I have a 7.3 2003 Excursion. Should I change the gearing in the rear differential to make the truck go faster at lower RPMs? I know that will decrease my towing capability.
View 12 RepliesIt may sound silly, but can I lift my 04 explorer by the rear differential to change brakes etc? I have NOT had a Independant suspension vehicle prior to this and dont want to mess up anything. If I cannot use that point to lift it, where is a point to lift it using a floor jack so I can service the rear of the vehicle after I place it on jack stands?
View 7 RepliesI have a quick question. I am gonna change the fluid in my 01 f250 rear end. it has 410 gears and a limited slip diff. if i use full synthetic gear oil do i have to add the limited slip additive or just the 75w-140 full synthetic gear oil.
View 14 RepliesSome of you may have seen my recent post about raising the X. Its about 5" higher in the rear. Prior to raising the X, I had a vibration at around 65 to 70 mph. It felt like a tire was out of balance. Go a steady slower speed or a steady faster speed and it would go away.
Since raising the X, the vibration is gone, which I thought was cool. But now I have a "grind" type noise coming from the rear. I have to do all the testing on the freeway. There are no issues, no noises at regular street speeds.
On the freeway, when accelerating fairly hard up a hill from say 65 to 80, I can hear sort of a rumbly, grindy noise from the rear. Its not really loud but I can hear and feel it throughout the cab. If I coast at around 70-75 mph (just keep the speed the same) on flat ground, I can hear it come and go when the X is truly coasting for a few seconds. If I get up to say 85 and let off the gas, I can hear it as I decelerate until I get down to around 65.
This all only happens between say 75 and 90. I get no noise below 65-ish.
I had the drive shaft out over the weekend. The u-joints had no play and were free moving. I did feel the smallest play in the slip yoke, so I gave it a good greasing. That didn't change anything.
I'm guessing the problem is in the differential somewhere. I have not pulled the cover off yet to check the fluid.
Is there a gasket to replace?
View 1 RepliesHave a growling noise in the rear when turning for the past two years. Getting worse so I assume I'm getting down to the metal on the clutches. Done all the other stuff like change the fluid and add friction additive. Have not pulled the cover and have the Mag Hytech diff that increases the capacity from 3 to 6 quarts of RP 75W-140 oil. Still does it. Just wanting to know if aftermarket clutch packs are available or is this a dealer only part. Ballpark how much are the clutch packs?
View 14 RepliesI pulled the EX into the driveway today and as soon I put it in park as I was turning it off there was a loud pop / bang noise somewhere in the front. My husband was already taking it to get new tires so I told him about it and he left to go get the new tires. He said he right away noticed it pulling real bad to the right (I did not notice this and I am VERY in tune with my truck). When he got to the tire place they brought out a big bolt they found in one of the front tires. He said it drove fine all the way home after he got the tires put on. I get in it to run an errand after he brings it back and immediately notice it rides lower. We had the exact same tires put on it that we always do. I also notice a rattle noise and feeling under my left foot that is sitting on the floor as I am driving. I wonder if I broke a shock or something but he looked and says he can't see anything broken. I have a 9 hour trip to go on with my children soon so needless to say I am a little concerned.
View 14 RepliesI have a 2004 SD with 5.4 that is running pretty rough both at idle and driving. Truck shakes a lot at lower rpms. I have a scan tool and had a misfire on cylinder 4 so I replaced the coil and the plug. Also replaced the idle air control valve. Plan on replacing O2 B1 S2. (One of my codes) even after replacing the coil and plug I'm still getting misfire detected from cylinder 4??? Other codes I had were misfire detected on he first 1000 revolutions. That hasn't come back though.
View 2 RepliesI have a Honda PIlot 2011 which I took to my local Shell service shop . The code the car showed was B1236. One of the many things they did was to change the differential fluid. After I picked up the car from the shop, I noticed a slight sound from the rear wheels when I would make a right turn. I took it back to the shop and had them look at it. We did a few sharp right and left turns and we heard nothing. I drove the car away and a few days later noticed the sound to be more noticeable. At this time, I took it to my Honda Dealer. They noticed that the fluid in the rear differential did not seem to be right one and the sound was because of that . Can a wrong fluid damage the rear differential? They are also recommending that we change the rear differential which off course is extremely pricy.
