Under The Hood show Dec 4, 2025

How Is Your Car Doing? We Can Help Repair It With Live Advice

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45:02

Car

Pontiac Bonneville

The Pontiac Bonneville is a large car made by the Pontiac brand. The 1997 version is known for being roomy and comfortable to drive.

Part

O2 sensor

An O2 sensor checks how much oxygen is in the exhaust from the engine. It helps the car's computer make sure the engine runs efficiently and cleanly.

Term

P0171 code

The P0171 code is a warning from the car's computer that says there's too much air and not enough fuel getting into the engine. This can cause the car to run poorly.

Part

plenum

The plenum helps direct air into the engine. If it breaks, it can cause problems with how the engine runs.

Term

intake manifold

The intake manifold is a part of the engine that helps get air into the engine. It's important for how well the engine runs.

Term

brake booster

The brake booster helps the brakes work better by making it easier to push the brake pedal. It uses air pressure to give you more stopping power.

Term

lean codes

Lean codes are warnings from the car's computer that say there's too much air compared to fuel in the engine. This can cause the engine to run poorly.

Company

Dorman

Dorman makes replacement car parts that can be used instead of the original parts. They are popular for fixing cars when the original parts are broken or hard to find.

Part

PCV valve

The PCV valve is a small part in the engine that helps control gases and keeps the engine running cleanly. It helps reduce pollution from the car.

Term

intake leak

An intake leak happens when air gets into the engine in a way that the engine computer doesn't expect. This can cause problems with how the engine runs.

Term

mass airflow sensor

A mass airflow sensor is a part that checks how much air is coming into the engine. This helps the engine know how much fuel to use for the best performance.

Term

manifold absolute pressure sensor

A manifold absolute pressure sensor checks the pressure in the engine's intake area. This helps the engine know how much air is available to mix with fuel for better performance.

Car

Toyota Corolla

The Toyota Corolla is a small car that is popular for being dependable and economical. The 2003 version is one of many models made over the years.

Part

wheel bearing

A wheel bearing helps your car's wheels spin easily. It's like a small part that lets the wheels turn without getting stuck, making your ride smoother and safer.

Part

knuckle

The knuckle is a part of the car's suspension that helps connect the wheel to the rest of the car. It allows the wheel to turn and supports the weight of the vehicle.

Part

pre-pressed axle assembly

A pre-pressed axle assembly is a car part that has the bearings already put in place, making it easier to install when fixing the car's axle.

Term

rotate your tires

Rotating your tires means moving them around to different spots on your car. This helps them wear evenly and last longer.

Term

feather edged and cupped

Feather edged means the tire tread is wearing down unevenly, making it feel sharp. Cupped tires have dips or waves in them, which can cause noise and make driving less smooth.

Term

carbureted car

A carbureted car is an older type of vehicle that uses a device called a carburetor to mix fuel and air for the engine. These cars can sometimes handle different types of oil better than newer cars.

Term

catalytic converter

The catalytic converter is a part of the car that helps clean the air by changing harmful gases from the engine into less harmful ones before they leave the car.

Car

Tesla

Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. They are known for being very advanced and environmentally friendly.

Part

You're listening to an on-core presentation of the Under the Hood show.

Welcome to the Under the Hood show podcast.

Thank you very much for listening and downloading the podcast app, Russ Evans.

Who brings us the Under the Hood show podcast?

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Here is the Under the Hood show podcast.

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.

So is Shannon Nordstrom.

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.

We've got some folks that have been on hold for a little bit.

We either have Dan with a 97 Bonnie or Bonnie with a 97 Dan.

I'm not sure which.

Dan, you're on the Under the Hood show.

What can we do for you?

Hey, how's it going?

Great show.

Thank you.

So I've got it.

I've got a 1997 Pontiac Bonneville.

I've had the upper, lower and upper intake manifolds.

I've got this change and I've changed the O2 sensor.

I've changed the map sensor.

They keep giving me a P0171 code where the car will race the engine,

the codes, and then it will come back on pretty quick.

And then the car goes down the road good,

but it will die at the low RPM.

But the PVC valves replaced everything.

The plenum, I heard, can go bad.

I bought a new plenum, but they didn't put that on.

They just used the same one that was on the car.

But I keep getting that code and I can't.

Ever since I changed the O2 sensor, which I ordered online,

I've just had this problem go over and over.

And they were just chasing our tail around the circle.

OK.

And then from the PVC or the brake booster,

there's a big line that comes to that plastic plenum in the back.

And being a friend of mine that had a full scanner,

went around the intake, see if there was any leaks

spraying around it.

