The Ford Mustang is a popular sports car that many people recognize. It's known for being fast and stylish, and it's been around for a long time, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
The check engine light is a warning light on your car's dashboard. If it comes on, it means something might be wrong with the engine, and you should get it checked out.
An OBD2 port reader is a device that helps you check for problems in your car by reading error codes. It tells you if something is wrong with the engine or other parts.
Ruthenium is another type of metal that is used in some spark plugs. It helps the spark plugs work better and last longer, especially in powerful engines.
Iridium is a type of metal that is very strong and doesn't rust easily. It's used in some spark plugs to help them last longer and work better in engines.
The Ford F-150 is a well-known pickup truck that many people use for work and everyday driving. It's strong and can carry a lot of things, which is why it's so popular.
Full synthetic oil is a special kind of oil made in a lab that helps keep your engine running smoothly. It works better than regular oil, especially when it's really hot or really cold outside.
A battery tender is a tool that helps keep your car's battery charged when you're not using it. It's especially useful if you don't drive your car often, so the battery doesn't run out of power.
Transfer case fluid is like oil for a part of your car that helps it send power to all four wheels. Keeping it fresh helps your car run better, especially if it has four-wheel drive.
Operating temperature is the temperature that your car's engine needs to be at to work best. It's important for the engine and other parts to be warm enough to run smoothly.
The 5.0 V8 is a big engine with eight cylinders that helps the truck go fast and carry heavy things. It's a common choice for powerful vehicles like the Ford F-150.
The instrument cluster is the part of the car that shows you things like how fast you're going and how much gas you have left. Sometimes, it can stop working properly, which can be frustrating.
The Chevrolet Suburban is a big family vehicle that can carry a lot of people and their stuff. It's popular for road trips and has been around for a very long time, which makes it a well-known choice for families.
A remanufactured cluster is a dashboard part that has been fixed up to work like new again. It's a way to replace broken parts without buying a brand new one, which can save money.
The Chevy Silverado LTZ is a version of a popular pickup truck made by Chevrolet. It's designed for both work and comfort, with many features to make driving easier and more enjoyable.
Cruise control is a feature in cars that lets you set a speed so you don't have to keep pressing the gas pedal. It's useful for long drives on highways.
Sensors in cars are like the car's senses; they help it understand what's happening around it, like how fast it's going or if there's something in front of it. This information helps the car make decisions.
A windshield sensor helps your car know if it's raining or if the sun is shining directly into it. This can help control things like the wipers or other features to keep you safe while driving.
The CAN bus is a system that lets different parts of a car talk to each other. It helps control things like the engine, brakes, and other features by allowing them to share information easily.
Berkeley One Classics is a company that helps insure classic cars and other vehicles. They have been around for a long time and offer special deals for members of car clubs.
Chrysler is a car company that makes different types of vehicles, including family cars and minivans. They are known for their comfortable and spacious designs.
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a large SUV that can fit a lot of people and gear. It's great for families and has lots of features to make driving easier and more comfortable.
The Cadillac ATS is a luxury car that is smaller and sportier than many other Cadillacs. It was made to compete with other luxury brands and is known for its good performance.
Timing chains help keep the engine parts moving in sync. If they wear out, it can cause serious engine problems. They usually last a long time, but extreme weather can make them wear out faster.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a stylish two-door car that was popular for its sporty look. It's often remembered for being a fun car to drive back in the day.
The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gas and electricity to run, which helps it save on fuel. It's known for being very good on gas and is often talked about for being better for the environment.
The Honda Accord is a comfortable car that can fit a family and their belongings. It's known for being reliable and is a popular choice for everyday driving.
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Thanks for joining us. This is the best of the Under the Hood show. Welcome to the Under
the Hood show podcast. Thanks very much for listening and don't forget you can subscribe to
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Thanks for listening to the Under the Hood show podcast. Here's the show. This is Under the Hood.
Welcome to the Under the Hood show. We are glad to have you with us. Russ Evans is here to answer
your automotive questions. Thanks for joining us under the hood. Shannon Nordstrom is here to do
the same. Welcome, hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune up. I'm Chris Carter
here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150. 866-594-4150. We've got some calls lined up coming in on
the long distance so we'll get right to those. Are we gonna get into this again? Do you have a
long distance phone bill now at all? Your 800 numbers, your 866 numbers. We still have some
different charges from our local telecom. But as a rule, they've got us on a set rate per call.
The whole world has changed in that regard. Really has. I have some information for you guys later
that was interesting to me. We'll see if it is to you. But now let's go to New Hampshire
and talk to Jonathan. Jonathan, you're on the under the hood show. What can we do for you?
