September 5, 2020 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about getting people through the day and using his superpower : takes a call on an 01 BMW 325i with gunk under the intake manifold where the caller asks if he should clean it up : takes a call on an 01 Town and Country where the caller asks about doing a compression test on the vehicle : takes a call on a 16 Nissan Frontier with a check gas cap light.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ron Andanian. If you're next to a car that has
New Jersey plates on, and you look over and that
vehicle is inspected as a valid in New Jersey inspection
sticker on it, don't believe it, because chances are it
may not be valid. Time the car Doctor. If the
(00:27):
vehicle pulls in, the check engine light's not on, the
obdomino works, it's got the right plates, and a couple
other little nonsensical things that they're worried about. If that
vehicle doesn't have a windshield, as they told me over
the phone, Ron, find a place to put the sticker.
Welcome to the radio home of Ron and Anian, the
Car Doctor, since this is where car owners the world
(00:48):
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 doors are open, but
I am here to take your at eight five and
now running. I remember the first day walking down the
(01:11):
hall of w R Radio seven ten of New York City,
gosh over twenty years ago. And you know the first
trip into the big radio station. I just come out
of w f A S White Planes, New York after
five year run, and now I was I had sort
of hit the big time, right, You're on the big stage.
You're center stage in New York City, or so they
told me. But it was that persona as a young
(01:33):
as a young man that you're walking down the hall
and you're walking into legendary radio studios, and you're you're
seeing the pictures of John Gambling and Bob and Bob
Grant and Dr Joy Brown and the and and and
and then the names of people that were at the
top of their game um in talk radio at that time,
and you're just you're just trying to hold it together, right.
(01:54):
It's you can only imagine what it's like for the
kid who came in after Mickey Mantel and Roger Morrison
and Joe DiMaggio and all the other sports grades, and
just you try to keep from swallowing your tongue and
you think to yourself, and I remember this very clearly,
you think to yourself, how do you get to be
like them? And then you go to work every day
(02:15):
and you're trying to repair shop in New Jersey, hidden
in the back roads, and you're just trying to do
your job and fix cars and help people get through
the day and and do what they have to do,
and and you know, just teach people and try and
educate people and let them, let them enjoy the car
for what it is, and not expect more or less,
and not let not not let them get stuck, and
not let them get bound up and wound up, and
(02:37):
just sort of try and you know, keep them going.
And then you realize you say to yourself, you wonder,
how do you get to the top of that game?
And then all of a sudden you find out that
you have. And it was by the simplest process, because
you find out what your superpower is. Your superpower is
being a human being, and it sort of takes you
(02:58):
to the top of the game on both ounce or
as close to the top of the game as you're
as you're deemed necessary to be by the order of
the universe. Because this is what you do. You fix cars,
and you talk about it on radio, and how lucky
are you? And that's me and that's what I do.
Howard came in this week, and Howard a regular customer.
We see him a couple of times a year. And
(03:21):
you know, one of the funny things about standing on
this side of the counter looking at people is you know,
you get to see people. You see people as they age,
You see them turn. You know, they go from young
to middle aged to old if you're lucky, and sometimes
you see them go from you know, dark hair to
gray hair to no hair, and sometimes they just disappear. Well,
I've watched Howard age and Howard has been aging lately,
(03:43):
and I noticed, I've noticed that something is off, something
is just not quite right with Howard and the last
couple of times and he showed up on Thursday this
past week, I believe it was, and he was having
a hard time putting sentences together. He you know, I
would ask him a simple question what was wrong with
the car Ford Explorer? And he he really couldn't give
(04:05):
me a direct, clear cut answer, except along the lines
of that the battery went dead and he just couldn't
explain what it didn't do. Well, did it not start, Howard? Well,
I think it didn't. I'm not sure what do you
mean by not start. Well, you know, you push the
buttons to push button start, which I think confuses people,
especially if you're older. Right, you turn the key, Now
(04:26):
you're gonna push a button to start the f a
Team Fighter jet that you got parked out in the driveway.
And he couldn't really explain it to me, and I said, Howard,
it's simple. If you sit in the car, you open
the door. He's sitting in the car and you push
the button. Does the car make any noise? No? Okay,
I'm dealing likely with a dead battery. He said, yeah,
that's what you've got. You've got a dead battery. And
(04:48):
I didn't want to really prompt him for the answer,
but you know, sometimes you have to. You're just waiting
to hope, just waiting and hoping that they give you
the answer that that you're sort of expecting. But you
don't want to lead the witness right because you're trying
to get accurate information. Well, Howard, you know I can
I can work on this today. I can't have you
weight because of the COVID thing. I need you to.
You know, you gotta go home. You gotta get a ride.
(05:10):
And he doesn't have a ride, and he's getting more frustrated,
and I can see that there's just something not right.
And I don't know if it's if it's dementia or
early signs of something else, but Howard's getting older, and
I caught him on the phone with his wife as
I was moving things around in the parking lot trying
to get the day going, because Howard walked in about
eight fift eight thirty in the morning, and I overheard
the conversation when she was sort of yelling at him,
(05:32):
you know, like, Howard, you gotta stop driving. I didn't
know where you were. I didn't know you. You'd gone
down to see where on and you know, you've got
to get rid of that car, and you've got to
stay home. I've got to know where you are. And
I you know, if they ever tell me I've got
to stay home that I can't drive my cars anymore,
Oh my god. I don't know what I would do.
I feel like I'd lose my superpower and stop being me.
(05:54):
But then I realized that isn't my superpower. My superpower
isn't caring for another human being and just using what
I do to help do that. And it was a
moment of revelation, like I can't describe to you here
in simple words, I really can't. And I send Howard home. Well,
actually I didn't send him home. He wanted to go home.
He was gonna get in an uber, but he didn't
have the Uber app on his phone, and and good lord,
(06:16):
I couldn't expect him to understand how to use it,
because I couldn't get a straight answer out of him
that the car start or not. So I said, Howard,
go down the end of the block, make a left
ground the end of that block, Make a left ground
the end of that block, make a left, take a
big lap around the block of the shop. It'll take
him about a half hour, and by then I can
get a battery in the car. And at least I
know where you are, and you can't really get lost.
(06:37):
What you've gotta do is make three left turns four.
I guess at least I thought he couldn't get lost. Well,
he didn't really get lost, but where he ended up
as another story. So he said, fine, he left the
car and off he goes, and I bring the car
in and I look at it, and sure enough, this
two year old Explorer's got a battery that's just smoked.
It's just horrible. And we're seeing a lot of battery
failures the last month or two because we're coming out
(06:59):
of the pandemic and here in New Jersey and people
are starting to drive more now. Batteries that have been
sitting dormant for thirty days doing nothing, batteries that have
gone dead, batteries that have been jumped started are all
of a sudden being called back to life. So it's
taking its toll. We're probably in some cases pumping out
four to six batteries a day some weeks at the
shop and Howard took off and I diagnosed that, yeah,
(07:24):
it needs a battery, needs a battery. Well, I've got
to do a draw test. Anytime anybody does an electrical repair,
such as replacing a battery or a charging system, you've
got to be You've really got to be a bad
mechanic not to do a draw test. I don't know
what you're afraid to tell the customer You have got
a charge a half hour because I'm gonna do a
draw test. You're afraid to spend their money. You're afraid
to make sure the car is repaired properly. It's not
(07:45):
hard to do. It's not a hard test. Whatever you charge,
you've got to do the test. A draw test. You're
going to hook up a meter and you're gonna measure
current current flow from the battery to the vehicles electronics,
and you're looking for a minimum number, and the number
is gonna start high, and then it's gonna come down.
The accepted industry standard on the majority of vehicles on
(08:08):
the road manufactured today and for the last geez for
the last ten twelve years, is fifty milliams. Forget the
technical side. Fifty widgets fifty grains of sand. You want
to see fifty grains of sand to disappear from that battery.
Less than that fifty or less as your final measurement.
