0:00

Ron Ananian. He could have a sixty three split

0:03

window Vett, a sixty five gto and he

0:05

drives a seventy three

0:07

Volkswagen thing pink. It's

0:10

crazy, all right, It's just it's the

0:12

Barbie car.

0:17

Seats, losing

0:21

street girls

0:24

out of side, smell the

0:26

money on the Saturday,

0:30

the.

0:36

Car Doctor. Now, when they ran the new brake

0:39

lines and they bled the wheels, do you

0:41

know if they did an abs bleed procedure?

0:43

And I'm gonna tell you they couldn't have because it was

0:45

unplugged. Ah right, Okay,

0:48

No, that was not that was not brought up.

0:50

Welcome to the radio home of ron

0:52

Aanian, the Car Doctor. Since

0:54

nineteen ninety one. This is where car

0:56

owners the world overturned to for

0:59

their definite of the opinion on automotive

1:01

repair. If your mechanics giving

1:03

you a busy signal, pick up the phone

1:05

and call in.

1:06

The garage doors are open, but

1:08

I am here to take your call at eight five

1:10

five five sixty nine hundred and now

1:13

pee.

1:16

Running.

1:19

You know there's a

1:22

there's a non radio ron and a radio

1:24

ron. And I was just sitting here thinking, oh

1:27

good, it's the car Doctor. I wonder what he's got to say today,

1:29

and then I realized it's me, so I better start talking.

1:31

You know, it's just you have those moments. I swear

1:34

you have to live my life. It just it

1:36

just cracks me up, all the things that go

1:38

on around here. I

1:40

got a letter today from Jeremy. I want to start

1:42

here, Hi, Ron, question

1:45

for you, as a do it yourself guy,

1:47

I normally get a major feeling of accomplishment

1:50

after finishing a car repair. It's a combination

1:52

of thinking how much I may have saved for whatever

1:54

family members car I'm working on and knowing the job

1:56

was hopefully done right as a

1:58

professional. Do you still have to all these years get

2:00

a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction after completing

2:02

repairs? Thankful all you do first, Jeremy or Maryland.

2:06

You know, I'm

2:08

very fortunate. I really am.

2:11

And everybody gets stoic and a

2:13

little emotional,

2:15

but I've really been blessed. I found

2:18

what I wanted to do early. I

2:20

had no clue what was going to lead me here. I

2:23

just knew I like fixing cars. It was my way

2:25

of communicating with the rest of the planet. And

2:28

I don't really feel like I've

2:30

done physical work. I've done mental work, but I don't feel

2:32

like I've worked.

2:34

You know.

2:34

Every day has been a challenge. Every day has been an up

2:36

and down, you know. And

2:40

I asked Jeremy for permission to answer this because you

2:42

know, this is kind of a one on one question. But do

2:45

I still feel, after these years a feeling of

2:47

accomplishment and satisfaction? Yeah?

2:50

I do.

2:52

And by the same token, the days

2:54

that I go home and I haven't figured out

2:57

that car, I haven't finished

2:59

everything I was supposed to finish that day,

3:03

it's not a good night. It just isn't,

3:05

you know. I think about it through supper. I think about

3:08

it while I'm watching TV, not supposed to think

3:10

about the shop. I think about it when I wander back

3:12

into my home office looking at the shop on camera,

3:14

and I dial in, and I start reading

3:17

my notes and thinking about that problem

3:19

car. And but it's a better day

3:21

the next day when I go in having slept

3:23

on it, and I fix it. You

3:27

know, I think I wish that for

3:29

everybody. I really do. I really wish that everybody

3:31

you know had what I have in

3:34

the ability that you know, there's something they enjoyed

3:36

doing. Because if you if you enjoyed doing what you do.

3:38

Is they say you never work a day in your life. As

3:41

a matter of fact, we're gonna you know, you're

3:44

supposed to slow down as you get older. Right well, I've

3:47

got a couple of things on the table. You're going

3:49

to see some changes to the YouTube channel. I've

3:51

got the social media guy working

3:54

on it right now as we speak. We're going to be putting titles

3:56

and headers and more info in and doing

3:58

more videos there out on youtub two about on Ron

4:00

and any and the Car Doctor YouTube channel. We've

4:03

got a couple of TV pilots we're pitching. Would

4:06

you like to see the Car Doctor on TV? I mean,

4:09

wouldn't that be fun? Maybe

4:11

we do some shorts, so you know, write your local

4:13

network tell them you want the Car Doctor. And

4:16

you know, I just yeah, Jeremy, you know what,

4:18

I do still get a feeling of satisfaction. I still

4:20

feel like there's more to do. There's just more

4:22

I want to do. I don't think there's

4:24

a car that can't be fixed out there. I just think it's

4:27

all in the approach and not

4:30

I've got to say not every

4:32

car I approach, do I approach correctly?

