Welcome to the CNC auto show. If you are looking for some information on ways to make your car safe, dependable, and long lasting, then don't move. I'm Aaron Clements and I am here to answer those automotive questions.
Share some tips and have some fun. And I'd be glad to answer your automotive questions. Just pick up that phone and dial 800-224-9090.
Or you can dial 700-224-9090. That's on any Saturday morning between 805 and 10 Eastern time. And I want to remind you that you can also watch this show live on Facebook. And I want to welcome all of you car lovers at Newstalk, W EZS in Boston, and KKGX in Palm Springs, California. Thank you for jumping on board and riding with us with the CNC auto show. We welcome you and look forward to riding with you. And let's buckle those seatbelts and let's get ready to ride. We normally crank this bad boy up with a tech tip quiz. And so I thought it might be nice to do that now. And the winner, of course, I will anoint with the esteem honor of being a tech tip quiz winner.
And they will win a prize prize. Here's the tech tip quiz. Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route. And she would drive it along the road, along the road near the beach. Her AC stopped getting cold. She gave me a call and she asked me what she should do. And after she told me her symptoms, I told her to try something. So she did something on her phone and it worked. She was able to drive for the entire two hour trip home with cold air.
What should, what did she do? If you know the answer, you give us a call and you could be a tech tip quiz winner and receive this beautiful coffee mug, which on one side says official tech tip quiz winner. That would be kind of huge for you to have. It family reunion, uh, when you do that type stuff. Okay. Give us a call with your questions. We will focus a little bit on air conditioning systems this time during, during this show, uh, air conditioning systems. I remember at one time on, on, uh, in the automotive field where air conditioning systems seemed very complex.
AC systems, the basic part of the system has, uh, is, is seems less complicated than it did years ago. It's, uh, it, it, in some vehicles it has less moving parts. There's no doubt the parts that were on vehicles many years ago, uh, were more, were much heavier than they are now.
Uh, because it's a big deal on, in a, on a, uh, on a vehicle to some extent. To save even a pound or two pounds in a system because that adds up to more fuel mileage. So they're constantly trying to make things lighter, but of course people want a more compact things. So they're making the, uh, components smaller.
So you're actually trying to make something smaller, but make it do more than it did in the past. So air conditioning systems have, uh, to me, uh, evolved and come a long way. Uh, but doing the basics, I mean, most everybody knows the basics of the AC system. The liquid refrigerant is restricted before it goes into the evaporator and the evaporator is actually located inside the car. In most cases, the restriction turns the refrigerant into a gas inside the evaporator, which removes all the heat for, or removes heat from the air blowing across it. And then it sends that chilled air into the car. And the gas flows to the compressor and it pounds it, uh, from the compressor, it pounds it into the condenser, puts it under pressure. And of course the condensers in front of the car. That's the thing that catches all those bugs when you ride down the road and that airflow across that condenser turn and the pressure that the, that refrigerant is under turns that refrigerant back into a liquid. And with that being a liquid. And of course it moves along, goes back to the expansion valve and then turns into a gas, goes inside the evaporator, pulls the heat out of the air, and then it blows the chilled air into the car.
So it's making a big circle, but you'll mention it a couple of times. I mentioned refrigerant. One of the main parts of the system is that refrigerant that's flowing through there. And at one time I mentioned those compressors, uh, or different parts of the system, they were large. Well, compressors were really large at one time and they also had an oil sump. That oil sump, as the compressor was turning, it would pick up oil and splash it around inside the compressor and keep it lubricated. But now compressor systems, in order to make them smaller and lighter, there is no system that lubricates it by splashing oil. The thing that keeps it lubricated is that refrigerant oil.
That is mixed with the refrigerant. So here's how the problem happens. The refrigerant gets low, which you, most, any, uh, any vehicle will lose a little bit of refrigerant over time because it permeates through rubber hoses, just like on a, on a tire, uh, or it permeates through seals. You develop little bitty leaks here and there. And so it gets low over time. Well, as it gradually gets low, you don't notice it that much because the air is still cool, but it's not as cold as it used to be. But in that time, it's taking away that lubrication from the compressor. And if the compressor is not lubricated properly, then eventually it starts making a knocking noise.
And then when you have that knocking noise, uh, many times it's too late because you have the wear there and you have major problems. So if you sense that the air is not as cold as it should be, you should get the vehicle service, get the air conditioning system ready. And, uh, pull what they would normally do, pull all of the older refrigerant out of the system and then put the system under a vacuum for a certain amount of time. And this pulls any moisture that's in the system out.
