June 19, 2021 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about air conditioning and several other topics : takes a call on an 05 Ranger with a miss when the car is barely warm, then smooths out : takes a call on an 18 Highlander where the caller bought a service contract, and now they want to do a $300 fuel system maintenance that is not in the owner’s manual : takes a call on a 10 RAV 4 where the caller had an oil change done, car was making noise so he look it to a garage near where he was and they found no oil in the engine – asking how to diagnose possible oil loss : takes a call on an 01 Suburban that starts fine cold, but is difficult to start when warm.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ronan the Cheap Car is gone. That beater that so
many people drove in high school back in the day,
That cheap car that ran for two years just to
get by while you were trying to get to the
next level in life. A thousand dollars card? Did I
ever buy a thousand dollars the car Doctor? Do you
(00:29):
eat col Kutz? Yeah? Do you like Bologny? No, it's
not one of my favorite. Well, I'm sorry to hear that,
because I think you're getting a bologna sandwich at a
dollar fifty nine pound. Brother. Welcome to the radio home
of ron Andanian the Car Doctor, since this is where
car owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion
(00:52):
on automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors
are open, but I am here to take your calls
at eight five and now running. If there's one thing
forty five plus years of auto repair has taught me,
(01:13):
and I'm gonna see Tom Ray smile in a minute,
it's you better be quick on your feet, and so
is live talk radio. Because about thirty two seconds ago,
we just suffered a major computer reboot right here in
the studio and we're back up and running. And um,
it would have been interesting because I know Tom would
have been tuned into me telepathically. He knew he knew
what I was gonna do, and I knew what he
(01:34):
was gonna do. And we could have done this thing
without computers in front of us. But here we are,
Welcome to the car Doctor. My name's Ron and Ai
and the phone numbers eight five zero zero zero. I
want to know what, what if you didn't have a crank,
have to crank that computer up to make it work,
you'd be all set. While I was trying to, you know,
make the mouse spin the wheel a little faster. Just
all of a sudden, Tom, the whole thing went ka flue.
(01:56):
And you gotta feed that mouse once in a while, dude.
You know the agility of computers. And I look at
all of this and I say, and this is what's
going to run the car. And nobody seems to understand
the concern for this. I will say this. And you
(02:17):
know a lot of people have said to me as
I talked to you, all of you, you know, either
by text or email or phone or however it is
they're all kind of leaning yet Ron, You're right. You know,
electric cars are going to be a hassle because of this,
this and this, and nobody seems to want to do
anything about it. I saw an interesting story. I think
it was on Homebox, and my wife actually recorded it
(02:39):
for me because she said she was watching it. I
started to watch it. She said, look, they're they're talking
about what you were saying. How with electric vehicles there's
no way to collect gas tax and they're going to
have to install the government is going to install devices
in the electric vehicle or some level of government that's
(03:00):
going to record miles driven and then send you a
tax bill. Can you say nine four George Orwell he
missed it by about thirty five, maybe forty years, but
he was right here we go, okay, and everybody's just
gonna blindly accept this. I think cars are gonna get
(03:21):
to be political. I think they already are, and and
it's just gonna be an interesting right. I wanted to
start this hour talking to you about we've I've been
keeping track. We've done nine eight or nine different air
conditioning repairs in the shop in the last week and
a half, and every one of them was different, and
I thought it was just interesting about all the little
things that can go wrong with air conditioning. I was
gonna talk to you about that. Um, I was gonna
(03:42):
talk to you about customer presentation and whether or not you,
as a customer, do you actually listen to what your
mechanics says you do you just nod your head say yes,
and when there's a problem you blame the mechanic anyway, UM,
I was gonna talk about that, but you know what,
the phones are backed up. Let's kick off this hour
of the Car Doctor, this Father's Day edition of the
Car Doctor. Let's go to I guess we'll go to uh.
Let's go to Jim in Missouri and talk to about
(04:04):
his OH five Ford Ranger. Jim. Welcome a board, sir,
How can I help? Hi? Ron, Thanks for the call, um,
second time caller? Congratulations, how can I help? Yeah? So
it's an O five Ranger and starts up fine cold.
I take off about a mile and it starts to miss,
and it's a very steady miss. It lasts for thirty
(04:25):
to forty five seconds and it's like somebody hits the switch.
It snows right out and it runs fine. The rest
of the day. Okay, what engines? What engines in this gym.
It's a two point three four cylinder and I drive
it a hundred miles to work, and I drive it
a hundred miles back every day, so I worry about
breaking down on the interstate. You have something sure? Yeah?
(04:47):
Um and um. Four months ago the coil went out,
so I thought new never ever works. I changed the coil,
but that didn't fix it. I had eighty thousand miles
on the plugs. I pulled them there at s so
I replaced the bucks um, but nothing to change. Everything's
I downical and didn't didn't make a difference. Okay, And
it's it's a clear cut miss. Oh yeah. And it varies.
(05:11):
Sometimes it's it's it's soft, you can feel it, but
it's not bad. Other times it's so bad. Um, I
lose speed, I can't even hold speed. And when it
does that, the engine lights flashes. And then as soon
as I feel a switch so to speak, and it
takes off, the light just go slid. Any reason why
you haven't scanned for code yet, or you have you
scanned and there are none. I have a scanner, and
(05:33):
it says I forget them to one critical misfire. I'm
sorry I said that again. Jim says critical misfire. I
think it's a p three oh one. Okay, so it's
reporting a misfire on cylinder one. No, it doesn't give
a cylinder. Well, you just said, you just said, you
just said three oh one. It's got to give it.
(05:55):
It's got to give a number to go with the description.
Got you all right? Yeah, I'm sure it's three oh one. Okay.
Three o one would be a misfire on cylinder one.
All right, so go back and check that. Now, keep
in mind you've gone through ignition once or twice. Here
no rule that says this is only ignition. This could
be fuel related, this could be a lean condition. The
(06:17):
fact that it's the fact that it's happening on one
doesn't mean it's not starting to happen on other cylinders.
But it hasn't happened enough to set a fault code.
You probably don't have a scan tool capable of it.
But here's a classic example of if I can get
into some kind of steady beat where it happens on
a consistent basis, it might pay for you to spend
(06:40):
and buy an hour of a shop's time. Somebody that
can get into modes six. Have you heard me talk
about modes six before? Okay? And you know, here's an
example of looking at behind the scenes data. The data
that drives the check engine light that drives the engine
to report a failure or a fault or the computer
report of fault. Um, it would pay to buy an
(07:01):
hour of that shops time. At least you've got a direction, now,
you know. Could this be a bad injector? Sure? Could
this be a PCM losing a driver for the injector,
or a problem in the way that it's firing the
coil itself. Yeah, that's but that's that's way over the
top stuff. Let's let's go through basics first. Okay, Um,
(07:22):
if you were to when this is happening, is this?
Does this only happen when you are driving? Or if
you were to pull over at the side of the road,
would it still miss and and and run rough? It
will still miss and run rough. Okay, So when it
misses and runs rough, does your scan tools show data stream?
It does have live data? Okay, I was watching the
(07:44):
field trims and what does it do? And field trim
goes between plus and nine is two two point three
and short term and long term sitting at six point
three while the miss is happening. And then how is
that different versus what happens? You know what's happening when
you're driving down the road regular, no difference at all.
(08:07):
I've I've watched it all the way down to Cape
and back where I work, and it's always in that range. Okay,
So here's what I want you to do. I want
you to duplicate it in your driveway, all right, when
the miss is, when the miss is happening, I want
you to pull off a vacuum line. I want you
to make a vacuum leak. Al right, where's fuel trim?
Where's fuel trim gonna go? It's gonna it's gonna should
(08:31):
go up right, it should go through the moon. And
what am I looking for? What do I want to
see happen? I want to see if it goes up.
