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This is Under the Hood. Welcome to the Under the Hood Show.
We are glad to have you with us. Russ Evans is here to answer your automotive questions.
Thanks for joining us under the hood. Shannon Nordstrom is here to do the same.
Welcome hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune up.
I'm Chris Carter here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150.
Let's go right to the phones as we've got people waiting.
Let's talk to Linda. You're on the Under the Hood Show. Linda, what can we do for you?
Yes. Thank you. I have two different questions for you. I have a Chevy Impala 2014.
And the first question I have is when I, this noise has been going on for maybe five or six
years that I've been aware of the noise or been in the car. So it's a constant noise.
What will, the noise happens when I turn the steering wheel either to the right or left
and I only hear it inside the vehicle. When I roll down the windows and I have the fan and
radio off, then I don't hear it outside of the vehicle. I hear it just inside the vehicle.
And I'm wondering if that is just, if there's
something rubbing on that. I don't know, like rubber against rubber or rubbing or,
I mean the steering wheel feels taut. Nobody's, when I take it in for oil change, nobody says,
oh, you know, you might want to look at this. What's the noise that it makes? You kind of
said a little bit there with the rubber noise, but what's the noise that it makes?
If you could hear a mouse
wicking, it would be kind of like, excuse me. First of all, we want you to make the noise,
Linda. That's what he's getting at. He wants you to make the noise, but he, she doesn't have to
because I know this noise and I know what the problem is. And I'm going to go out further
and say, Linda, I would wait about five, six years too to make that call. My car at about six years,
I'd be like, oh yeah, and this has been going on for about five years. It's the, just a little bit,
is it just when you even, if you're going straight, you just kind of turn the wheel just a little
bit, not even enough to turn the car and you can feel it and hear it? I can't feel anything. I
can only hear it. But yeah, I did a, but it was interesting. One time I found a parking lot and so
I did, you know, like rosary, I mean, not very carefully that I did. So I turned the steering
wheel all the way and I didn't hear it so much. But then when I, when I turned it the other way,
I didn't hear it. And it seems like it's, this would be like, okay, now the weather's hot.
And so it'll make the noise or, or if I just have the, the vent on, then I can't hear it as much
because of that blowing noise. Is it the new body style Impala or the old style?
Does it look like a spaceship or a football? Yeah. Is it like when you see that's a 2006 or
does it look like a 2019? You've got me there. That's all right. Okay. Because they made a 2014
Impala classic, which looked like the previous Impalas clear back to 2006. And then they also
made the new generation, which was more modern that had a more modern look to it and a whole different
steering thing. Yeah. The steering, the steering dash and everything was a lot different on that.
The new version probably had electric rack and pinion, didn't it? That's why I'm asking. Yeah.
Because we're trying to eliminate the, we're trying to eliminate some of the things there,
but it's out, you know, it could even just be that there's the columns in those,
if it's the old body style, they would just kind of warp a little bit and they would touch
the edge. So when you turn it, it would just go back and forth, make some noise.
It makes some noise. And you, if you think that type of noise is just a, oh, it's Impala
limited. I got up the handy book here, but I think the limited is the old body style.
Yeah. It's, uh, I called it a classic. I think they did Malibu classic and they
might have did Impala limited when they kept that old body style. It's a power steering.
Yeah. It's the power steering. It's probably a little low on fluid. It uses up just
a little. You'd hear that outside. And then they would hear that outside.
I just turned the radio up, turned the blower up a little on a radio.
And you've had this problem for five years.
Right. But whenever I take it in for an oil change, you know,
they always say that they top everything off. They check everything.
Is the car working good and the car is doing what it needs to do for you every day?
Yes. I mean, I've taken it for like a four hour trip over.
Chris, what would you say to Linda if she's had a small problem like that for five years,
she drives the car every day. She's not afraid to take it on a long trip. What would you say?
I would say it's fine.
You'd say there's no problem.
Right. There's no problem.
You turn the radio up just a little bit.
I know that sound. That's what the Oldsmobile used to do all the time.
Linda, if you know that makes this sound all the time, you could stop in at any independent
repair shop that's got a few cars sitting around outside. You could tell they're
a busy little repair shop and just say, could you listen to this noise and a mechanic that's
been around things would say, hopefully, oh, that's a this. Yeah. I wouldn't get too worried about it.
It's fine. Leave it is what he'd say.
Okay. What's your, right?
I mean, for the most part, unless I don't know what tragic problem could be causing that.
Yeah. What's your second question, Linda?
Okay. This is a little bit more serious for me because it makes me gag.
But when I turn on the...
Hold on a second. Wait one second. I can't wait.
I'm so interested in what she's going to say.
Let's get to it here. Let's go, Linda.
So when I have, because there's two different ways to turn on the fan,
one that will go through the the vent and then the one that's circulating the air in the car.
Yep. Recirculate.
Yeah. Recirculate. I always have to have it on recirculate because otherwise I get a
musty, like a rotten dead leaves smell.
Yeah. You got the mold in the in the heater box, right? That's what that I mean.
It sounds like a good chance that your cowl vent and area wasn't draining well.
But on recirculate, it doesn't do it. Only on outside. Cabin air filter,
it pulls the air through from the outside.
Yeah. That's what I was getting at. So if she had something in the...
Cabin air filter.
Yeah.
Nope. Grab the cabin air filter because I had, I took it into one of those rapid
oil change places and so they, I told them to change both of the air filters because I was sick
and tired of the smell. And so then they pulled out the cabin filter and I, it wasn't dirty at all.
