Polar Vortex
February 2014
 
 
 
 

Only 130 more 
days till Summer

Greetings!

 

This winter we've received record making cold!  We're betting that you don't like the icy cold weather and neither does your car.

 

In this newsletter you will find information on how the cold effects your car, our featured job of the month and part one of a two part story on a Toyota Land Cruiser Engine Rebuild.

Check out our new Toyota Corner Page on our  website. 

 

Bundle up and stay warm.  Only 130 days till summer!

Our cars don't like cold anymore than we do!

From an article on "How Stuff Works"....

 

The whole "starting your car in  cold weather" thing can be a big problem for people who live up north, and especially for people who live in really cold places like Alaska. There are three reasons why cars are hard to start when it is cold.

 

Reason 1 - Gasoline, like any other liquid, evaporates less when it is cold. 

You have seen this -- if you pour water onto a hot sidewalk it will evaporate a lot faster than it will from a cooler place like a shady sidewalk. When it gets really cold, gasoline evaporates slowly so it is harder to burn (the gasoline must be vaporized to burn). Sometimes you will see people spray ether into their engines  in cold weather to help them start -- ether evaporates better than gasoline  in cold weather.

 

Reason 2 - Oil gets a lot thicker in cold weather. 

You probably know that cold pancake syrup or honey from the refrigerator  is a lot thicker than hot syrup or honey. Oil does the same thing. So when you try to start a cold engine, the engine has to push around the cold, gooey oil and that makes it harder for the engine to spin. In really cold places people must use synthetic motor oils because these oils stay liquid in cold temperatures.

 

�Re�ason 3 - Batteries have problems in cold weather, too. 

A battery is a can full of chemicals that produce electrons. The chemical reactions inside of batteries take place more slowly when the battery is cold, so the battery produces fewer electrons. The starter motor therefore has less energy to work with when it tries to start the engine, and this causes the engine to crank slowly.

 

All three of these problems �can make it impossible to start an engine in really cold weather. People either keep their cars in heated garages or use "block heaters" to get around these problems. A block heater is a little electric heater that you plug into the wall to keep the engine warm.


FEATURED JOB OF THE MONTH
Our job of the month is from a 2002 Acura TL.  I was called in to check out a severe misfire.  I started by pulling the engine codes, which just showed random misfire.  This wasn't much help.  I pulled up the misfire monitor on my scan tool.  This showed that the number 2 cylinder was the first to repeatedly show misfires.  On this car the most common cause of misfires is a bad ignition coil.  I hooked up an inductive amperage clamp to my oscilloscope and the power feed for the coils.  All of the coils were firing and with the same intensity so I had to look elsewhere for the problem.  I then turned my attention to the fuel injectors.   I repeated the same procedures as with the coil and found nothing wrong.  The next most common failure point was the EGR valve.  This too was fine!  


 
These cars have problems with the valves getting too tight and not sealing causing misfires.  Although with the low mileage this car had I doubted that was the case. None the less I pulled the number 2 spark-plug out and used an in cylinder pressure transducer along with my scope to check the pressure pulses to see if any valves were leaking or if the engine was out of time.  AGAIN, everything was fine.

 

Even though the sparkplug looked fine, I decided to swap it with one from another cylinder to see if the problem followed the sparkplug.  Sure enough, it did.  In the end, it was a bad sparkplug, with only 24,000 miles on it.  Spark-plugs like this one usually don't need to be replaced until 80,000 miles. 

TOYOTA CORNER

1986 Toyota Land Cruiser Engine Re-build: Part 1

 

This month we have 1986 Toyota Land Cruiser in the shop.  It came in after being at another shop for an oil change, where they forgot the very important part of putting the oil back in it!  This expensive mistake spun the number 1 main bearing causing the engine to seize.   Luckily, for our car owner,  the other shop is covering the damages.

Tearing down the engine, 
getting ready to remove the crankshaft

So far I've pulled the motor and stripped it down to the bare block.  I sent everything out for machine work and order parts from Japan.   Surprisingly the parts got here from Japan before the machine work was done.  The machine work is extensive as it needed the crank reground, the block line bored, and the cylinders honed in addition to a complete valve job and head resurfacing.  After the block was initially returned from the machine shop I double-checked their measurements and found the clearances to be off.  They were within standard tolerances, but not as tight as Toyota spec'd.  So back to the machine shop it went!  It is currently there being re-machined.
 

Stayed tuned next month when it all goes back together! 

 

Sincerely,

Your friends at On the Road Again: Mobile Mechanic (OTRAMM)


A Mechanic 
When and Where
You Need One!


Servicing Fauquier,
Prince William and
Loudoun Counties
as well as surrounding areas.


Hours of Operation:
Mon - Fri: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.


Call us today!
(540) 316-8677

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A Mechanic 
When and Where
You Need One!


Servicing Fauquier,
Prince William and
Loudoun Counties
as well as surrounding areas.


Hours of Operation:
Mon - Fri: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.


Call us today!
(540) 316-8677