- Mike Vanderboegh is on a roll once again.
- Anyone have change for a quadrillion dollar bill?
- One of those things they didn’t teach us in school: “Born Free and Equal.” How a pair of Revolutionary War-era court cases helped end slavery in the north.
- I’ve stayed away from the whole kerfluffle over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the rebellion that refused fast-track authority to Obama. To me, there’s only one issue: the TPP is secret. So at best there’s nothing (yet) to support or oppose and at worst, it’s an act of tyranny. Then how is it that so many business publications and supposed freedomista publications wail and lament the (no doubt temporary) failure of TPP/TPA? Just because somebody’s attached the words “free trade” to something doesn’t make it so. And c’mon. Does anybody really think Obama would want TPP if it were about actual free trade?
- Oh well. Here’s a movingly strange SF story for you.
Xterra update (for those who care)
A repair on Friday fixed nothing while getting false hopes up. The mechanic then prevailed upon me to put the beast on a diagnostic scanner for a third time.
As before, the only code the wretched four-wheeled monster throws is P1320 — distributor issues. Yes, if you’ve been counting, the distributor has already been replaced twice (three times if you include the fact that it was successfully replaced 40k miles ago).
The guys who put the Xterra to the test were aware of the previous diagnostics and previous failures of new distributors to make one bit of difference. Certain vehicles, they concluded, simply require OEM distributors and nothing else will do.
So that’s either just shy of $200 from a junkyard (and who can even be sure it’s really an OEM part or what condition it might be in) or nearly $400 for a new (or maybe it’s remanufactured), guaranteed Nissan part. But though it’s guaranteed, it’s also listed as non-returnable because it’s an electronic part. Which confuses me to the max.
I spent hours researching but haven’t clicked to buy. I’ve lost all faith in the pronouncements of both diagnostic computers and “expert” mechanics. I can’t see spending that kind of money on yet another wild guess. Especially if the purchase might be irrevocable.
But many other suggestions (thank you) have been checked and didn’t pan out. Or they still remain to be tried but will be resource-consuming shots in the dark. How many weeks or months? How much money? And how many shots in the dark will it take? Somebody who loves the challenges of machinery might think this is nothing. Me? All I want is a ride that actually runs.
The only things I’m certain of are a) right now I’m inclined to give the Xterra away to any mechanically adept person who’ll take it off my hands and b) I’m going to take to drink. Very soon.
Borrow the distributor from an XTerra that runs and see if it helps. If it does, drive away fast…
Have they checked the connections, wiring etc to and from the distributor? I had an issue with my Nissan truck not being able to run A/C and radio at same time. Initially the dealer would stop at replacing the relay for the A/C. Had to make the dealer (dealer, first mistake) run down the wiring harness to look for a short, the A/C switch and radio were on same circuit. Consultation with a Chilton’s manual layed out the wiring diagram. After much complaining, the dealer found that short and fixed it. I have not done business with or recommended that dealer since.
I liked the demon story. 🙂
That car is truly strange. Maybe it has a demon too. 🙂
LOL, Matt. There even happens to be another Xterra in the neighborhood and the young woman who owns it doesn’t have a dog to bark at me when I steal her car parts!
Um … that said, yes, all the wiring has been checked and checked again.
I’m going to ask people not to make new suggestions about what might be wrong with the vehicle. I have a long list of suggestions already, which we’ve about half worked our way through. Whatever the answer is in this mess, for me it isn’t “spend more money to test more guesses.”
I’ll be able to walk decently again soon and I’d park the Xterra for the summer and go on foot before I’d spend more weeks or months banging my head on machinery.
MamaLiberty — Thanks for that laugh, too. Yes, and if the Xterra has a demon, it’s probably just as feeble, coughing, and gasping as the one in the story.
I liked that story!
Sorry about the Xterra, though. On top of the broken ankle, yet. Uncle Murphy is a jerk.
Too bad Molakesh can’t give you one fireball to “fix” the Xterra with.
Kent — Oh yes, right now that would be very, verrrrry tempting. Hm. The Fourth of July is coming up …
Joel — Yes, Murphy’s been a b******d lately. But then, I keep running into people who’ve gotten such crap from Murphy that they’d probably think all this is a breeze.
Well, crap. I had hopes that with all the research and suggestions, something would turn up. I wonder how one would go about testing a distributor. I don’t mean the old unhook a plug wire and look for a spark method. I mean like a test fixture, or a set of electrical tests measuring various resistances,currents, voltages, etc. Somewhere, documentation of such must exist.
I assume that you can tell an OEM distributor from the junkyard apart from Brand-X by inspecting the labeling. However, irrespective of what sort it is, how does one tell whether it’s a good one?
