August 26, 2023 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about the car that came in this week that needed brakes : takes a call on an 03 Escape with a leak near the pump on the transmission : takes a call on an 06 E-150 Chateau with a few codes possibly relating to the PCM : takes a call on a brand new Ram pickup where the caller is looking for maintenance tips : answers an email on a 23 F350 diesel and winter maintenance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Was it a slot?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Nay name.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I did not slide and I have slip.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
At no point did my buck touch slot.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You reach around and you're not touching slide. That's a
free fall. I'm falling and I see my family walking up.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I'm young.
Speaker 5 (00:15):
It's not a slot, Roan Ananian.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I don't know if you're aware or even possibly how
you could know when something goes wrong, because the car
keeps running, the car Doctor, if we take the vent
valve off, I'm coming to the house this afternoon, Brian,
(00:40):
I'll be there at five.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We're having pizza for dinner, all right. If we take
the ven here for it. If we take the ventvalve
off the side of the off the side of the canister, okay,
and go fill the car up and it works, we
prove that it's not the canister.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Welcome to the radio home of Ron Ananian, 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.
Speaker 6 (01:07):
Up the phone and call in.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call. At eight five five, five, six, ninety
nine hundred.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
And now Pee.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Ronnie.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, I wonder if Johnny Carson gave Doc severance
in the NOD when Doc played Welcome Back from Vacation music.
Also because only Tom Ray, my executive producer, would do
something like that. And it's just it's good to be back.
We went away last weekend and we're back, and I'm
so happy to be back. Trust me, I can't even
talk about a vacation was so bizarre, but suffice it
(01:42):
to say that Ghostbusters I am not. And we'll leave
it there. Hello, and you know, I'm glad to be
here with you in the flesh as it were this hour,
talking to you about your cars and its problems. And
I guess I'll talk about you know, the shop this
week because it's coming back from vacation week. We were
on vacation the week before, and that that was a
real show you heard last week, by the way, that
was a fresh show, as we like to say, because
(02:03):
we always try to put shows together for all of you.
We don't like to run repeats. I don't think we
run repeats. I don't think we've run repeats once a year,
twice year. I don't think we do that, which I
give everybody a fresh show all the time. It's just
important to us. We want to give you guys fresh
information all the time. But coming back from vacation is
it's hairy, right. The shop gets backed up and you
know people are waiting for you, and the demand is
(02:24):
through the roof, as it always is anyway, but now
it's twice as bad. So you know, we attacked it
with a vengeance this week and just saw some really
you know, crazy stuff, and you know, some of it
is some of it is just predictable, and some of
it's unpredictable. The person that brought us the car from
the kid who's coming back from college. You know, usually
this time of year the cars are going away to college, right,
(02:47):
we're getting the car ready. The kid's taking the car
to college, you know, in sophomore, junior year and so forth.
But here's one. The young man had finished college. He
was on a five or six year college program, you know,
four year undergrad, two year master's thing out in West
coast Washington or Seattle somewhere out there, and he hadn't
really been able to get his jeep service properly the
time he was out there. He kept bouncing around form mechanics.
(03:08):
So the parents said, you know, we're going to take
it to run. The family's a regular customer for a
long long time, and you know, they brought it in
and it needed breaks. Was where it really started. It
needed some basic brake work because they were they were
shaking at high speed and nobody could out there, could
really figure it out what was going on. And you know,
we looked at it and said, yeah, you know, front
rowers are warped. But the bigger issue, what everybody was missing,
(03:30):
was the bottom lower control arms. The rear bushings were gone.
I mean you would step on the brake and you
could feel the tire shift, that that kathump or that
clunk that you get in a parking lot or tight
maneuver situation, and you knew something was shifting and moving
in the front suspension. And sure enough it needed control
arms and the you know, thousand dollars worth of brakes
(03:53):
became six thousand dollars worth of front end rear shocks.
The right rear shock was leaking the left front wheel
bearing bad. It needed four wheel braks, It needed fluids,
it needed filters, it needed but as I said to
the owner. I said, Arthur, I said, if I told
you that the jeep needed five grand, what I said
to him, I said, if I told you, off the
top of my head, if this needs five grand, would
(04:14):
you put five grand to it? And he said yeah.
He said, a new vehicle is you know, forty thousand
dollars now to get started if you can even find one.
And I said, right, so, you know it's worth repairing.
It's only got sixty thousand miles on it. It's just
it happens. You know, cost to repair versus cost to
replace is really becoming a factor. We had another vehicle,
a twenty thirteen Hyundai Sonata, and we've seen it before.
(04:38):
It's a semi regular, it's fairly new to us. We've
seen the customer about three times now. She's the daughter
of a very regular customer, and she's kind of learning
our ways like we're learning hers. And you know, I
don't understand the logic of it, you know, to the
degree that well, it's the comments, it's the things they say.
Right this this thirteen Hundai came in and the repair
(04:59):
list was pretty simple. It was in my rack. It
was an oil change, it was the left rear tire
was losing air. The one of the parking light bulbs
was out up front, and the battery kept going dead.
It was actually it was actually driven in after a
jump start, and you know, they kept having this intermittent
random battery dead, no start problem. So I always attacked
(05:21):
the hard thing first. I went after the battery, no start,
and I got in the car and it started right up.
Of course, so I waited till the next morning and
I went out and no start. Okay, I've got a
dead battery. I looked at the battery. Battery had a
standing voltage of eleven point nine. Well, somehow the battery
discharged overnight. Maybe there's a draw. So I put the
battery on charge, walked away, came back three hours later
(05:44):
and it started okay, And I was really busy. I
didn't have time to do everything all at once. I
was kind of trying to squeeze this car in because
it had no appointment, and you know, just trying to
get everybody done. Because I could see by two, I
could see by Tuesday we were going to be coming
up short. On Friday, I knew we were going to
make it across the finish line. But barely. And over
(06:05):
the course over the next two or three days, I
did some standard testing for draw and charge the battery
and concluded, hey, it's got a bad battery. And it
did the battery. I actually pulled the battery out of
the car and Wednesday threw it on the bench, charged it.
Came back to it two hours later, battery failed. Standing
voltage was eleven point two. It just discharged all by itself.
The battery had an internal failure and it was causing
(06:26):
voltage to fluctuate and go all over the place. And
you know, that's an important thing to remember if you've
ever got a vehicle where the battery randomly goes bad
and you can't put your finger on it, take it
out of the vehicle like anything else, right, I always
try to tell you, you know, test it on its own.
Will it stand on its own? Merit all right? Can
it do its job? And took the battery out, put
(06:48):
it on the bench, charged it, and make sure you've
got a good battery charger. I absolutely associated test equipment
has I think the best battery charger equipment in the market.
It really does. They've got this. I think it's an
e SS sixty one hundred sixty one thousand. Maybe I
don't remember their model numbers well, but I just remember
it's a small, oh small profile small it would fit
(07:10):
on your kitchen counter literally as a battery charger. But
the nice thing about it is you hook it up
and it will in battery charge mode. It will set
and forget. It just does its own thing, and it'll
give you calculated reserve on the battery. It will tell
you how long it will be till it's charged. It
will show you charge rate, and it lets you know
when it's done, so you can just set it, forget it,
(07:31):
walk away, and when you walk up to that battery
the next time, it's either charged and it's good or
it's bad. There's there's no arguing, right and the very
smart tool. You know. You can find more Associated Test
equipment out online associated test dot com. I believe it
is the website. If not, we'll give it to you
after the break coming up. But just good stuff. So
(07:52):
I put a battery in it, and I went through
and I did the oil change on this twenty thirteen day,
and then I went after the tire leak, the slow
leaking tire in the left rear and I found that
a previously done repair, not us from another shop, A rope,
A rope rubber plug, a rope tire plug is the
(08:14):
way I should really say. That was used towards the
outer edge in No No Land, right, you know, the
last outer edge the shoulder of the tire, and it
was leaking. It was porous, and you know, there's one
of the reasons why we got away from rope rope
tire plugs, because they do get porus. And it was
causing the tire to lose enough air over time that
(08:34):
you know, it just it needed a tire. But the
problem was it needed three tires. The left rear had
that incorrectly done what I call I don't know if
illegal is the right word, but incorrectly done repair done
on the tire unsafe is probably a better word. The
left front tire had wear on it, not as bad,
(08:56):
but it was down to the It was down to
three thirty seconds. We throw tires away at two and
the right rear tire was at two thirty seconds already
the tread bars were just about to show. The only
good tire on the car was the right front. So
I'm looking at this, I'm saying you know, here's someone
she's on the road all the time, she does a
lot of traveling, she does a lot of driving, she
needs four tires. Well, And this is my point. This
(09:19):
is where I want you guys to be aware of
what people say to me, because I want you to
find yourself in this, because if you find yourself saying this,
you've got to realize what you're saying. The comment back
to me was, well, I spent one thousand dollars on
the car in the spring, five six months ago, and
I don't want to spend any more money on it
like that again this year because a set of tires
(09:39):
today with you know, four tires in an alignment is
eight hundred thousand bucks, right, I mean, where isn't it?
