September 30, 2023 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about the value of a scan tool to troubleshoot a car : takes a call on an 09 CRV where the caller had the cooling system flushed and now there is no heat : takes a call on a 20 F-150 that pings on acceleration, and the dealer says the only cure is to use a higher grade of fuel : takes a call with a question about purchasing a scan tool : talks about the news article about California looking to restrict travel for classic cars.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ron Ananian.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
There are times when in the shop, if you've done
your research, and you've done your diagnosis, and you've you've
done your due diligence, you got to take your best shot,
the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I already ordered the wires, okay, that was going to
put the me in that.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
I think I'm going to change out the bugs too,
because it's such a half full pick.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, good for you. I'm glad. I'm glad you're on
the path, Mike, and I think if you stay with it,
you'll fix it and you'll be happy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
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 up
the phone and call in the garage. Do orders are open?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
But I am here to take your call at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now pee.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Running.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I want to talk to you about this Buick regal
that I got an email about this week, and I
think it's pretty typical of what shops miss, all right,
And I hate to pick on a shop, but you know, listen,
not everybody. I don't know. We're throwing parts at it,
I think, and I've got to call him out on it.
I think they're missing a few things here. So I've
(01:19):
got this email and it starts off, you know, pretty simple,
comes to us from Eric. Eric rights in ron. I
enjoy the show. I'm a novice and do as much
as I can with my limited tool set. But I've
been helping out my son in law with his twenty
fifteen Buick. And he goes on to give a description.
It's a twenty fifteen Buick Regal two liter turbo with
one hundred and twenty five thousand miles. Check engine light
(01:39):
came on about two months ago. He checked it with
a code reader. It had a P eleven oh one
fault code. They replaced the air filter in the mass
airflow sensor with no success. I hope there was some
testing involved there, Eric. If not, I would put things
back to where they were, you know, because we're changing parameters.
I hate changing parts without testing. Obviously it's a waste
of money and time. But the big actor is why
(02:00):
do you change something and you find out you put
a secondary problem into the vehicle Simply by changing a
part that well, I'll try this. Uh, you know, give
me a give me a diagnostic reason, and you know,
simple test. You got a scan tool, uh, you know,
and you need a scan tool to work on a
car today. I don't. I don't think that, you know,
And just having a code reader doesn't do it. All right,
let's talk high level indicator here. You think the mass
(02:22):
airflow sensor is a problem, all right, you think that's
going to be an issue? Tell me what the mass
airflow sensor is? Grams per second at idle. This is
a two leader. Guess what the number should be two grams?
Say two grams two point one, two point two, one
point eight, one point nine. I'm good with that, you know.
Is it three that's wrong? Is it one and a
half that's wrong? But you can eliminate gee, you know,
(02:45):
is it a mass airflow sensor right off the bat?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Of course you could do what you could do. We
could do a calculated load test. We could talk about that,
but I'd rather see you guys starting to do some
basic testing. You don't need a super expensive scan tool
if you want to get your feet wet it, all right,
and start out with you know, a generic OBD two
scan tool two hundred bucks three hundred tops five hundred
(03:09):
gets you a year make model.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
You're good, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean, we spend a lot of money on golf clubs,
baseball bats, football tickets, et cetera, et cetera. Can't we
spend a couple hundred bucks on a scan tool and
you know, stick around, tune in and I'll teach you
how to use it. They took it to a shop
he said, where TSB existed. Right, it was right, there's
there's there's the code for the bulletin. It's it's PIT
fifty four to oh two. You know, that's one of them.
(03:36):
And then there's, uh, there's also pit fifty six eighty four,
which talks about you know, smoking it for diagnostics and
so on. The TSB that you guys looked at, you
tell me in your email here talked about the O
ring seal. But the shop, after talking to a GM hotline,
stated I need to replace the entire intercooler, as GM
doesn't just sell the O ring. Well yeah, but again,
(03:58):
did did anybody test anything here? So you know this
is a turbo motor and now this is above your
pay grade. Eric, but the shop should have the ability
to test for air leaks. All right, there's more than
enough ways to do it. There's you know, if we
want to talk about what's at the top of the mountain,
(04:18):
let's get out to Redlinedetection dot Com. Let's go look
at the smoke machines. Redline Detection has. They make a
couple of smoke pro They make a speed smoke both
capable of doing evaporative emissions testing, which is a low
pressure test, and then an intake air duct test which
(04:39):
is turbocharger boost and so on, a high pressure test.
But for the sake of what's literally a five minute test,
fill the system with smoke. You see smoke coming out,
you have zero flow and so on. We're changing parts.
We're we're not even diagnosing, We're just throwing parts at
the car. If we're going to do this, I say
(05:00):
we get a dartboard, we list every part on the car,
and you buy one dart Okay, on Monday, this is
what I'm going to change. On Tuesday, this is what
I'm going to change, and so on. Heck, by the
time you get down with the dartboard, you've got to
have it fixed. So you know redline Deetection dot com.
I can't say enough about it. You know, doing some
smoke testing here would be wonderful. The inner cooler was
(05:23):
replaced by the shop. Eric's email goes on, who then
called me back to tell me I didn't need just
the inner cooler replaced. I smell guessing, but also the
inlet and outlet hoses. Sure, let's throw more parts at
the car. I got the car back after declining the
hose replacements, good boy, and I replaced the outlet hose myself.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Uh uh.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The check engine light came back on after putting enough
miles on the car. It seems like the next logical
step is to change the inlet hose based on diagnostics
I was given by the shop. No, the next diagnostics
step would be to actually diagnose something. But it really
feels like there's those feelings again. We got to stop
feeling ourselves like I was getting mil for easy money.
I agree. GM wanted to charge one thousand dollars for
(06:03):
each hose. Wow, I guess there's some labor involved here,
and I see intake hoses for about five hundred online,
But I really want to drop more money if there
are other read less expensive options to try next. Thanks Eric. Eric. Okay,
you're not going to buy a smoke machine, and I'm
not telling you to do that. And obviously the shop
you went to doesn't have a smoke machine because they
would have done it by now. I would tell you
(06:26):
get out to Redlinedetection dot Com. At least if you
read about what a smoke machine can do and get
the idea under your head, you'll see that. Hey, if
we can find the shop that has something from redline
and the ability to build and look at pressure through
intake ducts and there's no leaks, then why would we
start changing things? Then we can begin talking about the vehicle.
(06:46):
You know, a P eleven oh one is all about
pressure and airflow, all right, Like, for example, did you
know that a sticking pcvvl can cause this problem? Yeah,
cars still have pcv vals.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Cars engines have to have a way to breathe, all right,
It's a big air pump. I tell you guys this
all the time. You know, air in, air out, and
take exhaust. It's the process. But this particular vehicle has
three crank case vent valves, three PCV valves, and you've
got to make sure none of them are restricted or
sticking at one hundred and twenty five thousand miles seven
(07:23):
going on eight years old, eight going on nine years old,
depending upon when you bought it. Maybe we've got a
bad PCV. One of the pcvs is an issue. The
crank case vent valve could be blocked, and those are
both of those. The PCV and the crank case vent
are common problems. You see, this is about airflow. This
(07:44):
is this is about you know, and are we pulling
in unwanted air from somewhere. Hence the reason for the
smoke tests, hence the reason why they're telling you to
change inter cooler hoses. But nobody's diagnosing this. The sad
part is, you know, if a GM dealer gave you
any of this. I believe the speed smoke from redline
Detection is a GM essential tool. I'm not one hundred
(08:04):
percent certain on that, but I believe a lot of
the dealers are required to purchase that. That's how good
the tool is. That's what it does, that's its purpose,
that's what he existed for. Let's regroup. Okay, you asked
for my opinion. I'd look at Redlinedetection dot com. I'd
understand what a smoke machine can do, what a speed
smoke could do, what a smoke pro could do. At
(08:26):
least get the idea into your head that looking at
intake ducts would help you better understand this issue, all right,
And then I would tell you, let's go look at
the pcvs. Let's go look at the crank case vent.
