Q. I see many Tesla vehicles on the road. In the back of many, it states Dual Motor. What does that mean? Are there indeed two motors? I know electric cars are fast, but how fast?
A. Yes, the single motor Tesla is rear wheel drive, the dual motor is all wheel drive, and the high-performance Plaid uses three motors (one front, two rear) for extreme acceleration. The Plaid model claims 0-60 in two seconds and over 1000 horsepower, so very fast.
Q. My 2023 Honda CRV Hybrid Sport continues to drift to the right. Since I last contacted you about it, the following have been done. Multiple tire rotations, wheel alignment done by Honda and the tires are wearing evenly. When I asked service manager at Honda, his response was that all Florida roads have a crown to the right. Well driving from Florida to New York the car still drifted right. The car is still under warranty, any thoughts?
A. The service manager is correct, all roads are crowned to allow water runoff. On your Honda, the front and rear toe-in and front camber are adjustable. What a good alignment tech will do is add a bit more (still keeping within the specification) positive camber to the left front wheel to compensate for the crown in the road. I would ask if that was performed to try to eliminate the drifting. Additionally a good alignment shop will swap the tire left to right. If now the car drive straight or drift left, the issue is a tire problem.
Q. I have a 2018 Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback with only 29,000 miles on it. I purchased the car brand new and have had nothing but emissions issues with check engine light going on. Chevrolet has changed out oxygen sensors on couple of occasions, and spark plugs. The car was fine for some time until about a month ago, when the check engine light came back on. This time I took the car to my mechanic, who cleared the code, the check engine light went away, but he also told me the car will not pass Inspection until you put car through a complete drive cycle. Sure enough it failed Inspection! Both my mechanic and Chevrolet told me due to lack of highway driving; you will continue to have these emissions issues. I drive regularly but only local driving, hence the very low mileage. My question to you is how or what do I have to do to get this car to pass emissions portion of inspection, and what is drive cycle I have to put car through?
A. First off, clearing the code does not fix the problem and does nothing other than temporarily turning off the check engine light. All newer cars that need emissions inspection have monitors that need to be completed before the car can be inspected. When the code was cleared, it also reset the monitors to incomplete. To complete the driving cycle, the fuel tank should be between one quarter and three quarters full. Then start the vehicle from a cold start, let the engine run on idle. Turn the A/C and rear defroster on. The next step is to get on the road and accelerate to 55 mph. Hold a steady speed of 55 mph for three minutes. Next, coast until the vehicle hits 20 mph. Don’t apply brakes to slow down. Then accelerate again to 60 mph. Hold steady for five minutes at 60 mph. Coast to slow down. This is the typical driving cycle that will set the monitors. The important part of all of this is, the this drive cycle should be completed after the repair is performed that caused the check engine light to come on in the first place. Based on what you have told me, that repair has not been completed.
Q. There is a rattling sound for two seconds when I start my car in the morning. During the day there is no rattling. My car is a 2012 Honda CRV. I called the dealer, and I was told it’s common in winter. This noise started recently and was not there in past winters. Any ideas, other that it “is common in winter” and do I need to fix it?
A. Your car’s engine, like many, uses variable valve timing. More than likely the variable valve timing actuator has worn which is fairly common on this Honda engine. This happens when the oil drains from the engine overnight and until the engine builds oil pressure the actuator will cause a rattle. Typical repair costs are $900 to $1500 depending on labor rates. Regarding do you need to fix it, recently I received an email from a reader who mentioned that the VVT actuator in his Honda Accord has been noisy for 100,000 miles. My suggestion is if the noise stats to last minutes rather than seconds, then get it repaired.
Q. My 2014 Honda CRV takes five to six turning the key to get my car to start. I replaced the battery and starter earlier this year because I was having the same problem. The engine does not crank and only clicks. Also the weird thing is once I get it started; it will start up fine again for the rest of the day. Wondering if it is something that I can fix or if its due to the freezing weather?
A. Certainly this is something you can fix. At this point, you need to go over the basics once again. You or a technician should start with testing the battery and then perform a voltage drop test. The voltage drop test will test for poor connections from the battery to the starter. The technician should also perform the same test on the negative side of the battery. Now it is possible that the replacement starter is faulty (not unusual these days with some aftermarket parts). But I would be looking at poor wiring to the starter and ground circuit. The is best done with a voltmeter looking at voltage drop. After the starter and battery failure the most common issue is a battery cable with high resistance due to corrosion.
John Paul is AAA Northeast’s Car Doctor and a nationally recognized expert in automotive technology and repair regularly answering reader questions in columns published across the region. He began his career as an automotive technician and attained ASE master technician certification more than 40 years ago.
Do you have a car question? Email the Car Doctor for a personal reply: jpaul@aaanortheast.com.
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I have a 2018 Hyundai Accent with XM Sirius radio. Last year, my rubber antenna and mount fell off, exposing the plastic antenna parts. I am able to receive FM and Sirius radio but not AM. I was told that the antenna had to be replaced, including removing the inside roof (ceiling) top of the car, so that some cable or connection can be reached. And its about $1500 to replace, because of labor. What gives?