And once it, once it's got, it's been on a vacuum a certain amount of time, then put the exact amount of refrigerant with the refrigerant oil that's supposed to go back in the vehicle. And then your compressor will stay lubricated like it should. So not only would you have cooler air and air be nice and cool, but you would also have a nice, uh, a nice lubricated compressor.
And so it would definitely last longer. So, uh, consider, uh, consider during the year, if you AC stops getting as cold as it should definitely consider having an AC system service. And during that time, the technician, uh, whether it's this shop or whatever shop you go to, they'll normally always check your, uh, cooling fans to make sure the proper amount of air flowing across the condenser. You also want to make sure that your condenser is not full of bugs because that'll stop the air flow. And if the fans are not working, or if you've got a lot of bugs on the condenser, then your high side AC system will start building up too much pressure. And when it does that can damage the AC compressor. And so you want to make sure that if it, uh, you, you have a nice clean condenser and that the cooling fans are working like they should all of that's very important. And I mentioned in all this, because again, uh, an AC service is much less than if you were to have a, have to purchase a whole compressor or a major part of the system. So consider that and make sure that AC system is, uh, that AC condensers clean, make sure the system is charged up good. And, and, and actually AC compressors and other components will last longer than ever before.
And it's kind of amazing how long I see that those last sometime. Okay. We will, uh, what does your AC compressor do? I'll mention that. You probably already know that also, but if you don't, uh, we'll talk about that a little bit when we return. And while you're waiting, be dialing 800-224-9090 or you can call 706-863-5800 and ask your automotive questions on any Saturday morning, 805 to 10 Eastern time. You can join the show.
You can also watch the show live on Facebook. We'll be right back. Park your needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly auto parts. Oh, rapid roar that stock car boy, he, the bell's driver in the land. He said that he learned to raise the stock car by running shine out of Alabama.
Oh, the demolition derby and the victory. It's easy money on the bank compared to running from the man. We welcome you back to the CNC auto show, and I am ready to answer your automotive questions. Just give me a call. That's 800-224-9090. If you have a car question, give us that call. And again, that's any Saturday morning, 805 to 10 Eastern time.
You can also watch the show live on Facebook. We do have a tech tip quiz laying on the table. I'm going to read that one again. Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route as she was driving along a road near the beach. Her AC stopped getting cold. She called me and asked me what she should do after she told me her symptoms. I told her to try something. So she did something on her phone and at work, she was able to drive for the entire two hour trip back home with cold air.
What did she do? And if you know the answer, you give us a call and we are ready for you to call. And we had mentioned a little bit about the compressor because we were talking about AC systems as we go. And the compressor itself is like the heart of the system. It is what pumps the refrigerant all the way through the AC system and actually pumps it into the condenser, puts it under pressure. And working like a pump, it passes the refrigerant along. You have refrigerant coming from the low side of the AC system and then it's pumped out and it's pumped into the AC condenser in the front of the car, puts it under pressure. And then that refrigerant moves along to the evaporator, which helps to pull the heat from the inside of the vehicle. And then it pumps it around back into the evaporator or back into the condenser and then back into the evaporator.
It just makes a circle. But the compressor, again, this is the main thing that I want to stress on an AC compressor, is that a lot of its main job is to transfer heat from the inside of the car, disperse it on the outside. But another big thing that it does is it lubricates the compressor.
And if there's a problem with lubrication, of course the compressor can go bad. Alright, we got a question that we received during the week. And let's see here.
I have a question. I have a 2004 Subaru Outback 3.6 AWD automatic. If I'm at a stop, say, pulling out of my driveway, I go to make a right-hand turn, the car starts moving, then suddenly it acts like it's in neutral.
And so I let off the accelerator, I start again and it goes just fine. It's almost like the transmission cannot keep up with the engine, CV axle or transmission replacement. Well, one of the things that I have seen with AWD vehicles is many times people forget that there is a transfer case that also needs to be serviced on many vehicles. And I'm assuming this particular vehicle also has a separate area to change the transfer case fluid.
But what happens is as a car, an AWD is turning, you've got one side of the vehicle that the wheels are turning faster than on the other side. So something has to absorb that energy and that's a viscous dampener inside the transfer case. And it is dependent on fluid to be nice and smooth. And if that fluid has not been changed, then there's a chance it could need a fluid exchange for the transfer case or the AWD unit. The other item that we see a lot that can cause that particular type problem is just low-end transmission fluid. And that's another thing that it'll give me just a minute to mention that gets overlooked so many times on vehicles is transmission fluid. Many times people, as long as everything's doing good, they don't even think about their transmission fluid. But transmission fluid, when it gets hot, it loses its viscosity.
