Car ?'s

Control said:

So I've been trying to track down a parasitic draw. Tracked current draw and pulled fuses to narrow it down then tried to unhook everything along the way. I didn't find an obvious source, but it looked like I had fixed the problem after tinkering/cleaning/leaving off a few things. Checked it daily for a few days to make sure it was gone (letting it sit for an hour or so to make sure all the modules had shut down), but no, it's back a couple of weeks later. So I guess it's some combination of conditions that causes a module to get stuck on? All the googles I see stop at "unplug things one at a time til it works", and I'm not enjoying the thought of doing that again trying to dig through combinations or speculatively replacing everything. Any thoughts?

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I have something similar to this to check blade style fuses:


It measures the voltage drop across the fuse and treats it like a shunt. It's not super accurate at the low mA range, but I doubt it's that low if you're noticing it. Doesn't work if the problem is on a circuit only fed by a fuseable link or anything that doesn't have test ports at the top. Don't forget to check any fuses on modules like the body control module.

Dandai said:

I had to replace one of my radiator fans in my 2006 Honda ridgeline as the fan and the motor separated in a seemingly unrepairable way.

Anyway, the connectors don’t match between the male end that’s coming from the engine and the female end that’s on the fan. The replacement fan is otherwise seemingly identical.

This may be a silly question, but is the solution to my problem as simple as cutting off the connectors from the new fan and the old fan and using some electrician something something to splice/make sure the wires are solidly connected?

I guess my concern is polarity and not letting the smoke out of the new fan’s motor. I think it was $150 so it seemed silly to not at least ask for a co-sign before I get experimental.

Thanks fellas.

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There might be an adapter that fits it too, but IDing the names of each plug type might take a bit of research.

Otherwise I would assume you could wire up a compatible plug onto the fan fairly easily. I can't remember who the electrician is on the board, but they could probably tell you more on how to confirm the polarity of the fan if the wires don't make it obvious (different countries use different wire colors too).

Mouser has a huge selection and decent prices if you need a place to start for the connector:
https://www.mouser.com

No idea where to try to look for an adapter ...maybe McMaster Carr(?):

If it has more than 2 wires, don't bother, go exchange it for the correct one. Modern car fans are usually variable speed and often have a resistor bank or PWM electronics in them and hooking it up wrong will just short it out and destroy it.

Dandai said:

I had to replace one of my radiator fans in my 2006 Honda ridgeline as the fan and the motor separated in a seemingly unrepairable way.

Anyway, the connectors don’t match between the male end that’s coming from the engine and the female end that’s on the fan. The replacement fan is otherwise seemingly identical.

This may be a silly question, but is the solution to my problem as simple as cutting off the connectors from the new fan and the old fan and using some electrician something something to splice/make sure the wires are solidly connected?

I guess my concern is polarity and not letting the smoke out of the new fan’s motor. I think it was $150 so it seemed silly to not at least ask for a co-sign before I get experimental.

Thanks fellas.

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If the connector looks similar, but is a different color, it could be that the pins are the same and you could de-pin the connector housings and swap them. There's usually a video out there for de-pinning just about any connector.

2 part question.

Im giving my 2013 f150 to my son who turns 16 later this month. I took it to the dealership (wish i knew an honest mechanic in town) and did some repairs I've been putting off. rear door handle didn't work, got breaks and alignment done.

Any familiar with buying replacement keyfobs from Amazon? I need a new key/fob that will do the remote start. I have 2 basic keys that work fine. the 2 that had the extra button for remote start, one is broken and the other is lost. I got these off amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XS3351F. If i'm reading it right, i can get these blanks cut to fit my current keys, then have the truck learn these keys. The dealership wanted to charge me ~$450 for a new key, so figured I'd try some other things first.

any opinion on new f150s? I never tow anything, but the bed does get the occasional piece of furniture as I help people move things. Looking at local dealers, there's very few 5L v8s it's all v6s w/ turbos. I'm not really worried about mpg, and rather get something w/ longer life. my current f150 has ~145k miles and purrs like a kitten.

fris said:

2 part question.

