July 29, 2023 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode with a call on an 09 Accord with questions after replacing the AC compressor : takes a call on a 15 Silverado Diesel where the infotainment touch screen went out and GM is saying it’s not available : takes a call on the recent Poconos race : talks about NGK’s new tech talk sheet : answers an email about not connecting his AC machine to certain cars when he doesn’t know the owner : takes a call on a 2000 F350 that won’t crank when it’s warm : Ron and Tom talk about the solar farm fire in upstate NY and Tom’s registration woes with his daughter’s car : talks about an 08 Fusion he worked on this week that was 12 months overdue for its oil change.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Ron An Aian. We looked at a car. You know,
the car was way overdue for toil change, and I'm
not sure why. I think, well, I know why the
husband's in trouble with the wife because Maggie kept telling Paul,
bringing in, bringing in, bringing in, and you know, he didn't.
And it finally came in about five and a half,
almost six months overdue, still half done. It takes a
TV what a car doctor.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're like the system where they flushed the transmission, done
that loose and all the dirt and they put the
new back in and it just recirculates back into the transmission.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, a transmission flush to me signifies or describes we're
doing something under pressure.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the radio home of ron An Aian, the
Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in the garage door.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
There's her opening, but I am here to take your
call at eight five, five five hundred.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And now tea running.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, you know what, we're just so busy on the
phones I'm not even gonna waste time on doing anything else.
Let's go right to John and Oklahoma nine Honda Accord
and get this show going. John. Welcome to the car doctor, Sir.
How can I help?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yes, sir, ron I want to say you're the man
I called you a couple months ago about the four
most tang with the rear end problem. I got checking
apart and cut putting new bearings and new spider gears,
and everything's running good. I appreciate that pous comfortable months ago.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
My pleasure, sir. How can I help you today?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, sir? On the Honda I got a up my
son's Honda cord. It's a two thousand and nine to
two point four four cylinder and his compressor locked up.
It is one hundred percent locked up. I checked everything
and I can't turn it by hand. Have it apart.
I'm also going to be replacing the condenser, and I
bought the suction line and the pressure line as well. Okay,
My question is I'm having lots of problems finding out
(02:00):
how much oil it is a pre so compressor. But
lots of people are saying, hey, make sure you add
a ad extra oil to compensate for the loss in
the system. So I was cuos is that normally done?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I mean, yeah, listen, so you know, we'll we'll usually do.
You know, the industry used to think two ounces per component,
so two ounces compressor, two ounces condens or two ounces
of evaporator. But then you get six ounces in there
and you're over oiled, you know, And and listen, I'll
be honest with you. I've always been confused about how
much oil to add to an AC system because the
(02:35):
AC oil floats around in the system. What if it's
all collected in the evaporator, right, what if there's six
ounces of oil in the evaporator and you go two
and two and now you got ten you know, it's
it's it's kind of mind boggling to me, and nobody's
can ever none. Well yeah, okay, fine, yeah, And that's
probably the answer they're looking for. But what flush are
(02:57):
you using? And is it is it legal? As per
the EP are going to put volatile chemicals into the atmosphere.
See that's the other problem, all right, So you know,
we don't flush ac anymore as a professional, I don't
believe we're allowed to. What really goes on out in
the field. That's a different conversation. So what I would
do is, my first question is whose compressor did you buy?
(03:20):
What brand? Uc okay us Universal air Conditioning, good stuff?
All right, we've used them in the shop, you know.
I would talk to the supply house. I bet that
probably has a pre charge of oil in it, and
I'm gonna guess it's the right amount, likely around the
one one and a half ounce size, and I would
add announce. I would add announce to the condenser. I
(03:43):
don't think it's gonna hurt anything. And at that stage,
if you wanted to add three ounces all together between
the two components, I think you're fine. I don't think
you're going to have an issue. I don't see why
you would. I would be curious to see what is
on the liquid line, I'm sorry, the line coming out
of the condenser going to the evaporator, all right, which
(04:07):
will be the liquid line?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
You know?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Do you see signs of debris if the compressor grenaded
and locked up, because usually it can't make its way
through the condenser, right, yes, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It was kind of looked like a yellow snot the
dried ups. What looked like right on that on that
on that little ninety on that fitting. So I did
apply her to it and it air went through, but
it looked like it was a you know, it wasn't
freely slow.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, listen, And I think it's the right thing on
a on a twelve year thirteen year old vehicle to
do a condenser and a compressor. I get that. I'm
just saying my experience generally is I've had compressors just
grenade nasty that you know, kaboom, and it looks like
a hand grenade went off, and you'll find I'll actually
find metal in the suction in the line leading from
compressor to condenser, all right, the discharge line. But I
(04:55):
won't find anything on the outbound of the condenser because
it just can't make its way through. The passages are
too small, all right. You know, you know you want
to you want to find some kind of a flush,
see if there's something out there. I haven't flushed anything, John,
I'm gonna say it's it's a good ten twelve years.
We just haven't had the need, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, you just use clean, clean dry air.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, clean dry air. You want to push some clean
dry air through it. I don't even know, I gotta
be honest, we don't even do that much, all right,
you know, depending upon the severity of the grenade. If
we do a condenser and a compressor, and you want
to do the two lines, problem solved. You know, the
most important thing, obviously is to pull a vacuum and
pull it into a good vacuum state, boil off the
impurity and you know, let it sit, make sure you
got no leaks, and then charge it. And when you
(05:40):
charge it, use real one point thirty four, don't you know,
don't use any of the small cans with the sealers
in it, because I think they're a problem. You know, somebody,
if I get an if I get a car, I'll
say it like this. If I get a car from
somebody I don't know into the shop, I don't put
them on my good Mala air conditioning machine I've got.
(06:01):
I'm an older machine. Well, because I don't want to
ruin the machine I have. I have. I have concerns,
you know, I've got a I've got a machine that
I can Yeah, I just you know, I just if
there's if there's a ceiler in there, I don't want
to draw the seiler into the machine. So I'll use
my scrap machine, as I call it, and you know
it's the luck of the draw if I even want
to hook up to it. I have turned down jobs
just because I'm not going to take the chance I'm
(06:21):
ruining a machine.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, you know, they're they're not They're definitely not cheap.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
No, they're not cheap. And let's you know, people are
people are kind of inconsiderate. They'll tell you whatever they
want to get you to do what they want. And
you know that's not how we play the game at
the shop. You know, we're just there to fix cars,
no drama, but that's what I would do. You'll be fine,
all right, sir.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Once again, I put your help.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Anytime, anytime, buddy, I'm here for you. Let's go over
to Chris and Illinois fifteen Chevy Silverado with a touchscreen problem. Chris,
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help? Hi?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Ron? Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
So I got a twenty fifteen Shy heavy Duty with
the Duramax diesel in it, and it's the high Country,
got all the electronics on it, you know, one hundred
thousand dollars vehicle. Well it wasn't then. I think they
are now it is now. But yeah, the infotainment they
(07:19):
call it the infotainment center, you know, the touch screen
in the middle.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Of the dash.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It it has gone out and it is dead completely.
And the dealership I took it back in to get
it worked on. They said that the part is discontinued.
And I got a hold of GM and they basically
followed up at the dealership and then told me, yeah,
it's discontinued. Here's some websites to try. Wow, the dealership
(07:48):
did They did try, used lots and and uh uh,
salvage and all that, but so far nothing And this
has been They've been looking since the beginning of May
for this. So I don't know what to do. I
wonder you any suggestions or.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Well I always look on eBay just for giggles, all right,
just see what eBay has. And two other thoughts. There's
a company out there called module Masters. Have you tried them?
