Got a Quick, Technical Question?

detroitlions

is any one out there in cyberspace familiar with a gearshift being really uncooperative!! I have a MB s430 when im ready to put in drive after depressing the brake petal is when the nightmare all begins!!. i jimmy it for couple of minutes then it finally shifts..my warranty just ran out so im being really cautious of who or where i take it too, not that the warranty covered it anyway. i've heard it may be the switch that activates it when depressing brake...but i thought i'd try the forum first..someone responded in here saying that all i need to do for now is stick something thin alongside the gearshift but i can't get passed the lil protective slider part??
if anyone can shed some light please advise..it seems it would have a bypass for now..i don't want the wifey stranded!!

qbrozen

yup. sounds like the switch.

is there not a button near the shifter that allows you to bypass the switch? (usually very small) I'm not familiar with your particular vehicle, but you can find such a button on several different vehicles.

tammy10

I'm new here, I'd really appreciate some advice.

I am the second owner of a 1998 ES 300 with approximately 86k miles. I purchased the car 12/01 when it was 4 years old and had 35k miles on it so I've had it a little over 5 years. So, the car is 9 years old as of last December.

I have never taken the car to the dealer for service because the dealer has always been quite far from my house and have moved so much I don't have a regular mechanic.

My "check engine" light has come on three separate times, starting in May of 2005. The first mechanic said it was the O2 sensor and he reset it.

Later it came back on.

The second mechanic replaced that sensor.

The engine light came back on but the same mechanic said it was the "knock sensor" - P-330 and he reset that because the "condition wasn't present at that time."

Now the engine light is back on and I am aware that in addition my engine has a significant sludge problem. I've changed the oil every 3-5k miles.

Unfortunately, neither of the mechanics mentioned the sludge problem to me.

My question is this- is the oxygen and/or knock sensor possibly related to the sludge?

I ask because I have a claim with Lexus/Toyota re: sludge only if I can show that the sludge problem existed within 8 years of purchase (the car is nine years old). If the engine light reoccurance will demonstrate that (it started within 6-7 years of purchase) it may help my case.

I need to know soon because my rights to further the claim expire next week. If I have to get a new engine it could be more than 10,000 dollars.

Thanks so much!

tammy10

Re: Sludge as defect re: maintenence issue~

I do realize the first owner may not have changed the oil regularly for the first 35k miles.

However, the oil was "clean" when I purchased it and the car was originally leased. I would assume the chance a person never changed the oil on a leased car for four years is remote.

burdawg

I have no first hand knowledge myself, but based on what I have read I believe that Toyota is going to want proof of what service was done when before authorizing any settlement.

tammy10

Yes, they are. I do have several oil change receipts. They may require proof of an oil change once per year and I have much more than that, albeit I am missing the first four years.

I need to prove two things

1. "reasonable maintanance"

and

2. the problem occurred within 8 years of original sale- which is my big hurdle. I am hoping the engine light issue may demonstrate that.

ktinson

My truck will start in the morning but after it runs for awhile, the distributer stops firing. I have changed the distributer, coil, and several sensors. Can anyone tell me what may be the problem?

jonny5_24

How do I compress the cylinder? Is there some trick I am missing? Please help!!!

abc1923

Hello,
I hope somebody can help me with this problem. On my Grand Prix, cd player suddenly stopped working. I can not even put cd in. It seems like two metal thing is not letting cd in. any ideas?
Thank you

kiawah

I haven't worked on a VW Beetle, but on all my other cars and trucks with disk brakes.......you simply put a large C-clamp on it and tighten it down slowly (the brake fluid will flow back up to the master cylinder). Take care not to crimp any of the gaskets with the clamp. One side of the clamp on the center of the cylinder, the other side on the back side of the caliper.

burdawg

You most likely need to turn the piston in with a special tool. On rear discs this is almost always the case unless there's a separate parking brake system (like in many MB's).
You can get universal tools at most auto parts, and actually, I've made my own out of hardwood blocks.