Well, then if I push on that plastic piece that

comes out of that plastic out of the plenum on the backside,

it will read up like it's getting air.

But it doesn't do it unless I kind of push on it

because it kind of wobbles.

What do you think on that?

I mean, on that vacuum that comes from that brake booster

to that plastic plenum, is that supposed to move around or?

Yeah, it'll move around some because it's just an o-ring

in there.

But if it reads like it's got a leak when you push on it,

then it has a leak.

But it's also probably leaking when you're not pushing on it,

just not as much.

And that'll throw a code for an oxygen sensor pretty quickly.

You can get lean codes that way.

Yeah, for sure.

It might just be that that intake is just a poor intake.

Something happened when they made it.

I mean, we use a ton of Dorman products intakes in our shop.

We replace these 3-8s, not as many on the 3-8s

as we used to, because we don't see the cars as many.

But we still do.

Well, when we get them in, we put a Dorman products intake

on it, and I have not had a problem with that.

What you do have to make sure of, though,

is that you pull that little PCV valve cap off

on the far passenger side and make sure all the parts are

in there.

There's a little spring in there and a PCV valve.

And if it's missing parts, it'll pull too much vacuum

and it'll internally leak and cause codes downstream as well.

So you've got to make sure all the pieces are in there

in the order that they're supposed to be in.

So is that something that minor of a thing

could cause all these?

Oh, gosh, yes.

An intake leak that's, let's say,

you've got an eighth inch hose on an intake.

This one doesn't have that.

But if you had that and you pulled it off of a car,

it can set a code.

That small of a leak, an eighth inch drill bit hole,

that size can throw everything off.

It needs to meter all that air, either with a map sensor,

manifold air pressure sensor, or a mass airflow sensor.

If it's got unmetered air coming in, it says,

hey, we weren't designed this way

and it'll set that code.

Just like your car was setting that code all the time,

Chris, it was just a little.

So we looked, was there a vacuum leak?

No.

What's going on here?

Mass airflow sensor, is there a leak in that air intake tube

between the sensor and the, no.

This three eight, it's right on the throttle body,

so it's not gonna leak.

Any small vacuum leak is gonna cause this thing.

And it may just be a coincidence that you put

an oxygen sensor in and it did this.

Maybe that the old sensor wasn't sensitive enough

to pick up this problem and wasn't working right.

So now he's got a good one in it

and it's setting this code.

Does that help you out there, Dan?

Yes, so you're saying on the PVC,

on the back of the, on the intake,

there's a PVC on the side of it, right?

No, it's on the driver's or the passenger side

of that intake manifold on the top.

The very last thing, on the very end,

there's a little cap there that comes off

and it's under that cap.

It's a little round cap about two inches across

and that's where the PCB valve sits.

And it's, yeah, that's, it's internal.

It's got its vacuum from inside the manifold.

Dan, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Jim.

You're on the end of the hood show.

Jim, what can we do for you?

Yeah, I got a 2003 Toyota Corolla recently getting

like a wobbling sound on the passenger side wheel

when I get up around 20 miles an hour.

Any idea what would cause that or how I can fix it?

The old woop, woop, woop, woop sound?

Yes, yes.

Bingo.

Wow.

Jim, I feel, I felt that relief there

that you were understood.

Yes.

That's it.

Yeah.

Good.

It sounds like a wheel bearing.

Does it?

Wheel bearing, okay.

It sounds like a wheel bearing to me.

That's an O3.

That's going to be one of those press-in ones too.

Not bolt-on.

Bolt-on wheel bearing hub assemblies are amazing.

Three bolts and then a nut in the middle

and you pull it out of there.

Sometimes a little bit of a tricky ABS sensor wire

you got on plug or something.

But the press-in ones, now that's a different story.

We have a special tool now that one of our guys

came up with.

It's pretty awesome.

We just, we take the bearing,

we take everything off, the brakes,

take the axle nut off and then we put this thing in there

and you just pull it out in the car.

It's like an on-car press.

Oh, so you don't have to pull the knuckle?

No, you don't have to pound the heck out of it

to get it off of there either.

Ah.

Sweet little deal.

So if Jim brought this in with this sound,

how long would it take you to diagnose

and figure out what it is?

20 hours and about 30,000 bucks.

Okay.

We can guarantee that'll fix it.

Yeah, for sure.

Even if we have to replace the car.

Yeah, it's a, it's like a three hour project.

Okay.

Per side.

But you'd be able to tell right away.

Oh yeah, driving it and raise it up, feel it as you turn it.

Now, you know, a lot of shops and people at home

will repair that by buying a used part and a knuckle.

They'll buy the whole knuckle with a bearing attached

and say I'm buying this knuckle

because I need a good bearing.

And they'll say, oh, so they'll spin it

and they'll check it and make sure it feels good

and it's not rusted up.

And then you can just bolt the whole knuckle on,

which is three bolts and it's bolt on instead of press in.

You don't have to worry about the press in things.

That's the way a lot of do-it-yourselfers do it

at home in their driveway.

What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna put a new bearing in.

Okay.

In, because I got this cool tool.

He's got that cool tool.

Right.

But before that, I was doing it mostly

by doing the whole assembly like that.

Now, there are, there are a few

that you can get for a few cars

like Dorman products was selling a loaded knuckle assembly.

Yeah.

They're starting to see a little more of that.

Yeah.

So you can buy loaded knuckle assemblies

and pre-pressed axle assemblies with bearings on them.

That's important.

Because if you can buy a whole axle

and put it in in 45 minutes

versus pounding the heck out of the thing

and beating yourself up trying to swap it

and maybe damaging the new bearing

and it takes you three hours to do it.

It's a hundred bucks more.

Why would, you know, in some cases,

why would you want to spend that?

Save yourself and...

They're cost for the assembly.

I think you can get a bearing.

Just the bearing itself is, I'm just a guess.

I'm somewhere between $45 and $120 for a bearing only.

But that certified gold seal certified

used knuckle assembly is probably 85 bucks.

Yeah.

It could be somewhere between 50 and 100 bucks

wherever you're at and check with the miles

with the car and where it was hit.

Be careful just making sure of that stuff.

But also, don't be afraid to try

to rotate your tires and see if the noise moves.

Yes, because if you have tires

that are feather edged and cupped,

you can feel it when you run your hand over the tire.

It's don't put a wheel bearing in it

because you gotta get the tires smooth first.

Rotate the tires from front to back

and see if the noise moves.

Unless all four tires are that way.

Jim, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Jim.

You're on the end of the hood show.

Jim, what can we do for you?

I have some old, well, it's not old.

It's about a year old.

A lot more gas or small things like that

like a leaf blower.

Yep.

I got old gas.

I was wondering if I can pour that in a car tank,

car's gas tank and it won't be a problem.

Well, if it's just a year old, just a year

and it doesn't smell horribly like turpentine,

yeah, you could probably do that

and then put some fresh gas in your machines.

I know people that do that all the time.

Once it becomes a year old,

once it gets really old and stale,

car's not gonna burn it.

But if it's clean and it's not an oil gas mixture,

yeah, people do that all the time.

They dump it out and then they put the fresh gas

in their lawn mower

and don't forget to run that piece of equipment

for at least a few minutes

because the old gas will still be in the carburetor

and that'll make it go bad really quick.

But it's oil.

There's two cycle engine on the lawn mower

for string traveling or whatever.

It's 2% but I thought if I,

I've been told if you pour it into a full tank

of car gas, it'll be all right.

If you pour it into a 20 gallon tank of gas

and it's a quart of gas out of that

or a pint of gas in a weed eater,

it's not gonna do anything.

That's such a small amount.

I got probably half or three fourths.

I got probably half or three fourths of a gallon.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of oil to put.

I would not put that in a car.

Unless it's an old one.

If it's a carbureted car, yeah, I'd probably do it.

It's not gonna hurt anything.

But in general, in general the answer would be no.

No, you don't wanna put anything in

because it gets into the catalytic converter

and causes problem.

But if you got like an older classic car

or something, I've burned two cycle oil

in different things.

But the problem is is oil burning in there

turns into carbon and carbons up the heads

and causes problems.

What you might do is get a five gallon container

that you've got sealed and put some,

like if you change oil and do enough oil changes

where you've got majority of an oil

and then put that in with it

and you could easily get rid of that

at somebody that accepts oil for oil burning.

I gotcha, okay.

You just can't.

When we put gas in our oil and our recycling often,

we'll put like a half gallon here and there.

Yeah, you just can't do much of it.

In a 200 gallon container, it doesn't hurt.

Yeah, we do that ourselves sometimes.

If not, if you're really worried about it

and you've just got that little bit.

Now this is sounding like I don't wanna hold it that long

but every year at Earth Day, at our place,

we do take small quantities of oil and antifreeze

and gas from people, but we gotta know what it is.

Cause this stuff that we deal with every day,

we take that just for that one day for people.

Then there's other places,

a lot of places take oil for their oil burners

and if you could make sure that you got that mixed in

with a quantity of oil, it'd be fine.