Have you heard of them? I have not heard of them,
all right, master. Module Masters actually used to be a
sponsor of this radio show a million years ago. Uh,
and I've used them a couple of times. And their
(08:26):
work has always been good. I don't know if they
can do that one I think, you know, I don't,
And I don't expect everybody to anybody to do able
to do everything. It's just it's just too involved today
to be able to say I can do everything. But
I would give Module Masters a call. I would just
google it online and you'll find them and you can
likely call them and say, hey, I've got this, can
you rebuild this and go through it? And then the
(08:46):
other thought that I have is there's a there's a well,
I'm going to say it like this, all right, Chris,
there's a local company by us in New Jersey called
Model Electronics. Now they've got a they've got a retail
location where they do car stereos and you know the usual,
you know, buzzcar tuner stuff and YadA YadA yah. But
then there's a wholesale division, big assembly factory that they
(09:09):
do all the dealer work. So if you were the
Chevy dealer in New Jersey, you likely send your clusters
out to Model Electronics to have them repaired, all right,
and they do all the repair work. I don't know
what you've got out Illinois way, I don't know if
Model Electronics is a national company, if they've got a
branch division you know there. But I'm a little confused
(09:31):
and maybe I'm wrong, but in this that you know,
a dealership doesn't repair that module. They either get a
new one or they send it out for repair. And
I would ask the dealer, okay, if you know, who
are you using to repair instrument clusters, modules, et cetera,
And you know, just just just to get that answer,
because they don't do the repairs in house anymore. It's
(09:53):
kind of above everybody's pay grade nowadays, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
But I've say they told me that, you know, the
diagnosis was that it had a short in it. Okay,
it's pretty much out and they were just trying to
order a new So if there's the possibility of a repair,
it doesn't sound like they've even investigated.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That, right, Yeah. I So what who was it?
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It was?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Tom? I have a customer with a at the time,
it was a sixteen Equinox and it had a center
cluster radio with I want to say, was it a touchscreen?
I believe it was a touch screen and it went
out and I didn't even call it GM. I just
took it over to Model Electronics and they had the
(10:35):
ability to you know, run it through its paces and
you know, test everything. Yeah, Ron, this is bad. Okay,
we can referb it. You know, whether they took out
a board or ordered a board, because they'll use the housing.
I think the reason that part I'm just guessing here,
but I'm surmising from experience. I'm thinking. I'm thinking the
reason that that module is obsolete is because the internal
(10:57):
guts are repairable. You know, there's there's boards out there
in the hands of a wholesaler like here. I'll tell
you this real quick, write this down. Take a look
at GM bulletin. It's PI eleven twenty six G. I
know that bulletin off the top of my head, PI
eleven twenty six G. And what that talks about is
it's a software update for your touchscreen, blank screen, touchscreen
(11:21):
and opera, Blell, Bluetooth connection problems. That that software update
covers everything from twenty fourteen Buicks through Cadillac GMC, Sierra Silverado.
So it's common hardware with a different outside box. If
you know what I'm saying, I I you know it
(11:41):
may it may be that your Silverado has a specific case.
But the guts are all the same, is my understanding.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
So if there's a cross reference page that shows what
would be compatible with this at least the guts, No,
in case I needed to go to salvage.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Not at my level, no, sir, that would see that
would be a question for somebody like a Model Electronics
or there used to be a company called Eastern Electronics
that handle GM in this area. But there's somebody in
your neck of the woods that does the module refurbishment
for general motors, for Ford, Chrysler, et cetera. There has
to be all right, So let's let's attack it that way. Listen,
(12:23):
if you think this is a problem, this is what
I'm always saying about. You know, newer vehicles, right, Imagine
EV's in five years. I gotta go here for a second.
Imagine an EV in five years. You think they're going
to have the hardware for these things in five years,
it's not going to happen. So's not going to happen, yep,
So let me know what happens, Chris. Good luck to you, Bib,
(12:43):
You're very welcome. Eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero running in in the car. Doctor, We're
back right after this, don't go away.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
For the best in car advice, give Ron a call
eight by five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Now back to Ron. Hey, let's get over and talk
to Bill from Pennsylvania. Bill. Welcome to the car doctor, sir.
What's going on?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Hey, Ron?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
How you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I'm doing good, sir? How were you good?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Good?
Speaker 6 (13:17):
I basically just called, uh, say thank you very much
for those tickets to the races and the Poconos. My
wife and I that was our first time we've ever
been to an actual NASCAR race and we had a
great time.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Oh okay last week, sure, yeah, we were, you know,
And I was trying to figure out where everybody was
in relation to the rose because I was the next
row over three rows back. I think I was trying
to figure out where thirty three was because I saw
you guys over there, and I was going to come over.
But then, did you ever see so many people in
one place in all your life? Talk about a crowd? Right?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
Oh, yeah, you're not kidding. Yeah, that was that was
that was something.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, that was to see those cars coming off the
coming off that turn at one hundred and fifty miles
an hour and then running down the straightaway and then
they kept hitting the they kept hitting the other bank
at the other end. Did you notice how the cars
as they're coming off the turns. I was watching them.
You could see the struggle and trying to keep them
on the ground. They were the noses roll over the
place in the early part of the race until the
(14:19):
tires heated up that uh, you know, they were having
traction issues, and I think that's what was causing all
those accidents because what was there like four restarts, four
yellows in the first fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
We kind of got in late.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So yeah, did you get a chance to see the army?
You know, the army and the Navy were there. Did
you get a chance to see any of those displays?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We really didn't. Uh.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Probably we went by them, but we didn't stop and
really seeing too much.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I climbed into the helicopter. They wouldn't let me fly it,
but that's okay.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Yeah, So that was that was that was it was
surely it was well worth a fire. God yeap.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Well, we listen, we were glad to do it, and
we're looking we're going to try and do stuff like
that again in the future. So Bill, I appreciate your
kindness and calling, and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it
and had a good time.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Absolutely, thank and again, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That was aw You're very welcome, sir. Well, we'll see
you again, all right, you be well, all right, you two,
thank you. Take good care. Let's talk real quick before
we go to the pause, a little bit about NGK.
I want to talk about NGK sparkplugs. NGK has got
something new for you guys out there. If you're looking
for it, you'll find it at n GK nt K
(15:34):
training dot com. That's n GK NTK training dot com.
It's a tech talk sheet, you know, like I've got
it in front of me. It talks about the basics
of for example, on Honda's why they set P zero
three thirty five and P zero three thirty nine crank
position sensor faults and intermittent crank position sensor faults. And
it's basic information. It talks, it talks how the sensor functions,
(15:56):
where the sensors are located, and it's the kind of
thing that both they professional and to do it yourself
or can use in certain applications. So kudos to NNGK.
They've put together a few of these tech talk sheets
as well as other things that you'll find at the
NGKNTK training dot com website. So I just want to
mention that that that's out there for you. They're making
(16:18):
good use of the internet like that. So that's number one.
Number two. Oh and Joe from Garfield, New Jersey, rights, Hey, Ron,
I heard you talking about your air conditioning machine and
how you won't hook up to it unless you know
the vehicle and know the car. I do the same thing.
