Can You Fix Your Car Yourself With Help From These Guys - Maybe
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Concept
Electric car insurance
Insurance for electric cars can cost differently than for gas cars. That’s usually because EV repairs—especially battery-related parts—can be more expensive.
Part
Replica OEM wheels
Replica OEM wheels are aftermarket wheel designs made to match the look of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) wheels. They’re often cheaper than true OEM wheels, but quality can vary by brand—so it’s worth checking load rating, fitment, and finish.
Car
2019 Equinox Premier
This is a Chevrolet Equinox SUV from 2019, in the Premier trim. The caller’s problem is electrical—things like the radio and the power windows aren’t working reliably.
Company
GM
GM is the company that made the car. They’re saying the exact replacement wiring part isn’t being sold anymore by GM, so you have to use other repair methods.
Concept
wires flexing from repeated door opening/closing
Door-jamb wiring failures are often caused by repeated bending and flexing of the wire bundle at the hinge/door transition. Over time, the insulation and conductors fatigue, leading to broken wires and intermittent electrical issues.
Part
butt connector that's heat shrink
A butt connector is a small piece that joins two wire ends together. The “heat shrink” part means you heat it and it tightens like a seal, helping keep water out and protecting the connection.
Term
weatherproofing
Weatherproofing means keeping water away from the wire connection. If water gets in, the connection can corrode and start acting up.
Term
insulated very well
Insulation is the protective coating on the wire. You want the repair covered well so the wires don’t short out and don’t get damaged by moisture.
Term
pins
Pins are the little metal contacts inside the connector that carry the electricity. Checking the pins helps make sure the wires will plug in correctly and work the right way.
Term
splice
A splice is how you connect two pieces of wire together. In a car, it has to be sealed well so moisture doesn’t cause the connection to fail later.
Term
VIN number
VIN is like your car’s fingerprint. It helps you figure out exactly what your car was built with, so you can buy parts that actually fit.
Term
memory seat
A memory seat lets you save your preferred seat position. Then you can press a button and the seat moves back to that spot automatically.
Term
combination wrenches
A combination wrench has two useful ends. One end grips the bolt loosely, and the other end grips it more tightly so you’re less likely to strip the bolt.
Term
sockets
Sockets are the “heads” that fit over nuts and bolts. They connect to a handle so you can turn fasteners more easily and with less slipping.
Term
ratchet
A ratchet is a tool handle that lets you tighten or loosen fasteners with a back-and-forth motion while only turning in one direction. It’s especially useful in tight engine-bay spaces where you can’t swing a full wrench.
Term
vice grip type pliers
“Vice-grip” style pliers are locking pliers that clamp onto a part and hold it in place without constant squeezing. They’re handy for roadside fixes like holding a hose, securing a cable, or gripping a stubborn fastener.
Company
advanced auto parts
Advanced Auto Parts is a major U.S. retailer of automotive parts, tools, and accessories. The hosts are directing listeners to buy the toolkit there, which is relevant for DIYers who want to assemble or replace basic roadside gear.
Term
fender
A fender is the metal/plastic panel above the wheel. If it gets damaged, shops may replace it with a used or new one, and the price can jump if the part is hard to find.
Term
seat belt buckled
This refers to a seat-belt interlock that can block the starter/ignition circuit. In the transcript, the car “won’t crank” unless the seat belt is buckled, which forces the driver to be restrained before starting. It’s an older approach to improving compliance with seat-belt use.
Company
car-part.com
They’re pointing you to car-part.com to find car parts online. It’s meant to be a big marketplace, especially useful when you can’t find something locally.
Term
OEM replica wheels
OEM replica wheels are aftermarket wheels made to look like the factory wheels. They’re a way to get the same style without paying OEM prices.
Company
Berkeley One Classics
Berkeley One Classics is an insurance company they trust for special cars. The point is that they help set up coverage that fits your vehicle.
Concept
recycled parts
Buying recycled (used) parts typically costs less than new parts and can reduce environmental impact by keeping components out of landfills. For DIY repairs, it can also be a way to source discontinued or hard-to-find parts.
Company
Road Ready Wheels
Road Ready Wheels sells replacement wheels for cars. They’re advertising wheels that are designed to work with your car’s existing center caps and tire-pressure sensors.
Concept
TPMS sensors
TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) sensors are devices mounted in or near the wheel that measure tire pressure and alert the driver when pressure is low. When changing wheels, you often need to ensure the new setup can work with your existing TPMS sensors (or replace them).
Part
Aftermarket wheels
Aftermarket wheels are wheels you buy that aren’t the original factory ones. They can change how your car looks and sometimes how it drives, but they have to be the right size and fit correctly.
Term
fuel gauge
Your fuel gauge is the dashboard light that shows how much gas you have. It depends on a sensor in the gas tank, so if the wiring or ground is wrong, the gauge can lie.
Term
grounded
In a car, “ground” is the electrical path back to the battery. If the ground connection is loose or corroded, sensors and gauges can act weird or stop working.
Term
vinyl top
A vinyl top is a fake “roof” covering made of vinyl material. On older cars, it was a popular style choice, and replacing it correctly can be part of restoring the car’s original look.
Term
brakes
Brakes are discussed as another maintenance item, with the speaker noting that at least one friend needed brakes. EVs often use regenerative braking to reduce pad wear, but friction brakes can still be needed for harder stops and long-term maintenance.
