What's Wrong With Your Car? We Want To Help You

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and rate and review us. We appreciate it. Here is the Under the Hood Show podcast.

This is Under the Hood. Welcome to the Under the Hood Show. We are glad to have you with us.

Russ Evans is here to answer your automotive questions. Thanks for joining us under the hood.

Shannon Nordstrom is here to do the same. Welcome, hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune

up. I'm Chris Carter here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150. Got calls coming in from all over,

so let's go right to them. So we'll start in Pennsylvania and talk to Don. You're on the

Under the Hood Show. Don, what can we do for you? Hey guys, I don't know if you remember

when I called you back in March 2008 Tahoe. I bought it and it was about, I don't know,

over 100 miles away from where I live. And it's got a converter plugged up and I asked about the

engine. I think we talked about maybe it smoked the rings on the one side. But anyways, had somebody

replace the engine and the guy broke the transmission pump that had the transmission pump replaced.

Oh no. Oh, it's worse. This is the chassis of this vehicle. It cost me $1,800 for the pump

and to be put in and all the stuff that was unhooked from the first guy to put the engine in

charged me $1,700 to break my transmission. But anyways, now we have an issue when it's at the

transmission shop and the guy can't get it started because he only has a transmission 10th course of

fluid and he can need to put 12 in it but he can't send torque and rudder spins. He can't get the

bus link. It's saying bus link down. He didn't know what the issue was. He was going to hook me up to

have my thing reflash. I called the dealership. The dealership said if that link is down, he can't

communicate. He's going to charge you that money. You're going to throw some more money away. So I'm

not about to do that. Can you tell me where or what possibly could be unhooked that is causing

the bus to be down? Oh, any number. If you were doing it. A thousand times.

Russ, let me ask him a few questions about the engine swap itself.

Because that might be where we want to start. The first step, turn the key on. Just turn it

on. Look at the dash. If the check engine light is not on, then there's no power to the computer

system and you got to start looking and wiring. If that light is on and the bus is down, then the

nightmare begins. So do you know that? It's on. Yeah. The check engine light is on. When you

turn the key on. Yes. I would see if you could scan it using the generic OBD2 function, not the

regular scanner function, where it's identifying the vehicle and see if you can read anything.

And then after that, plug it in and do an all system scan where you're scanning every module

in the vehicle and see what shows up. The ones that don't show up or the one that doesn't show up

is the one that's offline and shorted has a problem with it. Could be a module. I'm going to go back

here because I've just seen this happen in our own experience and with many customers that have

bought things from us. When you bought a used engine or is it a remanufactured? What did you put

in there? It's a used engine. They shipped it to Pennsylvania from Boston. Okay. The motor that

was put in there, was this done at like a dealership or a mainline repair shop or was it a guy that

you know and you swapped an engine? It was someone I thought I trusted who was a mechanic

who did it. Okay. You got one in the shop right now like that. He obviously did not live up to

his credentials with the broken front pump. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was having a

bad day. Do you know if they switched the wiring harness from the original engine? Was there still

a wiring harness on the engine when you got it? They used one or did he switch the harness from

your original engine and put it onto this motor? Do you know that? When that engine came, it was

strapped so tight, he told me that they ripped the fuel injector line. All the fuel injection had to

be swapped over from my old engine. Should do that anyways. They had the strap so tight on it.

I'm going to go back though. I just want to ask this question because we've seen this.

There's an engine wiring harness that kind of plugs into everything and hangs on the engine

and sometimes they're left on engines, sometimes they're not. Do you know if he used? I'm going to

say no. Okay. Hopefully he used your original wiring harness on that engine because we've

seen it where they don't switch it. It's similar enough that it plugs in but it's not

pinned the same way or they have a problem. I would definitely go to where the main bulkhead

connector of the wiring harness is plugged in, unplug it and inspect it to make sure there's no

pins bent over, make sure that it's seated all the way. If the pins all look good.

Under the fuse box there. That's a huge problem with those.

We've seen that happen enough times and I definitely want you to inspect that first

because look where the humans have been. Yeah, that's funny that you're saying that because

I remember seeing that when I first looked at this vehicle and there was a wire loom on all those

wires. Now there's no wire loom and all the wires are there going into the plug. I can literally see

that gigantic. It looks like it's a 50 pin plug with all these wires but they're all loose.

They're all loose onto the plug. They're not tied or wrapped or nothing. Yeah, somebody's

messed with it. Yeah, one of the wires has a relay that's wrapped to it. There's a little gray relay

on it but I don't know why some of them would. Is that supposed to be covered up with something?

I can't remember if that was sitting in a panel. It's right on the fender well. Yeah, that should

be underneath the fuse block and once everything's put back into place you normally don't see that.

So either it's flipped open. No, I can either it's flipped over upside down or sideways or.

There's a really big plastic cover that goes around the whole thing. Yeah, covers that whole thing.

