All out of other options, Non SC ?, sorry...

Michael Mattix

SCCoA Member
Guys,
I am sorry to be asking about a different vehicle other than an SC (wife's car), but I have exhausted my stealership information and all other sources on the web and you guys are the best advice forum EVER! The vehicle in question has two problems that I wanted to get some help on and there is no "bulletin board" for it. It's a minivan (let the jokes commence) because I have a family with two kids (at least for now, maybe more in the future). I won't mention the brand, for fear of persecution (sp?)! But, I am stumped so here are the questions:

1.) When turning the steering wheel to turn the van to the left (slightly over center and all the way to the stop), there is a sound (when moving) like I have knobbies for tires (doesn't sound good). I was thinking that the wheel bearing might be bad, but I'm not sure so here is the history. My wife had an accident where she was forced (so she claims, but that's neither here nor there, right married guys?) on to a curb that blew out both right side tires flat (split wide open from wheel bead to tread). It did bend the rims a little bit (front was worse than the back one), but I had them road force balanced with new Toyo tires to make sure they were balanced well and it was successful. It was thrown out of alignment, and I got that fixed (they said it was way out of alignment). I thought it might be rubbing the fender well, so I checked that...nothing. Jacked the van up and tried to "rock" the wheel up to down and side to side (for wheel bearing check).....still nothing. Took off both front tires and compared both sides to see if anything stuck out as being obviously broken....still no luck. But, the weird thing is, the gas mileage is fine and it's not really been getting worse. What do you think is causing the "knobby tire" sound when turning left (it doesn't do it when going straight)?

2.) When you first start up the van and for probably the first 5 minutes of operating the van, the "change engine oil" light is on. BUT....it goes off after the aforementioned time frame....and yes, I do know how to do the reset procedure, but it didn't work. The light still came back on after restarting it. And now, we are just used to having that light on the dash for a couple of minutes and then it goes out. Would REALLY like to extinguish that! Anyone know what could be causing this intermittent problem?

Thanks a ton in advance guys! And sorry it's so long, but I wanted to make sure that I got everything in there that I remember about my problems unlike some of the posts I have read in the past that don't give enough information.

Mike
 
#1 sounds liek a bad transaxle, they usually make noise when turning when they start to go bad, but sound fine when driving straight.

#2 could possibly be a failing sensor for the oil, that sensor shjould be screwed intot he pan I woudl assume to check the condition of the oil to determine when it needs changing.
 
Well, sounds like a CV joint.

In a front wheel drive car the axles are two piece that are connected by a CONSTANT VELOCITY joint. This otherwise known as a CV joint will make a CLUNK< CLUNK noise that happens when the CV joint actually has to work in another direction than straight. Check under the car and look at the axles. The boot that covers the joint is probably damaged.

This is most likely the cause. All models are prone to this.


Don't worry, have wife here too and she did it to my car as well. It's always the OTHER guys fault......


Don
 
Yup, sounds like your CV joints are ruinated. Not a fun project.
Not sure what the "reset" procedure is on your van but I would disconnect the battery for a minute and reconnect it. Don't know if it will work, worked on my, I mean my WIFE'S, Windstar though, plus it doesn't cost you anything. Let us know what you find out.:D
 
Well, the second question is.....

Hey, the second question is probably a check engine light that comes on and goes off and will not go out until the computer is checked. The newer OBDII systems have a protection feature which allows only dealers and certain scanners to reset the check engine light. Get the codes read and find out what is wrong and then get it reset.


Don
 
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