It has been cold outside and has had lingering snow on the ground for a few days out. It has been slick enough and enough for my Friend who has a Mustang, not want to drive to school today. No big deal, i picked him up and there were no issues.

My truck has a bad ujoint up front on the drivers side hub. So I have been using 2x4 and nothing else. I get around just fine, but the rear end also slides around a little bit, nothing huge and nothing unsafe. I have been driving like this for a few days, never had needed the 4x4 and will fix the truck once it gets warmer.

My truck has an EBPV on it, and will actuate when it is cold out and the Engine oil is not up to temp. And when the EBPV actuates when driving on a COLD engine it will cause the truck to stall. When it starts closing and I am driving, I will give it more throttle til the EBPV goes away.


So after classes today, I went to my truck and started it. It started right up, but then Nick, my friend with the Mustang who did not drive today, realized he forgot his phone in our Calculus Classroom. Our calculus classroom is in temporary style buildings out in the maintenance and the teacher parking lot. So I figured while the truck warms up I will just drive him over there and wait for him while he gets his phone. It will kill two birds with one stone. So I start heading that way, and the EBPV closes. i give it a little throttle and the tail end kicks out a bit. No big deal, I recover. It did this maybe 3 times to the first stop sign. At the stop sign I needed to turn right, I made a complete stop, signaled and everything. Start turning and taking off as i let the clutch out the truck EBPV closes so I give it some more throttle. the rear end slides out a bit. This one takes longer to recover, which is no big deal. it does it one more time, and recovered. Its like nothing happened.

Remember since my truck still is not warm, and it has been like 5 degrees all week, the truck is still blown white smoke.

So I pull into the lot i needed to get to, and I see Campus Police in my mirror and then the lights turn on. Im already at a stop, so i just sit there. The officer comes up the window, and says" License, Insurance, Registration" and I said, "Whats the problem officer" Immediately he says, "Are you ####ing serious" (yes the F word) to which I answered "Yes" He then explained to me that my tires were spinning on SNOW AND ICE... i agreed and tried to explain to him why, and that my 4x4 was broken. And he said, I have a rear wheel drive squad car, i don't have that issue, and to which I said which also has weight in the back, unlike my truck that has NO weight in the back of it, and also sits on a wider tire so the weight is distributed across more tire. That in effect creates less traction.

He went back to the car, after Nick asked if he could go get his phone while he was in the squad car.

Came back and was a total Arsehole. He gave me my license, registration, and insurance back, and as I was putting them away, he said in a very nasty tone, "SIGN THIS". So I sign it and everything, just like normal, but told him this is bull####, tried to explain to him again why the truck does this, and all he said was "Tell the judge, I don't care. The way I see it was you were endangering pedestrians"

Which would have been true, if I was doing it on purpose, and if there were people around... but look its 2 degrees outside, nobody out there... i see one person in the pictures I took...

So immediately took pictures of where he followed me. These are them



This is the stop sign that I turned at, I would be turning to the pictures left, or to the right from the other side of the picture






These two are just randoms of the "area"





Nick will go to court with me, I got pictures, I have proof that that is how the trucks EBPVs work. Do you think this will stand up in court, or be immediately dropped? Especially since the officer used language like that, too bad I didn't get it on tape.

 

I would push the officer swearing at you, and the fact it was the F-word. Imediatly following how offensive and illegal it is to use the F-word in public, and as an officer of teh law he should know that.

Then after that I would explain to them that it was really slippery out and you were not trying to do that.

Cops have no beef saying "oh my car doesn't do that"
Because they have special siped tires that get way more traction on ice then we will ever get.

Make sure you tell this to the prosecutor or judge, sometimes you go to court and get to talk to the officer first.
Then I would start with part 2, then you will go talk to judge/magistrate, and then explain it all to her, and tell her/him you had a witness. yada yada, and he was also offended by the f-word from the officer.

Really on top of that.
It is private property and they cant' do anything, but someplaces they can, its really dumb.

As well.

Suit and Tie for both of you.
DO NOT GO IN STREET CLOTHES!!!!!!

My god i cannot stress that enough.

 

I would start off not mentioning the truck issues. Just state it to the prosecutor first and then the judge:

Stick shift empty 2 wheel drive truck on ice. Yep, it's going to spin out when you go.

BTW, if you ever run into a foul mouthed officer again, get the recorder on your cell phone going. Reporters love showing this type of tape.

 

Yeah, i thought about that afterwards....


The truck is a 4x4 though, but in essence a 2x4 right now... I guess I will just have to do my best about the court time.... I even had a suit hanging in the truck today....

 

yea,
dont bother nothing in the truck
if its 2x4 or 4x4
stickshift.
whatever
they don't care.

Just tell them it was really slippery out and you have a rear wheel drive truck and were trying your hardest to drive safely.

 

forget, the truck issues, go in with the pictures of a completly ice covered parking lot and a stick shift truck, you will get probation or the charges thrown out. dont argue with the judge, simply tell him that yes, your truck's tires were spinning, no contest but that you dont know how to not have this happen on ice.

as for the ebp valve, just unplug it if it is giving you problems

 

I get a CEL when I unplug my EBPV.... I need to know the amperage the solenoid takes to put a 12 ohm resistor in there that is the correct wattage. So I need to know the voltage(amperage draw).... which 15 for voltage would be safe,, but i need to konw if the 1 Watt resistor I have now will be enough to not burn things up.



And yes the parking lot is basically ice which is another approach to the issue.

Thanks guys.

 

weird, a cel? is your truck 49 state or california? i havnt run into that problem before. you might try unplugging the iat sensor that used to reside in your stock airbox, that shouldnt throw a light and should disable it as well

 

its a wonderful Cali truck... get s P0475 when the EBPV is unplugged...

with out the IAT, what else will that effect?

 

Man i gotta tell ya, i cannot stand the police in my town. I own a an inland marina, and i told the local police if they wanted to they could sit in my front yard and do radar checks. We could both benefit from it, he can write tickets and he can watch my property (people have been stealing props off customers boats). Well about two weeks go buy and i have these muddy tracks all over my driveway. Turns out the cops been sitting on the grass behind one of my big rigs to hide from traffic. In turn flipping the blues on and doing holeshots off my lawn!!! Now my lawn is totally ruined..Called the station and what would ya know, the cop was rude to me and stated that one of his men would know better than to do that..HA!

 

See I dont hate police at all... its just when its a profiling (happened alot in the Mustang) or a unjustified ticket, thats when I get angry... I have nothing against police, and actually have alot of respect for them... they give up a lot to keep me safe, just like all service men and women do.

 

the iat is only used for the ebpvalve, cali trucks suck...lol, it may not set a light or it may.

 

i will find out tomorrow...

 

Good thinking on the pics, fight it, drag his butt into court. Guy probably didn't get any the night before...

 

Matt, I am sorry that you had to endure a jerk like that. I would follow everyone's advice and make sure you sound like an adult. No slang and lots of respect.