I'm telling the story right
in the sense of how it struck me. But it
(08:50):
struck me like I had to do a lot of
explaining at the counter on why this car probably wasn't
worth fixing. And they seemed happy with that. They wanted
to hear that. They wanted somebody to tell them to
go buy a new car. Original hoses, original clamps, original
electrical everything on this car. This car had the appearance
of if it was a horse road hard put away, wet,
(09:11):
And when I asked them, what sort of service and
maintenance have you done to this, they were very proud
to point out, Oh, we haven't done anything but oil changes.
And it was really obvious, like you could see it
and it needed a wheel bearing. They'd been told by
their former mechanic. They had just moved into the area.
They were told by their former mechanic four or five
(09:32):
months ago. It needs a wheel bearing in hubbits it's
going to come apart, which it can sure, and they
were so excited, Hey, we saved that money. We haven't
done I think that the really crazy job was the
two thousand and nine Toyota Camry. I remember this conversation too,
(09:58):
a good seven years ago when first came in. It
had a laundry list of things it needed. Tire pressure
light was on, it was due for spark plugs. It
needed all the fluids, all the filters, the regular maintenance.
It needed belts, that needed hoses, It needed a bunch
of things. Nothing was done. We're just going to ride
it into the ground. Another one that we're going to
ride it into the ground, and I said, you are
(10:18):
going to get hit with an avalanche of repairs. You
have to be ready for this when it fails, it's
going to fail big.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It snowed this week and it came in for an
oil change, and it had the most god awful rattling
noise under the hood. What the heck is that the
water pump wobbled between a quarter and three eighths of
an inch in every direction. The bearing was so bad
it was just ready to fall out. Stephen, you need
(10:49):
a water pump. You need a radiator. The radiator was leaking.
All right, I've got to start the war here. The
belts are so badly cracked. Now I don't understand how
they haven't fallen off the car. So one thing, beget,
the next, beget the next, beget the next and it
became that extra job the shop didn't need. We didn't
need that job this week, but somehow we managed to
(11:10):
get it done. The orchestra, the organization, we were right
there right to the last minute. Friday. We wanted to
leave it for we were tired. It had been a
long week and we're trying to get out at four
now as summer approaches. And I was on this camera
half day Thursday and most of the day Friday, and
(11:32):
as it sort of tumbled down to closure, a lot
of obstacles came up. The two bolts that hold the
AC pressure lines to the condenser were frozen. The steel
bolts were frozen in the aluminum and they snapped off.
No matter how much heat penetrating oil in anything else
I could think up to throw at it, but it
didn't matter. The condenser was literally falling apart. As I
touched it. I was taking chunks of it out of
(11:52):
my hair as I'm standing under the car working underneath it.
It was just self disintegrating. We ended up getting this
car back together right at four thirty five. We stayed late,
and then the worst thing that cossibly happened happened, And
I'll tell you about it right after the break. Don't
(12:13):
go away. I'm running any in the car. Doctor eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero will
return good time. Ride it on the wall so you
(12:35):
don't forget to call for car advice. Done right. Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. Now
back to Rod. This little O nine Camra was dogging
me and I had just gotten the water pump back together,
the radiator in, the replacement condenser in, and we were
rushing to beat the clock. We weren't going to make
four o'clock. It's now four thirty five on a Friday
(12:55):
afternoon in the shop, and I'm trying to get this
car out by five. And everything I had done up
to that point, every moment of what that car was
going to torture me with, I had finally overcome it.
I got past the two stuck bolts and the condenser.
I got past the bolt that holds the water pump
on that Toyota What Toyota does. Like a lot of
the manufacturers, Toyota seems to be very good at it.
(13:16):
Though their bolts are longer than the hole, so they'll
stick out the back. Now they get weathered, so you
go to unbolt the bolt out of the hole to
let the water pump take the water pump off, and
the end of the bolt that's been exposed to weather
is now gnarled up, and as you try to loosen
it to bring it out the hole, it will beat
up that aluminum hole. That steel bolt tends to chew
(13:38):
up that aluminum hole. So all nine holes that hold
this water pump on, seven holes that hold this water
pump on, I had to go through with a thread
chaser and chase every hole and blow the threads out
and make them smooth again. It just fought me every
step of the way. And now it's four thirty five
and I told Danny hit it, and Danny starts it,
(14:00):
and it all seemed good at the moment. Right it ran,
it was quiet, and then after about a minute it
had a different noise than the failing water pump. It
had this rattle to it, this knocking sound, and I'm
thinking to myself, what did I miss? And it would
come and go, and it rise and lower. It wasn't
(14:22):
the engine. The engine had oil in it. We hadn't
worked on the engine in that way. It wasn't the
new water pump. The water pump. I checked the new
pulley was tight, and I looked at it very carefully.
When I put it in. It wasn't anything hitting. And
if they're listening with a stethoscope, it was the alternator.
Why in God's name would the alternator be making a rattling,
(14:44):
knocking noise. Took out the two fourteens, unbolted it, put
it on the bench, took the alternator, put it on,
put the two fourteens in. I'm done. What about assembling
the rest of the car. I took the tension off
the belt while it was running. I took the tensioner
and took a little load off of it. It got quiet.
Turn the AC on, it got quiet. It was like
(15:06):
a specific load or unloaded position. It would get quiet.
Shut the car off, took the belt off, grabbed the
end of the alternator and wiggled the pulley. And there
is the tiniest little bit of lateral up and down
wiggle in that alternator pulley. And then I noticed that
the clutch doesn't feel good. And I believe this is
a one way clutch. Is what Toyota runs on their alternators,
(15:29):
like a lot of the manufacturers and then I noticed
the area around and it's underneath the alternator. I looked
with a mirror. There's a little bit of a rush stain,
like there's a bearing there that's getting beat up and
it's starting to rust powder out the front of the alternator.
Did the bad water pump that the customer was driving
(15:49):
on do permanent damage? Something changed it, something caught It
was the alternator making noise before the water pump was replaced.
It could have been, but the racket from the bracket
from the water pump was drowning it out. And I
think that's sort of you know, that sort of defines
repair shop orchestration. You know, you never know what you're
(16:10):
gonna get. Repair shops are like a box of chocolates.
