Ex autozone employee here, if the battery light was on he probably had them test it with the battery testing tool. The tool just hooks up to the battery, checks it then has you start the car. It has 3 fail states, bad battery, bad starter, bad alternator. The only thing it measures is voltage drop/current draw from the battery. If it thinks the battery is good, but there's a large current draw, it'll say it needs a starter. Probably how he got that "diagnosis". Could be malicious from the autozone employee, but more likely just poor training/they were just reading what the machine told them.
AutoZone employee here the only way we can make a profit is by ripping off customers sell them b******* that they don't need they only hire Psychopaths
@@Dr_V I actually kind of had this experience yesterday. My battery kept dying on me, so I jump started it and got battery back up to 12.36v, put my cheap battery tester on it, said bad battery. Went to auto place and there tester said voltage needs to be higher before they can say. Drove it more, got it up to 12.6v, went back there and now they said my battery was good, tested it again with my battery tester, it now said it was good. So moral of my story is making sure your battery voltage is 12.5v or higher before testing the battery with your battery tester.
Labor costs are the reason why I became a mechanic before I got my degree. Ain't giving those overpriced techs my hard earned cash when I can study for it, and use it to my advantage. Haven't spent a dime in labor in well over 14 years.
A lot of trades divided up into "technician" levels as a way to deal with unionization effecting labor costs. Its a time barrier to people who are smarter and work harder. If you are in a trade that does this beyond 5 years to journeyman excellent wages you need to start your own business or switch to a trade that hasn't been fkd in order to earn a decent living. Many trades get you into 6 figures as a 1st or 2nd year apprentice with a little overtime or prevailing wage work.
Helpful tip when taking the cluster apart is put a small piece of masking tape at the bottom stroke of each dial and mark a line on the tape. Makes it super easy to line them back up after reinstall.
I love the title, with your face on it. You can immediately sense something is very wrong, generally when something is wrong but your face is plastered next to it bewildered, the opposite is true
The information I've heard about lead-free solder is that it tends to grow tin whiskers, these whiskers become high impedance shorts between adjacent pins. If you have a design that has high impedance inputs or floating outputs then these can start to interfere. As the whiskers grow over time their impedance will drop.
Wes, your reasoning, your explanations, including the old engine and 85 fuel, diagnosys and execution, totally amazing. Taking pictures of the dashboard's needles, what a great idea. Thank you for the tutoring.
Would love a video someday that just focuses on O2 sensor data reading, and fuel data reading. Would be even more awesome if it was using Torque (android) since a lot of home people use that program. I know I constantly get lost in what everything should look like and when, and you are probably one of the best at explaining it.
As soon as you showed that battery light on even with the key off, I thought “cluster problems “. BTDT! I had all sorts of weird warning light and intermittent gauge issues on my Sonoma. Replaced the cluster with a good used one and the problems went away. Somebody had already been in mine as most of the soldered components had been potted.
That’s the cleanest cluster I’ve ever seen. Looks new. There’s usually brown all around the incandescent backlight bulbs for heat and the resistors above the speedo stepper are usually brown cracked solder joints from bulb heat. My go to is to put masking tape at the line where the needles point on the gauge overlay. So when you reinstall you can put back where they were. But….. 90% of these things have already been diy “repaired” and I use that term loosely. If you use autel, probably any other aftermarket scanner, before putting the lense back on, if you go into cluster active test, you can do a gauge test and it’ll set all the steppers at 50%. If they’re off just turn off test, move needles, retest. I can’t count as high of people dropping of vehicles, because there’s low oil pressure, low voltage or gas gauge is wrong but the whole problem is someone, even professional rebuilders, put the needles in the wrong orientation.
The instrument cluster was a big problem for that generation of trucks. I found that out when I had to replace mine at around 100,000 miles. They also had problems with the brake lines rotting out right under the cab. My Truck was garage kept and they still went prematurely. There were also alot of ABS and wheel bearing problems
I don’t know how I missed the Patreon notification but watching on UA-cam allows me to big tv screen it!! The only downside is that it was only a 20 minute escape from humdrum!!
I'm beginning to think that Max is the brains of your shop, and once he explains the problem to you, you than replace the defective part(S). lol Always great to watch one of your interesting videos... Thumbs Up!
40 years ago when a ford ignition module would go bad I had all 3 color connector “known good” versions in my bottom tool box drawer. It made it quicker to diagnose the problem.
