Got a Quick, Technical Question?

jrolf

thank you

alcan

You're welcome. Post back and let us know what you find.

jrolf

:confuse: There is no power going to the switch on the white wire. there isn't even any power running to the brake light switch please help i have been working on this for 3 days now.

jrolf

FORGET LAST MESSAGE FIGURED IT OUT

axidental

i can't get any heat in the rear, only cold ac air regardless of the setting

biagg027

I have a 1993 Volkswagen Passat (2.8L VR6 engine). I had the CV-joint and half-shaft replaced in a shop. While doing ball- joint work we niched the boot on the outer cv-joint boot. We drove it no more than 20 miles after(basically to get it home and test drives for various other things) and we once again have the noise of a bad cv-joint. When we looked at the surrounding area a lot of grease was all over the place and the boot was deflated. In your opinion how long does it take for the cv-joint to go bad when the grease is gone, but no debris has entered?

mazda626atx

I drove my Mazda 626 in Greece with busted Boot for 1k miles while waiting for replacement half shafts from the USA, After I replaced them I had no problem. But you might be able to duct tape it while you wait to reduce the risk of stuff entering the area, and maybe keeeping what little bit is left in it. I did not bother because I knew I was going to replace the half axle with reman. Do not know your intentions.
But I must say the noise on mine was not that significant so your situation may be different
Just my opinion
Hope someone more mechanical answers also
PGP

Mr_Shiftright

I doubt the CV joint could go bad in 20 miles unless it was already long gone beforehand.

dilleygirl

I just got my 1996 Honda Accord EX back from having my engine fixed and now I find out that my brake lights won't work. My brakes work just fine but the lights don't. I checked the bulbs but they are fine as well. What may be the problem?

Mr_Shiftright

brake light switch comes to mind. Probably disconnected during repairs

biagg027

I'm really concerned it might be the transaxle instead of the CV- Joint. Are there any tell-tale signs of one vs. the other? And another question the passenger side front wheel is slightly pitched out on the bottom.(Just enough to notice if take a glance at it). Now it's a FWD Manual 5-speed transmission and i was wondering what if anything could effect the wheel? The reason i'm a little worried is because I have had some work done on that side with ball joints and cv-joints recently and i don't know if maybe the wrong type of ball joint or cv-joint has been used as a replacement or if the camber angle is just in need of adjustment. I'm a little overwhelmed by all of these sudden problems popping up at once.

biagg027

I recently had the battery disconnected on my '93 passat glx which reset the radio. I already know about the code, but I messed it up 3 times in a row so it locked up. I've tried many different things to try and get it back to where i have a chance to enter the code again.(disconnecting battery, disconnecting power from radio for 24 hours, and also just letting it sit for 24 hours without entering the code.) If anyone has had this happen and has a tip for me on how i could save my radio i would appreciate it because i'm about to throw it out and buy a new one. LOL

biagg027

I know the symptoms of the Oil level being too low, but what will happen if you put more than enought oil in the engine? Does it affect the rate at which the engine idles?

highroller

My question derives from people using sealant, vasoline, oil, etc to seal up the cracks or the small openings in which the air filter box is not tightly closed. So, can one just use duck tape to seal up any gap/openings so that the un-filtered air from the outside of the air box can't get through? Im currently using an aftermarket air filter, but when trying to close the air box, it wont close all the way. Just wanted to see if any real potential downside for duck taping the sides of the air box to prevent air from seeping through un-filtered.

Mr_Shiftright

It probably won't last too long. Get the right filter would be my advice, since drop in aftermarket filters don't do any good anyway unless you re-route the entire filter box and air intake as well.

biagg027

It seems to me like the duct tape is a good temporary solution considering that is what it is made for, but I agree w/ Mr Shiftright that you're going to have to look into a new properly fitted air filter.

mazda626atx

On my Mazda 626 4 cylinder the front left corner (when looking over bumper)of the the air filter box is slightly exposed and caused me alarm. After having MAZDA mechanic install new MAf and assuring me it was as closed it was supposed to be I have no problems as the filter lip makes a perfect seal.
Make sure you buy genuine MAZDA filter if this is the type car you have.If so I do not think you need to do anything .
If its not broke dont fix it
PGP
P.S. My car runs excellent like that!