Do any of those appear to be sticking, stuck, deformed, clogged?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
You know?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
What's the oil change schedule been on this vehicle? Cleanliness
is next to godliness, as I like to say, and
it'll help keep the vent and the crank case clear.
And then send me another email or call me because
I'd love to talk with you about air on this
because I'd love everybody to hear the answers and the results.
I like to do things on air. I'm finding more
and more just simply because everybody benefits from it, you know.
(09:04):
So I'm easy to get a hold of a five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. I will
be glad to talk to you. I can even do
a midweek recording. We're trying to record phone calls midweek
Wednesday night, East Coast time, seven o'clock to start talking
to people about Hey, you know, I've got this problem
because I know some of you can't wait till midweek
or till the weekend, you know, Saturday Sunday kind of thing.
(09:25):
Just keep in mind if you do call and say, hey, Ron,
I want to talk to you, if you could send
me an email in that just spell it out for me,
you know, Joe at main Street dot com or whatever
it is, because I'll probably reach out to you buy email.
It's easier for me and then we can call and
talk and chat. So, but I don't think they diagnosed
anything for you, Eric. I think they're changing parts, and
(09:45):
I question whether they've got the ability. So I would
look elsewhere and find another shop, find somebody that's got
some diagnostics capability, and at least a smoke machine, if
not a speed smoke from redline detection A five to
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. The car
Doctor's coming back right after this. Whether it's a.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Little red Corvette or you go, you've come to the
right place to get that car fixed. Ron and Andy
in the Car Doctor eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Now back to Ron.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Hey, let's get over to Douglas in Virginia Douglas. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well? I have this two thousand and nine CRB Honda, Okay,
and I recently had the cooling system flushed and the
training flushed, and when I went to turn the heat
on to get heat for the defrosters and all, I'm
not getting any heat. And I'm just wondering if the
plucking might have had something to do with that.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Okay, do you the shop that did the flush? Have
you gone back and talked to them?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
No, I'm planning on taking it back to them.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Okay, So how long ago did they do this? Last week?
This week?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Probably about two months ago? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
All right, so you know your first Yeah, it's been hot.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So I haven't been running the right Well, you.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Re you realize your first argument with them is going
to be why didn't you come back right away? Just
just I'm just saying, yeah, it's it's it's it's always
best to get it right away. So the heater core
on these cars can be difficult to bleed, you know,
it's it's they do get air pockets in them. Is
it cold cold or is it lukewarm? Or what is it?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It's just cold. I mean, there's no at all, all right, but.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You have blower, the blower works, you have fash. Yeah,
so you know, was the cooling system dirty or was
this done as a matter of maintenance because the coolant.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Was old, just a matter of maintenance, all right, So.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Let's think of it like this, all right. This may
be related to what they did, this may not be
related to what they did. All right, There's not much
they could have done wrong in the sense that if
they did a true flush, hook a machine up and
let's define a flush, all right for our conversation to me,
doing a coolant flush is you know, they hook up
(12:14):
a machine that does a one for one exchange a
court of fresh coolant in afresh of old coolant out,
all right, and it goes one for one, court for court,
and eventually all the coolant is exchanged. You know a
lot of places don't do that. They'll say it's a flush,
but they're actually just doing a drain and fill off
the radiator. So you know, what did they do if
(12:36):
they said no, you know, hey, Douglas, we did a flush.
Oh yeah, can I see the machine. I'm not saying
it's not there, but you know, sometimes it does raise
some eyebrows if you see everybody scamper. So that being said,
let's assume they did the flush correctly and that your
heater core is airbound. All right? Uh, you know, what
do you look in your house, Douglas? What do you
(12:57):
have for a heating system? Forced hot air or baseport.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Force hot air?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Okay, so the example won't work with you. You know
if the system gets air bound all right, that there's
an air bubble. The easiest way to tell would be
bring the engine up to operating temperature. All right? Feel
the upper and lower radiator hose? Are they both hot?
Almost uncomfortable to touch? If they are? Chances are engine
(13:25):
temperature is good.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
The needle is where you normally see it is the
needle where you normally see it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, like I said, when I run the car for
any lens of time, the it doesn't heat up. It
has the idiom light I call it, but it only
stays right on, you know, normal or in the middle.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Well, no, you're you're you're common to me? Was you
have no hot air out the blower? Are you out
the ducks? Are you saying that the engine temperature gauge
never comes up.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Oh, look, the temperature comes up to like what I
would say would be normally right center on the light. Fine,
that's what I'm not getting any heat.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The blowers work, right, I understand that part. You we're
getting sidetracked here, so we've got good heat. I want
to know as the upper and lower radiator hose uncomfortable
to touch, then my next question would be, right, you
wouldn't have done that. They would have done that. Okay,
Then my next question would be what do the heater
hoses feel like? Is one of them colder?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Now?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
One will always be cooler when we look at heater hoses.
I don't care if the car is red, white, blue, green,
Honda Toyota, you know, four GM Chrysler, It doesn't matter.
Convection works the same. One heater hose is always going
to be the same or roughly the same temperature as
the upper and lower radiator hoses. It's going to be
hot and the other heater hose or outlet is going
(14:45):
to be a little bit cooler. Traditionally fifteen to twenty degrees,
because the laws of physics dictate that as heat goes
through a core and air passes over it, it's going to
cool it off and lower temperature.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Now, it's possible, since you had this flush or whatever
they did done in June July, right, that perhaps the
heat stopped working since last February March, and now you're
just in that mode of Okay, now there's a problem.
It's just kind of caught up. And it's a coincidence
that they did this cool and service and now you've
(15:21):
noticed no heat.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
All right.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
These heater cores are not uncommon to clog. All right.
They're not uncommon to clog, and they're difficult to bleed.
Where you live your house, is there an incline?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Is no, I'm basically flat.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Okay, you're not helping me here, Douglas. Come on now,
I'm what I'm looking for is a slight incline. Doesn't
take much. Fifteen degrees, twenty degrees and park the car,
all right. If you want to try this yourself, park
the vehicle, pop the hood if the vehicle is cold.
Only when the v icicle is cold, take off the
(16:01):
radiator cap. Let the car sit. Okay, look at the
coolant overflow bottle on the should be on the left
side of the engine compartment over I'm sorry, on the
passenger side passenger side front corner of the passenger side
as a driver's side. Okay, yeah, this is a is
an nine. Yes, you're correct. Yeah, so, and let's mark
(16:24):
that with a black magic marker. Here's the level the
levels here. Let it sit overnight with the radiator cap off.
Does the level drop? All right? I don't. I don't
think this is going to fix it. But then again,
if you haven't driven a whole lot of miles since
it was serviced, and all it's been is on flat
service surfaces, sometimes that air bubble is a devil to
(16:46):
get out. But sitting at an incline with the cap
woff will help it, all right. Air will always find
its highest point. And the reason I say, I want
you to look at the bottle and look inside the
radiator once you get the cap woff on a cold engine,
mind you right, it's got to be a cold engine,
all right? Does the level in either drop and if
(17:07):
the level drops, cool it went somewhere. It burned a bubble.
Now put the cap on. You want to top the
bottle depending on how much it dropped, and drive it.