I said, change it anyway. Then they pulled out the, I guess it's called the engine filter.
And then they pulled that out and that was a little bit dirty and I told them to change
it anyway. But what they did when they, underneath of that, there's like a little
catch pan or something there. But anyway, that was full of seeds.
You know, so you could tell that there was a rodent in there at one time.
And I told them to clean that out. Well, they did.
That, that noise sounded something like a mouse.
You might just have mice, Linda.
No, no, no, that would be horrible. If she had that many mice, they were making noise when she
turned. They're singing. They're just angry. Like Cinderella. This is, we, yeah.
Here's the problem. Yeah.
You either have mold in there, which can be cleaned with a AC cleaning kit. They got
auto parts store. It sprays in pretty self-explanatory. Or you have rodent droppings.
If it's that bad where it's making you gag, Shannon owned a Hummer H3 one time.
And it was so nasty. The dash came out, went in the garbage and a different dash went in it.
A HVAC box. That's about as bad as they get.
When I took it apart, it had an inch of guano in the bottom of it. It was disgusting.
And it went, there was no way to clean it. We tried the musty thing and I went, I think there's
a rodent in there and it was a rodent in there. Yeah, that was a fairly near vehicle.
One we repaired and some rodents had got in there. So it was a bad deal, really bad deal.
Super bad deal. I think Linda's going to be fine. She needs to go to the auto parts store
and get a can. Try that first so you don't be too worried if it doesn't change it.
I'll give you one tip. It'll say to use the whole can and you'll think you don't need to,
but go ahead and do it. And just follow the instructions. It'll tell you a step-by-step
what to do. And that's going to, and then it's going to happen again probably next summer.
Yeah. Yeah, you want to, you do it once a year, once it starts coming up. Yeah.
And then, but if you ask the auto parts store a handy thing, you spray in your AC
that cleans the whole system out. And if they don't know what it, you need to go to different
auto parts store because those people don't know what they're talking about.
AC Pro, former partner of ours. There you go. AC Pro. There you go.
Linda, thanks very much for the call. Good luck. 866-594-4150. Let's talk to Jake,
or Jay, sorry, Jay, you're on the end of the hood show. What can we do for you?
Oh, great. Hi, guys. I've got a head scratcher here. I've got a 2006 Chrysler 300 with a 3.5v6,
and I had a check engine light on it for the EGR valve. So I replaced the EGR valve,
and I still get the same check engine light with a P404 code, position sensor performance.
So that's one problem, but the bigger problem is that now when we start the car up,
and this has been going on now for a number of months,
started up, and then you give it a little bit of gas to back out of the driveway,
it dies, and then it comes back on again. Then it dies, and it comes back on again.
And then you put it in drive to start driving up the road, and it'll sort of
surging. It goes and then lags back and goes, and you get a couple blocks and it pretty
much clears up, but this is pretty common behavior with this car, and it's a head scratcher.
I've been able to figure it out. I thought maybe it was a dirty air mass flow sensor,
but it didn't have one. So I'm not sure what it is.
You know, EGR is going to cause, it can cause dying issues,
but I would, if you replace that EGR and it still gives you a code, I would definitely
check the exhaust back pressure on that car and see what it is, because if it's higher than
it's supposed to be, it will overcome that EGR and give a flow code, which is what you're getting,
and cause an issue with it. Or if you have an EGR valve that's opening when it's not supposed to,
computer's opening, whatever's causing it, it's hanging off the seat because it's got carbon
in it, that will cause stalling, it'll cause codes, it'll cause poor running,
all those things. It sounds like it's all EGR related, whether it's direct
caused by the EGR or something's causing it to fail, like too much exhaust back pressure.
So that code that he gave you was like the position sensor for the EGR position or EGR
flow issue. Interesting. How long has it been? How long has it been doing that?
Well, I changed out the valve earlier in the year, but it'd been doing that before that. Of course,
that's why I changed it out. So it's been probably a year at least doing this.
One thing you might want to try in this is to clean the emission system. It can help.
CRC, guaranteed to pass. G2P, it's a product that really, it's really strong and it will really help
with certain things that can cause testing failures when you're getting in if you're in
a emissions testing state, which also means it's going to help clean out
things in the system. The catalytic converter a little bit, the fuel injection,
the valves, the heads, all that stuff. And if it makes a difference in what's going on,
it's a buildup in this in the system. And you may have to go with a professional
cleaning in a shop to clear it up. But we've seen a number of things that can be cleared up
with additives. It's amazing how many issues we're seeing lately with
fuel systems, carbon, things like that, built up in engines.
Wow. Well, this car is used a lot for local driving and probably doesn't get
thorough warming up frequently. And also, I would imagine there are
passageways in the head that could have been carboned up. Could it be that I replaced the
valve that just it was all blocked up inside? Is that what we're talking about?
Definitely. And a lot of times you have to take them apart like a Prius is one car that's so bad
you have to take the intake manifold off to clean it. You cannot clean it with it on the car because
it blocks up. Now, if you've been performing regular maintenance cleaning on it, you could
keep it clean. But once it gets clogged, there's nothing flowing through it. So cleaner won't do
any good. So you could have it clogged up. If you pull the agr valve off and you block off
the hole that goes into the intake, the suction side of it. Calls T? No. Too big.
Something bigger. Okay. Much bigger. And then you start the car up. Exhaust should blow out the other
hole with a bunch of garbage as well too. So don't be looking at it. But the suction side should
suck vacuum and the exhaust side should be exhaust. A lot of times there's nothing there.
