Lets talk about relays Part 2

Lets talk about relays Part 1

Twas the night before Christmas-Text version!

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the dark.
Not a car was still broken, all those plugs had their spark.
Wrenches were stashed all snug in their boxes.
While me by myself was having Christmas party leftovers, some bagels, and loxes.
Out in the lot there was such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet and yelled Hey what's the matter!
Now what to my blood shot tired eyes should appear.
But some crazy old guy with sleigh with reindeer.
He approached the front door with a smile so bright.
I quickly unlocked it and turned back on the office light.
Excuse me kind sir but I am having some trouble.
The left rudder on my sleigh has started to rumble.
The balancing was wrong pulling much to the right.
Those reindeer have been working too hard, this cold night.
I have so much to do and little time to do it.
Could you please get right too it!
Without saying a word I went to work right away.
Too bad the alignment machine had no specs for a sleigh.
Meanwhile, the reindeer were prancing around.
That Rudolf and comet what a couple of clowns.
In a matter of time the rudder was straight and the alignment done too.
I helped him load up all the presents, but one.
He wanted to pay me, but cash he had none.
I hope it was from Sears a one half inch air gun.
He started the sleigh by calling their names.
Come now, Dasher!, Prancer and Blitzen!
Get off your butts Comet and Vixen!
It started to idle and float in the air.
Then Rudolf lit up the sky with his nose extraordinaire.
I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight.
Happy Christmas to carfix online, and to all a good-night!

Expensive and Misunderstood.

Don't Be Fuelish!

The Most Important Part

 

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He is back! Deciding on a new or used car?

Bonus question for month of Nov. 2021. What is it?

Pat Goss answers this one- If a 2007 Honda CRV only has 110,000 miles on it, is that a red flag?

I’m constantly amazed how people are so concerned with miles on the odometers of cars. What does mileage really mean other than the rotations of the wheels. Miles tell you nothing about the actual condition of the vehicle and if you think about it miles can be very misleading. Consider that two identical vehicles are driven differently one is driven 50K miles at and average speed of 50mph while the second one is driven 25K miles at an average speed of 25mph. Most drivers would look at the second one and say wow that’s very low miles, that’s the one to buy, but is it? If you do the math you will quickly see that the number of hours if use are exactly the same and because he higher average speed is easier on the vehicle it might actually have less wear on the engine. Plus with more miles you will typically get a lower price so you might be better off with the vehicle with higher miles. Although miles are mostly responsible for the price of a vehicle they are not responsible for the actual condition of the vehicle. A thorough test of the vehicle before purchase is a much better way to decide. In other words a 25K mile vehicle that has been beat to death and poorly maintained is not a safer bet than a 50K mile meticulously maintained vehicle. Condition, history and maintenance are keys to to getting a good used vehicle.

Did you fix it, or make the problem go away ?

Pat Goss on Is a Neo-socket fuel saver effective?

In reading their website I would have to say, no it doesn’t work. It is a capacitor similar to the battery in your car in that it can store very small amounts of electricity. That stored electricity which comes from the electrical system of your car is released back into the electrical system to reduce alternator drag on the engine. Energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only be changed in form so the energy stored in the capacitor is your car’s energy. Because your alternator has to produce the energy for the capacitor it creates drag on the engine then the release of the energy reduces the drag but this is nothing more than creating drag of X then reducing drag by X, in other words this is a wash. Additionally this is a very small capacitor so any electricity it would store is so miniscule relative to the car’s alternator it would make no sense. If it were a capacitor big enough to make a difference it would be physically huge and the amount of current to charge it would would be huge and could not be conducted through the cigarette lighter socket which is rated for five amps. Most cars today have 150 amp or larger alternators so to make a difference in gas mileage you would have to reduce the alternator output by 75 amps or more. A tiny capacitor like the one in the ad would likely store fractions of one amp. Plus any charge into the capacitor came from alternator which caused an engine draw and used fuel to produce it then reduced the draw and saved fuel when it discharged the energy so it uses energy then it saves energy. It appears to be snake oil in its purest form.

Pat Goss Answers this one! What are the upsides and downsides of buying a used car from a private party whom you don't know but found in an ad, versus buying a vehicle from a used car lot?

