a_small_car_with_a_not_so_small_problem_car_wizard_reviews_a_2013_smart_fourtwo¶

3 excerpts.

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youtube.com/car_wizard/a_small_car_with_a_not_so_small_problem_car_wizard_reviews_a_2013_smart_fourtwo · p. 1 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

this car is really cool it's really small it's kind of weird i've seen these a lot on the road and you guys have seen them a lot on the road as well but neither of us has probably seen one on a lift and really got deep into one of these let's take a look at this really weird looking car [Music] so this is a 2013 smart car for two passion that's the trim level that it has a passion i've seen these on the road like i said and they look really small but when you actually get it in the shop and look at it man this thing is really tiny it's really odd we're going to take a look around it take a look inside of it talk about why it's here first of all let's play where's the engine gang it's just a piece of plastic mrs wizard it doesn't come off or doesn't i guess we can take a peek in here i see radiator reservoir the windshield washer reservoir hvac box and brake master cylinder there's no engine in there though well let's keep searching well let's go pop the trunk let's see what we got in here there it is little tiny engine sitting in the back you would say it's under the back seat but there is no back seat this is a really really small engine it is a one liter three cylinder as you can see it's a 2013 1.0 which is the one leader here's the little bitty dipstick there's a little bitty alternator one little belt got three intake runners and 70 horsepower that's all this little guy has but i don't think that's too bad for such a small car 70 horsepower is pretty decent so it's a little dirty it's it's been on the road the customer's been driving it around so you can see it's a little dirty but we'll take a look around it which won't take very long probably about six steps and we'll be around the whole thing there's the front it looks like a bug you think it looks like a bug mrs wizard it's definitely a cute little thing i'd be concerned about getting into a wreck if it were to smash and could hurt you i don't know maybe they're pretty safe i don't know much about them but i know these are made by mercedes-benz and there's an interesting story about that here when we get to the why it's here question i know that our daughter said she wouldn't drive it because she's seen the internet where semis have hit these and they've gone flying like little hockey pucks yeah that's not good it has three lug nuts one two three it's the only car i've ever seen where it has three i've seen four which i thought was kind of cool but three is kind of weird it has little ventilation holes here and at first i thought maybe there's a missing piece there or there's holes there but they're supposed to be there this ventilation for the engine fresh air kind of kind of chintzy but i guess it's what it is it's a small little cheap car economy car maybe i could race around it real quick mrs wizard you can count how many seconds sure ready four seconds a four second left that's pretty good for you yeah what a tiny tiny little car it's a clean little car like i said it's been used it's been on the highway and the lady uses it for work so it's a little bit dirty inside but it's to be expected it's a work car i think if you got five people here you could all hold hands and reach around the whole car what do you think mrs wizard probably i don't think i want to try it though let's take a look at the interior and then we'll start talking about why it's here and then we'll get it on the lift and take a look it's got some really strange doors they're really really long for such a small car it's almost the whole length of the car there's the dash fill the dash missus wizard it's like cloth oh it is really strange it's in pretty good shape there's the glove box this is cloth as well it's got a bunch of little buttons and heated seats and a tiny little shifter down there above you there's a really big panoramic sunroof this is kind of cool and then you look to the back there's the back window literally right there there's your back

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youtube.com/car_wizard/a_small_car_with_a_not_so_small_problem_car_wizard_reviews_a_2013_smart_fourtwo · p. 2 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