You know, it's like I always say, I want to
be eighteen and lose thirty pounds. It's just not happening.
You know, you can't look at what you want versus
the practicality of what you must when it comes to
repairing a car, because you've got to be safe on
the road. So against my protest of I don't think
(10:03):
you should do that. You know, the car's fixed, the
battery works, the oil change is done, the bulb is
repaired in the in the front parking lamp. But the
vehicle is going to drive around from now till November
three months, until it gets to point where it's cold out,
and then they're going to switch over and put the
winter tires on the car. Yeah, just I don't get it.
(10:25):
I you know, I often think that the people that
are stuck on the side of the road. And I'm
not condemning everybody, but I just wonder do they set
themselves up for failure? And it's a it's a concern,
you know, here's a concern where if that tire plug
lets loose at sixty five seventy miles an hour on
the highway, is she going to lose control? Is she
going to endanger herself? More importantly, not to be selfish,
(10:47):
she gonna endanger me if I'm riding next to her.
So I caution you to all think when it comes
to auto repair as I always do. Eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. I am ronnin
Eni and the car doctor. We're in house today and
we'ready to rock and roll, So we're gonna get back
to the phones right after this. Don't go away.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
When you get keep Ron's number handy eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero for when you
really need advice on your car.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Here's Rob.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Hey, let's get on over and talk to Let's go
to Sam in Pennsylvania three four to Escape Sam. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir, How can I help?
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Good? To talk to you again? Ros I bought this
used to Escape about a year ago and sit in
the garage last night looking just doing checking the will,
the whole commun routine thing, and saw a little bit
of red red drop on the driver's side floor. So
I took the little splash pan down and so all
(11:58):
that somebody had smeared some you know.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
R TV called it vulcanizing, yeah, RTV, r.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
TV ever, Yeah, so it's trips a little bit. I
don't know what I do, I, you know, take that
off and see what's what's really going on back there? Uh.
And just my question is can I just take those
eight bolts out and bring that out an inch and
put a new seal in there? Or do I have
to pull that drop drop everything, you know, pull the
(12:27):
pull the shaft out, drive shaft out and or the
CB axle out, drop that whole thing. Down and take
the whole whole pump out.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Well let's let's let's back up a second. How many
miles are on this car?
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Ninety thousand, just under ninety.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So what kind of shapes the whole car?
Speaker 6 (12:43):
And it's in really good shape. It's you know, very.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Clean, minimal amount of rust and so forth.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's not bad at all.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So if if the worst case scenario became, hey you've
got to pull the trans and reseal it or rebuild it,
you'd do.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
It probably, Yeah, yeah, all right, well.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Because you always have to think the worst. You're we're
talking about a twenty year old vehicle, right.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Right, right. I bought it for like four grand, right.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
But you know what, you can't buy anything for four grand.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I've got a report here on my desk somewhere that
says the price of an average used car now is
twenty grand. So you know, for four grand, you owe
it sixteen You beat the odds, right, Yeah? Can you
pull that side cover off? Yes? All right? The question,
you know, and if you've got the clearance, you know,
(13:37):
as long as you've got the clearance, my concern, you know,
I would get a picture if I don't remember exactly
what's under that cover. But I've seen those leaking before,
you know, I do recall repairing them years ago when
there were more of those on the road. I don't
believe there was any entanglement or involvement, and I believe
you have the clearance where it will come down, or
at least you can get it away far enough. The
question becomes, what else is there with this transmission? Is
(14:01):
that the only leak? Right?
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I think it is. It's fairly drier than a normal
timings cover leaks that they get.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know, my question would be why didn't the last
person take off the eight bolt and pull the cover down?
Nobody could be that lazy if it was that easy,
I'm suspicious. I'm suspicious by nature, right, So you know
my answer is, yes, I believe you can take that
cover down. Yes, I would also do some research and
(14:31):
just you know, verify what's under that cover, all right?
And yes I would just you know, do you have
the clearance once you attempt to do this? But if
you're willing to back it up with yeah, let's let's
repair the trends if we need to, then yeah, why not?
You know an r TV there's a product out there
from a company permittexts the right stuff. You'll see it,
(14:52):
you know, if you've got a local lotal zone autoparts,
get down to your local loto zone and you can
pick it up there. Permittext the right stuff. It's absolutely
the best RTV in the marketplace. We use it all
the time in the shop. You can, you know, just
clean and prep your surfaces and apply the right stuff
and you know, give it twenty minutes and you can
put it back together. Actually you would put it back
(15:14):
together and within twenty minutes. They claim you can put
fluids back in the vehicle, back in the unit and
it works.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
You know, I'm a little bit of question.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, I'm a little bit more generous with time than that.
But just just show you how fast it cures. Uh,
you know, just but yeah, that would work autos and
will have it, yes, sir.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
Your second question, uh being it says it's a MERCN car, right,
mercan fluid? Where am I going to get Mercon? I
can't find. Everyone says, don't put MORCN v in, don't
put this in, don't put that in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right, Well, MERK five is different than MERCN. MERCN is
ATF type three it'll always say ATF type three Mercon
all right, Okay, now that it was just for older vehicles,
merk Uh ATF type three actually older GM trans fluid
all right way back in the day. Now GM has
(16:06):
gone retroactive. There's a bolton that came out that they
tell you that Deck six, which is their synthetic fluid,
will retroactively work with all their transit. So when you're
at AutoZone picking up your ATF, you know your your
RTV RTV. I'm sorry, when you're at autos Home picking
up your RTV from Permatext, you'll find the trans fluid
(16:28):
there as well, and they will have Mercon.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Okay, because I looked online and nobody had like just
the straight Mercan, Like, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
No, because Mercan was never just a straight fluid by itself.
It was always ATF type three slash Mercon. They were
both rated the same. Okay, you know they combined it.
As time has gone on, they've they've played with additives
and they've changed fluids around because they don't have room
on the shelf for everything. Listen, Chrysler type for ATF
is Actually I'm told I've never proven this, but I
(17:00):
accept it because it's not that important to me. But
a Chrysler Type four ATF is merk con with a
foaming additive to prevent foaming. You know. That's that's the
stories that you get. You know, is it important? No,
because I'll just put I'll just put Chrysler Type four
on the shelf. I use enough of it that I
can have Chrysler for Chrysler. And you know, sometimes you
(17:21):
don't want to be the science project or make somebody
the guinea pig. If I was stuck in the middle
of the desert and I absolutely couldn't find it, what
I put, what I put Chrysler Type four in the
trands to get me going. Yeah, absolutely, you know, And
I don't think I don't think it would matter, you know,
I think the trans would show it if it was
a problem. Where I've seen the problem happen though, is
if you use an incorrect fluid in the Chrysler for example,
(17:44):
if you use the MERCN in the Chrysler trans or
something else in the Chrysler trans. I have seen shift
and chatter problems. So that foaming agent there has to
be more to it than you know, it's just an
anti foam agent. I think the Chrysler fluid has an
additive in it for Chrysler clutch packs at the time
of those cars when they existed. But you know you
(18:05):
can flip flop back and forth at that. I'm told
never done it, but you know, yeah, get out to
AutoZone Sam and they'll they'll be able to take care
of it for you. If you've got any more questions,
you know where to find me. Eighty five five five,
six ninety nine hundreds of the number. IM running any
in the Car Doctor and I'll be back right after this.
