Ron starts this episode talking about changes to the car doctor website to help listeners learn more and get more information to solve their problems. He also talks about the next generation of auto technicians; how they can get started in the business and what they should do to stay in it long term. The phone calls start this episode with a return caller and his 18 Hyundai Tuscon that is burning oil. He talks about used car prices and discusses some of the options from Auto Trader. ( www.autotrader.com ) . He takes a call on a 13 Malibu where the radio just stays on. And then, mid show, the father who has the automotive technician daughter Ron talked about earlier calls in to thank Ron for his help years ago on an almost impossible to fix post office vehicle. HIs last call of the hour is from a listener with a 13 Grand Caravan that was making engine noise, the lifters and rocker arms were replaced along with other parts….now the rear defroster comes on when the door is opened. It seems every time it goes back to the dealership the problems increase with no end in sight.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ron An Aian, We're putting thousands of dollars worth of
work breaks, mostly into a car that won't go more
than forty miles an hour. And I keep thinking about
this to the irony of all this, but I'm slowly
talking to the owner in I said, let's let's let's
get a Porsche engine for it, so we can, you know,
maybe make it go a little faster.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Shoot it for now, now, the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The can censor the crank penor the oil fenor and
all to connect to these components.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Basically, I think they're just.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Shotgun in it, and they really.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Don't have a good idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I gotta tell you, Larry, it sounds like they're
shotgunning the two.
Speaker 6 (00:50):
Welcome to the radio home of ron An Aian, the
Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors
are open.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But I am here to take your calls at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now pee.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Running.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I got a lot to talk to you about today.
A lot two words, right, A lot? Is that two words?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I think?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So a couple of things, A little bit of housekeeping. First,
we're waking some changes to the website cardoctorshow dot com
just to make you all aware. We're trying to, you know,
give you more really with YouTube, with podcasting, with the
stream of the show. If you're not in a place
where you can take it and you want to listen,
you can. You know, there's a live stream on our website.
(01:43):
Just click on the link and it's it's active. You know,
Saturday's East Coast time two to four pm obviously in
the afternoon. You know, we put it up there and
we have an active stream there, so that's there for you.
We're putting a YouTube link up, we're going to be
getting we've got a podcast link up. You can get
all the current podcasts there. And we're also making changes
to the podcast where, you know, based on your request
(02:03):
and you know, everybody says they want this, so we're
doing it. We're going to take the interviews we as
we go forward, and we're we're posting them as a
separate clip so you can go up there and you
can download that clip, and you can have that clip
for a reference. Hey I like that topic, Hey I
like that piece of information, you know, And now you
can build your own reference library. So we're doing that.
And then Tom Ray moved this giant rock in his
(02:26):
basement and uncovered this safe where there was a vault
inside of and he went in there and he found
ten years worth of Car Doctor radio shows. And he's
he's going to allow us, because you know it's he's
chief engineer here. We're going to put up what we
call Card Doctor Classics, and every week we're going to
(02:47):
post an hour from a previous show ten years ago.
And thought it'll be fun. We'll try it for a while.
We'll put up on the podcast links. We'll call it
classic card Doctor and you can look back and see, gee,
how if Car's changed in ten years? Do I sound
any better? Do I sound worse? Do I sound older?
Do I sound younger? What do I sound like? But
that's going to be up there too, So we're going
to be adding that to the podcast library as well,
(03:08):
and I'll apologize to the audience in advance, right exactly.
And then we want to also offer you if anybody
has a topic that they would like to hear, you know,
conversation about whether it's be in the form of a video.
Hey Ron, how do I put air in my tires?
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Ron? You know I see a lot of cars do this. Ron,
Why did they ever take away vent windows? You know,
whatever the conversation is, shoot us an email Ron at
cardoctorshow dot com and we'll be glad to either do
it in the form of a video or maybe we
make it a special podcast edition because we're working on
that too. We've been approached by a few people. They
(03:42):
wanted to do something that would be the equivalent of
what I call car Doctor after Hours and you know,
some topics that we won't talk about up here on air,
but maybe we've got time to do it in a
podcast that type of thing. So, you know, we're trying
to tailor this as we continue to go forward more
and more towards you, because that's what this is about.
