105 inside the shop, 106 outside. Both rooftop swamp coolers shit the bed. Portacools are barely keeping me alive welding inside the crew box on this handcrew bus. Fml.

Well, at least you have a shop.

I can climb in my truck cab to cool off. But mostly just have an umbrella over me to keep the sun off. Lots of water as well.

I split my time between running service calls and working in the shop. No point in bitching about the service calls in the heat, nothing but my umbrella to help there. But the shop guy not getting the swamp coolers fixed pisses me right off. Its one of the few perks to working with him.

Here is my current truck, new one is on order. Supposedly its an International MV with a cummins L9 and a IMT bed. Will be nice to have a crane again. Attached File

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outfitters do some stupid shit.

How could you not hear that or feel it grinding? WTF?


Had to changed some light covers on an empty container handler that was sold to a customer. Go to test the truck out and check the light functions, it help to land it on a container so you can see them activate. Well the truck is acting goofy as shit, keeps dropping out of gear and acting like its got no fluid. I heard another tech just did a pm on it and tranny service so i call him up. He relays that he changed lube and filter on it. I check the dipstick its dry as a bone. Have to add 2.5 gallons to bring it to level. It drives a little better but nothing crazy.

Call him up and again and he casually remembers that he calibrated the inching pedal the other day as well. I think he was blowing smoke. Start looking at the codes on the laptop and i just recalibrate everything. It’s 5 minutes and easy peezy, look at the codes and its showing a short in the inching pedal. SO what i find is a truck that on paper three days ago drove fine now has more problems than i wanted to deal with.

Tomorrow ill put an inching pedal sensor in it. If that doesn’t fix it i get the luxury of back probing the harness.

Bump this thread back up with my issue today.

Just had my car serviced by the dealer a couple weeks ago. Today I just jumped on the interstate, got up to speed, passed a slower car and when i looked in my rearview i could only see smoke. pulled right over. Oil was pouring out from under the engine. I couldn't see anything due to the skid plates and how low the car is but there was no oil on the dipstick. Got it towed to the dealer.


This dealer (who hasn't worked on my car before) found the drain plug had fallen out. Drain plug installation and torqueing is the most basic part of performing a service.

They kept the car and did a test drive and said it seems ok so I'll pick the car back up tomorrow. The way I drive it, any problems should happen in the next few days or week if any internal damage was done.

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Hi.  Its been awhile.

Work returns tomorrow.

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Work never left

Friends,  it's been a long time coming.  I've had an extremely difficult road to travel since May 14 2019.  I was divorced in September of 2020;, and today the court case has finally come to an end.  I already had custody thank God, and the fight was about more material things.   Today I sit in my home without worrying about losing it for the first time since May of 19.   I can breathe a little easier, and things are looking up.  

I've got a great relationship going on,  and although I'm busy 100% of the time I hope to be able to participate more without fear of any information being obtained.  

Thanks to the people who checked in now and then to see how it was going.

Damn, that's nice...$30,000?

Pretty cool day at work.  SLR in for a few little things, a couple batteries and tires and a brake fluid change.  Road test revealed a major evap leak.  Found a broken fitting for fuel tank vent hoses, $275 and comes from the father land for about fifty cents worth of plastic and maybe three bucks of rubber hose.  SLS is in for a dead battery, its an odd size that has to be special ordered.  

I've got a GLS450 that has been in the shop for over two months.  We've been dealing with it for a while, and its history is a real mystery.  2017 model, under 10K miles.  Shows absolutely no history until early 2020 and shows it was "consignment" with the warranty beginning just recently.  Its a very high demand vehicle and black/black so it should have sold quickly and we cannot figure its past.  

Vehicle was purchased at auction and we did a CPO certification.  We did motor mounts for a vibration.  The client purchased it immediately (again, very high demand model and color) and brought it in a few times for a vibration.  It had a rear driveshaft replaced.  It had a missing front driveshaft bolt installed.  It had tires balanced and such.... and it bounced back several times with increasing levels of scrutiny.  

I have it dropped in my lap.  I look it over, throw exhaust hangers and a front driveshaft at it.  No luck.  It vibrates under acceleration at 42-44mph most noticeably.  If it is not at that speed, it does not vibrate at all.  It does not matter what gear its in, it does not matter RPM or anything else,  only road speed.  As you accelerate you might notice a quick vibe at 30, 50, 70, 80mph, but this is very noticeable at 42-44.  

I am using PICO NVH to figure it out and quickly see that the vibration does not correlate with any known parameters such as driveshaft, engine, or wheel speeds.  The pico relies on those calculations to correlate the vibration to specific components, but we are not seeing anything.  

I involved tech support and did a huge ordeal.  Swapped wheels and tires from a known good vehicle, no effect.  Untension motor mounts and such, no effect.  We go back and forth for literally weeks.  Replace this, replace that, no change.  There is nothing you can do to alter or effect the vibration.  Accelerate, and at 42-44mph, it vibrates with the same intensity regardless of what has been done to the vehicle.  I've taken CAN data traces and NVH graphs and uploaded them along with video... on and on...  Replaced valve body in the trans, nothing happened.  Replaced the entire transmission and torque converter, no change whatsoever.  Replaced the front axle shafts, the front differential and the left front wheel bearing.  Nothing changes.  

