2001 Honda Civic, Changing The Cabin Air Filter

This 2001 Honda Civic was already in the shop for some other repairs and the glove box was out so I could see the cabin air filter cover and I decided to do a quick post on replacing it. Cabin air filter should be replaced as outlined in your owners manual and if you do not you may have severely restricted air flow from the vents. The following picture shows the glove box and the cabin air filter is behind it.

Open the glove box and release the side clips.

You do not have to remove the lower hush panel but I was actually reassembly the dash from another repair and had the picture.

Remove the two screws that attach the glove box hinges. One on each side. Take the glove box out of the car.

Release the retaining clip on the left side and pull the cover off.

There are two filters in the slot, grab the pull handle for the left filter and pull it out. Grab the handle for the right filter and slide the filter to the left and then pull it out.

Place the new filter for the right side in the box and slide it fully to the right. place the left filter into position.

Reinstall the cover assembly as shown below and install the glove box and you are done.

2004 Lincoln LS, Power Window Problems

This 2004 Lincoln LS came in with the complaint that the power window does not work properly after replacing the power window regulator assembly. The window would not go down fully and when it was raised up it would immediately go back down to the position shown in the next picture. I should note that this vehicle has the auto up and auto down features for the power windows.

The first thing that has to be done before re-initialization can be done is that the motor has to be de-initialized. To do this two people are needed. First locate the power window main fuse located in the trunk fuse box under the floor covering. Then have you assistant turn the key on and depress the window switch fully to put the system into one touch mode. Next while the window is moving remove the fuse. This will de-initialize the motor. To initialize the motor make sure the key is off, install the fuse that was previously removed, turn the key on, depress the power window switch fully in the up position and hold until the glass stalls in the fully closed position for 2 seconds. Release the switch and the initialization is complete.. Note that if a new motor is installed it will only have to be initialized.

The window now closes and lowers correctly.

1996 Dodge Intrepid, Blower and Power Windows Inop

This 1996 Dodge Intrepid came in with the complaint that then blower motor and the power windows stopped working at the same time. Having been down this road before I first wanted to get a look at the ignition switch. I started by removing the screw that holds the tilt lever in place.

Next I removed the screws attaching the lower cover to the steering column assembly and pull the cover off of the column.

Then I lifted the top cover from the steering column.

I removed the two attaching screws for the ignition switch.

After removing the switch and separating the harness connector from the switch this is what I found. Notice the discoloration on the top right terminal in the following picture.

Along with the melted plastic and discolored terminal in the corresponding terminal at th bottom right of the next picture.

I checked with The Electric Connection and the Dodge dealership as well and found that a repair connector is not available. I removed the burnt terminal from the connector body and realized it was the same as the terminals used in the part #4200 from The Electric Connection so I removed a wire from the new connector that was the correct gauge size.

Spliced it into the the old ignition switch connector. I used a pair of hose pinch off pliers to grab the harness and keep it pulled out far enough to be able to work.

Pulled the expandable loom back into place and secured with electrical tape.

Installed a new ignition switch and tested the systems, all working as designed again. The lesson of all of this is sometimes you have to know how components are manufactured and how manufacturers use individual components (think outside the box). If you do not know, ask someone that does.

2005 Mazda MPV, Changing The Cabin Air Filter

This 2005 Mazda MPV came in with the complaint that the air flow from the vents was very weak although the fan motor seemed to be blowing fast. Sounds like a restricted cabin air filter to me. The cabin air filter on this vehicle is located behind the glove box.

To change the filter start by opening the glove box. By the way having this much stuff in you glove box is not a good idea. Especially if you tend to put loose papers or napkins in there. It is very common to have these items get sucked into the blower motor impeller or blade.

Once the glove box door is open the sides have to be pushed in order to allow the stop pins to be released.

With both stop pins released open the glove box fully.

On the left side of the glove box there is a hook and pin that separate.  The glove box has a slot that hooks over the hinge pin. The glove box must be fully opened as described earlier.  If you are sitting in the passenger seat, pull the left side of the glove box towards you so that the hook, on the lower left corner of the glove box, will come off of the hinge pin. Make sure that your pulling angle matches that of the slot/hook.

With the left side released the right side pin can be slid out of the hinge socket.

Now that the glove box is out of the way the cover for the cabin air filter can be removed. Depress the retainer at the left side of the cover as shown below.

With the cover pulled off you can now see the actual filters.

Slide the left filter out first. Then the one one the right can be removed. Put it all back together and you are done.

These are the old filters. It is a little hard to see but the filters are full of a very fine dust. This vehicle obviously travels down a dirt road on a regular basis. At least that dust is not stuck in the evaporator core or the passengers lungs.

1995 Chevrolet Pickup, Runs Poorly Sometimes – Code 15

This 1995 Chevrolet Pick up came in with a complaint that the engine would start running poorly. Bucking and jerking intermittently and just generally carrying on is what the customer stated. He also said that he has had several different shops look at the problem, he has spent a lot of money and I am his last hope to repair his truck. Thank goodness he did not put any pressure on me. Well today was our lucky day and there was a code 15 set for low coolant temperature. Seems like a good place to start. The coolant temperature shows to be 165. A little low for a fully warmed up engine but it should not set a code on this year model truck.