But here's it, that's a good question.

What if you don't?

You're just a regular person that has a three quarters

of a gallon of two cycle gas.

What do you do with it?

If it's, and you don't even have maybe a way

to use it anymore.

City hazardous waste disposal area?

They'll take it and they take, you know.

I believe they will.

Yeah, they look at your driver's license to see.

You can't go there every week, but they, yeah,

you can go, I've actually taken some gasoline

that was really bad, a gallon of it that was nasty.

Cause they take paints and thinners

and that kind of stuff from the citizens.

But it can't be mixed.

If they pull that cap off and they look in there

and they question what it is, they're not gonna take it.

They need to know, we used to take waste oil

from customers.

So then what?

We stopped.

What do you do with that?

Because we said no water in that.

And it's like two of them in a row had water.

I can't take this.

So then what?

What if the city won't take it or he lives out on it?

What do you do with it?

Lots of things you can do with it

that I can't tell you on the radio,

but none of them involve pouring it

onto the ground, none of them.

There's other ways to dispose of it,

which is environmentally friendly,

but it's not on the ground.

But you've got to find a place that recycles it.

And they will, you'll find,

if you're within the city limits somewhere,

you're gonna find a displace disposal place.

Or if you've got a mechanic you go to regularly.

If you're spending the money

and have your car worked on, ask them.

If they don't take it, they may know.

If you host, I found that if you are the host

of a radio show for 18 to 20 years,

they'll help you out, the people that do that.

Do you have a car problem?

Yeah, yeah.

Or if you, yeah.

Generally any problem.

Pretty much, yeah, yeah.

Jim, thanks very much for the call.

866-594-4150, let's talk to Paul.

You're on the end of the hood show.

Paul, what can we do for you?

Well, first of all, I'd like to say congratulations, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It's been enjoyable listening to you guys.

You know, it's all through the years here.

And I think I know for a fact

that you guys are reaching out even further.

Well, we appreciate that.

Thanks very much, Paul.

I actually got a job out of New York.

He shipped his Tesla all the way to me

because nobody out there would touch it.

There was a coal part that he had the body shop

fix up and everything died.

All the batteries are died and nobody will touch it.

And he heard you guys and he did a bunch of research

and he found me.

Wow, I never, I never thought of that connection

when I saw your, Paul, he just recently

bought a small piece of equipment from us

that we had surplus.

And so now I realize who I'm talking to here,

but I saw your Facebook post of the car toaster

dropping off the Tesla Model X from New York to work on.

I never made the connection that they heard about us

on the end of the hood show.

Interesting.

Talking probably to you about your Tesla.

Yup, that was the connection and 2019 Model X.

We know how it goes with salvage vehicles.

I thought maybe that one was gonna be,

I thought maybe that was gonna be your own.

It's beautiful.

I wouldn't mind having one.

Well, that's an awesome story.

I'm glad you called in and told us,

as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.

Yeah.

Because that's pretty neat.

Yeah, we found out and talking to Paul,

he's got a forklift business is his main gig.

And so, but he's gotten curious

and dug into these Teslas, Russ knew this

and told me, hey, go, yeah, I know Paul,

he's done this before.

And so then he came up and bought

the little Yale motorized pallet jack that we had.

And I didn't have a ton of time to talk to him,

but he had said that he was fixing some cars for people.

And we had a common connection between

Gruber Motors and Phoenix, which I had visited.

And he knew him from,

sounds like they have a closed group of guys

that are doing the behind the scenes Tesla stuff,

trying to figure out how to make it work.

And it was interesting to spend a few minutes talking.

You know, I really missed an opportunity, Paul.

I should have invited you to come with me

when we unloaded the three electric buses

at our bus garage, which was no more than a mile

from where we were standing.

Yeah.

I really missed an opportunity to not just say,

why don't you come up here and check these out with me?

But, well, next time I'll do better.

Well, there definitely will be a next time.

All right, well, awesome.

Well, thanks for the extra.

Thanks very much for the call.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Ken in Idaho.

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

What can we do for you?

I have a 2003 Ram 1500, which is 4.7 with 291,000 miles on it.

And I've done a tune up on it.

And I put everything back together and now it won't

So I thought, well, this is an original one.

So I replaced it.

That's not it.

I can't figure it out now.

So I wonder if you guys can help.

I've had a few people that have run into this problem.

And it's not one thing that does it.

You've got to go back and look and see,

did a part get put on it to replace a worn out part that's

just no good and causing this problem?

When you go putting plugs and wires and things on

is one of the plugs bad.

