Check Engine Lights

Two weeks ago, while on his way home from school, a college kid (CK) I know called me to ask about his check engine light. He wanted to know if low oil could cause it and should he keep driving. Good questions. I didn't think low oil could be the reason it came on and asked how the car drove. Since the car was driving fine, I suggested he can drive the rest of the way.

The car got CK home and he came by my house so we could check it out. He has a 1996 Subaru wagon so that means that my code reader would work. Since 1996, all cars use a OBD2 code reader interface. (I think OBD means On-Board-Diagnostics.) Mine looks like this and it cost about $70 at my local cars parts store.

I have used it several times and it has more than payed for itself. The hardest part of using this is finding the plug location on the car. So far, it has always been inside the car and somewhere under the dash. Sometimes it is easy to find, sometime it is under a cover, sometimes it is out in the open and sometimes I have to fish around while upside down under the dash. The plug is standard but the plug location is not.

CK's code number translated to misfire on spark plug number one, so he bought some new plugs at Walmert for about $10. By the way, changing plugs on a 96 Subaru is not easy due to the small space between the cylinder heads and the cars frame. On removal, the old plugs had a way out of spec gap, more than .06" instead of the specification of .044". Plug gaps increase over time as the metal wears off and if has a negative effect on spark quality. Here are the old plugs.

They all look about the same, which is good. If one was fouled or very different in appearance, it would suggest the existance of some other issue.

Using the same code reader, we cleared the codes from the cars diagonistic system.

CK took the car on the spring break camping trip the next day and he later reported that the gas milage improved from about 21 to about 25 mpg and that the check engine light did not come back on. The improved milage means that even at $2.25 a gallon, he saved $10 on fuel costs in about 500 miles of driving. Wow.

Mirror, mirror on the car.
What's the best tape by far.



Duct Tape!

Rick

Failure to Repair

This post is about a something I was not able to fix. A friend had a laptop (HP pavilion ze4900) with no screen image, so he brought it over. It turns out that it had only a dark gray image without a hint of video signal and the video-out VGA port had the same problem. A bad sign. I switched memory chips since it was an easy thing to do and no luck. Another bad sign.

Next step, take it apart. I found something suspicious, a dark spot on the shielded cable to the LCD monitor. It is in the left side near the hinge points.

Here is a close up.


Conclusion: The short fried important components in the video circuitry. A little web research found that the video circuitry is integral with the main board and that a replacement board costs about $300.

So, we pulled the files off the hard drive and put them on a memory stick. He was glad to have his files back.

Rick

More Mobile Duct Tape

Saw this just this morning. It was a very well done job with the middle brake light suspended properly in the plastic sheeting used to replace the missing glass.


White duct tape would have bee a nice touch, but that can be hard to find.

Circular Saw Hack

I don't have a table saw (too big to store) but I needed to cut a board in a way well suited for a table saw.

So, I used clamps and a 1 by 2 on my circular saw to create this temporary tool.



Then I tested in on the board I needed to cut as shown here,


Looks right. Then using the bed of my pick up truck as a work holder, I made the cut. The board is redwood so that make it all a lot easier. Here is the final result.



A 15 foot angled cut as good as a table saw could have done.

Rick

Duct Tape Goes Mobile

Duct tape is available in black, but some may say that in such a case, it is actually gaffers tape.

In any event, black duct tape can be great for dressing up your car as you can see in this photo.


Add a little red and green duct tape on the front, then tape on a action figure as a hood ornament, and presto, you have your own art car.


Rick

Bank Trouble

With banks in the news so much, I though I would post a short blog about a local bank.

Normally, checks clear your bank, but if this local bank is your bank, then you should check for clearance before banking.




Rick