Nuttiest Car Problems Ever Experienced
Ed's best friend is a mechanic, and he seems to attract the nuttiest problems that cars ever experienced. One day a lady with a 93 Cutlass Supreme came into the garage.
Problem: intermittent stalling. Ed's friend hooked up the scan tool and showed that the oxygen and the MAP sensors were not responding properly. A quick replacement and they sent her off with an easy job well done, so they thought. A week later, she comes back and says it's doing it again. Ed's friend takes the car for a test drive and drives the car fairly hard to try to make it stall. Nothing. The scanner says that nothing is wrong. He gives the car to the lady and tells her that if it happens again to try to notice if there is anything out of the ordinary at that moment.
Two days later she's back and announces with certainty that it stalls when the radio is playing rock music! Knowing that the customer is always right, my friend takes the car for another test-drive with the radio blasting rock from 5 different stations. Nothing. The scan tool shows nothing either. Back in the garage my buddy is sitting in the driver seat, staring at the dash trying to figure out what's wrong, when he notices that the carpeting on the passengers side foot well was a little flatter than the rest. My buddy asks the lady if she listens to rock music often. She says that she only has it on when her son is in the car.
Final cause: The son was tapping his toe against the side of the floor with the beat of the music. Normally not bad, but where he was hitting is where the engines computer sits. They install a new computer and have the other one inspected. It turns out that the PCB was cracked but it stayed in contact most of the time, but when the son kicked it separated and shut the computer down stalling the engine. Since the computer was shut down so suddenly, no error codes were recorded.
Heat, Heat & More Heat
Rusted hardware responds to only one factor - heat, heat and more heat!
How to remove busted off rusty exhaust manifold bolts?
First of all, get heat! Oxy acetylene heat, not bernzo heat. Don't touch another bolt or nut until you heat it red hot and let it cool a bit - it's the only way! I call my torch the universal (both metric and English) gas wrench cuz I use it for removing rusted bolts more than welding or cutting.
If there is any bolt or stud sticking out try welding a nut to the part that is sticking out. The heat from the welding operation should also loosen up the frozen component. I use a wire welder and have even removed those keyed wheel lug nuts when my son lost the "key", by welding a nut onto the end of the lug!
If that fails, or you can't get to a welder, then drill an "easy out" sized hole up the middle of the shaft. Use a "center drill" to start the hole for the highest accuracy. Try the easy out route.
If that fails and you haven't broken the easy out (ugh) then drill out the broken component with a drill as close to the tap drill size. "Easy outs" usually only work on bolts which are not severely rusted in and I have not been too successful using them. I normally run a starting tap into the hole and try to cut the old bolt out using the tap.
If all else fails, then you can resort to the heli-coil route. Just continue increasing the drill size until you reach the size of the heli-coil insert.
In the future, NEVER try to remove a severely rusted bolt or nut until you have applied serious heat to it. If you don't already have one, make an oxy-acetylene torch your next "wrench" purchase - it's better than vice-grips!
Engine running cold? Heater blowing cold air? It's time to replace the thermostat.
Replacing a thermostat is a relatively easy task. If your temperature gauge is running way down on the low side and your heater isn't putting out much heat, it's time to replace the thermostat. Here is a description of how to change a thermostat. The exact location of your thermostat may be slightly different but most of them are near the top radiator hose in the top of the engine.
The thermostat is normally in a housing which is at the engine end of the top radiator hose. Drain the coolant into a drain pan - toss it down the john - it's the correct way to dispose of it. Take a screwdriver and remove the hose clamp from the top hose where it meets the top of the engine. Get a flashlight and see if you can peek down the hole and see the thermostat. If it is faulty it will be open.
Not all thermostat housings are identical but typically it will be held on with two bolts. Remove them. Tap the thermostat housing with a wooden block or a soft faced hammer. It should pop off easily. You can then see the thermostat. Lift it out. Don't sweat the gasket - you are going to replace it anyway. Use a new gasket. Scrape EVERYTHING off both mating surfaces. Use a single edged razor blade. Apply some blue rubber sealant to both sides of the gasket. Then grab it between your fingers and "squeegee" any excess off. You don't need a lot of sealant.
Make sure you put the gasket on the right side of the thermostat. The stat will normally fit into a recess in the engine, the gasket goes on top and the housing on top of that. Wipe a bit of blue rubber sealant inside the hose, put it back onto the housing nipple and clamp it back in place.
You should probably drain all of the coolant by draining the block but if you can't find the small plug it the side of the engine don't sweat it. You should mix antifreeze and water in a ratio of 50-50 and replace what you drained out with the fresh mix. If you can't get all the replacement mix in while it's cold just warm it up a bit and watch the level drop as the thermostat opens up. Then add mix until it is totally filled. Replace the radiator cap and put a quart or so in the overflow bottle (which you should have drained previously).