Mr_Shiftright

Given how critical clean air is for the engine, and the high heat conditions in modern engine compartments, I just didn't feel this was a good solution even for the short run..

rene01

Ok here goes,
92 Geo Prizm, the starter has been replaced I think 3-4 times now & still seem to have the same problem. If I drive around in town for a length of time & it's hot outside the car simply refuses to start occasionally. However it proved to me that it doesn't matter if it's hot or 90 below, it didn't want to start this morning either. I've ordered yet another starter, this time from Napa. It seems to go along just fine for ohhh about 5-6 months & it begins to not start again. I have noticed that when it starts this trouble, the positive side of the battery gets corroded real bad & I usually have to replace the battery as well. I'm quite stumped at this point as to why it keeps repeating this cycle. Could it be the voltage regulator is going out & it's causing the battery to overcharge?... but what about this no start problem? I can't figure this out. Please help!!! :confuse:
Rene'

buckeye1872

Hi iam new to site and looking for advice. About 3 weeks ago my wife took car to walmart for oil change.02' Ford Tauras..24 valve doh cam 54,000 miles. They double gasketed the filter(left old one on). Wife drove around town and car lost 5 of the 6 quarts of oil. Wal Mart knows they did this as they left message on machine saying we needed to contact them as soon as possible..oil trail out of their bay. Now I have low compression in a cylinder. They have set me up with rental car and and authorized dealer to find root of problem to see if the cause is due to the loss of oil. My question is, if the car ran perfect before the oil change fubar, and now I have a bad cylinder, can they deny their mess up dint cause the problem. Also, what else could be ready to explode inside the motor if all they do is fix this problem. Thanks for advice.

mazda626atx

Well I think the most important thing to find out is if they are going to admit they messed up. Then if they assume the rsposibilty and are willing to pay for all dmages it becomes your job to try to demonstrate the condition of the car prior to their changing the oil. You can do this if you had a recent inpsection,dealer service record etc .
If you feel confident in their customer service dept. repairing everthing that was caused by their negligenc I would say you are in a good position. Get something in writing to that effect.
Low compression in one cylinder could be an indication of broken rings, and I am quite sure you will here from someone more knowledgeable in here than me. Trying to predict what will happen is hard. How long did she drive without oil, how fast, etc and they might say didnt you notice the idiot light or something before they contacted you?
If they seem 100% fair I would leave it in their hands. If not contact an attorney.
Good luck and always watch out for leaks after any oil/filter change.
PGP

highroller

Sorry, ive been away for awhile.. well, ive also been looking for further advice to my solution and because i didnt want to waste a perfectly good filter (well it was a wix filter like it really matter now ) but i came across with some advices from others ive talked to and they told me that i should heat up the seals to make it squishier or more elastic so that the airbox can close shut? I recognized that the old oem filter was somewhat oiled (maybe even over oiled) and the wix filter i bought wasnt oiled at all. The seals seemed like hard, sticky rubber, maybe why it was difficult to close all the way. Having said this, i know ill probably will have to get another filter but what do you guys see with heating up the seals to make it more elastic?? sounds strange to me but i'm an experimenter and willing to try something new. Thanks for the replies!!

mazda626atx

What year car and engine do you have? Did you read my post about it being normal on 94 4 cylinder Mazda ?
PGP

highroller

06 nissan titan v8 5.6L... i dont think it's really that normal mazda626atx, i believe the air filter is somewhat the most critical part besides just the oil and oil filter. Im afraid that bunch of dirt particles are coming in through the air box un-filtered and that it can cause horrendous harm to the engine (i.e. bearings, etc.) Maxda636atx, did you have the gap also? If so, at approximately how big is your gap? Mine was around .025 of an inch... The gap seems to be only on the sides of the air box and not from the back or front.

stkntraffic

I replaced the alternator on my 98 Mustang GT about 6 months ago. I put in a remanufactured alternator from Pep Boys.

The last few weeks I've been noticing a whining sound when the car idles. When I turn on the A/C, the sound goes away.

Under the hood, it "seems" like the sound is coming from the new alternator. Does this sound plausible? My only other thought was the serpentine belt was loose, but that doesn't seem to be it.

So far, voltage is holding steady. (I keep an eye on it because when the original alternator went out I had to push the 'Stang 4 blocks home in the Texas sun.)