I had a phone call this week from bart I
haven't talked to barton probably thirty five years, and I
(04:07):
think it was a bet because I think he was
you know, he was talking to his daughter and you'll
understand this in a minute. He was talking to his daughter,
and he said, and he's like, I know this guy.
She's like, no, you don't. He's like, yeah, I do.
Bart remembers thirty five years ago we were in class.
I was teaching and helping. We were doing night classes
out through Westchester County in New York, and Bart had
(04:28):
this mail truck I think it was, and it had
a hesitation and a burble and a stumble and a
miss and it didn't run right. And everybody had gone
through and done everything to it, and we went through
and diagnosed it, and it had a cracked magnet inside
of the distributor reluctor. The piece had spun around and
energized the coil. And he never forgot that. He said,
I never forgot how you guys found that. And you
(04:50):
know you always impressed me as you know, you know
what you were doing. Well, I'd like to think, so
how do we get here? But the point of all
this is about Taylor his daughter. His daughter is eighteen
years old and she's currently working as an automotive technician
in a facility and she really likes working on cars.
And he asked me to just do a shout out.
(05:11):
But you know, Bart, I think I have to do
more than that. I think I have to talk a
little bit about young people in this trade and you
know the potential of what this can become. This is
not an easy business. This is this business is more
than just you know, bad coffee through the morning and
a stale sandwich at lunch, and you know, working on vehicles.
There's a lot of fun in this business, but there's
(05:31):
a lot of responsibility in this business. And you're only
going to be as good as the environment that you're
in and that you create. And I see, you know,
when I walk into other shops, I see technicians picking
up bad habits because that's what the boss allows, and
that's what the boss creates, that's the environment they create.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You know, you're you're only as good at baseball player
as the park you're in, as the mound for the
picture to step on, as good as the bats are,
as good as you know, the gloves, the balls, the equipment.
It's the same thing in audo repair. You know, you've
got to have good equipment, you've got to be current,
you've got to train, you've got to practice, you've got
to be in that type of a learning, nurturing environment.
(06:13):
And that's really it. You know, you can't be in
an environment. Well, we don't have time to train or
learn how to work on cars because we're too busy
trying to fix cars. So I say bravo you, Taylor,
and I say bravo to everybody else out there trying
to learn this trade and tackle it. It's not easy.
It was hard forty years ago, fifty years ago, fifty
(06:36):
one years ago when I broke into it. I'm counting
back now doing the math, and I don't think it's
any easier today. And I think what you have to
do is keep on going. You know, you're working in
a facility, and I think when you've had your taste
of it and you say, okay, this is it, this
is what I want to do, then invest in the
education and either go to a two year technical school
(06:59):
and work part time or start taking training classes at night,
because you can do it either way. Learn the basics,
learn the fundamentals, make sure that you understand electricity and
then into electronics better than the next guy. And that's
how you'll get ahead. And always remember this, you know,
I never forgot this. My daughter when she did her
(07:21):
graduate work, she had to write a thesis paper or
a letter of intro of you know why she wanted
to do what she wanted to do, And to paraphrase it,
she talked about how I learned this from my dad.
There's no car that can't be fixed. There's no reason
why you can't fix everything. It's just a matter of
thinking outside the box. So tell her there's gonna be
times you got to think outside the box, and I
encourage you to do that because not everything will be
(07:43):
as it appears or as it seems. And it's always
remember this. There's there's no there isn't a car out
there that can't be fixed. It's just a matter of time.
It's a matter of will the customer accept it, will
they want to pay for it. So you know, don't
take it on you your abilities. If you can't fix
that vehicle, maybe somebody doesn't want to. But by the
(08:03):
same token, if they say fix it, think about it,
sit down and don't be afraid to do some research either.
Keep going. And you know, we need people, We need
young people in this industry more than ever because at
some point everybody's going to find out what happens when
you don't train technicians and you don't allow for that,
and you don't put it in shops and in you know,
shop class in high schools and so on that sooner
(08:25):
or later the country comes to a screeching halt. So
you are, you are the basis going forward for what
keeps this country moving. Kudos to you and Bart, thanks
for raising such a great kid. So anyway, that's that's
the concept for today. That's let's talk about that too,
if you want. Let's talk about training young people and
bringing them into this field. You know, it could be
a something as simple as you know, take a kid
(08:46):
to a car show. Car show seasons coming up, and
you know we're going to be out cruising around and
looking at old cars. And I see that. You know,
old cars just hold this place and everybody's heart. Everybody
looks at them going by, and a lot of positive memories.
