July 29, 2023 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about a 2010 Lincoln MKZ that he worked on this week with an intermittent AC problem : takes a call on a Tacoma pickup that is surging : takes a call on a 21 RAV with no check engine light but the info system clearly shows a fault : takes a call on an 11 Challenger where the driver’s side headlight was out, bulb was changed – it’s still out : takes a call on an 09 RAV where the blower is not working : takes a call on a 13 Sorrento that is using quite a bit of oil.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ron An Aian, I understand what it is to deal
with broken cars. It hits me at a personal level,
that hits me at a professional level. And I know
why you asked the questions you asked. Is the rest
of the car okay? And that's a great question to ask.
I'm selling.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yea Lagod Shine, Wait, Jodd and Vilvin, you know, the
car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
We want to take off the intake manifold and a
valve cover gap a valve.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Cover because it's different.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And take the intake manfal and the valve cover off
of the two thousand and four engines and put it
on the two thousand and two which is in the
car stuff.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
That's a pity that should work.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian, the Car
Doctor since nineteen ninety one. This is a car owners
the world overturn to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call. At eight five five five six oh
ninety nine hundred and now pee running somewhere around the
streets of Waldwick, New Jersey, this weekend. Charlie's driving his
twenty ten Lincoln MKZ. You know, it's an older car,
it's only got one hundred and fifty one thousand miles
(01:31):
on it, and it's rolling along. Allows us to keep
it in real good shape. He lets us do our job.
And if you happen to pull up alongside next to Charlie,
or you're facing them from head on, you're gonna see
this little orange bolt peeking out from behind the grill.
Why more on that. The job started on Tuesday. Charlie
(01:52):
was in he has this wanted an oil change, and
had a tire pressure monitoring light on and some basic
clearcut simple stuff. And the complicated one was the air
conditioning doesn't work all the time. It comes on at random,
and sometimes it'll work great for a couple of days,
and sometimes it just it just starts blowing hot air.
(02:13):
So I drew the ticket naturally, did the basic things first.
I got the oil change out of the way, I
fixed the tire pressure sensor, how to put a new
sensor in the left front tire, and I attacked the
air conditioning. And you know, like anything else, right, what
I always tell you, we're gonna do some research. Tell
me what's good. I'll tell you what's bad. I sat
and I did some reading. How does this particular system operate?
(02:33):
I've seen it before, but it's always good to have
a refresh look through bulletins. Although this is a twenty
ten and you know, I don't expect to find a
lot and I didn't. You know, nothing's changed really, it's
now thirteen going on fourteen years old. But it always
pays to do your research. Listen. Doing research on a
regular basis at least gets you consistent, because the first
thought in your mind is always when you approach a
(02:54):
broken car, I'm not going to just start changing something
or testing something. I'm going to go through my product
a step one, step two, step three, so on. I
spent about fifteen twenty minutes doing my reading, and I
went over to Charlie's car and started with basic system
pressure test. It seemed a little low.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
It was.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It was down about six ounces of refrigerant. And that
won't keep it, you know, won't keep the compressor off.
But let's service it. Let's let's do a recovery, Let's
do a leak check. Let's make sure what are we
dealing with? Baseline the patient, right, and got that out
of the way, and you know, it worked even better.
It blew colder. It was now it would blow forty
five degrees on a regular basis, And it was hot
(03:33):
this week right, it was hot here in July. This
is the Northeast, and I'm sure it's hot in most
places around the country this weekend. It's July. This is normal, folks,
it's you know, it's what we're supposed to have happen.
I'd be worried if it was snowing, and you know,
I drove the car. Now. Interestingly, there are a couple
(03:53):
of sensors in this system and they're roll in a
great place, and I needed more information on them. So
I reached out to the boys. We're at Opus OPISIVS
OPISIVS dot com, and I say it, Yeah, they've got
a great scan tool. But it's not a scan tool
that makes them great. Their scan tool is good. Their
technical support and the ability to speak to specialists in
that particular line or area of the vehicle makes them
(04:16):
great because they're really selling a support system. And I
was talking to Eddie at OPUSIVS and we went through
censor by sensor common failures, what to look for. They
gave me the specs on every sensor and what I
should be seeing. And now I was armed with more information, right,
because you need information to fix a car. And I
went back and I compared my notes to Eddie's notes,
(04:37):
and I compared both our notes together to the vehicle
and couldn't find anything wrong. Called Charlie up, Charlie, here's
where we're at, all right, I've used up my time.
I've baselined the car. The car is not misbehaving, you know,
he reiterated. Look, Ron, I know it's intermittent. He says,
I know what it intermittent means. And I said, yeah,
(04:57):
I know what it intermittent means too. It makes it
more difficult cult right, you know, when's it going to happen?
Whenever it feels like it. And you know, I drove
the car, bottom line, I spent three days in this
nice car. By the way, I might have to get
one of those. They're kind of neat. You could see
where Lincoln was going. Not as nice as an eighty
(05:17):
eight town car, which happened to be one of my
favorite vehicles way back in the day. But you know,
I spent three days behind the wheel in this car.
I got to know it, you know, intimately. I know
all the clunks and rattles that we're going to fix
after we fix the air conditioning, because I said, Charlie,
it sounds like an old man's car, like what are
we doing here? Clunks and rattles and bangs, And he says, yeah,
that's my other complaint. I said, well, let me fix
the air conditioning first, because I will fix it. And
(05:37):
it came down to Friday before you know, the weekend here,
and I had to give Charlie his car back and
needed it back for the weekend. And you know, I've
got no way to prove what's wrong. So I pulled
all my test equipment out and I wired in. I
went down to the AC compressor because I did see
the problem happen once. You know, it always happens when
(05:59):
you're not ready right. One time, when I was driving
the vehicle and I just happened to running around the
block for something, I had to go get something for
the shop. I forget what it was in the middle.
I think it was lunch on Thursday. I'll just take
Charlie's Lincoln. Let me drive that. See if I can
get the AC to act up. And sure enough it
started blowing warm air. And when I got out and
I looked real quick under the hood, the AC compressor
(06:20):
wasn't engaged, so I know it's a compressor engagement problem.
I just don't know why. Now there are a couple
of censers and switches involved. The control head seems to
be working because the blower was operating and the automatic
temp control was not involved because I had it set
to manual. I also had the temperature down as cold
as it would go, which I will do on an
automatic temp problem because I have seen automatic temp control
(06:41):
heads when they go out of calibration, will get confused.
You'll set it to sixty eight. It'll stop blowing cold
because it thinks it's sixty eight, but it's really seventy five,
and it's best to just run it down low, get
it as cold as you can, take it out of
its normal position. Charlie likes to run it around sixty eight,
so I always take things. I always look at atc
(07:01):
where the customer, where the owner is putting it, and
I'll always run it colder than it is because I
want to see it out of its comfort zone, so
to speak, compressor stopped. You could see it plain and simple. Well,
there are two switches of consequence and concern. There's the
evaporator pressure sensor evaporator temperature sensor, which is located on
(07:23):
the evaporator and guess where that is under the dashboard.
