Driving Across Country In Shannon's New Tesla

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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.

Thanks for joining us under the hood.

Shannon Nordstrom is here to do the same.

Welcome, hoodies.

Let's tune it 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 have things to talk to you about, but we've got calls coming in already from all over

the nation.

Places you've been.

I've been in Utah just recently.

Yes.

We'll see about talking about that coming up.

But right now, let's get right to the calls because they are, they're waiting.

We don't want to, they're way more important than you.

I'm boring compared to our callers.

Let's go to Utah right now and talk to Dave.

You're on the Under the Hood Show.

Dave, what can we do for you?

Well, so I called about a month ago trying to help my son with his 2001 Chevy truck.

And I put on the remote knock sensor kit.

And I have to apologize because when Chris asked me if the fast was good, I acted

like a UR and I said, I guess.

So I apologize for that, but I bought a dormant kit, put it back on, and it was worse than

ever.

So I just took it to a place, first time in like 13 years I've taken a vehicle anywhere.

And I found out what the problem was.

It was the amateur working on it that was the problem.

What'd you do?

We've got a case of amateur artists working on something that's sitting at the counter

with me right now, it looks like, but we're curious to know.

Well, so talking to you guys, I was thinking maybe it was a computer because it didn't

make sense to me, which explains that I'm an amateur.

The guy said he said two things, the boot for the fuel pressure regulator had a crack in it.

But I think what it really was was on the EGR valve, that's that middle tube that goes

into the intake manifold.

And I don't know if it got cracked or we just didn't get it sealed right, but he's

something of video, there was a ton of smoke porn out of that thing, you get a smoke

test and he fixed that in the boot, check engine lights off, no more knockouts.

So thanks for your help and I'm sorry, I was EOR, I won't do it again.

You're EOR, I'm Tigger, so I just...

That EGR tube in those old LS style engines is very hard to get lined up into that intake.

It's a metal tube that goes in about a half inch around and then it's got a big metal

flange on it, it's got an O-ring that's ginormous and it all has to line up

perfectly to seal.

If it's not, it will have a vacuum leak and run very poorly.

And that would make it get the knock sensor code?

Well it knocked codes because it was probably getting a lean miss and causing that to show

up as a code.

That's why we've told people before on this show, don't put a part on only based

on the code.

I've got an oxygen sensor code, let's replace it.

Well I've put four on and they still go bad so you're returning all those good parts back

to the shop that you bought them from, from the auto parts store.

They're sending them back to the manufacturer.

The manufacturer is losing money on those parts and it's not their fault when really

maybe it was the mass airflow sensor causing the code or low fuel pressure causing the

code.

How did you check that sensor to find out?

You know a lot of times the code will fix the problem, but when you go to some of these

auto parts store that say we have a foolproof scanner, it will tell you what's wrong.

It's there to make them money.

They'll scan it for you and say these are the most likely 90% that this is the cause

and they'll sell you that part.

So in your case, they would have said likely it's a knock sensor.

Let's replace them, which you did.

And that wasn't it?

No.

Dave, are you all set now?

Are you ready to go?

Yeah, and Russ told me last time that everyone thinks it's changing that the intake manifold

just came in the next.

Well, I didn't pull off that relocation kit because that's 10 times harder than changes

that intake manifold where they want you to mount it in the way of the frame and

everything.

It was a nightmare.

So I just left it on.

Yeah, just leave it.

It'll confuse somebody down the road.

Maybe they'll see it down there and they'll try to diagnose a problem later.

We're talking about a 25-year-old vehicle.

Maybe it won't be at notice.

I mean, how far out are we going to go with this thing?

Well, sometimes you notice things on 60-year-old vehicles, too.

That's true.

Yeah.

Dave, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

866-594-4150.

Let's go to Pennsylvania and talk to Rodney.

Rodney, you're on the end of the hood show.

What can we do for you?

Guys, you've got a great show.

Thanks.

I called you a couple of weeks ago on my 2017 Ford Explorer about getting a transmission

flush for fluid exchange.

And when they told you what the dealer price, you guys said, well, check out a transmission

chop.

Well, their opinion isn't what they got.

Well, anyway, transmission chop said fluid exchange only.

They wouldn't do a flush because they're scared of it.

You know, it's got like 82,000 miles on it, but the dealer, they don't care.

And you're going to give me like $1,100.

It wouldn't be anything you want.

Yeah.

And so what was the, what was just for our listeners, what was the quote at the transmission

shop for the fluid exchange then?

3, 4, and 5.

Okay.

It still seems like, but the fluid's expensive.

We identified that.

Right.

I understand that.

Yes, I know.

I understand that.

Um, but I'm like, well, what do I do?

I mean, you know, should I just go with the fluid exchange?

And is it cheaper?

I mean, I know I'm leaving a lot of fluid in the torque converter and all that.

So, I mean, I don't, I mean, does it work to gamble?

I mean, I don't know what to do here.

80,000 miles.

That's so low.

I can't imagine the fluids burnt at 80,000 if it's never towed.

Yeah.

You're not having, if I remember right, you're not having transmission problems.

You're just trying to do good preventative maintenance, correct?

Yes.

That's all I'm doing.

Yep.

The 17 Explorer transmission is one that we do not replace often.

We have put, I think it's been two that we've put in.

They were both on 3, 5 non-turbo explorers.

So the engines are about bulletproof for that one.

It's much better than the turbos for longevity.

If you're going to buy an SUV like that, I would go with a no turbo straight 3,

5 because they, I've had them come in with 400,000 miles are tough.

The water pump is the biggest thing you got to worry about in that because it's internal.

The transmissions though, the ones we replaced were, they were close to 250,000 miles.

So I don't know what Shannon's selling on those, but that transmission is pretty, pretty strong.

So if you've got one that the fluid still looks good, meaning it's not black and burnt,

it's just tannish red and you could exchange the whole thing.

Yeah.

I think I would just do the fluid exchange and not do the flush at that point.

If you don't have, because you're going to get,

Because he's on it.

I mean, you're going to get your chemical pamphlet package updated in that fluid.

It's going to mix in with that existing fluid.

It's not, you're not a completely dirty bathwater because your fluid's in good shape now

and it'll save you that chunk of money too.

I mean, you're doing some good preventative maintenance.

You're spending 4,500 bucks.

I think we identified the transmission.

And the last time we talked to you, I said, if the transmission is $3,000

and you're spending $1,100 to flush it.

Right.

That's hard math for me.

Rodney, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

866-594-4150.

That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show.

All right.

Now we got a second here.

Let's talk about where you've been and where you,

you've been, you've been places.

Well, I did, but I didn't really get to see much.

No, you did not.

Because we were moving and I haven't taken, well, a road trip like this

since I brought our other daughter Madison to the same college

at Grand Canyon University down in Phoenix.

But our son Riley got married Saturday night a couple of weeks ago.

And I know Russ was there.

We had a great time.

It was quite a party.

I'm still recovering from.

Any rattlesnakes?

No rattlesnakes.

We had to shiv a rattlesnaker and it was, it was all, it was all fine.

But yeah, we got partied all night, Saturday night and celebrated.

And then Sunday afternoon we took off in a Tesla that I got for our daughter.

We knew that it would work good for her down in the Phoenix area.

There's so many of them down there and the charging is ample.

And so we did a cross country road trip in a Tesla Model Y.

And it was so fully loaded with like stuff.

Just we had enough room for us to get in there.

And we, the front was full, the trunk was full.

And we did the two layers of the back end were full.

And I still had to ship some stuff, but we, we got everything down there.

And, but no, it was quite a journey.

I'd say overall it was very, very good.

Okay.

I didn't, I think I said this before, but the hardest part of the trip,

as far as feeling uncomfortable was going across South Dakota, the stop at

Elza Oasis, which I've been to enough times that I don't need to be at Elza

Oasis for 45 minutes.

Right.

Yeah, I know exactly what it meant.

If it was my first time at Elza Oasis, I could probably burn 45 minutes,

and I wasn't doing lunch or anything.

We were just on the move.

But one thing that a lot of people have asked me about that I didn't understand

completely.

And so I'm sure that others don't either.

When you put into the navigation on the, on the screen, and there's people

that have these right now and say, duh, you just looked this up online.

But you put your destination in and it charts out the course for you and

in conjunction with where the charging stations are.

