A recall is when a car company says, “We found a problem and you need to get it fixed.” It’s usually done for safety reasons, and the fix is typically provided by the manufacturer.
The engine is the part of the car that makes power to move the vehicle. Here, the host is saying the engine had a known problem and that the repair could cost a lot of money.
A warranty is the coverage that pays for certain repairs for a limited time after you buy the car. The host is saying the repair got covered even though the warranty period was already over.
The fuel pump is like the car’s fuel delivery system. If it starts failing, the engine may not get enough fuel and can shut off while you’re driving.
AFM is a fuel-saving feature that can temporarily turn off some cylinders when you don’t need full power. If the AFM system has a problem, the car can start acting up and may even stop running.
The transmission is what helps the engine’s power get to the wheels in the right gear. If it breaks, the car may not be able to drive and could leave you stuck.
Some cars use special valve components to shut off cylinders for fuel savings. If those parts fail, the engine can be damaged and may need a big repair—sometimes even a new engine.
Burning oil means the engine is using oil that should stay in the crankcase. If it keeps happening, the oil level can drop and the engine can be damaged.
A knock is a bad-sounding ping or rattle from the engine. It usually means something isn’t right with how the engine is burning fuel or with engine parts, and it can get worse.
This is a 1994 Ford F-150 pickup truck. “4x4” means it drives all four wheels, and the XLT Lariat is a nicer trim level than the base models. That’s important because off-road packages change parts like the shocks.
Heavy duty suspension means the truck’s suspension parts are built to handle tougher use. It’s meant for heavier loads and rough roads, and it often comes with stronger shocks and springs.
FX4 is a name Ford uses for an off-road option on some trucks. It usually means the suspension is set up to handle rougher roads better, but it doesn’t automatically mean the truck has extra shocks in every configuration.
Rancho is a brand that makes shock absorbers. Shocks help control how the truck moves over bumps, and using Rancho shocks usually means the suspension is set up for tougher driving.
The full-size Bronco is Ford’s bigger SUV that’s built for off-road use. The host is saying similar off-road shock setups showed up on these Broncos too.
Mitchell is a computer system mechanics use to look up the right parts for a specific car. It helps them confirm what shocks (or other parts) fit based on the vehicle’s details.
Advanced Auto Parts is a store that sells car parts. In this conversation, they’re using its website to see which shocks are available for the truck they’re working on.
This is a suspension system that can automatically change how firm the ride feels. It uses electronics to adjust the shock behavior, so the parts cost more than basic shocks.
They’re talking about a 2001 Chevrolet Corvette (C5 generation) with an LS1 V8 engine. The LS1 is a popular engine from that era, and it’s often used because it’s powerful and well-supported by parts and diagnostics.
In this context, “communication problem” refers to the scanner failing to establish a data link with the car’s diagnostic computer. Even if the check engine light is present, a scanner that can’t connect won’t be able to read the codes.
OBD-2 is the standard system cars use to talk to diagnostic tools. A scanner plugs in and reads stored trouble codes, but some scanners connect better than others depending on the car’s specific communication method.
Diagnostic trouble codes are like the car’s “error messages.” When the check engine light comes on, the car stores a code, and a scanner reads it to show what system is having trouble.
Term
valve frame problems
They’re describing a problem with the engine’s valve system. The speaker connects it to the camshaft and the parts that push the valves, which can cause ticking and drivability issues.
“36 tick” is a slang term for a ticking sound people notice on some 3.6-liter Jeep engines. In this context, it’s linked to a valve/engine timing problem that can require a repair shop to diagnose.
This is a 2015 Jeep Wrangler with a 3.6-liter engine. The speaker says it developed a serious engine/valve-related problem very quickly after buying it.
Followers are parts inside the engine that help the camshaft open and close the valves. If they wear out, the engine can start making noise and may run poorly until the valvetrain is fixed.
An “overhead cam” (OHC) is a camshaft located in the cylinder head that controls valve timing. When the overhead cam or its related valvetrain components develop wear, it can cause ticking noises and intermittent running issues.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is another Jeep SUV. Here it’s mentioned because the same kind of engine ticking/valve-related issue happened on one with similar mileage.
“Heavier weight oil” means a thicker oil grade. Thicker oil can protect parts differently, but it can also cause problems in cold weather or with certain engine designs.
Term
020
“0W-20” (spoken as “020”) is a specific type of engine oil that’s relatively thin. It’s designed to circulate quickly, especially in cold weather.
Term
530
“5W-30” (spoken as “530”) is a thicker engine oil than 0W-20. The idea is that it may provide different protection for engine parts, but it can also behave differently in winter.
The BMW 5 Series is a luxury car that’s meant to be comfortable and fun to drive. The podcast talks about people trying different types of engine oil to fix a problem, but it didn’t actually solve it. That’s a reminder that some issues need the right diagnosis, not just a change in oil.
A factory defect means the problem was built into the vehicle from the start. Here, the speaker implies the manufacturer tried to hide the issue with oil changes.
Regular oil changes mean you replace the old oil before it gets too dirty or loses its protective properties. Clean oil helps protect the engine from extra wear.
A 2022 Chevy Equinox is a family SUV. Here, the front camera gets a rock chip, and that can mess up the parking-assist system that relies on a clear camera image.
The front camera is a small camera on the outside of the car. If it can’t see clearly—like if the lens is damaged—the car may stop working correctly with parking or safety features that use the camera.
A rock chip is a small crack or dent from something hitting the car while you’re driving. If it hits a camera lens, the picture can get blurry or blocked, and the car may think something is wrong with parking help.
Park assist is the car’s help for parking, usually by using sensors and cameras. If the camera can’t show a clear view, the car may show an error and turn off the parking help.
Term
realign it, refocus it
Realign/refocus means adjusting the car’s camera or sensors so they’re aimed correctly. If they’re not, the car may not recognize lanes or distances properly until it’s calibrated.
Term
ADOS system
The ADOS system is a tool/process shops use to reprogram and calibrate the car’s driver-assistance sensors after repairs. If it isn’t done correctly, features like adaptive cruise or lane assist may not work.