To paraphrase Forest Come. You never know what's gonna happen.
And it's why, even with the best of effort and
the best of determination and the best of parts Yogi
Barrett to quote another great it ain't over till it's over.
You just don't know. The car stayed the cars at
(16:32):
the shop Monday, We're gonna look at it deeper and
probably have to replace the alternator. Why well, I'd like
to think that the customer's been going sleigh riding down
an avalanche because they waited till the last minute on
so many things, and it degraded the value, or not
the value, but it could degraded the ability of this
(16:53):
car to perform and do its job. That they waited
to the last possible second. Of course, it's harder on them,
it's harder on us. It's harder on the repair shop
to bring something back from the dead, and it's more
costly for the customer because well, it's costly probably for everybody,
because there's no way you can justify the amount of
(17:14):
time that you're going to have to spend to resuscitate
that vehicle. Repair shops are hard just you know, when
things go well, it's like life, right. When things go
well in life, life's tough enough. When things go right
in a repair shop, it's tough enough. You don't need
the added bonus or extra thrill of that the laid
repair that all of a sudden snowballs into something you
(17:36):
just can't possibly predict. So I guess my note of
caution for you as we kick off this hour of
the Car Doctor, and I apologize for the long open.
I'll get to the phones. You know in a bit
is just be aware right that the laid maintenance, that
the laid repair, that the laid effort to take care
of that expensive thing that you drive around in with
(17:56):
four wheels. In an engine, it always comes back to
bite you no matter how you look at it, no
matter how you expect it. Repair shop orchestration is is
only as good as the conductor. And talk to a
few You'll be surprised what they have to tell you
about what can go right and what can go wrong.
I'm running any in the card doctor, I'll be back
(18:17):
right after this. Eight five five five six zero nine
(18:43):
nine zero zero run an eading of the car doctor
at your service. Let's go over to Diane and Maine
and get the garage doors open. Eighteen Toyota land Cruiser, Diane,
thank you for your patience. How can I help?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Hey, Ron, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hey, So this is twenty eighteen Toyota Land Cruiser. I
bought it pre owned with twenty seven thousand miles on
it in Idaho, and I do a lot of cross
country driving and I now have fifty five thousand miles
on it. Most of these miles are highway or interstate,
never any of them. All the work has been done
(19:19):
at dealerships until last fall, when I was in Tidewater,
Virginia and doing more local driving and backing up just
a little bit. I had the transmission fluid exchanged at
forty two thousand miles in Idaho before I made the
cross country trip to Virginia last fall. So when I
(19:42):
was doing more local driving at slower speeds last fall,
I started noticing that it's only on a flat or
a slight downhill at low speeds. SAM approaching the yield
sign and I let up on the accelerator, but the
car is still coasting, and I say, Okay, the way
is clear, and then I accelerate. The engine will rev
(20:06):
before it engages. It does not have on an uphill.
It's only at low speeds downhill or maybe on a level.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I'm gonna think, I mean, the first place I'm going
to go is is it low on fluid? It because
you're you're describing a classic low fluid scenario and the
fact that it happened after the fluid was serviced, you know,
I'm just curious. It's the It's one of the simplest
things at tech can check. Obviously, no fault codes, no
dashboard warning lights, no illumination of anything.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Okay, you know, was the fluid service done at a
Toyota dealership.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yes, then, and then I was highway all the way,
so I didn't notice an issue because I was mostly
at highway speed right across right.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So we can, you know, we'll assume, which is a
dangerous word, that they've got the correct fluid in there,
because incorrect fluid will do some funny things with any
car today. But first place I'm going to go is
I just want to know is fluid level? Okay, if
fluid level. If fluid level is good and there are
no fault codes, then it's got to be diagnosed. So
the first question becomes, is this an electrical problem or
(21:16):
a mechanical manual problem inside the transmission? Toyota, in their
infinite wisdom, and I say that in all seriousness because
I think they're a very smart company, has has given
us the ability, with this particular car and some of
the other Toyotas, to do what they call a manual
shift test, where you can unplug the number one or
(21:37):
number two transconnector on the side of the trans you know,
you have to put it in certain modes and the
transmission will operate into fault values. And you can use
this test. There's a diagnostic chart you can go through
and you can determine is it mechanical or electrical. You're basically,
instead of having so much electronic input and authority over
(21:58):
the transmission, you're basically telling, hey, you're on your own drive,
like you drive, drive to the best of your mechanical ability.
And it's it's probably the safest and easiest test you
can do to one of these transmissions to determine, you know,
state of condition. But I got to tell you, at
fifty five thousand miles, I'd be surprised if this is
(22:19):
a mechanical trans or even an electrical trans fault. And
the reason I say that is because if this was electrical,
if this was electrical trans I should have a dash
warning light, I should have a fault code. And I
am you guys know me by now, I'm not a
living die. By Hey, there's no code, there's no problem,
kind of guy, I get it. Uh, you know, but
(22:41):
the fact that the engine is flaring up, that's called
engine flare. You know that the engine RPM is going
up and there's no pick up. You know there's there's
something going on. But you know, without an illumination, electrical,
even mechanical at fifty five thousand miles, I'd be mildly surprised.
So I you know it's and that's a big solid truck.
(23:04):
Those are great vehicles, they really are. You know, that's
a that's a three or four hundred thousand mile vehicle,
depending upon how you maintain it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm glad. I'm hoping this is my lifetime vehicle.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah it's great. Yeah it's great. So but get those
things done. Go in and talk to the local Toyota
dealer and explain this story just the way you explain
it to me, because you were perfect about it, and
they should be able to pick up some clues there
and let them sit down and talk to you, and
you know, ask them, ask them about the manual shift test,
all right, and you know, can you can you you
(23:36):
understand that you know you were speaking to someone. There's
a manual shift test where you can do an electrical
or a mechanical test. I can even give you a
there was a bulletin that came out. It was a
bulletin or it was just a document around April of
twenty four. Uh, they actually published it. The one I
remember as the one for the sixteen hundreds, but it
applies to most of the model years in that making
model transmission. The document I remember is six dots eleven
(23:59):
dot eight eighty one six ten if I remember right.
