Customer States: It’s doing the same thing! Can’t believe what I found! 

Why does the mechanic always take so long? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-thUIOAa3MWo.html

Back when I was in consumer electronic service, I know that over the years, several times a product came into my shop, the problem was obviously set up, usually by the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, which is a consumer watchdog to see if the repairman is honest. I always documented everything and never did unnecessary repairs. This unplugged sensor could be a test.

That is the classic way to have a customer come back, it’s the trust factor. Good job Ray.

Good to see an honest mechanic. I feel there are many garages and mechanics out there that would have seen the unplugged sensor, plugged it back in and then charged the customer for a new sensor + labour.

It pays to check your work, or check someone else work. I purchased a new clothes dryer for $75.00. A sign on it said, doesn't work, customer returned. Sold as is. When you buy a new dryer they don't come with the electric cord. I noticed that this one had the electric cord, so I looked at the connection in the back. Sure enough it was not wired correctly. When I got it home I reconnected the wires, plugged it in and it worked fine.

I had a code for bad heating on O2 sensors, replaced the sensors, no joy. Replaced the computer (was having other issues, too, so the computer seemed reasonable, plus the case had holes worn through it, so was going to get replaced anyway), still no joy. Finally dug into the wiring diagrams, and found out I was missing a fuse. 😑

I like a lot that even finding the unplug sensor, you go all the way to check the car carefully to be sure there is not any other failure. Top job!

After seeing how hard you fought with the harness I'm betting they thought it was seated and it wasn't and walked itself out.

I’ve had crap like this happen to me (coming in for diagnosis only to find a sensor unplugged or a fuse missing) so many times that I swear sometimes the customers are bugging the cars and trying to test my integrity. In this case, given the location and poor fitment of the connector, I’d guess that the previous mechanic thought it was connected but it wasn’t latched and it unplugged itself.

Your level of knowledge and ability tells me that you have a passion for your job and actively seek out to learn more. Wish i had a mechanic like you around

Reminds me of my 95 Accord AC that wouldn’t get cold and I got a large discount when buying the car because of this. I was checking everything over at home and found it was broken knob! $10 and I was freezing.

Ray, I had a smile for you when you found the unplugged sensor .every once in a while you will have a sweet win like that and it is what makes the job so exciting and interesting. Cheers from Australia, Robert

Think hiring a good mechanic is expensive? Wait till you hire a cheap one.

Hopefully the installer just didn't click it in. It was making contact at first, but vibrated apart. Not everyone is scamming.

Hey don't complain they did all the hard work. I've done stuff like that. Like doing a major repair and forgetting to plug the mass air flow sensor in. Duh. Luckily I figured it out right away.

I bought cheap Chinese O² for my truck. Was replacing them every 6 mos. All they carried, Rymes w Lotto zone. Bought OEM from another Part store. No probs since.

My guess is the sensor was left unplugged on purpose to get money for the same job twice. I have caught people doing similar to me because they didn't think I knew anything about cars or engine management.

It's good to see that the seatbelt warning light works. Glad you were able to work this issue out so easily.

Good job, Ray! Sometimes those weather pak connectors can be a bugger bear to get seated. The weather seal probably pushed the connector apart because it never locked.

Ray, Great job finding unplugged connector! You do an honest work and I admire you. Thank you.

I like to do everything myself and probably take 7-8 times longer than a shop would, but find it fun. Just go to youtube for everything watch the video completely at 2x speed then restart, pause, play and rewind as I do the repair. Then I know where to look WHEN issues occur. A shop you can trust like this one is still useful as there are many times when a garage repair is infeasible, such as safety repairs, or expensive tools.

As hard as Ray said it was to plug in, maybe whoever just got it started and it popped out on the first bump. Nice job Ray!

Ok Ray, my Gearwrench hose clamp pliers came in...I officially agree. They are pretty fancy. Just changed the water pump in a 2008 Exploder. Also doing the radiator...waiting on parts lol. But they definitely are "more better" than using standard pliers

This is why you make a checklist for connections, connectors, hoses/fittings, fluids, belts, nuts/bolts etc when doing a repair. I just keep a notepad on the tool cart and wrote down anything that’ll need double checking before I give her the thumbs up. Seen plenty of vehicle repairs, and other job types, leave egg on the face of the worker because they didn’t double check a transmission line had been torqued, or a connector such as this one was completely clicked in.