Guess what you have to take out to fix it
if you think it's bad. If you find it's bad,
you got to take the dashboard out. I gotta take
out the entire instrument panel to remove this sensor. Once
you get the dashboard out of the way, it's about
a twenty minute job. It's not terrible, but you got
to get the dashboard out of the vehicle. And since
I didn't want to take the dashboard out of a
(07:43):
thirteen year old vehicle that's made out of plastic quickly
or unnecessarily, I said, yeah, let's reconsider this. Maybe there's
something else to look at. There's also a high pressure
cutoff switch which is located on the evaporator inlet tube
going into the evaporator that's inside the engine compartment. It's
a four wire sensor. And to get that out, well,
(08:03):
you can either tear up your right arm if you're
right handed and shove it all the way in and
try and unscrew it. Or you can take the top
intake manifold off, which isn't the worst, but it's not
the best. Neither one was a great solution, So I said,
let's prove what's gonna fail. Enter the bulb. So right now,
Charlie's driving around Waldwick with a wiring harness I attached
(08:25):
to the ac compressor inlet and I ratted the wire
up in front of the radiator across the top of
the shroud support and I zip tied it. Thank God
for zip Tize. I don't think I could fix cars
some days without Ziptize. And I've got that bulb zip
tide in a socket A one ninety four. But I
put a neon bulb right so that it wouldn't blind
somebody if they're driving at night. If Charlie's out driving
(08:46):
at night, and I showed him, I said, Charlie, the
next time this happens. And I think this is a
big thing. I think as a mechanic, you're obligated to
explain to people, here's what we're doing and why all right,
you know, bedside manner guys, it comes into play I
took Charlie out front. I started the car up, I
turned the AC on. We watched the bulb came on orange.
(09:06):
I turned the AC off, the bulb went out. I said, Charlie,
the next time this happens, I want to know. I
left them inside the car thermometer. I said, where's duck temperature?
If duck temperature is forty five degrees and the lights lit,
we're good. If all of a sudden you see duck
temperature of seventy or seventy five degrees and the bulb
(09:27):
is not lit, all right, that tells me that something
before the bulb has turned the compressor circuit off. Because,
for example, if the evap temp sensor senses it's too
cold on a continuous basis, thirty five degrees is the cutoff.
As Eddie from Opus IVS gave me the speck. Because
they have that kind of information, they're very exact and
(09:49):
a specific in what they can offer. If it stays
at a consistent thirty five degrees or less, thinking that
it is even though it's not, it could be a
bad sensor, then you know it's going to turn off
the circuit to the compressor and kill the circuit. But
if the bulb is lit and you've got high duct
temperature seventy five degrees, you got a bad compressor. You've
(10:10):
got a bad field coil on the compressor, which is
kind of where I'm leaning. So if you're cruising around
this weekend in North Jersey you come up on a
silver MKZ, his car's not trying to do an impression
of Rudolph with a gold nose. He's trying to do
an impression of the car doctor diagnosed in a vehicle
without being there. I'm going to have to call Charlie
(10:31):
on Monday and see if his bulb stayed lit all weekend. Long,
Hello and welcome ronnin Ady and the Car Doctor. Real
tale from the crypt. That's what happened this week at
the shop, or one of the stories that happened this
week at the shop. There was a fusion with multiple codes,
which we'll talk about maybe this hour next because I
think you want to hear that story too, because that
one made no sense either in terms of complexity and
what could actually be wrong. If you want to talk
(10:52):
to me, I'd love to talk to you. The phone
number here is eight five to five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. We don't give it out enough.
Eight five to five, five six zero nine nine zero zero.
That's the Car Doctor's twenty four to seven phone number,
and we're here twenty four to seven in a sense
that you can call that number eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero leave a message. Executive
producer Tom Ray, chief cook and bottle washer. We'll call
(11:13):
you back and put you in the next live queue
of this radio show as we try to help you
fix all the broken cars that we encounter. So I'm
ronning any of the Car Doctor. I'll be back right
after this. Don't go away. He drives that way. But
when it comes to fixing cars, Ron has car advice
done right. Eight five to five five six zero nine
(11:36):
nine zero zero. Here's Ron. Hey, Let's get over to
Thomas and Delaware five Dakota and see what's going on here. Thomas,
Welcome to the Car Doctor. Sir, How can I.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Help good mine? Ron? How are you?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I'm good? What's going on?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Have a question for you? I have a two thousand
and five Dodge Dakota with a three point seven engine
in it. Okay, it would have one hundred and twenty
thousand miles on it. It was running fine.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
I come home.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
One day, cut it off. Had set for about maybe
a month. I goes back out, started up. It was
going somewhere, and as you mashed down on it, she
just started surgeing, like when you mashed down on your
celebrator to give it gas. She'd just go woom woom, woom,
woom woom, And that's that's all she should do.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So you're saying it, does the vehicle actually move, Thomas,
or it just since there?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
We even we I thought maybe it was something clogging
somewhere or something. So a friend of mine, man, he
came and me and him was checking it out and
we said, well, you know what we'll do, said, we're
driving around the around the road. So we drove it
around the block and if you run at a real
slow idol, she runs along right fine. As soon as
(13:00):
you mash down on her, she would just go.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Woom woom, woom, woom woom.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
Start a surgeon.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
How how long did it sit when? Uh, between the
time it ran good in the last time and now
about a month?
Speaker 6 (13:15):
Okay, I tell you what it did. I changed the
throttle censor on. I thought it was a throttle censor
I changed that and put a brand new and them
on them on that Still the same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You're on a scan tool, Yes, on.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
A scan tool. When I had a friend of mine
come and put a scan tool on that, and it
said bank one. Okay, so I tell.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You what it does, bank one? What I said, bank one?
What what did they say? Bank one? Bank one? Lean?
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Yeah? It said something about about I guess it was
the coil. Uh? What your name wasn't foreign? So I
get to put a whole brand you set of callbacks
on that.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay? Are you just are you telling me? It talked
about a misfire on.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Bank one, That's what he was talking about, all right?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
All right? And you put a quick you put.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
New plugs in it, put brand new call packs on.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
It, and it did nothing. It still does it did
nothing doing? All right. Here's what I want you to do.
Listen to me. All right, there's two measurements. I want
to know. This is a three point seven liter engine, correct? Yeah, right,
hook up your scan tool or your buddy scan tool.
Is he do you know? Is he going in looking
(14:38):
at OBD two? Is he looking at your make model?
Is he looking at Chrysler specific information?
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Going in looking at UB two.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Okay, OBD two. OBD two, right, So, and I like that,
you know what I do a lot of my diagnostics
OBD two. I don't care for your make model until
I get into something very very specific. I want you
to go look at two. I want you to go
look at two pits parameter parameters of data, all right.
I want to know what mass. I want to know
what the mass airflow sensor is reading at idle. All right.
(15:09):
This is a three point seven leader at idle. And
this is a trick that works on just about every
vehicle on the road today except something that's supercharged or turbocharged,
although at idle it won't matter. But if this is
a three point seven, we should three. We should see
somewhere between three and four grams of airflow across the
(15:30):
sensor at idle. Okay, I want to know that that's
what's there, all right. If I see two point nine,
if I see I'm still gonna be curious, because now
I'm to the low side. If I see four point one,
I'm gonna be curious. But we should be in that
because a typical engine will flow air across the mass
(15:50):
airflow based on its leaders or it's it's it's physical
dimension insight. How much air can it draw through? So
in theory, if this was perfect, you'll see three point
seven leaders of air airflow across the mass airflow and
Graham's per second at idle. That's that's number one. Number two,
I want to know what fuel trim is, all right,
(16:11):
very very simple thing. You're gonna be able to look
it up OBD two on the scan tool. Also Bank one,
Bank two. I want to I want to know a
short term and long term I would reasonably expect older vehicle,
depending if it's had a lot of if it's had
a lot of maintenance, or any maintenance or proper fuel
system cleaning.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
Since I've had it, sent time i've had it, Ron,
this is the first problem. Now I've had this vehicle
eleven years.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, what I was going to say was, you know,
I would expect to see short term fuel trim in
the five to ten percent range, sitting at idle. Long
term fuel trim, long term fuel trim somewhere between zero
and five. I'm looking for an extreme. I'm looking for
you to come back and tell me, hey, Ron, Bank
one's at twenty two percent. All right, Bank two is
(16:59):
at twenty percent, which tells me I've got a vacuum,
which tells me I've got a vacuum leak somewhere. All right, now,
now I'm most well, and I'm also gonna I'm also
going to figure that out by looking at mass airflow
grams per second. If my mass airflow grams per second
is wrong, that tells me there's an air leak after
(17:20):
the sensor that's unaccounted for and it's skewing the mass airflow.
