0:01

Ron A Aian.

0:02

Cars have become a lifestyle morning

0:04

and I don't know where this occurred, but

0:07

as you, as you and everyone else is finding

0:09

out. It's you leased the car and

0:11

they cover the close to repairs.

0:12

Take it

0:18

the car doctor.

0:19

You know, I know it's going to be a two hundred dollars tire

0:21

or two hundred and fifty dollars tire. But what's

0:23

her life worth? What's what's what's the

0:25

car worth? What's not getting stuck on the side of the road

0:28

or an accident wharf.

0:29

Welcome to the radio home of ron

0:31

Ananian, the Car Doctor. Since

0:33

nineteen ninety one, this is where car

0:35

owners the world overturned to for

0:38

their definitive opinion on automotive

0:40

repair. If your mechanics giving

0:42

you a busy signal, pick up the phone

0:44

and call in. The garage doors.

0:46

Are open, but I am here to take your call. At

0:49

eight five five five six ninety nine hundred

0:51

and now he.

0:55

Running.

0:56

You know the hour is going to go by quick, so let's

0:58

let's get rolling fast. Let's go over and talk to

1:00

Brian in Philadelphia and see what's

1:02

going on as we open the phone lines right away, Brian, Welcome

1:05

to the car doctor, Sir, how can I help Brian?

1:12

Brian? You're there? Hey, Ron, Hey

1:14

Brian, Yes sir, what's going on?

1:16

He?

1:16

Yes? Are you there? Brian?

1:19

Brian going once? Brian?

1:22

Can you hear me? Brian?

1:25

Can you hear me?

1:26

Yeah? I can hear you, Brian, can you hear me? Hello?

1:29

Tom? Tom? Are you doing this on purpose? This

1:32

has got to be Tom, Tom? What are you doing there?

1:35

Well? Tom's working on that. Let me uh,

1:38

let me let me get you

1:41

know, let me explain. Folks. See, I have an engineer with a great

1:43

sense of humor. Except I don't think this is Tom. I

1:45

think this is this is this

1:48

is something else going on here. So I

1:50

think Tom is working feverishly to get Brian

1:52

back on the air. I think he's going to try and call him back in

1:54

the meantime, let me do this piece of email from Mark

1:56

out in Fairdale, North Dakota. Ron,

1:59

I listened to your show and love it. I've gotten very

2:01

good advice before. I live on a farm in

2:03

northeast North Dakota. My kids are growing on their

2:05

own. My wife and I were looking to upgrade her vehicle.

2:08

We have a twenty ten GMC yukon right now

2:10

with three hundred thousand miles on it. It still drives

2:12

everywhere and we've kept up with maintenance, but

2:14

it's time for an update. I've been looking at used vehicles.

2:16

This will primarily be my wife's vehicle, and

2:18

it's hard to find a decent Yukon Tahoe at

2:20

a reasonable price. But it's hard to find anything

2:22

at a reasonable price right now, Mark, but I get it.

2:25

We want something not too big, as we have one ton pickups

2:27

for the farm and want to stick with Ford or GM as

2:29

services here as best here for them. That

2:31

makes sense. I've also been looking at twenty

2:33

nineteen and newer Ford Rangers twenty seventeen

2:35

and newer Colorado and GMC Canyon.

2:38

I have not considered Expedition due to only

2:40

having a three to five in it for a bigger vehicle. I agree

2:42

with that one hundred percent. I think they put these

2:44

little engines in these bigger vehicles and then they

2:46

twin turbo charge them, and I think

2:48

that's added stress. You know, there's no substitute

2:51

for cube against this big engine big vehicle

2:53

or big engine little vehicle. And I

2:55

think that's the formula for success. And it just runs

2:57

and it wins, optical,

3:00

the supercharged engines, Mark you're singing,

3:02

My, you're in the right church, right pew. Are

3:04

they a concern or should I be not concerned with that? Absolutely?

3:07

I think longevity, I don't think it's there. I think you'll get one hundred

3:09

thousand out of most of these things, and then

3:11

after that, you know, and then the

3:14

problem becomes. You know, we've had more than

3:16

a few one hundred and fifty, one hundred and

3:18

thirty thousand mile forward explorers and

3:20

things like that that have come apart

3:22

and require exhaust manifolds at higher mileage,

3:24

and you know, you're pulling engines, you're pulling turbo

3:27

chargers apart, you're you know, and everything

3:29

is, everything is hard hardened together

3:31

now because it's gone through so many heat cycles. Of getting

3:33

it apart is ridiculous. So

3:36

I think simple non turbocharged,

3:38

non supercharged, you know, basic

3:41

big v IT engines. We're not

3:43

worried about fuel economy at this point in the game so

3:45

much, and just good, steady, reliable power.