And the thing that I've had a lot of people say, well, what do you got to

charge that long for?

Well, you don't because it says, all right, you're going to stop in Moab,

Utah, and you're going to, you only need to charge for 19 minutes to get

to the next stop in Quiente, Arizona.

And so it, unless you're going to plan on deviating off the course,

which a lot of people do, you just, it charts it for, okay, go here

for nine minutes, go here for 12 minutes.

Do you trust that?

Yep.

Okay.

By the end of the trip, I trusted it completely.

All right.

Did you at the start?

No.

Right.

Okay.

But I knew why.

Even when you say it, I don't.

But I knew why I didn't trust it.

Right.

The reason I didn't trust it is because I took it off of full

self-driving or cruise control and I was pushing.

Okay.

Yeah.

And when I was pushing, just leave it at that, in the open

country with the weight we had on there, it was definitely, the

algorithms were, were not accurate where they were dropping

fast, faster.

Right.

So like where it said I was going to get to wall with 11% charge

because it'll say what your arrival energy is going to be.

I got to wall with 6% and didn't, I wasn't worried about it by

then because I knew where I was going right there.

And it shows you how many of the charging stations are

available.

Okay.

So if there's 24 of them at a place and it'll say there's 18

available.

So you can kind of gauge, if it was just one available, you'd be

a little more nervous.

And you get some closer to Phoenix, you see that sometimes there

would just be a couple available and nobody including myself

backs up very well.

And there's, they're never quite in the right spot.

There's always a wasted one it seems like.

Right.

But it was, no, we trusted it right away.

And the charging spots were a little inconvenient sometimes.

I'm trying to remember the one where we were at.

It's all a blur right now, but.

And the ghetto behind the liquor store.

No, there was one behind the liquor store.

But that was in Flagstaff, but it was by a really nice

Circle K type gas station.

But the charging station was a little bit in the sketch area.

But there was one that was by a, like a, I would say a

local motel.

It must have been the only place in town where they could

sell to get it put in.

I'm guessing they have to do lease agreements or something.

And we had to walk a couple blocks just to get to a subway,

you know, because use a bathroom and get some cookies and,

you know, you got to buy something.

Is that the one where the closest restaurant was way up on

the hill?

Yeah, no, that was, that was, that was Moab, I think.

Okay.

That was Moab.

But it was really, I enjoyed it.

I, it was a lot of driving.

But the full self-driving option, we have it for three months.

And then we got to decide whether we're going to pay for it

monthly or buy it.

But it's, it's, they tempt you with it.

They're the drug dealers.

They say, here, try this.

And you'd get, you do get used to it really quick.

And I know I had a couple of videos I did.

But my wife, if she was sitting here right now,

I wouldn't, I wouldn't get mad at her for saying it.

But she quickly acclimated that the full self-driving was

a better driver than me.

She's very, she can get pretty tense when I drive

because I'm a little spastic, looking all over

and my, that's just hard for me to stay focused.

And the car itself didn't, it made her, it made her call.

Okay.

The, the self-driving made her call.

But it didn't take us very long to get to that point.

We drove through Denver.

We went to a Bucky's.

I sent you guys a video of that.

I've never been to a Bucky's before.

I do like that experience.

Russ Bucky's was crazy.

It is crazy.

Fresh biscuit on the board.

Sauce on the board.

Yeah.

No, it was excellent, but just a big, huge, amazing complex.

It really is something.

It is.

And you walk out of there with things you don't need.

Yeah.

But, but we went, but we went from that Bucky's,

that was a charging station there.

Apparently they've made a deal

and they've got charging stations there.

And I hit FSD, full self-drive at the Bucky's outside of Denver

in Fort Collins, I think it was, or wherever in between there on the main stretch.

Think about where I was.

But I didn't touch the steering wheel until after we were coming out of the mountains

for my next charging station.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

And that was going through the area of Breckenridge Vale all through there.

And there was road construction with lane shifts.

I had the setting for full self-driving on hurry.

Imagine that.

You have chill standard and hurry.

I had it on hurry and then you do a percentage of blend of traffic you want to have.

And then you have a little thumb control you can use to go up and down for speed also on the steering wheel.

And the car, I should say something bad about it,

but I couldn't find a lot of bad yet.