Missing. Some reason somebody was in there and that's missing now. I can clearly see the whole

plug. See if the harness came with the engine then they would have to remove that in order to

take the old one off and put the new one on but I'm wondering if it's just not plugged in all the

way. If there's a pin bent that happens a lot and that will affect your communication inside.

The other thing is there's a fuse that powers the

cigarette lighter inside the auxiliary port and that fuse has to be good or you won't be

able to communicate with the vehicle. So make sure that all the fuses are just check every

single fuse in that box under there and make sure that they have power on both sides of them,

not just one. If half of them are, you know, both sides are down then that's a different story

because sometimes the key is beyond but if one side's dead and one side's good you've got to

blown fuse you'll need to replace that. And if this vehicle ran good ran and without these problems

prior to this operation taking place I think of the operation game. There's zapping things on

this thing as they're putting it together. It's working for the pump or a transmission pump.

Careful not to touch the sides. Yeah that was uh yeah I'm just if it was not done before you

definitely it's where the humans have been and I would be, I would be zooming in on the wiring

and just have somebody that's done one of these before look at that wiring. It sounds like a

bit of a mess. Don thanks very much for the call. Good luck. What a bummer. I think it was I think

he had worse things to tell us but I heard enough. Yeah for sure. Let's talk to Amy. You're on the

15 for focus. So a little over a year ago I started having problems with it and it would die

or cut out when I was driving and there's recalls that are like you know for them that kind of do

that and everything I brought it they said the code like the codes for those recalls are not

popping up so it's not one of those things. I've had it in the shop I think five times in the last

years and so far what we have changed on it is like a new fuel pump module assembly inside the tank.

A fuel vapor canister with event solenoid. High pressure fuel pump.

The fuel pump driver module and fuel pressure sensor on the low side and then when I just picked it

up yesterday I can't quite remember I think it was like the evap canister solenoid that they switched

again but and it does it does it do this does it do this dying when it's slowing down or when

is there any certain conditions where it's worse? No so it would always do it like when I was just

driving down the road or if I would stop at a stop light sometimes it was like butter and not go like

it would just die at a stop light stuff like that. So the last time when I when I brought it in and

they changed the new fuel pump like in the tank that fixed like the dying problem however when I

picked it up the check engine light was on and it came up as an evap code so when and I it's the

evap code like pressure switch that came on and so I drove it for a little bit like with the

check engine light on and then recently when I brought it back in the shop again it started

smelling like fuel really bad and then it was like bogging out on me again so I brought it back in

and that's when he changed this last thing. Yesterday when I picked it up from the shop I started it

and the check engine light came on again and the evap pressure switch code came on again

and so they had said like it would be fine to drive it and

if I wanted to switch it like I'd have to like replace the whole tank but they said it would be

fine well I drove it home which is like five miles and then it was smelling like really heavily of

gas again. That does make me a little bit nervous about what happened during that fuel pump

replacement I mean just in general it should be a pretty straightforward operation but

things can happen with the seal back there. If you have a fuel smell and an evap code typically that

is because you have a leak in the tank and it could be where the fuel pump goes into the top of the

tank and it's leaking there if it leaks more when it's full of fuel than when it's at a half a tank

and if you've got is this completely full now when you're smelling this fuel?

I know it's got a half. Okay if it's half it shouldn't be leaking out the top of the fuel

port I don't think that some of them have it on a forward spot but you would see it on the ground.

We just had one of these in the in the I'll just our check-in building where we check-in

cars and we had one we thought would be drivable for someone that needed a car for transportation

and it was dying. The young man took it out for a drive that helps us down there and it was dying

and it chug chug chug when they pull in. In that particular one he goes let me try something

and he replaced the high pressure fuel pump up on the on the engine and I know you said you

already replaced that but he replaced that and that car started running like as smooth as can be I'm

Dante how'd you know how to do that? I had some experience with another one

and he just we had another one sitting there that had just came in and he just grabbed the pump off

and swapped them and the car started running like perfect but that was just a I think it was

a same model Ford Focus I might have just been a luck of the draw that he but I was proud of him

that he made it run well but gosh how frustrating when and now you've chased this to all these

different parts the the vapor itself unless something is really clogged up shouldn't make

the car run that poorly it's just going to give you an irritating light that won't go off is the

car running okay now? Well I drove it yeah like five miles home yesterday and it ran fine on the

way home but then it just smelled really heavily of fuel so then I just kept driving if it's running

okay but now you have a fuel cell smell that's and you did not have that problem before occur

in evap code um so the like right before I brought it in this last time when I had the purge

philonoid switched it started smelling like fuel okay you might have two different things going

on here and uh are you feel like you have a good relationship with the people you're working with

on this one? Yeah I don't like that they had you pick it up and it had a check engine light on

right I mean that should have been unless it came in with one on and you talked about that and they

said hey we fixed your pump but it's running better now but that we did not spend any money

on diagnosing your check engine light that was on and it's still on that I don't know I don't know

what conversation you guys had but if it was not on when you went in and it's on when you came out

after you did that operation I would go back and have a conversation with them things don't always

