Friggen cars!

[Seasoned Oak]

I have an 03 explorer which had to have a new transmission. And i drive it everyday........LOL......250K miles.

Dont let it sit for any length of time. I had a Taurus that needed a rebuilt. Rebuilt was installed. Apparently it sat too long after the rebuilt was installed ,that one didnt work anymore either. i gave the thing away out of sheer frustration. A friend had a o3, f150 pickup for sale,apparently it sat too long waiting for a buyer,you guessed it tranny didnt work anymore by the time it was sold.

 

[Ashful]

Dont let it sit for any length of time. I had a Taurus that needed a rebuilt. Rebuilt was installed. Apparently it sat too long after the rebuilt was installed.

Sounds like superstition, to me. Can you make it rain with a dance, too? ;-)


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[begreen]

Sitting can cause issues with multiple parts not just the transmission. Modern vehicles have tight tolerances. When they sit outside for a long time seals can dry out, parts lose their protective lubrication and condensation often accumulates. That can cause internal corrosion. Without some prepwork damage can occur if the vehicle is just started up and driven. Or things may not function correctly.

In my previous Ranger the previous owner had been in an a small accident and not driven for quite a while. The vehicle was fine, except when it got hot. Then the clutch would hang up at times. When cold the vehicle was fine. One time this happened to me in rush hour traffic. I had to quickly pull off the hwy and ended up having to push it a bit to get to a parking spot. Went and had a beer and when I came back, evening temps had cooled down and it worked fine. The problem ended up being rust on the pilot shaft that was causing the throwout bearing to stick.

 

[BrotherBart]

Sounds like superstition, to me. Can you make it rain with a dance, too? ;-)


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If I keep dancing long enough.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Sounds like superstition, to me. Can you make it rain with a dance, too? ;-)

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Just my own personal experience and that of a friend. Thought it was odd cuz i never heard of any other brand of vehicle with an automatic tranny act that way. The tauraus ran for a few months after the rebuilt was installed,then sat for a few months with the rebuilt in it waiting for a motor change. Motor worked fine but the tranny wouldnt work anymore. Truck had several issues and sat for about 6 months while owner tried to sell it. By the time it was sold ,tranny was dead.

 

[jb6l6gc]

Just figured out rattling noise on tear end of 07 Mazda 3. Was a rattling brake pad. This car has no retainer clip or shim on the outboard pads! Me and mechanic only found by banging up on tire with a large mallet. High temp silicone on the outer pad to caliper and fixed FINALLY!

 

[mass_burner]

2004 Prius has 170k now. Other than new tires, brakes, no major repairs. Never broke down, never left me stranded in 7 years.

I think she's earned the maintenance coming up.

 

[fbelec]

i have friends that say drive it like you hate and it will never go wrong. one friend does and never has problems. changes oil and filter once a year. funny how that works. i have a 96 e250 last year of the 351 it has over 201k miles and if it wasn't for the body rust i would still be running it now first 120k i drove it with the gas peddle to the floor at every start. the only issue it has now is it needs a rear main seal other than that original motor and tranny. other than a few sensors no work done to either. tranny fluid is original from factory just like the exhaust. so now the body is rusted and have to get rid of it. anybody want a 351 with a working trans???????

 

[osagebow]

My wife, kids and I sat on the left side of the highway with no buffer between me and 80 mph traffic in a brand new jeep compass. It was in Atlanta, 95 degrees, and I had to wait 45 minutes for the CVTranny to cool down. Internet is abuzz with praise for theses pieces of dung. If my wife was driving we all would have died (her words) because of the traffic situation. I barely got off the road as we went from 75 to 35 in 4 seconds.Of course, we had planned to get past ATL before rush hour. made our 12 hour trip over 15 ( It died again, and died twice on the way home)

Dealer was pretty much ho hum about the whole thing, refused to even change the fluid that was undoubtedly fried (of course you cant check or drain it yourself, its sealed...) He said and wrote they checked it and it was fine. Smudges I photographed on the access were still there, proving it was untouched- they kept it a week and did nothing, then lied on the slip.

Closest I've been to being arrested since my formative years. "It mentions that can happen in the manual, sir"
"Maybe you should mention it in the SALES PITCH!"
Wife drags me out...
Took a bath on the trade in. Our Equinox has been great FWIW.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Brand new? I'd drop it off and demand a replacement immediately. I'm a confrontational type.

 

[peakbagger]

Jeep Compasses score consistently low for reliability, the salesman and dealer know it and just hope the owners eventually go away if they treat them badly enough. Consumer Reports was not kind to it.

 

[Ashful]

Pretty bad to have ANY car that breaks down in 2016, let alone one that's brand new. Quality is so high today, versus 30 - 40 years ago, when we were used to seeing cars on the side of the road with one problem or another. I don't think I've had any car break down in the last 20 years, for any reason, and I tend to keep some cars well past "middle-age".