But it'll be there. It'll probably be in bulletins too,
but you can do there's a manual shift test for
that which works very well.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So right, okay, all right, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
You're very welcome. You're very welcome, dear, have a good day.
Let's go over and talk to Charlie Arizona aw eight
Honda Ridgeline and see what's going on here. Charlie. Welcome
to the card doctor. Sir, how can I help?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I've got a two thousand and eight Honda Ridgeline, and
about a year ago I stopped to mail something about
five minutes, went back in the car the a seed baller,
fam nothing comes on in just a few minutes. All
of a sudden, it just come on on its own. Ron, Okay,
it did it twice. I took it home, cleaned all
(24:47):
the relays of dust to make sure nothing was loose
and stuff like that under the hood. A year went by,
my wife's been driving. It's been working perfect. We went
to take a trip a week ago. We were up
in Phoenix. I went in, same thing, got gas, come
back out nothing driving down the road.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You gotta stop getting gas, Charlie, you know, I mean, geez,
can the diagnosis be any simpler? You know, if you
don't shut the car off, you won't have this problem.
And I mean, how we did that? How important is
air conditioning in Arizona? I mean not really, not really.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
When it's ninety five or a hundred above it, it
really isn't important. And it's looking at you like you
don't really want to roll the window down.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So it's gotta be cool sometime two o'clock in the
morning somehow someway. I mean, it's gotta you know, when
it rains.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Can it happened? But three or four times that day
run that three four times? That's tough for gas. It
did it. And then the next morning we were up
in like Nebraska. We stopped and uh, it worked fine
in the morning and when put gas on we're leaving
the motel, everything's perfect, going down the road driving an
hour or two hours, get gassed. Same thing happened, and
after that we didn't shut the car off till we
(25:59):
got to Minnesota. But she'd been driving it for two
three days and let the Canada with it. I'm back
in Arizona, hasn't had one issue.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So maybe it's you, Charlie. I'm starting I'm starting to
think it's because I notice you're the common denominator.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I know that, and I hate to tell the story
like this. And there's one other thing I did about
five years ago, around six years ago, before COVID, she
had lost a key for the car. I had a
friend make one or a person we knew make one,
and it's work fine. He programmed it in. But that
was five six years ago. Never have him.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, it's not it's not key related. Not okay, Yeah,
I don't see it being key related. Key issues are
gonna be gonna tell me. It's not gonna start. So
I'll tell you what, Charlie. Let me let me pull over,
take this pause, and when I come back, we'll chat
a little bit more. Don't go anywhere. If the phone
hangs up, I'm gonna blame you. So I'm running any
in the car. Doctor, I'll be back right after this. Charlie.
(27:10):
You're there, Charlie. Ye, your your luck's changing, look at that. Okay,
so let's talk. Let's talk about this now, all kid
in the side. When when it when it goes into
this failure where the blower doesn't operate, Is there anything
else that doesn't work in the car?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
No, the only ahead, the only thing go ahead.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I was gonna say, do you know if the A
C compressor comes on?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I don't believe so, because I was going to go
there ron when I when it does come back on,
we didn't touch nothing that the A C was on.
The A C was not on. So we go down
the road. The blower fan had come on. I shut
the A C off, turn it back on nice cold
there so that the compressor was shutting off too with
the blower fan. Okay, otherwise nothing else, I mean, I
(28:05):
you know that, I know that wasn't working. They're just
no blower fan, no way, see, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Have you Have you done any testing with the power
transistor the blower power transistor?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
No? Okay, I wouldn't know how to. I was gonna
I thought about, well, change in the blower motors.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
The blow Well, okay, the blower motor is pretty simple
on this car, and you can do listen, you can
test up to a point, right, I mean test within
your safe and comfortable limits. I always say right. So
there's a white blue that comes out of the relay
that goes to the blower. So they've they're applying constant
hot constant twelve vaults to the blower on one leg.
(28:47):
The blue black wire right is ground control, and that
blue black goes to a power transistor. So what they're
looking for is there looking to see continuity across power
down blower motor, boom ground lower motor comes on and
the duty cycle very ground if we want to think
(29:10):
of it like that, to operate the blower at different speeds.
All right, but there's more that goes on here. If
the power transistor doesn't report or can't report the ground
leg properly back to the control head, the control head
turns off the AC compressor, and there's a bunch of
(29:34):
other functions that happen because that power transistor is in
direct contact with the control head. You know, you're driving
a giant computer. Always remember that, right, everybody's talking to everybody,
and it's like the relatives at Christmas, who's getting along
and who isn't? Okay? So you know, we want to
(29:55):
attack this. Let's let's let's let's eliminate the simple first.
If you want to do you know, use an incandescent
twelve vault test light. And I'm very cautious how I
tell people to use one of those? Or if you
want to get your hands on a logic probe, which
is a little safer and just verified. Do you have
and they make logic probes with a vault meter built in?
Do you have twelve vaults on that white blue when
(30:17):
the system doesn't work? All right? You know, if you do,
then the relays closed, the ground is good. Why don't
we now, if we don't have power on that white blue,
why don't we all right? And is it possible that
we don't have power on that white blue because the
PCM shut it down because it's not seeing response from
(30:38):
the heater control head, because the power transistor's bad. It all,
it all comes around, all right. There is a test
you can do if you're brave, and you can and
you can follow procedure where they want you to cut
that blue black the ground leg of the blower motor
(30:58):
and using a a twelve volt incandescent bulb test light
too hot, so the point at end of the test
light becomes ground. Right if you apply that to the
blue black since the blower motor, that becomes the ground.
If the blower motor operates, we know the blower motor
(31:19):
is good, all right. Now, if we can prove the
blower motor is good, you're kind of wheeling down to
the point where it's the power transistor. The power transistor
is center of the dashboard, just to the left of
the blowercase. It's got a blue black, blue, red, blue, yellow,
and a black wire. It's a four pin resistor, and
(31:41):
they're they're common to fail. Now, if yeah, they're they're
very common to fail, I would I would be focusing
on that. I would find a repair shop if you're
not comfortable doing any of this testing, to let them
focus on it and let them follow up on it.