Last thing, and then I'm gonna let you go. All right,
take the mask, take the mass airflow sensor off, look
inside of it. This vehicle sat ron Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Quick question for you. Or the mass airflow center on
that Dodge pickup.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It should be in the intake duct.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
And the intake duck.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, okay, because right because this sat for this sat
for a month, I'm wondering if a spider or a
small animal or something crawled up inside that sensor and
he died, built a web, made some kind of a restriction,
and it's skewing the sensor. That's why it's so important
(18:07):
to go and look at that. You got your homework
for you cut out for you Thomas, go do those things.
Call me back. You know where to find me, because
I'll be here at eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. It's what I do. I'm running
any in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(18:46):
Welcome back, running in the car doctor.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Here.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Let me just back up too real quick for Thomas
if he's still listening, depending upon production date, that may
not have a mass air. That may also that may
instead have a map sensor at the back of the
intake manifold five the code of So just be aware,
disregard the mass airflow info. I gave you. The fuelturep
info applies. The rest of it all applies. I just
(19:08):
it may or may not have a mass air. But
that's where my mind is going because of the fact
that that car sat for a month. So when you know, Thomas,
give us a call back. Let's go over to Dave
and I guess that's is that main or mass wherever
you are, Dave, Yeah, it doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Astute.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, sir twenty one rav, What can I do for you?
Speaker 8 (19:25):
Okay? So I have no check engine or warning weights
at all on the mean dashboard, right, and it told
me I was due for service, means an oil chains
coming up and out of curiousity when they have like
an enhanced information field, And to my surprise there were
two serious, duplicate check engine fault messages which I normally
(19:48):
never would have noticed where built in. And I talked
to the dealer about.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It built into the dashboard.
Speaker 8 (19:55):
Yeah, it goes through the you know, the infotainment system. Right,
suppose if you can get enhanced information about your car,
car's messages.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And when you talk to the dealer, what did they say?
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:10):
They said, just go to any toileted dealer and they'll
clear out all the messages.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay, But could.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
I read you the message real quick?
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Sure.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
So it says check engine exclamation point a malfunction and
the electronic control engine prodle or howeveract transmission is being detected.
Contact your dealer immediately and have it inspected.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Okay, So I would tell you that's what you should do. Okay,
you know now I'm just well, that's that's yeah, that's
the interesting part. Right. It should display something on the dashboard,
all right, right, so you know, are we going to
find that this is? And I wouldn't I wouldn't delete
that right away until a dealer looked at it, because
(20:53):
are we going to find that you're the victim of
a software update or a bulletin or something that's going
to change the way that vehicle picks up in detects
its faults. You know, listen, the constraints of the law
on which OBD two is built are specific if the
vehicle has a flaw in it, and you know, if
(21:13):
it has a defect and emissions are going to exceed,
or say it like this, If the vehicle has a
defect in it that affects the operating emission controls, which
is related to just about everything in the vehicle under
the hood today, then the check engine light comes on.
If it's detecting a fault in the throttle body or
the transmission operation, that will clearly affect never mind your safety,
(21:35):
which is I don't want to downplay that, but it
will you know, obviously affect emissions. That will turn on
the check engine light provided the vehicle is programmed correctly. Right,
there's you know, look look at how many times Microsoft
changes things on us. Oh yeah, we found out this
doesn't work right, here's the patch, right, so I would
(21:57):
by all means, get that into the dealer and look
for a reason explanation. I wouldn't be satisfied if they
just wave that off and tell you to disregard it.
Because there's a reason why that's there. I don't have
a better answer for you than that, but I would
start to look through bulletins and general service campaigns. There's
going to be some kind of a notice there for that,
because that shouldn't be there if that's a valid If
(22:20):
that's a valid concern of the vehicle, if the vehicle
is having an actual problem, check engine light should be lit.
If the check engine light's not lit, and they're telling
you that's a valid concern, why isn't the check engine
light lit? Because that is an emissions failure. Something's wrong
in the programming there. If I'm understanding you correctly.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Yep, Okay, I agree, So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You're very welcome. You'll give us a call back, Dave,
let us know what they say.
Speaker 9 (22:43):
I will.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I'm curious. I'm sure everybody else is too, because
that's a first. So the cars are supposed to be
better than that, all right, kiddo, let us know. Okay,
thank you, You're welcome. Bye bye. Let's go over to
George and Maryland eleven Dodge Challenger. George, Welcome to the car, doctor, sir,
how can I help? Good sir? What's going on?
Speaker 9 (23:02):
The driver's side headlight is out? Okay, you've replaced the
bulb let it's still out. Is there something else there
to look at?
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I would scan it for a code, because if it
detected a short in the original bulb, the driver in
the body computer will shut down and not allow the
headlight to light. How do you like that? Now there's
an answer you weren't expecting, right, the computers telling you
the computer is expecting your bulb did not light up anymore,
you know, all in the interest of protecting it. Listen,
(23:29):
nothing is simple anymore. I've got to tell you. I
can't tell you well listen. I don't know if you
heard the open I was talking about Charlie's twenty ten
link and the AC was intermittent even though the AC
was working. One of the things I did, I did
a complete scan of the vehicle. I wanted to look
at all the modules. All I was looking for fault codes.
I didn't expect to find any check engine light faults,
(23:51):
which I did not, but I was looking for something
in the body computer. I'm looking to see service history.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Scanning a vehicle for codes now to me is like
going to the emergency room and saying, hey, two days ago,
I felt lightheaded and dizzy, and what do they do.
They check? They check you ford, did you have a stroke? Right?
They're looking at your history. Same thing with a car.
Speaker 9 (24:13):
So it's a computer code is expecting a burnt bulb?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
If it's got, If it's got, it's possible. It could
be that, you know, there's a computer fault, code preventing
because they want to protect the computer. They don't want
the driver to stay on trying to drive a short bulb,
increase current flow, increase in average flow and damage the BCM.
I mean, listen. It could also just be a broken wire,
a bad contact. There's ten other things that could be.
But uh, you know, from my seat here for my money,
(24:41):
I would I would. I'd love to scan cars for codes.
You'd be amazed what you find. You know, it's there's
a reason a doctor checks your heart rate and blood
pressure every time you walk into their office before they
treat you for whatever it is. That your your your ailment?
Is it that day? Because you know, the last thing
in the world I want to do is send somebody
out the door and say, hey, I fixed your bulb
(25:01):
and two blocks down the road to check engine light,
pops on, what did you do to my car? I
want to know what point of failure? You know what
I'm saying? So all right, George, I guess George is
George is gone? Where George go? Huh? How'd that happen?
George is still there?
Speaker 9 (25:21):
Still here?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Still there? Did you catch the end of that? With
regards to yeah, scan it and you know, I mean, listen,
if you want to make sure that that new bulb
you plugged in is good, just for giggles, plug it
in on the other side.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
Right, That's so I thought we plugging it on the
other side of Steef. The bulb works, if the.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Bull If the bulb works, then you know the other thing.