And we'll take a coat hanger wire or something and clean it out and spray some cleaner down
in there. Start it up. Make sure it's good and clean on the vacuum side. We use a vacuum
and try to clean it out other than taking the hole intake off. Does that help you out there, Jim?
Yeah. You mentioned that blocking off the take the agr valve off and block off the opening.
You're blocking off the vacuum and just leaving the exhaust open. Is that what you're doing?
Yeah. To see if it's exhaust coming out of it or not.
All right. Great. Good test. All right. Block off. I have to pull the manifold though
to get at that thing. Well, yes and no, but you could. If you got to pull the manifold,
might as well take it off and clean it. Jay, thanks very much for the call. Good luck.
866-594-4150. Let's go to North Dakota and talk to Kurt. You're on the end of the
Hood Show. Kurt, what can we do for you? Hi. Thanks for taking my call.
You bet. Yes. I drive a 2018 Toyota Highlander. It's got about 86,000 miles on it. And
sometimes, like say, when you're going up a hill and you have to slow down for another vehicle
in front of you, it downshifts really hard when you have to press on the gas again.
And that takes you by surprise. And that's, I don't know, is that something that should
be checked by a dealer or because it doesn't throw a code? So that's my question.
It's hard to tell, but there are some vehicles that lean heavier on the engine
braking and shifting down in the transmission than others. And I have not done that in one of those
types of vehicles. It does seem to me that if you're feeling that, you're thinking it's abnormal.
The question is for me would be, was it like this when you first got it? Or is it something
that's just developed? If it's been that way the entire, that's what I was kind of curious,
is this something that just started doing that? Or is this just a new course for you
where you're driving that you haven't before? Well, I bought the vehicle used
with about 80,000 miles on it. And I did notice it at first and then it's probably
something that could have been there. And I don't know the complete history of the vehicle.
I think it's normal. I'd have to drive it to feel it to know, but most of them act that way. When
you're slowing down like that, going up a hill, you give it a little gas, it's going to downshift.
So you get going again. It knows your road speed and it wants to get you going. It
doesn't want to just step on the gas and have it go. It's got a downshift so it can get you
up to speed. The Toyotas are super good vehicles, but it's not unusual. I mean, I've
have heard of a few tranny problems in these, but it wasn't this issue. It was missing shifts,
not holding gears. This might be a fairly normal behavior, but if you wanted to know for sure,
if you haven't yet at 86,000 miles, transmission maintenance is probably good and do.
And whether that vehicle is set up for a drain and fill or whether it should be flushed,
Russ thinks, what do you think on that one? Drain and fill. It'd be a good time to do that. If you
did it at a transmission shop, you could first ask them to say, hey, if it does this every time,
let's go for a drive. Is this fairly normal and then be a good time to maybe change out that
fluid and put an additive or a conditioner in there at the same time? Does that help you
out there, Kurt? Okay. Yeah. Well, this is something that I'd probably do myself in. I'd
probably drill or drain and fill it myself and I could look at the fluid then.
Yeah, exactly. I just, if you wanted to get that second opinion, you could do them at the same time.
That's the only reason I was bringing it up. How much fluids that thing take?
It can be a lot. It's going to be a lot. Yeah. So it's not as, it's still going to cost a
little bit to do just that drain and fill. I'm always surprised when you talk about how much
fluid costs nowadays. And you want to have the right fluid in there. You gotta have,
if you don't get the right fluid in transmissions anymore, you break them.
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Universal Technical Institute, UTI.edu. 866-5944-150. Let's go to North Carolina
and talk to Barry. You're on the Under the Hood Show. Barry, what can we do for you?
I got a 2011 Nissan Murano and every time I come to the stop and try to give it a gas,
it's hesitate. Then I'll just say to catch up and jerk through your heart.
Okay. It's not very, it's not probably good. It's probably not good. Has it been slowly
getting worse or is it just suddenly the one day it decided, I don't like you anymore?
It's been doing it for a long time. How many miles are on the Murano?
157,000. I think you've done well with that Murano.
With the transmission in that Murano. I'll say this. That's the issue here, right?
Most likely it is a... The engine's just broken.
Yeah. Most likely it's a CVT transmission issue.
Now, this might not make him feel any better, but we recently rented a brand new Murano.
That's a whole different car. It did the same thing. It was, I hated it.
You'd step on it, it would rev up and not go, and then it would catch and take off.
That might have been just junk. The new one might have had a problem.
They normally drive pretty smoothly. The new ones till they break.
The CVT trans, there was an issue. I tell everybody it's got a CVT.
If you buy one, it's got one in it at about 20,000 miles, change the fluid for the first time,
and then you're going to do whatever you do, because that's what people do with these things.
But I think it's that first transmission change.
For people, I know that have got these cars new and brought them to our shop,
and they changed it that first time, that low of miles, and then never did anything
again. They're lasting longer than the ones that never did it.
I think that first fluid in there and getting out the stuff that's part of the build
is important, but these CVTs, these older CVTs, 100,000 miles, it's a crapshoot, you don't know.
Barry, if you'd called and said, hey, I have a 2011 Murano,
how long's the transmission going to last? You'd go about 157,000 miles.
Barry, to test it or to figure it out, you got to bring it in.
And it's expensive just to test it. But a lot of times they can do the seat of the
pants testing. You get in it, you drive it and say, oh yeah, it's done.
So does he just keep driving it till it's...
Yeah. It seems like it's gone a long time already in this mode. So if he can continue driving
in his style of driving, it's probably going to last a while.
