Our son and his family have befriended an immigrant family in their neighbourhood. The 6-year-old daughters from the two families are good pals. The family drives a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe. Son installed a new battery for them a few weeks ago, during a nasty cold snap. Nothing like working on a car on the street in the dark when it's -25 C. I was proud of him.
Anyway, he contacted me last night, and I volunteered to take a look today - the complaint was that the blower motor was making a bad noise and a nasty burning smell.
The lady brought the vehicle over this morning, and I ran the blower motor. It worked well on all speeds, with no unexpected noise. I suspect a leaf or something got into it and passed through or broke up.
There was a bad smell of hot burnt coolant under the hood, though. The lady told me that a few days ago the vehicle had quit making heat, and she had to add almost a full jug of premixed coolant. That was interesting as the coolant reservoir was full. However, when I removed the rad cap there was definitely some suction. Hmm.
I pulled the hose between the rad and the reservoir at the rad and tried to blow through it into the reservoir. No go. So I removed the hose, soaked it in hot water, and reamed it out with bike spoke. Blew again and dislodged a bunch of sludge.
Reinstalled the hose, filled up the rad, and then filled the reservoir. We went for a drive, and all was well. I figure the coolant was blowing out past the cap when hot, and some was landing on the engine and cooking. That coincided with, but was not related to, the blower fan noise.
Fingers crossed that all will be well for them from here on. (The coolant was Prestone AMAM, which I hope is compatible with whatever was in there.)
*******
One more bit of old Sante Fe weirdness: An older lady at church has a really beat up old Santa Fe. Lots of rust. A few months ago the console-mounted shifter was stuck in D, and she couldn't remove the key from the ignition. I was called on to look at it, and was stumped. I couldn't find an emergency bypass or anything. I contorted myself under the dash, looking for a brake safety switch (that is, one that would prevent the shifter being operated if the brake pedal was not depressed). No luck.
Sat there, playing with the shifter, and randomly pulled up a chromed plastic ring on the shaft. Eureka! The ring, which looked perfectly fine where it was, had dropped down from the top of the shaft (under the "T" handle), and was physically preventing the shift lever from moving.
That was a cheap fix. I felt as dumb as a bag of hammers to not catch it right away.
So when working on the other Santa Fe this morning, I checked that ring, and found it had slipped slightly down. I moved it back up, and it seemed secure. Regardless, I pointed it out to the owner who will be aware of the possibility.
Anyway, he contacted me last night, and I volunteered to take a look today - the complaint was that the blower motor was making a bad noise and a nasty burning smell.
The lady brought the vehicle over this morning, and I ran the blower motor. It worked well on all speeds, with no unexpected noise. I suspect a leaf or something got into it and passed through or broke up.
There was a bad smell of hot burnt coolant under the hood, though. The lady told me that a few days ago the vehicle had quit making heat, and she had to add almost a full jug of premixed coolant. That was interesting as the coolant reservoir was full. However, when I removed the rad cap there was definitely some suction. Hmm.
I pulled the hose between the rad and the reservoir at the rad and tried to blow through it into the reservoir. No go. So I removed the hose, soaked it in hot water, and reamed it out with bike spoke. Blew again and dislodged a bunch of sludge.
Reinstalled the hose, filled up the rad, and then filled the reservoir. We went for a drive, and all was well. I figure the coolant was blowing out past the cap when hot, and some was landing on the engine and cooking. That coincided with, but was not related to, the blower fan noise.
Fingers crossed that all will be well for them from here on. (The coolant was Prestone AMAM, which I hope is compatible with whatever was in there.)
*******
One more bit of old Sante Fe weirdness: An older lady at church has a really beat up old Santa Fe. Lots of rust. A few months ago the console-mounted shifter was stuck in D, and she couldn't remove the key from the ignition. I was called on to look at it, and was stumped. I couldn't find an emergency bypass or anything. I contorted myself under the dash, looking for a brake safety switch (that is, one that would prevent the shifter being operated if the brake pedal was not depressed). No luck.
Sat there, playing with the shifter, and randomly pulled up a chromed plastic ring on the shaft. Eureka! The ring, which looked perfectly fine where it was, had dropped down from the top of the shaft (under the "T" handle), and was physically preventing the shift lever from moving.
That was a cheap fix. I felt as dumb as a bag of hammers to not catch it right away.
So when working on the other Santa Fe this morning, I checked that ring, and found it had slipped slightly down. I moved it back up, and it seemed secure. Regardless, I pointed it out to the owner who will be aware of the possibility.
