There was this frustrated, tired, fed up guy who brought his ranger in. When I got out and started walking in I heard this awful humming sound I thought it was a leaf blower. So I get inside and I hear the guy describing his situation. Then I make the connection the sound is his truck. Its the IAC Valve. Just as I realize this the service guy suggests that its the air filter and you should let us take a look at it and we will fix it. At that moment the guy turns to me and I say is that your truck making that noise "yup it is". Well lets just say the Ford service department doesn't like other customers handing out a diagnosis right there at the desk. LOL. He gave me a dirty look and says we can fix it or you can listen to this guy. then somebody realized I was in the wrong line and hurried me to the parts desk.

Just thought I would share I thought it was funny.

 

ha ha ha nice.......i HATE screwy dealers........espically when they try screwing people who dont' know....

 

WOW, im just glad the guys at my ford dealership/ parts department are all nice!!

 

yeah from what I could hear the guy behind the desk seemed a little shady to me. I was glad that when i got to the parts desk that guy was a straight shooter.

I almost forgot to add that while I was in there a box truck making a delivery of tires drove into the garage. He had to let all the air out of his tires in order to get out. HAHAHA. He looked like he felt about the size of an ant.

 

Lol, awesome. I hope he listens to you.

 

that is funny!

 

Unfortunately he was filling out the paper work to have them look at it when I was leaving hopefully they don't rip him off. Hopefully he will remember my assessment when he gets the bill for it.

 

so how did the truck get into the garage if he had to let the air out of the tires?

 

Im guessing the truck was lower because of the weight of the tires in the back of the truck lowered the whole truck. With the weight gone the truck sat up higher and thus got stuck.

 

^^^^^That would be a good guess IMHO...

 

Happens every single day. Dealerships doing unnecessary work at premium prices.

It is important to remember that dealer service departments are staffed with what are essentially adminstrative salespeople. A substantial part of their job description includes the selling of services.

The unfortunate thing about it is a quick internet search would have saved that Ranger owner a lot of dough. Replacing the IAC is, what, a 10-minute job for even the least mechanically inclined people? Instead, now he's got the dealers' hand in his pocket.

 

Yeah he looked frustrated and dirty like he had spent a long time trying to fix it. I feel bad that he got that dealer bill.


As for the truck it CRASHED INTO THE GARAGE. The truck was prolly about 3 inches taller than the garage opening

 

yeah sounds just like my dealer... i just rarely go there.

 

I have a hard time understanding how you automatically knew though it was the IAC valve in his truck. Especially without knowing anything about the truck other than its a Ranger. Do you know what engine was in it?

What about the sound makes you think it was the IAC? My 94 2.3 when it was N/A had a gummed up IAC valve and it didn't cause any problems that remotely made the engine sound like a leaf blower. And the last time I drove it with the 2.3T (but with the Ranger TB and therefore original IAC still) it was causing idle surge issues, but to me it didn't sound like a leaf blower.


Dont get me wrong, the dealer dudes diagnosis is way off in itself suggesting its the "air filter", but your suggestion (though free and comes with no paperwork) is just about as useless and unqualified as his without an actual diagnostic test.

I like to play Devil's Advocate if you can't tell.

 

ha ha thats a pretty funny story

 

And so it must follow then (according to the same logic) that everyone on this board who posts a response to a question is also doing nothing but providing "useless and unqualified information" to the person asking the question, since we are not actually there on the spot with our meters in hand and heads under the hood.

Which means also, BTW, that as of the current time and date, you have 561 posts worth of useless and unqualified information to your name

 

Damn, your logic is keen LOL.

There is a difference though in the way a suggestion can be approached. I don't think if someone was posting on here about a problem and their engine sounded like a weed wacker I would automatically state with an authoritive %100 positive tone that it was the IAC. Cause I simply wouldn't know just from hearing it.

Rather I would suggest to check a few things in the engine bay which may cause this type of scenario.

Just saying it's the IAC valve without any other preliminary means of deduction doesn't make it any different than the service knuckle head saying its the air filter,... though to someone with knowledge that would sound absurd and give the IAC suggestion a lot more credibility.