Adaptive cruise control is cruise control that automatically slows down and speeds up to keep a safe distance from the car in front. If the car’s sensors or camera aren’t aligned right, it may not work until it’s calibrated.
Lane keeping assist helps keep you in your lane by nudging the steering when it detects lane lines. If the car’s camera or sensors aren’t aligned, the feature may not work until it’s recalibrated.
Concept
mobile units
Mobile units are calibration setups that can come to you. Instead of needing a big shop space, some companies can calibrate the car on-site with portable equipment.
The windshield is the big front window of the car. If your car has cameras or sensors mounted near it, replacing the glass can require setup so the safety features still work correctly.
Parking sensors are little sensors on your car that help you avoid hitting things when you park. They warn you when something is close, usually with beeps or a display.
This is a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek, a small crossover with a special engine design Subaru uses. The discussion is about a problem where it smokes blue when you first start it, and what that could mean.
If you see blue smoke from the exhaust, it usually means the engine is burning oil. When it happens right at startup, it can be a sign that oil is leaking into places it shouldn’t be while the car sits.
The cylinder head is the top part of the engine where the valves live. If something there is leaking oil, that oil can get into the cylinder and cause smoke when you start the engine.
Term
oil leaking down past the valves
Valves have seals that keep oil out of the combustion area. If those seals fail, oil can slip into the cylinder and burn, which often shows up as blue smoke.
The PCV system helps manage crankcase fumes by sending them back into the engine to burn. If there’s oil where it shouldn’t be in that system, it can point to an engine problem causing oil to be getting into the wrong airflow path.
Blow-by is when pressure and gases escape past the piston rings into the area under the engine’s pistons. If it’s excessive, it can mean the rings aren’t sealing well anymore, which can lead to oil burning and smoke.
The Porsche Boxster is a sports car with the engine placed closer to the middle of the car. That layout helps with how the car drives. The podcast is asking whether a problem is normal for this kind of engine or if it usually means something is worn out.
Cylinders are the engine’s “work chambers” where the piston moves. If they’re worn out, oil can slip into the area where fuel burns, and that can create smoke.
Normally oil stays in the engine’s lubrication system. If it leaks into the cylinder where fuel burns, it gets burned too, and that’s what creates smoke.
A “smoking issue” means the car is producing smoke while running. In this discussion, the smoke is likely from oil burning inside the engine, which usually suggests worn internal parts.
Diagnosis is the step where a mechanic figures out what’s actually causing the problem, not just what it looks like. It can involve tests and inspection before any repair.
“Consuming oil” means the engine is burning or leaking oil faster than it should. If you notice it, it’s a sign something inside the engine isn’t sealing properly.
Oil level is how much oil is in the engine. If it’s dropping because the engine is burning oil, you need to address it quickly to avoid serious engine problems.
The catalytic converter is a device that cleans exhaust. If it gets clogged, exhaust can’t flow through as well, and the car may run worse or fail emissions tests—especially if the engine is burning oil.
Piston rings are small parts on the pistons that help keep oil where it belongs. If they’re worn or not sealing right, the engine can start burning oil, so the oil level drops faster than normal.
PVC here refers to the Positive Crankcase Ventilation system, which routes crankcase vapors back into the engine to be burned. Checking the PVC helps rule out a ventilation-related cause of oil consumption or oil being pulled into the intake.
The oil cap is where you add engine oil. If it’s off or not closed properly, you can get leaks or warnings, but it usually isn’t the real cause of bigger problems like the car losing power while driving.
A fuel cap is the cover on your gas tank. If it’s loose or not sealing right, the car can complain and may run poorly, but it’s rarely the only cause of serious engine problems.
This is a 2014 Kia Sorento SUV. The caller says the engine speed gauge (tachometer) suddenly drops to zero, and the car loses power while still running, so it becomes hard to drive.
They’re talking about the tachometer, which is the gauge that shows how fast the engine is spinning. If it suddenly drops to zero while you’re driving, the car may not be getting the right engine information, and power can feel like it disappears.
Idling is when the engine is on but the car isn’t moving. If it stalls while idling, something is likely confusing the engine’s computer about how to keep it running.
“Long crank” is when you turn the key and the engine spins for a while before it actually starts. That usually means the car isn’t getting the right signals to start quickly.
The crank sensor is like an engine “position tracker.” It helps the car know when to spark and inject fuel. If it’s faulty, the engine can stall or take a long time to start.
Standard is a company that makes replacement car parts. In this case, they’re being recommended for a crank sensor because the host says they tend to last longer than the factory-style part.
“Factory one” means the replacement part is the same style as what the car originally used. The host is saying an aftermarket option might be sturdier.
A “preventive tune up” is maintenance you do to stop problems before they happen. The host is suggesting swapping the sensor early to reduce the chance of the same starting/stalling issue coming back.
A lift kit is an upgrade that raises a truck or SUV higher off the ground. In this case it’s a six-inch lift, which usually means the suspension is changed so the truck sits taller.
The Dodge Ram is a pickup truck designed for work and everyday use. The Ram 1500 4x4 version is built to handle driving on rough or slippery surfaces. The podcast mentions it because the owner wants to use the same kind of maintenance approach they used before.
The Ram 1500 is a full-size pickup truck, and “4x4” means it can drive all four wheels. The caller wants to raise it with a lift kit like they did on their older Ranger.
The powertrain is the main set of parts that turn engine power into motion. In warranty terms, it’s one of the big areas that may have its own coverage rules.
An aftermarket lift is a lift kit that wasn’t installed at the factory. The discussion is about whether it should automatically void warranty coverage for unrelated problems.
A control arm is part of the suspension that helps guide how the wheel moves. The point here is whether an unrelated lift-kit install should affect warranty coverage for that suspension part.
Aftermarket parts are non-factory parts made by other companies. The discussion is about whether those parts can be used without losing warranty coverage—especially if they didn’t cause the problem.
An oil filter cleans the oil that lubricates the engine. This episode uses oil filters to explain that you can often use a different brand as long as it meets the right requirements.