Tech ramps up their efforts and I spend an entire day taking NVH readings and moving the probe around and uploading the information I obtain.  Two engineers arrive and spent the entire day with me.  We had four NVH pickups between us, and we used the hell out of them.  We discovered that the vibration begins in the rear just a fraction of a second before the front, and is a tiny bit more intense in the front than the rear, but this is splitting hairs.  Effectively it comes in with the same intensity everywhere at once.  Its at 39hz.  It only does it as I describe, at 42-44mph.  They videoed the driveshaft as a last resort and left with a lot of data but no resolution.  

Germany doesn't use PICO NVH so our data is useless to them.  I untensioned the mounts again, even though the NVH probes say the vibration is not from the engine.  Its been hanging around with me swapping a known good trans mount and measuring driveshaft angles of it and several other vehicles for comparison, even though the NVH data proves it doesn't effect the crossmember for the trans.  I loosened the fuel tank and wiggled it, and also loosened and retorqued the subframe bolts.  Nothing changes at all.  

So I believe the body has a natural frequency of 39hz and this thing hits it and resonates.  I don't believe it can be repaired.  I've got 85 hours in to this thing, and nobody has ever done anything to alter the vibration.  

There are at least two other vehicles we know of that have the same issue, and I don't believe they were repaired either.  I know at least one was bought back.  

We traded the customer out of this thing after thirty days in the shop.  We figured that it had to be something and we were on the cusp of figuring it out, but we have still gotten nowhere.  I've never seen anything like it.

Diagnostic mystery can show up in complex systems.

Does it change if you add or reduce mass (full vs empty fuel tank and/or passengers or freeweights), or change shock absorber rate?  Does it change if tire size slightly changes?

wow...that's somthing right there.

Do you think there is a resonance between the rear part of the drivetrain and the front part and the chassis is acting like a giant tuning fork between the two?

There’s a random customer with a reach stacker in the middle of nowhere PA. Normally one of the other techs takes care of this truck as its his pet project. He put a lot of quality time into bringing this truck back to life but he was unavailable to take the call this week. From my house its a 2.5 hour drive one way.

Arrive on site and i have never worked on one this old or know anything about it. The hydraulic function to lower the boom only worked in override. Find schematics and state tracing wires and quickly realize that I need to talk to engineering. I call the support line and am pointed in a direction. So on paper it shows Load controller-pressure switch-relay-lowering solenoid.  Start looking for volatage in all the right spots and am only seeing 22-23 volts. Test the alternator thinking the lack of quality voltage is causing it, alternator is shit so i hook up my jump pack knowing its outputting 26 volts. This doesn’t correct the issue. Order new alternator, pack up go home... 2.5 hours home. 14 hour day

Come back with new alternator next day install it and it excites beautifully to 27.5 volts. This actually fixes the transmission code we also had, but that wasn’t what i was worked about.

What i find is the relay is before in between the load controller and the switch....... so i start back probing the harness following it back thinking i have a broken wire somewhere. In a moment of frustration I call engineering again and am told to look for the 3 wire pressure switch. The good news is there were only 5-2 wire switches and no three wire ones. So i get in the hydraulic schematic and find the port the switch should be located at. Found it. Check function and it’s kaput, put a jumper in it and boom lower is restored. call the shop and we actually have two in stock. I order it and work on a way to get it to me where i dont have to drive to the shop to get it. One of the guys that loves close to me took it home and i met him on my way home.


Drive back out for day three, pull the switch out and install the new one, shes working great. Pack tools and drive home, take the rest of today off.



IF you look at the upper left just underneath the cab you can see the bank of valves, switches and my sweet new Snap-on multimeter. Attached File

Its still kinda just sitting there waiting on instructions.  I haven't booked any of it, but my pay plan is no longer flat rate.  

I think the body is indeed acting as a tuning fork.

Can you put a sensor on the frame itself and test that way? I’ve never messed with anything like what you mentioned

Its a unibody.  I've put the probe all over.  Its strongest on the subframes, but nearly equally as powerful front to back.

had a strange one a few days ago

2020 soul with 10k miles, check engine light on.

Dtc P8643

Uhhhhhhhh ... what?

"makes techline case"

"Replace pcm"

Well alight then!

Puddin'
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Dumb idea...I wonder if you could add weight/sandbag the interior in places to see if the
resonance changes or goes away? I guess at this point it couldn't hurt to try.

I worked on a fleet for 28 years. I had a GMC Savana van with the 4 cyl Duramax in it.
The truck had a dead TCM. Replace TCM. Can't get new TCM to program with Tech 3.
I beat my head against the wall working off and on for 3 weeks when I had time.

I eventually sent it to the dealer. They had the truck for over a month. I retired. A few
days later a brand new van shows up. GM ended up taking the truck back(it had ~10K miles on it).

