problem is about to be solved.  The secret I am about to reveal to you is unknown to just about everyone, even in the auto repair world, and makes no sense, but it works!  You do indeed have air trapped in your hydraulic system and just driving around doesn't purge it. You have to take the weight of the vehicle off the wheels.  Now, take the vehicle back to your mechanic and ask him to raise the front wheels off the

fuel pump my car continues to run absolutely terrible and to top it all off now the "cruise" light on the dashboard is flashing while I am driving.  It's to the point that I don't know what else to do but junk it.  Any ideas?

Signed,
Getting Out of Dodge

Dear Getting Out:

    Ideas about junkyards?  Yes, there are several good ones in your area...  Oh, you meant ideas about fixing your car.  OK, here's one.  Well, actually, you gave it away when you asked the question. You see, the camshaft and crankshaft position signals to the computer have to be synchronized in order for the computer to figure out when to open the fuel injectors and also when to fire the spark plugs.  If these signals become UN-synchronized it drives the computer crazy and the car runs poorly.  In most modern engines this happens when the timing belt jumps, but your engine has a timing chain which hardly ever wears out.  Your engine uses the flywheel for the crank position information which works well until it cracks and then slips and retards the crank position signal.  The fix will be to replace the old flywheel with a brand new one.  Oh, I mentioned that you gave the answer away in your question.  How?  Chrysler engineers decided, in their wisdom, to have the computer flash the "Cruise" light whenever the cam and crank signals aren't synchronized.  How nice!

JB Griffin is an ASE Certified Master Technician.  He owns and  operates JB's Japanese and American Auto Repair in Evensville, Tennessee.  You may e-mail your car questions to jeepster1515@yahoo.com (mailto:Jeepster1515@yahoo.com). Be sure  to watch him on WDEF News Channel 12 each Thursday morning at 7:30 AM.  You  can have your questions answered live!  Listen to The Saturday Morning  Garage on Saturday mornings from 7-9 on WGOW 102.3 FM where you will have the  opportunity to have more of your questions answered by JB, Steve Ray and Don Britton.
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