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Car Issues QnA....


Spacescifi

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13 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

@TheSaint id say before unloading parts canon is a couple pro grade deep dive diags to catch your gremlin, beyond that im personally suspecting ignition coils or something else in the ignition system.
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I guarantee you it is not a coil pack. The 5VZFE engine uses a lost-spark system. So you have coil packs on cylinders 1-3-5, then you have wires from the coil packs that run over to the plugs on cylinders 2-4-6. So each coil pack fires two cylinders. If I had a bad coil pack, I would have two cylinders not firing. That would be a bit worse than "a little rumbly", and would almost certainly be throwing a code. And I already eliminated any chance of any other ignition problem by replacing the plugs and wires.

No parts cannon has been or will be fired. The only parts that have actually been replaced at this point are the plugs and wires, and the only reason I replaced those is because they're easy to get to and they're due to be replaced in a little under 3,000 miles anyway. I did spring for the smoke machine, but I don't really consider that a part cost; that's a tool that I now have in my diagnostics arsenal. And the fan is busted. If there were nothing going wrong with the truck at all and I happened to look under the hood and see that the fan was missing a blade I would replace it. All tolled, I'm out about $90 for plugs and wires (which I would have replaced in a couple of months anyway), $100 for the smoke machine (which is a tool, not a part), and $50 for the fan (which needed to be replaced in any scenario). I think I'm still ahead of the game.

Taking it to a mechanic if the problem just winds up being beyond my skill set isn't out of the question. I've done it before. But I will tell you one thing I've learned over the last eight years of doing my own automobile maintenance: Mechanics don't know as much as you think they know. Yeah, they spend a lot of time working on cars. But the vast majority of the time they spend is spent doing routine maintenance. Oil changes, tune-ups, tire swaps, alignments, etc. Unless they're a dig-it, a guy who just loves cars, they probably aren't a guy who is going to be able to look at a problem like this and just come up with a solution off the top of their head. What they're going to do is exactly what I've been doing: Look at the OBD II info, look that up in some charts, get a list of possible problems from there, run some more diagnostics to narrow it down, swap some parts out to see if that fixes it, lather-rinse-repeat.

Additionally, mechanics, especially independent shops, aren't crazy about jobs like this. That routine maintenance they do, those oil changes and tire rotations: That's what puts food on the table. If you bring them some weird problem that requires a lot of troubleshooting, a lot of time and effort, that's a headache for them. They aren't going to make anywhere near the margin on it that they're going to make on an oil change. So unless you have a relationship with that mechanic that is going to make them go above and beyond for you, your headache is not going to become their headache. You go to the bottom of the priority list.

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On 4/15/2023 at 6:42 PM, AlamoVampire said:

Hopefully all goes well getting it fixed. As for the condition of your tires just yikes. Your parents terrify me with just how bad they let your car get. If I may be honest here, it feels to me they either do not understand just how dangerous a potentially bad wheel bearing (until your mechanic can confirm or deny my suspicion on that particular issue, but still even in general) or tires that badly worn are (which i hope is the case as its the lesser evil here) or worse dont care or cant be bothered to care (either of these last two are bad but the third is far more terrifying to me) but im so seriously not saying its either 3 but either way its scary. I think just to be safe you may (this is just a suggestion) need to have a long discussion with them about why they ignores your entreaties to check the car out and the potential (some of which can if it goes bad enough be lethal to you or others) outcomes of letting things go beyond no return. FWIW an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Best of luck Lewie!

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Finally got the car into the shop after an insane amount of wrangling. The wheel bearing was out, along with the CV axle (passenger side). It should be done tomorrow, I'm going to ask the mechanics if they can estimate how close (if they're able to tell) they were to completely failing. Happy to finally have it fixed. The bill sucks, but it is what it is (gotta love that as soon as we run into maintenance it's 'Aaron's car' not 'our car'

Thank you for the input.  Honestly, if it weren't for just how bad you stressed this is, it would have been MONTHS before we would have taken it it. You (almost certainly!!) saved my car, if not my life

Edited by Lewie
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I am so happy your car is getting fixed!!!!! Sadly there is no real way to know for absolute certain when a full catastrophic failure was going to happen but it was going to happen, and then at that point its pure chance at just how bad bad is. Im happy to have helped you protect your car and more importantly yourself from a catastrophic failure.