Private party used car sales can be one of the easiest ways to be taken! There are literally tens of thousands of private sellers who are actually “curb-stoners”. Curb-stoners are highly dishonest scum that prey on folks who need inexpensive transportation. They go to the local junk auctions and buy cheap cars with high mileage or a title problem (totaled, rebuilt, flood damaged, etc.) then adjust the odometer to a lower mileage or “wash” the title through a state that doesn’t brand titles (make disclosures on the title) so the title looks clean and normal. Once the odometer or title problems have been addressed they clean the car and make it look great. Next the curb-stoner advertises the car in some popular forum and you call. There is typically a story, a real tear jerker, that comes with the sales pitch. These stories often include the death or disablement of a special family member from out of state. Remember the washed title? The title is now from another state and may even be in someone else’s name so there has to be a story to explain the discrepancy. These stories often include a beloved aunt, grandmother, mother, sister, etc. from out of town who succumbed to a terminal disease (usually cancer and usually some horrific type like a brain tumor) and family members asked for help in disposing of the car to help buy a headstone, casket, feed his/her children, etc. You show up to buy the car and am impressed with how it looks and you feel sorry for the person selling it who is suffering through a major tragedy. You are convinced to buy the car when the seller drops the price so he/she can get the money to the family in a timely manner so the children don’t go to CPS, the surviving family member isn’t evicted, his/her children will be able to buy food tonight, you name the issue. You buy the car without a pre-purchase inspection, without a warranty, without a documents check or any type of safeguard what-so-ever. Hell it isn’t even safety inspected. Later you take the car for service or a required safety inspection only to find it is a total wreck needing tons of work. You try to call the seller but the number goes straight to voice mail. So you drive to the house where you bought the car in the driveway only to find the house is actually unoccupied. Faced with the reality of the situation you either have to come up with the money to fix the car or scrap it and take a huge loss you can’t afford. On my way to work I pass two places where there is always at least one of these good looking wrecks with a for sale by owner sign in the windshield beside the road. In a survey I conducted a while back (for a local consumer protection agency I did consulting for) on used car ads here in the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia Metro area 16 out of 18 private ads investigated wound up being curb-stoner ads. It’s a huge problem so be very careful when buying from a private seller.

Ground never does anything

Pat Goss answers: Do cylinder deactivation systems cause engines to wear out?

Do cylinder deactivation systems cause engines to wear out faster, or is there a use for it? Based on what we see in our shops I would have to say that for the average driver and good preventive maintenance there is no measurable increased wear. But in certain very specific driving conditions where the engine remains in deactivated mode for long periods of time we have seen valve lifter, camshaft and camshaft bearing issues. We suspect this to be due to modified oil flow for the system’s active valve lifters but even here the problems seem to be extremely rare in the fleets we service. As far as things like balance, piston wear, ring wear and the host of other myths about cylinder deactivation we see none of those problems. Balance of the engine is properly maintained because these systems deactivate out of phase cylinders. On V type engines on one bank there will be one or two inactive center cylinders (V6–1/V8–2) and two active end cylinders while on the opposite bank the sequence is reversed. So there is never any such thing as an entire bank of cylinders that is disabled. These systems use active valve lifters so that during inactive operation the valves to the inactive cylinders do not open. So no air or fuel enters the cylinders, therefore no general contamination issues. Because everything is evenly spread out across the engine there are no overheating issues. Overall we would give the systems a high rating with mostly no measurable added wear. The cylinder deactivation systems are for mileage improvement and although the improvement is small per vehicle the cumulative amount of gas saved nationally and globally through tens of millions of these vehicles is substantial.

Fuel Trin is always changing Part 2

Fuel trim is always changing Part 1

Batteries and sparks! Oh My!! (Pat Goss answers this one.)

Why is it that instructions for using car jumper cables go to great pains to insure that you don’t create a spark near the battery, but if you install a new battery the instructions acknowledge there will be sparks that are unavoidable?
A spark around a warm or hot battery (from charging by a charger or another running car) can cause the battery to explode. As batteries are charged they can produce hydrogen gas which in the right concentration can be highly explosive. It has been estimated that an exploding battery can generate as much explosive power as three sticks of dynamite.
Here’s the rub with batteries, even most “sealed” batteries are not sealed in the sense you might think they are. They are sealed to the extent that they have check valves that prevent the escape of gasses during normal charging but during periods of over charging these control valves allow some escape to prevent a too high internal battery pressure. So most batteries can generate enough hydrogen gas to become explosive under the proper circumstance.
During jumping (which I would never do. You can do every step 100% properly and still damage one or both cars or blow yourself up) the charge rate may be largely unregulated and cause the battery to become overheated which in turn can cause hydrogen gas to escape.
Because hydrogen gas is explosive in the right concentration both booster cables should never be connected directly to the discharged battery (the car has failed to start through multiple attempts and the booster cables have led to higher temps). Consequently the final booster cable connection should be made at the car with the dead (and hot) battery. This is also the first cable to be removed.
But, that final booster cable connection should be made at a clean metal part of the engine as far away from the battery as possible, never to the battery itself. When that final connection is made there will be a spark and you want that spark as far away from any hydrogen gas as is possible to minimize the possibility of explosion.
When installing a battery it will not normally be overheated or be in an enclosed space where hydrogen gas can collect. Therefore, although there will be a spark when the final connection (negative cable) is touched to the battery post it is far less likely to cause an explosion. But there are instructions in the vehicle service manual on how to protect one’s self from the effects of an exploding battery and these instructions should be closely followed.