Car help - Rim getting really hot (1 Viewer)

[Steve Schaffer]

My ex-wife's 94 Nissan Altima never had warped rotors, nor has my present 01 Sentra.

Most common cause of warped rotors is uneven torquing of lugnuts when the tires are rotated or replaced.

Always request that the wheel lugnuts be hand torqued or that a torque limiting device be used if an air wrench is used to install the lugnuts.

Don't know about other makes but Toyota will warrant any brake problem except pad wear for 3/36. In a few cases we've found excessive pad wear due to misadjustment of the brake booster actuating rod and warranty did covered pads in those cases.

Aftermarket parts negate the warranty only if the part in question caused the problem.

An example would be the popular oil-impregnated K&N air filters. Oil droplets from these can foul the hotwire airflow sensor and this will not be covered by warranty.

Had a Tacoma with a heavily modified exhaust system in the other day with the owner insisting a rattle from the exhaust system be repaired under warranty--no go on that one.

Most common source of problems with aftermarket stuff is electrical malfunctions due to alarms and stereos.

 

[Philip_G]

My ex-wife's 94 Nissan Altima never had warped rotors, nor has my present 01 Sentra.

Most common cause of warped rotors is uneven torquing of lugnuts when the tires are rotated or replaced.

I do not allow tire shops to use an impact wrench on my lugs, they use a torque wrench or don't work on it.

 

[Andy_S]

Thanks for all of you help. It turned out to be a sticking caliper. I replaced both of them and no more heat! Drove it for two hours straight yesterday and didn't get nearly as hot as it did before (it used to get REALLY hot after a 30 min drive).

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

An example would be the popular oil-impregnated K&N air filters. Oil droplets from these can foul the hotwire airflow sensor and this will not be covered by warranty.

Steve, does this happen all the time, or only for those who over-oil these things? I know you are supposed to put very minimal amounts of their oil on these things.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Dennis,

I don't think it's as likely if one does not over-oil the filter. I've seen it on some that did not appear to have been over-oiled, but have also seen it on vehicles with stock filters if too much dirt was allowed past the filter when changing out a dirty one.

The hotwire sensor is just upstream of the air filter housing. When it gets fouled either by oil or dust particles it gives an erronneous output to the computer which in turn richens the mixture by increasing injector duration. The computer keeps track of injector duration and if it deviates from a pre-established norm by more than 30%, either too short or too long, it assumes that a rich or lean condition is taking place.

In the case of the fouled hotwire sensors, the duration increases indicating a lean condition and when positive average fuel trim exceeds about 30% the check engine light comes on and a code P0171 is stored.

In most all cases, removing the sensor, cleaning with carb spray and compressed air, will fix the problem. I always test drive these after doing this with the scantool hooked up to verify normal average fuel trim.

The whole diagnosis of code P0171 and cleaning the sensor and verification test drive usually ends up costing the customer on hour's labor if the vehicle is out of warranty or has an oiled filter rather than stock filter. If it's within the warranty period and has paper non-oiled filter element warranty covers the cost. sometimes we'll file a warranty claim for an oiled filter if the vehicle is fairly new and tell the customer to go back to a stock filter and sin no more.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I have a 1992 Miata with a K&N in it - I guess in 2003 it's somewhat out of warranty anyway..... I think the 1.6l has a flap-sensor rather than the later hot-wire anyway.