Then what you could do is take a vault meter
and check your wiring at the connector for the bulb
that doesn't work, you should at least have power and
probably won't have ground, okay. And if you have power,
and if you have power and no ground, or he
may have ground and no power. It depends on how
(26:02):
they've got it wired. I don't remember off the top
of my head, but then I would Then I would
go and I would look at a wiring diagram, wiring
diagrams of the roadmap, and I would then consider if
everything looks kosher up to that point, I would go
and scan it for codes, and I bet you're gonna
find something in the BCM or somewhere somewhere in one
of the body modules.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
Okay, it sounds like a lot to do with. Thank
you very much for your time.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You're very welcome, sir. You'd be well, Hi, thank you,
you're welcome. Yeah, there's nothing simple anymore. We had a
guy called the shop yesterday. Hey, can I come by
and have you throw a battery in my Audi? I
could throw it in the trunk. I don't think I
could actually install it, because you don't just throw batteries
in cars anymore. It's it's not as simple as that.
Everybody makes it out like it's so simple, and it's not.
(26:47):
He didn't want to hear that answer. But everything is
complicated today. It's not complicated, it's procedural, it's involved. There
are no simple tasks as the vehicles get newer because
of the implications of technology. But you know this is
where we are. You can continue to do it wrong,
but you know that's not going to get you anywhere,
and that's not what this is about. So hey, five
(27:08):
five five six zero nine nine zero zero, I'll be
back right after this. I'm ronning any and the car doctor.
Don't go away. No running in the car doctor. Here,
Let's go to Brian in Pennsylvania. Brian, what's going on
(27:29):
with your own nine ref.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
It's my son's car, one hundred and twenty eight thousand
miles just broken it. No no blower at all? Okay,
him and his uncle changed the whole module out in
the dash nothing else. Check diffuses. How did another guy
(27:54):
put it on a scanner and he tried to communicate
with the HVAC system? Any no communication and all there?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay? Is this is this manual heat or automatic heat?
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Wow? Manual manual?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Okay. So it's it's a two wire blower motor, right,
So have we checked it's just power and ground at
the blower motor? Have we checked for either one of those?
Speaker 7 (28:24):
I didn't. I don't really am familiar with that that
point of it. But nobody seems to know what's wrong
with this.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
All right, No, I understand, so so listen. Yeah, let's yeah, listen.
That's that's why I'm here. Brother. Let's let's make it simple. Okay.
If you walked into the living room tonight, you turn
the light switch on and the light doesn't light up,
what are you going to do? Well, check the wires, right,
(28:53):
check the wires, check the fuse. Same thing. It's it's
same thing with the car. My first thought here is
you know this because this is manual AC heat. This
is a really simple system, all right. And we can
talk about the switches in the controls. We can get
that deep into it if you want. But the first
thing I would do is go to the blower motor itself,
(29:14):
unplug it, and put a vault meter across it, positive
and positive in ground power and ground turn the blower on.
Does the meter light up? If the meter? If the
meter works and it's showing voltage, And because you know
you'll be going through the resistor, you'll see it vary
from six volts up to twelve or whatever standing battery
(29:35):
voltage is. Guess what the circuit's tested. It's good. I mean,
we could get fancy if somebody's got an old school
round headlight. An old school round headlight pulls about seven amps.
That works great for testing blower motors because you can
actually light the blower the light up from dim to
bright and it shows the circuits good. And then you
just got a bad blower motor. You know, I wouldn't.
(29:56):
I wouldn't get deeper than that until I do that.
That's my first step, by nature. I want, I want
to do the simple stuff first. Yeah, you know, so
let's let's start there. So talk to your son and
the uncle that did it. Ask them, did they check
to make sure they've got power and ground at the
blower motor? All right?
Speaker 7 (30:17):
And if I'm pretty sure that he did that, I
can't say for sure, right because that's just it's right there.
You know, that's one of the things.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
He could have checked, and you know you would have
And it depends, you know sometimes and I always go
back to basics because in all my years of trying
to guide people and help, you know, and all I'm
trying to do is help is you know, every once
in a while they'll go to the parks store and
they want to get this part and then they stand
talking to a guy at the counter who convinces them, no,
this is what you really need. But they never did
any testing in the intern you know. So that's my
(30:47):
first step. All right, If if if I don't have
power and ground at the blower motor, call me back
and we'll talk about how we're going to back trace
that they've got problems with the Integration Control Module assembly,
which is the main controller for the blower resists which
feeds the blower. But before I go that deep into it,
I just want to know simple. So can you call
me back next week?
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:08):
I think that's what they replaced there what I would
call in the module.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, so in that case, right, and so so then
if that's the case, right, well, and if that's the case,
then I'm back to my original comment. Do they have power?
Do they have power and ground at the blower motor connector?
And if they if they don't and it's not getting
into the integration control module, then I'm going to go
(31:33):
back and look at all the fuses for the circuit
because what's not turning the integration control module on? Right,
And we'll start the war from there. You call me back,
You let me know. All right, Brian, You're very welcome.
You're very welcome. Thank you. Be well. I'm running ending
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(32:00):
Look back, running the card doctor. Let's go over to Steven,
Delaware thirteen Kia Sorrento. Steve, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yes, I have a real problem with my car. Run straight. Uh,
you know, I don't have any issues with that. There's
no check engine lights or any kind of warning lights
coming up on the dashboard. But but but at every
thousand miles, I got at a quarter oil.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I bet you do.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, com I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Ahead, common common problem. How many miles are on it?
One hundred thousand?
Speaker 4 (32:35):
You just passed one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, so it started. It started at about ninety, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yes, actually it did.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, guess what you got to get your hands on?
Kia service Recall Campaign number one forty seven. It's going
to talk about how when they assemble that engine. This
is the four cylinder, right, the two point four leader. Yeah,
look at me, I'm the psychic card doctor today. All right,
they're going to talk about that recall campaign is going
to talk about how internal manufacturing problems back when they
(33:07):
assembled the engine have affected the longevity of it, and
you've got a problem with the rings. The engine itself
has an internal problem and it is in need of replacement.
In all likelihood. Here's the good news. They've extended the
warranty on that. I don't know if you're still in it,
you're probably close. I think it's ten years, one hundred
and fifty thousand miles, so you're right on the fuzzy edge.
(33:29):
I think. So I would get it into Kiya asap.
And you know they're going to know about this, trust me.
You know you're going to talk to the dealer. The
dealer is going to tell you they're overwhelmed with engine
work right now. If it's anything like it is here
in New Jersey. I know the Kia Hundai dealers because
Hundai has this problem also, the Kia Hundai dealers here
are somewhere between two and four months backed up. I
(33:51):
know one Hundaid dealer that had I think he said,
fourteen engines out at one time, all in the process
of being done. It's just just a lot of engine
work right now. But that's likely what's going on here.
You know, you can you can go through the steps
of diagnosing it. That's probably what's going to happen. One
(34:12):
last critical question, or you the original owner?
Speaker 4 (34:16):
No, I am not.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I don't know if that affects atter.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I did take the car to the key of dealership, right,
it was going to they put some kind of additive
in in the oil, and they wanted me to drive
a thousand miles and then come back and have him
check it right, And I did that. When I came back,
he told me because I wasn't the original owner, that
they couldn't warrant you.
Speaker 9 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I just thought of that, you know, and that just
kind of frosts me. Listen, if you make it wrong,
you make it wrong, right. And I think at that
point Keia is looking for a way out so that
they don't have to bite the bullet and pay for
all of these said. But that's the case, you know what,
It's a defect in the way the vehicle was made.
I'm sorry you got to go through that, Steve. You know,
you could argue your case ta Kia Corporate, but I
(35:01):
think that's going to be the answer that you get.
You could try raising your voice and see what happens.
And I wish you well I'm Ronning Ay and the
car Doctor. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
Ron An Aian, I understand what it is to deal
with broken cars. It hits me at a personal level,
that hits me at a professional level. And I know
why you asked the questions you asked. Is the rest
of the car okay? And that's a great question to ask.
I'm selling.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yea Lagod Shine, Wait, Jodd and Vilvin, you know, the
car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
We want to take off the intake manifold and a
valve cover gap a valve.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Cover because it's different.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And take the intake manfal and the valve cover off
of the two thousand and four engines and put it
on the two thousand and two which is in the
car stuff.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
That's a pity that should work.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian, the Car
Doctor since nineteen ninety one. This is a car owners
the world overturn to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call. At eight five five five six oh
ninety nine hundred and now pee running somewhere around the
streets of Waldwick, New Jersey, this weekend. Charlie's driving his
twenty ten Lincoln MKZ. You know, it's an older car,
it's only got one hundred and fifty one thousand miles
(01:31):
on it, and it's rolling along. Allows us to keep
it in real good shape. He lets us do our job.
And if you happen to pull up alongside next to Charlie,
or you're facing them from head on, you're gonna see
this little orange bolt peeking out from behind the grill.
Why more on that. The job started on Tuesday. Charlie
(01:52):
was in he has this wanted an oil change, and
had a tire pressure monitoring light on and some basic
clearcut simple stuff. And the complicated one was the air
conditioning doesn't work all the time. It comes on at random,
and sometimes it'll work great for a couple of days,
and sometimes it just it just starts blowing hot air.
(02:13):
So I drew the ticket naturally, did the basic things first.
I got the oil change out of the way, I
fixed the tire pressure sensor, how to put a new
sensor in the left front tire, and I attacked the
air conditioning. And you know, like anything else, right, what
I always tell you, we're gonna do some research. Tell
me what's good. I'll tell you what's bad. I sat
and I did some reading. How does this particular system operate?
(02:33):
I've seen it before, but it's always good to have
a refresh look through bulletins. Although this is a twenty
ten and you know, I don't expect to find a
lot and I didn't. You know, nothing's changed really, it's
now thirteen going on fourteen years old. But it always
pays to do your research. Listen. Doing research on a
regular basis at least gets you consistent, because the first
thought in your mind is always when you approach a
(02:54):
broken car, I'm not going to just start changing something
or testing something. I'm going to go through my product
a step one, step two, step three, so on. I
spent about fifteen twenty minutes doing my reading, and I
went over to Charlie's car and started with basic system
pressure test. It seemed a little low.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
It was.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
It was down about six ounces of refrigerant. And that
won't keep it, you know, won't keep the compressor off.
But let's service it. Let's let's do a recovery, Let's
do a leak check. Let's make sure what are we
dealing with? Baseline the patient, right, and got that out
of the way, and you know, it worked even better.
It blew colder. It was now it would blow forty
five degrees on a regular basis, And it was hot
(03:33):
this week right, it was hot here in July. This
is the Northeast, and I'm sure it's hot in most
places around the country this weekend. It's July. This is normal, folks,
it's you know, it's what we're supposed to have happen.
I'd be worried if it was snowing, and you know,
I drove the car. Now. Interestingly, there are a couple
(03:53):
of sensors in this system and they're roll in a
great place, and I needed more information on them. So
I reached out to the boys. We're at Opus OPISIVS
OPISIVS dot com, and I say it, Yeah, they've got
a great scan tool. But it's not a scan tool
that makes them great. Their scan tool is good. Their
technical support and the ability to speak to specialists in
that particular line or area of the vehicle makes them
(04:16):
great because they're really selling a support system. And I
was talking to Eddie at OPUSIVS and we went through
censor by sensor common failures, what to look for. They
gave me the specs on every sensor and what I
should be seeing. And now I was armed with more information, right,
because you need information to fix a car. And I
went back and I compared my notes to Eddie's notes,
(04:37):
and I compared both our notes together to the vehicle
and couldn't find anything wrong. Called Charlie up, Charlie, here's
where we're at, all right, I've used up my time.
I've baselined the car. The car is not misbehaving, you know,
he reiterated. Look, Ron, I know it's intermittent. He says,
I know what it intermittent means. And I said, yeah,
(04:57):
I know what it intermittent means too. It makes it
more difficult cult right, you know, when's it going to happen?
Whenever it feels like it. And you know, I drove
the car, bottom line, I spent three days in this
nice car. By the way, I might have to get
one of those. They're kind of neat. You could see
where Lincoln was going. Not as nice as an eighty
(05:17):
eight town car, which happened to be one of my
favorite vehicles way back in the day. But you know,
I spent three days behind the wheel in this car.
I got to know it, you know, intimately. I know
all the clunks and rattles that we're going to fix
after we fix the air conditioning, because I said, Charlie,
it sounds like an old man's car, like what are
we doing here? Clunks and rattles and bangs, And he says, yeah,
that's my other complaint. I said, well, let me fix
the air conditioning first, because I will fix it. And
(05:37):
it came down to Friday before you know, the weekend here,
and I had to give Charlie his car back and
needed it back for the weekend. And you know, I've
got no way to prove what's wrong. So I pulled
all my test equipment out and I wired in. I
went down to the AC compressor because I did see
the problem happen once. You know, it always happens when
(05:59):
you're not ready right. One time, when I was driving
the vehicle and I just happened to running around the
block for something, I had to go get something for
the shop. I forget what it was in the middle.
I think it was lunch on Thursday. I'll just take
Charlie's Lincoln. Let me drive that. See if I can
get the AC to act up. And sure enough it
started blowing warm air. And when I got out and
I looked real quick under the hood, the AC compressor
(06:20):
wasn't engaged, so I know it's a compressor engagement problem.
I just don't know why. Now there are a couple
of censers and switches involved. The control head seems to
be working because the blower was operating and the automatic
temp control was not involved because I had it set
to manual. I also had the temperature down as cold
as it would go, which I will do on an
automatic temp problem because I have seen automatic temp control
(06:41):
heads when they go out of calibration, will get confused.
You'll set it to sixty eight. It'll stop blowing cold
because it thinks it's sixty eight, but it's really seventy five,
and it's best to just run it down low, get
it as cold as you can, take it out of
its normal position. Charlie likes to run it around sixty eight,
so I always take things. I always look at atc
(07:01):
where the customer, where the owner is putting it, and
I'll always run it colder than it is because I
want to see it out of its comfort zone, so
to speak, compressor stopped. You could see it plain and simple. Well,
there are two switches of consequence and concern. There's the
evaporator pressure sensor evaporator temperature sensor, which is located on
(07:23):
the evaporator and guess where that is under the dashboard.
Guess what you have to take out to fix it
if you think it's bad. If you find it's bad,
you got to take the dashboard out. I gotta take
out the entire instrument panel to remove this sensor. Once
you get the dashboard out of the way, it's about
a twenty minute job. It's not terrible, but you got
to get the dashboard out of the vehicle. And since
I didn't want to take the dashboard out of a
(07:43):
thirteen year old vehicle that's made out of plastic quickly
or unnecessarily, I said, yeah, let's reconsider this. Maybe there's
something else to look at. There's also a high pressure
cutoff switch which is located on the evaporator inlet tube
going into the evaporator that's inside the engine compartment. It's
a four wire sensor. And to get that out, well,
(08:03):
you can either tear up your right arm if you're
right handed and shove it all the way in and
try and unscrew it. Or you can take the top
intake manifold off, which isn't the worst, but it's not
the best. Neither one was a great solution, So I said,
let's prove what's gonna fail. Enter the bulb. So right now,
Charlie's driving around Waldwick with a wiring harness I attached
(08:25):
to the ac compressor inlet and I ratted the wire
up in front of the radiator across the top of
the shroud support and I zip tied it. Thank God
for zip Tize. I don't think I could fix cars
some days without Ziptize. And I've got that bulb zip
tide in a socket A one ninety four. But I
put a neon bulb right so that it wouldn't blind
somebody if they're driving at night. If Charlie's out driving
(08:46):
at night, and I showed him, I said, Charlie, the
next time this happens. And I think this is a
big thing. I think as a mechanic, you're obligated to
explain to people, here's what we're doing and why all right,
you know, bedside manner guys, it comes into play I
took Charlie out front. I started the car up, I
turned the AC on. We watched the bulb came on orange.