Hi Wes and wife and son just finished watching you’re video learning some thing from you how you explain everything and as always you the families be safe 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I feel like passing on troubleshooting skills to the next generation (or old parts changers willing to listen) is critical right now. It's in danger of becoming a lost art. The ratio of PC's to troubleshooters has always been bad, and it's only getting worse. Someone needs to at least be able to correctly diagnose the robot overlords after they take over, lest we stray into the Terminator timeline. As to your spectral battery light: may not be applicable to that system but we often have control systems that "fix themselves". That's usually because, in the process of firing the parts cannon, the tech will inadvertantly knock a bit of oxidation/corrosion off a connector. This is after they've installed a several thousand dollar ECM or something, which they will then misattribute to changing the part, further reinforcing the PC mindset. Keep on shootin', Wes.
based on my understanding its a battery light to signal the vehicle is operating off battery power only. thats why its on when engine off off in acc mode but not when running and the alternator is taking over
Almost all new GM (as well as other) vehicles seem to have a voltage and current monitoring sensor on one of the battery cables (the Generator Control Module that was mentioned). It measures and report the battery state of charge and estimated internal battery temperature to the PCM, which can then vary the alternator output voltage. It's supposed to increase battery life, and allow increased fuel economy by reducing alternator output when the battery is fully charged and loads are low. I can see it maybe producing a measurable improvement in fuel economy in a small, already very efficient car. But I have a hard time believing it does anything measurable on a big truck that's going to plow gas regardless. I doubt it improves battery life in any meaningful way.
I like that little prying implement. If I remember correctly, I used a plastic fast food knife and maybe a small flat screwdriver, to pry off the needles on the gauges of my 2005 Mustang GT, when I replaced the stepper motors. That car's connection to the cluster board employs a locking lever, which reminded me of a computer processor! And those fast food plastic knives are very good back scratchers - oh, the serration!!!
virtually every new car in UK has a tv screen instead of instruments, which greatly reduces diagnostic costs, you just bin them every single time... or, if out of warranty, you scrap the car... usually $1 - $3k + fitting/reprogramming PS - don't get the dash "detailed" as you say, they don't like any liquids
Autozone has always been very good to me. No cost printout of all the codes, but they have never offered an opinion. Their paperwork sure does, but not the help. So I'd check the loose nut behind the wheel.
Concerning the starter being fresh out of the box no good, I've got a 1957 Chevy that I rebuilt the original Carter four barrel carburetor on. Leather accelerator pump (made in West Taiwan) did not operate well, caused me (for the first time ever since family ownership of the car from 1968) to be stranded and towed home. After diagnosing the issue, paid for an accelerator pump with upgraded non-leather seal. Aces. Replaced the fuel pump as well since ethanol fuel did the diaphragm dirty (showed a date code of 1960!). Running good. Now to use it enough to burn half a tank of aged fuel, drain the tank, drop it and inspect for rust/dirt/water and replace the sending unit since it gets wonky under a quarter tank. 200,000 miles, no rust, I look forward to reliving my teens and putting on some miles using other than ethanol tainted fuel.
4:00 actually the E85 alcohol is more potent, if the engine is designed to operate on it. That's why a lot of people with race vehicles use e85 since it's more affordable than race fuel. When E85 is used in an engine which isn't designed specifically for it (aka flexfuel), a lot of i the a potential power is completely wasted.
It is not actually more powerful than normal gasoline. It has an equivalent octane rating of 100-105 (octane being the measure of how much pressure the fuel can take before spontaneously combusting). Cars make more power because it provides more cooling and is more resistant to that spontaneous combustion, called premature detonation or pinging, so more aggressive timing can be used to make more power with it. You actually have to use more of it to make the same amount of power, which is why fuel economy tanks when running e85 in a flex fuel vehicle.
I always enjoy your videos. I had to laugh that you defended not doing more. I can honestly say I’ve never known at tech who knew as much about electronics as you. And I damn sure never seen someone open the cluster. But you are 100% right about the cost of trouble shooting. So replacing a cheap part is cheaper for the customer than trouble shooting the entire system. I think you are a great mechanic. If you had a shop by me I’d sell my tools. I don’t know how you are feeling with peoples personalities, but you’re skilled enough to have several mechanics working for you
I call it the observer effect - the technician/repairman looks at the digital device, and the issue doesn't appear. It's either that, or a speck of dust. The Heisenberg Principle writ large.
WES this is great .I love to see your VIEWS and LIKE almost MATCH!!!!! That says to me ,your viewers realize the value of your content as i do.CONGRATS!
A six-figure education shows, when the circuitry of an instrument cluster can be described visually. There's likely not many people out there capable of doing that.
You can adjust the toe with a tape measure and a straight edge I wouldn't be too afraid to do a inner tie rod just inform the customer that if they wanted to be done perfectly they need to go to an alignment shop because you can get it within 1 degree
My guess is that the battery light power leak was on the connector(s) between the dash cluster and the car harness. And you 'cleaned' it when you unplugged the cluster from the car.