I want to know if the scan tools reporting correct information.
I want to know if the scan tool can read
correct data. Because now I'm now I'm starting to suspect
because a misfire should create higher oxygen content, drive the
fuel mixture lean, all right, because it's not consuming the
(08:55):
oxygen in the cylinder. If it's an ignition misfire, if
it's a fuel missfire, it should still show lean because
there's no combustion going on, and there's less combustion going on,
I should still see a lean event. We had a
Chrysler in the shop this week. We had four different
scan tools on it, and none of them, none of
them properly reported when the cooling fan came on. They
(09:19):
never even acknowledged it. And I believe it was a
problem within Chrysler, within Chrysler software. We fixed the car
and we you know, we we were able to just
make notes on it. And one day I'll look up
the bolt and I'll probably find the bolt, and that
talks about a flesh for the way the pits displayed.
But in the meantime, you know, suffice it to say,
if the scan tools showing me something that makes no sense,
(09:42):
I want to see more information, So let's do let's
do that. So I want to know. I want to
know the fuel trim in the vehicle seem to match
what's really going on on the scan tool. That's number one.
Can I look at Mode six data? That's number two?
If you can stand there in your in your garage
and your driveway and here this thing start to miss.
But up up. If you listen to the injector while
(10:04):
it's running good, you should hear a nice click click click.
It'll be a nice steady tap tap tap tap tap.
And if all of a sudden that tap goes away,
that injector is not being driven, and that that'll tell
you something. So remember, a misfire is more than just
something ignition wise. Alright, A misfire can be you know,
(10:27):
an ignition, and a misfire can be fuel, mechanical or ignition.
I don't believe this is mechanical. I'm gonna take my
first run at fuel and or ignition. Let's start there,
call me back, all right. So, yeah, this is what
I needed to diagnosis. Let's let's let's break it apart.
Let's make it a one cylinder engine. It's reporting a
(10:48):
misfire on cylinder one. It's your lawnmower and the wife's saying, honey,
we gotta cut the lawn doesn't run right. How you
gonna diagnose it? You got one cylinder? Break it down, alright, kiddo, cool,
Thank you so much. You're very welcome, keep me posted,
let me know what happens, and please call me back.
I want to know what. I'm sure all the other
listeners due to good luck to you, Jim. I'm running
any in the car doctor. We are back right after this.
(11:18):
What's more fun than listening to Ron and Any in
the car doctor and getting that car fixed? Right? Eight
five five five zero zero zero. Give Ron a call?
Now back to Ron, Hey, let's get over to Chester
in Florida and talk to him about his eighteen Toyota
Highland or Chester. Welcome to the car doctor, Hey, thank you, Ron,
You're welcome. I had with two thousand and eighteen Toyota Highland,
(11:40):
and I bought under the Toyota Certified program in December
in answer uh, in March, I carried it in for
the forty thousand. Now, um, I want to change and
the tire rotation etode checks. You know, everything went, Everything went?
Will I cared to the end last week, well before
five thousand mile all change, entire rotation and so forth,
(12:05):
and and that when I went to leave, the service
adviser told me said, enough, when you come back in
at the fifty tho mile mark, we need to do
a service to services that we cast a total of
three hundred dollars. I said, well, one of those services,
she said, we need to do a fuel indict induction
service and a fuel injector service. And I said, well,
(12:29):
that's not showing on my fifty thousand mile check yo
and my arts manual. I said, what's it for? What
does it do? She said, oh, it helps you get
better gas mileage. Well, I'm getting great gas milege car
runs well. And I just wondered, what is your opinion?
Why should not be doing a fuel induction service and
a fuel injective service at the fifty thou level mark?
(12:52):
Great question, Chester. So if we were at the shop,
the conversation will go like this. When we do an
oil chain, we do an oil change for customers, and
every time we do an oil change, the majority of
people get a bottle of fuel system cleaner added to
the tank. This is how we do fuel system maintenance.
This is my approach. All right, Um, so we'll add
(13:14):
a bottle of fuel system cleaner to the tank. What
we're looking to do is we're trying to keep carbon
deposits out of the intake valves top of the piston.
We're trying to keep the engine is clean on the
inside as we possibly can. We're also trying to promote
catalytic converter life. One of the things people don't realize
is that a good fuel injection cleaner will help clean
(13:39):
up the CAT after the fact, and it will put
depositive chemicals on the catalytic converter material, and as time
goes by, as the cat gets hot, it helps burn
off and and reduce the coding, so to speak. Um,
there are specific fuel system cleaners that work to do that.
You're at fifty thousand miles of vehicles three going on
four years old. Do you need all this? My question
(14:02):
is how long do you plan to drive it? If
you want to drive the Toyota ten years and three
hundred thousand miles, you know, it's it's sort of like,
do you want to get to the hundred thousand mile
mark and then start to do some maintenance and hope
you can play catch up or do you want to
just do it from the get go. My question to
the Toyota dealer would be how often do you do
(14:23):
this fuel system cleaning service? Do they do it every
fifty miles? Do they do it every Yeah? See and
I don't think I don't think that's enough, all right.
I would also base it on how you know your
time frame? How often do you drive? Okay, you know
how many miles a year you putting on the vehicle.
(14:45):
If you're doing five thousand miles a year, it'll be
ten years before you do the next one. And to
me from a from a you know, an idoling perspective.
You know, we've got to take idoling time into effect.
You're in Florida, We've got to take heat into effect.
All right. Fuel system maintenance is still an ongoing is
still an ongoing service that we critically need. Why isn't
(15:06):
it an the owner's manual? It's not. And when we
say owners manual, anytime I talk about owners manual in
a vehicle, I always make a frame of reference that
there are Usually you can find two owners manuals in
a vehicle today. You'll find the one from the manufacturer,
and you'll find that dealer maintenance book that the dealer
has come up with as the alleged services that the
(15:26):
vehicle needs. I say alleged because some of them go overboard,
some of them do oversell. In my opinion, I've looked
at some dealers service manuals or some dealer owner manuals
that looks like the factory owner's manual. It's not. And
the dealer is trying to sell power steering flushes at
fifteen thousand miles, which is nonsense. All right. I see
(15:47):
no reason or an advantage to that, not to mention
the fact that the vehicle is still under warranty at
fifteen thousand miles. Why are you responsible for that service?
If it's that big a problem, the vehicle manufacturer should
do it for free. Back to your question, Okay, you're
doing this because you don't want to have to replace
that catalytic converter. You don't want to have to have
(16:07):
or worry about carbon deposit issues or poor performance or
mileage dropping off. You're not doing it solely for fuel economy.
You're doing it for future maintenance. Do you have a
do you have do you have a vitamin routine? Chester? Okay?
Why do you? Why do you how do you feel?
Do you feel good? Okay? Why do you take vitamins?
(16:32):
To right? And and you know it's it's Do you
notice when you first started taking the vitamins, you were saying,
do I really need these, but you know what, you
got the seventy four, So you're you're gonna take your
vitamins to get to eighty four, right, God will and right,
get get the ninety four four? All right? Um, you
know you want to you want to do fuel system
(16:54):
maintenance to get the maximum mileage out of the vehicle.
That being said, it used to be that we would
hook up a fuel system, a chemical cleaner to the injectors,
clean the injectors, The injectors would spray through and clean
the back of the intake valels, and so forth. Engines
have gotten a lot more complicated and involved. It depends
(17:16):
on the engine, It depends on the combination. Toyota is
probably doing this right because I like I like what
I'm hearing. I like induction cleaning. The difference between an
induction cleaning and an injection cleaning is an induction cleaning
is putting a chemical down the air intake throat of
the engine, not through the injector rail. It's cleaning and
(17:37):
washing off the inside of the intake and any carbon
and any residue and flushing it out through the engine
to burn through combustion and out the tailpipe. An injection
cleaning is being tied into the rail itself cleaning the injectors. Um.