AC Delco is a brand that makes car parts, including oil filters. The host is saying that switching to a different filter brand can still be warranty-safe if it matches the required specifications.
Wix is a brand that makes oil filters and other replacement parts. The host’s example is that switching filter brands is generally allowed if the filter matches the required specs.
A tuner is something that changes how the car’s engine is programmed to run. The host is saying that performance tuning can be more likely to affect warranty decisions than simple parts swaps.
Here, tires means the size you choose after lifting the vehicle. Bigger tires can make the truck feel like it has to work harder and can lead to extra wear on other parts.
Bearings are precision components that allow rotating parts to move with low friction. When lift kits and tire sizes change loads and alignment, bearings can wear faster due to increased stress and altered suspension geometry.
“Hemi” is a nickname for a specific style of V8 engine used by Chrysler. The host is basically saying they’re more worried about a big engine problem than a suspension problem.
A Toyota Tundra is a big pickup truck. Thomas is talking about his 2007 Tundra, and he mentions it has a 5.7-liter engine and four-wheel drive, which can affect how the truck shifts and how it behaves when you start driving.
A cold start means starting the truck after it has been sitting and everything is cold. Some transmission problems are worse right after a cold start, before the fluids warm up.
When the transmission 'engages,' it means the truck actually connects the engine to the wheels in the selected gear. If it doesn’t engage right, the engine can rev but the truck won’t move normally.
Checking the fluid means making sure the right fluid is at the correct level and not dirty. In an automatic transmission, bad or low fluid can cause shifting problems like the ones Thomas described.
A drain-and-fill is when a shop drains the old fluid and puts in new fluid. It can help if the fluid is dirty, but if the transmission itself is worn out, changing fluid alone may not solve it.
A trailer brake is the braking system on the trailer itself. Many trucks use a controller to tell the trailer brakes when to slow down, and problems with that setup can cause weird behavior when towing or when you’re trying to get moving.
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Thanks for listening to the Under the Hood show podcast. Here's the show.
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 not here to answer your questions this week. I'm Chris Carter. I am here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150. 866-594-4150. What has caught your attention in the automotive world this week?
Oh, just so many recalls and more over that. It's just crazy looking at the things that they've got out there. One thing I'm glad they're doing it.
Hyundai has had a problem with engines for a long time in a lot of models. And it's been very expensive for a lot of people.
But they are covering engines for a long way. I just had a customer, for instance, this week they came in and they had a 2013 Hyundai with 90,000 miles on it.
And they said, check it out. See what we need. And I said, well, you need an engine. But I think you might have some coverage on it.
And they said, yeah, I think we might too, because we've heard about that we've been looking at it. So they looked it up and they called.
Sure enough, they got 100% repaired on for free, which is about a $9,000 job, almost $10,000 on a 2013.
So, you know, no matter the miles, that's still, that's still pretty good that they would cover that because they knew they had an issue with it. And they, they covered it.
That is something that we've talked about for a long time. They've had issues and they've done, correct me if I'm wrong, they've done such a good job of covering them that it hasn't become a big news story.
Right.
Right.
It's like, Hey, I got a price. It's just like anything that goes wrong. Oh, this business sold me something that was broken. Oh, they gave you a new one. So what?
They gave you a new one. They really didn't have to because your warranty was a year and it's been three and they gave you one anyways.
Right.
Great. I mean, if they're doing any news story, it should be a good one where they say, look what they did. They were so wonderful, but they don't do that kind of stuff right now.
We do.
Here we are.
Well, and I don't think, I don't think that Hyundai was pushing that narrative either.
No.
They were just quietly covering a lot of stuff.
Yeah. There's, I'm sure there's some people that didn't know about it and just junk their car or sold it as is because they didn't know.
Right.
A lot of people got this thing covered and which is, is great to see that they can get that. Now there's some recalls we think are, they seem foolish to us.
Like when you've got 130,000 mile van and they were recalling a fuel pump that was over 12 years old.
Right.
Because it might stall in traffic and cause your problem.
Well, yeah, any fuel pump that's 130,000 miles and over 10 years old may just stall in traffic.
So can I get one too?
No, you can't.
Or, you know, how about the transmissions that fail when they're and leave you stopped in traffic or the engines that fail because the AFM goes out and leaves you stopped in traffic.
Right.
At 80,000 miles in the vehicles, only four years old, but no, it's out of warranty.
How many of those GMs that have we had with the AFM lifter failures?
I mean, they call every week we've got a problem with those.
They're not bringing those back and giving you a free engine.
But Hyundai has got that knock that they usually develop a knock, start burning oil and eventually they can go out.
But you're, you got some mornings when those AFMs go out and those Chevy's usually it's, it's pretty fast progression.
It's like, hey, what's that noise and boom.
Yeah.
It's done.
But that will leave you stalled.
I think it just depends on, you know, the company depends on how much news it is, how much news they don't want out there.
How much they can afford to.
We don't see a lot of recalls on Hyundai's versus now there might be maybe they're quiet and we could look it up on the internet and find it.
But my perception is I don't see near as many as we do with General Motors and Ford.
Now, I guess they do sell a lot of vehicles, maybe not as many as General Motors and Ford.
But it seems like we're hearing about the big three American companies before we hear about Hyundai or even Toyota.
But so maybe Hyundai's got a little extra cash and they're like, we're going to keep this problem.
We're going to fix this because we can and maybe General Motors would fix all those too if they didn't have a lot of others.
When you when you've got a lot of shareholders, you got to think about that you got to look at the whole picture and see where the money's going.
A lot of stuff.
866-594-4150.
Here's a question that came in on the chat.
I have a like new 1994 F-150 XLT Lariat 4x4 with a 5.0 and five speed manual, 85,000 miles on it.
Four shocks in the front.
Surprise the mechanic this week.
Is this a rare off-road package?
Four shocks in the front on this.
I don't know about how rare it is, but yes, it was a it was an off-road package.
They have two shocks on each side of it on the heavy duty suspension on that vehicle.
Now they call them.
They've got different names like FX4 and things like that on these on these vehicles, but they're still not four shocks.
That package, I'm not sure what they called that, but I think and they I believe they were all four Rancho shocks on those.
