In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 05 Feb 2023 02:18:59 -0600, Jim Joyce snipped-for-privacy@none.invalid wrote:
I considered one that works that way, but at the time, I needed a fancier one.
I bought this one:
It's a pretty good one, does everything they can do afaik.
I needed a good one because I was running out of ideas for finding the source of a lean mixture code. This one gives live data for many/all of the sensors, and displays it on a graph. I'd read that I needed to look at the live data, so I looked at the graphs but didn't know what it all meant. (I knew what each one meant, but not how they work together.)
I had done all the easy repairs to find air leak into the combustion, clean the Mass Air Sensor (something like that), then replace it, check the PCV valve, a couple other things, check the hoses visusally, then I used a propane torch with a hose, which should have made the idle speed up if I put the hose near an intake leak. (Lean mixture was probably not because of a shortage of injected gas but a surplus of air.) And a couple other things. I was going to replace the indicated O2 sensor but I didn't have to do that.
Finally I bought a vaping vaper, that I was going to use for a smoke test. But before I could use that I leaned a little on the 4" hose between the air cleaner and I-forget-what-you-call-it, and the hose came off. I couldn't get it on right, from years of its being on wrong, and had to replace it, and voila, no more code. So I never used the vaper and I tried to give it away, but not to some stupid teenager who wants to vape, to some smoker who wants to stop. So far, no success.
The new hose was 30 dollars or so, which seems like a lot for a piece of rubber, but easy to find at any autoparts store, and pretty easy to put on correctly.
I guess when I moved the propane hose around I hadn't gotten it underneath (or even to the sides of?) the problem hose. I guess. Maybe I spent too much time on smaller hoses and none on that big hose? That will teach me. BTW, the small hoses were still soft, even though they were 13/14 years old. They use better rubber/neoprene these days?? Than
1950?It took 3 1/2 years to fix it, LOL, but I had gotten good mileage all that time, I don't know why. Maybe a lean mixture doesn't waste gas, because it's lean? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????
It used to stumble a bit when accelerating from a stop, and after the hose was replaced, it didn't do that anymore. Thumbs up.
The Check Engine light was on when I bought the car, but of course that didnt' bother me. Just a challenge. :-) And it might have been why the car was so cheap, $4000 iirc, maybe 3000. 2005 Toyota Solara SLE Convetible. MSRP as loaded was $30,000 new, though I don't know what it actually sold for.
I was back there 6 months later for some reason and saw the vendor again. I told him I'd driven to Florida and back and he seemed amazed that I would do that. Not because the car couldn't iiuc but because he thought I was a wimp or something. I don't know why. ;-)
***I think the tag and title guy assured me the sale couldn't be reversed, like if it was determined the car was stolen and the vendor didn't really own it. I didn't believe him but I thought the odds were very very low, and if need be, I could probably find the vendor by going door to door where he parked the cars he was selling. And/or by subpoenaing the Craig's Kist records.**I knew this at the time, that he had lied to me. Without my asking, he volunteered that his son drove the car all summer to college, but he had bought it only 2 or 3 weeks before. That didn't bother me. I expect a little bit of lying, and the car already had no warranty, so his assuring me the car ran well didn't help. I did test drive it, but it had no tags so only up and down one street one or two blocks long.
After I bought it, I had to get it inspected to complete registration. They said I needed pads and they talked me into rotors, and other than that, the only problem has been the engine splash shield losing two of its push-rivets and dragging on the ground for 5 seconds each time I back out of my parking space. or if I drive on a dirt road with tire ruts and higher in the middle. I fixed it once with Toyota-recommended push-rivets, but they fell out within 2 weeks! Cold out, back hurts, so last week I actually paid a mechanic to do it again. That and the air leak are the only^^ repairs in 5.5 years. Not every car permits this but for $130 or so, I was able to add bluetooth and cell phone/car radio connection to the car radio. And it has a map in the dashboard. I love that, probably never buy another car without it.
^^And I polished the headlight lense, with a kit. Clear as glass now.
****Later I called the first owner, who owned it until 3 weeks before the vendor bought it at auction. Knew her name because of some service station invoice left in the glove box (I had seen that before I bought the car). Found her number with 411.com. She was happy to talk to me and IIRC she said they had tried and failed to fix the check engine light, but had not done something major I was considering. That was my big question. If she'd done it already, I'd know it wouldn't help. (Huh? What would that have been?) Carfax had shown a lot of maintenance and a couple repairs. She bought it new and didn't skimp on maintenance. I saw that before I bought it. They let you use Carfax for free now! I was amazed at that and how much info it had. Including that the timing belt has been changed already. IIRC, she said her new car wasn't a convertible and she missed having one. How does that happen?