I revved the engine up a little and Now I think I am a little closer to the problem. No freak cold fronts here in SC so I do not really think it just went to 40 degrees below zero.

I went to the coolant temperature sensor and started gently moving the harness around. Back to 183 degrees.

Back to minus 40 degrees F. I think we have a loose connection.

If you click on the next picture and enlarge it you will see the silver spring tabs in place in the upper connector but only empty black holes on the lower connector.

Time to replace the connector.

I cut the wires in a staggered pattern. Crimped in splicing connectors.

Slid the heat shrink tubing into place.

Heated the tubing to shrink into place.

Wrapped the wires with tape and installed new split loom. To order this repair harness please click here.

Just a different view. By the way if you did not know the temperature sensor is next to the thermostat housing.

I also spotted this during the repair. See the white arc mark on the side of the ignition coil. That is an intermittent misfire, especially when damp. I informed the customer and he said he would take care of it but he was very happy his truck was fixed.

2004 Chevrolet Silverado, Blower Will Not Turn Off

This 2004 Chevrolet Silverado came in with the complaint that the blower motor will not turn off even with the key off. This is relatively common problem of the the full sized Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac trucks with auto a/c controls. The first step is to lower the passenger side hush panel under the dash. There are three screws with 7 mm head on them. The one over the transmission hump is slightly difficult to remove and can be a SOB to install.

With the panel out of the way the blower speed controller is right in front of you as seen in the next picture.

Unplug the harness connector to get the blower motor to stop blowing. If you would like to see more details about testing please click here . To change the controller simply remove the two attaching screws with 5.5 mm heads and disconnect the remaining wiring from the blower motor.

This is a side view of the connector to the blower motor. The tab with the hook on the end has to be depressed before it can be pulled from the blower motor.

This picture shows the clip that has to be pushed in to release the three wire harness connector from the blower speed controller. It is a good idea to check the terminal spring tension in the three wire connector. To see and easy way to do this please click here. If your harness connector is damaged and needs to be replaced with the most updated part, please click here.

Install the new blower speed controller and reinstall the hush panel. This part number and design have been updated by General Motors. If you would like to see replacement information on installing the newly designed part please click here.  If you would like to order this part please click here. If you have a cabin air filter now would be a good time to change it. This truck did not have one. If it did it would have been just to the left of the controller.

One last thing that I like to check is the a/c drain tube to make sure it is present and clear. If it is restricted it can cause water to build up and the water can damage the blower speed controller. If it is missing , water will not be completely diverted away from the cab and will make its way back inside and wet the carpet.

If you would like to see a video of a similar repair please click here.

2003 Honda Accord, Changing The Headlight Bulb

This 2003 Honda Accord came in with the complaint that the driver’s headlight bulb keeps blowing. The owner has changed the bulb several times in the past few months and stated that he has been very careful not to touch the glass portion of the bulb (any kind of oil left on the glass portion of the bulb will cause it to blow. I have seen several with etched finger prints in the bulb).

On to removing the bulb for inspection. The forward inner fender liner has to be loosened to access the bulb from the rear.

There are a few push pin retainers that have to have the center portion pulled out and then the inner portion. A screwdriver along the outer edge as shown will not remove the retainer. I was trying to show the broken edge of the inner portion of the retainer.

In this picture you can see the inner versus out portions much better.

There are also somme 10 mm headed bolts along the bottom edge that have to be removed.

With the panel loosened up and pulled out of the way you can now get to the bulb. The headlight bulb is the lower one in the picture.

When I pulled the bulb out and inserted a new bulb I noticed that the bulb wiggled a little bit like the o ring was loose. I removed the bulb from the other side of the car to compare bulbs to see if the wrong bulb had been installed and found that the o-ring was a different color and size. In the brand that I stock, the orange/red o-ring is a standard bulb. The yellow o-ring is installed on long life bulbs in the same brand. I installed a new long life bulb with the yellow o-ring and the bulb has not blown since. That was 6 months ago.

2002 Pontiac Grand Prix, Changing The Ignition Switch

This 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix had already been diagnosed with a faulty ignition switch. The faulty switch was not allowing the blower motor to operate properly.

Click here to view that post.

Now on to changing the ignition switch. Disconnect the battery.

The first step is to remove the lower trim panel under the steering column. There may be some screws at the bottom of this panel that have to be removed. This car did not have any. With the bottom edge loose the panel can be slid towards the driver’s seat to disengage the retaining clips.

Now that the trim panel is out of the way. There are several 7 mm headed screws that have to be removed.

There are four 10 mm headed bolts that have to be removed that are further up in the dash and an extension will be needed.

The panel removed. Notice how far up in the dash the interior mounting edge is.

Pull the tilt lever from the steering column. For more detailed pictures of how this comes out please click here.

There are a couple of torx screws that have to be removed from the bottom cover and then it can be pulled down.

