GregH

From what I have read on the subject, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon compounds are the ones monitored in this state. I haven't found regulations regarding aluminum, iron, or other metal compounds that would likely be present in transmission fluid. Now, one difference that would affect this set of circumstances is the level of particulate matter present in the exhaust stream. Output from industrial sources have to comply to some level of soot. My truck, being a 2002, is not required to comply with those same levels. So, this transmission fluid burned in my vehicle would make particulate matter whereas if that trans fluid had been shipped to an industrial application it would have been trapped in their scrubbers. However, my truck would still have gone 5000 miles on some sort of fuel - and put out particulate matter during that time... Another log on the fire would be the fact that I am not paying road tax based on the fuel used to power my truck. I have thought about researching avenues available to me to pay these neglected taxes, however I have not done so yet.

The waste oil collection company we use sells the separated oil to Three Rivers and a couple of other landfills. Some of this oil is also sold to TVA power plants. I have found no evidence of any of this oil being recycled into reconditioned oil. Power plants and landfills have surprisingly lax emissions standards. Do they do any better job cleaning up their emissions than the catalytic convertor on my truck?

The used fluid I acquire is from the transmission flush machine. When a coworker (or I) upsell a trans flush, or a customer comes in requesting one, then I drain the machine after the service. The machine holds 4 gallons of fluid. When it comes time to drain it, I attach a gas fuel filter to the output line of the machine and apply air pressure. The fluid is filtered on it's way out. Pressure is regulated to 40psi so the filter won't bypass. Accumulated transmission fluid from other sources is discarded through normal waste oil collection. I have not measured tailpipe emissions, nor do we have the facilities nearby to allow me to measure the emissions.

I've been running straight used ATF in m 7.3L for the last 5000 miles with no issues at all. When we had overnight lows of 10-15F a few weeks ago, I had trouble starting it. Plugging in the block heater remedied that condition until I realized the glow plug relay had failed. Replaced that and I haven't had to plug it in since.. I have been playing it conservatively though. I've got a spare engine on the floor at work, and I've got a spare vehicle at home. I put this truck into temporary full time service so I could determine the pros and cons of running alternate fuel. However, we have taken two long trips out of town in it in the last few months. I strapped a dozen 5 gallon resealable jugs (soap containers from the washrack) in the front of the bed, and refilled the main tank as needed. No fuel purchased during either trip. I made my first purchase for this venture the other day. So far, it has been all used and repurposed supplies. But I was unable to rig up a suitable pump from used parts lying around the shop to pump ATF from my drum in the garage. So I got a $35 rotary barrel pump off of Amazon to get the ATF back out of my drum... I've talked to other Ford techs who are doing the same thing with their 7.3's - some as long as several years of straight ATF. Some have claimed lowered glow plug lifetime, and one said his electric fuel pump went out at 150,000 miles. No other complaints have surfaced so far...

Gotta stop drinking my lunch...

I have not tried forcing as-built into the module... When it returns from the glass shop, I will try that..

One of my coworkers has an inoperative SYNC module on a brand new vehicle. Went through some testing, found that the FICM is bad. Found this out for sure by swapping in a known good one off the lot. Ordered a new one Went to install the new one and download as-built from Ford. Ford did not have a listing for it, so he clicked on the tab that says "If your module is not listed here.." While waiting, the vehicle was turned on and the new module was installed. This screen popped up: He clicked on "Start wireless provisioning" and the screen blanked for 30 minutes and came back to this... I didn't know that the factory loads some modules wirelessly...

Pleas tell me I can share that, Bruce!

From what I learned from the fire inspectors, if I ever need to get rid of a vehicle I'm sure I can do it right... Why this guy ever put the fire out I'll never know. I'd get a lawn chair and a beer and watch the show! Learned a few things about how to burn a house down too... but that doesn't belong in the "Body, Chassis and Electrical" forum... As for the rationale behind the job - I just do what my boss tells me. If this dude flakes and skips the bill, I'll still have been paid. I quoted 30 hours to install the dash, two harnesses, the VSM and evaluate the engine condition. I fulfilled that and have been paid. We're into supplemental estimate mode now, and waiting on his next move with an instrument cluster. I may be married to this vehicle now, but each hour spent with it is billable... As for the door ajar switches, they perform as expected when tested at the VSM harness....

