Piston Slap: Cooling to the MAXX? (Part II)

CJ writes:

My name’s CJ I have a 04 (Malibu MAXX) with a 3.5 V6 and I have the same problem with the car running hot ( as Part I) but here’s the kicker :when the a/c is on the it runs normal, completely normal under both situations. I’m thinking fan switch, but the radiator sounds plausible. What’s your take and is there something in between all this that I’m forgetting?

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Piston Slap: Deffo Not Your Father's Oldsmobile!
Paul writes:

Long time listener, first time caller. I have a 1982 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Brougham, that last summer I ripped the 307 out of. It now has a Chevy ZZ4 crate motor, backed by a TH 350 transmission. (Gasp! My hero!!! – SM)

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Piston Slap: The Cadillac Hack

Geek alert! This one is tech-heavy!

TTAC Commentator Skor writes:

Sajeev,

Not a question, but it’s good to know that as long as there are cars there are people who will come up with hacks, no matter how complicated things get.

I have an 1992 Cadillac Seville and the blower motor fan disintegrated and jammed up the blower motor, which in turn shorted out the blower resistor. The squirrel cage disintegrated. I checked inside the blower housing to see if there was anything loose, but I could find nothing except pieces of the fan. All of this stuff was OE, no one has been in there since the car came from the factory. I’m sure someone at GM thought that saving a nickel on plastic was a good idea. Well, I bought a new motor/fan assembly and installed it. Wasn’t too bad, about $40. When I tried it, it was a no-go. Next thing I do is check the fuse (30 amp) it was fine. Then I checked the blower motor controller. It was blown. Crap! Apparently when the fan blew up, it jammed the motor, which then took out the motor controller. I’m thinking to myself:

“Nice engineering. The components on this circuit blow before the fuse does. WTF is the fuse for?”

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  • 3SpeedAutomatic This reminds me of the small pickup truck market in the US. Ford had the Ranger which was withdrawn for the market. Then, OMG, the Ranger appears in 2019. Same with Dodge(Ram) Dakota. What Ford flubbed was the lack of advertising; an attempt to convert it into a suburban family hauler; and the removal of the high top version with extra stand up space. It was a utility van, no more, no less. Don't be surprised if this market re-appears in a few years, but all electric. What comes around, goes around. PS: On a recent trip to Paris, these small vans (Ford, Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, VW, etc) were everywhere!!! It appears that the Europeans are way smarter than the North Americans in this case.
  • Kwik_Shift Ever see the movie "Rubber"?
  • Bunkie Perhaps, I am wrong, but I believe that the issue is that high-power electronics in an EV cause interference with the AM radio signal. As for listening to radio in the car, I don't. I had SiriusXM for a few years but hated the awful sound quality and the signal dropout caused by obstructions like terrain (which made listening to any talk-based content painful), not to mention the annual game of having to threaten to cancel in order to get a decent rate. These days, I use either music stored on my phone or one of the streaming music services to which I subscribe. Sometimes I even listen to CDs, I will miss the CD player.
  • 28-Cars-Later Can we send them all into space? Pleaseeeee?
  • Mike Beranek People tend to get pissed at me because I don't speed on 25 mph residential streets. I don't speed on those streets because there's nothing to be gained, like there would be by speeding on a highway.Also, a question for drivers: If you're in the passing lane, why are they passing you?