Im giving my 2013 f150 to my son who turns 16 later this month. I took it to the dealership (wish i knew an honest mechanic in town) and did some repairs I've been putting off. rear door handle didn't work, got breaks and alignment done.

Any familiar with buying replacement keyfobs from Amazon? I need a new key/fob that will do the remote start. I have 2 basic keys that work fine. the 2 that had the extra button for remote start, one is broken and the other is lost. I got these off amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XS3351F. If i'm reading it right, i can get these blanks cut to fit my current keys, then have the truck learn these keys. The dealership wanted to charge me ~$450 for a new key, so figured I'd try some other things first.

any opinion on new f150s? I never tow anything, but the bed does get the occasional piece of furniture as I help people move things. Looking at local dealers, there's very few 5L v8s it's all v6s w/ turbos. I'm not really worried about mpg, and rather get something w/ longer life. my current f150 has ~145k miles and purrs like a kitten.

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Not sure about trucks specifically, but Ford quality has been steadily declining due to the CEO trying to squeeze short term gains out of the company (supposedly). Toyota is still the top rated manufacturer that has a full sized truck line and usually their vehicles have the highest percent of the vehicle made in the USA.

As for the FoBs, for $24 those are certainly worth a shot! Even if it takes jumping through the various hoops the one review lists out. Last time I knew of someone needing to get a new FoB (Lexus), they said it needed a specialty tool to program the chip. Don't think it was close to $400 either, but that was 5ish years ago. If it doesn't work, calling a locksmith might be a better option than the dealership.

Fucker said:

It is accurate.

Dealerships, especially chain dealerships, pay their techs book rate. If the book says it takes 4 hours to replace a component, that's what they get paid, even if it takes longer. Book says 4 hours to replace a starter, but it takes 6 hours? Tech eats two hours of labor. Who sets the book rate? The manufacturer. Ford lowballs repair times so they don't have to pay out as much in warranty costs.

Ford designs vehicles to be assembled as quickly and cheaply as possible, maintenance is not considered, even for parts that are common wear items. Look at this engine bay. This company doesn't take anything seriously:

View attachment 605914

Tech has to remove all that shit to do just about anything, and every job is a giant pain in the ass.

Conversely Honda/Toyota are made to be repaired for the most part. Engine bay of CR-V is neat as a pin and easy to work on. Common wear items are easy to replace. They generally use quality parts to begin with, so they don't need to replace them as often.

Honda techs have a good job. Usually owned by single dealership entity, and pay the techs fairly. Most of their work is replacing common wear items. Cam belts, motor mounts, fluid changes, brakes. Diagnostic equipment is provided by the dealership.

Toyota has a similar approach. Make good components, make common wear items easy to replace. Make the thing serviceable. New gen Tundra was popping engines. They tried the saving money bit and was providing short blocks as replacement, but quickly realized that was more $ than they expected, so they went to full long block replacements. Complete unit w/turbos, ready to install. Tundra requires cab off to do this. Time for a complete engine swap is 6-8 hours. Cab off, old engine out, new engine in, cab on. Ford cab off for F-150 itself takes 6 hours. Ford also makes them a pain to service so they can charge more money on fleets and the like.

View attachment 605916

Why the big difference in philosophy? Toyota/Honda don't get massive subsidies from any government, so they understand that making a quality product saves them cash in the short and long term. This drives every step of their design and manufacturing processes.

They also require high customer service standards from their dealerships. Quality product, quality service = very high % of repeat customers = long term profit.

It isn't just Ford, but European trash like BMW, Audi, MB. 75% of their sales in the USA roll out the door as business leases. They build their cars to be reliable for 3 years, then fuck it, and fuck the people who buy and own them. $10k for TWO adaptive shocks on a 2021 BMW "M" SUV. The Ultimate Driving Machine is being funded by USA tax write offs. Ending tax write-offs for non USA based companies would kill VAG and MB almost overnight.

Similarly, ending subsidies and gimmedats that GM and Ford receive would kill those companies dead in their tracks.

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fris , don't know how often you read the YGWYD thread in pol, so linking it here. Funny enough, Fucker just made a long post (above) on some of Ford's issues (that aren't necessarily exclusive to Ford). The above quote was in response to a video posted by Chanur (here) about how Ford fucks over it's mechanics on warranty work by lowballing billable hours for jobs, which lead to the CEO complaining about not being able to find service workers for their stealerships.

fris said:

2 part question.

