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When I pulled things apart the other day, I was thinking maybe the fuel filler neck, but it’s solid with no cracks/holes that I could see (it’s plastic, just like the tank, and the joint at the fuel tank and at the very top of the filler (where the flange that the filler cap screws onto is) looked solid/sound) I really couldn’t find anything that looked out of place. The van has quite a few miles on it (>215k), but given our location, there is virtually no rust/corrosion (makes working on cars really nice down here as compared to the northeast where I grew up!)
Now, the fuel smell we had before I drained the vent float assembly seems to be gone… I am cautiously optimistic that the liquid fuel in the float line was the source – next time my wife fills up I will see if it smells strongly of gas, and if so, see if the line is has fuel in it and see if draining it helps. I am guessing the float valve is letting fuel in where it shouldn’t be, then doesn’t function properly… we shall see, I guess.
Your owners manual should state which type of ATF you need – many cars use ATF as power steering fluid (for Subaru, it’s generally Dextron III)
[quote=”subhobroto” post=155582]It’s like using 0w-30 engine oil in an engine rated for 5w-30. It does not matter you used a quality brand product. The chemistry’s just not compatible.[/quote]
No – for engine oil, it’s a viscosity thing – most cars recommend different oils for different temperature ranges, with a higher viscosity being allowed for higher temperatures (e.g., might specify a 5W30 for low temps, but allow the use of a 10W30 or 10W40 for hotter months) – it has nothing to do with the chemistry not being compatible. The example of a 0W30 not working for a 5W30 is particularly bad since the specification for 0 and 5 has the same minimum kinematic viscosity.Once you get the right viscosity, the shear stability of the oil becomes important – particularly for engines that are hard on oil, such as turbocharged engines where a synthetic is often required.
I have always done what you suggest – jack from the front or rear jacking point, then lower the car onto jack stands positioned at the pinch welds (these are even designated by the manufacturer for most of the cars I have worked on as the jacking points) – I think the issue comes from when you try to use a jack on those points that doesn’t capture the pinch weld – as you lift, you can bend it over (since the angle of the pinch weld on the jack cradle will change as the car is lifted.
I think there are some instances where you can’t use them, so I’d check the manual for your car (my recent issue was with a Porsche boxster where they don’t have a central jacking point, so you have to improvise in order to get the car up onto stands)
you should definitely run the AC every now and then – you want to make sure the oil is distributed around the system so that seals don’t dry out and leak. If you use your defogger for the windshield, those usually turn on the AC, too. For the heater core, as long as you keep the overall condition of the coolant pretty good you should probably be fine (it certainly should make it through the summer without incident)
In this case, the fines aren’t because they built bad vehicles, or cut corners when picking materials, etc. – the fines are because of how the corporation handled the recalls – more specifically, they knew about the problem, and didn’t follow through on their obligation as the manufacturer to effectively handle the issue. The NHTSA said the reason was “Chrysler didn’t make enough replacement parts or failed to provide “effective” parts after the initial recall” (the recall itself was a couple of years ago) – the company has admitted that they violated federal rules requiring timely recalls and notifications to vehicle owners, dealers and regulators.
Anyway – any manufacturer can make mistakes – and that’s ok – it’s when they handle the issue improperly that things get ugly. Granted, the cars were built long before Fiat came into the picture – but this fine isn’t about the cars, it’s about how the recall was handled, and that recall was made in 2013 when Chrysler was being pressured to recall 2.7 million vehicles, and ended up recalling a little under 1.6 million and inspecting others – Fiat absolutely was a part owner of the company at that time – in 2009, Chrysler was owned by the Fiat, United Auto Workers pension fund, and the U.S. and Canadian governments – they later became sole owner in January of 2014. So Fiat was definitely at the helm when all of this went down, and so the responsibility for having to cough up $105M should definitely fall squarely on their shoulders.
Looks like it’s going to be on Amazon Prime…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=7124555031Hadn’t seen this video before – having spring compressors jump like that would scare the crap out of me! Glad to see you escaped unscathed! I agree with the comment above that the vibration from the impact may have been the likely contributor – perhaps in more ways than one – it’s too easy to compress each side and get a sizeable imbalance (causing the spring to arc too much and then with the vibration, let the spring compressor slide on the coil) when using an impact as you can compress the spring a whole lot very quickly (much faster than by hand). I’ve replaced the front struts on our 05 Odyssey twice now (200k miles!) using spring compressors that look the same as the ones in the vid – done by hand, though – without incident (the big springs are more of a pain than the ones on my old 88 corolla years ago, though!)
I would love to have a wall mount spring compressor, though – those are without a doubt the best way to go it you have access to one!
