Funny Noise Under Hood of 89 Taurus
Val Sargent said she had a funny noise under the hood of her 89 Taurus that no one could identify. It varied with engine speed but could not be localized, even by a Ford technician that she respect. Finally on a trip through Nebraska Val had an occasion to take the car into a Ford garage in Scottsbluff, Nebraska which is located at the west end of that great state. Val asked if anyone there might know what she had been hearing, one of their young technicians came over and pulled off the alternator connector. The noise went away. He explained that when a diode fails the unbalance in the alternator magnetic circuit causes the whine. About 6 months later the alternator had to be replaced and of course the noise was gone.
Water & Your Ignition System
Water can play havoc with an ignition system. What follows is a story from a reader who washed his engine.
Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to find. This story starts with a Honda engine but is almost universal and can happen to anybody, any car. It all started when looking at the engine I decided that it was time for a "engine cleaning session" so I got the BIG can of Gunk and followed the instructions, let it soak for a while, and wash the engine with the garden hose! GOOD, a shiny engine again; but to avoid problems after the removal process of the plastic bags covering the electric stuff (distributor etc.) and after letting everything drip for 10 or 15 minutes the engine was turned on for 15 minutes to warm it and help with the drying process of everything. Everything is OK so far. The hood was closed and I went in the house to rest.
Next day is when the fun began, early in the morning, jump in the car to go to work and then, Panic! The engine refuses to start and starts backfiring badly when cranked? What could go wrong? Well, after being late for work and later several tries checking every visible connector that could get corroded with the engine wash a light flashed on my mind; lets see the distributor, well there was the culprit; inside the distributor cap there was a good amount of condensation that was playing havoc with the high voltage conducting it to several spark plugs at the same time and causing the backfire.
Solution: Dry everything with compressed air and put it back together.
Simple. End of story, the engine went back to normal again. It may sound silly but I bet you that this may happen to anybody.
Which Way Do The Wipers Go?
George found a problem with the wipers on his 1990 Dodge Caravan. On occasion, they simply wouldn't work. Verified that the juice was being applied to the motor/contact assembly & I cleaned the connector. All worked well for a while. When the problem reappeared, George pulled the motor assembly apart and verified all contacts were making contact. George than cleaned everything up and the windings had continuity and weren't shorted. Georger put it all together and all was well again. When the problem came back again, George gave up looking for positive voltages and went looking for ground. Sure enough. Since the motor is mounted on rubber cushions, there is a small copper band from the motor housing assembly to the one of the mounting studs. Where this ground connection is riveted to the motor housing had corroded. A small screw and a little No-Ox grease and the problem has been gone.
Common Sense Tip
Kathy Keckler know's that when you are working on your car, you just want to get it done. Just take the time to use jack stands when you jack your car up when you are going to be working under the car. Kathy had a close friend die because he wanted to get done working on his mom's car quick so that he could go out, but instead the car fell off the jack and killed him. My grandfather also had a car fall on him. He chained his 65 Thunderbird to the rafters in his garage. There was no engine in the car at this time but when he put the engine in, the rafters could not support the weight and it fell on him. Luckily he was not killed - it just cut off his ear.
So please be CAREFUL! Use commons sense when working on your car. Use those jack stands.