Does heat come back? If he doesn't come back, then
you've got to go to the shop and get them
to diagnose it. Do we have a core problem? Is
this a case of the core is restricted? Is the
(17:27):
core still the heater core is still bound up with air?
Or is the cooling system working properly? And the problem
is in the dash controls. A blend door is stuck,
a tempt door is stuck. Something with controls, and you
know the workings underneath the dashboard. But that's where you're going.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Well, that's what I was wondering, because it's just a
knob when you go from cool to heat right when
you when you whether there was a sensor there or.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, now on a basic system, no, sir, But if
you sat there with the keon, engine off, and turn
the heat from hot to cold, you should be able
to hear the servo motor creak its way along on
this twelve year old car and let you know that
the door is changing position from one extreme.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
To the other.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
But after that, and after the other things I said,
you're back to the shop and explain to them and
let them diagnose it and solve it from there. But
don't be surprised if the core is clocked. I'm ronning
Andy and the Car Doctor. I'll be back right after this.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Don't go away.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Welcome back to the AutoZone studio. Here's Ron. Hey, I
want to thanks for coming back. A five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. As I've said before,
that phone number A five to five five six zero
nine nine zero zero is the Car Doctor's twenty four
to seven number. You can call that phone number anytime,
day or night. We're trying to set up some programs where,
(19:07):
you know, during midweek. If you guys are looking for
us and you've got some car questions midweek and you
can't wait till the weekend, call eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero tell us here and
make model. Tell us the problem. You know, what do
you want to talk about, and we'll put you in
for We're doing recordings on Wednesday night at seven pm
East Coast time, and this way we can get it
up on air and everybody can listen to it and
(19:28):
hear about it. So be part of our midweek recordings.
We appreciate it and solo everybody else that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Learns from it.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
If you can interject your email in that phone call,
you know I can get a hold of you at
you know Joe at Smithstreet dot com or whatever it
is that helps too. I want to talk about the
job interview. You know, the job interview is something that
well mechanics go on every day, or they give every day,
whether they realize it or not. Mister Kelly came into
(19:54):
the shop this week. I love mister Kelly. He's just
a fun guy. He's an older fella. He's driving a
twenty ten Lincoln in and you know, he's just he's
just a lot of left. You can tell. He's got
a great disposition and great outlook on life. And sometimes
his repairs are a little bit adventurous, shall we say,
or different. And this week was no exception. He called
(20:15):
me up early part of the week and he said, hey, Ron,
I've got a leak in my washer bottle, my windshield
washer bottle. I said, yeah, how so, Charlie. Well, he
described to me that he'd open the hood and he
found the washer bottle and he'd fill it up and
he'd get back in the car and it would leak
all over the place. Those were his words. I said, well, okay,
he says, would you order me a washer bottle? I said, well,
(20:37):
I'd rather see the washer bottle failure, because I've learned
that you know, what you see or canstrue as a
fault or a failure may not necessarily be the case.
I said, how about you bring it to me on Thursday,
and you know, let me diagnose it. Let me, let
me do what I'm supposed to do and give it
an evaluation and come back with some research and tell
(20:58):
you what I see. And I realized, it's just a
simple washer bottle. But let's play the game that way.
He agreed. You know, I'm glad I follow my instinct
in my gut. So the car showed up Thursday and
the washer bottle was full. I said, look at that,
and I wonder what he's seeing leaking? And before I
(21:19):
picked up the phone and tried him instinct and I guess,
you know, fifty years had do and this told me, Hey,
why don't we try the washers. Let's see what happens.
So I, you know, gave the washers of spritz and
all the fluid came out, but in the wrong place.
It came out under the hood, dripping on the ground
because the washer nozzles were broken. How that happened, I
(21:39):
don't know. I don't care I care, but I don't care.
You know, my job is.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
To fix it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
It needed to washer nozzles, and I couldn't help but
think to myself how awkward it would have been that
if I had listened to what the customer said to do.
I do own a washer bottle for a twenty ten
Lincoln MKZ, which there's not too many of those left anymore.
That are like dinosaurs when they roam the earth in
greater numbers. So that job interview that at the counter,
(22:08):
my card does this, this, and this. You know, it
just proves the point. It stresses the need for it
ever so much more. It's just it's just so critical
that information that we collect as the mechanics and you
provide as the consumer as to you know, what might
actually be the fault and just just something to be
(22:32):
aware of. So just wanted to point that out the
job interview. When you go on it, don't don't be
afraid to share information, but try to be concise. And
you know, I don't necessarily need to know what you
have for breakfast that day, but i'd like to know
when you were driving, what speed you were driving at.
If you get my meaning, Let's go to Frank in
Virginia twenty f one fifty and some questions. Frank, welcome
to the car doctor, sir, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Hey, Ron, thanks for taking my call longpem list their
first time caller.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Thank you. I appreciate your effort.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
I have a twenty twenty f one to fifty that
I bought new, and about six months after I owned it,
it began to ping. The engine would knock on mild acceleration.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Which engine is that?
Speaker 7 (23:11):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Which engine is this?
Speaker 7 (23:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It's the five liter V eight Okay, go ahead, and
it pings on mild acceleration from about you know, when
I pull out of my driveway until I get up
to about forty miles an hour. Sometimes it's louder than
other days, but it's pretty consistent on that range of pinging.
I took it to the dealer on my latest service
call and I said, hey, here's what it's doing. Is
(23:37):
runny adjustment you can make? And they said, no, there's
no adjustment. We recommend you just put in a higher
graded gasoline and see what happens. And that just didn't
sound right to me, so I wanted to get your
take on that.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, So the software in this particular vehicle, and I'm
familiar with this, I've seen this on a few of them.
My belief is that eventually when the priority, when it
becomes a priority, they will right a change of software
or software upgrade for this vehicle, you know, before we
go through extensive testing. The first thing I would do,
(24:08):
because there's probably no fault codes here, I'm gonna guess
and say right, and by that I mean not just
you know, is the check engine light on? Is there
anything pending?
Speaker 5 (24:18):
All right?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Pending is just as important as you know, current all right.
You know. It's sort of like you ever notice when
you go to the doctor, what's the first thing they do.
They weigh you, they stick you know, stick out your
tongue and say on, they check your your your blood pressure. Right,
They're looking for the problem that's about to happen. They're
looking for the pending fault because obviously you're alive, you
(24:38):
made it in all right, so they know, you know,
you don't have many current full codes so to speak.
So you know, cars are the same way, you know,
just different models. And one of the things I like
to look at with this is, well, I go through
my high level indicators. But I'm going to look at
fuel trim. Fuel trim's a biggie. Do I have negative numbers?
Do I have positive numbers? Or are they you know,
middle of the road.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
If I'm seeing negative fuel trim numbers, meaning that the
vehicle is running rich so it's pulling fuel away, that's
a concern. Now, the five leader in this year vehicle
is a flex fuel vehicle. This is a flex fuel vehicle. Correct,
you can you can run flex? Do you run gasoline
or do you run eighty five?
Speaker 7 (25:23):
No?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
I run eighty seven octane gasoline because I think ten fanol.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Okay, so perfect. That's why I think this is going
to fix this, all right, you know, because what I'm
seeing is the flex fuel version of this truck has
a problem with software. So if you go look at
fuel trim, you're probably going to see negative fuel trim.
If zero is a balanced fuel mixture, zero is your
resting heartbeat, you're going to see a number less than zero,
(25:52):
meaning negative, negative ten to fifteen percent, all right, okay.
Most fuel trim fault codees occur at twenty five percent
plus or minus. Okay, So if if you're if your
negative fuel trim. Let me see, let me see. You're
gonna get the test now you're ready. If your negative,
(26:14):
if your negative fuel trim Frank was twenty four negative,
twenty four point five, is it going to set a code?