cslemaker

I have a 1989 Trooper 4-cylinder. Is there any way the actions involved in disconnecting the stuff connected to or near the valve cover, removing the valve cover, adjusting the valves, then closing things back up could cause an exhaust leak into the coolant passages to develop? I had a valve adjustment performed and immediately thereafter noticed the temp gauge doing funny things. Under the hood I found that coolant had filled the reservoir and sprayed the engine and underside of the hood. After trying a few other things (such as a new radiator cap), my mechanic pulled the spark plugs, pressurized the cooling system, and informed me that one of the cylinders then contained coolant. (I would bet it was the same cylinder that had low compression and necessitated the valve adjustment. I would also bet that it was the exhaust valve causing the low compression.) I find it very hard to believe that this was 100% pure coincidence (valve adjust & exhaust leak). Thanks for your opinion and answer to my opening question.

billwv

Hi,

I didn't know where to post this question, but I am sure many here can answer.

With an automatic transmission is it wise to shift to a lower gear when going down a hill to hold the car back and not have to use the brakes as much?

For example: going down a 2 mile hill with 35 mph limit I shift my Scion xb with four speed automatic into 2nd gear. It will coast at just about 35 down the hill and I don't have to use the brakes. My brother says I will wear out the transmission -- I say they are designed for that -- who is right?

Thanks,

Bill

kiawah

Brake pads are much cheaper and easier to replace, than transmission and engine wear.

If I had a heavy vehicle in a lot of mountain passes I would consider it to keep from overheating the brakes (did this w/Suburban pulling a trailer), but normally you should just leave it in drive and use the brakes.

Many years ago, I used to have an old SAAB V4 manual transmission, of which the transmission actually allowed the vehicle to overrun the engine (ie. no slowing the vehicle). I think it was called free-wheeling, IIRC. You actualy would just take your foot off the gas and the car would coast going down hill....then just put foot back on the gas to go up the next one. This enabled better mpg, and lower engine/transmission wear. That was one of the few good things that car did, but that is a whole another story.

jipster

Brakes are cheaper than a transmission, but if you lose your brakes from overheating going down a steep mountain road you're in big trouble.

I'd check your owners manual. The manual on my 99 Buick Regal states not to drive in second gear for more than 25 miles or at speeds over 55mph. So, 35 mph should be safe.

jiamin

Assume two engines are of the same displacement. One is V6 and the other is V8.

qbrozen

uhhh... can you give more details? Displacement isn't everything, and neither are cylinders. How is the fuel mileage in each? How much HP and torque in each? Should reliability be taken into account? What about weight?

Mr_Shiftright

I think the advantage of a V6 over the V8 would be (might be) fuel economy, cost to produce and weight, that's about it....and given they are of similar displacement, some of those advantages might be slight.

jiamin

Thanks for the reply.
I know there are many things involved. What I'd like to know is which engine can produce more HP and torque, if I can also assume most other configuration are very similar.

In addition, I guess V8 should be a little smoother than V6?

qbrozen

ok. so we're talking theoretically here.
you've got 2 engines that are identical in every way except for number of cylinders. WELL, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you may get more torque out of the V6 and more HP out of the V8. Why? Because a bigger combustion chamber makes for a bigger bang. However, more, smaller chambers typically makes for higher revving.

I could be totally off base. I mean, with more chambers, you get more bangs per revolution ... but that's the problem with theories. They aren't always right.

oh, and I'll also say I think the V8 could theoretically get better highway mileage because you can put in taller gearing because, again, more bangs per revolution makes it easier to maintain speed with lower revs.

And, yes, the v8 COULD be a little smoother.

Did I answer which is better? not really. ;b

jiamin

Thanks gbrozen, and that's what I want to learn.
I am not a DIY on cars but I like to read about car stuff. Engine configuration is one of them.