You see it in social media. You see it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
(09:07):
you know, or x whatever it's called today. Uh, you know,
everybody's got a comment about that. Nobody nobody says anything
about Hey, I had a two thousand and six camera. Boy,
that was a great car. It was good transportation, but
it wasn't sexy like a seventy chevelle with a big block.
So but anyway, phone number here is eight five five
five six o nine nine zero zero. Let me say
that again. Eight five five five six o nine nine
(09:27):
zero zero. I'm running the Indy in the car doctor.
I'll be back right after this.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
Don't go away when you get keep Ron's number handy
eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero
(09:52):
for when you really need advice on your car.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
Here's rober.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Hey, let's wander over and open up the phones and
talk to Jim in New York State. Jim, welcome to
the car doctor. Sure, how can I help?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Happy Easter to you?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Thank you sir, you too.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
And I just wanted to follow up. I asked you
a while back about a twenty eighteen twer son.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Okay, this is some oil, yeah, the burning oil car.
Speaker 9 (10:18):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
And about a little bit more than a month ago,
the car was running fine. You could started up and
it was running fine. And my wife said, for a
couple of weeks been going on no power. The engine
would go to about three or four thousand rpm, but
the car wouldn't go with it eventually would right, So
(10:42):
I figured it was up on the transmission. So I
took a what we call around the block. There's some
hills and everything, and I have an older code reader
that I plugged in. I took it around the block.
No codes nice as well. The only thing I found
online when there's a lot of speed sensors and he
said and everything else, and it says, well, don't let
(11:03):
him to give it. So Winston Hunting dealer. And the
first thing was the service manager says, I think it's
the converter. An he called back later that day and
he says it wasn't the converter. I got to do
the rear converter. Well, I don't know what a rear
converter was.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I don't know what. I don't know what a
we're not we're not talking catalytic converter or we were
talking torque converter in the transmission.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
That's what I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So maybe he's talking about Maybe he's talking about the
rear downstream catalytic converter.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I don't think so. Uh So, what was the analytic
converter downstream?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, there's there's any car can have more than one
cat so it's possible we were talking about an exhaust
catalytic converter. Being restricted, and that would give the car
no power condition.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Uh would that be in the muffler or externally?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No, that would be in the exhaust system somewhere, but
it would not be the muffler. It would be a
separate car. There's no rule that says a car cat
So anyway, what did he end up doing?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
They replaced the well, if you come under the exhaust manifold,
there is a two boat flange okay, and going in
the mufflers the two bowlt flange.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So they changed the whole thing between.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The two and in between the two there is a
short stud sticking out of the one catalytic converter and
the sensor you know before, and coming out of the
cataltic converter right back to the muffler, there's another there's
a pipe, another two boat flans coming out of the muffler.
They replaced that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay, So they replaced the center part of the exhaust.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Basically.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So your point to me is because front.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
D well, I don't know what the problem was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, it sounds like it was restricted exhaust. Did you
did they did you ask them why they were changing
the converter? Was it under warranty or did you pay
for this?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
No, we paid for it.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Well, that's a long story. The service manager went to
bat Forest pretty good. Originally the Holy Assembly is four
thousand some dollars, right, And he called honey, and he said,
these people are loyal customers. You know they could do better, said,
they said they'd cover seventy five percent of it. He
(13:37):
called back and he said, go do better than that.
Now now covered ninety percent of it.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Now realize this, Jim, in case you haven't that that
car burning oil, burning oil. A car that burns oil
will eventually clog a catalytic converter. Great, so you're you're
you're seeing the result of the amount of oil that
that car burns coming out in the way of a
clogged cat So it will happen again. I don't know.
(14:05):
I don't know in what time frame. I don't know.
You know, you may you may not own the car anymore.
It may happen next year. It's hard to say. It
depends on how bad the old consumption actually is.
Speaker 9 (14:14):
Now. We own it now, right, But.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I'm just saying it's don't be surprised if it happens again.