And the original ones were good.

They were just worn, but they were functioning.

And now you've got one that's truly dead.

That happens.

We've had multiple things that can cause these issues.

Or did something get pumped causing a vacuum leak

when this happened?

Because the changing of spark plugs and wires and caps

and things should not ever affect your idle

as long as you're replacing them with as good or better a part.

There's no relearn or anything like we talked about recently?

No, that's pretty straightforward like that.

If you change, if you've got a vehicle with a fuel filter,

which would be older than this,

sometimes when those are changed

and dirt gets introduced in the system

and you can have issues there,

but that's not the case in this one here.

And I would have went down the same path as Chris

thinking about that they had to relearn,

but you probably never disconnected power or anything

during your tune-up, correct?

Yep.

Yeah, so unless we had a failure somewhere,

what did you do as part of this tune-up?

What was replaced?

Plugs, wires, cap, rotor?

No, it was the coil pack.

The coil pack?

The coil pack we replaced.

And then...

Oh, that's a 4-7.

No, a 3-4-7 would be a coil-on plug.

Yep.

Yeah, we were thinking of the little bit older ones at first.

So, yeah, if you replaced all those,

it shouldn't have changed anything.

There's zero relearn, nothing electronic to mess with.

It may be that one of those is dead

and you're gonna have to scan it

and see if it shows a misfire on a cylinder.

And that would tell them right away, right?

Yeah, yeah, that's where I'd go next.

We're gonna have to scan it and see what's going on.

And let's say it had an idle air control motor fail,

just coincidence, by touching it, that can happen.

Ken, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

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Welcome back everybody.

It's time to get back under the hood

with a motor medics.

Let's talk to Frank.

You're on the under the hood show.

Frank, what can we do for you?

Yes, I have an older 72 cmc backup

with a 350 motor and a 350.

I do a triple transmission

and it's been in storage quite some time.

And I got it out and it's running everything

and I'm going to change the train.

I want to drop the transmission fluid on out of it

and put fresh in.

Is there any advantage of going to like a deck six

over the original ATF or just stay with what's in it?

Okay, so you got a 1972 Berkeley classic GMC.

Pick up with a 350 and an automatic trans

and you want to change that transmission fluid.

So I wouldn't, hmm.

It's a good question, huh?

The reason I wouldn't go with the synthetic upgrade

for that for the deck six

is because I'm worried about leaks

because of the age of it and everything.

Unless, you know, if I'm rebuilding one

and it's brand new and I'm putting it in there today

I'm going to go with the better fluid.

But because this is an older one

and we're just doing a fluid change

I'm going to change the fluid

with the original Dextron three fluid.

I don't want to go with the synthetic

because I'm concerned about fluid leaks.

I don't want those, especially a pump seal leak

because then you got to pull it out

which isn't too hard in this 72 GMC

and rebuilding it, if you pull the whole thing out

and took it to a trans shop and set it on the bench

and they rebuild it for it's probably going to be

12, 1300 bucks to have them rebuild it.

They're pretty affordable, but you don't want to do that

if you don't have to.

I'd stick with a plain old factory Dextron three.

Okay, that's what I wanted to know

is just your opinion on how that would work.

Hey, this 72 GMC, we've got a game we like to play here

and it's called, you know, guess the color

on the Berkeley classics.

So don't tell us the color here.

One of our partners, Berkeley classics insurance.

We'd like to guess this.

So I'm thinking this 72 GMC, is it all original?

I mean, that's all.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

No, you don't get to.

Doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Okay, it's gold.

It's blue.

I'm going to say it's orange red color.

Frank, what color is the truck?

It is a blue one with a white insert.

Nice.

Well done, Ross.

Is that all original?

Now you can guess.

Yes, it is.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, then it qualifies to be a Berkeley classic.

Absolutely.

Even if it's not original, but.

Frank, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

Yeah, that's when you just, because of the new oils

are going to be, or the, yeah, the new fluids

going to be more uniform and not.

Yeah, it's just, it tends, it's fully synthetic fluid

tends to leak more than non-synthetic in a older

vehicle that's been running regular fluid.

And new cars, everything's running synthetic pretty much.

So.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Bruce here on the end of the hood show.

Bruce, what can we do for you?

Yeah, hi.

So I have a 2006 Toyota Camry.

It has about 93,000 miles on it.

And when I bought the car, I noticed

that one of the calipers, the front passenger

caliper was kind of sticky.

You could feel it pulling, and then I would get out and feel

it, and it was hot.

So I decided to go ahead and just replace everything

on the front end on both sides.

