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Post by farmrbrown on Sept 9, 2020 0:11:44 GMT
Found this out from my mechanic last week. My wife's 2015 Subaru Forester was in the shop again for more wheel bearings. All 4 have been done now and I won't tell you what it cost, but we're trading it ASAP. But the OTHER reason I had my guy look at it was because the transmission has been acting up - jerking and shuddering between reverse and forward, and at stoplights during normal driving. A new kid there took a crack at "relearning" the electronics in the tranny and got it about 50% better. I still will keep it parked until we trade it but could use it if it was an emergency......meaning my other 3 weren't available, lol. But this is what I learned about what's going on now with the new cars. This particular story was about a 2020 Toyota Pathfinder that was being driven by another customer who also knows cars, so this wasn't a case of something stupid. As a matter of fact, my mechanic is one of the best I've seen and HE couldn't figure it out. He called the local transmission rebuild shop and THEY told him. The customer was driving down the road and it started making an awful noise. I quote, "it sounded like someone was beating the underside with a sledge hammer." Again, the driver is ex military with decent mechanical knowledge, so I figure he's heard a truck falling apart before, lol. He stopped and had it towed in and Tommy couldn't find a thing wrong, but kept digging until he got the answer. "Mismatched tire treads." That's right. I had the same reaction. But apparently, if a tire on the other side gets a tad more wear or heaven forbid you change to a spare, the transmission will notice the difference in traction and proceed to make the thing buck and bang like a wild horse until you freak out and call a tow truck. And since this isn't well known, if you aren't lucky to have good honest mechanics around, I could see someone spending thousands "fixing" it when it was only a set of tires that was causing all the ruckus. That was also one of the possibilities given to me as to the mysterious actions going on with our Subaru. From what they said, it wouldn't take much to cause the "smart" computer in the car to start getting crazy signals from the sensors and cause it to start acting "stupid". Just a warning to anyone out there that may run into this sometime in the future. Me? I'm probably never going to own a vehicle made in the 21st century.  |
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Sept 9, 2020 1:24:44 GMT
Every now and then I'll get a "check engine soon" light on my Suburban. Take it to the mechanic and he'll reset the computer when it says an O2 sensor says it needs to be replaced. Same sensor every time, but usually a few months apart. He calls it a common GM "brain fart". Luckily he's an honest mechanic or he could charge me about $150 per trip in. Oh, we bring him eggs and rabbits so there's no charge for the fix.
It's not just 21st century cars. In '84 I bought a Suburban, the year they brought out the D-4 transmission full of plastic gears. Fortunately for me I bought the unlimited mileage warrant at purchase, and the warranty company put three new transmissions in it before I gave up and had a turbo-hydramatic from the previous year put in. By then it had almost 300k miles on it, and the guy at the warranty company said "Mr xxxxxxxxxx, are you ever going to sell that car?" I told him "not as long as you folks keep fixing it." Then he asked for all my service records, oil changes, tire replacements, everything going back to the day I bought it to continue the warranty. I said "sure, where do I send the copies, I've got records of everything." Never mind. Finally sold it when the paint started peeling, that wasn't under warranty.
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Post by fordy on Sept 9, 2020 4:01:22 GMT
................On my 2001 Sub the Emergency brake light and another light come on at the same time ! It will not pass inspection when they are on . They will cycle off and on at odd times , staying on for maybe 2 hours at a time . ................So , back in May , they came on when I needed to get an inspection stkr , so I just waited and they cycled off the next morning and I took the Sub to a different inspection station and passed ! I won't have to worry about this till May of 21 ! OH , it's the ABS light that comes on with the Emergency Brake light . , fordy |
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Post by Jolly on Sept 9, 2020 13:42:07 GMT
Whether you agree or don't with Scotty Kilmer, one thing he said stuck with me....It's easier now to take a guy with an electronics background and teach him how to work on new cars, than it is to take a guy with a mechanical background and teach him.
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Post by joebill on Sept 18, 2020 0:59:12 GMT
I inherited an 05 chevy 1500 series that my friend bought new, put a couple of hundred K on it and started having some electronics troubles (going into limp mode).
He dropped around 5 thousand on it with no measurable improvements, then passsed away, leaving his entire fleet to me.
There are a lot of braggarts in the mechanical trades these days, many claiming to be diagnosticians, about half being acquainted with one or another of my daughters, so I put out the word the truck could be had for $1600, cash, and since we knew all of these lads, we would let them tow it home for a couple of weeks to see if they could fix it, all of whom were confident that they COULD.