Is there a bearing or something in the alternator that could be going bad?

mazda626atx

Did not mean to make it sound normal. Its just in this year MAZDA (94) it appears to be normal.You can actually see the orange rubber top part of the filter in my car and its perfectly seated. The rubber part of the filter makes a perfect seal, but thats the mazda 626 94 ONLY. The filter shows where the top seats in the box ,and about 3/8 of an inch on both sides of the corner show.
I know having contaminated air can do a lot of damage. The car is in Greece and MAzda there tried to cut a filter to fit, because they donthave the parts for this model there.Its possible its been the cause of 3 years of CEL problems, but after changing MAF and putting in an OEM filter from USA in the car, CEL light went away and the SAGA is over for me I hope. Most of the problem was prolly caused by this " SHOEMAKER' job, including that MAF finally giving out.
If you do a search you will see numerous posts by me over the years and all were resolved by MAF/OEM filter properly fitted combo.
I suggest you find someone with the identical car and ask them to let you see their filter box.
Good Luck
Peter
P.S. 06 nissan arent you still under warranty?

qbrozen

since the whine goes away when you turn on the AC, I'd be more inclined to think its the compressor.

Mr_Shiftright

If you are VERY careful, you can take a very long screwdriver or steel rod and put on end onto the alternator or compressor and the other to your ear, and you'll definitely hear the noise and where it is coming from.

I'd imagine rebuilt alternators from Pep Boys are very cheesy items so I wouldn't be surprised if the alternator was rebuilt incorrectly...next time try a better rebuilding source.

stkntraffic

Thanks for the response. I actually put my finger on the alternator while the car was idling. It did seem like the noise/vibration was coming from there. It also seemed hotter than I thought it should be, but that's subjective.

highroller

Thanks for the reply, i put some of the oil from the oem air filter and paste it on the new filter on the side rubbers to make it fit better. It seems to be resolved now. Like yours, I can also actually see the orange rubber part, but it's also perfectly sealed like yours. Thanks again. And oh yeah, im in warranty.

stickguy

Well, if it was a bad rebuild that is whining, you should know soon enough when it fails.

ronrottler

I just replaced the battery in my 96 Ram 5.2L V8 2WD, after about 10 miles of driving the GEN display light came on. Is this an alternator problem?

bolivar

I like a wooden dowel rod.

Size doesn't matter.

CAREFULLY put one end of the dowel on a questionable rotating part. Put your thumb on the other end. Stick the end of your thumb into your ear. Move from front to back to decide if it's the front or rear bearing on an alternator.

jmiah1310

I have a 1995 F-150. The "overdrive off" button is flashing. It will not change itnto overdrive, even after pressing the button. The speedometer and odometer also quit working at the sametime. Thanks for any help....

iwantws6

96 Sebring JX (auto). I was on the highway the other day and at arounf 40 mph the car would no longer accelerate. It was as if the car was in nuetral. I pulled over and after a few mins I was able to drive for 10 yards or so before it happened again. The car wouldnt move in any of the drive gears, nor reverse. The tranny fluid was full.

Dealer says they found foamy transmission fluid which could be from wrong kind of fluid, too much or too little fluid.

I was told by my dealer that I needed a new transmission mount a few weeks ago (could feel a harsh downshift), the harsh downshift miraculosly went away 2 days before this latest problem happened.

Any thoughts as to wether I should believe them or not??
:confuse:

Joe

stkntraffic

Ha - and my wife always says size DOES matter!

Well, I went back to Pep Boys and let one of the mechanics listen to it run. It took him all of 5 seconds to pronounce the impending death of my alternator. I hastened home with crossed fingers, took off the rebuilt alternator and went back with it. The Boys cheerfully gave me another, I went back home and put it on, and WA-LA no more noise. Also the voltage is higher on the dash gauge.

Thanks to everyone's help!

Mr_Shiftright

the flashing light is I believe, a signal for you to scan the computer for a transmission trouble code...which is what you should do or have done.

tesseract

My 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT has 35K miles on it and has developed a "throaty" exhaust sound when decelerating from high to mid rpm. It is more pronounced when the engine is cold. Mechanic couldn't find anything wrong and the OBD doesn't report any problem codes.
The noise is driving my crazy!
Any ideas about my problem? :confuse:

bolivar

Tesseract?

The four dimensial cube?

Or the Band?

Or the Corporate HR Software?

I worked with the software for several years.