(08:30):
And I did Howard's draw test, and I watched to
start at seven twenty two milliams, and then it dropped
the five hundred, and then it clicked the four hundred,
and the times clicking by, and Howard's not back yet,
and a half hour goes by and we're still doing
the draw test, and it finally gets down to fifty
three milliams. What did I tell you? I told you
fifty right. So where do you where do you draw
(08:52):
the line? Where do you say enough is enough? Is
fifty three close enough to fifty No? Allt to repair
as a precise, precise, I scientific process. Fifty three is
wrong fifty is okay, I want fifty. I want fifty
or less. That's what I know. And I looked this
car over and I couldn't see anything left on plugged.
(09:12):
And I was looking for a battery charger for his
cell phone in the worst way, but I couldn't find
one no matter where I looked. And I realized, my
wife happens to have this same vehicle explorer, that there's
a little secret compartment hidden under the front console. And
Howard had a a like a washcloth draped over it
(09:35):
so you didn't necessarily see it. And that's where he
was laying his cell phone so he didn't scratch the surface.
And I said to myself, lay pop the cover. I
betch it's And I always leave the window open whenever
I'm doing a drawing test, so I can I can
lean into the car and you know, look at things
without opening doors and upsetting the test in the process,
because it takes time for the for the countdown to
(09:55):
to go through. And I opened up to take the washcloth,
and I opened up the little door, and sure enough,
he's got his Verizon cell phone charger in there with it.
You know how they have the little led that lights
up and it was drawing. I unplugged it, and within
two minutes I saw the count go from fifty three
(10:16):
the thirty eight million amps and then it took a
nose dive and went down well under and it was
It was fine. And I told Howard this story and
he understood when he finally made it back, which, by
the way, that's a whole another story. The phone rang
about forty five minutes later. Ron, it's Howard. Yeah, Howard,
where are you? He goes, well, I'm just up the street.
I did you know there's a train station down the
(10:38):
road from the shop. Yeah, Howard, it's been there probably
a long time. Why, he goes, well, I decided to
stop and rest, and I'm sitting at the train station
watching trains go by. I said, all right, it's safe.
You can come back now. Your car's all sitting ready
to go. And when he got back, I asked him
about the cell phone charger and he said, yeah, I
don't really use it. To tell you the truth, I
forgot it was there, he said, I really haven't been drawing,
(11:00):
having the card so long that I guess I just
didn't realize what I had done and where I had
left it, and I tell you this story. So I
fixed Howard's car. What's my superpower? I'm a human being.
I cared about somebody, and I think it's something, you know,
it's a message that I guess we could all probably
stop and think about from time to time and these crazy,
crazy times that we're having. Um, I guess my superpower
(11:23):
was also fixing cars, because that's what I'm supposed to do.
That's what the advertisement on the sign says. But in
a bigger way, I was able to explain to Howard,
don't leave. As I explained to you, don't leave a
cell phone charger plugged in over a period of time
because if it's if it's like the Verizons or so
many other brands out there that they have the LED
built and they will cause a draw and they will
keep things active for a period of time, and over
(11:45):
a period of a couple of weeks, you could drain
that battery down to zero and have a bigger problem. So,
you know, don't be a Howard. And uh, you know
that's it. That's my story, no fancy ending, no funny
way of looking at things. Just you know, that's really
what happened this week at the shop, and um, you know,
I I think about that story and I said, how
can I tell it? And I thought, you know, you
(12:08):
go through life, you want to know how do you
get to the top of the game, or at least
closer to the top so that you're you're you're one
of those people hanging on the wall. Like so many
years ago when I was at w Arren, I saw
those people on the side of the walls and the
kings of talk radio. You know what, I guess you
just gotta be a human being and sooner or later
life hands it to you because you deserve it. And UM,
if that's self serving, I apologize. It's not my intention
(12:30):
to make it sound that way. It's just, um, just
a fact. Is something I observed this week, and I
hope you take it with the intention that I give it.
My name is Ron and Anny and I am the
car Doctor of the phone numbers eight five zero nine
zero zero. That is phone number. We're gonna come back
and answer the phones right after this. Don't go away.
(12:57):
What's more fun than listening to Ron Andy in the
car Doctor and getting that car fixed right zero? Given
a call? Now back to Ron, Hey, let's get over
and talk to Curt in Arizona. Kurt, welcome to the
car doctor, sir, how can I help? Thank you Ron?
I love your show. Thank you glad to be here
for two thousand one BMW. And I had to change
(13:22):
the heater hoses. In order to do that, you have
to take the intake man fold off. And when I
did that, the intake uh, it was quite a bit
of carbon oil build up on that. Should I leave
that on there? It's got miles I'm afraid if I
start scraping things off thing, we'll get down the engine
it will come it up even more? Or should I
(13:44):
try and clean that up? And if I should, how
would I do that? Well? Let me let me ask
this question, Kurt? Are you are you burning any oil?
Does the car burn oil? Doesn't? Does it consume oil
at all? Have you have you ever? Have you owned
the car since new? Do you know service history on it?
I have had it. I am the second owner. I
know the first owner did not use the right oil
(14:06):
and it got gummed up in there quite a bit.
I actually took off a lot of stuff and cleaned
up all that jael that had formed and had to
take the oil pan off three times to clean it
all out all right, and has anybody service the crank
ventilation valve what would sometimes it's called a PCV valve.
BMW calls at a crankcase ventilation valve. It's it's actually
(14:28):
you know, um, you're you're sort of there. Um, you're
in the neighborhood. You've got to go up the air box,
the air meter, the intake manifold, runner control has to
come out. Um. Uh, you know, the top of the
engine intake has to come apart, and you'll see it
down in there, uh nestled in the intake manifold that
actually unscrews from it. And you know, at this mileage,
(14:49):
you may just want to consider looking at it, replacing it.
Maybe this isn't venting or breathing properly. And I mean,
I know it's a lot of miles, but you know,
I don't want to I don't want to overlook the
po susible cause of it either, and say, hey, this
could have a sticky gum event valve and replace that
while you're there, and then I would put it back together,
wipe out the excess without letting anything fall down in
whatever you can get with a rag with some solvent
(15:11):
on it, and then I would start doing some top
end cleaning. I like a top end cleaning process for
what you're doing for this, because it's less likely to
put chunks in the engine and create a bigger problem.
I get your caution. I'm right there with you, and
you know to do some form of a top end
cleaning system and let the solvent you know, clean it
(15:31):
up and burn it through the engine. Does that? Does
that make sense to you? Yeah? It does. When you
say top end cleaning, what do you mean exactly? Well,
you know you've got an O Ralliota Parts near you. Okay,
go over to O Ralliota Parts. Tell me you want
to look at a Berryman four step fuel system cleaning kit.
And the nice thing about the Berryman kit is that
it will attach to an intake hose, so it will
(15:54):
you don't have to get into the fuel rail. All right,
You're gonna put a cleaner in the tank to help
clean injectors, but you're gonna do it through the intake
and select a centrally located vacuum port. Don't go don't
go strictly off of one on one intake runner. Try
and find something that's more at the beginning of the
intake manifold, so you're you know, you're you're trying to
shoot water down um six slides or four slides all
(16:18):
at once. If you know what, if you get my
drift all right, you don't want to just select one
intake runner, So you want to start something at the
top of the intake so that it spreads out throughout
the intake and let it burn its way through. Their
fourth step kit does the tank, the throttle body, and
the top end of the engine, and then there's an
additive I believe that goes in the tank afterwards when
all is done, sort of like the Vitamin B twelve
(16:40):
follow up, but the Berryman beat, the Berryman four step
kit makes it very simple for you know, Harry homeowner,
I'm sorry to clad categorize your brother, but uh, you
know it's the guy without the shop. It just makes
it that much easier for you to do the fuel
injection cleaning service right there in the driveway, and you
know they'll be able to help you, other be able
to point you in the right the direction. And if
(17:00):
you want more information about the Burriman stuff, get out
to their website Burman Products Dot com and they'll they'll
talk about the whole thing. Um watch the video on
their website where they talk about what HEST is high
energy solving technology here we mentioned from time to time,
but it really does work and it's it's it's interesting
when you watch that video how they stack up against
(17:21):
some of the other fuel system cleaners on the marketplace.