(18:50):
Welcome back running of the Car Doctor. Here. You know
we were talking before about Associated Test Equipment. It's Associated
Equipped dot com is the website you're looking for, and
it is a model sixty one hundred battery chargers, So
I want to think of that infool to you. That's
all part of it. But associatedequip dot Com And you
know we were talking about the or we're talking about
(19:11):
the ES sixty one hundred battery charger available from them,
so by all means good stuff. Take a look. Let's
get back to the phone. Let's go to Don in
Virginia six forty one fifty and some questions don Welcome
to the car, doctor, sir, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Hey, Ron, thanks for taking the call.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So I am. I'm the first owner, bought it, knew
this two thousand and sixty one fifty chateau. It's not
a conversion. It's the from the factory with captain's chairs
and re receipt. All the maintenance has been done. I've
done a lot of it myself, all changes at three
to five for the last you know, fifteen eighteen years.
(19:46):
I'm on like the third transmission now, so that's not
unusual with this. But it's a five point four engine,
the sixteen valve. So here's what I've got going on.
And I did replace the the PCM about five years
ago for sort of some similar things. And I just
want to make sure I'm going down the right road.
About four weeks ago, I threw a PO four O
five code, which is the you know, exhaust gas recirculation level. Sure, right,
(20:11):
So I went in and you know, I always try
to use Ford parts when I can get it, because
I've not had great success with some of the aftermarkets.
Pulled the dog house and I went ahead and replaced
the sensor, the e GR valve and the solenoid that
controls it, simply because it's got two hundred and forty
thousand miles on it, and I was there right there
was a couple of hundred dollars worth of parts. I
also replaced the hoses that go to the orifice too, uh,
(20:34):
cleared the codes with my fox well and fine for
a week, and then a week later it threw the
code again. And then on top of that, it threw
a P one nine one, which is a fuel rail
pressure sensor. Looked at the real time fuel rail pressure
data looks fine within specifications, and so my suspicions go
up that hey, maybe I've got a PCM problem. Two
(20:56):
or three days later, it did finally throw a P
two sixty F, which is the of apparator System Monitoring
process or performance. And I've looked through and it says
the way to fix this is to replace the ECM AM.
I missing something.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Here, No, the one thing I would do. So, you know,
you sort of have the equivalent of you went to
the doctor and you've got a broken leg, a hernia,
and a nosebleed. You know, there's nothing common with them.
They're they're not attached or related, and I don't see
how one is triggering the other, but you know, it's
just that they're all attached to the same body, in
this case, the same engine. Well, one of the things
(21:32):
I would do regarding the four h five the EGR,
and I've always gotten in the habit of doing this
anytime I diagnose anything EGR, especially on something with almost
a quarter million miles, is you know, just take a
hand vacuum pump if that works. If not, if you've
got a scan tool that will bite directionally control it.
If you open the EGR at idle, does the engine stall?
Does it at least start? Does it at least start
to run rough? Does it?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Okay, then you know. Then the other thing you can
do is, if your scan tool will provide you data,
start looking at voltage coming off the e g R PID.
There's going to be a position sensor PID there, you know,
just take a look. Does the voltage change as you
if you were to manually open and close the valve,
proving that you know the valve is working all right?
You know. The second thing you could try, or the
(22:15):
second thing that comes to my mind is the PCM
that you replaced, was it Ford or was it aftermarket?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
No, because the Ford is not available, so it was
a remanufactured. This was five years ago, and I've ordered
another one from a different company because I wasn't really
happy with the first. The service from the first one.
That's going to be in on Monday, So I'm going
to go in and throw that in and see if
it solves it. But you know, I checked the wiring
harness back through to the UH to the existing PCM.
(22:44):
There's no melted places where it you know, makes its
way through the through the exhaust system and up through
the engine. So you know, I just want to make sure,
especially now that I've gotten two codes, both the fuel
rail pressure sensor and this one and then this final
blue screen of death, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Right, because there's nothing Yeah, there's nothing common there. And sometimes,
you know, sometimes in auto repair you start reading through
the flow charts, and I'm not a fan of flow charts.
You guys know that, right I. You know, I always
like to think outside the box. One of my daughters
wrote her master's thesis on why she wanted to become
a psych psychologist, and she said, I'm based on my
father's ability that he taught me to think outside the
(23:23):
box on life. And that's kind of the way it is.
You got to think outside the box. It's there's no
car out there that's unrepairable.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
What is that PC? I'm going to cost you a
couple of two hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Uh three fifty okay, programmed a new updates and everything.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Right, so you know what for three point fifty you're
gonna have your answer, all right, because you've done your
due diligence. If you can prove fuel pressure is good,
if you can prove that, you know, you take it
for a ride while you're you know, if you're scanning
it or looking at fuel pressure, and fuel pressure is
constant and strong, and it runs good and you never
see it get you know crazy, all right, and you
(24:00):
can look at e g R and e GA RS
functioning as it is. You know what are you gonna do?
Wait till next week and see if it sets a
P zero one, seven to one or some other fault code.
It's it's it's telling you it's broken.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I always look at it as you know, for the
price of the part. At that point, you've done your
due diligence. Don I've been backed in the corner like
this myself, and you just get to the point where
you go, Okay, you know, I'm going to spend this
three hundred dollars and it's either going to tell me
it's fixed or I'm gonna have to, you know, punt
and pull back and rethink this, because there's always a
(24:31):
chance you will have to do that. But I think
your next step would be, we're down to some very
extensive pin voltage testing at the PCM to verify what's
what's what? You know, if you if you clear all
the codes and take it for a ride, does everything
sort of come back at once? It's just it's just
like it's losing its mind.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, the problem is since this p two sixty f through,
it just runs really poorly. It's like that PCM is
taking a dive off the cliff, and so you get
what feels like missing and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Even though you don't want.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
To drive it, you don't want to hurt the cats.
So what if what do you slide the PCM in
that is in the cowl area? Isn't it in the
body mounted the way they have it?
Speaker 6 (25:14):
No?
Speaker 4 (25:15):
What it is? You open the hood and at the firewall,
it's right there. You know. You may have to move
some of the uh uh, you may have to move
some of the air ducting, but it just slides right
out to take out four screws.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, and it comes out right right. So what if
what if you take the PCM out while the engine's
running and hold it in your hand and flat palm,
smack it. Okay, spank it like a baby, Spank it
like you know, spank it like the doctor spanked it
when you were born. Brother, Just give it up, you know?
Does it? Does it straighten it out? And I've done
that too, you know, and and you say, well that's broke.
(25:52):
You know, sometimes it's the shock, you know that the listen.
I have a little hammer in the shop. I haven't
told this story in a million years, but I've got
a little two ounce bullpeen head in the shop. We
call it a diagnostic tool, and i haven't done it
in a while, because, you know, sometimes you got to
be a little flamboyant. People expect if you're on radio,
you're going to be the guy that gives you a show.
And they'll come into the shop and I know what
the problem is when they get there and they tell
(26:12):
me about it. They go, yeah, h And I take
out the two ounce hammer. I tapped the part in
the car stalls. They go, wow, how did you do that? Hey?
You know it's the hammer. The hammer knows what's too.
But you just got to get a hammer like this,
you know. But sometimes you just got to give it
a tap and see what happens, because I think that's
going to tell you something. Also, But by all means,
I would I would start with the PCM at this stage,
(26:34):
because you've done all your due diligence, all right, sir?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Okay, The reason, the reason I've gone to this trouble
is that the van has no rust. It still looks
brand new. It's you know, inside is brand new. And
this is not a work van. This is a travel
van that we've used. And you can't buy a new one.