You can drive it to your second job to pay for the transmission you're eventually going to have,
which is going to be a lot. You can find a good use. So Kardash part does, you can come up with some
options for those. You pick them with lower miles. There's a lot of people with Muranos that
just don't drive them that much. I mean, there's a lot of high mileage ones, but if you could
find one with 50,000, 60,000 miles on it. Getting harder. And it's, yeah, well it is old.
You know, and fluid decent. You're going to pay more for it too, because the older it is
with the lower the miles, age and lower miles cost more. High maintenance.
Barry, thanks very much for the call. Good luck. Wish we had better news for you there.
We didn't ask him a lot of other questions. Right.
We kind of went right to it. We're assuming that the vehicle has a solid tune up,
state of tune. It's running good. The engine's running good. And it's not some sort of ignition
miss or something like that. If the transmission is acting up that much, he should have a code of
some sort. Correct for us by then or not. Not always. That he won't see, but it'll show up.
Right. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That's the
we didn't ask much because just baby it and drive the heck out of it.
Exactly. 866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show.
What's caught your attention in the automotive world?
Oh, so rental cars. Hertz has been trying a new little toy.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's crap, but whatever you pull out of the rental
car place and you drive through a tunnel with hundreds of cameras. I saw your text and I
never looked at the story, but I assume that's what this was powered by AI. Yeah. It takes a picture
of every single inch of the car, including the tire tread depth. I mean, all of it. It looks at the
whole thing. You're rolling over the deal. It's checking alignment. I mean, the whole thing.
You bring the car back, you pull through the little tunnel. If they find a scratch on the car
door ding, they're billing people. That AI stuff is not cheap and they have built
a number of people. One example, a guy got a bill for $350 for a door ding in a car and he says,
well, I don't know. I guess I just got to pay it. They've been doing that a lot and they're kind
of reevaluating it because it was a shadow. Yeah. It was turned out to be a shadow and a
couple senators now have got involved with it that also had some rental issues and they contacted
the owners of the company and said, we need to discuss this because this is over the top. It is
expected that if you're renting any type of machinery, car, whatever it is,
a small amount of normal parking lot dings happen. That's to be said. Now, on the other hand,
this technology can protect you. You rent a car, you take it out and it's got a scuff down
offender because somebody ran into something and they missed it. When I get a rental car,
I walk around it with my camera and I take a video real quick to check it out. I do the same thing
because you couldn't come back because only one time somebody said, I don't think that was there
and then they found out it was there. But there was a little scuff on the side of
the plastic bumper. I'm like, no, look, it was here when I got in the car. I'm still
in the airport. What if I didn't have that? Then I'm stuck with paying for that.
In certain states, Texas, I know for a fact is one of them. If you rent the car, Arizona is too,
if you rent the car and let's say accidentally you do bump into something else and you get
a little scuff on the bumper, you're going to pay for it, right? Let's say the bumper scuff is
a thousand bucks. You expect to pay that, right? Sure. Those states allow the rental car
company to tag you for every minute they can't rent that car and you know a lot of these are busy.
So if the car's in the body shop for six weeks getting fixed, you're on the hook for six weeks
of rental. They will hang you. So these things can help you and hurt you. So our question is,
what do you guys think? If you're on YouTube, just leave it in the comments.
I think that they have to learn where their throttle is at with that technology.
I think it's good for the big stuff, but not the shadows.
Yeah, I think they're learning and I think the technology, because they're using the same sort
of technology in the auto collision industry, the insurance companies are using it.
I think it'd be great for a normal auto repair shop if it was affordable.
No, there's definitely this technology. I saw it at a trade association call or show here
about five years ago and it's continued to perfect and perfect and perfect.
I saw that news story that you sent us before you sent it to us,
but then I went a little further and they do have one of the situations.
They simply were letting the AI do it and sending out the bill and collecting the money
and they never put eyes on it. And the one of them got resolved because they had somebody
physically go check and go, oh yeah, that's not there. And that was it. So they do have to
figure out if something comes back with a and flags it, they're going to have to go look
They got to put a process on there. World is changing.
866-594-41. Or they'll just, people just won't run from it.
Right. Yeah. I mean, they got to realize and they do.
Yeah. This isn't good for business. Once this word's on the street,
this isn't good for business.
Let's talk to Brandon. You're on the end of the hood show, Brandon. What can we do for you?
Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. You bet. I got a 2016 Chevy Silverado,
5.3 liter. I've got $177,000 on her now.
My transmission's been going out for a couple of months and I've known it and I was just about
to buy a new one. However, I had another issue just arise where my truck started burning oil
all of a sudden. I've had to put two quarts of oil in it twice now since the last oil change.
So I guess I'm just wondering, is it worth getting a tranny or do I have bigger issues here?
16 truck, even with that many miles is still worth. For what you'd pay to put a remanufactured
engine and transmission in the vehicle, you're going to pay more to go buy that vehicle off
a car lot somewhere. And it's not going to come with a warranty like a remanufactured
engine and transits, but I wouldn't worry too much about the oil yet. Transmission, it's a 16.