Do you enjoy your Mala machine. I'm considering purchasing one. Joe, Yeah,
Joe's got to be a repair shop. I'm guessing here, Joe, Yes,
(16:40):
I enjoy my Mala machine. I think they make one
of the better machines on the market. There's a lot
of innovation. The thing I like most about it is
you know, they do software updates over the airwaves, so
if there's an issue, if there's a problem. One of
the things that I truly enjoy. For example, I've got
both versions. I've got their one thirty four machine and
their twelve thirty four YF machine for the newer refrigerant
(17:01):
my twelve thirty four WIF machine. The other day I
had a charge an eighteen Honda which had a bad condenser,
which is another story we can talk about. But you
can go into their database and tell it twenty eighteen
Honda cord for cylinder. It will go and find the
refrigering capacity and then take you right to the automatic
test sequence, automatically entering how much refrigerant to add. So
(17:24):
it does it off the database and if you're missing something,
if the database is out of date, they updated over
the airwaves, so it works very well. If you're interested, Joe,
you can get out to their website Service Solutions dot
Mala dot com and look up more about them as well,
because Mali Yeah, and I won't I won't connect. You know,
that's the problem with a lot of these little cans.
(17:44):
If they're sealant in that can. It's been proven time
and again that that cealant gets into an AC machine.
You know, It's it's kind of like eating the wrong
thing over a long period of time. You ingest enough junk,
it's going to affect your insides and it's going to
affect your air conditioning machine. And for what they cost
and for well, they are delicate to a degree, but
let's face it, they're not supposed to ingest junk. I
(18:06):
won't do it. I won't hook up. But you know
that's something I appreciate the email, Joe, and but yeah,
by all means, get out to Mala and take a look.
I'm running any in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Don't go away taking welcome back. I'm
(18:48):
running the car doctor here at eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. Let's get over to
Dean in Kansas. Dean, how are you today? How can
I help?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Good? Thanks King my call.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Welcome sir.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I've got a a two thousand model F three fifty
seven three.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Liter diesel power stroke.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And pre stroke. Yeah, we're going to put a new
starter around about a year and a half ago along
thereabout so two weeks ago the day thing, uh, I
was pulling camper. We had just bought a heavy camper
and and he's not running hot. It's well low in
the normal range. But I pulled up and filled it
(19:28):
with fuel and it wouldn't start, okay, And there's a
little mechanic shop down the street. They come over and Oh,
we just put a jump back on it. Oh, that
wouldn't do nothing. It wouldn't even click it or nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So when you say it wouldn't underneath it, when you
say it wouldn't starting, you mean it wouldn't crank.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Wouldn't crank, wouldn't do nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Okay, got it.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And then he went underneath and jumped it with a
screw driver. I'm the starter and it's well, you're good
to go now. Well he didn't text it, but he
got me going so I can get moving. Hang on
a second, so I just shut it off right when
he was right there, and it started right back up,
no problem. Well about a week about a week ago,
(20:09):
it did the same thing. I was pulled on the
same camp or back to the spot, unhooked. Well back
in the spot, shut the truck off, unhooked. Everyone pulled
the truck out, wouldn't start when the house come out
about to late two hours later, fired right out like
I had a cool off first or something.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay, but it doesn't because if you jump it and
apply power to the starter, at fires right up. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Okay, somebody's telling me is uh, you know shade tree
mechanic type guys tell me, Well, it's probably a relay
in that fuse box. I had that half my dodge,
he says a lot, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's always it's it's always what my uncle did. If
you got there's there's a starter relay on the fender, right.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Well, it's it's in that fuse pack, yeah, underneath the hood.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Right, So at that starter relay there should be it's
either I believe it's tan red. There's a tan red
wire at the starter relay on the fender. You should
have battery voltage there with the key in the crank position,
all right. If you've got that, then you should have
battery voltage on the red wire and battery voltage out
(21:19):
on the yellow Is it yellow or is it yellow?
Light blue? Yellow? Yellow light blue to the starter mode.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I'm half colored blind, so anytime I work on wires,
get thee Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Well basically we should have let's let's let's treat this
as I mean, listen, you could go down to the
starter and just check there, because you've got you've got
a heavy cable, right, and then you've got a singular
skinny wire correct, right, you're yeah, we call it a
solnoid wire. But start wires good, I'll take that, all right,
(21:49):
you know, do we have power there? All right? But
I like to work. I'm kind of lazy. I get
tired of crawling under vehicle. So I'll go to the junction.
The junction here is the relay. The relay is going
to have three wires. It's going to have a hot end,
a hot out, and a feed down to the solenoid.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And if all that checks out, and then I've got
power to the starter all right to engage it, then
I'm starting to think, is my battery cable okay? And
i'd voltage drop tests that just for basics, all right?
And is my ground? Okay? We never think about the grounds,
you know, we never we don't consider ground.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
It look decent while while, but well what about the
other what about the other end? You know, starter the prank? Okay?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right where it connects to the block. I had a
I had a fourteen sort of a different subject, but
the same thing. I had a fourteen Silverado this week
that would go into a no crank condition and you'd
go to start and it was just stone dead, nothing,
no lights, nothing like, you know, like the battery was stolen.
And I went around, and I looked at it, and
(23:04):
I went through battery low, tested good, and everything was right,
And just on impulse, I wiggled this section of the
negative battery cable where it ran down and came close
to the firewall like there was something about the way
it was kinked, and all of a sudden, all my
lights came back and the truck ran. It had a
bad negative cable. So, you know, we never look at
the negative, you know, So would I would consider that
(23:28):
weird does it go? And how does it connect? And
on this fourteen Silverado, which has been a little bit
of an electrically possessed truck over the last couple of years,
the body ground because the cable splits. There's a ground
that went to the engine block, which was the heavy ground,
and then there was the body ground that went to
the body off the negative battery cable. While at the
factory they undercoated it so well and it crept underneath
(23:50):
that body ground portion and it made a very bad connection.
So I'm willing to bet I fixed more than a
few things with that cable this weekend this week, you know,
So always always look at the negative, all right, if
you yeah, you know, yeah, well if you find that,
let's go backwards. Let's say you don't have power going
(24:12):
down to the starter on that feed, all right, and
this problem is they're hot. I have seen cases where
the trans switch, you know, the is this a sticker
and automatic, Dean, you broke up? This is this truck
a sticker and automatic? It's okay. Just make sure that
(24:37):
that should have a clutch, that should have a safety
switch on the clutch, right you have to push. Yeah,
just make sure that you've got power on both sides
of that. Uh, that that's not causing a problem, because
if that clutch safety switch is bad, it won't crank either.
And nobody ever thinks of that. All right, yeah, yeah,
(24:59):
but that's how it that's how I would approach it.
It's it's basics. Man. If it cranks when you apply power,
you're missing you know, follow the electrons, you're missing voltage somewhere. Okay,
all right, so good luck to you, keep us posted.
You'd be well, Dean, Thank you, thank you, very welcome, sir.
My pleasure, my pleasure. Yeah, listen, I don't care how
complicated it is. It's let's let's break it down and
(25:20):
make it simple. One of the things, you know, back
when I was teaching, well, I guess I am still
teaching in a sense, but I would I would break
it down. I just take the part out of the
car and say, okay, put it on the bench. How
does it work? Can I make it work?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And it's just it's you know, power ground signal. What
are we looking for? And you know that's all part
of it. So that's what that's that's the way you
approach cars. Let's let's make it work on the bench
and then we can make it work in the car
if we don't understand it. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. The car Doctor's coming back
right after this. Let's welcome back. I'm running of the
(26:03):
car doctor. Let's say hello to Tom. Tom. I'm here
to rescue you. Tom. Listen, I'm not letting you out
of the house this week because you can't travel upstate.
Because I understand there's a you guys have a problem
in New York. What the heck is going on over there?
If it's not one thing, it's another.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
We have a lot of problems in New York.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
No.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I had a little argument with the deer.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Well, the deer was a problem. I was talking about
the battery fire upstate New York with.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
About about twenty miles east of Watertown, New York. There's
a solar farm that the batteries are on fire, and
I was watching that in the news the other morning.