Term
iron phosphate
Iron phosphate is one of the materials inside an LFP battery. It’s part of what makes this battery chemistry cheaper, but it also affects how the battery can be recycled later.
Term
EVs
EVs are electric cars. They use electricity to move, but they still have other electronics that need power too.
Concept
high voltage system vs low voltage systems
EVs have two power “worlds”: the big battery that drives the car, and the smaller 12-volt system for electronics. The 12-volt side still matters a lot for everyday features.
LIVE
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Here is the Under the Hood Show podcast.
Thanks for listening.
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.
Hey, 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 calls coming in.
You want to go right away?
Or you got anything to get right to?
I think we go right to our hoodies.
All right.
Let's start in Michigan.
We'll talk to Don.
Don, you're on the Under the Hood Show.
What can we do for you?
I'm going to need some help with the 2019 Equinox Premier
60,000 miles.
Last week, Sunday, when I, it's my wife's car,
when I opened the door, the radio didn't shut off.
And then I drove the next day.
Same thing happened in the power windows were not working.
I grabbed the rubber boot that goes between the door
and the frame.
And when I shook it, it started to work again.
So I think I have broken wires in there.
And I just have some questions about the best way
to repair those because the replacement harness is no
longer available from GM.
Sure.
Yeah, the broken wires in a door jam is really common
because it's like a coat hanger.
You bend it so many times and it breaks.
And you must be one of those people that opens
and closes the door a lot.
I have not seen this on an Equinox yet.
Russ.
But we know how to fix it.
What do you do with your coat hangers?
Well, sometimes when I need to use a coat hanger to get
into a door or something, I'll bend it back and forth
until it breaks.
So you're in an improper use of a coat hanger,
how it would break?
Yeah, I'm not kind of the guy that will walk all the way
across to the side of the shop to grab my wire cutters
and chew them up.
I'll just.
Bend and bend until it breaks.
Here we go.
I just wanted to make sure the reference was solid
in people's minds.
Right, right.
That you have a, you have a large selection of very
cheap coat hangers that come in with a uniform service.
Are they always available as a tool?
I've always got probably 50 of them there.
That's why we get the surcharge for coat hangers.
Who has not been to coat hangers until it's broken?
I just thought it would add some fun to the call.
That's all.
So those wires in those doors,
a lot of times even the wire will break inside of the
plastic because you can't bend plastic enough
till it breaks typically.
It's usually the wire inside and then it pulls apart.
The easiest way to fix that is going to be to
remove the door panel, unplug all the wiring,
and then take the kick panel and pull that off.
And you'll have to pull the little door sill off.
It just snaps off and then the kick panel and then
pull some of the, you'll pull the boot loose and you'll
pop the two little plastic retainers out that hold it in.
They just snap out, hold it into the door in the body,
and then pull the harness back where you can get to it.
If you've disconnected everything from the car,
you can pull that harness out maybe a foot or more
and get, so you can get in there and fix it.
And we usually replace the damaged section with a
butt connector that's heat shrink for weatherproofing.
And the reason we do that is because you're going to lose that.
Yeah, you'll lose a little bit of wire when you trim those ends.
So the butt connector is going to add about a quarter to a
half inch on each connector, which is great.
It gives you the extra room.
So when you cut it and you try to splice it,
you can't put the ends together, but you can put them in a
butt connector and then do them one at a time,
heat them up, put them together.
And then you don't want to wrap tape around all those
to bind them together.
Because if you do, when the door closes and opens,
it's going to put another tension point and break other stuff.
So we leave them loose because they're in the tube,
sliding the way they should.
Put it all back together and you're good to go.
It's not a real difficult job.
You just want to make sure you get them all insulated very well.
And pull on any of them that don't look broken.
Just gently pull on them and see if the wire is broken inside
of the rubber coating.
And otherwise, they might look fine, but they're not.
You get it all put together and go, oh, come on,
now the speaker doesn't work, all that work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you think there's going to be enough wire there?
I think so.
The butt connector, because that was my concern if they got
stretched out.
Okay.
And then the other question I had for you.
I could buy a new harness that the Premier has the memory door
or the memory seat feature that's the harness they don't make.
Is it possible to buy a new harness and then just swap
the wires over for the memory door?
I would fix it.
I would just fix it because you could compare the two and look
at the pins and all that stuff, but that's a lot of work.
I think I would just repair the wires if it makes it another
five, six years and you have to make another repair.
You could do that too, but I wouldn't go to the trouble
of putting the whole harness in there.
And when you get that other harness, I've seen some issues
trying to get harnesses lately.
You may not even get what you...
It may not work for what you're doing.
Getting the exact number is the only way to do it.
Don, I've got to just jump in here and think again.
The door in this car, 2019, sounds pretty new.
It's seven years old.
It's 60,000 miles.
Is the use of this car like door-to-door salesman,
or is somebody jumping in and out of this thing all the time?
Door dash.
Is there anything unique about how this vehicle is used?
I mean, my wife does make a lot of short trips in it,
but not door-dash, not Uber.
I'm very surprised.
I was just curious because I mean...
That it went at 60,000 miles too.
We have had people that just don't feel as confident about
doing the wiring repair or they've got a type of a harness
where they don't have a bunch of extra wire.
There's so many little inventions out there now for
for splice and wires.