(09:06):
I turned the AC off, the bulb went out. I said, Charlie,
the next time this happens, I want to know. I
left them inside the car thermometer. I said, where's duck temperature?
If duck temperature is forty five degrees and the lights lit,
we're good. If all of a sudden you see duck
temperature of seventy or seventy five degrees and the bulb
(09:27):
is not lit, all right, that tells me that something
before the bulb has turned the compressor circuit off. Because,
for example, if the evap temp sensor senses it's too
cold on a continuous basis, thirty five degrees is the cutoff.
As Eddie from Opus IVS gave me the speck. Because
they have that kind of information, they're very exact and
(09:49):
a specific in what they can offer. If it stays
at a consistent thirty five degrees or less, thinking that
it is even though it's not, it could be a
bad sensor, then you know it's going to turn off
the circuit to the compressor and kill the circuit. But
if the bulb is lit and you've got high duct
temperature seventy five degrees, you got a bad compressor. You've
(10:10):
got a bad field coil on the compressor, which is
kind of where I'm leaning. So if you're cruising around
this weekend in North Jersey you come up on a
silver MKZ, his car's not trying to do an impression
of Rudolph with a gold nose. He's trying to do
an impression of the car doctor diagnosed in a vehicle
without being there. I'm going to have to call Charlie
(10:31):
on Monday and see if his bulb stayed lit all weekend. Long,
Hello and welcome ronnin Ady and the Car Doctor. Real
tale from the crypt. That's what happened this week at
the shop, or one of the stories that happened this
week at the shop. There was a fusion with multiple codes,
which we'll talk about maybe this hour next because I
think you want to hear that story too, because that
one made no sense either in terms of complexity and
what could actually be wrong. If you want to talk
(10:52):
to me, I'd love to talk to you. The phone
number here is eight five to five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. We don't give it out enough.
Eight five to five, five six zero nine nine zero zero.
That's the Car Doctor's twenty four to seven phone number,
and we're here twenty four to seven in a sense
that you can call that number eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero leave a message. Executive
producer Tom Ray, chief cook and bottle washer. We'll call
(11:13):
you back and put you in the next live queue
of this radio show as we try to help you
fix all the broken cars that we encounter. So I'm
ronning any of the Car Doctor. I'll be back right
after this. Don't go away. He drives that way. But
when it comes to fixing cars, Ron has car advice
done right. Eight five to five five six zero nine
(11:36):
nine zero zero. Here's Ron. Hey, Let's get over to
Thomas and Delaware five Dakota and see what's going on here. Thomas,
Welcome to the Car Doctor. Sir, How can I.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Help good mine? Ron? How are you?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I'm good? What's going on?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Have a question for you? I have a two thousand
and five Dodge Dakota with a three point seven engine
in it. Okay, it would have one hundred and twenty
thousand miles on it. It was running fine.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
I come home.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
One day, cut it off. Had set for about maybe
a month. I goes back out, started up. It was
going somewhere, and as you mashed down on it, she
just started surgeing, like when you mashed down on your
celebrator to give it gas. She'd just go woom woom, woom,
woom woom, And that's that's all she should do.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
So you're saying it, does the vehicle actually move, Thomas,
or it just since there?
Speaker 6 (12:37):
We even we I thought maybe it was something clogging
somewhere or something. So a friend of mine, man, he
came and me and him was checking it out and
we said, well, you know what we'll do, said, we're
driving around the around the road. So we drove it
around the block and if you run at a real
slow idol, she runs along right fine. As soon as
(13:00):
you mash down on her, she would just go.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Woom woom, woom, woom woom.
Speaker 6 (13:05):
Start a surgeon.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
How how long did it sit when? Uh, between the
time it ran good in the last time and now
about a month?
Speaker 6 (13:15):
Okay, I tell you what it did. I changed the
throttle censor on. I thought it was a throttle censor
I changed that and put a brand new and them
on them on that Still the same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You're on a scan tool, Yes, on.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
A scan tool. When I had a friend of mine
come and put a scan tool on that, and it
said bank one. Okay, so I tell.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You what it does, bank one? What I said, bank one?
What what did they say? Bank one? Bank one? Lean?
Speaker 6 (13:50):
Yeah? It said something about about I guess it was
the coil. Uh? What your name wasn't foreign? So I
get to put a whole brand you set of callbacks
on that.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay? Are you just are you telling me? It talked
about a misfire on.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Bank one, That's what he was talking about, all right?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
All right? And you put a quick you put.
Speaker 6 (14:14):
New plugs in it, put brand new call packs on.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
It, and it did nothing. It still does it did
nothing doing? All right. Here's what I want you to do.
Listen to me. All right, there's two measurements. I want
to know. This is a three point seven liter engine, correct? Yeah, right,
hook up your scan tool or your buddy scan tool.
Is he do you know? Is he going in looking
(14:38):
at OBD two? Is he looking at your make model?
Is he looking at Chrysler specific information?
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Going in looking at UB two.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Okay, OBD two. OBD two, right, So, and I like that,
you know what I do a lot of my diagnostics
OBD two. I don't care for your make model until
I get into something very very specific. I want you
to go look at two. I want you to go
look at two pits parameter parameters of data, all right.
I want to know what mass. I want to know
what the mass airflow sensor is reading at idle. All right.
(15:09):
This is a three point seven leader at idle. And
this is a trick that works on just about every
vehicle on the road today except something that's supercharged or turbocharged,
although at idle it won't matter. But if this is
a three point seven, we should three. We should see
somewhere between three and four grams of airflow across the
(15:30):
sensor at idle. Okay, I want to know that that's
what's there, all right. If I see two point nine,
if I see I'm still gonna be curious, because now
I'm to the low side. If I see four point one,
I'm gonna be curious. But we should be in that
because a typical engine will flow air across the mass
(15:50):
airflow based on its leaders or it's it's it's physical
dimension insight. How much air can it draw through? So
in theory, if this was perfect, you'll see three point
seven leaders of air airflow across the mass airflow and
Graham's per second at idle. That's that's number one. Number two,
I want to know what fuel trim is, all right,
(16:11):
very very simple thing. You're gonna be able to look
it up OBD two on the scan tool. Also Bank one,
Bank two. I want to I want to know a
short term and long term I would reasonably expect older vehicle,
depending if it's had a lot of if it's had
a lot of maintenance, or any maintenance or proper fuel
system cleaning.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
Since I've had it, sent time i've had it, Ron,
this is the first problem. Now I've had this vehicle
eleven years.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well, what I was going to say was, you know,
I would expect to see short term fuel trim in
the five to ten percent range, sitting at idle. Long
term fuel trim, long term fuel trim somewhere between zero
and five. I'm looking for an extreme. I'm looking for
you to come back and tell me, hey, Ron, Bank
one's at twenty two percent. All right, Bank two is
(16:59):
at twenty percent, which tells me I've got a vacuum,
which tells me I've got a vacuum leak somewhere. All right, now,
now I'm most well, and I'm also gonna I'm also
going to figure that out by looking at mass airflow
grams per second. If my mass airflow grams per second
is wrong, that tells me there's an air leak after
(17:20):
the sensor that's unaccounted for and it's skewing the mass airflow.