3:48

Are you kind of been good? And I see I see a

3:50

few for less than thirty thousand with heated seats and trailer

3:52

packages, and we like whatever we

3:54

get it won't pull a heavy load,

3:56

but a lawnmower, trailer,

3:58

small camper boat. We have a big pickup

4:00

in semis for a bigger towing needs. Thanks

4:03

for your knowledge, Mark, I think you're on the right right

4:05

track. Go Bison. He concludes with I

4:09

think reliability and longevity

4:11

and simple. You know, my dad always

4:13

said, you want a simple white refrigerator. The light goes

4:16

on, the light goes out, it keeps food called. You don't need the

4:18

rest of the nonsense. And you know, I think

4:20

Dad's right, Although I do like heated seats

4:22

in a vehicle, and I like where you're

4:24

going. My twenty twenty two Chevy

4:26

Silverado is a six

4:28

six V eight sixty

4:31

six or six two. I think it's a sixty six now. And

4:34

you know it's got everything in it but heated seats,

4:37

which okay, so I wear an extra long pair of pants

4:39

that day when it's called. But it's got you know,

4:41

tilt crews, power windows, power

4:43

steering, obviously, you know, decent radio.

4:45

What else do you need the rest of the stuff,

4:48

which really escalates the price of a vehicle

4:50

in this mechanic's opinion, raise

4:52

the purchase price to the point of impracticality

4:55

and makes it well, I won't say unaffordable,

4:57

but makes it a little inaccessible, and then sooner

5:00

later it breaks. I like the vehicles you're looking

5:02

at. I'm not a real fan of

5:04

the Ranger mark though, to be honest,

5:07

I think Ford has to wake up and do something

5:09

different. I'm waiting for the day they put a V six

5:11

in that Ranger with no turbo, and I would

5:14

snap one up right away, and I bet everybody else

5:16

would because to me, in my head, that makes a perfect

5:18

winning combination. A little bit of a bigger

5:20

engine, more cubic inches, less weight than

5:23

the bigger vehicle it's normally used to hauling around.

5:25

I think I think a V six Ford Ranger

5:27

normally asked parade it would be a big win for Ford.

5:30

Let's see if they're smart enough to do it. But that

5:32

little four cylinder, the four cylinder Ranger

5:35

is okay. It's a bit of a pain in

5:37

the neck to service. You have to pull the left front

5:39

tire off every time you change the oil filter is

5:42

the easiest way to get to it. And they

5:44

should be. They should be. Whoever thought of that should

5:46

be shot to shot and hung out the dry. You

5:49

know that guy's right up there with the I really want to

5:51

meet the engineer from Ford that designed

5:54

the one Leader Eco sport engine where they run

5:56

the timing belt through the crank case and it gets covered

5:58

in oil because they found out,

6:00

and they're finding out that rubber and timing

6:03

belts and oil doesn't go well together

6:05

for engine longevity. So you

6:08

know you're on the right path, kiddo,

6:10

all right. I like the Colorado. I like the newer

6:13

Colorados, the right

6:15

up through model year twenty two, I think was a V six,

6:17

no turbo charger. I think they were decent

6:19

vehicles. And I think

6:21

if I had a choice between a Colorado and a Ranger

6:24

right now, I'd probably go with that Colorado

6:26

because of the engine choice. And no, I don't

6:28

think you're missing looking at any other vehicles. I think

6:30

you're fine in the choices in the

6:32

market that you're in, and I think you'll find

6:35

something you'll like. Let me know what happens. I'm

6:37

always curious, so I'm always looking to hear so.

6:39

But if that doesn't do it for you, Mark, give me a call

6:41

a five to five five six zero nine nine zero zero,

6:43

drop me a line. We can talk about this again,

6:46

and thanks for all you do being a farmer out there

6:48

and feeding all of us. Let's get back

6:50

to the phones and see if Brian is back. Brian,

6:52

We're gonna try this one more time. Brian, you there

6:56

right, yes, yes, sir, okay, good,

6:58

I think that was Tom. I really but we'll

7:01

we'll, we'll, we'll, I'll get, I'll get I'll get in with

7:03

him after the show. So what can I do for you today?

7:05

Jede, Hey, I

7:07

get a question. I've always been a sedan guy.

7:10

I've driven Forwards for a lot of years, basically

7:12

tauruses infusions, you

7:15

know. As you know a couple of years ago, Forward pretty

7:17

much discontinued cars with the exception

7:19

of the Mustang YEP, and especially

7:22

in the American market, getting a mid size Sadan

7:24

is almost impossible now, so

7:27

I may have to just go the suv route.

7:29

I had questions about the

7:33

only one I saw that seemed like it was a half

7:35

decent price if you consider that as the Escape

7:38

Yep. I just wanted your

7:41

get your thoughts on that, because you know, it seems like if

7:43

I want an American vehicle, Ford,

7:46

It'll have to be an suv. If I'm not getting a Mustang.

7:49

So, you know. Yeah, and I'm not a Mustang

7:51

fan either. I don't like that. I don't I don't like sitting in them.

7:53

I can't see out the back window. I was never you

7:55

know, and I like Ford. I think I think you're on the

7:57

right path. I think the Escape's a good vehicle. Truth

8:01

be told, my wife just got done with

8:03

her turned behind the wheel of an Explorer

8:05

for the past six years, and we've

8:07

moved on to something else just for the sake of change.