That could certainly be explained by manufacturing differences in the LEDs. They usually aren’t characterized for such ultra-low-current applications and might behave very differently between individual leds. That is often a problem when LEDs are stringed together in series without load-sharing resistors. If one of them has a slightly lower resistance (which is also usually not specced that tight) it gets more current, gets warmer and might germinate even lower resistance, resulting in a run-away condition.
@@MaZderMind That's why one burns out in clusters (be they five, 6 or more). Your average LED bulb? It's not burnt out, it's one LED that ate it. You can save quite a bit if you keep your old LED bulb, pull out one of the goods ones and pop them in place of the burnt one on the new bulb. The cheaper the production, the cheaper the checks too. Used to be that these LED bulbs would last ages. I've a few that are now double decade long and still in use VS new ones, circa 2022 ish, that are so garbage, they're not even lasting months. Same brand, same outside look, just 30% lighter.
Nice setup for filming the circuit board diagnosis. 👍👍 New camera? The pic is outstanding. Remember, the cluster removal was on an older truck. Doubt it is still as easy.🤷♂️
Dude I laughed so hard at this video I had a 2006 rav4 to run into the ground for work that. Did the same thing with the battery light staying on very faintly with everything off!!!! I looked everywhere and actually had to disconnect the battery while I worked and when I got home ....I looked on forums and everywhere and couldn't find anyone else with s similar problem so one weekend I dug in and tried to fix it . What I found was on the the passenger side under the kick panel there were a bunch of electrical connections that seemed wet , as I took them apart and dried them with the wife's hair dryer I found one connection that was green. I cleaned it all up put it back together dry and never ever had that issue again !!!! This video made me laugh remembering me going nuts trying to figure this same problem our!!!
That vintage of truck had issues with fractured solder joints on the cluster connecto. Reflowing the solder on the cluster connector fixed a lot of problems.
A faint glow from the Battery light on a GM, at least older ones, is the sign of an alternator beginning to fail. Diodes? Surprisingly, Toyota offers a dumber version of this: On one of my old Corollas, the brake light illuminated unduly, and it turns out that THAT was the sign that my alternator was beginning to fail. I googled it at the time, and yes, that was a thing!
Went to autozone for a CEL read (my OBD tool broke) and they got a scanner that wouldn't output a code on the screen. They hooked the thing up to their computer, and the guy told me that the code was for a "bad evap purge valve," but wouldn't tell me the code number. The guy then tried to keep me from seeing the actual code by pulling the monitor away, before another guy waiting in line saw it and told it to me. Turned out it was a slightly leaking gas cap.
I worked at 4 big chain parts store...and trained new people off the street who knew nothing....I bet they did the "starter/alternator" test. And had a ground connection so instead of checking the connections for the machine they did the test and it said "bad starter, check connections for the test and or the machine had a massive draw on a bad connection and it popped up bad starter" there's no training for that machine or the obd2 reader so half the employees guess what the issue is, or print out the massive sheet of paper with "problems/fixes for diag code xxxx" everyone forgets when you train someone to tell them whatever code is to suggest a shop to diagnosis for a real answer instead of just saying oh jts xyz. Haha
Wes, next time before suspecting anything cluster related on any 90's on up GM truck, double check the 1-2 grounds (I think g101 might be the name?)located on the driver's floor cab mount bracket, should be opposite side area right where you changed the O2 sensor
Ahh yes Wes, it's the "Ghost in the Machine". In this day of "plug and play" it's easier and some times cheaper to throw parts then to actually diagnose an issue. Us old farts like to know "why" it's being weird over just fixing it and calling it a day. Well done and thanks for the video!
I was thinking about the O2 switching in closed loop. We've always been told "it's for the catalytic converter", but do you know if anyone has actually tested that or is it just tribal knowledge we keep propagating? Honda developed their lean-burn system way back when and that didn't kill their cats. My Honda motorcycle actually runs *very* lean and it's closed loop whazoo EFI with cat. I suspect the dithering of the O2 sensors is actually because the sensors can't read stoich, so they dither back and forth. Consider this argument: When you reach the nyquist rate the only way to determine accurately what the value is, is to dither across a value. Put another way, if you have a scale and you weigh something, if it says 2 lbs, then 3lbs, then 2lbs, then 3lbs, you can be pretty certain it's 3lbs. Conversely, if it doesn't dither between 3lbs and any other number, you know the weight is between 3lbs 0oz and 3lbs 15.9oz. Dithering is a technique used to increase the resolution of a signal past the nyquist rate, so if O2 sensors dither across lambda 1, then you can be assured your average lambda is 1. I think the real reason closed loop dithers is because of how narrow band sensors work, you could never accurately determine the AFR without dithering.