The car was way more aggressive than I ever thought it would be.

I imagined a full self-driving car would get in the first line of traffic,

hang out, and then make its exit because it'd be close.

But no, it was passing.

It was pulling out.

So it calmed your wife and it satisfied you?

Just about.

Wow.

That's crazy because I've driven with you.

There was a top end limit of 85, which was hard in some places when it was wide open.

But it was very, very, very interesting.

And it just opened my eyes to the capability of what technology has evolved to.

When my wife and I got in the car, I said,

did you ever think when we were getting out of high school

that we would drive across the country in an electric vehicle?

That drove itself.

It drove itself.

And the answer was a hard no.

A hard no.

And so it was a great experience.

And so when you get into the big city traffic,

seven lanes in Phoenix, it's just no problem.

I trusted it way better than me trying to look at my directions.

I remember it was at the Barbara Walters interview with Musk years ago.

And they were just talking about this technology.

And she says, well, are you sure you can do this kind of stuff?

It seems like it's pretty high up.

And he said, I have a spaceship.

And then she said, well, and about this, what do you think he says?

I have more than one spaceship.

And it's a whole different thing now.

This is just one company.

There's going to be a lot of them.

And GM's got their new super crew setup that's supposed to be really great.

And the range numbers are going up on these cars.

It's very realistic that within two to three years,

I've never seen a lot of electrics with five to 600 mile standard ranges out of them.

Here's the thing for me.

I still love my gas.

A bit of a final analysis.

I said this, I think this technology was amazing.

And I liked it.

That doesn't mean I hate my V8 Rumbling Trans AM and my pickup.

It's OK to like both.

Just and appreciate the technology.

I will say that it tried to kill us twice, three times on the full self-driving.

And it may have if you weren't there watching, like you're supposed to do.

In Colorado, down the main drag, it was pulling out to overtake a car that was going slower.

And it pulled out into a lane that was ending in 500 feet.

And I didn't give the car a chance to see what it would have done.

But for the way the car was acting, it was taking me right into a guardrail.

And so I grabbed a hold of it and slowed down and rolled back in behind the other car.

I would not have thought that was your solution.

It's fast. I could have zoomed ahead.

But the car was putting me in a very uncomfortable.

And it did that twice.

Once on an inside lane and once on an outside lane.

And with our daughter driving it, it took her through a four-way stop that somebody else hadn't done the right protocol.

Right.

And so the car was going.

And so she took control and stopped.

The car probably would have stopped on its own, I'm thinking.

And you often have to pay attention.

You can't. You get your phone out, it knows.

You got to be sneaky.

Eyes up.

It knows.

And the screen starts flashing blue and it says grab the wheel, apply torque.

And if you don't grab the wheel, then it'll kick you off and give you a strike.

And I went through that trip without any strikes.

Oh, wow. Look at you.

I grew up.

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It's time to get back under the hood with our motor medics.

866-594-41. 5-0.

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Let's go to North Carolina and talk to Scott.

You're under the hood show.

Scott, what can we do for you?

Pull under the hood folks.

You guys are a breath of fresh air.

Alright.

I'm an old clicking clack guy from the NPR

and I've been looking for somewhere else to go

and I found you guys just recently

and I'm about halfway through your podcast

and just subscribed to YouTube so this is awesome.

We appreciate that.

I know one of my daughter's roommates

was from Louisville.

Louisville, say it right, quickly.

He was a principal down there, so Chad,

if you're listening, he said he was going to be a new hoodie

because he was a die-hard loved clicking clack

and I said, you got to check us out.

He goes, really? You do a show like that?

I said, yeah, Russ and I and Chris.

So maybe Chad's listening too. He'd be a new hoodie.

There you go.

One of my daughter's roommates down at college.

Not the dad.

His daughter.

That'd be weird.

We've got a bunch of project cars.

My son is 16 myself and my, unfortunately,

my wife's 2002 Chevy Suburban.

We were rolling up on 400,000 miles on it.

We even sent away that stickers

and stuff from Chevrolet were actually recognized

as high mileage vehicles.

So we took it in for a transmission line

and went on it, had it replaced

and when we picked it up, it hasn't run the same sense.

I believe it sucked a valve down.

