₦airaland Forum

INTRODUCTION
Owing a highly efficient vehicle like a hybrid and/or electric vehicle(no matter what brand you opt for), comes with some responsibilities, in order to get the maximum benefits from your "investment".

As we all know these days, with the changing global emissions caps, and the uncertainties in the global oil markets, a lot of Nigerians, that have once vowed never to come close(r) to electric propulsion vehicles, are now seeing the benefits in the foreseeable future, of owning some of these marvelous" computers on wheels".

However, the cause  of concerns for future enthusiasts of this new form of technology, has always being the "myths" about battery life, technical expertise amongst technicians in repair shops.

MAINTENANCE SCHEDULES
Maintenance schedules are the kinds of repairs/maintenances you perform on serviceable components on a vehicle, after a certain duration has being reached(that's a layman's definition though).

Such maintenances are performed, not only when a vehicle breaks down(emergency/breakdown maintenance).

Maintenance like this, helped to put your car in top shape, even after it has exceeded its warranties, etc.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE OWNED A HYBRID CAR MORE THAN A YEAR OR 150,000MILES, WHAT MAINTENANCE DO YOU EMBARK UPON?

It is pertinent that you replaced all the fluids in the vehicle, seeing that you were not privy to the maintenance history of the USED CAR you bought and imported.

Its a risks driving that car, because of you just don't know the state of fluids in 
transmission, radiator, inverter, and brake systems.

Fluids no matter how a manufacturer in my view preaches about it's quality in terms of viscosity, and all that stuff, still degrades with time, which if not replaced on due time, would cause you much more problems ahead than having them replaced as scheduled.

WHAT FLUIDS SHOULD YOU REPLACED?

1. Coolants in the radiator, and the inverter assemblies.
The major component harnessing the high voltage battery (pack), and "dishing" it out I. various stages to the electric motors/generators in the trans axle, is the inverter/converter assembly.

The inverter  has some bunch of chips into, that takes care of electrical energy distribution.

It does tremendous amount of work, by generating excessive heat, every seconds that your car goes into the READY mode.

This heat is efficiently dissipated/managed by an air-liquid(coolant) process.

With this constant cycle of coolants undergoing exposures to heat, the long lasting additives premixed in coolants by various manufacturers tends to degrade with time, and looses its ability to transfer heat efficiently, thereby causing corrosion in cooling systems plumbing, and a failure of same.

They can cause premature failure of an inverter pump.

2. CVT transmission system fluid.
The same reasons for transmission system fluid replacement, can be referenced from #1 point above.
No matter what a manufacturer tells you about transmission fluids, to be on the safer side of things, always try to follow the maintenance schedules, and of possible, develop your own, based on the baseline of the manufacturer's timelines.

3. Brake fluids. Have you ever noticed black coloured rubber like impurities floating I. your car's brake reservoir, and I. some cases, have discoloured the tan colour(gold like) of the fluids in the reservoir?
Those impurities are from worn out rubber seals in the car's braking systems (master, brake calipers seals, etc), that has undergone various cycles of exposures to hundreds of degrees of temperature (boiling).

So, today, I'd be using one of a client's 2010 Toyota hybrid highlander as a case study.


CAR TYPE: Toyota highlander hybrid 2010
MILEAGE: 146,748Miles
TRANSMISSION TYPE: eCVT
ENGINE CAPACITY: 3.3L; V6
HISTORY: Car was imported into Nigeria from the USA 5years ago.
It has never given me any issues, until recently, when the vehicle keeps stalling after every 5minutes.

NATURE OF JOB:
1.Carry out FULL maintenance schedules on the truck.

2. Rectify parasitic battery drain issue with the 12V battery that's now dead(lasted just few months).

3. Rectify the frequent stalling of the car immediately after every 5min.

WHAT WE ARE DOING, AND HAVE DONE
Since the vehicle had spent 5years and more, and coupled with the lack of a maintenance history fro. the day of purchased, we decided to do a check TEST DRIVE OF THE CAR, and CHECK/REPLACED any fluids or parts that needs replacing.

