My friend Alex who builds LS engines for fun told me my knock sensor was probably pulling timing like crazy on 87 octane. I laughed it off for like 6 months until I logged my IATs and actually saw the timing drop 8 degrees under load. Put a tank of 93 in my 2013 Mustang GT and the car felt completely different, no more pinging on hot days. Has anyone else had a tuner or mechanic talk them out of cheap gas?
Last Saturday I was swapping out a dead battery in my 2015 Fusion and this older guy walks up in the parking lot. He sees me cussing at the serpentine belt and asks what year it is. I tell him and he just laughs. He said Ford engineers put the alternator on the bottom passenger side on purpose so it'd get soaked by puddles and die every 60k miles. Said they did it to sell more parts. I always thought it was just bad luck but that dude made me realize how much of car design is intentional crap. Anyone else hear stories like that about specific models?
I used to follow this popular channel's method of speed-bleeding by cracking the bleeder screw and pumping the pedal fast, but a shop owner in Denver told me that technique can snap the bleeder off if the threads are corroded. Last Saturday I tried his slower one-person method with a hose and bottle, and it worked perfectly without me having to buy a $50 power bleeder. Has anyone else been burned by following flashy repair hacks that just don't hold up on rusty cars?
I had a 2014 Focus for 3 years and thought I was just bad at driving stick. Then a mechanic friend rode with me and said "your clutch is slipping because the transmission can't decide what gear to be in." I changed nothing because Ford said it was "normal" - until the whole thing grenaded at 48,000 miles. The TCM module failed and left me stranded on Route 22 in Pennsylvania for 2 hours. Has anyone else had their dealer actually fix one of these under warranty?
My old truck always had this random miss at highway speed around 55 mph that drove me nuts for almost a year. I tried new plugs, new distributor cap, even cleaned the carburetor twice and nothing fixed it. Finally my buddy at the parts counter suggested swapping the plug wires from the $25 set I bought to a proper set that was closer to $60. He said the cheap ones can have internal resistance that varies way too much and cause intermittent issues. After I put the new wires on that miss vanished completely on the first drive down route 21. It ran smoother at idle too and even felt like it had more pull going up hills. Has anyone else chased a random misfire for way too long only to find it was something as simple as wiring?
Met this dude at a gas station outside Denver last summer while I was filling up my work van. He starts pointing at his Mini going on about how clever the designers were with the space and handling. I asked him how many times he'd replaced the coolant expansion tank, cause those things crack like clockwork, and he got real quiet. Then he admitted he was on his third one in 18 months and asked me if I knew a workaround. Has anyone else run into owners who won't admit their dream car has dumb problems?
I was idling at a light on Broadway in Nashville last Tuesday and my whole dashboard started vibrating so bad I thought the engine was gonna fall out. Turns out these cars have a known transmission defect where the clutches go haywire in stop and go traffic, Ford even got sued over it. Has anyone else had the DPS6 dual clutch system just give up on you in the middle of town?
I've owned this 2018 F-150 for about 3 years now and I've been swearing at the window switches the whole time. You know how they put the 4 window buttons in a row, but the rear switches are flat and the front ones are raised? I kept hitting the rear window when I wanted the passenger window. Drove me nuts every single morning on my commute from Denver to Aurora. Last week I took it into a shop off Colfax to fix a rattle in the door panel. The mechanic there, an older guy named Ron, explained it was designed so people in the back seat don't accidentally hit the raised front switches. He showed me a TSB about it. Still feels backwards to me, but at least now I know there was a reason besides just bad engineering. Anybody else have a car feature they hated until someone explained the logic behind it?
Had my Honda Civic for about 6 years now and every time it rained I'd find a puddle in the spare tire well. Finally took it to a mechanic last month and he just poked his finger at the rubber seal and showed me the drain holes were pointing up instead of down. Has anyone else had a car where the factory just installed something completely upside down?
I bought a used 2015 Ford Focus three years ago and within 6 months the transmission started shuddering like crazy going uphill. Ford's DPS6 dual-clutch automated manual was supposed to be smooth but it feels like a teenager learning stick every time I stop. I took it to three different shops and they all said the clutch packs are known to fail around 40k miles no matter what. Has anyone here actually gotten Ford to cover a replacement under warranty or did you just dump the car?