So my question is,

is it worth pulling this thing apart

and trying to fix it to get it back on the road?

Put another motor in it because,

like I explained to her,

everything else has 400,000 miles on it.

The drive cream and the transmission interior isn't that bad.

I have a couple questions that are not related to this at all,

but can I go back to this sticker?

Where did you get this?

Chevrolet has legends, I believe,

or Chevrolet legends or trucks that you can write Chevrolet

and all they want you to do is document the mileage

and take some pictures of your vehicle

and they'll actually send you gear.

We've got stickers, we've got an umbrella,

a nice well-made umbrella.

I believe a belt buckle

that documents your high mileage Chevrolet vehicle.

And you did that just recently?

Um, the cars, the spur has been sitting for probably six months

so it's probably been almost a year since we've had it.

But within the last year?

Yeah, yeah, yep.

I've never heard of that.

That caught my attention more than anything else you were talking about.

Not the project cars either.

We can talk about that later, but I was intrigued by that.

So they brought it in to put a transmission line on it

because a line broke and then you got a valve problem?

I didn't think it was just coincidence

because it had sat for a couple weeks

and I was going to do it myself and ran out of time

so I just popped it up to the local guy that we use

and then went and picked it up

and it just didn't seem to run well after that

and again, 400,000 miles I'm like,

it was maybe bound to happen

but I think I've heard Russ talk about the tick

that they always have, that's always had it.

It's just been a trooper and it's part of the family

but now it may be time to move on

but the wife says no.

Do you know for sure that it dropped a valve

or could it just be a valve spring?

It sounds...

It's got a sucking sound when it's running

so it will move under its power

but it's just underpowered and it's just horrible

and I've heard that you can get the motors pretty cheap

and just swap them out

or my son and I can do it as a project

but even so, is it worth it

because of the 400,000 miles on everything else,

shocks and transmission and rear-end?

So they fixed it and then it had this problem right after?

Yeah, basically.

Like when you picked it up?

Yes, within a day.

Within a day it started to make...

Within a day, if it's got a sucking sound

I would look very close and see

if it's got a broken vacuum line somewhere

because that will make it run horrible.

It'll misfire, it'll shake, it'll idle poorly.

That could all do that

because it shouldn't have a sucking sound.

It could have a knocking sound or a clicking sound,

tapping sound but not a sucking sound.

Maybe I'm not describing it well enough

but we went through it pretty well ourselves

and then everybody should do the leak down test

or do everything else.

I'm just looking for validation.

If it's shot, save it or not

and it's got that many miles on it

I wouldn't try fixing this engine.

LS engines are cheap.

That's what you said earlier.

This old...

I mean, you look around, you're going to pick one up

for probably around $1,000 with 200,000 miles.

Why not?

Or less.

Sometimes.

I mean, they last so long.

Get one, clean it up,

put it in there with new spark plugs.

New valve cover.

Yeah, that's a new driver side valve cover.

You will need, that's very important.

Our partner Dorman Products makes an updated

driver side valve cover.

We got a valve cover from Dorman.

Yep, and we put new spark...

What do you call them?

Coils.

Coil packs.

Coils, yep, and all new coil packs for them.

The first one's wrong but the second one's wrong.

All plugs, all new wires

and then the Dorman product for the valve covers.

Save it all, put it on your new engine.

Put it on the replacement and then you should be good

because there's no...

That vehicle, if it looks good,

the things that wear are the transmission,

the engine, front wheel bearings.

The rear ends will last a very long time

if they haven't been overtowed.

So put them on and then that thing will keep going.

I don't know why you couldn't get...

Then you can write Chevy and tell them

you got a million miles on it

if your wife wants to keep it.

Yeah, I think I'd be cheating if I told them,

you know, because swapping the engine out,

it's like, no, well, it doesn't really have 400,000.

I see more, but yeah.

Well, that's true, but you know,

I've got an O4 that's got 300 and some 1,000 on it now

and it's still running pretty good.

That's a Tahoe.

It's time to write Chevrolet.

Yeah.

That's a question we get asked a lot

and oftentimes it comes down to

which the vehicle is used,

the condition of the vehicle,

and when we talk about the condition of the vehicle,

the structural condition of the vehicle,

does it look okay?

