Vehicle Maintenace General

[God's drunkest driver]

Even removing a transmission from a junkyard car is quite a feat, requiring a transmission jack to brace the very heavy thing from falling as you undo the last bolt.

Bench pressing a transmission out of a car in the junkyard while laying on the floormats of another is practically a car enthusiast rite of passage. Manuals are usually pretty light, autos not so much. With them I put my legs up under the transmission pan and my hands on the bellhousing to slide it back and make sure the torque converter stays on the transmission by tilting it back. Then you push it back, lower it down, and roll it to the side and onto the ground. Don't forget your safety glasses.

I never had FWD cars for long though, so I've only pulled the transmission off of one of them and it was easier to lift the whole engine and transmission out as a unit and separate them.

 

[Hantavirus]

Yes, manuals are not so bad but they are usually more complicated to remove on FWD cars. Bench pressing a transmission of any kind is a young man's game, and besides, a $300 trans jack is well worth the price if you're going to be doing this more than once or twice in a lifetime.

 

[KateHikes14]

Yes, manuals are not so bad but they are usually more complicated to remove on FWD cars. Bench pressing a transmission of any kind is a young man's game, and besides, a $300 trans jack is well worth the price if you're going to be doing this more than once or twice in a lifetime.

Trans jacks on fwd blow dicks, use a chainfall and remove stuff in the way.

 

[RollingRock2]

 

[themanwhowalks]

I know the battery isn't dead because the lights turn on and I charged it

Before you buy any parts actually get one of these and test the voltage on the battery - if its showing less then 12.4-12.6v its a dead battery. The lights turning one doesn't really mean much, whens the last time you replaced the battery?

If you test the battery and its good take the starter out bench test it using the battery or a jump pack -- pos lead to the solenoid contacts (it looks like a bolt), neg lead to the body of the starter, then short it with a screw driver by touching both of the contacts at the same time. If the pinion pops out and cranks its good, if its bad replace it.

If your starter and battery are good that means its something between the starter and the ignition. Starter relay, ignition switch, bad key, worst case scenario is a seized engine.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

Shoot, I was hoping it was because the issue would've probably been the clutch switch (easy fix). Anyways, you should still try a jump start because batteries can do crazy things, like there can be enough power for lights but as soon as you turn the key, the voltage drops and it won't turn the starter.

Next thing is to go to the interior fuse box. The starter relay (R1) has the same part number as the defroster relay (R9) so you can swap them to see if the starter relay went bad.

View attachment 7234038View attachment 7234037View attachment 7234039

Next theory is that I believe the keys in these old Ford actually have a transponder chip in them. Do you have a 2nd key that you can try in case the chip in your primary key somehow went bad?

Lastly that brings us to the option that the starter might've gone bad. Do you have a multi-meter or test light by chance? We can walk you through how to test if the starter is getting power.

Bad battery, starter relay, or starter motor. I suppose it could be the immobilizer key but I don't know if I've ever seen one of those go bad.

I'm assuming you checked your battery cables and terminals for corrosion, cleaned and tightened them up after swapping your alternator. Also check your grounds, it could be something as stupid as that preventing your car from cranking.

The hum is likely from your fuel pump, or the sound of your starter solenoid failing. Considering your car is 25 years old, that's worth testing along with the fuses. Voltage drop, and whatnot.

View attachment 7269097
Before you buy any parts actually get one of these and test the voltage on the battery - if its showing less then 12.4-12.6v its a dead battery. The lights turning one doesn't really mean much, whens the last time you replaced the battery?

If you test the battery and its good take the starter out bench test it using the battery or a jump pack -- pos lead to the solenoid contacts (it looks like a bolt), neg lead to the body of the starter, then short it with a screw driver by touching both of the contacts at the same time. If the pinion pops out and cranks its good, if its bad replace it.

If your starter and battery are good that means its something between the starter and the ignition. Starter relay, ignition switch, bad key, worst case scenario is a seized engine.

I'm sorry I forgot I asked for help on this thread until I got the update, I wanna say thank you for the advice. I ended up fixing the car after a lot of confusion and headache and I truly thank everyone for all the advice. Turns out it was far simpler than I made it and I ended up replacing things like the ignition switch for no real good reason.

Especially thank you to the guy with the diagrams and the extremely high effort post trying to help my stupid ass. I managed to get the car functioning again for a couple hundred.

 

[Bad as Can]

I'm sorry I forgot I asked for help on this thread until I got the update, I wanna say thank you for the advice. I ended up fixing the car after a lot of confusion and headache and I truly thank everyone for all the advice. Turns out it was far simpler than I made it and I ended up replacing things like the ignition switch for no real good reason.

Especially thank you to the guy with the diagrams and the extremely high effort post trying to help my stupid ass. I managed to get the car functioning again for a couple hundred.

No problem. What ended up being the fix?

 

[God's strongest milkman]

No problem. What ended up being the fix?

I thought it couldn't be my battery because I could turn on my air conditioning and lights and stuff and I could fully charge it but my ignition would make 0 noise. Turns out the battery was completely dead and also the last person to change the battery on the car put in one smaller than it actually calls for so even one dead cell makes it so it doesn't have enough power to start.

I ended up jumping it with a friends help instead of my rinkey dink battery charger and driving to a different town so I could buy a battery there and replace it in their parking lot. Car works perfectly now.

Like I said I made a wrong assumption that the battery wasn't the issue and wasted a bunch of time and some money.

 

[themanwhowalks]

Like I said I made a wrong assumption... ...and wasted a bunch of time and some money.

