Springfield

While idleing my car starts make a screaching sound that gets louder and then stops.

Kids think the car is going to explode.

Never happens when moving. Someone said belt:

94 volvo 740

Sounds like a belt to me. Check the belt condition and tension on the belts. Could certainly be something else because there are 1,000 (not literally) things on a car that could make a "screaching sound that gets louder and then stops". The belt would be the first thing I would check, depending on how I interpreted the noise if I heard it in person.

I have a question. I have a 01' F-150. 4.6L SOHC, Automatic, 4x4. It has 85k on it.

I know Ford makes a junk trans for all of their cars. I have talked to people who have only had problems after their flush, so should I ignore it and just drive it until I have a problem, like I am certain I will eventually.

Also, I will usually change my timing chain and redo to heads at 100k, but seeing as I have no faith in my motor, should I ignore that until I have problems as well?

I slipped the chain towing my derby car to the bone yard once, but after putting the correct, thin as piss oil in it, it was fine. I know the new Ford motors have a pin hole to oil the chain and I having always driven older iron, had 10-40 in it. I'm on 5-20 now and haven't had a problem again. That was 20 k ago.

Seeing as how you have a bit of an automotive background, I'll be a little more techy with you...

I don't like Ford, never have and probably never will. My girlfriend drives a Focus and I had to replace the motor in it at 90K, the top of piston #2 just decided to break off of the connecting rod... pretty cool.

That said, Ford's transmissions aren't nearly as much of junk as the transmission in Chryslers or some newer Hondas (althugh, it seems that the Honda ATF Z-1 plays a large part in that). I take it you have never flushed your transmission before. I've certainly seen my fair share of ATF flushes that seemingly caused the transmission to go bad. Those ATF flushes only exceeded the inevidable though, those transmissions were toast long before we flushed them. A transmission flush on a good trans, that's not in the process of failing is always a good thing, you want the inside of that bad boy to be pristene clean.

So look at your transmission fluid... Does it have metal flakes in it? Is it jet black? If not, and your transmission isn't slipping, I see no harm in a flush. If you flush it and 6 months later your transmission dies, it would've happened anyway, just a little faster because the flush cleaned all of the dirt and grime that was holding your transmission together out.

As far as timing chains, I don't see any point in changing them unless they break or there is so much slack that the valve timing is way out of whack. Just my personal opinion.

And yes, most if not all, new Fords take 5W20. The oil is thin as hell and may scare you, but I've heard of 2.0L Ford engines lock up because somebody decided to use 5W30 instead (the camshaft locked up). Look at it this way, the 5W20 is a fuel saving oil... it'll help save gas on that giant, gas guzzling V-8 that you have.

I skipped my cars 60,000 mile scheduled service. Im now pushing 75,000. Do i need to eventually get it done?

It depends on what kind of car you have. Every mileage based service (think 30K, 45K, 60K, 75K, 90K, etc. service) is different depending on make and model. Even different years between a model of car makes a difference. So, I don't have a real solid answer here for you because I don't know what kind of car you drive.

Some 60K services are just a matter of changing the oil, air filter and cabin filter. Some 60K services, such as one for a mid 90's honda, contains a timing belt replacement (very important). Best bet would be to consult your owners manual and see if there is anything you may have missed.

OK, I'll pick right back up where I left off after logging off last night.

The cable spring broke to open my hood in my Jeep and I'm wondering how much it would cost to fix it. The mechanic at the local shop told me it could be up to 200 bucks?? Are you kidding me? Is this true? Would it be cheaper just taking it to the dealership since I wouldn't have to worry about the mechanic at the local shop trying to find the part?

I'm assuming you mean the hood release cable, the cable you pull on to release the hood. That cable goes from the interior of the car to the hood latch and also includes the release handle. It's a common problem with Jeeps and in my area, $200 isn't too far off from what I would expect.

The labor is probably somewhere between 1 hour and 1.5 hours and the part is only like $20 or so. A huge pain in the ass if you have never replaced one before. If you you haven't, it would probably take you ever bit of 1 or 1 and 1/2 hours to replace it. If you know a trick or two, you can have it done in about 10 or 20 minutes. That's how mechanics make their money in this business.

