Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - August 16, 2025 Hour 1 - Louisiana Highways, Texas Repair Shops & Florida Driveways - (855)560-9900 24/7 Hotline

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The worst part about loving cars might just be buying them

and all the parts.

But on eBay, behind every car and part

is a story waiting to be shared.

I read about this guy who bought a 2020 Porsche Cayman

that was well-loved.

I mean, there are plenty of Caymans

in great condition on eBay,

but this one needed some work.

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all with parts he found on eBay.

And now that nearly scrapped Cayman

is out tearing up the track.

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Thank you and welcome.

Yeah, let's, we're looking forward to this.

Another hour of great auto repair radio.

I'm happy to be here for all of you.

Let me just point out, too, real quick,

accompanied by the name of PowerProbe.

I think a lot of us are familiar with them.

They've come out with a new meter.

They're DM300.

Great approach to solve a very old,

hard problem looking for vehicle electrical draws.

The DM300 gives us the ability

to do millivolt draw testing across fuses.

And it does the calculations inside.

You know, it used to be that we would measure

millivolts across a fuse, do a look up on a chart,

and then decide is that a correct

millivolt number or not.

The DM300 does it for you,

and it makes the conversion right on the display,

and it tells you what the amperage draw is.

It makes that conversion from millivolts to amperage,

and so on.

So we're gonna be road testing that

in the coming week, so I just wanted to point that out,

and we're looking forward to doing that.

We'll get that up on our YouTube channel,

and we'll talk about it up here,

and I betcha I can wrangle Brandon

to get me someone to interview my contact guy

over there at PowerProbe.

But right now, let's go over and talk to,

let's go to John and Louisiana, New Iberia,

Louisiana, the home of Tabasco, Sauce John?

Yes, it is.

Okay, what's going on with you

in your 2018 Honda Accord?

I have a 2018 Honda Accord 2.0

that I love, love driving it,

and I started having some problems

with needing to add coolant to it.

Took it to my mechanic, he checked it,

did a pressure check,

replaced my radiator cap, continued,

and I was still losing coolant,

and it started throwing codes,

went to back to my mechanic,

and tested it and said,

I have a blown head gasket between cylinder one and two.

Right.

And as I started looking into that

and getting on some Honda forms,

I found out that this is quite the issue.

Yup, absolutely.

Absolutely, it's become a very common phenomena,

and it's funny how the industry is just accepting it.

I know there's a couple of conversations

from Honda about it, but there's no recall.

And the only answer I've got is,

because everybody always wants to know,

is there a recall?

They just either haven't hit the numbers yet

or they just don't have anything definitive,

and usually it's on higher mileage vehicles.

How many miles are on your car?

135,000.

Right.

And I talked to a mechanic,

and he talked to one of the Honda mechanics

that he trained in the area,

and he said it's becoming a very big issue.

Right.

100,000 miles, they're failing.

And I blame part of it on,

you're a turbocharged car, correct?

Yes.

There's that extra pressure on an engine,

because we've got to make things turbocharged.

And it's one of the reasons I cringe at it,

but it's hard, you can't find anything today

that isn't turbocharged.

It's almost like, and you can't find anything today

that's not CVT transmission, the other weak link,

in a lot of vehicles, Honda included.

And, you know, that's an issue.

So I would tell you to get it done,

obviously Honda factory parts,

and keep all your receipts,

because you never know what the next six months

to a year will bring,

in terms of if Honda will actually,

you know, do anything about it and make good for it.

You know, it just takes a certain number

of complaints, complainers,

and I would tell you to complain to Honda.

I would tell you to talk to Honda

and say, look, I'm a loyal Honda customer,

I'm assuming, right, John?

You've had more than a few of these, you know?

I've had a bunch of Hondas all the way back

to the Honda CRX when it first came out

and made car of the year.

Honda, Odyssey, Accords,

and I've always driven those cars,

300,000 plus, never had any engine troubles.

And I've explained to you,

I've had an issue with a 2017 Honda Civic,

with the CVT going out.

And I was like, what?

And now, I'm-

Another common failure.

Yeah, another common issue

that they've had their issues with.

