Car question

[Lamplighter]

Not the right thread, but maybe the car guru's can help me...

Each year I spray our metal heat register covers with a "refresh" coat of black paint.
This year, I used a can from last year.

The problem:
The paint on two covers are still sticky after overnight "drying" in the house.
The paint does not transfer to my hand or paper, but I'm concerned that
walking on the register may end up tracking paint onto the floors.

Any suggestions for hardening the paint now instead of later ?

[Gravdigr]

Hair dryer? Coat o' clear?

[glatt]

Will it fit in the oven? A gas oven can be moist at low temps, but an electric would be good. Set it for 175

[Lamplighter]

Thanks Griff and Glatt.
I tried the oven thing overnight and things are much improved
... still a little tacky, but it looks like it will be OK after the house heat has been on for a while.

[glatt]

Same issue with the car today for about 10 minutes. Then it got better.



Never stalled, but almost did.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Fuel.

[glatt]

It's so bizarre that it's intermittent. It's running perfectly now. If I took it to a mechanic, I wouldn't be able to show them the problem.

My first thought was a dirty fuel filter, but I wouldn't expect that to get better.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You could show someone familiar with that type of car the video clip. They may have previous experience with that syndrome, or at least a clue where to look.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's so bizarre that it's intermittent. It's running perfectly now. If I took it to a mechanic, I wouldn't be able to show them the problem.

My first thought was a dirty fuel filter, but I wouldn't expect that to get better.

Pfffft. Fuel filter could easily be intermittent. Do you think the crud the filter collects is uniformly fine and uniformly distributed? Unlikely. It could easily be mostly crapped up, but still have a small passage for the fuel. Then with the vibration of the engine shake loose some crud opening a wider path for the fuel.

Seriously, why not just SHOTGUN the situation and replace the fuel filter? (you're welcome tw). Worst case, you have a new filter and twenty fewer bucks. Or, it could fix or ameliorate the symptoms.

Plus tw will berate you.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by BigV

Seriously, why not just SHOTGUN the situation and replace the fuel filter? (you're welcome tw). Worst case, you have a new filter and twenty fewer bucks. Or, it could fix or ameliorate the symptoms.

Plus tw will berate you.

He is gonna blow his top.

[glatt]

Ok. I have obtained a fuel filter. And I should have time tomorrow afternoon to install it. We need an oil change too, so I'll do that at the same time.

[glatt]

If I go through the hassle of taking off the old filter (it's buried behind a lot of stuff) then I'm definitely going to replace it with the new one. The filter is cheap.

This car has 60k miles on it. The manual says filters should be changed every 30k. It should be on its 3rd filter by now. I don't know if it's ever been changed, but I doubt the previous owner changed it just before unloading it.

[Gravdigr]

Glatt, was the vehicle doing that 'surging' thing by itself, or was someone moving the throttle? Assuming it was happening without throttle input, could the throttle position sensor cause such a thing?

[glatt]

It was doing it by itself. It would almost stall, and then the computer would give it more gas to prevent the stall. And then it would stop giving it more gas, and the cycle would repeat.

I just finished installing the fuel filter. And now it's idling a bit fast. Haven't driven it around yet, so that might just be the cold start, fast idle mode. It was a bit of a pain. Had to remove the air cleaner assembly and half a dozen vacuum hoses and sensor cables to get at the thing. Frankly, I'm pretty proud that I got it all back together and working with no leftover parts.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

This car has 60k miles on it. The manual says filters should be changed every 30k.

I would change gas filters, air filters, PCV valve, and spark plugs as recommended. Eventually learned that was mostly unnecessary. But again, if a filter is the problem then blowing through it would make the problem obvious.

Eventually I stopped replacing spark plugs, washed the PCV valve in a solvent, banged the air filter on asphalt to clean it, and never replaced a fuel filter.

Generally, idle is not controlled by the throttle (as that picture shows). An IAV does idle air adjustments (a problem discussed with Cloud? when a Honda that mechanics refused to solve it until another mechanic was used). To say more requires facts from the shop manual.

How to eliminate fuel as a suspect was defined. Air leaks might be found by using vice grips to restrict any hose the manifold. Learning how to examine the EGR valve as a suspect would be useful. Just a few of so many suspects (maybe 50) can create an unstable idle; best identified rather than replacing (shot gunning).

I have long forgotten what is the car, what all symptoms are, what was tried, etc. However you have learned from reading the shop manual how many suspects are on the perp list. A list so long that shotgunning can get expensive.