The new ones are just totally different.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
You know. Well, isn't it amazing how Ford did away
with the Econo line series of vans? You know?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I don't want to Chris. I don't want to Chris
any car company because I think they they've got their reasons.
I just I just don't know if they're right. But
isn't it amazing how they did away with the Econol
line because they said it was too big and bulky
and nobody was buying it. And then they came out
with the Transit and it's just it's just an aconno
line on steroids, and it's just three times harder to
service most of it.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
It's well the answer to that question, and I will
hang out. But the answer to that question is Ford
CEO this past week published an article about his travels
in eighty f one fifty lightning and what a what
a problem that was. Is he tried to make a trip,
you know, through several states.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Right, Yeah, I love that article. Yeah, I read that article. Yeah,
really interestingly, you wonder is anybody awake at the at
the helm. They're all asleep at the switch, don I
always enjoy our conversation, sir. Let us know what happened,
let us know how you fix it. Good luck to you, Yes, sir,
be well A five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. I am ronnin Andy and the car Doctor
and I'll be back for you. Right after this, they
(28:06):
were rolling along this hour running any of the car
doctor here, let's go over to let's go to Kevin
from mass I believe is that mass or Maine with
a brand new Ram pickup and see what's going on, Kevin.
Welcome aboard, sir, Massachusetts. Yes, sir, how can I help
you talk? Every welcome?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I'm in Massachusetts by the way. Okay, hey, I'm just
picking up a Ram with the five point seven hemy
with the torque motor you had.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Congratulations or nice truck, real nice truck. You're gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
The amazing thing about the new Chrisier is not that
it's amazing, but one of the things I really appreciate
on the new Chrisiers. My god, that's a gorgeous dashboard.
Isn't that the sexiest thing you've ever seen? It's the
clarity of the dashboard. Yeah, and all the information that's there.
And I will say I think Chrysler has one of
the best backup cameras. Do you have the backup camera option?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You've got all the bells and whistles. I'm sure you
know put it in reverse. Yeah, that backup camera is photographic.
I think it's phenomenal what they've got there. And you know,
just just a really nice truck. And they're selling a
ton of them, so you can see that the public
is accepting of them. And I think it's a great
I think it's a you know, if it's a it's
a GM four to or Chrysler, it's it's it's getting
(29:17):
to be a tougher and tougher call on what to
pick now maintenance, because I know that's why you're here, right,
So you know I'm going to tell you. I'm going
to talk to you about I won't bore you to
death with about Yeah, I still thinking oil changes every
five thousand miles on synthetic, you know. And the easiest,
the easiest way I can win this argument is how
much did you pay for the truck? Tom or Kevin?
I'm sorry? How much did you pay for the truck?
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Hevin?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, they weren't giving them away?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
No, come on, your wife's not listening. Ahead. How much
was the truck.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
About?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
About forty okay, fifty grand. Let's call it what it is,
all right, because it's it was. It was forty seven
for the truck and three grand for your partner because
they're going to need something special to make them feel
good too. So you know, we spend fifty grand on
a new vehicle. Well, you know, let's let's be let's
be the let's follow the American plan and try and
do this as cheaply as possible. Not okay, oil changes
(30:06):
every five I think it's important. I really do.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I would do the first oil change around twenty twenty
five hundred because I want somebody under the hood and
I don't know that you know is the dealer, the
guy is your guy, the guy it's you know where
you're going to go for the oil changes. I think
that first oil change is important because it gets a
lot of doubt out of the new vehicle owner's mind.
Is everything assembled correctly or all the bolts tight? Is
anything leaking? Is there anything hanging off? And you'd be
(30:31):
surprised how many times on a newer vehicle you find
something and you just you just you just want to
erase that fifty thousand dollars, Gee did I buy the
right thing? Doubt out of your head. So I like
to do that first oil change early. Plus, you know,
we can have the argument about breaking oil and accumulative
debris and everything else. So first oil change early, every
(30:51):
oil change after that five to six thousand miles. I'm
obviously a good quality synthetic and a good quality filter,
you know, is the way to go. You know, you're
going to rotate the tires every other oil change, okay,
depending upon how they wear. You know that that goes
without saying. Somewhere around the twenty thousand mile mark, you're
going to do your first set of filters, air and
(31:12):
cabin if it's so equipped, and it likely is, and
you know you're going to stay ahead of the fluids.
You know, whatever the factory says, add twenty percent to
it and do it that much earlier. So if they
say to a trans service at sixty, do it at fifty,
what do you care the truck was fifty grand? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
What about what about like injection cleaner, additive in the
tank like the very veins, or even having at fogged?
How often should I clean through the tank and how
often should I have it fogged?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I start doing fuel system cleaner around the fifteen thousand
mile mark. I think it's a good point to start.
You want to do it earlier, I wouldn't argue it,
and I would start to have the system fogged and cleaned.
You know, at that twenty thousand mile service where you're
doing cabins and doing it every twenty after that. I
think that's a good maintenance protocol to get into. Remember,
the tank additive is that vitamin BAT twelve and the
(32:02):
the actual fogging is a multi vitamin in a sense,
and it's it's a much more harder dose that if
you've been doing your tank additive on a regular basis,
and I tend to do them every oil change for people,
all right, if they want to get on that program,
I will do a tank editive every every oil change.
So that's every five thousand miles. You know that that
(32:22):
fogging at twenty while some will say, ah, you know, Ron,
it doesn't do anything that's good. It doesn't really have
to do anything because we've been doing it all along
and just maintaining it. Again, the price of the vehicle,
all right, So what's what's a reasonable amount of maintenance
that I've got to do to that vehicle to keep
it going? All right? And you should be fine and
it wouldn't hurt, you know, every so often to just
(32:43):
check body and chassis, bolts and mounts and make sure
everything is tight.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, it's going up pretty uh. New Hampshire oil and
a hot wax as soon as I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yep, yeah, absolutely absolutely so. And then get a cutter
of wax. Get a cut of wax on the top
of it too. Kevin, you know this way, you're right
this this way, you're covered, all right, brother, I got
to run them up against the clock. Enjoy your truck.
Send us some pictures, all right. We enjoy seeing those trucks.
We enjoy seeing all you guys. What you guys, right,
So be well and enjoy it, sir, yes, sir, take
good care. I'm running ending the car doctor. I'm coming
(33:14):
back right after this. Don't go away the way. Welcome
back running in the card doctor. Let me point out
(33:34):
by the way eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero again eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Write the number down. We're looking
for a couple of volunteers. Anybody want to call us
during the week and set us up. But you know,
we want to have some shows in the can as
it were, for you know, the next delaid broadcast or
taped broadcast. But we're looking for volunteers. If you want
to ask a question, and you know during the weekend's
(33:55):
not convenient, call us. We'll set up a date we'll
talk to you at night because we want to sell
everybody's cars and we just want to give you guys
fresh show. So eight five five five six zero nine
to nine zero zero. Leave a message, Tom, or I
will call you back and get you in the queue. Hey,
I want to answer an email for a Tom out
in Seattle, Washington Run. I've got a twenty three four
f three fifty diesel. I'm about to go into my
first winter and I want to get your thoughts on
(34:16):
diesel winter maintenance and what do you think I should
be doing. I'm new to diesel and I really don't
know anything about it. Tom. Thanks for the great show. Tom.
Get out to Hotshot Secret Hotshotsecret dot com. You want
to get yourself some Diesel Winter Antijael from them. It
prevents your diesel fuel from gelling up and lower coal
fuel temperatures. It prevents plugging of the fuel filter and
so on. You also want to get some of their
(34:37):
diesel Winter Rescue, which if you don't use diesel Winter
anti Jael, the Diesel Winter Rescue will help clog or
help free up that clogged fuel on and clear things
up so you can get that diesel started absolutely two
critical things from Hot Shot, Secret, Diesel Winter Rescue and
Diesel Winter Antijael that you're gonna need this winter to
help keep that diesel truck going. Enjoy it and send
(34:58):
us more questions if you have any. I'm ronnin eighty
and the Car Doctor, reminding you till the next time,
happy to be here and proud to serve. Good mechanics
aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
See you
Was it a slot?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Nay name.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I did not slide and I have slip.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
At no point did my buck touch slot.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You reach around and you're not touching slide. That's a
free fall. I'm falling and I see my family walking up.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I'm young.