When it loses its viscosity, it don't lubricate those parts. And then it's downhill from there because you create more metal in the system and that metal can act like sandpaper and slowly eat away the parts inside the transmission. So and then, of course, next thing you know, you need a whole transmission exchange.
So from time to time, you could look at a vehicle manufacturer owner's manual and get a recommended time or a service advisor may give you a recommended time on when they recommend changing that transmission fluid or transfer case fluid, four-wheel drive unit fluid. And it varies a lot from car to car and even varies a little bit on driving habits. For instance, you may have one car that the manufacturer may recommend doing a transmission fluid exchange at 70,000 miles. Another one may say 50,000 miles.
Another one may say 30. But your service advisor may look at the vehicle and say, well, you're under pretty heavy load, either driving on a hot day in the mountains or pulling trailers and things like that, and your fluid is discolored. And let's say you only have 30,000 miles on the vehicle. Then a transmission fluid exchange may be a huge benefit to you. And of course, transmission fluid exchange is a piece of equipment that we hook up to the car. And as the vehicle is running and pushing its old fluid out up to the front to the transmission cooler, instead, it goes under a piston, which that piston rises. And on top of the piston, there's new fluid, and it lets new fluid go in to take the place of the old fluid. So you get a total fluid exchange. And that is a great service. If it hadn't been done on your vehicle, you may definitely look into it because it will extend the life of your transmission by many, many miles or many, many years.
Okay, what does an office tube or an expansion valve do in cars? We'll tell you what that is when we return. And that's on any Saturday morning, 805 to 10 Eastern time, you can dial 706-863-5800 or 800-224-9090. We'll be right back. Visit O'Reilly Auto Parts today, and their professional parts people can help you find the right battery for your vehicle. Trust SuperStart batteries for power, performance, and reliability, exclusively at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I'm back with you with the CNC Auto Show.
The number to call and have your car question answered is 706-863-5800 or you can call 800-224-9090. That's any Saturday morning, 805 to 10 Eastern time. And we have a tech tip quiz laying on the table. We've been talking about air conditioning systems. And we are going over to, we are going over to talk to Eddie and we are having just a couple of quick phone issues. And I will be able to get this button squared away. Okay. I'm going to have to call our producer, get the information straight.
Okay, we'll be going to Eddie very shortly. But in the meantime, I will be mentioning a few words about an expansion valve for the refrigerant. What the expansion valve does is restrict the flow of the gas that goes into, or the liquid before it goes into the evaporator. So as it turns into a gas, that way the refrigerant will be able to absorb the heat that's inside the car. And many cars use a little orifice tube, which is a very simple thing. It's just a little small restrictor that restricts the flow before it goes into the evaporator. And other vehicles use an expansion valve, which is a little valve that restricts the flow. But either one does the same thing.
And there's other things that can do it in a more complicated way, but those are the two most common methods that are used. And then, of course, as the fluid transfers and absorbs the heat that's inside the car, circles back around to the compressor. Then it comes, circles back around, and then ends up going back to the expansion valve. It's just making a big circle. Okay, so from time to time, your technician may say, hey, you need an expansion valve, you need an orifice tube.
You'll know what that person may be talking about. So we'll go to the falls, we'll go over to Eddie. Eddie, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
Hey, guys, thank you for my call. I've got an 06 Cadillac DTS, and it has the rod leveling system. I don't know if I'm saying it right, but there's a pump that assists in the comfort rod.
I know there's a relay under the back seat, and I have swapped that out, and I'm still not getting a response from the pump. Okay, I'll mention a couple of things that we... Sorry. I'm sorry, say again?
No, I'm sorry, go ahead. Okay, and you know, this is kind of good that we got this question. You know, I've mentioned that we do this radio show from the inside of the repair shop, an automotive repair shop downtown.
And when I'm coming here to do the show, I pull into the shop. And as I pulled in this morning, I looked, and there was a Lincoln Town car, and it was sitting down on the ground. The air suspension had failed.
I knew what it was the time I looked at it. The air suspension had failed, and the vehicle had dropped. So I'm going to mention two options for you on your vehicle. One option is to have some diagnostic tests run, because there are certain trouble codes that can be stored in the computer system that will prevent the compressor from being able to cut on. And a technician has to have access to that type of information. So sometimes just a normal scan tool won't go in and tell you what you need to know. So those diagnostics would make it to where he would push a button and activate it, telling the compressor to come on, so he or she could check the power and ground to the compressor to find out if it was good or bad. And then he could do different function tests to tell what's wrong with the system. Now, of course, there's a lot of things that you could have wrong.