That truck traveled hundreds of miles on a tow rope over the next few months, always coming back when I called for them to pay for it or bring it back. It kept getting worse and worse, too. In the end, it would not even crank!
In the end, some lad from out of town answered the ad, was POSITIVE he could fix it in a flash. Only had $1200 cash to his name, so I let him have it for that. I was getting worried the story would go state-wide and NOBODY would want to try any more.
He told me he would let me know when he got it fixed what the problem was. That has been some years ago, so I guess he is still looking for the problem......Joe
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Post by joebill on Sept 18, 2020 1:52:32 GMT
sorry, double post AGAIN!.... Joe
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Post by sawmilljim on Sept 18, 2020 16:53:32 GMT
Wife has a 2001 Mustang V 6 when you first start it it runs perfect will even bark the tires when you hit second gear. When you stop and shut it off if you restart it in say ten minutes it runs like crap if you wait one hour or more no problem providing you don’t idle around in town in slow traffic. I finally just put it out to pasture as we didn’t need to be stranded going several miles to the Dr’s.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2020 19:32:47 GMT
................On my 2001 Sub the Emergency brake light and another light come on at the same time ! It will not pass inspection when they are on . They will cycle off and on at odd times , staying on for maybe 2 hours at a time . ................So , back in May , they came on when I needed to get an inspection stkr , so I just waited and they cycled off the next morning and I took the Sub to a different inspection station and passed ! I won't have to worry about this till May of 21 ! OH , it's the ABS light that comes on with the Emergency Brake light . , fordy You can at least temporarily cut those idiot lights by getting an el-cheapo code reader. You can read the codes, if you so desire, but once the codes are pulled, you have the option of clearing them.
Might should buy you enough time to get it inspected before the lights come on again.
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Post by ceresone on Sept 26, 2020 1:59:02 GMT
Our radio swap line had a man wanting to buy a pickup from 49' s to 75, said he needed it to run away really!!
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Post by sawmilljim on Sept 26, 2020 17:03:08 GMT
................On my 2001 Sub the Emergency brake light and another light come on at the same time ! It will not pass inspection when they are on . They will cycle off and on at odd times , staying on for maybe 2 hours at a time . ................So , back in May , they came on when I needed to get an inspection stkr , so I just waited and they cycled off the next morning and I took the Sub to a different inspection station and passed ! I won't have to worry about this till May of 21 ! OH , it's the ABS light that comes on with the Emergency Brake light . , fordy You can at least temporarily cut those idiot lights by getting an el-cheapo code reader. You can read the codes, if you so desire, but once the codes are pulled, you have the option of clearing them.
Might should buy you enough time to get it inspected before the lights come on again.
On the bad side some inspection shops have a scanner that will read pending codes,prior codes and deleted codes. |
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Post by Jolly on Sept 26, 2020 17:23:00 GMT
Pick your inspection station with care.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Sept 26, 2020 19:21:42 GMT
Pick your inspection station with care.
Yep, went to an "inspection station" in Dallas that when I walked in and said I needed an inspection sticker the guy just grabbed his book and walked out to the truck, and proceeded to put a new one on.
In amazement I said "You're not going to inspect it?" His answer "You got it here, right?"
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Post by mtviolet on Oct 3, 2020 3:32:35 GMT
so glad I live in a state that doesn't have inspections. my old junker would never pass anything, including a gas station.
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Post by joebill on Oct 6, 2020 21:54:43 GMT
You used to be able to take those idiot lights out and drop them in the trash, but no more. I was shopping for one of those little english fords long ago, just for the engine, because I had one with a good body, trashed engine. I answered an add for one that was supposed to be mechanically OK, took it for a ride and it sounded kind of bad, but no definite problems so far. While the owner was in the store picking up smokes, I shut the key off, turned it back on, no oil light! Reached up under the dash and took out the idiot light from the charging system, plugged it in where the oil light was supposed to go, re-started the engine and oil light started flickering at idle speed. Sure enough, the guy had taken the oil pressure light out to sell it! He was NOT happy when I told him what I had found  .....Joe |
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Post by Tim Horton on Oct 7, 2020 17:09:23 GMT
Have had several Chrysler, Dodge products over the years that would have alerts come on..
Luckily my mechanic at the time explained the computer usually would reset everything next time it interrogated all the systems.. Some with the next timed interrogation, some after it had been shut off the next time..
Hate electronics..
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.....Joe 