My wife’s 2020 Explorer kept having intermittent AWD codes/warnings. Found a TSB and all symptoms and codes matched the TSB. Bought the $130 sensor and a quart of diff fluid and still not fixed. I went and just messed with the module, pushed the LOCKING connector in to make sure it was secure and boom lights gone. After 5 drives and her drive last night, still gone. Crank up this morning every light back on the dash. Maybe I’ll take it to Autozonw
Thanks for the upload, Wes. Reminded me to get out and do my "winter" oil change. Granted, this is Florida and it's 80 degrees out. But it's still mid November, right?
My 04 suburban did this. Of course the fuel gauge, oil pressure, rpm and eventually the speedometer all stopped too. But that battery light was always on. Ordered a rebuilt one and it's back to normal with no battery light.
@11:07 Paranormal activity? So... you're just ruling out the possibility of a bad starter? You'll never get a job at AutoZone with that kind of diagnostic skills. 😀
I just did stepper motors in my 06 2500hd. The battery light was on real dim when key off. I only discovered why the battery kept running down overnight from the cluster motor trying to do work. Sent it out, tho. I am not as sophisticated as Wes.
Your short-tripping theory makes sense for killing the sensor. I wonder if just running that vehicle on a long trip and fresh fuel would have got the sensor back to happy again?
I had a similar problem with my old Ford Focus (dunno if that thing has the same name over in the states), where it would light up the whole dashboard and go into limp mode, because the solder joints of the K & L lines on the connector were broken due to vibration. Sometimes smacking the dashboard would help, but in the end, I had to resolder them. I used some painters tape to mark the dial gauges.
That Auto zone is awesome, clearly they knew a car they never even saw needed a starter, The skill in that store is amazing, I think I want to know where that location is so I can bring my car from Washington State for a diagnosis.
Ex autozone employee here, if the battery light was on he probably had them test it with the battery testing tool. The tool just hooks up to the battery, checks it then has you start the car. It has 3 fail states, bad battery, bad starter, bad alternator. The only thing it measures is voltage drop/current draw from the battery. If it thinks the battery is good, but there's a large current draw, it'll say it needs a starter. Probably how he got that "diagnosis". Could be malicious from the autozone employee, but more likely just poor training/they were just reading what the machine told them.
Never trust AutoZone 😂
I bough a cheap tester and did this at home, it said I have a bad battery but my mechanic checked it and told me to throw away the crappy tester 😄
AutoZone employee here the only way we can make a profit is by ripping off customers sell them b******* that they don't need they only hire Psychopaths
@@Dr_V I actually kind of had this experience yesterday. My battery kept dying on me, so I jump started it and got battery back up to 12.36v, put my cheap battery tester on it, said bad battery. Went to auto place and there tester said voltage needs to be higher before they can say. Drove it more, got it up to 12.6v, went back there and now they said my battery was good, tested it again with my battery tester, it now said it was good. So moral of my story is making sure your battery voltage is 12.5v or higher before testing the battery with your battery tester.
labor costs are insane. But technicians wages are the same.
I know. Like how oil prices go down but gas prices go up.
hmmm
Labor costs are the reason why I became a mechanic before I got my degree. Ain't giving those overpriced techs my hard earned cash when I can study for it, and use it to my advantage.
Haven't spent a dime in labor in well over 14 years.
@@WatchWesWork Oil goes down, gas goes down a month later. Oil goes up, gas goes up the same day.
A lot of trades divided up into "technician" levels as a way to deal with unionization effecting labor costs. Its a time barrier to people who are smarter and work harder. If you are in a trade that does this beyond 5 years to journeyman excellent wages you need to start your own business or switch to a trade that hasn't been fkd in order to earn a decent living. Many trades get you into 6 figures as a 1st or 2nd year apprentice with a little overtime or prevailing wage work.
Thanks for the outro Mrs. Wes.
Helpful tip when taking the cluster apart is put a small piece of masking tape at the bottom stroke of each dial and mark a line on the tape. Makes it super easy to line them back up after reinstall.
I'm impressed at how fluent you are in taking instrument clusters apart! Nicely done.
I love the title, with your face on it. You can immediately sense something is very wrong, generally when something is wrong but your face is plastered next to it bewildered, the opposite is true
The information I've heard about lead-free solder is that it tends to grow tin whiskers, these whiskers become high impedance shorts between adjacent pins. If you have a design that has high impedance inputs or floating outputs then these can start to interfere. As the whiskers grow over time their impedance will drop.
also is more brittle than leaded.