There's a chance you could have a potentiometer back there. You could have a bad compressor. You could have just a whole list of things.
But I want to give you the option or give you an idea, just something to think about. Because many times on certain model cars, let's say the airbags went out, and the compressor had been trying to keep those airbags pumped up for a long period of time, and the compressor on that vehicle is not equipped to run for a long, long period of time, or not supposed to, because it gets hot and causes damage to the compressor. So you end up putting the air shocks on, get that taken care of, find out you got a compressor problem, and you end up replacing that.
Next thing you know, you spend a huge amount of money. There's several companies now that make a replacement kit to where they have done all the engineering to determine exactly what the tension should be for a shock absorber to put that system back to a normal-type height and normal-type ride as if it did not have the air suspension back there. And you put those on there, and you don't have to worry about any of the other stuff. Now, the only drawback is, let's say you load it down really heavy, and the computer's not going to pump it back up or tell the compressor to pump the airbags back up so it'll raise the car back up. But out of all the ones that we've put on to replace those air systems on them, air suspension systems on certain cars, I don't think I've ever had a complaint.
Nobody's ever come back and said, hey, I wish I wouldn't have put those on there. So definitely an option. There's no doubt that Lincoln Town Car that's sitting in the drive, they'll be mentioning that we would recommend a replacement strut assembly. Okay.
Thank you for that. Can you put me in the ballpark of what a system like that would typically cost? Yeah, but I may be off.
That's the biggest thing, because I'm going to try to give it just some rough ideas. And I will tell you that replacing these units with the, I'm trying to think of the term that we use for when we replace it with passive struts that we put on. And in other words, taking that automatic air suspension off, it's not uncommon for that to run about as much as it would to put the airbags back on. Let's say they were busted and you were replacing them. But the biggest benefit to this, you replace those, there's no chance you're going to have to go back and do the compressor and do all the other stuff on there. But I will say that on many cars, I see that run anywhere from 800 to 1200. And again, I have seen some like on certain model cars, Land Rovers, Jaguars, and certain models go even a lot higher than that, 1800, $2,000.
But that gives you a very rough idea of what's on, enough to let you know that you can, whether to make, you want to do the research on finding out if it's the right option for you. Now, some cars it's not available, some cars I don't recommend it, but on that particular vehicle, it would be a good option to think about. Yeah, this car is not used for any heavy loads at best.
We'll put a couple bags in for the weekend. It's become a daily driver because of the gas prices. And it's, you know, 2006, it's got 110,000 miles on it. So it's been very well taken care of, and I wouldn't mind investing that type of money to ensure that, you know, we enjoy it.
I just, I noticed it a week or so ago, the pump doesn't come on, the rear ride is really rough, it bounces. It doesn't sit low that I can tell, but I've never really paid that much attention to the height. So yeah, that'd be a great candidate. I'm definitely interested in, okay. All right, well, that has answered my question. I'll do a little bit more research. Go ahead. Sounds good. And let me know how it goes.
Thank you. And we'll be right back with more of the CNC Auto Show. The CNC Auto Show is brought to you in part by Motorrad, a global leader in the development of high quality, reliable, and durable thermostats, caps, and engine management solutions, helping keep millions of vehicle engines cool and operating efficiently. Learn more at motorrad.com. And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. If you have a question about your car, truck, or SUV, give us a call.
That is 7 0 6 6 6 3 5 800 or 800 2 2 4 9 0 9 0. And we will go straight over to Marcus. Marcus, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
And what can we help you with? You had a techno quiz. Oh man, Marcus, you're going to answer our tech tip quiz for us?
I'm going to try my guess. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Marcus, I have to put you on stage.
We cannot do this with just standing out in the aisle here. We have to move you up there in front of everybody. So be still. Okay.
Marcus, how does it feel to be up there, man? Okay. Okay. All right, Marcus, I'm going to read the tech tip quiz real quick also.
So we'll all be on the same page when you answer this beautiful tech tip quiz. Okay, Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route. She was driving along a road near the beach. Her AC stopped getting cold. She called me to ask what she could do after she told me her symptoms. I told her to try something. So she did something on her phone and it worked. She was able to drive for the entire two-hour trip home with cold air. What did she do?
And Marcus, everyone is looking at you for the answer. What is it? My guess is unplugged and then re-plugged back in the outlet. Plug and then unplug the phone charger from the outlet because the heater and the air conditioner ties together. And there's a short in a cigarette lighter plug that ties into the 80 volt. So she had an issue, something to do with her phone being plugged into the thing.