It's going to need a transmission. They just, I have so many of those that come in with those out,
but the oil burning might be as simple as a new driver side valve cover. They get clogged up with
age. The design of them, when the engine gets older and the vacuum's a little different in the
crankcase, they've had some issues with them. So Dorman products, that's our partner,
makes a valve cover and that valve cover is, is updated, different flow in there,
different oil protection. So it doesn't suck that oil into the intake any longer
and prevents the oil burning. That's the first thing we look at on every five,
three engine when they suddenly start burning oil, because it's not typical for those to have
piston ring issues and valve guide issues. It's very typical to have oil burning. And if
you pull off the PCV vent hose that's on that valve cover where it goes into the intake, if it's got
oil in it, if it's wet with oil, it's more than likely the valve cover because the oil's getting
sucked out of there and into the intake. So I would look at that first. And if you discover
that, you know, if the trans is going out and it's running pretty good right now, you could
still drive it, put a valve cover on it first and drive it for a few weeks and see if the
oil burning goes away. If it goes away, then you can feel pretty good and say, well,
the engine's fine. Need to put a transmission? Put a transmission in it. Does that help you
out there, Brandon? Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks very much for the call, because that's still,
that's a... Oh, my dad's got a truck like that that's got, he bought it with 170,000 miles on it
and just cruising all over with it. Tens of thousands of dollars if you wanted to buy it.
Yeah, it was an expensive truck yet. Yeah. 866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us
here at the Under the Hood Show. Let's talk to Brian. You're on the Under the Hood Show.
Brian, what can we do for you? So I got a 2022 Ram 1500 Limited with a 5.7
hemmy unit. It's the regular hemmy, not the e-torque. I bought this at the end of March this year
and I really don't recall if I had this issue before I brought on my Mustang convertible
and put that in the garage so the pickup's been sitting outside.
The issue is the first start up in the morning, the engine just doesn't seem like it doesn't know
if it should run or not. It's spitting splutters around and two weeks ago I had service work done
on it or oil change. We put a fuel additive in it and my service guy told me it's like
seafoam on crack. I just don't remember what that is. I don't know if I want that.
CRC. It's not working. It's not working. So anyway, I just called in just to see what you
guys think. It's maybe injector issues or pump issues. So the truck's pretty young yet. It's
got how many miles on it? 33,000. Yeah, that's a pretty young vehicle yet on a hemmy like that.
That should be a pretty solid start-up vehicle. That thing should fire up and go and you shouldn't
have to do any tricks. Just go. So it's going to do this every time or is it just when it's
cold? I didn't say that. It's just the first initial start up and it's not all the time. It
gets a streak. It'll do this and then it'll be fine and then it gets the streak going again. So
this morning it actually died for the first time. Did it ever put out a light of any sort?
No, no light. I'll get going down the street and it's
spinning around so I get upset and I just punch it and it kind of comes out of it.
Then you remember why you bought a hemmy? That's going to be the problem. Well,
I've been wondering that ever since. No one's going to look at it if it's not doing it every
single time constantly because there's no way you can find it. Can we log this every morning,
get in the car, write down the temperature, figure out so it only happens? If you say it
does it when I do this every single time but just this once, you bring it to me.
I get in it and say, okay, here's temperature. I start it up. It did it to me just once.
Now what's wrong with it? Because I need to find out what it is and fix it. It's got to do it constantly.
So you can have equal. First you got to have it happen and then you have it happen again.
So I can test it and say, oh, look, this is what's causing it. Now I fixed it. It's gone away. I've
verified the repair. I can't just say, well, yeah, I saw it. I see a lot of things. I hear a
lot of things and noises. Click, click, click. I heard it. Oh, what is it? I don't know.
It went away. Well, it only does it once a day. I can't help you.
All right. So enough from him this time, Shannon. What would you do?
Put, try, what would you try? I think that with 33,000 miles on this, if it's that low miles,
I would take it out. This does get out on good heat cycles, right? And you get this thing out
and drive it around town when everyone smells and get it up to operate, put 30, 40 miles on it
in a good run. Yeah, right. And, you know, that's a damper pole or two and that type of thing. So
one thing that we've seen every once in a while is, is that this one set up for a flex fuel or anything?
Gosh, I don't believe so. All right. I run in high octane and I'm doing, I put 91 in it. So
I just say you might try just some different fuel. I don't think this is a flex fuel truck,
but the one way to find out is to plug a scanner into it and see if it, if it is,
does it have a yellow gas cap on it or a green gas cap?
No, there's no cap on it. But does it have a green around there? There should be like a green
label or a yellow label where the cap goes. No, I don't see, I don't see that. I don't
think it's flex fuel. Yeah. Oh, just open up the door because they, they cut that for a while
when they lost their funding on that for government funding for those, those type of vehicles. They
pulled it. But if it says flex fuel on any vehicle, anybody that's got one says, a lot of times you
got to reset the fuel comp sensor in them. That's why I just think if there's something funky
going on with the alcohol content, if it was that would be something you might just try a
different fuel station and a different fuel just retains and runs for a while like that.
And then it goes back. Just as a thought, I would, I know the CRC guaranteed to pass might be worth
a try. Just even though you're, if you're young enough, you shouldn't need it, but it might be
something that we've had success with. I know the, your guy said he put something in there
already, but I can't even, I mean, there's no warrant since it's not doing it. They're
not going to help you at the dealer. I wouldn't think, right? Well, he's already, you're
out of warranty, correct? I've got extended on it. That's going to cover down there every day.
Okay. All right. If they find a failure, it won't cover drivability issues. Right. That is, that
is a, yeah, people don't know that until they find it out. Yeah. And then there's, and with
the warranty too, I've got one right now that says, well, I got a misfire on one cylinder. It's
like, there's nothing wrong with it. There's, there's nothing wrong with the engine. It's
got good compression, no leak down. It's not an engine problem. It's external. Well,
it's broken. Like I understand it's broken, but if you do not, if there's nothing to give to the
warranty company, they're going to deny any fixing because they don't know what's wrong with it.