Speaker 5 (00:15):
It's not a slot, Roan Ananian.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I don't know if you're aware or even possibly how
you could know when something goes wrong, because the car
keeps running, the car Doctor, if we take the vent
valve off, I'm coming to the house this afternoon, Brian,
(00:40):
I'll be there at five.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We're having pizza for dinner, all right. If we take
the ven here for it. If we take the ventvalve
off the side of the off the side of the canister, okay,
and go fill the car up and it works, we
prove that it's not the canister.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
Welcome to the radio home of Ron Ananian, 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.
Speaker 6 (01:07):
Up the phone and call in.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The garage doors are opening, but I am here to
take your call. At eight five five, five, six, ninety
nine hundred.
Speaker 6 (01:15):
And now Pee.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Ronnie.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, I wonder if Johnny Carson gave Doc severance
in the NOD when Doc played Welcome Back from Vacation music.
Also because only Tom Ray, my executive producer, would do
something like that. And it's just it's good to be back.
We went away last weekend and we're back, and I'm
so happy to be back. Trust me, I can't even
talk about a vacation was so bizarre, but suffice it
(01:42):
to say that Ghostbusters I am not. And we'll leave
it there. Hello, and you know, I'm glad to be
here with you in the flesh as it were this hour,
talking to you about your cars and its problems. And
I guess I'll talk about you know, the shop this
week because it's coming back from vacation week. We were
on vacation the week before, and that that was a
real show you heard last week, by the way, that
was a fresh show, as we like to say, because
(02:03):
we always try to put shows together for all of you.
We don't like to run repeats. I don't think we
run repeats. I don't think we've run repeats once a year,
twice year. I don't think we do that, which I
give everybody a fresh show all the time. It's just
important to us. We want to give you guys fresh
information all the time. But coming back from vacation is
it's hairy, right. The shop gets backed up and you
know people are waiting for you, and the demand is
(02:24):
through the roof, as it always is anyway, but now
it's twice as bad. So you know, we attacked it
with a vengeance this week and just saw some really
you know, crazy stuff, and you know, some of it
is some of it is just predictable, and some of
it's unpredictable. The person that brought us the car from
the kid who's coming back from college. You know, usually
this time of year the cars are going away to college, right,
(02:47):
we're getting the car ready. The kid's taking the car
to college, you know, in sophomore, junior year and so forth.
But here's one. The young man had finished college. He
was on a five or six year college program, you know,
four year undergrad, two year master's thing out in West
coast Washington or Seattle somewhere out there, and he hadn't
really been able to get his jeep service properly the
time he was out there. He kept bouncing around form mechanics.
(03:08):
So the parents said, you know, we're going to take
it to run. The family's a regular customer for a
long long time, and you know, they brought it in
and it needed breaks. Was where it really started. It
needed some basic brake work because they were they were
shaking at high speed and nobody could out there, could
really figure it out what was going on. And you know,
we looked at it and said, yeah, you know, front
rowers are warped. But the bigger issue, what everybody was missing,
(03:30):
was the bottom lower control arms. The rear bushings were gone.
I mean you would step on the brake and you
could feel the tire shift, that that kathump or that
clunk that you get in a parking lot or tight
maneuver situation, and you knew something was shifting and moving
in the front suspension. And sure enough it needed control
arms and the you know, thousand dollars worth of brakes
(03:53):
became six thousand dollars worth of front end rear shocks.
The right rear shock was leaking the left front wheel
bearing bad. It needed four wheel braks, It needed fluids,
it needed filters, it needed but as I said to
the owner. I said, Arthur, I said, if I told
you that the jeep needed five grand, what I said
to him, I said, if I told you, off the
top of my head, if this needs five grand, would
(04:14):
you put five grand to it? And he said yeah.
He said, a new vehicle is you know, forty thousand
dollars now to get started if you can even find one.
And I said, right, so, you know it's worth repairing.
It's only got sixty thousand miles on it. It's just
it happens. You know, cost to repair versus cost to
replace is really becoming a factor. We had another vehicle,
a twenty thirteen Hyundai Sonata, and we've seen it before.
(04:38):
It's a semi regular, it's fairly new to us. We've
seen the customer about three times now. She's the daughter
of a very regular customer, and she's kind of learning
our ways like we're learning hers. And you know, I
don't understand the logic of it, you know, to the
degree that well, it's the comments, it's the things they say.
Right this this thirteen Hundai came in and the repair
(04:59):
list was pretty simple. It was in my rack. It
was an oil change, it was the left rear tire
was losing air. The one of the parking light bulbs
was out up front, and the battery kept going dead.
It was actually it was actually driven in after a
jump start, and you know, they kept having this intermittent
random battery dead, no start problem. So I always attacked
(05:21):
the hard thing first. I went after the battery, no start,
and I got in the car and it started right up.
Of course, so I waited till the next morning and
I went out and no start. Okay, I've got a
dead battery. I looked at the battery. Battery had a
standing voltage of eleven point nine. Well, somehow the battery
discharged overnight. Maybe there's a draw. So I put the
battery on charge, walked away, came back three hours later
(05:44):
and it started okay, And I was really busy. I
didn't have time to do everything all at once. I
was kind of trying to squeeze this car in because
it had no appointment, and you know, just trying to
get everybody done. Because I could see by two, I
could see by Tuesday we were going to be coming
up short. On Friday, I knew we were going to
make it across the finish line. But barely. And over
(06:05):
the course over the next two or three days, I
did some standard testing for draw and charge the battery
and concluded, hey, it's got a bad battery. And it
did the battery. I actually pulled the battery out of
the car and Wednesday threw it on the bench, charged it.
Came back to it two hours later, battery failed. Standing
voltage was eleven point two. It just discharged all by itself.
The battery had an internal failure and it was causing
(06:26):
voltage to fluctuate and go all over the place. And
you know, that's an important thing to remember if you've
ever got a vehicle where the battery randomly goes bad
and you can't put your finger on it, take it
out of the vehicle like anything else, right, I always
try to tell you, you know, test it on its own.
Will it stand on its own? Merit all right? Can
it do its job? And took the battery out, put
(06:48):
it on the bench, charged it, and make sure you've
got a good battery charger. I absolutely associated test equipment
has I think the best battery charger equipment in the market.
It really does. They've got this. I think it's an
e SS sixty one hundred sixty one thousand. Maybe I
don't remember their model numbers well, but I just remember
it's a small, oh small profile small it would fit
(07:10):
on your kitchen counter literally as a battery charger. But
the nice thing about it is you hook it up
and it will in battery charge mode. It will set
and forget. It just does its own thing, and it'll
give you calculated reserve on the battery. It will tell
you how long it will be till it's charged. It
will show you charge rate, and it lets you know
when it's done, so you can just set it, forget it,
(07:31):
walk away, and when you walk up to that battery
the next time, it's either charged and it's good or
it's bad. There's there's no arguing, right and the very
smart tool. You know. You can find more Associated Test
equipment out online associated test dot com. I believe it
is the website. If not, we'll give it to you
after the break coming up. But just good stuff. So
(07:52):
I put a battery in it, and I went through
and I did the oil change on this twenty thirteen day,
and then I went after the tire leak, the slow
leaking tire in the left rear and I found that
a previously done repair, not us from another shop, A rope,
A rope rubber plug, a rope tire plug is the
(08:14):
way I should really say. That was used towards the
outer edge in No No Land, right, you know, the
last outer edge the shoulder of the tire, and it
was leaking. It was porous, and you know, there's one
of the reasons why we got away from rope rope
tire plugs, because they do get porus. And it was
causing the tire to lose enough air over time that
(08:34):
you know, it just it needed a tire. But the
problem was it needed three tires. The left rear had
that incorrectly done what I call I don't know if
illegal is the right word, but incorrectly done repair done
on the tire unsafe is probably a better word. The
left front tire had wear on it, not as bad,
(08:56):
but it was down to the It was down to
three thirty seconds. We throw tires away at two and
the right rear tire was at two thirty seconds already
the tread bars were just about to show. The only
good tire on the car was the right front. So
I'm looking at this, I'm saying you know, here's someone
she's on the road all the time, she does a
lot of traveling, she does a lot of driving, she
needs four tires. Well, And this is my point. This
(09:19):
is where I want you guys to be aware of
what people say to me, because I want you to
find yourself in this, because if you find yourself saying this,
you've got to realize what you're saying. The comment back
to me was, well, I spent one thousand dollars on
the car in the spring, five six months ago, and
I don't want to spend any more money on it
like that again this year because a set of tires
(09:39):
today with you know, four tires in an alignment is
eight hundred thousand bucks, right, I mean, where isn't it?