go perfect in a shop that's for sure so yeah and have them say just let's just talk for a second here

this I came in for this problem I didn't have this problem I came out with this problem is there any

chance you worked on the fuel tank could you take a second look at what we did and just make sure

something's not awry and I've just had experience with something similar where talking talking to

the person wasn't the person who they had talked to before oh so it was just a miscommunication

between the two guys at the shop so yikes Amy thanks very much for the call uh yeah she had

the smell before she went in though too uh good luck yeah that's one where it's hard not having

your hands on it yeah equipment hooked to it eight six six five nine four four one five

oh that's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show let's talk to Christoff

you're on the end of the hood show what can we do for you hey guys howdy from geekland how you

doing fantastic what can we do for you well first of all rough I saw what you did there

with the mr star reference about don't touch the side so i'm proud of you

so i am unstreaming some ethernet cables but i've got a buick question for you okay

side cutters so this was 2015 yeah thanks uh 2015 buick on play um had it for a year now

and i've got a weird noise that has happened since we were driving up in hill city area

which is the steep grade going up from rapid city and i would call it a tiny tea kettle

you know there's an easy cricket there's a tiny tea kettle um it's a small whistling sound

it gets more pronounced if you don't hear any road noise and you don't hear any wind outside

then you can definitely pick it up but it only occurs if the car is under these conditions

steep uphill deep downhill grade at 60 65 miles an hour or over and then when you come down to 45

or 40 miles an hour from those speeds then it drops out almost immediately and it seems to be

coming from the front end and i had my dad ride with me and he turned up his hearing aids and

he could find this here it's not quiet but is there some sort of a vacuum system power steering

system something with the all-wheel drive that i'm not familiar with for the buick that would

kick in at those higher speeds and then make a tiny whistling sound almost like a vacuum

or some other kind of really quiet mechanical sound up at the front end but then it would

just persist only with those speeds not that i can think of right off but with the throttle

position it could be something going on with the pcv system in that vehicle you might even just

put one in it because it's probably been forever since it's had a pcv valve

and that one's partially internal you just have to look it up and see where it's at so you'll see

the picture to get the visual of it but that's possible that that that could be what's going on

because when you let off the throttle at a higher rpm it creates more vacuum you got a closed throttle

butterfly but you got a high suction on that because the valves are open and it's higher rpm it's

trying to suck more air in people think well i give it more gas i'm gonna have more vacuum no you

have less vacuum the more throttle if it's wide open you basically have no vacuum it's just kind

of flowing through there into the engine so that would eliminate so if you step on it down

further like halfway and it goes away but it comes back when you let off but only at the

higher rpm it sounds like sounds like a little vacuum leak and you may even get a code for fuel

trim at that point too there's some of those units in that era that had an auxiliary electric

vacuum pump on them uh up on the amount of the front k-frame and i can't remember if it was in

that year or not but it could be conditions that would warrant that it it needs to produce vacuum

where maybe that little pump is engaging i don't know i'm just i'm reaching for straws there but

something it sounds like could be something vacuum related and you can also have issues the

transmissions can make some noise depending on pump pressure if there's an issue going on with

that transmission and a few of these had issues quite a number of them it could be that it's at

maximum pressure and the transmission is what you're hearing whining usually that's going to be a

typical thing of though when you're parked not if i put it in manual and and took it from the

automatic little button to manual and shifted gears up onto the highway because this is happening

once the sound starts it persists whether i'm coasting accelerating or braking doesn't matter

as long as you're in that speed range right um if i put it in manual i'd be able to observe it

go into different gears and see if the sound because i never get it up over around 3000 rpm i

haven't punched it but um right yeah if that would be a good way to troubleshoot it i could try

that next time i'm getting on the highway yeah for sure boy a sound that's hard to hear just wouldn't

and once again chris i know i've done this many times on the show today i would just you would

not hear this sound and you wouldn't care no i'd go oh if it's if i don't have the radio on it makes

a weird sound so i'm gonna hook up bluetooth and away we go mm-hmm to nail down he's got it nailed

bugging me yeah the only reason it's bugging me is because i've had a mechanic right along who

couldn't hear it but then i figured out of some new ways to kind of more consistently reproduce

the sound which you know the troubleshooting fainted existence and you replicated it

can it can't hear it it's not i don't think it's doing it chris is pretty sure it's not broken i'm

pretty sure it's fine i think it's just normal normal operation chris stop thanks very much for

the call good luck let us know if you'd track it down the under the hood show podcast is brought