Her charger plugged in the cigarette light. Oh, Marcus, man, I really hate to do this. And actually I didn't do it, Marcus. It was the judges that did it. They did it and I told them, please don't, next thing you know, boom, it's done. But now, because of that, it's kind of like the toothpaste.
Once it's out of the tube, there's nothing I can do. Hey, Marcus, man, I really appreciate you calling in. A lot of fun and thank you very much. You have a blessed day. Oh, you too. You too. Okay, it is time to move over here and visit with John. John, where are we going to ride with in your O2 Jeep Wrangler? Hey, guys. So I got an issue with the throttle position sensor.
Okay. On the TP signal on pin two of the connector coming off of the PCM, I'm reading five volts before I'm plugged into anything. And in my recollection and from the wiring diagrams, that should be zero.
What could be causing this issue? Well, now at the five volts, some of the systems work five volts and then as you accelerate down, the voltage goes down on that one, it should go up. So you're saying that when you unplug this wire from that sensor, you're reading five volts on that, on which wire? On one of the wires? The TP signal, wire two.
Okay. Yeah, you have five volts naturally. Yeah, you do have five volts on that wire when you disconnect it. And then you'll have ground on another wire. You should have three wires going to it, right?
Right. The five volt supply and then the TP signal on the middle pin. The middle pin should be zero, right? Yeah. Or yes, when it's unplugged, it should be zero. Now, when you plug it in, it should be like 0.8, 0.9 and it should go upward as you move the throttle upward. So you're saying the signal wire is reading five volts in?
Yes, sir. Okay. Have you checked the ground wire to make sure that you are getting a signal ground on the black wire? Because of course, if you have it plugged in, if it's not able to ground the five volt wire, then the signal wire will never go down. And are you reading these plugged in or not plugged in? Not plugged in.
Okay. I would plug the wire into the sensor and then I would check for the five volt reference signal that you have on the five volt wire. Then I would check the ground on the ground wire and then check it with it plugged in and then see what you get with that system plugged in.
And you should get something like 0.9. Right. We don't doubt all the grounds. I mean, we're grounded to the negative terminal of the battery.
We're grounded to the body. Everything checks out as far as just a continuity check, but we can give it a try. Now, what is the vehicle doing? Are you getting a TPS code? Yeah. We're throwing P0123 and when we come to a stop, it'll drop down to 300 RPMs or it'll just fall out any time we come to a stop.
And then after a little bit, it'll be okay. So I didn't know, is it a re-learning thing with the computer or not? Well, we do run into some problems with the computers on that model, but I believe your next step may be to... Well, first I would want to see what the... Have you looked at what the scan tool reads when you're moving the throttle? Have you been able to connect the scan tool to it so you could see the voltage or what the computer is seeing? Well, we've got the $40 scan tool, so no. Okay. A lot of scan tools.
Now, that one may even have a perimeter reading to where you can at least see what the TPS is showing as you accelerate. Okay. And I would look at it on the scan tool, see what you're reading on there. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. All right. We'll give it a try. Sounds great. Thank you.
All right. Our call is 706-863-5800, or you can call 800-224-9090. Give us a call. We will answer your automotive questions. I mentioned one other thing that's kind of big right now, this time of year, great time to go visit car shows. And whatever area that you're in, you can give... You're able to check around, maybe check with different people that may be in a car club. Find out where some of the car shows are because it's a great family type deal that you can go to and see some beautiful cars. I'll give you an example car show that's going on in our area. The next one for this particular car club will be on July 2nd, and this is the CSRA Road Angels. They call it the Summer Nights Cruise Inn, and it'll be over at the French Market Grill West.
But things like this are going on in many, many places around the country. It's just a beautiful thing to go visit. So go check on visiting a car show when you can, and you will have a great time doing that. Okay. The number to call is 800-224-9090. Give us a call.
And we are also talking about air conditioning systems. We have a tech tip quiz laying on the table, which we'll be getting an answer to that. Hopefully next hour, someone will grab that. And the gas tank is pretty much on E, and we will need to pull over for now. But we will be back on the road in no time.
I'm Eric Clements, here with show producer Mason Rogers. We'd like to say thank you all for riding with the CNC Auto Show. The CNC Auto Show is brought to you in part by Dorman Products and their upgraded aluminum oil filter housing assembly. Another OE fix solution from Dorman. Their upgraded aluminum oil filter housing assembly now includes all required gaskets, filter and filter cap for a complete repair. Learn more at DormanProducts.com