What their's does that they don't, And that's kind of
important stuff, you know. But that's how I would do it.
I would be using a cleaner to do this rather
than trying to, you know, put chunks down in the
engine and create a bigger issue. But the vent valve
is important because the you know, crank case ventilation and
PCV evails whatever you want to call it, are probably
(17:43):
one of the most overlooked components for whatever reason. In
the last fifteen years. It's you never hear anybody say, well,
I changed I changed this, this, this, and the PCV
e vail. It seems like we've forgotten about it where
it used to be so important Now. Maybe it's because
oils are better today and vehicles go longer and oil
stay cleaner for longer periods of time. But in reality,
(18:05):
I just think the car runs until it drops. I
think what you're seeing is some byproduct of a sticky
gummy vent valve. Good thing to do, and then do
a top end cleaning, and I think you would be
in great shape, Kurt. I appreciate the call, thanks for
being out there in Arizona, and thanks for calling. And
I'm run on any in the car Doctor. We're back
right after this. Welcome back. We're on any of the
(18:49):
car Doctor at eight five zero zero, the car Doctor
seven number. And I have to explain that real quick
for a second. If you call the aforementioned number, you
call eight five five five six yo zero. During the
week Hey, this radio shows on Saturday afternoons two to four,
and then we're simulcaster picked up later on around the
network around the country on the weekend, then out on
(19:09):
the internet and so on. So you know we're live
broadcasting Saturday afternoons to the four pm East Coast time.
If you call eight five five zero nine zero, leave
a message. Here's the rules, folks, all right, this is
the way it's gotta work. All right. You've got to
leave a message. You've got to expect that you're gonna
get a phone call back, and you will get a
phone call back sometime during the week, stating, Hey, this
(19:31):
is Tom Ray from the Car Doctor. We're looking to
do the show with you. We're looking to answer your
question because I want to answer everybody's question, but there's
no way I could conceivably give everybody back a personal call.
Once in a blue moon, it happens. It doesn't happen
a lot lately because we're just overwhelmed by the number
of responses we're getting from you, which is great. We're
here for you, We're trying to do this, so please
help us. Help you leave a message, Tom, we'll call
(19:54):
you back. Be around Saturday afternoons to the four pm.
Regardless of what time you hear the show in your market,
Be there Saturday afternoons two to four and we can
talk to you live. That's the way this game has
to be played. Otherwise it's just not gonna happen. We
just can't. You know, I'm not gonna be up at
three o'clock in the morning when the phone calls come
in and people go, hey, how come in answer my call?
And we've had people say that to us. It's it's
(20:15):
kind of mind boggling. We've got to get off this
entitlement kick. We're here to help each other. That's what
the name of the game is. Let's go over and
talk to Jim. Jim, welcome, sir. How can I help? Yes, sir,
thanks for thanks for being there. I'm trying, baby, what's
going on. I've been I've been tinkering on two vehicles.
I've got a sixty six must Hang that're rebuilding, and
(20:37):
I've got a two thousand one town of Country and
that's my main issue right now. I bought it two
years ago. It's been setting. Um. I was told you
when I bought it that had bad compression, okay, And
I questioned the guy and I don't know. I tend
(20:58):
to think that he got some bad information. I drove
it home and it did skip. You know, it was
skipping pretty bad. But yeah, it was. It was missing. Yeah,
all right, but I changed the coil pack and it
runs back o'clock. So I need your professional opinion because
(21:20):
I can't really check the compression. But I want to
drive it down to Virginia. And uh, I don't see
why I can. I just wanted to get your thoughts
on that. Yeah, I don't see why you can't either.
I you know, listen, what what what what you're telling
me is somebody had a car that they sold to you,
(21:42):
and they didn't really understand what was right or wrong
about it, and you know, they basically gave you a
misdiagnosis and bad information. That only happens probably four or
five thousand times today a day in this country, around
the world. I wouldn't even want to venture to guess,
(22:02):
you know, um, the fact that it's been sitting would
make me want to. You know, if the engines running good,
the engines running good, if the oil is clean and
it stays clean, and you've taken it around town and
it's behaving itself, great, But the fact that it's been
sitting for any length of time, I'd want to get
it up in the air and look at things like
brake lines. I'd want to look at the water pump
(22:24):
steel tube coming down off the water pump B six
I I assume here, Jim right, Yeah, I want to
look at the water pump down tube that comes off
the pump before the hose that always rusts out over
on the passenger side. It gets all the splashing and
smoots up from the road on the on the right side,
of the vehicle above the subframe. Make sure that tube
isn't rotted all the way through. That was a common
(22:45):
failure point. And as long as it's holding up rust wise,
you know, listen, it's nineteen years old. Anything can go
wrong with it, all right, regardless of what somebody said,
regardless of what you've done. By the same token, it
could be a twenty nineteen vehicle and it could get
a flat tire two blocks from the house. So you
(23:05):
know what, some days, some days you're in the hands
of the universe and you can just take all the
precautions you can take and it just works out the
way it's gonna work out, if you get what I'm saying.
You know, um, so you're saying, I don't need to
take it to get the compression check. Is the check
engine light on? Now? Nope? Okay? Does it run good?
Very good? Have you have you driven it at all? Yes? Yes, yes,
(23:28):
I've been. I've been driving around, you know, figuring that's
what I should do because if it drives good around
town and you know, two hours and then I'm taking
it to Virginia. Do you have a scan tool? Now?
Can you get your hands on a scan tool? And
see if all the monitors have run. Do you know?
(23:49):
Do you know what a monitor is? And it's okay
if you don't, I'll explain it. So, so you got
up this morning, you showered, you, you showered, you shaved,
you had breakfast, You ran your self test. Okay, every
day you get up, you run a self test. As
a human being. Your eyes open, you focus, Oh god,
(24:09):
here I am right right, let me get the day going.
Let me shake the dust out of my head and
get started. You're doing a computerized monitor self test at
a human being level. All right. Cars do the same thing.
The minute you turn that key on and you see dashlights,
you've energized all the circuits. You've you you woke up
the main engine computer. It's talking to all the other computers.
(24:32):
In the blink of an eye. Right, electrons are flowing, baby,
and it's testing its circuits. And then as you start
it up and warm it up and bring the engine
up to operating temperature, it's testing different components. There's anywhere
from four to eight systems in a modern vehicle. EVAPP
misfire Comprehensive component O two cents or two centsor heat
(24:53):
or e g R all these systems are being tested
every day depending upon where you draw, how much you drive,
what speed you drive at, and some other characteristics and factors. Okay,
it runs that test. Every time it runs that test
to completion, that test inside the computer gets marked complete.
(25:15):
All right. Now, if you've noticed, I said the test
got marked complete, not pass. All right. We all took
we all took math in high school. I took every test.
I completed every test. I didn't pass every test, but
I completed every test, all right. The test, the test
(25:35):
that I completed but didn't pass, would turn on a
check engine light. Okay. Now sometimes my check engine light
didn't go on right away. Sometimes I you know, how
to take a second test. It was a two trip
faull alright, or a two trip code in order to
set and it still runs the monitor every day. Okay.
So the reason I want you to go get a
(25:56):
scan tool and plug it in is I want to
see no, no, you're not gonna have any hard faults,
but I want to see no pending codes, nothing in
the pending category, because pending is you know, Monday you
sorted in feel good, and Tuesday you felt worse, and
Wednesday boom you had the sniffles. Your sniffles went from
sniffles to a to a to a cold. Well, you know,
(26:17):
Monday and Tuesday the computer ran its monitor self test
and it wasn't quite sure. And then by Wednesday that
oh two centsor heater didn't wake up and it said boom,
it's done P zero one thirty eight and it sets
a hard fault. So I want you to look in pending.