I’m quite sympathetic to the car woes. Particularly not wanting to throw good money after bad.
Bummer on the Xterra. Out of idle curiosity I looked up Xterra distributors on YouTube. There’s a lot there and one video addressed rough running. It turns out the distributor contains both the cam sensor and the crank sensor and uses some sort of algorithm to make the car run properly. There was even a series of videos on rebuilding the distributor yourself. Since your chair bound, you might consider pulling the distributor and start replacing internet sourced parts on your own. Once you get to looking in there, they are fairly simple and pretty much a plug and play.
Mike — I know the Xterra distributor contains both the camshaft sensor and the ignition coil, both of which are potential prime culprits. I don’t believe the crankshaft sensor is in there. But in any case … OMG. Rebuild the distributor? I can’t even imagine imagining!
I’d have to buy all OEM parts and get the right tools … and I wouldn’t have a clue. Not a clue. Even if I managed somehow to rebuild a distributor, if I put it back in and it didn’t solve the problem I’d have know way of knowing whether the problem was bad components, bad assembly, or the fact that something besides the distributor was actually at fault.
Sorry. I’m guessing you’re a guy who just loves to tinker with mechanical things. But that sounds like a nightmare to me, and one very likely to make matters even worse than they are now.
“I’m quite sympathetic to the car woes. Particularly not wanting to throw good money after bad.”
jed, thanks for the sympathy. I do appreciate it, especially knowing you’ve been there. And you said it. IF I was confident an OEM distributor would solve the problem, I’d bite the bullet and buy one. But if I buy that distributor and it doesn’t help, I will have put more than $1,000 into complete failures in a six week period. That’s a bloody damn fortune. And OMG, how much more might be needed?
I either need to be confident a third distributor (or some other solution) WILL work or I just need to park the Xterra and walk for the time being.
I really hate to hear that this is still going on =[ The feeling of a 4-wheeled problem child is a lousy one especially when it’s your only way around. The feeling of “maybe insurance fraud ISN’T the worst thing ever”
Honestly if it makes you feel any solidarity, I’m there right now with my 2 misbehaving vehicles, Albeit maybe not as bad. My Wrangler has an expired tag and its gonna be a huge ass pain to get it legal again. Not because of engine problems (though it does smell like oil when I drive) and not because of headlights (though my turn signals pick and choose when they wanna work) and not because of tires (though the agressive mud tires I put on 2 years ago are getting close to looking like NASCAR tires now). Does anybody give a damn about that? No. Why you ask? A lack of plastic fender flares. Because Ive not even got a thread left in the body to screw in a stupid plastic fender flare that “completely covers the tire within 1 inch” nor do I have such a silly little piece of plastic. But to the mouth-breathing state of Hawaii this is absolutely essential, and without photographic evidence sent from a saftey place to the DOT that I have something that covers my tire, I might as well be trying to drive a god awful black smoke billowing rat rod with no seat belts, exhaust pipes, windshield or license plates. I guess I’ll try to track down something that kinda looks like a fender and try to attach it for a photo with double sided tape in the shop of someone who will take a hundred bucks to look the other way.
Oh and some wonderful individual decided while I was away for a month to steal an oil cap off my bike that would have cost them maybe at the most 20 bucks. So can I just ride that while the Jeep is an illegal mess? NO. I have to come up with money to have it towed to the scumbag Harley stealership here to figure out if the thing has a bunch of crap in the oil-pan, cause god forbid I just play it cheap and safe and do an oil change myself, as far as my 5-year warranty with them goes I would be better off dropping a a lit match in the gas tank than touching anything that isn’t a button or switch. I fear I may end up going away for awhile if I find out the identity of the person who decided they deserved such a minor but essential part at my expense…
That, however, is the life I chose when I decided not to get a nice, dependable and sensible vehicle. It sounds like you did and you’re still getting the short end of the stick. Wish I was there to help in any capacity, even if its the capacity of “A young white male dressed in black that was running away when I saw the car on fire out the window, sir…anyways about that deductible…”
“A young white male dressed in black that was running away when I saw the car on fire out the window, sir…anyways about that deductible…”
LOL! Thank you, winston. That’s … um, gallant.
I assure you that any brief thoughts of Xterras and fireballs had only to do with a sort of (dare I say it) final solution. Insurance not involved. I just want the &^%$##@/ problem to GO AWAY.
Good luck with dear old Hawaii and your own vehicles, though. Yikes!
Ah, Hawaii.
We were Skyping our grandkids a couple of months ago when our daughter told us they just had to pony up $400+ for each of their two vehicles for the annual license sticker. We had just relicensed our newer truck for about $30. My Jeep is even less.