But it wouldn't it wouldn't be the most absurd to
find a bad one of those, all right, if you
(32:03):
can pay go ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
When we went it run for hours, I mean, it's
never an issue once it's on, and it's never been
an issue with her, and that's why by testing this stuff,
he had it in your shop. Is there some way
of locating this problem when there's not a problem. I
know that's a silly question.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I can also, you know, I
have the ability. I have certain things. I can freeze components,
I can heat components, I can vibration test components. But
you know, like Spock set the Captain Kirk and the
voyage home, sometimes you got to take your best guess.
This is my best guest, Captain. I did that this week.
I can't think of the car. I'll tell you about
it when we come back, if you're still listening. But
(32:46):
we had a car this week, Oh, the PT Cruiser
that I was talking about in the open. I got
to the point where I said, you know what, Dorman,
this is my best guess. Let's start with a thermostad.
And she said it to me. She said, like McCoy
told Spock, sometimes you got to take your best guess.
And that's just the way it is, and it works
in order repair. So far, I've guessed right. Let me
know what happens, Charlie. I'm here for you. If you
need more, I'm ronnin Andy and the car doctor. I'll
(33:07):
be back right after this. You know, maybe, and it's important,
(33:30):
and maybe this is the importance of maintenance that if
you're doing maintenance, and if you do your due diligence
and you do your regular maintenance and you take proper
care of your vehicle, maybe when you have a specific
problem that's a little obtuse, that's a little abstract, that's
a little off the wall, maintenance kind of erases some
(33:51):
of the possibilities, and it helps you get to a
diagnostic conclusion faster because it's actually easier for the technician
and cheaper for the customer to diagnose a maintained vehicle
than an unmaintained vehicle. An unmaintained vehicle steers you in
the face. And there's just too many possibilities in too
(34:11):
many scenarios, especially since the advent of computerization, which has
been going on for forty years now. So when I
start to think about some of the problem cars, this hour,
all right, the transmission on the land Cruiser. So we
did fluid service. It happened right after that. Let's make
it easy. Let's go for fluid level. Then let's talk
(34:31):
about how can we go about doing our testing and
it was a real quick it's step one, step two
for the blower motor. There's not really a lot of
maintenance here, but the diagnostic steps are it's this and this,
and then you get to the point in the eighty
five percentile where well, then it has to be. This
is most common because sometimes guessing is required and part
of order repair. And the day it's not as the
(34:53):
day manufacturers tell you'd never tell you again to have
to substitute with a known good part, I'm on an
ady and the card doctor that till the next time.
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
See you m
Ron Ananian, I want to talk to you a little
bit about taking care of your car or 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.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Isn't.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Sticking? Busy draft the Car Doctor. I did get a
guy to reflash that computer and he was able to
do it and was peat. It was only five hundred buck.
Only five hundred bucks was in the computer at the
Mercedes A couple of thousand.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
For then the reflash your computer and putting computer.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
At his almost five thousand.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one. This is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors are open,
but I am here to take your call at eight
(00:51):
five five five six ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hundred and now.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Hee, Ronnie. I don't know if I can do this.
I always think of how would I open the show
each and every week, and I was thinking about it
this morning doing my morning errands and getting ready to
come in and let's go, And I said, how would
I explain the week at the shop? Because I know
(01:16):
that's what you guys hearing about. You know, I always
talk about the symphony or the orchestration of a repair shop,
and I think I think every repair shop goes through that.
I've been in a few where I've seen the dramas
as they unfold, and by you know, sometimes by Monday
at ten o'clock, you know how Friday is going to end,
and you know Friday is going to be mad cap
(01:37):
just based on the first two hours of Monday, or
sometimes the first twenty minutes of Monday, you just know
where it's going to go. Most of what I tell
you and talk about, obviously is about my shop, because
that's where I am most of the time. This week
was just it was no exception, but it's worth talking
about because I think it showed a lot of the scenarios,
(01:59):
the the rises and falls of what goes on in
the average repair shop. We take on a certain amount
of cars every week. It's just an average. You know,
we're in business a very very long time, and you
know you're gonna see X number of cars a day,
and by Tuesday at midday, we had taken enough cars
to fill the week in the week coming. I mean,
(02:19):
we were just overbooked. Somehow it happens, and fortunately, you know,
in the universe provides, right. They always say that, you know,
we had nothing on the books for this past Thursday
and Friday, nothing not a job. But yet by Tuesday, midday,
mid morning, whatever it was, we had enough work for
a week and a half. Go figure, So now you
(02:40):
have to orchestrate that. Now you have to organize that.
Now you have to sit down and look at it
real quick, real fast, because the clock is ticking and
minutes count and seconds count. You're trying to figure out
how are you going to get all these cars done
in five days? And now it's Tuesday, so you have
less than five days. And each job has its own personality,
just like people. Each job has its own temperament, and
(03:02):
you start to notice a pattern of why things happen
like they happen. We had one very very long term customer.
She's driving an O five pt Cruiser and I remember
the conversation twelve years ago. It needed a timing belt,
and I told her, you know, it needs a timing belt,
it needs cooling service, it needs some maintenance. It needs this,
(03:24):
it needs that, And she said, you know, I really
don't want to spend any money on it. It's an
older car now, and I'm just going to ride it
into the ground. And I said, that's okay, you can
do that, but understand, when the timing belt breaks, it's
it's instantaneous and you're on the side of the highway
or the side of the road. She said, I understand,
So I'm just gonna I'm gonna take the ride, okay. Well,
(03:45):
twelve years later it kind of came back in a
way because the phone calls started about a week and
a half ago with when I parked my car, it gurgles,
and then I see steam, and then it seems like
it's running high and then I hear the fan running,
and it's not all the time, it's at random. So
(04:05):
mysterious things are starting to happen with the cooling system.
And I got to tell you a pt cruiser, man,
if you haven't put a head gas get in that
thing at least twice by one hundred thousand miles, there's
something wrong with the car. Well, this one's got one
hundred and ten on it. So for whatever reason, the
head gasket had survived. We looked at it. She brought
it in, We looked at it. We drove it for
(04:26):
four days. Didn't see a blessed thing wrong with this vehicle.
But you know, in order to appease her, we had
to come up with a decision. We had to come
up with an answer of what were we going to try?
And I said, you know, the most logical thing is
it's one of two things. It's a pt cruiser. Now,
it had been in an accident, go four years ago,
(04:46):
and they had put a new radiator in and a
couple other cooling system components, cooling fan assembly. So trying
to eliminate, you know, let's go on the fact that
parts have been working for four years. They looked, okay,
I didn't see any leaks. The radiator look pretty clean
on the inside. Let's go somewhere else. We put a
thermostat in it, right, and we put a thermostat. We
(05:09):
put a bottle of K Seal in it, because here's
the perfect car for CA seal. You hear me talk
about using it all the time. Here's the perfect car
for it. All right, an older vehicle. You're suspect of
certain things going on. You're not sure if we've got
a head gasket issue or not, but you're looking to
give some guarantees to the woman who's in our mid
eighties and this is probably her last car. She's probably
(05:31):
not going to buy another one. So we dumped the
bottle of case seal in it thermostat cool. It burned,
the air shipped it. Let's see what happens. The Juri
will decide this week because she's out driving the car. Now,
we had another one. We had an eleven town in Country,
a Chrysler Town and Country that came in. It needed
control arm bushings. Their front lower control arm bushings were bad.
(05:53):
They had gone to get tires and they were told
it needs control arm bushings in order to do the alignment.
And you know, in this case it was control arms.
But here's a cards An eleven, a twenty eleven that
had sat for four years out in Arizona and for
whatever reason, everything rusted. We wanted to pull the axles
(06:14):
to get the control arms out, to get the knuckle
up and off. We couldn't get those. I mean nothing.
We had no amount of force, no amount of heat
to safely warm things up. Nothing we could do could
get those axles out. We ended up having to lower
the front engine cradle in order to do control arms,
especially the one on the driver's side. The bolt hits
the transmission. Good design drama. Right then we had a
(06:39):
Cadillac get dropped off, a twelve Cadillac first time customer.
She overheated another overheat or thought it was an overheat.
A twelve Cadillac SRX that had a hot light come on.
It said engine overheating AC disabled, the cooling fan was
running all the time, and the temperature gage was disabled.
She left it. We looked at it. It had a
(07:02):
P zero one twenty eight thermostat rationality fault, the traditional
thermostat failure. Well, GM's strategy and here's where you know
understanding how a manufacturer comes up with a strategy of
how the system operates. What do they want the system
to do. You've got a warning on the dashboard that
says AC disabled due to high engine temperature. It's telling
(07:25):
you what happened, but it's a lie because actually what
happened was the thermostat was hung open. It really wouldn't
get over one hundred and sixty five degrees. It's supposed
to be one ninety four and because of that, the
system goes into default. GM commands the fan on all
the time, it turns off the cool and temp gage
and they come up with that warning message to get
(07:47):
somebody to take it into a shop to get it fixed.
Think about that for a minute. The manufacturer is telling
you the exact opposite of what's going on. But then,
you know, when you get a new customer, it's kind
of hard because you're not quite sure what they're thinking.
So here's this twelve Cadillac that everything was original under
(08:09):
the hood. When I tell you everything was original, everything
was original, I think maybe they changed the battery, which
obviously they would have had to. So now you've got
to explain to a first time customer that doesn't really
understand what the shop is about. And I think it's important.
I think you have to understand what the shop is about.
(08:29):
What are you dealing with, all right? Who are you
talking to, what's the expertise level, what's the quality of
work being done? And maybe you're not into that. Maybe
it's just price, and that's okay, all right, I mean,
everybody's allowed. But I noticed, you know, I know, and
again I'm not sure if I'm telling the story right
in the sense of how it struck me. But it
(08:50):
struck me like I had to do a lot of
explaining at the counter on why this car probably wasn't
worth fixing. And they seemed happy with that. They wanted
to hear that. They wanted somebody to tell them to
go buy a new car. Original hoses, original clamps, original
electrical everything on this car. This car had the appearance
of if it was a horse road hard put away, wet,
(09:11):
And when I asked them, what sort of service and
maintenance have you done to this, they were very proud
to point out, Oh, we haven't done anything but oil changes.
And it was really obvious, like you could see it
and it needed a wheel bearing. They'd been told by
their former mechanic. They had just moved into the area.
They were told by their former mechanic four or five
(09:32):
months ago. It needs a wheel bearing in hubbits it's
going to come apart, which it can sure, and they
were so excited, Hey, we saved that money. We haven't
done I think that the really crazy job was the
two thousand and nine Toyota Camry. I remember this conversation too,
(09:58):
a good seven years ago when first came in. It
had a laundry list of things it needed. Tire pressure
light was on, it was due for spark plugs. It
needed all the fluids, all the filters, the regular maintenance.
It needed belts, that needed hoses, It needed a bunch
of things. Nothing was done. We're just going to ride
it into the ground. Another one that we're going to
ride it into the ground, and I said, you are
(10:18):
going to get hit with an avalanche of repairs. You
have to be ready for this when it fails, it's
going to fail big.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It snowed this week and it came in for an
oil change, and it had the most god awful rattling
noise under the hood. What the heck is that the
water pump wobbled between a quarter and three eighths of
an inch in every direction. The bearing was so bad
it was just ready to fall out. Stephen, you need
(10:49):
a water pump. You need a radiator. The radiator was leaking.
All right, I've got to start the war here. The
belts are so badly cracked. Now I don't understand how
they haven't fallen off the car. So one thing, beget,
the next, beget the next, beget the next and it
became that extra job the shop didn't need. We didn't
need that job this week, but somehow we managed to
(11:10):
get it done. The orchestra, the organization, we were right
there right to the last minute. Friday. We wanted to
leave it for we were tired. It had been a
long week and we're trying to get out at four
now as summer approaches. And I was on this camera
half day Thursday and most of the day Friday, and
(11:32):
as it sort of tumbled down to closure, a lot
of obstacles came up. The two bolts that hold the
AC pressure lines to the condenser were frozen. The steel
bolts were frozen in the aluminum and they snapped off.