Yesterday, I was driving home from work in my Mustang, not driving home, driving to work,
and the check engine light started flashing at me and the engine sounded a little off.
Now, the previous owner, I had learned from him, had replaced one of the coil packs.
So my current thought is that it might need a new set of coil packs, but currently I don't have
a OBD2 port reader. I have one coming on Saturday, but I'm kind of wondering whether it's a good
idea to just buy the parts now because that's 99% like the possibility or if I should wait
to get the reader to diagnose that. Well, it's an 04, so at 20 years old,
it's definitely time for coil packs on there for a tune up item. Coil packs and spark plugs,
we replace so many of those because they're failing and sometimes they look great on the
outside when you pull them out, but sure enough, they're burning through the side. And if you get
a code read on it, Saturday's not that far, right? It's almost like today. So yeah, just
you could take them on and take a look at it, but I think you're going to be buying the coil
packs anyways for it. It's just a tune up item issue. At the most 10 years is a long time
for any component on an engine that gets hot and cold and subject to all the wear and tear
under there. So it's like a tune up items. If we think about spark plug wires, we'd leave those on
a car for real long. No, we change those out and coil packs will go a lot longer because they're a
lot smaller item and they're a lot tougher, but yeah, they'll fail. I'd say coils and spark plugs
on that thing for sure. And one thing for other hoodies that are listening, and we've said this
many times, but we got new listeners all the time, that the flashing check engine light is a
indication that most of the time that this engine is running lean and that it is going to be
engine damage could occur if you don't get it taken care of. So do not continue to drive this car
with that flashing check engine light. And I think you already know that, but I just want to make
sure and say that for other people. And when I was at SEMA this year, one of the things that I
thought that the good representative, I can't think of his name right now from NGK and TK
that I was talking to at the booth had showed me that they're starting to sell a kit with all the
coils in one kit. And it's like a complete like you used to buy a spark plug set. And they're
selling a coil kit. And that's something that they've got available. They're going to start promoting.
And that sounded to me like a really good deal. They're going to make it a value for buying all
them at once. And they are there. They are a better deal when they do it like that, because
you get a good quality part. Plus you get, they do offer a substantial discount when you're buying
them that way. So that's something to consider. So I just, he was quick to show me that I go,
Hey, what's new? And he told me, Hey, they were pretty excited about this. So
So you think the spark plugs as well, because I pulled those out and tested them and they seem
to work great. Well, you've got to look at spark plugs by where look at the condition of them.
And if they're fairly clean yet, if they're not completely covered up in soot and carbon and
oil, whatever could be on them, look at the gap, measure that because they're not supposed to
be reset. They go in, they're already pre gap, they're ready to go. And as that gap widens,
it means that the electrodes are burning on them and it's time to replace them. So you can measure
it and compare it to what it's supposed to be. And if it's much larger than it means it's worn
and should be replaced. Otherwise you can leave them in there as long as, as long as you want.
Would you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If a spark plugs clean and it doesn't, it hasn't burned,
there's no reason to replace it. Aren't they like 69 cents? Not anymore. Okay. 69 bucks.
The highest price spark plug I've seen that I paid my cost for so far was $24.
Oh, wow. My cost for the spark plug. For a single spark plug. Yeah. For a single spark plug.
Oh, okay. Yeah. And that's your cost. So that was probably a retail of 30 some dollars. Like 37
bucks. I think it was something like that. It was just, it was what they suggested anyways. It's,
it's insane what some of these things are going for. And it's the material in the plug that's
making that expensive. Yeah, they're using a rydium and ruthenium. Yeah, ruthenium. Sounds like
an answer or something. Jonathan, thanks very much for the call. Pray your car starts.
Let's go to Missouri and talk to Tony. Tony, you're on the end of the hood show. What can we do
for you? Hey guys, how's it going today? How are you doing today? Fantastic, Tony.
Hey, hey, uh, first, I just want to say that, uh, I really enjoy your guys' show. I'm actually
hooked on your show every day. I listen to it, uh, and, and if I'm driving, I'm a truck driver for
a living. So I always, I just go back on a loop on all your guys' shows and just listen to everything,
learn, learn about it all. Tell you guys everybody about yourself show. But it's a, it's a good thing
you got, uh, good thing going what you guys got going on. Thanks, man.
But, uh, so, uh, basically my, uh, several issues, just a question. My dad, uh, passed away
five years ago and he had a brand new F-150 that he bought about a year before he passed
and he left it to me. So I treated as a Sunday driver. Um, and in the wintertime from like,
you know, down here in Kansas City around December to like April, I just stored in my, uh,
climate control garage. Um, what I usually do and just correct me if I'm wrong,
I changed the oil in the wintertime. I use full synthetic mobile one. Um, I have a battery tender
on it and the questions I have, uh, this past fall, I changed the transfer case fluid. It's got
about 21,000 miles on it and I might only put maybe two or three thousand miles on it a year.
