Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - June 6, 2026 - Hour 2
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Ron Ananian walks through why real-world car problems often show up late and why codes aren’t the whole story. Using examples like a no-start tied to accident-related, intermittent module communication, he explains how modern vehicles are networks and how diagnosis can require tracing circuits and even programming modules. The discussion also shifts to used-car risk when service records are missing, plus Hyundai oil-consumption and knock-sensor cases that can lead to warranty engine coverage. He closes with practical inspection and troubleshooting tips, including coolant testing and intermittent electrical faults.
0:00
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00:50
Concept
vehicles are unemotional
Cars don’t have feelings or intentions—they just react to what’s happening mechanically and electrically. So if something is wrong, it might not show up immediately, even if the car seems okay for a while.
The Chevy Suburban is a big family SUV. Here, the host is talking about a 2021 one that seemed fine for a while after an accident, but later developed a problem—showing that issues don’t always appear right away.
01:38
Concept
real problem doesn't show up until much later
Sometimes a car can look fine right after an accident or repair, but the real issue shows up later. That can happen when the damage doesn’t cause an obvious problem immediately.
03:15
Term
scan tool
A scan tool is a device a mechanic plugs into the car to read computer error messages. It helps pinpoint why the car isn’t starting.
03:25
Term
fault codes
Fault codes are like the car’s “error messages” stored in its computers. They tell you something went wrong, but you still have to figure out what part or system actually caused it.
03:47
Term
transmission related codes
Transmission-related codes are error messages connected to the car’s transmission computer. They can show up during a no-start problem, but the transmission code might be a symptom rather than the real cause.
03:47
Term
security system codes
Security system codes are errors connected to the car’s anti-theft system. If the car thinks it’s not authorized to start, it can prevent the engine from running.
03:47
Term
communication codes
Communication codes mean the car’s computers aren’t getting the messages they expect from other computers. If the computers can’t “coordinate,” the car may refuse to start.
04:20
Concept
modern vehicles are networks
The point here is that today’s cars have many computers that constantly talk to each other. If one computer can’t communicate properly, the car can refuse to start even if the engine itself isn’t physically damaged.
04:32
Term
gateway module
The gateway module is like the car’s message router. It helps different computers in the car share information, so if it’s confused, multiple systems can act up.
05:20
Term
diagnosis
Diagnosis is how a mechanic figures out what’s actually broken. Instead of only seeing a warning code, they check the car step-by-step to find the real cause and what to fix next.
05:23
Term
read codes
“Reading codes” means plugging in a scanner to see the car’s error messages. Those messages point to a problem area, but they don’t always tell you the exact fix—so the mechanic still has to figure out what’s really causing it.
05:32
Term
circuits
A circuit is the car’s electrical “wiring path” that lets parts talk to each other. If a circuit is damaged, the car can behave strangely or stop working until the connection is restored.
05:36
Term
network activity
Modern cars have a communication network so computers can talk to each other. If that communication is inconsistent, the car may not be able to coordinate systems and can shut down or act erratically.
05:48
Term
trans control module
The transmission control module is the car’s computer that controls how the transmission shifts. If it can’t reliably “talk” to the rest of the car, the transmission may not work and the car may stop running.
You're listening to Ron and Nanian The Car Doctor, nationally recognized auto expert trusted by Mechanics, Weekend wrenchers and vehicle owners alike. Ron brings over forty years of hands on
experience and deep industry insight to help you understand your vehicle.
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You know, one of the things I've learned after more than four decades of repairing cars is vehicles are unemotional, really are there? You know, we talked to them like
they're oh baby, oh do this for O? T me.
See they're steel and glass and there's a spirit in an automobile. I give you that, but you know, what.
They're just very unemotional. They don't care about your timeline.
They don't care about you know, where you're trying to go, or how much of a rush you're in. They just
they work by the laws of physics. And that's really
what you have to keep in mind when you're operating a vehicle. This one suburban that rolled into our shop,
a twenty twenty one Chevy Suburban, came in recently, and it didn't care that it was in an accident four months prior. It didn't care that the body shop finished
the repair. It didn't care the insurance company closed the claim,
and it really didn't care that it ran great for months afterwards, because sometimes in life the real problem doesn't show up until much later. And that's not unusual, right,
And it ended up wear this twenty one suburban, beautiful truck, real low mileage. Customer called up and said, it won't start. Man,
I hear that every day. It won't start, It won't
do this, it won't do that, it doesn't do something.
