Monday, April 16, 2018

2014 Chevy Impala Exhaust Cam Shaft Solenoid testing and fix.

What are the symptoms of this issue?

P0013 Exhaust Cam Shaft Solenoid Control
P0014 Exhaust Cam Shaft Solenoid Circuit




These codes were stored on a 2014 Chevy Impala 2.5L Echotech engine. The TSB's referenced were specific to P0011 and P0014, but they still are very educational for testing the system, especially if the wires are at fault and not the exhaust cam shaft solenoid itself.

What are the step by step testing suggestions? 

1. Check with your *scan tool that the exhaust cam shaft actuator does not change position when commanded up to 15%.
2. Checking the actuator and solenoid status will help you do wire wiggle tests. Example: when I wiggled the wire the solenoids status would go from okay to malfunctioning and back again, but when I twisted on the solenoids body without touching the wires, it was also go in and out of okay and malfunctioning.
3. Verify the PCM is attempting control of the solenoid. Back probing got me a varying voltage from 7 to 12 volts. On an oscilloscope it would be a square wave pattern. If there's any issue follow for the wire tests or if you need understanding on the system: #PIP5096C or #PIP5162: P0011 P0014
4. Replace solenoid if faulty. If replacing the solenoid, dip the actuator end in clean oil first.
5. One TSB suggested removing the old one, using a rag and air pressure to blow out the oil channel. Ensure clean oil, change if necessary, check to see if codes reset.

What fixed it?

Replaced Exhaust Cam Shaft Solenoid and verified PCM's both control over the actuator and the solenoid's status.

Possible fixes: damaged wiring, cleaning the oil passages behind the Exhaust Cam Shaft Solenoid.

*Note: a dealer level scan tool will likely be required to go this deep in testing. It'll require a scantool with bi-directional control and be fully compatible with Chevy's PCM.

By AutoBravado

Thursday, April 12, 2018

An Odd Case of EVAP codes

What are the symptoms of this issue?

P0449 Vent Control Circuit/Vent Control
P0446 Evaporative Emission Control System Vent Valve/Solenoid Circuit
I forget about possibly a 3rd code which was on this 2004 s10 V6 4.3L little truck. It had to do with Vent control high and/or low input. This typically means that the PCM is no longer seeing a value out of a sensor that it expects, or it can mean that there is a wiring issue.

It's not often with EVAP systems that there is a driveability issue or performance issue. Most often, it's just a pesky system which needs diagnosing so that you can pass emissions. The goal of the EVAP system is to capture fuel vapors and prevent them from going into the atmosphere. Hydrocarbons are actually very bad for air quality and this with other systems have managed air quality to be much better than what I remember them to be when I was a child in the 80's.

While driveability concerns or engine performance aren't typical with these when the purge valve opens without vent control, it could make an engine run rough - it did when I commanded at a lowest percent of 10 percent by a bi-directional tool for the purge valve to open. This allows the vapors to be burned in the engine. Typically, the purge valve has to be commanded at 30% or higher to effect idle, not just 10%.

What are the step by step testing suggestions? 

Remember, the same EVAP codes can head in many directions. I included typical directions from other techs, but it wasn't the case here.

P0446 Can be the vent being commanded open, but being stopped up or failing to open.
1. Be sure to check for the vent solenoid for opening and closing when commanded by a scan tool. This confirms that the truck's PCM has control over the solenoid. I usually use a large hose which fits over the vent solenoid while I breath into it. You should easily be able to breath out into it until it's commanded and successfully turns on.
2. Check the canister for flow restriction. (I skipped testing the canister for flow restrictions as I already saw the PCM had no control of the vent solenoid) In this case, the vent worked fine directly controlled with power and ground, but there was no ground and no control from the PCM.
In this case the Vent and Fuel Tank Pressure (FTP) sensor both were missing ground. To see this, the gas tank had to be removed. The FTP was showing in live data at 13.5 mm/Hg whether it was plugged in or not.
3. When unplugged sensors read the same this is a hint wiring is bad. Inspect the wiring harness up the frame. Found damage and repaired. If not so obvious use a wire sounding tool to test your way up the harness to find the break. Generally, Chevy wiring harnesses are too thick for my sounding tool to accurately hunt for the real breaks in the wire. With many wires in the harness it blocks the "sound" and your tool indicates the wire is broken where it is not. Maybe PowerProbe's wire sounding which came from the Power Probe 3, while expensive isn't the best for the job. Otherwise known as the ECT2000.
It is possible the PCM is not providing ground as both of these circuits are directly grounded by the PCM. The vent solenoid is ground side switched.