I would again urge you to sit down with your folks and have a serious discussion on why they were so resistant to helping you get much needed work done on your car. I would also show them the following video. It is a prime example of what can happen when a wheel bearing suddenly fails. Its not just your car and life on the line at the instant of failure but other drivers as well. Please show them this video:

The car that got launched was totaled, the driver got “buy a lotto ticket now” levels of lucky and was only suffered minor injuries. This could have been so so so much worse. Again, I am happy, beyond so that your car is getting fixed and I in some measure helped keep you and your car safe!

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2 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

I am so happy your car is getting fixed!!!!! Sadly there is no real way to know for absolute certain when a full catastrophic failure was going to happen but it was going to happen, and then at that point its pure chance at just how bad bad is. Im happy to have helped you protect your car and more importantly yourself from a catastrophic failure.

I would again urge you to sit down with your folks and have a serious discussion on why they were so resistant to helping you get much needed work done on your car. I would also show them the following video. It is a prime example of what can happen when a wheel bearing suddenly fails. Its not just your car and life on the line at the instant of failure but other drivers as well. Please show them this video:

The car that got launched was totaled, the driver got “buy a lotto ticket now” levels of lucky and was only suffered minor injuries. This could have been so so so much worse. Again, I am happy, beyond so that your car is getting fixed and I in some measure helped keep you and your car safe!

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'why the hell are you showing us this? You should be working on your math! I've been driving for 30 years, don't tell me how to do these things! If you want to have your car fixed, you should have gotten an appointment made!'

-my mother

Got into a shouting match with my parents. For some reason, I'm being ungrateful. HOW?? I'm paying for this, it's taken MONTHS. It's been NEARLY 10 MONTHS since this has been an issue, I'm paying for the damned thing-all of it!-and they're yelling at me FOR BEING UNGRATEFUL. HOW does this make any sense? This took nearly a YEAR to address, this was serious issue, it could have resulted in serious damage to the car or me, yet I'm being ungrateful for HOW LONG IT TOOK TO FIX. It would have taken my parents months to have taken care of this if it wasn't for me bringing this up again and again, they had no plans to get this fixed!

I'm just done with them. They took my phone (that I bought and paid for) deactivated my number (a phone plan that I am paying for) they took my debit card and denied me access to my bank account (not a single dollar in that account is from them. I have earned every damn dollar myself. I've bussed thousands of tables and spent hundreds of hours lifeguarding. They made me pay my medical bills when I slipped and hit my head (I was walking to church like the asked me to!) bam. $3,330 wasted on a 'teaching moment'. $500 for new tires that needed to be replaced months ago (I crashed in the winter...turns out using bald summer tires in the middle of winter isn't that great for driving!) another $1,700 down the drain on something that was completely avoidable. They take my phone (once again, I bought it!) for the slightest things (how am I supposed to schedule an appointment for my car when they don't allow me to spend any more+take my phone?) I'm so done with them. I'm sick of this crap. I'm 17, not 7. 

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On 4/18/2023 at 5:40 PM, TheSaint said:

So, yesterday I start the truck up, and out of nowhere it's running rough again. And now I'm really scratching my head. Did another test with the smoke machine, no new vacuum leaks. Tonight I did a quick compression test, no issues there. I'm putting everything back together after the compression test, running through all the stuff it could be in my head. Next logical step is a fuel injector, which is a colossal pain in the butt. I just happen to look down as I'm about to close the hood: My radiator fan is missing a blade. Oh for Pete's sake... #OldTruckProblems :D

Well, there's your problem...

OdCKZiI.jpg

New fan finally arrived today (Thanks for nothing, FedEx!). Took about fifteen minutes to swap out. Just got back from a test drive and all of the engine vibration is gone. 

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  • 1 month later...

No indication lights on cranking is a battery problem, OR a bad electrical connection.

You car 'cpu' would also have no/not enough power to run, so no engine action.

Check your battery and electrical connections for corrosion at the contact points, clean if corroded and apply some copper 'grease'.

Also check for cable burning, at contact points (bad connections or broken wires)

Recharge battery (Einstein moment :D )

 

There might be a 'dead spot' on the starter or starter jammed on the flywheel.. just whack this lightly with a hammer (or brick), OR rock the car back and forth while in gear, too free the spindle if jammed.

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