Is it safe?

Is the frame not rusty?

Is the suspension not rusty?

And if it's clean,

you go out and buy,

if you need that type of vehicle in your fleet

and you go out to buy another one,

you're going to spend so much money

and still not know what you're going to have

unless you buy a new one.

And your question was good too.

There's that that doesn't always get asked.

Does your wife want to drive it for another five years

or is she ready to?

Yeah.

Is it time?

So she's happy.

Yeah.

That's another way to say it.

Sure.

Yeah.

Does that help you out there, Scott?

It did and we just got our 87 Plymouth Horizon

running back on the road

so I think it's a good trade-off.

Oh, is that nice?

Is it a...

Is it a Berkeley classic, guys?

It could be if it's really nice.

If it's really nice, it could be.

I mean, it's still considered...

Let's pretend it's perfect.

87.

87 Horizon.

Well, Rusty...

We have never done our 87 Horizon...

There are so few on the road.

If it's got decent paint on it

and it's not rusty, then, yeah, it's a classic.

You just don't see them.

I know what it is.

What is it?

It's maroon.

What do you think, Chris?

I think it's going to be that kind of soft yellow,

like a gold yellow that has turned...

Ooh, that's what I was thinking, too.

Faded yellow.

It's brown.

Brown.

All right, Scott.

What color is the Plymouth Horizon?

It is the most common Plymouth Horizon color, blue.

Okay.

That little off-Carolina blue sky.

Do you know for a fact that was the most common color of Horizon?

Maybe in his area.

In his area?

Yep.

No, no, no.

In my area...

No, there is another one in our area.

It's actually maroon.

So, I guess we can give it to one of you.

That's the thing, Shannon.

Whoever gets maroon.

In the Rust...

In the less Rust Southern states,

you are going to see a lot of cars like that still around.

No, no, most people are getting newer cars, yes.

It's like 11, 12, 13 years old.

But you will see people that are driving that old stuff,

like maybe a 74 Honda.

They're like, hey, you know what?

I found it.

It was cheap in the trees.

I talked about the beautiful 82 Prelude I saw down in Florida.

Prelude's coming back.

Yeah, it is.

I saw one, too.

I saw a red...

Is it a four-door SUV?

No, not a new one.

It's a two-door.

I saw an old one the other day where we are.

I was like, oh, look at that.

It didn't look great, but it was out there.

They based it off the, I think, the Civic chassis.

Does that help you out there, Scott?

Are you all good to go?

I'm good to go.

Are you guys good?

I think we're good.

Thanks very much for the call.

Thanks for finding our show,

and we're glad you subscribed and did all that stuff.

Tell your friends.

Is that...

If that engine's a thousand bucks,

what is it if I want you to put it in?

Or I have to have it put in?

More.

Yeah.

But, I mean, how much is it to have an engine put in

if the engine's...

More.

It's a low cost.

A thousand bucks is pretty...

Yeah, it just depends on what you need.

Okay.

Because when you tell a person,

let's say you tell a person it's $3,000 to put an engine in,

just at any shop, and they go,

oh my gosh, that is so much labor.

What is your labor rate?

No, I said it's $3,000 to put it in.

Well, right, $3,000.

No, it's not labor.

I told you a total cost.

You have fluids.

You have filters.

You have seals.

You have gaskets.

You have a water pump.

You do not put them.

It's like spark plugs.

Coil boots.

A thermostat.

You might have an EGR valve.

You might have knock sensors.

You might have a radiator,

because the oil cooler is in the radiator,

and oil cooler lines.

Well, how much is the labor?

$10, the rest of its parts.

Yeah.

Are you seeing what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The labor is not $10,

but no, it is not.

This is the cost to put it in.

Now, let's add the engine in there

and get a total number.

And it's like, all right, maybe it's $3,300.

Oh, well, that doesn't sound bad.

Installed with an engine and everything I need

and a warranty.

That's the big picture.

You've got to get the big picture.

You're going to cheat yourself

if you just look at labor,

because I've had people say,

oh, well, this dealer told me

the labor was only this much.

Right.

But then they got hit

with all those extra parts at crazy price.

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It's a Chevrolet deal.

The club from Chevrolet.

I got you all taken care of there.

I never knew about it.