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Not according to what you just said.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right so, And that's my point, and that's why we
want to look at fuel trim. You know, if the
dealer's saying, well there's no code, there's nothing to look at,
and I'm not saying that's what they said, that's what
I understood them to say, then you know we're missing
the beat. So once we establish fuel trim, no pending codes,
the next thing I want somebody to do is do
(26:46):
a CAM memory reset, keep a live memory.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
All right, am memory reset?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
O KAM, cam memory reset, keep a live memory. What
that will do is reset the onboard computer. The PCM
has learned how Frank drives. All right, it's learned you're
operating characteristics. It's going to do a memory reset of
(27:13):
fuel trim, adaptives how the vehicle functions, and start from zero.
Does the pinging go away? If the pinging goes away,
it shows that cam memory was locked up and it
couldn't properly adjust fuel trim. By the way, did you
try a higher grade of fuel? Did that solve the problem?
(27:34):
Or you haven't done that yet.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
No, I haven't done that.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Good boy.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I'm a little bit stubborn because I feel like Ford
says this truck should burn eighty seven octane used.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I agree. And then the last thing I want you
to do is I want you to mention to them. So,
because this is a flex fuel vehicle, there is an
alcohol content PIT parameter identification. A PIT is a piece
of data, all right, it's what we see on the
scan tool, those lines of data that a scan tool displays.
(28:05):
There is an alcohol content PID in this vehicle. It's
flex fuel. Right, if you're running, If you're running ten percent,
guess what the alcohol value content should be. Go ahead, guess.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I'm gonna say ten percent.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Bing, go you win the prize, all right, twelve percent,
fifteen percent, I'm okay. If it says sixty three percent,
either you're buying fuel that's not being correctly blended and
they're over blending alcohol into the gasoline, or you've got
a problem with how it's interpreting it, and that's a
whole other conversation. So just good things, Just good things
(28:43):
to look at. Go do that. I'm running late and
need more. You know where to find me. But I
bet you this is going to catch them by the surprise.
And if they want to hear this hour two, you're
coming out of the bottom hour podcast. After the radio
show gets done in about two hours, it'll become a podcast.
You can pick it up tomorrow and you know, play
back for him. All right, kiddo, you'd be well, I'm
running any in the car doctor, I'll be back right
(29:04):
after this.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
By right up.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Welcome back, run name of the car doctor. That's me.
Let's go over to Jeremy and Maryland. Jeremy, welcome brother.
How can I help you today?
Speaker 7 (29:24):
Looking for a recommendation on a good by directional scanner
for like a homeowner. You got a new truck that
you gotta you know, when you put new brakes on,
you got a command the parking break to retract.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm gonna tell you
Launch tech US a lunch tech USA dot com and
they've got a slew of you know what we'll call
DIY scan tools, anything from anything from two hundred to
one thousand bucks, depending on what you want to spend,
you know, if we want to, you know, go above that,
go see if you can buy a throttle. A launch throttle,
(29:59):
I think on the street they're about thirty five hundred
bucks four grand. Probably a little too much for a
di wire. But you know, then again, we spend two
thousand dollars in a set of golf clubs, and we
play a better game when we use a better set
of golf clubs. So you know, there's something to be
said for that. I think, you know, for a guy
that I is going to be a little bit more
into it. And you know, Jeremy, you have called a
few times, so I'm gonna, you know, just state my case.
(30:20):
You know, I think you're going to look deeper into
it than maybe some other people. The nice thing about
a scan tool that I would want for you is
the ability to graph, you know, to put the tracer
up there. You know, because you're you're your eye sees
things at at you know, I think we blink four
times a second, whether we realize it or not. And
(30:42):
you know the rate at which that processor moves to
catch new data and display it. It's important, and you know,
when you're buying a scan tool, inasmuch as you're buying features,
you're also buying processor speed, memory capability, and so forth. Now,
I don't claim to know what my scan tools have
have for processor or memory. I just know that they
(31:04):
work because I've tried them. I've used their functions, and
I've tried I've tried I think everybody scan tool out there,
So you know, I know the Launch is very capable. Now,
one of the things you could try. Do you have
an AutoZone near you, Yeah, AutoZone sells Launch. You can
go talk to them. Oh really, yeah, they if you
go on their website. If you go on their website.
(31:25):
As a matter of fact, if you go out to
the AutoZone website, you'll see and just type in scan tool,
Launch will come up there. All right. Now, they may
not have every model you want in the store, but
you know the fact that they're on their website tells
me they're a dealer or they're a distributor rather, and
you know they should be able to order it for you.
Speaker 7 (31:43):
You know, I mean, do you think for like fifteen
hundred bucks I could get into something relatively usable?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Well, I think I think the number is going to
be a thousand or less or three grand or more,
you know, in that for some reason, that thousand to
three thousand ranges sort of like no man's land, you know.
So at that point, you're buying something used, and I
don't think you want that, you know, I think, yeah,
you want you want fresh, current technology, and you don't
(32:11):
want to have buyers remorse. And the nice thing is
if you buy from your local AutoZone, they'll be able
to guide you accordingly and say, yeah, this works. People
like this, This tool does the job all right. And
at least you have somebody to go to, because one
thing I can't stress enough when you purchase a scan tool,
whether it be direct from launch TECHUSA dot com or
(32:31):
whether it be from your local AutoZone, you're gonna need support.
You need somebody to go back and talk to. It's
it's just very very important. Good luck to you, Jeremy.
I appreciate the inquiry and I appreciate you being there.
I'm running any in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Welcome back to the AutoZone studio. Here's Ron.
(32:57):
Welcome back, Running in the car doctor. Eight five five
five zero nine nine zero zero is the phone number.
Give us a call we can talk or we can
talk midweek. Call that number, leave a message and we'll
get back to you. Leave your email address if you can. Hey,
did you see the news article? And I'm just reporting
the news, folks, I really am. It was up on Yahoo.
California looking to restrict travel for classic cars. Holy cow.
(33:17):
The state is looking at instituting zero emission zones soon.
The article starts out by saying, written by Steven Simes,
this is dated this past Monday, the state of California
is looking seriously at instituting or allowing local governments to
institute zero emission zones in the near future. In preparation
for such a move, the California Era Researcher's Board reportedly
is gathering information about classic cars and how owners use them.
(33:40):
They knew something like this was coming to the US
in California, likely first, but this is still concerning. The
article goes on to state. According to a Daily Coler
report on August two, CARP sent a survey of classic
car owners for model years nineteen seventy eight on down,
a question and answer survey about how they used the vehicle,
where they store it, how they drive it, and so forth.
(34:02):
A little commentary. You know, if it's a classic car
and it's being driven on weekends or limited mileage, how
much can it really be contributing to the pollution problem
that we have, And wouldn't it make more sense to
have better motor vehicle inspections, better roadside checks, more enforcement
(34:25):
in terms of the people that are ignoring these things,
the scoff laws that are just continuing to pollute. You know,
here in New Jersey there's an inspection program. You know
what it takes to pass the check engine light's not
on and it's a plug under the dashboard. We okay,
I'm sure that cleans up emissions, but we do nothing
for safety, ball tires, brake lights that are out, and
(34:46):
so on and so forth. We don't do enough maintaining
or stressing or enforcing of emissions in my opinion, and
picking on classic cars is clearly the wrong way to
go because they're not even looking at the consequences of
how many billion with a b industry the classic car
is to this country and the economy, and right now
(35:09):
the economy can't afford to take any more hits. So
if you've got a classic, you might want to talk
to your elected officials and be aware of what's coming
down the road. I'm running ady in the car, doctor,
reminding you till the next time. Happy to be here
in a pleasure to serve. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See you
Ron Ananian.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
There are times when in the shop, if you've done
your research, and you've done your diagnosis, and you've you've
done your due diligence, you got to take your best shot,
the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I already ordered the wires, okay, that was going to
put the me in that.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
I think I'm going to change out the bugs too,
because it's such a half full pick.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, good for you. I'm glad. I'm glad you're on
the path, Mike, and I think if you stay with it,
you'll fix it and you'll be happy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
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 up
the phone and call in the garage. Do orders are open?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
But I am here to take your call at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now pee.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Running.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I want to talk to you about this Buick regal
that I got an email about this week, and I
think it's pretty typical of what shops miss, all right,
And I hate to pick on a shop, but you know, listen,
not everybody. I don't know. We're throwing parts at it,
I think, and I've got to call him out on it.