8:09

It was just time, you

8:11

know, great vehicle. I can't say anything bad

8:13

about it. Unfortunately, the Explorers

8:16

just got recalled this week for body parts

8:18

falling off, which I

8:20

just was fortuitous timing on my part, although

8:23

I didn't really know what was coming, you

8:25

know. And then you talk about the Escape. I think the

8:27

Escape's a decent vehicle. We've had more than a few in

8:29

the family. We still have one in the family fleet

8:32

right now. We see more than a few of them at the

8:34

shop. I think they were a pretty rock solid vehicle.

8:37

I wouldn't go older than twenty nineteen.

8:41

The seventeens and eighteens

8:43

had issues with cylinder heads

8:45

and engine blocks during assembly,

8:47

but most of those problems. To my knowledge, we don't

8:49

see those issues anymore. But they were having

8:51

problems with coolant and head gasket failures

8:54

and Ford was buying them back. And Ford did do the

8:56

right thing. They bought back a lot of

8:58

them and you know, gave

9:00

customers full credit for the time driven and

9:02

put them in newer vehicles. I hear a

9:04

lot of good stories about that time period.

9:07

I think the current generation Escape

9:09

is a great vehicle. We see very

9:11

very few problems with them.

9:13

My engineer Tom, as a matter of fact, he's

9:15

driving an older Escape, a twenty

9:18

fifteen that defies logic because

9:20

he's got I don't know, four hundred thousand

9:23

miles on it now or somewhere there. He's probably in the

9:25

three eighty to four hundred thousand range.

9:27

And that's a rein endorsement.

9:29

Yeah, that it just now. Tom

9:31

does a lot of highway driving and

9:34

you know he just you know, he'll be on the road

9:37

tomorrow to put five hundred miles to go to East

9:39

Jibiban back in two days. But

9:42

yeah, just just real matter of fact,

9:44

I'll say it like this. Tom called me this

9:46

week. He was somewhere and I don't know Baltimore

9:49

or someplace, and the rear hatch wouldn't

9:51

open, and he wanted to know what

9:53

I thought. I said, Tom, I said, for all the escapes

9:55

we see, I've never

9:57

had a back door panel apart, they just don't

9:59

break. I said, I think there's something else going on

10:01

here. Sure enough, he got home and after the

10:03

ride home, something jiggled loose and the door

10:06

finally came open and he had a glove stuck in

10:08

the door latch or the little striker,

10:10

and you know it's they're decent

10:12

vehicles, they really are. I would go for the two Leader.

10:15

I would go for the bigger engine again, bigger

10:17

engine, small car, you know, less strain,

10:20

more durability, and the two

10:22

Leaders a whole lot easier to work on in

10:25

terms of just basic stuff. The oil change on the

10:27

one point five is a little bit of a pain in the net because of the way

10:29

they got the filter housing where they've

10:31

got it located next to the oil cooler tubes and the

10:33

AC lines. But that two

10:35

Leader, you know, we see one hundred and fiftywo hundred

10:37

thousand miles out of those things all day long. The

10:40

downfall, you don't want the

10:42

transmission to break that's five grand, and

10:44

we've seen it all right. The

10:46

steering rack like anything else. Electric

10:49

steering nowadays it's a couple of grand,

10:51

Okay, no big deal. Two thousand bucks.

10:53

Three thousand bucks is not a big repair on a car anymore.

10:56

And you know, when you do your services,

10:58

you're thirty or sixty years ninety change

11:01

the rear differential fluid. Nobody

11:03

does. Nobody understands

11:05

that there's less than a quart of gur oil in the back

11:07

of those things, and a lot

11:09

of differentials get done. You

11:11

know when they get higher, mile is ninety

11:13

to one hundred grand on them and they come

11:15

apart.

11:17

If I could ask you why or is it

11:19

just a demand that people don't want Saedan's

11:22

and they want SUVs because it's like the

11:24

foreign market.

11:25

Yeah, I don't know, you

11:28

know, you know, Brian, I think one of the nicest

11:30

riding cars ever. I love it every time

11:33

one comes in the shop is an old school Lincoln

11:35

town Car. My god, that thing

11:37

just floats going down the road and

11:39

just just a nice riding vehicle.

11:43

I had cave it's the same thing.

11:45

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, it's I

11:47

like a big Sedan, but you know it

11:49

listen, car companies aren't that bright.