And first of all, on the video, the fire is
burning blue green. It's not a normal orange fire, which
is weird.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, that's because the chemicals. But your governor says, listen,
you're a governor. The government said, there's no toxicity there,
and it may be bad for your health, it's not
necessarily bad for your health.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, they said that at the smoldering pile at nine
to eleven two. But let's not get political, right, but yeah, yeah, no, no, no,
And it's like and they interviewed the local TV up
here up there, interviewed the fire department, and the firemen
are staying, all we can do is stand here and watch.
It's going to be it's going to be at least
(27:20):
seven days, possibly more until this thing's out, which has
to burn out.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Now, are these these are lithium batteries that are on fire. Yeah, right,
So this is like a big pile of electric vehicles
all melting into one.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Yep, yep, yeah, but but but you know this is good,
it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, it's what we want. I was and the reason
I was thinking of this is I was reading an
article that Research Cafe sent us this week by it
from Jelopnik out on the web about it's too hot
for evs to work right, and they talk about how
an extreme heat which we're we're going through right now
here here in the States. A Seattle based EV battery
and range analytics company called Recurrent, the article starts out,
(27:59):
has tested thousands of vehicles in various weather conditions. It
found that many vehicles, many electric vehicles, experience a significant
decline in their range as temperatures rose. Some apparently suffered
a thirty one percent drop when temp's got about one
hundred degrees fahrenheit. That's less than ideal at cooler temperatures.
The outlet's report that the range loss wasn't as high.
There was an average of five percent reduction at ninety
(28:20):
degrees and two point eight percent at eighty So it's
definitely not linear. So it seems that the EV future, Well,
don't worry, Tom, technology is going to fix this. Because
everybody keeps telling me that I'm single handedly trying to
defeat the EV. But I should wait because technology is
going to solve all of this, of course.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Yeah, but you know we'll all be dead by the
time that happens.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I mean, you know, this is going to be one
hundred years from now. So if that fire in New
York gets any bigger, there, we'll be dead a lot sooner.
Not to be doom in gloom.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Speaking of believing the government, you want to talk about
my my registration dilemma.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
H yeah, that's an interesting story, but you have to watch.
We only have four minutes. Don't want to run over town.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Oh no, no, we won't take much time. In a nutshell,
my daughter has moved to Massachusetts and I hold the
loan on the car. This this was a graduation present
when she graduated ved school, and I said, okay, let's
do the right thing. Let's register in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Oh no, can't do that.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
I'm not a resident of Massachusetts. It's like, well, wait
a minute, you have you have a tax on the
car every year, so I'm trying to give you money
to use your roads. No, no, can't do that. Okay,
So I called in the orc. I said do you
have a reciprocal agreement for inspection?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No?
Speaker 5 (29:38):
And I said, well why not, Well because it's not
a New York state inspection. And I said, really, they
inspect the same exact things you do, but it's not
a New York state inspection. So she's got to drive
four hours home next week to put the car up
on a lift for ten minutes. So it's like and
but here's the kicker. Here's the kicker if if a
(30:00):
cop starts patrolling her apartment complex and sees the car
there too often, he's going to ticket to thing because
it's an out of state car and somebody has obviously
living there. But I can't I don't live there, and
I can't register the car in their state.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Hello, I wonder, so I wonder what if I wonder
what you know, do we have any policemen in the audience.
Could they write in and tell us what would they
do in that situation? What are the legalities there? Because
you know, this is one of those those catch twenty twos.
I think that it doesn't it doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. You know, it's and you know, let's
(30:35):
expand this out, Tom, It's not just your daughter. How
many kids right graduate college they live out of state.
Maybe it's a New York to Massachusetts thing, maybe it's
a different state. How many So, how many extra vehicles
are we putting on the road burning gas while we're
trying to save the environment, unnecessarily to take long trips
home to get vehicles registered. It's it's it's kind of ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Her car registration is due for renewal. It's like I
have to get but it has to get inspected before
it's renewed. And I said to the woman on the phone,
I said, so she was going to school in California,
she'd have to drive home five days and then drive home,
the drive back to school five days because you won't
register the thing because it's you know, because she can't
(31:21):
get it inspected. Right at the moment, they said yeah,
And I went, you people are you're idiots. You're all idiots.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Now you gotta well listen. Not picking on New York, Tom,
I'm not impressed by New York because the other thing
New York did this week, this is pick on New
York Day. I'm sorry, but the other thing New York
did this this week. I read somewhere that the utility companies,
because of the increased demand and in the rise of
electric vehicles, they're raising your utility bill in New York
somewhere between sixteen and twenty percent over the course of
(31:48):
the next eighteen months. So you get read it's a
big surprise.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
But interestingly, with all the air conditioning time we've had
in the last month month and a half because of
the heat around here, my electric bill went down.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
That makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We'll figure.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
By the way, speaking of utilities, before we go to
the pause, there was a note in the news this
week that eleven states have declared an electrical emergency asking
us to curtail and conserve because the grid can't handle
the demand placed on it now by all the air
conditioning use. So you tell me how in eight years
I got to go here. How in eight years we're
(32:26):
going to have increased ability to meet the demand of
all the evs that are going to allegedly be on
the road and able to be charged. It's magic, Yeah,
it's going to be magic, all right, So let's pull
over and take the pause. I'm ronning any and the
car doctor, the elusive illustrious Tom Ray will both be
back right after this, don't go away. Sometimes welcome back
(33:03):
by the way ron and aiding the car doctor. Sometimes
auto repair is not straight and cut forward. It's not
as clear as you'd like to expect it to be.
We had an O eight Fusion in the shop this
week that came in. We haven't seen the car in
a while. It's a it's a quick loob car. It
kind of wanders away. Actually it's a no loop car
because I found out its oil change was a year overdue,
and we set the owner down and explained to her
(33:25):
why that's a bad thing and why she should still
change the oil on a regular basis, even though it's
you know, she only goes, well, it's an O eight
and she's got fifty four thousand miles on it, so
understand why I say that. And it had two fault
codes and I check engine line on. I had a
P zero one to twenty eight engine temperature not coming
up to regulate a speck. And it had a P
zero four to H three a problem in e GR
valve circuit performance. You know, I didn't make the connection.
(33:49):
There is no connection. You know, sometimes cars just have
two dissimilar faults. It would be like you know, your
right foot hurts and you've got an earache. They're just
connected by the fact that they're both attached to your body.
And that was about the only commonality, only common connection
that this vehicle had. Long story short, The P zero
(34:10):
one twenty eight was a bad thermistat. The thermostat was
leaking and it were cross leaking. It was kind of neat.
I got a motorad piece to replace it because nothing works,
you know, motorat as oe nothing works as good as
a motorat in my opinion. But they make a very
nice thermostat, very nice thermostat in housing. And you could
see the original thermostat. It had popped out of its
(34:30):
housing and it was sitting well, it wasn't sitting flush anymore,
and it was leaking right around the stat So the
motorad thermostat solved that. Of course, getting to it was
another story. I had to take the power steering pump
off and pull fluid out of the system in order
to get to the thermostat, because if you were an engineer,
why would you make it accessible. The EGR valve, however,
also not accessible all right. Had to pull the lower
(34:53):
radiator hose off to get to the bolts through the
EGR valve. Had a problem in the yellow green wire
are going to pin number one that it shorted, took
out the driver in the eger valve. Had to put
a valve and repair the wiring harness on it. No connection,
no commonality, but in the end, through two dissimilar faults,
(35:14):
we were able to fix it and get it back
on the road. So sometimes just you know, follow procedure
steps one through eight, whatever it is, and just that's
what gets the job done. I'm running eighty in the
car doctor until the next time, reminding you good mechanics
aren't expensive, they're priceless. See you
Ron An Aian. We looked at a car. You know,
the car was way overdue for toil change, and I'm
not sure why. I think, well, I know why the
husband's in trouble with the wife because Maggie kept telling Paul,
bringing in, bringing in, bringing in, and you know, he didn't.