I used to do warranty work for an electronics company. We used to get items in where a previous attempt at repair had been undertaken by another agent. We would regularly get items with several faults spread over several modules. Usually this was because they'd bunged all their faulty "donor" modules into one recipient especially for us. So you had to put these faults right before attending to the actual bug 🙄

Hey as it happens to you. They could have gotten pulled away from the vehicle. Side tracked pr whatever came back and didn't plug it into the connector all the way. It could have came out and this you got it. We all are human and have falters. The best mechanics have blown up, fried, or made the most mistakes to learn. Stay safe end be well.

The seatbelt sensor seems to be faulty as well!

When i buy parts for my car i try to find parts that are better then the ones sold at the parts stores...go with the offical part that is for ypur vehicle pay the extra its always worth it in my opinion....

My dumbest oops happened back in 77. I had a 67 Tbird and did a complete tune up then went for the usual test ride. It ran really rough so I started looking things over and just could not find the problem. A friend came over and took under a minute to see that it was running on only four cylinders. I had laid out the plug wires prior to plugging them to the spark plugs and had failed to plug in any of bank one. He will still ask if I'm running on all eight. 😂 Considering that it actually ran pretty good.

Good honest evaluation and a happy customer is a repeating customer! It's a shame a shop might have tried to sabotage that person's 4runner because the customer probably bought it because they're good reliable vehicles. Doesn't matter how reliable your car is, if you take it to a shady mechanic for anything you'll always be taking it back and getting it "repaired".

A hobby mechanic checks everything multiple times and confirmes if it really works. maybe it just wasn't pushed in all the way. That mistake was made in a hurry in a shop. Shit happens.

Reminds me of the time I replaced the alternator on the kids' car. Battery still died. I brought it in to my mechanic and he hooked up the wire that was just dangling there and lo and behold it worked!

I once diagnosed a ‘96 BMW 3-Series with an intermittent crank no start after the owner took it elsewhere for a clutch. The owner and his friend had thrown plugs, coils, a crank sensor, a cam sensor, and several ground straps at it already. Turns out the previous shop failed to fully tighten down the screw-on connector for the ignition coils. $1 to plug in the harness, $109 to know better than to load the parts cannon.

@ 5:11 in data list, you can look at the A/F B1S1 waveform and it will tell you how well the sensor performs once it's in closed loop. If you happen to run into code P0141, which is O2S B1S2 heater circuit malfunction , you can look at the impedance of the sensor and it will tell you how well the sensor performs once it's in closed loop, and if it's resistance doesn't drop below the threshold in the first 90s.

So, the lesson here is that sensors have to be plugged in to work. Who knew? But seriously, another great diagnostic job Ray. You started with the basics and your visual examination of the part in question led you to the problem which you easily fixed. I bet the customer was happy.

I used to have the same attitude during a repair….blame a bad part because it wasn’t OEM or blame the previous mechanic or blame the owner saying “ you get what you pay for”…..now later in life I try my best to never point fingers or “ throw anyone under the bus” and just be thankful it was an easy repair and nothing costly and have satisfaction that the customer is happy with the service.

Purchase an 1993 Taurus wagon. Looked to be in great shape. Started driving it and noticed it was getting great fuel mileage, until one day it started sputtering. Coasted into a fuel station. Yep, out of fuel. Gas gauge not working. Start looking through the wiring diagrams. Was thinking the slosh module was bad. Went to Ford to see if it could be tested. Mechanic looked at me, and said, " pretty good to get that far, however, check fuse #18". Checked the fuse, and it was missing! Previous owner pulled the fuse so the check engine light wouldn't come on. Turned out needing an O2. Ran great after that.

Seeing as when you reconnected the plug it was like a double click to fully seat it home then its possible the person who fitted it originally thought it was connected on the first click. Going by the prices of some OEM parts its understandable why people do go for the cheaper option but as we know , cheaper doesn't always mean better

The guy almost had it, he just didn’t plug the sensor in, he lost credibility over something that simple. That’s a big deal when you make your bread and butter doing repairs. I know for me at least, if I started doing shaky work, word would get around.

I so love when they return the vehicle after you told them what was wrong and they still didn't let you fix it the first time. It's kind of hilarious really. But hey at least she keeps you working

I had O2 sensor codes and stalling. Mechanic changed O2 sensor and it didn't fix it. Continued to drive with stalling at stop lights for another 3 years. Finally loomed around with a friend who thought injectors but turned out to be a 2 inch rubber tube with a hole. It was such a small amount the parts store didn't even charge me.

