A Clutching Reality- Pt 1

 I have always been fond of Dodge / Chrysler.  I've had a couple of trucks, my wife has a 05 300, and generally, they have been pretty good vehicles.  My wife and I rented a PT Crusier in Hawaii a couple of years ago, and I have to say, it left me a little wanting.  Lacking power and a turning radius of a Kenworth truck were some examples of what were a few negatives.

 So a few days ago, one of our semi-regular customers comes in with a 2004 PT Cruiser Turbo we had never seen before.  He explained to us how he purchased the vehicle from a local car lot about 4 weeks ago and was having some trouble.  He indicated to us while driving down the road, he shifted from second to third gear when suddenly all hell broke loose.  The car started vibrating badly and the clutch no longer seemed to work properly.

 Bringing the car in to the shop and trying to work the clutch and shift gears confirmed his complaint.  Definitely some major clutch issues.  Looking through the little inspection window on the side of the clutch housing revealed the worst.  A big chunk of clutch disc was sticking out from the pressure plate.  We also realized somebody had lowered the car's ride height by cutting off some of the suspension coil springs (will have pics later)

 Distraught, the customer contacted the car lot from where it was purchased to see if they would do anything to help him out.  Aside from giving him partial trade in value for a new car, nothing.  Looks like I gotta clutch job to do.

The clutch is dust-- litterally

Once removed, the transmission was full of broken clutch pieces.  In addition, one of the axle shaft stub ends coming out from the transmission had some severe wear.  Not sure how or when this happened, but this transmission is going to need some serious repair.

Here is the blown up disc

And the dual mass flywheel

Along with this, missing shift cable retainers are also going to be needed to get this PT back in happy shape once again.  I wish the customer would have brought the vehicle in for a used vehicle inspection.  The cost of these repairs are going to likely exceed $2500.  I'm not saying a used vehicle inspection would have caught this but it would have caught other warning signs, like the cut springs.. which could be a safety issue.

More to come as the PT saga continues.

 

2003 Subaru Outback 2.5 H4 SOHC

Boxer Blues

So its been a while since my last blog.  Well summer has a funny way of doing that.  After a two week vacation to the desert southwest with my wife Kelli in our RV, my go get em' attitude with writing suddenly waned.  Well, I decided I work my way back into the saddle so to speak and found this baby above the perfect subject to get my writer's block on the defensive.

This particular 03 Subaru Outback was brought in with a complaint of intermittent rough running and check engine lamp. The warning lamp would come and go, whether or not the rough running was occurring at the time, according to the owner.  Hmm.  Whenever this light comes on... and this goes for any car built in the US after 1996, an alpha-numeric diagnostic code gets stored in the control units diagnostic memory.  Even after the light goes off, the code remains in memory for future retrieval (unless the battery gets disconnected).

Plugging into the vehicles diagnostic connector with the shop scan tool showed us a diagnostic code P0303.  This code points us to a misfire in the #3 cylinder.  A misfire occurs when any one of the criteria needed for proper combustion is NOT present, resulting in a cylinder not contributing power.  Well this certainly goes along with the rough running complaint.  Time to get dirty and do some investigations.

Removing the #3 spark plug wire and spark plug reveals some interesting information.  Click on the pics for a closeup, and you can see on the spark plug on the right has small black lines on it.  These lines are usually called tracking.  Modern day ignition systems make very high voltages. (40,000-60,000) volts to fire the plug.  This is a case where the path of least electrical resistance became the outside of the spark plug, rather than the normal path inside.  I run into this type of problem quite a bit, and it can happen to almost any vehicle.

You can see here the tracking has left marks on the plug wire boot shown on the left.  This happens because of old age, lack of maintenance, or perhaps the spark plugs were replaced without replacing the plug wire set.  I know it costs a little extra, but it can save you a trip to the shop down the road.

Whenever spark plug wires are replaced, the new set comes with a small tube of the di-electric grease. A small dab inside the plug boot will prevent the new boot from welding onto the new spark plug from extreme heat.  (Pardon the dirty thumb)

The last step to complete this job was to clean out the throttle plate.  The two photos here are before cleaning and after cleaning.  The reason they get dirty in the first place is because of vapors left behind in the engine after shutting it down ted to condense on the cooler parts of the engine.  The plate happens to be about the coolest!

This "coke" builds up over time and can cause several problems from stalling, hesitations, to idle surging.  Figured since we were making it good on the freeway, might as well make it good at idle too!

Oh yeah in the upper photo here, there is a piece of rubber caught between the throttle housing and air cleaner.  I fixed that too.

Till next time.....  Chris

Circuit City

I remember when I was around the age of 14, the hot rod fever hit me pretty quick and hard.  At the same time, I always had somewhat of an affinity for things electronic.  So when automakers began putting complex computer control systems in most vehicles around 1980 and 81, well, I guess it was just destiny I wound up doing this for a living. 

As mentioned before in this blog, there can be several reasons why a vehicle refuses to start.  Sometimes, they can be easy to find, sometimes not.  It's all a matter of clues.  Electrically astute readers will look at this photo above and identify pretty quickly the malfunction on this circuit board.  This board happens to control spark and fuel for a 90's era Mitsubishi.  This failure likely occurred due to poor battery maintenance.  (Mitsu controllers were sensitive to this) - See photo below for a closer look at the failure.

You can see one of the capacitors leaked electrolyte and caused a trace to trace short circuit which in turn, took out a clamping diode just above it.