But you know, in the back of my mind, because I try to remember everything, which is getting harder to do, I remember that vehicle had been in an accident because the customer because of our relationship. Right, I try to
have relationships with all my customers where we you're not just a number. You're not the deli counter at the
supermarket now serving number nine. I know when Tom Ray
comes in, Tom needs tires and brakes, and Tom needs an oil change, and I know what Tom needs based on the last time that he was there. And it
just pops into my head. Yeah, I use a computer
and shop management, but I just it's about the relationship.
So I knew this customer's twenty one suburban had been in an accident lately and it just sort of, I don't know, it won't start. Something just clicked my brain.
You know, it wasn't a catastrophic accident. It wasn't so horrific.
I mean, it was out of action for about two weeks.
It was you know, taking into a reputable body shop.
It was repaired, returned to the owner, and life went on until Tuesday this past week, when it wouldn't start and the owner tried again and nothing, and you know, a tow truck ride later, it landed in my parking lot.
Now here's where diagnostics gets interesting, right, And here's where diagnostics just makes the case, of course, you plug in a scan tool, you push the button, nothing happens. So
you plug in a scan tool and you find a bunch of fault codes. Great fault codes will tell you
what's wrong with the car. Maybe not necessarily. Coaches don't
tell you what's broken. Codes just tell you the computer
got confused. Codes tell you that the computer didn't see
something at light. Now you have to figure out what
that's something is. And there's a big difference because we
had communication codes, we had transmission related codes, we had engine fault codes, we had security system codes. We had
you name it. The string was as long as a
phone number. Now you might be thinking, you know why
and where, Well, the majority of what I saw pointed me towards the trans that the trans control system was keeping this vehicle from starting. And you're thinking, how how
does the transmission keep an engine from starting, Which is a great question. It's a fair question now. Years ago,
it wouldn't or it couldn't today, man, absolutely, modern vehicles are networks. The engine computer talks to the transmission computer,
the body computer talks to the security system, the security system talks to the gateway module. Everybody's talking all the time.
It's kind of like before your relatives didn't get along at the holidays, and if as everybody's having this conversation, it's sort of like that zoom call you're on at work when somebody drops out because they lose their Internet.
It's like, what happened to him? So now the challenge
becomes You've got to figure out is the tr transmission module the victim or the cause? Is it creating the
problem or is it the result of the problem. Is
it losing power, is it losing ground? Is it losing
the ability to communicate? Is that is the wire broken, fray, damaged,
cut or is it just dead? And this is where
diagnosis comes in. This is where the training comes in.
This is where you know experience matters because anybody can read codes. They may not be able to tell you
what they mean, but anybody can read codes. The skill
is knowing what to do next. So I started tracing
circuits and I was looking at network activity, and as I started to go through my routine, the pattern began to emerge. The trans control module wasn't consistently communicating. Sometimes
it showed up, sometimes it disappeared, and it was an intermittent behavior. It was just enough to stop an entire
vehicle in its tracks. And now the question becomes why,
And that's when I remembered the accident four months earlier.
You know, I don't know if everybody would have remembered this.
I don't know if anybody would have acted on it.
A strange shop wouldn't because they wouldn't have known. I
knew I remembered it. I've learned over the years that
cars have long memories. They're worse than some people because
impacts can do some strange things to cars. And this
suburban you know, you start thinking, is it stress on the wiring harness? Did a connector get disturbed? Was it
put back the way it was supposed to be? Is
the mounting bracket bent?
You know?
How was it hit? Did it? Was it just enough
to put a crack in a circuit board? Think of
it like dropping your cell phone. You ever drop your
cell phone and your cell phone stops working and you go, uh, oh, well, actually you say something else, but this is family radio.
But you get the point. Sometimes that cell phone shatters immediately.