I will say this my experience and from what I'm
reading has been vehicles made since teening up, and I'm
(18:00):
talking across the board, the majority of vehicles in the
last eight to ten years have self cleaning injectors. Cleaning
injectors is okay, but it's more important, or just as important,
to do induction cleaning too. But it's also important to
do that bottle of fuel system cleaner at the at
the oil change on a regular basis, that's every three
or four months, every five six months. However, you're changing
(18:23):
loyal so they've got some validity there. I would ask
a little deeper, what does their chemical do and what
is it gonna precisely offer you beyond fuel economy? See
what kind of answers you get. Good luck to your chester.
Let me know if you need more. I'm running any
in the car, doctor, I'm coming back right after this.
Don't go away, welcome back. Wh on the end of
(19:03):
the car, docul Let's get over to oh, you know,
before I go to gym in Wisconsin. Tom. You know,
we were talking about government intervention and mortomobiles did you
hear about that? You live in New York. Did you
hear about the New York Sleep Act. Yeah, a matter
of fact, it's gonna do something where it's gonna they're
gonna they're gonna change or limit the um, the sound
(19:25):
of the exhaust, right, They're gonna cut back on exhaust sounds.
Well know what they're doing is they're making it illegal
to make any changes to the car that could make
it louder. What fun is that? I ate? Well, exactly, um,
and you know the it's funny. The article I read said,
you know, somebody said his neighbor was out at like
(19:45):
six in the morning revving the engine and you know,
causing a racket. And he complained to the neighbor and
he said it's not illegal. And I would kind of
beg to differ with that because there are noise ordinances.
Well you know, now listen some of them, and I
think what they're after. What I had read was there
after the little tuner cars with the you know, the
little cars that sit load to the ground, the imports
(20:07):
with the loud exhaust tips coming out the back, and
they are and I canna tell you to me, that's
annoying well they're there, but they're making this going after
all cars and bikes and motorcycles, right, so, you know,
does it look like it's gonna pass? Are you following
it at all? In New York? Well, you know, they
don't know, because it's headed to the governor's desk right now.
And apparently the governor is a car guy. Oh so
(20:30):
they don't know. They don't know what it's gonna do. Really,
I didn't know that about Cuomo. Yeah, I didn't need
you the denying it said. No, he's he's he's a
car guy. I mean I could see up to a
certain point, you know, I mean, you know what the
problem is. And maybe this is part of it too,
that there's no common sense. People just keep pushing the
envelope and pushing the envelope. And there is something neat
about an old Chevy with loud exhaust I mean, listen,
(20:51):
that was an era, right, that's there is that's there.
Comes to the point, right not at two in the morning.
You know, there's there's noise ordinances regard this. Okay, we
you know you can't play loud rock and roll music
at two o'clock in the morning and wake up your neighbors.
You shouldn't be allowed to rev up your car and
wake up your neighbors. And it's common courtesy and decency.
But unfortunately those words don't exist in the world today. Kidding,
(21:14):
they can't. No, it's a it's it's it's a problem,
it's it's it's an issue. By the way, your mike's
cutting in and out. Um, the internet's cock eyed today.
You know, we should talk about the internet. What is it?
So you did it again, So my control keeps going, oh, well,
there you go. There's something cock eyed I should point
(21:36):
out to while I can before we go completely kaflue
ish Um. For Father's Day, we're giving away a twenty
five gift card for orilly Otoparts and we're gonna do
that either this hour or next hour. So we're looking
for somebody who's got a Father's Day story. Um that uh,
you know, decision of the judge Tom Ray is final,
and we'll get that out there. For Father's Day. It
(21:56):
was a little late this year. We tried doing it
last week, but we didn't get we didn't get the
documentation in time, so it just kind of worked out
like that. But future case, you know, for Dadoto Parts
gift card um you can find all everything you needed,
or Realioto parts or Realioto dot Com is the place
to bate. Let's get out and talk to Jim in
Wisconsin now ten Toyota and some problems with possible oil
(22:19):
change issues. Jim, Welcome to the car doctor. Sir, How
can yes, sir? Hi? Hi run yes. Well, I've got
a question about my rap for I've got two hundred
and five thousand miles on it today, but at about
two hundred and three and a half UM, I had
to take it in. It was making a lord awful
noise from underneath. It sounded like a cover was coming
(22:43):
off or something. And I took it into a small
garage up in the woods near the lakes, and the
mechanic there said it had less than a quart of
oil in it. There was no sign of oil being
burnt or any leak at your holes anywhere. No no
oil on our roads or driveway. And the week before
(23:04):
I handed up there, I had an oil change done
as a dealer, so they put oil in it. We
drove it around. I've now got that extra on it.
It makes a little bit of a noise. When we
started up, but it's gone right away, and I'm just curious,
is there something dangerous I would do or what type
(23:26):
of checks can I do on an engine that might
have been running without oil for a couple of thou Yeah,
the problem here, Jimmy, is the horse has been let
out of the barn and she's run wild already, so
you know, it's hard to rein it back in. Is
this the fourth cylinder or the sixth cylinder? It's the four, Okay.
The fourth cylinder does not have the consumption issues that
(23:48):
the V six has had, So let's let's put on
that particular model. Um, so let's be right up front
with that. I think that, yeah, it's possible they didn't
put any oil in it, or enough oil in it.
I guess the real question isn't That's not to say, listen,
you could have an oil consumption, you've got higher mileage. Um.
You know, the first thing I would want to see
(24:09):
is you had this other shop change the oil, add
correct oil. The oil level is good, I would keep
an eye on it. If the oil level doesn't go
down over the course of the next two to three months,
then we've got to make the assumption that the previous
shop didn't add all the oil to it. Can you
prove it? No? Not really, I you know, unless you
go Unless you go back and explain it to them
(24:30):
and they go, oh, you know, little Freddie did it again.
You know, maybe there's a new guy in the oil
change Loup Bay and they're gonna go. I doubt it,
but you'll feel better saying it to somebody. Right. The
problem is, would there be any benefit in running an
additive in that for a couple of weeks and then
changing the oil right away again? Not so we know
(24:50):
if something's wrong, what are you trying to What are
you trying to run the editor for? To clean up
something or to get rid of the noise, well, maybe
to get rid of the noise if it's something that's
locked up, or well if there's something locked up as
a result of running at low on oil at two
and a thousand miles. I don't think an editive is
going to fix it. Listen, you could try it. Tell
me what what editive do you want to put in there?
(25:12):
And I would I have I know of nothing that's
going to break it free unless you want to just
do like some crank case sludge removal device. You know,
Berriman has something. I'm sure if you get out to
the Barriman website Barman Products dot com, they'll have a
sludge remover or a high mileage oil rejuvenator, you know
that would you know that would work on sludge. But
this was a lack of oil, So this was we're
(25:33):
going on the theory here. That was a lack of
oil and a you know, engine damage done kind of
a problem. So you know, I don't know that. I
don't know that a sludge remover is going to resolve that.
My my go ahead, Well, I was thinking of going
back to that. You were talking about fathers, and I
remember it on our old A. We used to have
(25:55):
a Model A with actually tractor treads on the back
for the snow up here in the up and my
dad would run mental spirits once in a while to
get it loosened up before you put the oil in it. Right,
But his engine didn't have an uh an engine sound
a knocking noise, right, and he didn't have an oil
consumption problem. Now, if you came back to me and said, hey, Ron,
(26:17):
I think I do have an oil consumption problem. I've
got sticky rings. That's a different conversation. Let's do let's
let's do this scientifically, all right. You had the oil
chains at the dealership. How long ago? It was like
six weeks ago. Okay, so you're gonna keep track of
the oil level for the next six weeks if the
(26:39):
oil doesn't Wait, wait, Brian, since since I had a
change in the dealership a week and a half later,
there was no oil in it and I done it
a service napader Okay. So so whereas the first dealer
did it and after two weeks, let's round it off.
