I have a 2003 Ford Taurus 3.0L V6 Engine, when I have my car in idle it runs rough and the RPM’s stay at 700, when I put it into drive it hesitates, if I put the a/c on the RPM’s vary between 300-700 and then stalls out. I had routine maintance done recently, (oil change, air filter replaced,and tires rotated).The backpressure sensor was replaced,less than a year ago I had a tune up done.

Answer:

     Most idle problems are due to the throttle body or idle air control, which is located in the throttle body.  I would recommend a good throttle body cleaning by your mechanic and possible replacement of the IAC if it tests bad. 

     I have also heard of vacuum issues and even spark plug boots improperly installed causing misfires when water get’s into the spark plug area.  These should be checked if your mechanic checks out the throttle body and finds no issues.

Hi Kevin,
     My 1999 Mitsubishi Montero is acting strange:
draining the brand new battery in two days even when just parking in the garage.

     Remote key does not open the locks, only clicking noise generated. Engine starts and runs while battery is still charged.
Is it possible that this condition is coming from faulty alternator?

Answer:

     Alternator is possible, but it is probably an accessory inside the vehicle. 
The first thing I would check is the alternator charging voltage.  With the vehicle running, measure the voltage at the battery with a voltmeter.  It should be between 13.5 and 14.5 Volts.  If it’s below that, I would suspect the alternator.

     I would also fully charge the battery and have a garage perform a load test.  It’s not unheard of to get a bad new battery.

Once those two checks are done it’s time to find the drain…

     The best way to check for drain is to use an ammeter, hooked inline with the negative cable at the battery.  With everything off, and no key in the ignition, start pulling fuses until you find the circuit causing the drain.  Your radio and ecu will probably cause a slight drain, and 50mA is not uncommon so don’t think you have to get the drain down to 0.  You are looking for a circuit causing over 500mA to drain your battery that fast.

Once you find the circuit causing the drain, you need to determine what component in that circuit is causing the problem.  Damaged light sockets, bad solenoids and motors have been known to cause issues.  It’s always an adventure finding electrical problems, and don’t forget a bad wire can also leak to ground and cause a drain.
Good Luck,
Kevin

A business contact sent this to me the other day, very interesting story.  At 36 years of age, I have had over 30 cars and 5 motorcycles, I wish I had one ounce the commitment Allen had.

Mr. Allen Swift ( Springfield , MA.) received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Picadilly P1 Roadster from his father, brand new – as a graduation gift in 1928. He drove it up until his death last year…..at the age of 102 !!!
He was the oldest living owner of a car from new. Just thought you’d like to see it. He donated it to a  Springfield  museum after his death. It has 170,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, dead silent at any speed and is in perfect cosmetic condition. (82 years) …That’s approximately 2000 miles per year…

Read More…

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5634442/rollsroyce_picadilly_p1_roadster_still.html

Yes that is a house Air Conditioning unit in the window with a gasoline powered generator powering it !!!

So when the guy goes to the gas station, he has to fill the gas tank on the car, and the generator.  I think if you take a step back and look at this scenario, you could sell the generator and A/C unit and have more than enough to fix your A/C. 

Thanks to my friend Randy for posting this picture on Facebook.  It was taken in Reading PA, at a Walmart of all places… go figure !

We are looking to buy a used van, but don’t have much money, so most in our price range have higher miles. So my question is, how many miles can you expect to get out of the average full size van before seeing problems like the tranny dying or motor giving up etc?

There is a ford e-150 regency conversion van that is beautiful, huge, and in our price range, but it has 112,500 miles. If we spend all our savings on an old van, and it tears up, then I’m really in trouble. I need something to last a few years w/ no major issues, and we drive a lot. 

Thanks for your time,

Daniel

Answer: Daniel,

Excellent question !  When looking at high mileage vehicles there are
a couple of questions I always ask…

1.  How was in maintained?  Regular oil changes?  How did the owner
drive the vehicle, short trips (worse) or highway miles (better)?
2.  Has the recommend maintenance been performed, or coming due soon?
Depending on the engine, you may be looking at a timing chain or belt
replacement, water pump and spark plugs around 120K miles,
3.  What does Consumer Reports think about the vehicle.  Grab a used
car guide from Consumer Reports to find out any nagging reliability
issue for the vehicle in question.

The good news is that most full sized vans are based on their pickup
truck brothers, so they are built rugged and reliable.  If you are
looking at a Ford, I would stay away from the 5.4 and V10 engines from
1997 – 2003 due to issues with spark plug blowout.

See here for more details…
http://www.autoeducation.com/blog/engine/spark-plug-blowout-on-ford-modular-triton-engines/

If you can find a 4.9L Inline 6 engine, they run forever and have
enough torque to haul a van full of kids.  It’s one of Ford’s best
engines and will last way over 200K miles if properly cared for.
I don’t have much experience with the GM or Dodge offerings in full
sized vans, expect to say that Dodge has a good engine in their base
V-8.  It’s a proven design and will provide years of service.
Transmissions may be another story though.  Again, it comes down to
maintenance and how the van was driven.