AutoZone was confused and was talking about the Chevy Cruze needed a starter.
AutoZone will try to sell you spark plugs for your diesel
@@xephael3485 🤣
Wes, your reasoning, your explanations, including the old engine and 85 fuel, diagnosys and execution, totally amazing. Taking pictures of the dashboard's needles, what a great idea. Thank you for the tutoring.
Would love a video someday that just focuses on O2 sensor data reading, and fuel data reading. Would be even more awesome if it was using Torque (android) since a lot of home people use that program. I know I constantly get lost in what everything should look like and when, and you are probably one of the best at explaining it.
Watch Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics
As soon as you showed that battery light on even with the key off, I thought “cluster problems “. BTDT! I had all sorts of weird warning light and intermittent gauge issues on my Sonoma. Replaced the cluster with a good used one and the problems went away. Somebody had already been in mine as most of the soldered components had been potted.
It's a good Sunday when Watch Wes Work uploads!!!
My Tire inflation light came on and the tire place told me i needed new tires 😂lol
That's not hard to believe if your tires are wore out beyond specs, old, uneven wear etc..Don't see how your laughing at such a vague statement.
Good work, Wes. Always loads to learn from your videos.
That’s the cleanest cluster I’ve ever seen. Looks new. There’s usually brown all around the incandescent backlight bulbs for heat and the resistors above the speedo stepper are usually brown cracked solder joints from bulb heat. My go to is to put masking tape at the line where the needles point on the gauge overlay. So when you reinstall you can put back where they were. But….. 90% of these things have already been diy “repaired” and I use that term loosely. If you use autel, probably any other aftermarket scanner, before putting the lense back on, if you go into cluster active test, you can do a gauge test and it’ll set all the steppers at 50%. If they’re off just turn off test, move needles, retest. I can’t count as high of people dropping of vehicles, because there’s low oil pressure, low voltage or gas gauge is wrong but the whole problem is someone, even professional rebuilders, put the needles in the wrong orientation.
Always nice to see Mrs Wes in the shop...
The instrument cluster was a big problem for that generation of trucks. I found that out when I had to replace mine at around 100,000 miles. They also had problems with the brake lines rotting out right under the cab. My Truck was garage kept and they still went prematurely. There were also alot of ABS and wheel bearing problems
You fixed the cluster via blowing dust away 😂Thumbs up 👍 good job 👏
I squinted and held my breathe when you blew out that fuse box lmao force of habit
Safety squints
@@kge420 OSHA compliant too
"You're the engineer" smh
Must be the smart alec way to say I love you.
Thanks for the video Wes, a great way to start my week off..... Monday 6.30 am here in New Zealand.... have a great Sunday with the family....
10:16 I'm unreasonably upset they put the QR code sticker on at an angle.
Thanks Wes for posting this Sunday vid. Remember at AutoZone, they ask year make and model for a lil tree air freshener………..
Well, the first problem the customer went to AutoZone
Sometimes, it's all you have.
I don’t know how I missed the Patreon notification but watching on UA-cam allows me to big tv screen it!! The only downside is that it was only a 20 minute escape from humdrum!!
Hello Wes, always enjoy your program and look forward to seeing the next one. Take care and stay safe 👍
Parts are expensive, labor is expensive, everything is expensive.
Maybe it is low on 'Starter Freon'. Lol
Chevy Cruz should have gone to AutoZone.
Would have gotten the proper "You need a starter lady!" diagnosis.
I'm beginning to think that Max is the brains of your shop, and once he explains the problem to you, you than replace the defective part(S). lol Always great to watch one of your interesting videos... Thumbs Up!
40 years ago when a ford ignition module would go bad I had all 3 color connector “known good” versions in my bottom tool box drawer. It made it quicker to diagnose the problem.
Hi Wes and wife and son just finished watching you’re video learning some thing from you how you explain everything and as always you the families be safe 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Trick I learned for removing cluster needles is to put painter tape on cluster face and mark the needle position before pulling the needle off.
That in itself can make marks though..
I feel like passing on troubleshooting skills to the next generation (or old parts changers willing to listen) is critical right now. It's in danger of becoming a lost art. The ratio of PC's to troubleshooters has always been bad, and it's only getting worse. Someone needs to at least be able to correctly diagnose the robot overlords after they take over, lest we stray into the Terminator timeline.
As to your spectral battery light: may not be applicable to that system but we often have control systems that "fix themselves". That's usually because, in the process of firing the parts cannon, the tech will inadvertantly knock a bit of oxidation/corrosion off a connector. This is after they've installed a several thousand dollar ECM or something, which they will then misattribute to changing the part, further reinforcing the PC mindset. Keep on shootin', Wes.