[quote=”Rereonehundred” post=129986]But I put it on my small 4 amp charger anyway, and the ammeter on the charger started near 3 A, but within a minute fell to less than 1 A. Which I consider normal behavior. Then with the charger in place, and pushing in less than 1 A, I took a voltage across the battery and was shocked to see 16.6 V. No typo, 16.6 V. I quickly took off the charger and measured the voltage across the charger with no load, which was 14.7 V[/quote]Ok – so for chargers, you want to be sure you are using one which is designed or has a mode for VRLA batteries (you didn’t mention which one you have – it will be either a gel cell or AGM – the former is common in smaller batteries, while the latter for larger) – while the basic electrochemistry is the same, the quantity of available electrolyte is different. Overcharging (going to voltages far beyond the normal charge voltage) results in gassing (water decomposition at the plates – basically making hydrogen and oxygen) – VRLA batteries have a valve to vent excess pressure, but can’t handle the water loss in the same way that a flooded battery can. Consider an AGM battery – you essentially have an acid starved system – there is pretty much just enough electrolyte to work – and it’s held in a nonwoven glass fiber fabric that separates the positive and negative plates – losing electrolyte results in improper acid concentration and availability and will degrade performance of the cell. (note – you always get some gassing when a battery is operating or being charged, and as long as there isn’t much, the VRLA battery can deal with it (they are recombinant batteries) – the normal gassing is why you don’t want an open flame around an operating battery – if it’s gassing, you can get a fire. Gassing is minor until you drop a cell in the battery, then it can be pretty significant because you are overdriving the remaining cells during charge – same thing that happens when you go to a real high voltage with any battery during charge)
VRLA batteries (AGM) are really nice in cars – you generally have a high surface area, so a high peak current delivering capability, and if the case is punctured (in an accident, etc.) they don’t leak or spill acid everywhere like a flooded battery.
Some comments on the video – surprised to see red wires being used for both positive and negative – I am sure that was what was available, and as long as you check the battery terminals before, say, giving someone a jump, there would never be an issue – but it’s sort of inviting trouble in the event someone jumps the car and doesn’t notice…
For checking the integrity of the terminals, I would suggest using the multimeter to measure the resistance of the connection from the terminal to the cable – you’ll only see a voltage if there is some resistance accompanied by a current drain of some sort (ohms law…) – interesting about the debris on the top of the terminal being conductive enough to allow you to measure a voltage! One thing – the discharge rate is going to be pretty minimal – you will be able to measure a voltage to the terminal if you have an even sort of ionically conductive path – you don’t have to pass current to get that. As soon as you try to pass current through the guck on the top of the battery, the IR drop through the guck will almost certainly consume any voltage you have available to support electrochemistry in the battery. (sort of the same thing as connecting the multimeter across the positive and negative terminals – the multimeter has a high impedance (resistance) in the same way the film on the surface of the battery does – but it lets you measure the voltage across all 6 cells without draining them (i.e., no real measureable current passes through the multimeter))
Great video – too many DIY’ers seem to place trust in the scissor jack for work (particularly when just getting started wrenching on their own cars) – would also be cool to see some discussion on when you use the jack for supporting something, but not the whole weight of the vehicle (e.g., lifting the engine/transmission a tad when doing motor mounts, compressing the suspension while the car is in the air, etc.)
a good source for info on lift points is the owners manual for the car. I was surprised lifting from the rear differential is considered controversial by some (other than when the housing is aluminum) – for Subaru, anyway, that’s the manufacturer recommended rear lifting point (and in the front there is a jacking plate)
Is the parking brake broken or just out of adjustment? No idea what setup you have.
For the key, as long as the doors still lock, I’d say no harm in leaving it as it is – no one is going to know.
I’d definitely fix the transmission leak – always better to deal with it when it’s minor and under your own terms, then when it gets messy and you need it done ASAP for some reason! Sounds like you have good reason to get in there and take care of it, anyway.
What’s up with the cat? are you throwing a code that’s making you think it’s dead? A single trouble code shouldn’t mask other ones – just use a code scanner and see what else is stored.Is the parking brake broken or just out of adjustment? No idea what setup you have.
For the key, as long as the doors still lock, I’d say no harm in leaving it as it is – no one is going to know.
I’d definitely fix the transmission leak – always better to deal with it when it’s minor and under your own terms, then when it gets messy and you need it done ASAP for some reason! Sounds like you have good reason to get in there and take care of it, anyway.
What’s up with the cat? are you throwing a code that’s making you think it’s dead? A single trouble code shouldn’t mask other ones – just use a code scanner and see what else is stored.I was surprised to see the kit doesn’t come with a UV protectant/sealant of some sort to protect the fresh surface of the lenses – usually the oxidation you see is UV damage – when new, headlights have a coating on them to prevent UV damage, but when that fails the lights start to haze/oxidize. I think there are some kits that have a sealant, but no idea how well it works. Once you have had to sand through the coating, the lenses will haze again much more quickly than when they were new. One thing to try would be waxing the lenses when you wax the car, as most modern waxes have UV protectants in them.
I was surprised to see the kit doesn’t come with a UV protectant/sealant of some sort to protect the fresh surface of the lenses – usually the oxidation you see is UV damage – when new, headlights have a coating on them to prevent UV damage, but when that fails the lights start to haze/oxidize. I think there are some kits that have a sealant, but no idea how well it works. Once you have had to sand through the coating, the lenses will haze again much more quickly than when they were new. One thing to try would be waxing the lenses when you wax the car, as most modern waxes have UV protectants in them.
I think this is pretty normal – on our van (Honda Odyssey) the cowl is actually wavy where it contacts the windshield – we had it replaced under warranty when the car was relatively new, but the replacement did the same thing. It’s ugly, but looks to be normal (looking at other vehicles on the lot at the time, many were similar) – if I lived somewhere that gets a real winter with lots of road salt being used, I’d probably do something to seal it better.
I think this is pretty normal – on our van (Honda Odyssey) the cowl is actually wavy where it contacts the windshield – we had it replaced under warranty when the car was relatively new, but the replacement did the same thing. It’s ugly, but looks to be normal (looking at other vehicles on the lot at the time, many were similar) – if I lived somewhere that gets a real winter with lots of road salt being used, I’d probably do something to seal it better.