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800 603 33 30 that's 800 603 33 30 welcome back everybody it's time to get back under the hood

with a motor medics 8 6 6 5 9 4 4 1 5 0 that's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood

show don't forget you can watch the show on our youtube channel if you subscribe there

and join the hoodie fan club you could win a hoodie like larry osterling congratulations

for everybody here under the hood and our friends over at berkeley one classic celebrating 50 years

of collector car coverage and universal technical institute uti dot edu what's the longest vehicle

you've had insurance on years probably not that long right because the my

truck which is just eight years nine years oh your truck the one the one you drive 25 feet

long yeah yeah i've had it from yeah the longest vehicle i've had insurance that's the longest

vehicle i've had insurance and it's the longest vehicle you've had insured probably yeah i think

we got that in i think we bought it in 2000 my wife got it from i think it was in 2003 okay

shannon yeah 2002 or three so i was just sitting here thinking about this question i the longest

vehicle so it's the one you've had the vehicle you've had the longest no no no the longest in

length the longest that you currently have insurance on the the oldest not longest in length

longest time i thought you said the longest vehicle i'm trying to think of no oh i've had a

hearse one the no no the no you have a four-door time wise the bomb the longest the international

yeah i didn't own that 406 i do own it now but it's not insured right now it's crunched right now

i was it's still here it's down at dance house yeah i can tell you this story never mind okay no the

longest insured vehicle that i have personally yes i could guess on it's probably the trans am

i think it's 89 trans am 20th anniversary okay that's the turbo one yeah that's the longest one

i think okay yeah that's a good one 866 594 4150 let's talk to jj you're on the end of the hood

show jj what can we do for you well the longest vehicle i owned was a torus one of those station

wagons just a i see i like that question way better the longest vehicle i've owned

it was a boat it had a lot of miles on um so my question is on a 2012 crv honda um

469 miles from 200 000 so go go to a Notre Dame game in september with a buddy come back

the car's sitting in the soo falls airport and go to turn turn the ignition on to start the vehicle

it makes a real loud buzzing grinding noise hasn't done that for like a a month and then

it did it like two weeks ago any idea what's going on there no did it start did it start

yeah it starts now fine i i don't know if it's the ignition or what is this buzzing

noise is it happening when you're trying to turn it over or just turning the key on

yeah well actually turn it over so it it just it turns over and it um and it does it sporadically

so it's only done it twice i'm like so is it not turning over when it's buzzing or is it

is turning over and it's buzzing at the same time yeah the latter what you said it is turning

over and it buzzing is it sound like an old car when the flywheel used to be going bad and and it

would whack against the starter does it sound like that old noise a little bit um um so i'm like

i don't know if it's the ignition if there's electrical problems i wonder if the bendix

is going bad on the starter and it's causing it to you know i'm just not knowing what buzzing

you're talking about but the the grinding on starting is only a few things if a vehicle

grinds when it starts there's only a few things it can be it's it's something to do with the

starter the bendix and the starter uh starter coming loose but that would do it all the time

most likely um and if it's making a grinding you got to fix that as soon as you can because if it's

not the flywheel or the or the flex plate it will be soon that you have to take it right yeah and

with that many miles on it you could have you've probably never put a starter on this thing

yeah i just did it um probably six months ago so it's by the ignition so i don't um

oh the buzzing's inside the car well now we find the rest of the story okay um why did you put a

starter on it his cell phone's not great so you just answer if you can if the buzzing's inside

near the ignition you you're gonna i would take that panel off and listen under there follow your

nose or your ears until you find the buzz put your hands on whatever's buzzing and then go to a

shop and say this is buzzing if it's the ignition switch itself you need an ignition switch you're

not making good contact in there and it's arcing which it's i don't know how you'd hear if you

heard an arc in that thing that's bad horrendous horrendous could something have just come loose

could be a could be a relay there's a number of relays under that dash and it could be that

a relay for something is not pulling down as like it should and latching it's just buzzing

trying to make contact and then once it starts up the alternator voltage comes up and the system

voltages up and it locks the relay and you're good that that it changes the buzzing grinding

noise too it does trying to interpret what was going on there jj thanks very much for the call

good luck yeah he's just gonna have to find exactly where it is and what it is and then

go from there right yeah that's a except when you start talking about you know noises and

it is amazing how challenging it can be between cell phones the language of what we'll use and

what language somebody has been accustomed to how to get a basic answer that we need sometimes to

to make the right path or the go down the right path is it a ringing or a clunking yeah is it a

yeah because people have different perception what those things mean and then you know some people

say it won't start and then we we you know we try to ask is it turning over and then people

i've realized don't always know what that means right to me i know exactly what it means but to

them that thing go right now you know you know right crank yeah yeah can you do the crank again

right now i did have a customer with the light version yeah really confused the other day they

brought a car and and they said they had told me i don't remember what it was it's been a couple

weeks now but they said yeah you know i turn it and it it it turns over it doesn't start

it's just it's just turning over i'm like okay so it's cranking yeah it's just not going

so i said well maybe it's a maybe it's a fuel pump because they say it's not getting fuel or

something and and they brought it in and they were mad at me because i told them what was wrong

with it i still can't remember the car but it was something completely different it was not turning

over and i had scheduled time for a fuel pump and it turned out being something that was like

six hours longer or whatever what and i said no you told me it was turning over well i don't know

anything about cars is like then here's a clue for everybody if you don't know those terms don't