 

It's true that there could have been other factors, but if I was confident enough I would have told the guy exactly what to do and made a bet with the guy for like 10 bucks. worst case scenario the guy know how to replace a IAC

 

As stated above, Service Writers ARE NOT technicians!

BUT, they do have some knowledge usually of most common problems to suggest what it might be.............but I can honestly say, that I have NEVER heard of an air filter makin ANY KINDA NOISE!!! That was just WAAAAYYYYY OUT IN LEFT FIELD!!!

I work in a Ford dealership Parts Dept and you wouldn't believe the calls we get from people wantin to know if I can tell em what the problem is with their car cause it's doin this & that, and Auto Zone told em it was this code and Advance told em was this code...............I just tell em, I ain't got no idea & tell em till the vehicle is here to be diagnosed, I can't help em! Now if it's somethin like their speedo & odometer quit workin on a Ranger, then chances are it's a speed sensor (Base PN# 2L373) in the chunk 99.9% of the time, and I tell em that.

My philosophy is, if I'm not sure, I'm not gonna lie to ya to sell parts! With all these sensors & computer crap on these vehicles today, it has bout killed the BACKYARD MECHANIC like me...............you gotta hook it up to a DEALERSHIP computer to get the correct code for what the problem is.....the aftermarket ones like AZ & Napa sells have there own codes and usually have a wide variable as to the problem..........hence, you can be replacin sensors out the wazoo to find the 1 that's causin the problem.

Just my O2 & experiences to date .................

 

I sometimes like to do the DA thing myself.

I agree with the notion that the circumstances under which a question is posed has considerable bearing on the appropriatness of the responses. For example, I suppose that if I were working in the service department at a dealership and I heard someone standing in line doling out technical advice to strangers (who also happen to be prospective customers of the dealership), I might also resent that a little bit and somehow try to "poo poo" the advice being given (which is what I think happened in Bryan's case). It wouldn't really matter to me that the person giving out the advice might actually be doing so in good faith

 

Here's some food for your Devil's Advocate.

I had several peices of information to come to the conclusion I did. 1. I saw his truck, 2. I heard his truck, 3. I heard and saw his truck while he was driving it, 4. I heard him describe to the service guy all the problems with his truck, 5. I had the same problem on my truck which happens to be the same year 98 and same engine 4.0 my truck sounded identical to his truck.

So with that said My diagnosis was not useless and unqualified. It was helpful and the problem with his truck. You may like to be the devils advocate however you are wrong.

As for it sounding like a leaf blower I never said it sounded like a leaf blower. I said "I heard this awful humming sound I thought it was a leaf blower." I really didn't know what the sound was but being it was a nice day and the grass looked fresh cut so I thought it was a leaf blower. The truck did not sound like a leaf blower but when I made the assessment of what I thought the humming was that was the only conclusion I could come to.

 

See, now that's the kind of information that should have been included, in the chance that someone was doing a search on here with the same problem. That way there is more "backround" to the answer than it just sounding like the dealer guy who said "it's the air filter".



Though you're contradictive with your statements:
..."I thought it was a leaf blower"..."I heard this awful humming sound I thought it was a leaf blower"..."Then I make the connection the sound is his truck"..."I never said it sounded like a leaf blower"

SO, what you're saying is, you thought it was a leaf blower, but it wasn't a leaf blower, it was the truck, but the truck didn't sound like a leaf blower? That makes no sense.

 

i have done nothing but laugh the whole time i read this,but this whole logic thing is starting to confuse me lol

 

Well that is confusing. I am surprised anyone could sort it out so well. I didn't convey the point I was trying to make.

I didn't really think it sounded like a leaf blower. But the sound it was making didn't sound very familiar to me either. But the closest thing I could think of as to describe the sound was a leaf blower. But if you would have run the truck with the hum and a leaf blower next to each other they would have been distinctively different. Now I don't know if that is more confusing or less confusing.

As for not including that info in my first post I guess I should have and now it is included for anyone that is going to search it but I figured that there was enough posts about IAC valves since it is a common problem. My point of the post was more humor than for information. I think now the thread has made it for a good laugh and information.