After two weeks, you had no oil in it. And
now you've driven it six weeks after having another shop
(27:01):
do it, and you've still got oil in it. Yeah, okay,
So then we've got to assume that that last shop
didn't fill it up all the way with oil. So
there's a conversation just to put it on paper. Not
that it's gonna give you any I don't think you're
gonna get anything for it, but it would give you
satisfaction knowing, Hey, I said something, and you know, maybe
(27:23):
you go in there and say, listen, you know what.
I know you're not gonna do anything for me, but
I just want to make you aware that maybe one
of your oil change guys is getting a little sloppy
and is maybe had a bad day. Maybe, but you
know you can't. That's like a doctor saying, well, I
missed the heart surgery. I was having a bad night
the night before. I had a fight with mom, and
the kids weren't paying attention. You know what, you're doing,
your job, Do your job. So let's assume bad word
(27:45):
on family radio that this isn't a lack of oil issue,
all right, if the noise doesn't go away, I don't
see we're putting a sludge remover. Is there any sludge
in the engine. There hasn't been any, right, you know,
I don't see whe're doing a sledgery. Mover is going
to help in oil, additive help, maybe something that's gonna
(28:09):
thicken the oil. But now we're only hiding the problem
and it's just going to it's just going to get
worse over a matter of time. I'd rather see if
the noise gets worse on its own, and if it
does make the appropriate repair, I think you're better off
to stay safe, all right, sir, Thanks so much. You're
very welcome, Jim. I appreciate the call zero run any
(28:31):
of the car doctor coming back right after this. Welcome back,
any of the car doctor. Here. We've solved Tom's microphone problem.
We're up and running and away we go. Try it now, Tom,
did we just do an eight as calibration on our
(28:53):
audio conc Well, basically, you know, and it's funny, right
you you talk about it like that, But Tom's pot
my on the on the on the on the control
board here at at Studio one was a just a tick,
I mean, less than half of the thickness of the
hair on your head, and it was causing his pot
(29:14):
control you know, eight miles north of me, to vary
and shut itself up because so higher the normal signal
on the homeboard. Something like that, Right Tom, That's that's
sort of the explanation. Yeah, it's it's it's saught up
off off of home base and um decided to just
keep bringing it back down whenever we try to do something.
(29:34):
But but the a DOS comment is precisely right, because
advanced driver assist if you are trying to calibrate there,
it's you know, less than the thickness of a hair.
They talk about the thickness of the paint on the
bumper if it's not painted properly on an a DOS
equipped vehicle will upset and effect calibration and cause all
(29:55):
sorts of issues. So we're definitely headed for some fun
times in the coming years. I can't wait. I can't wait.
I can do this though. Let's go over Stephen Illinois
and talk about it. No one, suburban, I can't I
can't wait to do this either, Steve, Welcome to the
car doctor, sir, How can I help? Hey? Yeah, thanks,
thanks for taking a call. Oh suburban? Uh starts up fine,
and then you run it for a while and turn off,
(30:16):
run into the store. It's been warmed up, come back out,
kind of started up. Just cranks and cranks and cranks.
We'll ever fire off. Then you back it off and
try it again, and second or third attempt it does
start right out without a problem. I can't figure out
why I have to being warmed up a while. It's
not starting any any diag, any diagnostics done to it yet. No,
(30:41):
it's it's not throwing any lights or codes or anything.
Anybody anybody change any part yet? No? Okay, first place
I want to go as I want to look at
fuel pressure. All right, I just flatt and simple. You know,
what's what's fuel pressure cold? What's fuel pressure hot? When
you shut it off hot? Can you duplicate it in
the bay if if you were to look at it,
(31:01):
or a mechanic we're to look at it. If you
ran the vehicle and got it hot, you know, drove
it for a half hour, brought it home, or brought
it into the shop and let it set there an
idle and shut it off, and you know, five minutes
later try to restart it. Would you be able to
duplicate the condition? Probably, it's pretty It does a pretty consistem, Okay, perfect,
I mean it's it's a broken vehicle and a mechanic
whereth the salt has got to be able to fix that,
(31:23):
So you know it's but I want to look at
fuel pressure. I want to look does it have proper
fuel pressure and does it have residual fuel pressure? Does
it hold pressure in the line to avoid that extended
crank period when you come back to start it up
as some vehicles need to have. So if fuel pressure
is good and I mean checks out thoroughly completely, volume
(31:45):
test pressure test fuel pressure, cleanliness and I always look
at cleanliness when I'm doing a fuel pressure test because
it takes me two seconds to do, you know, just
to take a sample, because you know, I'm sure it's not.
But you know what you've you've heard me say it before,
and you know the term that you know sometimes diagnosing
is tell me what's good, and I'll tell you what's bad.
So let's alienate fuel. Let's look at fuel from all
(32:07):
possible sides. After that, I'm gonna look at fuel trim.
Is fuel trim excessive? Where's the mass airflow sensor? Could
I possibly have a sensor approaching out of calibration causing
a hard start? Hot? Did this vehicle sit for any
length of time any sort of time frame in the
last year. Um, you know, we don't put tons of
(32:28):
miles on it, but it's used on a relative Okay,
couldn't have a spider web inside the mass airflow sensor?
You know, you start to think about crazy things like that, right,
But before we go there, let's check fuel pressure. It's quick,
it's easy, it's simple. High mileage on this card to Steve,
and it's only got about okay. Sometimes that's even worse
(32:50):
than eighty five thousand mile vehicle. That's twenty one years old.
The veins on the fuel pump get tried out, and
then when you use it and run it and get
it hot, they don't pump. Well, it's kind of like
a worn out some pump in your basement when you're
trying to move water. So let's um, let's let's start
the war there. Let's take a look at fuel pressure
and then call me back. We can talk further and
we'll get you to it. We can fix that car. Absolutely,
(33:10):
it's broken. There's no reason we can't fix it. Eight zero.
Run any of the car doctor coming back right after this,
welcome back, run any of the card doctor. Just the reminder.
Next hour we're giving away a twenty five O'Riley Oto
Parts gift card for Dat in honor of Dad, for
(33:32):
Father's Day and uh to help celebrate Dad and all
that the dads do. So if you've got a great
Father's Day story, you just would like to take a
shot at it, give us a call next hour zero
zero and tell Tom your story. And if you plead
on him a little bit and maybe cry on his shoulder,
he might he might consider it. So, um, you know,
just for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, to all the
(33:53):
fathers out there. You know, Father's Day is, um, it's
what did might to do this year? Um? One of
my kids gave me a short story option where I'm
going to be filling out for the next year. They're
gonna ask me questions and I'm gonna be filling it
out and telling them, you know, tales of woe and
tales from the hood of growing up and working on cars.
(34:15):
And I have to think of how much I actually
want to tell them, and you know, some of these
things have to be classified until after I'm dead fifty
years but um, you know, it's it's interesting to see
how fathers can influence the kid, right. You know, my
dad was and I just recently I was going through
(34:35):
family papers and I found the documentation that supports what
I've heard all these years that my father was a
My father was a flight instructor and an aviation mechanic.
And I found his security clearance paperwork from LaGuardia Airport
during the war when he worked on Roosevelt's plane when
it came in. And I always thought some of it
was tall tales. And then again, Uncle Steve was telling
me the story, so you just knew they had to
(34:57):
be tall tales, but it turns out they weren't. Right
there real um, you know, there's real security cards and
Dad's picture and uh, you know, I I and I
think about that. I thought about that all this week.
I found them last Sunday, and I've thought about that
all week because Dad was probably still my guiding force
for being, you know, becoming a mechanic, and it was
(35:17):
sort of instilled in me in an early age. And
I always think about his comment about, you know, when
you have a problem, just think your way through, stay calm,
and you'll figure it out. That's what good mechanics do.