AutoZone probably told him it needed a starter and a gas cap.
based on my understanding its a battery light to signal the vehicle is operating off battery power only. thats why its on when engine off off in acc mode but not when running and the alternator is taking over
Almost all new GM (as well as other) vehicles seem to have a voltage and current monitoring sensor on one of the battery cables (the Generator Control Module that was mentioned). It measures and report the battery state of charge and estimated internal battery temperature to the PCM, which can then vary the alternator output voltage. It's supposed to increase battery life, and allow increased fuel economy by reducing alternator output when the battery is fully charged and loads are low.
I can see it maybe producing a measurable improvement in fuel economy in a small, already very efficient car. But I have a hard time believing it does anything measurable on a big truck that's going to plow gas regardless. I doubt it improves battery life in any meaningful way.
My favorite repair shop. GET IN THE ZONE
I like that little prying implement. If I remember correctly, I used a plastic fast food knife and maybe a small flat screwdriver, to pry off the needles on the gauges of my 2005 Mustang GT, when I replaced the stepper motors. That car's connection to the cluster board employs a locking lever, which reminded me of a computer processor!
And those fast food plastic knives are very good back scratchers - oh, the serration!!!
Just watched a video from Germany where a truck had spilt 20 tons of beer - that's where you need an alcohol sensor.
Love the new electronic work bench! I always use an ultraviolet lite to look at circuit boards to identify hot spots
Where I work, when something fixes itself, we call id repair thru disturbance, LOL.
Hi, Wes you are a lucky guy. Many thanks.
virtually every new car in UK has a tv screen instead of instruments, which greatly reduces diagnostic costs, you just bin them every single time...
or, if out of warranty, you scrap the car... usually $1 - $3k + fitting/reprogramming
PS - don't get the dash "detailed" as you say, they don't like any liquids
Autozone has always been very good to me. No cost printout of all the codes, but they have never offered an opinion. Their paperwork sure does, but not the help. So I'd check the loose nut behind the wheel.
I’ve fixed many weird electrical issues on airplanes with the old clean and reseat of electrical connectors. Good to go!
Concerning the starter being fresh out of the box no good, I've got a 1957 Chevy that I rebuilt the original Carter four barrel carburetor on. Leather accelerator pump (made in West Taiwan) did not operate well, caused me (for the first time ever since family ownership of the car from 1968) to be stranded and towed home. After diagnosing the issue, paid for an accelerator pump with upgraded non-leather seal. Aces. Replaced the fuel pump as well since ethanol fuel did the diaphragm dirty (showed a date code of 1960!). Running good. Now to use it enough to burn half a tank of aged fuel, drain the tank, drop it and inspect for rust/dirt/water and replace the sending unit since it gets wonky under a quarter tank. 200,000 miles, no rust, I look forward to reliving my teens and putting on some miles using other than ethanol tainted fuel.
Camera phones may be the greatest invention of my lifetime 😂
Yours is a sad commentary on the current state of affairs.
4:00 actually the E85 alcohol is more potent, if the engine is designed to operate on it. That's why a lot of people with race vehicles use e85 since it's more affordable than race fuel.
When E85 is used in an engine which isn't designed specifically for it (aka flexfuel), a lot of i the a potential power is completely wasted.
It is not actually more powerful than normal gasoline. It has an equivalent octane rating of 100-105 (octane being the measure of how much pressure the fuel can take before spontaneously combusting). Cars make more power because it provides more cooling and is more resistant to that spontaneous combustion, called premature detonation or pinging, so more aggressive timing can be used to make more power with it. You actually have to use more of it to make the same amount of power, which is why fuel economy tanks when running e85 in a flex fuel vehicle.
Good video. Those old GMT800 series trucks were very good with the pre-AFM 5.3L engines.
Don’t forget the pre-AFM 6.0’s as well.
The 6.0’s never had AFM, as far as I’m aware.
I always enjoy your videos. I had to laugh that you defended not doing more. I can honestly say I’ve never known at tech who knew as much about electronics as you. And I damn sure never seen someone open the cluster. But you are 100% right about the cost of trouble shooting. So replacing a cheap part is cheaper for the customer than trouble shooting the entire system. I think you are a great mechanic. If you had a shop by me I’d sell my tools. I don’t know how you are feeling with peoples personalities, but you’re skilled enough to have several mechanics working for you
Having mechanics working on your customers equipment requires a whole other skill set.
I call it the observer effect - the technician/repairman looks at the digital device, and the issue doesn't appear. It's either that, or a speck of dust. The Heisenberg Principle writ large.