As far as taking it to the dealer vs. the "local guy" doing it. It probably doesn't matter too much, the "local guy" will have to call the dealer to order the parts anyhow (I don't know of a company that makes aftermarket hood release cables). The only difference being, the part is either there on the shelf at the dealer, or a delivery away at the "local guy". "Local guys" are less expensive 99% of the time because of their labor rate, which is less. I work at a "local guy" shop, or as I'd like to call it a "privately owned shop" so my opinion here may be a bit skewed.

I've learned a lot already. Are you sure you aren't one of the Car Guys from CarTalk on NPR?

Yeah, that's me on the right... Don't you love the cool jean jacket?

Anyhow, I'm glad I could help. That's what I wanted when I started this thread. I think generally, people want to know, it's just there is so much information out there. A lot of that information is incorrect and it's hard to get a straight answer out of anyone because of that. It's hard to get on the internet and find out exactly what you want to know about your car.

this is a great thread imo. Hopefully ss will be around for a while so we can randomly bump this when we have questions.

Honestly, I've been thinking of making a thread like this for a couple of days now. The couple of threads I came across asking for mechanical help got me thinking. I don't plan on going anywhere, although I don't normally get on here untill after 8 or so. Gotta work during the days ya konw, upselling all of those oil changes.

I asked my girl what she thought about this thread before I started it. She thought it was self indulgent. Oh well. My clothes better be clean in the morning is all I'm saying.:laugh:

uh oh, looks like the "ask a ____" threads are making a come back :paranoid:

Would you rather have religious and gay threads all day long? Change of pace my friend. How about "Ask a Poker Player" thread?

Ooh, maybe I should've added "The Official:" in front of my thread title.

When you do that, the newer style long life coolants break down into a brown sludge that just clogs up EVERYTHING. Many times you will never get it all out of the cooling system.

You mean they don't make brown coolant?:laugh:

I have recently been putting fully syntheic oil for my oil changes. Is it really worth it putting that over regular oil

This really a loaded question, so I'll try and explain.

First of all, I'll let everyone know, I just bought a new car. I plan on changing the oil at approx. 1,000-2,000 miles to Mobil 1. I plan on continuing my use of Mobil 1 for the life of the vehicle. To me it's worth it.

Now, I'll try and explain oil.

Oil, as we all know, is a petrolium product. All petrolium products contain sulfur among many other things. All oils contain additive packages such as friction modifiers to help prevent the oil from breaking down and causing a loss of viscosity or lubrication. Conventional oil (non-synthetic and non-semi-synthetic) contains sulfur which, when combined with heat and moisture will create sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid eats through the additive packages, breaks down the oil and causes engine damage eventually. Synthetic oil (Mobil 1 among others) is not something that is synthesized in a lab, contrairy to popular belief. Synthetic oil is petrolium, just like the rest, but has all of the sulfur synthesized out of it. Without the sulfur in the oil, sulfuric acid will not build up as quick (read further) and will last a lot longer without breaking down. I say will not build up "as quick" because sulfur is still introduced into the oiling system from combustion.

All of this means, your engine will be better protected for a longer period of time with a full synthetic oil. Conventional oil still protects, but breaks down much sooner than a synthetic.

My opinion: If your car is new, or fairly new, it would be worthwile to use a synthetic oil. If you have the money, why not afford the extra protection for the most important piece of the vehicle. Not saying, don't use conventional oil, just make sure you don't go 10K miles on conventional oil and expect everything to turn out rosy.

That is what I wanted to hear. Good idea for the thread and thanks for the info.

So you are an advocate for the full transmission flush and not just a drain and add?(I know you can't get it all out, but I think most of it)

I much perfer a flush over a drain and fill. Reason being, the flush gets 100% of the fluid out, and with a great cleaner pre-flush much of the dirt as well. My main issue with a drain and fill is that it doesn't remove all of the transmission fluid.

Transmission fluid is a detergent, meaning one of it's purposes is to clean. Anyone remember the old "fix" of adding a drop of ATF into the combustion chamber when changing spark plugs to clean the combustion chamber and help seal the piston rings? ATF being a detergent is the reason that one worked.

When you don't replace 100% of the ATF, you have a couple of quarts of old fluid beaing cleaned with the new fluid. If that fluid was pretty dark to begin with, the fluid will be back to the same within several thousand miles.

The only case I would even think of recommending a drain and fill over a flush would be if a vehicle had transmission problems and the fluid was black. Likely that car will need a transmission anyhow, but that would be the least entrusive route to take given the circumstances.