New calipers, new shoes, new rotors, the whole nine yard.

And then I put it all together,

and it was still pulling, or still grabbing.

So then I went and replaced the actual rubber brake lines.

There we go.

Thinking that would have fixed it.

And I still seem to be having the same problem.

Now just to let you know, I do have custom wheels on there.

So the rotors and everything is exposed to the elements

a little bit more.

And I very rarely ever drive this car, so it sits.

And the rotors will get rusty looking

because I'm just not driving it enough.

So I'm not sure what's going on here.

I don't have any ABS light coming on or anything like that.

So I just I don't know what it could be.

Raise it up off the ground on jack stands.

Start the car and pump the brakes like 30 times.

All the way as far as you can.

And then hold it down tight for a minute.

And then get out of the car and walk around

with that brake released.

And see if you can turn the wheel freely.

If you can move it freely with your hand, it's not sticking.

But if one side drags and the other side doesn't,

at that point, you'll want to just crack the bleeder screw

loose on that wheel a little bit and then close it

and then see if it turns free.

If it does, the caliper is not sticking

because you've released pressure and the caliper moved.

It released.

So that tells us it's got to be in the brake hose

or further back.

So the next step then will be to repeat the process

of pumping up the brakes and holding it.

Make sure the wheel is dragging again.

Then we're going to crack it loose

where the metal line meets the rubber brake hose further up.

And if it again releases it, then we

know that it's further up the line.

But if it releases slowly, then we

know that there's something going on in that hose.

Then the next thing up the line would be your ABS pump,

which valve could hang up in that and cause that issue.

But usually it's going to be something further down the line.

But the first thing we want to do is get it off the ground

and verify that they're actually dragging.

One is tighter than the other side.

And it could be a little bit of rust

causing that to feel that way.

But these cars don't have a lot of problems.

The biggest problem we see is when people do a brake job

at home and haven't replaced the hoses

and they just take the caliper off and they drop it

and they let it swing from the hose.

Hang there like a pendulum.

Yeah, it pulls the inside of the hose

and it stretches it inside.

It makes the hose constrict in there.

And then when you put it back on, it's even worse.

Yeah, I did use the caliper hangers when I did do the job.

Great.

But it's very peculiar because sometimes when I drive it,

the RPM's running up to like 3,000 RPM

because it thinks I'm climbing a hill or something.

That's tight.

And then eventually, yeah, eventually it will break loose

and the rest of the day it's fine.

But it's like starting out when it's cold,

everything's cold, they seem sticky and grabby.

And then as I go, it loosens up and rolls just fine.

Yeah, I'd want to know if that's if...

And another thing you do too is when it's tight like that,

if you put it, just get in the car and you start it

and you roll a couple of feet and go,

yeah, it's doing it right now, put it back in park

and then you could go right to your master cylinder

with a wrench and just crack each side,

open the front and the rear for the pressure,

you don't know which one's front,

so just crack it open and close it on both of them

and then get in the car again without touching the brake,

just enough to get the shifter to release and move it

and see if it's free again.

If it is, the pressures at that master cylinder holding it,

which means your master cylinder is sticking

and a few of those, we've had a problem with the pedal

and the rod inside.

They've been changed over the years

and for some reason, not all of them

that were manufactured, depending on when they were

manufactured, the rod has to be shortened up

just a little bit, like an eighth of an inch,

which is not much, but we've taken them out

and we've ground them down a little bit,

put them back in, because they don't release

all the pressure.

They just, just what happened when they got

a new master cylinder put on them,

so there's a difference in the rod inside

and what the master cylinder takes.

Does that help you out there, Bruce?

That sure did, thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks very much for the call.

That was nice to listen to,

because Bruce knows what he's doing.

And you were able to give him, that was,

it was not helpful to me at all,

but it was interesting to hear that happen.

I like calls like that.

You were tracking though.

Yeah, I was tracking, yeah.

866-594-41, 5-0, let's go to Arizona

and talk to Walter, you're on the end of the hood show.

Walter, what can we do for you?

Hi, thank you for bringing your great show to Arizona.

You're welcome.

Thank you for listening.

I'm calling regarding a 2001 Ford Super Duty

with the 7.3 liter power stroke.

And what I want to ask is if you're familiar

with the scanners and readers to diagnose these vehicles,

because unless the unit has what they call a Ford package,

it just basically, what they sell out there,

it reads a little bit, but it doesn't do the system.

Meaning like check, like buzz the injectors

and things like that.

And can you recommend any good brands these days?

