Another Misfire Mystery Solved

More fun with misfires! Last month, it was an early-OBDII Honda misfire. This month, it’s a domestic. Tim from Texas provides a very useful, quick tip for anyone trying to diagnose a GM LS engine misfire and seeing a strange misfire pattern. In his diagnostic

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Solved Honda Misfire

Here’s a great tip for anyone working on early OBDII Hondas, trying to resolve a misfire diagnosis, posted by Rudy from Montebello, CA. The issue is that these vehicles are not equipped with a misfire counter, so it becomes difficult to identify the offending cylinder

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Resources
The DVOM Alone May Not Be Sufficient

You get a vehicle into the shop with a driveability complaint. As soon you start investigating, you see a hack. You strongly suspect it could be related to the problem. But, a quick inspection seems to indicate that, while strange, it doesn’t seem to be

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Lost Comm During Reflash, What to Do?

So, you’re cruising along with a reprogramming job and you lose communication with the vehicle. What’s worse, you haven’t completed the key relearn yet. Now what do you do? Ron from New Jersey did a bunch of research and scrambling when this happened to him

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Is ECM Really the Culprit?

Here’s a great reminder posted by Mike from Ohio not to jump too quickly to condemn a module. In his case, it was an ECM, which he suspected was the root of the customer complaint. He then walks though how his little voice told him

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Battery Temperature Too High

Here’s a quick, useful tip from Alexander in Illinois related to a P1492 error code on a Chrysler 300M. Using vehicle data and a logical diagnostic process, he started at the ambient air sensor, which indicates to the PCM the approximate temperature of the vehicle’s

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Electrical Issues Impact Everything

Usually, when we address electrical issues in our spotlight, it is related to how an electrical problem prevents a vehicle from starting or renders the charging system inoperable. This month’s feature provides an example of how a simple electrical issue can bring the powertrain to

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Spinning Key is More Than it Seems

Most of the time when we reference a no-start situation, it is in the context of an electrical system problem, such as a defective battery, poor ground connections or other problem with the movement of electrons through the system. Often, resolving such no-start issues involves

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Resources
Modified Oil Filter Enables Pressure Testing

This time around, we’re venturing a little further afield from our normal electrical system topics, but we think it is well worth it. Ward from Saskatoon posted a great tip to the iATN Technical Tips Forum on how to convert an oil filter to enable

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CKP or CMP? Follow the Scan Data

We have highlighted numerous examples of communications issues in the past, emphasizing how vehicle data could be saying one thing while another issue is the root cause of the vehicle data sent. Here’s a great example. Geoff from Hawaii had a problem Nissan Titan with

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