July 23, 2022 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about the challenges of fixing older cars : takes a call with questions on differential fluid viscosity : takes a call on an 07 F-150 with questions regarding the fuel delivery system : takes a call on a 17 Silverado with a hard start.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ron and Anian. The government sent out a notice that
they're looking for mechanics. Did you see the notice about
there looking for mechanics. All of a sudden, the country
has realized that there is a shortage of trained automobile technicians.
And like, now you just woke up to this, and
I think that makes you go the car doctor. I
want your opinion because I don't understand how a fuel
pump can put pressure too high, the sense that tells
(00:23):
the computer to tell the mobs or what to do, right,
because this is a returnless system, so they're looking at
fuel real pressure. Welcome to the radio home of ron
and Anian, the Car Doctor, since this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
(00:44):
pick up the phone and call in the garage to
orders are open. But I am here to take your
call at eight five five and now he running well,
Heidi ho and welcome to the car Doctor. Run Ananian
your service. Um, what a week in the shop right,
It's it's always great in July because the shop is
(01:05):
air conditioned, and even so when it's a hundred and
two degrees out on the tarmac, tarmac out in front
of the shop. Maybe it's hot outside and you're struggling
just to try and stay hydrated and keep cool and
and and get the cars done. And it's just like
a wall of heat when you walk out in front
of the shop on these days. And uh, you know,
(01:26):
it doesn't make me miss January though, because I take
the heat over January when it's you know, the wind's
howling and it's twenty below. So but welcome, welcome to July. Everybody. Um,
I hope you're taking care of your car. I hope
your condition he is working well. Uh. Some of the requests,
some of the comments, some of the questions that we're getting, Um,
you know, I noticed that a lot of you are
you're driving older cars, you're fixing older cars, you're attempting
(01:48):
to fix older cars. We had a couple this week
in the shop. We had a ninety five Chevy S
ten pick up that had a eighty one thousand miles
on it and it had a slew of problems. It
had a misfire on cylinder five, It had an O
two heater circuit fault, It had a purge fault, in
the evap emission system. It had some oil leaks, which
(02:11):
you know, I don't worry so much about oil leaks
on older vehicles, keeps the chassis from rusting, depending on
how bed of a leak it is. Power steering hose
had a pretty good leak in it. Kind of nasty. Uh.
There were some other things going on with it as
far as the air conditioning. The somebody had replaced the
air conditioning compressor prior to us. This is our first
time seeing the vehicle, and this was the old R
(02:31):
four round rotary compressor style, and typically when those failed,
they grenade it internally and they put metal through the system. Well,
it had the original condenser. The condenser hadn't been replaced,
and I'm assuming the orifice tube was not replaced because
it was out of refrigerant. I pulled a vacuum on it.
It held. Vacuum doesn't necessarily mean the system does not
(02:53):
have leaks, as we found out, because you know, testing
a system under vacuum versus testing a system under pressure
is two different things, very different circumstances. And it passed
a vacuum test. Put some refrigerant in it, and sure enough,
the highside service port. The ball seat valve was leaking
and we couldn't get it to receipts, so you know,
(03:14):
we knew we had a leak there. I put a
cap on it for the purpose of testing. I want
to see if the system would be blow cold. And
it pulled it into a vacuum. It pulled low side
into a vacuum high sight pressure one high, which tells
me there's a restriction in the system. So or if
his tube or or condenser or both, okay, one of
one of two or three of the combination of and
(03:35):
what do you do with a vehicle like that? You
know you've got to break this down. This guy wants
to drive the car. He said, Hey, you know it
was my dad's car. My dad passed. I want to
keep it as a testimony to your father, even though
my wife doesn't want to do that. And you know, listen,
one of the things I've learned as I've gotten older
is you know, you've got to listen to what everybody's saying.
And um, when the wife says, don't keep the vehicle, boy,
(03:55):
you know that sort of takes precedent over everything. So
I wanted to make it happy. I wanted to make
his wife happy. I wanted to be happy. Why not?
And I figured, let me attack this thing the most
logical way I know how to me. Out of all
the faults with it, between the oil leaks and the
power steering league and the air conditioning problem and the
O two codes and the perch, the misfire fault was
(04:17):
the most predominant. The misfire on cylinder five was the worst.
And you know, listen, if if it's got a misfire
and it turns out to be something mechanical on the
eighty thousand mile vehicle, that's almost let's see, it's almost
twenty seven going on thirty years old. Depending on what
your perspective is. Um, you're not going to fix an
engine on something that old. We won't have the conversation
(04:38):
about there's no place to get it fixed anyway. But
this is a four point three motor with the central
port injector. This has one injector with a little plastic
poppet valves in it that was so notorious to fail
back in the day when more of these room the land.
And you know, could it be a bad injector, No,
it coulda be a bad poppet sticking open because the
(04:58):
misfire wasn't there all the time time. It was only
there when the engine was called when you first started it,
and somebody had been in there prior to us. You
could see new cap rotor wires, new spark plugs. Somebody
was working on a trying to solve the misfire, but
they hadn't come down to the final solution yet. And
I tell you this story because you know, I want
you to see where my line of thinking was going.
(05:20):
And if you disagreed, let me know in that. You know,
let's assume it's not ignition. All the parts are knew,
it was all Delco stuff. It was all looked like
it was properly installed. That ins any issues that way.
Fuel trim looked normal. I didn't see any issues with
fuel trim as I was watching it. This is a
nine vehicle, so it was the first year O B
D two. I was using my O B D two scanner.
(05:40):
I wasn't getting too fancy as far as tools were concerned.
But I you know, number five was the miss Number
five was and it was only their cold well back
in the day when there were more four point three's
out there. When the head gas gets failed. They would
always fail cold, it seemed, and it was usually the
less owner on the driver's side, number five. So I
(06:04):
thought about it and I explained it to the customer.
I said, listen, here's how we're going to attack this.
You know, to do a head gasket on a vehicle
of this age, you can't just do one side. You
can't just do both sides. You're gonna You're gonna pull
the engine out. It's leaking oil. You know, we don't
know what oil consumption is. If any, we don't know
much about it. You've got to rebuild the engine. To
put an engine in anything today is easily four to
(06:26):
five grand on this thirty year old. I just want
to make this vehicle for my father to be a
testimony to my father, a monument, which I told him,
I said, you can park it on the front, lun
take a picture to be just as good a monument.
His wife liked that IDEA bottle of k seal. I said,
let's put a bottle of k seal in it. I
explained it to him that k Seal is a great
(06:46):
cooling system sealer. It works well with head gasket issues
such as this. If it's seeping all right, and that's
where we left it. I poured a bottle of K
Seal in it. I'm waiting to hear back the results.
And here's my argument. If K seal fixes this vehicle
and it no longer misfires cold, then we know it's
a head gasket issue. And now he can make a determination.
(07:07):
Does he want to go ahead with the other stuff
for some reason? And I don't. I don't think it
will not fix the head gasket issue or if it's
something else. And that's how much confidence I have in Casey.
If if the misfire is still there, I'm gonna start
to look towards fuel because it's not going to be
a head gasket issue. But my point is, for under
a hundred bucks, I was able to come to a
(07:27):
diagnostic conclusion and say, hey, it's either a head gasket
or it's gonna be something else if the problem continues.
Got that old car out of the way. More info
at casey dot com. By the way, the next one
that rolled in the door. This is the Week of
Old Cars. Two Buick Roadmaster, a thirty year old vehicle
(07:48):
with two five thousand miles on it. I don't know,
I must have a sign out front that says, bring me,
you're tired, your weary, you're old, your old car. I
guess I you know I should stand like this with
the tour I could be Mr Statue of Liberty. This
one had a bad axle bearing on the right side rear,
and you know it's it's staggering to me. I said
(08:12):
to my wife, I said, you know, I must be
getting old because I'm working on all these cars from
around the time when I was, you know, breaking in
when I was in the industry ten or twelve years,
and all of a sudden, I'm seeing the cars that
I worked on then now and the frustration is as
in the case of this Buick Roadmaster that needed an
axle bearing, well it had chewed up the axle and
I couldn't get an axle shift for it. Obviously GM
(08:34):
doesn't make them anymore. UM, I've tried and listen before
anybody writes me fourteen emails, because I know you guys
love to write emails about the things that think you
would have done. Before anybody has any comments about axle savers.