You know, it's like I always say, I want to
be eighteen and lose thirty pounds. It's just not happening.
You know, you can't look at what you want versus
the practicality of what you must when it comes to
repairing a car, because you've got to be safe on
the road. So against my protest of I don't think
(10:03):
you should do that. You know, the car's fixed, the
battery works, the oil change is done, the bulb is
repaired in the in the front parking lamp. But the
vehicle is going to drive around from now till November
three months, until it gets to point where it's cold out,
and then they're going to switch over and put the
winter tires on the car. Yeah, just I don't get it.
(10:25):
I you know, I often think that the people that
are stuck on the side of the road. And I'm
not condemning everybody, but I just wonder do they set
themselves up for failure? And it's a it's a concern,
you know, here's a concern where if that tire plug
lets loose at sixty five seventy miles an hour on
the highway, is she going to lose control? Is she
going to endanger herself? More importantly, not to be selfish,
(10:47):
she gonna endanger me if I'm riding next to her.
So I caution you to all think when it comes
to auto repair as I always do. Eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. I am ronnin
Eni and the car doctor. We're in house today and
we'ready to rock and roll, So we're gonna get back
to the phones right after this. Don't go away.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
When you get keep Ron's number handy eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero for when you
really need advice on your car.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Here's Rob.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Hey, let's get on over and talk to Let's go
to Sam in Pennsylvania three four to Escape Sam. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir, How can I help?
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Good? To talk to you again? Ros I bought this
used to Escape about a year ago and sit in
the garage last night looking just doing checking the will,
the whole commun routine thing, and saw a little bit
of red red drop on the driver's side floor. So
I took the little splash pan down and so all
(11:58):
that somebody had smeared some you know.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
R TV called it vulcanizing, yeah, RTV, r.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
TV ever, Yeah, so it's trips a little bit. I
don't know what I do, I, you know, take that
off and see what's what's really going on back there? Uh.
And just my question is can I just take those
eight bolts out and bring that out an inch and
put a new seal in there? Or do I have
to pull that drop drop everything, you know, pull the
(12:27):
pull the shaft out, drive shaft out and or the
CB axle out, drop that whole thing. Down and take
the whole whole pump out.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Well let's let's let's back up a second. How many
miles are on this car?
Speaker 6 (12:40):
Ninety thousand, just under ninety.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So what kind of shapes the whole car?
Speaker 6 (12:43):
And it's in really good shape. It's you know, very.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Clean, minimal amount of rust and so forth.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Yeah, yeah, it's not bad at all.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So if if the worst case scenario became, hey you've
got to pull the trans and reseal it or rebuild it,
you'd do.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
It probably, Yeah, yeah, all right, well.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Because you always have to think the worst. You're we're
talking about a twenty year old vehicle, right.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Right, right. I bought it for like four grand, right.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
But you know what, you can't buy anything for four grand.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
I've got a report here on my desk somewhere that
says the price of an average used car now is
twenty grand. So you know, for four grand, you owe
it sixteen You beat the odds, right, Yeah? Can you
pull that side cover off? Yes? All right? The question,
you know, and if you've got the clearance, you know,
(13:37):
as long as you've got the clearance, my concern, you know,
I would get a picture if I don't remember exactly
what's under that cover. But I've seen those leaking before,
you know, I do recall repairing them years ago when
there were more of those on the road. I don't
believe there was any entanglement or involvement, and I believe
you have the clearance where it will come down, or
at least you can get it away far enough. The
question becomes, what else is there with this transmission? Is
(14:01):
that the only leak? Right?
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I think it is. It's fairly drier than a normal
timings cover leaks that they get.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know, my question would be why didn't the last
person take off the eight bolt and pull the cover down?
Nobody could be that lazy if it was that easy,
I'm suspicious. I'm suspicious by nature, right, So you know
my answer is, yes, I believe you can take that
cover down. Yes, I would also do some research and
(14:31):
just you know, verify what's under that cover, all right?
And yes I would just you know, do you have
the clearance once you attempt to do this? But if
you're willing to back it up with yeah, let's let's
repair the trends if we need to, then yeah, why not?
You know an r TV there's a product out there
from a company permittexts the right stuff. You'll see it,
(14:52):
you know, if you've got a local lotal zone autoparts,
get down to your local loto zone and you can
pick it up there. Permittext the right stuff. It's absolutely
the best RTV in the marketplace. We use it all
the time in the shop. You can, you know, just
clean and prep your surfaces and apply the right stuff
and you know, give it twenty minutes and you can
put it back together. Actually you would put it back
(15:14):
together and within twenty minutes. They claim you can put
fluids back in the vehicle, back in the unit and
it works.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
You know, I'm a little bit of question.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, I'm a little bit more generous with time than that.
But just just show you how fast it cures. Uh,
you know, just but yeah, that would work autos and
will have it, yes, sir.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
Your second question, uh being it says it's a MERCN car, right,
mercan fluid? Where am I going to get Mercon? I
can't find. Everyone says, don't put MORCN v in, don't
put this in, don't put that in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right, Well, MERK five is different than MERCN. MERCN is
ATF type three it'll always say ATF type three Mercon
all right, Okay, now that it was just for older vehicles,
merk Uh ATF type three actually older GM trans fluid
all right way back in the day. Now GM has
(16:06):
gone retroactive. There's a bolton that came out that they
tell you that Deck six, which is their synthetic fluid,
will retroactively work with all their transit. So when you're
at AutoZone picking up your ATF, you know your your
RTV RTV. I'm sorry, when you're at autos Home picking
up your RTV from Permatext, you'll find the trans fluid
(16:28):
there as well, and they will have Mercon.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Okay, because I looked online and nobody had like just
the straight Mercan, Like, what is going on?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
No, because Mercan was never just a straight fluid by itself.
It was always ATF type three slash Mercon. They were
both rated the same. Okay, you know they combined it.
As time has gone on, they've they've played with additives
and they've changed fluids around because they don't have room
on the shelf for everything. Listen, Chrysler type for ATF
is Actually I'm told I've never proven this, but I
(17:00):
accept it because it's not that important to me. But
a Chrysler Type four ATF is merk con with a
foaming additive to prevent foaming. You know. That's that's the
stories that you get. You know, is it important? No,
because I'll just put I'll just put Chrysler Type four
on the shelf. I use enough of it that I
can have Chrysler for Chrysler. And you know, sometimes you
(17:21):
don't want to be the science project or make somebody
the guinea pig. If I was stuck in the middle
of the desert and I absolutely couldn't find it, what
I put, what I put Chrysler Type four in the
trands to get me going. Yeah, absolutely, you know, And
I don't think I don't think it would matter, you know,
I think the trans would show it if it was
a problem. Where I've seen the problem happen though, is
if you use an incorrect fluid in the Chrysler for example,
(17:44):
if you use the MERCN in the Chrysler trans or
something else in the Chrysler trans. I have seen shift
and chatter problems. So that foaming agent there has to
be more to it than you know, it's just an
anti foam agent. I think the Chrysler fluid has an
additive in it for Chrysler clutch packs at the time
of those cars when they existed. But you know you
(18:05):
can flip flop back and forth at that. I'm told
never done it, but you know, yeah, get out to
AutoZone Sam and they'll they'll be able to take care
of it for you. If you've got any more questions,
you know where to find me. Eighty five five five,
six ninety nine hundreds of the number. IM running any
in the Car Doctor and I'll be back right after this.