Should I be worried about dropping my wife's car off at the dealer.. or having her take it down... for radiator and transmission service...

and they don't do anything? How would I know if they changed the trans fluid? (Honda you can only do 2 quarts at a time) How do I know if they've flushed/replaced coolant?

I don't think you should be worried. I don't view women any differently than I view men who come into the shop, both can be equally as ignorant when it comes to cars.

If you have suspiscion that they might be shady, or you just plain don't trust them you could try this. With the transmissin fluid, take a sample of the fluid, use something white that won't absorb the fluid (like a nice piece from the China cabnet). Get dip the stick and get a few dabs of ATF on the dish, enough to clearly make out the color. Take a picture, make sure it's nice an bright so you can make out the color in the picture. When they are done, repeat this process and see what color difference there is. In the end it should be nice and pink. If it's pink before, it doesn't really need to be flushed in the first place. As far as the coolant, you don't really have much to go on as far as sampling like that, unless the coolant is really nasty.

Some Hondas don't have transmission cooler lines, which are used to peform the flush. They do have to drain and refill the transmission because there is no other way to do it. If you Honda has cooler lines, it should be flushable. If they can't flush it, it may not look "perfect" afterwords, but it should be noticably better.

Is it common practice at dealerships for service advisors to target cars coming in for state inspections for " unneccessary repairs" that are needed to pass inspection? I guess what I'm trying to say is do dealerships ever say, "You need that front strut replaced or it won't pass inspection". Joe Blow then panics because he doesn't want a rejection sticker and says.."Ok, go ahead and fix it". When the front struts are in fact perfectly fine and don't need to be replaced. It would seem to me that state inspections are the perfect time for dealerships to increase profits.

While I won't deny that the inspection station we have at my shop does increase the profits to the station, our inspector will never fail anything that shouldn't fail. People will usually choose to have something fixed while we have it at our shop because it's more convenient for them. All the work we do is because something has actually failed and the work is 100% done. I can't speak for other shops, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me to see shady shops do something like that.

Also, if I'm selling a ticket that and there is something that will fail, I will certainly let the customer know about it. One reason being, I don't want the customer to be pissed at me because I didn't tell them their car was going to fail inspection.

If we find something that will fail inspection, but say the inspection isn't due for 3 more months, I'll also inform the customer of that and give them the option to fix it now or later (if it's not something dangerous). Things like lenses can fail inspection here in VA eventhough it doesn not pose a risk to the person driving the car. I try to give the customer all options available while being as realistic as possible.

At what mileage should the timing belt of a 98 Infiniti I30 be changed?

I'd have to consult my trusty service guide, which is on my computer at work. If I remember correctly though, the I30 has a Nissan 3.0L engine which is driven by a timing chain. If so, timing chains do not need to be replaced.

If I remember, I'll try and look it up for you tomorrow and get back to you.

can you fix the air conditioner unit in my bedroom?

Did you try opening up the vents? If that doesn't work, window units are certanly a viable option.

Should you engage the parking break on an automatic even on level ground? If so, should you do it while the car is in drive/reverse, or in park?

I've heard all different things on that subject.

I've seen many people who don't ever use their parking brake have parking brake problems.

Classic scenario: Car comes in for VA safety inspection. Same car fails inspection because the parking brake won't hold the vehicle (in VA, the parking brake must hold the vehicle while in drive at a stop). I call the customer and their response goes something like this, "What? My parking brake doesn't hold, but I don't even use it!".

The parking brake is cable operated, the cable goes from the lever (up front) to the rear wheels. The metal cable is shrouded in plastic or rubber. Over time of that cable not moving, rust builds up inside the insulation of the cable. The rust will build up so much that the cable will not move when you use the parking brake, effectively making the parking brake useless.

My suggestion, when you park your automatic car, engage the parking brake. You could only help prevent problems and further cost by doing this.

Why do you try to sell extra services?

To make extra money of course.

But really, I've never sold somebody anything that their car didn't need. If their transmission fluid was jet black, I'd explain the repercussions of flushing or not flushing that nasty stuff out.

How do you clean a drive by wire throttle body? I am afraid to touch the butterfly valve with anything.

You should be able to turn the key to the on position and have somebody step on the gas pedal to open it up. Make sure it's somebody you trust because if they slip you could really end up hurting yourself. If in doubt, take it to somebody who is qualified to work on it.