4:35

I still make mental errors

4:37

because of the distractions. But

4:40

you see, that's the challenge, that's the rise. Okay,

4:42

that's that's the how you get

4:44

trying to solve that problem. We

4:46

had a twenty nineteen Ford Edge this week

4:50

that came in for an oil change and a pair

4:52

of wiper blades, and

4:55

the customer said to me, he said, hey, Ron,

4:58

by the way, the trans is acting up. Every once

5:00

in a while it bucks and

5:02

surges. Now, actually he didn't say every once in a

5:04

while. He said, the trans bucks and surges

5:07

and it doesn't shift right. And

5:11

where do I start? Do I do I do I,

5:13

you know, punch the ticket, run the clock and start a

5:16

three hundred and seventy five dollars diagnosis? Or do I

5:18

just take it for a ride because I don't want

5:20

to start charging somebody for something that because

5:23

if I did that every time somebody said hey, my my

5:25

my car does this or that, you

5:27

know, we would annoy an awful lot of people

5:29

awful quick because once the clock's running,

5:32

and it's running, you know, it's it's

5:34

it's hard to that that that halfway

5:37

in momentum. So

5:39

I took the car for a ride, I you know, five

5:42

minutes, six minutes. Clock's running right. I

5:44

got to get my cars done. Didn't

5:47

experience it. Car rode great change,

5:49

the oil changed, the wiper blades. Found out the rear brakes

5:52

were metal on metal. I

5:55

mentioned to the customer when I called him about the

5:57

brakes to get a you know, approval for the brakes. I said,

5:59

by the way I drove this, I had

6:02

no problems with the transmission. The transmission drove

6:04

fine. I didn't experience it. And

6:06

then we started to talk a little bit. It's a ninety five

6:09

thousand mile twenty nineteen Ford

6:11

Edge. You know, it's

6:13

new to him. He's only had it for years. It

6:15

was new to us. First time we'd seen it. I said, did

6:18

you you know, did you ever service

6:20

this? Did it have a sixty thousand mile service? You

6:22

know? Did it have a ninety thousand mile service?

6:25

And he had purchased it used. It was a used

6:27

rental car for one of the fleet agencies. And I

6:30

got to tell you, I'm very leery

6:32

about buying used rental cars

6:34

because I know how

6:36

I drive a rental I know how everybody drives a rental

6:38

car. Everybody's hard on rental cars. It's

6:41

you know, rental cars are nothing more

6:43

than a pocket book with four wheels. You throw

6:45

everything at it. You know, you do what

6:47

you got to do. You don't care, you don't worry about

6:49

it. It's and you walk away

6:51

from it, and you're done because you're in a

6:53

hurry. You're you know, it's

6:56

not what I want right off the bat, or

6:58

I want to at least have it looked at. You

7:00

know, he hadn't serviced it, he hadn't done anything to

7:02

it. And you know he

7:05

was a little baffled by the no trans issue, and

7:07

I so was I. But it

7:09

it never happened. So

7:11

I suggested, I said, you know what, maybe we should service

7:14

the trans I said, I, you know, not

7:17

unrelated to anything else, but just from

7:19

your description and what you're describing, I

7:21

really love to see what the fluid looks like. Of course,

7:23

it's a Ford edge, so there's no dipstick

7:25

on it. It's not easy to check fluid. It's not

7:27

easy to look at condition. You know, there's a

7:29

whole process you got to go through because

7:32

they make it complicated, of course, And

7:35

I said, you know, let's service the trans. It

7:37

can't hurt anything. I

7:40

got to tell you, it's been a long time since I saw a transmission

7:42

fluid that black. It was like the inside

7:45

of your eyelids, right. It

7:47

was just smoked, beyond smoked.