You see that there's things you can get,
but you can sometimes find a recycler on like car dash part
that has a late model rolled over vehicle or something like that.
They're not going to do it for 20 bucks.
But if you knew by VIN number that it had the matching options,
it's a little bit of a gamble.
And wouldn't you think that if you buy a whole harness,
like if I'm coming to you, Shannon, and I say,
I need a harness for the Zequinox, here's the part number,
and you say, oh, I've got one that matches.
The cost of your labor to pull it and the cost of that harness
would probably be similar to him buying a brand new from GM.
If it's available.
And like in this case, it's not available, he said.
But I mean, if you could get a used harness for,
that was in good shape for 125 bucks,
you might think that's worth it.
Somebody else might think that's ridiculous.
Right.
But you're not going to find somebody that's going to search
through five harnesses and then sell it for 30 bucks.
Right.
You know, it's just not going to happen anymore.
But no, I did go on.
I did do kardashpark.com.
There are two or three vehicles out there.
In fact, you've got one of them in your yard.
I don't know if you would pull the harness.
I just said I might for 125 bucks.
Well, if my repair job doesn't go good, that's a cheap price.
Well, and some of those prices, the new are ridiculous.
You look up some of those harnesses, sometimes they're like,
oh yeah, a door harness, $87 is your cost.
The other one's like $190.
And then all of a sudden you'll get one.
It's like $640.
Like what the heck?
That doesn't work.
And so what I'll do sometimes we get into a pinch.
Sometimes we'll look up like a door window regulator
and find out somebody that's got a door window regulator
for sale that's still in a vehicle.
And that tells me they've got a door for parts or a door glass.
Right.
And then you can see if it's got similar options
and kind of go down that road.
Yeah, I thought about going to a U-Pullet yard
to see if I could find one.
Probably too new.
I guess it's been hard to find one.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
It's been hard to find one that has the Premier package.
And you could tell the minute you open the door
or the pictures on Cardass Park,
that you know it's not a Premier.
So you know it doesn't have the memory seat.
That's sort of the hard harness to find because I spent
probably three hours on Cardass Park trying to pick through.
Sometimes when we have, like our facility's a little bit unique here,
what we do, we have a very hybrid facility.
So there are times that we'll take and when we're,
I'll say use the term crushing out a row in our full service yard,
we'll take some of the late model vehicles
that still got pieces left on them
and we'll put them into the self-service yard.
So then you can see 2019 end up in there.
Otherwise, at the cost of that 2019 equinox,
it's very seldom going to end up in a self-service yard
unless something like that happened
where we had a rollover and we got the drivetrain out of it.
We really didn't need much else off it.
We might rest it in our self-service yard for a little bit
and let people pick away at it.
But otherwise, probably newer than you'll ever find
in most of the self-service yards.
Don, thanks very much for the call.
Good luck.
And there was a time when if,
I was just thinking if the door didn't work,
you could just, I remember having cars in my life
where you couldn't use the door,
so you just got in the other door.
Can't do that anymore.
Can't just slide across.
Very hard.
Time to leave our window down so you can reach in.
Exactly.
866-594-4150.
That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show.
Hey, what do you say we give away
an advanced auto parts toolkit?
We said last week to comment on our stream
or send us a message and we have a winner.
Tell us about the toolkit.
Well, they're giving away a 73-piece roadside
emergency toolkit.
It's one of those picture of the things.
You've seen them before, folks.
You roll it up so you can store it easily.
You pull the tie.
You can squeeze it in somewhere in the trunk
or in the behind the seat.
Stuff it under your seat in a pickup,
whatever you know in the passenger side.
But you roll it out and you're going to find
like combination wrenches in there.
Some sockets in there as well with the ratchet,
a flashlight, a cutter, all the things.
The stuff that you're reaching for,
the vice grip type pliers, you're reaching for those babies
when you have some kind of breakdown on the side of the road.
You're going to have to hold your phone over the thing.
It is truly a roadside emergency toolkit.
And it's from Die Hard, so it's going to be solid, folks.
It'll work up in the north.
Congratulations to Joseph Tester.
Sent us a message on YouTube last week.
He is our winner.
We will send that out to him.
Thanks for listening.
And that's a good reason to watch our YouTube channel
and listen to the podcast and our social media stuff.
Yeah, we do stuff.
So you can find out who's got the best stuff,
like advanced auto parts.
And if you're not Joseph and you didn't win it,
you can still go get one, go to advanced auto parts.
Pick one up for your kids.
Hey, spring break is ending back to school.
I got so many people saying, oh, my kid's going back.
They wait until the end of the week and said,
can I get in Friday because they're leaving Saturday
to go back to wherever I'm at?
No, you should have called me two weeks ago.
Well, I knew they were coming.
Go get them a roadside toolkit from advanced auto parts.
866-594-4150, that's the number to reach us here.
What have you guys noticed in the last week?
Some of the things that happen in our industry
sometimes are kind of interesting.
And there was a fire at the plant where aluminum parts are sourced
for Ford.
And it's been causing a lot of problems.
Sounds like a horrible smelting accident.
It is a horrible smelting accident.
But they are having a hard time matching demand
for building trucks.
And they've been trying to get that back on track.
But it's also affected the repair market.
And so right now, I believe it's 21 newer Ford F-150s.
Fenders are on back order.
Oh, joy.