1. Inverter and radiator coolants were replaced, using oy Toyota super long life coolants.
This coolant, just line other brands, have being premixed from the factory, for direct use.
So not mixed the coolants with any form of water.
Use directly, after draining the coolants from the radiator/inverter.

It is important to note that, this client, was financially buoyant, and opted for using Toyota coolants all through in the radiator, and inverter assemblies.

If you're not like this client, you could use coolant of any brands for the radiator alone, while making do with Toyota super long life coolant in the inverter/converter assembly.

2. Transmission system fluid was also replaced, using only Toyota WS transmission fluid.
Doing otherwise, would void your warranty, if your car is still under warranty, or severely damaged the transmission system.

A fluids (transmission) would eventually degrade, and get discoloured, thereby loosing its ability to take care of the transmission system, by cooling it, and also help in the lubrication of it's planetary gears).

3. Brake fluids. Replaced existing brake fluids, without necessarily flushing the system.
The replacement could be done via gravity flow.

4. All driveshaft and rear differential boots were inspected for rupture.
None were ruptured.

5. Brake pads had being replaced last year, and were still within tolerable limits(not worn considerably).

6. All leather cabin seats were torn, and had to be taken to an upholstery shop to have that fix.

7. Spark plugs were worn, and had to be replaced with sets of new ones.

8. Fuel injectors were all serviced using carb cleaners.
Exercise maximum caution, when using carb cleaner, close to batteries because of the sparks they might generate as the fuel injectors are serviced.

9. All suspension parts were replaced, even though, some appeared to be OK physically.

10. The suspension systems (shocks) were still in good working conditions.


11. Carrying out maintenance checks on the hybrid battery.
Sometimes, load tests are carried out to ascertain its current holding capacity.

The hybrid system blowers are cleaned of dust, and dog fur.


CONCLUSION
All vehicle parts, no matter what manufacturer made them, has the propensity to age, or degrade, due to usage and/or aging.

It might cost you much to embarked on a maintenance scheduled regiment, but the payback in the long run, is worth the investment in terms of cost, and time.

Consider investing in maintenance scheduled regiment for your hybrid vehicle today.



Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes.
If you don't have the needed skill set to embarked on any of the checks and repairs yourself, pls do pay someone to performed such a tasks.





Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
Isolo,
Lagos
08066643532
www.dxta.com.ng

I fill your pain dude!
1. its either the mechanic you had previously that worked on the head, via taking it to a machine shop, didn't complete the job, or the machine shop wasn't competent.

2. As long as you've started using an adapter for the spark plugs port, this suggests your piston rings are worn out.

3. Black oil in the radiator? What is the source of this oil? Can you investigate that?
Could you also kindly check the transmission system dipstick for any milky colour(suspension).
The black "oil" might be from your transmission system,.or the engine oil is already finding it's way onto the cooling system.

4. Sure you can overhaul that engine.
Just make sure you get someone competent to do the job.






Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
08066643532
Isolo,
Lagos
www.dxta.com.ng

Aligning the camshafts with each other before putting the timing chain on the camshafts' gears.
Without proper alignments of the gears, serious engine damages can occur.

@Tenza. This question is tricky.
The compression tests would only tell me the state of the piston ring tolerances, and not what's happening with the dislodged rocker arms(in fact, not the solution).

If one is not careful with the use of a compression tester for a case like this, the results from that tests, would make the customer assumed his engine is "dead", and a new one is required, or some of the conclusions would be that the rings are weak.

I would still not trust a compression tester tests on an OHC engine with a rocker arm/pushrod mechanism.

I'd prefer to peep through the valve cover, no matter what the tester result says.

Pls do correct if I'm wrong here.

Camshafts mounted, after rocker arms installation. Apply engine oil before turning the camshafts

Be careful when fixing the rocker arm on the pushrods

After top cylinder was mounted, the pushrods, are being fixes in their various positions, after bring lubricated with fresh engine oil.