WES this is great .I love to see your VIEWS and LIKE almost MATCH!!!!! That says to me ,your viewers realize the value of your content as i do.CONGRATS!
A six-figure education shows, when the circuitry of an instrument cluster can be described visually. There's likely not many people out there capable of doing that.
You can adjust the toe with a tape measure and a straight edge I wouldn't be too afraid to do a inner tie rod just inform the customer that if they wanted to be done perfectly they need to go to an alignment shop because you can get it within 1 degree
My guess is that the battery light power leak was on the connector(s) between the dash cluster and the car harness. And you 'cleaned' it when you unplugged the cluster from the car.
I could see that. I'm still not sure only the battery light is affected. The more I think about it, the more my brain hurts.
That could certainly be explained by manufacturing differences in the LEDs. They usually aren’t characterized for such ultra-low-current applications and might behave very differently between individual leds.
That is often a problem when LEDs are stringed together in series without load-sharing resistors. If one of them has a slightly lower resistance (which is also usually not specced that tight) it gets more current, gets warmer and might germinate even lower resistance, resulting in a run-away condition.
My guess it's a stuck signal somewhere. Unplugging the battery might have done the same fixing effect.
@@MaZderMind That's why one burns out in clusters (be they five, 6 or more). Your average LED bulb? It's not burnt out, it's one LED that ate it. You can save quite a bit if you keep your old LED bulb, pull out one of the goods ones and pop them in place of the burnt one on the new bulb. The cheaper the production, the cheaper the checks too. Used to be that these LED bulbs would last ages. I've a few that are now double decade long and still in use VS new ones, circa 2022 ish, that are so garbage, they're not even lasting months. Same brand, same outside look, just 30% lighter.
Big issue with lead free solder was brittleness.
Another great video Wes. I appreciate your explanation of what you found on the Silverado. Also giving us how you fixed the Cruze. Thank you.
For the led, I was thinking tin whiskers could have caused it to light up. Then again that likely would have been brighter
Nice setup for filming the circuit board diagnosis. 👍👍 New camera? The pic is outstanding. Remember, the cluster removal was on an older truck. Doubt it is still as easy.🤷♂️
Dude I laughed so hard at this video I had a 2006 rav4 to run into the ground for work that. Did the same thing with the battery light staying on very faintly with everything off!!!! I looked everywhere and actually had to disconnect the battery while I worked and when I got home ....I looked on forums and everywhere and couldn't find anyone else with s similar problem so one weekend I dug in and tried to fix it . What I found was on the the passenger side under the kick panel there were a bunch of electrical connections that seemed wet , as I took them apart and dried them with the wife's hair dryer I found one connection that was green. I cleaned it all up put it back together dry and never ever had that issue again !!!! This video made me laugh remembering me going nuts trying to figure this same problem our!!!
I love the dramatic approach
A Mustie1 video, followed immediately by a WWw video in my feed Today is gonna be a good day
That vintage of truck had issues with fractured solder joints on the cluster connecto. Reflowing the solder on the cluster connector fixed a lot of problems.
Good call,
New tires before the first snow fall.
A faint glow from the Battery light on a GM, at least older ones, is the sign of an alternator beginning to fail. Diodes?
Surprisingly, Toyota offers a dumber version of this: On one of my old Corollas, the brake light illuminated unduly, and it turns out that THAT was the sign that my alternator was beginning to fail. I googled it at the time, and yes, that was a thing!
Went to autozone for a CEL read (my OBD tool broke) and they got a scanner that wouldn't output a code on the screen. They hooked the thing up to their computer, and the guy told me that the code was for a "bad evap purge valve," but wouldn't tell me the code number. The guy then tried to keep me from seeing the actual code by pulling the monitor away, before another guy waiting in line saw it and told it to me.
Turned out it was a slightly leaking gas cap.
One of the only vehicles on the planet actually needing an O2 sensor at Vatozone, and they didn't sell 8 of them to the guy??
I worked at 4 big chain parts store...and trained new people off the street who knew nothing....I bet they did the "starter/alternator" test. And had a ground connection so instead of checking the connections for the machine they did the test and it said "bad starter, check connections for the test and or the machine had a massive draw on a bad connection and it popped up bad starter" there's no training for that machine or the obd2 reader so half the employees guess what the issue is, or print out the massive sheet of paper with "problems/fixes for diag code xxxx" everyone forgets when you train someone to tell them whatever code is to suggest a shop to diagnosis for a real answer instead of just saying oh jts xyz. Haha
Always look forward to another "well done" troubleshooting video!! Thanks!
