ETCG Answers Questions Live #76 (AMA) 10/26/2016

[EricTheCarGuy]

This is another AMA show, so feel free to fire away with automotive or other questions you might have. The Q&A will begin at 7pm EST Wednesday October 26. Once the show concludes, I will post the completed video to this thread and close it to further comments.

The next show will be in 2 weeks, Nov 9.

I look forward to answering your questions.

Topic

[Ken Hyde]

Eric,

Just call me Ken H, no need for the 83 if you read my question on air.

Long time watcher, first time asking a question.

I am really interested in the Pennzoil PurePlus natural gas based motor oil. I have a 2004 Ford Explorer, with approximately 135K miles on it and runs great still, and am wondering if after using Valvoline 5W-30 from purchase to 75K and Valvoline High Milage 5W-30 since the ~75K mark and above. Am I able to safely run the PurePlus Full Synthetic oil from Pennzoil? Same question goes for my wife’s ’14 Equinox with ~30K, which I’m assuming will be okay to use in this application since we’re already using a synthetic blend.

I have heard that synthetics can create “faux” oil leaks that appear because of it’s ability to work it’s way through smaller spaces than conventional oil and this makes me nervous.

I hope that you’re able to help me out, as I’m always for getting away from crude oil.

Thanks for your hard work and dedication to the DIY automotive world, you’re a very informative person when it comes to helping out those of us that try to do most things on their own.

Thanks,

Ken H.

[Benjamin]

Hey Eric! Hope everything is good. My question is I have a 1962 chevy truck with a inline 6. I have replaced the gas, fuel lines, carburetor, plugs and wires, fuel pump and filter, and it still will die after 2 or 3 miles. I’m incredibly frustrated any advice would be awesome. Thanks eric. Remember stay dirty!

[Paul]

Hi Eric!

I have been having an intermittent brake drag issue on my 1997 Honda accord lx(No ABS). Short trips are fine but I have noticed it hanging up if I do a lot of stop and go. It doesn’t lock up completely but it makes it difficult when taking off from a stop(manual) or going up hills. The brake pedal gets very firm as well. It is only the front passenger caliper that is sticking. I have replaced the caliper, rotor, pads and rubber brake line. I have also bled the system. I should mention that the caliper piston is very difficult to compress until the bleeder is cracked. I know I should be doing that anyways but it leads me to believed there is a hydraulic resistance in the system. Thank you for any suggestions!

Paul C.

[Scott Bernard]

Hey Eric,

I installed a manual steering rack in my 97 Civic about a year ago. I was wondering if there is any preventative maintenance like greasing the internals, or if it’s considered sealed off and maintenance free? Thanks!

[Victor]

Hi Eric,
I have a 1973 Dodge Charger with a 440 engine, electronic ignition (circa 1973) and an automatic transmission and a 280H cam.
I built this car for my wife as a gift (see picture)…but it is unreliable.
The engine stalls when I turn on the lights while in the transmission is in Drive and I hold the brakes down. (Like in traffic).
I was trying to diagnose my alternator by following your video on YouTube, but I can’t get the alternator voltage reading because the engine just dies when I turn the lights on (the video said to turn on all your accessories to check the alternator.. However, I can drive it with the lights on, but I cant be stopped in traffic with the headlights on. Any obvious things I should be checking?
(I have my negative battery cable going to the engine block and from that point on the block I have a ground strap going to my frame and another ground strap to my unibody).
thanks and very respectfully,
Victor

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[Joshua Campbell]

Did you see that picture on Facebook of the creeper outside your shop this morning lol

[fredsmythson]

I’m working on a 1988 Ford Escort with a 1.8L engine and auto trans. The AC is not blowing cold. When I turn on the AC, you can hear the compressor engage, but it just blows hot air out the vents. I hooked up a manifold gauge to the AC system and it showed the following:

AC Off – Engine Cold – LOW SIDE 29 PSI, HIGH SIDE 25 PSI

AC ON – LOW SIDE -2 PSI (minus 2 psi), HIGH SIDE 80 PSI

AC Off – Engine Hot – LOW SIDE 40 PSI, HIGH SIDE 40 PSI

Where would be the best place to start troubleshooting when you have negative pressure on the low side when the AC is running? Also, if it matters, this was a dealer installed AC system and the AC system was converted from R12 to a 134a system. Thanks!

[Nate Thibodeau]

Does excessive idling a vehicle for long periods of time affect the Oil change timeframe? Or is only mileage driven the main factor?

Example: A vehicle with conventional oil only driven about 12 miles a day, 5 days a week, but also sits idle for around 6hrs each of those days…

PS: Thank you for all your videos and hard work that you do.

[Steve C]

Hi Eric,

Had an issue popup the other day and was wondering if you could give me your insight or opinion. The other day I was pulling out of my driveway for work in my 04 Audi A4 3.0 Quattro with ~195K miles. The car died and the battery light came on, so I restarted the car and parked it to diagnose later, because it started acting funny and I didn’t feel safe driving it.

The car appears to work fine, however, when I hit the gas and take my foot off the pedal. The engine will rev up to about 1000-1200 RPM and the interior lights get really bright, and then it stabilizes.

The alternator is hard to reach in this engine, but I did do some basic voltage tests from the battery. Powered off the voltage was about 12.2 volts and while running it was around 13.92. I had my wife rev the engine to about 1500-2000 RPM and the voltage remained constant at 13.92 volts at the battery. I know that 12.2 is slight low, so I trickle charged the battery and it was reading 12.6/12.7 last time I checked it, I did have to trickle charge it for about 8 hours several months ago, because the battery died (I think the door was slightly ajar which left an interior light on).