I'll tell you what I would do. I would just get mad and punch it every time it does it. I would
do the same thing you're doing, Brian. Punch it, Chewie. Yeah. There's nothing to...
I did it this morning. Well, the only other thing is, is that if you had a, maybe this
is wrong too, but if you had a scanner that you could leave hooked up to it and somebody could
teach you what to look for. You could look at O2 sensors and see what's happening.
And it's happening. When it's happening. Fuel pressure, sensor,
things like rail sensor, all those things. Different things to see. Brian, good luck.
Thanks very much for the call. Sorry we couldn't help you anymore than you kind of already knew.
866-594-4150. Let's go to Oklahoma and talk to Benjamin. You're on the end of the
hood show, Benjamin. Mr. I have a 2018 Ford F-150 with a 3.3-liter engine.
That's got 120,000 miles on it. And it seems like I'll use some of them around 18,
five. I was wondering, is there, look at the different chips, how far do you put the chip in there?
How do you tip to your system that would help?
I guess change things so you can get a little better fuel mileage and horsepower. Is that true?
Not to an extent for most people that they would ever feel like any sort of investment was
worth it. Can you put a chip? They don't make chips, but they make little things that plug in
under the dash. Power programmers. Yeah. You're programming it. Do they increase miles per gallon
by 15, 20%? They do not. Now, is it possible to gain a mile per gallon? Maybe. Maybe.
And you run only premium fuel in it. Which doesn't pay off. Right. Yeah. Right. Even
Shannon's old Land Rover, right in the manual says, set the timing here for premium fuel only
for a little better power. It doesn't say anything about economy because it doesn't have any.
Or set it here for low octane fuel. The new cars, it's the same way you plug it in. They
adjust automatically to an extent, almost to the extent that that tuner will. If you only run a
very high octane fuel in it. A lot of times what a programmer tuner will do is it'll find,
it'll make you choose. I want to set this a little bit different because it's for towing and then
it kind of keeps it there all the time. Or I might want to say I want to get a little
better fuel economy and it kind of keeps it there all the time. And it just takes those
parameters to that edge that, well, that they're legal to do or else they're going to be in trouble.
And it just takes the limits and pushes them out to the edges. It can do some, but it's limited.
And it can do some if it's running perfectly. And if it's not, it can actually do damage
because of the way it's changing it, right? Yeah, exactly. You could gain as much fuel
economy by just consciously deciding that I want to drive to get better fuel economy.
Yeah. I have time today. I can take my drive, can take an extra two minutes.
So I'm going to coast more and that will cut her back down to, you know, 70 instead of 75 or
66 instead of 69. And then ease into your starts. I could never do this. No, no, I'm just
not done. I just buy a lot of gas. I support the economy. Our easy answer on this one,
Benjamin, is don't do it, right? Straight up. Thanks very much for the call. Good luck.
866-594-4150. Let's stay in Oklahoma and talk to Mike. Mike,
you're on the end of the hood show. What can we do for you?
Well, I appreciate the call. I really appreciate your show too. So thanks, guys.
Thanks. I've got a 2014, I know you had a call earlier. So maybe this is transmission hour,
but 2014 needs an ultimate 106,000 miles. Six or 60.
Daughter's boyfriend. I'm sorry, 106,000 miles. And I'm wanting to change. I got several projects
I'm going to do to it. So I'm going to have it up on Jack's this weekend. And I have had experience
changing on my daughter's 2018 ultimate. I've got a good video. I got all the Nissan parts,
but I'm wanting to change the CVT hood on it. Doesn't show any signs of slippage,
anything like that. Like I said, I'm going to do full brake job on it, radiator flows, plugs,
this, that. But like I said, I've got the NSC3 fluid. I always said I got a really good
video on doing it. It goes by the specs. I want to flush it a couple of times.
I guess I'm from a 50 foot level. Is that, you know, just kind of give me the,
maybe I know thumbs up, so to speak, but I feel good about changing the fluid.
Yeah, just draining, draining for overall good shape.
Yeah, that transmission, it's, it's important to change that fluid. We change those a lot,
proper fluid, which you have that Nissan fluid, drain it, fill it, run it through the whole
pattern of it, reverse forward the whole thing, drain and fill it again.
And that should be enough for the transmission. Can you like run it through a coffee filter
and use the same fluid? No, no, I'm just asking. Just checking. Sounds like something
you'd try to do. Well, I would, you know, I mean, that would remove some of the contamination
and dirt, but it would not, it wouldn't replenish the additive package.
Hanny hose, nothing, no, no. Russ, I've never looked that close on that one. Do they make it
easy to drain and fill? Yep. Okay. And so he's not flushing. He's draining, filling, operating,
draining and filling again is what your typical scenario is at your shop.
Underload or just on the, on the racks. Down the hoist.
Okay. Does that help you out there, Mike? Okay. Okay. Yep. I'll, I'll go that route.
Thanks very much for the call. He's on it. He was just, he was, he knew somebody say,
you're good. Yeah, you got this. He knew it. Thumbs up. That's going to do it for
hour two of the under the hood show. You want to stick around a little bit?
Yeah, yeah, please. Yeah, got a few things going, but let's get her done.
If you're listening right now, give us a call. 866-594-4150.
Thanks for listening to the under the hood show. All right. Let's take some more calls.
866-594-4150. Let's talk to Darren. You're on the under the hood show. Darren, what can we do for you?