 

[blades]

osagebow- one very important thing to remember on the Equinox- every 3000mi. change oil and filter - using factory specked weight . If I am correct that has variable cam timing -the passages for the cam phaser and VCT as well as the tensioner are very small and in the case of the vct and phaser the clearances between moving parts in each have extremel tight tolerances. Doesn't take much to gum up the works. I have rebuilt enough of the vct systems to know what is happening with those. Almost every case of failure can be traced to low or dirty oil - in a few cases oil pump failure. Industry wide problem . I will assign 50/50% fault to customer and MFG respectively on these.

F150 99-2003 apx tranny good for apx 100K then the bands are going and the tail shaft bearing is going also. In that time period 3 auto trannies existed most 150's were equipped with the smallest one particularly if the 4.6l 6cyl or 4.6l 8cyl units. Not sure if the 5.4l got the midsize or not.

Computerized systems are ok for mileage and epa I guess but sure are a royal pain in the back side for customers and techs.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Jeep Compasses score consistently low for reliability, the salesman and dealer know it and just hope the owners eventually go away if they treat them badly enough. Consumer Reports was not kind to it.

But i sure see a lot of em on the road ,along with the popular jeep renegades. I had one (renegade) and just plain didnt like climbing over that side rail every time you get in and out ,got rid of it in less than a year. Consumer reports are even less kind to the renegades.

 

[firefighterjake]

. . .

Computerized systems are ok for mileage and epa I guess but sure are a royal pain in the back side for customers and techs.

A couple years ago I was talking to a mechanic/tech (and now teacher) who said when he first started in the business you would spend several hours figuring out the problem to a car's breakdown and then just a few minutes fixing the broken part. Now he says with the advent of computers and tech he says you hook up and often can tell what the problem is within minutes, but spend hours getting to and fixing the problem.

 

[blades]

ffjake- If its a really good tech that may be so, On the other hand so many are part swappers which gets you nowhere fast except an empty wallet.
Been dealing with self diagnostics for 20+ years now - If you are not positive of the operational flow of a particular system it will have you chasing your tail for many hours. Example: partially plugged injectors- will give a lean code eventually- there will be no code as to failure of injectors meantime you will likely get a over/ under timing code ( forget which) Nothing wrong with timing system but the computer is tying to correct for the lean condition and has maxed out, if it goes on long enough might get an over heat code as well, as when the eng is burning real lean it gets hotter. ( like our chain saws) lilkely also experience a code for a bad O2 sensor, + a Mass air flow code and maybe a VCT code as well. By this time the unit might only be running in a limp mode if at all. Unless the coil in the injector fails it will never show an injector code and likely no missfire either. A sticky VCT is another nasty one to find and again the computer is compensating- eventually you will get a whole salad bowl of codes most of which will not bear directly on the problem but are symptoms of the failure. The masking effect of the computer adjusting to compensate can be a real pia. Even on a real time graphic display it is easy to be led astray.

 

[Ashful]

@blades, so the rules really haven't changed. Experienced mechanics fix a problem faster, and with fewer wrong turns, than those with lesser experience or education. I have the same issue with service tech's in my industry, across all levels and vintage of diagnostic systems.


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[jharkin]

osagebow- one very important thing to remember on the Equinox- every 3000mi. change oil and filter - using factory specked weight . If I am correct that has variable cam timing -the passages for the cam phaser and VCT as well as the tensioner are very small and in the case of the vct and phaser the clearances between moving parts in each have extremel tight tolerances. Doesn't take much to gum up the works. I have rebuilt enough of the vct systems to know what is happening with those. Almost every case of failure can be traced to low or dirty oil - in a few cases oil pump failure. Industry wide problem . I will assign 50/50% fault to customer and MFG respectively on these.

Every 3k miles, for real? Thats like a 1970's oil change interval.


I find that very hard to believe, even "dirty" looking oil only has impurity levels in it measured in ppm. There is nothing to "gunk up the works" unless you are running ridiculously long intervals (like 30-50k) and get sludging. If you dont believe me go look at used oil lab reports in the BITOG forums.

Honda was using oil pressure activated variable timing (VTEC) as early as the 90s. (the 80s in their F1 cars) with thicker weight oils than most car use today and never required special short change intervals for it. It would be really surprising if 30 years later the rest of the industry hadn't figure d out how to do the same......

 

[Ashful]

Every 3k miles, for real? Thats like a 1970's oil change interval.

When I drove my pickup truck every day (until six months ago), I still changed the dino oil every 3000 miles, without exception. Now that I'm driving it much less, I've gone to the "every six months" model, which is probably every 1000-2000 miles (I drive it twice as much in winter).