They put them on the full size Bronco and they had them on the F-150s unsung.
Not all, but we've we've done a few of them where they come in and we had to get shocks for them.
And it would ask if we go to advanced auto parts and we use their website direct with our Mitchell system.
So we can just link right in, click the button and it shows this what's available on the vehicle.
And it asks with two shocks or with four shocks, right?
Because at first thoughts, you're like, oh, when we have the vehicles got 42 in the front, two in the back.
No, they're talking about front, four front shocks.
And with the four front shocks, the funny thing was, as I remember the last one we got, the shocks were more expensive each and it had four.
Instead of buying more and you get them a little less, but you and you have to do them all together.
Yeah, all four. You can't just put, oh, I've got one leak unless replace one.
No, I do all four.
So the dampening remains the same on them.
But yeah, it's pretty common.
How much are shocks these days for 94?
Oh, for those, I bet there's somewhere between $35 and $85 a piece for that.
Now, when you get into some of the other vehicles, we have a vehicle in our shop right now and it's got shocks and struts going on it.
Two of their electronic magnet ride with the air, two of them are $600 each and the other two are $900 each.
I priced some out earlier this week for another Cadillac and they were $1,400 each.
And then we had another, I think it was a Lincoln that had an air ride on it.
And they were only $260 each for these electronic air, which surprised me when you compare them to the other ones.
Yeah, that's a great price compared to the other ones.
But still that you wonder why people don't do shocks.
That's why they don't do shocks in there.
They have tire wear issues.
They got 150,000 miles.
The car's a little bouncer like I'll just leave it because they're so expensive.
In order, a running board goes out and you got to buy a motor for it and it's $1,800 because for one running board, that's not even the whole thing.
That's just a motor.
866-594-4150.
Let's talk to Dean.
You're on the end of the hood show.
Dean, what can we do for you?
I've got a couple of questions about two vehicles I have.
Sure.
I've got some unique things happened.
I've got a 2001 VET C5 with an LS1.
I was having a check engine light on the other night when I was driving home and I have a little reader, not an expensive one, but it's a communication problem.
It wouldn't interface with it.
I tried it many times.
You get it on, you get it off, do this, do that.
Finally, out of frustration, I had it hooked up, but I started the vehicle.
Boom, it came right up.
Now, is this a common occurrence or is that something that, because before it always worked, but all of a sudden I had to start the vehicle.
Yeah, it's something.
It's probably just something to go with that scanner.
Some of the cheaper ones, they don't read as well.
There's different protocols.
There's even in the same cars with OBD-2, you have to put in the year first and sometimes the make and model so it knows what protocol of OBD-2 it's using to try to identify the vehicle.
With some, it's just very slow.
It has to go through everyone before it can lock onto the correct one.
Other times, it won't work at all.
Yeah, I've had this on several vehicles.
It's always worked fine from a Chevy pickup to a couple of Wranglers and it worked on the vents here a year ago.
I would just care if this was an anomaly, but by starting it, it worked.
Over time, we've had a few that we've tested out and a few that we've gone through here on the show.
There was one of them.
I can't remember which one it was and I wouldn't say if I did remember it now because it didn't connect all the time.
It would see the car is running.
It would see things and then just if you recycled it a couple times or took it out and plugged it back in, it would work fantastic.
You'd be like, oh, I must have fixed it and then a month later, it would be wonky again.
Probably one of the ones that I just threw out a couple weeks ago.
I had like six of them and I just said, throw them out.
I didn't want to go look and see what Bluetooth they were on or anything and they were all free.
They sent them.
I just like garbage because they were cheap.
They were like anywhere from $30 to $90 units and they were all over 10 years old.
Dean, did you have another question?
Yes, I did.
I've got a couple Jeep Wranglers.
One of them has the 3.6 and I have a couple friends that have also experienced it difficulty with the engine.
A mechanic in Arizona called it the 36 tick and he said that after a while, they seem to have valve frame problems on.
I bought a 2015 Wrangler 3.6 a couple years ago.
Unfortunately, it came with a 30 day warranty and I drove it out.
Hardly drove it out of the parking lot and Chuck Henson Light came on to make a long story short.
They had to take it in their shop and keep it for a week, gave me a rental car and do a valve.
He didn't say what they did, but they pretty much explained that it's a problem with the followers and the overhead cam.
A friend of Ryerson, this Twin Cities had a Jeep Grand Cherokee with 80,000 miles, same thing.
Another friend with another Jeep down in Arizona had one with like 120,000 dollars.
Is this something that happens in these vehicles in this particular engine because they put them in a lot of vehicles?
Yes, they put so many in that it doesn't take many percentage wise to make it look like they're a giant issue.
They could have maybe just one percent, one out of every hundred fail like that, but they made millions of these every year.
It's basically their engine.
That's the engine they put in everything that they have.
It moves their whole platform basically, a very high percentage of it other than the big trucks.
So you're going to see this failure, but it's pretty common.
Once it gets bad enough, it'll destroy the whole engine.
And if it's got enough miles, people won't fix it.
They'll just put an engine in it.
But it's common.
One thing I was going to ask as a preventative, one mechanic recommended maybe changing to a little heavier weight oil.
Definitely not.
A lot of times they got 020 in them.
And so I've actually switched to 530 on my Grand Cherokee.
And I feel just a little more lubrication that way, and especially as honest as it is, I have no problems with that on my end.
But what is your thoughts on that?
In the wintertime, they've looked at it and found that it can damage engines because of the heavier weight oil.
It'll wear the followers out, those issues with them.
Ford had the same thing with their vehicles.
People were putting in heavy weight oil in the 540s to try to fix things, and it wasn't fixing anything.
They were trying to prevent it.
Once it had a problem, they broke anyways.
But yeah, they're definitely not suggesting changing.
As many of these that have failed over the whole Chrysler thing, if they thought that...
I'll guarantee you, they've tested everything to try to make it better.
Just like GM went to a different oil in their 6.2 engines trying to cover up a factory defect.
They would have said, Chrysler yes, let's change the oil weight, but they're not doing that.
I don't think that's going to fix...