TPP, from “The Most Transparent Administration in History”
Sell it.
Buy an old Jeep CJ5 — it doesn’t get much simpler. And the dogs would love the open top 🙂
“Sell it.”
libertynews — Definitely if the next fix doesn’t cure the Xterra, I’ll either sell it or give it away or at least park it and de-insure it. Would be a shame to have to sell it for a few hundred dollars in its current broken condition.
As to another vehicle, I’ll skip that. I’ve been waiting on the Elio, but that wait now looks to be years longer (and it’ll be a huge surprise if the thing finally hits the market at anything near the promised $6,800 price). Any vehicle I could buy now would be of the same vintage as the Xterra and probably even higher mileage (the X has had only about 10,000 miles a year put on it). In other words, I’d be buying unknown problems.
Not worth it. Once the ankle’s working again (and it’s getting there!) I can walk most places I need to go and walk to a bus stop to get to places farther afield.
Claire, I know you don’t want another “suggestion” regarding the Xterra…But here I go anyway. Check around Algores amazing internet and find a shop where they actually own an oscilloscope, and are not afraid to use it.
Every sensor has it’s own electronic “signature”, and with the Oscope a technician can observe it while it runs…Soooo, the way to accurately diagnose it is to piggy back the connector, and check each and every electronic component in the distributor, at the distributor, and then, if it all works OK there, check the other end of the very same wires at the computer. If it all works OK, the problem lies elsewhere…
I know you can find “wave form” libraries on line, so people can compare what they get to what it is supposed to look like. I tell people that it is not rocket science, but maybe it is… But without this ability electronic repairs are just throwing parts and guessing…
jesse bogan — No need to use Mr. Gore’s wonderful tubes. We have exactly (correction) three auto shops* that might have an oscilloscope. Two of those have already had a crack at diagnosing the Xterra.
If the Nissan-manufactured distributor now on order doesn’t work, then all I have to do is make one phone call. It’s worth a try if a ‘scope can measure what’s going on with each sensor.
But how common are oscilloscopes in auto repair shops? Would shops in a rural berg like this likely to have them? The nearest city likely to have a big, professional auto repair operation is 75 miles from here.
* I originally wrote five after looking at the yellow pages. But the other two are in a town that’s an hour from here.
I have an oscilloscope. Not to mention a logic analyzer.
The problem is having a good schematic, and diagnostic test procedures. But with an idling vehicle, maybe most of that is not needed – just look at the signal.
The real problem is the intermittent nature. You want to see the signal with the car in both the running and failing condition, and it may take time deciding to go from one state to the other.
Never used a scope to troubleshoot a car, but I suppose it could be done.
The U.S. federal government isn’t ours anymore. Starting with Obamacare, the FIRST secret law in America (that I am aware of not related to national security) and now this SECRET trade deal, the American people have lost control of the congress. We lost control of the President when they began issuing Executive Orders making all kinds of un-Constitutional actions “legal” in an Emergency. We lost control of the Judicial branch gradually, beginning with Marbury v Madison, when the supreme court gave itself the power to strike down State laws and to write new laws rather than just RULING on the “Constitutionality” of them.
I have been sending versions of the following message to my congressman and both of my senators for several days now…please copy and send to YOURS…NotMe
SECRET LAWS ARE UN-AMERICAN.
DON’T VOTE FOR SECRET LAWS, NO MATTER WHO WROTE IT OR WHICH PARTY IS SPONSORING IT.
SECRET LAWS AR THE SIGN OF TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS.
DON’T BE A RUSSIAN SOVIET OR GERMAN NAZI.
CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY ? ARE YOU SUCH A FOOL ?
IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE OUR COUNTRY.
DON’T BE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF AMERICAN HISTORY. DON’T BE ON THE SIDE OF DICTATORSHIP.
How many shops have O scopes? I dunno. I am a really small shop, 3 people. I mechanic (me) one apprentice/junior mechanic, and my female partner that does interior work, and show preparation… I *mostly* work on older cars, doing restorations. However, my customers also own new cars, and they generate cash just as well as old ones. I realized long ago, since I cannot keep up with the latest and greatest in scanners and the like (Good ones are increasingly brand specific and ‘spensive) I had to have a good O scope if I was going to fix the daggone cars. Frankly, most problem child cars I see are driveablity problems (like yours), and for me anyway, there is no way I could ever prove what part is actually bad without one. I don’t use it all that often, and probably don’t make use of all its capabilities, but it has saved my bacon often enough to have long since paid for itself. In my opinion, if you are going to try to repair modern cars, you gotta have the tools to do it with. I am in my late 50s, and am here to tell you, old dogs can learn new tricks.