11:52

Okay, they took away the station wagon

11:54

because people didn't want these, you know, big eight

11:56

passenger vehicles, and within five

11:58

years, guess what they brought back Big

12:00

suburbans. Big suburbans which are eight passenger

12:03

vehicles, but they cost more and they sit higher. So you

12:06

figure it out, all right, Ketto, I got to go m

12:08

up against the clock. All right, sir, be well,

12:10

and if you need anything else, you know where to find me. You're

12:12

very welcome. I'm Ronning Andy, and the car doctor will be back

12:15

right after this. Don't go away. He

12:23

drives that way. But when it comes to fixing cars,

12:25

Ron has car advice done right eight

12:28

five five five six zero nine to nine

12:30

zero zero. Here's Ron. So

12:33

I've got a moral dilemma for you, or

12:35

a moral dilemma question. And

12:38

I'd like to hear back from my repair shops out

12:40

there to see what they think, what would they do in this situation,

12:43

because I'm sure they've faced it too. Twenty

12:46

seventeen Subaru came into the shop this week

12:48

with a P zero four fifty five large

12:51

evapp leak evapp systems. You know

12:53

we've talked about this here, you know, the evaporative

12:55

emission system is basically

12:57

controlling the fumes from the gasoline

12:59

in the tank to make sure it doesn't vent to the atmosphere,

13:02

and through a series of solenoids and controls,

13:05

they regulate where it goes and when it

13:07

goes and so forth. But the

13:10

computer needs to know that the system has integrity.

13:12

The computer needs to know that the system is sealed,

13:14

So at select times,

13:16

under right conditions, it will run its

13:18

monitor, its self test to

13:20

make sure that the system has integrity,

13:22

that the balloon is

13:25

solid, right, that there's no leaks. So

13:28

this one set a p zero four to fifty

13:30

five large leak, which they measure

13:32

the leak. You know, it's it's

13:35

volume of leak over time. If

13:37

it leaks x over time,

13:40

then it's a four point fifty five.

13:42

If it leaks x. If it leaks why over

13:44

time, it might be a four to forty two a small leak.

13:46

And it's all rated in inches of vacuum.

13:49

Which we're not going to get involved in that because that's

13:51

not pertinent to the conversation. So

13:54

out of twenty seventeen, subar Rup zero four

13:56

to fifty five. Now, the

13:58

rule of thumb is, you know, you want to look

14:00

the vehicle over, do a visual. I did a visual, and

14:04

I found the gas cap loose. But

14:07

it had been two weeks since

14:10

the customer called to make the appointment

14:13

so that they could get in, and you

14:16

know, in two weeks time, really they

14:18

filled up. You know, I asked, they had filled

14:20

up twice since they called, and

14:23

each time the gas cap was left loose. Is

14:25

it a coincidence or isn't it? Or

14:27

is it just sloppy gas station attendant? Here's

14:30

the moral dilemma. Do you stop?

14:33

Do you keep going? You know, do you run more

14:35

tests? Do you want

14:38

to be able to hand the key back to the customer and

14:40

say your car's fixed? I ran all the tests.

14:42

I ran a service bayed test, I

14:44

smoked it. I did whatever I had to do. You

14:46

know, it was just a gas cap. And I don't

14:48

say just because finding that gas cap

14:51

sometimes is a difficult problem. In

14:53

this case, I found it fairly quickly. I

14:56

tested it. It's quick enough, all

14:59

right. You know, we got

15:01

out our smoke pro courtesy of the folks

15:03

over their red line diagnot red line detection,

15:06

and you know we were able

15:08

to smoke the system really quick and

15:11

determined that, yeah, the event

15:13

that we were able to block the vent, the system had

15:15

integrity that the gas

15:18

cap screwed on stopped

15:20

the thing from leaking. I didn't like the way the

15:22

gas cap sealed though, you

15:24

know, you could see that, you could

15:27

feel the ratchet wasn't

15:29

you know, it didn't have that sharp

15:31

click to it. So I

15:34

put a gas cap on it. And

15:36

you know, even with a gas cap, smoked

15:39

it again. And you know, we

15:42

spent our normal diagnostic time that we allotted.

15:44

We spent the time we quoted the customer, and

15:46

I was able to hand the keys back to Dave and go, Dave,

15:48

here's the deal. Here's what I found. And

15:52

I said I could have stopped, and he said,

15:54

no, I'd rather know that you checked it out. He said,

15:56

I understand some people wouldn't want

15:58

to, they wouldn't want to spend them. But he

16:00

said, I'd understand you'd have to charge me something anyway, because

16:02

your time is worth something. And he's right, and

16:05

I get it, and I really appreciate a customer

16:07

like that, as most of my customers are. And

16:11

I put the question to you, what would

16:13

you do? Do you do nothing?