No matter how much heat penetrating oil in anything else
I could think up to throw at it, but it
didn't matter. The condenser was literally falling apart. As I
touched it. I was taking chunks of it out of
(11:52):
my hair as I'm standing under the car working underneath it.
It was just self disintegrating. We ended up getting this
car back together right at four thirty five. We stayed late,
and then the worst thing that cossibly happened happened, And
I'll tell you about it right after the break. Don't
(12:13):
go away. I'm running any in the car. Doctor eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero will
return good time. Ride it on the wall so you
(12:35):
don't forget to call for car advice. Done right. Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. Now
back to Rod. This little O nine Camra was dogging
me and I had just gotten the water pump back together,
the radiator in, the replacement condenser in, and we were
rushing to beat the clock. We weren't going to make
four o'clock. It's now four thirty five on a Friday
(12:55):
afternoon in the shop, and I'm trying to get this
car out by five. And everything I had done up
to that point, every moment of what that car was
going to torture me with, I had finally overcome it.
I got past the two stuck bolts and the condenser.
I got past the bolt that holds the water pump
on that Toyota What Toyota does. Like a lot of
the manufacturers, Toyota seems to be very good at it.
(13:16):
Though their bolts are longer than the hole, so they'll
stick out the back. Now they get weathered, so you
go to unbolt the bolt out of the hole to
let the water pump take the water pump off, and
the end of the bolt that's been exposed to weather
is now gnarled up, and as you try to loosen
it to bring it out the hole, it will beat
up that aluminum hole. That steel bolt tends to chew
(13:38):
up that aluminum hole. So all nine holes that hold
this water pump on, seven holes that hold this water
pump on, I had to go through with a thread
chaser and chase every hole and blow the threads out
and make them smooth again. It just fought me every
step of the way. And now it's four thirty five
and I told Danny hit it, and Danny starts it,
(14:00):
and it all seemed good at the moment. Right it ran,
it was quiet, and then after about a minute it
had a different noise than the failing water pump. It
had this rattle to it, this knocking sound, and I'm
thinking to myself, what did I miss? And it would
come and go, and it rise and lower. It wasn't
(14:22):
the engine. The engine had oil in it. We hadn't
worked on the engine in that way. It wasn't the
new water pump. The water pump. I checked the new
pulley was tight, and I looked at it very carefully.
When I put it in. It wasn't anything hitting. And
if they're listening with a stethoscope, it was the alternator.
Why in God's name would the alternator be making a rattling,
(14:44):
knocking noise. Took out the two fourteens, unbolted it, put
it on the bench, took the alternator, put it on,
put the two fourteens in. I'm done. What about assembling
the rest of the car. I took the tension off
the belt while it was running. I took the tensioner
and took a little load off of it. It got quiet.
Turn the AC on, it got quiet. It was like
(15:06):
a specific load or unloaded position. It would get quiet.
Shut the car off, took the belt off, grabbed the
end of the alternator and wiggled the pulley. And there
is the tiniest little bit of lateral up and down
wiggle in that alternator pulley. And then I noticed that
the clutch doesn't feel good. And I believe this is
a one way clutch. Is what Toyota runs on their alternators,
(15:29):
like a lot of the manufacturers and then I noticed
the area around and it's underneath the alternator. I looked
with a mirror. There's a little bit of a rush stain,
like there's a bearing there that's getting beat up and
it's starting to rust powder out the front of the alternator.
Did the bad water pump that the customer was driving
(15:49):
on do permanent damage? Something changed it, something caught It
was the alternator making noise before the water pump was replaced.
It could have been, but the racket from the bracket
from the water pump was drowning it out. And I
think that's sort of you know, that sort of defines
repair shop orchestration. You know, you never know what you're
(16:10):
gonna get. Repair shops are like a box of chocolates.
To paraphrase Forest Come. You never know what's gonna happen.
And it's why, even with the best of effort and
the best of determination and the best of parts Yogi
Barrett to quote another great it ain't over till it's over.
You just don't know. The car stayed the cars at
(16:32):
the shop Monday, We're gonna look at it deeper and
probably have to replace the alternator. Why well, I'd like
to think that the customer's been going sleigh riding down
an avalanche because they waited till the last minute on
so many things, and it degraded the value, or not
the value, but it could degraded the ability of this
(16:53):
car to perform and do its job. That they waited
to the last possible second. Of course, it's harder on them,
it's harder on us. It's harder on the repair shop
to bring something back from the dead, and it's more
costly for the customer because well, it's costly probably for everybody,
because there's no way you can justify the amount of
(17:14):
time that you're going to have to spend to resuscitate
that vehicle. Repair shops are hard just you know, when
things go well, it's like life, right. When things go
well in life, life's tough enough. When things go right
in a repair shop, it's tough enough. You don't need
the added bonus or extra thrill of that the laid
repair that all of a sudden snowballs into something you
(17:36):
just can't possibly predict. So I guess my note of
caution for you as we kick off this hour of
the Car Doctor, and I apologize for the long open.
I'll get to the phones. You know in a bit
is just be aware right that the laid maintenance, that
the laid repair, that the laid effort to take care
of that expensive thing that you drive around in with
(17:56):
four wheels. In an engine, it always comes back to
bite you no matter how you look at it, no
matter how you expect it. Repair shop orchestration is is
only as good as the conductor. And talk to a
few You'll be surprised what they have to tell you
about what can go right and what can go wrong.
I'm running any in the card doctor, I'll be back
(18:17):
right after this. Eight five five five six zero nine
(18:43):
nine zero zero run an eading of the car doctor
at your service. Let's go over to Diane and Maine
and get the garage doors open. Eighteen Toyota land Cruiser, Diane,
thank you for your patience. How can I help?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Hey, Ron, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Hey, So this is twenty eighteen Toyota Land Cruiser. I
bought it pre owned with twenty seven thousand miles on
it in Idaho, and I do a lot of cross
country driving and I now have fifty five thousand miles
on it. Most of these miles are highway or interstate,
never any of them. All the work has been done
(19:19):
at dealerships until last fall, when I was in Tidewater,
Virginia and doing more local driving and backing up just
a little bit. I had the transmission fluid exchanged at
forty two thousand miles in Idaho before I made the
cross country trip to Virginia last fall. So when I
(19:42):
was doing more local driving at slower speeds last fall,
I started noticing that it's only on a flat or
a slight downhill at low speeds. SAM approaching the yield
sign and I let up on the accelerator, but the
car is still coasting, and I say, Okay, the way
is clear, and then I accelerate. The engine will rev
(20:06):
before it engages. It does not have on an uphill.