I've got a 2003 F-250 6.0L that was towed into us after a fire. Seems the fire started behind the dash and burned for a short time before the owner broke out a window and put out the fire. After the insurance company's fire investigators and I took apart the truck, they determined that the fire was deliberately set by the owner, and refused to pay anything. Part of the evidence used against the vehicle's owner was the fact that there was a broken coolant hose, no coolant in the engine, rotten oil, and the oil filter standpipe was melted. Cranking the engine over sounded like throwing a bag of anvils down a school hallway. The truck was towed away for a while, then came back with a used engine installed. The owner was paying out of his own pocket to repair the truck. I installed a provided used dash, a new dash harness, and a new body harness. I also installed a new vehicle security module. No other wiring is damaged, and the only other module that may be suspect is the instrument cluster. Here are my persistent issues: 1 - The interior lights stay on all the time. Pulling the fuse for it extinguishes the lights, as does disconnecting the IC. The relay for the lights is in the IC. Turning on the switch on the headlamp switch I can hear the relay in the IC click, and the lights brighten slightly. But I cannot get them to go off. I expect that this is a failure in the IC, since it was the one in the fire. 2 - My door ajar PIDS are wonky. The front doors read ajar when they are closed, and read closed when they are open. The rear doors read closed all the time. The VSM is a new one, since the old one was extensively damaged, and the body harness is new - the only harness connected to the VSM. It reaches into all four doors. Checking the circuits at the VSM show a nice solid ground with a light bulb when each door is open, and open circuit when closed - as expected when looking at the EVTM. Power and ground to the module is good. VSM has been configured by IDS. The part number on the module is correct by HVBOM. And the problem remains the same with the IC disconnected. However, to allow communication with the VSM, I have to leave the IC connected until the IDS sees the VSM... Probably looking for a wake-up signal from the IC. I have suspended further testing until the owner provides an instrument cluster. However, I am not sure that an IC will help out my VSM concerns. Any insights? Thanks...

So did he change his alternator and tighten his lug nuts with the same tool? And, I must say that's one bad ass screw gun he's got there for the alternator bolts. @ Captain Buzzkill - Damn, dude... lighten up... The service pricing guide still pays 2.3 to change an alternator...

I've been dabbling in a little astrophotography recently. Here's one of my recent attempts at a 4 day old waxing moon, one hour after sunset. Cannon A590S, 1/60th, F2.6, infinite focus through 40mm super plossl in 8" F10 LX-90. The darker flat spot about halfway along the terminator is Mare Tranquillitatis - the Sea of Tranquility - the location of the Apollo 11 landing in July of 1969.

Ahh, it was a nice day. Glad it won't happen again soon! The obligatory snowman:

Zinc oxide is in diaper cream and the sunscreen stuff you put on your nose. Wood alcohol is methanol. You should be able to get that at a paint store.

Well, looks like no one is going to work today... We've got about 8 inches of this cold white shit on the ground, and our cars don't get no traction on it. What's this stuff? Snow? The storm that came through the southeast yesterday dropped an unheard-of amount on us. The city has a plow, and a salt truck, but they just aren't needed most of the time. And they won't come all the way out here. We are stuck until it melts off a little.. I've got a couple of sleds in the garage that haven't seen action for a while. And my daughter has yet to build a snowman. Ahh, to live in the south, where snow is a pleasant rarity. I'm going out to play. Later!

I removed and stripped the turbo. I couldn't find anything wrong with it. Onion ring was fine, vanes moved smoothly, no corrosion on the center housing. I loaded the shotgun and put in a CHRA, unison ring and VGT solenoid. I also removed and cleaned IAT2 - although it wasn't very cruddy. I did not do the VVT test - the tool was damaged and hadn't been replaced yet. The van was fixed when I was done.

What kind of bottles are those? Snapple?

Since they came out with the halfshell, that's all I've been putting on - CP or warranty. 1.7 under warranty regardless, but I tack on a few extra tenths for doing the module work under CP..

Are you at the latest calibration?