And it finally came in about five and a half,
almost six months overdue, still half done. It takes a
TV what a car doctor.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're like the system where they flushed the transmission, done
that loose and all the dirt and they put the
new back in and it just recirculates back into the transmission.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, a transmission flush to me signifies or describes we're
doing something under pressure.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the radio home of ron An Aian, the
Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in the garage door.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
There's her opening, but I am here to take your
call at eight five, five five hundred.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And now tea running.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, you know what, we're just so busy on the
phones I'm not even gonna waste time on doing anything else.
Let's go right to John and Oklahoma nine Honda Accord
and get this show going. John. Welcome to the car doctor, Sir.
How can I help?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yes, sir, ron I want to say you're the man
I called you a couple months ago about the four
most tang with the rear end problem. I got checking
apart and cut putting new bearings and new spider gears,
and everything's running good. I appreciate that pous comfortable months ago.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
My pleasure, sir. How can I help you today?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, sir? On the Honda I got a up my
son's Honda cord. It's a two thousand and nine to
two point four four cylinder and his compressor locked up.
It is one hundred percent locked up. I checked everything
and I can't turn it by hand. Have it apart.
I'm also going to be replacing the condenser, and I
bought the suction line and the pressure line as well. Okay,
My question is I'm having lots of problems finding out
(02:00):
how much oil it is a pre so compressor. But
lots of people are saying, hey, make sure you add
a ad extra oil to compensate for the loss in
the system. So I was cuos is that normally done?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I mean, yeah, listen, so you know, we'll we'll usually do.
You know, the industry used to think two ounces per component,
so two ounces compressor, two ounces condens or two ounces
of evaporator. But then you get six ounces in there
and you're over oiled, you know, And and listen, I'll
be honest with you. I've always been confused about how
much oil to add to an AC system because the
(02:35):
AC oil floats around in the system. What if it's
all collected in the evaporator, right, what if there's six
ounces of oil in the evaporator and you go two
and two and now you got ten you know, it's
it's it's kind of mind boggling to me, and nobody's
can ever none. Well yeah, okay, fine, yeah, And that's
probably the answer they're looking for. But what flush are
(02:57):
you using? And is it is it legal? As per
the EP are going to put volatile chemicals into the atmosphere.
See that's the other problem, all right, So you know,
we don't flush ac anymore as a professional, I don't
believe we're allowed to. What really goes on out in
the field. That's a different conversation. So what I would
do is, my first question is whose compressor did you buy?
(03:20):
What brand? Uc okay us Universal air Conditioning, good stuff?
All right, we've used them in the shop, you know.
I would talk to the supply house. I bet that
probably has a pre charge of oil in it, and
I'm gonna guess it's the right amount, likely around the
one one and a half ounce size, and I would
add announce. I would add announce to the condenser. I
(03:43):
don't think it's gonna hurt anything. And at that stage,
if you wanted to add three ounces all together between
the two components, I think you're fine. I don't think
you're going to have an issue. I don't see why
you would. I would be curious to see what is
on the liquid line, I'm sorry, the line coming out
of the condenser going to the evaporator, all right, which
(04:07):
will be the liquid line?
Speaker 4 (04:08):
You know?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Do you see signs of debris if the compressor grenaded
and locked up, because usually it can't make its way
through the condenser, right, yes, I did.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It was kind of looked like a yellow snot the
dried ups. What looked like right on that on that
on that little ninety on that fitting. So I did
apply her to it and it air went through, but
it looked like it was a you know, it wasn't
freely slow.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, listen, And I think it's the right thing on
a on a twelve year thirteen year old vehicle to
do a condenser and a compressor. I get that. I'm
just saying my experience generally is I've had compressors just
grenade nasty that you know, kaboom, and it looks like
a hand grenade went off, and you'll find I'll actually
find metal in the suction in the line leading from
compressor to condenser, all right, the discharge line. But I
(04:55):
won't find anything on the outbound of the condenser because
it just can't make its way through. The passages are
too small, all right. You know, you know you want
to you want to find some kind of a flush,
see if there's something out there. I haven't flushed anything, John,
I'm gonna say it's it's a good ten twelve years.
We just haven't had the need, all right.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, you just use clean, clean dry air.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, clean dry air. You want to push some clean
dry air through it. I don't even know, I gotta
be honest, we don't even do that much, all right,
you know, depending upon the severity of the grenade. If
we do a condenser and a compressor, and you want
to do the two lines, problem solved. You know, the
most important thing, obviously is to pull a vacuum and
pull it into a good vacuum state, boil off the
impurity and you know, let it sit, make sure you
got no leaks, and then charge it. And when you
(05:40):
charge it, use real one point thirty four, don't you know,
don't use any of the small cans with the sealers
in it, because I think they're a problem. You know, somebody,
if I get an if I get a car, I'll
say it like this. If I get a car from
somebody I don't know into the shop, I don't put
them on my good Mala air conditioning machine I've got.
(06:01):
I'm an older machine. Well, because I don't want to
ruin the machine I have. I have. I have concerns,
you know, I've got a I've got a machine that
I can Yeah, I just you know, I just if
there's if there's a ceiler in there, I don't want
to draw the seiler into the machine. So I'll use
my scrap machine, as I call it, and you know
it's the luck of the draw if I even want
to hook up to it. I have turned down jobs
just because I'm not going to take the chance I'm
(06:21):
ruining a machine.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yeah, you know, they're they're not They're definitely not cheap.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
No, they're not cheap. And let's you know, people are
people are kind of inconsiderate. They'll tell you whatever they
want to get you to do what they want. And
you know that's not how we play the game at
the shop. You know, we're just there to fix cars,
no drama, but that's what I would do. You'll be fine,
all right, sir.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Once again, I put your help.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Anytime, anytime, buddy, I'm here for you. Let's go over
to Chris and Illinois fifteen Chevy Silverado with a touchscreen problem. Chris,
Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How can I help? Hi?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Ron? Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You're welcome.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
So I got a twenty fifteen Shy heavy Duty with
the Duramax diesel in it, and it's the high Country,
got all the electronics on it, you know, one hundred
thousand dollars vehicle. Well it wasn't then. I think they
are now it is now. But yeah, the infotainment they
(07:19):
call it the infotainment center, you know, the touch screen
in the middle.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Of the dash.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It it has gone out and it is dead completely.
And the dealership I took it back in to get
it worked on. They said that the part is discontinued.
And I got a hold of GM and they basically
followed up at the dealership and then told me, yeah,
it's discontinued. Here's some websites to try. Wow, the dealership
(07:48):
did They did try, used lots and and uh uh,
salvage and all that, but so far nothing And this
has been They've been looking since the beginning of May
for this. So I don't know what to do. I
wonder you any suggestions or.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Well I always look on eBay just for giggles, all right,
just see what eBay has. And two other thoughts. There's
a company out there called module Masters. Have you tried them?