My car runs full synthetic and has an oil life indicator, which will go off after roughly 6000 miles of "normal" driving, or just over 4000 miles of my driving. Point being, usage has a lot to do with oil life.

 

[maple1]

The oil change/service indicator in our Civic signals oil change at around 12,000 kms.

There's been a few times we've gone over that due to scheduling a change - don't think it's ever been under.

455,000+/- kms & counting.

 

[blades]

Every 3k miles, for real? Thats like a 1970's oil change interval.


I find that very hard to believe, even "dirty" looking oil only has impurity levels in it measured in ppm. There is nothing to "gunk up the works" unless you are running ridiculously long intervals (like 30-50k) and get sludging. If you dont believe me go look at used oil lab reports in the BITOG forums.

Honda was using oil pressure activated variable timing (VTEC) as early as the 90s. (the 80s in their F1 cars) with thicker weight oils than most car use today and never required special short change intervals for it. It would be really surprising if 30 years later the rest of the industry hadn't figure d out how to do the same......

Ya but GM Ford and Dodge ain't Honda and your Honda likely wasn't using plastic parts either in the timing section. I am not a fan of plastic intake manifolds either.

 

[jharkin]

When I drove my pickup truck every day (until six months ago), I still changed the dino oil every 3000 miles, without exception. Now that I'm driving it much less, I've gone to the "every six months" model, which is probably every 1000-2000 miles (I drive it twice as much in winter).

My car runs full synthetic and has an oil life indicator, which will go off after roughly 6000 miles of "normal" driving, or just over 4000 miles of my driving. Point being, usage has a lot to do with oil life.

Then you where probably wasting a lot of perfectly servicable oil.T he 3k interval is an old myth perpetuated by quick change shops to make money. No mfg reccomends 3k anymore and even the longer intervals they recommend are usually conservative.


Send some of that 1000mi oil off to blackstone and I bet the analysis comes back squeaky clean.

Have you ever been to BITOG?
http://bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

Ya but GM Ford and Dodge ain't Honda and your Honda likely wasn't using plastic parts either in the timing section. I am not a fan of plastic intake manifolds either.

Plastic parts in the timing gear?

But still, what does that have to do with oil cleanliness?

Now I could see it being a problem if the engine is prone to sludging, but sludging is usually due to poorly designed PCV systems (ie Toyota/VW) or low temp/moisture buildup...

 

[sportbikerider78]

Oil does not degrade sitting in an engine unless it was super dirty inside that engine.

These days it isn't your engine that dies. It is all of your accessories. They are higher maintenance than the engine.

Run a high quality synthetic..change every 6-12k miles and save your time.

It doesn't hurt to drain the transmission fluid and add what you removed. Usually 3-5qts comes out. Lots of people warn against transmission flushes.

 

[blades]

Then you where probably wasting a lot of perfectly servicable oil.T he 3k interval is an old myth perpetuated by quick change shops to make money. No mfg reccomends 3k anymore and even the longer intervals they recommend are usually conservative.


Send some of that 1000mi oil off to blackstone and I bet the analysis comes back squeaky clean.

Have you ever been to BITOG?
http://bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-101/
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm




Plastic parts in the timing gear?

But still, what does that have to do with oil cleanliness?

Now I could see it being a problem if the engine is prone to sludging, but sludging is usually due to poorly designed PCV systems (ie Toyota/VW) or low temp/moisture buildup...

New engines 2005 ( overhead cam not push rod) up almost nothing as far as pvc and no EGR systems. Yep, lots of plastic under the hood now days including critical components- Hydro tensioners plastic body metallic piston, chain/ belt guides plastic,intake manifolds plastic. Radiator plastic, fuel tank plastic Drive by wire- mostly plastic, some pulleys/ sheaves are plastic almost all of the air intake system plastic. Or how about this overhead cam engine One bearing at the drive point due to stress no bearings, sleeves or anything on the rest of the journals NO oil ports/grooves on them either Just the steel com shaft clamped down into the journals of an alum. head.

 

[Ashful]

Then you where probably wasting a lot of perfectly servicable oil.T he 3k interval is an old myth perpetuated by quick change shops to make money. No mfg reccomends 3k anymore and even the longer intervals they recommend are usually conservative.

Sorry, but this is wrong. My Dodge 1500 owners manual does specify a 3000 mile oil change interval, if using the truck for towing, plowing, and hauling. This is essentially all I use this truck for, so I am following the manufacturer's recommendation when I change at 3000 miles.

I do agree the old 3000 mile interval has been perpetuated by those making money on it, when many cars come with a recommended 5000 - 10,000 mile oil change recommendation, but you are overstating your case when you say no manufacturer recommends changing at 3000 mile intervals.