The car still burns oil.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Correct, Yes, it does, in fact more than when they
replace the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Right, a court and how many miles.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
The catalytic converter was probably plugged up. He's got just
on the one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Right, So a court and how many miles.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Jim, It's hard to say. Uh, my son takes it
through work and he drives mostly up up to Lake Placid,
New York, Okay, and it's mostly hilly.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, regardless of the hills. How many miles do you
have to go before you put a quarter oil in it?
Speaker 5 (14:56):
It's hard to say. I have to get the piece
of paper I've got down there written all down yet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Well, just keep in mind, you know, the industry
talks about how it's a court in five hundred miles
or one thousand miles. I'm sorry, is acceptable? No good?
But you know understand, the more oil that burns, the
faster that's going to clog that catalytic converter, and the
bigger that issue is going to become, so you will
not see smoke out the tailpipe. We talk about this
(15:23):
all the time simply because that catalytic converter is eating
up the oil, it's being transformed and it's actually staying
inside the cat, and it's coming out the tailpipe in
either such a small amount you don't see it, or
it's not coming out the tailpipe at all. That's what
a catalytic converter will do. It will swallow junk and
you know, just make it disappear in a sense. So
(15:44):
I just know that you may be looking at another
catalytic converter somewhere in the future. It may go another
one hundred thousand miles, it may not, but it would
be interesting to have cut that old cat open to
see what was the cause of the failure, Why did
it why was it restricted? Analytic converters do not fail.
Something causes them to fail in the majority of cases. Misfire, oil, contaminants, coolant,
(16:08):
something flowing through the exhaust. You know, typically catalytic converters
that start failing at the one hundred thousand mile mark.
Something ate that up. Something destroyed that cat, not the
cat itself. So just keep that in mind. I appreciate
the call, Jimmy, and thanks for keeping us up to date. Hey,
you want to try this for fun. We were doing
this this week, just looking to see what's out there.
Get out to autotrader dot com and start looking at
(16:31):
used car prices. We actually started. We were talking to
customers this week about certain repairs and they were considering
replacing the vehicles, and I said, you know what, I
brough up the list from Autotrader, like, you know, looking
at what used cars are going for, and all of
a sudden, repairing the car makes a whole lot of sense.
They've also got a section on autotrader dot com with
(16:52):
regards to new vehicles. You can go look up new
Honda pilots, new Honda or new Honda A Launtras, Nissan Rogues, etc.
You can look at any new car you want. It'll
show you where it is in the area and what
it cost is I was looking at some of the costs,
you know, new vehicles. The least I saw a new
vehicle starting at was about twenty two thousand dollars. And
you know that's a stripped down basic model. So maybe
(17:14):
putting a couple of grand into year older vehicle, maybe
that's not such a bad idea, and maybe you can
justify that. But interesting reading, call me weird. I read
used car want ads to see what things are worth,
and the auto Trader is a great place to get
it and see what it's all about. You know, when
we were kids, there was a there was a thing
in North Jersey called the Want Dad Press and I'm
(17:35):
going way back, and it was a little you know,
we called it the Rag and it came out on
the news stands once a week on Tuesdays, and you
would find all the older cars. And you know, I
came across some of the garage sale last year and
it was interesting to sit down and read what cars
were going for, you know, Shelby GT. Five hundreds, eight
(17:55):
hundred dollars, you know, probably a half a million dollar
car today. So we missed it. I missed my mark. Anyway,
I'm Ronning any in the Card Doctor. Eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. Happy to be
here for you. Give us a call and I'll see
you right after this.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Don't go away, Love me, Love.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Me.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Welcome back running the Card Doctor. Let's go over to
Brian in Pennsylvania with a thirteen Chevy Malibu. Brian, Welcome
to the Card.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Doctor, sir. How can I help.
Speaker 9 (18:47):
Ron?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I'm good, sir? What's cooking?
Speaker 8 (18:50):
Hey? I got a twenty thirteen Chevy Malibu, that the
radio is stuck on one station and it doesn't the
volume nothing works, the volume zone it stuck, doesn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So is it a station that plays me?