View 7 RepliesI've only had the Ex for a few months so I'm still learning... After a trip to Orlando this weekend, I noticed a very faint odor of differential fluid from the driver's side front and rear wheels.
Nothing on the passenger's side. I've inspected the pinions and axles and found no wet areas at all, so I'm a little perplexed. The wheels and axle housings were pretty cool considering a 5 hour round trip.
I was also wondering if what I am smelling is due to the axle vent hoses?
As i kid i hated seeing people make there turn signals blink faster but know as i got older I like it, so on my 2011 camry and i want to make the turn signals blink faster. Not too fast but a little faster. I know I need a flasher but i can't find one for the Camry. I know I have to remove the instrument cluster.
View 14 RepliesWell I've got 54K on the Ex and we'll be heading out for what will likely be our last long towing trip through some pretty serious terrain. I've got Hawk LTS pads on the front and those are doing really well but I wanted to change out my rear pads...upon closer inspection I still had about 1/3 of the pads left...but since I had torn everything apart...I installed the new pads so here's some pictures and a little write up as I go.
First jack up the rear of the Ex and make sure you support it with jack stands for safety.
Next remove the wheels and here's what you got
What you are looking for are 4 bolts on the back side. There are 2 caliper mounting bolts and 2 slide bolts. Torque values for the caliper mounting bolts are 166 ft-lbs and for the slide bolts 42 ft-lbs. I believe the caliper mounting bolt is an 18mm and the slide bolt is a 12 or 13mm (sorry I can't remember right now). But here's what you will be looking for...notice I'm reaching behind the rotor to take this picture outwards...
You will want to LOOSEN the caliper mounting bolts FIRST but DO NOT REMOVE them yet...then loosen the slide bolts...once both are loose...remove the caliper mounting bolts and SUPPORT the caliper...do NOT let it hang by the hose.
Here's a close up of my old pads...you can see there's still plenty of meat...but I was here and it don't take long to change them...
Remove the slide bolts and then separate the slide from the caliper
Next you will need to remove the slide pins from their holes...CAREFULLY grip the top of the rubber boot and slide if off of the pin as you are pulling hte pin up and out. Work with one slide pin at a time to not confuse them...one has a NOTCH and that will go on top the of the caliper...but if you work one at a time...there's no confusion. Pull out the slide pin and clean it off...you will need some high temperature brake grease to LIGHTLY lube up the pins before reinserting them. IF the pins are STUCK (mine weren't but I've heard they can be...) you may need to apply a little heat to try and break them free. Inspect the boots to make sure they aren't cracked or dry rotted and once you apply a THIN layer of grease...reinsert them into the hole and slip the boot back over the ridges. It will be obvious for the orientation when you reinstall the slide onto the caliper...basically the "flat" edge goes against the caliper and the "round" or "notch" sticks out the end...
At this point you will need to "press" the caliper pistons back into the caliper...there are a number of ways to do this...you can get a caliper tool from Autozone (they give it to you for free you just leave a deposit on your credit card so you bring it back!)...or you can do what I do...use a big C-clamp and I use my old brake pads to press against...compress the pistons back into the caliper...BUT REMEMBER TO LOOSEN YOUR MASTER CYLINDER CAP FIRST...when you compress your piston...the fluid in the lines gets forced back into the master cylinder...if you don't open the lid...pressure could be built up...
Here's the new pads installed and the slide bolts barely engaged to hold the slide to the caliper...Do not tighten these bolts until you have reinstalled the caliper onto the mounting brackets and snugged down the caliper mounting bolts.
Here's a view looking DOWN from above with the slide bolts AND mounting bolts engaged but NOT tightened yet.
Now make sure you torque everything up on this side and move to the other side and repeat the steps.
Once you finish the second side make sure you tighten your master cylinder cap.