And so Scott, one of our top sales guys here
that works with all the customers,
he was looking for one for a shop that
was trying to finish a vehicle.
And somebody had a good one.
And the price of that fender used is they
wanted close to $1,500 for the fender.
That normally would cost $300 to $500 give or take.
And so supply and demand is in full force.
And so we see that every once in a while.
During COVID, there was certain like the fan controller
or the transmission controllers.
Oh, the Duramax fan, the trans controller.
Yeah, some of those, they used to be like a $400 part.
And the market drove them where people
were selling them on eBay.
Us included for $2,000, $3,000, $4,000.
I bought one the other day for like $3.48.
Yeah, it was like what?
And there was like five in stock.
Yeah, and that was not that long ago that people
were combing the country trying to find these parts
because people had, people broke down out of town.
People couldn't get back where they were going
because that part was just simply not available.
And when it's not available, the market will dictate price.
So if that's something that's interesting,
I just hit my radar this week, I'm like,
that's a pretty, you take the number one selling truck
in America and you can't get a fender for it.
That's unusual.
I would think so. 866-594-4150.
Let's talk to Lorenzo.
You're on the end of the hood show.
Lorenzo, what can we do for you?
All right, check this out, man.
Pleased to meet you.
Thank you for having me.
But check it out.
I had a 1974 Cutlass Supreme and like I was telling
the gentleman, the first time I went out with my wife to be,
she sat down and we're getting ready to go.
And I turned the key and it went click, click, click, click.
And then she looked at me and I was like,
I was like, you're going to lift,
you need to lift your tushy in order for the car to start.
And she goes, what?
No way, no way.
I said, no, look, click, click, click, click.
And so, like I told the gentleman,
talk about the icebreaker, right?
I was like, and she lifted her tushy and he went boom.
And it started right up, right?
And I was like, she was like, no way, no way.
And I was like, I don't know what's going on.
That's just the way the car is, right?
And she goes, no way, you're pushing some kind of button.
No, you're doing something, right?
I go, so I said, no, for reals, look.
So we got out of the car, she got in the driver's seat.
I got in the passenger seat.
And I go, go ahead.
And she goes, click, click, click, click.
And I go, okay, now look, I left my tushy.
And I lifted up and boom, it started right up.
And, but, you know, hey, a few months later, we were married.
So I don't know what happened after that.
This is, we're sitting here listening with smiles on our faces.
If you're watching on YouTube, you'd see that.
Trying to understand where this is going to end.
At the altar.
It ended at the altar, Chris.
Yeah, it did.
So how long ago did this happen?
Oh man, okay, I'll check this out.
My oldest is, let's see, he's 33.
So before that.
All right, so this is not a recent marriage.
This is a 74 cutlass.
This happened a long time ago.
Yeah, I did, I did.
Okay.
When I heard you on the radio, I heard about,
I thought about my brother-in-law.
He used to listen to that clicking clock.
Sure, sir.
He was in love with that other radio.
You know what I'm talking about?
Oh yeah, they're legends.
Oh yeah, man.
And when I heard you on the radio, I go,
boo, dude, this sounds, I looked at my son,
I go, do you know what, it sounds like that show
that I used to listen to, blah, blah, blah.
Well, it does now.
We have never had anybody say, lift their tushy on this show
in 36 years.
I don't think so.
That is a first.
And I don't understand how much of a lift that is
if it's elevation, one side, getting out of the car.
We've done that in the studio.
Yeah, we've had some events.
But I'm just trying to understand the correlation
between somebody in the passenger seat
lifting their body of any sort that would cause the car
to start.
In a 74.
And the fact that you knew to ask her to do that,
I think you were up to something.
No, no, no, check it out, check it out, check it out,
check it out.
I, it was one of those things, okay, look, my brain,
my brain kind of, I did EMS for like 10 years, right?
So my brain is like numbers, right?
It's always, and we were trying to figure out this,
that and the other, and kind of like Sherlock Holmes,
you know, the deduction, you know,
where he deducted all the reasons, right?
Well, we started, my kids were in there,
we started, started, started, nothing, nothing, nothing.
And then one time I popped the hood
and everything was checking everything out
and I reached in the window and I started it
with nobody on the seat, okay?
And it was like, boom, okay, okay, no problem.
Well, then we got in and everything, everything's cool.
We go to the store and no, that wasn't my boys.
That was one of my homies.
Yeah, that was one of my homies.
Because we got to the store and he went click, click, click,
click, and he's sitting in the seat, right?
And I was like, what the flip?
So then I got out and I said, hey, get out real quick, man.
And I got out and I started it through the window
and boom, it started right up.
And I was like, all right, man, there's some going on, dude.
So down the line, you know, it went click, click again.
And I said, dude, don't get out.
Just lift your butt, right?
And he's like, all right, cool.
And boom, it started up again.
I was like, what the?
1974 Cutlass Russ, is there anything that you could?
Oh, he's got a smile on his face.
He's got an idea.
He's got an idea.
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not all the cars had it.
I had a Vega that had it because I had to figure out the key thing.
You couldn't start the car unless the belt was clicked.
You had to have the seat belt buckled in order for it to crank.
And I don't remember, you know, almost every one of those was disabled.
The cars that had that, that was disabled immediately.
Nobody wanted to wear a seat belt in the 70s.
And 74 was the first year of the big body Cutlass.
