Troubleshooting Car Problems with Scotty

When it comes to car troubles, there's nothing quite like the frustration of dealing with a faulty starter that just won't start the engine. In this video, we meet someone who has exactly that problem with their 2007 Honda Civic 1.8L. They tell us that they replaced the starter after noticing trouble starting the battery, but now the car won't even turn over.

Scotty advises the owner to make sure all connections are tight, especially the terminal on the starter. "Don't put the terminal tight on the starter," he warns. "That could be the problem." The owner also mentions that they got a remanufactured starter, which may not have been of good quality. Scotty suggests using a higher-quality battery and jumper cables to see if that makes a difference.

Another concern is anti-theft systems. Many modern cars come equipped with these systems, but sometimes they can interfere with the starting system. The owner tells us that taking a better turn off changed the starter, triggering the alarm system. Scotty advises turning the alarm system off before attempting any repairs.

Meanwhile, we hear from Rafi Lang about his own car trouble. His 2008 RAV4 has oil on its dipstick that's above the max level, with little bubbles on top of the stick. He wonders if this might have damaged the engine over the course of 224 miles of driving. Scotty advises checking the coolant levels and fluid leaks in older cars like his RAV4.

Rafi also asks about running his car in Eco mode when it's sluggish and jerks sometimes. Scotty suggests turning off the Eco mode and just driving normally to see if that makes a difference. He warns that computer controls can be complex, and pushing the wrong buttons could lead to costly repairs down the line.

In another part of the video, we meet Ford F-150 owner Ford who is experiencing strange behavior with his 2004 model. The car will crank and start, but then shut off suddenly, accompanied by erratic flashing on the dashboard lights. Scotty advises having the battery and alternator load tested to identify any potential issues.

Ford explains that he's tried checking the battery terminals and wires, but nothing seems to be the cause of the problem. Scotty suggests fixing or replacing these components if they're corroded or loose, as this can prevent electricity from reaching the car's systems. He also mentions the importance of checking the fuel pump and ignition system, as these are common culprits for misfires in modern cars.

Finally, we hear from Armada owner who is struggling with a multiple cylinder misfire in their 2004 Nissan Pathfinder. They've changed the spark plug, ignition coils, and even had a fuel pressure test done, but the problem persists. Scotty advises conducting two key tests: a block leak test to check for head gasket damage, and a fuel injection system pressure cleaning.

These tests are relatively simple and inexpensive, and can often resolve issues like misfires in modern cars. However, if these tests reveal more serious problems, it may be time to consider replacing the vehicle altogether.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev your engines a8 asks Scotty I havea Honda Civic 2007 1.8 the car starter isgoingout because I was having troublestarting the battery was good I changethe starter but now the car won't startit was starting on and off as it wasgoing out so you replaced the starterand now it won't start at all, make sureyou have all the connections on tightyou don't put the terminal tight on thestarter the big one or even a little onethat plugs in or it's a negative orpositive battery cablenot on tight that could be the problemalso realize that almost everystarter people buy these days areremanufactured lot of times they'rebad out of the boxI've had it where I got a remanufacturedstarter put it in the stupid thingdidn't work and I'm like oh and then Ijust take the starter off the car and Ihelp it up to my thousand amp Mercedesbattery these jumper cables do it on thecement floor and then I find out nothinghappens I know the starters no good itcould just be got a bad start now if youdo have an anti theft system in that carmake sure that you've turned it off withyour fob because a lot of times taking abetter turn off changing the starter thealarm system will activate it and I'llnever start so make sure that the alarmsystems off to it'll never start withthe alarm system off that's just otherdesign sometimes it'll do that if yougot a fob that you push do thatnow if you don't well then it's not thatfancy they're bad starter or you got badwiring it's not on tight, Rafi Lang sayshey I checked the fluid to my rav4 and Inoticed the oil on my dipstick is wayabove the max and there's little bubbleson the top of the stick I'm gonna suckout that extra oil do you think it'sdamaged it I drove it for 224 miles thatway well probably not now if you do itfor a long period of time the bubblesbuild up and of course the bubbles don'tlubricate like pure oil and if you'vegot air bubbles going through the enginewhere the air bubble is there's not wellthere's an air bubble it's like alubricant as well but for my experiencewith those 224 miles driving outis gonna really hurt anything the otherthing you want to check too is it's 2008so it's 12 years old you want to makesure that you're not losing any coolantmaybe I guess it's leaking cuz that canget bubble in the oil too but if itisn't and you suck it out and it runsfine that small amount of mileagedriving that way probably didn't hurtanything at all,King is good asks if my car runsweirder when I turn the Eco mode on Itried it a week ex is it better tojust turn it off it's sluggish andsometimes jerks yeah you're better justto turn it off then leave it off allthat stuff is computer control when youpush the Eco mode it sends a computerinto a mode where it's going to shiftearlier to get better gas mileage and itchanges a lot of the parameters of howthe vehicle runs and if you put an inand it runs we're just don't use thatmode who knows what the actualproblem behind it is pray that it's only gonnastay in the Eco mode because if it runsperfectly find any other ones just driveit and the other ones and don't pushyour lock because if a system like thatcompletely breaks down then you'relooking at generally a ton of money withcomputer modules even something like atransmission needs an overhaul man itcould be that something's starting to goup just like you say you got a carthat's got an overdrive button to turnthe overdrive and when you turn it onthe transmission shifts weird and youturn it off and it doesn't just turn itoff and drive it that way and see howlong it lasts cuz fixing that stuffgenerally gets into really high dollarstuff, run struck Ford f-150 says ScottyI got a Ford f-150 XL 2004 it will crankand start then it shuts off and all the dashlights flash erratically do you have anysuggestion right thereyou say the dash starts flashingerratically the first thing I would dowould be have the battery load testedand the alternator loadtested if either of those are weakit'll do that a known problem on those isthe battery terminals often will corrodeand the wires that come off of them canget corrosion they don't get enoughpower it can do exactly that sometimesit's as simple as changing the batteryterminals out on it I fixed a bunch ofthem that way and I found out that theelectricity just wasn't going from thebattery to the car because the terminaland the wires coming off all gotcorroded or got loose and they didn'tconnect the electricity well enoughto actually run the vehicle it was goodenough to start it up but then when itwas running didn't have enough powerand it stopped running check that first, armadaasked I have an 04 NissanPathfinder Armada has a multiple cylindermisfire I changed the spark plugsignition coils fuel pressure testcheck the fuel pump all good but stillit misfires misfiring can be lots ofdifferent things a lot of people thinkoh it's misfiring not firing right soit's in the ignition system notnecessarily if you have a head gasketthat's starting to blow it's gonna misfireif you have fuel injectors that aren'tworking right you're gonna have amisfire so there'd be two things thatI'd say to do first the first thingwould be do a block leak test I got avideo how to tell if your head gasket isblowing watch that you can buy the littlekit for 30 bucks from Amazon do ityourself if you want it's a simple testif that's blown then you gotta decide goon and really work on an engine and thenyou probably should get rid of thevehicle the next thing is if it's notblown have the fuel injection systempressure cleaned you can try cleaner ina gas tank but yeah you know that's notall that strong we mechanics have apressurized machine we hook it up to thefuel rail runs pure cleaner to the fuelinjectors and I've seen sometimesthat'll fix it entirely but do those twotests first cuz those are the mostcommon things that go wrong with thoseother than the ignition clause and yousaid you replace the ignition close soit's not gonna be the coils if youreplaced every single one of them don'tjust go to replace a few if you replacethem all then yeah you have to worryabout the coils anymore,so if you never want to miss another oneof my new car repair videos, remember toring that Bell\n"