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A lot of cars have a dimmer switch of some kind that the entire gauge cluster is routed through. As Dreamer said they can go bad. Rheostats are also known as potentiometers. Basically it’s an adjustable switch that you control the voltage and thus the brightness of the gauges. So +1 for Dreamer here as well but wanted to clarify that they are more commonly known by a non-lay person in cars as dimmer switches.
If all of your gauges still work correctly and the only thing not working are all the lights then probably the dimmer. If it’s a few lights out then could be just the bulbs burning out. If the lights and gauges aren’t working then probably a harness connection.
That’s happening to me too spelunkerd. Not just happening for Eric though. I have quite a few subscriptions going and all of them seem to do that. It’s a problem with YouTube.
Eric please don’t burn yourself out. You’re using multiple avenues of communication and social media sites so of course it’s going to feel like you’re getting hit from all sides just trying to stay current with comments, emails, and messages. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about paid website memberships? You’ve already admitted to not replying to comments and rightly so. Comments are one thing, expecting a dialog is something completely different. Discussions and dialogs with you should be done on your website. It’s why they are called “comments” not “Q&A” in the header titles of YouTube right? Do not sacrifice your personal life for your viewers. You are the one giving to us, not the other way around. We live by your schedule not the other way around. My suggestion about scheduling the time for 5pm on Monday was just that, a suggestion.
Since getting the website up I’ve seen it pretty busy in the forums. When there are 20 new topics a day or so that’s more than enough for 1 man to handle. Might want to think about making some of the more knowledgable members as moderators (definitely not me). Eventually, you’ll need to start thinking about moderators for the forums.
If you start feeling burned out then be more selective about who, when, and where you respond to viewers. You’ve already started doing that which I think is a good thing for you. I certainly don’t want ETCG to end so do what you gotta do to pace yourself and strike a good balance. Time alotments can help. It reminds me of Bruce Almighty when everyone wants a response to their prayers and Jim Carrey has to get creative about how he sorts, files, and responds to his “viewers”. One man can’t do everything. If the voices get to be too many, too fast, time to think about a team. Just my 2 cents. We want to continue watching your awesomeness until we’re old and gray. Do what you gotta do so that we can continue to have you as a part of our lives for all time.
I like that. The forums are full of really neat suggestions. Would take Eric a whlle to mull through the forums to find them. Might be more work than it’s worth for him. Seems like he’s already at a premium for free time.
Home Depot’s Husky tools have served me well. Got a ratchet set that I’ve used reliably. The 3/8 to 1/4 adapters don’t take much torque to break. Broke mine using an extender during the making of a video.
Home Depot sells Husky
K-Mart and some Walmarts sell Stanley Black & DeckerBoth are the same exact tools just FYI and all these tool sets are made in China. You can’t find many American made tools anymore. Try finding a floor jack made in America. It’s harder than you think. Even Snap On and Craftsman floor jacks are now Chinese. Milwaukee? Nope, bought out by the Chinese. There are a few companies in America still making floor jacks. Unfortunately they are probably companies you’ve never heard of. Took me more than 2 hours of online searching until I could find a USA made floor jack.
I’m not saying buying Chinese tools is bad but it’s certainly not helping out economy. Seems like the Chinese have just about cornered the tool market.
Check the harness for potential breaks where it might be shorting out including bad contacts with the solenoid connector.
I don’t think that would be a good idea for a lot of reasons. If you’re going to help others in the forums do it for them not yourself. As Eric’s said before, do it for the single mom trying to make ends meet, do it for the guy trying to feed his family, you don’t do it for yourself. On other forums or youtube channels that might work but Eric’s made his pretenses pretty clear and to make that a part of his format would show favoritism.
There is no such thing as viewer of the week by the way. How can one person watch better than another? You didn’t think hard enough on the right terminology there. 😉
Yup, make sure sure the PCV valve is good. Check the radiator cap for oil in the coolant. Could just be a valve seal leaking or something like that. A compression test (and leak down test if necessary) should give you a much better idea of what you’re dealing with.
In Crocodile Dundee fashion; that’s not a broken mount, THIS is a broken mount.
actually, every mount was broken, courtesy of my 95 626. Replaced in April, long before I got a compression & leak down done.
Still didn’t fix the vibration with my car though. Thanks to Eric I later found it was due to a bad cylinder imbalance. The engine is vibrating itself to death and is the reason why these mounts were so bad. Anyway, these are what really broken mounts look like. You could live with the little crack you have going on for a long time. When it gets this bad watch out.
Checked the MAF? Sometimes those O2 sensors and MAF are connected at the hip like siamese twins. One will get faulty and blame the other. I guess that’s more like brothers than twins but you get the picture. More than likely it’s just a bad O2 sensor but you have to do some back probing on the sensor and find out why. Gather evidence. If you don’t have a multimeter yet get one. They are worth it. You can do most diagnostics with a multimeter. Won’t be as easy or as efficient as a live data scan tool but much cheaper. If you can afford to get a scan tool with live data features do it.
TRcustoms719, I wasn’t even responding to your post. I think you need to go back and read my first post. I was talking to mfdfirefighter46. You jumped on me for no reason and I hope you feel bad for that. Like, oil in the eye bad. 😛
Not everyone has a scan tool or even a multimeter. I think you guys with all the tools seem to forget time to time what the home user has to work with. Not all scan tools display live data. Usually only the more expensive ones do and most home users aren’t going to shell out that kind of money for something they’ll only use once in a blue moon. A lot of people go to AutoZone for a free code scan and all they have to go on is a code. It doesn’t mean they have a scan tool.
Don’t know how many times Eric’s preached about not throwing parts at the problem. Get it diagnosed before getting a new O2 sensor. At the very least by the end of this you’ll have a very good understanding of O2 sensors and that’s knowledge you can carry with you for the rest of your life.
Watch Erics video on O2 sensor basics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIzcztO-CCsThen watch RealFixesRealFast on how to diagnose a bad sensor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppopW1oNCNkIf you don’t have access to an oscilloscope or analog voltmeter then here’s a good crossover video for using a digital multimeter. It’s not a good way of doing it but it’s possible if you’re patient and desperate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SuVs4T-c_I