7:50

And we changed it. We

7:52

ended up changing it, you know. Gary

7:54

and I spoke about it, and I said, let's change the fluid. I said,

7:57

it's a cheap place to start. I said, because if fluid

7:59

doesn't fix it, and it is a trans issue,

8:03

you're into a trans there's not much

8:05

you can do to take the transmission out of that vehicle

8:08

is major heart surgery. You've got to drop

8:11

the cradle and support the engine, and it's

8:13

a major undertaking. It's not You're not going to pull

8:15

the trans out to tear down to inspect and only

8:18

repair whatever's causing whatever could

8:20

be wrong with this chatter, this noise, this sensation,

8:22

this bucking that. He was hard to describe

8:25

that. I never felt that, and

8:29

he agreed and we serviced it, and

8:32

then I reset trans adapts, which I knew I

8:34

was going to have to do. And this is the part I

8:36

missed. I didn't think about when I have to

8:38

reset trans adapts on one hundred thousand mile

8:41

transmission with tired fluid, what the

8:43

reaction was going to be and oh boy,

8:45

it reacted. It was worse now

8:47

I felt it, But in all fairness,

8:50

I also felt it after it came off the lift after

8:52

running for the better part of twenty minutes,

8:54

because we had to ad just fluid level and

8:56

we had to make sure the trans was up to temperature because

8:58

it's a you know, to get it up

9:00

to operating temperature. So we're

9:03

checking level because it's a drip out the drain plug

9:06

type of fluid adjustment because

9:08

it's not there's no dipstick. So

9:11

we you know, took it for a ride and it bucked

9:14

and it shook and it yeah,

9:17

and there's a problem with this transmission. In

9:20

the end, I solved

9:22

it.

9:22

You know.

9:22

I went home that night, Like I said to

9:24

you, this is what I do. You go through. I went home that night

9:26

and I thought about it, and I sat through

9:29

supper, and I sat through watching the evening news

9:31

on TV, and my mind was back on that car,

9:33

and I'm running through it in my head, and I

9:35

realized what I had done wrong was I had missed

9:37

a diagnosis. I didn't

9:39

do a diagnosis. I didn't sit down and

9:41

go through my due diligence and Jeremy.

9:44

Every time I do this, all

9:46

right, I get stuck in a hole and for

9:48

everybody else out there. I

9:51

came in the next morning and

9:53

I went to bulletins, and Ford actually

9:56

has a bulletin for the eight F

9:58

thirty five transmission shut up buck jerk

10:00

while driving up to thirty five miles an hour on

10:03

the twenty nineteen Ford Edge, and they talk about reflashing

10:06

software. So I

10:08

called up my guys at Opus Opus IVS,

10:11

and of course we had this conversation

10:13

at nine. We talked about the potential possibility

10:15

of this, and you

10:17

know, he pointed out that they've done a few of these,

10:19

and sometimes it fixes it, and sometimes it

10:21

doesn't, because sometimes it's just a transmission

10:24

problem. What Ford's doing is they're

10:27

modifying the shift point strategy

10:29

and the overall general transmission operation.

10:31

They've decided that, which I don't

10:33

understand. How as an aside,

10:35

we have all this money and research R

10:38

and D and we release a product

10:40

and four years later we find out five years

10:42

later, we find out that the R and D wasn't done correctly,

10:44

and we're going to change the operating software strategy

10:47

to try and make it operate better. What's

10:50

the point in doing the research and development in the first place.

10:52

Why don't we just take our best guess, I say, we get a dartboard,

10:55

right, we put all these different transmission strategies

10:57

up on the dartboard. Let's just throw the dart Okay,

11:00

Landed next to seven. We'll run that. I

11:02

mean, right, what's the point

11:06

I opted to go for

11:10

a different way? I said, you know, we've seen

11:12

this before. We've seen transfluid physically

11:14

wear out, which, by the way, and

11:16

Ed brought this up. He said, keep in mind, Ford

11:18

doesn't recommend transfluid change on the

11:20

edge until one hundred and fifty thousand

11:23

miles because it's it's

11:25

LV trans fluid, so they expect the

11:27

transfluid to last to one hundred and fifty thousand

11:29

miles. Meanwhile, as I determined

11:32

later on, the torque converter is slipping

11:34

so badly and chattering so badly, and the

11:36

fluid is so beat up that the

11:38

trans can't operate anymore. What's the point

11:40

in having one hundred and fifty thousand mile trans interval

11:43

when the trans can't get past one hundred thousand miles

11:45

without the converter being bad? What

11:48

is this? A government operation, like,

11:50

where's the logic here? I

11:56

I dumped in a twenty three dollars bottle of lubeguard

11:59

chatter improver, drove

12:01

the truck seventy five miles, well fifty miles,

12:04

and it's getting better. I can't say

12:06

it's a permanent fix. I don't like doing it.

12:08

It's a band aid, but

12:10

it gets us past the point of Okay, now

12:13

we know what it is, and

12:15

now the customer can make a decision. Do you want to put

12:17

the seven thousand dollars into the truck to put a transmission

12:20

in it? Do you want to drive it as is? Or

12:22

do you want to get rid of it? You

12:24

know, Jeremy, I wasn't happy

12:26

on Thursday night, but I was real happy Friday

12:28

morning because the satisfaction

12:31

of figuring it out and saving

12:33

money and out thinking the engineers.