Dad was right then, Dad's right now. But Dad's also
got to hear good mechanics aren't expensive. They're priceless. See
you
Ronan the Cheap Car is gone. That beater that so
many people drove in high school back in the day,
That cheap car that ran for two years just to
get by while you were trying to get to the
next level in life. A thousand dollars card? Did I
ever buy a thousand dollars the car Doctor? Do you
(00:29):
eat col Kutz? Yeah? Do you like Bologny? No, it's
not one of my favorite. Well, I'm sorry to hear that,
because I think you're getting a bologna sandwich at a
dollar fifty nine pound. Brother. Welcome to the radio home
of ron Andanian the Car Doctor, since this is where
car owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion
(00:52):
on automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors
are open, but I am here to take your calls
at eight five and now running. If there's one thing
forty five plus years of auto repair has taught me,
(01:13):
and I'm gonna see Tom Ray smile in a minute,
it's you better be quick on your feet, and so
is live talk radio. Because about thirty two seconds ago,
we just suffered a major computer reboot right here in
the studio and we're back up and running. And um,
it would have been interesting because I know Tom would
have been tuned into me telepathically. He knew he knew
what I was gonna do, and I knew what he
(01:34):
was gonna do. And we could have done this thing
without computers in front of us. But here we are,
Welcome to the car Doctor. My name's Ron and Ai
and the phone numbers eight five zero zero zero. I
want to know what, what if you didn't have a crank,
have to crank that computer up to make it work,
you'd be all set. While I was trying to, you know,
make the mouse spin the wheel a little faster. Just
all of a sudden, Tom, the whole thing went ka flue.
(01:56):
And you gotta feed that mouse once in a while, dude.
You know the agility of computers. And I look at
all of this and I say, and this is what's
going to run the car. And nobody seems to understand
the concern for this. I will say this. And you
(02:17):
know a lot of people have said to me as
I talked to you, all of you, you know, either
by text or email or phone or however it is
they're all kind of leaning yet Ron, You're right. You know,
electric cars are going to be a hassle because of this,
this and this, and nobody seems to want to do
anything about it. I saw an interesting story. I think
it was on Homebox, and my wife actually recorded it
(02:39):
for me because she said she was watching it. I
started to watch it. She said, look, they're they're talking
about what you were saying. How with electric vehicles there's
no way to collect gas tax and they're going to
have to install the government is going to install devices
in the electric vehicle or some level of government that's
(03:00):
going to record miles driven and then send you a
tax bill. Can you say nine four George Orwell he
missed it by about thirty five, maybe forty years, but
he was right here we go, okay, and everybody's just
gonna blindly accept this. I think cars are gonna get
(03:21):
to be political. I think they already are, and and
it's just gonna be an interesting right. I wanted to
start this hour talking to you about we've I've been
keeping track. We've done nine eight or nine different air
conditioning repairs in the shop in the last week and
a half, and every one of them was different, and
I thought it was just interesting about all the little
things that can go wrong with air conditioning. I was
gonna talk to you about that. Um, I was gonna
(03:42):
talk to you about customer presentation and whether or not you,
as a customer, do you actually listen to what your
mechanics says you do you just nod your head say yes,
and when there's a problem you blame the mechanic anyway, UM,
I was gonna talk about that, but you know what,
the phones are backed up. Let's kick off this hour
of the Car Doctor, this Father's Day edition of the
Car Doctor. Let's go to I guess we'll go to uh.
Let's go to Jim in Missouri and talk to about
(04:04):
his OH five Ford Ranger. Jim. Welcome a board, sir,
How can I help? Hi? Ron, Thanks for the call, um,
second time caller? Congratulations, how can I help? Yeah? So
it's an O five Ranger and starts up fine cold.
I take off about a mile and it starts to miss,
and it's a very steady miss. It lasts for thirty
(04:25):
to forty five seconds and it's like somebody hits the switch.
It snows right out and it runs fine. The rest
of the day. Okay, what engines? What engines in this gym.
It's a two point three four cylinder and I drive
it a hundred miles to work, and I drive it
a hundred miles back every day, so I worry about
breaking down on the interstate. You have something sure? Yeah?
(04:47):
Um and um. Four months ago the coil went out,
so I thought new never ever works. I changed the coil,
but that didn't fix it. I had eighty thousand miles
on the plugs. I pulled them there at s so
I replaced the bucks um, but nothing to change. Everything's
I downical and didn't didn't make a difference. Okay, And
it's it's a clear cut miss. Oh yeah. And it varies.
(05:11):
Sometimes it's it's it's soft, you can feel it, but
it's not bad. Other times it's so bad. Um, I
lose speed, I can't even hold speed. And when it
does that, the engine lights flashes. And then as soon
as I feel a switch so to speak, and it
takes off, the light just go slid. Any reason why
you haven't scanned for code yet, or you have you
scanned and there are none. I have a scanner, and
(05:33):
it says I forget them to one critical misfire. I'm
sorry I said that again. Jim says critical misfire. I
think it's a p three oh one. Okay, so it's
reporting a misfire on cylinder one. No, it doesn't give
a cylinder. Well, you just said, you just said, you
just said three oh one. It's got to give it.
(05:55):
It's got to give a number to go with the description.
Got you all right? Yeah, I'm sure it's three oh one. Okay.
Three o one would be a misfire on cylinder one.
All right, so go back and check that. Now, keep
in mind you've gone through ignition once or twice. Here
no rule that says this is only ignition. This could
be fuel related, this could be a lean condition. The
(06:17):
fact that it's the fact that it's happening on one
doesn't mean it's not starting to happen on other cylinders.
But it hasn't happened enough to set a fault code.
You probably don't have a scan tool capable of it.
But here's a classic example of if I can get
into some kind of steady beat where it happens on
a consistent basis, it might pay for you to spend
(06:40):
and buy an hour of a shop's time. Somebody that
can get into modes six. Have you heard me talk
about modes six before? Okay? And you know, here's an
example of looking at behind the scenes data. The data
that drives the check engine light that drives the engine
to report a failure or a fault or the computer
report of fault. Um, it would pay to buy an
(07:01):
hour of that shops time. At least you've got a direction, now,
you know. Could this be a bad injector? Sure? Could
this be a PCM losing a driver for the injector,
or a problem in the way that it's firing the
coil itself. Yeah, that's but that's that's way over the
top stuff. Let's let's go through basics first. Okay, Um,
(07:22):
if you were to when this is happening, is this?
Does this only happen when you are driving? Or if
you were to pull over at the side of the road,
would it still miss and and and run rough? It
will still miss and run rough. Okay, So when it
misses and runs rough, does your scan tools show data stream?
It does have live data? Okay, I was watching the
(07:44):
field trims and what does it do? And field trim
goes between plus and nine is two two point three
and short term and long term sitting at six point
three while the miss is happening. And then how is
that different versus what happens? You know what's happening when
you're driving down the road regular, no difference at all.
(08:07):
I've I've watched it all the way down to Cape
and back where I work, and it's always in that range. Okay,
So here's what I want you to do. I want
you to duplicate it in your driveway, all right, when
the miss is, when the miss is happening, I want
you to pull off a vacuum line. I want you
to make a vacuum leak. Al right, where's fuel trim?
Where's fuel trim gonna go? It's gonna it's gonna should
(08:31):
go up right, it should go through the moon. And
what am I looking for? What do I want to
see happen? I want to see if it goes up.
I want to know if the scan tools reporting correct information.