There you go.

866-594-4150.

Let's go to Iowa and talk to Dennis.

What can we do for you?

Actually, it's Texas, Iowa.

I'm a transplant from Iowa.

OK.

I talked to Russ a couple of weeks ago

off the air.

I had a customer come in

with a flywheel off of a Corvette.

And so there was some teeth damaged

about a third of the way around,

which indicated that the flywheel was warped.

So I called up Russ

and asked him what to do.

He said, don't do anything.

They need a new flywheel,

which on that particular model

was more than what he wanted to spend.

So when he came to pick up the flywheel,

with puppy dog eyes,

he begged me to at least try.

So since I have a machine shop

and precision measuring instruments,

I proceeded a straightening process

for that flywheel.

And I dialed it in

and I got it really close.

It wasn't perfect,

but I'm thinking the indicator

was somewhere between 5 and 10,000

total indicator reading

around the periphery of that flywheel.

And so he come and picked it up

and he put it in

and I probably hopefully

will never hear from him again.

But also Russ sent me a hoodie.

And I wanted to thank him for that hoodie

and to show how appreciative of that.

I was just going to let you all know

that today our heat index down here is 105.

We were like 45 this morning.

We were getting some chilly air the last few days.

Well, I keep close tabs.

I listen to KELO pretty much every day.

At least the morning show

and sometimes throughout the afternoon

and so I keep close tabs on the area yet.

So that's my home ground.

That's where my roots are at.

So yeah, Russ and I had a good conversation.

We kind of swapped places in a way.

Yeah, you're up here down there

and I'm up here for the time.

I have a question.

I wasn't involved in this conversation,

but was that an automatic transmission flywheel

that you guys put that much work into?

Or was it a straight stick?

It's a clutch that's manual.

The customer, yeah.

Because we talked about buying a whole clutch kit.

Yeah, well, let's say no, that just makes...

Because otherwise I'd say I wouldn't even know

why somebody would try to put the work into an automatic flywheel

because they just don't cost that much.

Yeah, he was getting that chatter.

That's a Corvette problem.

No, that's cool.

Good work.

Dennis, thanks very much for the call.

That's cool.

To not be able to get it

and then have someone try something

and hopefully it works, that's always a good feeling.

I don't do a lot of things anymore

as far as...

I'm always amazed and impressed with people

that are the true craftsmen

that have got the presses

and the guys that can straighten things.

So what he just said is very important to remember

if the shop says we'll try

but they weren't asked to,

they said, well, I'm not really sure what it is,

I'll try this, then it's your fault.

You guys did a horrible job.

But when the customer comes in and says

I've got to buy a new one, there's no alternative?

No, not really.

Well, would you try?

Then they're saying, if you try and it doesn't work,

you're off the hook.

So then a shop may try it for you

because you've already told them

that you're expecting it to work

but you're hoping it might.

With you, I've said...

I mean, not a flywheel,

but I've had you zip tie things and tape things

instead of fixing them appropriately.

And it's like, well, you ask me to, I'll do it.

But I rarely say, well, why don't we just try this?

Yes, exactly.

I know because then I've told you

to give me money for something that I think won't work.

Right.

1-6-5-9-4-4-1-5-0.

Let's talk to Carter in Rapid City.

Carter, you're on the end of the hood show.

What can we do for you?

How's it going, guys?

Good.

What's up, Carter?

Not too much.

I'm working on this 99 Dodge Ram 2500.

5ix9ine Cummins in it.

I am on my third hydro boost pump

in about the last three or four months

and it keeps taking out the driver's side caliper with it.

I'm kind of just curious.

I put a new hydro boost on it yesterday

and it hasn't tried to lock up since.

But when it is locking up,

if I pump that brake pedal, it'll release.

I'm just kind of curious on where to go from here.

I'm wondering if you've got a power steering pump issue.

You see, I replaced the vacuum pump

and the power steering pump twice.

The booster, you replaced the hydro boost

and the power steering pump.

Yep.

So I did the hydro boost.

This would be the third ones on it now

and it's got two power steering pumps

that I've gone through on it.

That seems like too many pumps.

Well, so that Ram has had a lot of issues with steering boxes

and the steering boxes will often contaminate

the rest of the system.

