Question(THE E-MAIL ISN'T A JOKE! it means crack as in butt crack)
Dear Roland,
You seem a very knowledgeable and intellectual person therefore i ask you to address the Chrysler Lebaron again, except here's the thing.
Me and my friend we grew up from preschool neither of us had money for a car i got my grandfathers bonds he gave to us as kids i cashed in 12 for my car which is problematic but not a Chrylser, my friend however as his first car got a 1994 Chrysler Lebaron its a v6 3.0 but no gtc or anything its a 4 door sedan, body beat to hell but the cars amazing he calls it "the Baron" this car literally wont die you cant kill it off its the baron as he says. The only thing that worrys him is i have an OBD2 scanner his being an 94 needs an obd1 i got my scanner cause my brother was a mechanic and he gifted it to me he is no longer a mechanic and my friend is worried about his check engine light. Hes afraid to take it to a mechanic to have some asshole charge him 100 bucks just to scratch himself and go oh gee i dont know. see what i mean.
Ill keep it short for this:
1)The check engine light is on
2)Somewhere theres a hose hissing a fluid out like coolant because it creates smoke when you drive it too fast that was over a month ago, now it doesnt smoke as bad
3) the Engine gets Unordinarily hot and takes a long time to cool off.
4) hes also had someone tell him to replace the thermometer of the car but we know its a pain in the ass and his seems to work fine we just dont understand.
Can you shed some light? maybe some good advice? This car of his doesnt seem to die truthfully i think itll become a classic first as long as he keeps it. But please Please can you shed any light maybe some advice? Anything would be Severly appreciated.
-Justin
AnswerHi Justin,
He doesn't need to go to a mechanic to find out any fault codes:
use the ignition key:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on", doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light which remains "on" to begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. The last two sets of flashes should be 5 in each. Then repeat the count process until you are sure you have an accurate set of counts. Then write back with the results and I'll tell you what they mean.
The running hot is most likely the radiator is getting clogged up and needs to be flushed out; and also check that you can see through it by putting a light behind and look through the grille to be sure there is no build-up of leaves or dirt (if so wash out with a hose).
Check to be sure the fan comes on when the temp gauge moves near the H end of the scale. If not tell me about that.
The thermostat too could be opening at too high a temperature and it is not so hard to replace: just remove the housing on the front top of the engine to which the top radiator hose attaches. Get a new gasket, and also notice the way the old thermostat is installed to be sure the new one goes in the same way. The air vent on the top flange goes toward the front of the engine.
The smoking is probably a coolant hose clamp leak, but you can only tell where by visual inspection. It may be coming from the return pipe that runs along the center of the engine under the intake manifold, but look. The smoke is probably due to coolant dripping on the exhaust manifold or an exhaust pipe, so look at those areas closely.
So that is how to start to deal with these.
Use the 'thank/rate' tab below to get back to me with the count results, without having to wait for me to be available.
Roland
... His car idols at 0 rpm not just above literally at 0 and if you go from neutral to park too fast it stalls these arent problems so it slipt my mind but i wanted to ask is it worth looking over? can you shed any light?
Hi Justin,
Thanks for the nomination.
On the rough idle, it could be that he needs to clean out the throat of the throttle body, both sides of the throttle plate, and the side air passageway. Also, check the exhaust gas recirculation valve which is located along the pipe that starts at the front exhaust manifold and runs around the back side of the engine. The body of the valve is bolted into that pipe. It has a round vacuum-operated actuator on the top, and a flange inbetween those two parts. Inside the flange is a rod which is the valve stem. It has a slot into which the tip of a screwdriver can be inserted and you can thus move the valve stem back and forth. It should close to a full stop by means of an internal spring-action. If the movement of the stem seems sticky then spray some WD-40 on the stem where it enters the valve body and move it back and forth to free up the action.
Those two actions are likely to help the idle.
Roland