Yeah. Thank you. I've got a 15 GMC Yukon Denali and two years ago had the transmission service
change the fluids and so forth. And as you know, they took out the the ability to check
how your transmission fluid is doing on this model. And I have an issue with the transmission where,
especially when it's cold, not not temperature wise, but the engine's cold,
you start it up. And if you're in a hurry, you have to wait about literally almost five to
10 seconds before the transmission engages. And it really just engages. It chunks in there.
And after driving it for a half hour or so, it can go away. But it's just a persistent problem.
And I'm wondering, is it possible for the transmission fluid to be
leaking out somewhere? I don't see anything on the driveway or in the garage.
So I'm wondering your problem is your problem is if we want to be optimistic,
there could be something in the early starting of the transmission and using it in the bypass
filter or the thermostat. And it's just restricting it in there. They make a bypass for
that thermostat that we put on all the remand transmissions that we put in. And we recommend
and all the use ones we have. And that could be it. If they check flow, it could be a little bit low
could be low. And it could be leaking. Those trucks are famous for leaking out the AC condenser,
which is also the transmission cooler. They'll leak and they'll just drip a little bit and you
won't see it on the ground because it's blown away with the fans and the road speed. And
it could be enough that it drip down. And when the vehicle warms up, it raises the level
and it shifts. You got to get that checked right away. Most of these have a dipstick.
Most of these trucks have dipsticks there on the passenger side in the back.
It's rare that we see one without one on there. And you can even add one for ones that don't have
it. Yeah, they just, there's a hole in the right side of that pan and comes right up the
firewall. We do, we do these all the time. Okay, well, I brought it to a shop and they
said, nope, you can't check that. And yeah, I was like, well, most of them just true. Yeah,
they have some without, but most of them have it. It's on the passenger side on the firewall. It's
got the traditional stick in there. After that, when they got a 19 the newer, they do not have
them at all. No, they don't have that for that next generation. Well, that's good to know.
There you go. All right, I will look for that and thank you very much for your time.
Thanks very much for the call. 866-594-4150. Let's go to Wisconsin and talk to Joe,
you're on the end of the hood show. Joe, what can we do for you?
Hey, how you doing? Great.
Great. I'm working on a 2015 Kia Sportage. And around 41 miles an hour, I'm getting a
shudder at last. I don't know, about five seconds.
Don't go 41.
Just skip it. Yeah, basically, I try and go over it. I work a lot with Uber and Lyft,
and it's kind of frustrating. Well, you see, officer, I have a shudder at 41, so I have to go 46.
I can't. 35. Normally, I just hang out around 41 in the 35, but I have to go faster.
Now I'm over that edge. The shudder, is it all the time, every time, or is it matter if you're
going up a hill or if you're doing anything up to it or down to it? No, it's exactly at 41.
And I have noticed it comes on like sometimes around 25-ish, 20-ish, somewhere in that range,
it once in a while, but most of the time it's at 41 miles an hour.
Does the steering wheel shake when it happens?
No, but I can feel it in the front end, something going on there. I put on stabilizer links,
but I put on new tires. But nothing's really changed as far as the shudder part,
and it only lasts for about five seconds, and it goes away.
You've done tires on it and all that already. It could be that it's a CV shaft issue, axle shaft.
They'll resonate at speeds like that. I was going to say harmonic resonance,
just to throw that out there. Just as you wanted to say that.
What happens if you let off the throttle when you hit 41 and it's been shaking like that?
If you let off, does it go away right away until you step on the throttle again?
It'll stop immediately.
Yeah, if it stops, and if it's only there under load at those speeds, it's very certain it's the
axle shaft, almost 100% by what you're describing. That's what I would be leaning towards,
because you've already done tires.
Do I replace it or do I just let it go?
It's not going to hurt it. It's going to keep it there out of balance.
The joints start to wear. The shaft gets out of balance. It can't do anything.
Is it going to get worse and then he's going to...
Probably not. It's probably going to do exactly what it's doing until it's replaced.
Does that help you out there, Joe?
Yeah, it's staying repetitive and it's not getting any worse.
Have you lost any buddy that didn't want to ride with you in your Uber because of it?
No, because like I said, I'll accelerate past that 40 mark and you won't feel it.
Yeah, if you haven't lost a ride yet, I would...
Yeah, I'd just let it go for a while.
Joe, thanks very much for the call. Let's talk to Jeff. You're on the under the hood show.
Jeff, what can we do for you?
Yeah, I just bought a 08 Ford F-150. It's got 80,000 on the engine, 120,000 on the pickup.
I hear these nightmares about these cam phasers.
Is there any maintenance I should be doing to that pickup now?
If it's working good, the truck runs good and as it idles down,
it doesn't do anything funky. You don't hear anything super funky.
It just seems like it's running good.
Yep.
Just keep up on your oil changes, 3,000, 3,500 miles, put an additive in the oil
to give it to metal conditioning that we use the Justice Brother products.
The heavy-duty vehicle from Justice Brothers contains metal conditioner,
and it treats the metal, not the oil. Very good product to use in that.
I mean, even newer stuff like this. Well, this is a newer, but not just flat-tap
at cam stuff. It can really help with the wear.
What kind of miles you got on it?
The engine has 80,000. For some reason, at 20,000, they put a new engine in it.
Probably because something broke in the cam phasers.
There you go.
Well, and if it's an updated, maybe at the time when they did the updated engine,
some of those had updated phasers they put in them.
They didn't make them perfect, but they put in bigger, like if it was a reman,
there was some that had a higher volume oil pump that they ran into them as the reman,
because they learned that they needed more flow and more pressure
to keep the phasers working right and not wear them out.
