Daily Observations - Part II

[lmorris]

When asked if this guy if his tuner pid readings would be good enough to diagnose a no-start 6L, I had to work very hard at not laughing, and calmly told the guy that a decent scan tool with active command capabilities( like the one I have in my bay) is needed for a proper diagnosis, unless he feels like spending countless hours taking it all apart and looking at everything. Needless to say, the truck is now sitting on our lot waiting to get pushed in for me to diagnose it. I was sure this guy was going to try and "Internet fix" it. I was wrong.

[DieselD]

When asked if this guy if his tuner pid readings would be good enough to diagnose a no-start 6L, I had to work very hard at not laughing, and calmly told the guy that a decent scan tool with active command capabilities( like the one I have in my bay) is needed for a proper diagnosis, unless he feels like spending countless hours taking it all apart and looking at everything. Needless to say, the truck is now sitting on our lot waiting to get pushed in for me to diagnose it. I was sure this guy was going to try and "Internet fix" it. I was wrong.

Been there. Recently had the same thing happen. He would call me with his "scanner pids/DTCs" as say Im going to just replace the EGR valve and see what happens "because guys on the internet said that would cause it". Concern was runs rough/misfire however he was insistent it was not a misfire when in fact thats exactly what it was.

 

I had to politely tell him if he wanted me to diag and repair it that he needs to  leave the truck alone or his diag charge is going to much higher after I redo everything he put his hands on trying to internet fix it.

[lmorris]

 

When asked if this guy if his tuner pid readings would be good enough to diagnose a no-start 6L, I had to work very hard at not laughing, and calmly told the guy that a decent scan tool with active command capabilities( like the one I have in my bay) is needed for a proper diagnosis, unless he feels like spending countless hours taking it all apart and looking at everything. Needless to say, the truck is now sitting on our lot waiting to get pushed in for me to diagnose it. I was sure this guy was going to try and "Internet fix" it. I was wrong.

Been there. Recently had the same thing happen. He would call me with his "scanner pids/DTCs" as say Im going to just replace the EGR valve and see what happens "because guys on the internet said that would cause it". Concern was runs rough/misfire however he was insistent it was not a misfire when in fact thats exactly what it was.

 

I had to politely tell him if he wanted me to diag and repair it that he needs to  leave the truck alone or his diag charge is going to much higher after I redo everything he put his hands on trying to internet fix it.

 

I don't let it get that far. I will always say I can't make a proper evaluation with out doing the proper diagnosis. I will give the customer a few tips on visual inspections and things they can check without a scan tool, wish them luck, and then tell the Advisor that took the call to book him in if he needs more help. 

[cbriggs]

On the subject of over the phone fixing... A friend of mine (and sometimes customer) has an 04 f-350, he has been working in Alberta somewhere. He called me about his truck getting hard to start randomly, I replied that there is not much I can do, and suggested he take it to a ford dealer to get scanned. It had camshaft / crankshaft sensor codes and no sync during the hard start. They proceeded to remove the camshaft sensor, and it was rusted in the block and broke off. Pretty standard. After exhausting all options for removal, they needed to remove the engine and drill out the sensor. At this point my customer lost trust in them and took the truck away on a tow truck, to an indi diesel shop. They were able to remove the sensor and install a new ford part, concern still present. The truck would now start but only run on a few cylinders. They replaced all injectors on one bank, still no good, then all injectors on the other bank, still no change. Then I somehow ended up talking to the service manager of this Indi shop, and after he explained everything to me I recommended he check the crankshaft tone wheel. I told him to try through the sensor hole, but if unsure drop the oilpan. The next time I talked to him he said the tone wheel was tight. That was about it for my advise unless he could procure an ids with a vmm to run the ckp / cmp tool. They proceeded to hang a ficm, a pcm, an engine wiring harness and a ficm harness. Then my friend had enough, and towed the truck home on a trailer (After paying his $6000 bill). I plugged the ids in and verified, ficm sync toggles yes/ no repeatedly during cranking and will not stay running. I had him drop the oil pan (he is done spending money on it by now) and guess what.... the tone wheel is loose on the crank. He also reported that the crankshaft sensor had definitely never been removed from the hole. 

[Brad Clayton]

i forsee a trip to small claims court in his future.   

[lmorris]

Apparently, changing the CAC temp sensor on a 2013 F350, 6 times, is easier than having the low coolant in the secondary cooling system diagnosed. Which, BTW, is just the oring for lower hose going into the secondary water pump.  

[Matt Saunoras]

I had one of those secondary water pump hose o-rings leaking recently too.

[lmorris]

No words.....

[66glide]

No words.....

Flat rate system!

[forddieseldoctor]

At least you gained a socket. But how the hell did they do that in the first place.

[lmorris]

At least you gained a socket. But how the hell did they do that in the first place.

The socket was mine, I used it for reference purposes. I had to use a 1/2 deep impact socket in order to use a ratchet.

[cbriggs]

One more turn and would have blown apart on assembly!

[lmorris]

One more turn and would have blown apart on assembly!

 

One more turn and would have blown apart on assembly!

That's how it came apart, the nut was locked up and it just twisted out of the holding end. 

[forddieseldoctor]

Who needs yoga. I got trucks to fix.

[Brad Clayton]

[lmorris]

I put 6.4L turbos on that way. Never climbed up onto the frame on a 6L though. What's he doing there?

[Matt Saunoras]

Simple task of machining front rotors using the on-car lathe on an 09 Escape.  Cut the first rotor and while moving the machine to the other side the base just fell apart. It was kind of comical, I was holding on to the head and the whole thing just slowly started heading towards the ground, it laid down in slow motion while in my hands. 

 

So what now? I get commissioned to MacGyver the old bench lathe back together to make a pass on the second rotor.  The bench lathe hasn't been used in at least 3-4 years since we got the pro-cut.   Most of the pieces are all rusty or got lost during the move but it managed.   I need some parts though if we want to keep using it as a back up. 

 

This is all after yesterday when the tranny flush machine blew an internal line on our asset kid during a flush.  Both these incidents happened in the bay our oldest tech just retired from.  Voodoo perhaps? 

[Brad Clayton]

I think he dropped a quarter in there or something, just kidding. That's a pretty old photo so I don't really remember. I saw him crawling around up there all the way from my bay and I had to grab my camera out of my box......he never knew I took the photo.

[lmorris]

Got my Dodge Cummins head done.... ....That Idle up feature is SWEET...Why the hell doesn't Ford do that....  

[8WA Sman]

There is 2 type of automotive personal that get under my skin....Red silicone guy and the jerks that can't seem to figure out after all these years how to put a Ford cone style air filter housing back together.

 

Red silicone guy will usually  cost me time or money and Conehead will just irritate me.

[Keith Browning]

What would happen if Conehead uses red silicone to seal a filter housing?

[Fredsvt]

What would happen if Conehead uses red silicone to seal a filter housing?

Might be better than Mr Gorilla tape to close the housing.

[ktmlew]

Pneumonia sucks?

[Matt Saunoras]

Check out TSB 16-0021.  I don't believe I've ever seen a Ford TSB that requires welding.  Are we to believe any tech is capable of this repair?  I know for sure no one else in our shop could weld worth a shit if required to.   

[Brad Clayton]

And it pays a whopping 1.3 hours to boot.