I want you to look at monitors. If there's nothing impending,
and if monitors look good, drive the car, you know,
look at look at break lines, look at fuel lines,
(26:39):
look for rust, look at the cooling tube, look at
the bottom of the radiator, alright, just to make sure
there's no heavy corrosion there. Just give it a good
common sense mechanical look over alright. Make make make sure
you've got a couple of bucks on you. Make sure
you've got triple A. Make sure you've got a cell
phone that's fully charged. Make sure you've got some money
in the bank in case you get stuck somewhere and
take a road. You know, it's waiting to do a
(27:01):
compression test. You know. The one thing that those cars
did have go wrong, which was not uncommon back in
the day. They did have rock a arm issues, all right,
but it was a hard mechanical failure, not what you're
going through. It doesn't it doesn't get fixed by putting
a coil on it, all right, So you know, do
(27:23):
you do your maintenance? I mean, I'm sure you have.
You know at this point, spark plugs, wires, you did,
a coil, a fuel system cleaning. Wouldn't hurt. Changing some
fluids wouldn't hurt. Like I say, if it's at this age,
if it's wet, change it all right and drive the car.
I wouldn't. I wouldn't be afraid based on somebody else's diagnosis.
If I if I listened to half the guys tell
me what's wrong with the car, and I believe them,
I probably wouldn't leave the house in the morning. So alright,
(27:47):
what what scan tool would you recommend? Um? Something affordable?
You can go look at products from the launch line
from Autell, either one of those both nice affordable scan tools.
You'll find things for under five hundred bucks. I think
I have to favor I'll tell a little bit more.
At this point. I think they've got more going on.
They've they've got a great website. Get out though I
believe it's Autel test or autel dot com. Just go
(28:07):
out and Google search it A U T E L
and you'll see it come up. Um. They give a
lot of bang for the buck. The launch stuff. Um,
the launch stuff they do have a A A D
I Y version. But I'm coming to the point in
my mind where I think, if we're gonna have a
scan tool, let's spend a few bucks and get something nice.
(28:28):
You know, when we were kids, we all wanted a
better camera, a better hunting knife, a better you know,
camping tent, the better sleeping bag. It's time to treat
ourselves or adults. Now, let's get the better and enjoy
it while we can. And this way it makes our
life easier along the way, if that makes sense to you.
All right, sir, could I ask one question on the Mustang?
Tell you what? Let me pull over, take a pause
(28:49):
when we come back zero running the car doctor back
right after this welcome back, weren't any of the car doctor.
Let's real quick. Good over to Jim. Jim. I got
I got a minute and then I've got to move on.
What's what's your last question about the Mustang. Okay, I
(29:12):
I got two questions, all right, two questions quick. I
had a rebuilt engine ten years ago on this car.
Is there a proper way of breaking an in? Well? Yeah,
I would talk to the engine builder and see what
he has in his mind. As far as the campus concerned.
Has the engine been sitting ten years? Yes, well, then
the concern is going to be that everything is have
(29:36):
you been well, let me ask the question this way.
Have you been rotating the engine from time to time
so that valve springs haven't been sitting in the same
position for ten years? No, they've been sitting. Yeah. See.
I would probably talk to an engine builder and ask
him because the fact is that things have taken a
set and at the at the very least before you
put it, you know, just start driving it. I would
(29:56):
take it apart and look at everything, and I would
measure valve spring tension and just have a little concern
about that because it's probably fine. But proper engine parts
for the older cars are getting harder to find, good
quality stuff made here and so on. I'm sure you're aware,
and you know the ounce of prevention you take now
is going to be the bigger cure later on. What's
(30:17):
your second question, Well, the oils in pretenuous? Should I
change that? Oh? Absolutely, I that's not that's not even
a question. And the engine builder will take it apart. Hey, listen,
you know what the most, the most it's gonna happen
is you're gonna take it to an engine builder. Spend
a couple hundred bucks. They'll take it apart, put it
together and measure everything, and you're good to go. If
they find a problem. They saved your headache. If they didn't,
(30:39):
they took all the sweat and aggravation out of the mix.
And at least you know you're starting out well on
your restoration projects, so it's not another ten years before
you drive the car. Jimmy, I appreciate the phone call.
Have fun taking your trip to Virginia. James and Virginia.
Maybe you'll see Jim from Maine. James and Virginia. Thanks
for being so patient, buddy. What's going on all right?
Thank you? I have a twenty sixteen Nissan in front
(31:01):
tier of V six. I bought it back in October
UM and they sold it to me. I know they
knew that the check anything light come on and get
this message. On the dash, it says, UH, check up
field cap. So I bought a field cap after market
didn't work. I went and bought a Nissan fuel cap.
(31:22):
Didn't didn't work. I took I took it to a dealer. UH.
The Nissan dealer did a smoke test. I watched them
from the waiting room. Four guys run around underneath it
there with a flashlight. Finally all ganged up at the
field spot. So I figured that's where the leak was.
Then he gave me a ticket and says that they
could Uh, they needed an assembly with canister and sell
(31:46):
Annoit's nine and fifty dollars. I just want to know
if there's any other way to fix this less than
a thousand dollars, or if I need to take it back,
or where I got how many miles around the card?
James about okay, so it is out of warranty. I think, well, now,
(32:08):
let me let me retract that I would want to
know what submissions warranty on that vehicle, because some things
are eight eighty eight years, eighty thousand miles and you're
under the eighty thousand mile mark. And the other question
I would have is what's what's common to go bad.
On the Nissans of that generation is number one, the
(32:28):
fil neck. And you will see the fuel the fill
neck the fil neck as a leak. But what you
won't see as a leak is there's a charcoal canister
mounted above the rear axle, and on that canister is
a vent control solenoid. The rubber O ring on that
solenoid leaks, all right, but it doesn't leak on a
(32:50):
smoke test. Here's the here's the problem. Okay, it doesn't
leak on a smoke test. It leaks when the vehicle
is sick, running its off vehicle monitor. I'll tell you what.
Sit tight, James. I want to give you a little
more time. Let me pull over, take a pause. When
we come back, i'll finish up. I want you to
understand what I'm talking about before I send you back
(33:11):
to talk to them, because I got a feeling they're confused.
I'll be back right after this. I'm running anating in
the car. Doctor. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back or any
of the car. Doctor, James, Virginia, you're still there, Sir
James James. Oh, James James, you're there, brother, Okay, let
(33:34):
me make you an even Let me make you an
evaporative emissions expert in two minutes. You're ready, all right.
Take a gas can half filled with gas, put it
in a parking lot, sealed up. What happens to it
in the sun. Well, it'll expand right from the heat,
from the pressure. So a car is like that gas can.
(33:58):
It's it's a guest tank, right, It's got a gas
tank in it, and the gas is gonna cause expansion.
So they've got to find a way to vent it safely. Correct,
So they'll put a charcoal canister on it, charcoal like
a goldfish tank or like a fish tank filter, okay,
and they'll let fumes vent through the charcoal, be absorbed
through the charcoal, and they safely dispose of it through
(34:19):
the engine. Well, they've got to have a way to
vent or get the fumes out of the canister. And
this is a very rudimentary explanation, but it will make
the point. So they put an electrical solenoid on that canister,
and that that canister, that solenoid will open or close
electronically from a computer based on control, based on command,
and it will allow airflow through and out and and
(34:40):
and clean the canister. Well, they seal that solenoid, that
little plastic solenoid with a rubber O ring, all right,
that oh ring like like like all rubber O rings
will expand and contract with temperature. Right when you do it.
When you do a smoke test, you're pressurizing the evaporative
(35:00):
emission system. You're pressurizing the fuel tank and the canister,
looking to see can it push smoke out. It's not
a big pressure, it's about a half a pound, but
it's still it's it's pressurizing when the vehicle runs itself test,
and that vehicle should run off vehicle monitoring. It's doing
it engine off. It's got a little electric pump that
(35:22):
will create a vacuum and suck in, and that's when
the old ring is gonna get pulled in the wrong direction.
Go back to the dealership wherever you were going, ask them,
can they just replace the valve on the canister and
when they take it out, put the new one in,
put a little bit of grease on it to help
it seal better. See if that solves the problem for you.
Call me back. I'm run any in the car doctor
reminding you as always good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
(35:45):
See you
Ron Andanian. If you're next to a car that has
New Jersey plates on, and you look over and that
vehicle is inspected as a valid in New Jersey inspection
sticker on it, don't believe it, because chances are it
may not be valid. Time the car Doctor. If the
(00:27):
vehicle pulls in, the check engine light's not on, the
obdomino works, it's got the right plates, and a couple
other little nonsensical things that they're worried about. If that
vehicle doesn't have a windshield, as they told me over
the phone, Ron, find a place to put the sticker.
Welcome to the radio home of Ron and Anian, the
Car Doctor, since this is where car owners the world
(00:48):
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 doors are open, but
I am here to take your at eight five and
now running. I remember the first day walking down the
(01:11):
hall of w R Radio seven ten of New York City,
gosh over twenty years ago. And you know the first
trip into the big radio station. I just come out
of w f A S White Planes, New York after
five year run, and now I was I had sort
of hit the big time, right, You're on the big stage.
You're center stage in New York City, or so they
told me. But it was that persona as a young
(01:33):
as a young man that you're walking down the hall
and you're walking into legendary radio studios, and you're you're
seeing the pictures of John Gambling and Bob and Bob
Grant and Dr Joy Brown and the and and and
and then the names of people that were at the
top of their game um in talk radio at that time,
and you're just you're just trying to hold it together, right.
(01:54):
It's you can only imagine what it's like for the
kid who came in after Mickey Mantel and Roger Morrison
and Joe DiMaggio and all the other sports grades, and
just you try to keep from swallowing your tongue and
you think to yourself, and I remember this very clearly,
you think to yourself, how do you get to be
like them? And then you go to work every day
(02:15):
and you're trying to repair shop in New Jersey, hidden
in the back roads, and you're just trying to do
your job and fix cars and help people get through
the day and and do what they have to do,
and and you know, just teach people and try and
educate people and let them, let them enjoy the car
for what it is, and not expect more or less,
and not let not not let them get stuck, and
not let them get bound up and wound up, and
(02:37):
just sort of try and you know, keep them going.
And then you realize you say to yourself, you wonder,
how do you get to the top of that game?
And then all of a sudden you find out that
you have. And it was by the simplest process, because
you find out what your superpower is. Your superpower is
being a human being, and it sort of takes you
(02:58):
to the top of the game on both ounce or
as close to the top of the game as you're
as you're deemed necessary to be by the order of
the universe. Because this is what you do. You fix cars,
and you talk about it on radio, and how lucky
are you? And that's me and that's what I do.
Howard came in this week, and Howard a regular customer.
We see him a couple of times a year. And
(03:21):
you know, one of the funny things about standing on
this side of the counter looking at people is you know,
you get to see people. You see people as they age,
You see them turn. You know, they go from young
to middle aged to old if you're lucky, and sometimes
you see them go from you know, dark hair to
gray hair to no hair, and sometimes they just disappear. Well,
I've watched Howard age and Howard has been aging lately,
(03:43):
and I noticed, I've noticed that something is off, something
is just not quite right with Howard and the last
couple of times and he showed up on Thursday this
past week, I believe it was, and he was having
a hard time putting sentences together. He you know, I
would ask him a simple question what was wrong with
the car Ford Explorer? And he he really couldn't give
(04:05):
me a direct, clear cut answer, except along the lines
of that the battery went dead and he just couldn't
explain what it didn't do. Well, did it not start, Howard? Well,
I think it didn't. I'm not sure what do you
mean by not start. Well, you know, you push the
buttons to push button start, which I think confuses people,
especially if you're older. Right, you turn the key, Now
(04:26):
you're gonna push a button to start the f a
Team Fighter jet that you got parked out in the driveway.
And he couldn't really explain it to me, and I said, Howard,
it's simple. If you sit in the car, you open
the door. He's sitting in the car and you push
the button. Does the car make any noise? No? Okay,
I'm dealing likely with a dead battery. He said, yeah,
that's what you've got. You've got a dead battery. And
(04:48):
I didn't want to really prompt him for the answer,
but you know, sometimes you have to. You're just waiting
to hope, just waiting and hoping that they give you
the answer that that you're sort of expecting. But you
don't want to lead the witness right because you're trying
to get accurate information. Well, Howard, you know I can
I can work on this today. I can't have you
weight because of the COVID thing. I need you to.
You know, you gotta go home. You gotta get a ride.
(05:10):
And he doesn't have a ride, and he's getting more frustrated,
and I can see that there's just something not right.
And I don't know if it's if it's dementia or
early signs of something else, but Howard's getting older, and
I caught him on the phone with his wife as
I was moving things around in the parking lot trying
to get the day going, because Howard walked in about
eight fift eight thirty in the morning, and I overheard
the conversation when she was sort of yelling at him,
(05:32):
you know, like, Howard, you gotta stop driving. I didn't
know where you were. I didn't know you. You'd gone
down to see where on and you know, you've got
to get rid of that car, and you've got to
stay home. I've got to know where you are. And
I you know, if they ever tell me I've got
to stay home that I can't drive my cars anymore,
Oh my god. I don't know what I would do.
I feel like I'd lose my superpower and stop being me.
(05:54):
But then I realized that isn't my superpower. My superpower
isn't caring for another human being and just using what
I do to help do that. And it was a
moment of revelation, like I can't describe to you here
in simple words, I really can't. And I send Howard home. Well,
actually I didn't send him home. He wanted to go home.
He was gonna get in an uber, but he didn't
have the Uber app on his phone, and and good lord,
(06:16):
I couldn't expect him to understand how to use it,
because I couldn't get a straight answer out of him
that the car start or not. So I said, Howard,
go down the end of the block, make a left
ground the end of that block, Make a left ground
the end of that block, make a left, take a
big lap around the block of the shop. It'll take
him about a half hour, and by then I can
get a battery in the car. And at least I
know where you are, and you can't really get lost.
(06:37):
What you've gotta do is make three left turns four.
I guess at least I thought he couldn't get lost. Well,
he didn't really get lost, but where he ended up
as another story. So he said, fine, he left the
car and off he goes, and I bring the car
in and I look at it, and sure enough, this
two year old Explorer's got a battery that's just smoked.
It's just horrible. And we're seeing a lot of battery
failures the last month or two because we're coming out
(06:59):
of the pandemic and here in New Jersey and people
are starting to drive more now. Batteries that have been
sitting dormant for thirty days doing nothing, batteries that have
gone dead, batteries that have been jumped started are all
of a sudden being called back to life. So it's
taking its toll. We're probably in some cases pumping out
four to six batteries a day some weeks at the
shop and Howard took off and I diagnosed that, yeah,
(07:24):
it needs a battery, needs a battery. Well, I've got
to do a draw test. Anytime anybody does an electrical repair,
such as replacing a battery or a charging system, you've
got to be You've really got to be a bad
mechanic not to do a draw test. I don't know
what you're afraid to tell the customer You have got
a charge a half hour because I'm gonna do a
draw test. You're afraid to spend their money. You're afraid
to make sure the car is repaired properly. It's not
(07:45):
hard to do. It's not a hard test. Whatever you charge,
you've got to do the test. A draw test. You're
going to hook up a meter and you're gonna measure
current current flow from the battery to the vehicles electronics,
and you're looking for a minimum number, and the number
is gonna start high, and then it's gonna come down.
The accepted industry standard on the majority of vehicles on
(08:08):
the road manufactured today and for the last geez for
the last ten twelve years, is fifty milliams. Forget the
technical side. Fifty widgets fifty grains of sand. You want
to see fifty grains of sand to disappear from that battery.
Less than that fifty or less as your final measurement.