If you've got an axle saver, and axle saver takes
the bearing and relocates it to a different part of
the existing bad axle shift the axle shaft that's all
chewed up. Take that axle saver and use as a
(08:56):
paperweight on your desk. You'll get more life out of
it because I've done the ax savor routine and typically
within a year of fourteen once it comes back to
bite you. And it's not what I consider a permanent fix.
I did a little research Dormant more info at Dormant
Products dot com. Dorman is making axle chefts and I
was able to order an axle chaft for the right
(09:17):
side rear through my suppliers from Dormant. Came direct popped in,
nice axle, nice studs, all the parts you need to
put it in. I got that one back on the road,
And I guess the point of this open and the
point of this conversation is that as these vehicles get older,
we've got to start to think outside the box of
(09:38):
traditional repair. We've got to look, you know, and certainly
Dormant is not outside the realm of traditional repair. Dormant
is definitely a part supplier in this day and age
as they've always been. UM but k c O was
a little different on the head, guest, get issue car. Um,
you know GM doesn't make the part. Go look at
dormant all right, you can find them online, like I said,
(09:58):
Dormant Products dot Com. You know, we've got to if
we're going to keep old cars going, we've got to
look in places we may not traditionally look the very
first time and then get used to it, because there's
clearly a market for old cars. There's clearly a demand
and a need for parts, especially when you look at
the fact that there's no cars left to sell in
the dealers. I went by the one dealer that I
always typically go by, UM here in New Jersey, and
(10:20):
I think he's increased the number of cars on a
lot from one to four. This week, he's got four
new vehicles out front. I can't imagine the price tag
on him. Um. You know, I just I look at
the market premium. I don't know how the dealers are
staying in business. I really don't. I think I think
they deserve a tribute of some kind because they're struggling
and uh, you know, as we all are, so just
(10:41):
just just amazing stuff. Anyway, let's let's pull over, take
a pause, say Het Mr Tom, Mr Tom, Um, you're
looking well in ship or today? Everything good up there,
everything's happy. Yeah, So dog sleeping and you're looking out
the window and rather than looking at you, which is
a better thing. So how do we say that? Stayed again?
Which date? The one where we we have a new
(11:02):
affiliate coming up in two weeks? Right? Nevada, it's not Nevada,
it's Nevada. Nevada, Nevada, right, Nevada. So I learned how
to say Nevada this week, everybody, So, yes, I did.
I had to do it right. I said it right.
So I said that Nevada. Um. I got to the
point where I couldn't talk anymore. Talk so it sounded
like I was from Baston five five zero zero zero.
(11:23):
Run any of the car Doctor coming back right after
this for the best in car advice. Give Ron a
call eight five five five six zero nine nine zero
zero now back Iran. Hey, let's uh, let's go over
(11:45):
to Jimmy and Virginia and have some questions about your
royal Jimmy. Welcome to the Car Doctor, sir. How can
I help? Oh? Thank you for having me. You're welcome, sir.
What's going on? U? Um? I want to talk about
differential fluid. I have a three part question, if you'll
allow me sure, I'm having a little trouble, all right,
I'm big on preventive maintenance on all my cars, and
I'm having a little trouble finding the exact viscostity for
(12:08):
the fluid seventy nine and also on one fluid they
they specifically mentioned hypoid gear oil. Do all fluids have
hyoid gear in them? I believe that's an additive. I
believe it has to say it on the on the package.
I haven't cheese. I haven't heard that term in probably
fifteen years. Um, you know that's that's it's And what
(12:32):
kind of vehicles are we talking about, Jimmy, Um, one
of them, the total, the FJA Cruiser, the front and
rear differential. You se g L five. Now the transfer
case it's seventy ninety. It's slightly different. And there it
mentions a hypoid gear oil, and they're all with GAIL five, right,
which is a quality rating. I guess right. My understanding
(12:54):
of hyphoid is it's an additive that's put in the
gear oil to help prevent wear and other issues that
could occur. So I think that's an additive package that
has to be added. As far as the difference between
seventy eight and seventy five ninety, I think I think
we're splitting hairs, all right. To be very honest with you,
(13:14):
all right, UM, you know, well, you know and in
the real world, you know what really happens. Um, I
can tell you this. I've actually I've I've I'm gonna
use the word fret frettings on my mind because that's
another story, but I'm gonna use the word fret. I've
fretted over gear oil viscosity to the point that I've
(13:35):
driven myself mad. And a while back I started to
realize that as I would call dealers for hey, do
you have seventy eighty five? And then what are you
working on? And I tell them, not just you seventy nineties?
What we pour all day long? Um, you know we're
seventy eighty. What do you pour? We pour seventy nine?
Do that all day long? Um. Three years ago, we
(13:55):
had to put a differential in a customer's O seven
Chevy Tahoe a frontip and there were no parts. There
were no parts available for it. GM discontinued what we needed,
we can only get bits and pieces. We ended up
buying a complete rank re manufactured axle from Jasper. Jasper
makes front differentials and rear differentials as well as their engines.
(14:16):
And when when we got the Jasper front differential, here's
a vehicle from the factory that I believe takes seventy
nineties synthetic gear oil. All right, GM required that or
that was their recommendation, that's what they wanted. Jazz Per
cented to us we were putting se conventional gear oil
(14:36):
in it. And when I asked why, because Jasper determined
that it was better for the gears and the bearings.
You know, I think a lot of this is based
on what the engineers originally thinking, and sometimes with the
engineer as to originally designed, and I think some of
it is based on and a lot of it, I'm
sure obviously friction levels and they're concerned they're trying to
(14:57):
hit specific fuel economy numbers. They're trying to hit caffeine,
and that's part of it, because you know, different viscosities
affect drag and affect friction and affect fuel economy, and
I think it's something you know that you have to
look at and consider and say, hey, what's the point
of practicality one of my favorite one of my favorite
gear oils. And then I'll let you ask you. The
(15:19):
next question is go out to go out to ams
Oil if you want to, if you want to see
something really nice. Amaz Oil makes something called Severe Gear
seventy five ninety which is designed for high dressed conditions
if you're off roading, or you're using it in an
equipment application, or you want maximum protection. So you know
(15:40):
there is that option too. You can go look at
something like that. And that's from the folks over at
ams Oil. Your second question, okay, Um, Like I said,
I'm real big on preventing maintenance, and we know weather
cool is awfu little bit. I'm gonna start changing some
of these fluids. I was out in the garage looking around.
I've got two brain new containers of sea anthetic. What
(16:00):
in the world was I putting that in? And would
you use that? You're probably putting that You were probably
putting that in a Ford vehicle. Did you have a Ford?
But you're probably right. I've got a thunderbird, but you
know the Magnulan thunderbird and only specified Yeah, maybe you
bought it, maybe you bought it for the wrong vehicle.
Then that typically went in four trucks. It went in
(16:21):
some GM rear axles. Uh. You know, keep in mind
that the idea of it's not just the viscosity. Would
you use that if if the application called for it? Sure, um, okay,
But if not, you wouldn't Because I looked up before
the fourth set, I don't know what I bought that for.
