The drive selector on my 2000 Ford Explorer Automatic 4.0L will not allow selection of low gear. The selections are shifted to the right so the last one, low gear will not select. When in park, P, it shows R. When in drive, D, it shows as 2 and when in 2 it shows as 1. Then it will not allow to shift in to 1.The settings are off by 1 knotch. what's up with that? It runs fine but cant get to low.
View 5 RepliesSuddenly, the horn on my '97 Volvo V90 (wagon - really a 960 wagon) stopped working. The mechanic checked out connections. The only thing he came up with was to get inside the column and see if a wire had come loose. Not only is that wildly expensive, but the air bag issue is a big deal. Finding a junk yard with a wheel, horn and column is impossible for this model. I have to pass inspection soon. Testing in and around the column? And, if after all testing is done, what are the options??
View 1 RepliesMy anti lock warning comes on after 1 mile of driving. If I test the anti lock on ice during the first mile the system works fine, around 1 mile the lamp lights.
View 7 RepliesMy wife's '97 Bonneville has recently begun acting up. It especially seems to not like the cold weather. It starts hard then the motor will fluctuate and hesitate and die. It usually stays running the second time. Then when I put it into gear pushing the throttle doesn't do anything. It seems to stumble and falter. Sometimes, if I pump the gas it works other times if I move the pedal up and down slowly I can find the "sweet spot" and it will accelerate. I'm not sure if it's related or not, but sometimes going down the highway on long trips it will seem like the transmission is slipping and the car lurches or slows down. It's really weird. Then if you shut it off, it won't turn back on for 15 minutes or so.
View 11 RepliesI have a 2006 Kia Sedona with about 85k on it. About 2 months ago it began not starting (no engine turn over whatsoever). I took it to the dealer and they could not get the problem to repeat. When I pressed the service manager he told me to "bang on the fuse box" while trying to start it. Oddly, that seems to work. Something about the power relay (I might have the terminology wrong here). Last week my (1 year old) battery died. Another Kia dealership also found nothing wrong with the van but also mentioned the power relay as a possible cause of the period non-starting but didn't think that could damage the battery. Car is yet again, not starting sometimes. Banging on the fuse box as per the first service manager still works but this is not a permanent solution. Don't want to spring for a new power relay (??) since they can't definitively diagnose that.
View 3 RepliesOn the way home from purchasing this 2.5i Premium the BRAKE light started flashing when I got to 40mph. - yes, the emergency brake was off. Car was roaring like the brake was on-ablut 5 mi. to home. When I drove it back to dealer/service to get a few minor "We owe" things done, same thing happened again when up to 40mph. This was reported to service and car was driven by service manager. They reported a bad wheel bearing front R, and later in day found out rear R wheel bearing also bad. Yes, to be replaced..
View 19 RepliesI have an '05 Lexus SC430 with 53,000 miles on it. For the past couple of years, I have noticed an intermittent antifreeze smell (sweet odor) when driving. It never lasts for long and is apparently coming out of the vents. I can not figure out any common denominator to cause this, other than the radiator was replaced in Nov. 2014. My long-time mechanic has ridden with me a few times and I am unable to recreate for him to diagnose.
View 9 RepliesI have a 1991 Accord LX wagon that is leaking coolant. I figured it out b/c there is a green fluid pooled on the floor behind the passenger's seat. Why would coolant be leaking there? I bought this car in February and have been nickeled and dimed ever since. I want to sell it and get something else but I want to get the coolant problem fixed first and need to know if this is going to be expensive.
View 5 RepliesThere is a noise I'm trying to locate and diagnose, comes from under this 2004 Accord DX, 5 spd. i can't locate 'where' precisely. it occurs intermittently, seems correlated with suspension parts' responding to load and forces (for instance, turning into a parking lot, where there's a slight dip at the paved curb skirt entering the lot, or when there's a modest bounce as car travels along the highway--when the stable momentum of travel is interrupted, making for a "bounce" or some force transferred into suspension, e.g.). ---The sound is low in register, not loud, and best i can do is 'imagine' what assembly (assemblage, or rigging, or set-up, or contraption) could produce such a sound.
The sound--to my experience and auditory senses is like, of a torsion bar, maybe a 3/4-inch steel rod, as might be fitted transverse somewhere at rear axle area, that would serve to stabilize the sway of the vehicle, under turning conditions; (I'm only guessing here, cause my pod-nur says, or 'hears', the sound's coming from front suspension area, like when load is taken at front strut, going over the slight dip when turning from road to parking lot). so what i hear, I imagine to be a point on the rod coming sudden contact with another metal part enough that the strike produces a tuned "spring" sound, the kind of sound i imagine a spring-tensioned rod would make, or like a staccato bass note, as piano bass string could make.
M bad on the metaphor here--yet, the approximate pitch of this pernicious occasional noise is near the A or the B, in the octave below middle C--i just now tested those notes, trying to be sure I'm 'in the ball park' in reporting and elaborating symptoms, all of which have to do with 'sounds' thus far. There doesn't seem to be any other evidence of frailty, or deterioration of handling, or efficiency of the vehicle. But my concern is that maybe some rubber grommet, or shock-absorbing hard rubber part, is allowing a loss of tolerances that will develop into some dangerous driving performance--a line of concern that one would take if one heard the clicking of a CV joint, tho my case had nothing to do with that realm i believe.
My trailblazer started with the spitting and sputtering (misfiring) last week. Over 100,000 miles on it, ya, in need of a tune up. So for obvious reasons new spark plugs seemed to be the logical choice. If it wasn't the problem, it can't hurt to change them. Truck's SES light did not come on, but truck was running pretty crappy, more when it was cold than hot, but definetely a loss of power. There is also a slight exhaust leak starting, where abouts right now I haven't pinpointed, deaf in one ear so it's hard to tell where it is coming from.
So I had my brother in law install the new spark plugs. We took the old ones out and 4 and 5 cylinder plugs had oil on them. Ah great, valve cover gasket and the gaskets the spark plugs sit on (don't ask me, not a mechanic lol) need to be changed. Started with just the plugs for now. Started truck up, still had a bit of vibration on idle, like it would from an exhaust leak, but still didn't seem right . But an even more noticable loss of power when driving, truck doesn't seem to want to get above forty.
Now my SES light is flashing almost consistently unless I'm stopped (idled). It almost feels like the cat is clogged. Did smell a heavier than normal gas smell when changing out the plugs. I know that the flashing SES almost certainly means a misfire. But why would it all of a sudden come on after changing the plugs? Tomorrow I am going to my friends garage who has the scanner tool (not just the one that reads codes) to see if it is a bad coil pack and to see if there is a specific cylinder that is misfiring.
But there is something about that exhaust leak that is leading me to believe it is the culprit of my problems. Leak came first, then the misfiring. Could the cat be clogged, which blew a hole in the exhaust and cause a misfire? And the new plugs just made the misfiring worse to cause the SES light to come on? Is there anything else I should check besides a faulty coil pack and compression check (even though I should have done that when I changed the plugs, but live and learn).