Have you heard of them? I have not heard of them,
all right, master. Module Masters actually used to be a
sponsor of this radio show a million years ago. Uh,
and I've used them a couple of times. And their
(08:26):
work has always been good. I don't know if they
can do that one I think, you know, I don't,
And I don't expect everybody to anybody to do able
to do everything. It's just it's just too involved today
to be able to say I can do everything. But
I would give Module Masters a call. I would just
google it online and you'll find them and you can
likely call them and say, hey, I've got this, can
you rebuild this and go through it? And then the
(08:46):
other thought that I have is there's a there's a well,
I'm going to say it like this, all right, Chris,
there's a local company by us in New Jersey called
Model Electronics. Now they've got a they've got a retail
location where they do car stereos and you know the usual,
you know, buzzcar tuner stuff and YadA YadA yah. But
then there's a wholesale division, big assembly factory that they
(09:09):
do all the dealer work. So if you were the
Chevy dealer in New Jersey, you likely send your clusters
out to Model Electronics to have them repaired, all right,
and they do all the repair work. I don't know
what you've got out Illinois way, I don't know if
Model Electronics is a national company, if they've got a
branch division you know there. But I'm a little confused
(09:31):
and maybe I'm wrong, but in this that you know,
a dealership doesn't repair that module. They either get a
new one or they send it out for repair. And
I would ask the dealer, okay, if you know, who
are you using to repair instrument clusters, modules, et cetera,
And you know, just just just to get that answer,
because they don't do the repairs in house anymore. It's
(09:53):
kind of above everybody's pay grade nowadays, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
But I've say they told me that, you know, the
diagnosis was that it had a short in it. Okay,
it's pretty much out and they were just trying to
order a new So if there's the possibility of a repair,
it doesn't sound like they've even investigated.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That, right, Yeah. I So what who was it?
Speaker 5 (10:13):
It was?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Tom? I have a customer with a at the time,
it was a sixteen Equinox and it had a center
cluster radio with I want to say, was it a touchscreen?
I believe it was a touch screen and it went
out and I didn't even call it GM. I just
took it over to Model Electronics and they had the
(10:35):
ability to you know, run it through its paces and
you know, test everything. Yeah, Ron, this is bad. Okay,
we can referb it. You know, whether they took out
a board or ordered a board, because they'll use the housing.
I think the reason that part I'm just guessing here,
but I'm surmising from experience. I'm thinking. I'm thinking the
reason that that module is obsolete is because the internal
(10:57):
guts are repairable. You know, there's there's boards out there
in the hands of a wholesaler like here. I'll tell
you this real quick, write this down. Take a look
at GM bulletin. It's PI eleven twenty six G. I
know that bulletin off the top of my head, PI
eleven twenty six G. And what that talks about is
it's a software update for your touchscreen, blank screen, touchscreen
(11:21):
and opera, Blell, Bluetooth connection problems. That that software update
covers everything from twenty fourteen Buicks through Cadillac GMC, Sierra Silverado.
So it's common hardware with a different outside box. If
you know what I'm saying, I I you know it
(11:41):
may it may be that your Silverado has a specific case.
But the guts are all the same, is my understanding.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
So if there's a cross reference page that shows what
would be compatible with this at least the guts, No,
in case I needed to go to salvage.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Not at my level, no, sir, that would see that
would be a question for somebody like a Model Electronics
or there used to be a company called Eastern Electronics
that handle GM in this area. But there's somebody in
your neck of the woods that does the module refurbishment
for general motors, for Ford, Chrysler, et cetera. There has
to be all right, So let's let's attack it that way. Listen,
(12:23):
if you think this is a problem, this is what
I'm always saying about. You know, newer vehicles, right, Imagine
EV's in five years. I gotta go here for a second.
Imagine an EV in five years. You think they're going
to have the hardware for these things in five years,
it's not going to happen. So's not going to happen, yep,
So let me know what happens, Chris. Good luck to you, Bib,
(12:43):
You're very welcome. Eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero running in in the car. Doctor, We're
back right after this, don't go away.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
For the best in car advice, give Ron a call
eight by five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Now back to Ron. Hey, let's get over and talk
to Bill from Pennsylvania. Bill. Welcome to the car doctor, sir.
What's going on?
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Hey, Ron?
Speaker 3 (13:12):
How you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I'm doing good, sir? How were you good?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Good?
Speaker 6 (13:17):
I basically just called, uh, say thank you very much
for those tickets to the races and the Poconos. My
wife and I that was our first time we've ever
been to an actual NASCAR race and we had a
great time.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Oh okay last week, sure, yeah, we were, you know,
And I was trying to figure out where everybody was
in relation to the rose because I was the next
row over three rows back. I think I was trying
to figure out where thirty three was because I saw
you guys over there, and I was going to come over.
But then, did you ever see so many people in
one place in all your life? Talk about a crowd? Right?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
Oh, yeah, you're not kidding. Yeah, that was that was
that was something.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, that was to see those cars coming off the
coming off that turn at one hundred and fifty miles
an hour and then running down the straightaway and then
they kept hitting the they kept hitting the other bank
at the other end. Did you notice how the cars
as they're coming off the turns. I was watching them.
You could see the struggle and trying to keep them
on the ground. They were the noses roll over the
place in the early part of the race until the
(14:19):
tires heated up that uh, you know, they were having
traction issues, and I think that's what was causing all
those accidents because what was there like four restarts, four
yellows in the first fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
We kind of got in late.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So yeah, did you get a chance to see the army?
You know, the army and the Navy were there. Did
you get a chance to see any of those displays?
Speaker 4 (14:42):
We really didn't. Uh.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Probably we went by them, but we didn't stop and
really seeing too much.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I climbed into the helicopter. They wouldn't let me fly it,
but that's okay.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
Yeah, So that was that was that was it was
surely it was well worth a fire. God yeap.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Well, we listen, we were glad to do it, and
we're looking we're going to try and do stuff like
that again in the future. So Bill, I appreciate your
kindness and calling, and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it
and had a good time.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Absolutely, thank and again, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
That was aw You're very welcome, sir. Well, we'll see
you again, all right, you be well, all right, you two,
thank you. Take good care. Let's talk real quick before
we go to the pause, a little bit about NGK.
I want to talk about NGK sparkplugs. NGK has got
something new for you guys out there. If you're looking
for it, you'll find it at n GK nt K
(15:34):
training dot com. That's n GK NTK training dot com.
It's a tech talk sheet, you know, like I've got
it in front of me. It talks about the basics
of for example, on Honda's why they set P zero
three thirty five and P zero three thirty nine crank
position sensor faults and intermittent crank position sensor faults. And
it's basic information. It talks, it talks how the sensor functions,
(15:56):
where the sensors are located, and it's the kind of
thing that both they professional and to do it yourself
or can use in certain applications. So kudos to NNGK.
They've put together a few of these tech talk sheets
as well as other things that you'll find at the
NGKNTK training dot com website. So I just want to
mention that that that's out there for you. They're making
(16:18):
good use of the internet like that. So that's number one.
Number two. Oh and Joe from Garfield, New Jersey, rights, Hey, Ron,
I heard you talking about your air conditioning machine and
how you won't hook up to it unless you know
the vehicle and know the car. I do the same thing.
Do you enjoy your Mala machine. I'm considering purchasing one. Joe, Yeah,
Joe's got to be a repair shop. I'm guessing here, Joe, Yes,
(16:40):
I enjoy my Mala machine. I think they make one
of the better machines on the market. There's a lot
of innovation. The thing I like most about it is
you know, they do software updates over the airwaves, so
if there's an issue, if there's a problem. One of
the things that I truly enjoy. For example, I've got
both versions. I've got their one thirty four machine and
their twelve thirty four YF machine for the newer refrigerant
(17:01):
my twelve thirty four WIF machine. The other day I
had a charge an eighteen Honda which had a bad condenser,
which is another story we can talk about. But you
can go into their database and tell it twenty eighteen
Honda cord for cylinder. It will go and find the
refrigering capacity and then take you right to the automatic
test sequence, automatically entering how much refrigerant to add. So
(17:24):
it does it off the database and if you're missing something,
if the database is out of date, they updated over
the airwaves, so it works very well. If you're interested, Joe,
you can get out to their website Service Solutions dot
Mala dot com and look up more about them as well,
because Mali Yeah, and I won't I won't connect. You know,
that's the problem with a lot of these little cans.