Yeah, for one that's gonna do what you need,

you're probably gonna need to get into like an

Autel scanner or something like that

that's a little higher than the basic code scanners

that do OBD2 and you can get, some of them will come

depending on the investment you're making it

with the software package in it

that'll cover up to the current year,

like now it'd be 23 or 24.

Other ones you have to buy a package for your vehicle

and you could buy it one time,

which will cover what you have for,

it'll have all the current stuff in it.

Some of them come with, you get one vehicle.

You can put one vehicle in,

but if you wanna get extra, yeah.

As soon as you buy it, you go online and you download

and it says, okay, which one or two vehicles do you want

and you put it in and that's what you're stuck with

permanently unless you buy more.

But that's what you're gonna need,

but I always tell people, go to YouTube,

look at that model scanner and see that other people

in the real world are doing what you wanna do

with yours and often they'll-

And what are they using?

They'll review it very well and say,

well this one won't work for this Ford

or for this Chevy, your Chrysler, Toyota.

Unless you buy this with it, so beware of that.

You don't wanna go out and just spend the money

and purchase one.

Are you having problems or are you just generally curious

and wanna be prepared?

Yes, I wanna be prepared.

And also I know it's an old vehicle,

meaning 22 years old and a lot of mechanics,

they don't know how to work on these older 7.3 liter diesel.

So that's why I want to check into it.

So at least if I could get a reliable reader or scanner,

I'll have a starting idea to present to the mechanic.

And this is Walter, I think you're the perfect candidate

for this and getting that nicer one

that does what Walter wants it to do

is gonna probably pay off for him.

This isn't someone who has a code

and wants to just read it, right?

I mean, this is where the investment would be worth it.

Well, and if he's keeping up on his fuel filter changes

and his oil filter changes using a high quality oil filter

like the Ford Motorcraft or Wix or there's other brands.

I mean, these diesels are very imperative

on having the oil system work correctly

and the fuel system work correctly.

If he's doing all that, with a 7.3 diesel,

you're not visiting the mechanic very much.

Right.

Pretty solid engine.

I mean, that's, they were lauded.

I mean, they were, that's not a word,

but they are just praised in the diesel market.

And then, you know, Ford switched that in over two mid-year.

They went to their six liter

and then they created another challenge

for the industry at that point.

Yeah.

Walter, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

Let's talk to Bob.

You're on the end of the hood show, Bob.

What can we do for you?

Yeah, I have a 2017 GMC 1500 with a 5.3 in it.

Last spring, the voltmeter would intermittently drop down

to just above 12 volts.

I put a voltage voltmeter on it

and I was reading 12.5 on the battery.

I replaced the alternator.

Now it is starting to do it again

and it's very intermittent.

It'll drop down to where it's just 12.5 volts again

and then bang, it just jumps right back up to 14.

Have you encountered anything like that?

Are you having problems with the vehicle not starting

or anything else?

Are you just alarmed by the fluctuation?

No, I'm not having any, by the fluctuation

and the fact that when it did it the last time,

I just went and put the voltmeter directly

on the battery and the battery voltage was only 12.5 volts.

When the voltmeter jumps back up to 14,

so does the battery voltage.

But I am not having any trouble starting the vehicle.

Well, it's all computer controlled.

You got a volt, you got a volt sensor

that's sensing that in the computer

and it's telling it how much to charge

and when to charge and all that.

So if you've got a problem in that sensing system,

that'll do that.

If it thinks the voltage is correct,

but it's not, it won't give any kind of code.

And a lot of times it won't even show that,

code won't turn to check engine light on,

you've got to scan it with a scan tool

and see, so that's the first thing I'd do

would be to scan it and see if there's any history codes

in there or pending codes.

That'd be great if it told you

that you've got a battery voltage sensor issue on it.

Some of them that used to have an inductance sensor

on the positive cable,

but then they've gone away from that now

and they're sensing it a different way,

but yeah, that's probably what's going on.

It may not cause a problem.

It's meant to charge at different rates as it's running,

but it's meant to keep the gauge on the dash steady.

So if the gauge on the dash is steady in the same place,

but you're reading that by checking

with a volt meter on the battery,

I probably wouldn't worry about it at all.

But if you see a fluctuation in your gauge inside

where it's 12 and a half and then 14

is jumping back and forth a lot.

Yeah, when it's doing that a lot,

something's a little off

and it may be that the alternator,

you've replaced the alternator to fix it.

It may be the alternator's failing again.

We put a significant number of alternators on those vehicles

so it's possible that's what's going on.

Okay, well, thank you, sir.

You bet.

Thanks very much for the call.