But like next year, I plan on doing the coolant and then probably on the transmission,
I've heard both pros and cons on the transmission flush. So I thought about just
dropping the pan, changing the filter and topping it off. I was just one that could get your guys's
input. Oh, uh, the other thing in the wintertime, I pulled out like once a month and started, uh,
kind of running up and down the street and just like let it run for about an hour.
You get up to operating temperature. Is that something you guys would recommend or, um,
I mean, is there anything I'm doing wrong? An hour's good. Well, I'm going to kind of back up here
again because I was trying to get Chris's attention about something and I didn't, what kind of vehicle
is this? It's a, uh, 2017 F-150, uh, with the 50 V8. All right. And you're, and you're, and you're
putting this thing down in a climate controlled building. When you say that, is it heated and
air conditioned or just heated or what's, what's climate? Well, it's not really heated,
but I got a, my garage is a three car garage and, uh, and it's got the, I got a dehumidifier in there
so it, so it maintains around 45, 50% humidity. Okay. So your, your, your storage conditions are
like way better than average. Yeah. Yeah. Way better than average. Yeah. That's good. And so this,
and it, at most it's sitting there for six months. Five months. Yeah. Yeah. Five, six months.
To me, that's a whole different question than people that are storing something long-term
and, or people that are storing something, um, in a non-controlled environment.
It doesn't hurt. The rules do change. Get it out and drive it. If you're going to drive it a whole
hour, that's great. If you're going to drive it for 10 minutes, don't, don't do that. Exactly.
Just get it good and hot, drive it. But Russ, I mean, in all seriousness, no, in that short
a period of time, if he's got that thing fresh, fluids in it, climate control, there's no reason
to go out and even do that hour. Is there? No, he doesn't have to. As long as it's got a battery
tender on it, you know, maintainer on the battery so you can start it up in the spring. But hey,
if it's a nice day in Kansas city in February, it could be 72 degrees. It might be a nice day.
You want to get out and drive that thing. Um, so, but if he's driving it just because he thinks he
has to, no, you don't need to. Don't drive it because you think you have to. But if you do take
it out, Russ makes a point that we, we hear, we need to correct this for people. Don't just go
out there and start it, let it run for 10 minutes and shut it off in the garage because you think
it's good for it. That's not right. You know, Chris asks us the same question every year
about putting his car away, but I want to come back to that. Cause that was an interesting,
but I mean, we basically tell him the same thing we tell you is that if your fluid is fresh and
you know, you got the, the fluid changed recently. So the chemical pack is good in it.
You're using the recommended fluids. The fluids are at the levels they're supposed to be a 2017
F 150. You typically aren't going to have fluid problems. If everything's working correctly,
take it out, enjoy it, drive it, make sure it's good and warm, pull it where you're going to park
it and shut it off and keep listening to the end of the hood. Yep. Thanks Tony. Good luck.
866-594-4150. Now let's go to Colorado and talk to Dave. You're on the end of the hood.
So Dave, what can we do for you? Hi guys, I'm working on a 5.2 Chevy Suburban and 05
and my, my insulin cluster shortened out. If I pull it out and move it around, I can get it
working and put it back in a mounted, then it goes short again. Is that more likely going to be in
the plug or is it, I checked all the wires. I can't find any place for it to be eaten through
by a rat or something. I'm wondering if it's the plug or what, what do you think? The module,
since it works off and on, would, would it indicate one way or the other to you as far as what's bad?
It's almost always the instrument cluster itself, the whole thing. I, you know, so many times,
I don't think I've ever seen it be anything but the instrument cluster. And we put in over 100
of these things at our shop in, in these trucks. They just, they just have an inherent failure in
it. And there's some people will say, just take it apart and solder this and solder that and put
it back in. It'll be fine or, or change all the, the motors out and it's just as easy to buy a complete
doorman, pre-programmed, ready to go cluster, drop them in. I, you know, I, I think they're
around a couple hundred bucks, maybe just a slightly more, but that's, it's just so much
less hassle just to buy it, put it in, walk away. You're done. You don't have those problems
anymore and they're fixed. How many miles are on this truck? This suburban? How many miles? Right
about 200,000. Okay. Well, I'm just going to throw this out as another idea too. It depends on,
you know, your market that you live in, but Chris is wondering what I'm going to say.
Sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to say. I know what he's going to say, but if it's
got a bunch of miles on it and you're not concerned about the actual mileage piece of it,
why would you be with an O5 with 200,000? Well, maybe it's the cleanest O5 200,000 miles suburban
ever, but it probably is okay that it's got 200,000 miles. And if somebody's going to buy it from you
at 250,000 miles, it's not a lot of difference in value. You might find a self-service yard that
you could go out and pull a cluster out of another vehicle and buy it for not a lot of money and try
it. The mileage will be different. And you'll have to put a sticker on there that says not actual
miles and answer your title is not actual miles, but it doesn't matter at that age. You may get
lucky and get one that works just great and you can spend way less money. Right. And if it doesn't
work and you know, there's a couple out there, you can return it and grab another one. But there's
a year range there where they fit quite a bit of stuff and they are very popular to have problems.
And I just throw that out as an idea. So, but the majority of people that have a, I would say,
a vehicle that is in really good condition or low mileage, they want to go down the road of the
remanufactured cluster because that also comes with a bonded certificate to be able to set the
miles at what your miles are when you send it in so you can keep it accurate and moving forward
without having to declare not actual miles. Does that make sense? Does that make sense?
What? Yes, it certainly does and I appreciate your time. Hey, I have one more question. We've
got a bunch of calls, but I've got to ask this question. Why did you choose a rat as your rodent
of choice when you told your story? Well, I was up in the woods, you know, I'm really heavy duty
woods up here and there's a lot to rat. So, okay. Some people choose mouse, some people choose
squirrel, but he chose rat and I want to know why rat. I mean, that sounds huge under the dash.
Dave, thanks very much for the call. Good luck. 866-594-4150. What I was thinking about was it
wasn't too many years ago when this fellow over here said, oh, I just, you can do it. You just
pull, it's got 40, little over 40 solder points. It's a piece of cake. And I said, what are you
talking about? And he was like, oh, that's nothing. Now he's all about just going and getting a different
one. YouTube videos, you can do it. Yeah. If you want to try, you can do it. 866-594-4150.
5-0. Let's talk to Brian. You're on the end of the hood show. Brian, what can we do for you?
Hey guys, I bought a 2020 Chevy Silverado LTZ in March of this year. There's 71,000 miles on it.
And this has happened to me twice. I was coming home from Duluth last month, came back,
probably South of Marshall on Highway 23. The adaptive cruise terminates and isn't available.
And I kept going down Highway 23, got close to I-90, and I started playing with it again. It
did engage and hold. I did not at that time shut down the adaptive cruise and tried just the
regular cruise. Last week I went to Huron and just ran the normal cruise. And going up 29,
I was at 80, but as soon as I put it on, it would run at 80 and it would run down to 77-76
and back up to 80 and up and down again. So I just shut it off. And I turned the adaptive cruise
on and then it would work normally. A couple of times in my work parking lot and at home in the
garage, when I put it in driver and I back up, it seems like it's stuck, like a brake is on.
So I'm assuming that the cruise control module and what's ever running the adaptive cruise
and all the sensors is probably the problem. Does that seem reasonable?
Well, maybe. The first time this thing quit and started acting up, was it raining outside or
snowy or anything like that? Dirty, did you? No, I wasn't. The only thing I've read so far
looking online is it was a bright sunny day and I was headed southwest. So the sun could have been
hitting. Is there some type of a sensor in the windshield? There is. And if that sensor gets,
if the sun hits it just right or reflects off another car, it just depends on which direction
you're going. That'll affect it. If it's dirty, if there's bugs on it, if it's raining, a bug can
land, you know, get splattered on there and then the sun can reflect off of that and cause a problem.
They get shiny sometimes, especially those pretty little green ones. Maybe a lightning bug.
Mine has that problem. I've had it where I'm driving on vacation and it doesn't work right.
And I just get out there and wipe it off and then it's fine. Especially nice. I get a coating of ice
and it won't work. It was overnight in Duluth, so there was frost. Well, one thing,
three, four o'clock in the afternoon. So to say it was dirty was possibly an accurate statement,
but it wasn't raining at that time. It was a clear day again. I was headed southwest and the sun was
hitting that. To just kind of give the realism check though, the engineers that made that stuff,
they made it knowing it was going to go into some harsher environments. They knew that truck
country is the middle of the country. It doesn't mean they always work though, right?
They're going to get, you're going to get that butterfly that splats right in the right place
that can cause problems. But some of this, is that system Russ? I always thought, and I'm not trying to
play correct here or anything, but I thought the windshield one had to do with the lane
side to side. And the radar cruise, I always thought was a sensor up in the front behind
the grille or the bumper. Well, you've got one. I know. And that's why I think my sensor is behind
the grille or the bumper when you have that adaptive cruise. If you've got right below the grille
emblem, if it's got the little round sensor, that's where it is. If it does not have that,
it's in the windshield. I do not have that on mine. Mine's in the windshield. Yours is in the
windshield. It's like my dad got a new truck and he was trying to get the adaptive cruise to work.