By the way, due to their nature, I4 is never as smooth as V6, correct? To come back to theory, if I4 has perfectly designed counter balance (Forgot the name of the part), why can't it be as smooth?

kiawah

A 4-cycle engine, takes two revolutions of the crankshaft for each cylinder firing. The first downstroke sucks in combustable mixture, the first upstroke compresses it so that a spark plug can ignite it. The second downstroke is the power stroke where the lit gas is pushing the piston down turning the crank, then the next upstroke the piston is exhausting and clearing out the spent gas. Then it starts all over again. So for 1 cylinder, there is one power stroke for every 2 revolutions of the crank, or 720 degrees of revolution. If you were to add a 2nd cylinder to that engine, you would want to space it's firing at 360 degrees, to even out the power strokes. Both pistons would be going up and down at the same time (assuming they were 'in-line') alternating which cylinder fires when the pistons come up. You can also see that there is now more mass moving up and down at the same time. A 4cycle 2cylinder engine would have 1 power thrust per revolution, and they are spaced 360 degrees apart. A 4cycle, 4 cylinder engine, will have just 2 total power thrusts in a revolution, and they would be spaced 180 degrees apart.

For a 4cycle, 6 cylinder engine, you will have 3 total power thrusts in a revolution, the power thrusts spaced at 120 degrees apart.

For a 4 cycle, 8 cylinder engine, you will have 4 total power thrusts for each revolution, the power thrusts spaced at 90 degrees apart.

Hence there are more evenly spaced power thrusts for an 8 cylinder car, and therefore smoother.

Torque is usually related more to how far off center the crank arm is. The pistons attach to the end of the crank arm. If the arms are longer, the piston has more leverage or power over the crank, and it has more torque. It also means that the piston travel up and down is further. However, the longer the arms, the harder it is to spin it fast.

The counter balances you reference, are weights that are built in to counter balance the other moving parts, to keep the offset weight from causing vibrations (thereby making it vibrate less and appear smoother). This is a different smoothness than I'm talking about earlier, with the amount of sparkplug firings per revolution.

Mr_Shiftright

torque is related to the individual displacement of each cylinder, not to the # of cylinders. So you could have a high torque V6 or a gutless one, depending on displacement.

With 4 cylinder engines, they seem to hit the wall on vibration when they reach 2.4L or so....after that, it gets dicey.

qbrozen

right. which is why I speculated the V6 in this theory could have more torque than the v8 since the parameters given is that they are of the same total displacement, making the individual cylinder displacement in the V6 larger.

Mr_Shiftright

I think that's right. I remember a high compression single cylinder BSA motorcycle a friend of mine had....one big cylinder.....that thing would flip you over the handle bars if you didn't kick start it just right...

qbrozen

geesh. i could imagine. probably couldn't put an electric start on that if you wanted to, huh? well, i guess you could, but it would take alot of heavy parts.

dave8697

I have a '96 Riviera that I have been trying to fix for 6 mos. I just fixed part of the problem last week but it still acts up, only not as often or as severely. At 142k miles the idle acted up. It would stumble while backing out of the parking space but not stall. Then I would give it gas and go and it would idle high but smooth out. It would idle high for miles and since I would get right on the interstate it would want to keep doing 65 on the hwy when I let off the gas. The code read VAF and/or MAF problems and I lost 5 mpg. I tried lots of fixes and then last week I removed the throttle body and think I found a broken gasket between it and the supercharger. I replaced the gasket and noticed a difference. My gas mileage is up from 23 to 28 mpg, which is what it gave me the first 2 1/2 years I had it. It still has all the same idle stumble and surge problems, except now only about every third or fourth time I drive the car. I'm satisfied with the 28 mpg now but I also have fluids accumulating on the intake manifold, under the supercharger. Coolant puddles on the top of the intake manifold towards the front of the engine (belts end) and engine oil puddles toward the rear. They don't get mixed. My oil looks OK and my coolant reservoir has a nice red color fluid in it. No brown gunk. Could I have a Supercharger to intake manifold gasket leak? Nothing ever leaks to the ground. Car has 156k miles now and is kept outside all winter (-9 F was coldest morning start this winter). The Dexcool is probably original (11 yrs old). I have chased this problem for 6 months and have replaced plugs, wires, PCV, coolant temp sensor, cleaned MAF and entire throttle body and plate with CRC spray, flushed trans, and checked SC oil. Air filter replaced again when I found gasket broken last week. I haven't taken out idle air control valve because the I was afraid to strip the screws. I sprayed the tip of it when Throttle body was off. I also never reset the codes. The other factor could be that I think I have a bad wheel sensor resulting from overheating from a siezed caliper. I replaced the caliper but I fear the sensor sends bad signals to the ECM. Some gasket leaks fluids out though, and I recently found that coolant does run through the supercharger to get to the throttle body for preheating. The EGR shows no signs of leakage where it goes into intake manifold. What needs to be done? I want to avoid really expensive repairs due to high mileage on car.