12:36

Yeah, that's what this job is

12:38

about. Eighty five five,

12:40

five, six zero nine nine zero zero, one hundred

12:42

and fifty thousand miles. And when I

12:44

come back, I want to tell you about the pink thing in Tom's

12:46

car, because that's he's just chomping at the bit

12:48

I'm running inding in the car. Doctor. I'll be back right

12:50

after this stop

13:01

for the best in car advice.

13:03

Give Ron a call eight five five five

13:05

six zero nine nine zero zero.

13:08

Now back to Ron. Hey, I'm back.

13:10

And before we go into the thing and Tom and everything

13:12

else, let's real quick. Let's go to the phone. Let's go to Lewis

13:14

in Arkansas. See what's going on here? Lewis.

13:17

You're on with the car doctor, sir, How can I help?

13:20

Yes, I have that thirteen

13:24

escape forwards,

13:27

okay, and the gas and it'll get down up into

13:29

the tent. Now they just sit right.

13:32

Back, all right? An any

13:34

dashboard warning lights on Lewis? No,

13:39

okay, so no check engine light? No

13:42

anybody try to diagnose any of this. No,

13:47

okay? So, and and it runs

13:49

fine? Right if you does

13:52

it take a while to get gas in it?

13:54

Can you you know if you do it slowly, will

13:56

it take fuel?

13:58

No, it won't do it at all. Straight bank

14:01

if you put the mud at the gas station, But if

14:03

you try to pull it in there with the funnel that came win

14:05

it you just sit in the nozzle, sit in

14:07

the filler.

14:09

Say that. Say that again. You can

14:11

fill it with the pump, but you can't pour

14:13

it down with the little funnel.

14:17

No, you can't fit it with the pump. It'll spray

14:19

back with the pump at the gas station. But

14:21

if you put the little funnel in there, it won't

14:23

take it. It just sit there in that funnel.

14:25

Okay, So what

14:28

so? Okay, So it

14:30

sounds like, and I've seen this before,

14:32

that the filler neck itself has a problem.

14:36

Right, So you know we

14:38

used to do this in two steps. Do you own

14:40

the car since newer? Did you buy this? Used?

14:44

Is used?

14:45

All right? And has it done it since the day you bought

14:47

it?

14:49

No?

14:49

It just not this a month or so ago.

14:52

It would take gas off when it's

14:54

about three weeks ago. But it'll go

14:57

like it was sucking it down and

15:00

then just stopped taking it at all.

15:01

All right, So this is

15:04

probably a bad pill neck, all

15:06

right, And you're you're

15:08

your mechanic is gonna have to take the neck out and

15:11

either use a borescope, take a look down

15:13

and see there's almost

15:15

I can almost promise you there's gonna be some kind of a

15:17

restriction. There's something that came

15:20

loose, either the baffling game loose in the

15:22

neck, but something's restricted that. But

15:24

before before we do that,

15:27

right, there's going to be there's

15:29

gonna be a vent line coming

15:32

off the canister going to the neck. Disconnect

15:36

that vent line, all right,

15:39

and look look for the possibility of animal

15:41

intrusion like a spider web.

15:44

You know, is the vent line clogged? Or take

15:46

the vent disconnect disconnect the vent

15:49

and go over to the gas station and try putting

15:51

fuel in it? Does it? Can you put

15:53

fuel in it? Then if you can put

15:56

fuel in it with the vent disconnected,

15:59

then I'm going to say, either the vent

16:01

line is restricted, did a spider

16:03

crawl in build a web? Is the line

16:05

somehow itself restricted

16:08

for some reason, plastic

16:10

tube is damaged whatever? Or is

16:12

the charcoal canister you

16:14

know, did the person before you constantly

16:17

overfill the tank or not overfill

16:19

it? But you know how you would fill

16:21

a car and when the pump clicks, if it

16:24

stops at seventeen dollars and forty six

16:26

cents, best practiced is rounded

16:28

up to seventeen fifty and call it a day. But

16:31

if the person tries to put eighteen fifty

16:33

in it, that extra dollar, that extra

16:36

whatever of gallon of fuel in it. Eventually,

16:38

over time we can saturate the charcoal

16:41

canister and cause that to be restricted

16:43

because the fuel will slosh down the vent

16:46

and get into the canister itself and it could have a

16:48

canister problem. So if unclogging

16:50

the vent line solves it,

16:53

I'm sorry, disconnecting the vent line solves

16:55

it, then I want to go and take a look at

16:58

you know, just before I just do a vent or

17:00

spider wherever or what have you, and it could still

17:03

be a neck. I want to look and consider

17:05

the canister too, all right,

17:07

you know, is the canister and that would be a matter

17:09

of you know, looking at the canister

17:12

possibly taking it down, uh,

17:14

you know, weighing it and considering

17:16

is the canister saturated? This

17:19

isn't a hard problem to solve, Lewis, It really

17:21

isn't, all right?

