Jim Warman

Interesting you should mention "pull" pumps versus "push" pumps. I know a lot of guys that can't deal with the differences and what considerations are different. What helped for me initially was being on the fire department - it was rare for us to have to draught water but it was a technique I felt I had to master. In later years, this helped me solve a concern on a 1939 Dodge Businessmans Coupe (sadly, this piece of automotive history was lost in May, 2011 - among so many other examples) that involve a rusted through fuel line above the rear axle. "Suck" pumps are spendy. "Push" pumps aren't. Not sure why but I gather it is because of tolerances and quality control Many youngsters feel that Bernoulli and Venturi are just a couple of old Wops and why would we need to know that shit anyways? Remember Fords early EFI efforts? The ones with a lift pump in the tank and a pressure pump on the frame?

The new windshield for my car has been sitting in the parts department for about 2 years... Just never seemed to get around to doing much about it. Recently, one of our young lions got into a position where he owed me a favour... And, today, I dropped the car off at the shop for him to "pay his debt". He would change the windshield for me. Well, that was up until we saw that I've been the proud owner of a brand new cracked windshield for a long, long time.... Stercus accidit.....

When travelling at a high rate of speed - i.e., something that may generate a P0297 on a paved road, current experience shows that most any loose object the left front tire encounters will plot a trajectory that will intersect the bottom of the fuel conditioning module. Other than that, we haven't seen many concerns with these devices. Still, Brads call to the low pressure fuel system is a valuable reminder to all of us that we desparately need to examine the basement before we get concerned about the shingles. These forums are a valuable resource in recognizing emerging pattern failures.

+1 (with some reservations over the couple of seconds part - certainly cycling the fuel pump for three of it's 30 second key on phases should be more than adequate)... or a posssible air leak on the suction side of the pump. By this point in time, we should all be aware of the need for adequate fuel pressure on HEUI systems - 310-093 turns this into a 5 minute job that should (IMHO) be included as part of any engine work based on driving performance issues. And it is a quick way to pick up between .3 and .5 in a righteous manner.

I think that this is an indication of the thought process used by Fords technical writers...

Isn't that initial realization that your life is now out of your control...... "invigorating" would be a parody of any word I might actually use... Thankfully, you are back at home. Even today, I am faced with "am I in the right town" syndrome. I stop at an intersection and there might be one house I recognize amongst a field of empty lots. It doesn't take a lot of thought to understand where I am. I might stop at an intersection that doesn't look like anything I remember (and you must remember that heavy equipment is busy changing our landscape on a daily basis) and I fucking near have to pull a map out to determine where I am. This is the kind of stuff that should teach us all that we have a tenuous foothold on this planet... and if we piss Maw Nature off bad enough, she will tell us exactly how unimportant we are.... I thank the supreme being of your choice for the safety of you and your family.

I am going to be an absolute dick... right now and right here. Reading carefully is something that every last one of us has trouble with... major trouble with. At the same time, it is of the utmost importance that we read and understand everything that is handed to us. If we go to the diagnostic trouble code charts, we see that the code defines as "fuel rail/system pressure too low". OK... we are looking at a cause for low fuel pressure as measured by the fuel rail pressure sensor. Scrolling down a tad, we see what is "going through the PCMs brain". Scrolling down a bit more we see "possible causes" - and the number one possible cause is "low pressure fuel system". "Yeah,yeah,yeah... what the fuck is all this shit... what PPT do I need?". One of the biggest mistakes we can make is to expect the manual to grab our hand, and lead us to the miracle cure. Because the manual is busy assuming that we are trained techs and can make informed judgement decisions on our own. Getting back to basics. This is about the most important consideration we can have. We allow ourselves to be seduced by the scan tool and the PC/ED. The promise of keeping our mittens away from dirt and hot engine components overwhelms us. Looking professorial as we wrinkle our brow at an IDS screen becomes an image we want to foster. The scan tool allows us to do things we could never imagine 10 or 15 years ago... but there are still many things it wont allow us to do... Basics.... I can't say it often enough... basics. If you are still with me, let us pretend that you are working on a 2008 SooperDoodie gas..... It has a P2112 in memory (of course it will also have a P2104). This code will take you to PPT DV3. The first questio9n we ask ourselves at this point is "what does the test try to determine?". It wants to check the open volts and closed volts reading of the TPS... basically... it is asking (when we stroke the foot feed) if the throttle plate is moving and, if it is, does our high reading fall within expected values and does our low reading fall within expected values. If we watch closely and stroke the pedal at different speeds, we can determine if we have other concerns (like a "tight spot" or sensor dropout). Here lies a cause for concern... if the answer is yes, the readings are within the guidelines... go to DV4. If the answer is no, one or more of the readings is outside the guidelines.... go to .... ermmmmm go to DV4. Wow... I'm glad I did that test. Without a doubt, there are times to be pissed at the manuals... Like when creating a condition that should set a P0232 and having it set a P0231... or having a "pass" send you to the same PPT as having a "fail". When we deal with body control type modules (HVAC, GEM, DSM ACM and Gawd knows what all else any more) there is usually a list of fuses to check in the introduction.... but few techs ever read the introduction and cut straight to step one of the PPT. Spending an inordinate amount of time learning that they didn't need to spend all that time... and possibly "cooking" a cover story. Brad... you have a golden learning experience on your hands. Don't worry, I made this exact same type error in judgement myself - many years ago.... When push comes to shove, it boils down to the fact that I get paid to read... Everyone else has been "flat rate reading" (something I still do far too often) and now it is my turn. When "Tech A" has 20 hours into a diag and replaced hundreds or thousands of dollars in parts out of frustration. We can be sure that he has overlooked something basic - something overwhelmingly simply. I am told that, as of Sept 01, I am no longer shop foreman. (I may divulge that soap opera later).

