so the other day, I was showing a collegue my truck and he said he thought it was running rich. not wanting to demonstrate my lack of knowledge, I simply said "I'll take a look at it this weekend." Now I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for to find out if it is running rich. any ideas?

thanks folks.

 

what would make him think it was running rich?

 

haha. I have no idea.

 

Sounds like a "know-it-all" trying to pretend he knows more than you about vehicles? Tell him the days of adjusting points (for timimg) and carburator jets for fuel mixture are long gone. The computer controls all of that. If your truck was running rich (or lean) it would throw a code. Do you have any driveability issues?

 

Tell him you just had to tweak the flux capacitor. He was probably talking out his butt unless you had literally just started the truck after it cooled for hours. Mine will run rich for 10 seconds when I first start it but it goes away almost immediately, and I only noticed it starting the truck in an enclosed area.

 

well it sounds like he was just trying to show me up. (not hard to do). I appreciate the input guys. Thanks for the help.

 

we got your back..

 

Maybe he smelled fuel when you were getting on the gas. That is one way to diagnose a car that is running rich.

 

True, but it would set a CEL if it were a continuous problem, the O2 sensors would catch a rich condition. Now, if you had just started it and he caught a whiff of fresh start-up exhaust rich in fuel because it's supposed to be, he might have smelled fuel, but it would have quickly gone away. At any rate, I would not worry about it unless you have a check engine light on or are experiencing some issues. i.e. I would not be going and paying someone to have it checked.

 

Kent's on to it.

Unless he's looking at your tailpipe and seeing a bit of black exhaust residue, in that case, its normal if you drive it like you stole it!