Oh, the car. If your exhaust 'sound' has changed significantly, and all of a sudden, it's probably a problem with the muffler or cat converter. Let a muffler shop check it out.

alix3

i have a 2001 plymouth neon, and my engine light stays on, and i just had the oil changed by wal-marts, what could it be ?

sandman46

I just had 3 of these swapped out by Nissan on my Sentra 3 weeks ago, but they said the 4th coil is fine. The service light went out, and they also replaced all 4 spark plugs. There is still a momentary lack of acceleration when I first hit the gas from a stop. Nissan refuses to change the 4th unless the light comes back on. My warranty is up in 10 weeks and I've got a feeling that right after the 3 years are up, that light will come back on.
Are these coils very expensive to swap out (parts + labor) and can I use my own ASE mechanic for the eventual repair?
As always guys, thanks for the help.

The Sandman :confuse:

catmanrob

Ok, I have a 2001 Chevy Impala with the 3.4L. I keep up to date on all my services (Oil, trans fluid, etc). Just within the past couple days, I am getting a very terrible "ticking" sound when the car is started first thing in the morning. (Note: I live in Michigan, so sometimes it's really cold). Once the car warms up to about 120, it's gone. Then when it's cold again, it's back to ticking til its warm. Also, come to find out, I have a bad manifold intake gasket (leaking coolant and getting a brown sludge in the oil). Question is, where is the ticking sound coming from? Will getting the gasket repaired fix that? I have an appointment for this coming Wednesday to get it fixed, just would like to get everything done on it at once so the car lasts. Is it something I shouldn't be driving until I get it fixed? The oil was just changed today (I change it at every 2500 miles due to the fact it's used for part-time paid fire fighting (responding code to calls)). Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Rob :sick:

bolivar

Age-old noise at startup and going away when warmed up - a hydrolic lifter that is sticking. Or possibly your oil changer is putting too heavy a grade of oil in you vehicle. In cold, cold Michigan I think I would run something like 2-20W in the winter. If a crummy oil change place puts bulk purchased 10-40w in everything, this might be causing the problem.

If you are getting water into your oil, correcting this might cure the lifter. But, water in oil is very, very bad. A lifter might be actually rusted up and sticking. If you get the mainfold fixed, I would change the oil again, immediately, to get the water out.

Overall, if I had a car that was actually getting water into the oil, I would strongly consider dumping it. You are worried about the car 'lasting'. It may be too late for this, water in oil could already have done damage in various parts of the motor.

burdawg

That "ticking" is pretty normal for a 3.4 after it gets some miles on it. I'm on my third one and they were all the same. It should only occur when the engine is cold. It's caused by the pushrod type overhead valve design and isn't anything new for that design.
The intake manifold leaking problem is another known deficiency. The gaskets should be replaced with the improved versions.

sandman46

My Nissan dealer replaced 3 of the coils and all 4 spark plugs, yet there's still some hesitation accelerating from a stop. No service lights on so they won't just replace the 4th coil. Natch, my warranty runs out the end of May, so they keep putting me off.
What can I do here? If they won't replace and it fails after my warranty expires, how much $ for the part & labor to fix this problem?
TIA all!

The Sandman :confuse:

prof_ofwhat

My son has a 1988 GL Hatchback. We have recently discovered that when he turns the ignition off and takes the key out, power remains on to the dashboard and accessories.

I'm wondering if there might be a relay somewhere sticking on, or if the only solution is replace the ignition switch?

(I also posted this in Subarau Crew, but after further looking around that didn't seem to be the right spot. Sorry if I have violated any rules.)

Thanks for all replies.
Ed

cmatt2

Car is totally dead-no wipers,no radio,no wipers etc.Put in new battery and cleaned cable ends.All fuses looked good.Trans will only move out of park if done manualy.
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Mr_Shiftright

This question is already being addressed in the "Electrical Glitches" topic. Try not to duplicate post if you can avoid it. Thanks.

Host

280ce81

As the name suggests I have a 1981 Mercedes 280 CE with the 6 cylinder gasoline engine. Great car. Question: On cold starts the engine idles quite high, but idles perfectly when warm. I cannot get my girlfriend to warm up car (different problem) and it has a pronounced strain on rearend when she puts it in gear. Same situation eventually wasted the rearend in a Chrysler that I owned. Is there a separate idle adjustment screw somewhere? I have fiddled with main idle adjustment and distributor timing to no avail. Cannot find a shop manual. Any suggestions appreciated...

jipster

Hey Mr. Shiftright and everyone else! No answer to this question on Buick Regal board. But, passenger side power window seems possesed. Will go a two or three weeks without working, then will work for a day or so before going back out. Is motor going bad or electrical short? Easy fix? Expensive? Dealer or PepBoys? Thanks.