I think they're missing a few things here. So I've
(01:19):
got this email and it starts off, you know, pretty simple,
comes to us from Eric. Eric rights in ron. I
enjoy the show. I'm a novice and do as much
as I can with my limited tool set. But I've
been helping out my son in law with his twenty
fifteen Buick. And he goes on to give a description.
It's a twenty fifteen Buick Regal two liter turbo with
one hundred and twenty five thousand miles. Check engine light
(01:39):
came on about two months ago. He checked it with
a code reader. It had a P eleven oh one
fault code. They replaced the air filter in the mass
airflow sensor with no success. I hope there was some
testing involved there, Eric. If not, I would put things
back to where they were, you know, because we're changing parameters.
I hate changing parts without testing. Obviously it's a waste
of money and time. But the big actor is why
(02:00):
do you change something and you find out you put
a secondary problem into the vehicle Simply by changing a
part that well, I'll try this. Uh, you know, give
me a give me a diagnostic reason, and you know,
simple test. You got a scan tool, uh, you know,
and you need a scan tool to work on a
car today. I don't. I don't think that, you know,
And just having a code reader doesn't do it. All right,
let's talk high level indicator here. You think the mass
(02:22):
airflow sensor is a problem, all right, you think that's
going to be an issue? Tell me what the mass
airflow sensor is? Grams per second at idle. This is
a two leader. Guess what the number should be two grams?
Say two grams two point one, two point two, one
point eight, one point nine. I'm good with that, you know.
Is it three that's wrong? Is it one and a
half that's wrong? But you can eliminate gee, you know,
(02:45):
is it a mass airflow sensor right off the bat?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Of course you could do what you could do. We
could do a calculated load test. We could talk about that,
but I'd rather see you guys starting to do some
basic testing. You don't need a super expensive scan tool
if you want to get your feet wet it, all right,
and start out with you know, a generic OBD two
scan tool two hundred bucks three hundred tops five hundred
(03:09):
gets you a year make model.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
You're good, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean, we spend a lot of money on golf clubs,
baseball bats, football tickets, et cetera, et cetera. Can't we
spend a couple hundred bucks on a scan tool and
you know, stick around, tune in and I'll teach you
how to use it. They took it to a shop
he said, where TSB existed. Right, it was right, there's
there's there's the code for the bulletin. It's it's PIT
fifty four to oh two. You know, that's one of them.
(03:36):
And then there's, uh, there's also pit fifty six eighty four,
which talks about you know, smoking it for diagnostics and
so on. The TSB that you guys looked at, you
tell me in your email here talked about the O
ring seal. But the shop, after talking to a GM hotline,
stated I need to replace the entire intercooler, as GM
doesn't just sell the O ring. Well yeah, but again,
(03:58):
did did anybody test anything here? So you know this
is a turbo motor and now this is above your
pay grade. Eric, but the shop should have the ability
to test for air leaks. All right, there's more than
enough ways to do it. There's you know, if we
want to talk about what's at the top of the mountain,
(04:18):
let's get out to Redlinedetection dot Com. Let's go look
at the smoke machines. Redline Detection has. They make a
couple of smoke pro They make a speed smoke both
capable of doing evaporative emissions testing, which is a low
pressure test, and then an intake air duct test which
(04:39):
is turbocharger boost and so on, a high pressure test.
But for the sake of what's literally a five minute test,
fill the system with smoke. You see smoke coming out,
you have zero flow and so on. We're changing parts.
We're we're not even diagnosing, We're just throwing parts at
the car. If we're going to do this, I say
(05:00):
we get a dartboard, we list every part on the car,
and you buy one dart Okay, on Monday, this is
what I'm going to change. On Tuesday, this is what
I'm going to change, and so on. Heck, by the
time you get down with the dartboard, you've got to
have it fixed. So you know redline Deetection dot com.
I can't say enough about it. You know, doing some
smoke testing here would be wonderful. The inner cooler was
(05:23):
replaced by the shop. Eric's email goes on, who then
called me back to tell me I didn't need just
the inner cooler replaced. I smell guessing, but also the
inlet and outlet hoses. Sure, let's throw more parts at
the car. I got the car back after declining the
hose replacements, good boy, and I replaced the outlet hose myself.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Uh uh.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
The check engine light came back on after putting enough
miles on the car. It seems like the next logical
step is to change the inlet hose based on diagnostics
I was given by the shop. No, the next diagnostics
step would be to actually diagnose something. But it really
feels like there's those feelings again. We got to stop
feeling ourselves like I was getting mil for easy money.
I agree. GM wanted to charge one thousand dollars for
(06:03):
each hose. Wow, I guess there's some labor involved here,
and I see intake hoses for about five hundred online,
But I really want to drop more money if there
are other read less expensive options to try next. Thanks Eric. Eric. Okay,
you're not going to buy a smoke machine, and I'm
not telling you to do that. And obviously the shop
you went to doesn't have a smoke machine because they
would have done it by now. I would tell you
(06:26):
get out to Redlinedetection dot Com. At least if you
read about what a smoke machine can do and get
the idea under your head, you'll see that. Hey, if
we can find the shop that has something from redline
and the ability to build and look at pressure through
intake ducts and there's no leaks, then why would we
start changing things? Then we can begin talking about the vehicle.
(06:46):
You know, a P eleven oh one is all about
pressure and airflow, all right, Like, for example, did you
know that a sticking pcvvl can cause this problem? Yeah,
cars still have pcv vals.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Cars engines have to have a way to breathe, all right,
It's a big air pump. I tell you guys this
all the time. You know, air in, air out, and
take exhaust. It's the process. But this particular vehicle has
three crank case vent valves, three PCV valves, and you've
got to make sure none of them are restricted or
sticking at one hundred and twenty five thousand miles seven
(07:23):
going on eight years old, eight going on nine years old,
depending upon when you bought it. Maybe we've got a
bad PCV. One of the pcvs is an issue. The
crank case vent valve could be blocked, and those are
both of those. The PCV and the crank case vent
are common problems. You see, this is about airflow. This
(07:44):
is this is about you know, and are we pulling
in unwanted air from somewhere. Hence the reason for the
smoke tests, hence the reason why they're telling you to
change inter cooler hoses. But nobody's diagnosing this. The sad
part is, you know, if a GM dealer gave you
any of this. I believe the speed smoke from redline
Detection is a GM essential tool. I'm not one hundred
(08:04):
percent certain on that, but I believe a lot of
the dealers are required to purchase that. That's how good
the tool is. That's what it does, that's its purpose,
that's what he existed for. Let's regroup. Okay, you asked
for my opinion. I'd look at Redlinedetection dot com. I'd
understand what a smoke machine can do, what a speed
smoke could do, what a smoke pro could do. At
(08:26):
least get the idea into your head that looking at
intake ducts would help you better understand this issue, all right,
And then I would tell you, let's go look at
the pcvs. Let's go look at the crank case vent.
