Car Doctor Q&A

Q I have a Chevy pickup truck it is eight years old and the battery goes dead overnight. I did check for codes and there was some body (B) codes. I checked everything and couldn’t find anything wrong. What I do now is keep the battery on a charger overnight and when I do that, I don’t have any problems during the day. If I let the truck sit for the weekend the battery needs a jumpstart by Monday morning. I thinking of replacing the computer, what do you think?

A I would start with a basic check of the electrical system, starting with the battery. You did not mention if this was the original battery or not, but after all these jump starts and recharges it may have reached the end of its life. You should also be checking the alternator performance and for parasitic drain as well as some simple voltage-drop tests. Too often components get replaced because the battery is faulty.

Q I replaced the seat in my car with one from a junk yard. The new seat looks great, but the seat heater doesn’t work, and I miss it on cold days. I checked the power and ground circuits, and both seemed okay. I still had the old seat and used a voltmeter to measure the resistance in the old seat and it was about 11 ohms. When I measured the resistance in the new-to me seat it was 80 ohms. I’m a little out of my element the reading wouldn’t indicate a broken wire but is 80 ohms enough that the heater won’t work?

A After doing a bit of research and knowing the seat uses a resistance style heater and found a typical reading of between 5 and 10 ohms. Looking at the higher resistance numbers I think you found your problem, that the great looking newer seat has a malfunctioning heater. Electrical engineers feel free to weigh in on this. It has been a while since I looked at Ohm’s law.

Q I was recently having my car repaired and found a shop that fixed the check engine light issue. My car was at two different shops and no one found the problem until this third shop. I’m happy the car is fixed but there was one item on the bill I questioned. There was a charge to access a company called Identifix. When I asked about this, they told me this is a service they use to find necessary information and repair the car. Now I shouldn’t complain the car is fixed, but did I pay the mechanic to read?

A Identifix and similar forums (some are free some are subscription based like Identifix) allows a technician to search for similar problems. When it comes to something like a check engine light being on and stored codes there can be any number of reasons for this to happen. When you use some of these forums you are narrowing the possibilities from what could be 30 or 40 reasons that the check engine light is on to three or four. It saves the technician time and the customer money. You did pay for the technician to do research but ultimately it saved you money and got your car repaired properly.

Q My Toyota Corolla was in for service and the mechanic told me that the waterpump showed evidence of leaking. He put the car up on a lift and pointed to a crusty residue near the water-pump. I have never had any issues with coolant loss or overheating and the car although 10 years old only has 63,000

miles on it. Should I replace the water pump? A Toyota years back described leaks as active and temporary. The thinking is that as the water pump shaft rotates a small amount of coolant is discharged to lubricate and cool the sliding surface of the water pump seal. Toyota considers this normal, now if you took a cloth and dabbed the area and it was wet, that is an active leak, and the water pump should be replaced. If the area was dry and crusty, leave it alone it the area has wet coolant or drip, replace the water pump.

Q I added a rear spoiler to my car, and I love the look of the car now, but it has one problem the trunk won’t stay up. This car doesn’t use a spring or shock-thing like my SUV but metal rods. Can they be adjusted to provide more tension to keep the trunk lid from hitting me in the head? A

These are torsion springs, metal rods that twist and provide resistance and hold the trunk open. The first place to start is to check with your dealer (perhaps online) and see if there was a factory installed spoiler and if so, there is likely a strong torsion spring. Depending on the age of the car the springs may just be getting tired and a replacement may help. Depending how the springs are mounted you may be able to add a thick rubber bushing to the end of the spring where it leans on its perch. This will cause add more tension. These springs can be tricky to work with since they are under some pressure, where gloves and watch for pinched fingers. Correction-in last week’s column I stated that when antifreeze reaches a mixture of 100 percent (no water) the freezing point goes up and boiling point goes down. Rick S agrees the freezing point does indeed go up (8 degrees at 100 percent antifreeze-versus -34 at a 50⁄50 mix) but the boiling point does indeed rise. Thanks Rick.