2 car questions. Clare!

[Micky]

1) A guy on TV had trouble with his 2000 Ford Focus and the mechanic read the codes and it was misfiring on 3 cylinders. Do you know how many cylinders that car had? He said he was a master mechanic and that that meant the engine was shot. I didnt' think ANY code or group of them meant the engine was shot. Well maybe some codes I don't remember, but misfiring sounds to me like an ignition** problem, not an engine problem. Somewhere in there, the ECM or whatever Ford calls the engine control computer got ruined. **Seems to me more likely a bad computer caused the car to misfire and maybe there was nothing wrong with the engine???

2) An NBC news story was about a car dealership that hired 15-year olds to explaing the dashboard to customers. They made 11 dollars an hour iirc. One was saying he showed a customer that the radio or display panel would get "the 6 best|bus stations". best or bus, not sure. Do you know what this refers to in a new car.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Sounds like BS to me. Many causes for msi-fire, usually ignition related and fixable.

Some radios will scan and put stations into the presets automatically. It would be the six strongest. Can't say what Ford does, buy my last few cars have 6 stations on a screen. Present radio has 6 AM, 2 screens of 6 FM and 3 screens of 6 XM. Aside from the local news I don't listen to anything but the Sirius/XM for the past three or four years.

$11/hour is not bad for a 15 year old. I've heard some dealers have a person come out to your office or home to do that with you too. I bought a new car a month ago and the manuals total about 6" of reading material. Some are basic stuff I'd had, but many new features. Adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, Auto Hold for the brakes, HUD, and a few others are all new to me. The salesman took about an hour going over everything that a kid could have done for $11.

[rbowman]

I called the salesman to ask how to turn the radio on. I thought it was obvious but the radio wasn't coming on. He confirmed that what I was doing was supposed to work. Then I popped the hood, opened the fuse box, and put the missing fuse in place.

[Micky]

We talked here about some other part, that I think it was new cars were shipped without, so the battery wouldn't be run down during shipping. Maybe the radio fuse is another . OTOH, the fuse was under the hood, not under the dash? I'd expect a hood fuse to supply more than the radio.

[Micky]

That's what I figured. People's Court . If it were home construction, the judge would know something about it, but so far -- I havent' watched the whole thing yet -- neither she nor the plaintiff has even addressed, Why a new engine? The judge accepts the craftsman's testimony, on the theory that he must be an expert or the plaintiff wouldn't have hired him, unless there is another expert to contradict it. You and I, no matter how much we know, probably don't have the credentials, though maybe we could find something on the web to support what you just said, and that could help some. But the plaintiffs never come that prepared.

He's suing for everything he spent , but they almost always do that. (More than half the time they sue for everything they spent and everything the next guy charged, as if they're entitled to a free repair.)

Probably what was meant. There's really no r elationship between what stations are strongest and which ones I want to listen to. Except in Baltimore, there seems to be a shortage of AM stations. What a flip that is from the 60's when there were no FM stations in almost every city.

When I was younger, I listened only to music, but now I like Serious radio.

Wow.

Me too, that's for sure. It will be 7 years before I have a car of your vintage.

[bob_villain]

This may answer your question...is your brain misfiring on all cylinders? (Try not to think too hard on this!)

[Tony Hwang]

Today's new car is more than mechanical stuffs. Big fuse box under driver side dash as well as another under the hood and another box for throttle by wire box. Steering wheel and center dash has full of gadgets with touch screen GPS, back up camera, etc. So called infortainment center. Any how when car is delivered every thing is all ready to use. Actually owners manuals are two big booklets. One for basic driving, one for how to use all those gadgets which is thicker than former. I just got a new one of those fancy brand new cars. Had to spend good half a day to set up every thing we need setting up Bluetooth, cellphone, audio equalizer for radio and CD player, etc. And now wife can drive it. Also we have get used to this CVT. I still like my own older car. Vehicle is more and more becoming digital using so called CAN buss logic with all kinds micro processors. I heard Volvo XC90 has some 27 microprocessors in the vehicle talking thru CAN buss. If you know a guy with MECP designation, talk to him all about this stuffs.

12 volt vehicle electronics are really fascinating and mind boggling.

[DerbyDad03]

Fuse location probably has more to do with the wiring harness layout than what is on the circuit.

My Odyssey has 4 fuse boxes, 2 under the hood and 2 inside the vehicle. All 4 boxes have fuses as small as 7.5A and up to 30A, with the under the hood boxes having some larger ones for the sliding doors (40A) and a couple of "Main" fuses (50A and 70A) that protect multiple circuits that have smaller fuses of their own.

In the Ody, the 7.5A fuse for the radio is under the dash but the 7.5A for the rear entertainment system is under the hood. In this case, size doesn't matter.

[philo]

+1

[clare]

It was a 4 cyl engine. A misfire can be caused by many things - bad plugs, bad wires, bad coils, bad injectors, vacuum leaks, bad sensors, bad timing chain even

- as well as bad head gasket or valves. Almost certainly not total engine failure, or even valve or headgasket or timing belt if the random misfire codes were the only codes. There is also a VERY SLIM chance that the computer itself had a problem. My strong suspicion is the engine had well over 100,000 Km on it and had never had plugs changed or any other service.

Likely the strongest sx stations.

[rbowman]

Toyota has a strange sense of humor. The interior lights, personal lights, radio, and stability control system are all on the same fuse. There are some other larger fuses for the ABS and stability control, so that might just be the indicator light when it kicks in.

[trader_4]

+1

If just seeing misfire codes on 3 cylinders was the extent of the diagnosis, then for sure the guy is shyster. If he was dumb enough to say that on TV, it's even worse.

Radio station thing is likely automatic scanning for the strongest

6 stations.

[Micky]

I watched the rest of the case. As I expected, they never got to whether he really needed an engine. But the judge asked if the computer had to be mated to the engine, and the mechanic said no, maybe on some fancy expensive car it would have to but not this one.

But she called the Ford deealer who said, Sometimes you get lucky and the new engine works with the old computer, but often it doesn't and you have to change it. (!) So she said the first mechanic should have told him 2 prices, without and with a new computer, and made the first mechanic pay 1400 I think it was, for the guy to get the new computer, somewhere else.

The Ford story doesn't sound believable to me.

You may remember my terrible experience the one time I went to a dealer, the Toyota dealer, and they lied up and down.

BTW, it wasn't a ford focus but a ford Fusion. Sorry. How many cylinders in that?

You're probably right, but I don't consider that a feature. A good radio should get more than 6 stations well, and I don't want stations just because they are the strongest.

[trader_4]

It agree, it makes no sense to me either. Engines are just the mechanical parts and basic electromechanical stuff. I don't see a reason why the replacement engine would not work with the existing computer, unless something changed, like the engine was from a different year/model car, ie not really the same engine designed for the car. Typically it's an old car that needs a new engine and usually it's either from a junk yard or a rebuilt. Seems almost impossible that could put a replacement engine in and then have to change the computer. And change it to what? If you look the car up on a parts system, it's going to say it takes module #123444 which is what's there already?

It's designed to be used when traveling in other areas. You can quickly get the strongest 10 stations and then see which of them suit you're liking. If that doesn't work, you can use the tuner.

[clare]

Could be 4 or 6

[Ed Pawlowski]

Could be 4, could be 6 Both were available.