16:15

Do you hand it back to the customer and say, hey, if the like comes

16:17

back on, you

16:19

know, it's a moral dilemma. Your job is

16:21

to fix cars. I've had

16:24

more than a few in my career where

16:26

I've found two problems that would cause the same

16:28

condition on the same vehicle, for the same symptom

16:30

and same ticket, all in the same afternoon,

16:34

And you know it's

16:37

one solution, does not always a repair make as

16:39

the saying goes. We had

16:41

a Hyundai a while back, I'm sorry, Akia

16:45

that had had a fuel tank

16:47

replaced in it, and you always think it's

16:49

going to be complicated and twisted and evolved,

16:51

and this is why I say it's your obligation

16:53

to check the vehicle out. And

16:57

after several repair attempts by other shops,

16:59

multiple others shops, I smoked it and

17:02

I found a very small leak where

17:05

the purge line meets the line going

17:07

to the tank underneath the vehicle. You

17:09

wouldn't see it from up above. And

17:12

I smoked it, and you

17:15

know I was able to. And one of the nice

17:17

things about the smoke pro is, I'm

17:19

sorry, the speed pro speed smoke. I'll

17:21

get it right then. One of the nice things about the speed

17:24

Smoke is that

17:26

it will allow you to regulate

17:29

air flowing and pressure, so

17:31

you can go full pressure, full smoke, you can

17:34

go partial. And by

17:36

applying maximum pressure, maximum

17:38

smoke to it, I was able to find the leaks

17:41

where the purge and the tank line

17:43

came together and find

17:45

the leak that nobody else because they hadn't pushed click,

17:48

they hadn't pushed the two lines together, they hadn't put

17:50

it on a safety lock. Now

17:54

that's another vehicle that had a

17:56

fillerneck issue. Because that was a capitalist system,

17:58

it had a fillerneck issue. Had

18:00

I not tested it,

18:03

I never would have found the second problem.

18:06

And that brings me back to this where this conversation

18:08

started. You know, as a shop

18:11

obligated, we're gonna tell you, hey, we're going to spend

18:13

an hour and go through the system.

18:15

Is it right for the shop to spend

18:17

that hour? I say yes, I

18:19

say diagnose know in confidence

18:22

that the vehicles repaired and that the customer

18:24

is going to be happy when they don't see the light again

18:27

and they have to come back. You tell me your side

18:29

of the story. Shoot me a line ron at cardoctorshow

18:31

dot com. I'll be back right after this. Come

18:59

back want any of the car. Doctor. Let's let's

19:01

go back to oron WARN's back from Louisiana.

19:04

Oran, what's going on with this vehicle today?

19:06

Hey, Ron, get up to new Man. Hey, I got

19:09

catching up with me. So last

19:11

week we had spoken about this vehicle

19:13

and you we essentially kind of wrap it up

19:15

with how you'd ask me to, you know, re scan it.

19:18

So anyway re scanned it, I'll

19:20

give you the codes that we can

19:22

go from there. So I'm still having

19:25

the uh it was a P zero three hundred

19:27

through three oh six miss far in all cylinders

19:29

and P zero zerr one six piezerre zero

19:32

one seven. There's

19:34

also a P zero one four one one. So

19:36

nothing has changed in that verson. Okay,

19:40

I did change. I did change.

19:42

So the camshaft position sensors

19:45

were changed, oh, you know, a month and a half ago

19:47

or so, the I changed the crank

19:49

shaft position sensor yesterday,

19:52

still crank, no start. So

19:55

that's pretty much what I've got for you, man.

19:57

All right, So you know, I think the ones

19:59

that our key are

20:01

the two crank are the two cam faults,

20:04

all right, because an out of time, an out of

20:06

time cam shaft will cause a misfire. All

20:09

right, you've got one

20:11

six one seven that's left side, right side,

20:14

and what was the other? What was you got lean codes?

20:16

Correct? Yeah, one

20:20

right, and a lean lean fuel control

20:22

problems will also be caused by an out of time cam

20:24

shaft. So camp

20:27

camp is well yet, So I would focus on

20:29

camposition sensors first, So

20:33

you know, can we verify you

20:36

know, what are we using for a scan tool? What do we have? Do we

20:38

have your make model or is it just O B D two?

20:41

Yeah, it's not bi directional,

20:43

but I can get a bi directional scanner. I got

20:45

a buddy of mine who's actually I've actually had in

20:47

those house now to we'll pick it up right.

20:49

You know, I'm thinking, I'm thinking you've

20:52

got a an out of time cam

20:54

one or both? Uh. The sensors

20:56

that were put in the car for the camp position sensors

20:59

where they oe or were

21:01

they after market or whered they fall out of the shelf.

21:03

From they're they're they're

21:05

bossed there?

21:06

Okay, all right, you know

21:08

I would if you've got a way, I'm trying to think of

21:10

a way you could try and check mechanical timing

21:13

on that engine without having to tear

21:15

into it. And this was the vehicle that

21:17

if I recall right, it started one day and then or

21:19

you want to have to start it one day and it just wouldn't start. I don't

21:21

remember how this failure occurred. Refreshed

21:23

my memory.

21:24

Yes, there, yeah, So the

21:26

vehicle had been running,

21:29

they're running to the past, you know, for

21:31

the past year or so. And about a month

21:33

ago I drove

21:36

somewhere, get out an hour or so

21:38

later, go to crank it back up, pranks,

21:40

no start and that was that was essentially

21:42

what happened. And had it tow it back to my house and and

21:45

here we are. So

21:48

yeah, I did uh. I did change the cancel

21:50

position sensors. I also did change

21:52

the uh the camshaft of the

21:55

actual cylinoid magnet siloid magnets.

