Drive it forever: No good, dashboard-squeakin’ blues
Dear Mike: I have an Acura RSX. The dashboard squeaks every time I hit a bump and it is driving me crazy. I don’t know whether it is inside the dashboard or around the top or if it is even curable. Please help!
A: Get someone else to drive. Find a road that makes your dash squeak a lot. Now you can crawl over and under the dash listening for the squeak. Push and pull things near the squeak until you find it. You may need to remove access panels or the glove box. When you find the problem, either lubricate it with silicone spray or Armor-All, or tighten the loose fastener that’s making it squeak.
Dear Mike: Why would a car with an “Automatic Self Leveling” suspension system become frozen in cold weather? It is so bad that it makes the car ride as if the axle is welded to the frame! When “locked up” it is unsafe to drive since the axle hops, and even the Traction Control becomes activated. The car in question is a 2000 Cadillac Catera, but I’m sure other cars have the same or a similar system installed from the factory.
A: Water in the system is freezing, making the suspension immobile. The question is how it got in there in the first place and how to keep it from getting in again after it’s dried out.
Dear Mike: GM seems to insist that only DexCool be used in the 1995-to-1999 V-8 gas engines that I happen to operate. I just found globs of orange-colored residue in all cooling passages of my cylinder heads. I am the original owner and did all cooling maintenance myself. I flushed and replaced the DexCool twice since new (about three-year intervals). I mixed 50/50 with distilled water and never added any other product except Bars Leaks factory sealer (gold powder).
What can be done to clean out the DexCool sludge and prevent future deposits in cylinder head passages? Is there some other coolant that will work properly in those GM engines?
A: Give this cooling system a thorough caustic flush and switch back to conventional green coolant.
Dear Mike: I saw a story in Popular Mechanics about a guy in New Jersey who ran his diesel-powered truck on vegetable oil. Does the veggie oil have some diesel content in it? Or is it just pure veggie oil powering the engine? Thank you very much.
A: Pure french-fry oil, no diesel or any other additives.
Dear Mike: My 1993 Toyota Camry has nearly 180,000 miles. It is a four-cylinder car. It misfires when stopped at traffic lights. The problem worsens on hot days. It runs very well when cold and on cold days until it becomes hot.
I would really appreciate your advice for proper maintenance and cleanliness of fuel injectors and intake valves. I came across Red-Line SI-1, Techron, Sea Foam, Lucas Oil, Gumout, STP products and would like to know which ones I should use. Which ones should be added to the gas tank and which ones to the engine oil?
A: I like Chevron’s Techron FI cleaner. I don’t recommend any oil additives.
Dear Mike: I have a 1993 BMW 325i with 141,000 miles on it, and I’m having a problem with the OEM Blaupunkt radio installed. The symptoms are a bit intermittent but I see a pattern, as you probably might also: When I turn on the radio, the lights come on but no music plays; hitting the right side of the radio usually results in some music and signal indicator lights, but it drops after the first 10 seconds. After a few cycles of this, the radio stays on — until a bump or a door slam, that is.
Any idea what could be causing this, and what a solution might be?
A: This was the fourth hit on Google for “car stereo repair”: www.CarRadio.com. I bet if you put your location into the search string, you will easily find someone local to help you with this problem.