(08:30):
And I did Howard's draw test, and I watched to
start at seven twenty two milliams, and then it dropped
the five hundred, and then it clicked the four hundred,
and the times clicking by, and Howard's not back yet,
and a half hour goes by and we're still doing
the draw test, and it finally gets down to fifty
three milliams. What did I tell you? I told you
fifty right. So where do you where do you draw
(08:52):
the line? Where do you say enough is enough? Is
fifty three close enough to fifty No? Allt to repair
as a precise, precise, I scientific process. Fifty three is
wrong fifty is okay, I want fifty. I want fifty
or less. That's what I know. And I looked this
car over and I couldn't see anything left on plugged.
(09:12):
And I was looking for a battery charger for his
cell phone in the worst way, but I couldn't find
one no matter where I looked. And I realized, my
wife happens to have this same vehicle explorer, that there's
a little secret compartment hidden under the front console. And
Howard had a a like a washcloth draped over it
(09:35):
so you didn't necessarily see it. And that's where he
was laying his cell phone so he didn't scratch the surface.
And I said to myself, lay pop the cover. I
betch it's And I always leave the window open whenever
I'm doing a drawing test, so I can I can
lean into the car and you know, look at things
without opening doors and upsetting the test in the process,
because it takes time for the for the countdown to
(09:55):
to go through. And I opened up to take the washcloth,
and I opened up the little door, and sure enough,
he's got his Verizon cell phone charger in there with it.
You know how they have the little led that lights
up and it was drawing. I unplugged it, and within
two minutes I saw the count go from fifty three
(10:16):
the thirty eight million amps and then it took a
nose dive and went down well under and it was
It was fine. And I told Howard this story and
he understood when he finally made it back, which, by
the way, that's a whole another story. The phone rang
about forty five minutes later. Ron, it's Howard. Yeah, Howard,
where are you? He goes, well, I'm just up the street.
I did you know there's a train station down the
(10:38):
road from the shop. Yeah, Howard, it's been there probably
a long time. Why, he goes, well, I decided to
stop and rest, and I'm sitting at the train station
watching trains go by. I said, all right, it's safe.
You can come back now. Your car's all sitting ready
to go. And when he got back, I asked him
about the cell phone charger and he said, yeah, I
don't really use it. To tell you the truth, I
forgot it was there, he said, I really haven't been drawing,
(11:00):
having the card so long that I guess I just
didn't realize what I had done and where I had
left it, and I tell you this story. So I
fixed Howard's car. What's my superpower? I'm a human being.
I cared about somebody, and I think it's something, you know,
it's a message that I guess we could all probably
stop and think about from time to time and these crazy,
crazy times that we're having. Um, I guess my superpower
(11:23):
was also fixing cars, because that's what I'm supposed to do.
That's what the advertisement on the sign says. But in
a bigger way, I was able to explain to Howard,
don't leave. As I explained to you, don't leave a
cell phone charger plugged in over a period of time
because if it's if it's like the Verizons or so
many other brands out there that they have the LED
built and they will cause a draw and they will
keep things active for a period of time, and over
(11:45):
a period of a couple of weeks, you could drain
that battery down to zero and have a bigger problem. So,
you know, don't be a Howard. And uh, you know
that's it. That's my story, no fancy ending, no funny
way of looking at things. Just you know, that's really
what happened this week at the shop, and um, you know,
I I think about that story and I said, how
can I tell it? And I thought, you know, you
(12:08):
go through life, you want to know how do you
get to the top of the game, or at least
closer to the top so that you're you're you're one
of those people hanging on the wall. Like so many
years ago when I was at w Arren, I saw
those people on the side of the walls and the
kings of talk radio. You know what, I guess you
just gotta be a human being and sooner or later
life hands it to you because you deserve it. And UM,
if that's self serving, I apologize. It's not my intention
(12:30):
to make it sound that way. It's just, um, just
a fact. Is something I observed this week, and I
hope you take it with the intention that I give it.
My name is Ron and Anny and I am the
car Doctor of the phone numbers eight five zero nine
zero zero. That is phone number. We're gonna come back
and answer the phones right after this. Don't go away.
(12:57):
What's more fun than listening to Ron Andy in the
car Doctor and getting that car fixed right zero? Given
a call? Now back to Ron, Hey, let's get over
and talk to Curt in Arizona. Kurt, welcome to the
car doctor, sir, how can I help? Thank you Ron?
I love your show. Thank you glad to be here
for two thousand one BMW. And I had to change
(13:22):
the heater hoses. In order to do that, you have
to take the intake man fold off. And when I
did that, the intake uh, it was quite a bit
of carbon oil build up on that. Should I leave
that on there? It's got miles I'm afraid if I
start scraping things off thing, we'll get down the engine
it will come it up even more? Or should I
(13:44):
try and clean that up? And if I should, how
would I do that? Well? Let me let me ask
this question, Kurt? Are you are you burning any oil?
Does the car burn oil? Doesn't? Does it consume oil
at all? Have you have you ever? Have you owned
the car since new? Do you know service history on it?
I have had it. I am the second owner. I
know the first owner did not use the right oil
(14:06):
and it got gummed up in there quite a bit.
I actually took off a lot of stuff and cleaned
up all that jael that had formed and had to
take the oil pan off three times to clean it
all out all right, and has anybody service the crank
ventilation valve what would sometimes it's called a PCV valve.
BMW calls at a crankcase ventilation valve. It's it's actually
(14:28):
you know, um, you're you're sort of there. Um, you're
in the neighborhood. You've got to go up the air box,
the air meter, the intake manifold, runner control has to
come out. Um. Uh, you know, the top of the
engine intake has to come apart, and you'll see it
down in there, uh nestled in the intake manifold that
actually unscrews from it. And you know, at this mileage,
(14:49):
you may just want to consider looking at it, replacing it.
Maybe this isn't venting or breathing properly. And I mean,
I know it's a lot of miles, but you know,
I don't want to I don't want to overlook the
po susible cause of it either, and say, hey, this
could have a sticky gum event valve and replace that
while you're there, and then I would put it back together,
wipe out the excess without letting anything fall down in
whatever you can get with a rag with some solvent
(15:11):
on it, and then I would start doing some top
end cleaning. I like a top end cleaning process for
what you're doing for this, because it's less likely to
put chunks in the engine and create a bigger problem.
I get your caution. I'm right there with you, and
you know to do some form of a top end
cleaning system and let the solvent you know, clean it
(15:31):
up and burn it through the engine. Does that? Does
that make sense to you? Yeah? It does. When you
say top end cleaning, what do you mean exactly? Well,
you know you've got an O Ralliota Parts near you. Okay,
go over to O Ralliota Parts. Tell me you want
to look at a Berryman four step fuel system cleaning kit.
And the nice thing about the Berryman kit is that
it will attach to an intake hose, so it will
(15:54):
you don't have to get into the fuel rail. All right,
You're gonna put a cleaner in the tank to help
clean injectors, but you're gonna do it through the intake
and select a centrally located vacuum port. Don't go don't
go strictly off of one on one intake runner. Try
and find something that's more at the beginning of the
intake manifold, so you're you know, you're you're trying to
shoot water down um six slides or four slides all
(16:18):
at once. If you know what, if you get my
drift all right, you don't want to just select one
intake runner, So you want to start something at the
top of the intake so that it spreads out throughout
the intake and let it burn its way through. Their
fourth step kit does the tank, the throttle body, and
the top end of the engine, and then there's an
additive I believe that goes in the tank afterwards when
all is done, sort of like the Vitamin B twelve
(16:40):
follow up, but the Berryman beat, the Berryman four step
kit makes it very simple for you know, Harry homeowner,
I'm sorry to clad categorize your brother, but uh, you
know it's the guy without the shop. It just makes
it that much easier for you to do the fuel
injection cleaning service right there in the driveway, and you
know they'll be able to help you, other be able
to point you in the right the direction. And if
(17:00):
you want more information about the Burriman stuff, get out
to their website Burman Products Dot com and they'll they'll
talk about the whole thing. Um watch the video on
their website where they talk about what HEST is high
energy solving technology here we mentioned from time to time,
but it really does work and it's it's it's interesting
when you watch that video how they stack up against
(17:21):
some of the other fuel system cleaners on the marketplace.
