u/jpack2010

My house is older, and every summer the cooling feels pretty uneven. I know some difference between the upstairs and basement is normal, but this year it feels more noticeable than I’d expect. The thermostat can be set around 72°F, but the upstairs still feels much warmer while the basement stays noticeably cooler.

A neighbor suggested checking the temperature differences instead of just guessing, so I used a tc004 Mini to look around the vents, window edges, exterior wall corners, and the basement slab area. The vent was blowing cool air, but the upstairs window edge and one wall corner showed much warmer spots. The basement stayed cool around the slab edge too, which probably adds to the big temperature difference.

For anyone with an older house, where would you check first? Attic insulation, window sealing, duct balance, return airflow, or airflow between floors?

Had a 2015 Ford Fusion SE 2.5L with around 132k miles come into the shop for basic fluid-related work and a general check. Nothing too dramatic when it rolled in, just one of those older daily drivers that’s still running but clearly hasn’t had the cleanest maintenance history.

The photo pretty much sums up the job: hood up, intake side being checked, a few service lines and tools set up around the bay, and what started as a fairly routine maintenance visit before we decided to do a quick scan.

Customer originally mentioned it felt a little rough at idle sometimes, but no major warning lights were on. Before digging too far into mechanical stuff, I hooked up the ad600S for a quick scan of the core systems. It’s not a full shop tablet, but for pulling a first read from the main modules, it was enough for a starting point.

Ended up finding a stored P0171 lean code and a pending P0302 misfire, which made more sense once we looked around the intake side and vacuum lines. Nothing crazy, but definitely better than just throwing plugs or coils at it right away.

Not the wildest car in the shop, but a good reminder that even on basic fluid jobs, a quick scan can point you in the right direction before you start guessing.

Do you guys usually scan cars during routine maintenance, or only when there’s a light on?