Yeah.
So I'm just wondering if something was, I don't know if that car had, I'll bet it does.
I bet it was equipped with the, with the safety interlock,
buckle the seat belt in order to start it.
And either somebody had messed with the wiring or it was broken.
So if somebody was sitting on that, because those wires for the ignition system,
the starter circuit, there was a relay under the dash.
And then it had just a wire that ran under the seat.
So when the key was in the on position, that relay would connect the circuit.
So you could crank it in the start position, the heavier wire was under the dash.
But when it was open, you couldn't.
So I'll bet that car had that safety interlock system in it.
And it's for the driver side belt only, but somebody sitting on the seat over there,
it's going to rock and do stuff.
I bet that's what it was.
That's about the only thing that could do it unless the floor was rusted out and you had
a ground in the wrong place.
But I'll bet it was that seat belt interlock on that.
Lorenzo, thank you very much for the call.
The end of the hood show podcast is brought to you by exclusive sponsors like Berkeley
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Thanks for listening to the under the hood show podcast.
I'm Russ Evans with Shannon Nordstrom and Chris Carter.
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Welcome back, everybody. It's time to get back under the hood with a motor medics.
866-594-4150, that's the number to reach us here at the Under the Hood show.
Don't forget, if you miss an episode, you can catch it wherever you get your podcasts,
and you can watch the show on our YouTube channel.
And if you subscribe to the YouTube channel,
and join the Hoodie Fan Club at UnderTheHoodShow.com, you could win a hoodie.
Like Bernice Barrett, congratulations from all of us here under the hood,
and our friends over at Berkeley One Classics,
celebrating over 50 years of collector car coverage.
You can find them at BerkeleyOneClassics.com.
I have a problem with my hoodie.
Thanks to producer Doug, it's a zip-up hoodie, and now that's all I want.
I have other hoodies that I just don't.
I'm wearing out my Under the Hood Show hoodie because I have a zip-up,
and it's fantastic, and it's ruined other hoodies for me.
I know my head's getting too fat if I can't get the hoodie over the top, the regular one,
and I can. So as long as that's still good,
you're good. You can't call me a fathead anymore until I can't get that hoodie off.
Yeah, I can. 866-594-414. Staying out of this one.
Let's go to Kansas and talk to Mike here on the Under the Hood Show.
Mike, what can I do for you? Me? What can I do, or all of us? Up to you.
I've got a 1964 Galaxy 500 XL two-door passback that I've had restoration done on it,
and they put a Dakota Digital system in for the gauges, and everything's working pretty good.
What pretty well accepts a dog on a fuel gauge? It didn't want to register correctly, and they've
tried over and over again to fix it and correct it. They put a replacement fuel tank in when they
did the restoration, and it's got a vertical sending unit in the tank, or not vertical,
horizontal, I'm sorry. It goes in from the front of the tank to the towards the rear of the car,
and they had to do some adjustment to the shaft of that float to get it to read correctly.
And now it does. It'll come on, sometimes it'll be empty, sometimes it'll be full,
sometimes it'll be in the middle, sometimes it won't come up and give you display on the
Dakota Digital with four dashes and a fuel indicated on there, so it's not reading it.
So I got to looking at the instructions more, and it said something about having a double ground
twisted together, double ground wire from the control box from the Dakota Digital unit
back to the fuel tank and the sending unit, and they didn't do that. I'm wondering if that could
be the cause of it. You either have a programming issue, because it's programmed incorrectly,
that has to be set up, because you can program it for any fuel gauge you want, any resistance,
it's really easy, we did lots of those, or you have a problem with the wiring, ground loop,
or you've got a bad sending unit. So what we typically do on that, what we would do,
and we had one, and I don't even know where it's at anymore if we even have it, but we had a fuel
sending unit simulating device. We bought that thing for like 30 bucks, you can still buy them,
I'm sure, on Amazon, but what you do is you go back to the back, you take your fuel sending wire,
connect it to one of these alligator clips on this box, you connect the other wire coming out
of the box to a ground, and then you turn the dial, and it had a switch, low to high and high to low.
So for Ford, on that one, if the wire is not connected, the fuel gauge reads empty. If the
wire is not connected on a GM, the gauge goes all the way to full, it's broken on full. So on a GM,
if you ground it, it'll go to empty. On a Ford, if you ground it, it goes to full, it's broken on
empty. So what we did with this little box, it has resistance marked right on it, and you start
at the bottom and you dial it up, you go all the way to full, all the way to empty, back and forth,
and flip the switch for Ford, Chrysler, switched over for GM, super cheap, super simple, it's just
a variable resistor, like an old slot car, AFX controller thing, you know, pretty easy. That's
the way you can test and find out if it's a gauge problem or a car problem. Could be in the sending
unit, but I would start if the sending is in the tank, and you have a question, just run a temporary
wire from the control box all the way back to that sending unit and ground it, so that you know
you've got a good signal wire and you've got a good ground from the tank all the way to the front,
and it's working. Did they put an electric fuel pump in that tank? Is it an aftermarket like that?
Yes, it is. Okay, if that tank is not grounded 100%, when the pump, you're sitting in the driveway
with the key on and just reading the gauge, it might be fine, but going down the road, is that
pumps working? It may change the resistance a little bit of your ground, and it may not be
grounding good, so you want a good ground, that's why they're asking for a good sending unit ground
and a good signal wire back there, and also it's got to be programmed right, it'll allow you to
program whether the gauge goes from low to high resistance or high to low, and what the numbers
it used to work. Is that true? Yeah, it will. Well, okay, that answers. I bought the car.