And of course, reading the owner's manual, I'm like, I don't think it has it because they've
got different buttons on the steering wheel. And he goes, well, yeah, it's supposed to have it.
I don't think it does. And that was what we found out is his truck just simply didn't have adaptive
cruise. I mean, they can pile these options in and out so easy now with the way the can bus
network set up. They can put an option in a truck and like during the supply chain shortages,
they're like, okay, we're pulling that option because we don't have the piece for it. And
they just would pull it out. But if you think that everything seemed reasonable and normal,
I would take a trip to the dealer and let them reprogram the system and just make sure that
everything is up to date on the software. And it could be that and check that because it is
unusual for those systems to not work, but it does happen. Brian, thanks very much for the call.
The end of the hood show podcast is brought to you by exclusive sponsors like Berkeley One Classics,
celebrating 50 years, your key to collector car insurance and by car dash part.com with over 200
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It's time to get back under the hood with our motor medics. 866-594-4150. Let's talk to Carter.
You're on the under the hood show Carter. What can we do for you? I am dealing with some lighting
issues on my 2005 Chevy Silverado. These are the daytime running lights
and I had a couple issues with the pigtails or the connectors. They burned out so I
replaced them once and swapped to LED daytime running lights. I can't recall the light bulb
number but I ran those for about four or five months. The lights quit working so I pulled the
lights out. I got the warranty that's a part store put them back in and now I don't have any power to
my daytime running lights at all. I pulled the relay under the in the fuse box under the hood.
I found some slight burning on like the side of the relay on the case. I tested the relay put the
relay back in the fuse box still having no lights for the daytime running lights. I was just curious
if you guys could point me in the right direction. Down. I think you need to take the fuse box out
and look on the underside of it and see if your wire on the backside is burnt mostly off if not
completely off of that daytime running relay because it's pretty heavy duty but if you load
those things enough like with a shorted LED driver or something like that it'll burn that off. I
switched on mine. I switched to those LEDs five six years ago because I was still on the same ones.
Yeah because I was putting bulbs in every six seven months. And every truck you meet on the
interstate has got one or the other out. Right. It seems like they can't burn both out. No it's
using one or the other. Yeah and they stay that way forever it seems like. Does a pediddle count
for a running light? I don't think so. They say. Rules not been written yet. Replace the
harness the last 12 inches of it and the bulb and that'll fix your problem. That's GM's fix
and it doesn't work. It may last about a year with that instead of every six months. So I said I
give up and I put the new connectors on because they were melted and I hooked them to some cheap
LED. I bought the whole LED housing and I think they were 39 bucks for the pair of them. I got an
LED turn signal and an LED marker light. The running light was way brighter than the factory
bulb that was in it and it has not failed since. And it's got a little different look to it.
And it's you know it's not annoying. It's just a nice looking light. Yeah your truck looks great.
The lights. Oh not that one. That's on the Tahoe. Those are homemade. This is on the Tahoe.
Oh okay. Those on my truck weren't $39. Yeah no they're a little more money than that. The Tahoe
though is the same generation as the pickup he's describing and that's very relevant. Mine
required a hot knife and an oven and about $600 worth of parts. Not something that everybody
would do or anybody would do. But I agree. I had fun building it. One or the other. Yeah just get
the LED for it but you're gonna have to get in there and find out what's going on the bottom
of that fuse box and it may just be as simple as the bolt on connector has come loose on the
bottom of it. A lot of them weren't tight from the factory. Okay in those fuse boxes those are
pretty easy to pull out and get to the underside of them. I bet you could get that thing out of
there in three minutes. Okay. Alrighty thank you much guys. I appreciate it. That helps. Thanks
Carter. Thanks for listening. Can we play a game called name that repair and instead of name that
tune I could pull that out in two minutes. See we could race. I could have I could do that in one
minute. 866-594-4150. Let's go to Florida and talk to Nigel. You're on the under the hood show.
Nigel what can we do for you? Hey how you guys doing? Fantastic. I got a 2017 Cadillac ATS. I
recently purchased it maybe like two weeks ago. It's used. It's got 40,000 miles on it's one owner.
I was really calling to get some tips on what I should do at 40,000 miles to
you know keep it long lasting like is there any maintenance maybe I should do.
Which motor is in that one? Is that the little turbo or what motor you got in that one?