Speaker 8 (19:08):
Uh no, but I listened to you every week on
the on the through uh my phone, So okay, then.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I guess, then I guess we'll have to fix the
radio anyway. So you know, it sounds like an internal
radio problem. The way I think you have to attack
this is, you know, understand, you think that's a radio
you're looking at, that's actually a computer, that's actually a
module on the on the data bus. So it would
be it.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Because I was I was looking at it because I
YouTube because I had a junk one, a junk car
sitting in the yard and I didn't know whether I
was going to take out the control panel or replace
the whole screen or replace the It comes in three sections.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Right, and the other The other issue is that if
you put another radio in, you're gonna have to program
it to the vehicle. Programming is going to be required
because it's it's it's locked in by vin So you know,
chances are that radio, the internals of that radio are bad.
But the first thing I would do, is you know,
(20:09):
get a get a year make model scan tool, not
OBD two. I want something that, you know, we can
go in and look at and query all the modules
on the bus and see who doesn't respond? Does the
radio respond? If the radio responds, meaning it says, hey,
I'm here, right, you know, we know that the connections
to the radio are good. If it doesn't, then we've
(20:32):
got to ask ourselves why, And then we'd have to
go in and look at, you know, power, there's a
there's a there's a you know, the X one connector
at the back of the radio. Make sure there's power
on pin forty four. Make sure there's good ground at
pin thirty eight, all right, And then the only other
thing I would look at is when you turn the
car off, does the fuel gauge drop within three to
six seconds? And if it does, everything's powering down correctly,
(20:54):
then I'm gonna say you've got a bad radio. You know,
you've got a bad internal You know I've got an
internal problem in the radio itself, and you know, at
least it's got to be pulled and tested. We had
something similar about two years ago, and I ran through
every test I could find couldn't prove a thing and
on an educated guest, knowing that it had power and
(21:14):
ground and then I could talk to it, but the
radio wouldn't function properly. We sent it out for what
I call an electronic evaluation, sent it out to a
test center and they plugged it in and they can
test at a higher level than what we can do
in the field. And that's just by virtue of you know,
there's just only so much a repair shop can do.
Whether you're a dealer or an independent dealers do the
(21:35):
same thing. We sent it out for an evaluation and
they came back and they said, yeah, there's a problem
in this unit. We need to, you know, give you
another one. And they sold us another one. We were done,
So it might come down to that. But if you've
got something else used, just understand you will have to
get it programmed. The will they will have to clear
the vent and then you know, a program it in
because obviously they're concerned that you know, it's the right
radio for the car.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Makes sense, yep, makes a lot of sense. I got
a guy that can that's able to program it because
I have I had the same year make model and
I was just going to swap the radio and then
I'll just I'll just have to see if my guy,
my guy said he can program.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
It, right, Yeah, if he can program it, which he
should be able to if he's got if he's got
J twenty five third, well, J twenty five thirty four
may not do it because technically that's not emissions. But
you know, I've I've seen J twenty five thirty four
do more and more as time goes on, meaning that
it was its main intention for that protocol of software
flashing was to do emissions, but now they've allowed other
(22:33):
things to be added in there. But as long as
he's got you know, the ability, you know, if not,
then you want to look for a shop that has
something something along the lines. If they haven't Opus Opus
scan tool and Opus ivs that you hear me talking about,
that tool will have the ability to flash that radio.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
And if the tea that's a tool that he has.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Perfect, then he's your set and let it remind him.
I'm sure he's aware. But if for some reason the
tool itself won't flash it, they have the ability to
install factory level software in that tool, dealer level software
in that tool, and that will flash it. So you're
in good You're in good hands, You're in a good spot.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
So all right, all right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You're very welcome, Brian. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
I really do you too. Bye bye, Let's go over
and talk to uh I guess let's go talk to
Bart in New York. Look at that. Look look what
I stirred up here? Professor Bart.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Ron, How are you all right?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
This is this gentleman. I haven't seen this gentleman in
probably thirty five years. This is the funniest thing.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
He remembers.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, it's it's Bart remembers when we started doing when
I started doing radio. That's how long. That's how Bart's old.