Last thing, and then I'm gonna let you go. All right,
take the mask, take the mass airflow sensor off, look
inside of it. This vehicle sat ron Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
Quick question for you. Or the mass airflow center on
that Dodge pickup.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It should be in the intake duct.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
And the intake duck.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right, okay, because right because this sat for this sat
for a month, I'm wondering if a spider or a
small animal or something crawled up inside that sensor and
he died, built a web, made some kind of a restriction,
and it's skewing the sensor. That's why it's so important
(18:07):
to go and look at that. You got your homework
for you cut out for you Thomas, go do those things.
Call me back. You know where to find me, because
I'll be here at eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. It's what I do. I'm running
any in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(18:46):
Welcome back, running in the car doctor.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Here.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Let me just back up too real quick for Thomas
if he's still listening, depending upon production date, that may
not have a mass air. That may also that may
instead have a map sensor at the back of the
intake manifold five the code of So just be aware,
disregard the mass airflow info. I gave you. The fuelturep
info applies. The rest of it all applies. I just
(19:08):
it may or may not have a mass air. But
that's where my mind is going because of the fact
that that car sat for a month. So when you know, Thomas,
give us a call back. Let's go over to Dave
and I guess that's is that main or mass wherever
you are, Dave, Yeah, it doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Astute.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, sir twenty one rav, What can I do for you?
Speaker 8 (19:25):
Okay? So I have no check engine or warning weights
at all on the mean dashboard, right, and it told
me I was due for service, means an oil chains
coming up and out of curiousity when they have like
an enhanced information field, And to my surprise there were
two serious, duplicate check engine fault messages which I normally
(19:48):
never would have noticed where built in. And I talked
to the dealer about.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
It built into the dashboard.
Speaker 8 (19:55):
Yeah, it goes through the you know, the infotainment system. Right,
suppose if you can get enhanced information about your car,
car's messages.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And when you talk to the dealer, what did they say?
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:10):
They said, just go to any toileted dealer and they'll
clear out all the messages.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Okay, But could.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
I read you the message real quick?
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Sure.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
So it says check engine exclamation point a malfunction and
the electronic control engine prodle or howeveract transmission is being detected.
Contact your dealer immediately and have it inspected.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Okay, So I would tell you that's what you should do. Okay,
you know now I'm just well, that's that's yeah, that's
the interesting part. Right. It should display something on the dashboard,
all right, right, so you know, are we going to
find that this is? And I wouldn't I wouldn't delete
that right away until a dealer looked at it, because
(20:53):
are we going to find that you're the victim of
a software update or a bulletin or something that's going
to change the way that vehicle picks up in detects
its faults. You know, listen, the constraints of the law
on which OBD two is built are specific if the
vehicle has a flaw in it, and you know, if
(21:13):
it has a defect and emissions are going to exceed,
or say it like this, If the vehicle has a
defect in it that affects the operating emission controls, which
is related to just about everything in the vehicle under
the hood today, then the check engine light comes on.
If it's detecting a fault in the throttle body or
the transmission operation, that will clearly affect never mind your safety,
(21:35):
which is I don't want to downplay that, but it
will you know, obviously affect emissions. That will turn on
the check engine light provided the vehicle is programmed correctly. Right,
there's you know, look look at how many times Microsoft
changes things on us. Oh yeah, we found out this
doesn't work right, here's the patch, right, so I would
(21:57):
by all means, get that into the dealer and look
for a reason explanation. I wouldn't be satisfied if they
just wave that off and tell you to disregard it.
Because there's a reason why that's there. I don't have
a better answer for you than that, but I would
start to look through bulletins and general service campaigns. There's
going to be some kind of a notice there for that,
because that shouldn't be there if that's a valid If
(22:20):
that's a valid concern of the vehicle, if the vehicle
is having an actual problem, check engine light should be lit.
If the check engine light's not lit, and they're telling
you that's a valid concern, why isn't the check engine
light lit? Because that is an emissions failure. Something's wrong
in the programming there. If I'm understanding you correctly.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Yep, Okay, I agree, So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You're very welcome. You'll give us a call back, Dave,
let us know what they say.
Speaker 9 (22:43):
I will.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I'm curious. I'm sure everybody else is too, because
that's a first. So the cars are supposed to be
better than that, all right, kiddo, let us know. Okay,
thank you, You're welcome. Bye bye. Let's go over to
George and Maryland eleven Dodge Challenger. George, Welcome to the car, doctor, sir,
how can I help? Good sir? What's going on?
Speaker 9 (23:02):
The driver's side headlight is out? Okay, you've replaced the
bulb let it's still out. Is there something else there
to look at?
Speaker 6 (23:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I would scan it for a code, because if it
detected a short in the original bulb, the driver in
the body computer will shut down and not allow the
headlight to light. How do you like that? Now there's
an answer you weren't expecting, right, the computers telling you
the computer is expecting your bulb did not light up anymore,
you know, all in the interest of protecting it. Listen,
(23:29):
nothing is simple anymore. I've got to tell you. I
can't tell you well listen. I don't know if you
heard the open I was talking about Charlie's twenty ten
link and the AC was intermittent even though the AC
was working. One of the things I did, I did
a complete scan of the vehicle. I wanted to look
at all the modules. All I was looking for fault codes.
I didn't expect to find any check engine light faults,
(23:51):
which I did not, but I was looking for something
in the body computer. I'm looking to see service history.
Speaker 6 (23:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Scanning a vehicle for codes now to me is like
going to the emergency room and saying, hey, two days ago,
I felt lightheaded and dizzy, and what do they do.
They check? They check you ford, did you have a stroke? Right?
They're looking at your history. Same thing with a car.
Speaker 9 (24:13):
So it's a computer code is expecting a burnt bulb?
Speaker 6 (24:17):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Right?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
If it's got, If it's got, it's possible. It could
be that, you know, there's a computer fault, code preventing
because they want to protect the computer. They don't want
the driver to stay on trying to drive a short bulb,
increase current flow, increase in average flow and damage the BCM.
I mean, listen. It could also just be a broken wire,
a bad contact. There's ten other things that could be.
But uh, you know, from my seat here for my money,
(24:41):
I would I would. I'd love to scan cars for codes.
You'd be amazed what you find. You know, it's there's
a reason a doctor checks your heart rate and blood
pressure every time you walk into their office before they
treat you for whatever it is. That your your your ailment?
Is it that day? Because you know, the last thing
in the world I want to do is send somebody
out the door and say, hey, I fixed your bulb
(25:01):
and two blocks down the road to check engine light,
pops on, what did you do to my car? I
want to know what point of failure? You know what
I'm saying? So all right, George, I guess George is
George is gone? Where George go? Huh? How'd that happen?
George is still there?
Speaker 9 (25:21):
Still here?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Still there? Did you catch the end of that? With
regards to yeah, scan it and you know, I mean, listen,
if you want to make sure that that new bulb
you plugged in is good, just for giggles, plug it
in on the other side.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
Right, That's so I thought we plugging it on the
other side of Steef. The bulb works, if the.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Bull If the bulb works, then you know the other thing.