(18:50):
Welcome back running of the Car Doctor. Here. You know
we were talking before about Associated Test Equipment. It's Associated
Equipped dot com is the website you're looking for, and
it is a model sixty one hundred battery chargers, So
I want to think of that infool to you. That's
all part of it. But associatedequip dot Com And you
know we were talking about the or we're talking about
(19:11):
the ES sixty one hundred battery charger available from them,
so by all means good stuff. Take a look. Let's
get back to the phone. Let's go to Don in
Virginia six forty one fifty and some questions don Welcome
to the car, doctor, sir, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Hey, Ron, thanks for taking the call.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
So I am. I'm the first owner, bought it, knew
this two thousand and sixty one fifty chateau. It's not
a conversion. It's the from the factory with captain's chairs
and re receipt. All the maintenance has been done. I've
done a lot of it myself, all changes at three
to five for the last you know, fifteen eighteen years.
(19:46):
I'm on like the third transmission now, so that's not
unusual with this. But it's a five point four engine,
the sixteen valve. So here's what I've got going on.
And I did replace the the PCM about five years
ago for sort of some similar things. And I just
want to make sure I'm going down the right road.
About four weeks ago, I threw a PO four O
five code, which is the you know, exhaust gas recirculation level. Sure, right,
(20:11):
So I went in and you know, I always try
to use Ford parts when I can get it, because
I've not had great success with some of the aftermarkets.
Pulled the dog house and I went ahead and replaced
the sensor, the e GR valve and the solenoid that
controls it, simply because it's got two hundred and forty
thousand miles on it, and I was there right there
was a couple of hundred dollars worth of parts. I
also replaced the hoses that go to the orifice too, uh,
(20:34):
cleared the codes with my fox well and fine for
a week, and then a week later it threw the
code again. And then on top of that, it threw
a P one nine one, which is a fuel rail
pressure sensor. Looked at the real time fuel rail pressure
data looks fine within specifications, and so my suspicions go
up that hey, maybe I've got a PCM problem. Two
(20:56):
or three days later, it did finally throw a P
two sixty F, which is the of apparator System Monitoring
process or performance. And I've looked through and it says
the way to fix this is to replace the ECM AM.
I missing something.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Here, No, the one thing I would do. So, you know,
you sort of have the equivalent of you went to
the doctor and you've got a broken leg, a hernia,
and a nosebleed. You know, there's nothing common with them.
They're they're not attached or related, and I don't see
how one is triggering the other, but you know, it's
just that they're all attached to the same body, in
this case, the same engine. Well, one of the things
(21:32):
I would do regarding the four h five the EGR,
and I've always gotten in the habit of doing this
anytime I diagnose anything EGR, especially on something with almost
a quarter million miles, is you know, just take a
hand vacuum pump if that works. If not, if you've
got a scan tool that will bite directionally control it.
If you open the EGR at idle, does the engine stall?
Does it at least start? Does it at least start
to run rough? Does it?
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Okay, then you know. Then the other thing you can
do is, if your scan tool will provide you data,
start looking at voltage coming off the e g R PID.
There's going to be a position sensor PID there, you know,
just take a look. Does the voltage change as you
if you were to manually open and close the valve,
proving that you know the valve is working all right?
You know. The second thing you could try, or the
(22:15):
second thing that comes to my mind is the PCM
that you replaced, was it Ford or was it aftermarket?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
No, because the Ford is not available, so it was
a remanufactured. This was five years ago, and I've ordered
another one from a different company because I wasn't really
happy with the first. The service from the first one.
That's going to be in on Monday, So I'm going
to go in and throw that in and see if
it solves it. But you know, I checked the wiring
harness back through to the UH to the existing PCM.
(22:44):
There's no melted places where it you know, makes its
way through the through the exhaust system and up through
the engine. So you know, I just want to make sure,
especially now that I've gotten two codes, both the fuel
rail pressure sensor and this one and then this final
blue screen of death, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Right, because there's nothing Yeah, there's nothing common there. And sometimes,
you know, sometimes in auto repair you start reading through
the flow charts, and I'm not a fan of flow charts.
You guys know that, right I. You know, I always
like to think outside the box. One of my daughters
wrote her master's thesis on why she wanted to become
a psych psychologist, and she said, I'm based on my
father's ability that he taught me to think outside the
(23:23):
box on life. And that's kind of the way it is.
You got to think outside the box. It's there's no
car out there that's unrepairable.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
What is that PC? I'm going to cost you a
couple of two hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Uh three fifty okay, programmed a new updates and everything.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Right, so you know what for three point fifty you're
gonna have your answer, all right, because you've done your
due diligence. If you can prove fuel pressure is good,
if you can prove that, you know, you take it
for a ride while you're you know, if you're scanning
it or looking at fuel pressure, and fuel pressure is
constant and strong, and it runs good and you never
see it get you know crazy, all right, and you
(24:00):
can look at e g R and e GA RS
functioning as it is. You know what are you gonna do?
Wait till next week and see if it sets a
P zero one, seven to one or some other fault code.
It's it's it's telling you it's broken.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I always look at it as you know, for the
price of the part. At that point, you've done your
due diligence. Don I've been backed in the corner like
this myself, and you just get to the point where
you go, Okay, you know, I'm going to spend this
three hundred dollars and it's either going to tell me
it's fixed or I'm gonna have to, you know, punt
and pull back and rethink this, because there's always a
(24:31):
chance you will have to do that. But I think
your next step would be, we're down to some very
extensive pin voltage testing at the PCM to verify what's
what's what? You know, if you if you clear all
the codes and take it for a ride, does everything
sort of come back at once? It's just it's just
like it's losing its mind.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, the problem is since this p two sixty f through,
it just runs really poorly. It's like that PCM is
taking a dive off the cliff, and so you get
what feels like missing and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Even though you don't want.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
To drive it, you don't want to hurt the cats.
So what if what do you slide the PCM in
that is in the cowl area? Isn't it in the
body mounted the way they have it?
Speaker 6 (25:14):
No?
Speaker 4 (25:15):
What it is? You open the hood and at the firewall,
it's right there. You know. You may have to move
some of the uh uh, you may have to move
some of the air ducting, but it just slides right
out to take out four screws.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, and it comes out right right. So what if
what if you take the PCM out while the engine's
running and hold it in your hand and flat palm,
smack it. Okay, spank it like a baby, Spank it
like you know, spank it like the doctor spanked it
when you were born. Brother, Just give it up, you know?
Does it? Does it straighten it out? And I've done
that too, you know, and and you say, well that's broke.
(25:52):
You know, sometimes it's the shock, you know that the listen.
I have a little hammer in the shop. I haven't
told this story in a million years, but I've got
a little two ounce bullpeen head in the shop. We
call it a diagnostic tool, and i haven't done it
in a while, because, you know, sometimes you got to
be a little flamboyant. People expect if you're on radio,
you're going to be the guy that gives you a show.
And they'll come into the shop and I know what
the problem is when they get there and they tell
(26:12):
me about it. They go, yeah, h And I take
out the two ounce hammer. I tapped the part in
the car stalls. They go, wow, how did you do that? Hey?
You know it's the hammer. The hammer knows what's too.
But you just got to get a hammer like this,
you know. But sometimes you just got to give it
a tap and see what happens, because I think that's
going to tell you something. Also, But by all means,
I would I would start with the PCM at this stage,
(26:34):
because you've done all your due diligence, all right, sir?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Okay, The reason, the reason I've gone to this trouble
is that the van has no rust. It still looks
brand new. It's you know, inside is brand new. And
this is not a work van. This is a travel
van that we've used. And you can't buy a new one.
The new ones are just totally different.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
You know. Well, isn't it amazing how Ford did away
with the Econo line series of vans? You know?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I don't want to Chris. I don't want to Chris
any car company because I think they they've got their reasons.