To this day I don't know what was determined to be wrong with the truck.
At least I don't feel bad about not being able to repair it....

puddings bad, m'kay.

Bad for engine, good for wallet.

Could have been a simple oil cooler replacement and cooling system flush but they ran it until the "coolant" was indiscernible from the "oil". Now it's an overhaul.

Burned some vacation days and found a replacement frame for my 72 GMC C1500.  2 people can pick up a bare frame.

Today I burned a 900 member FB group to the ground.  It focused on two model years of e class benzes.  I gave notice that I would be moving the group to gab.  I received some hatred about it, and the floor was open for discussion about why I was moving the group, but it was a vocal minority hurling insults instead of productive conversation.  

I changed the background image to "wolverines" from the documentary film red dawn.

i changed the group name to "deplatformed"  

I changed the group description to " how does it feel? "

I explained that it doesn't seem right that conservatives were silenced, and it was okay with people being silenced because it wasn't you.  It didn't affect you.  Now it is affecting you.  Do you still feel okay about it?  I understand it's a privately owned entity, their rules, their turf.  But I was taking my knowledge to a platform that aligns with my values rather than feeding the machine that doesn't.  

I booted 900 people out.  I'll end the group soon.

Hmmm...that seems like the subframes are acting like the points of the fork and the body is the middle.

is there any toe adjustment on the rear suspension? The front tires are probably fighting with the rear tires to find equalibrium. Anything you can do to move the torque bias from front to rear, rear to front?

it is AWD with a transfer case.  The vibration is most assuredly not coming from the driveline, and it only occurs at specific speeds.  Wheel and tire was ruled out first thing.

Wow, that's light.

New truck frames IME are so heavy you have to use a forklift to move them around.

Looking for opinions from the initiated.  I have a 2005 GMC Yukon I bought brand new.  It now has 223,XXX miles on it.  Should I replace the oxygen sensors?  No CEL, no degradation in performance, idle, or gas mileage.  It would just be preventative maintenance.  I'm not sold on the idea and looking for input.

If its not broken, don't spend the money.  Factory oxygen sensors often last the life of the car.

Don’t leave your jacket on the hood stuff a bunch of shit on top of it to there the sleeve falls down into the radiation.

I took one look and shopped it.

When they went to move it they punched a hole in the oil pan too. So that’s cool.

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I know I'm comparing apples to oranges here. Had a Subaru with a shimmy/ shake that could be repeated on most road tests. End of story is I found a lower control arm bushing worn. With car on a two post lift everything was tight.  When checked on my alignment rack found play in the lower control arm bushing.  Put car back on two post and knowing where to go used a 4 ft pry bar and could see it move. Checked the other side and found very slight movement. After removing that control arm found the center metal sleeve had mostly disconnected from the bushing. The side with more play had destroyed the center of the bushing.

Still one of the most interesting threads on the site.

Consistency of room tempurature chocolate pudding.


I had a video of it draining the sludge out.  It wasn't chunky but it was this slow goo

Replacing a secondary air injection pump on the SLR.  Its.... difficult.  I had to remove the left front fender and muffler.  The muffler bolts were quite stuck, so I figured I'd get new ones... they are just bolts.  Three bolts at $93 each.  Yeah I'll reuse the old ones.  

I did an oil level sensor on a GT-R this morning.  Of all the things they didn't get right, the dipstick reads just under half way between max and add when it is full to the max level.  Oil level tolerances are extremely tight, and this kind of oversight is not acceptable.  

Mine was coming out of the water jacket.

Like setting oil level on a 167? Garbage.

At least the 907 maintained the dipstick tube, all our FedEx fleets order "906" dipsticks and put them back in.




Busy day in our Benz shop as well. 166 GLS with a $5k headlight full of water, 906 FedEx special with gas in the tank, brand new 253 with a dead RF seat heater, on and on.

Tomorrow is a rear main on a 35k mile '19 E63s and vent shut off actuators on a c63. We'll see what happens after lunch.



Got this in a few days ago, already dead on the showroom floor. Need to lock the doors and keep the sales staff out. It's really nice, $170k nice.

this is the best video explaining engine oil consumption i have ever seen to the layman.

Takes most of the words right out of my mouth.

Simply put, change your oil.

I have to laugh at oem pricing, you could order Titanium bolts from McMaster-Carr for less

 We got one of those things in black/black.  I see the shift away from sedan to SUV is in full force.  They took our worst platform and loaded it with all the shit that doesn't work or will break.

100%. We've transitioned most of our loaners away from the GLE/GLS, hard to give out a new car with a check engine light on. I'm sure the "refocus" in the coming years will do great things
for reliability.

My apprentice had a fuel tank out of an RV yesterday, towed in crank no start. Seems the owner filled the fuel tank with DEF from the bulk pump at a truck stop. It may run today, it may not.

LP, youre the Kia guy right? Im looking at a new car. Kia is on my list, specifically the Forte GT and Kia Seltos AWD with the 1.6 turbo. Any issues with either of those that you see?