Did you have the timing chain problem on your two-liter?

No, I didn't.

Okay, you may, and I guess when they're doing the head gasket

to look to see if there's any updated parts

for that as well.

The two fours had problems,

the two leaders had some issues.

The one-fives, the one little one-five-liter

turbocharged motor has some engine issues.

It's funny how they've engineered themselves into a corner.

I think that they've got these weak links going on

and it's not just Honda.

A lot of the car companies

are going through it right now.

And I'm not sure why.

Did the engineers get together and collude?

It's sad because I have been such a loyal Honda guy.

My wife has a 2016 Honda Pilot.

And when I found out I had CVT issues,

I was like, do I have a CVT transmission in that?

And I don't and I'm happy.

Yeah, but you know, it's making me look

at some other brands, you know?

And maybe we need enough people out there

in the radio land to raise some smoke

about this issue with the 2.0.

Yep, well, and that's part of the reason.

You know, listen, I went to you,

I wanted to hear this story,

and that's a fair point.

I always like to present this to the radio audience

and say, hey, what's everybody else doing?

Well, by all means, we want to hear about it.

But I also want to encourage you,

I would talk to the dealership where it's being done.

I would talk to Honda corporate.

Look, I'm a loyal Honda customer.

You know, we know this is a problem

just because it hasn't hit bulletin level yet.

Doesn't mean that it's not an issue.

And I want to know what you're going to do

to make me happy.

They've got to do something for you.

You know, it'd be nice.

Hey, you take a 50-50 split, right?

They do some labor and parts and, you know,

just to see, yeah, you know, it's...

Because what I'm hearing is that's a $5,000 problem.

Yeah, it's a big problem.

It's an expensive problem.

Yeah, it's a chunk, right?

It's a chunk.

And they're going to tell you,

well, you know, it's got 140,000 miles on it, Mr. John.

And, you know, your answer is going to be,

well, look at my oil change records, you know?

And I should ask that question in all fairness.

I'm sure, but have you done your maintenance,

you know, as per what they call for?

And you've got your receipts for oil changes

and, you know, your 60, your 90,000-mile service,

if they require you to change coolant

at a specific time interval and, you know, mileage,

you did all that.

Yes, sir.

So, you know, it kind of makes the argument,

hey, I did everything you told me to do.

I did all the service.

You know, what's going on?

And, you know, you want to keep me as a customer.

You got to do something for me.

The power's in your hands.

It makes me think of the Aaron Brockovich movie.

Yep.

We just need one person to scream loud and a lot.

Right.

And sometimes you get the industry's attention.

Attention.

While you get your younger person

that's real good on social media

and they don't like the heat that that can bring.

You know, it takes a certain number of complaints.

It starts off, you know, when they have failures

like this, it starts off as a service

campaign dealer level.

You know, hey, Mr. Honda dealer,

if you see XYZ customer come in

and they've got this particular problem,

we want you to do this, this routine,

this method, this replacement.

And we want to try and nip this in the bud.

After the campaign level,

let's say campaign level is 100 cars.

I'm exaggerating because, you know,

who knows what the numbers are,

but just to show you the proportion.

For them to write a bulletin,

that number goes from 100 to 1,000.

Because understand, when they write a bulletin,

not only are they writing a bulletin

and admitting that they've got a problem,

they're gonna run it through legal,

they're gonna run it through marketing,

they're gonna talk to everybody

because now this represents the company

and it's public information.

And then for it to go from bulletin level to recall,

it takes a lot more, it's a much bigger number

that 1,000 incidents becomes 100,000 incidents

or more.

Right.

You know, the concern there is that,

and this is, you know, they haven't had enough

or as many complaints as required yet

because they will recall something

before the government tells them to recall it

because if the government says recall,

if the government makes them recall it

and it finds them.

And the fine on vehicle recalls went up quite a bit,

five, six years ago, that's what started

all the heavy recall incidents.

If you recall with the airbag scenarios

and everything that we went through

between 2015 and 2020, that's what started all that.

So document everything, John, talk to the dealer,

talk to Honda corporate,

tell them you wanna open up a complaint case,

they've got to do something for you,

otherwise you're gonna fix this and move on

to the next one, you're not the first person

I know of that went through this

and my advice to them is exactly

what I'm telling you here, it may take a while

but I'd be willing to bet you'll get something eventually.

And the only other thing I would like to add is

low profile tires and rims are good for one thing, a photo.

Yeah, yeah.

The best thing I did was get rid of them

and get real tires and real rims.

You know, they're good for two things,

they're good for a photo

and for generating bad wheels

and chopped up tires when you hit a pothole.

Well, I work in the offshore oil industry,

so if I get off of a boat at two in the morning,

I'm not gonna look at my tire

and put an air gauge on it.

And I've ruined about three or four tires

driving down the highway at night when I hit my tire

just goes out.

Let the car be fun but make it practical

and I get that.

That's right.

100%.

John, it was a pleasure, sir.

I hope they solve it for you.

If you feel the need, you know where to find us,

you give us a call back

and we're glad to talk about this again

and we'll keep everybody updated

on your trials and tribulations, all right?

Thank you so much.

Come down and eat some good Cajun food

and go to basketball.

I might take you up on that, John.

You be well, my friend.

Yes, sir.

You're very welcome.

I'm Ron Ananey in the car doctor.

I'll be back right after this.

Lately, car buying has become a pretty dull experience

but on eBay, behind every car and part

is a story waiting to be shared.

Like this guy I read about

who bought a 2020 Porsche Cayman GT4 on eBay.

It was well loved.

I mean, there are plenty of Caymans

in great condition on eBay

but this one needed some work.

That's just the start of the story.

So after this guy gets a great deal on his dream car,

he rebuilds the whole thing

with all these parts he found on eBay.

Performance brakes, suspension, body panels,

the works guaranteed to fit.

Next thing you know, this nearly scrapped Cayman

was out there on the track as a full blown race car.

You're ready to go daily driver,

your next resto mod,

Hello Lotus Elon and the parts to finish it.

eBay has thousands of cars

and is the largest online selection

of vehicle parts and accessories.

eBay, things, people, love.

Support for the show comes from Public,

the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio

of stocks, bonds, options, crypto

and now generated assets

which allow you to turn any idea

into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt.

From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow

to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue

over 20% year over year,

you can literally type any prompt

and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks,

builds a one of a kind index

and lets you back test it against the S&P 500.

Then you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities,

completely customizable and based on your thesis,

not someone else's.

Go to public.com slash podcast

and earn an uncapped 1% bonus

when you transfer your portfolio.

That's public.com slash podcast

paid for by Public Investing,

brokerage services by open to the Public Investing Inc.

Member FINRA SIPC,

advisory services by Public Advisors LLC,

SEC registered advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only

and is not investment recommendation or advice.

Complete disclosures available

at public.com slash disclosures.

Let's go to the email bag.

I love doing emails.

Ron, love listening to your show.

I've been a long time listener since the days of New York.

Thought you might like this little story

this comes to us from Daniel.

I dropped my car off yesterday

to have a regular service

and some minor suspension work done.

I picked it up this afternoon

and paid the nearly $800 bill

and went to start it up in the yard.

Straight away I noticed a misfire.

The car was shaking and struggling to maintain an idle.

I went back into the office to report the issue

as it definitely wasn't misfiring

when I dropped it off, but now it was.

I'm not unreasonable and the misfire

could be entirely coincidental

and have nothing to do with the work done,

but I was told at the desk

without them even looking at the car,

we only did an oil change,

which meant to me, not our fault.

And that it could be a foul plug

for moving it back and forth in the workshop

and to take it home down the freeway

and hope that it would clear itself

and if not bring it back tomorrow.

I wasn't confident taking the car home

as the idle was that bad

and most certainly I didn't want to break down

on the freeway either.

They were very reluctant to spend any time.

I've got to wonder, is this a long term?

I guess it is his long term mechanic.

That's crazy.

He goes on to say, Daniel goes on to say,

I had to really press them to at least put a scan tool on it,

which they finally did.

By the way, when they lifted the hood,

the engine to plug in the tool,

it was idling so badly,

it was visibly rocking side to side.

This has to be an older German car.

The mechanic hooked up the scan tool

and it reported a misfire.

He checked around the engine bay

and under one of the plastic valve covers,

discovered a vacuum pipe,

one end of it not attached to anything

as soon as he reconnected it, the misfire went away.

It would seem as part of the oil change

and removing some of the plastic shrouding,

the pipe became dislodged.

Again, I'm not unreasonable

and I know these things happen.

It could have been that it was unconnected

to the oil change and a brand new problem

that was just bad timing,

the reluctance to spend five, 10 minutes in the yard

and even the plug in a scan tool was disappointing,

knowingly sending a customer away

with a misfiring car

and to not at least put a scan tool on it,

at very least, am I being unreasonable?

So it turned out it was their fault.

It left him with a bitter taste

when after just paying $800,

they wouldn't give me the courtesy

of five to 10 minutes in the yard

to see where the car had started misfiring

upon my collection of it.

Anyway, I thought you'd be interested in hearing the story

and you might wanna talk about it on the show.

I am, I did, of course.

I'm certain that had I visited your workshop,

you'd not have knowingly sent me down the freeway

with a misfiring car.

Not at least without spending a few minutes

to try and see what the problem might be

before making a judgment call

on if it was safe enough to use or not.

Perhaps I'm unreasonable,

I'm expecting too much from my mechanic

in regards to Daniel.

No, Daniel, I'll tell you what,

and I read this, not to bash somebody,

but no, you're not being unreasonable.

Look, you leave a car with a mechanic,

it's in their charge, courtesy and consideration.

They're oven, they're trying to,

if they're doing the job right

and this is what you're looking for

and I think most people are,

you're looking to know that when you leave that shop,

the vehicle is in as proper working order

as the budget that supports it allows

and is proper working order

is what you had requested to be done.

Yes, I agree 100% that,

and it never should have come to that,

but I agree 100%, they were obligated

to go out and look at the car

if it wasn't making that

because it had to be making it when it parked it.

It sounds like some sort of crankcase ventilation tube

with manifold vacuum in it,

which allowed air to come into the engine

was knocked loose and it created a lean misfire.

Look at this, we have fuel system misfires, right?

But it created a lean misfire

and they had to know it upon finishing up

with the oil change.

I think it's really important

and one of the things my why change your oil here sign,

I have a sign up in the shop, why change your oil here?

Because it talks about,

you know, how other than what a quick loop does,

a quick loop doesn't do road tests, right?

A quick loop, they bring the car in,

they drop the oil, they change it

and boom, they go on with their day.

A repair shop has the ability

and a lot of shops don't do this

and I'm amazed and Daniel,

I think your shop is one of them

where they don't road test things

both prior and after the oil change.

And I think it's a very important piece of the puzzle.

I think they absolutely have to.

I think it's really important

that a shop does an oil change,

they do a road test both before and after

because they would have discovered this

and it would save them the embarrassment,

it would save you the aggravation

and perhaps they would come to you and say,

hey Daniel, by the way,

this tube falls out of the intake manifold

or falls out of the valve cover, it's easy enough.

The grommets are dried out, it's an older vehicle.

You would only be so happy to let's fix it,

let's order some parts and get it solved.

So yeah, I think they miss the mark, I really do.

And I think that their handling of it was poor.

I think a smart repair shop

keeps a scan tool by the door just for this occasion.

We keep an OBD2 only dedicated scan tool,

quick, simple, down and dirty right by the door.

The door tool we call it, we actually call it the door tool.

It's the old blue and gray and we can plug in

and we can get information out of a vehicle

in under a minute and any good customer is worth a minute,

any good customer is worth five minutes.

And somebody that's a long-term customer, of course.

And that's part of what it is.

This is a service business.

You can tell them from me, I think they miss the mark,

I think they should have done this differently

and know that it's up to them to make it up to you

but I would also think about

getting those grommets repaired and replaced.

Daniel, I appreciate the email

and I hope you got what you wanted out of this

and I hope they give you something good to make up for it.

I'm Ron Anini in the car doctor.

I'll be back right after this, don't go away.