What their's does that they don't, And that's kind of
important stuff, you know. But that's how I would do it.
I would be using a cleaner to do this rather
than trying to, you know, put chunks down in the
engine and create a bigger issue. But the vent valve
is important because the you know, crank case ventilation and
PCV evails whatever you want to call it, are probably
(17:43):
one of the most overlooked components for whatever reason. In
the last fifteen years. It's you never hear anybody say, well,
I changed I changed this, this, this, and the PCV
e vail. It seems like we've forgotten about it where
it used to be so important Now. Maybe it's because
oils are better today and vehicles go longer and oil
stay cleaner for longer periods of time. But in reality,
(18:05):
I just think the car runs until it drops. I
think what you're seeing is some byproduct of a sticky
gummy vent valve. Good thing to do, and then do
a top end cleaning, and I think you would be
in great shape, Kurt. I appreciate the call, thanks for
being out there in Arizona, and thanks for calling. And
I'm run on any in the car Doctor. We're back
right after this. Welcome back. We're on any of the
(18:49):
car Doctor at eight five zero zero, the car Doctor
seven number. And I have to explain that real quick
for a second. If you call the aforementioned number, you
call eight five five five six yo zero. During the
week Hey, this radio shows on Saturday afternoons two to four,
and then we're simulcaster picked up later on around the
network around the country on the weekend, then out on
(19:09):
the internet and so on. So you know we're live
broadcasting Saturday afternoons to the four pm East Coast time.
If you call eight five five zero nine zero, leave
a message. Here's the rules, folks, all right, this is
the way it's gotta work. All right. You've got to
leave a message. You've got to expect that you're gonna
get a phone call back, and you will get a
phone call back sometime during the week, stating, Hey, this
(19:31):
is Tom Ray from the Car Doctor. We're looking to
do the show with you. We're looking to answer your
question because I want to answer everybody's question, but there's
no way I could conceivably give everybody back a personal call.
Once in a blue moon, it happens. It doesn't happen
a lot lately because we're just overwhelmed by the number
of responses we're getting from you, which is great. We're
here for you, We're trying to do this, so please
help us. Help you leave a message, Tom, we'll call
(19:54):
you back. Be around Saturday afternoons to the four pm.
Regardless of what time you hear the show in your market,
Be there Saturday afternoons two to four and we can
talk to you live. That's the way this game has
to be played. Otherwise it's just not gonna happen. We
just can't. You know, I'm not gonna be up at
three o'clock in the morning when the phone calls come
in and people go, hey, how come in answer my call?
And we've had people say that to us. It's it's
(20:15):
kind of mind boggling. We've got to get off this
entitlement kick. We're here to help each other. That's what
the name of the game is. Let's go over and
talk to Jim. Jim, welcome, sir. How can I help? Yes, sir,
thanks for thanks for being there. I'm trying, baby, what's
going on. I've been I've been tinkering on two vehicles.
I've got a sixty six must Hang that're rebuilding, and
(20:37):
I've got a two thousand one town of Country and
that's my main issue right now. I bought it two
years ago. It's been setting. Um. I was told you
when I bought it that had bad compression, okay, And
I questioned the guy and I don't know. I tend
(20:58):
to think that he got some bad information. I drove
it home and it did skip. You know, it was
skipping pretty bad. But yeah, it was. It was missing. Yeah,
all right, but I changed the coil pack and it
runs back o'clock. So I need your professional opinion because
(21:20):
I can't really check the compression. But I want to
drive it down to Virginia. And uh, I don't see
why I can. I just wanted to get your thoughts
on that. Yeah, I don't see why you can't either.
I you know, listen, what what what what you're telling
me is somebody had a car that they sold to you,
(21:42):
and they didn't really understand what was right or wrong
about it, and you know, they basically gave you a
misdiagnosis and bad information. That only happens probably four or
five thousand times today a day in this country, around
the world. I wouldn't even want to venture to guess,
(22:02):
you know, um, the fact that it's been sitting would
make me want to. You know, if the engines running good,
the engines running good, if the oil is clean and
it stays clean, and you've taken it around town and
it's behaving itself, great, But the fact that it's been
sitting for any length of time, I'd want to get
it up in the air and look at things like
brake lines. I'd want to look at the water pump
(22:24):
steel tube coming down off the water pump B six
I I assume here, Jim right, Yeah, I want to
look at the water pump down tube that comes off
the pump before the hose that always rusts out over
on the passenger side. It gets all the splashing and
smoots up from the road on the on the right side,
of the vehicle above the subframe. Make sure that tube
isn't rotted all the way through. That was a common
(22:45):
failure point. And as long as it's holding up rust wise,
you know, listen, it's nineteen years old. Anything can go
wrong with it, all right, regardless of what somebody said,
regardless of what you've done. By the same token, it
could be a twenty nineteen vehicle and it could get
a flat tire two blocks from the house. So you
(23:05):
know what, some days, some days you're in the hands
of the universe and you can just take all the
precautions you can take and it just works out the
way it's gonna work out, if you get what I'm saying.
You know, um, so you're saying, I don't need to
take it to get the compression check. Is the check
engine light on? Now? Nope? Okay? Does it run good?
Very good? Have you have you driven it at all? Yes? Yes, yes,
(23:28):
I've been. I've been driving around, you know, figuring that's
what I should do because if it drives good around
town and you know, two hours and then I'm taking
it to Virginia. Do you have a scan tool? Now?
Can you get your hands on a scan tool? And
see if all the monitors have run. Do you know?
(23:49):
Do you know what a monitor is? And it's okay
if you don't, I'll explain it. So, so you got
up this morning, you showered, you, you showered, you shaved,
you had breakfast, You ran your self test. Okay, every
day you get up, you run a self test. As
a human being. Your eyes open, you focus, Oh god,
(24:09):
here I am right right, let me get the day going.
Let me shake the dust out of my head and
get started. You're doing a computerized monitor self test at
a human being level. All right. Cars do the same thing.
The minute you turn that key on and you see dashlights,
you've energized all the circuits. You've you you woke up
the main engine computer. It's talking to all the other computers.
(24:32):
In the blink of an eye. Right, electrons are flowing, baby,
and it's testing its circuits. And then as you start
it up and warm it up and bring the engine
up to operating temperature, it's testing different components. There's anywhere
from four to eight systems in a modern vehicle. EVAPP
misfire Comprehensive component O two cents or two centsor heat
(24:53):
or e g R all these systems are being tested
every day depending upon where you draw, how much you drive,
what speed you drive at, and some other characteristics and factors. Okay,
it runs that test. Every time it runs that test
to completion, that test inside the computer gets marked complete.
(25:15):
All right. Now, if you've noticed, I said the test
got marked complete, not pass. All right. We all took
we all took math in high school. I took every test.
I completed every test. I didn't pass every test, but
I completed every test, all right. The test, the test
(25:35):
that I completed but didn't pass, would turn on a
check engine light. Okay. Now sometimes my check engine light
didn't go on right away. Sometimes I you know, how
to take a second test. It was a two trip
faull alright, or a two trip code in order to
set and it still runs the monitor every day. Okay.
So the reason I want you to go get a
(25:56):
scan tool and plug it in is I want to
see no, no, you're not gonna have any hard faults,
but I want to see no pending codes, nothing in
the pending category, because pending is you know, Monday you
sorted in feel good, and Tuesday you felt worse, and
Wednesday boom you had the sniffles. Your sniffles went from
sniffles to a to a to a cold. Well, you know,
(26:17):
Monday and Tuesday the computer ran its monitor self test
and it wasn't quite sure. And then by Wednesday that
oh two centsor heater didn't wake up and it said boom,
it's done P zero one thirty eight and it sets
a hard fault. So I want you to look in pending.