Fortunately, controllers built these days are much more robust against failures such as this.  If the car you own was built after 97 or 98, this kind of thing is a rarity.  Here's a list of controllers and corresponding vehicle manufacturers replaced over the years myself

Ford 81-95 : 4 or 5 replaced

Ford 95-on : 1 (customer hooked battery backwards)

Chrysler 81-95 : 5 or 6 replaced

Chrysler 95-on : 1 (customer jumped started backwards)

GM 81-95 : Too many to count (really!) - Poor quality builds

GM 95-on : 1 (computer would not shift transmission)

Honda 81-on : zero

Toyota 81-on : zero

Nissan 81-95 : 1 - was stolen along with stereo (really!)

Nissan 95-on : zero

Mitsubishi 81-95 : 9 or 10 - for the same reasons in the photos

Mitsubishi 95-on : zero

As you can see.  Times have changed for the better.  Just as technology has changed our lives, it has changed our cars as well.  In the future, I will show some examples of how these changes play into the day to day operations of being an automotive technician.

When It's more than the bulb

 So when most shops, including ours, performs an oil and filter service, a complimentary inspection is made of lights, belts, hoses, fluids and things important to the survival of your vehicle... from a maintenance standpoint.  So when this chariot comes in this is what we see.  The customer also commented they thought the lights would flicker from time to time.


 OK, all we need is to get a new headlight bulb out of the cabinet and away we go.  But wait!

 You can see the bulb.  It's the silver shiny part sticking out from the back of the headlamp housing.  Connected to it, is the headlight wiring connector,  Note the dark black near the base of the plug closest to the bulb.

See the melted plastic around the wiring connectors inside the plug?.  This was caused by the wire terminal loosing contact with the bulbs electrical connectors.  The result of this poor connection is the generation of lots of heat.  Over time, you can see the result of this.

In order to properly repair this problem, it required the replacement of the connector and the bulb too.  (The old bulb actually still worked, but the terminals were badly oxidized from the heat).  As extra measure, we checked the other headlight too, to make sure it was ok.  It was :)  It's worth mentioning, if you ever do attempt to replace you own headlight bulb, NEVER touch the bulb glass.  The oils from your skin will get on there and reduce the lifespan of the bulb.

Even though this is somewhat of a trivial repair, I have seen several vehicles come in where people claim they have had to replace this bulb or that bulb time and time again and don't understand why.   Now you do!

 Thanks for reading!
 Chris

97 Chev Blazer 4X4 4.3 litre V6

When it don't go!

How many times has this happened?  You turn the key and it either it does nothing or just cranks over until the battery finally poops out.  This is a case I get to see on a regular basis and the last few days have been no exception.  This beauty above is a 97 Chevy Blazer.  There are a million of these things still on the road and just about the same number of problems can happen to these things which result in a no-go :(  

Turns out, the fuel pump had failed, resulting in the engine not starting.  So no big, just replace the pump and all is good... easy, right?

One can always tell when a car has never spent any time in the salt belt.

Wrong.  99% of every vehicle on the road has the fuel pump assembly mounted inside the fuel tank.  This was done for several engineering reasons I'm not going to get into.  So, time to break out the WD-40, spray down those rusty threads, and get busy!  Notice the tank is made of metal!  This is becoming rare as most tanks are now made from poly.

So I gotta make some room to get the tank out.  Disconnecting and removing the driveshaft is needed.  By the way, see the rust inside on the universal joint?  That's bad.  Were gonna have to take care of this too to prevent a break-down.  Time to call the customer and get the OK.

This thing was heavy!!

Ok, so it's out and there is the top of the old fuel pump unit.  Spent lots of time cleaning the dirt off as to not let it fall into the tank when I take it out..

Here's the old dead one

Here's the new happy one.  This one also has an updated electrical connector in favor of the old style which was a big problem with GM for years.  We gave this guy the option to use this pump versus a cheaper one... wise choice Grasshopper!

Anyway, from start to finish, 3.5 hours including driveline repair and a new fuel filter.  The Blazer runs remarkably well despite having 199,990 miles on the odometer.  I have done so many of these, I lost count years ago.  Not only do the pumps die, but the little sensor that tells your gas gauge what to read give up a lot too.  I would bet if you have not experienced a gas gauge problem in a GM vehicle, you have at least one friend who has.

Thanks for reading up.  Let me know if there is any specific content or topics which should be covered or changes to the blog itself.  Chris.

Hello Everybody!

Welcome to Mechanicsdaily!

My name is Chris and I have been an automotive repair technician for 24 years in Bellingham, Wa.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingham,_Washington  I am certified by the ASE  (www.asecert.org) with Master and Advanced level certifications.

I am starting this blog to share some of my knowledge and expertise I get to deal with in the real world.  I have always felt there has been somewhat of a disconnect between the mechanic (technician) and the customer (you).  All too often, the source of many problems comes down to poor communication and lack of general understanding as to what is going on.  Hopefully, this blog will help clear the air and bring some understanding and enlightenment.  

I will begin posting at least once a week with photos and perhaps a video now and then, focusing on the things I do on a daily basis,  the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.  Please always feel free to post comments and questions.  I will answer them as soon as I can.

One of the most frequent questions I get about automotive service is recalls and bulletins.  To check for recalls which may apply to you go to http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/recallsearch.cfm  This is the NHTSA website and does a good job of informing the general public of current recalls.  NOTE:  This site does not cover engineering TSB's or Technical Service Bulletins (I like to call them engineering bloopers).  For those, you pretty much have to contact the manufacturer or preferably your local independent repair facility.  Don't be surprised or intimidated to find out your Chevy Cavalier has TSB's numbering in the hundreds.