OT: Weird car electrical problem solved.

Not so weird. All those systems use the brake light switch as an input. Good troubleshooting.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz
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Chuck H. wrote on 12/21/2017 2:37 AM:

You have to have your foot on the brake to move the shifter out of Park, right? To me that would be the biggest clue.

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Rick C 

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Reply to
rickman

I have a 2010 Toyota Corolla. At first, it would occassionally kick out of cruise control. Later the VSC and ABS lights would come on intermittently and sometimes when that happened, it wouldn't shift out of Park. The brake lights always worked but the problem was eliminated by replacing the brake light switch.

Reply to
Chuck H.

I got you all beat on engine problems. Mazda B-2000 pickup.

Intermittently would sputter and gag, then fix itself.

Timing belt had been replaced, and apparently they lost the metric Woodruff f key. It eventually sheared but left deris in there between the crank and the flywheel. The crank would go off 180 degrees once in a while. Then righ ted itself and ran fine for a time.

Had a ton of mechanics (literally) stumped looking for an electrical proble m.

Now an electrical problem, motor driven mechanical clock. It would stop whe n you hit the brakes. Problem was a fuse.

And don't forget the oil pressure sending unit when troubleshooting a no fu el problem.

We need a thread on weird car problems, not forgetting of course that there is an engine down there. (somewhere)

Reply to
jurb6006

I had a Mazda GLC that would only run with the ignition advanced way more than normal. Replaced the plugs, wires, rotor, distributer cap. No help. It turned out that the original rotor had a hairline crack in it that would allow the spark to travel through when the spark resistance got too high. The replacement rotor had the same exact problem. I finally diagnosed it with a timing light. With the light on a spark plug wire it would flash until the timing was adjusted to normal. Then the engine would die and the timing light would cease flashing. But with the timing light pickup on the coil lead it would flash when the engine was cranking even though the engine wouldn't start. So I figured the car was losing spark in the distributer and this was happening because at normal timing the charge in the cylinder was more compressed and so the resistance was much higher than when the timing was advanced and the cylinder pressure lower. It took me a couple weeks to finally figure out what was going on. I bought another rotor, a different brand, and it solved the problem. Eric

Reply to
etpm

How about this one :1994 Chevy 3.4L rat engine.

Problem : engine would hunt for idle constantly, but otherwise ran fine.

Solution : battery had shorted cell.

Note : Car had history of bad alternators, wonder why.

Reply to
jurb6006

Should be a lesson learned. Check the basics first. A simple voltmeter check would have saved you time and alternators.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

They didn't call me, though honestly I would not have thought to check that for that symptom.

The adjusting the vertical size on a Sony should have learnt me better - the symptom sometimes has no apparent relation to the cure.

Reply to
jurb6006

My son was using our spare car, a Lebaron 4 banger,, it started to randomly stall at stop signs, more so when it was hotter out..

I didn't have time to bother with it so sent the car to three different mechanics, none of them couldnt figure it out because it was random they say!,.......

It got to a point that I was tired of hearing the hid complain about it and told him to park the car and use the truck for a while, I was going to put a sign on it AS IS,, best offer! But I desided to first look at it. Had an electrical manual already for it... since it was now bad enough to fish the problem out... after about 1 hour of poking around, I went to the auto parts store and picked up a hall detector replacement sensor for the rotor.. it solved the problem, the guy at the auto parts store said it a common problem for many chrysler cars and starts to show its problem when heat gets around it. Sure, it had issues due to heat and weaken it..

So whey in the hell didn't the mechanics with their public service centers know this?

Jamie

Reply to
M Philbrook

Back in 1980 my wife had a Pontiac with the electronic ignition. The module inside the distributer failed a couple times and it was heat related too. When I went to the auto parts store to ask them if they had any ideas the parts guy knew exactly what the problem was. Alas, that parts store is no longer in business. They had the best counter folks.. Gear heads all.

Eric

Reply to
etpm

Some places have good people and some don't.

Around 1982 I wanted to change the spark plugs in a Datsun. That was the first car I owned that was not made in the US. I went to a Autozone or similar chain store to get the plugs. I asked the counter man if I needed a metric socket to change them as all my tools at the time were the inch type. He did not know so we went to the wrench area and took some wrenches out and found a close match. As I did not see any sockets that seemed to be special for metric spark plugs I decided to check the US type. Sure enough the US type fit just fine and I had several of those at home.

One would think the counter man would have known that as many plugs as they probably sell.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

problem for many chrysler cars and starts to show its problem when heat gets around it. Sure, it had issues due to heat and weaken it.. "

Had that with a crank sensor on a 3.8L Olds/Buick. I knew not to even bother taking it in and hung a scope probe on it. The pulses were disappearing.

Reply to
jurb6006

folks.. Gear heads all. "

A friend, a GOOD mechanic, applied for a job at an auto parts store with demonstrated ability. They said that is not what we want, they sell fewer parts.

Last thing I heard him working on was a diesel in a small ATV that actually started in reverse to go backward. Simplified the gearbox I guess, if any.

Reply to
jurb6006

Ralph Mowery wrote on 12/23/2017 7:34 PM:

I have no idea why you would expect them to know things like that. They see a part number in the book and find that box on the shelf. What part of that should indicate the socket size to change it with? Now that someone asked (and I'm surprised he took the time to figure it out with you) he might remember for the next time, but to exactly which plugs will that apply?

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Rick C 

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Reply to
rickman

Lots of snowmobiles work that way - 2 strokes. Adjust the timing and they are happy to run either direction.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

Plymouth hall pick-up. Been there done that.

1968 Chrysler. Would not go up a really steep hill. Temporary solution. G o around. real problem - Check valve popped out of fuel pump.

1982 Toyota. car warmed up. Turn off car for about 20 minutes (quick bite to eat). Really low idle when re-started. Had to cool for an extended ti me to work properly again. Rinse repeat. It constantly did this.

To prevent dieseling, a vacuum advance port was opened to the atmosphere (s evere vacuum leak). The solenoid valve was mounted on top of the valve cov er with limited cooling. It stuck every once and a while. Me Finding the problem was really tough.

Car ate clutches and/or throwout bearings. Professionally replaced (dealer ) until I finally did it myself. A HUGE diameter bolt (~3/4 diameter metri c style) was missing on the bell housing. It used two big bolts and multi ple smaller ones (4-6).

Care stereo amplifier stolen and replaced lb for lb by lentils.

Muffler and pipe replaced professionally. Got home and it did not sound ri ght. Found it on backwards. When to shop and they agreed, before I left , I started the car and it still did not sound right. Looked - still on ba ckwards. Technician told boss that it fit better that way. Replacement pi pe was bent improperly.

Mechanical fuel pump replacement off an interstate in a random development. Fuel pump push rod kept falling out when replacing the pump UNLESS you pu t grease on it first.

Headlights start blinking - on/off period about every 30 seconds. Lamp fil ament shorted - High to low beam.

Reply to
Ron D.

bizarre! I once had a car stereo I got for 30p, quite a good one and worked fine but the front was very cosmeticly damaged. Some idiot broke in and st

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Back in the 70s, I had someone steal one of those cheap Krako FM converters (for an AM radio) out of my Volkswagen bus. Whoever stole it left a dollar bill in it's place.

Reply to
Sofa Slug

rked fine but the front was very cosmeticly damaged. Some idiot broke in an

maybe they were krackers

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Did they ever come back for their change? ;-)

Reply to
Michael A Terrell

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