In my own personal vehicle, I would never do that.
You generally...
I mean, generally, you don't change any more.
You don't change oil until the manufacturer says...
In the public of purchasing their vehicles, they want to put in what's best.
And if they knew that changing an oil weight would reduce the number of failures, even a little bit, they would say, just change the oil.
Because it costs them nothing.
Like some have done.
Like Volkswagen did, right?
Volkswagen did it.
Audi did it.
GM's done it.
And it costs them nothing to say, oh, go ahead and do it.
Yeah.
Because they're not changing the oil.
You're changing it.
So I don't like to do that.
I wouldn't do it on my own vehicle, but I would change the oil more often.
That is so important.
Of all the engines that come into our place that are having failures, almost zero have regular oil changes and clean oil.
They've got horribly dirty oil.
Their oil changes are anywhere from 6,000 miles to 10,000 miles or more.
You know, I know I'm supposed to change it.
And I change it every five.
I miss the last one or two.
I'll get better next time.
Okay.
But it does happen.
I've seen somebody put where we put an engine in a vehicle and we give it a one year parts and labor warranty, unlimited mileage.
They come in like 16 months later and say, there's something wrong with my engine.
It's making a noise and I look and I find the oil has never been changed.
Still got our filter on it.
We've got, it says Nordstrom's right at the bottom of it.
I'm like, yeah, that's out of warranty.
Well, it's so close.
It should be covered.
You know, I might think about it.
If you had changed your oil even once, but you see this filter.
Oh, the one with the Nordstrom's.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
Well, I, yeah, my kid was driving and I thought they were changing it.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
So it's oil.
It's, and oil is very expensive.
We just talked last week, Chris, you're gone, but our price of oil doubled July 1st.
Yeah.
They came in and said, Hey, by the way, we haven't raised it in seven years, but now with all the prices going up, you're going to pay double for it.
So all the quick loops have had to go up and I'm getting a lot of calls and it starts out by saying, Hey, how much your oil changes because you've gone somewhere else, right?
And you've, they used to go and they, they all of a sudden raised your price and you want to know why?
Well, let me tell you why it went up.
So oil changes are important even though they're more expensive.
Dean, thanks very much for the call.
Good luck.
866-594-4150.
Well, let's talk to Mike.
You're on the end of the hood show.
Mike, what can we do for you?
I've got a 2022 Chevy Equinox just turned about 50,000 miles.
Only issue we've had is we've got like a rock chip in the front camera, the one in the grill.
Oh, it's messing up the view.
It's like the bottom half is kind of obscured.
And I think it's probably causing this, like a park assist error.
Mm-hmm.
Every time we started that, you know, if I can't see the, can't see a clear camera,
gives you that and kills your park assist.
Has it, has a history before the rock chip has had a history of when I'm COVID cars, you know,
where they put the, some of the park assist stuff in like six months after we bought it.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So not entirely sure that this is the problem.
But my big question is, can I replace that camera myself?
The camera is like 180 bucks or so, 150 something like that.
Or do I really need the dealership to realign it, refocus it?
Good question.
Well, you can, like $400 for that.
Yeah, you can put it in, but you're going to have to have it, you are going to have to
have the ADOS system reprogrammed and realigned.
Yes.
Or you will have a problem with your adaptive cruise, with your park sensors, lane keeping
assist, all that relies on that.
They all have to be set up if they're, and in a lot of cases, if you put one in, it just
won't operate.
Like we've put those on for people and said, you need to go, go get this program.
So we install it and it says, it's got a code and says, must be realigned.
It will not operate until it's done in a lot of cases.
So you guys, you guys don't even, you don't even have one there.
You can do that ADOS or whatever.
It's got to be a dealership.
We don't do it.
Well, no, it has to be a body shop or there's a lot more people getting these now.
It used to be that you had to have a large building with a large flat floor and like
a hundred feet in front of you and some targets set up big stuff.
Now they've really got it down.
It's a lot better.
They can do it.
Some guys go around here and in our town with mobile units, they bring their trailer.
They set it up with the vehicle and the ground doesn't even have to be perfectly level because
they have a level in the car.
It tells them where the car is sitting and it has levels on the unit so it knows to compensate
between the two and then it calibrates and adjusts for that.
They were going around to glass shops and helping them out and doing that.
When they put the glass in, they would do the mobile service, but now more and more
of these people are able to buy them.
They're more affordable.
You can pick up units for a whole lot less and do them yourself and we just are not
doing it.
There was a time back when it was first coming out.
I mean, and this is going back years and years now.
It was going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a rig to be able to do
this.
I can't remember who it was in town here that did it, but one of the dealerships actually
set up a building to do it inside their building and they were doing it for some other people.
They would just, you bring your car over, make an appointment and we'll program it for
you.
So where does Mike look?
What does he look for?
He gets on the internet and he types in.
He can get in by the camera and put it in and then just call a glass shop and ask them.
I know I had a, in our town, I had a glass company do our, because we knew them personally.
I just said, Hey, you're going to put a windshield in for us, but I need to replace the parking
sensors in a camera too.
Can you do it?
And so they, they did it.
Okay.
It was like 200 bucks and they, they reset the whole system because all of it has to be
done at once.
Right.
Just one unit.
Mike, thanks very much for the call.
Good luck.
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It's time to get back under the hood with our motor medics.
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866-594-4150.
Let's go to Minnesota and talk to Pat.
You're on the end of the Hood Show, Pat.
What can we do for you?
All right, hey guys.
I got a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek with about 70,000 miles on it.
And from time to time, it will, when I start it up, it will give me an enormous puff of blue smoke.
I can't replicate it, so I can't bring it to the dealer.
Any ideas?
If it's doing it just on startup, it's probably a cylinder head issue where you've got oil leaking
down past the valves and getting into that cylinder and then you start it up.
And that's when you get it.
It could also be coming by piston rings as well as it sits there.
But, you know, things to do about that.
Make sure your oil level is, well, the oil's clean and the oil's at the correct level.
It's not over full.
Look at the PCV system and make sure you don't have oil in that.
Remove the oil fill cap.