Do any of those appear to be sticking, stuck, deformed, clogged?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
You know?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
What's the oil change schedule been on this vehicle? Cleanliness
is next to godliness, as I like to say, and
it'll help keep the vent and the crank case clear.
And then send me another email or call me because
I'd love to talk with you about air on this
because I'd love everybody to hear the answers and the results.
I like to do things on air. I'm finding more
and more just simply because everybody benefits from it, you know.
(09:04):
So I'm easy to get a hold of a five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. I will
be glad to talk to you. I can even do
a midweek recording. We're trying to record phone calls midweek
Wednesday night, East Coast time, seven o'clock to start talking
to people about Hey, you know, I've got this problem
because I know some of you can't wait till midweek
or till the weekend, you know, Saturday Sunday kind of thing.
(09:25):
Just keep in mind if you do call and say, hey, Ron,
I want to talk to you, if you could send
me an email in that just spell it out for me,
you know, Joe at main Street dot com or whatever
it is, because I'll probably reach out to you buy email.
It's easier for me and then we can call and
talk and chat. So, but I don't think they diagnosed
anything for you, Eric. I think they're changing parts, and
(09:45):
I question whether they've got the ability. So I would
look elsewhere and find another shop, find somebody that's got
some diagnostics capability, and at least a smoke machine, if
not a speed smoke from redline detection A five to
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. The car
Doctor's coming back right after this. Whether it's a.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Little red Corvette or you go, you've come to the
right place to get that car fixed. Ron and Andy
in the Car Doctor eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Now back to Ron.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Hey, let's get over to Douglas in Virginia Douglas. Welcome
to the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well? I have this two thousand and nine CRB Honda, Okay,
and I recently had the cooling system flushed and the
training flushed, and when I went to turn the heat
on to get heat for the defrosters and all, I'm
not getting any heat. And I'm just wondering if the
plucking might have had something to do with that.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Okay, do you the shop that did the flush? Have
you gone back and talked to them?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
No, I'm planning on taking it back to them.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Okay, So how long ago did they do this? Last week?
This week?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Probably about two months ago? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
All right, so you know your first Yeah, it's been hot.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So I haven't been running the right Well, you.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Re you realize your first argument with them is going
to be why didn't you come back right away? Just
just I'm just saying, yeah, it's it's it's it's always
best to get it right away. So the heater core
on these cars can be difficult to bleed, you know,
it's it's they do get air pockets in them. Is
it cold cold or is it lukewarm? Or what is it?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It's just cold. I mean, there's no at all, all right, but.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
You have blower, the blower works, you have fash. Yeah,
so you know, was the cooling system dirty or was
this done as a matter of maintenance because the coolant.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Was old, just a matter of maintenance, all right, So.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Let's think of it like this, all right. This may
be related to what they did, this may not be
related to what they did. All right, There's not much
they could have done wrong in the sense that if
they did a true flush, hook a machine up and
let's define a flush, all right for our conversation to me,
doing a coolant flush is you know, they hook up
(12:14):
a machine that does a one for one exchange a
court of fresh coolant in afresh of old coolant out,
all right, and it goes one for one, court for court,
and eventually all the coolant is exchanged. You know a
lot of places don't do that. They'll say it's a flush,
but they're actually just doing a drain and fill off
the radiator. So you know, what did they do if
(12:36):
they said no, you know, hey, Douglas, we did a flush.
Oh yeah, can I see the machine. I'm not saying
it's not there, but you know, sometimes it does raise
some eyebrows if you see everybody scamper. So that being said,
let's assume they did the flush correctly and that your
heater core is airbound. All right? Uh, you know, what
do you look in your house, Douglas? What do you
(12:57):
have for a heating system? Forced hot air or baseport.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Force hot air?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Okay, so the example won't work with you. You know
if the system gets air bound all right, that there's
an air bubble. The easiest way to tell would be
bring the engine up to operating temperature. All right? Feel
the upper and lower radiator hose? Are they both hot?
Almost uncomfortable to touch? If they are? Chances are engine
(13:25):
temperature is good.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
The needle is where you normally see it is the
needle where you normally see it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, like I said, when I run the car for
any lens of time, the it doesn't heat up. It
has the idiom light I call it, but it only
stays right on, you know, normal or in the middle.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Well, no, you're you're you're common to me? Was you
have no hot air out the blower? Are you out
the ducks? Are you saying that the engine temperature gauge
never comes up.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Oh, look, the temperature comes up to like what I
would say would be normally right center on the light. Fine,
that's what I'm not getting any heat.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The blowers work, right, I understand that part. You we're
getting sidetracked here, so we've got good heat. I want
to know as the upper and lower radiator hose uncomfortable
to touch, then my next question would be, right, you
wouldn't have done that. They would have done that. Okay,
Then my next question would be what do the heater
hoses feel like? Is one of them colder?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Now?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
One will always be cooler when we look at heater hoses.
I don't care if the car is red, white, blue, green,
Honda Toyota, you know, four GM Chrysler, It doesn't matter.
Convection works the same. One heater hose is always going
to be the same or roughly the same temperature as
the upper and lower radiator hoses. It's going to be
hot and the other heater hose or outlet is going
(14:45):
to be a little bit cooler. Traditionally fifteen to twenty degrees,
because the laws of physics dictate that as heat goes
through a core and air passes over it, it's going to
cool it off and lower temperature.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Now, it's possible, since you had this flush or whatever
they did done in June July, right, that perhaps the
heat stopped working since last February March, and now you're
just in that mode of Okay, now there's a problem.
It's just kind of caught up. And it's a coincidence
that they did this cool and service and now you've
(15:21):
noticed no heat.
Speaker 5 (15:23):
All right.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
These heater cores are not uncommon to clog. All right.
They're not uncommon to clog, and they're difficult to bleed.
Where you live your house, is there an incline?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Is no, I'm basically flat.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Okay, you're not helping me here, Douglas. Come on now,
I'm what I'm looking for is a slight incline. Doesn't
take much. Fifteen degrees, twenty degrees and park the car,
all right. If you want to try this yourself, park
the vehicle, pop the hood if the vehicle is cold.
Only when the v icicle is cold, take off the
(16:01):
radiator cap. Let the car sit. Okay, look at the
coolant overflow bottle on the should be on the left
side of the engine compartment over I'm sorry, on the
passenger side passenger side front corner of the passenger side
as a driver's side. Okay, yeah, this is a is
an nine. Yes, you're correct. Yeah, so, and let's mark
(16:24):
that with a black magic marker. Here's the level the
levels here. Let it sit overnight with the radiator cap off.
Does the level drop? All right? I don't. I don't
think this is going to fix it. But then again,
if you haven't driven a whole lot of miles since
it was serviced, and all it's been is on flat
service surfaces, sometimes that air bubble is a devil to
(16:46):
get out. But sitting at an incline with the cap
woff will help it, all right. Air will always find
its highest point. And the reason I say, I want
you to look at the bottle and look inside the
radiator once you get the cap woff on a cold engine,
mind you right, it's got to be a cold engine,
all right? Does the level in either drop and if
(17:07):
the level drops, cool it went somewhere. It burned a bubble.
Now put the cap on. You want to top the
bottle depending on how much it dropped, and drive it.
Does heat come back? If he doesn't come back, then
you've got to go to the shop and get them
to diagnose it. Do we have a core problem? Is
this a case of the core is restricted? Is the
(17:27):
core still the heater core is still bound up with air?