17:22

You know?

17:23

This is this is you ever try

17:25

to pour a gas from a can without

17:27

opening up the vent on the other side, or

17:30

you ever try to put you ever try to put fuel in a

17:32

gas can but you don't open up the vent

17:34

on the other side and it builds up too much pressure.

17:38

Uh no, I just.

17:42

Fun yeah,

17:44

no, no, no, no, I'm talking about it. I'm talking about

17:46

a gas can on the ground, right.

17:49

You ever try if you ever tried to put fuel in a gas

17:51

can when it's sitting on the ground, you always have to open

17:53

up the vent on the other side to allow pressure

17:55

to equalize and come out. That's basically

17:58

the problem we're having. So now we just have to try rack

18:00

it down. Is it the neck? Is it the vent?

18:02

Is it the canister itself? All

18:05

right? And or it could be a vent

18:07

valve And there's always that possibility. But you'll know when

18:09

you disconnect the vent. Do those steps your mechanic

18:11

has any questions, give me a call back. I'm running ending

18:14

in the car doctor. We're returning right after this. Don't

18:16

go away.

18:40

Welcome back, Running the car Doctor. Okay,

18:42

I gotta put the thing and the tom story

18:44

off another segment because now let's go talk

18:46

to Alex in Pennsylvania fifteen Subaru

18:49

outback and want's talk about CBT trans fluid.

18:51

Alex, I'm all yours, babe. What's going on?

18:54

Good?

18:55

Ron, Thank you for taking my call.

18:56

You're welcome.

18:57

Good.

18:57

What's cooking?

18:59

So? I have a twenty fifteen out back. It

19:01

has the three point six literre engine CVT

19:03

transmission. I bought

19:05

the vehicle about four years at those certified

19:07

pre owns now has one hundred and sixty

19:10

thousand miles on it. I do all highway

19:12

miles for work between here and New Jersey.

19:15

My question is about CVT maintenance.

19:18

So I've looked in the owner's manual and it states

19:20

that the fluid should be inspected

19:22

and not changed under normal

19:25

driving conditions, and then it

19:27

gives some other recommendations

19:30

for severe driving. So

19:33

in the time that I've owned the car I've

19:35

brought I've brought it to two different independent

19:38

shops. The first shop which I was using,

19:40

they are SUBREW specialists.

19:43

They had stated that they don't recommend to their

19:45

customers that they changed the fluid

19:47

at all because it's a lifetime fluid. Since

19:51

that time, I've switched to another

19:54

shop. It's another independent shop and the

19:56

owner is a senior master tech

19:58

with SUBREU, and I've

20:01

asked him to look at the

20:03

CBT fluid and for

20:05

his recommendation, and he basically

20:08

said, at this point it's pretty much up

20:10

to me what I want to do, but he leans towards

20:12

leaving it alone.

20:15

The symptom that I'm having is around

20:17

twenty to thirty miles an hour, like light

20:19

acceleration city driving, I

20:22

feel like a fluttering,

20:24

almost like in the seat of your pants kind

20:27

of feeling. And if the transmission

20:30

is cold, like from a cold

20:32

start, that fluttering is more

20:34

like a jerking, slipping

20:36

feeling. It doesn't happen all the time, but

20:39

it's more than half the time. Aside

20:42

from that, the car drives fine. And I was just

20:45

curious that at this point, is

20:47

it too late to do anything about it, or

20:49

should you recommend changing the fluid.

20:53

So let's let's

20:55

have some definitions here. If you look

20:57

under suber service dat or they for

21:00

the fluid to be inspected when it's operated under

21:02

severe driving conditions, they talk, they call

21:04

for fluid replacement. And I don't

21:06

know how they came to this number, but every twenty four

21:09

and fifty five miles, I mean,

21:13

I don't know where that number comes from, but that's

21:15

that's right out, and that's right out of all that. I remember

21:17

the spec all right, and I'm sure Mitchell's

21:19

got the same thing. So they now that's severe

21:21

driving conditions. Now severe driving

21:24

conditions trailer towing, high humidity,

21:26

mountainous areas, idle time traffic.

21:29

I don't know anybody that doesn't drive severe driving

21:32

condition. You know, it's I

21:34

would think it would be so difficult to try and drive

21:36

quote unquote normal driving conditions.

21:39

Sure, so that.

21:41

Driving that I do. I drive basically on

21:43

I seventy eight from Pennslvania to New

21:46

Yorker, New Jersey just about every day, so sure,

21:49

almost exclusively highway right.