But it's not as old as me.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
So, uh, I know I am older than you.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Now you're not, I'm telling you. But to be continued, So.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
I was, I'm from nineteen fifty seven. Can you beat that?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Nineteen fifty six?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
What month in nineteen fifty six?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Oh, there you go. I'm December.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I'm August. Say, I'm older. Got you by three months?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Bundy? Yeah, okay, God, bless you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Still here.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
I'm going to tell you got great music between the commercials.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
That's my engineer. He has good choice, he has good taste,
so it has good taste.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
He brings back a lot of good memories.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yep, well, thank you your daughter. Did your daughter hear
all that?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
No? You know what, I couldn't get a holder. She's
out and about little boyfriend. They had bought a Miata
to rebuild, and they're doing a great job. She's learned
that breaks on it. She did struts last week, so
she's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And you know, all that stuff, all that stuff is
the foundation bart. That's you know, they got to learn
the nuts and bolts and that's important. And you know,
it's sort of like they've got to do the foundational work,
the breaks, the shocks, the suspension work, the tires. They've
got to get dirty, and you know, do they like that?
And then they've got to have the frustration of installing
(25:07):
apart and then finding out the part doesn't fit, doesn't work,
you know, broke two minutes later has to be redone.
They've got to go through all that. They've got to
deal with that frustration. I think that's so important. You know,
we we my boss, Yeah, go ahead or on.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
An old car like that. You're absolutely correct, and that's
because you have rusted nuts and bolts in a regular
socket's not going to do a trick. You have to
learn how to maybe you know, heat it up a
little bit with a torch, right, so on and so forth. Well,
he works in a very quality place and they they're
teaching or this, and she's learning. You know, they did
some arc welding the other day. Yeah. Yeah, at the
(25:45):
end of the day, you know, you always go back
to simple basics as the starting point, you know, and
somewhere along the line sometimes many times you find the
problem before you get to the complicated part.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Absolutely and and the whole the whole purpose. And you know,
well my old boss Billy used to tell me all
the time that you know, you've got to do the
basics right and the hard stuff comes later. And that's
just that's just so so gushed important.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
I think most, I think more than half of my
repairs over my lifetime in the industry, that basics was
the repair, you know, going back to something really simple.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Right, Always keep it simple, you know, always keep it simple.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
And you know what, Ron like yourself, you have a
passion for this business. Like I did. I mean, once
I was fucked. Once I was you know, started, I
was fucked, and I seems my daughters the same way.
But when you have a passion for this industry run
and a challenge arises, you know, you become more determined.
You want to be that tech that makes the proper
repair so you can brag about it. Listen, I was
the one that fixed it and that nobody else could.
(26:45):
And and that's the beauty of this business because so
many people could look at it like doctors, but there's
that one that really, you know, can figure it out.
And wasn't that due At the end of the day,
it builds your customer base up, you know, if you know,
they holds up confidence when your ability you know, you know,
to repair their car and what happens word of mouth,
(27:06):
and you get more customers, more clientele, and you know,
you end up like a Ron Armanian.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You know, I always, I always, I always go back
one step further bart And I always say, the smartest
people I know are mechanics. The guy that walks into
the family room and sees the chimney and goes, your
flu is dirty, get it cleaned because they realize there's
a restriction, and that's you know, it's it's just there's
just so much common sense and effect in order to
(27:32):
repair that causes your day to day to make it work.
Bart Pleasure, I got I gotta run, but hay to
your daughter and she can pick this up again that
this will become a podcast. This will be the first
hour podcast gets posted about two hours after the show
goes off the air today and she can listen to
that open maybe you can surprise her with it. And
if you need anything else, you know where to find me.
I'm Ron anany and the Car Doctor. I'll be back
(27:53):
right after this. Don't away, Hey, welcome back. I want
to name the card Doctor here eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. Keep in mind cardoctorshow
dot com for updates, podcast, YouTube, you name it, it's
(28:14):
there or it's going to be there right now. Let's
get over and talk to Phil and Vermont thirteen Grand Caravan. Phil,
Welcome to the Card Doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Ron?
Speaker 9 (28:24):
Howll a you to that bit?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Sir?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (28:27):
Well?