(17:44):
If they're sealant in that can. It's been proven time
and again that that cealant gets into an AC machine.
You know, It's it's kind of like eating the wrong
thing over a long period of time. You ingest enough junk,
it's going to affect your insides and it's going to
affect your air conditioning machine. And for what they cost
and for well, they are delicate to a degree, but
let's face it, they're not supposed to ingest junk. I
(18:06):
won't do it. I won't hook up. But you know
that's something I appreciate the email, Joe, and but yeah,
by all means, get out to Mala and take a look.
I'm running any in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Don't go away taking welcome back. I'm
(18:48):
running the car doctor here at eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. Let's get over to
Dean in Kansas. Dean, how are you today? How can
I help?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Good? Thanks King my call.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Welcome sir.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I've got a a two thousand model F three fifty
seven three.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Liter diesel power stroke.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
And pre stroke. Yeah, we're going to put a new
starter around about a year and a half ago along
thereabout so two weeks ago the day thing, uh, I
was pulling camper. We had just bought a heavy camper
and and he's not running hot. It's well low in
the normal range. But I pulled up and filled it
(19:28):
with fuel and it wouldn't start, okay, And there's a
little mechanic shop down the street. They come over and Oh,
we just put a jump back on it. Oh, that
wouldn't do nothing. It wouldn't even click it or nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
So when you say it wouldn't underneath it, when you
say it wouldn't starting, you mean it wouldn't crank.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Wouldn't crank, wouldn't do nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Okay, got it.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And then he went underneath and jumped it with a
screw driver. I'm the starter and it's well, you're good
to go now. Well he didn't text it, but he
got me going so I can get moving. Hang on
a second, so I just shut it off right when
he was right there, and it started right back up,
no problem. Well about a week about a week ago,
(20:09):
it did the same thing. I was pulled on the
same camp or back to the spot, unhooked. Well back
in the spot, shut the truck off, unhooked. Everyone pulled
the truck out, wouldn't start when the house come out
about to late two hours later, fired right out like
I had a cool off first or something.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Okay, but it doesn't because if you jump it and
apply power to the starter, at fires right up. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Okay, somebody's telling me is uh, you know shade tree
mechanic type guys tell me, Well, it's probably a relay
in that fuse box. I had that half my dodge,
he says a lot, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's always it's it's always what my uncle did. If
you got there's there's a starter relay on the fender, right.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Well, it's it's in that fuse pack, yeah, underneath the hood.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Right, So at that starter relay there should be it's
either I believe it's tan red. There's a tan red
wire at the starter relay on the fender. You should
have battery voltage there with the key in the crank position,
all right. If you've got that, then you should have
battery voltage on the red wire and battery voltage out
(21:19):
on the yellow Is it yellow or is it yellow?
Light blue? Yellow? Yellow light blue to the starter mode.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I'm half colored blind, so anytime I work on wires,
get thee Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Well basically we should have let's let's let's treat this
as I mean, listen, you could go down to the
starter and just check there, because you've got you've got
a heavy cable, right, and then you've got a singular
skinny wire correct, right, you're yeah, we call it a
solnoid wire. But start wires good, I'll take that, all right,
(21:49):
you know, do we have power there? All right? But
I like to work. I'm kind of lazy. I get
tired of crawling under vehicle. So I'll go to the junction.
The junction here is the relay. The relay is going
to have three wires. It's going to have a hot end,
a hot out, and a feed down to the solenoid.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And if all that checks out, and then I've got
power to the starter all right to engage it, then
I'm starting to think, is my battery cable okay? And
i'd voltage drop tests that just for basics, all right?
And is my ground? Okay? We never think about the grounds,
you know, we never we don't consider ground.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
It look decent while while, but well what about the
other what about the other end? You know, starter the prank? Okay?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right where it connects to the block. I had a
I had a fourteen sort of a different subject, but
the same thing. I had a fourteen Silverado this week
that would go into a no crank condition and you'd
go to start and it was just stone dead, nothing,
no lights, nothing like, you know, like the battery was stolen.
And I went around, and I looked at it, and
(23:04):
I went through battery low, tested good, and everything was right,
And just on impulse, I wiggled this section of the
negative battery cable where it ran down and came close
to the firewall like there was something about the way
it was kinked, and all of a sudden, all my
lights came back and the truck ran. It had a
bad negative cable. So, you know, we never look at
the negative, you know, So would I would consider that
(23:28):
weird does it go? And how does it connect? And
on this fourteen Silverado, which has been a little bit
of an electrically possessed truck over the last couple of years,
the body ground because the cable splits. There's a ground
that went to the engine block, which was the heavy ground,
and then there was the body ground that went to
the body off the negative battery cable. While at the
factory they undercoated it so well and it crept underneath
(23:50):
that body ground portion and it made a very bad connection.
So I'm willing to bet I fixed more than a
few things with that cable this weekend this week, you know,
So always always look at the negative, all right, if
you yeah, you know, yeah, well if you find that,
let's go backwards. Let's say you don't have power going
(24:12):
down to the starter on that feed, all right, and
this problem is they're hot. I have seen cases where
the trans switch, you know, the is this a sticker
and automatic, Dean, you broke up? This is this truck
a sticker and automatic? It's okay. Just make sure that
(24:37):
that should have a clutch, that should have a safety
switch on the clutch, right you have to push. Yeah,
just make sure that you've got power on both sides
of that. Uh, that that's not causing a problem, because
if that clutch safety switch is bad, it won't crank either.
And nobody ever thinks of that. All right, yeah, yeah,
(24:59):
but that's how it that's how I would approach it.
It's it's basics. Man. If it cranks when you apply power,
you're missing you know, follow the electrons, you're missing voltage somewhere. Okay,
all right, so good luck to you, keep us posted.
You'd be well, Dean, Thank you, thank you, very welcome, sir.
My pleasure, my pleasure. Yeah, listen, I don't care how
complicated it is. It's let's let's break it down and
(25:20):
make it simple. One of the things, you know, back
when I was teaching, well, I guess I am still
teaching in a sense, but I would I would break
it down. I just take the part out of the
car and say, okay, put it on the bench. How
does it work? Can I make it work?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And it's just it's you know, power ground signal. What
are we looking for? And you know that's all part
of it. So that's what that's that's the way you
approach cars. Let's let's make it work on the bench
and then we can make it work in the car
if we don't understand it. Eight five five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. The car Doctor's coming back
right after this. Let's welcome back. I'm running of the
(26:03):
car doctor. Let's say hello to Tom. Tom. I'm here
to rescue you. Tom. Listen, I'm not letting you out
of the house this week because you can't travel upstate.
Because I understand there's a you guys have a problem
in New York. What the heck is going on over there?
If it's not one thing, it's another.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
We have a lot of problems in New York.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
No.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
I had a little argument with the deer.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Well, the deer was a problem. I was talking about
the battery fire upstate New York with.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
About about twenty miles east of Watertown, New York. There's
a solar farm that the batteries are on fire, and
I was watching that in the news the other morning.