While I was helping a fellow tech with a misfire concern, the question of how a coil fires came up.. Turns out we have a variety of opinions in the shop. We were talking about the coil on plug setup. The primary wiring has KOEO power and the PCM provides a pulsed ground in time with the desired cylinder firing. This erects and collapses a magnetic field around the primary wiring in the coil assembly. As the magnetic field collapses, it sweeps through the secondary wiring, inducing a current flow. The ratio of the number of windings in the primary and secondary indicate the voltage multiplication. The secondary current flows from the coil down the spring into the spark plug. It then jumps the gap, igniting the mixture in the cylinder, and returns via the spark plug casing into the cylinder head. Here's where the difference of opinion is. How does the electricity complete the loop? What route does it take to get back to the secondary winding? One coworker says the loop is not closed. There is no return path for the electricity. Another says the return path is through the PCM - within the coil the primary negative and secondary negative are connected together. Current flows through the plug casing, into the cylinder head and ground circuit of the vehicle, into the ground for the PCM, through the circuit board and back through the coil break wire to the coil. A third coworker (me) says the return path is through the vehicle's battery. Within the coil, the primary positive and the secondary negative are connected together. Return power goes through the plug casing into the cylinder head to the negative battery terminal, through the battery, BJB, coil power circuit and back to the coil secondary. A beer is riding on this. Who is right?

An additional test we did while BOB was hooked up was to light the turn signal bulb using the wiring to the #6 ignition coil. It lit nice and bright.

After our drivability tech tuned up this truck, he noticed a misfire on #6. He had just installed plugs and coil boots and did a BG flush on the induction system. Truck has a 5.4L, and the mileage is about 130,000 miles. Misfire is constant on #6, dropping about 15RPM during a power balance test. Noid light tests on the coil and injector produce a nice flash. Plugs, injectors and coils were swapped one at a time between #5 and #6 with no change. Compression tests showed about 125-130 across the entire right bank. Running compression was about 110 on #6 and #5. Cylinder leakdown was just above 0. We're unable to run an injector flow test - the IDS tests the first injector and then shows "ID" for the rest of the injectors - and does not flow them. The IDS behaves in the same way installed on a like vehicle. Sometime during testing, we noticed that the injector stopped receiving a signal to fire from the PCM. Wiggle test the wiring around the A/C accumulator, and there was no difference. Hooked up the breakout box and checked the signal at the PCM - only an intermittent signal was present on #6 injector. Ohmed the wiring - 0 ohms. Load tested and we can light a turn signal bulb solidly off of both injector wires. Replace PCM - pulse came back but dropped off again shortly thereafter. Of course, it was then that we figured out the PCM was going into FMEM and killing that injector to save the catalytic convertor... Red herring... So, what are we missing? We've got good signals to the injector and coil. We've got good spark - we can lift #6 coil and hear the arc. Base engine seems to be fine. Ruled out the injector and plug through swapping. What's left? We have not verified if #6 can flow fuel. That test is not functinoal in the IDS. None of us have the tool used to hear an injector firing while the engine is running. If there is no fuel coming from #6, then it would have to be in the fuel rail - and that looks clear. #6 plug usually comes out a little fuel fouled. We have not verified if #6 coil and injector fire at the right time. A loss of timing on this scale seems unlikely without inadvertently switching the wiring around - but then we'd have a mirror problem somewhere else. The problem seems localized to #6. No codes are in memory other than P0316 and P0306. The problem is constant whether it is hot or cold. Test drives do not clear up the problem... Any help would be appreciated...

He probably meant "without diesel in coolant."

Step 7 states to exit transport mode immediately before customer delivery... So, yeah, the truck should stay in transport mode on the lot. We go ahead and exit transport mode during the PDI, however, just like all of you do. The truck will exit transport mode by itself after 50 miles have accrued. And around here, these customers will drive them more than that before they sign on the dotted line...

In response to Mike - IAT2 could be carboned up. Running down the road, EOT and ECT had cleared 185F and were still rising, with an ambient of 40F, and IAT2 stayed on 104F. It wasn't until EOT and ECT had cleared 200F that IAT2 finally clicked above 104F. It took another 10 miles of steady 65mph before IAT2 cleared 110F. I think IAT2 has got a nice blanket of carbon wrapped around it. For the rest, I haven't run the VVT test yet. Boost test showed significantly higher max boost than other vehicles. Normally I don't see more than 1.5 to 2psi, and this one was 3.04. The EBP and MAP graphs were smooth, but the EBP seemed to stairstep a little more than some other vehicles. I've seen worn unison rings before, but they've always been on turbos that had other problems like being carboned up. I'll run the VVT test next week and see how it looks. Thanks for the help!