With the bottom cover removed the upper cover retaining screws can be removed. A torx socket will be needed.

The one on the outside is a two step process. First remove the screw.

Then remove the extension with a pair of pliers.

Next disconnect the gang connector near the bottom of the steering column. There is a 7 mm headed bolt in the center of the connector.

After separating the connector halves you will notice that the connector is made up of three pieces.

DSC02483

 

Using a small screwdriver spread the outer connectors away from the main body. Sorry about the blurred picture.

Slide the connector out of the main body. Repeat this step for the other side of this connector.

Next lift the upper shroud and insert a curved and pointed device as shown in the next picture.

Look closely with a light and locate the small hole in the aluminum housing above the lock cylinder.

Rotate the lock cylinder to the full crank position and then depress the retaining pin in the hole that you located earlier. Pull the lock cylinder from the housing.

This is a view of the above mentioned hole and tool with the cover removed so that you can get a better idea of its location.

This vehicle has a factory anti theft system that uses a transponder in the key. The black part that I am pointing to is the receiver antenna. Release the clips and slide it off of the housing.

Remove the screws that hold the ignition switch in place. The cream colored piece to the right with two wires attached is the key buzzer switch. To remove it use a small screwdriver to depress the locking tab, rotate it and lift off of the housing.

When removing the forward screw you will also be removing the lock cylinder shift interlock solenoid.

Finish removing the switch by cutting the wires ties that hold it to the other harnesses and install the new switch in reverse order. Make sure you secure the harnesses back together with new wire ties.

Update July 11, 2011: Well it was bound to happen, a bull in a china shop had  difficulty reinstalling the lock cylinder and has now messed up his steering column. Wants to blame poor information from this site.  I cannot stress enough that all of the work performed by me,  on this site requires an extreme eye towards detail and a gentle touch. No part of this repair in particular should require any force or coercion of any kind!

Some extra things to keep in mind:

The new ignition switch needs to be indexed into the exact position, as the old switch was in, when it was removed. The ON position

The key tumbler assembly needs to be checked, to make sure the locking bar drops flat and evenly towards the center of the tumbler assembly when the key is installed. If it does not,  DO NOT INSTALL IT!

There is a retaining bar/panel that holds the springs in place for the individual tumblers. If it is not fully installed and flat, no protrusions past the outside edge of the tumbler housing, DO NOT INSTALL IT!

These two tumbler pictures are for a similar design and not specifically for this vehicle.

This last tidbit of info requires some thought before performing. If the ignition tumbler was giving any signs of sticking or hanging up, I perform one extra step. In the slot that the locking bar rests in, take a small file and bevel the leading edge of the slot, so that a worn tumbler assembly will work without sticking. A very small amount of grease helps as well.

2002 Pontiac Grand Prix Blower Inoperative, Erratic

This 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT came in with the complaint that the blower would not work on the lower speeds and that the high blower would work most of the time. A quick inspection of the system also found that when the blower did work on high speed it would have a delayed turn on of several seconds. From experience I wanted to check the ignition switch input to the HVAC CTRL fuse in the interior fuse box. The fuse box is located behind a panel on the right side of the glove box. Simply grasp the pull handle and pull as shown.

The inside of the cover should have a diagram of the fuse box like the one shown below. You have to rotate the diagram around to match the view of the fuse box. Circuit breakers up.

Doing this will lead you to the correct fuse which is the 20 amp fuse two up and two from the left as shown below. With the key switched on there was no power to the fuse. When testing for voltage with a test light or a voltmeter be sure to have the ignition and blower switches on. The fault should also be present. When the fault is not present the voltages may appear okay. This problem can come and go so test this circuit several times if needed. This is indicative of a faulty ignition switch which this body style seems to have a problem with. Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile.

Please click here to see how to replace the ignition switch.

2001 Honda Civic P1298, ELD Fault

This 2001 Honda Civic came in with a multitude of problems one of which was a code P1298 stored for an ELD fault (electric load detector circuit input high). I had never had to actually test one of these before although I knew that they existed. The ELD sends a signal to the engine control computer so that the computer can adjust the alternator output in relation to power consumption. The ELD is located in the underhood fuse box. I am pointing to it with my screw driver.

To test the ELD I had to lift the underhood fuse box and remove the bottom cover. Once removed I could access the wiring for the ELD. The wire on the far right of the connector is power supply (battery voltage).

The wire in the middle of the connector is battery ground.

The wire on the far left of the connector is a five volt signal sent from the computer. The ELD will pull the voltage lower with increased system load and should vary with a change in load. For example if the blower or headlights are turned on it should drop. This particular unit was stuck at 3.81 volts and would not change with no loads or full loads applied. If the voltage had been near zero I would have had to unplug the connector and see if the five volt reference signal was being sent by the computer and wiring.

After testing and finding a faulty ELD, it was very easy to change. I removed the four adjoining phillips headed screws that held the two PAL fuses in place.

I released the latch on the harness connector and unplugged the connector.

With the wiring removed I simply lifted the unit. Slid the bar out and installed the new unit.

Below are a couple of pictures of the actual ELD part from Honda.