I bought the car and it was in pretty bad shape, and I can't tell you for sure about the gas gauge,
I can't remember now, but I think it did work, yeah, when I first got the car. Okay, but I mean,
since you had it fixed or since you had it redone, it has not worked?
And once you think you have everything you've been able to do exhausted,
and you can't figure out where to go, call Dakota Digital. They are just a few miles from us here,
and they are a really nice family-owned business, we know them well, and they will help you with
that. They're really good people, they want their stuff to work because they want other people to
hear about it and buy it. That's how they make their sales, so they'll help you. Yeah, they're in
South Dakota, it's out Dakota Digital. Yeah, it's right down there. Yeah, the Ortmans own that,
they're good people, and they started out literally in a single-car garage, and now they're in a
facility that is ginormous and keeps growing. You wouldn't think, how many speedometers can we
engage in, can we sell in tail lights across the country? Tell them you talk to us, too.
It's a lot, yeah. They don't advertise us or anything, but we know them, so they're a local
company. Yeah. Should this unit have a groundwork coming to it? Yeah, well it needs to be grounded,
it at least needs to be grounded, for the sending unit needs to be grounded to the
body of the vehicle, and the body of the vehicle needs to be grounded to the frame,
and then your battery needs to be grounded to the frame, the body needs to be grounded,
everything needs to be grounded well, so if you have any doubt that that ground back there is not
perfect, and you've got an older car, it's possible that there's a break in there, you need
two wires, one for the signal, and one for the ground, all the way from the tank to the front.
All right, Mike, before we let you go, we have to do that. This is a Berkeley one classic, for sure.
Oh yeah, because we forgot the cutlass, that was too... Yeah, I was going to do that, but we run into
the bottom of the hour there. Before we let you go, we want to find out if this is definitely a
Berkeley one classics, so let's find out. We're going to guess the color, don't tell us what color
it is, but is the color it is now the original color it was when it was made? Yes, it is.
Okay, all right, now we can guess. I'm going red. I think the car is red. And I said black.
It's greenish. Greenish. Green, the green Ford Galaxy color. All right, Mike, what color is the car?
It's red with a black vinyl top. Look at me, how about that?
Mike, thanks very much for the call. Are you set now? Are you, do you get your,
you're all good on the fuel? What your next step is? Well, yeah, I think what I'm in the path and do
probably is go ahead and call Dakota Digital about it, but you know, you say that electric fuel,
if it's not grounded correctly, it could cause... Yeah, that's why you run another wire. Run a
ground, just a temporary one from the back to the front. You can even get yourself a long set of
jumper cables and clamp one to the sending unit back there to one of the metal lines coming out
and then clamp one up there at that box and see if it works. Mike, thanks very much for the call.
Good luck. 866-594-4150. I have a question about weather. We're going from, we've been in spring
for the last month and a half, then we went to winter. Now we're in kind of spring. We're going
to summer for a day or two and then back to winter. Is any of that matter to my car?
Not if it's in good shape, but if it's in poor shape, it's, yeah, it's horrible. You're going to
build condensation, you're going to have all sorts of issues going on. If you have a weak ignition
system, because we talk about, if you listen to this show, you know what coils are and misfires.
We talk about them all the time because it's a huge problem. If your coils are old and breaking
down, you will actually get some condensation build up down in those tubes. If they're in good
shape, they'll be fine. But when they're not, now is the time where those misfires, I will get
so many calls in the next five to 10 days from people saying, my car's, check engine lights
been flashed, it's running rough. Well, then it was good. And then it was running rough again. It
was like, you've never had these done. Yeah, I know. It's got 160,000 miles. Yeah, well,
why fix it? Look how far I got, right? And then, then they wonder, but you know,
we're going to go from like a almost 10 below zero. Was it 14 degrees last Saturday or something
like that? We're having an almost a 90 degree temperature swing. Yeah. You know, in a few days
and down south, they're also having, we're going to have those record highs here, but down south,
they're having record highs in the mid 90s, which is not normal for this time. Yeah. My daughters
in Phoenix and they're setting records. Aren't they going to be closer to 100? They're over 100.
It's for March. It's unheard of. So it's just craziness. Just craziness around the world.
Oh, I love that. I don't like the snow. I would take that heat every day over the snow. I just
cannot take anything under probably 60 degrees. It's not right. And I was reading a story about
some of the amusement parks in Florida having structural problems because the,
the weather they had over the winter, I mean, just recently where they've gotten down to 15
degrees or, you know, the coldest. There's whole parks that have been built that never have gotten
as cold as it's been the last couple of days. Were they engineered for that temperature? No,
most of the, like, you know, I'm from an area where they engineer stuff. They'll,
they'll build things 12 inches underground or a little bit further for a footing where up here,
we're 42 inches because we can get frost. Frost footing. Yeah. You know, it could freeze that
sometimes it'll freeze further than that. And you'll have your deck move or shift or something.
But down there, if you hit a cold enough temp for a long enough period, you'll get below that. And
if you do, if they, especially the grounds wet, it'll lift it. And you don't want a roller coaster.