do not tell a shop just say it doesn't start i don't know what's going on i turn the key and and

it's it's not going you know it don't go reening it just i turn the key and the car is not running

like normal so you guys check it out figure out what you got to do that's something that's been

a challenge on most of the time when you're talking when we're talking to me this show we

you know jj was just fine but we just it's hard to know that sometimes if they understand the

terminology and so maybe it's just so much as you know do you understand what i'm talking about

and yeah sometimes people are too proud to say yes i or no i don't hundred percent yeah yeah

there's play along and then that makes it that much harder yeah we'll help you though we've had

people over the years that say i don't know how to open my hood and we're like okay and we'll

help you out yes you back up the bus a little bit and just say let's start from the basics that

that one happened i remember was a geo tracker and and we understood why they didn't know how to

open their hood because it was a young man and we're like it's in the glove box he's like huh

why would it be there that's the same reason vogue's walking put them in there i don't know

i saw the other day on the road coming home from this show i saw like a 1990

Suzuki jimmy is it a jimmy oh uh Suzuki samurai samurai samurai uh and it was

perfect it looked like it was showroom new blue uh it was beautiful it really was it was like

the i went wow that is a good looking vehicle i said you guys a picture of something the other

day didn't i was that her what was that i said it was i was like whoa and it was all it was not

rusted or yeah uh is it a horizon no it was oh what was it i don't remember i'd look at that picture

again but i i remember i sent that to you and i went whoa that thing's on the road and it had us

it had a south Dakota plate which made me 8665944150 let's talk to tom you're on the end of the

day i was wondering if you put new transmission fluid in it and of course it doesn't have a

dipstick and what i was wondering is it it's that cm cbt transmission um if i put a big pan

underneath and when i drop the pan um if i put the same amount of fluid that that comes out is that

good enough or do i need to buy a special dipstick and you know you got to have it it goes by

temperature how much you're supposed to fill it in um if you take out that and put back in the exact

amount you were good only to the point of where the level was before you did the job okay because

if the thing was a court low on fluid and you took 2.2 courts out and put exactly 2.2

courts back into the drop you're still a court low on fluid yeah so every time we do that

it's a great baseline for us we will drain the fluid into a container that we know exactly

how much it is we'll put the same amount back in and once we do that then we'll check the level

because we know it was driving so it's got to be pretty close only time it's bad is when it's

too much and you got to take some out sometimes a little harder to get it out than to get it

in on some of those is there a number on this that it should be no okay no because the it can

vary depending on how long it's been in park and different things when you change the fluid you're

supposed to put it into drive and then to the low gears slowly a couple seconds in each one

move back up including neutral then park do that two sometimes three times and then check it when

the transmission is at a certain temperature so we would do it that way you drain it fill it with

that same amount but then check the fluid properly and if it's one that has a cover to pull off to

put a dipstick in but you don't have a dipstick those dipsticks are available amazon sells them

for like 20 bucks and they work universally the other thing you can do okay take your dipstick

once you know it's the correct level pull the engine oil dipstick out

wipe it on chris's shirt and then put it in that hole on the transmission pull it out

and see where the level's at if you know it's the right level and make a mark on it on the

backside not on the side with the marks that give you the oil level but just scribe a little line

on the backside of your engine oil dipstick and then you know okay that's the transmission side

hopefully nobody else screws that up maybe it'll be the same i've seen it close but then

put that back so now you've got a dipstick for your transmission and your engine we do that a

lot we'll just use if i know how high it is an inches like the one caravan's like an inch and

a quarter up so we just pull the dipstick out shove it in there and go that should be about

an inch and a quarter no the only difference between that universal stick and that with no marks

is that the universal one has measurements and millimeters on it going up to like 40 millimeters

so you know what level it's supposed to be at what if i've got me one of them three foot long

zip ties will that work sure right same same just to dip it in there until the end of it bends

and nah that'll be fine we're just gonna do it the once twice so when you take three times when you

drain it out then you you compare that capacity to what the manual says is supposed to be the

capacity and if they're close that's good how would he know what's that how would he know

if he drains 2.2 all this all boycott the manufacturers until they put dipsticks in all

cars again i think it's dumb that they don't it really is isn't it it keeps them in the casino

you got to take your car back to have it worked on that's what they're doing they want you back

into the shop to either one fix it because you don't have a dipstick or two trade that baby in on

another one i guarantee you that's what's going on in that boardroom well they're trying to they're

trying to and make it appear solidify the fact that they say that your transmission doesn't need

to be serviced until a hundred thousand miles or you know non-serviced or until the life of the

vehicle cost of ownership of argument is what they're working on well tom thanks very much for

the call good luck eight six six five nine four four one five oh that's the number to reach us here

at the end of the hood show let's talk to bruce here on the end of the hood show bruce what can we

do for you yeah hi guys um so yeah i have a 2012 dodge challenger it's just the standard model with

the v6 in it and i had the abs light appear on the dash um so i took it to my local dodge dealership