I have alot of paint chips on my car and was thinking about getting it repainted cuz its not that great lookin on the hood. My current paint is pearl or 2 tone? Some are suggesting me to just use the regular paint which doesn't allow for a shadow and what not? Any suggestions

Quite honestly, I don't know much about body work and painting. That is a field which I would completely different than auto mechanics. Sorry I don't have an answer for you, hopefully someone around here should.

2 questions... is the fuel injector service bs? especially if you've been using Techron every 5k or so?

Also, talk to me about changing coolant. Honda manual says 100k... Honda dealer told me 50k. Dealer claims manual is BS, written to satisfy the EPA. WTF. (they also said the same about transmission fluid intervals, etc.)

also, tell me about radiator flushes

1. No. Techron (I assume that is a fuel additive you add to your tank) may help a little. A complete fuel induction service can be very beneficial to both engine performance and fuel economy. Over the life of your vehicle, carbon will build up everywhere that air flows (from at the throttle body all the way through the combustion chamber). Carbon will build up on the throttle body, in the vacuum lines, in the intake manifold, and on the valves and piston tops. This build up of carbon will in effect, lessen the breathing quality of the engine. The ECM (car's computer) will mask this by adjusting fuel trim and the idle air control (a small valve that bypasses the throttle plate). A fuel induction service, if performed correctly, will clear all or most of this carbon out resulting in a better breathing engine meaning better fuel economy and engine performance.

This doesn't mean your car needs it every 5K miles, more like every 30-45K miles. Pulling off the air snorkel and looking at the throttle plate can tell you a lot as well as looking at scan tool data on fuel trim and idle air control steps. If your fuel trim is far out of the norm and the idle steps are high (meaning the idle air control valve has to open a lot) than a fuel induction service would likely help.

Techron and other fuel additives are good, but the only clean injectors and the intake valves. They likely don't help the hard carbon on piston tops very much at all. Those additives certainly don't clean throttle valves, idle air controls and other vacuum lines at all.

2. Your coolant is good for 100K miles IF you never loose a drop of coolant and your system is completely full at all times. The likelyhood of this actually happening is slim to none.

A little history on coolant real quick. The old coolant used in vehicle untill the 90's (the green stuff) is chemically based, that coolant was good because if the level dropped, the coolant residue would stick to the metal, effectively protecting it from rusting (steel) or corroding (aluminum). The coolant in most modern cars (blue for Honda, red or pink for Toyota, orange for GM and so on) is organically based. Organic based coolant is good, it's all considered "long life". The problem with organic coolant is that if the coolant level drops, there is no residue sticking to the metal, the metal will begin to rust or corrode. Bad news for people who don't bother to check their coolant level.

That being said. 100K is probably too much to ask out of any coolant. GM tried this years ago and now they have a class action lawsuit against them from all of the consumers who had leaking intakes on their V-6 vehicles. Considering it is nearly impossible to keep any cooling system completely full for 100K miles, it's probably best that it be flushed at 50K.

OK, so first off, I'm not a mechanic. I am a Service Advisor, and I've been doing this for the last 7 years. If I titled this thread "Ask a Service Advisor", people might not actually pick up what I was referring to. For those of you who do not know what a Service Advisor is, I'm the guy who talks to you when you bring your car into the shop. I am the liason between the Mechanic and the customer. My job entails me being knowledgable about cars and trucks of all models as well as being able to well communicate with the customer what is going on with their vehicle.

I started this thread because there are many questions and misconceptions about vehicles in this day and age. Many people think they know exactly what they are talking about when it comes to cars, but as technologies change, sometimes what was once right isn't correct anymore. There are some people on here who really do know what they are talking about and you guys should chime in too.

I intend on this being an educational exercise for those of you here on ES who know nothing about how cars work, have a problem or just want to ask a question. I plan on answering any questions with a response that would actually educate you about the question you asked, basically explaining it in layman's terms.

So, there we go. Let's see how my little foray into public service turns out.

From the "What are you addicted to?" thread...

I'm w/ Burgold, any type of nut, I can't say no.

Here is a compilation of owned pictures on break.com... pretty funny, check it out.

http://www.break.com/index/compilation-of-embarrassing-and-busted-photos.html

I promise it is not a rickroll. Seriously.

Once again, the Break.com pics of the week.

Courtosey of break.com

New uniforms would not be good... you know... that whole continuity thing.