And first of all, on the video, the fire is
burning blue green. It's not a normal orange fire, which
is weird.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, that's because the chemicals. But your governor says, listen,
you're a governor. The government said, there's no toxicity there,
and it may be bad for your health, it's not
necessarily bad for your health.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, they said that at the smoldering pile at nine
to eleven two. But let's not get political, right, but yeah, yeah, no, no, no,
And it's like and they interviewed the local TV up
here up there, interviewed the fire department, and the firemen
are staying, all we can do is stand here and watch.
It's going to be it's going to be at least
(27:20):
seven days, possibly more until this thing's out, which has
to burn out.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Now, are these these are lithium batteries that are on fire. Yeah, right,
So this is like a big pile of electric vehicles
all melting into one.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Yep, yep, yeah, but but but you know this is good,
it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, it's what we want. I was and the reason
I was thinking of this is I was reading an
article that Research Cafe sent us this week by it
from Jelopnik out on the web about it's too hot
for evs to work right, and they talk about how
an extreme heat which we're we're going through right now
here here in the States. A Seattle based EV battery
and range analytics company called Recurrent, the article starts out,
(27:59):
has tested thousands of vehicles in various weather conditions. It
found that many vehicles, many electric vehicles, experience a significant
decline in their range as temperatures rose. Some apparently suffered
a thirty one percent drop when temp's got about one
hundred degrees fahrenheit. That's less than ideal at cooler temperatures.
The outlet's report that the range loss wasn't as high.
There was an average of five percent reduction at ninety
(28:20):
degrees and two point eight percent at eighty So it's
definitely not linear. So it seems that the EV future, Well,
don't worry, Tom, technology is going to fix this. Because
everybody keeps telling me that I'm single handedly trying to
defeat the EV. But I should wait because technology is
going to solve all of this, of course.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
Yeah, but you know we'll all be dead by the
time that happens.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I mean, you know, this is going to be one
hundred years from now. So if that fire in New
York gets any bigger, there, we'll be dead a lot sooner.
Not to be doom in gloom.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Speaking of believing the government, you want to talk about
my my registration dilemma.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
H yeah, that's an interesting story, but you have to watch.
We only have four minutes. Don't want to run over town.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Oh no, no, we won't take much time. In a nutshell,
my daughter has moved to Massachusetts and I hold the
loan on the car. This this was a graduation present
when she graduated ved school, and I said, okay, let's
do the right thing. Let's register in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Oh no, can't do that.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
I'm not a resident of Massachusetts. It's like, well, wait
a minute, you have you have a tax on the
car every year, so I'm trying to give you money
to use your roads. No, no, can't do that. Okay,
So I called in the orc. I said do you
have a reciprocal agreement for inspection?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No?
Speaker 5 (29:38):
And I said, well why not, Well because it's not
a New York state inspection. And I said, really, they
inspect the same exact things you do, but it's not
a New York state inspection. So she's got to drive
four hours home next week to put the car up
on a lift for ten minutes. So it's like and
but here's the kicker. Here's the kicker if if a
(30:00):
cop starts patrolling her apartment complex and sees the car
there too often, he's going to ticket to thing because
it's an out of state car and somebody has obviously
living there. But I can't I don't live there, and
I can't register the car in their state.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Hello, I wonder, so I wonder what if I wonder
what you know, do we have any policemen in the audience.
Could they write in and tell us what would they
do in that situation? What are the legalities there? Because
you know, this is one of those those catch twenty twos.
I think that it doesn't it doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. You know, it's and you know, let's
(30:35):
expand this out, Tom, It's not just your daughter. How
many kids right graduate college they live out of state.
Maybe it's a New York to Massachusetts thing, maybe it's
a different state. How many So, how many extra vehicles
are we putting on the road burning gas while we're
trying to save the environment, unnecessarily to take long trips
home to get vehicles registered. It's it's it's kind of ludicrous.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
Her car registration is due for renewal. It's like I
have to get but it has to get inspected before
it's renewed. And I said to the woman on the phone,
I said, so she was going to school in California,
she'd have to drive home five days and then drive home,
the drive back to school five days because you won't
register the thing because it's you know, because she can't
(31:21):
get it inspected. Right at the moment, they said yeah,
And I went, you people are you're idiots. You're all idiots.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Now you gotta well listen. Not picking on New York, Tom,
I'm not impressed by New York because the other thing
New York did this week, this is pick on New
York Day. I'm sorry, but the other thing New York
did this this week. I read somewhere that the utility companies,
because of the increased demand and in the rise of
electric vehicles, they're raising your utility bill in New York
somewhere between sixteen and twenty percent over the course of
(31:48):
the next eighteen months. So you get read it's a
big surprise.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
But interestingly, with all the air conditioning time we've had
in the last month month and a half because of
the heat around here, my electric bill went down.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
That makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We'll figure.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
By the way, speaking of utilities, before we go to
the pause, there was a note in the news this
week that eleven states have declared an electrical emergency asking
us to curtail and conserve because the grid can't handle
the demand placed on it now by all the air
conditioning use. So you tell me how in eight years
I got to go here. How in eight years we're
(32:26):
going to have increased ability to meet the demand of
all the evs that are going to allegedly be on
the road and able to be charged. It's magic, Yeah,
it's going to be magic, all right, So let's pull
over and take the pause. I'm ronning any and the
car doctor, the elusive illustrious Tom Ray will both be
back right after this, don't go away. Sometimes welcome back
(33:03):
by the way ron and aiding the car doctor. Sometimes
auto repair is not straight and cut forward. It's not
as clear as you'd like to expect it to be.
We had an O eight Fusion in the shop this
week that came in. We haven't seen the car in
a while. It's a it's a quick loob car. It
kind of wanders away. Actually it's a no loop car
because I found out its oil change was a year overdue,
and we set the owner down and explained to her
(33:25):
why that's a bad thing and why she should still
change the oil on a regular basis, even though it's
you know, she only goes, well, it's an O eight
and she's got fifty four thousand miles on it, so
understand why I say that. And it had two fault
codes and I check engine line on. I had a
P zero one to twenty eight engine temperature not coming
up to regulate a speck. And it had a P
zero four to H three a problem in e GR
valve circuit performance. You know, I didn't make the connection.
(33:49):
There is no connection. You know, sometimes cars just have
two dissimilar faults. It would be like you know, your
right foot hurts and you've got an earache. They're just
connected by the fact that they're both attached to your body.
And that was about the only commonality, only common connection
that this vehicle had. Long story short, The P zero
(34:10):
one twenty eight was a bad thermistat. The thermostat was
leaking and it were cross leaking. It was kind of neat.
I got a motorad piece to replace it because nothing works,
you know, motorat as oe nothing works as good as
a motorat in my opinion. But they make a very
nice thermostat, very nice thermostat in housing. And you could
see the original thermostat. It had popped out of its
(34:30):
housing and it was sitting well, it wasn't sitting flush anymore,
and it was leaking right around the stat So the
motorad thermostat solved that. Of course, getting to it was
another story. I had to take the power steering pump
off and pull fluid out of the system in order
to get to the thermostat, because if you were an engineer,
why would you make it accessible. The EGR valve, however,
also not accessible all right. Had to pull the lower
(34:53):
radiator hose off to get to the bolts through the
EGR valve. Had a problem in the yellow green wire
are going to pin number one that it shorted, took
out the driver in the eger valve. Had to put
a valve and repair the wiring harness on it. No connection,
no commonality, but in the end, through two dissimilar faults,
(35:14):
we were able to fix it and get it back
on the road. So sometimes just you know, follow procedure
steps one through eight, whatever it is, and just that's
what gets the job done. I'm running eighty in the
car doctor until the next time, reminding you good mechanics
aren't expensive, they're priceless. See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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