jipster

Your Dexcool is 11 years old. Why haven't you changed it? You're not suppose to go over 5 years with Dexcool.

You think about replacing the MAF sensor.. instead of just cleaning?

dave8697

Two good suggestions. how do I bleed the air out when I change the coolant? Should I use a gasket sealer additive in the new coolant? I can get a MAF sensor for $175 with a core exchange. You think that is the best next step considering the code set is P0102 related to MAF circuit. I stopped at Buick dealer today just before they closed and they said for $36 they will run a diagnostic check When I can come back. That didn't sound bad at all. They said it would not just be reading the code, which I know already. Should I give that a try before getting a MAF sensor? Or should I change the MAF first because 156,000 miles is near the end of a MAF sensor life anyway? When I got home I checked for loose bolts holding the supercharger on. They were all tight. Two bolts holding a small plate on top of SC were loose by about a full turn each. I will see if that changed anything tomorrow.

jipster

how do I bleed the air out when I change the coolant?

Open the coolant air bleed valve, there is only one,it's located on the thermostat housing.

When you're filling the radiator, if coolant starts coming out of valve close it..otherwise close the valve after the radiator is full.

I don't know about the additive.. the manual states it unnecessary and "may be harmful". I always say if it ain't broke don't fix it... so up to you on that one. But, the Dexcool is suppose to be changed every 5 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first. Some people here recommend sooner than 5 years.

Heck, I would proably just change the MAF sensor. I had a free diagnostic code test done free at our local Autozone... code read the problem with the MAF. The dealership wanted $89 to run the diagnostic test and diagnoise to pinpoint problem. I was in a bit of a bind time wise and had them go ahead and do the test, then replace the MAF sensor on my Buick Regal LS. My car was cutting out though on occasion at stop light and slow braking.

Anyhow, hope you can get things squared away.

imidazol97

You don't say what car model and what year. I know on my 3800s the service manual says to fill, you can use the bleeder screw to purge air if you want. Run the motor until the lower radiator hose is warm indicating a flow through thermostat and then run motor at 2500 rpm 5 times for a several seconds. That will move water through the system, and the heater core, to move air out to the bleeder screw area and into the radiator where it purges to the reservoir naturally. Then you can bleed again at the screw to remove all the air.

It's important to remove all the air because one factor in deterioration of DexCool is mixing with air as it's moving through the motor and radiator. Some people recommend changing DexCool every two years or 24-36 K miles just like the abrasive green stuff. DexCool has many good properties that conserve aluminum and other parts of the cooling system. Early seals on 3800 parts in 97 or so were changed in composition because they reacted with DexCool after it deteriorated.