Make sure you don't have a ton of blow by with it when the engine's running.
That's just indicating the engine's worn out.
Is that just the nature of the beast being a Boxster style engine?
No, not unless it's worn out.
They don't do that unless there's a problem.
But yes, they can cause that engine with the flat engines like that.
The cylinders are on the bottom.
If they've got excess wear to them, they can get oil down that cylinder and get past the rings.
If there's any wear there, they line up just right.
You get some wear and it gets into the cylinder.
So when you start it, you get the smoke.
This thing's completely out of warranty, right?
Yeah, yeah, 70,000 miles, 2018.
70,000 miles and you've got a smoking issue.
That's a mechanical issue.
So that's not a good sign.
You would hope that those would last a lot longer than that.
Would you wait until it happens every time before you bring it in for a diagnosis?
Rather than have them hunt it down and charge you for a diagnostic?
Yeah, and they're not going to.
It's going to be the same news now if they're either going to tell you today,
oh, with 85,000 miles, it needs an engine or it needs new rings.
Or you can wait till it's worse and they're going to say, oh, now with 110,000 miles,
you either need an engine or rings.
It's going to be the same issue either way.
It doesn't get worse.
No, it's usually just a smoky issue.
But watch your oil level and see if it starts consuming oil,
you're going to have to do something about it.
If it doesn't seem to be used as a negligible amount of oil between oil changes,
it's not a huge concern.
Yeah, I haven't seen any change in the oil level at all.
Then this is real minor then.
Once it starts burning oil, then you've got issues with
worrying about the catalytic converter getting plugged and all that kind of stuff.
Is that a pretty common issue with these Subaru's?
It can happen, but I wouldn't say it's common.
If I owned one, it wouldn't be a concern of mine until it actually occurred,
but some can do it.
Some have had some piston ring issues, but not many.
Not near like what we see with the Chevy Equinox and vehicles like that
that we talk about a lot for oil burning or a Hyundai or something like that.
All right.
Thanks, man.
I'll just let it hang.
All right, you guys take care.
Thanks for the call.
So the stuff to check the PVC and all that, that's just to make sure that
something else isn't feeding that.
Right.
Yeah, you want to make sure you don't have another issue that's a simple fix.
But that's kind of what he wants, right?
He wants to go find that it needs a new piece of oil or something.
That's what we want.
We all want the easy fix.
Or new cap, new oil cap.
Does that ever, is that ever it?
No.
Okay.
Just be nice.
Fuel caps, but never the oil cap.
866-594-4150.
Let's talk to Paul.
You're on the end of the hood show.
Paul, what can we do for you?
Hi, guys.
Thanks for taking my call.
I have got a 2014 Kia Sorento.
Got a couple problems.
Don't know if they're related.
The main one is, and this will do it while it's idling or while you're driving down the road.
But it will, when it happens when you're driving down the road,
the tack will just drop to zero.
And when that happens, you have no power.
I mean, it has a little bit of power.
Like, you can keep going and it will stay running.
But it is really difficult to drive.
So when it does that, you have to stop, shut it off, turn it back on,
and then it's thus far, always that problem will go away.
And it will happen.
Just happened last weekend where it did it while it was idling.
I left it idling for quite a while and the engine just died.
And so had to shut it off, turn it back on, then it was fine again.
And the other problem it has is occasionally if it sits for a few days,
it will have like kind of a long crank when you start it.
So I don't know if these two problems are related or not.
My first thought when you have an attack do that and acting like yours is doing is
the crank sensor on these key as we put a number of those in.
If that crankshaft sensor is bad, it will do that.
I know our partner over at Standard has gone to great links to make sure they have upgraded
their sensors to repair failed ones like this.
So if you've got one that's real common, like in these key is where we see a lot of them go bad,
we like to get the standard sensor because it's a tougher, more durable
sensor to replace than putting a factory one back in it.
That would be a good place to start.
Even if you, if that's not your issue, replacing that sensor would be a good
preventive tune up type item on this vehicle just so you don't have it happen in the future.
Yeah, it's 12 years old.
It's got some miles on it, a lot of heat going on down there.
It's something that can fail, but because that, if that sensor failed,
it would do exactly what you have going on now.
So it's a good place to start and they're not super expensive.
I would go, I would be doing that on my own if I had one.
But it could be other things.
You know, once you get that addressed, you can go through and diagnose,
see if there's something else going on.
But that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about those cars with this issue.
We've done a number of them that it's fixed it.
Okay, I will definitely start there.
There you go.
Paul, thanks very much for the call.
866-594-4150.
Let's go to Doug.
You're on the end of the hood show.
Doug, what can we do for you?
First, I'd like to thank you.
Not exaggerating.
You've probably saved me close to $10,000 over the years.
My wife and I are both rural mail carriers,
so we're always doing some kind of making.
So thank you for that.
Secondly, Chris can probably appreciate this.
Russ, you might want to leave the room.
I got a 1998 Ford Ranger that I bought brand new.
It's got 260,000 miles on it right now.
And if I've changed the oil in that thing 12 times, I'd be surprised.
But at about 170,000, I put a lift kit in it, a six-inch aftermarket lift kit,
and haven't had any problem with it since for the last 90,000 miles.
Well, I just purchased the 2026 Ram 1500 4x4 that I want to put the same manufacturer lift kit in,
but I can't find out any definitive information on what that does to the warranty
for like the powertrain or engine or transmission, what not.
So I was wondering if you could help me with that.
Well, that's very, it's a pretty big window, and it's, it's,
so, I mean, I guess I don't want to, if I have a problem with the control arm,
I don't want, or if a transmission or the engine, and they're like,
oh, you replaced the control arm with an aftermarket lift.
So yeah, you're screwed.
Well, so here's, here's what I'm, what I'm getting at, I guess.
We, we have a local dealership that installs lift kits right out their door on their vehicle.
So they put them on in the dealership, it's not a factory lift kit, but they install it,
and out the door it goes, and it's still under warranty.
Now, if you go back into that dealership and you've got your own lift kit on there,
but nothing on the lift kit caused the failure, you got a transmission failure,
how can they deny you a warranty claim when they put them on themselves,
and won't deny the warranty claim if you're following me there.