It's only at low speeds downhill or maybe on a level.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I'm gonna think, I mean, the first place I'm going
to go is is it low on fluid? It because
you're you're describing a classic low fluid scenario and the
fact that it happened after the fluid was serviced, you know,
I'm just curious. It's the It's one of the simplest
things at tech can check. Obviously, no fault codes, no
dashboard warning lights, no illumination of anything.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Okay, you know, was the fluid service done at a
Toyota dealership.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Yes, then, and then I was highway all the way,
so I didn't notice an issue because I was mostly
at highway speed right across right.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So we can, you know, we'll assume, which is a
dangerous word, that they've got the correct fluid in there,
because incorrect fluid will do some funny things with any
car today. But first place I'm going to go is
I just want to know is fluid level? Okay, if
fluid level. If fluid level is good and there are
no fault codes, then it's got to be diagnosed. So
the first question becomes, is this an electrical problem or
(21:16):
a mechanical manual problem inside the transmission? Toyota, in their
infinite wisdom, and I say that in all seriousness because
I think they're a very smart company, has has given
us the ability, with this particular car and some of
the other Toyotas, to do what they call a manual
shift test, where you can unplug the number one or
(21:37):
number two transconnector on the side of the trans you know,
you have to put it in certain modes and the
transmission will operate into fault values. And you can use
this test. There's a diagnostic chart you can go through
and you can determine is it mechanical or electrical. You're basically,
instead of having so much electronic input and authority over
(21:58):
the transmission, you're basically telling, hey, you're on your own drive,
like you drive, drive to the best of your mechanical ability.
And it's it's probably the safest and easiest test you
can do to one of these transmissions to determine, you know,
state of condition. But I got to tell you, at
fifty five thousand miles, I'd be surprised if this is
(22:19):
a mechanical trans or even an electrical trans fault. And
the reason I say that is because if this was electrical,
if this was electrical trans I should have a dash
warning light, I should have a fault code. And I
am you guys know me by now, I'm not a
living die. By Hey, there's no code, there's no problem,
kind of guy, I get it. Uh, you know, but
(22:41):
the fact that the engine is flaring up, that's called
engine flare. You know that the engine RPM is going
up and there's no pick up. You know there's there's
something going on. But you know, without an illumination, electrical,
even mechanical at fifty five thousand miles, I'd be mildly surprised.
So I you know it's and that's a big solid truck.
(23:04):
Those are great vehicles, they really are. You know, that's
a that's a three or four hundred thousand mile vehicle,
depending upon how you maintain it.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm glad. I'm hoping this is my lifetime vehicle.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah it's great. Yeah it's great. So but get those
things done. Go in and talk to the local Toyota
dealer and explain this story just the way you explain
it to me, because you were perfect about it, and
they should be able to pick up some clues there
and let them sit down and talk to you, and
you know, ask them, ask them about the manual shift test,
all right, and you know, can you can you you
(23:36):
understand that you know you were speaking to someone. There's
a manual shift test where you can do an electrical
or a mechanical test. I can even give you a
there was a bulletin that came out. It was a
bulletin or it was just a document around April of
twenty four. Uh, they actually published it. The one I
remember as the one for the sixteen hundreds, but it
applies to most of the model years in that making
model transmission. The document I remember is six dots eleven
(23:59):
dot eight eighty one six ten if I remember right.
But it'll be there. It'll probably be in bulletins too,
but you can do there's a manual shift test for
that which works very well.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
So right, okay, all right, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
You're very welcome. You're very welcome, dear, have a good day.
Let's go over and talk to Charlie Arizona aw eight
Honda Ridgeline and see what's going on here. Charlie. Welcome
to the card doctor. Sir, how can I help?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I've got a two thousand and eight Honda Ridgeline, and
about a year ago I stopped to mail something about
five minutes, went back in the car the a seed baller,
fam nothing comes on in just a few minutes. All
of a sudden, it just come on on its own. Ron, Okay,
it did it twice. I took it home, cleaned all
(24:47):
the relays of dust to make sure nothing was loose
and stuff like that under the hood. A year went by,
my wife's been driving. It's been working perfect. We went
to take a trip a week ago. We were up
in Phoenix. I went in, same thing, got gas, come
back out nothing driving down the road.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You gotta stop getting gas, Charlie, you know, I mean, geez,
can the diagnosis be any simpler? You know, if you
don't shut the car off, you won't have this problem.
And I mean, how we did that? How important is
air conditioning in Arizona? I mean not really, not really.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
When it's ninety five or a hundred above it, it
really isn't important. And it's looking at you like you
don't really want to roll the window down.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So it's gotta be cool sometime two o'clock in the
morning somehow someway. I mean, it's gotta you know, when
it rains.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Can it happened? But three or four times that day
run that three four times? That's tough for gas. It
did it. And then the next morning we were up
in like Nebraska. We stopped and uh, it worked fine
in the morning and when put gas on we're leaving
the motel, everything's perfect, going down the road driving an
hour or two hours, get gassed. Same thing happened, and
after that we didn't shut the car off till we
(25:59):
got to Minnesota. But she'd been driving it for two
three days and let the Canada with it. I'm back
in Arizona, hasn't had one issue.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So maybe it's you, Charlie. I'm starting I'm starting to
think it's because I notice you're the common denominator.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I know that, and I hate to tell the story
like this. And there's one other thing I did about
five years ago, around six years ago, before COVID, she
had lost a key for the car. I had a
friend make one or a person we knew make one,
and it's work fine. He programmed it in. But that
was five six years ago. Never have him.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, it's not it's not key related. Not okay, Yeah,
I don't see it being key related. Key issues are
gonna be gonna tell me. It's not gonna start. So
I'll tell you what, Charlie. Let me let me pull over,
take this pause, and when I come back, we'll chat
a little bit more. Don't go anywhere. If the phone
hangs up, I'm gonna blame you. So I'm running any
in the car. Doctor, I'll be back right after this. Charlie.