Here is a shot of the Craftsman box assembled and sitting next to my 20 year old Craftsman Box which has served me well over the years.  I just recently added a middle section (in black) that increased my capacity, but I was still running out of room.

Initial Impressions: This box is BIG, way more room than my old setup, it barely fits into my garage.  I love the look of the stainless steel, and the hardware seems to be top quality.

Construction:  The box is made from Stainless Steel and it is heavy.  The base unit is 260 lbs. and the top is somewhere around 125 lbs. making assembly a 2 man job unless you are Hulk Hogan.  The drawers are supported by ball bearing slides and support 70 lbs. of tools per drawer. 

The stainless steel has an attractive brush finish and has a protective coating which appears to be a clear powder coat.  It has a slight “orange peel” texture which is common to powder-coated finishes, but it does not distract from the beauty of the tool box. (see image to left)

The handles and casters are beefy, to support the weight.  Two of the casters swivel to help moving the box around the garage.  Always remember to put the swiveling castors on the end with the handle. 

My only complaint about the construction is the “Grip Latch” system which prevents the drawers from opening while moving the tool box around.  It just feels “cheap”  There is a small latch on each end of the drawer pull and it’s spring loaded using a thin section of spring steel.  The tactile feel does not agree with my engineering background.  Only time will tell if the latch system will hold up.  I personally park my tool box in the garage and rarely move it, so the latch serves no useful purpose to me.  I could imagine a mechanic who works outside on uneven ground would appreciate the drawers not popping open unexpectedly.  I had a few friends over to my house since I got the box, and had them all look at it and it’s 50/50 on their opinions of the Grip Latch system. 

 Final Impressions:  After getting all my tools into the box and maneuvering it into it’s new home at the back of my garage, it was time to start using it. 

My 1954 Ford Panel Truck is getting a new chassis under it, from a 1997 Ford Explorer, so the first task was to strip the Explorer of it’s body.  That task has taken a few weekends and I have had a chance to use the tool box. 

I appreciate the ball bearing slides on the drawers, there is little effort required to open and close even the drawers with the heaviest tools in it.  I still don’t care for the grip latch, and when opening the upper drawers, I have to remember to make a conscious effort to lift up, to get the drawer open.  My 20 year old box had no latching mechanism, and no ball bearing slides.  I would take this ball bearing combo and grip latch over my old box with no ball bearings.

I went to my local Sears store to buy some accessories, drawer organizers, socket holders and some liners.  Well something I did not realize, since the top drawers are full width, there are not a lot of options to fit perfectly into the 40” wide drawers.  They make precut drawer liners which fit into the base unit drawers, but I was out of luck for the top unit drawers.

The box is easy to clean, grease and dust just wipe off.  It looks great sitting in the garage, almost too good for the surroundings   

So the big question, if I was in the market for a tool box, would I buy this one? 

No, I would personally go for the model without the Grip Latch and without the Stainless Steel finish.  It’s about $200 – $300 cheaper than the model I tested and has normal width top drawers which make buying accessories easier.  Click the image to the right to see what box may soon be in my garage.

Since this box was sent to me gratis, from Sears, they asked that when I was done with it, I either send it back to them, or give it away to one of my visitors!  Well, it’s time to figure out how to give this bad boy away.  In a few days, I will update this post with the details of how to enter the free giveaway.

Answer:

P0125 – Insufficient Coolant Temperature for Closed Loop Fuel Control
P0705 – Transmission Range Sensor Circuit Malfunction (PRNDL Input)

These codes are generic OBDII codes from the following site…
http://www.carclinicmagazine.com/fault_code_library.html

I would guess from the first code your coolant sensor is shot, or the
wiring is bad to the sensor.  The second one related to the
transmission shifter location, which the sensor may be in the
transmission or the console where the shifter is.  I don’t have a
Jaguar manual handy to tell you specifics.  Alldata repair manuals are
an excellent source for this kind of specific info.
http://www.autoeducation.com/alldata.htm

Well I guess I should make the disclaimer first,  Black & Decker was kind enough to supply me with the new Ready Wrench for me to evaluate.  You can buy one at Ace Hardware stores and many other places for around $30.

I like the idea of the tool, and the tool seems to be very well built.  The idea is to carry one tool that fits a variety of sizes.  (Metric/SAE)  However, my first thought was that the wrench would slip when putting any torque on a bolt, due to the rotating head design.  I must say I was surprised when I turned the wrench for the first time on a rusted bolt on the old 1954 Ford Panel truck.  It did not slip and loosened the bolt with ease.

Since the tool is designed to fit metric and SAE nuts and bolts, it fits loose on SAE fasteners, so if you have a rusted or slightly worn nut, it won’t grab it like it should.  This is the compromise with this tool, and many others that claim to fit metric and SAE fasteners.

The other issue I have with this tool, is the size of the head.  It does not allow you easy access to nuts and bolts if they are buried, or have something close by to get in the way.  I ran into this when taking the back doors off of the truck.  I had to grab another regular wrench to finish the job.

So as with anything in life, it’s a compromise.  If you have newer nuts and bolts, out in the open this wrench may be worth it.  But if you are working on something old and rusted, get a good set of dedicated sized wrenches.