Ye I would I wouldn't. I wouldn't just use it
(16:42):
at random. I'd have to have a reason. You have
to have an understanding of it. But you know, keep
in mind what I was gonna say was, it's not
just the viscosity, it's the base oil that the that
the fluid is made from mineral oil versus a synthetic
and then they have some semisynthetic blends. It's synthetic, It's right, right,
And the point becomes that the the synthetic, the synthetic
(17:05):
gear oil tends to have a better ability to withstand
the heat and the torture that the gear oil goes through,
and you know, helps helps with anti foaming and some
of the other things that go on. I've had guys
tell me that when they tell they've caused synthetic fluid
to evaporate because in their minds, it's thinner and it
tends to wear out more. And then I've had guys
(17:27):
tell me that when they've switched to synthetic, they'll change
the gear oil and they'll find that the synthetic holds
up better. They see less signs of damage and discoloration
and overheating and fluid contamination. I really think, and i'll
close it here. I really think gear oil is probably
one of the most misunderstood or miss maintained fluids on
(17:51):
a vehicle today, whether it's in a transmission, transfer case,
or a differential, front or rear. I think it's something
that needs regular maintenance. Gear oil is gear oil. I
don't care what the manufacturer says. It's subject to abuse, corrosion, moisture, contamination,
and it should be changed on a much more frequent
basis than what I see people doing and what you're
(18:14):
doing for what your vehicles are. You're going to get
longer life, you know what. It's just as expensive to
rebuild a manual transmission, a transfer case, and in some
cases a differential as it is an't automatic and we
change automatic transmission fluid on a much more regular basis.
I think I appreciate the call, Jimmy, and I appreciate
the questions you're thinking. And I like that you give
as a call back when you need more. I'm runing
(18:34):
ading in the car doctor. We'll be back right into this.
(19:00):
Welcome back running the car doctor here at eight five
five five zero nine zero zero. Let's go over to
Paul in Maryland. Some questions on fuel systems. Paul, Welcome
to the car doctor. Sir, how can I help? Hey? Ron?
How you doing today? Good man? What's cooking? Good? Good?
So I got a seven ft two thousand miles UM
the earlier, I guess it was probably last week. It
(19:22):
stalled out on me going to work, driving down the road. Uh.
I was able to get over to the side. UH,
let it sit for a minute, started back up, and
I had a pending UM one nine one. It never
said a hard code, and then that went away, and
so I just continued to drive it a little bit
(19:43):
and UM. Then now I've got a check engine light on,
and then I have a P one seven one sing
lean on bank, lean on bank one? Right? All right?
Are you there? Okay? Go ahead, Paul. I thought we
left here for a minute. Go ahead, guy, And so
I'm just kind of wondering where to go. It's I've
(20:04):
had a fuel pump put in it, and the fuel
pump driver module has been replaced at least once. All right,
so you know one nine one is a fuel rail
pressure sensor performance fault. And what they're doing is and
when you say it's stalled out, you know, to me,
stalling is you're sitting in a traffic lighter stop sign
(20:24):
and it just stalls. Were you traveling at speed when
it happened. Yeah, I was driving along probably about forty
five or so in my mind, So we're on the
same page. Diagnostically speaking, that's cutting out or or you know,
shutting off at that point. It's not a stall um,
(20:45):
so you know, could it? And was it that you're
pushing down on the pedal and it just didn't want
to accelerate, It didn't want to go anywhere? Um, I
guess kind of. But then it just cut out completely
and I put it in the neutral and co hosted.
So it sort of felt like you were running out
of fuel. YEA matches the symptom, right, right, So so
(21:07):
a one nine one is a fault in fuel rail
pressure sensor performance. Now what they're doing is because this
is a returnless fuel system, all right. They you know,
they'll they'll pulse with the pump. They'll run the pump
up to a certain pressure based on what the fuel
real pressure sensor says it's got, and based on demand.
You know, if you're if you've got your foot through
the headlights and it sees wide open throttle angle and
(21:30):
you know, under heavy engine load, it's going, Hey, this
guy needs all the fuel he can get. It's gonna
look at the fuel real pressure sensor and say it's
at thirty five pounds. It's not enough. He needs forty five,
and it's gonna run the pump more and build up
pressure all on the blink of an eye, all right.
So it saw a glitch. It's saw a one nine one,
and it said, hey, wait a minute, what's going on here?
Could we have an intermittent Could we have an intermittent
(21:52):
fuel reil pressure sensor? Sure? Could we have a leaking
fuel rail pressure sensor? Sure? I would I would pull
the electrical plug out of the sensor and just look
to see is the electrical connector wet is it showing me?
Is it showing me any signs of fuel? Uh? You know,
you could also plug in a scan tool with some
decent capability as long as it's got the ability from
your make model by manufacturer, and you could actually watch
(22:14):
fuel pressure by scan tool. And the way you're the
way you're doing that is you're doing that by you know,
the computer is looking at the fuel rail pressure sensor.
That's where that that's where that number comes from. So
you know, you could do that. Take the vehicle for
a ride, and if the vehicle feels like it's losing power,
watch the f RP. Does it does it look like
(22:35):
it's you know, does it look like it's losing pressure? Now?
The other thing is somewhere in that pit list those
pieces of data you will see it will see um
desired fuel pressure and actual fuel pressure. So if it's saying, hey,
I need sixty p s I, you know, and it's
it's it's only got forty two, it's kind of like
(22:56):
Captain kirksaying Scotty, I need all warp drive now or
we're doomed. Uh. You know, it's just saying give me
all you got, and it just may not be able to.
If you're seeing sixty and a request is sixty and
the truck continues to stall, we've got something else going
on all right now. The one seven one, What I
would do for that is do you have a scan tool?
(23:18):
Can can it read data stream? Okay? So what I
would do is I would go look at fuel trim
for both banks. Do you understand the theory of fuel
trim right? Yeah, I'm actually looking at it right now. Okay,
So watch fuel trim all right. For the sake of
this conversation and simplicity, a one seven one will set
(23:39):
on the average vehicle when we have a combined total
fuel trim of around long and short term. Short term
is what you had for lunch today. Long term is
what you've had for lunch the past five days that
made you want to have lunch, what you did for today? Right,
So long terms history, short terms present um. When you
(24:00):
hit bang on seven one happens because Bank one's running lean.
If bank too has a total fuel trim of well,
it's set a fault code for it, right, It's gonna
happen where a right, that's that's that's that's the spec.
(24:21):
That's the limit. So the mistake everybody makes or it
can make or may make. And I've I've been there,
done that. You get mentally you just forget is you
start looking for things that are affecting Bank one. Go
look at fuel trim. If if Bank one is the
only one that's showing over in Bank two is running fourteen, yeah,
(24:41):
I'm gonna kind of look more at Bank one. What
are my potential problems there? Do I have plugged injectors?
Do I have a vacuum leak? And then again it
depends on where the fuel trim is high. If the
fuel trim is off kilter at idle and it goes
away as the engine speeds up, I'm gonna look more
for a vacuum leak. If it's better at idle and
gets worse as the vehicles going down the road, I'm
(25:01):
gonna look for something more involved in fuel delivery. If
it's bank bank to going down the road, I'm gonna
start to think. Do I have a mass airflow sensor
under reporting? Do I have an intake boot? You know
the duct after the mass airflow sensor that's open and
it's allowing unmetered air to come into the engine and
create a lean condition. So you know, it's it's it
(25:25):
all depends on you know, what we're seeing and what
we're looking for. And then when you eliminate all the
obvious and everything else that the vehicle has a break booster,
could the brake booster be contributing to it? You start
to isolate. Um, you know, you start to think about
you have to think about things like EVAP. I go
into the purge valves. Although a purge valve, If a
purge valve is constantly stuck open, you would think that
(25:46):
you would show a rich condition. It would be driving
fuel trims the other way until until you find where
the animal shoot on the line down at the canister
and it's actually drawing fresh air. Um, And it hasn't
set the EVAP fault first because it's set the lean full.
It's a it was a long story. It was a
tough vehicle. It had more than one problem going on.