What fixed it?

Wires were repaired.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Rumble - monetizing my videos outside of YouTube??

To put this article in context, I was watching one of my friends videos over on YouTube His channel is called Ferintosh Farms Photography. Lanny Ross's video with Remi's question is available if you take this embedded video with a button on the bottom right during playback to actually watch it on YouTube, or you can simply stay here, watch the video, and get great detail for how my dealings with Rumble have begun. Rumble is my copyright manager for my content on YouTube and it's a way of dealing with monetization when currently my channel doesn't have the 1k required subs. Recently they up'd the 10k views to 4k hours of watch time a year. Gratefully, I've been blessed with some viral content and the watch-time is not a problem, but the subs are.


Hi Remi. I'm only a few weeks into having videos on Rumble and getting paid, or having $1.20 towards my first $50 feels a lot like starting over on YouTube. At least YouTube's minimum of $100 is beat by 50% by Rumble for when they'll pay out. Remember, I would be getting nothing right now. So this money is in despite of YouTube and their new requirements. I was excited at first at half that money in my Rumble account, but in the next week or so when there was no new money, I was starting to get depressed about it all.

Suddenly today it jumped up 50 cents to the money I told you. The reason? Rumble's stats on YouTube are slower. That was two weeks of catch up. Now realize, I've only had about 1k new views since Rumble has copyrighted some of my stuff and YouTube is slow to recognize the copyright, and then they may be (intentionally as it feels) slow on putting ads up because maybe they don't want it easy to work around their rules.

So far, and analytics are tough because I've had 100k views according to rumble in March, when really, the stats are confused as Rumble got the rights to an older and more successful video. See, when someone successfully claims your content they can see the analytics from YouTube on it and copyright owners have the right to just watch a channel and see if they grow and then tell the ads to turn on if they wish. I believe some of them are thinking, it's not worth telling YouTube to turn on the ads as it'll detract from their content being seen more if it's small change. If your channel and their content takes off, they'll most likely turn the ads on and YouTube may be a lot more quick to cash in and help Rumble with the video as well. Now if my guesses are right about only having 1 to 2 k new views since Rumble's copyright's, then this is similar pay to YouTube, 50kish views being worth about $35 in my experience says that 1-2 k views for $1.20 is either poorer pay, or about the same with all the issues of communication and speed between Rumble and YouTube to actually get those ads running again. Now IF, a big if, Rumble had all my content. Too much work for too little gain, plus Rumble and YouTube worked out having the ads on, then I'd really know for sure what it's worth to me for Rumble to have my content copyrighted for me. Plus, holding back half my income through YouTube is probably worth it. Sure, it just paid small bills, but I don't want to risk it all in rumble yet 1, and 2, unpopular videos are just as much work to copyright with Rumble as popular ones. (Even very sparingly viewed videos or at least the videos not in my top 15 are possibly worth 1/3 to 1/2 my YouTube income.)

I'm holding back a video I expect to go viral until I have 1k subs so I can manually go through and turn ads back on for everything. At that point, I'll really see what Rumble is worth. I think how it'll work is when YouTube sees the copyright and I make sure ads are on, the Rumble income will go up. Rumble or YouTube is slow to both recognize the copyright and turn ads on...if they weren't my mil value could be higher than a dollar, but it may be only 50 cents....gain, tough to understand the analytics with years of views being mixed in for the last month. Forgive my long response to your questions, but now I think it will be an article instead. Sorry Lanny, I don't want to be in your spam box, but I'll have to link this article to your video and ask you do the same back. It'll grow us both and give us more traction with search engines.

If you're interested in Rumble, be sure to use my referral Rumble link as Rumble will throw me 5% on top of whatever you make. You get 100% this way and I'd get another 5% out of Rumble's take after that. Good luck and happy video making!

by AutoBravado now on YouTube as DE Nichols!