At this point I also rotated my tires...but if you aren't doing that...simply return your tires to the Ex and torque your lug nuts and you are done.
I can typically change brake pads in about 30-45 minutes...they aren't that hard at all.
Next step...start the truck and pump the brakes to return brake pressure...then take the truck for a drive.
It is important to also "bed in your pads"...this involves a number of 30mph to 5mph HARD STOPS to heat up the pads and rotors and allow for a transfer of brake pad material to the rotors...you'll smell "hot brakes" when you have done it enough...typically about 6-8 hard stops. Then let the truck cool down without your foot on the brakes.
I didn't mess with the parking brake while I was back there because I had tested it just prior to my starting and it is holding nicely...I didn't feel like messing with it incase it is all rusted and fell apart on me.
I've got a problem with my '96 Tbird that's really stumping me. It started with a little shake when I gave the car gas. I don't know if it's related, but I ran over some debris on the highway at around 70mph. [No chance to avoid, unfortunately] That same day it felt like the car was missing, and throughout the week it got worse and worse. It would shake harder and faster with increased RPM's. By the end of the week, it was so bad I kept the car off the road.
I thought it was a bad misfire, so I changed the plugs, then the wires, then the EGR and EGR solenoid [from JY] and swapped a coilpack from my other car. It ended up being the harmonic balancer, it spun a 180, not a surprise on an 18 year old car. I've never had one go bad, so I didn't even think of that as a possibility with the way the car felt. [I've been working on cars for a long time.] It never threw a code once, so I had nothing to go by to begin with.
So over the weekend I swapped out the balancer, and buttoned everything up. Ran fine! No shake! But then I had gotten a new problem.
The idle started to get bad. Very bad. It would lope, lope then almost try to stall, especially when the fans kicked on or I put it into gear. Since this car is my daily driver, I had it at work while I started to undo the new stuff I put on it. I started with the just unpluging the battery for 3 hours. Didn't work. So I pulled the new plugs, reverted them back to the old ones. It didn't work. Leaving work that day I noticed if I pull the IAC connector, the idle smooths out some, but it doesn't stall. [Suspect, maybe?]
So I figured it was the EGR, or solenoid, so I changed them both out. Nothing worked, still was horrible. Frustrated I changed out the coil pack and wires. It's still horrible.
I don't drive the car now, it stalled out a few times in traffic on the way back before I swapped everything back out.
The icing on the cake is that it has not thrown a single code except for when I unplug the IAC. And the only code it throws is barking at me for doing so.
It really feels like a bad vacuum leak. I've run down every single line and there's nothing leaking or rotten. The IAC is in question, but the car was working perfectly fine for at least a year with no problems whatsoever. So how the IAC went bad right after changing everything and a new harmonic balancer is way beyond me.
I'm thinking too maybe I damaged the Crank Position Sensor when I installed the balancer, since it was a one piece unit with the pick-up gear. But, I was careful with it, used a puller installer, and there is appropriate distance between the sensor and gear. Also, I'm not sure, but I doubt the Crank Sensor going bad would effect idle. Any RPM above 1500 is smooth, and doesn't surge.
I just purchased a new to me 05.
PO, had a pioneer H/U installed, however the 4 rear speakers have no sound.
The rear of the radio seems to have everything plugged into it correctly.
My steering wheel controls work fine.
I'm guessing the rear volume/controller is canceling out the rear speakers???
If so what can I do to make the speakers play? I don't need the rear control to work.
I have that wonderful ticking noise... Here is some info on my truck: Its 133k, 5.3L 3V. I put new plugs in it and changed the oil (YES the right filter and oil).
Okay, so I'm trying to make sure my diagnosis is what I think it is before I start digging into the motor and get angry because I ordered the wrong parts.
Preface: I got the truck from a deal auction. I was told it ran great, well when I got it, it had this tick. It comes and goes as it pleases (not dependent on the weather or RPMS. The noise is consistent, it gets faster as RPMs rise, it doesn't go away after 1,200 rpms. This lead me to eliminate cam phasers as the issue.