If it's not a failure caused by the part you put on, there are some laws and rules about,
you know, federal laws about being able to put on your own aftermarket parts,
and how they affect the warranties, and you can get online and look those up and how they work,
but it generally states they have to be the same quality or better, and not be the cause
of the failure or warranty. So if you buy a brand new car that had an AC Delco oil filter on it,
and you put a Fram oil filter on it, or a Wix oil filter on it, as long as that filter meets
or exceeds the factory specifications and doesn't anyway harm the vehicle, they are not allowed
by law to void your warranty. You have the right to put those parts on there.
In other word cases though, you know, if you put on a tuner on a car that modifies the factory
parameters and causes the vehicle to work harder or run hotter, and it has an issue that
would normally be covered by warranty, they don't have to cover it, and they usually won't
because of that. But in the cases of lift kits, the biggest thing they're going to be looking at
is tires. If you put tires on that were larger than what the factory specified or had available
from the factory, then it causes the vehicle to work harder, then you've got issues with bearings
and things, but you're going to have to look for yourself on that and see. But if you look,
a lot of dealerships offer lift kits, and they're usually up to six inch, most of them are
23 and four inch lifts, but a few of them I see here do the six inch lift kits,
or they have in the past, I've seen a number of them come in that had that factory,
they call them factory, a dealership installed lift kit from some name brand suspension company,
and they usually don't hurt a thing, but you've got to look into it first before you do it. If
you want that warranty, it sounds like your warranty, you'll put some miles on it pretty quick and
you'll be out of it. Well, actually, I put less than a thousand miles a month on it. Oh, it's a
suspension aspect, like if that goes bad, that's going to be on me, but I'm just more concerned
about the, you know, replacing the Hemi or the transmission type issue versus the suspension
issues. If a lift kit would overwork the engine or overwork the transmission, I guess. Sure,
I would look at it, depending on where you bought this from, see if your dealer offers lift kits
and get that one, and if they, well, yeah, get that one for one, the same brand, but if they do
offer it, ask them first question and say, oh, hey, if I buy a brand new truck and you install
this lift kit, does it affect the warranty? And if they say no, then say, well, oh, I bought a brand
new 26 from you and I put the same lift kit on, so I still got the full warranty, right?
And then they'll back up and they'll say, well, except for the parts you put on,
but yes, the other stuff is covered just like ours would be. You want to see what's going on there?
I would definitely ask the question. And Doug, on that Ranger, you bought a brand new. Yep.
Yeah, so it's brand new. It's been around the world with me. Yeah, you bought a brand new.
It's still. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Why change the oil if it's still running.
Exactly. As far as I'm concerned, it's still brand new. You just got that thing. It's fine.
Thanks for the call. 866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood
show. Let's go to Virginia and talk to Thomas. You're on the end of the hood show. Thomas,
what can we do for? I have an 07 Tundra. It's got a 5.7 four-wheel drive,
just over 100,000 miles on it right now. I bought it with 95,000 miles on it. And when I bought it,
didn't have an issue with it that I could tell right away, but having since driven it,
there's two seeming to be correlated issues. One of them is if I do a cold start and put it in
drive, it doesn't seem like the transmission engages. So I can get up to about 3,000 to 4,000 rpm,
and the car will just barely crawl. And then another issue is if it does, I've never had
both of these at the same time, but if it doesn't do that at startup and I drive it for a minute
or so, I live in a community. So trying to get out of the community and get onto the road,
trying to go from third to fourth, it'll give a terrible lurch. It'll try to rev up or rev down
to shift gears, and then it can't hit the next gear. So then it revs back up and thinks it can hit
it. So it then drops back down. So it gives you that really bad lurching effect. So just trying
to figure out if you have any advice on that. Yeah, that's not good. You know, first step is
check the fluid, make sure it's full and it's clean. If it is, you can... I had it drain and
filled and at a shop, and they took a video of it for me, and it was completely clean when it came
out. So my suspicion is that the dealer I bought it from probably knew it had it drain and filled.
Yeah, that's awful clean because they don't come out clean when they've got 10,000 miles on them.
They're already looking, starting to change a little bit. So yeah, they probably tried to change
it too, or that not necessarily the dealer, but the person who owned it before was having an issue.
They changed the fluid trying to fix it. It didn't fix it. So they took it and traded it in.
That's very, very... That happens too much. One thing of note is that it did have a trailer
brake on it. So my gut says that's probably correlated to it. Nobody puts a trailer brake
on unless they're pulling a trailer that's heavy. True. You know, you don't need trailer brakes for
a light trailer. You need them for a heavy trailer that has electric brakes on it,
and for a trailer to have electric brakes on it. In some states, they require... I think California
requires them period on any trailer, even like a garden trailer, but most plates don't. So in order
you want to put it on if you're pulling something big and heavy, I bet it's been...
It's probably been overpulled. Now that you've got some miles on it after they've changed this fluid,
if you pull the pan off and actually look in the bottom of the pan and not just drain it,
you're probably going to find some clutch materials in there. It's probably worn out.
Those are very tough transmissions. We do very few of them in our shop, but we've done
some. We did one this year and we did one last year that I can think of.
So they do go bad, but they don't fail very often. They're very tough.
I bought an OBD Lynx Pro and had it scanning the transmission system as I was driving it,
and then I don't interpret that. I can't do it, but I put it into an AI bot,
and it diagnosed it that the most likely culprit was the torque converter,
and that I could get the torque converter replaced and probably not have to replace the
full transmission. Do you think that's a wise diagnosis or should I just do the whole thing?
I don't think that's accurate because you told me two things. If you said that
when you started, you're having an issue like you were, maybe, but you've got a second issue
that's only affecting one gear, and that's what AI is missing. They're not able to discern
those two things. They look at one thing and say, well, this is the most common issue when people
report this because if a thousand people post on the internet, their transmission felt like
it was slipping cold and we replaced the torque converter, it's going to pick that up and tell
you that's the most likely cause, but that lurch between just one gear in that higher gear
tells me you've got something else going on in that transmission. That's separate from the
torque converter. Nava did it in every single gear and I bet, yeah, it could be a torque converter
issue, and we're seeing more and more of those fail lately, but also if they go too long,
that failing torque converter can damage the whole transmission with metal particles
being left behind inside of there, but I think your transmission might be on the way out.