21:50

And you're but you're climbing the mountain, right. You climb the

21:52

mountain on seventy eight, and I know exactly where you're

21:55

coming in. You're coming in seventy eight. You got

21:57

to get up, you got to go past Dorny if you're

21:59

coming out that far. You're coming up to the top of the mountain

22:01

right, and you come down the other side to get

22:03

into two eighty seven, and you know that's all mountain

22:05

and twist and turns, and you know I've been

22:08

on that. I've been on seventy eight. When the fog is

22:10

there and you come down out of the fog and all of a sudden,

22:12

it's like, you know, God gave you a son again

22:14

you can see, So you

22:16

know, to me, it's mountains driving. I

22:19

think if the trans is starting to show

22:21

signs of deterioration, and

22:24

you know you want to keep this car going. I think the questions

22:27

really have to become if the

22:29

trans is on its way out. I'm

22:32

not saying it is, but if it is, maybe

22:34

it's got a converter slip. Does it happen, you

22:36

know, at lower speeds it's that twenty to

22:38

twenty five mile per hour range, Alex, when

22:41

this happens.

22:43

Yeah, And like I said, it's not one hundred percent of the time,

22:46

but yeah, Like when I notice it the

22:48

most is if I come off of the Interstate

22:50

after having been on there for about an hour and

22:53

I do a little bit of city driving to my

22:55

destination, you know, stopping at

22:57

a traffic light light acceleration, I

22:59

feel a little little bit of a flutter.

23:02

It feels like like a little bit of

23:05

of a mild vibration in the

23:08

in the sedia pants and it just lasts for like

23:10

a second.

23:11

At most, Right, Okay, So,

23:14

if is the shop you're

23:16

going to have they experienced it, Do they feel

23:18

that that is transmission?

23:22

They haven't experienced it. He has

23:25

looked at the fluid and he has

23:27

said it still looks good even though

23:29

it is original. Okay, And but

23:32

as far as diagnosing the issue,

23:34

he hasn't all right.

23:36

If the if the fluid looks good, my

23:38

opinion, I change it. I

23:41

wouldn't wait for it to t I wouldn't wait for it

23:43

to turn color. And I'll tell you why.

23:46

All right.

23:47

You know when the fluid turns color and it's

23:49

showing signs of it's, it's it's

23:51

it's been overheated, or it's starting to break

23:53

down. Transmission

23:55

fluid in this modern age has

24:00

different characteristics and shift

24:02

qualities between manufacturers.

24:05

You know, did you ever stop to think about transmissions

24:07

of transmission?

24:08

Right?

24:08

It's a device to propel a vehicle forward, But

24:10

every manufacturer seems to call for a different

24:13

fluid. Did you ever think about that? Why that's like

24:15

that? You know, wouldn't

24:17

wouldn't wouldn't hydraulic

24:19

fluid be hydraulic fluid? Isn't that? But

24:21

it's not because there's different Uh,

24:25

rub rub your hands together, right, there's a

24:27

certain amount of friction there. If you rub

24:29

your hands together away, it's it's a different type

24:32

of friction sensation than if

24:34

your hands were dry. Well, different fluids

24:36

react differently. Manufacturers make fluids

24:38

with different anti chatter agents, with different formulations,

24:41

with different characteristics.

24:44

I can't tell you how many vehicle manufacturers

24:46

I've seen where the trans

24:49

fluid itself, the additive

24:51

package is actually worn out. I've

24:54

experienced it on some of the best brands of

24:56

transmissions and vehicles out there. Toyota

24:58

comes to mind, all right, it

25:00

happened on a family vehicle twenty sixteen Toyota

25:02

fort Runner. One of the Indian

25:05

kids had seventy five thousand

25:07

miles on it. She thought the trans was failing and it

25:09

was a matter of changing the fluid. So

25:13

you know, to me, all fluid wears

25:15

out, all right, I question

25:19

the longevity the manufacturers are calling

25:22

for. You know, they're operating under

25:24

near perfect conditions for the

25:27

Ford Edge you heard me talking about where they said one

25:29

hundred and fifty thousand miles. Well, yeah,

25:32

under normal driving conditions. Define

25:34

normal driving conditions, you know, show

25:36

me a vehicle that operates in the Tri state area

25:38

under normal driving conditions. I don't think it can be

25:40

done. All right. Now,

25:43

Let's say you changed this trans fluid and

25:46

A it doesn't solve your problem, or B it

25:48

solves your problem, but B two weeks from now

25:50

the trans fails. Wouldn't

25:53

you rather know now and be prepared

25:55

than get stuck on ice seventy eight coming up out

25:57

of the fog one day. Right.