So I always look at everything, um, you know, just
(26:07):
just as food for thought. Last thing you've got when
you look at your scan tool, do you see a
pit called calculated load? Uh? Yes, okay, So sitting there
at idle in the driveway, you've got calculated load. Probably
somewhere around. Oh, I don't know something like that. Take
(26:28):
the absolute load and its showing. Okay, So take the
vehicle out on the highway. I believe absolute load and
calculated calculated load or the same thing. But just look
and see if there's a calculated load pit. Sometimes there's
a difference. You should you should see when you put
when you take the vehicle out somewhere on on a
on a quiet side street or a desert road where
(26:49):
there's nobody around, put your foot through the headlight. You
should see calculated load go to or better? All right?
And it's actually or better if it won't go above.
Now I'm starting to think I've got a mass airflow
sensor that can't report. And then last thing, does your
(27:09):
does your scan tools show grams per second or airflow
grams per second? It varies by pit, It varies by manufacturer.
If your scan tool has the ability to go into
O B D two and not your make model, use
that side of it, all right. If this engine's one
engines in this truck, okay, so you've got a five
four motor, right you you should see roughly four to
(27:33):
six grams of air flow at idle, all right, you know,
and I'm giving you a little bit of a wide range.
Believe it or not, you'll typically see on a healthy
motor four point eight to five point seven it will
be real tight to the to the leader displacement. That's
just the rule of fun we've gone by for the
longest time, and it always, it always seems to come
from the point of truth. It um an engine will
(27:56):
flow at idle grams per second based on its leaders.
It's just an number that seems to work out in
the industry. Try that if you're seeing it under reporting.
If you're seeing three grams of air flow or eight
grams of air flow, I'd start to think, you know,
do we have a mass air problem, a duct problem?
Do we have a restriction? Is there a plastic bag
stuck in the air and take horn? Uh? That's it's
(28:18):
clogging airflow. Uh. You know, I've I've seen all kinds
of crazy things in my career. All right, kiddo, do
do those things and give me a shout back. We
can talk some more and you know, we'll take it
from there. If you need more good to talk to you, Paul,
I'm running any of the car doctor, I'll be back
right after this welcome back run any of the car doctor.
(28:46):
Let's get over to Tim in Maine with a seventeen
Chevy Silverado. Tim, tell me about this truck. Yeah, yes,
we got it about a year ago and the first
six months was fine. The battery we talked, a battery
kept running down. So it's four or five years old anyway,
So that you post it and uh, three days after
(29:07):
that it wouldn't start again. When you say it wouldn't start, Tim,
is it that the battery is dead or that it's
a longer than normal crank time? Well, crank, but crank
really slow, okay, and right after, you know, shortly after
we put that battery in like three days or just that.
But now what it's doing is it just clips? I
(29:30):
mean they won't even crank over it all and go
out and started just cut cluck, cut clip. If you
put a booster on it, your starts up and does
it when it starts up, does it start normal? Yeah? Fantastic?
All right. And so what you're telling me is the
batteries going dead. How long does the vehicle sit in
between uses? Well, we thought that was the case. We've
(29:51):
taken it to the Chevy place and everything, and they
can't find nothing wrong on whatsoever. We thought it was
a battery. But the battery, I guess, isn't going and dead.
Because you go out and you go quick quick, quick, click,
and you go back in the house. You might come
back out and it starts out beautiful, runs like nothing
down the road, shout it off and goes click click, click,
click again. Okay, listen, listen, also, come across, go ahead.
(30:15):
I was gonna say, let's let's listen to me, because
we'll we'll, we'll run out of time. What you're describing
is you're describing an intermittent slow crank or no crank condition,
and at other times it cranks normally correct. Correct. Okay, Um,
here's the list. You got a pencil and paper? Yeah, okay.
First thing I want somebody to do with scan it
(30:36):
for codes. I know there's no check engine light on.
I just want to be sure, all right, it's not
an unreasonable request. I want a load test one to
the battery. I want the battery to be given a
stress test to be sure that the battery, whatever batteries
in there at this point, is a good battery. Okay, Um,
I want volt I want a voltage measurement. You know,
(30:57):
today Saturday at at two if the one PM it's
reading twelve point five vaults. If we let the vehicle
sit there and we go up to it Sunday at
two fifty one, in twenty four hour period, what's standing voltage.
If it was twelve five yesterday, it should be within
two tensive a vault today if it's if it's eleven
point nine, there's a drain on the system, or there's
(31:20):
we've got a bad battery that we just haven't figured
out how to test it yet. All right, if we
prove the battery to be correct in every circumstance, and
I've gone to the extreme on some vehicles where I
will physically pull the battery out of the vehicle, charge
it on the bench, proper procedure with a good charger.
When I say a good charger, we've got associated battery
(31:40):
chargers in the shop that are all computer controlled that
you can tell it C C A, here's the desire,
will hook up, it will plug in, it will tell you, hey,
this is what we've gotten. It will automatically charge the battery.
It's not just you know, crank a battery charger around
it let it run until it, you know, overheats end
and it's charged. Is there's a procedure for cranking batteries
all right, So they've got to be using a good
quality battery charger. I can associated once I once I
(32:02):
rule out the battery, and I still have an intermittent
crank or no crank or click condition, I've got to
think about battery cables. I've got to think about the
starter itself. You're up in Maine, all right. You've got
assault and corrosion issue, especially in the winter. I would
I would take a look at the starter itself. There's
(32:25):
a copper wound wire. There's a heavy gauge copper wound
wire that goes between the solenoid or the top of
the starter and the starter armature. On certain models and
then some of the others, the starter itself is so
corroded it starts to fall apart. I would take a
hard look at the starter, all right, and then I
would go through and I would look at a starter
(32:46):
wiring diagram and clean all the grounds. I just went
through this for a different issue on a Chevy pickup,
and I solved it by cleaning all the grounds. Sometimes
by doing all this, you're gonna baseline. At least you
know what you're up against. The Chevy dealer said they
didn't find anything. Ask him what kind of tests they did.
Call me back next week and let me know. Because
(33:07):
when a shop says that we didn't find anything, there's
nothing wrong. That tells me the shop is not trying
hard enough do those tests. And let's take it from there.
Zero zero the Car Doctor will return right after this. Well,
(33:30):
welcome back. I guess it's my turn to talk, so Ron,
any in the Car docorate your service. By the way,
the phone number eight zero zero seven. You can call
the number anytime, day or night. Leave a message. We
are live on the network on the air Saturdays two
to four pm East Coast time, and Tom Ray, the
executive producer of this show and producer extraordinaire, will call
you back and put you in the live queue for
(33:50):
the next live broadcast. Keep in mind the next couple
of weeks we're looking for volunteers, as it were. If
you've got a question you can't get to us on Saturday,
shoot us an email Ron at Car Doctor Show dot com.
Recall the eight five five zero nine zero phone number
and leave a message. And let us know that you're
interested in asking a question, and we're gonna be taping
a show. We're gonna do a tape to air show
(34:10):
to give you two fresh shows in the month of August.
The card doctor is gonna take something he hasn't done
in probably thirty years, take a whole week vacation um
from Saturday Saturday, like wow, and uh, you know, we're
gonna to give you two fresh shows, things that you've
never heard before. As always, because we love you, guys,
we want to take care of you and we want
to give you interesting automotive shows every week. So if
you want to be part of that, then call a
(34:32):
five five zero zero, leave a message and Tom Aurai
will give you a call and put you in the
queue and we'll set you up when one one night
during the week. We haven't finalized that real quick. Ron
I can't verify how accurate this website and by the way,
I thank you for participating in that. Let me let
me say that ron I can't verify how accurate this
website is anymore, but it may be of interest to
your listeners. This comes to us from Bobby's, a regular
(34:53):
listener to the show. Uh, purchasing ethanol free gas. People
should read the description or perhaps call before they head
out one of the local places on the list. It
only sells the fuel where I live, in one gallon
containers for use with gas powered yard equipment. UM. The
website is the usual triple W dot pure hyphen gas
dot org, So if you're interested in EH and all
free fuel, you can try that. UM it's amazing how
(35:14):
many of you are interested in this. I'm staggered by it,
some of the some of the questions and comments and
uh thoughts on it. So if you're into that, then
pure hyphen gas dot org. Tell the next time I'll
running aiding the car doctor, reminding you good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless. See you
Ron and Anian. The government sent out a notice that
they're looking for mechanics. Did you see the notice about
there looking for mechanics. All of a sudden, the country
has realized that there is a shortage of trained automobile technicians.