I can empathize... what didn't burn down in May very nearly floated away in June and July... The weather turned scorching (for Slave Lake) and now we are having blue green algae blooms in many lakes. Our local river (and lake) are still up above their normal banks by a couple of feet. FWIW, blue green algae is toxic... don't swim in the water, don't drink the water and don't eat fish caught in the water. This shit just doesn't end....

I feel it is vitally important to either charge for the service or somehoe record the fact that the test has been performed in accordance with procedures. Similar to needing oil and fule filter change receipts, I can see some failures requiring the owner to provide proof that coolant testing has been performed and any necessary actions taken. It would be a travesty if our integrity were to be called to task during some post repair inspection. So far, the only concerns I have seen personally is nitrite contamination from owners adding coolant in the field (usually plain green - not to be confused with dark green - or premium gold). If you encounter nitrites, might as well just stop testing and quote for a coolant flush. But, most definitely, I think recording the mileage and hours of cooling system testing is going to become a factor. FWIW, I am favouring testing coolant at each service (I have some customers insisting on it now) and adding a notation if the message was present or not.

The number of times you go to fix an electrical concern... and find that the fuse was "stolen" because something "more important" quit working. "I didn't think that mattered" is their mantra. Having spent a good deal of time writing ROs for my own business, I can assure you that there are times resorting to this scene from Marathon Man is no assurance of any useful info...

I'm a health nut myself... I got this body from lifting weights.... 12 ounces at a time. Wanna go down to the gym and pump aluminum?

This truck would stall. It might restart quickly... or it might wait until you had it towed. Meaning if you began testing stuff, you had no way of knowing if you were testing something while it was still broken or if you were "fixing" it by testing it... With a P0231, both Hotline and the PC/ED had us checking the fuel pump monitor circuits along with the fuel pump relay and such. Finally, by the grace of Yahweh, the divine prophet Mohummdaddy or the great googly moogly (pick one) the failure stayed with me for a while. Long enough to find out that the concern was between the fuel pump and the inertia fuel shutoff switch... a failure that SHOULD have set a P0232 - NOT a P0231. After the repair (which turned out to be an unlatched connector at the left C pillar), I tripped the IFS and, sure enough, the resulting code was a P0231... again, a P0232 would be the expected code... Intermittents are hard enough to catch, most times... even more so when the manual has you looking at stuff not involved in the failure....

That was a 1958 Triumph. I miss the fuck out of that old bike... The adjustment for the final drive chain oiler was down inside the oil tank. The bike would vibrate enough that the oiler would open up... and you'd get a "racing stripe" on your jeans. To better understand the scooter, Google "sybian". I miss the fuck out of that old bike....