Now here is something odd: After starting up the truck, initially it will be pretty quick and have great throttle response, but after that it will start act like someone put on the parking brake. It can barely accelerate and when you put it to the floor it gets worse. It seems to accelerate best at half throttle. The second part is the truck will shift, dropping the rpms incredibly low and the tick gets louder and more spaced out (leading me to think it's rpm dependent).
All of the noise seems to be localized around the passenger size head area. If I unplug the VCT solenoid the ticking doesn't seem to be as loud if I drive it the next day, and it doesn't do the shift into lower rpms and accelerates wonderfully. Leading me to think it's either the timing is off and when the phasers kick on it goes way out of time and causes it to go into limp mode...or the VCT solenoid is bad?
The ticking never fully goes away, but it has it's quiet days and LOUD days...
I currently have an 05 Limited X and I've also noticed this on other 05 X's as well. The front driver and passenger side doors near the lower end with the cladding doesn't seem to match up with the rear doors. This goes for both driver and passenger front doors. I at first thought maybe it was just on the X I have but this is something I've taken notice of on just about all of the 05 Limited's I've looked at. What I'm referring to with the front doors being popped out a small bit and not matching up or being perfectly aligned with the rear doors?
I've had an 01 Limited and the doors wasn't anywhere near how mis-aligned they seem to be on the 05 Limited's. I haven't checked years between or XLT's. But on almost or pretty much all 05 Limited's I'm noticing this. Some are not as bad as others or as noticeable as others. But for some reason they all seem to pop out a little towards the bottom. When I speak of doors I'm referring to the doors itself, not the cladding/molding sticking out.
Changing the front diff fluid on truck. I was looking at mine today and it looks like the top bolts will be difficult to reach.
I also tried to suck the fluid out of the fill hole but couldn't really fit a tube into the differential.
Ever since I've owned this truck I notice that when I shut the truck off only my rear doors do not auto unlock. Is this normal? It's embarrassing when I have passengers and they need me to hit the unlock switch from my door to get out.
View 14 RepliesI am trying to diagnose a problem with a friends 2002 f350 7.3L truck. the engine has approx. 140,000 miles and is all stock, no programming or aftermarket parts. Anyhow, he said driving down the road the other day the engine all of a sudden lost power and the truck wouldn't go any faster than 45mph. he said taking off from a stop sign, the truck has no power and takes forever to get up to 45mph. after this issue began, he has changed the fuel filter & screen, air filter and fuel pump. The check engine light if OFF, no active fault codes.
View 1 RepliesI recently bought a '97 Volvo 850 sedan. It is not a turbo. It starts up fine. It goes in reverse fine. It accelerates to about 10-15 mph fine. But when I accelerate faster than that, the rpm's go up and the car coasts. After about 20 minutes the car drives fine and it doesn't rev high. How to find what need replacing?
View 1 RepliesWell i picked up a 96 4x4 with the 4.0 a few weeks ago and been fixing stuff weekly that i find wrong. One thing i noticed was the rear diff was leaky but couldn't get the fill plug out so left if for now. Last night my wife was on interstate and it just started making a loud noise so she pulls over calls me. I get there and drive it and it makes a woowoowoo noise and it got louder as speed increased. She was 3 miles from the exit so i drove it about 15-20 to get it off interstate than another 2 miles to her sisters. We let it sit for a few hours and found a flatbed to haul it home, and when we finally got home i drove it off the flat bed and now it was making a loud clunky noise. Parked it in drive till today. Cracked open the rear and no fluid came out.
Inspecting all the gears looked good no metal in bottom so i went and got a new rear cover and 3 qt. of fluid. Put it back together and the woowoowoo was still there but seemed to slowly go away as i drove it around the block. So what else could be going on here or do i need to drive it and warm up the fluid so it circulates? I also noticed a sheeee sound like metal on metal when braking but i changed all 4 rotors and both pads last week but i noticed the brakes in the rear that look like drum brakes was bare but i assume that is only for the ebrake so didn't bother changing them yet. Could those be hitting the inside of the rotor and making the metal to metal noise?