And like, now you just woke up to this, and
I think that makes you go the car doctor. I
want your opinion because I don't understand how a fuel
pump can put pressure too high, the sense that tells
(00:23):
the computer to tell the mobs or what to do, right,
because this is a returnless system, so they're looking at
fuel real pressure. Welcome to the radio home of ron
and Anian, the Car Doctor, since this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
(00:44):
pick up the phone and call in the garage to
orders are open. But I am here to take your
call at eight five five and now he running well,
Heidi ho and welcome to the car Doctor. Run Ananian
your service. Um, what a week in the shop right,
It's it's always great in July because the shop is
(01:05):
air conditioned, and even so when it's a hundred and
two degrees out on the tarmac, tarmac out in front
of the shop. Maybe it's hot outside and you're struggling
just to try and stay hydrated and keep cool and
and and get the cars done. And it's just like
a wall of heat when you walk out in front
of the shop on these days. And uh, you know,
(01:26):
it doesn't make me miss January though, because I take
the heat over January when it's you know, the wind's
howling and it's twenty below. So but welcome, welcome to July. Everybody. Um,
I hope you're taking care of your car. I hope
your condition he is working well. Uh. Some of the requests,
some of the comments, some of the questions that we're getting, Um,
you know, I noticed that a lot of you are
you're driving older cars, you're fixing older cars, you're attempting
(01:48):
to fix older cars. We had a couple this week
in the shop. We had a ninety five Chevy S
ten pick up that had a eighty one thousand miles
on it and it had a slew of problems. It
had a misfire on cylinder five, It had an O
two heater circuit fault, It had a purge fault, in
the evap emission system. It had some oil leaks, which
(02:11):
you know, I don't worry so much about oil leaks
on older vehicles, keeps the chassis from rusting, depending on
how bed of a leak it is. Power steering hose
had a pretty good leak in it. Kind of nasty. Uh.
There were some other things going on with it as
far as the air conditioning. The somebody had replaced the
air conditioning compressor prior to us. This is our first
time seeing the vehicle, and this was the old R
(02:31):
four round rotary compressor style, and typically when those failed,
they grenade it internally and they put metal through the system. Well,
it had the original condenser. The condenser hadn't been replaced,
and I'm assuming the orifice tube was not replaced because
it was out of refrigerant. I pulled a vacuum on it.
It held. Vacuum doesn't necessarily mean the system does not
(02:53):
have leaks, as we found out, because you know, testing
a system under vacuum versus testing a system under pressure
is two different things, very different circumstances. And it passed
a vacuum test. Put some refrigerant in it, and sure enough,
the highside service port. The ball seat valve was leaking
and we couldn't get it to receipts, so you know,
(03:14):
we knew we had a leak there. I put a
cap on it for the purpose of testing. I want
to see if the system would be blow cold. And
it pulled it into a vacuum. It pulled low side
into a vacuum high sight pressure one high, which tells
me there's a restriction in the system. So or if
his tube or or condenser or both, okay, one of
one of two or three of the combination of and
(03:35):
what do you do with a vehicle like that? You
know you've got to break this down. This guy wants
to drive the car. He said, Hey, you know it
was my dad's car. My dad passed. I want to
keep it as a testimony to your father, even though
my wife doesn't want to do that. And you know, listen,
one of the things I've learned as I've gotten older
is you know, you've got to listen to what everybody's saying.
And um, when the wife says, don't keep the vehicle, boy,
(03:55):
you know that sort of takes precedent over everything. So
I wanted to make it happy. I wanted to make
his wife happy. I wanted to be happy. Why not?
And I figured, let me attack this thing the most
logical way I know how to me. Out of all
the faults with it, between the oil leaks and the
power steering league and the air conditioning problem and the
O two codes and the perch, the misfire fault was
(04:17):
the most predominant. The misfire on cylinder five was the worst.
And you know, listen, if if it's got a misfire
and it turns out to be something mechanical on the
eighty thousand mile vehicle, that's almost let's see, it's almost
twenty seven going on thirty years old. Depending on what
your perspective is. Um, you're not going to fix an
engine on something that old. We won't have the conversation
(04:38):
about there's no place to get it fixed anyway. But
this is a four point three motor with the central
port injector. This has one injector with a little plastic
poppet valves in it that was so notorious to fail
back in the day when more of these room the land.
And you know, could it be a bad injector, No,
it coulda be a bad poppet sticking open because the
(04:58):
misfire wasn't there all the time time. It was only
there when the engine was called when you first started it,
and somebody had been in there prior to us. You
could see new cap rotor wires, new spark plugs. Somebody
was working on a trying to solve the misfire, but
they hadn't come down to the final solution yet. And
I tell you this story because you know, I want
you to see where my line of thinking was going.
(05:20):
And if you disagreed, let me know in that. You know,
let's assume it's not ignition. All the parts are knew,
it was all Delco stuff. It was all looked like
it was properly installed. That ins any issues that way.
Fuel trim looked normal. I didn't see any issues with
fuel trim as I was watching it. This is a
nine vehicle, so it was the first year O B
D two. I was using my O B D two scanner.
(05:40):
I wasn't getting too fancy as far as tools were concerned.
But I you know, number five was the miss Number
five was and it was only their cold well back
in the day when there were more four point three's
out there. When the head gas gets failed. They would
always fail cold, it seemed, and it was usually the
less owner on the driver's side, number five. So I
(06:04):
thought about it and I explained it to the customer.
I said, listen, here's how we're going to attack this.
You know, to do a head gasket on a vehicle
of this age, you can't just do one side. You
can't just do both sides. You're gonna You're gonna pull
the engine out. It's leaking oil. You know, we don't
know what oil consumption is. If any, we don't know
much about it. You've got to rebuild the engine. To
put an engine in anything today is easily four to
(06:26):
five grand on this thirty year old. I just want
to make this vehicle for my father to be a
testimony to my father, a monument, which I told him,
I said, you can park it on the front, lun
take a picture to be just as good a monument.
His wife liked that IDEA bottle of k seal. I said,
let's put a bottle of k seal in it. I
explained it to him that k Seal is a great
(06:46):
cooling system sealer. It works well with head gasket issues
such as this. If it's seeping all right, and that's
where we left it. I poured a bottle of K
Seal in it. I'm waiting to hear back the results.
And here's my argument. If K seal fixes this vehicle
and it no longer misfires cold, then we know it's
a head gasket issue. And now he can make a determination.
(07:07):
Does he want to go ahead with the other stuff
for some reason? And I don't. I don't think it
will not fix the head gasket issue or if it's
something else. And that's how much confidence I have in Casey.
If if the misfire is still there, I'm gonna start
to look towards fuel because it's not going to be
a head gasket issue. But my point is, for under
a hundred bucks, I was able to come to a
(07:27):
diagnostic conclusion and say, hey, it's either a head gasket
or it's gonna be something else if the problem continues.
Got that old car out of the way. More info
at casey dot com. By the way, the next one
that rolled in the door. This is the Week of
Old Cars. Two Buick Roadmaster, a thirty year old vehicle
(07:48):
with two five thousand miles on it. I don't know,
I must have a sign out front that says, bring me,
you're tired, your weary, you're old, your old car. I
guess I you know I should stand like this with
the tour I could be Mr Statue of Liberty. This
one had a bad axle bearing on the right side rear,
and you know it's it's staggering to me. I said
(08:12):
to my wife, I said, you know, I must be
getting old because I'm working on all these cars from
around the time when I was, you know, breaking in
when I was in the industry ten or twelve years,
and all of a sudden, I'm seeing the cars that
I worked on then now and the frustration is as
in the case of this Buick Roadmaster that needed an
axle bearing, well it had chewed up the axle and
I couldn't get an axle shift for it. Obviously GM
(08:34):
doesn't make them anymore. UM, I've tried and listen before
anybody writes me fourteen emails, because I know you guys
love to write emails about the things that think you
would have done. Before anybody has any comments about axle savers.