and they they checked out the wheel speed sensors they said the wheel speed sensors were good the

wires to the sensors were good and that the abs system was probably bad but they also told me

that mopar has discontinued that part so i'm wondering what my options are as far as an

aftermarket will it sync up with computer will it get along with the system there's only one option

on this you're not going to find an aftermarket abs pump i don't know if i've ever seen one well

they must make some for certain brands because we sell a few to core buyers but of certain ones

but i think those may be because i've seen it the manufacturer where they say remanufactured

remanufactured is what they're doing they're taking the original ones as far as like a used

or a you know go to auto parts store and pick one up i don't remember we've never purchased one

but car dash part we've purchased a number from which is a used factory option it's it's one that's

have a guarantee on it and it's going to work if that's what your problem is is that that pump is

bad that's going to be the most affordable and the best option for you well if they don't make

it new it's the only option right and that's that's what i would do otherwise if you're driving on

with a light on it's not going to hurt anything you just don't have abs brakes like a 73 challenger

yeah um so you know right make you feel nostalgic cover up the light and just say hey i'm driving

a classic yeah you want to probably get it fixed though is that affects other systems that won't

work well it's got that traction control in there too and then yeah that could get all wacky so

i would i would look up car dash parts see what they have available if they don't have more than

a hundred available i would be really surprised maybe if i know there's two left you realize that

they are i demand that's true but they said it was the abs module assembly is what they thought

what the problem was that's correct and they also said it could affect the cruise control also

um not sure about that if it's got something to do with the electronics and the brake switch portion

of it yes bruce thanks very much for the call good luck eight six six five nine four four one five

oh let's talk to ted you're on the end of the hood show ted what can we do for you we got a uh

2011 f-150 four-wheel drive um i knew it kind of had bad brakes when i bought it because the rims

and hubs kind of got hot from the brakes being seized sorry place the brakes calipers rotors

did all that it's still kind of was acting weird and the rubber holes from the hard pipe to the

calipers kind of rough so i replaced those and now the brakes work good everything works good

but still when i take off right turn to the right or left it kind of sounds like it's in four-wheel

drive what and i can't get rid of what is being in four-wheel drive sound like to do what do you

explain that what i get a little bit and like it just kind of makes a humming noise okay when i turn

okay and then i i guess i did jack yeah i guess i did jack it up and kind of wiggle the wheels for

the wheel bearings and stuff and that seems all right did you replace the vacuum hub and the

and the bearing with the teeth on it in the front both sides too no i didn't i didn't replace any of

the back either so i would just unplug the vacuum hubs up front and drive it and see if the noise

goes away so it's locked in completely it may be that you know if it still makes a noise then

you've got bad hubs they're going to be replaced we put a lot of these on but if it only makes it

with it plugged in it's possible that you've got a leak in a vacuum line or in a leak in one of the

vacuum hubs which is affecting both now you can use a vacuum they have handheld mighty

vac gauges to check those hubs see if they move properly and hold vacuum it's common to have those

hoses leak they run up to a solenoid on the passenger side of the firewall but likely you're

going to have to replace the hub and the with the teeth on it and the the the vacuum actuator

they they just strip out the teeth strip out over the time and dormant products offers those

also i think they do they sell that whole both those pieces that you need they sell the solenoids

for it they sell all of that and it it's a it's it's a necessity i mean you got it you can't have

if you have brand new hubs on it you got a leaking vacuum system you'll ruin those

hubs so when we put them on we make sure the rest of the system is working good

ted thanks very much for the call good luck 866-594-4150 let's talk to mic you're on the

end of the hood show mic what can we do for you yeah i've got a 2016 f-150 the other day i went

to start it and it started right away but it went up to a high idle and the cooling fan kicked on

and so i i stepped on the gas pedal to try and get kicked out of that high idle even though it's

never done that before but it wouldn't so i had luckily i had the garage going open i put it in

reverse and then the it wouldn't go into gear so i tried it a second time and then it did jump

in the reverse part and i mean they went back a little bit but i stopped it then i tried putting

it into drive and it wouldn't go into drive so i put it back in the park and shut it off thinking

to reset things or whatever and uh then i went to start it and now it won't even turn over the

ignition comes on you know the lights everything but it won't crank and then i tried to even just

have the key on and put it in the neutral to try and roll it a little more forward

and it won't even go come out of gear it won't come out of park and i tried i tested the battery

it had 11.8 volts but i put a charger on it just in case and the charger went when i had it on the