This is exactly why I work on my own cars.

"As I just verified that they are connected by connecting them" LOL

When Ray impersonates the phone ringing it always cracks me up, love the content Ray keep up the awesome work

The spare tire can lose pressure and trigger the low tire light. Drove me crazy but my tire guy figured it out in 3 seconds.

I had one similar to that not too long ago when they replaced the sensor needlessly it was a blown fuse because they pinched the wires when someone put the transmission back in the car

Hey? I do auto repair on the side but luckily I know what I’m doing. Have been rebuilding motors and fixing vehicles for over 30 years. Not all shade tree mechanics are bad. The mechanics at my work pay me to work on there personal vehicles

Friend of mine, many years ago, had a full new exhaust system fitted to his car. I had to point out that there was a strange puttering noise from the engine, which he hadn’t noticed. Had a look at the engine and we found that the exhaust manifold wasn’t bolted to the block properly. It had nearly a quarter inch gap all around! His next visit to that garage to get it sorted was his last visit!

That’s a kickin’ jam you gots going on in the background for the “not plugged in” reveal.

Yes Ray, your content is always moderately entertaining 👏.

Well, that would cause an open circuit and make the check engine light illuminate.

I sure do wish we had a mechanic around here like you but are you are a dying breed of mechanic

Before you showed the engine I was thinking it was a 4.7 and was yelling out "it needs exhaust manifolds!" they always leak right out of the head and trigger cat and 02 codes. Then you opened the hood and I saw the 4.0...then I shut up. 🙊 Nice video

In defense of whoever left that sensor disconnected, some of those are extremely hard to access. My car has similar 4 sensor setup... Three of which are relatively easy to install and connect. The fourth, however, is another story. While the sensor itself is easily accessed to replace, the connecting socket is nearly unreachable on top of the transmission bell housing. Disconnecting is difficult, reconnectiing is even worse... It all has to be done single-handedly, there's little room even to wiggle one's fingers let alone for any tools, usually means bleeding knuckles and always involves a lot of loud swearing at whoever laid out the damned wiring harness! It's scary how much those Toyota sensors cost! OEM for mine are pricey too... Though nowhere near that much! OEM for my car are Bosch: $130 ea. Quality aftermarket from NTK (same company as NGK spark plugs) can be found for $63 ea.! Plus, rumor has it that NTK now actually makes the Bosch sensors! Some sellers even list the NTK as OEM parts.

The previous grease monkey thought it was on of those new fangled wifi sensors and the wire coming off the sensor was the antenna.

If the Highlanders are anything like my 4Runner, the Check Engine light automatically disables Traction Control and ABS. And at 5:44 you state the same thing. I spent HOURS digging into the Traction Control and ABS systems before I discovered I had a stored code in the ECM and a burned-out Check Engine bulb. My favorite O2 sensor story... I was buying my '99 Camry a little over 4 years ago. Seller fancied himself a mechanic, but was selling the car less than six months after buying it from the original owner (he reused the original owner's photos in the Craigslist ad, I actually remember seeing the original ad and thinking "someone's gonna get a nice car for a good price"). I gave the car a critical once-over before going for a quick test drive. As we were returning from the test drive, he stated the Check Engine light was on for the downstream O2 sensor. "I replaced it once already, they're cheap, like $25 or so, but the light came back on." "Let me guess: you bought a Bosch sensor?" It's the one commonly sold by Deadpants Auto and BoneZone... "Yeah, how'd you guess?" "Toyotas don't like Bosch sensors." He dropped the price $250 after that. I was fully willing to pay the $1,000 asking price without even haggling, but he talked himself down to $750. lol I ordered a Nippon sensor, it's lasted 101k miles so far, and my Camry with non-California emissions could pass California Smog Tests with flying colors.

Had this issue. Ended up replacing the o2 sensors first, then tried some seafoam which was a second suggestion to try and deal with the issue and eventually had to give in and replace the catalytic converter. Can't complain too much as the car has 235K miles on it and other than needing to get the motor mounts changed soon has no noticeable issues.

Wonder how many thousands of dollars of unneeded parts have been installed based on AZ parking lot diag?