If you've got an axle saver, and axle saver takes
the bearing and relocates it to a different part of
the existing bad axle shift the axle shaft that's all
chewed up. Take that axle saver and use as a
(08:56):
paperweight on your desk. You'll get more life out of
it because I've done the ax savor routine and typically
within a year of fourteen once it comes back to
bite you. And it's not what I consider a permanent fix.
I did a little research Dormant more info at Dormant
Products dot com. Dorman is making axle chefts and I
was able to order an axle chaft for the right
(09:17):
side rear through my suppliers from Dormant. Came direct popped in,
nice axle, nice studs, all the parts you need to
put it in. I got that one back on the road,
And I guess the point of this open and the
point of this conversation is that as these vehicles get older,
we've got to start to think outside the box of
(09:38):
traditional repair. We've got to look, you know, and certainly
Dormant is not outside the realm of traditional repair. Dormant
is definitely a part supplier in this day and age
as they've always been. UM but k c O was
a little different on the head, guest, get issue car. Um,
you know GM doesn't make the part. Go look at
dormant all right, you can find them online, like I said,
(09:58):
Dormant Products dot Com. You know, we've got to if
we're going to keep old cars going, we've got to
look in places we may not traditionally look the very
first time and then get used to it, because there's
clearly a market for old cars. There's clearly a demand
and a need for parts, especially when you look at
the fact that there's no cars left to sell in
the dealers. I went by the one dealer that I
always typically go by, UM here in New Jersey, and
(10:20):
I think he's increased the number of cars on a
lot from one to four. This week, he's got four
new vehicles out front. I can't imagine the price tag
on him. Um. You know, I just I look at
the market premium. I don't know how the dealers are
staying in business. I really don't. I think I think
they deserve a tribute of some kind because they're struggling
and uh, you know, as we all are, so just
(10:41):
just just amazing stuff. Anyway, let's let's pull over, take
a pause, say Het Mr Tom, Mr Tom, Um, you're
looking well in ship or today? Everything good up there,
everything's happy. Yeah, So dog sleeping and you're looking out
the window and rather than looking at you, which is
a better thing. So how do we say that? Stayed again?
Which date? The one where we we have a new
(11:02):
affiliate coming up in two weeks? Right? Nevada, it's not Nevada,
it's Nevada. Nevada, Nevada, right, Nevada. So I learned how
to say Nevada this week, everybody, So, yes, I did.
I had to do it right. I said it right.
So I said that Nevada. Um. I got to the
point where I couldn't talk anymore. Talk so it sounded
like I was from Baston five five zero zero zero.
(11:23):
Run any of the car Doctor coming back right after
this for the best in car advice. Give Ron a
call eight five five five six zero nine nine zero
zero now back Iran. Hey, let's uh, let's go over
(11:45):
to Jimmy and Virginia and have some questions about your
royal Jimmy. Welcome to the Car Doctor, sir. How can
I help? Oh? Thank you for having me. You're welcome, sir.
What's going on? U? Um? I want to talk about
differential fluid. I have a three part question, if you'll
allow me sure, I'm having a little trouble, all right,
I'm big on preventive maintenance on all my cars, and
I'm having a little trouble finding the exact viscostity for
(12:08):
the fluid seventy nine and also on one fluid they
they specifically mentioned hypoid gear oil. Do all fluids have
hyoid gear in them? I believe that's an additive. I
believe it has to say it on the on the package.
I haven't cheese. I haven't heard that term in probably
fifteen years. Um, you know that's that's it's And what
(12:32):
kind of vehicles are we talking about, Jimmy, Um, one
of them, the total, the FJA Cruiser, the front and
rear differential. You se g L five. Now the transfer
case it's seventy ninety. It's slightly different. And there it
mentions a hypoid gear oil, and they're all with GAIL five, right,
which is a quality rating. I guess right. My understanding
(12:54):
of hyphoid is it's an additive that's put in the
gear oil to help prevent wear and other issues that
could occur. So I think that's an additive package that
has to be added. As far as the difference between
seventy eight and seventy five ninety, I think I think
we're splitting hairs, all right. To be very honest with you,
(13:14):
all right, UM, you know, well, you know and in
the real world, you know what really happens. Um, I
can tell you this. I've actually I've I've I'm gonna
use the word fret frettings on my mind because that's
another story, but I'm gonna use the word fret. I've
fretted over gear oil viscosity to the point that I've
(13:35):
driven myself mad. And a while back I started to
realize that as I would call dealers for hey, do
you have seventy eighty five? And then what are you
working on? And I tell them, not just you seventy nineties?
What we pour all day long? Um, you know we're
seventy eighty. What do you pour? We pour seventy nine?
Do that all day long? Um. Three years ago, we
(13:55):
had to put a differential in a customer's O seven
Chevy Tahoe a frontip and there were no parts. There
were no parts available for it. GM discontinued what we needed,
we can only get bits and pieces. We ended up
buying a complete rank re manufactured axle from Jasper. Jasper
makes front differentials and rear differentials as well as their engines.
(14:16):
And when when we got the Jasper front differential, here's
a vehicle from the factory that I believe takes seventy
nineties synthetic gear oil. All right, GM required that or
that was their recommendation, that's what they wanted. Jazz Per
cented to us we were putting se conventional gear oil
(14:36):
in it. And when I asked why, because Jasper determined
that it was better for the gears and the bearings.
You know, I think a lot of this is based
on what the engineers originally thinking, and sometimes with the
engineer as to originally designed, and I think some of
it is based on and a lot of it, I'm
sure obviously friction levels and they're concerned they're trying to
(14:57):
hit specific fuel economy numbers. They're trying to hit caffeine,
and that's part of it, because you know, different viscosities
affect drag and affect friction and affect fuel economy, and
I think it's something you know that you have to
look at and consider and say, hey, what's the point
of practicality one of my favorite one of my favorite
gear oils. And then I'll let you ask you. The
(15:19):
next question is go out to go out to ams
Oil if you want to, if you want to see
something really nice. Amaz Oil makes something called Severe Gear
seventy five ninety which is designed for high dressed conditions
if you're off roading, or you're using it in an
equipment application, or you want maximum protection. So you know
(15:40):
there is that option too. You can go look at
something like that. And that's from the folks over at
ams Oil. Your second question, okay, Um, Like I said,
I'm real big on preventing maintenance, and we know weather
cool is awfu little bit. I'm gonna start changing some
of these fluids. I was out in the garage looking around.
I've got two brain new containers of sea anthetic. What
(16:00):
in the world was I putting that in? And would
you use that? You're probably putting that You were probably
putting that in a Ford vehicle. Did you have a Ford?
But you're probably right. I've got a thunderbird, but you
know the Magnulan thunderbird and only specified Yeah, maybe you
bought it, maybe you bought it for the wrong vehicle.
Then that typically went in four trucks. It went in
(16:21):
some GM rear axles. Uh. You know, keep in mind
that the idea of it's not just the viscosity. Would
you use that if if the application called for it? Sure, um, okay,
But if not, you wouldn't Because I looked up before
the fourth set, I don't know what I bought that for.