I would imagine those have some pretty sturdy footings just for movement,
but I guarantee they're more than four feet, but just general expansion and contraction. Right.
You'll still allow for a certain amount, but what range do they engineer that for? And things get
wet. You know, you get old wood coasters and stuff where the woods wet. It never gets to that
temperature and then it freezes and gets cold. I mean, we're under the hood of everything here.
We like roller coasters and anything that moves. If it's got wheels or bearings and
electrical, we dig it. Right. Interested for sure. But the temperature swing this week,
we went from having, you better make sure your wipers are good because you can't see what's
going on. Everything is frozen. And the super cold, it just kept, this has quite been the variety.
We live in the land of infinite variety and we saw the infinite variety this entire time.
That is for sure. What else has caught your eyes in the automotive world?
I was watching learning because I own one, a article that was on auto blog on X and they
were doing, somebody had done a more comprehensive long-term study on taking a Toyota Camry hybrid
and comparing operational cost to a Tesla Model Y and trying to take that initial,
oh my gosh, look at the difference in cost between the electrical charges versus the
gasoline charges. And well, this study took into account the insurance cost, the depreciation of
vehicles. It took into account the charging at home versus paying to charge at the super charging
stations and brought all this into account and they had it down to cost per mile. And if you
wanted to ignore a few things, the electric was still competitive beyond the hybrid.
But once you started bringing in what you would consider all the factors, it equaled out in the
long-term of ownership and it was quite interesting just to read, like I said, and they were getting
it down to cents per mile and not everybody's going to care as much about their depreciation
or look at it that way. It's kind of an on for argument when you look at your daily spend,
but it was very interesting. It was on auto blog and it was a well done article I thought
and they weren't on any agenda. It didn't seem like, because most of those you read,
they seem like they're on an agenda to either bash the electric or push the electric.
And not even on purpose, just they go in with an attitude.
Trying to break a thought. And it came down very equal in the end. And then once they,
if you could charge at home and get some discounted rates and charge it off peak times,
then you're still winning. I was going to ask this a couple of weeks ago. I thought
EVs have been in mainstream for a while. How are the other parts of the vehicle
holding up? Have you had anything come in with, you know, I was thinking about struts and wheels.
I have several friends that drive cars from Mustangs. Most of them have Tesla's,
but the Mustangs and things like that. Yeah. Nothing. They're like,
I've put tires on these cars and as one of them put some brakes on their car,
they were using, they were not using the off pedal brake exist in the electric assist.
They just been driving like a regular car. Cause they didn't like the way it felt,
like a golf cart, when you let off and it would stop itself using the electric motors and recharge.
They didn't believe in that. So they weren't, they had to put brakes on it,
but they had 130,000 miles on the car. The other ones have done absolutely zero
to their cars as far as maintenance goes, other than the tires. And right away,
they had to put tires on them and there were those low rolling resistance tires.
Well, and you got that.
They were tires a little quicker too with the weight.
One of them had a window problem in the Tesla where they had to get the window
regulator repaired. It just stopped midway and was open for a month. They had it taped up.
Is that a Model S?
Yeah, it was. Did you see one?
No, I was when we were at Gruber Motors in Phoenix where they do a lot of Tesla repairs.
They specialize in the Tesla Roadsters. They're one of the, they're the premier Tesla Roadster
repairer in the country. Plus they do all kinds of Tesla stuff. I believe there was
five of them sitting out front with taped up windows. Cause a window regular problems.
Those just happened to be in that particular year range. They had a, they had a problem.
It wasn't anything that was like, they'll fix them. They said, we'll get them fixed.
We know what to do. It's just something that is happening there.
But you know, the people that I know that happened to is the same thing as the maintenance has been
very little. Just not a lot going on there. I did see with in Tennessee, the LG plant that was
making the Altium batteries, they had laid off a lot of workers because GM kind of took a different
path. And then of course with the, the changes, then it went ahead and went forward, but they've
just recalled 700 employees to that plant. And those 700 employees are being recalled.
And what they're going to do is they're going to start making the Altium batteries
for secondary storage systems. Okay. And so there's enough demand for that. I've
mentioned maybe before on the air where we're actually, the batteries we're removing from
these cars are going to Redwood technologies and Redwood technologies is using them in a
new division that they have to make the data centers. Right. And so they're taking and
storing the power from solar into the, into the, they've made a battery management system
that can manage multiple different conditions of batteries and pull them together to power these
miniature data centers that are being used for super computing with AI and other things.
Well, and I read an article the other day that said to everywhere here that it's kind of stalled,
but everywhere else, China, Europe, they're still going full, full forward and the technologies
that even though we're not seeing the advances in technology, they're still happening. They just
haven't come back to us yet because the, the attitude has changed here, but how they're
some of the battery technologies that have switched, that have advanced over the years
are still advancing. So if, and it was kind of an article about if they get back in,
they're not going to get back in where they got out the, the, the domestics,
but they're also not waiting on it elsewhere. Right. And the big switch now is to LFP technology
in the batteries. And that technology is making for more affordable batteries. The new
making it for one year only 2027 should be bolt is using different technologies. And, you know,
there's other manufacturers that are racing to this technology because it's more affordable.
But what we're learning on the backside is that it's very difficult on the recycling stream again.