I have a friend that built a custom '52 Chevy to compete in the Cavacade of Customs. After the show, I never saw him driving the car and soon traded it. The new owner wanted to swap the '52 Chevy for my Gasser. I called my friend to ask if there were any issues with the '52? He said it ran hot on the freeway and the oil pressure gauge never worked. Both owners ran mechanic shops. I made the trade and found the oil pressure gauge wasn't hooked up. The over heating was a distributor stuck on full retard. 2 mechanics couldn't diagnose what was wrong. Me? I'm just a shade tree mechanic who only works on my own classics. The Gasser I bought from a friend who owns a Hot Rod Shop. He claims it didn't over heat but it did. I discovered there was no thermostat and the vacuum advance wasn't hooked up. I fixed it and the temp came right down. When I told him, he said, "I never drove he car in traffic and I never use the vacuum advance or run a thermostat".

I've had two similar issues in the past. One mechanic didn't put the hose back on the air intake, which slowed down warm up time. The worst was when I got hellacious interference on my radio after a service. Took it back, no change, so they suggested new leads. Before that happened I took a look under the hood. Turned out the problem was the same as here - not one of the HT leads was actually pushed on to the plug, just dropped into the hole in the engine block. The spark was jumping the gap causing the interference. Needless to say I have warned everyone not to use them. Next time he might forget to tighten wheel nuts, or replace brake discs.

Great video. Similar happened to me with fuel injectors. Had just had new converters, rear main seal, and valve gaskets done. Ordered new injectors just to find out one wasn’t plugged in. 🤷‍♀️

Man,lemme tell you. My 2013 Velo had an intermittent check engine light that I could never figure out. The car wasn't acting funny(beyond the occasional black cloud from carbon getting ejected,apparently it's a thing in direct injection motors). I took it to a local dealership because they had the best prices for labor+parts. Well,they couldn't figure it out either. They pulled the O2 sensors and they were fine,the car was running fine. But it kept throwing intermittent check engine codes for them even after they reset it. They started exploring the engine bay and found a piece of the previous engines piston lodged in a nook of the engine bay. So they suspected then that it might have been the catalytic converter. Their reasoning was 'well it's clear the engine was replaced, if they didn't replace the cat, and the cat got contaminated, it could've failed, and that's what's throwing the codes'. So they sent a snake cam up the back of the converter. They didn't have to look far,since when they unhooked the downpipe from the converter the guts fell out onto the floor. Got a replacement cat,and a new sensor,and I was all clear,I haven't had a CEL ever since.

That Yota will outlast the next Armageddon. I miss my 2007 4runner .

You talked about getting stuff on the cheap, I work with a guy that does auto work on the side and he explained to me that when you get work done, there are three qualities of auto work possible, speed, quality, and price. You can never get all three so pick which two you want.

I recently replaced my o2 sensors. Because of your videos, I knew what to look for with my scan tool. :) I learned another couple lessons on my own, however. One... getting an old sensor out can be a PAIN in the ass. Two... use an OEM sensor if possible. My Chrysler did not like the aftermarket Bosch one's I put in. Returned them and put in Mopar one's and she was happy once again! Thanks for all your videos Ray!

Curious on the charge? What did you charge the customer to plug it in & fix the issue?

auto parts stores commit criminal activity by advising people what a code means without knowledge about diagnostics.

So great to hear your expanding I knew you could do it!

Gotta plug your sensors in Lol traction control and abs lights even set on 2nd and 3rd gen 4runners as well when CEL comes on @Rainman Ray's Repairs

Ray, I can't help but notice that in every video where you go out on the road for a test drive of the customers vehicle the "Seat Belt Light" is always flashing? And not to bust your nad's, but the fine in Sarasota County for a Seat Belt violation is $116.00. Not sure about whether or not there might be additional fines/fees, like "Court Cost" or not? And not sure if it'd make any difference if you're nailed driving a customers vehicle while test driving it or not either? But my point is, sooner or later if you continue to not buckle-up you're going to get nailed for this infraction! And I don't know about you, but $116.00 seat belt fine would not make my day, lol. Buckle-up, and save a mechanic! And some $$$$ too! :-)

So little honest mechanics out there. Well done, keep up the good work!

I used the light bulb #194 and make one test light to test the AF sensor b1s1 heater circuit. You may get the 12 at the engine wiring cornecter but the ground control wire from ECU may not pulsing to ground.