Lately, car buying has become a pretty dull experience

but on eBay, behind every car and part

is a story waiting to be shared.

Like this guy I read about who bought a 2020 Porsche Cayman

GT4 on eBay, it was well-loved.

I mean, there are plenty of Caymans

in great condition on eBay

but this one needed some work.

That's just the start of the story.

So after this guy gets a great deal on his dream car,

he rebuilds the whole thing with all these parts

he found on eBay.

Performance brakes, suspension, body panels,

the works, guaranteed to fit.

Next thing you know, this nearly scrapped Cayman

was out there on the track as a full blown race car.

You're ready to go daily driver, your next Resto mod,

Hello Lotus Elon and the parts to finish it.

eBay has thousands of cars

and is the largest online selection

of vehicle parts and accessories.

eBay, things, people, love.

Support for the show comes from Public,

the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio

of stocks, bonds, options, crypto

and now generated assets,

which allow you to turn any idea

into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt

from renewable energy companies with high free cash flow

to semiconductor suppliers, growing revenue

over 20% year over year.

You can literally type any prompt

and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks,

builds a one of a kind index

and lets you back test it against the S&P 500.

Then you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities,

completely customizable and based on your thesis,

not someone else's.

Go to public.com slash podcast

and earn an uncapped 1% bonus

when you transfer your portfolio.

That's public.com slash podcast

paid for by public investing, brokerage services

by open to the public investing Inc.

Member FANRA SIPC, advisory services

by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only

and is not investment recommendation or advice.

Complete disclosures available

at public.com slash disclosures.

Let's go to the great state of Texas.

Let's go talk to Tyler and Waller.

Am I saying that right Tyler Waller, Texas?

Yes sir, you are.

Do I get a cowboy hat and spurs?

Am I ready?

No, yes.

Almost.

I mean, if you want one.

What's going on with your 2012 Nissan Frontier here?

I'm reading this.

This doesn't look good.

Tell us the story.

Well, I got it back from having the engine

remanufactured at Thunderbolt transmission

and came up with a hard start rough idle.

Throw in a few codes.

The main one's concern is the P0335.

The others are chassis codes.

Right.

So took it back to them.

They worked on it for three weeks.

Couldn't figure it out.

They checked wire harness and all that

and supposedly came back right.

So whatever I got, I got it back.

I went and looked at it.

Still tried changing sensors with OEM brand parts

because if you don't change both of them

at the same time, sometimes it,

the ECM compares the signal from both of them.

I think so it's called the code,

but nothing there.

It's no luck on changing that.

Is this, so just a couple of things.

First of all, the chassis codes,

was it an 1130, 1132

and something sequential along those lines?

There was a C1130, C1132 and a C1163.

All right.

Disregard those for the moment,

as I'm sure you are.

Go take a look at Nissan Bulletin.

Nissan's got a couple of bulletins out on this.

The last one I saw was NTB16-116.

They did November of 16.

And they talk about how a Nissan of this generation

will set a fault code C1130 and so on

when it has a radic engine signal.

Okay.

So, let's just take that off the plate for the moment.

All right.

What sort of scan tool do I have access to?

The Innova OBD2 scanner that hooks up

to a phone on the app or app phone.

So the downside to this is it's gonna be pretty slow.

All right.

Because it's got, it's an interface

that's probably a Bluetooth connection

to your phone, I'm guessing.

It is, yes sir.

So the data being buffered isn't gonna be great.

When you, if you clear this fault code,

how long before it comes back?

The moment you start to crank, you turn the key again.

Okay.

So will it come back with just turning the key

to the on position or will it come back?

It doesn't come back until you crank it.

The moment you start to crank it.

Okay.

It goes through the code again.

So I think you've got an issue with the flywheel

just from my seat here.

The flywheel, the crank sensors

in the back of the block, correct?

Correct it is, yes.

It's a rear passenger side.

Right, and it's triggered off the flywheel.

And I'm wondering if when the machine shop rebuilt it,

did we grab something from a different Nissan?

Nissans get funny.

They, you know, I've seen 12s and 13s be different.

I don't know that for a fact on yours.