Ye I would I wouldn't. I wouldn't just use it
(16:42):
at random. I'd have to have a reason. You have
to have an understanding of it. But you know, keep
in mind what I was gonna say was, it's not
just the viscosity, it's the base oil that the that
the fluid is made from mineral oil versus a synthetic
and then they have some semisynthetic blends. It's synthetic, It's right, right,
And the point becomes that the the synthetic, the synthetic
(17:05):
gear oil tends to have a better ability to withstand
the heat and the torture that the gear oil goes through,
and you know, helps helps with anti foaming and some
of the other things that go on. I've had guys
tell me that when they tell they've caused synthetic fluid
to evaporate because in their minds, it's thinner and it
tends to wear out more. And then I've had guys
(17:27):
tell me that when they've switched to synthetic, they'll change
the gear oil and they'll find that the synthetic holds
up better. They see less signs of damage and discoloration
and overheating and fluid contamination. I really think, and i'll
close it here. I really think gear oil is probably
one of the most misunderstood or miss maintained fluids on
(17:51):
a vehicle today, whether it's in a transmission, transfer case,
or a differential, front or rear. I think it's something
that needs regular maintenance. Gear oil is gear oil. I
don't care what the manufacturer says. It's subject to abuse, corrosion, moisture, contamination,
and it should be changed on a much more frequent
basis than what I see people doing and what you're
(18:14):
doing for what your vehicles are. You're going to get
longer life, you know what. It's just as expensive to
rebuild a manual transmission, a transfer case, and in some
cases a differential as it is an't automatic and we
change automatic transmission fluid on a much more regular basis.
I think I appreciate the call, Jimmy, and I appreciate
the questions you're thinking. And I like that you give
as a call back when you need more. I'm runing
(18:34):
ading in the car doctor. We'll be back right into this.
(19:00):
Welcome back running the car doctor here at eight five
five five zero nine zero zero. Let's go over to
Paul in Maryland. Some questions on fuel systems. Paul, Welcome
to the car doctor. Sir, how can I help? Hey? Ron?
How you doing today? Good man? What's cooking? Good? Good?
So I got a seven ft two thousand miles UM
the earlier, I guess it was probably last week. It
(19:22):
stalled out on me going to work, driving down the road. Uh.
I was able to get over to the side. UH,
let it sit for a minute, started back up, and
I had a pending UM one nine one. It never
said a hard code, and then that went away, and
so I just continued to drive it a little bit
(19:43):
and UM. Then now I've got a check engine light on,
and then I have a P one seven one sing
lean on bank, lean on bank one? Right? All right?
Are you there? Okay? Go ahead, Paul. I thought we
left here for a minute. Go ahead, guy, And so
I'm just kind of wondering where to go. It's I've
(20:04):
had a fuel pump put in it, and the fuel
pump driver module has been replaced at least once. All right,
so you know one nine one is a fuel rail
pressure sensor performance fault. And what they're doing is and
when you say it's stalled out, you know, to me,
stalling is you're sitting in a traffic lighter stop sign
(20:24):
and it just stalls. Were you traveling at speed when
it happened. Yeah, I was driving along probably about forty
five or so in my mind, So we're on the
same page. Diagnostically speaking, that's cutting out or or you know,
shutting off at that point. It's not a stall um,
(20:45):
so you know, could it? And was it that you're
pushing down on the pedal and it just didn't want
to accelerate, It didn't want to go anywhere? Um, I
guess kind of. But then it just cut out completely
and I put it in the neutral and co hosted.
So it sort of felt like you were running out
of fuel. YEA matches the symptom, right, right, So so
(21:07):
a one nine one is a fault in fuel rail
pressure sensor performance. Now what they're doing is because this
is a returnless fuel system, all right. They you know,
they'll they'll pulse with the pump. They'll run the pump
up to a certain pressure based on what the fuel
real pressure sensor says it's got, and based on demand.
You know, if you're if you've got your foot through
the headlights and it sees wide open throttle angle and
(21:30):
you know, under heavy engine load, it's going, Hey, this
guy needs all the fuel he can get. It's gonna
look at the fuel real pressure sensor and say it's
at thirty five pounds. It's not enough. He needs forty five,
and it's gonna run the pump more and build up
pressure all on the blink of an eye, all right.
So it saw a glitch. It's saw a one nine one,
and it said, hey, wait a minute, what's going on here?
Could we have an intermittent Could we have an intermittent
(21:52):
fuel reil pressure sensor? Sure? Could we have a leaking
fuel rail pressure sensor? Sure? I would I would pull
the electrical plug out of the sensor and just look
to see is the electrical connector wet is it showing me?
Is it showing me any signs of fuel? Uh? You know,
you could also plug in a scan tool with some
decent capability as long as it's got the ability from
your make model by manufacturer, and you could actually watch
(22:14):
fuel pressure by scan tool. And the way you're the
way you're doing that is you're doing that by you know,
the computer is looking at the fuel rail pressure sensor.
That's where that that's where that number comes from. So
you know, you could do that. Take the vehicle for
a ride, and if the vehicle feels like it's losing power,
watch the f RP. Does it does it look like
(22:35):
it's you know, does it look like it's losing pressure? Now?
The other thing is somewhere in that pit list those
pieces of data you will see it will see um
desired fuel pressure and actual fuel pressure. So if it's saying, hey,
I need sixty p s I, you know, and it's
it's it's only got forty two, it's kind of like
(22:56):
Captain kirksaying Scotty, I need all warp drive now or
we're doomed. Uh. You know, it's just saying give me
all you got, and it just may not be able to.
If you're seeing sixty and a request is sixty and
the truck continues to stall, we've got something else going
on all right now. The one seven one, What I
would do for that is do you have a scan tool?
(23:18):
Can can it read data stream? Okay? So what I
would do is I would go look at fuel trim
for both banks. Do you understand the theory of fuel
trim right? Yeah, I'm actually looking at it right now. Okay,
So watch fuel trim all right. For the sake of
this conversation and simplicity, a one seven one will set
(23:39):
on the average vehicle when we have a combined total
fuel trim of around long and short term. Short term
is what you had for lunch today. Long term is
what you've had for lunch the past five days that
made you want to have lunch, what you did for today? Right,
So long terms history, short terms present um. When you
(24:00):
hit bang on seven one happens because Bank one's running lean.
If bank too has a total fuel trim of well,
it's set a fault code for it, right, It's gonna
happen where a right, that's that's that's that's the spec.
(24:21):
That's the limit. So the mistake everybody makes or it
can make or may make. And I've I've been there,
done that. You get mentally you just forget is you
start looking for things that are affecting Bank one. Go
look at fuel trim. If if Bank one is the
only one that's showing over in Bank two is running fourteen, yeah,
(24:41):
I'm gonna kind of look more at Bank one. What
are my potential problems there? Do I have plugged injectors?
Do I have a vacuum leak? And then again it
depends on where the fuel trim is high. If the
fuel trim is off kilter at idle and it goes
away as the engine speeds up, I'm gonna look more
for a vacuum leak. If it's better at idle and
gets worse as the vehicles going down the road, I'm
(25:01):
gonna look for something more involved in fuel delivery. If
it's bank bank to going down the road, I'm gonna
start to think. Do I have a mass airflow sensor
under reporting? Do I have an intake boot? You know
the duct after the mass airflow sensor that's open and
it's allowing unmetered air to come into the engine and
create a lean condition. So you know, it's it's it
(25:25):
all depends on you know, what we're seeing and what
we're looking for. And then when you eliminate all the
obvious and everything else that the vehicle has a break booster,
could the brake booster be contributing to it? You start
to isolate. Um, you know, you start to think about
you have to think about things like EVAP. I go
into the purge valves. Although a purge valve, If a
purge valve is constantly stuck open, you would think that
(25:46):
you would show a rich condition. It would be driving
fuel trims the other way until until you find where
the animal shoot on the line down at the canister
and it's actually drawing fresh air. Um, And it hasn't
set the EVAP fault first because it's set the lean full.
It's a it was a long story. It was a
tough vehicle. It had more than one problem going on.
So I always look at everything, um, you know, just
(26:07):
just as food for thought. Last thing you've got when
you look at your scan tool, do you see a
pit called calculated load? Uh? Yes, okay, So sitting there
at idle in the driveway, you've got calculated load. Probably
somewhere around. Oh, I don't know something like that. Take
(26:28):
the absolute load and its showing. Okay, So take the
vehicle out on the highway. I believe absolute load and
calculated calculated load or the same thing. But just look
and see if there's a calculated load pit. Sometimes there's
a difference. You should you should see when you put
when you take the vehicle out somewhere on on a
on a quiet side street or a desert road where
(26:49):
there's nobody around, put your foot through the headlight. You
should see calculated load go to or better? All right?