You know, the pump will start wearing.

I mean, you'll have a leaky box

or it's got play in it.

You've got metal in there

and it takes out the pump.

The whole system ends up contaminated

and if you replace one component, it's not going to fix it.

Okay.

I had one steering box that was bad.

Well, I'm not sure if it was the original

but this truck's got 350,000 miles on it.

So I replaced that steering box.

That steering box was good for about two months

and it didn't take any of the play away

in the steering wheel.

That box failed so I put a new box in it

and now, like I said,

we're onto our second hydro boost pump

after the power steering pump and the box.

It's not common for us to see repeat failures

in those hydro boosts

but when I see one come in that's got a steering issue

because the gear has failed

and there's metal contamination in the system

and the pumps making noise,

it gets the whole set.

It gets a booster.

It gets lines.

It gets a pump and a gear.

The steering gearbox, all of it

because I don't want to come back.

Have you guys heard of those rods

and those reman hydro boost pumps

being too long and causing issues?

Always.

Every brake booster.

Because that's the only thing I could think.

You have to verify

when you take it off the first time

and it's been working for 300,000 miles

there are code numbers on the side of the hydro booster

like ABC, PQL, whatever it is.

There is a number.

You need to replace the booster

with that same code number

because the rods are different lengths.

If not, there's a procedure

for determining what rod goes in there.

Some of them will say,

this is a no-number booster.

Look at your rod.

If it's this length rod,

you need to put this spacer in there.

If it's this length rod,

you put this one in there.

Things like that.

You've got to make sure it's correct.

I have a 2015 hydro booster on my 96 truck.

I had to cut the shaft

on the inside of the vehicle off

and change the length of it

because the pedal would press it too far down,

which would damage the booster.

So at full travel,

it doesn't go the whole way.

I had to swap that out.

I want to make sure it was the right length.

Now, on the master cylinder side,

I also had to change that rod to the correct.

What I did is I compared them

and I ground off a quarter inch of it

and then rounded the end and polished it.

But you make it work.

Those things are very sensitive.

With that much hydraulic pressure,

you want to make sure that

you're getting the right travel in there.

So if you've got the wrong rod,

that in itself will damage the booster

and then a booster going into lockup

by too much travel will blow out calipers.

It's a lot of pressure.

So if Carter brought his truck to you right now,

what do you replace?

I wouldn't work on it.

You wouldn't?

I would say, hey...

Oh, come on. It's a Cummins.

You'd have to.

Yeah.

It's because it's been done like that.

My only fix would be, you know,

I can put a box out.

I can put a pump and lines and a booster on it

so I know what's on it.

I've put them on.

I know what I bought.

I can't work on it

because I can't...

I don't know what you've done.

Could you replace everything?

Yeah, you'd have to replace everything.

Otherwise it'd be like bringing me a car

I'd never seen before

and cover up the badge on the fender

and the identification number.

So I can't tell, is this a Ford?

Is this a Chevy?

What is it?

I can't order parts.

I don't know what you got.

Yeah, it makes...

350,000 miles,

you can clearly tell it to dodge.

Yeah.

It's been running forever.

All right.

Are we still...

Carter,

are you still real South Dakota outdoors?

Yep.

Yep, I'm still posting all my YouTube videos up there

and that's been good.

Awesome.

I just...

It took me about halfway through the call

to put it together.

Figure, yeah.

Then all of a sudden I was like...

And I used to have your little sticker

sitting right here by my...

my headphone control

but I think it finally got moved.

It's underneath.

But it was there for quite a while.

Carter, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

So that's his fix too.

I mean, how does...

He's got to replace all the parts there.

Yeah.

And maybe on the first time,

if he potentially would have flushed it well,

if he knew which component,

and there it is, real South Dakota outdoors.

There it is.

But if he would have known what...

which one failed for sure

and then did a flush on it.

But that's just...

It sounds like he's on it with that.

Did he get the right part?

And did he get contamination?

Right.

That'll do it for this hour of the Under the Hood show.

Until next time,

you can find us at UnderTheHoodShow.com.

Thanks for listening.

With Russ Evans,

this is Shannon Orts from thanking you for tuning in

to the North'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

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Under the Hood is produced by Prairie House Productions.

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