I'd have to go look at part numbers,

but I'm thinking you've got an incorrect part

back on your vehicle.

What I'd love to do if I had access to it

is to put a lab scope on this.

And I'm not a lab scope guy.

I don't go running towards a lab scope

for every possible thing,

but I'd love to see electrically

what this signal is putting out.

And I bet it's putting out garbage.

I bet it's putting out an incorrect signal.

And what I would really like to do is,

let me ask you this question, Tyler.

Do you understand what I'm saying with a lab scope

and looking at the crank signal?

Yes, it compares the electrical signals and shows.

Right, it works similar to an EKG.

Yeah, if we had a bicycle, two sprockets,

big sprocket, little sprocket,

and there was a dot, a matching dot on each sprocket

as the small sprocket went around twice,

the big sprocket would go around once.

Okay, and we would see that relationship.

And if we had the ability to put a sensor on it,

we would see how it came up, it came up, it came up,

and they would index to each other.

You could actually overlay the signals

and see the beginning of and the end of each signal

and know that they're in alignment.

All right, I'd love to see that.

I'd love to see a cam crank, lab scope, sink test here.

And what am I seeing?

Because the fact that this comes up right away

as soon as you start to crank it,

but it doesn't come up when you just turn the key on

tells me this is not a circuit fault,

this is a performance fault.

You get it?

I do, yes.

So in other words,

if you took the crank sensor and unplugged it

and turned the key to the on position,

depending on how the software interprets it,

in most cases, it will set a crank sensor circuit fault,

not a performance fault, right?

It sets a performance fault in the sense

that it's plugged in, it can see the signal go down.

If it's monitoring that voltage in, voltage out,

it's seeing signal go in,

it's not seeing a correct change.

It's not seeing the voltage on that line

being pulled down as it would expect it to do.

So it's saying, hey, P0335, it's a plausibility error.

It doesn't make any sense to the computer.

So this is a real good example

of why I would use a scope.

And the scope is usually about four or five

on my list of when I pull it out.

There's a few things I look at first,

but I think in this case, I just wanna cut to the chase.

The fact that it wasn't there

before they did the engine,

because once you clear up that 335,

you're gonna find I'm willing to bet

that the C1130 clears up too, and the rest of them.

Okay, all right.

Does your, this is where it gets a little dicey.

If we had a scan tool, if you had a scan tool

that connected right to the OBD2 port

and it wasn't data buffered,

you might be able to see cranking RPM

because it would be fast enough.

It would be a direct connection.

You might be able to see cranking RPM

while you're cranking it if you disabled fuel, for example.

All right, and you could see crank signal out that way,

but I think the only hope we've got here

is we've gotta look at this as far as do a cam crank sink,

make sure that the engine is,

and for that matter, is the engine mechanically in time?

Can we check the mechanical timing?

But to do that, we've gotta take the front cover off.

Right.

The timing change on the front.

Right.

Dual overhead cam with a crankshaft in the bottom.

Right.

So, you know, this is an example where going

and doing cam crank sink with a lab scope

is gonna give us an electrical picture

of what kind of mechanical condition we're in.

Does the trans shop, and I have to ask,

why is a trans shop rebuilding an engine?

They do transmissions and motors.

Okay.

They started with motors, moved to transitions,

but they keep, they kept the transmission

as the main thing.

It just sounds funny, right?

Just, you know, the whole transmission, yeah, I get it.

But I would ask them, can they put a lab scope on this?

Can they do a cam crank sink?

Can they show you an electronic picture

of the bicycle sprockets and that they're in time?

Right?

Okay.

And then as they rev it up, you know, go for a ride.

As you rev it up, you should see them maintain

that balance, that synchronization.

If this vehicle has variable valve timing on it,

you will see the cam, you know,

go forward, go backwards, accordingly.

Although I don't think a 12 had VVT.

I don't think it was in the cards for that generation.

So, but.

I don't think it, it does.

No, it's a pretty basic.

This is a pretty basic bread and butter vehicle.

So, all right kiddo, but that's where I would go.

And you know, if you need more,

you know where to find me, all right?

Absolutely.