21:57

I have not done is that top dead center

22:00

tests where I guess where you put the You

22:03

go to the cam shot the crank shaft to zero

22:05

degrees of degrees top dead

22:07

center to check to check the c

22:09

if the the cams are

22:11

actually in time a little window.

22:13

Right. What you have to do is if if if

22:16

I remember right and look up the procedure, I

22:18

think it's you have to put the crank at three

22:20

hundred and five degrees, and

22:23

that will put that will put the cams at top,

22:25

and you're going to pop the cam sensors out, and

22:27

there's a round mark that has to line

22:29

up with a mark inside the cover because

22:33

I think you're gonna find one of the cams is mechanically

22:35

out of time. Look it's it's let's

22:38

let's back up a second. Why

22:40

did you change the sensors. Did you change the

22:42

sensors as an attempt to fix the problem

22:45

or was it for something else and then the problem

22:47

occurred?

22:49

Now it was an attempt to fix the problem. I

22:51

had, uh the p Yre zero

22:54

one six one seven, it was circuit

22:56

a high as initially what I had,

22:58

you know, doing some reading between the

23:00

relation of the crank shap position censor and the

23:02

camshap position sensors. I said, okay,

23:04

well let me change the bank

23:07

one exhaust and intake cam

23:10

magnets and the sense So

23:12

that's that's that's how I rote that quote

23:14

unquote solution.

23:16

Okay, yeah, there's a there's gonna

23:18

be a round market. If memory serves me right, You're

23:20

gonna and there's there's there's two or

23:22

four censors. There's four sensors here, correct,

23:26

Yes, sir, Okay, you're gonna you're gonna bring

23:28

it around. I believe it's the crank has to be three.

23:30

I think the crank is three hundred and five degrees.

23:32

I remember that. I always thought it was the three hundred

23:34

five cube begins small block Chevy. That's another conversation

23:37

how my mind works. But you're gonna

23:39

find I think it's got to be three oh five. And

23:41

then you're gonna find that the

23:43

cam sprockets. There's gonna be a hole

23:45

in the center, and that hole is

23:48

going to be it's it's stamped,

23:50

and you'll see it has to line up with that round stamp

23:53

and the and the mark inside the cover. And

23:55

I bet you're gonna find one of those is off and

23:58

that's and that's the and that and then you've got to figure

24:00

out why was it a mechanical failure? Did

24:02

the chain jump? Right?

24:05

You know?

24:05

But I would focus on that. Listen,

24:07

it's always the same, right, Let's let's

24:09

build a simpler engine. Uh,

24:12

you know, Let's let's make a good, solid and basic

24:14

before we get any deeper in

24:16

where we're going. Yeah, okay, you

24:20

know Now if you find that the cam is in center

24:23

and doing what it's supposed to do, and all all

24:25

the cams line up in their correct relation to the

24:27

crank, and I would do it twice. If you

24:29

have any doubts, then we've got to

24:31

think about do we have proper signal

24:34

out of those cam sensors. And now you're gonna have to go get

24:36

a scope. We're gonna have to trigger

24:38

that off. We're gonna have to look at cam

24:40

crank timing electrically to see what

24:42

the computer is interpreting. But got

24:44

to make sure things are correct mechanically first.

24:47

All right, Yeah,

24:53

do you think a bi directional scan of what would

24:56

help in this situation? Are just strictly or

24:59

as ob two will.

25:01

It's always nice to have bi directional option, you

25:04

know, on the chance well

25:06

for example, you know, when you finally

25:08

get this thing running, if if the

25:11

question is geared towards do I think it's worth your

25:13

while to own one? My answer

25:15

is yes. But you're talking to a guy who thinks, you know, he

25:18

who dies with the most tools wins. All right,

25:21

you know it's it's always nice to

25:24

have as a learning capability,

25:27

you know, we always wait till the car is broken

25:29

to start diagnosing it, I

25:31

get a new vehicle in the shop. Yeah,

25:34

I get a new vehicle in the shop. I

25:36

always a lot time because

25:38

I sit there and I'll advance cams,

25:40

I'll i'll play with actuator controls.

25:43

I'll look and I'll see what service bay tests are

25:45

available to me, because I just I just

25:47

want to know the car, you know, I want to know

25:49

that car line until I get to know it better. So you

25:51

know, here'd be a great case of you

25:54

know, if I command the left bank two degrees and

25:56

the right bank two degrees, what does it actually move? Well,

25:58

this one goes two degrees, this one goes one degree, this

26:00

one goes forward degrees. Gee, do have a problem with the

26:02

timing chain on the right side? How

26:05

many miles are on the car? And you know,

26:07

if I can start to learn cause and

26:09

effect and reaction, I'm

26:11

not saying it's real scientific, but it can

26:14

motivate me to maybe pull covers apart and look

26:16

at timing and mechanical timing and see

26:19

that long stretched timing chain

26:21

on that three hundred thousand mile engine before it

26:23

fails and leaves me out in the middle of bug

26:25

tussle, right, you

26:28

know, so yeah, I vote for

26:30

Yeah, I go buy you know, go buy

26:32

more and more is always better, all right

26:34

when it comes to a scan tool. So best

26:37

answer I got your pocketbook won't like me, but

26:40

you will so oh.