Oh it's got a 3.6. Okay all right. 3.6 it's a Florida car probably been a Florida car its whole
life so it hasn't had the one owner. It was purchased out of Boca. Okay so it doesn't have the
extreme cold that we deal with which causes a lot of oil system problems.
The friends I have that are down south compared to the people that are up here and us in our shop
they when I tell them how we got another 3.6 in with timing chains they say what?
And I'm like well yeah the timing chains went out of this 3.6 is another one. It's like well how
many of them do you do? I'm like well how many can you count like all of them?
They're all going bad. How many do we want to schedule? Yeah they're either bad or they're
going bad but down there they're like I've never put timing chains in a 3.6. What are you talking
about? And a lot of it has to do with the oils that they make today and the temperatures when
you combine them in climates that get below freezing sludge builds up where happens and
things wear out. They just have a harder time in the colder climate so you're more apt to
have a 3.6 that has a much longer life without that kind of maintenance down there. The only
problem we've ever seen with the 3.6 is the the failure in the timing chains which can
cause bigger problems but that's the only failure we've seen in one so far. I mean they're really
tough engine and even when you do replace timing chains we've seen some of them. I've got a couple
of them with over 200,000 that have had chains put in them once or twice but with yours if you
keep that oil changed on a pretty regular schedule and I like to see our customers do it three months,
three thousand miles because of our climate. If you're on the highway more in the bigger cities
where you have to get on and drive on the highway and it's completely warmed up every time you
drive it you might be able to go you know 4,000 miles on it but keep an eye on that and keep your
filters changed of course. The transmission in that car you should not have to change the fluid
and yet I'd be looking about that 80,000 mile range before I had it completely flush but I would
do it there at 80 and because of the year you know about three more years from now if you're
getting up around that 80-90,000 miles and it's 10 years old when you hit that 10 years unless you
had 100,000 before the 10 years I would probably flush the coolant in it and then just go I think
that car will last you a pretty long time. That's good to hear. I think one of my biggest concerns
at the moment because I'm still getting used to the car I noticed that the miles per gallon on the
dashboard it's only showing like average 13 and of course the car's advertised at like 19 and 20
um you know when it was new and then like when I filled the tank up I was always under the assumption
that cars pretty much no matter the size they pretty much make the tank based on the size to go 350
maybe 400 miles to a full tank but this one is like a full tank is getting like 240.
That sounds like a that sounds like a fuel economy concern to me. It does yeah because he's right
they make the cars typically they want to get over 300 miles on a range in a tank
and Russ mentioned this in his uh dissertation there on what to do what is the typical use for
your what's your drive typically? So this car was purchased as kind of like a toy it's not my primary
car I got a Toyota that I drive daily this car is something that I kind of like uh just go sporting
and I guess you could say um so it is local driven not a lot of highway use if it is I mean
I'm in a big city so if I do get on the highways just to go to like two exits up you know what I
mean it's something quick um if you're doing short trips and just kind of playing around having some
fun date car that kind of thing you're going to definitely see a much lower miles per gallon but
that still seems like a lot less than advertised. It's way less unless it's got a fuel over it.
I'm wondering if I should change like spark plugs or something. I think I Russ is about to say.
If it was my car I'm going to plug a scanner into it and look and see what it shows for fuel
trims because if it shows it's adding a whole bunch of fuel or taking away a whole bunch of fuel
then I need to go looking other directions like maybe for a vacuum leak or something
or even a mass airflow sensor that's that's really dirty because that car if it's one owner and you
somebody didn't drive it a whole lot it's possible that mass airflow sensor is dirty and it's not
letting the car read the fuel that is the primary source of the fuel trim on that car and if it's
just dirty it will throw your miles per gallon way off I've seen cars go from and if it's doing that
it can cause other problems by dumping more fuel and for sure besides just dumping more fuel so
if he's handy he could clean that himself of course as just a preemptive strike.
Barrenman B12 Chemtool it's a great product our partner makes and if you take that sensor out
and you spray it and you can just let it air dry or just blow on it don't use compressed air just
Chris says what do you do Chris? Yeah just like that. It's a Nintendo cartridge. Yeah just be gentle
with it. Not that hard. Nintendo yeah some of these people don't know what Nintendo they're not.
You know that's old guys like us know. Right. Atari 2600? Oh wait what's a Nintendo that I
saw on TV the Switch? That's even kind of old. But do they still have that cartridge? Yeah oh I
don't know if they have cartridges. They have little plug-in cartridges. Everything was downloaded
no. No no there's actual little yeah. Okay. All right. No the switch actually went to no
cartridges. My kids have got them yeah. That's what I'm thinking. What was the one before that?