Then what you could do is take a vault meter
and check your wiring at the connector for the bulb
that doesn't work, you should at least have power and
probably won't have ground, okay. And if you have power,
and if you have power and no ground, or he
may have ground and no power. It depends on how
(26:02):
they've got it wired. I don't remember off the top
of my head, but then I would Then I would
go and I would look at a wiring diagram, wiring
diagrams of the roadmap, and I would then consider if
everything looks kosher up to that point, I would go
and scan it for codes, and I bet you're gonna
find something in the BCM or somewhere somewhere in one
of the body modules.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
Okay, it sounds like a lot to do with. Thank
you very much for your time.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
You're very welcome, sir. You'd be well, Hi, thank you,
you're welcome. Yeah, there's nothing simple anymore. We had a
guy called the shop yesterday. Hey, can I come by
and have you throw a battery in my Audi? I
could throw it in the trunk. I don't think I
could actually install it, because you don't just throw batteries
in cars anymore. It's it's not as simple as that.
Everybody makes it out like it's so simple, and it's not.
(26:47):
He didn't want to hear that answer. But everything is
complicated today. It's not complicated, it's procedural, it's involved. There
are no simple tasks as the vehicles get newer because
of the implications of technology. But you know this is
where we are. You can continue to do it wrong,
but you know that's not going to get you anywhere,
and that's not what this is about. So hey, five
(27:08):
five five six zero nine nine zero zero, I'll be
back right after this. I'm ronning any and the car doctor.
Don't go away. No running in the car doctor. Here,
Let's go to Brian in Pennsylvania. Brian, what's going on
(27:29):
with your own nine ref.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
It's my son's car, one hundred and twenty eight thousand
miles just broken it. No no blower at all? Okay,
him and his uncle changed the whole module out in
the dash nothing else. Check diffuses. How did another guy
(27:54):
put it on a scanner and he tried to communicate
with the HVAC system? Any no communication and all there?
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Okay? Is this is this manual heat or automatic heat?
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Wow? Manual manual?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Okay. So it's it's a two wire blower motor, right,
So have we checked it's just power and ground at
the blower motor? Have we checked for either one of those?
Speaker 7 (28:24):
I didn't. I don't really am familiar with that that
point of it. But nobody seems to know what's wrong
with this.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
All right, No, I understand, so so listen. Yeah, let's yeah, listen.
That's that's why I'm here. Brother. Let's let's make it simple. Okay.
If you walked into the living room tonight, you turn
the light switch on and the light doesn't light up,
what are you going to do? Well, check the wires, right,
(28:53):
check the wires, check the fuse. Same thing. It's it's
same thing with the car. My first thought here is
you know this because this is manual AC heat. This
is a really simple system, all right. And we can
talk about the switches in the controls. We can get
that deep into it if you want. But the first
thing I would do is go to the blower motor itself,
(29:14):
unplug it, and put a vault meter across it, positive
and positive in ground power and ground turn the blower on.
Does the meter light up? If the meter? If the
meter works and it's showing voltage, And because you know
you'll be going through the resistor, you'll see it vary
from six volts up to twelve or whatever standing battery
(29:35):
voltage is. Guess what the circuit's tested. It's good. I mean,
we could get fancy if somebody's got an old school
round headlight. An old school round headlight pulls about seven amps.
That works great for testing blower motors because you can
actually light the blower the light up from dim to
bright and it shows the circuits good. And then you
just got a bad blower motor. You know, I wouldn't.
(29:56):
I wouldn't get deeper than that until I do that.
That's my first step, by nature. I want, I want
to do the simple stuff first. Yeah, you know, so
let's let's start there. So talk to your son and
the uncle that did it. Ask them, did they check
to make sure they've got power and ground at the
blower motor? All right?
Speaker 7 (30:17):
And if I'm pretty sure that he did that, I
can't say for sure, right because that's just it's right there.
You know, that's one of the things.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
He could have checked, and you know you would have
And it depends, you know sometimes and I always go
back to basics because in all my years of trying
to guide people and help, you know, and all I'm
trying to do is help is you know, every once
in a while they'll go to the parks store and
they want to get this part and then they stand
talking to a guy at the counter who convinces them, no,
this is what you really need. But they never did
any testing in the intern you know. So that's my
(30:47):
first step. All right, If if if I don't have
power and ground at the blower motor, call me back
and we'll talk about how we're going to back trace
that they've got problems with the Integration Control Module assembly,
which is the main controller for the blower resists which
feeds the blower. But before I go that deep into it,
I just want to know simple. So can you call
me back next week?
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (31:08):
I think that's what they replaced there what I would
call in the module.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, so in that case, right, and so so then
if that's the case, right, well, and if that's the case,
then I'm back to my original comment. Do they have power?
Do they have power and ground at the blower motor connector?
And if they if they don't and it's not getting
into the integration control module, then I'm going to go
(31:33):
back and look at all the fuses for the circuit
because what's not turning the integration control module on? Right,
And we'll start the war from there. You call me back,
You let me know. All right, Brian, You're very welcome.
You're very welcome. Thank you. Be well. I'm running ending
in the car doctor. I'll be back right after this.
(32:00):
Look back, running the card doctor. Let's go over to Steven,
Delaware thirteen Kia Sorrento. Steve, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yes, I have a real problem with my car. Run straight. Uh,
you know, I don't have any issues with that. There's
no check engine lights or any kind of warning lights
coming up on the dashboard. But but but at every
thousand miles, I got at a quarter oil.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
I bet you do.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, com I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Ahead, common common problem. How many miles are on it?
One hundred thousand?
Speaker 4 (32:35):
You just passed one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, so it started. It started at about ninety, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yes, actually it did.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, guess what you got to get your hands on?
Kia service Recall Campaign number one forty seven. It's going
to talk about how when they assemble that engine. This
is the four cylinder, right, the two point four leader. Yeah,
look at me, I'm the psychic card doctor today. All right,
they're going to talk about that recall campaign is going
to talk about how internal manufacturing problems back when they
(33:07):
assembled the engine have affected the longevity of it, and
you've got a problem with the rings. The engine itself
has an internal problem and it is in need of replacement.
In all likelihood. Here's the good news. They've extended the
warranty on that. I don't know if you're still in it,
you're probably close. I think it's ten years, one hundred
and fifty thousand miles, so you're right on the fuzzy edge.
(33:29):
I think. So I would get it into Kiya asap.
And you know they're going to know about this, trust me.
You know you're going to talk to the dealer. The
dealer is going to tell you they're overwhelmed with engine
work right now. If it's anything like it is here
in New Jersey. I know the Kia Hundai dealers because
Hundai has this problem also, the Kia Hundai dealers here
are somewhere between two and four months backed up. I
(33:51):
know one Hundaid dealer that had I think he said,
fourteen engines out at one time, all in the process
of being done. It's just just a lot of engine
work right now. But that's likely what's going on here.
You know, you can you can go through the steps
of diagnosing it. That's probably what's going to happen. One
(34:12):
last critical question, or you the original owner?
Speaker 4 (34:16):
No, I am not.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I don't know if that affects atter.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I did take the car to the key of dealership, right,
it was going to they put some kind of additive
in in the oil, and they wanted me to drive
a thousand miles and then come back and have him
check it right, And I did that. When I came back,
he told me because I wasn't the original owner, that
they couldn't warrant you.
Speaker 9 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I just thought of that, you know, and that just
kind of frosts me. Listen, if you make it wrong,
you make it wrong, right. And I think at that
point Keia is looking for a way out so that
they don't have to bite the bullet and pay for
all of these said. But that's the case, you know what,
It's a defect in the way the vehicle was made.
I'm sorry you got to go through that, Steve. You know,
you could argue your case ta Kia Corporate, but I
(35:01):
think that's going to be the answer that you get.
You could try raising your voice and see what happens.
And I wish you well I'm Ronning Ay and the
car Doctor. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
Host
Ron Ananian
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