Sometimes you can see it in your headlights.

You pull up against the building

when you're pulling in,

you're like, where are my lights going bright and dim,

bright and dim, and then you know

there's a failure and most of the time

it's an alternator going out.

866-594-4150, let's go to Michigan and talk to Kim.

You're on the Under the Hood Show.

Kim, what can we do for you?

Oh, hey guys.

So I have a 2016 Volkswagen setup with a turbo engine

and I bought it brand new myself and I'm the only driver.

And I've driven it back and forth

throughout the country all over the place

and it was a great vehicle

but now it is burning oil and thick smokes

coming out the tailpipe so I took it to the dealership

and they said it is a piston ring failure

and it's something that I looked online

and I guess Volkswagen is known to be having this issue

with the turbo engine for the year,

couple of different years of vehicles

that they've manufactured

and I was quoted $10,000 for repairing this

and they didn't say how they were going to do it

but other people have said I just need to

entirely replace the engine.

Is this truly a $10,000 repair?

Is it something so hard?

Or am I just, you know, I'm a woman

am I maybe being lied to?

Well, there's a lot going on with that.

Yes, it is a problem with the piston rings.

It's more of a, they've changed oil formulas

and a lot of manufacturers are having these issues now

with these engines so they've got to change

the way their engines are built in order to compensate.

So people are having these failures

and they're costing them money during the,

you know, they're out of warranty

so they've got to be done.

If you have the dealer do it,

$10,000 is a pretty fair price.

They're going to probably replace

the whole long block engine.

You can have it done at another repair shop

where they'll put a certified used engine in one.

I just finished one yesterday in our shop for this

and it was, it was like along the lines of 7,500.

But it's still, that's a pretty expensive out of all cars.

That's one of the more expensive engines on that to do.

But it's, there is no fix.

You can't buy pistons and rings for those as far

as I'm aware to take them apart and repair them.

So your option is a certified used one

or that brand new one.

But because of the value of the car

which is still pretty high on those

we'd probably go with the certified used one.

And if you're in the market after it's repaired

because it'll bring more money with it running

I would probably think about moving on to a different one

so you don't have this problem again.

So the short answer is it's not her, it's the car.

No, it's the car and warranty companies

don't want to cover it

because they claim it's a known issue.

Yeah, and you can always get a second opinion

just to make sure.

The fix is to replace it one way or another.

You can't just go out and buy piston rings

and pistons for it.

Let's say you could.

Let's say I gave you a set of brand new piston rings

and pistons right from Volkswagen.

So this is just for fun.

Yeah, just for fun.

Let's say you could.

And I'm handing you the parts say, here you go.

If you were to go to a repair shop

and have those put in

it's probably gonna cost about $6,000 to do it

to pull the engine out completely tear it down

put those parts in, put it all back together.

So you see where I'm going there

that's pretty expensive too.

So if you get what we call a certified used engine

so when our shop does them,

of course we're in South Dakota

which is far away from where you are

but if we were doing it here,

this one we did yesterday

we bought a certified used engine.

It was shipped in from another facility.

It wasn't in ours and then we install it with a warranty.

Kim is not going online

and looking for a certified used engine.

No, no, no.

Her shop was.

Their shop, whatever shop she wants.

She could investigate herself

to figure out where the market is at.

And if you don't know,

if you don't know where to go for a shop,

if you've been going to the dealer

because obviously you went there for this first repair

to find a shop what we suggest

we use AutoZone as a commercial partner of ours

and we tell our customers if our listeners

not our customers

but because they're already our customer

we're using AutoZone.

If you're looking for a shop

so AutoZone sells to literally hundreds of commercial

you've got them all over in your area

and they're selling to hundreds of people shops

not just do-it-yourselfers that are repairing their cars.

So they'll know what shop orders a lot of parts

for Volkswagen's.

And what shop is, you know,

oh, hey, we went in there delivering parts

and they got a Volkswagen on the hoist all torn apart

and they do this a lot.

So they, and they may even know them a little more

intimately than that.

They may talk to these guys a lot

like our drivers, they come in,

they know who we are,

they know what we work on.

So I would suggest asking them

who they think might be a good place to do

major engine repair on a Jetta, on a 16 Jetta.

And they should be able to help you out with that.

Thank you guys so very much.

You're very welcome.

Thanks very much for the call, good luck.

That'll do it for another hour of The Under the Hood Show.

Thanks for joining us.

Don't forget, you can watch The Under the Hood Show

on our YouTube channel.

For Russ Evans, Shannon Nordstrom, 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 in to 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 Under the Hood Show dot 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.

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