Was it the crystal set? Did you make your own crystal set to pull in KDK? 2600 Atari? All right so
you do need to have somebody spend it if you don't have it yourself spend a buck or two and
have somebody do a scan on it for the fuel trims and no check engine lights right? Okay.
No check engine lights. The car is beautiful. It's super clean. Underneath the car is super clean.
The engine bay this car is definitely one owner. I don't know who owned it. I found a car under the
seat. It's like cardiovascular or something. But it might have been an older person.
Or a doctor. Could be a young doctor and dropped his own car. Or like me just likes a lot of
burgers. Just getting out there. Just so many stories we get to get. But Nigel your
instinct there is right that you'd need to get that checked out. I don't know what his driving
if it's sporting up and down and hitting the low range hitting the manual shift and playing around
a little bit on a couple streets as you're driving on you could easily bring that thing down to a
low mileage per gallon. But it would even out eventually. I'm kind of curious about these
drives he's talking about. When he said two exits I thought oh he's jumping on it.
Nigel thanks very much for the call. Good luck. 866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here
at the Under the Hood Show. Let's talk to Jonathan. You're on the Under the Hood Show. Jonathan what
can we do for you? Hey I have a 2000 Buick Le Sabre Limited and just recently the backlighting
core digital display on the instrument cluster went dark on me so I can't see what what the
shifter's seeing. The odometer, all of the mileage stuff that you can pull up on the
driver information center. None of that is readable. Is that going to be a fuse or am I
looking to replace the cluster for that problem? Is all of your other lighting I say all but is
your radio temp control is that stuff still seem pretty normal? Yes the the lighting the lighting
for the gauges and and so on the radio everything like that is is is still working all with the
all of the analog looking gauges. I believe they're still digital driven but you know the
analog looking gauges the speedometer is working correctly. All right well we just wanted to make
sure it wasn't like an ambient light sensor issue if this car had the different lighting packages
because sometimes that can get screwed up and shut down lighting during the day that normally
you would have and call or at night but it sounds to me that's not a cluster that they
used to have if you've ever took one apart in an old vehicle where you had bulbs you replaced in
the back. That's an integrated assembly with printed circuit boards that have diodes and
LEDs and everything that create that allure the background effect and if it's not working it's
typically a problem with that cluster. It's not a separate fuse for that or anything or you'd have
more systems down I believe and so our is this the GM cluster or is this a different this isn't a
well-known one to have problems but we we bring up the GM cluster we're kind of hard on them
because they've got a run of them in very popular trucks they've got a run of them in very popular
cars in polys and Monte Carlos and stuff that were bad and every manufacturer's got some that go bad
so right but we just talk about the other ones quite a bit because there there's so many of them.
I just read an article that said less than one percent of this vehicle has this issue but that
is more than some vehicles have in their entire run so it was kind of a it was what it was an
article about that how that can be misleading but. Russ was there ever a big run on the saber
clusters being bad? No we had a couple of them because the odometer wouldn't light up and the
shift indicator but just like a couple of them ever compared to a couple hundred of the Chevy
trucks yeah so in this particular instance is this a I'll ask the same question I asked earlier
in the show is this a super low mileage vehicle or is it something that is a work car or what's
the condition of the car? It hit a deer last year still has a wrinkled fender and hood and
I replaced the headlight that it took out but other than that last oil change was at 220 or 225
all right you've walked me right into my answer then if the car's got 200 miles on it it's not
something you're trying to maintain and preserve as a low mileage you know this is what I'm going
to use as a sales pitch when I get rid of it you are probably best served just to pick up a used
instrument cluster with a warranty and you know maybe you can find something close to your same
miles but pick one up and you can do that either through one of our partners like car dash part
and find one that has one maybe already on the shelf that they dismantled or they have a vehicle
that has one in it or in some areas you can go to a self-service yard and like at our particular
place we have a a kiosk where you can look up fitment to figure out what fits what and you
could probably get a cluster for less than 30 bucks that you can stick in there yourself if you're
handy and try it and see if the problem goes away and that's a pretty cheap remedy at that
point for that age and era of a car now once again if you are have a vehicle that you're
concerned about mileage on once you change that cluster unless you send it in through a remand
program you then have to declare that vehicle as not actual miles because you've switched the miles
but it just doesn't affect the value when they're that old that's what I want to get across to
one that you can read the mileage with an OBD2 sensor with that okay you might be able to get a
flashlight and shine in there and look and sometimes you can see the remainder of those LCDs and
also on those dimmer switches that you know try your dimmer switch that's good that's good like
move it around a little bit and see if you can play with and see if it'll because sometimes it's