Or is the cooling system working properly? And the problem
is in the dash controls. A blend door is stuck,
a tempt door is stuck. Something with controls, and you
know the workings underneath the dashboard. But that's where you're going.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Well, that's what I was wondering, because it's just a
knob when you go from cool to heat right when
you when you whether there was a sensor there or.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, now on a basic system, no, sir, But if
you sat there with the keon, engine off, and turn
the heat from hot to cold, you should be able
to hear the servo motor creak its way along on
this twelve year old car and let you know that
the door is changing position from one extreme.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
To the other.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
But after that, and after the other things I said,
you're back to the shop and explain to them and
let them diagnose it and solve it from there. But
don't be surprised if the core is clocked. I'm ronning
Andy and the Car Doctor. I'll be back right after this.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Don't go away.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Welcome back to the AutoZone studio. Here's Ron. Hey, I
want to thanks for coming back. A five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. As I've said before,
that phone number A five to five five six zero
nine nine zero zero is the Car Doctor's twenty four
to seven number. You can call that phone number anytime,
day or night. We're trying to set up some programs where,
(19:07):
you know, during midweek. If you guys are looking for
us and you've got some car questions midweek and you
can't wait till the weekend, call eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero tell us here and
make model. Tell us the problem. You know, what do
you want to talk about, and we'll put you in
for We're doing recordings on Wednesday night at seven pm
East Coast time, and this way we can get it
up on air and everybody can listen to it and
(19:28):
hear about it. So be part of our midweek recordings.
We appreciate it and solo everybody else that.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Learns from it.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
If you can interject your email in that phone call,
you know I can get a hold of you at
you know Joe at Smithstreet dot com or whatever it
is that helps too. I want to talk about the
job interview. You know, the job interview is something that
well mechanics go on every day, or they give every day,
whether they realize it or not. Mister Kelly came into
(19:54):
the shop this week. I love mister Kelly. He's just
a fun guy. He's an older fella. He's driving a
twenty ten Lincoln in and you know, he's just he's
just a lot of left. You can tell. He's got
a great disposition and great outlook on life. And sometimes
his repairs are a little bit adventurous, shall we say,
or different. And this week was no exception. He called
(20:15):
me up early part of the week and he said, hey, Ron,
I've got a leak in my washer bottle, my windshield
washer bottle. I said, yeah, how so, Charlie. Well, he
described to me that he'd open the hood and he
found the washer bottle and he'd fill it up and
he'd get back in the car and it would leak
all over the place. Those were his words. I said, well, okay,
he says, would you order me a washer bottle? I said, well,
(20:37):
I'd rather see the washer bottle failure, because I've learned
that you know, what you see or canstrue as a
fault or a failure may not necessarily be the case.
I said, how about you bring it to me on Thursday,
and you know, let me diagnose it. Let me, let
me do what I'm supposed to do and give it
an evaluation and come back with some research and tell
(20:58):
you what I see. And I realized, it's just a
simple washer bottle. But let's play the game that way.
He agreed. You know, I'm glad I follow my instinct
in my gut. So the car showed up Thursday and
the washer bottle was full. I said, look at that,
and I wonder what he's seeing leaking? And before I
(21:19):
picked up the phone and tried him instinct and I guess,
you know, fifty years had do and this told me, Hey,
why don't we try the washers. Let's see what happens.
So I, you know, gave the washers of spritz and
all the fluid came out, but in the wrong place.
It came out under the hood, dripping on the ground
because the washer nozzles were broken. How that happened, I
(21:39):
don't know. I don't care I care, but I don't care.
You know, my job is.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
To fix it.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
It needed to washer nozzles, and I couldn't help but
think to myself how awkward it would have been that
if I had listened to what the customer said to do.
I do own a washer bottle for a twenty ten
Lincoln MKZ, which there's not too many of those left anymore.
That are like dinosaurs when they roam the earth in
greater numbers. So that job interview that at the counter,
(22:08):
my card does this, this, and this. You know, it
just proves the point. It stresses the need for it
ever so much more. It's just it's just so critical
that information that we collect as the mechanics and you
provide as the consumer as to you know, what might
actually be the fault and just just something to be
(22:32):
aware of. So just wanted to point that out the
job interview. When you go on it, don't don't be
afraid to share information, but try to be concise. And
you know, I don't necessarily need to know what you
have for breakfast that day, but i'd like to know
when you were driving, what speed you were driving at.
If you get my meaning, Let's go to Frank in
Virginia twenty f one fifty and some questions. Frank, welcome
to the car doctor, sir, how can I help?
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Hey, Ron, thanks for taking my call longpem list their
first time caller.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Thank you. I appreciate your effort.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
I have a twenty twenty f one to fifty that
I bought new, and about six months after I owned it,
it began to ping. The engine would knock on mild acceleration.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Which engine is that?
Speaker 7 (23:11):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Which engine is this?
Speaker 7 (23:12):
Right?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
It's the five liter V eight Okay, go ahead, and
it pings on mild acceleration from about you know, when
I pull out of my driveway until I get up
to about forty miles an hour. Sometimes it's louder than
other days, but it's pretty consistent on that range of pinging.
I took it to the dealer on my latest service
call and I said, hey, here's what it's doing. Is
(23:37):
runny adjustment you can make? And they said, no, there's
no adjustment. We recommend you just put in a higher
graded gasoline and see what happens. And that just didn't
sound right to me, so I wanted to get your
take on that.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Okay, So the software in this particular vehicle, and I'm
familiar with this, I've seen this on a few of them.
My belief is that eventually when the priority, when it
becomes a priority, they will right a change of software
or software upgrade for this vehicle, you know, before we
go through extensive testing. The first thing I would do,
(24:08):
because there's probably no fault codes here, I'm gonna guess
and say right, and by that I mean not just
you know, is the check engine light on? Is there
anything pending?
Speaker 5 (24:18):
All right?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Pending is just as important as you know, current all right.
You know. It's sort of like you ever notice when
you go to the doctor, what's the first thing they do.
They weigh you, they stick you know, stick out your
tongue and say on, they check your your your blood pressure. Right,
They're looking for the problem that's about to happen. They're
looking for the pending fault because obviously you're alive, you
(24:38):
made it in all right, so they know, you know,
you don't have many current full codes so to speak.
So you know, cars are the same way, you know,
just different models. And one of the things I like
to look at with this is, well, I go through
my high level indicators. But I'm going to look at
fuel trim. Fuel trim's a biggie. Do I have negative numbers?
Do I have positive numbers? Or are they you know,
middle of the road.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
If I'm seeing negative fuel trim numbers, meaning that the
vehicle is running rich so it's pulling fuel away, that's
a concern. Now, the five leader in this year vehicle
is a flex fuel vehicle. This is a flex fuel vehicle. Correct,
you can you can run flex? Do you run gasoline
or do you run eighty five?
Speaker 7 (25:23):
No?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
I run eighty seven octane gasoline because I think ten fanol.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Okay, so perfect. That's why I think this is going
to fix this, all right, you know, because what I'm
seeing is the flex fuel version of this truck has
a problem with software. So if you go look at
fuel trim, you're probably going to see negative fuel trim.
If zero is a balanced fuel mixture, zero is your
resting heartbeat, you're going to see a number less than zero,
(25:52):
meaning negative, negative ten to fifteen percent, all right, okay.
Most fuel trim fault codees occur at twenty five percent
plus or minus. Okay, So if if you're if your
negative fuel trim. Let me see, let me see. You're
gonna get the test now you're ready. If your negative,
(26:14):
if your negative fuel trim Frank was twenty four negative,
twenty four point five, is it going to set a code?