I want to know if the scan tool can read
correct data. Because now I'm now I'm starting to suspect
because a misfire should create higher oxygen content, drive the
fuel mixture lean, all right, because it's not consuming the
(08:55):
oxygen in the cylinder. If it's an ignition misfire, if
it's a fuel missfire, it should still show lean because
there's no combustion going on, and there's less combustion going on,
I should still see a lean event. We had a
Chrysler in the shop this week. We had four different
scan tools on it, and none of them, none of
them properly reported when the cooling fan came on. They
(09:19):
never even acknowledged it. And I believe it was a
problem within Chrysler, within Chrysler software. We fixed the car
and we you know, we we were able to just
make notes on it. And one day I'll look up
the bolt and I'll probably find the bolt, and that
talks about a flesh for the way the pits displayed.
But in the meantime, you know, suffice it to say,
if the scan tools showing me something that makes no sense,
(09:42):
I want to see more information, So let's do let's
do that. So I want to know. I want to
know the fuel trim in the vehicle seem to match
what's really going on on the scan tool. That's number one.
Can I look at Mode six data? That's number two?
If you can stand there in your in your garage
and your driveway and here this thing start to miss.
But up up. If you listen to the injector while
(10:04):
it's running good, you should hear a nice click click click.
It'll be a nice steady tap tap tap tap tap.
And if all of a sudden that tap goes away,
that injector is not being driven, and that that'll tell
you something. So remember, a misfire is more than just
something ignition wise. Alright, A misfire can be you know,
(10:27):
an ignition, and a misfire can be fuel, mechanical or ignition.
I don't believe this is mechanical. I'm gonna take my
first run at fuel and or ignition. Let's start there,
call me back, all right. So, yeah, this is what
I needed to diagnosis. Let's let's let's break it apart.
Let's make it a one cylinder engine. It's reporting a
(10:48):
misfire on cylinder one. It's your lawnmower and the wife's saying, honey,
we gotta cut the lawn doesn't run right. How you
gonna diagnose it? You got one cylinder? Break it down, alright, kiddo, cool,
Thank you so much. You're very welcome, keep me posted,
let me know what happens, and please call me back.
I want to know what. I'm sure all the other
listeners due to good luck to you, Jim. I'm running
any in the car doctor. We are back right after this.
(11:18):
What's more fun than listening to Ron and Any in
the car doctor and getting that car fixed? Right? Eight
five five five zero zero zero. Give Ron a call?
Now back to Ron, Hey, let's get over to Chester
in Florida and talk to him about his eighteen Toyota
Highland or Chester. Welcome to the car doctor, Hey, thank you, Ron,
You're welcome. I had with two thousand and eighteen Toyota Highland,
(11:40):
and I bought under the Toyota Certified program in December
in answer uh, in March, I carried it in for
the forty thousand. Now, um, I want to change and
the tire rotation etode checks. You know, everything went, Everything went?
Will I cared to the end last week, well before
five thousand mile all change, entire rotation and so forth,
(12:05):
and and that when I went to leave, the service
adviser told me said, enough, when you come back in
at the fifty tho mile mark, we need to do
a service to services that we cast a total of
three hundred dollars. I said, well, one of those services,
she said, we need to do a fuel indict induction
service and a fuel injector service. And I said, well,
(12:29):
that's not showing on my fifty thousand mile check yo
and my arts manual. I said, what's it for? What
does it do? She said, oh, it helps you get
better gas mileage. Well, I'm getting great gas milege car
runs well. And I just wondered, what is your opinion?
Why should not be doing a fuel induction service and
a fuel injective service at the fifty thou level mark?
(12:52):
Great question, Chester. So if we were at the shop,
the conversation will go like this. When we do an
oil chain, we do an oil change for customers, and
every time we do an oil change, the majority of
people get a bottle of fuel system cleaner added to
the tank. This is how we do fuel system maintenance.
This is my approach. All right, Um, so we'll add
(13:14):
a bottle of fuel system cleaner to the tank. What
we're looking to do is we're trying to keep carbon
deposits out of the intake valves top of the piston.
We're trying to keep the engine is clean on the
inside as we possibly can. We're also trying to promote
catalytic converter life. One of the things people don't realize
is that a good fuel injection cleaner will help clean
(13:39):
up the CAT after the fact, and it will put
depositive chemicals on the catalytic converter material, and as time
goes by, as the cat gets hot, it helps burn
off and and reduce the coding, so to speak. Um,
there are specific fuel system cleaners that work to do that.
You're at fifty thousand miles of vehicles three going on
four years old. Do you need all this? My question
(14:02):
is how long do you plan to drive it? If
you want to drive the Toyota ten years and three
hundred thousand miles, you know, it's it's sort of like,
do you want to get to the hundred thousand mile
mark and then start to do some maintenance and hope
you can play catch up or do you want to
just do it from the get go. My question to
the Toyota dealer would be how often do you do
(14:23):
this fuel system cleaning service? Do they do it every
fifty miles? Do they do it every Yeah? See and
I don't think I don't think that's enough, all right.
I would also base it on how you know your
time frame? How often do you drive? Okay, you know
how many miles a year you putting on the vehicle.
(14:45):
If you're doing five thousand miles a year, it'll be
ten years before you do the next one. And to
me from a from a you know, an idoling perspective.
You know, we've got to take idoling time into effect.
You're in Florida, We've got to take heat into effect.
All right. Fuel system maintenance is still an ongoing is
still an ongoing service that we critically need. Why isn't
(15:06):
it an the owner's manual? It's not. And when we
say owners manual, anytime I talk about owners manual in
a vehicle, I always make a frame of reference that
there are Usually you can find two owners manuals in
a vehicle today. You'll find the one from the manufacturer,
and you'll find that dealer maintenance book that the dealer
has come up with as the alleged services that the
(15:26):
vehicle needs. I say alleged because some of them go overboard,
some of them do oversell. In my opinion, I've looked
at some dealers service manuals or some dealer owner manuals
that looks like the factory owner's manual. It's not. And
the dealer is trying to sell power steering flushes at
fifteen thousand miles, which is nonsense. All right. I see
(15:47):
no reason or an advantage to that, not to mention
the fact that the vehicle is still under warranty at
fifteen thousand miles. Why are you responsible for that service?
If it's that big a problem, the vehicle manufacturer should
do it for free. Back to your question, Okay, you're
doing this because you don't want to have to replace
that catalytic converter. You don't want to have to have
(16:07):
or worry about carbon deposit issues or poor performance or
mileage dropping off. You're not doing it solely for fuel economy.
You're doing it for future maintenance. Do you have a
do you have do you have a vitamin routine? Chester? Okay?
Why do you? Why do you how do you feel?
Do you feel good? Okay? Why do you take vitamins?
(16:32):
To right? And and you know it's it's Do you
notice when you first started taking the vitamins, you were saying,
do I really need these, but you know what, you
got the seventy four, So you're you're gonna take your
vitamins to get to eighty four, right, God will and right,
get get the ninety four four? All right? Um, you
know you want to you want to do fuel system
(16:54):
maintenance to get the maximum mileage out of the vehicle.
That being said, it used to be that we would
hook up a fuel system, a chemical cleaner to the injectors,
clean the injectors, The injectors would spray through and clean
the back of the intake valels, and so forth. Engines
have gotten a lot more complicated and involved. It depends
(17:16):
on the engine, It depends on the combination. Toyota is
probably doing this right because I like I like what
I'm hearing. I like induction cleaning. The difference between an
induction cleaning and an injection cleaning is an induction cleaning
is putting a chemical down the air intake throat of
the engine, not through the injector rail. It's cleaning and
(17:37):
washing off the inside of the intake and any carbon
and any residue and flushing it out through the engine
to burn through combustion and out the tailpipe. An injection
cleaning is being tied into the rail itself cleaning the injectors. Um.