20 amp and the charger went off a lot like pegged out like it was completely dead so i tried it again

still wouldn't even turn over put the charger on overnight on trickle charge and then tried it again

still wouldn't turn over just connected the battery completely for about an hour or so and then

connected the battery again and it still won't turn over and i still can't get it into neutral

or park and it did have the wrench icon on the dash but i don't know what's going on with it

it's seeing that there's a service condition going on and it could be something like the battery

you know last night i just plugged in a i've got a battery maintainer charger from optima the d400

and one of the things i like about that unit is that when i plug it in it looked at it and said

hey you it's analyzing analyzing the battery you got 11.9 volts which meant it was getting low

because it sits for you know a month or two at a time sometimes that ucon but it said okay the

battery is good it's going to go ahead and charge it and then it looks at the charging amps and it

can tell these things and you get a smart maintainer like that charger maintainer uh it it's helpful so

that's something to to look at because i think when you tell me you've got an old standard battery

charger and you hook it up and it's pegging it i wonder if your battery just didn't fail and you're

with a failed battery it's not going to start you won't be able to jump it because it's got

an internal short in it and it's also going to peg a a charger like that but on trickle charge

it would be able to run the charger would run but it just wouldn't do anything with the battery so

my first step on this vehicle if it was towed into our shop would be to get a battery tester

test the battery i'd disconnect it and test the battery and if it said recharge good i'd recharge

it and test it again but if it said bad battery i'd put a new battery in and run it i've seen this

in a number of these fords if it had the original battery in it that's it's time for sure 10 year

old battery almost if mic disconnected his battery brought it to your shop just the battery yeah just

the battery i'd test it and say good or bad and then but more than likely i think it's probably

gonna need a battery but if this battery is more than five years old i would put a battery in it

anyways right and on this on this vehicle an a gm or a lithium battery is is highly recommended

with all the electronics this one has well and that bums you out too when you buy a new battery

and then if you have something else going on and it runs the battery dead you feel like oh i just

bought this battery and i've already compromised it a little well and in a bad battery it could

have gone bad because of a system running it down so when you put a new one in you need to test it

and test the system and find out what's going on don't leave it to run the battery down does that

help you out mic did we uh does that make sense to you are you still there okay mic's gone good

no uh i thought he was still there let's do this let's talk to adrian

let's talk to adrian you're on the end of the hood show adrian what can we do for you

yeah i got a 2003 Chevy Silverado i had some charging problems um

and got those specs starter was nothing too much juice or something i don't know anyways the uh i

the other day and i took it out to tj and then the fuse box got like hot to the touch and um

it's only getting like three or four point three miles to the gallon and i'm thinking maybe it's

pcm or i'm i'm not even sure what's going on with it i'm concerned about a fuse box that's how

if we fix that first yeah then we're probably going to fix some other stuff but you might have

an alternator issue with that we had a guy at the counter here the other day that was asking

our reps and he had a hot fuse box in a similar vehicle well the battery the alternator that was

me that was you okay yeah i was walking through then i and uh jonathan you were talking about that

and i i gave my quick opinion because i was on the way to do something else with the show was over

but that vehicle has a your your positive power wire goes down to the driver's side of the engine

and then from there it goes down to the starter yeah and your alternator wire goes from the back

of the alternator across the top of the engine to that same post so it's not running through the

fuse box so if there was an alternator short it shouldn't get hot then you've got a wire from

there up to the fuse box that feeds the rest of the vehicle so if your fuse box itself gets hot

something in the vehicle is drawing a lot of current and it could also be that there's just a

corroded or weak connection in the fuse box so that even under normal current load it's overheating

because of resistance i would take the fuse box out pops out on the driver's side look at all the

pins and see if someone were melted you're gonna have to replace both the connector and the fuse

box in order to fix that it could be that it's the fuel pump or the heater in the vehicle

and air conditioning that's pulling enough load that it's power windows seats pulling pulling

off load that it's causing that thing to get hot remember those they had the fan switch problem with

with the control and the relay and that runs through that fuse box that was a recall they had

back in the day for fire yeah if the fuse box is getting hot because of high resistance the engine

computer also runs through that would not get enough voltage and could cause poor fuel mileage

because of a voltage issue it's not going to be able to read the sensors correctly

if a computer was faulty okay it would be highly highly unusual for it to be faulty to the point

that would cause the fuse block to get hot right it shouldn't it would just pop things it would just

it would just pop them it'd be done i mean it's just not that's not a heavy

current circuit um i think the other thing i'm gonna mention when you get to county other

days just to inspect any of if there's ever been an accessory wire added in going to the back

to power something off the rear bumper you know check the seven pin on the rear bumper make sure

there's nothing there the big wire the big red wire back there runs all the fuse box takes its

power through that box as well so if something was corroded along the way you know you could be

extra resistance there probably get yourself a heat gun and start tracing some wires too you

you know just do some amen at things and see if you can figure out where that heat

is originating from if you take from the fuse block with it flipped open and start kind of

tracing away and see if you when everything is is it warm at all ever like when you first come to

the vehicle and you haven't ran it yet no only when i run it um yeah i took it across town yesterday

and i got like 4.3 miles to the allen and it didn't go into limbo but it should be able to plug

a computer scanner into it and read the voltages on that computer if you check out at the battery

and you've got 13.4 volts 13.6 volts and that computer says inside that you've got 11 something's

going on you should you should have ignition voltage and battery voltage on the scanner at