26:01

So, so the homework you've got is, you

26:03

know, are you committed to this car? And if you're committed

26:05

to this car, then let's change the trans

26:07

fluid. If the trans fluid change works, great, you

26:09

spend three hundred dollars and the fluid's changed or whatever

26:11

the number is. If the three hundred

26:13

dollars doesn't and the trans

26:16

should fail, it's only accelerated.

26:18

What I have to tell you is probably coming somewhere

26:21

down the line anyway, because it's got one hundred and sixty

26:23

thousand miles on it. This isn't a spring

26:25

chicken, right, So before

26:28

you change this fluid and put

26:30

yourself into that spot, you know,

26:32

here's the roll of the dice. Get

26:34

a quote on a trans replacement. I'm going to tell you right

26:37

now that trans is probably between six

26:39

and seven grand. But

26:42

by the same token, can you buy

26:44

a car for seven grand? No?

26:46

No?

26:47

Right? So you

26:49

know, I remember nineteen

26:52

seventy three, I

26:54

did my first water pump and I watched Billy

26:56

right the billing It was one hundred and eighty two dollars, and

26:58

I was like Billy, that's insane. One hundred

27:00

and eighty two dollars for and forty eight cents

27:03

for a water pump. He goes, yeah, but it got two

27:05

gallons of anti freeze small

27:07

block Chevy, right. And I said

27:09

but, and he said, Ron, you can't go out and buy a car

27:11

for one hundred and forty eight one hundred and eighty two dollars.

27:14

You know, everything's relative. Back then

27:16

a new car was was was thirty

27:19

five hundred dollars. It was a lot of money, you

27:22

know. Now it's seven grand for a trans.

27:25

But what's a new Subaru forty forty

27:27

five at least?

27:29

Right?

27:30

So I like the idea

27:33

of changing it. I would. If the fluid

27:35

color is good, then theoretically changing

27:37

it with fresh can only make

27:39

things better, right,

27:42

I say,

27:44

take the gamble, but know what the risks are

27:47

before you go into it. And I would talk

27:49

to your to your shop because he's the attending

27:51

physician, so to speak, and ask him if it

27:53

needs a trans what's it going to cost, and explain

27:55

the problem you're chasing as

27:57

far as what you're what the sensation is.

28:00

All right, Okay, So that's

28:03

what I got for you, kiddy.

28:05

You let me know as far as transmission

28:08

fluids, is there a do you

28:10

recommend Subaru fluid

28:13

or is there an aftermarket brand that meets

28:15

suber respect.

28:17

Anything anything made by Idu Metsu.

28:20

All right, if you pop into your local

28:22

AutoZone, they'll have it Metsu

28:25

trans fluid meeting Subaru

28:27

spec they manufacture.

28:30

I believe right now ninety percent

28:32

of the Japanese vehicle trans fluid

28:34

out there that's calling

28:36

for it. You'll you'll actually go into certain

28:38

dealers and you'll see they've got a dou Metsu

28:41

branded transfluid on the shelf. Subaru, Toyota,

28:43

Honda, you know. And then now

28:46

and especially since the pandemic with parts

28:48

shortages, I'm seeing more direct labeling

28:50

of Idumetsu transfluent on the Japanese car manufacturers

28:53

dealer shelves. And they're just bypassing

28:56

making another bottle, you know, Toyota,

28:58

Honda, four GM, Chrysler. None of these

29:01

people make their own trans fluid. They

29:03

also they just sub out the different blenders

29:05

in different manufacturers, all right.

29:07

I du Metsu is one of the premier trans

29:09

fluid manufacturers in the world right now.

29:13

Great, all right, well, thank you for your help. Ron

29:15

I appreciate it.

29:15

You're very welcome, Alex. You let me know if you need anything else.

29:18

I'm Ronning any in the car doctor. Eight five five five

29:20

six zero nine nine zero zero. We're back right after

29:22

this. Don't go away.

29:31

I can have a first resisting

29:34

out the five and then it's

29:38

in the fingus. What's

29:41

the summer of sixteen?

29:44

Hey, welcome back Ronning the car doctor. Let's

29:46

let's go over and talk to Cliff in Virginia.

29:49

Cliff, how can I help you in your row two f one fifty

29:51

sir?

29:53

Hey, ron how are you today?

29:55

Good sir? What's going on?

29:57

I've got UH one

30:00

one fifty two thousand and two Ford Delariat

30:02

truck with the five point

30:04

four Leader Triton v.

30:06

V eight and.

30:10

I was driving down the road

30:12

in a place where I couldn't pull off and

30:16

couldn't just stop the vehicle, and it

30:18

it overheated.

30:21

Overheated, boiled, overheated, boiled,

30:23

cooling out of the overflow.