I will say this my experience and from what I'm
reading has been vehicles made since teening up, and I'm
(18:00):
talking across the board, the majority of vehicles in the
last eight to ten years have self cleaning injectors. Cleaning
injectors is okay, but it's more important, or just as important,
to do induction cleaning too. But it's also important to
do that bottle of fuel system cleaner at the at
the oil change on a regular basis, that's every three
or four months, every five six months. However, you're changing
(18:23):
loyal so they've got some validity there. I would ask
a little deeper, what does their chemical do and what
is it gonna precisely offer you beyond fuel economy? See
what kind of answers you get. Good luck to your chester.
Let me know if you need more. I'm running any
in the car, doctor, I'm coming back right after this.
Don't go away, welcome back. Wh on the end of
(19:03):
the car, docul Let's get over to oh, you know,
before I go to gym in Wisconsin. Tom. You know,
we were talking about government intervention and mortomobiles did you
hear about that? You live in New York. Did you
hear about the New York Sleep Act. Yeah, a matter
of fact, it's gonna do something where it's gonna they're
gonna they're gonna change or limit the um, the sound
(19:25):
of the exhaust, right, They're gonna cut back on exhaust sounds.
Well know what they're doing is they're making it illegal
to make any changes to the car that could make
it louder. What fun is that? I ate? Well, exactly, um,
and you know the it's funny. The article I read said,
you know, somebody said his neighbor was out at like
(19:45):
six in the morning revving the engine and you know,
causing a racket. And he complained to the neighbor and
he said it's not illegal. And I would kind of
beg to differ with that because there are noise ordinances.
Well you know, now listen some of them, and I
think what they're after. What I had read was there
after the little tuner cars with the you know, the
little cars that sit load to the ground, the imports
(20:07):
with the loud exhaust tips coming out the back, and
they are and I canna tell you to me, that's
annoying well they're there, but they're making this going after
all cars and bikes and motorcycles, right, so, you know,
does it look like it's gonna pass? Are you following
it at all? In New York? Well, you know, they
don't know, because it's headed to the governor's desk right now.
And apparently the governor is a car guy. Oh so
(20:30):
they don't know. They don't know what it's gonna do. Really,
I didn't know that about Cuomo. Yeah, I didn't need
you the denying it said. No, he's he's he's a
car guy. I mean I could see up to a
certain point, you know, I mean, you know what the
problem is. And maybe this is part of it too,
that there's no common sense. People just keep pushing the
envelope and pushing the envelope. And there is something neat
about an old Chevy with loud exhaust I mean, listen,
(20:51):
that was an era, right, that's there is that's there.
Comes to the point, right not at two in the morning.
You know, there's there's noise ordinances regard this. Okay, we
you know you can't play loud rock and roll music
at two o'clock in the morning and wake up your neighbors.
You shouldn't be allowed to rev up your car and
wake up your neighbors. And it's common courtesy and decency.
But unfortunately those words don't exist in the world today. Kidding,
(21:14):
they can't. No, it's a it's it's it's a problem,
it's it's it's an issue. By the way, your mike's
cutting in and out. Um, the internet's cock eyed today.
You know, we should talk about the internet. What is it?
So you did it again, So my control keeps going, oh, well,
there you go. There's something cock eyed I should point
(21:36):
out to while I can before we go completely kaflue
ish Um. For Father's Day, we're giving away a twenty
five gift card for orilly Otoparts and we're gonna do
that either this hour or next hour. So we're looking
for somebody who's got a Father's Day story. Um that uh,
you know, decision of the judge Tom Ray is final,
and we'll get that out there. For Father's Day. It
(21:56):
was a little late this year. We tried doing it
last week, but we didn't get we didn't get the
documentation in time, so it just kind of worked out
like that. But future case, you know, for Dadoto Parts
gift card um you can find all everything you needed,
or Realioto parts or Realioto dot Com is the place
to bate. Let's get out and talk to Jim in
Wisconsin now ten Toyota and some problems with possible oil
(22:19):
change issues. Jim, Welcome to the car doctor. Sir, How
can yes, sir? Hi? Hi run yes. Well, I've got
a question about my rap for I've got two hundred
and five thousand miles on it today, but at about
two hundred and three and a half UM, I had
to take it in. It was making a lord awful
noise from underneath. It sounded like a cover was coming
(22:43):
off or something. And I took it into a small
garage up in the woods near the lakes, and the
mechanic there said it had less than a quart of
oil in it. There was no sign of oil being
burnt or any leak at your holes anywhere. No no
oil on our roads or driveway. And the week before
(23:04):
I handed up there, I had an oil change done
as a dealer, so they put oil in it. We
drove it around. I've now got that extra on it.
It makes a little bit of a noise. When we
started up, but it's gone right away, and I'm just curious,
is there something dangerous I would do or what type
(23:26):
of checks can I do on an engine that might
have been running without oil for a couple of thou Yeah,
the problem here, Jimmy, is the horse has been let
out of the barn and she's run wild already, so
you know, it's hard to rein it back in. Is
this the fourth cylinder or the sixth cylinder? It's the four, Okay.
The fourth cylinder does not have the consumption issues that
(23:48):
the V six has had, So let's let's put on
that particular model. Um, so let's be right up front
with that. I think that, yeah, it's possible they didn't
put any oil in it, or enough oil in it.
I guess the real question isn't That's not to say, listen,
you could have an oil consumption, you've got higher mileage. Um.
You know, the first thing I would want to see
(24:09):
is you had this other shop change the oil, add
correct oil. The oil level is good, I would keep
an eye on it. If the oil level doesn't go
down over the course of the next two to three months,
then we've got to make the assumption that the previous
shop didn't add all the oil to it. Can you
prove it? No? Not really, I you know, unless you
go Unless you go back and explain it to them
(24:30):
and they go, oh, you know, little Freddie did it again.
You know, maybe there's a new guy in the oil
change Loup Bay and they're gonna go. I doubt it,
but you'll feel better saying it to somebody. Right. The
problem is, would there be any benefit in running an
additive in that for a couple of weeks and then
changing the oil right away again? Not so we know
(24:50):
if something's wrong, what are you trying to What are
you trying to run the editor for? To clean up
something or to get rid of the noise, well, maybe
to get rid of the noise if it's something that's
locked up, or well if there's something locked up as
a result of running at low on oil at two
and a thousand miles. I don't think an editive is
going to fix it. Listen, you could try it. Tell
me what what editive do you want to put in there?
(25:12):
And I would I have I know of nothing that's
going to break it free unless you want to just
do like some crank case sludge removal device. You know,
Berriman has something. I'm sure if you get out to
the Barriman website Barman Products dot com, they'll have a
sludge remover or a high mileage oil rejuvenator, you know
that would you know that would work on sludge. But
this was a lack of oil, So this was we're
(25:33):
going on the theory here. That was a lack of
oil and a you know, engine damage done kind of
a problem. So you know, I don't know that. I
don't know that a sludge remover is going to resolve that.
My my go ahead, Well, I was thinking of going
back to that. You were talking about fathers, and I
remember it on our old A. We used to have
(25:55):
a Model A with actually tractor treads on the back
for the snow up here in the up and my
dad would run mental spirits once in a while to
get it loosened up before you put the oil in it. Right,
But his engine didn't have an uh an engine sound
a knocking noise, right, and he didn't have an oil
consumption problem. Now, if you came back to me and said, hey, Ron,
(26:17):
I think I do have an oil consumption problem. I've
got sticky rings. That's a different conversation. Let's do let's
let's do this scientifically, all right. You had the oil
chains at the dealership. How long ago? It was like
six weeks ago. Okay, so you're gonna keep track of
the oil level for the next six weeks if the
(26:39):
oil doesn't Wait, wait, Brian, since since I had a
change in the dealership a week and a half later,
there was no oil in it and I done it
a service napader Okay. So so whereas the first dealer
did it and after two weeks, let's round it off.