You need to spend more money on drugs.... them cheap ones are fucking you up way too bad. I haven't eaten back bacon for many years. Maple syrup goes on pancakes and waffles and is sometimes a nice addition to beans in small amounts. Americans like "corn syrup" EWWWWWW!!!! You don't "handle" beavers (the animal). They are rodents and can be carriers of rabies and other diseases. There is no reason to "handle" beavers. You will find a need to destroy their dams..... If you really want to "handle a beaver", you will need to take a shower, shave and apply a deodorant. Dinner and a movie might be a prerequisite... and you may need to develop a personality. The people that own the beaver (NOT an animal) can be fussy. Anyone taking a test like this may not qualify for "beaver handling". Kick stand safety switches is something Americans need... nothing they do is safe... and they seldom understand why. Not sure why this would be included in a Canadianized test... but Yankees are intriguing animals.... The Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey.... More accurately, the Toronto Maple Leafs pretend to play hockey. So what? Many Canadians have come to the realization that paying a "jock" more money than you pay the people running your country is, at the very least odd, and closer to idiotic than anything else. What.... "reality" shows not doing it anymore?

My fucking God!!!! Kill it with fire!!!!!

Stercus accidit. You caught it... you found it... you fixed it. I doesn't get any better than this. Mistakes aren't there to be prevented... they are there to be made... and make them we will.

In retrospect, I suppose I might expound on some of this stuff.... Time and again I have remarked about Fords willingness to publish some of the most inappropriate circuit testing that you could ever hope to see. If we blindly follow their PPTs, we will replace every big dollar part in the system before we realize that all we really need is to resort to "proper volt drop testing". Step one.... verify the power supply - is the fuse intact? Step two - establish you baseline voltage. What is your system voltage with the vehicle set up for your tests? It is important to maintain this voltage level throughout your testing. Step three.... go to the non-functioning load. You absolutely need to apply your DMM leads to the load itself.... operate the circuit. You will get one of three results.... System voltage, zero volts or something in between. What we see here will decide our next step. Proper volt drop testing will reduce the amount of time spent diagnosing circuit concerns - Ford SLTs only pay something like .3 for this test. Learning how to do it efficiently will maximize your earning potential. FWIW, your illustration would be "step two" in a proper circuit diagnosis.

I might suggest spending some time with both of Kirschoffs laws. As for the PPTs for this kind of stuff in Fords WSMs????? Why would anybody waste time reading that ignorant pap?

One of the really cruel features of the internet is "the public forum". So many of us put ourselves squarely in the line of fire..... and then act surprised when the fuckers start shooting... Punctuation, grammar, spelling, nomenclature (not the best choice of words for what I'm trying to convey - but it's what I have at the moment). I've taken it over the limit... I over use punctuation at times... well, at most times. proper punctuationand grammar make it easier to follow a dissertation proper speelink makes id even easier and prpoer nomenclature word choice word usage will help ensure nobody is left wondering what the fuck it is you are asking. One only has to read some work orders closely to wonder just what it is we are supposed to be doing. There aren't many days pass by where I don't advise a tech to ask for clarification on an RO line or two. Call me an elitist if you want. The last grade I finished in school was grade 8 . I will bow to the concept that genius is close to insanity... at the same time I have to say that poor English is more laziness than anything else. If you or anyone else truly wants me to understand what you are saying or asking, you will try to state it in a way that makes it understandable. (If you can't ask a question on a web forum with any accuracy - how the fuck are you going to write a decent warranty story?). Are some of the replies that poor English generates justified? Well - if you don't tell somebody he fucked up - how will he ever come to realize that he fucked up? Is there a nice way to tell somebody he fucked up? Telling him he fucked up and then telling him how to fix it is the best thing you can do.... Jumping to his defence in some politically correct downhill death spiral is counterproductive and will leave the world wishing this guy had never graduated from Burger U. Brad... used to be that Googling something accurately required accurate spelling. Now, through the marvels of "fuzzy logic", my PC spends inordinate amounts of time trying to decide if I meant "I'd rather buy him lunch THAN give him a blow job" or "I'd rather buy him lunch THEN give him a blow job". Today? Today we try to use the excuse that many famous people from the past practiced poor English. While that may be, they had teams of office staff to overcome these shortcomings. Did your poohawk deserve his reply? Prolly not.... Did he NEED that reply? HMMMMMMM Once you guys figure out how to make life fair - send a few quarts my way.

Yep.. had him decked out with what appropriate PPE we had.

Akchully, t'was Dwaynes pic of Roberto painting the snow black....

Bruce, you're thinking of the Mexican manual regen performed by one of our techs back in ought9.

Like the sign in the mens room... "We aim to please - you aim, too, please".

The Technician Survey has been republished.... see SVB 2011-48N for details. If you have all ready completed it, you will have to redo it.... if you missed it - here is your chance. Speak up and let Ford know what you think!!

I'm not sure I'd spend too much time on a "teardown". Unless your shop is into putting lipstick on pigs, this thing deserves a long block.