Comparing the old top cylinder gasket and the new one, for any differences in orientations, and water channel ports.
On the stock multilayered(iron) gasket, it had only two water channel openings one a particular side, while the new composite gasket(paper), had only one.
Provision was made already for more openings to be made on it.

Look at the differences between the valves in each cylinder and compared.
Cylinder on left is #1 cylinder with the. problem, while the next is cylinder #2.
Noticed how brownish cylinder #1 looks like.

Showing the pistons in the engine block

That's how a rocker arm looks like on this engine.
Tiny of some sort, but does a whole lot of important functions.
It was its distortion, that resulted into a single cylinder misfiring persistently..

On assessment of the various vve train components exposed here, you could see how clean, this engine is.
This tells us that the misfire it had wasn't as a result of oil sludges, but rather something else.

Plan view of the camshaft gears being marked

Using a white marker, to get the engine times. The Camshafts already had marks on them though.

You can see the rockers off of the valve tip

Pointing to directions where one of the rocker arms was thrown to.

Valve cover opened, exposing some of the valve train components, like the rocker arms, pushrods, camshafts, timing chains, etc.

A closer look at the intake manifold port from #1, shows how wet it is, as compared to others.
When we removed the intake manifold, there was unburnt fuel on that section of the port.

Intake manifold removed, exposing the inlet valves

Each of the combustion chambers of the various cylinders in your car's engine, goes through a series of precise combustion processes of air-fuel via the intake/exhaust valves.

With neither of the combustion chambers undergoing the processes precisely, a deficit is introduced, in terms of either a lean/rich air/fuel ratios in the valves strokes.

A distortion in the firing of the cylinder(s), quickly transcends to what we would normally called, an engine misfire.

There are misfires that can easily be tracked down, and solutions proffered in solving them, while there are others that are a pain, to track down.

Its just frustrating to have replaced all misfiring related parts, and still have the problem not solved.

Today, we'd be treating a peculiar sort of misfire, that has caused a new client thousands in costs of parts replacement and labour.

If you're ready, here we go!

CASE STUDY

CAR TYPE: Toyota Corolla 2010
ENGINE TYPE: 2ZR-FE
TRANSMISSION TYPE: Automatic drive

COMPLAINTS

According to client:
1. Car has being parked for about six months
2. Returned from a journey, and tried starting the car.
3. Engine started finally, but suddenly started experiencing some sort of engine misfires.
4. My mechanic has done all what he could do to fix the problem, but without success.
5. I retrieved a P0301 misfire code with my Bluetooth code reader.
6. I'm scared of driving the car down to your shop Joe!
Could you come pick it up?

VERIFICATION OF CUSTOMER'S COMPLAINTS ONSITE

1. Started vehicle, and confirmed there was a terrible misfire occurring in the engine.
Engine was basically "dancing".
2. Observed excessive black smoke, and foul odour of petrol from the exhaust tailpipe.
3. Personally scanned the car with a professional scan tool, and confirmed same code present.

DIAGNOSIS and FIX
1. Drove the car to the shop, with the hazard light on

2. Because of the violent nature of the misfires, there was a lot of sort of engine knocked kind of noise from the engine.

3. The car was driven, at 30mph, to reduced the load on the engine.

4. Interchanged the ignition coils of #1 and #4, to see if the coils were the culprit.
That didn't solved the problem.

5. Next was to have those spark plugs also replaced, with some sets of test spark plugs I had in the shop, instead of buying new ones.

This also didn't take care of the problem.
This tells me its not an ignition system related problem.

6. I opted to have the fuel injectors serviced, and also interchanged.
I noticed something astonishing during servicing the injectors with carb cleaner.

They were totally clogged with carbon deposits.
The injector on #1 cylinder, had a greater %of carbon buildup on the injector pintle.

That was obstructing the free flow of fuel, and subsequently reducing the fuel pressure on the cylinders.

7. Cleaned up the fuel injectors, and fixed them back; started the engine, there was not improvement.

8. Got a test lamp and a digital multimeter to test the fuel injector's power and ground circuits for either of an open or a short circuits problems.