that computer just about the same as what's under the hood at the battery itself if it's

different it's going to affect the fuel mileage because everything runs off that all the voltage

for all the sensors originate from that computer and the voltage is not maintaining there's it's

going to do all kinds of wacky stuff does that help you out there adrian okay yeah a little bit

all right good luck thanks very much for the call i uh had something happen today or this week i

should say that uh struck me as uh one of those where you're like oh things are things are pretty

good when it comes to cars sometimes you know sometimes you have one of those moments i uh

in my new car i noticed and i've been keeping track i'm getting about 36 miles of the gallon

and i was like

you were like i'm used to 46 yeah yeah i was like oh it's and then i went oh it's that's

that's pretty good especially with gas well you figure the fuel price change right now where we're

at i was just like i for one of those where like when when someone calls says my remote start won't

work and i go wha that's all i felt about myself i looked at my mileage went oh that's not very good

wha i rented i was getting four miles of the gallon i rented one of the the new it's

showed the new body style prius oh saturday i was like i'm gonna get one of them i thought you got a

key of salt i rented the prius yeah i got to the counter and they said we're out of cars sir

we've got vans or we've got a keya and like i can never get a van when i want a van we need one for

yeah they had they had two vans and a keya and that's all they had for cars they said we'll have some

coming in they're gonna get cleaned and i said well how long is that and they said a long time i don't

know i said just whatever so they gave me a keya they gave me a hamster gave me a keya soul the

soul is done but they haven't changed anything on it other than some of the electronics inside the

outside looks still basically the same sure i was hoping for the prius for the miles per gallon yeah

i guess i really didn't care i just wanted something that was decent miles per gallon the van wasn't

gonna do it i didn't want to drive a van around Dallas anyway all over the freeway that keya soul

got like close to 40 miles to gallon i went to the pump when i was done and i was like click

that's it what what happened it was amazing the fuel mileage it got but boy she was bare bones

they did not add anything i mean power windows oh there you go power locks rear to fogger air

conditioning it's about it air conditioning keep up okay oh well it wasn't yeah it was 92 degrees

yeah yeah there was fine um my wife doesn't really like air so we don't turn it up very much but it was

uh yeah it was pretty i'm used to cars with a few more sure things on them as far as the

with the rental cars they usually have everything a lot more gadgets and buttons were you able to

sync your phone up to it uh yeah i did have bluetooth uh never did run the radio like that was

another one i couldn't figure out the radio you know we didn't turn that denali we had the whole

time i tried to turn the radio i hit the audio button and it said not available while driving so

when we were parked yeah off and on it said not available we're like where's i couldn't put the

bluetooth on it nothing i think something's wrong with it i've seen people asking about that now hey

my radio won't do anything what is it on that style but i think we pushed too many buttons trying to

find the fuel gauge yeah it's like where's the fuel gauge right in front of us because we kept

looking it said said empty full on the left and it and an arrow which meant it was pointing to the

or it said fuel it was well integrated yeah it was full so it looked like a big white line

yeah part of the display yeah it didn't part of the design well it says we have 400 miles to empty

so it must be full it was like one of those magic eyes because as soon as we saw it we were like

we're the dumbest four people in the world because we have to find that game and we have a car talk

show and then we saw it and we're like we are dumb because it's right there as soon as it started

to go low and we saw it it was like oh it's so obvious but you're right when it was full

it was matched on the other side by a similar light so it looked like it was and it was a

it was a 20 so it was a 26 or five five i think five new design yeah it was a new design so

brand new we'd never had to drive one and set the cruise on it before so it took me 45 minutes

before i because i i can't see well enough to see the symbols perfectly when it's right there

and i'm like it's is it this one no i don't push that i don't push that telling them what it says

we put 960 miles on that baby uh huh yeah that was a lot of that was a lot of driving back and

forth and i would never guess that number no it was great and you know 120 miles each way so it

was a lot of miles in one place but you see that's a that's a big area for being such a small area

that's you know fuel was 70 cents a gallon back then it wasn't too bad in a in a car that used

more and you just had to live for finding fuel all right i think we're good huh yeah i think so

all right thanks everybody click like subscribe and if you're watching this not now live

we'll just cut that front off right yeah y'all never notice yeah apologies if you're watching live

we have a little audio it was off and just had to reset yeah why did it do that we must

tell did you did you notice the loss of anybody else mentioned that loss of power anywhere okay

i was gone though so that's right it's true all right see you thanks everybody with russ evans

this is shannon orts from thanking you for tuning into the norters under the hood show have a great

day and remember ptla the opinions heard on this program based on the many years of experience

of russ and shannon are offered for entertainment value only and as a guide to your repair needs

no claim to repair or cause is given or implied always consult with your own certified technician

and follow all safety procedures before attempting any repair to be a part of the show call 866 594

4150 find out more by visiting under the hood show dot com under the hood is produced by prairie

house productions all content is the property of nordstrom's automotive incorporated and may not be

used without our permission copyright nordstrom's automotive bank

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