MAF sensor can be removed. I've heard a mechanic talk about cleaning the wire very, very gently like with an artist's brush. If you look at it under magnification it will have dirt particles growing off of it like hairs. But the wire is extremely fragile.

uteoat

I'm in the middle of rebuilding a mercedes 123 diesel. There are no oil jets in this one as described in the book. Looking further I have found no oil passage in the conrods. The engine was recently rebuilt and the conrod numbers don't match up with the corresponding cylinders, so they might have been replaced.
My question is how does the oil cooled piston get the lubrication it needs if there is no way for the oil to get to it?
I,ve posted in other forums to try to get this question answered and am hoping there is some mechanical genius out there that can help me out with this one.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
uteoat :sick:

dave8697

It is a '96 Riviera. I will bleed the coolant fitting tonite to check if I have had air in the system ever since I changed out the coolant temp sensor. After that I will use a fine brush on the MAF along with the CRC electrical spray. The bolts on the 3-way vacuum fitting on the supercharger that I tightened last nite may have done something. No idle fluctuations in 3 trips today so far but way too early to tell.

john_doe_wny

Hi, I have a 98 Taurus w/dohc with 123000 miles and at start up it idles high. Doesn't matter if engine is warm or not. 1500-1800rpm. Once I've tapped the gas it idles down and is fine. This happens winter or summer so outside temp doesn't really bother it. The check engine light doesn't come on. Once I've tapped the gas or the car is in gear it idles fine. (even in park after it's been in gear it's fine) I've used bottled gas cleaners but no help. Any thoughts would be great.

dave8697

The things that caused me high idle were gaskets gone bad that could only be corrected with gasket replacement. If you can tap it down like my '86 ciera then maybe it should go down by itself. Try cleaning and oiling the cam off the throttle plate. spray the linkages with wd-40. There could be a vacuum diaphram that pushes a link to kick it off hi idle. the vacuum line could be leaking or the diaphram bad. Check the throttle cables for interference including from the cruise control unit. Have you cleaned the throttle plate axle with gumout? That could hang it up too. My '86 Ciera idle is always high now too and it's probably the mixture control solenoid inside the electronic carb. I have to get a new solenoid for it. Going to the junkyard today. Found a new one for $96 but I hate to spend that much on a 21 year old car. I replaced this part for my '84 Camaro once and it did the trick, restoring about 8 mpg. The Ciera has dropped from 28 down to 22 mpg as the solenoid went bad. The bad solenoid always lets it run super rich and it's also ruining the new cat converter too.

dave8697

I bled the coolant fitting and tightened the vac fitting more on top of the SuperCharger and tightened the new gasket I just put in between the SC and throttle body a little more. It may have settled in the 3 days since I put it in. I also took out the MAF and cleaned it with a model paint brush dipped in CRC. I cleaned all sides of both filaments, rinsed it in CRC spray and put it in. Then I drove 80 miles this morning to work and back and it is running perfect. I bled the coolant a little more after I got home. It is finally acting normal. I think my mileage is back to normal. 28.3 yesterday on a 150 mile tank and at 100 miles on the new tank top off, the fuel gage is still sitting on full so I'm hopeful it's back the way it used to be. It seems like if it is fixed now, it was one big vac leak, a couple small vac leaks, and a dirty MAF all adding together to screw it up. Maybe the air in the coolant contributed too. I'm gonna cancel my appt with Buick tomorrow morning and check the mileage after about 300 miles.

john_doe_wny

Thanks Dave, I'll try these things you've said and see how it works. The car just runs so good otherwise I hope it's an easy fix. How do I get to the throttle plate axle? Can that be done without taking anything apart? If not what needs to be done to get to it? Thanks again

piratedave

The battery in my 1995 Mitsubishi Montero drains very quickly - in just a few hours. The battery is new and alternator seems to be charging, OK.

I have already tried pulling and replacing all fuses, relays and fusible links that I could find. I also tried disconnecting the alternator, starter and ignition switch but the volts would still drop rapidly when the + cable was re-attached. I have also tried chasing down shorts but haven't found anything obvious, yet. Any other ideas??

user777

with a voltmeter across the battery, or amp-meter in-line, as you pull and replace each fuse, have you recorded what voltage bumps, or current draw changes have occured for each circuit? because the one that causes the most significant bump is probably the circuit at fault.

do you have multiple fuse / relay centers? for example, in my accord, there is one in the engine compartment, but then there are also two on each side of the lower dash.

do you have any power windows, sunroof or seats? those would be my first suspect.

another thing is possible here. that is your fuse / relay center is sitting in a moist environment and somehow shorting a hot circuit to ground.