Yeah. And it's a different technology. It's iron phosphate being used instead of some of
the other materials, uh, rare earths that were being used. And so it makes the battery more
affordable to produce. It makes the battery because of the technologies they've came up with,
more efficient, but it makes it a bigger problem for figuring out what to do with them when they're
done, when the cars are, are wrecked or, or if their vehicles are needing to be recycled.
We talked about this a while ago, but someone, I can't, I wish I could remember who, um, one of
them, they've, they've been able to recycle lithium ion into a new battery. They were able to make
that conversion and they said, if they can scale that up, that'll be a game changer for, for those.
And I think that was where the article also said that by the time they're able to do that,
that might be old technology. Yeah. So it's just a thing that you have to deal with.
You ride in a roller coaster and it's changing super fast. Yeah. And funny, I'd bring up a roller
coaster after we just talked about that. Yeah. As your, as your son go back to the roller coaster
thing, you know, he works down there in the Disney parks as part of what he does. Have,
as he noticed, have they had any problems or anything that they're, that they're worried about
or? Yeah, that actually, I sent him that article and he was talking about one of the rides down
there that closed for a while and they didn't know, there was no word as to why they were like,
it just closed for the day and then it stayed closed. And then someone that he works with
at a different, not where he works said, yeah, we're seeing it, we're seeing metal.
Some of the new stuff that we've built has never been through a winter and going down to 16 or 19
degrees. We're seeing some issues with that, just like. So they need to carefully inspect
the entire system, which I want them to. Yeah. And this wasn't even a ride, it was just their
facility, you know, just a regular facility thing, like, I don't know if it was the vehicle,
I don't know what it was, but he said, yeah, we're seeing issues with the cold snaps we had,
because they were so, one of them said too, he thinks it's because it was so fast. It was 70
degrees during the day, 15 overnight and then back up and some of the stuff just couldn't handle it.
Some of the physical parts just couldn't handle that switch. So.
Well, you have that to consider, you know, going back to the EVs, or I jumped off there again,
but going back to the EVs, the other thing that people forget when you talk about maintenance,
the thing that they will need eventually, just like any other vehicle is you need a 12 volt
battery. Right. And that's where the, our partners at Clarios make the batteries, the AGM
batteries, and that's a big, big deal in a EV is you still have to have a very, very strong
and good 12 volt battery, because there's so many onboard systems, the navigation systems and
everything else that are going on in the vehicle, they don't run off the high voltage system.
Right. That 12 volt is recharged many times by the high voltage system, but you definitely need
to make sure that that battery is in good condition or you're going to have some problems.
You still got to do the, the stuff that's a pain in the butt.
I don't think we're going to see tire stores not around anytime soon. I mean,
they've been popping up new ones around our place here. We've been seeing some new tire stores
popping up all over. I'm like, tires aren't going away anytime soon.
And there the tires, I think are the bane of my existence. Replacing tire, there's nothing
I like less, I think, than replacing tires, because it's, even if it's all going good,
you got to fix, you got to replace the tires. And they look so good when they're new.
And then when people call us and they're going to want to sell their car that's broken,
what's got new tires? Sorry, that was two years ago, they're not doing it anymore.
They're half gone. And I remember once getting an estimate going, well,
but I just put new tires on it. Yeah, that's in the estimate. That's going to do it for this
hour of the under the hood show. 866-594-4150. That's the number to call. And you can call that
number anytime and leave a message. We might call you back. If you want us to, we'll call you back
when we do the show on Thursday mornings. 866-594-4150. And don't forget, you can always find us at
YouTube. Anywhere you get your podcast, you can find us there. We'd love to have you join us here
on the under the hood show for Russ Evans, Shannon Nordstrom, and producer Doug Maschik. I'm
Chris Carter. Thanks for listening to the under the hood show. With Russ Evans, this is Shannon
Nordstrom thanking you for tuning into the Nordstrom's 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 show, call 866-594-4150.
Find out more by visiting underthehoodshow.com. Under the hood is produced by Prairie House
Productions. All content is the property of Nordstrom's Automotive Incorporated and may not
be used without our permission. Copyright Nordstrom's Automotive, Inc.
About this episode
A lively call-in session tackles DIY-ish fixes and why some repairs are worth attempting. Russ walks through a common door-jam wiring failure on a 2019 Chevy Equinox—how to access the harness, splice with heat-shrink butt connectors, and avoid creating new stress points. They also debate whether to hunt down a hard-to-find OEM harness versus repairing wires. Other segments cover Dakota Digital fuel-gauge troubleshooting (grounding and signal checks), a quirky 1974 Cutlass “lift your butt” start issue tied to seat-belt interlock logic, and supply-chain pricing shocks after a Ford aluminum plant fire. EV and weather impacts round it out.
Original notes
Needing Car Repair Advice? We give it all for free. Under The Hood is America's Favorite Car Talk Show. Free Car Repair Advice given to anyone who needs it. You can save money on car repairs and get your car going faster. Three guys hanging out talking cars and any repair problem you may have. Check us out on our podcast on any site or listen on YouTube Podcasts. Thanks for Tuning in and Tuning Up! Here are today's callers How do I fix broken car door wires? 2019 Equinox Why does my 1974 Cutlass not crank unless I lift my Tushy off the seat? Fixing a 1964 Ford Galaxy 500 Fuel Gauge Dakota Digital Why does my 09 HHR Misfire and can I bypass the cylinder?
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