30:25

The gauge went high. How do you know what overheated?

30:29

Well, the gauge went high, and

30:32

I had to keep driving. I had to keep moving,

30:35

and it got to the point where I went into that shut

30:38

where that emergency faky

30:41

mode where it starts running

30:43

on alternate cylinders.

30:45

I guess

30:46

okay.

30:50

Anyway, I'm afraid I've killed my

30:52

truck. Now the battery is.

30:55

The battery is down. Now. I tried to charge

30:58

it the other and

31:00

started and it wouldn't start.

31:04

And I was going to ask you for advice

31:06

on my next steps.

31:08

Here does it does it? Does

31:10

it crank Overcliff.

31:13

No, well, it's not doing it's not cranking

31:15

now because the battery is.

31:17

You know, I've got to be honest with you. I'm

31:19

not aware of a

31:23

overheat shutdown strategy

31:25

on that your vehicle.

31:28

Yeah, there was something in the owner's manual.

31:30

Let me see, I'm right here that

31:34

that said that if it gets overheated, if

31:36

it overheats too much, right,

31:39

it'll it'll it'll go

31:42

into like a word, some

31:44

of the cylinders don't.

31:46

Right, because what they'll do is right, they'll start,

31:48

they'll start, They'll shut down injectors

31:51

so that they start running air through the cylinders,

31:53

and it theoretically it cools

31:55

the cylinders next to it. But that's

31:57

not a Once the temperature comes

32:00

back to normal, it will start. In

32:02

theory, it's

32:05

not that it's.

32:06

And it did one go

32:08

ahead. It did one time the

32:11

next day, but now it's now it won't.

32:15

Okay. When it did start

32:17

the next day, did it sound normal

32:19

or did it make noise?

32:23

It sounded normal?

32:24

All right?

32:25

Have you.

32:27

Have you looked at fluids?

32:29

You know?

32:29

Is it low on coolant?

32:30

Right now?

32:32

Say again?

32:34

I had to add two quarts of oil.

32:37

Okay, and I'll tell you what. Cliffs,

32:39

stay right where you are at don't Cliff, stay right where

32:41

you are. Don't go away. Take this Pauson. We'll come

32:43

back. I'm running ending in the car. Doctor. We'll be back right

32:46

after this.

32:46

Don't go away.

32:59

Welcome back, Ron, Andy and Cliff. You're still

33:01

there, sir, Yes,

33:03

sir, Let me let me check because we got about two minutes

33:05

and then I gotta go. I don't think this

33:07

is your problem, but I want to make sure I mention

33:10

it. I want to make sure this vehicle is not

33:12

in anti theft mode when you

33:14

turn the key on, and hopefully you've got enough

33:16

battery power that will power up the dashboard.

33:18

The odometer doesn't show dotted

33:21

lines.

33:21

Correct,

33:30

well, the odometer is showing

33:32

nothing all right?

33:35

Now? Is so? So first things

33:37

first, we we can't diagnose

33:39

something with a bad battery or a low battery,

33:42

right, yes, if the battery

33:44

is low on charge or low on state.

33:47

Did this just happen just now, Cliff.

33:50

No, this this happened three weeks ago.

33:52

Okay, So let's let's let's

33:54

either let's either charge the battery

33:57

or get a battery in it, all

33:59

right, and get you know, we got

34:01

to stabilize heart rate and blood pressure before we

34:04

do any kind of analysis. Then the

34:06

next question is it was down two quarts of oil?

34:09

The good news is that means there was at least three or

34:11

four in it, right, as

34:13

long as it wasn't empty? Okay?

34:16

Is it low on coolant?

34:19

It was low on coolant? And I added a

34:23

gallon of the girl last.

34:26

Okay, uh, you know if you mix

34:28

it fifty to fifty.

34:28

Sure, yeah, that's but

34:31

it was low on coolant. So now we've got to

34:33

where'd the coolant go? Where'd the oil go? But

34:36

if we put a battery in this, it

34:38

should crank right

34:40

in theory, all right,

34:43

yep. And then and then from there, let's

34:45

do a basic diagnosis spark

34:48

fuel. Does the engine sound

34:50

normal when it's cranking? Does it have that

34:52

same repetition. Did

34:54

it suffer mechanical failure? Are

34:57

there any fault codes in it? We've

34:59

got to do some very basic, simple diagnosis

35:02

before we start. You know, I wouldn't get too nervous.

35:04

I'd be concerned. You know, it didn't suffer

35:06

engine failure. But we've got to do some basic

35:09

stuff before we condemned the whole thing. You

35:11

let me know. I'm running Eney in the car. Doctor. Good

35:13

mechanics aren't expensive, They're priceless.

35:15

See you