window kind of kind of weird this whole car is kind of weird it's not a bad car it's not something wrong with it it's just it would take a lot of getting used to in america we're not used to turning around to and look and see there's the back window right there in your face it's kind of kind of strange when you look out ahead of you you don't even see the hood it's just a drop off but all in all it's in pretty good shape let's go ahead and talk about why it's here so it came in here the customer says while she's been driving it she hears like a whirring sound or something similar to a hairdryer going like different weird noises and things and we got it in magic mike hooked it up and got the scan tool hooked up and we found some transmission codes there were no engine codes there was no other codes but in the engine it had transmission rpm sensor l2 component failure so we checked it out and that sensor has actually failed it's actually not hard to get to it's right on the bottom but when that goes bad that causes these noises the transmission in here is an automatic but it's an automated manual it's not an automatic like you would think with a torque converter and red transmission fluid and it's not like that it's still a stick shift it will be very similar to an e-gear on a lamborghini or an f-1 transmission on a ferrari it's an automated manual it's all it is it has electronics and basically robotics to operate the clutch for you it also shifts the gears for you so when you put this thing in the drive you feel like it's an automatic but it doesn't go anywhere until you start hitting the gas and then it engages the clutch and then you go one thing that was really weird when i first got into this car is if you put your foot on the brake and go to start it like you would most cars it will not start it will do nothing in this particular car you don't dare touch the brake you just sit down and you turn the key and start it and it starts right up they don't want you pushing the brake it's really weird but like i said it's an automated manual so the noise that she was hearing was the clutch servo trying to engage it's trying to figure out what's going on it's not happy with the sensor reading it's getting and so it's making all these weird noises which is the common noise you hear when this fault happens so now car wizard are you having any trouble getting this apart because we don't sell smart cars in america anymore right that was an issue i ran into i used world pack fcp euro different companies to get parts for these european cars and for that sensor actually many other parts on this car there are none i said okay okay i'll call a smart car dealership there are none they don't sell these cars in america anymore you're not going to call the smart car dealer it doesn't exist since this being a mercedes-benz vehicle we contacted the wichita mercedes-benz dealer and they said no we're not going to be able to help you we don't deal with that but if you call to tulsa the mercedes-benz dealer there might be able to get you the hookup to get the smart car parts overseas and then over to you at your shop and that's what we had to do we called mercedes-benz of tulsa they were able to get the part and it's going to take them several days to get it and it's going to take several days for us to get it probably two or three days so that's kind of inconvenient if you own one of these cars you're not going to go to autozone and get parts for it in fact most shops will have difficulty getting parts for it it's just kind of a kind of a sad scenario there we did find the part we're still waiting on it you can drive this car it drives okay but you don't want to go on the highway with it but that's where we're at with this thing it seems odd that they put that kind of a transmission in their wizard why didn't they put a cvg in it like a lot of other small cars i think it's just such a small engine that it doesn't have a whole lot of power you don't want to waste what little power you have going through fluids and belts and things it's easiest just to use a manual i think you can get these in a manual or the automated manual it just it makes sense to do it that way so let's go ahead and get this thing on the lift it's quite comical to put this thing on the lift so let you guys enjoy the [Music] comedy [Music] so definitely not a very heavy car to push i could just push it with one hand easily let's see if we can get this thing lifted up in the air this is a short little car

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/car_wizard/a_small_car_with_a_not_so_small_problem_car_wizard_reviews_a_2013_smart_fourtwo · p. 3 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

[Music] [Music] well we don't need to look for the engine right here because it's not here in the back well we can see right off that piece of this uh under shielding has been broken off and missing this shouldn't be open but while it's there we'll take a look at the radiator and the condenser very very small little units there there's the steering rack nothing leaking from any of those we'll take a look at the brakes looks good nothing loose sway bar link is good nothing loose there sway bar link is good there brakes are good it's almost like a spare tire tiny it's about the size of a donut and two steps to the back and we're at the engine there's nothing but a bunch of shielding there so here's our oil pan for the engine it's kind of a weird slanted oil pan and here's our transmission here's the clutch actuator and this is the thing making all those weird noises pushing the clutch in and out here and our sensor that has gone bad is right here two green wires right there there's our little transmission rpm l2 sensor it is bad it measures the ohms are bad on it so we got one of those ordered that'll take care of all the weird noises and the weird shifting as we can see look at this little oil filter mrs wizard it's like the size of a plum wow little baby tiny little thing look at this long cv shaft it goes all the way over to there it's got little bitty drum breaks in the back nothing loose there nothing loose there look at this coil springs it's like little baby springs what a strange little car here's our muffler tiny little downspout there's our serpentine belts there's two of them little bitty belts they look good very strange arrangement otherwise i don't see any leaks or any other issues going on as soon as we get our sensor replaced and this car will be back on the road and a happy camper again [Music] so thanks for following along on the little smart car it's not here for any major surgery or any huge job just a quick little sensor and then be back on the road and but i definitely want to do a video for you guys to check this thing out to see the underneath how this thing is set up it's a really strange car but it's a good car i imagine in a large city this would be wonderful to zip around town and get good fuel mileage and i don't know if i would own one would you own one mrs wizard i like there'd be a little more area between the front of the car and me i mean yeah it is there's not much room in case you get into an accident but for what it is it's a good little car and i'm glad you guys could check it out with us today if you're curious what kind of tools we use in the shop check the amazon affiliates link in the description below we get a small cut and i really appreciate that and if you haven't hit the subscribe button already i really recommend you do that now we got many more cool projects in the wing you just seen the one on the malibu the engine's on its way guys thanks for [Music] watching