26:42

Absolutely, I can't disagree with that. Well,

26:44

thank you again, Wrong.

26:45

You too, sir, you'd be well

26:48

yeah, listen, it's it's it's it's

26:50

all about it's all about having tools and the ability

26:52

because the days of not having tooling.

26:55

I'll tell you what, I got a great story before

26:58

the end of the hour. So let's pull over and take a pull. I'm

27:00

ronning any in the Car Doctor. I'll be back right after this

27:15

and we're back. Welcome back, Ron and any the car Doctor

27:17

here at the phone numbers eight five five five six zero

27:20

nine nine zero zero. Give us a call. Remember that's

27:22

the Car Doctor's twenty four to seven phone number, and

27:24

you can call there if we're not on the air, leave a message

27:27

and we'll get back to you and we'll put you in the Q

27:29

for the next live broadcast. Let's do an email,

27:31

a couple of emails here. Good morning, Ron.

27:33

We purchased a used twenty twenty one

27:35

super Brew Forester in October of twenty three. It

27:38

has twenty three hundred miles on it. We've put about

27:40

five hundred and fifty cents. Living in Maine. We decided

27:42

to keep it off the road unless it's dry, since

27:44

the car is in good condition. Hoped to be the last

27:46

vehicle. What do you recommend on times

27:48

and distances for running it? I mean, listen, use it, enjoy

27:50

it. I wouldn't worry about times and distances.

27:53

If you don't use it, it's going to go bad anyway, So drive

27:55

the car. We had an appointment for undercoding

27:58

at a local shop but canceled the due to the weather.

28:00

You use the product called value Guard, a

28:02

permanent undercoding guaranteed for eight years. So much

28:04

for permanent. What's your opinion on that you

28:06

know undercoding? I think is it's

28:09

a thing of the past in my opinion, you know, and I like,

28:13

and I really like more and more the

28:15

product from New Hampshire Oil undercoating. And

28:17

the one thing that NHOU products bring

28:19

to the table is they will you

28:21

know, they will spread. I really

28:24

like the fact that you can spray Nhou

28:27

into a corner of the vehicle and

28:29

come back to it three months later during a service

28:31

or an oil change or something, and see how much

28:33

further the oil has spread as it works its way into

28:35

the pores of the undercarriage of the vehicle. So

28:37

if it were up to me, I would opt for

28:40

NHOIL undercoding product. NHOIL

28:42

undercoding dot com is the website you want

28:44

to go to. The email continues, prior

28:46

to twenty one, we were in desperate need of a vehicle and board a twenty

28:48

fourteen superrew faster. The exhaust

28:50

needs to be replaced. What do you recommend for that?

28:53

You know, it's two things. It's a year

28:55

aftermarket. I can tell you the OE the original equipment

28:57

stuff. You're probably going to spend better than for

29:00

forty five hundred dollars to put exhaust on that suber up.

29:02

And you know that's a hard pill to swallow,

29:04

especially on an older vehicle like that.

29:07

And in that case, I would just turn to the aftermarket.

29:09

Get yourself out to get out to the autos

29:11

Own website and take a look at

29:13

look up exhaust there and I'm

29:16

sure you'll find something very

29:18

price competitive, probably

29:20

half that price, maybe a third that price

29:23

from the folks over at AutoZone, and

29:25

you know you can then take it to your local shop and have it

29:27

installed, and know that you're getting something

29:29

that's going to come with a warranty and built the

29:31

last. It'll it'll it'll have a quality

29:34

fit and it's built the last and built to work. The

29:36

email continues, My husband has

29:39

an older Ford pickup truck and

29:41

he is in need of a coolant service. But we're just

29:43

a bit confused. We were trying to figure out what coolant

29:45

to putting it, you know, and this comes from Scott

29:48

and Deb. You know deb coolant

29:50

on a Ford vehicle in the last five

29:52

years has really gotten confusing in

29:55

the sense that they've changed it.

29:57

Now you're saying that this is an older Ford

29:59

truck. You don't see what year, but I

30:01

will say it like this, if this is somewhere

30:03

around a circa two thousand and nine twenty

30:06

ten Ford pickup, you were using

30:08

gold coolant what we knew as gold coolant

30:11

from Ford. If you are driving

30:13

something newer as it progresses and gets

30:15

newer than the than the gold Ford

30:17

pickup trucks became orange

30:20

and then somewhere around twenty nineteen, twenty

30:22

eighteen, twenty nineteen Ford

30:24

decided to switch because it was an orange

30:26

and a green coolant, which I haven't discussed

30:28

here yet today, and there was an orange

30:31

and a green coolant that became yellow.

30:35

The yellow replaces orange

30:37

and green. The gold is gold,

30:39

and that stays that way, and that

30:41

goes back. The gold coolant goes back

30:43

time immemorial. It probably covers easily

30:46

fifteen years of Ford product back

30:49

back into the late nineties, and

30:51

then coming forward after that, you've got

30:53

either orange or green. All the orange

30:55

and green became yellow. Now,

30:58

if this is confusing, and I realize

31:01

it can be, what you need to do is get

31:03

out to the AutoZone website AutoZone dot com.