All right, Tyler.

Thank you very much.

You're very welcome.

You be well.

To emphasize the point, the problem

with a repair like this is it ran good

till it spun the bearing and the engine failed.

And now it doesn't.

So, and the shop Tyler said had gone through

and done some inspecting of wiring,

things are connected correctly

and everything's backwards supposed to be.

It's time to do some basic testing.

And that's why I say it's time for a lab scope.

I wanna see crank signal.

I wanna see crank signal in relation

to the cam position sensor in relation to the cam signal.

I'm looking for an anomaly, something that's out of place.

The trigger device, all right,

everybody talks about the crank sensor.

What triggers the sensor?

The crank sensor reads and creates a signal

based on how it's stimulated off of either the flywheel

in some cases, in this case, the crankshaft,

but there is a tone ring on the crankshaft

that is indexed and it might have,

it might have 30 right angle or 30 right angle snubs.

Think of the top of a castle, right?

How the top of a castle looks,

it's a square top, square top, square top.

It might have 30 square tops evenly spaced except for one.

And that one is as the index,

so it means something to the crank position sensor

to the engine computer.

It's an index showing relationship of number one cylinder

or number three or however they're gonna index it.

Every manufacturer seems to do it a little different,

but my point becomes,

the only way you're gonna see that short

of taking the engine apart,

and you might end up taking the engine apart anyway,

is to use a lab scope and to look at that signal

and how does that signal index off of number one

cylinder firing in relation to the cam,

in relation to the cam,

I'm sorry, in relation to the crank

and does everything line up.

And that's where I think Tyler has to go.

I've done this enough.

This is not external wiring and it's not a PCM.

And I'm not saying it is or isn't.

I'm just saying, we've gotta go start testing.

Here's a perfect example of looking at,

tell me what's good, I'll tell you what's bad.

Let's go look at individual components and test them.

Take them out of the car in our mind and test them.

And the best way we're gonna do that is with a lab scope.

Now, the good news is there are easy ways to do this

depending upon what the shop has.

And I'm not sure that the engine shop is gonna have this,

but Tyler, if you're still listening,

if they find certain scan tools, snap on,

the snap on Triton, the snap on Zeus Plus,

both have lab scopes,

both have known waveform patterns in them.

So you'll see a good waveform pattern.

They'll even tell you how to hook up.

All right, so they don't have to necessarily

be a great scope person.

If they know how to hook up basic meter leads

and understand the theory behind it,

they'll be able to do this.

There are others.

There's Pico, there's other launch makes a lab scope.

There's all sorts of different ways to look at this,

all different manufacturers,

but the thing I like about snap on

is it gives you a known good picture.

Of course, you can always go look at images also,

but Tyler, if you're learning on this one,

this isn't the car to learn on.

You've gotta go find somebody that's lab scope capable,

but those are the reasons and some of the things

and some of the options you have.

So I bet this is gonna come out to be,

if this is internal, there's something about that crank,

either the part, the way it was assembled,

the way it was indexed, something,

but a lab scope check, a cam crank sync check,

will tell us and get to the bottom of this once and for all.

I'm Ron Anany and the car doctor.

Let's pull over, take a pause.

We'll be back right after this.

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Let's go talk to Tom in Lakeland, Florida.

Tom, you're on with the car doctor, sir.

What's going on?

I have a 2005 Chrysler Seabring convertible.

It has 87,000 miles.

I've owned it for four years

and I've used mobile one oil with it.

And I'm thinking of switching to Amsoil,

which is a little bit more pricey.

Is it worth the investment?

Probably not.

Well, listen, Amsoil's good oil.

All right, I have no doubt in my mind.

I have no knocks against Amsoil.

I often wonder why Amsoil didn't make it bigger

and I always think it's distribution

and how they came to market or how they come to market.

Mobile one's good oil.

To me, mobile one's a lot easier to get than Amsoil.

And I'll tell you what, from a New Jersey point of view,

mobile one's easier to get than Amsoil.

I can pick up the phone and have mobile one delivered.

I can't do that with Amsoil.

Do I think Amsoil is a better oil for a 2005 Chrysler?