And so I think that you've got a really good chance of long-term success, but I would definitely
look at my old change intervals, keep that oil that's on that timing chain
as fresh as you feel you can without being broke, because it'll cling to the chain better,
it'll lubricate better. It's not going to stretch quite as easily. The phasers are
going to get the lubrication they need. That is the best thing you can do.
And Jeff, just to call me a little bit, yeah, that's all I know too,
is that the nightmares I've heard about those phasers, but it's not in every...
No, they sold 100,000 of those trucks a month, and there's some bad ones out there,
but we get them in all the time that are 150,000, 170,000, they're still running just fine.
There you go, Jeff.
Okay, what weight oil do you recommend to run in that one?
The factory oil. I think there are 525, yeah, factory oil only.
Don't go higher than that, you'll cause problems.
Yeah, because you need... The way they set up those viscosities, and we always say this,
when they engineer the engines, they engineer them with the highest engineered fluids that are
available at the time that they do that. And so they need flow through the engine,
and so that initial viscosity has got to be really, really slippery. It's got to move
right away. It's got to be able to get through the system. The passages are not like they used to be
in a 350, where you've got an oil passage the size you're pinky. These are some much smaller
oil passages, and it's much more sophisticated inside that engine, so you need a sophisticated
oil. Jeff, thanks very much for the call. All right, I think we'll do it. The aftershows
after, and here we go. It is very much been just a unique day.
And you're going to be gone next week, right?
I am. I'm going to be doing something I've never done before.
Swimming contest. High dive.
Those two guesses are really... Quiet meditation.
Sitting in one spot for more than three minutes.
Setting the cruise at the speed limit.
This is fun.
Turning the wipers off before the windshield is going to be percent dry.
Oh, boy. Before Tammy tells me to turn.
That's what I'm doing.
Yes. No, I am going to be renting a car in Europe and driving a wrong side of the road car
on the wrong side of the car.
Interesting.
And Russ is looking at me like, don't do that. Your brain's not built for that.
You better rent a Tesla.
Get a manual.
You better rent a Tesla that drives itself.
I think my daughter is set this up, and I think I'm renting a Nissan.
It starts with a Q.
It's not a quest.
No, it's a weird name.
We don't have them here.
Kohak.
Something like that.
It's something like that.
Really?
Yeah, I looked up a picture of like, what did you rent me?
Because I said I don't want a little tiny speck.
I said I want something mid-sized.
You're going to get a Citron.
He's going to do the car thing.
The, what do you call it?
You're going to rent the car.
Oh, a Turro.
Turro.
He's not doing another...
He's going to get a Roach.
No Papa.
As the families cone me, Papa Roach is not getting that situation.
So I'll be in Ireland for a couple of days, and I'm going to rent a car that...
A Koshkai?
Yeah, that might be it.
Q-A-S-H-K-A-I, a compact crossover.
Oh, that's...
Kwashki.
Koshki.
That is it.
Oh, there you go.
That's a Marano.
I'm going to be driving one now.
Looks just like a Marano.
A little smaller.
A good friend of mine has been to Ireland a number of times.
He said, Shannon, he goes, just have somebody drive you around.
I said, no.
I said, I want the experience of driving on the wrong side of the road
in the wrong side of the car for me.
Look, you'll be fine if you follow other people.
Just follow other people.
Don't be out there by yourself because you will forget.
Follow other people.
I had a friend who just, just did this.
I will forget.
I have a friend who just did this and he said that was,
he said it was totally fine.
The only time it was ever an issue was when he was turning onto a road.
He would sometimes forget.
But otherwise he said it was fine.
Once you're in traffic, he said it was fine
because you were visually, everybody was.
Yeah, and our friend that's been over there a number of times,
he said it's fine everywhere.
He said, except for a couple of the areas we're going
are on the cliffy edge regions.
And he said it can get a little,
little weird when you're on that side of the road.
And you're on a cliffy road and you're meeting tour buses.
He said, and the roads are very narrow.
You'll be freaked just a little bit.
He goes, you'll be like the passenger.
Yeah.
That's yelling at you because you're too close to the side of the road.
So yeah, that's something I got coming up.
I can report back on.
All right.
There you go.
That was, I liked your guys' guesses of things I've never done before though.
We should play that game with everybody.
All right.
That'll do it.
Thanks, everybody.
Hit subscribe and like.
Do all that.
Thanks, everybody.
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 undertheshoodshow.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
Listeners dive into various automotive questions, including issues with oil burning in a Chevy Impala, transmission problems in a Chrysler 300, and a hard downshift in a Toyota Highlander. The hosts provide insights on potential fixes, such as checking fluid levels and replacing valve covers. They also discuss the importance of regular maintenance and the impact of driving habits on vehicle performance. Unique stories and practical advice make this episode a treasure trove for car enthusiasts looking to troubleshoot their vehicles.
Why does my Chevy Impala make a noise when I turn the wheel? Why does my 14 Impala AC system stink? What wrong with my 06 Chrysler 300 EGR System codes? Why does my 18 Highlander shift hard? Is my Nissan Murano CVT Transmission bad? Why does my 16 Silverado burn Oil? Quick fix maybe. Why does my 22 Ram misfire on start up? Do Performance Chips really work? 18 F150 Should I flush my Transmission on my Nissan? How to tell if my Transmission Fluid is low with no Dipstick Why does my Sportage vibrate at 41 MPH? Can I prevent my Ford Cam Phasers from going bad?