I want you to look at monitors. If there's nothing impending,
and if monitors look good, drive the car, you know,
look at look at break lines, look at fuel lines,
(26:39):
look for rust, look at the cooling tube, look at
the bottom of the radiator, alright, just to make sure
there's no heavy corrosion there. Just give it a good
common sense mechanical look over alright. Make make make sure
you've got a couple of bucks on you. Make sure
you've got triple A. Make sure you've got a cell
phone that's fully charged. Make sure you've got some money
in the bank in case you get stuck somewhere and
take a road. You know, it's waiting to do a
(27:01):
compression test. You know. The one thing that those cars
did have go wrong, which was not uncommon back in
the day. They did have rock a arm issues, all right,
but it was a hard mechanical failure, not what you're
going through. It doesn't it doesn't get fixed by putting
a coil on it, all right, So you know, do
(27:23):
you do your maintenance? I mean, I'm sure you have.
You know at this point, spark plugs, wires, you did,
a coil, a fuel system cleaning. Wouldn't hurt. Changing some
fluids wouldn't hurt. Like I say, if it's at this age,
if it's wet, change it all right and drive the car.
I wouldn't. I wouldn't be afraid based on somebody else's diagnosis.
If I if I listened to half the guys tell
me what's wrong with the car, and I believe them,
I probably wouldn't leave the house in the morning. So alright,
(27:47):
what what scan tool would you recommend? Um? Something affordable?
You can go look at products from the launch line
from Autell, either one of those both nice affordable scan tools.
You'll find things for under five hundred bucks. I think
I have to favor I'll tell a little bit more.
At this point. I think they've got more going on.
They've they've got a great website. Get out though I
believe it's Autel test or autel dot com. Just go
(28:07):
out and Google search it A U T E L
and you'll see it come up. Um. They give a
lot of bang for the buck. The launch stuff. Um,
the launch stuff they do have a A A D
I Y version. But I'm coming to the point in
my mind where I think, if we're gonna have a
scan tool, let's spend a few bucks and get something nice.
(28:28):
You know, when we were kids, we all wanted a
better camera, a better hunting knife, a better you know,
camping tent, the better sleeping bag. It's time to treat
ourselves or adults. Now, let's get the better and enjoy
it while we can. And this way it makes our
life easier along the way, if that makes sense to you.
All right, sir, could I ask one question on the Mustang?
Tell you what? Let me pull over, take a pause
(28:49):
when we come back zero running the car doctor back
right after this welcome back, weren't any of the car doctor.
Let's real quick. Good over to Jim. Jim. I got
I got a minute and then I've got to move on.
What's what's your last question about the Mustang. Okay, I
(29:12):
I got two questions, all right, two questions quick. I
had a rebuilt engine ten years ago on this car.
Is there a proper way of breaking an in? Well? Yeah,
I would talk to the engine builder and see what
he has in his mind. As far as the campus concerned.
Has the engine been sitting ten years? Yes, well, then
the concern is going to be that everything is have
(29:36):
you been well, let me ask the question this way.
Have you been rotating the engine from time to time
so that valve springs haven't been sitting in the same
position for ten years? No, they've been sitting. Yeah. See.
I would probably talk to an engine builder and ask
him because the fact is that things have taken a
set and at the at the very least before you
put it, you know, just start driving it. I would
(29:56):
take it apart and look at everything, and I would
measure valve spring tension and just have a little concern
about that because it's probably fine. But proper engine parts
for the older cars are getting harder to find, good
quality stuff made here and so on. I'm sure you're aware,
and you know the ounce of prevention you take now
is going to be the bigger cure later on. What's
(30:17):
your second question, Well, the oils in pretenuous? Should I
change that? Oh? Absolutely, I that's not that's not even
a question. And the engine builder will take it apart. Hey, listen,
you know what the most, the most it's gonna happen
is you're gonna take it to an engine builder. Spend
a couple hundred bucks. They'll take it apart, put it
together and measure everything, and you're good to go. If
they find a problem. They saved your headache. If they didn't,
(30:39):
they took all the sweat and aggravation out of the mix.
And at least you know you're starting out well on
your restoration projects, so it's not another ten years before
you drive the car. Jimmy, I appreciate the phone call.
Have fun taking your trip to Virginia. James and Virginia.
Maybe you'll see Jim from Maine. James and Virginia. Thanks
for being so patient, buddy. What's going on all right?
Thank you? I have a twenty sixteen Nissan in front
(31:01):
tier of V six. I bought it back in October
UM and they sold it to me. I know they
knew that the check anything light come on and get
this message. On the dash, it says, UH, check up
field cap. So I bought a field cap after market
didn't work. I went and bought a Nissan fuel cap.
(31:22):
Didn't didn't work. I took I took it to a dealer. UH.
The Nissan dealer did a smoke test. I watched them
from the waiting room. Four guys run around underneath it
there with a flashlight. Finally all ganged up at the
field spot. So I figured that's where the leak was.
Then he gave me a ticket and says that they
could Uh, they needed an assembly with canister and sell
(31:46):
Annoit's nine and fifty dollars. I just want to know
if there's any other way to fix this less than
a thousand dollars, or if I need to take it back,
or where I got how many miles around the card?
James about okay, so it is out of warranty. I think, well, now,
(32:08):
let me let me retract that I would want to
know what submissions warranty on that vehicle, because some things
are eight eighty eight years, eighty thousand miles and you're
under the eighty thousand mile mark. And the other question
I would have is what's what's common to go bad.
On the Nissans of that generation is number one, the
(32:28):
fil neck. And you will see the fuel the fill
neck the fil neck as a leak. But what you
won't see as a leak is there's a charcoal canister
mounted above the rear axle, and on that canister is
a vent control solenoid. The rubber O ring on that
solenoid leaks, all right, but it doesn't leak on a
(32:50):
smoke test. Here's the here's the problem. Okay, it doesn't
leak on a smoke test. It leaks when the vehicle
is sick, running its off vehicle monitor. I'll tell you what.
Sit tight, James. I want to give you a little
more time. Let me pull over, take a pause. When
we come back, i'll finish up. I want you to
understand what I'm talking about before I send you back
(33:11):
to talk to them, because I got a feeling they're confused.
I'll be back right after this. I'm running anating in
the car. Doctor. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back or any
of the car. Doctor, James, Virginia, you're still there, Sir
James James. Oh, James James, you're there, brother, Okay, let
(33:34):
me make you an even Let me make you an
evaporative emissions expert in two minutes. You're ready, all right.
Take a gas can half filled with gas, put it
in a parking lot, sealed up. What happens to it
in the sun. Well, it'll expand right from the heat,
from the pressure. So a car is like that gas can.
(33:58):
It's it's a guest tank, right, It's got a gas
tank in it, and the gas is gonna cause expansion.
So they've got to find a way to vent it safely. Correct,
So they'll put a charcoal canister on it, charcoal like
a goldfish tank or like a fish tank filter, okay,
and they'll let fumes vent through the charcoal, be absorbed
through the charcoal, and they safely dispose of it through
(34:19):
the engine. Well, they've got to have a way to
vent or get the fumes out of the canister. And
this is a very rudimentary explanation, but it will make
the point. So they put an electrical solenoid on that canister,
and that that canister, that solenoid will open or close
electronically from a computer based on control, based on command,
and it will allow airflow through and out and and
(34:40):
and clean the canister. Well, they seal that solenoid, that
little plastic solenoid with a rubber O ring, all right,
that oh ring like like like all rubber O rings
will expand and contract with temperature. Right when you do it.
When you do a smoke test, you're pressurizing the evaporative
(35:00):
emission system. You're pressurizing the fuel tank and the canister,
looking to see can it push smoke out. It's not
a big pressure, it's about a half a pound, but
it's still it's it's pressurizing when the vehicle runs itself test,
and that vehicle should run off vehicle monitoring. It's doing
it engine off. It's got a little electric pump that
(35:22):
will create a vacuum and suck in, and that's when
the old ring is gonna get pulled in the wrong direction.
Go back to the dealership wherever you were going, ask them,
can they just replace the valve on the canister and
when they take it out, put the new one in,
put a little bit of grease on it to help
it seal better. See if that solves the problem for you.
Call me back. I'm run any in the car doctor
reminding you as always good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
(35:45):
See you
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