that switch that goes bad that's a good point because the lighting for those instrument clusters
is separate from the LCD so when you put power to the LCD the more power the dimmer it gets
and then it works kind of opposite the more power the brighter the LEDs get so
you know the backlight in there so it's possible that there's something going on with the
with the dimming circuit which would mean if you turned all the headlights completely off the
auto lights and everything if they come on it's in that dimming circuit if you know how much you
drive I'm just trying to figure out if he would even need to replace it that's what I'm hoping
for like you can just ignore that part and oh you can feel if it's in drive reverse you know
where that you know neutral and then one gear okay we're in drive and as far as miles go if you
don't care what the miles are you can you can kind of figure that up change oil every so often
so often keep track of that though because that's so often goes goes quick really it's been three
years Jonathan thanks very much for the call 866-594-4150 back to Colorado let's talk to Chris
you're on the under the hood show Chris what can we do for you well a couple things I have a 22 year
old Ford S-cord and the S-cord I gotta get it replaced for the daughter and I'm not sure I'm not
car techie but I'm pretty sure I'm listening to that cluster problem and this one has got some
electrical issues but I can't get the headlights even though I've used the kit to uh be brighter
and then she said that the uh put the cup and go to put the charger into the cigarette thing
it's not working and yesterday we had a snowstorm a couple days ago and turned on the defrost and
it wasn't working so this car is on its way out it's been a reliable car or whatever we've needed
but we need to get it by and I'm a single mom so it's you know a lot of us out there don't
know about what's the best car because we can't necessarily buy a very expensive car for our kids
so we're trying to find something that you would recommend um you don't want to go lithium or
Prius or anything like that because um the instability of not having even an electrical
plug and state of Colorado is to forget it if you want to try to charge something so we're just
like okay we need to find out uh where exactly or what exactly you gentlemen would proffer as
what would be a good car for a 22 year old she wants a six shift she does excuse me a regular
power automatic instead of a six shift and uh I just need your help
oh boy there there are so many things out there to find a car that's fairly reliable with a manual
transmission you're gonna have to go to something a little older because they've stopped making manual
transmissions and most everything but Honda's Honda Civics were very reliable uh you go back a few
years when they still made a stick shift in one they're going to be a little more affordable
because they're a little older but they're still really reliable they've got a timing chain instead
of a timing belt so you don't have to worry about the maintenance of that overall they're very low
maintenance you basically just drive them and they have really good headlights so if I was looking
for a car and I say this I've got a couple nephews who have the Honda Civics and they are
like 2014, 2015 models and I've driven them they've got great lighting and they were fairly
affordable I remember their parents both called me and asked me about the cars when they were
getting them because you know it's like we're not car people what do we what do we do here for a car
is it a good car or not so that's one one place to look you know um otherwise you can ask if you
got a local mechanic you use now and then for some car repairs you can ask them the same question
they could probably go into a little more detail on the easy answer is the Corolla in the Civic right
I mean that's the Corolla you're not going to find with a manual trans you get back a little bit older
for that yeah but if you want to look at you know at an automatic trans if you can get over that say
let's go with automatic then definitely a Honda Accord a Honda Civic Toyota Corolla a well maintained
high mileage car you don't have to be scared of as often right for the for a price point that works
Chris thanks very much for the call hope that helps you out a little bit that'll do it for this
hour of The Under the Hood Show until next time you can find us at UnderTheHoodShow.com don't forget
if you want to watch the show you can watch it on our YouTube channel you can find that link
at UnderTheHoodShow.com or just go to YouTube and search for The Under the Hood Show for
Shannon Nordstrom for Russ Evans I'm Chris Carter thanks for joining us on The Under the Hood Show
with Russ Evans this is Shannon Nordstrom thanking you for tuning into The Nordstroms Under the
Hood Show have a great day and remember PTLA the opinions heard on this program based on the many
years of experience of Russ and Shannon are offered for entertainment value only and as a guide to
your repair needs no claim to repair or cause is given or implied always consult with your own
certified technician and follow all safety procedures before attempting any repair to be a part of the
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and may not be used without our permission copyright Nordstroms Automotive Inc.
About this episode
Listeners are treated to a mix of automotive advice and troubleshooting tips as the hosts tackle various listener questions. Topics include diagnosing check engine lights, maintenance tips for a 2017 F-150, and the intricacies of adaptive cruise control in a 2020 Chevy Silverado. The hosts also discuss the importance of regular maintenance for older vehicles, like a 2000 Buick Le Sabre, and offer insights on reliable car options for a young driver. With engaging discussions and practical advice, this episode provides valuable insights for car enthusiasts and everyday drivers alike.