31:05

I'm going to refer to them again and

31:08

you will find that just type in Peak

31:10

Peak Coolant right, and you

31:12

will find they list all the correct coolants

31:15

for every vehicle. And then you can go and search

31:17

for your forward. And the nice thing about Peak

31:20

and the way AutoZone lays it out for you

31:22

is it will tell you this fits this model

31:24

year forward, this fits these model year forwards,

31:27

and so on right down the line, and then

31:29

you can pick your coolant. You know, the AutoZone

31:31

website, the way it's constructed is not just

31:34

hey, we have these parts for this much. It's

31:36

also a source gide of correct

31:38

application and you have to remember that. And that's what's

31:40

so great about their website, different

31:43

from so many others. So you'll find

31:45

that at AutoZone dot com. All right.

31:47

If you have any more questions, deb you know where to find me,

31:49

you and Scott, you know, or you could give

31:51

us a call at A five five five six zero nine

31:53

nine zero zero. Anyway, let me pull over,

31:55

take a pause. I'm ronnin Ady and the car Doctor and

31:57

we'll be back right after this. Don't go away. I

32:12

hate it when you play that music at the end of the show.

32:15

You know, I want to get up and dance like that at the beginning of

32:17

the show. Tom, Yeah, I hate it too because I have to

32:19

watch you dance. Well, yeah, you know what I've

32:21

been working on my abbs. See, I've got a six pack now,

32:23

so we all have a six pack inside. It just takes

32:25

a while to bring so do I because you know I

32:28

need it when I do the show. Right, you're drinking, I

32:30

understand. I want to talk a little bit

32:32

about tools, all right, And you know we always

32:34

you know, we don't have the right tools to fix the car. And I

32:36

thought I'd closed the show today with this, you

32:39

know, real stuff from the bays. That's what you guys seem

32:41

to like. We had a twenty seventeen f

32:43

two fifty four pick them up truck in

32:46

the shop this week that, you

32:48

know, for all the goofy things I've had to

32:51

deal with as a boss with employees. And I've always

32:53

said I've generally always had good employees. And some of them

32:55

are a little funny though. And this

32:57

is a landscaping truck and I don't

32:59

know what possessed the employees to do this,

33:01

but the boss said, go wash the truck, and

33:04

they did, but he didn't

33:06

mean for them to take the pressure

33:08

washer and wash the inside of the truck

33:11

the cab. Do you know how

33:13

much water it takes to go inside of a fuse box

33:15

of a body module to get the truck to shut off?

33:17

Not much? And oh

33:20

boy, uh there was water everywhere.

33:24

And you know when we took the body module

33:26

out and basically drained water out of it, I

33:29

said, yeah, that's probably bad. That's that's

33:31

no good. So we got a new body module

33:33

out of Ford and we had to Now

33:36

we have to flash it, now understand on

33:38

a like on a lot of vehicles, the

33:41

body module, which a

33:43

body module is considered a master module

33:46

in Ford in Ford world, all right, it's

33:49

it's one of the ones that everybody talks to. The

33:51

PCM talks to it, the analog breake

33:54

control unit talks to it, the airbag unit

33:56

talks to it. It's a master module. It's

33:58

the head. It's the head honcho on the network,

34:01

all right. So it's really critical. And

34:04

it's more than just a spot where they bolt the fuse

34:06

box too. It's basically the brains

34:08

of the operation. It's telling everybody what

34:10

to do. And one of the things

34:12

that they do with this is they

34:15

have the security codes and the immobilizer

34:17

feature, meaning if you put the wrong key in the lock

34:20

cylinder and turn it, the vehicle won't start

34:22

because it won't recognize the digital code

34:24

off. The key is interpreted through the digital part

34:27

of the security code's part of the body module.

34:29

So you've got to reflash the body module. But

34:32

you have to have security access all

34:34

right in order to do this, all right,

34:36

NaSTA North American Security

34:39

Task Force, Okay, I believe is

34:41

what it stands for and we're actually going to we're actually talking

34:44

to uh. I think it's don Safe Safer

34:47

sefer about

34:50

coming on doing an interview talking about the security

34:52

requirements of vehicles. But I got to tell

34:54

you it's it's amazing what's out there. Because

34:56

with the combination of our Opus we

34:58

used our Opus ivs once again to the rescue,

35:01

reflash the body module. We

35:03

are able to get a one day

35:06

license through Nastiff to

35:08

look at security and look at the immobilizer

35:11

and we were able to reflash the vehicle. We dried out

35:13

the interior, give it back to the customer and

35:15

it worked. So you got to have tools,

35:18

you got to have connections, you got to have the Internet

35:20

in order to run a shop. Today, I'm running Andy

35:22

in the car doctor. That about does it for me until the

35:24

next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive,

35:26

they're priceless. See y