Sometimes it works for six months and then it's starts acting strange. Hey, I don't remember it, but you know,
you start to think back, You remember, yeah, I did kind of drop my cell phone. I gotta tell you,
I dropped my cell phone two months ago, and the bottom corner the glass is shattered. And then about three
weeks ago, my phone no longer. You know, you're looking
at the picture horizontally and you turn it the other way.
All of a sudden, now it doesn't rotate, And I'm thinking I went nuts for about a minute, going why doesn't my phone? Why doesn't the picture rotating? Then I
remember it. You drop the phone, dopey, right, you just
you forget and I got to go get a new phone.
But you forget, you forget, you drop the phone, You forget.
The vehicle was in an accident. Electronics can fail slowly, right,
So I dug a little deeper. The trans control module
itself was failing internally. Communication links were there, power was there,
ground was there? Did the collisions shorten the life of
the trans module? Did it bounce it around? Did it
smack it hard enough? I don't know. I just know
that it was enough. You know that it didn't stop
working all together, but it was just beginning to fail.
It definitely helped it along. In my mind. So you
know needed a trans control module.
Now.
The great part about this is that you take a simple, well what appears as a simple no start, and it becomes so much more complicated, so much more that you have to deal with in that. You know, now you've
got to put a transcontrol module in. Now it's got
to be programmed. Now you have to find a module.
You've got to go through parts, procurement, you've got to go through programming. It's no secret. I've got an Opus IVS,
an Opus IVS scan tool flat out loved the tool, flat out. Those more for me because here's the situation
where I needed programming, didn't have to deal with going through a bunch of website protocols, and called up Opus, made an appointment, plug the scan tool in, They flashed the module. Car done. Why do I tell you this
story because you know it highlights something I think we do both as a consumer vehicle owner and as a shop.
We separate events. We don't think that something happened four
months ago it can't be related to today's problem, because it is.
It was.
You know, cars don't care, they don't they don't care about your timeline, They don't care about anything other than the laws of physics applied. Is the vehicle connect? Is
the vehicle able to do what it's supposed to do and talk to each other? Good diagnostics means understanding the
vehicle's history, looking at was it ever in an accident?
I've got a customer intake form question number two, vehicle ever in an accident? I want to know, if I'm
taking you in as a client, was this vehicle ever in an accident? Has this problem been recurring? Has this
problem been something that everybody else has tried to work on?
So I'm you know, I'm gonna find like the parts can't exploded underneath the what modifications were made? What happened
before the problem started? Because sometimes the answer isn't under
the hood. Sometimes it's buried in the vehicle story. And
that's really what diagnostics is, and that's really why you need advanced capability, because it's not fixing cars, it's solving mysteries.
We are Colombo to a point, right, and we need our We need our magnifying glass. I've got to tell you,
I couldn't have done this repair without knowing the accident.
I could have done it, but it wouldn't have been quote unquote as easy as it was without knowing the accident, without the help of technical information, without Opus IVS as my scan tool. You know what, you need a little
bit of everything to make it work today. I'm Ron
an Ay in the car doctor. When we return, we're
gonna take your call it eight five five five six nine nine zero zero car advice, done right. We'll be
back right after this. Hey, let's go over to Wayne
in Virginia for Toyota Highlander. Wayne, what's going on? How
can I help you? Running the inde in the car
doctor at your service.
Sir, Okay, it's a two thousand and four until you had a Highlander. The training's gone out. You took it
to the transmission shop and they said, yep, the transmission's gone out.
It'll be over five thousand dollars to you tear it all right. So I've found on the internet t un
g oil tongue oil, and they say you use one outs for every quart that the vehicle.
Will hold in the transmission.
What do you think about the tongue oil.
For what to what to install into the new transmission?
Now?
Yeah, trying that because you know the car's not worth five thousand dollars.
Well, is there a lot of rust on the car?
No, let's see that's how.
Many how many Let's start, Let's let's start at the beginning. Wayne, Wayne,
let's start at the beginning. How many miles are on
the car?
I don't know, that's not the sense mission.
Well, but the car has got an odometer, doesn't it.
It's probably over two hundred thousand. It's my granddaughter's car.