No, I don't think it's gonna matter a whole heck of a lot.

Right?

I think if what you've been doing is working,

car doesn't burn any oil, the engine's quiet,

the oil comes out relatively quick and clean,

no sludge buildup, it's working.

Why change it?

Right?

You know, it's that simple.

Just stay on top of your oil changes

and you'll be just fine.

Now, you know, having said that,

there are situations where I would use Amsoil

over anything else.

They've got some really great products.

They're gear oil, I think is really superb.

As a matter of fact, I ran Amsoil gear oil

in my first hot rod in the rear end,

57-olds rear with 48 Zoomies.

And you know, that rear never failed

where everybody else was having their issues

that rear never failed.

And I really believe it was part of the lubrication

that I had in it,

because the Amsoil could take a beating.

So, there's a time and a place,

but you've started with Mobile One.

It's readily available to you.

I don't see the point in changing.

Now, would the filter be a difference?

What kind of filter are you using?

I'm using a Fram.

Yeah.

You know, good quality Fram.

That, you know, there's less expensive versions of Fram.

There's the HP version of Fram.

So there are better filters out there.

Me personally, I like a Wix.

I like Wix's performance version of a filter.

They make a great filter.

And I, you know, I would have no qualms with that.

There's, you know, it's funny, we, as a society,

we seem there's cheap versions of filters,

as expensive versions of filters,

there's a lot of good filters out there.

Honestly, I think most of the filters

are made by one of three companies

and then marketed under their own name.

So, I think to answer the question,

just use the better version of whatever's readily available

and quickly available.

And I think you'll be just fine.

So, you know, that coupled along with your mobile one

will be the way to go.

All right, I appreciate the call, Tom.

I'm Ron Ananey in the car doctor.

We're back right after this.

Lately, car buying has become a pretty dull experience.

But on eBay, behind every car and part

is a story waiting to be shared.

Like this guy I read about,

who bought a 2020 Porsche Cayman GT4 on eBay.

It was well-loved.

I mean, there are plenty of Caymans

in great condition on eBay,

but this one needed some work.

That's just the start of the story.

So after this guy gets a great deal on his dream car,

he rebuilds the whole thing

with all these parts he found on eBay.

Performance brakes, suspension, body panels,

the works guaranteed to fit.

Next thing you know,

this nearly scrapped Cayman

was out there on the track as a full-blown race car.

You're ready to go daily driver,

your next rest-o-mod,

Hello Lotus Elon, and the parts to finish it.

eBay has thousands of cars

and is the largest online selection

of vehicle parts and accessories.

eBay, things, people, love.

Support for the show comes from Public,

the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio

of stocks, bonds, options, crypto,

and now generated assets,

which allow you to turn any idea

into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt.

From renewable energy companies

with high free cash flow

to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue

over 20% year over year,

you can literally type any prompt

and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks,

builds a one-of-a-kind index,

and lets you back-test it against the S&P 500.

Then you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like EFTs

with infinite possibilities,

completely customizable,

and based on your thesis,

not someone else's.

Go to public.com slash podcast

and earn an uncapped 1% bonus

when you transfer your portfolio.

That's public.com slash podcast,

paid for by Public Investing,

brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc.

Member FANRA SIPC, advisory services

by Public Advisors LLC,

SEC registered advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only

and is not investment recommendation or advice.

Complete disclosures available

at public.com slash disclosures.

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means when this one ends, another hour begins somewhere out in the radio universe.

So, but in any event, I want to thank everybody that took part in today's show.

It was great to talk to everybody. I especially enjoyed Tom in Florida.

And for Tyler in Texas, I hope that, you know, he's able to find somebody with a lab scope to

get a look at what I was talking about and see what that crank sensor is doing.

And, you know, we can kind of go from there.

But for everybody else, I just want to remind you real quick, one last time as always,

I'm Ron Anani in the car doctor till the next time.

Good mechanics aren't expensive. They're priceless. See ya.

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Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - August 16, 2025 Hour 1 - Louisiana Highways, Texas Repair Shops & Florida Driveways - (855)560-9900 24/7 Hotline

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About this episode

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