I got a 2002 Buick LeSabre with the 3800 Series II last year, thought I scored a deal. Last Tuesday I smelled coolant after a 20 minute drive to work in Phoenix. By Thursday the temp gauge was spiking at a stoplight and I saw that puddle of green under the passenger side. Turns out the plastic intake manifold gasket had been slowly failing for months, common issue on these. Anyone else deal with that plastic crap or find a fix that actually holds up past 60k miles?
Honestly I've pulled three of these engines apart this year alone, all from different customer cars, and every single one had the tensioner cracked or the guide rails worn down to nothing. It's a design flaw where the plastic degrades from oil heat around 80k miles and then the chain starts slapping. You can hear a rattling noise on cold starts for a few seconds before it quiets down, and most people just ignore it until the chain jumps timing. Has anyone else seen these break without warning or am I just unlucky in my area?
I always thought 'sealed for life' meant never changing it, but after seeing the sludge that came out of her 2013 Honda Odyssey when a local shop finally convinced me to drop the pan and swap the fluid at 85k, I realized the real trick is to just ignore the manual and do a simple drain-and-fill every 30k miles, so has anyone else had a trans fail because they trusted the 'lifetime' claim?
I spent last summer dropping a Chevy 350 into my 88 Mustang because I got a deal on the motor. Man, what a headache. The motor mounts needed custom fab work, the wiring harness fought me for 3 weeks, and the oil pan cleared the K-member by like a quarter inch. Meanwhile my buddy did a simple 302 swap from a junkyard Explorer in his Fox body over a weekend with basic bolt-in parts. The Chevy makes more power but the Ford swap cost me half the time and 800 bucks less. Anyone else try mixing brands and regret it?
Last Tuesday I flushed the oil system on a 2004 Intrepid that was knocking. It ran smooth for 7 days then the timing chain let go at a red light in Phoenix. Has anyone else had a 'fix' fail way faster than you expected?
Last month I was driving home from work on I-35 in Austin when my 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee started jerking real bad. Then the check engine light came on and the thing would barely go 40 mph up a slight hill. Took it to my guy who said the transmission was shot and it needed a full rebuild. Turns out that year had a known defect where the transmission cooler lines would leak fluid into the radiator and mix with coolant. That destroys the transmission from the inside out. Cost me $3,200 to fix it and the dealer knew about this problem for years but never did a recall. Has anyone else dealt with this particular mess from that generation Grand Cherokee?
He told me the 7.3 Powerstroke was great but the rest of the truck around it was built to fall apart in 10 years, which hit different because I just spent $3,200 on rust repair for my 2002 F-250... has anyone else noticed the engine outlasts everything else on these?
I drove a 2008 Focus for about 4 years and that thing was solid. The engine bay had room to work, the transmission shifted fine, nothing weird. Then my buddy got a 2010 model and I helped him change the alternator last weekend. What a nightmare. They moved everything tight against the firewall for no reason. Had to take off the wheel well liner just to get to the belt tensioner. The older version was way easier to fix and cost way less in parts. Has anyone else run into a car that got worse after a refresh like that?
Picked the cheap one. It started leaking after 8 months. The cooling system on these cars already has enough problems without me gambling on parts. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way on a specific model?
I coasted into a rest stop with no clutch and had to double clutch it all the way to an AutoZone that didn't open until 8am, has anyone else had to jury-rig a repair with zip ties just to get home?
Hit a chunk of tire on I-75 in Atlanta. Plastic oil pan split like an egg. Cost me $600 for a replacement plus tow. Stick with trucks that still use metal pans.
I bought a 2015 Ford Focus new back in 2015 and last month at exactly 60,341 miles the transmission started jerking super bad. Took it to the dealership in Phoenix and they said the DPS6 dual-clutch is known for this and there's a class action settlement but no fix. Has anyone else had their Focus shudder so bad it feels like you're learning to drive stick again?
I mean everyone says those crush washers are fine but mine was basically welded on from the last shop. Tried a breaker bar, PB Blaster, everything. Finally had to chisel the dang thing off. Has anyone else dealt with a drain plug that just refuses to move?
Three years ago I laughed at a buddy for installing one on his F-150, but after seeing the sludge in mine I finally get why modern direct injection engines need them.
Bought a rebuilt transmission for my 2014 Cherokee from a shop in Phoenix. Died on the highway last week, fluid looked like mud. Anyone else had bad luck with aftermarket Jeep parts?