Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Ball Ground, Georgia

Ball Ground, GA Car Consumer Discussions

Re: audio upgrade [qs84]

by donaldduck on Sat Sep 12 12:59:41 PDT 2009

It depends on what kind of tint is used. If the tint is from dying the plastic, there is no effect whatsoever on radio reception. If the tint is from a vacuum deposited metallic (very) thin film then there can be a substantial effect on FM, but unless the metal film is somehow grounded to the car body I would expect some, but not serious degredation. It is possible or even likely that the installer does not know what he sold.You may be able contact the manufacturer to find out. One certain clue is that if the film looks reflective from the outside it is metallic, but all metallic films may not be reflective. Dealers are, of course predisposed to blame something else for any problem if they can. If you can't budge them you may have to do your own research by plugging in a temporary radio to eliminate that possibility, then replacing the car antenna with a temporary whip. If that fixes the problem, then it is somewhere in the car antenna If you connect the temporary whip at the radio, you check the cable. A car audio shop should be able to do these tests for a lot less than buying a cheap radio. The other solution is to tell the dealer to replace the rear tint with whatever he sells, If that does not fix the problem, and your radio works less well than those of other cars the dealer owns, then the ball is firmly in his court, and there should be no charge for the tint replacement.

to Buyingcars

by rich30 on Tue Aug 18 05:26:32 PDT 2009

Unfortunately, the dealer is allowed to do almost anything they want and make extra profit by deceiving the buyer. It's not like investing with Madoff, but...it is nasty. If the MF from Audi finance is 0.0010 (only for example, I do not hv this # for u) and the dealer tells you the MF is 0.0016, guess what - the dealer keeps the difference as extra profit! Residuals can wok same way. This is the sophisticated level of the rip off (what the consumer does not understand is grounds for making extra $). You expect honest help once you want their brand, so you want to just finance it, what you get - "A ball of confusion". Your car salesman is changed into an "investment banker" making his profit by giving made up financial percentages when you expect to get a fair deal. When a client asks dealer for the money factor, he/she expects the current rate determined by the brand's finance co. This is not the norm - you will not usually get the current numbers from the car finance co. (Audi fionance here). This is exactly why we all need this and other forums where you can get the truth. Even calling the Audi (or any brand) finance co and ask them for the resid or MF - they will not give you an answer! - believe it or not! They tell you it is up to the dealer to give these crucial #s! Rich

Sensor Voltage Weirdity

by shaggyman1 on Mon Aug 17 23:20:50 PDT 2009

1996 1.0 5 spd Been on this one for months- starts fine but can't give any throttle before it warms up, or it floods out. Checked the voltage at the Coolant Temperature Sensor by backprobing. It has three wires: Light Green/Black, which is common and goes to the MAP, TPS, and IAT. Gray/White, which is the signal to the ECM. Yellow/White, which is not shown on wiring diagram, but I assume is the input from the ECM. LtGr/Bk is ground- no voltage. Gy/Wt reads 2.34V when cold, decreases with rising engine temp and finally goes to 0.5V when hot, at which point the cooling fan kicks on and takes it back up to around 0.65V. (With two different CTS units- same within .2V) At anything over 1.0V, the engine will flood and stall if the throttle is opened even slightly. These values seem reasonable if the temperature was around zero- but it's 80. What does not seem reasonable is the voltage on the Yellow/White wire which I believe should be the standard 5V input from the ECM, but reads a steady 9.2V, regardless of temperature and even when not running with the ignition on. If the input voltage is nearly twice what it should be, then the CTS could have exactly the correct impedence, but the output signal would be much higher than the ECM expects, and it would compensate with a mixture richer than Bill Gates. Is it possible that something is creating a field that the wire is having additional current induced in it somehow? My DMM read nearly a volt with the positive probe held in the air near (2 inches) the sensor wires. I hope this is the gremlin I have been looking for since April, but I don't have a clue how it could get 9.2V. Maybe something a little over 12v, yes- but not 9. Anyone see this before? Hints? My crystal ball keeps saying to try again later....

no communication between data link and pcm

by anotherjunker on Sun Jul 26 14:52:19 PDT 2009

i recently purchased a 1997 dodge dakota 4 cyl. 2.5 L. so far i've replace the mag. pick up, plugs, wires, rotor, cap, all four ball joints, both stablizer pins, thought i was ready to get it inspected but when they tried to hook it up to the machine result was no communication. they said that the data link is powered by the radio. i took apart the dash to find that when they put in an after market radio most of the wires in the harness were cut. O.K. my question is for an easy solution can i hot wire the data link by cutting the pink wire and the green wire. both of which are dead. checked by testing from fuse box to green wire no result and from good ground to pink wire no result. all other connections looked like the are properly hooked up. sorry for such a long post would appericate and simaler problems and solutions

Re: I gave at the garage [british_rover]

by gasmizr on Sun Jul 19 21:15:13 PDT 2009

It was a 97 3.0L with a 3 speed auto. The combined is 19 according to the government but I will tell you that van did that around town with no problem. We basically drove it into the ground. Lifters were ticking by 80K, rebuilt trans at 110k and 135K, calipers, O2 and MAT sensors a few time etc. It just got to expensive to keep fixing but it did have good gas mileage up to when we go rid of it. Not to mention it drove like a boat. Had around $8K in total non maint costs to keep it running for 10 years. Way higher than any of my Honda's. Replaced with Odyssey new. As far as the C4C program, no matter it is just my rant. If the auto companies, American I presume, had the bill written so be it. I do not think it will help all that much but hey who knows. We already gave them tens of billions so what is one more, more or less. Gov Motors and Chrysler are not on my list to purchase from, ever. That voyager was my last "American" company auto. I am sticking with Honda from here on out as I have had much better luck with longevity and low maintenance. YES, Honda has its issues too but I have had much better luck with them. I will stick with what I know for now. As far as a crystal ball, know one knows for sure but I would put my 96 civic up against the intrepid. Over the last 14 years I have a total in the car of less then $2K worth of non maintenance repairs. One cat, two cat back exhausts due to rust, rear struts and trailing arm bushings. I do not count tires, brakes, filters etc. as I would have had to do these on any car. It now has 206K and does not use any oil between changes every 3-4K miles. Trans is clean and I have done complete fluid replacements every 50K along with doing the brake fluid at the same time. Yes it may just quit but right now I would have to say it will go another 100K. Oh, almost forgot. Had to change out the radio as the volume control became intermittent but that fits in the $2K too.

Front End

by jupes on Sun Jul 19 15:25:25 PDT 2009

Lift the front end off the ground. Chances are you will get wobble. The ball joint is connected to a shaft and you must buy it in one piece as it is an interdependant part. This is likely your wobble problem and most likely your pulling also. (crappy design.) If you don't have it repaired then your tie rods are soon to follow. I had to travel 2000 kilometers to get home and replace it and lord god don't hit the brakes at high speeds.