After two weeks, you had no oil in it. And
now you've driven it six weeks after having another shop
(27:01):
do it, and you've still got oil in it. Yeah, okay,
So then we've got to assume that that last shop
didn't fill it up all the way with oil. So
there's a conversation just to put it on paper. Not
that it's gonna give you any I don't think you're
gonna get anything for it, but it would give you
satisfaction knowing, Hey, I said something, and you know, maybe
(27:23):
you go in there and say, listen, you know what.
I know you're not gonna do anything for me, but
I just want to make you aware that maybe one
of your oil change guys is getting a little sloppy
and is maybe had a bad day. Maybe, but you
know you can't. That's like a doctor saying, well, I
missed the heart surgery. I was having a bad night
the night before. I had a fight with mom, and
the kids weren't paying attention. You know what, you're doing,
your job, Do your job. So let's assume bad word
(27:45):
on family radio that this isn't a lack of oil issue,
all right, if the noise doesn't go away, I don't
see we're putting a sludge remover. Is there any sludge
in the engine. There hasn't been any, right, you know,
I don't see whe're doing a sledgery. Mover is going
to help in oil, additive help, maybe something that's gonna
(28:09):
thicken the oil. But now we're only hiding the problem
and it's just going to it's just going to get
worse over a matter of time. I'd rather see if
the noise gets worse on its own, and if it
does make the appropriate repair, I think you're better off
to stay safe, all right, sir, Thanks so much. You're
very welcome, Jim. I appreciate the call zero run any
(28:31):
of the car doctor coming back right after this. Welcome back,
any of the car doctor. Here. We've solved Tom's microphone problem.
We're up and running and away we go. Try it now, Tom,
did we just do an eight as calibration on our
(28:53):
audio conc Well, basically, you know, and it's funny, right
you you talk about it like that, But Tom's pot
my on the on the on the on the control
board here at at Studio one was a just a tick,
I mean, less than half of the thickness of the
hair on your head, and it was causing his pot
(29:14):
control you know, eight miles north of me, to vary
and shut itself up because so higher the normal signal
on the homeboard. Something like that, Right Tom, That's that's
sort of the explanation. Yeah, it's it's it's saught up
off off of home base and um decided to just
keep bringing it back down whenever we try to do something.
(29:34):
But but the a DOS comment is precisely right, because
advanced driver assist if you are trying to calibrate there,
it's you know, less than the thickness of a hair.
They talk about the thickness of the paint on the
bumper if it's not painted properly on an a DOS
equipped vehicle will upset and effect calibration and cause all
(29:55):
sorts of issues. So we're definitely headed for some fun
times in the coming years. I can't wait. I can't wait.
I can do this though. Let's go over Stephen Illinois
and talk about it. No one, suburban, I can't I
can't wait to do this either, Steve, Welcome to the
car doctor, sir, How can I help? Hey? Yeah, thanks,
thanks for taking a call. Oh suburban? Uh starts up fine,
and then you run it for a while and turn off,
(30:16):
run into the store. It's been warmed up, come back out,
kind of started up. Just cranks and cranks and cranks.
We'll ever fire off. Then you back it off and
try it again, and second or third attempt it does
start right out without a problem. I can't figure out
why I have to being warmed up a while. It's
not starting any any diag, any diagnostics done to it yet. No,
(30:41):
it's it's not throwing any lights or codes or anything.
Anybody anybody change any part yet? No? Okay, first place
I want to go as I want to look at
fuel pressure. All right, I just flatt and simple. You know,
what's what's fuel pressure cold? What's fuel pressure hot? When
you shut it off hot? Can you duplicate it in
the bay if if you were to look at it,
(31:01):
or a mechanic we're to look at it. If you
ran the vehicle and got it hot, you know, drove
it for a half hour, brought it home, or brought
it into the shop and let it set there an
idle and shut it off, and you know, five minutes
later try to restart it. Would you be able to
duplicate the condition? Probably, it's pretty It does a pretty consistem, Okay, perfect,
I mean it's it's a broken vehicle and a mechanic
whereth the salt has got to be able to fix that,
(31:23):
So you know it's but I want to look at
fuel pressure. I want to look does it have proper
fuel pressure and does it have residual fuel pressure? Does
it hold pressure in the line to avoid that extended
crank period when you come back to start it up
as some vehicles need to have. So if fuel pressure
is good and I mean checks out thoroughly completely, volume
(31:45):
test pressure test fuel pressure, cleanliness and I always look
at cleanliness when I'm doing a fuel pressure test because
it takes me two seconds to do, you know, just
to take a sample, because you know, I'm sure it's not.
But you know what you've you've heard me say it before,
and you know the term that you know sometimes diagnosing
is tell me what's good, and I'll tell you what's bad.
So let's alienate fuel. Let's look at fuel from all
(32:07):
possible sides. After that, I'm gonna look at fuel trim.
Is fuel trim excessive? Where's the mass airflow sensor? Could
I possibly have a sensor approaching out of calibration causing
a hard start? Hot? Did this vehicle sit for any
length of time any sort of time frame in the
last year. Um, you know, we don't put tons of
(32:28):
miles on it, but it's used on a relative Okay,
couldn't have a spider web inside the mass airflow sensor?
You know, you start to think about crazy things like that, right,
But before we go there, let's check fuel pressure. It's quick,
it's easy, it's simple. High mileage on this card to Steve,
and it's only got about okay. Sometimes that's even worse
(32:50):
than eighty five thousand mile vehicle. That's twenty one years old.
The veins on the fuel pump get tried out, and
then when you use it and run it and get
it hot, they don't pump. Well, it's kind of like
a worn out some pump in your basement when you're
trying to move water. So let's um, let's let's start
the war there. Let's take a look at fuel pressure
and then call me back. We can talk further and
we'll get you to it. We can fix that car. Absolutely,
(33:10):
it's broken. There's no reason we can't fix it. Eight zero.
Run any of the car doctor coming back right after this,
welcome back, run any of the card doctor. Just the reminder.
Next hour we're giving away a twenty five O'Riley Oto
Parts gift card for Dat in honor of Dad, for
(33:32):
Father's Day and uh to help celebrate Dad and all
that the dads do. So if you've got a great
Father's Day story, you just would like to take a
shot at it, give us a call next hour zero
zero and tell Tom your story. And if you plead
on him a little bit and maybe cry on his shoulder,
he might he might consider it. So, um, you know,
just for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, to all the
(33:53):
fathers out there. You know, Father's Day is, um, it's
what did might to do this year? Um? One of
my kids gave me a short story option where I'm
going to be filling out for the next year. They're
gonna ask me questions and I'm gonna be filling it
out and telling them, you know, tales of woe and
tales from the hood of growing up and working on cars.
(34:15):
And I have to think of how much I actually
want to tell them, and you know, some of these
things have to be classified until after I'm dead fifty
years but um, you know, it's it's interesting to see
how fathers can influence the kid, right. You know, my
dad was and I just recently I was going through
(34:35):
family papers and I found the documentation that supports what
I've heard all these years that my father was a
My father was a flight instructor and an aviation mechanic.
And I found his security clearance paperwork from LaGuardia Airport
during the war when he worked on Roosevelt's plane when
it came in. And I always thought some of it
was tall tales. And then again, Uncle Steve was telling
me the story, so you just knew they had to
(34:57):
be tall tales, but it turns out they weren't. Right
there real um, you know, there's real security cards and
Dad's picture and uh, you know, I I and I
think about that. I thought about that all this week.
I found them last Sunday, and I've thought about that
all week because Dad was probably still my guiding force
for being, you know, becoming a mechanic, and it was
(35:17):
sort of instilled in me in an early age. And
I always think about his comment about, you know, when
you have a problem, just think your way through, stay calm,
and you'll figure it out. That's what good mechanics do.
Dad was right then, Dad's right now. But Dad's also
got to hear good mechanics aren't expensive. They're priceless. See
you
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.