0patience

One word of caution while trying to find a draw on newer vehicles. Understand that some modules on newer vehicles are "stay alive" modules and will show a draw for quite some time after the vehicle has been shut off before they will shut down.
Vehicles with things like cascade lighting, remotes, alarms and such will often have modules that are still "thinking" for upwards of an hour after the vehicle is shut down.

user777

this is very true, but they most likely aren't significant current draws, certainly not ones that force a battery quickly down. maybe i'm missing your point.

hoodlatch

I've got a 97 S-10 with the same problem.

piratedave

Thanks. I tried pulling every fuse, again, just to make sure I didn't miss something and still didn't find the bad circuit. I have ordered a wiring diagram so I can make sure I'm not missing a relay somewhere - I already found some behind the dash. I also think it might be in the alternator cable - pulling the fusible link on that circuit stops the drain.

burdawg

If you can disconnect the alternator and stop the drain, I would suspect the integral regulator in the alternator is shorted.

user777

exactly.

dave8697

Problem solved. The idle has totally smoothed out since the bolt tightening on the vacuum fitting plate and the MAF sensor brushing with CRC. Checked mileage today on 296 mile tank and it was 28.5 for combined city and hwy. That is definitely back to normal and as good as 68,000 miles ago when I first got the car.

imidazol97

I reread the thread and you asked about sealant for the new coolant and I didn't respond... I used 2-3 pellets of the organic material sold at GM parts counters. It's a finely ground something or other that swells anywhere it starts to seep out of the liquid and seals. There are 5 pellets in a pack for a few dollars. They might tell you how much to put in at the dealer. I think there's a special blend for Northstars. But for my 3800's I was told by service manager to use a couple. Each time I do a two-year DexCool change, I rinse with plain water a couple of cycles and run the motor, drain, and refill after cooling. So I figure it lost the free, circulating particles from the original pellets. I wouldn't use any commercial stopleak type materials for fear of blocking the heater.

dave8697

Thanks, my leak is slight but it will be good to plug it. I bought the car at 7-8 yrs old and 88,000 miles on it. I figure the first two owners did not flush it. I added about 2 qts new last year but it definitely needs changed. I will try the organic pellets and flush it. It took three bleeds to get all the air out.

I put in a new non OEM coolant temp sensor when it first acted up. The temp gage read 1 bar below 200 degrees. Only the car acted up worse due to MAF, vac leaks, etc, so I cleaned and put back the original coolant temp sensor after a few weeks. Ever since, the temp reads half a bar higher. It went down slightly after bleeding out the air. Should I swap back to the newer sensor? Does the temp gage read different because one sensor sends a more accurate signal or because the old sensor makes the engine run hotter?

imidazol97

I finally found the original post. It's not in the links and I missed it.

If the DexCool is red (orange?) it's not been in there 11 years! It should be changed every 2 years but it's 5 years optimum. Actually if you have a voltmeter, put the negative on the ground of the battery and the positive lead into the coolant in the radiator. If it shows more than .3 or .4 volts, time to change out the DexCool because you're getting voltages generated form the metals in the system that shouldn't be due to additives in the coolant having worn out.

The coolant leak... could that be an elbow that seals with little o-rings? In Bonnevilles they often mention that as a problem area.

svtmustang

I have a '01 Pontiac Montana. The fuel gauge reads fine with the tank full, but is totally inaccurate below half tank. When the gauge starts reading all over the place I know I'm getting close to empty. I have had fuel gauge problems on other vehicles in the past and they have generally been bad ground issues. Anyone know where the sender ground is on these vehicles? Is that likely to be the culprit this time too? Any help would be appreciated