(27:10):
You're there, Charlie. Ye, your your luck's changing, look at that. Okay,
so let's talk. Let's talk about this now, all kid
in the side. When when it when it goes into
this failure where the blower doesn't operate, Is there anything
else that doesn't work in the car?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
No, the only ahead, the only thing go ahead.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I was gonna say, do you know if the A
C compressor comes on?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I don't believe so, because I was going to go
there ron when I when it does come back on,
we didn't touch nothing that the A C was on.
The A C was not on. So we go down
the road. The blower fan had come on. I shut
the A C off, turn it back on nice cold
there so that the compressor was shutting off too with
the blower fan. Okay, otherwise nothing else, I mean, I
(28:05):
you know that, I know that wasn't working. They're just
no blower fan, no way, see, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Have you Have you done any testing with the power
transistor the blower power transistor?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
No? Okay, I wouldn't know how to. I was gonna
I thought about, well, change in the blower motors.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
The blow Well, okay, the blower motor is pretty simple
on this car, and you can do listen, you can
test up to a point, right, I mean test within
your safe and comfortable limits. I always say right. So
there's a white blue that comes out of the relay
that goes to the blower. So they've they're applying constant
hot constant twelve vaults to the blower on one leg.
(28:47):
The blue black wire right is ground control, and that
blue black goes to a power transistor. So what they're
looking for is there looking to see continuity across power
down blower motor, boom ground lower motor comes on and
the duty cycle very ground if we want to think
(29:10):
of it like that, to operate the blower at different speeds.
All right, but there's more that goes on here. If
the power transistor doesn't report or can't report the ground
leg properly back to the control head, the control head
turns off the AC compressor, and there's a bunch of
(29:34):
other functions that happen because that power transistor is in
direct contact with the control head. You know, you're driving
a giant computer. Always remember that, right, everybody's talking to everybody,
and it's like the relatives at Christmas, who's getting along
and who isn't? Okay? So you know, we want to
(29:55):
attack this. Let's let's let's let's eliminate the simple first.
If you want to do you know, use an incandescent
twelve vault test light. And I'm very cautious how I
tell people to use one of those? Or if you
want to get your hands on a logic probe, which
is a little safer and just verified. Do you have
and they make logic probes with a vault meter built in?
Do you have twelve vaults on that white blue when
(30:17):
the system doesn't work? All right? You know, if you do,
then the relays closed, the ground is good. Why don't
we now, if we don't have power on that white blue,
why don't we all right? And is it possible that
we don't have power on that white blue because the
PCM shut it down because it's not seeing response from
(30:38):
the heater control head, because the power transistor's bad. It all,
it all comes around, all right. There is a test
you can do if you're brave, and you can and
you can follow procedure where they want you to cut
that blue black the ground leg of the blower motor
(30:58):
and using a a twelve volt incandescent bulb test light
too hot, so the point at end of the test
light becomes ground. Right if you apply that to the
blue black since the blower motor, that becomes the ground.
If the blower motor operates, we know the blower motor
(31:19):
is good, all right. Now, if we can prove the
blower motor is good, you're kind of wheeling down to
the point where it's the power transistor. The power transistor
is center of the dashboard, just to the left of
the blowercase. It's got a blue black, blue, red, blue, yellow,
and a black wire. It's a four pin resistor, and
(31:41):
they're they're common to fail. Now, if yeah, they're they're
very common to fail, I would I would be focusing
on that. I would find a repair shop if you're
not comfortable doing any of this testing, to let them
focus on it and let them follow up on it.
But it wouldn't it wouldn't be the most absurd to
find a bad one of those, all right, if you
(32:03):
can pay go ahead.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
When we went it run for hours, I mean, it's
never an issue once it's on, and it's never been
an issue with her, and that's why by testing this stuff,
he had it in your shop. Is there some way
of locating this problem when there's not a problem. I
know that's a silly question.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I can also, you know, I
have the ability. I have certain things. I can freeze components,
I can heat components, I can vibration test components. But
you know, like Spock set the Captain Kirk and the
voyage home, sometimes you got to take your best guess.
This is my best guest, Captain. I did that this week.
I can't think of the car. I'll tell you about
it when we come back, if you're still listening. But
(32:46):
we had a car this week, Oh, the PT Cruiser
that I was talking about in the open. I got
to the point where I said, you know what, Dorman,
this is my best guess. Let's start with a thermostad.
And she said it to me. She said, like McCoy
told Spock, sometimes you got to take your best guess.
And that's just the way it is, and it works
in order repair. So far, I've guessed right. Let me
know what happens, Charlie. I'm here for you. If you
need more, I'm ronnin Andy and the car doctor. I'll
(33:07):
be back right after this. You know, maybe, and it's important,
(33:30):
and maybe this is the importance of maintenance that if
you're doing maintenance, and if you do your due diligence
and you do your regular maintenance and you take proper
care of your vehicle, maybe when you have a specific
problem that's a little obtuse, that's a little abstract, that's
a little off the wall, maintenance kind of erases some
(33:51):
of the possibilities, and it helps you get to a
diagnostic conclusion faster because it's actually easier for the technician
and cheaper for the customer to diagnose a maintained vehicle
than an unmaintained vehicle. An unmaintained vehicle steers you in
the face. And there's just too many possibilities in too
(34:11):
many scenarios, especially since the advent of computerization, which has
been going on for forty years now. So when I
start to think about some of the problem cars, this hour,
all right, the transmission on the land Cruiser. So we
did fluid service. It happened right after that. Let's make
it easy. Let's go for fluid level. Then let's talk
(34:31):
about how can we go about doing our testing and
it was a real quick it's step one, step two
for the blower motor. There's not really a lot of
maintenance here, but the diagnostic steps are it's this and this,
and then you get to the point in the eighty
five percentile where well, then it has to be. This
is most common because sometimes guessing is required and part
of order repair. And the day it's not as the
(34:53):
day manufacturers tell you'd never tell you again to have
to substitute with a known good part, I'm on an
ady and the card doctor that till the next time.
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
See you m
Host
Ron Ananian
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