I just I just don't know if they're right. But
isn't it amazing how they did away with the Econol
line because they said it was too big and bulky
and nobody was buying it. And then they came out
with the Transit and it's just it's just an aconno
line on steroids, and it's just three times harder to
service most of it.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
It's well the answer to that question, and I will
hang out. But the answer to that question is Ford
CEO this past week published an article about his travels
in eighty f one fifty lightning and what a what
a problem that was. Is he tried to make a trip,
you know, through several states.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Right, Yeah, I love that article. Yeah, I read that article. Yeah,
really interestingly, you wonder is anybody awake at the at
the helm. They're all asleep at the switch, don I
always enjoy our conversation, sir. Let us know what happened,
let us know how you fix it. Good luck to you, Yes, sir,
be well A five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. I am ronnin Andy and the car Doctor
and I'll be back for you. Right after this, they
(28:06):
were rolling along this hour running any of the car
doctor here, let's go over to let's go to Kevin
from mass I believe is that mass or Maine with
a brand new Ram pickup and see what's going on, Kevin.
Welcome aboard, sir, Massachusetts. Yes, sir, how can I help
you talk? Every welcome?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I'm in Massachusetts by the way. Okay, hey, I'm just
picking up a Ram with the five point seven hemy
with the torque motor you had.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Congratulations or nice truck, real nice truck. You're gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
The amazing thing about the new Chrisier is not that
it's amazing, but one of the things I really appreciate
on the new Chrisiers. My god, that's a gorgeous dashboard.
Isn't that the sexiest thing you've ever seen? It's the
clarity of the dashboard. Yeah, and all the information that's there.
And I will say I think Chrysler has one of
the best backup cameras. Do you have the backup camera option?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You've got all the bells and whistles. I'm sure you
know put it in reverse. Yeah, that backup camera is photographic.
I think it's phenomenal what they've got there. And you know,
just just a really nice truck. And they're selling a
ton of them, so you can see that the public
is accepting of them. And I think it's a great
I think it's a you know, if it's a it's
a GM four to or Chrysler, it's it's it's getting
(29:17):
to be a tougher and tougher call on what to
pick now maintenance, because I know that's why you're here, right,
So you know I'm going to tell you. I'm going
to talk to you about I won't bore you to
death with about Yeah, I still thinking oil changes every
five thousand miles on synthetic, you know. And the easiest,
the easiest way I can win this argument is how
much did you pay for the truck? Tom or Kevin?
I'm sorry? How much did you pay for the truck?
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Hevin?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, they weren't giving them away?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
No, come on, your wife's not listening. Ahead. How much
was the truck.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
About?
Speaker 3 (29:45):
About forty okay, fifty grand. Let's call it what it is,
all right, because it's it was. It was forty seven
for the truck and three grand for your partner because
they're going to need something special to make them feel
good too. So you know, we spend fifty grand on
a new vehicle. Well, you know, let's let's be let's
be the let's follow the American plan and try and
do this as cheaply as possible. Not okay, oil changes
(30:06):
every five I think it's important. I really do.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I would do the first oil change around twenty twenty
five hundred because I want somebody under the hood and
I don't know that you know is the dealer, the
guy is your guy, the guy it's you know where
you're going to go for the oil changes. I think
that first oil change is important because it gets a
lot of doubt out of the new vehicle owner's mind.
Is everything assembled correctly or all the bolts tight? Is
anything leaking? Is there anything hanging off? And you'd be
(30:31):
surprised how many times on a newer vehicle you find
something and you just you just you just want to
erase that fifty thousand dollars, Gee did I buy the
right thing? Doubt out of your head. So I like
to do that first oil change early. Plus, you know,
we can have the argument about breaking oil and accumulative
debris and everything else. So first oil change early, every
(30:51):
oil change after that five to six thousand miles. I'm
obviously a good quality synthetic and a good quality filter,
you know, is the way to go. You know, you're
going to rotate the tires every other oil change, okay,
depending upon how they wear. You know that that goes
without saying. Somewhere around the twenty thousand mile mark, you're
going to do your first set of filters, air and
(31:12):
cabin if it's so equipped, and it likely is, and
you know you're going to stay ahead of the fluids.
You know, whatever the factory says, add twenty percent to
it and do it that much earlier. So if they
say to a trans service at sixty, do it at fifty,
what do you care the truck was fifty grand? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:27):
What about what about like injection cleaner, additive in the
tank like the very veins, or even having at fogged?
How often should I clean through the tank and how
often should I have it fogged?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I start doing fuel system cleaner around the fifteen thousand
mile mark. I think it's a good point to start.
You want to do it earlier, I wouldn't argue it,
and I would start to have the system fogged and cleaned.
You know, at that twenty thousand mile service where you're
doing cabins and doing it every twenty after that. I
think that's a good maintenance protocol to get into. Remember,
the tank additive is that vitamin BAT twelve and the
(32:02):
the actual fogging is a multi vitamin in a sense,
and it's it's a much more harder dose that if
you've been doing your tank additive on a regular basis,
and I tend to do them every oil change for people,
all right, if they want to get on that program,
I will do a tank editive every every oil change.
So that's every five thousand miles. You know that that
(32:22):
fogging at twenty while some will say, ah, you know, Ron,
it doesn't do anything that's good. It doesn't really have
to do anything because we've been doing it all along
and just maintaining it. Again, the price of the vehicle,
all right, So what's what's a reasonable amount of maintenance
that I've got to do to that vehicle to keep
it going? All right? And you should be fine and
it wouldn't hurt, you know, every so often to just
(32:43):
check body and chassis, bolts and mounts and make sure
everything is tight.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, it's going up pretty uh. New Hampshire oil and
a hot wax as soon as I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yep, yeah, absolutely absolutely so. And then get a cutter
of wax. Get a cut of wax on the top
of it too. Kevin, you know this way, you're right
this this way, you're covered, all right, brother, I got
to run them up against the clock. Enjoy your truck.
Send us some pictures, all right. We enjoy seeing those trucks.
We enjoy seeing all you guys. What you guys, right,
So be well and enjoy it, sir, yes, sir, take
good care. I'm running ending the car doctor. I'm coming
(33:14):
back right after this. Don't go away the way. Welcome
back running in the card doctor. Let me point out
(33:34):
by the way eight five five five six zero nine
nine zero zero again eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Write the number down. We're looking
for a couple of volunteers. Anybody want to call us
during the week and set us up. But you know,
we want to have some shows in the can as
it were, for you know, the next delaid broadcast or
taped broadcast. But we're looking for volunteers. If you want
to ask a question, and you know during the weekend's
(33:55):
not convenient, call us. We'll set up a date we'll
talk to you at night because we want to sell
everybody's cars and we just want to give you guys
fresh show. So eight five five five six zero nine
to nine zero zero. Leave a message, Tom, or I
will call you back and get you in the queue. Hey,
I want to answer an email for a Tom out
in Seattle, Washington Run. I've got a twenty three four
f three fifty diesel. I'm about to go into my
first winter and I want to get your thoughts on
(34:16):
diesel winter maintenance and what do you think I should
be doing. I'm new to diesel and I really don't
know anything about it. Tom. Thanks for the great show. Tom.
Get out to Hotshot Secret Hotshotsecret dot com. You want
to get yourself some Diesel Winter Antijael from them. It
prevents your diesel fuel from gelling up and lower coal
fuel temperatures. It prevents plugging of the fuel filter and
so on. You also want to get some of their
(34:37):
diesel Winter Rescue, which if you don't use diesel Winter
anti Jael, the Diesel Winter Rescue will help clog or
help free up that clogged fuel on and clear things
up so you can get that diesel started absolutely two
critical things from Hot Shot, Secret, Diesel Winter Rescue and
Diesel Winter Antijael that you're gonna need this winter to
help keep that diesel truck going. Enjoy it and send
(34:58):
us more questions if you have any. I'm ronnin eighty
and the Car Doctor, reminding you till the next time,
happy to be here and proud to serve. Good mechanics
aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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