Hear a tick, lose oil pressure, catch a whiff of burning oil. That’s how this one starts. GM’s 1.2L Ecotec LIH powers budget crossovers like the Trax, Envista, and Encore GX. It’s a compact turbo three-cylinder built for mileage and torque in city traffic. But under that fuel-sipping badge sits a belt bathed in oil, … Read more
Tick. Stall. Misfire. The 5.7 Hemi shows its cracks out loud, no warning light, no mercy. Cam lobes grind flat, lifters seize, and oil pressure falls off while the engine pretends it’s fine. The block can take a beating. The top end can’t. Weak MDS lifters, shallow oiling angles, and heat cycles wear it down, … Read more
Crank, stumble, stall; then that raw gas smell creeps out from under the hood. That’s the 4.3 Vortec when something’s off. It might idle rough, misfire cold, or flood itself into a no-start. The cause? Usually a known weak link, spider injection, Dex-Cool gaskets, a cooked distributor, or carboned-up AFM lifters. This guide breaks it … Read more
Slams into Neutral. Dash lights up: “Transmission Fault – Service Now.” Ten minutes later, it shifts like nothing’s wrong. That glitch kicks off the chase. Owners dig through forums, hunt for recalls, and get told it’s normal, until it stalls again in traffic. This guide breaks it down: why the DPS6 TCM fails, what 14M02 … Read more
Shut the engine off. Grab the handle. “Shift to Park” flashes. Again. The dash won’t let go. That warning stems from a flawed Park-confirmation circuit buried in GM’s electronic shifter design. The lever reaches Park, but the signal never makes it to the BCM. Doors stay unlocked. Accessories drain the battery. Shifting again, cycling power, … Read more
Smell coolant through the vents. Temp needle jumps. The F-150’s biggest recall year starts making sense. Ford’s cooling system failures aren’t slow drips; they’re design flaws, press-fit errors, and routing blunders that trigger stalls, fires, or engine death. Some start as a chalky ring under a hose. Others blow out under pressure, draining coolant or … Read more
Stalls. Jerks. No-starts. One cracked module behind the rear axle can take down the entire fuel system. General Motors planted the Fuel Pump Control Module (FPCM), also called the Fuel System Control Module (FSCM), on frame rails across hundreds of thousands of trucks and SUVs. It was meant to pulse fuel with precision. Instead, it … Read more
Drop into neutral at 80,000 lbs and the shoulder better be empty. That’s what the DT12 does when the split pin sticks, the air tank dips, or the clutch won’t release. One blink, and you’re coasting with “NO GEAR” flashing across the dash. The Detroit DT12 was built to squeeze fuel, not to forgive abuse. … Read more
Crank the temp dial to LO. Nothing changes. Heat pours in, windows fog, and the vents wheeze dry. Jeep calls some of these faults safety defects, others “customer satisfaction.” Some never got a campaign at all. What looks like a blown blower motor or a leaky evaporator might trace back to a software bug, or … Read more
Brake pedal locks up. Cam codes flood the dash. Engine cranks forever, then dies. That’s the 2.5-liter Ecotec at failure. Vacuum pump seizes, twists the cam, and the whole top end goes out. Some fail without warning. Others lose oil for months until the chain skips and the head’s toast. This guide tears through the … Read more