All the connections looked clean and secure, but I couldn’t check the actual alternator itself, so I plan on doing that soon. Everything I’ve seen online points to alternators not putting out enough. What are the symptoms or how to test when the alternator is putting out a surge?

I also had one of those cigarette lighter plugins that tells you voltages and when the power surge did happen the red LED would light up briefly saying the voltage was too high for the alternator. It’s from Harbor Freight though, so I don’t know how accurate it actually reads the voltages though.

[Bradley]

What are your plans for the silverado.
Thankyou for all your entertainment learning. Cant wait to see the fairmont rolling. Stay dirty!

[Jason Guiry]

Hi Eric, I have a juicy one for you:

2002 Audi A3 8L1 1.6L BFQ engine, manual.

Symptoms:
Intermittent high idle
Intermittent surging / oscillating revs at idle
Hesitation/ lag in throttle response (forever and always 🙁 )
Rev counter can be intermittently sporadic for 0.5-1.5 seconds at engine start up
Initially presented as lean o2 code B1S1 (o2 code now fixed, yet symptoms persist)

Repairs so far:
Smoke tested. All leaks sealed. (as per your recommendation)
MAF sensor replaced
o2 sensor replaced / wiring loom inspected (as per independent Audi specialist)
Fuel pressure regulator replaced (as per independent Audi specialist)
Throttle body replaced

I’m about to change both the cam and crank sensors over the weekend to try to see if it could be a faulty sensor related to the sporadic Rev counter as mentioned. I have the parts sitting in the trunk. I think the revs are taken from the crank sensor in my car and fuel injection taken from the cam. Logic is that one or both sensors are bad causing mixed signals to be interpreted by the ecu interfering with the injection pulse width. However the independent specialists did a gas analysis of the exhaust and everything is perfect, though maybe that was done while the condition was not presenting. Fuel pressure is perfect with no leaks after 30+ minutes.

There is no lack of power but the hesitation can be noticed below 2k revs and coasting at any speed can be a nightmare trying to predict when the car decides to engine brake which can take 1-3 seconds.

So my question to you is, do you think my logic is sound with replacing the cam/crank sensors and if, when replaced, the condition persists where do I look next? Throttle body loom, Accelerator Pedal Position sensor…?

[Mustafa Amir]

Hi Eric
I’m Mustafa and I’m a diesel mechanic ASE certified. I’m trying to learn more about cars though, I have a 2008 nissan frontier. Last month the front suspension started making noise everytime I go over a bump or when I make a sudden stop. Came to conclusion that my lower control arm on both sides are bad. So I went ahead and replaced the lower and upper on both sides. Took it to a shop for an alingment. The noise went away for two weeks then came back again. Also found the shock had a bad bushing on bottom. Could the control arm I bought possibly be bad? Shock, strut? Thanks!

[Bardia]

Hi I hope this is the correct place to post, or is the google plus page? Anyway I’ll post on both see where it goes.

— Question —
Hi Eric , thank you for all your effort on the show, hope you are doing fantastic today?!

Long post, but all relate to picking tires – I have a 2014 forester 30k miles, slight alignment wear and looking to improve ride quality with better tires. you mentioned in your previous video with imports best to go with tires that came with the car, however the ratting on these tires on tire rack and amazon reviews, say they are all junk. yokohama geolandar g91. Ratings are 5 out of 10 on most categories on tire rack etc. Did you mean match the tire type with what came on it, or stick with the OEM tire? I was thinking MICHELIN PREMIER LTX’s, since they are the highest rated tire on tire rack, any suggestions? How do you pick your tire?

Lastly, what do you think of road force balancing? I was hoping to go with Costco but they don’t have a road force balancer.

Thank you

[Ross]

HI Eric! Back again with my 07 Hyundai Tiburon SE manual.

I’ve been hunting a popping noise coming from the front end I can’t seem to track down. When I’ve just started moving the car after it sat for a while, doesn’t matter if it’s cold or warm, and I have the steering wheel at least half way to full lock I’ll sometimes hear a single pop which seems to come from the driver side front. It doesn’t matter if the clutch is fully engaged or slipping, I don’t hear any signs of a bad CV joint while driving, I don’t have any torn CV boots, and I’ve only witnessed it while moving.

I’ve also tried jacking up the front of the car and have someone turn the wheel when it’s in gear while I was under it to see if I could track it down, but it didn’t show any symptoms while it was in the air. something else we noticed is that with the car idling in 4th, if you suddenly give it throttle you can hear a lot of nose from the transmission in the moment it changes from idle to accelerating.

I’ve also tried driving the car at full lock in a parking lot for a while with no luck. The noise doesn’t seem to show itself once you’ve started driving, only when you’re leaving a parking space or something similar. It’s also worth mentioning this car was in a front-right crash.

Thank you again for everything that you do! I cannot begin to describe how much I’ve learned from watching your content!

[Zach]

Hey Eric, I have a 2001 Nissan Altima with 155k miles that I obtained in july, since hooking up my scanguage I can see that it sits around 200-210F driving it conservatively, (cooling fan comes on at 203). I have the maintenance records and they show a radiator replacement a year and a half ago from a local shop that has a bad reputation around here. Per your numerous suggestions in other videos I bled the coolant to rid the system of any air pockets the best I could, and the problem still persists. A couple weeks ago the check engine light came on with a p0420 code, inefficient catalytic converter. This car has a catalyst integrated into the manifold as well as one underneath the car, but the O2 sensors only read the exhaust from the first cat. How related do you think these issues are, and what would be my best route of addressing them? Would cleaning the condenser and radiator help?

[Author]

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