Been there lmao

 

[Day of the Cope]

replace it in their parking lot.

Lucky you. Last car had a battery that had six months of life left in it. Piece of shit required you to take your tire off and access the battery behind the fucking wheel well.

 

[Hantavirus]

Turns out the battery was completely dead

it's been said before, but if you're planning on doing much of anything on your car, you need a multimeter. You almost certainly could have diagnosed this the first time. Remember that an older car draws maybe 60 amps worst case, maybe up to 100 amps on a newer car. Starting your car takes several hundred amps, so you could run everything in your car just fine, but the internal resistance and/or the lower voltage of the failed battery means you will never get the car to turn over.

Last car had a battery that had six months of life left in it. Piece of shit required you to take your tire off and access the battery behind the fucking wheel well.

What car? I remember going through some contortions to change a headlight bulb on my old Ford Fusion, similarly ridiculous procedure to change a common wear part.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

Lucky you. Last car had a battery that had six months of life left in it. Piece of shit required you to take your tire off and access the battery behind the fucking wheel well.

I for like a year or two was in possession of a Chevy HHR. I hate that car more than any other I've ever driven.

I had to replace the battery once and the battery was in the back under the floorboard under the spare tire, which isn't so bad you would think because you can just work with the trunk open.

It was going perfectly fine until it started to rain or I was hot or needed to use the restroom or something so I went inside and decided the safe thing to do would be to close the car up so that nothing got messed up In the weather or someone decided to steal anything.

That's when I learned that the Chevy HHR (which I already didn't like) has no manual way to open the back, it's completely electric. Since the battery was out and I closed the back the only way to it was to crawl through the front of the car to get to it.

They put the battery in a closed off area and then didn't give you any easy way to get to it if you didn't have electricity. There's so many stupid things about that car and I hate it so much that I actually have a Google alert set for Bryan Nesbitt, who's the designer of the Chevy HHR and the PT Cruiser.

I want to know when he dies.

 

[Hantavirus]

The PT Cruiser/HHR has (well, had, mostly) a dedicated fanbase of autistic boomers who would mod them, take them to Chrysler meetups, etc. but most normal people who bought them hated them for this kind of stuff. The horn would sometimes fail...on. So you would have to pull over and take out the horn fuse to stop it from honking.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

It

The PT Cruiser/HHR has (well, had, mostly) a dedicated fanbase of autistic boomers who would mod them, take them to Chrysler meetups, etc. but most normal people who bought them hated them for this kind of stuff. The horn would sometimes fail...on. So you would have to pull over and take out the horn fuse to stop it from honking.

it's cramped, the cupholder is practically under your ass, the sunroof would leak horrifically, it was frustrating if the roads you were on weren't smooth as butter and it's a fucking ugly car. I hate it. I had to fold myself in the thing because I'm genuinely convinced it was designed to be driven by women and not men.

 

[Day of the Cope]

me, getting a labor quote on a transmission replacement because "I don't want it to come loose on the road" and didn't bother with a torque wrench

What car?

Chrysler Sebring. Total piece of shit, do not recommend.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Another note for Hondas, head gasket failures are sadly becoming a thing on the 1.5T engines. The 2.0 engine has been good though. Hondas are still good cars but you have to choose carefully these days.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Is5-qkYlrzs?si=wsNQuUupP9vgtA4l

This is a bit late, but people have also reported blown head gaskets on both the 2.0T and 2.0 Hybrids as well:



Some people have also reported 1.5T head gasket failures on the CR-V and Civic too, although they appear to be less prone to failure.

People are also filing class action lawsuits for the 1.5T and 2.0T head gasket failures.

Honda also send out an email in regards to investigating 1.5T head gasket failures, although again nothing will probably get done unless the class action lawsuits force Honda to take action.

 

[themanwhowalks]

Fuck vw fuck oil leaks fuck this fucking stupid ass fucking car

 

[Johnathan Readit]

Chrysler Sebring. Total piece of shit, do not recommend.

I remember seeing something strange with a Sebring. The trans was shifting weird. I was just going over the car and when I popped the radiator cap there was a milky foam like you'd see with a head gasket leak. The engine was running fine, not over heating or anything. I drained the trans fluid and there was coolant in it. The trans cooler inside the radiator must have cracked or otherwise ruptured. Only time I've ever seen that. Only like 7 or 8 years old at the time and not high mileage.

 

[Day of the Cope]

This is a bit late, but people have also reported blown head gaskets on both the 2.0T and 2.0 Hybrids as well:

View attachment 7279954 View attachment 7279962

Some people have also reported 1.5T head gasket failures on the CR-V and Civic too, although they appear to be less prone to failure.

People are also filing class action lawsuits for the 1.5T and 2.0T head gasket failures.

Honda also send out an email in regards to investigating 1.5T head gasket failures, although again nothing will probably get done unless the class action lawsuits force Honda to take action.

Not all that shocked. Have a friend with a 2018 Civic that's going in for recall over the fuel system. Made sure to let her know this so she can mention it once she head to the shop.

 

[Bad as Can]

The trans cooler inside the radiator must have cracked or otherwise ruptured. Only time I've ever seen that. Only like 7 or 8 years old at the time and not high mileage.

Yeah trans cooler internal failure really sucks because it's basically a silent death to the transmission unless you happen to catch it in time. Fortunately it's pretty uncommon but if anyone remembers the early 2000s Nissan Xterras, that's what took a lot of them off the road. https://www.carcomplaints.com/Nissan/Xterra/2005/transmission/