Im giving my 2013 f150 to my son who turns 16 later this month. I took it to the dealership (wish i knew an honest mechanic in town) and did some repairs I've been putting off. rear door handle didn't work, got breaks and alignment done.

Any familiar with buying replacement keyfobs from Amazon? I need a new key/fob that will do the remote start. I have 2 basic keys that work fine. the 2 that had the extra button for remote start, one is broken and the other is lost. I got these off amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XS3351F. If i'm reading it right, i can get these blanks cut to fit my current keys, then have the truck learn these keys. The dealership wanted to charge me ~$450 for a new key, so figured I'd try some other things first.

any opinion on new f150s? I never tow anything, but the bed does get the occasional piece of furniture as I help people move things. Looking at local dealers, there's very few 5L v8s it's all v6s w/ turbos. I'm not really worried about mpg, and rather get something w/ longer life. my current f150 has ~145k miles and purrs like a kitten.

Click to expand...

Ford has some big problems right now. I've owned a handful over the years, older models were fine. I had 5th gen (family truck), 9th gen, 12th gen, all good trucks. Also Explorer that needed $100 in repairs in 90k miles. My 2018 F250 diesel was a giant POS. Dealer bought it back from me for what I paid during C19 truck shortage, what pure luck unloading a turkey and not losing any money.

9th and 12 gen trucks were basically as new when I sold them. Granted, I keep my vehicles in perfect shape, but these mostly kept themselves perfect. My gen 12 was almost showroom new when I sold it. I sold it privately, the first buyer looked at it for 2 minutes. Bought it for asking price. All I ever did to it was change the oil and air up the tires.

These days, Ford takes too many shortcuts everywhere to save a dime. Bad engineering, bad dealership repair, and they are big on skipping out on warranty obligations. For example, Ford puts shit diesel fuel pumps in their trucks, and they love to explode. When that happens, they take out the entire fuel system with it. $10k repair. Ford sez well, you ran dirty diesel, so fuck you and your warranty. People with 1+ y/o trucks now with no warranty and having to burp up $10k+ on repair for junk Ford uses. Yes yes, Ford, because I always carry around a diesel fuel filtering unit and tester when I put fuel into it. Funny how none of the other makers have this problem.

Ford does sell an extended warranty, but I wouldn't trust it considering they use their regular warranty like toilet paper.

GM and RAM also have pretty big reliability issues. GM's 6.2L V-8's love to cork off leaving parts all over the place. By far the best example of this was a Silverado Lemon Law buyback. Customer bought a new Silverado 6.2 and it shit its guts in the dealership parking lot. 4 miles on the ODO.

RAM is in a similar bad spot with engines uncorking cams and transmissions that don't.

I have a new Tundra, and also a 2nd gent Tundra with the 5.7L V-8. I vastly prefer the TT V-6. More torque, WAY more passing power. Absolutely sedate on the highway. Comfy seats, low road noise, big interior. Toyota does sell an extended warranty that extends out to 10 years and 125,000 miles. Keep in mind the engine swap cost on this is $30k w/turbos. I have in my Rolodex a Toyota dealership that sells these wholesale...I wanna say $1600. If your Toyota dealership is around that price, then get it. Money well spent, IMO. As usual, read the fine print. This is a Toyota warranty, not a 3rd party warranty.

Fine print usually being that you must have the dealership perform maintenance on it. Oil, fluids, etc, and it must be done on time. This pretty much takes the sweat out of owning something with a $30k repair bill under the hood.

I have a mid-range trim. "Limited". It offers a lot more than a similarly priced truck from the Big 3.

In terms of options, I'd say look for PVM package. Panoramic View Monitor. The primary benefit of this is it puts the front camera view on the screen. Makes it easier to park in tight spaces. Mine just has the radar which is OK, but screen is a little handier. If you want electric steps, get them from the dealer. 3rd party ones are junk or $$$$ and a PITA to install.

F150 with a Coyote and a whipple is a goddamn steal.