Okay. The next question I have then is, it's obviously a huge cost to replace the transmission.
What is the likelihood that it gives me or gives me stuck on the side of the road that it is right
now? It doesn't happen every single time. Yeah. If it's not doing it every single time, it can do
that, but it might also go for, you know, you might be able to just slow down and limp your way home
or to a repair shop or at least get off the road. You know, just stopping completely as you're going
70 miles an hour and all of a sudden, boop, it just stops and doesn't pull anymore.
That can happen, but it's a lot more rare than you being able to slow down and get off the exit
and get stopped somewhere safe. It starts happening more often. Yeah. We see that. Otherwise, you'd
see cars just all over the road stopped. Now and then you see them, but not all the time.
So you would, Russ, you would chance it for a while, budget start saving. Yeah. If I needed to,
if I knew I wasn't going to fix it, I mean, I'd either stop driving it or I would budget to get
it fixed. Yeah. But I mean, you could, he can keep driving it for a while, babying it and saving up
for. I would think it's possible to do that. You know, you got to use your own judgment. You never
know, but I think it's possibility it could go for a long time. But you probably wouldn't have your
daughter just drive it every day. No, it'd be me driving it only. Yeah. Get where I'm going.
Yeah. Does that help? Yeah, it does a lot. I don't tell anything with it and I don't use it for a
big load. So I don't, I don't imagine. So the fact that it's happening without a load on the truck,
it's kind of already kind of getting me on it. Yeah. So yeah, I'm kind of in the boat of just
risk it and do what happens and try to save up like you're saying. So, but someone did mention
that there might be solenoids. I had a shop look at it and they said that there was solenoids per
gear. There are. I don't know. And he said that that maybe a solenoid was plugged and he could
try replacing a solenoid. Have you ever heard of this or is it the idea of working? And we'd
suggest if you're saving up your money, you know, you can get it in and say, hey, can we get this,
look at it and see if we can get it fixed. You know, that's a possibility as well and they can
also plug a scanner into it and drive it and look at the data. But to take that pan off of there,
they're, they're going to take the fluid out and you're going to have to, at the minimum,
it's going to be the cost of the diagnosis plus the cost of the fluid. You'll probably have,
you know, to get in there and work that valve body, make sure the valves move and put a solenoid.
It probably 1300 bucks. So they can check that, but they usually do it on the way to
replacing the whole thing. They check it before they're, while they're replacing it, they check
it first type of thing. Yeah. Cause they can take it out and look at it and turn on the solenoids with
the scanner with the bi-directional controls and say, hey, this solenoids working or it's not. And
they think, yeah, you know what, the thing's really sluggish. Let's go ahead and put a solenoid in it
first. We think this is probably going to fix your issue. But if not, they'll just say, everything
looks like brand new in there. Let's just keep taking it out and not waste your money putting
fluid in it again and parts that won't fix it. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much for the
advice and also want to just give a shout out to my dad for recommending me to y'all. He's been
listening for a long time in Florida. Cool. But yeah, thank you all very much for your time. I
appreciate it. Thanks, Thomas. And let's do, let's, let's give him, let's give the world the benefit
of the doubt. Is it possible that someone and the place don't, it, it, it just, it's not, there's
no nefariousness. No one planned to do this. Oh yeah. They could have been, they could have been
told when they said, you know what, it was time for a bigger truck because my 12,000 pound boat
just won't pull very well behind you. And let's just go trade it in and they traded it in and they
said, hey, this thing should have some fluid changes, but I get a little nervous. If I see a
brake controller and the fluid and if I was doing a used car inspection on this, I would look at it
and go, oh, brake controller. Well, let's check the differentials. Let's check the transfer case.
Let's check the transmission. Oh, look, it's got brand new fluid in the transmission.
Now let's do some test driving here and see how it feels. Just get a little check.
There's a, if, if you were doing a used car inspection and found the brake trailer,
trailer brake kind of tucked away and check the fluid and it were brand new, would that be like a,
that'd be an alarm to me. Yeah. I'd say, why would they worry about changing it right before they
traded it in? Yeah. That's when I pull up my car fax service history and I look and see,
have they been doing regular services? Yeah. Oh, look, every 30,000 miles they changed the fluid.
I'm not worried about it, but if it'd never been changed and right before they sold it,
that's going to do it for another hour of the under the hood show. Until next time,
you can always find us at underthehoodshow.com. You can also find an episode wherever you get
your podcasts, you miss one, and you can watch the show on our YouTube channel. We got lots
of places you can find us under the hood show.com has a list of them all. Thanks for listening.
the show. Call 866-594-4150. Find out more by visiting underthehoodshow.com. Under the hood
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About this episode
From engine coverage and recall talk to phone-aided diagnostics, the Motor Medics walk through real repair scenarios and what to check before you spend big. They discuss Hyundai engine replacements, why some failures leave drivers stranded, and how oil changes (or neglect) can drive warranty disputes. The show also covers suspension and ADAS calibration costs, plus practical troubleshooting for smoke, sensor issues, and transmission problems—often with scanner-based checks and smart inspection habits.
The best call-in car talk show in America! Under The Hood. We take your live calls and get you answers to all your car repair problems fast. Give us a call today. Here are today's callers... A happy Hyundai owner gets his expensive engine replaced for free Why are there 4 front shocks on my 94 F150 Truck? Are some cheap OBD2 Scanners no good? My Corvette won't scan The Chrysler Jeep 3.6 Tick. Can I change my oil weight? DIY car cam ADAS replacement. Do I need to have it calibrated? Blue smoke from my 18 Subaru Crosstrek. What is it? Why did my Sorento Tach drop to zero and stall? Almost no oil changes on my 98 Ranger with a bazillion miles. Say it aint so! Can I install a 6" lift on my 26 Ram and not void the warranty?