All the injector power feeds were intact, including the grounds.

With this test, I was able to isolate any ECU related causes.

9. Now, what was in my mind was that this particular problem, is a mechanically induced one, that is narrowed down only to cylinder #1.

Since I have had experiences like these before,
I had already began narrowing down the likely causes to the following:

a) bad top cylinder gasket, due to overheating, can cause the valves to stick in their bores.
b) broken, or worn faulty valves, stems, guides, etc.
broken piston compression rings on cylinder #1.

10. What we saw, opening up the valve cover, with the intention of dismantling the top cylinder head, was surprising.

11. The inlet rocker arms on cylinder #1, were all dislodged from their positions on the pushrods.
This was the actual reason, that cylinder was misfiring, and loosing power.

12. Timed the engine, and had the top cylinder removed and taken to a machinist, for machining.

13. Replaced top cylinder gasket with a composite one, instead of the multilayered one that was originally on the car.

14. Dressed the deck of the engine block, cylinder head, and installed the head, after modifying the gasket.

ANALYSIS OF CAUSES OF THE MISFIRE
1. Closely looking at the valve train components in the cylinder head, and how clean they were, suggested to us that the client must have being properly maintaining his car, and that engine oil degradation was not to blamed for the problem.

2. The absence of an open or short circuit problems on the injector power/ground harnesses, proved that the ECU, and it's wiring, were functional, and there was no need to other a "Brainbox"!

3. Inspecting the inlet port on the cylinder #1 alone as compared to others, showed a huge volume of raw petrol dumped in there.
Obviously, this points to either a valve is not opening at all, or ...

I did conclude that why the rocker arms fell off from their positions in the engine, was basically a buildup of carbon deposits in the bore of the valves on the inlet sides of #1cylinder.

HOW TO PREVENT PROBLEMS LIKE THIS
If you intend to prevent instances such as this, ensured;
1. Engine oils are replaced as at when due.
Not replacing when its due, introduces impurities in the valve train, and cause problems.
2. Use fuel additives, devoid of sulphur contents at least once a month.
This would take care of fuel related carbon deposits on the fuel injector pintle.
3. If this isn't feasible, use carb cleaner to manually clean the injectors.
4. Don't rev your engine when its idling.
This would put more stress on the engine, and cause internal engine problems, such as rocker arm failures, if your engine is equipped with one.
5. Always replace old fuel from a car that has stayed longer than three months.
An j complete combustion process, as a result of bad gasoline, would exert stresses on the rocker arms, and cause lags in the combustion strokes.


PS:
Engines with rocker arm designs, or overhead camshafts (OHC), are known to exhibit problems of rocker arms falling off of their positions on the pushrods, or even falling off and exploding, causing severe engine problems, and suddenly stalling in motions.

This, I have seen on some 2004 Ford Explorers, where the rocker arms are dislodged, and caused an engine to seize entirely.

Well, that ended up having the entire engine replaced.






Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
Isolo,
Lagos
www.dxta.com.ng
08066643532

Dru23: He does not need to get another engine, considering what he is going through right now with the oil shortages and the white smoke.

In your experience, I bet your mechanic either had procedural errors during installations, or sub standard parts were used(unconsciously).

All engines can be rebuilt, no matter their state.



Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
Lagos,

@tubreal. Your car can still be resuscitated, no matter the state it is presently.
I have rebuilt all sorts of engines, that people considered can never be done, or last after a rebuild.

Highlanders, lexus, Corollas, Camry both hybrid and conventional ones, hondas, Nissans, etc.

Where is your location?

Since you use the car for Uber, are you willing to drop the car with us, and get it rebuilt for a duration of a week?

Pls after the rebuild, if you decide to go with us, do share your experiences on here about your engine.


PS: There is just no need to buy another engine, expect you choose to buy another one.

Here's what is happening to your engine:
1. oil shortages is just as a result of worn piston rings.
Those can be replaced with genuine ones.

2. White smoke basically coolant might be leaking past the rings, or the top cylinder gasket has flattened already, allowing steam. through the combustion chamber.

Your current engine is perfect!

Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
Lagos

I think the problem especially in Nigeria, is that people just follow the crowd.

There is this fear that some mechanics, and some previous Nissan owners have put in the minds of those wanting to own a Nissan brand in the future.

They talk about some of their transmissions systems, and even electronics/electrical problems with Nissan brands.

In my opinion, its somehow when these vehicles comes to Nigeria, that these problems begins to occur.

Some are as a result of the lackadaisical attitudes of some car owners to maintenance, and all that.

I currently own a M45 Infiniti V8.
Nice car, and durable.


Regards,
Joseph
DW Nig Ltd
Isolo, Lagos

@eherbal. Prius cars, are reliable, and durable.
It all depends on the models you're opting for.
Just bear in mind that whichever you're getting, you could set aside some kind of lump sum, if you can, just on case the HV battery, is in it's "declining" state already.

Altwrnatively, in some instances, we'd replaced any defective module(s), and balanced up your existing pack.

Regards,
Joseph
08066643532
DW Nig Ltd
Isolo, Lagos

@kufie. Sorry, wasn't able to comments on your thread earlier on.
Yes, I'm in Lagos.
Were you not the guy I did come over this morning to help inspect, and fixed the problems on this same 2012 Camry black today?
If you were, then that's fine.
If you weren't, then you could give me a call.



Regards,
Joseph,
08066643532
DW Nig Ltd,
Isolo, Lagos

@Mrtesso.
Lithium ion batteries, are an improvement on the existing NIMH batteries you see around.

Actually, just like you've said, about their characteristics, they are light weight, with somewhat a longer range(charge cycles) than their nickel metal hydride counterparts.

They can't be interchanged on hybrid vehicles designed for nickel metal hydride packs, because of the different design criterion on the BMS(battery management system) of such a system.

For instance, if my memory serves me right, lithium ion chemistries have a max peak voltage of ~4.2volts or so, while some nickel metal hydride batteries, have got say, 7.2volt resting voltage(THSD).

So trying to integrate a lithium ion based chemistry into a nickel metal hydride one, would never work.

It would only work, if you as a whole can reverse engineer the BMS of the vehicle concerned.

Remember, lithium ion batteries are dangerous, when necessary precautions are not adhered to.

They need extreme cooling systems to make them perform, optimally.



Hope this reply helps shed some light to your questions sir?!



Regards,
Joseph


PS: Your moniker looks lime you're from ..., hope you know what I mean?
If you know UNIAGRIC, you'd understand what I'm saying.

MARSLANDING TODAY.
If you're a fan of space explorations, today, NASA's insight spacecraft blazes into Mar's atmosphere at 12,300mph, and slows down to just 5mph in less than 7min, before touching down on the surface.

You can watch the event live on;

www.nasa.gov/live



Regards, people!

Feel your pain Eric!

If no knocking sound, your engine is perfectly OK.
You just need to sort out the reasons for the misfires. That would fix the issues with your car presently.
I wished I could see the car!

Takes that long, because your replacement modules might be sourced from more than a ten year old pack. Those modules have gone through almost hundreds, if not thousands of cycles of charge/discharge. That way, they already have reduced capacity.
Its takes a dedicated smart charger, to carry out those cycles more than three times, in order to exercise the modules, and bring them back to usable life again.
After achieving that, you got to match up the capacities of your replacement modules in terms of IR, voltages, and map with your existing one, then another round of cycling commences.
Its a tedious exercise though.
When you get it right, red triangle light, would never surface again.

Hope this answers your question?

That's another consequence of allowing oil to seep into the combustion chamber as a result of brittle valve cover seals, and sometimes, worn out piston rings.
Example here is for a Honda accord we rebuilt last week.

That's a valve cover seal. Notice how the seal is brittled. Engine oil seeps into the spark plug ports every now and then.