Yes yes West the cluster is a problem on the years I got to follow that came over to my house and had to solder some stuff and repair it really quick
Wes, next time before suspecting anything cluster related on any 90's on up GM truck, double check the 1-2 grounds (I think g101 might be the name?)located on the driver's floor cab mount bracket, should be opposite side area right where you changed the O2 sensor
"Paranormal" is probably as good an answer as any.
Ahh yes Wes, it's the "Ghost in the Machine". In this day of "plug and play" it's easier and some times cheaper to throw parts then to actually diagnose an issue. Us old farts like to know "why" it's being weird over just fixing it and calling it a day. Well done and thanks for the video!
Rodents took up residence in the very same place in my 2006 silverado. Had to splice several chewed wires.
I was thinking about the O2 switching in closed loop. We've always been told "it's for the catalytic converter", but do you know if anyone has actually tested that or is it just tribal knowledge we keep propagating? Honda developed their lean-burn system way back when and that didn't kill their cats. My Honda motorcycle actually runs *very* lean and it's closed loop whazoo EFI with cat. I suspect the dithering of the O2 sensors is actually because the sensors can't read stoich, so they dither back and forth. Consider this argument: When you reach the nyquist rate the only way to determine accurately what the value is, is to dither across a value. Put another way, if you have a scale and you weigh something, if it says 2 lbs, then 3lbs, then 2lbs, then 3lbs, you can be pretty certain it's 3lbs. Conversely, if it doesn't dither between 3lbs and any other number, you know the weight is between 3lbs 0oz and 3lbs 15.9oz. Dithering is a technique used to increase the resolution of a signal past the nyquist rate, so if O2 sensors dither across lambda 1, then you can be assured your average lambda is 1. I think the real reason closed loop dithers is because of how narrow band sensors work, you could never accurately determine the AFR without dithering.
My wife’s 2020 Explorer kept having intermittent AWD codes/warnings. Found a TSB and all symptoms and codes matched the TSB. Bought the $130 sensor and a quart of diff fluid and still not fixed.
I went and just messed with the module, pushed the LOCKING connector in to make sure it was secure and boom lights gone. After 5 drives and her drive last night, still gone.
Crank up this morning every light back on the dash. Maybe I’ll take it to Autozonw
Thanks for the upload, Wes. Reminded me to get out and do my "winter" oil change. Granted, this is Florida and it's 80 degrees out. But it's still mid November, right?
Love Sundays with WWW.
My 04 suburban did this. Of course the fuel gauge, oil pressure, rpm and eventually the speedometer all stopped too. But that battery light was always on. Ordered a rebuilt one and it's back to normal with no battery light.
Autozone guy does side jobs I believe, great work WWW
I took my Jeep to AutismZo I mean AutoZone because of a light on the dash. They told me I needed to CUT MY GRASS ?
Thanks for the video Mr. & Mrs. Wes.
@11:07 Paranormal activity? So... you're just ruling out the possibility of a bad starter? You'll never get a job at AutoZone with that kind of diagnostic skills. 😀
I just did stepper motors in my 06 2500hd. The battery light was on real dim when key off. I only discovered why the battery kept running down overnight from the cluster motor trying to do work. Sent it out, tho. I am not as sophisticated as Wes.
A mid '00s GM product with a bad cluster? No way!
Autozone don't know what they saying they only hire young kids that don't know anything but to sell the costumers what they ask for.🤣🤣🤣
Great work, thanks for sharing your invaluable knowledge 👍💨💨
The ghost in the machine. Sorta.
Your short-tripping theory makes sense for killing the sensor. I wonder if just running that vehicle on a long trip and fresh fuel would have got the sensor back to happy again?
I had a similar problem with my old Ford Focus (dunno if that thing has the same name over in the states), where it would light up the whole dashboard and go into limp mode, because the solder joints of the K & L lines on the connector were broken due to vibration. Sometimes smacking the dashboard would help, but in the end, I had to resolder them. I used some painters tape to mark the dial gauges.
aint nothin like EXCESSIVE ElectroCRAP and Rodents to make ya want to pull your hair out LOL
It’s obvious, it’s the muffler bearings!😂🤪🇨🇦
So it did need a new starter - Autozone just had the wrong car
Electrical Gremlins and phantomangry eelectrical pixies lol
That Auto zone is awesome, clearly they knew a car they never even saw needed a starter, The skill in that store is amazing, I think I want to know where that location is so I can bring my car from Washington State for a diagnosis.
starter needed in A DIFFERENT CAR??
The AutoZone must have telekinetically interfaced with the Cruz instead of the truck (and suggested the need for a starter)........................😅
Thanks for the video, enjoyed watching Wes, thanks for the update on the other car.
That dash light, check grounds for green.
Thanks Wes and Mrs. Wes!🐾🍺