Belt the one you love, your engine
The heart of winter is nearly upon us and timing belt season begins. As the temperature turns cold rubber hardens with age and soon things break. Don’t be caught out in the cold. The news today stated that 40% of drivers have delayed much of their automotive maintenance and another source stated that unperformed vehicle maintenance has increased from $54 billion in 2009 to $62 billion in 2010. That’s a lot of neglect! The underlying cost is damage that’s done because of maintenance that has been neglected for too long. Share this with others, it’s important to know.
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The undetected coolant (antifreeze) leak
Nothing was found on the garage floor or driveway. The previous mechanic didn’t find any signs of leaks but antifreeze was being added from time to time. Hummmmm, where did it go? We pressure tested the system and it kept leaking down and we didn’t find any visible leaks either. So, that means that the leak is internal and the engine is hemorrhaging. We know that oil sits on top of coolant (antifreeze), therefore it should be the first thing we see when we loosen the oil pan drain plug. Sure enough, coolant came first followed by the engine oil (we got it on video to be released to a YouTube channel near you). Over time antifreeze and oil will combine under the pressure of the oil pump and form a milky substance. This milky substance (shown in the red circle) collects in the engine like moss or cholesterol and hampers proper lubrication. Like cholesterol, this sludge can be a silent killer to your engine. And by the way, this vehicle only has 46,191 miles! The lesson here is that you should never be loosing any fluid without knowing where.
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Things are not always as they appear
Engine stalled and was towed. Preliminary diagnosis showed that the engine had lost fuel supply and the pump was no longer running. For many, the diagnosis would have stopped there, for a while anyway. But there is one more step. Do you have power at the pump? We did not. Found a blown fuse and replaced. Engine started and ran for some time. Hummmmmm. Why the blown fuse? Many would have considered that to be the fix. But a long-story short; we found a wire that had rubbed through and was barely touching the bottom of the floor board of the vehicle. This bare wire (see pink wire in center of the photo) is known as an intermittent short (touches every now and then) to ground (bare metal). There is over 3,000 ft of wire on today’s vehicles and as they rattle and roll down the road, this has become a more common problem. It just goes to show that things are not always as they appear.
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High-Mileage Vehicles
LARGE numbers are in. Our society has held the belief (for too long) that a vehicle is worn out in 125k miles. But people are keeping their vehicles longer. We have been demonstrating for years through our preventive maintenance club that a well-maintained vehicle can go the distance economically. With good vehicle maintenance large numbers are the new reality.
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Restricted catalytic converter
What your looking at is a bird’s eye-view down the inlet side of a catalytic converter. The debris at the bottom is the honey cone shell broken up due to a melt down. This did set a code P0430 for catalytic converter efficiencies low on Bank 2.
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Dry-rotted radiator hose
Rubber coolant hose showing dry-rotting fatigue stress cracks. What kept this 48 year old hose from blowing was an original defective radiator cap.
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Broken Tire Inner Sidewall Belt
This tire has a sidewall aneurysm. This is when air leaks between the outer skin and the casing plies (which have broken). This air bubble WILL pop and the tire will come apart in a rush. This condition is extremely dangerous!
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