I always look after checking the codes to see if whatever popped up is unplugged nice job

Educational for me. Almost 40 yrs as a heavy, but what I know about Toyotas you could print on a 3x5 index card.

i remember that my parents brought their car in to do some work where the cooling fan had to be disconnected and after we got stuck in traffic the overheating meter went up and we thought it was something serious wrong, so we called a road mechanic service and he found at the gasstation that the cooling fan was not plugged in after repair works where done before we went to vacation

Thnx for linking to the fix … def addicted to your videos

That was a super fun video to watch and to see how some people rush threw things. it amazes me as to what i find when buying/selling vehicles and the lack of care and observation that people just dont have. Great Job man. Have a great day!

Brothers neighbours cousins friend, im that guy! Well i was. Backyard mechanihack for a lot of years. Made my way up to certified automotive technician. Loose connectors are commonplace, especially with one local body shop. Some are stubborn, and silicone Spray helps.sticky o ring seals

If every mechanic was half as honest as you the world would be a better place. Keep up the great work. Remember, if the women don't find you handsome, they better fnd you handy. Cheers from Canada eh!! 🇨🇦

Loved the video. Had a 06 Lancer that kept burning out 02 sensors. Spent a grip on them and the problem persisted. Even had the cat replaced. All money down the drain when i got rear-ended. Never did figure out why those codes kept coming back. I hate 02 sensors

I love it when a plan comes together. Gotta love the easy ones. 😊

Good Job, I like to put Toyotas into Check Mode, this will run the monitors in 1 trip and set codes if to still has a fault.

it's funny - last week I had the exhaust pipe exchanged. Since then a check-engine light was constantly on. I didn't want to go the workshop where the job was done as I thought it might be only coincidence - because what can be the correllation between the exhaust and and the check-engine light. Wait a seconf... O2 sensor.... so I crawled underneath the car - and yes - there it was - it was NOT connected. After I plugged it in properly the check-engine light disappeared, mystery solved :)

Had a similar experience at a local shop. They did the MAF, throttle body clean, and plugs. Picked it up parked in the street and the heck engine light was lit, and not runnin' rite, pulled it back in, and one of the techs plugged in his diagnostic, and after poking around a bit, found a plug wire unattached.

I bought a car for $500. It had a new clutch put in, but only had R-2-4. One of the shift cables wasn't properly attached to it's anchor point under the console.

Commenting for Lil Suzy playing in the background, “Take Me In Your Arms”. Flashback to high school.

I had a 2007 4runner that i just sold . A year ago, those same warning lights came on. The issue was the gas cap needed replacing.

Deferred maintenance 🧑‍🔧 we all do it. I just realized they have an emoji for that

Not all shops would have been as honest as you were. Good on ya!!!

Some of these o2 sensors have weak plugs. It seems to click and go in nicely, but in fact there's no contact because the pins retreated back inside the plug. So it pays to take a moment and check the pins before installing the sensor. If they push back real easy, I've dropped some superglue in to help hold them in place

Wow, that song at the sensor connector is like 15 years old and the singer used to live in Florida..

YEARS back, I had a 93 Dakota. The a.c. would blow hot/cold/hot/cold. Took it in to a local chain shop, they said my compressor was shot, 800 to fix. I declined. Few months later I found a single shop mechanic/owner. Told him the a.c. prob, did not say anything about the other shop. He called me in a few min later, showed me the problem...a cable was not connected. He reconnected it, ice cold a.c., did not charge me anything. 20 years later, he is still my mechanic.

Wish I could find a mechanic that documented the repair process where I live. I would b able to trust them in that case🍻 keep being an honest mechanic🎉

@3:33 - spotted bottom left pin bent over. Tough for them to click in like that! :D

Nice job and way to give the customer an honest result!

Toyota lights ... my wife's 2011 Corolla broke its ABS module. Check engine light, brake lights, ABS light and electric steering lights all on + tach going up and down like crazy.

Many years ago a main dealer replaced a clutch on my Ford. When I got home I took a look under the bonnet. Immediately I could see some bell housing bolts were not tightened. Some were finger tight. I tightened them all up and went back to the main dealer. The manager was not very interested as he had my money! Several months later the gear change became very stiff. Upon checking, there was no oil in the gearbox! The main dealer had failed to fill it after draining it to remove the gear box. Main dealers are not to be trusted.

You doing that for them and being honest just earned you a new customer . Those people will trust your shop to be honest

Thanks for all your explanations

My wife was in a fender bendner. After picking up the vehicle from the body shop she started overheating. I drove to her with a jug of antifreeze, and found they forgot to plug the fan back in....