Speaker 4 (26:23):
Not according to what you just said.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right so, And that's my point, and that's why we
want to look at fuel trim. You know, if the
dealer's saying, well there's no code, there's nothing to look at,
and I'm not saying that's what they said, that's what
I understood them to say, then you know we're missing
the beat. So once we establish fuel trim, no pending codes,
the next thing I want somebody to do is do
(26:46):
a CAM memory reset, keep a live memory.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
All right, am memory reset?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
O KAM, cam memory reset, keep a live memory. What
that will do is reset the onboard computer. The PCM
has learned how Frank drives. All right, it's learned you're
operating characteristics. It's going to do a memory reset of
(27:13):
fuel trim, adaptives how the vehicle functions, and start from zero.
Does the pinging go away? If the pinging goes away,
it shows that cam memory was locked up and it
couldn't properly adjust fuel trim. By the way, did you
try a higher grade of fuel? Did that solve the problem?
(27:34):
Or you haven't done that yet.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
No, I haven't done that.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Good boy.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I'm a little bit stubborn because I feel like Ford
says this truck should burn eighty seven octane used.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I agree. And then the last thing I want you
to do is I want you to mention to them. So,
because this is a flex fuel vehicle, there is an
alcohol content PIT parameter identification. A PIT is a piece
of data, all right, it's what we see on the
scan tool, those lines of data that a scan tool displays.
(28:05):
There is an alcohol content PID in this vehicle. It's
flex fuel. Right, if you're running, If you're running ten percent,
guess what the alcohol value content should be. Go ahead, guess.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
I'm gonna say ten percent.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Bing, go you win the prize, all right, twelve percent,
fifteen percent, I'm okay. If it says sixty three percent,
either you're buying fuel that's not being correctly blended and
they're over blending alcohol into the gasoline, or you've got
a problem with how it's interpreting it, and that's a
whole other conversation. So just good things, Just good things
(28:43):
to look at. Go do that. I'm running late and
need more. You know where to find me. But I
bet you this is going to catch them by the surprise.
And if they want to hear this hour two, you're
coming out of the bottom hour podcast. After the radio
show gets done in about two hours, it'll become a podcast.
You can pick it up tomorrow and you know, play
back for him. All right, kiddo, you'd be well, I'm
running any in the car doctor, I'll be back right
(29:04):
after this.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
By right up.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Welcome back, run name of the car doctor. That's me.
Let's go over to Jeremy and Maryland. Jeremy, welcome brother.
How can I help you today?
Speaker 7 (29:24):
Looking for a recommendation on a good by directional scanner
for like a homeowner. You got a new truck that
you gotta you know, when you put new brakes on,
you got a command the parking break to retract.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm gonna tell you
Launch tech US a lunch tech USA dot com and
they've got a slew of you know what we'll call
DIY scan tools, anything from anything from two hundred to
one thousand bucks, depending on what you want to spend,
you know, if we want to, you know, go above that,
go see if you can buy a throttle. A launch throttle,
(29:59):
I think on the street they're about thirty five hundred
bucks four grand. Probably a little too much for a
di wire. But you know, then again, we spend two
thousand dollars in a set of golf clubs, and we
play a better game when we use a better set
of golf clubs. So you know, there's something to be
said for that. I think, you know, for a guy
that I is going to be a little bit more
into it. And you know, Jeremy, you have called a
few times, so I'm gonna, you know, just state my case.
(30:20):
You know, I think you're going to look deeper into
it than maybe some other people. The nice thing about
a scan tool that I would want for you is
the ability to graph, you know, to put the tracer
up there. You know, because you're you're your eye sees
things at at you know, I think we blink four
times a second, whether we realize it or not. And
(30:42):
you know the rate at which that processor moves to
catch new data and display it. It's important, and you know,
when you're buying a scan tool, inasmuch as you're buying features,
you're also buying processor speed, memory capability, and so forth. Now,
I don't claim to know what my scan tools have
have for processor or memory. I just know that they
(31:04):
work because I've tried them. I've used their functions, and
I've tried I've tried I think everybody scan tool out there,
So you know, I know the Launch is very capable. Now,
one of the things you could try. Do you have
an AutoZone near you, Yeah, AutoZone sells Launch. You can
go talk to them. Oh really, yeah, they if you
go on their website. If you go on their website.
(31:25):
As a matter of fact, if you go out to
the AutoZone website, you'll see and just type in scan tool,
Launch will come up there. All right. Now, they may
not have every model you want in the store, but
you know the fact that they're on their website tells
me they're a dealer or they're a distributor rather, and
you know they should be able to order it for you.
Speaker 7 (31:43):
You know, I mean, do you think for like fifteen
hundred bucks I could get into something relatively usable?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Well, I think I think the number is going to
be a thousand or less or three grand or more,
you know, in that for some reason, that thousand to
three thousand ranges sort of like no man's land, you know.
So at that point, you're buying something used, and I
don't think you want that, you know, I think, yeah,
you want you want fresh, current technology, and you don't
(32:11):
want to have buyers remorse. And the nice thing is
if you buy from your local AutoZone, they'll be able
to guide you accordingly and say, yeah, this works. People
like this, This tool does the job all right. And
at least you have somebody to go to, because one
thing I can't stress enough when you purchase a scan tool,
whether it be direct from launch TECHUSA dot com or
(32:31):
whether it be from your local AutoZone, you're gonna need support.
You need somebody to go back and talk to. It's
it's just very very important. Good luck to you, Jeremy.
I appreciate the inquiry and I appreciate you being there.
I'm running any in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Welcome back to the AutoZone studio. Here's Ron.
(32:57):
Welcome back, Running in the car doctor. Eight five five
five zero nine nine zero zero is the phone number.
Give us a call we can talk or we can
talk midweek. Call that number, leave a message and we'll
get back to you. Leave your email address if you can. Hey,
did you see the news article? And I'm just reporting
the news, folks, I really am. It was up on Yahoo.
California looking to restrict travel for classic cars. Holy cow.
(33:17):
The state is looking at instituting zero emission zones soon.
The article starts out by saying, written by Steven Simes,
this is dated this past Monday, the state of California
is looking seriously at instituting or allowing local governments to
institute zero emission zones in the near future. In preparation
for such a move, the California Era Researcher's Board reportedly
is gathering information about classic cars and how owners use them.
(33:40):
They knew something like this was coming to the US
in California, likely first, but this is still concerning. The
article goes on to state. According to a Daily Coler
report on August two, CARP sent a survey of classic
car owners for model years nineteen seventy eight on down,
a question and answer survey about how they used the vehicle,
where they store it, how they drive it, and so forth.
(34:02):
A little commentary. You know, if it's a classic car
and it's being driven on weekends or limited mileage, how
much can it really be contributing to the pollution problem
that we have, And wouldn't it make more sense to
have better motor vehicle inspections, better roadside checks, more enforcement
(34:25):
in terms of the people that are ignoring these things,
the scoff laws that are just continuing to pollute. You know,
here in New Jersey there's an inspection program. You know
what it takes to pass the check engine light's not
on and it's a plug under the dashboard. We okay,
I'm sure that cleans up emissions, but we do nothing
for safety, ball tires, brake lights that are out, and
(34:46):
so on and so forth. We don't do enough maintaining
or stressing or enforcing of emissions in my opinion, and
picking on classic cars is clearly the wrong way to
go because they're not even looking at the consequences of
how many billion with a b industry the classic car
is to this country and the economy, and right now
(35:09):
the economy can't afford to take any more hits. So
if you've got a classic, you might want to talk
to your elected officials and be aware of what's coming
down the road. I'm running ady in the car, doctor,
reminding you till the next time. Happy to be here
in a pleasure to serve. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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