And it's actually or better if it won't go above.
Now I'm starting to think I've got a mass airflow
sensor that can't report. And then last thing, does your
(27:09):
does your scan tools show grams per second or airflow
grams per second? It varies by pit, It varies by manufacturer.
If your scan tool has the ability to go into
O B D two and not your make model, use
that side of it, all right. If this engine's one
engines in this truck, okay, so you've got a five
four motor, right you you should see roughly four to
(27:33):
six grams of air flow at idle, all right, you know,
and I'm giving you a little bit of a wide range.
Believe it or not, you'll typically see on a healthy
motor four point eight to five point seven it will
be real tight to the to the leader displacement. That's
just the rule of fun we've gone by for the
longest time, and it always, it always seems to come
from the point of truth. It um an engine will
(27:56):
flow at idle grams per second based on its leaders.
It's just an number that seems to work out in
the industry. Try that if you're seeing it under reporting.
If you're seeing three grams of air flow or eight
grams of air flow, I'd start to think, you know,
do we have a mass air problem, a duct problem?
Do we have a restriction? Is there a plastic bag
stuck in the air and take horn? Uh? That's it's
(28:18):
clogging airflow. Uh. You know, I've I've seen all kinds
of crazy things in my career. All right, kiddo, do
do those things and give me a shout back. We
can talk some more and you know, we'll take it
from there. If you need more good to talk to you, Paul,
I'm running any of the car doctor, I'll be back
right after this welcome back run any of the car doctor.
(28:46):
Let's get over to Tim in Maine with a seventeen
Chevy Silverado. Tim, tell me about this truck. Yeah, yes,
we got it about a year ago and the first
six months was fine. The battery we talked, a battery
kept running down. So it's four or five years old anyway,
So that you post it and uh, three days after
(29:07):
that it wouldn't start again. When you say it wouldn't start, Tim,
is it that the battery is dead or that it's
a longer than normal crank time? Well, crank, but crank
really slow, okay, and right after, you know, shortly after
we put that battery in like three days or just that.
But now what it's doing is it just clips? I
(29:30):
mean they won't even crank over it all and go
out and started just cut cluck, cut clip. If you
put a booster on it, your starts up and does
it when it starts up, does it start normal? Yeah? Fantastic?
All right. And so what you're telling me is the
batteries going dead. How long does the vehicle sit in
between uses? Well, we thought that was the case. We've
(29:51):
taken it to the Chevy place and everything, and they
can't find nothing wrong on whatsoever. We thought it was
a battery. But the battery, I guess, isn't going and dead.
Because you go out and you go quick quick, quick, click,
and you go back in the house. You might come
back out and it starts out beautiful, runs like nothing
down the road, shout it off and goes click click, click,
click again. Okay, listen, listen, also, come across, go ahead.
(30:15):
I was gonna say, let's let's listen to me, because
we'll we'll, we'll run out of time. What you're describing
is you're describing an intermittent slow crank or no crank condition,
and at other times it cranks normally correct. Correct. Okay, Um,
here's the list. You got a pencil and paper? Yeah, okay.
First thing I want somebody to do with scan it
(30:36):
for codes. I know there's no check engine light on.
I just want to be sure, all right, it's not
an unreasonable request. I want a load test one to
the battery. I want the battery to be given a
stress test to be sure that the battery, whatever batteries
in there at this point, is a good battery. Okay, Um,
I want volt I want a voltage measurement. You know,
(30:57):
today Saturday at at two if the one PM it's
reading twelve point five vaults. If we let the vehicle
sit there and we go up to it Sunday at
two fifty one, in twenty four hour period, what's standing voltage.
If it was twelve five yesterday, it should be within
two tensive a vault today if it's if it's eleven
point nine, there's a drain on the system, or there's
(31:20):
we've got a bad battery that we just haven't figured
out how to test it yet. All right, if we
prove the battery to be correct in every circumstance, and
I've gone to the extreme on some vehicles where I
will physically pull the battery out of the vehicle, charge
it on the bench, proper procedure with a good charger.
When I say a good charger, we've got associated battery
(31:40):
chargers in the shop that are all computer controlled that
you can tell it C C A, here's the desire,
will hook up, it will plug in, it will tell you, hey,
this is what we've gotten. It will automatically charge the battery.
It's not just you know, crank a battery charger around
it let it run until it, you know, overheats end
and it's charged. Is there's a procedure for cranking batteries
all right, So they've got to be using a good
quality battery charger. I can associated once I once I
(32:02):
rule out the battery, and I still have an intermittent
crank or no crank or click condition, I've got to
think about battery cables. I've got to think about the
starter itself. You're up in Maine, all right. You've got
assault and corrosion issue, especially in the winter. I would
I would take a look at the starter itself. There's
(32:25):
a copper wound wire. There's a heavy gauge copper wound
wire that goes between the solenoid or the top of
the starter and the starter armature. On certain models and
then some of the others, the starter itself is so
corroded it starts to fall apart. I would take a
hard look at the starter, all right, and then I
would go through and I would look at a starter
(32:46):
wiring diagram and clean all the grounds. I just went
through this for a different issue on a Chevy pickup,
and I solved it by cleaning all the grounds. Sometimes
by doing all this, you're gonna baseline. At least you
know what you're up against. The Chevy dealer said they
didn't find anything. Ask him what kind of tests they did.
Call me back next week and let me know. Because
(33:07):
when a shop says that we didn't find anything, there's
nothing wrong. That tells me the shop is not trying
hard enough do those tests. And let's take it from there.
Zero zero the Car Doctor will return right after this. Well,
(33:30):
welcome back. I guess it's my turn to talk, so Ron,
any in the Car docorate your service. By the way,
the phone number eight zero zero seven. You can call
the number anytime, day or night. Leave a message. We
are live on the network on the air Saturdays two
to four pm East Coast time, and Tom Ray, the
executive producer of this show and producer extraordinaire, will call
you back and put you in the live queue for
(33:50):
the next live broadcast. Keep in mind the next couple
of weeks we're looking for volunteers, as it were. If
you've got a question you can't get to us on Saturday,
shoot us an email Ron at Car Doctor Show dot com.
Recall the eight five five zero nine zero phone number
and leave a message. And let us know that you're
interested in asking a question, and we're gonna be taping
a show. We're gonna do a tape to air show
(34:10):
to give you two fresh shows in the month of August.
The card doctor is gonna take something he hasn't done
in probably thirty years, take a whole week vacation um
from Saturday Saturday, like wow, and uh, you know, we're
gonna to give you two fresh shows, things that you've
never heard before. As always, because we love you, guys,
we want to take care of you and we want
to give you interesting automotive shows every week. So if
you want to be part of that, then call a
(34:32):
five five zero zero, leave a message and Tom Aurai
will give you a call and put you in the
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during the week. We haven't finalized that real quick. Ron
I can't verify how accurate this website and by the way,
I thank you for participating in that. Let me let
me say that ron I can't verify how accurate this
website is anymore, but it may be of interest to
your listeners. This comes to us from Bobby's, a regular
(34:53):
listener to the show. Uh, purchasing ethanol free gas. People
should read the description or perhaps call before they head
out one of the local places on the list. It
only sells the fuel where I live, in one gallon
containers for use with gas powered yard equipment. UM. The
website is the usual triple W dot pure hyphen gas
dot org, So if you're interested in EH and all
free fuel, you can try that. UM it's amazing how
(35:14):
many of you are interested in this. I'm staggered by it,
some of the some of the questions and comments and
uh thoughts on it. So if you're into that, then
pure hyphen gas dot org. Tell the next time I'll
running aiding the car doctor, reminding you good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless. See you