Any car mechanics here?

Frank_Mulligan · Jun 27, 2002

I knew someone who had a Ford Diesel truck that would cut out after about 45 miles of driving. Proving this to a mechanic was a little tough.

Sounds like something's getting hot. I used to have a 3 speed Gremlin/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif where the starter would get hot. If I stalled out or turned off the engine I'd have to wait awhile for it to cool down before I could start again. Popped the clutch many-a-time.

bgott · Jun 28, 2002

"I knew someone who had a Ford Diesel truck that would cut out after about 45 miles of driving. Proving this to a mechanic was a little tough."

I hate intermittents! I've driven customers cars for two week trying to find intermittent problems just to have it come and go when I wasn't paying attention or I was stuck in traffic and couldn't concentrate on the problem. It's a little hard to charge someone for driving their car for hours to find a problem. If that Ford diesel was computer controlled it probably was a cam sensor.

Rowski · Jun 29, 2002

What model year and what is the 8th digit in the VIN?

JohnMiller3 · Jun 29, 2002

<font color=blue>...what is the 8th digit in the VIN?...</font color=blue>

Derek... do you mean the 10th place...? (may be digit or alpha)

Rowski · Jun 29, 2002

Well, your right, I forget I'm not at work (you know the work place lingo... everyone knows what you mean not what you said/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif). "th" place. It can be alph or digit. The 10th would give me the year. The 8th gives me the engine code. GM had two types of 4.3l engine configurations.

GarageSmoker · Jun 30, 2002

Maybe some of these digits don't count. Our GM uses a code like the Cuban cigars manufactures. The truck is a 97.

1GCCS19X8V8178910

GS

Gary_in_Indiana · Jun 30, 2002

Almost all if not every vehicle ID in the last 30 plus years has seventeen characters. The last six are sequential (only differentiating one vehicle from the next). Of the first eleven, ten have distinct meanings and one (the ninth) is what is called a "check digit" so that bad or incorrect VID numbers can be more easily caught if mistakenly entered in computer programs which recognize how the check digit works (most now do as it's an incredibly simple subroutine).

The ten characters which have meanings tell everything from country of manufacture (the first character) to the model year (as discussed above) and the engine. I can look at a VID number on a Chevy pickup, for example, and tell you if it's a 350 or 305, etc.

Sadly, there's not a whole lot of call for that skill, but it does save me lifting a hood once in a while. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif