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Unless you’re running a hopped up engine with say, 9.5:1 compression ratio and higher (maybe even bring that number down some for regular passenger vehicles) or if your engine has forced induction, anything higher than 87 is completely useless and a waste of money. Octane rating is used to indicate how hard it can be squeezed before it auto-ignites. Nothing to do with cleanliness or performance or quality etc. It’s a hugely common misconception about that. If anything, in a regular car, it MAY kinda-sorta hurt performance because it actually burns slower than 87 octane. A lower octane rating is more volatile, until you squeeze the hi octane stuff super hard (a common old school performance upgrade is flat top pistons, for example), then when it ignites, it’s more explosive.
Don’t waste your money. The only thing this will hurt is your wallet. B)
It’s a block heater. Usually replaces a freeze plug. Simple heating element to keep the coolant from freezing solid and splitting open a water jacket when it gets cold enough to actually freeze. Nothing to do with startup since it’s not nearly enough heat to make a difference. Fuel injected engines n really rich automatically on cold startup until the CTS reads hot enough to drop the air/fuel ratio down to a proper level.
MOPAR likes to use ATF in the power steering, as well as transfer cases. My Dakota is the same way, ATF+4 is the MOPAR fluid for sure.
I apologize ahead of time for a potentially stupid question, but are the rear brakes drum or rotors? I had a very similar problem with my 05 Dakota which has rear drums. Turned out the hardware in my drums had failed, the shoe hold-downs that keep the shoes held to the backing plate snapped, and when I’d apply the brakes, the entire assembly was twisting forward inside the drum once the shoes bit, causing all sorts of whackiness.
The computer cant always discern if a sensor is actually bad or if it’s a mechanical condition, and the computer is interpreting that condition based on the fact that a bad sensor can cause a similar problem. Say por ejemplo…O2 sensors are part of a long list of components utilized in the regulation of the air/fuel mixture. Well, a leaky vacuum hose can cause the air/fuel mixture to be off, usually in this case, a lean condition. The computer very likely will throw a code saying it’s an o2 sensor, when in fact, it’s not. BUT, the o2 sensor’s job is related to what the computer is interpreting the problem as. So you very possibly could be chasing the wrong gremlin. Often times I’ve seen where theres a hole popped in the exhaust and it’s sucking just enough air right before the o2 sensor, throwin a code suggesting an o2 sensor.
Food for thought. 🙂
Yeah, where I work is very similar. What I despise the most is how nobody will back us managers up against a customer who is SORELY in the wrong. Our superiors completely undermine any authority we have. I strive to adhere to policy and keep the store making money keeping my guys paid while we are forced to let people flat out steal from us.
I was gonna ask is anyone were capable of doing a good demo of this? Say take an old high miles engine, pull a head off, run the water thru, then pull the head again and see what’s inside. A before/after video.
I say drain. Although I guess it wouldn’t make much difference aside from buying a specific tool for the vacuum job, and avoiding having to crawl under a lifted vehicle. Sounds like a semi-convenient waste of time to me. Ya gotta remove the filter anyway.
The garages usually aren’t the problem, it’s the backyard knucklehead that makes this job so miserable. Almost every single day, there’s some rotten schmuck who doesn’t know a lug nut from his rectum, trying to have me fired and harassing our district manager to get something for free. I wish everyone saw it the way you do, bro. It’s no longer about the people and the art of good wrenchwork, it’s customer service for the almighty dollar. Somehow along the trail, american big businesses deemed it a good idea to allow the public to act like spoiled little kids and throw tantrums at their employees, and telling us to “see the big picture, or be fired”.
I should start a “parts store horror stories” or “life behind the parts counter” thread.
I wonder if it’s because of the mass airflow sensor. When you remove the intake tube, it’s not sucking air thru the sensor, maybe that’s whats causing the problem?
[quote=”Chevyman21″ post=130825][quote=”Rhynorock” post=130581]I’d like to chime in here, if I may. I’m a manager at a big name store, and I can tell you that when it comes to customers who really know their stuff looking for something that wouldn’t be a stock replacement part, yes, we would be pretty clueless. Because the overwhelmingly large portion of our business as a parts provider is fix it parts. And granted, we don’t always (actually quite rarely) hire competent mechanics that really know good tricks and unconventional repairs. The job has been dumbed down so to speak from the killer parts guys of years past, from a mile long row of books to a point and click, Google-esque search catalog.
That’s a scenario of which you’d be ahead of the game to personally find a part number and provide that instead, because it just won’t be part of a stock parts lookup. Plus, descriptions of parts don’t always reflect to how it’s labeled in the parts database, too.
Food for thought :)[/quote] Ya, I can understand that. My truck in particular is an odd case. The engine is built and requires totally different specs than stock. The brake system is part hydroboost truck and part vacuum boost from a Chevelle. The Carb is Oldsmobile 455 carb. The oil pan is LS6 from a Chevelle etc the list goes on and on. The parts guys don’t know this AND they can’t look up my trucks Vin either because it is a 13 digit Vin which apprantley their comps don’t recognize. I don’t expect the parts guys to know this stuff… but I do expect them to get the stock parts right…like simple brake shoes which they have gotten wrong on me. The guy even measured the brake drum in the parking lot and still got it wrong…that’s just sad.[/quote]
Because he measured incorrectly! The rubbing surface on the inside of the drum is the measurement needed 😉 Unless he was outside pulling your drum apart and still got it wrong, then he’s just plain ignoramoose.
^^^+1
Hit the nail right on the head, man.
Just today, a “regular” customer blew up at me because he received the wrong parts from a very new co-worker, for what he says “the last time” (although I don’t recall this prick ever stepping foot in the store). But he was the unfortunate victim of dealing with a counter person who had been on the job for a single day when buying his parts. The sale must have happened during my day off, but the customer brought his receipt for the return, so I could get info from the transaction number and the employee number who conducted the sale, and sure enough, the kid who sold him his parts was on his very first day working at my store, coinciding with the date of the transaction, The kid apparently wasn’t aware that a late 80’s C/30 rear shocks differ between single cab to crew cab. It also didn’t help that only one part number was actually on the shelf, so he sold the guy what was in stock, not realizing the difference, despite being right in front of his face on the computer screen in plain english.
Auto manufacturers create far too many differences and subtle details to train for everything (ahem FORD), the only thing alleviating that is extensive experience. And going back to what Radish was speaking about, unless you get lucky and get promoted, being a parts guy is a dead end, low paying job, normally not worthy of putting forth effort to keep. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten lucky to be promoted, I’d have left months ago.
Thanks for the info sir. I’ll keep snooping around and see what I can come up with. Although, after taking a look recently at my truck and realizing it’s starting to rot (thanks NY salt), I may just wait for a good deal and trade her in for an 09 or later full size dodge. Something I CAN do stuff with.
Dealing with co workers at different stores when we put in transfers can be entertaining. One lady who is the big cheese at the district distribution center is so snotty and rotten about everything, we all call her just to bug her and get on her nerves because she’s so reactive lol.