Okay, So so the car's got two hundred thousand miles on it. It's twenty three years old, yep. Right, you know,
has it had any kind of regular maintenance? Has it
had any you know, care comfort, oil changes, filters, fluids, or has it just been driven into the.
Ground oil changes in that? Not a lot of care
and comfort?
Right, So you're really convincing me that the cars beyond hope because it's just been neglected. Not picking on you,
I'm just saying it like it is, right, right, So it doesn't What do.
You think about the tangoisle for the chiny?
What have you got to lose? The car's a lost
cause at this point, right, I'm not trying to be flip.
I'm just saying it's you know, you're telling me you've got a car that's not worth fixing. You're telling me
your car that's been abused. If it was a horse,
let me describe it this way. If it was a horse,
was it road hard, put away wet?
Well, I don't think the car is worth very much.
Well, but but well, first of all, well, i'm agreeing with you. If you're telling me you've got two hundred
thousand miles plus on a vehicle that's twenty three years old and can't provide me service records, and it needs a transmission, it doesn't matter what you pour into the trans if the trans stopped working. I don't think there's
any magic elixir, miracle drug. You know, six voodoo doctors
around a pot of water, you know, jumping up and down, yelling, hey, let's make the car work. I don't think anything's going
to help you, brother, But you know it's not gonna hurt.
I've never heard any I know what tongue oil is.
I've never heard tongue oil to a court of transfluid to help make it work. I've never heard that as
a as a fix. You know, you've got to watch
the internet. If it worked for one guy, somewhere, somehow
in the deepest part of America that oh, you know, we put tungue oil in the transmission and the trans started working. But in reality he did something else that
he's not telling you about or not aware that he did.
All of a sudden that becomes the fix. I've got
no mechanical laws of physics, rational reason why tongue oil would solve a transmission problem on a transmission that's broken, provided the trans shop is giving you an honest answer, all right, But if it were me, what I'd be thinking about is if I put a five thousand dollars transmission in it, how much other maintenance has been really done to it? And this is my point, because if
this doesn't fix the granddaughter's car, and you're going to help her buy a replacement so she can continue to go to her job or school or whatever she's doing, what's that going to cost A a cheap A cheap replacement car is fifteen to twenty grand today, unless you happen to come across that. You know, the church Ladies
car that she drove to church on Sunday, that's got twenty thousand miles on it, it's twenty years old and the family wants five grand for it, And those cars are getting harder and harder and harder to find. And
I'm not saying put a trans in this car. I'm
just saying, you've got to look at the potential and the problems of finding a replacement. So, yes, you want
to put tongue oil in it, I've never heard of it.
I'd like to know the rationale behind it. Toungue oil
is an oil preservative. We usually put it on the
ends of swords and knives to help keep rust away.
So how that's going to revitalize a clutch pack or a band or a transmission that's failed, or hard metal parts.
It's all voodoo to me, brother, You know it's I'm being honest. I'm just listening waying. You know, if you're
a regular listener, you know I'm not gonna I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I don't see where there's any
value in that makes sense. Okay. I know it's not
the answer you're looking for. I know you're looking for
a miracle and a can I get that one hundred percent, but I just you know, part of what I'm supposed to do is just try to open everybody's eyes to the potential of maybe let's try it the other way.
And I'm not saying this car is worth fixing, but you know, the older Toyotas tended to run a good long time. It went two hundred thousand plus miles and
it probably never had fluid service. But what's the rest
of the car look like? And you know, if we
were standing at the counter in the shop, my first comment question would be along the lines of what I'm telling you here. How much rust does it have? What
does the radiator look like? What does the cooling system
look like? If it's a timing belt motor, was the
timing belt ever replaced? Because it's not a five thousand
dollars transmission, it's a five thousand dollars transmission plus everything else it needs to bring that car up to speed.
So yes, to your point, the car is probably not worth fixing. So tongue oil, sure, tongue oil or you know,
some miracle additive from an autoparts house couldn't hurt either.
But I don't think it's going to do anything for you.
So I hope I helped plane. I'm not sure if
I did, but I did You it's what you need to know, maybe not what you want to hear. And
thanks for calling in a five five five six oho nine nine zero zero. I'm running any in the car, doctor,
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