Speaker 9 (28:28):
I had a noise in the bottom end of my
engine on that van. I brought it up to McGee's
the Dodge dealership, and they said it was the rocker
arms and the lifters, so they replaced them. And when
I got it back, like, I hadn't drove it for
a couple of days cause my wife picked it up
because I was working, and then I drove it and
(28:49):
it was it was a wicked clatter of noise. So
I called them up and they brought it up, or
I brought it up and dropped it off, and then
come to find out it was a flex plate, which
I think was the problem in the beginning. And then
when I got that back, now every time I opened
the door, the rear of de froster comes on. And
I brought it back up to them and they said
(29:10):
they checked it all out, because I thought maybe they
pinched the wire and highness or pulled out a thing.
And now the door locks in the back as they
drive along the door of a lock and I'll go,
h really noisy, and they're driving me nuts.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Know what the heck are they going to said it
wouldn't show up.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
On the stool, so well, great, okay, and ask them
how did they fix cars before scan tools were invented?
Did they use that thing between the R right I
you know, so listen, Yeah, it could be it could
be related to something they did, but we've got to
diagnose it. They've got to diagnose it. They've got to
accept the fact they they did some work. You know,
you're always obligated to go back and look over your
(29:49):
work and then solve the problem as the customer brought in.
If if you brought that problem in and they hadn't
done the flex plate, how would they attack it? And
that that would be my conversation with them. You know,
I know how I would do it. Because that car
is so highly computerized. The first thing I would do
is using a scan tool. Can I talk to the
(30:09):
components that control the rear defroster or and the door
lock and whatever else is not working? Can I can
I buy directionally control it? Which there's things I can
do through a scan tool depending upon the year of
the vehicle, you know, Can I do what is allowed
to be done to that vehicle by scan? If not?
Why not? All right? If they had if they did
(30:30):
a flex plate, they either had the engine out or
the trans out. My guess is they had the trans
out or both. Maybe they took it out as an
assembly and what part of the world, right, Well, they
left it so they left one half or the other
in the vehicle, but they had a major component out,
all right. To do a flex plate, you've got to
(30:52):
split it in half. And whether you take the whole
thing out and then split it or you know, split
it in the vehicle. And at that point, yeah, what
what could they possibly have rubbed touched? You know, it
just seems awful coincidental, you know, Phil, that that all
of a sudden, now you've got this issue. And did
they charge Did they charge it the second time for
the flex plate?
Speaker 9 (31:14):
Yes, they did. It was the first price was fifty
one hundred dollars or fifty two hundred. Then the second
time it was see I forgot, I think it was
another eighteen hundred dollars. Then when I brought it back
to check the the wire in, it was another seventy
seven dollars. So I will never ever go back there
(31:35):
again because I think the flex plate was a problem
to begin with.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
It sounds like it to me. Well, it's all it's awful,
it's awful coincidental, all right, it really is. So at
this point, if you're not going back to them. You've
got to find you got to find a diagnostician. First
thing I want to know, can we talk to the modules?
All those components you're talking about are controlled by a module.
They're all controlled on the data bus. Can we can
(31:58):
we talk to those modules? Do we have clear cut communication?
All right? If we have clear cut communication and there
are no fault codes, then we've got to go over wiring.
And I would sit down and look at critical critical connectors,
especially anything in the engine compartment that was taken apart
because wiring was disconnected to pull the trans or the
(32:19):
engine out, and it's just a simple matter of going
back over what they found that. If it's not that,
then my suggestion would be, let's break the circuit in half.
Find the middle of the electrical circuit disconnected there. Can
they get the system to operate up to that point
correctly by placing perhaps a bulb in the circuit. Can
we turn the bulb on and off for the rear
(32:39):
to frost? You know what I'm saying. So instead of
the red defrost you're coming on, the bulbull light up,
we'd put some kind of electrical load in it. And
you know, same for the door lock. Although the door
lock sounds like you're describing a bad actuate or something
that the gear is stripped on on the inside. But again,
you know it's coincidental. It's subjective this point. So have
(33:01):
you talked to the service manager yet?
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Phil?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (33:05):
Several times?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Okay, I think it's time. I think it's time to
have a heart to heart. You know.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Does that sound we're getting expensive to you?
Speaker 4 (33:13):
About fifty two.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
Dollars for the four cams and the lifters.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
No, that's engine work. That's engine work. Hey, Phil, I
gotta go, stay stay tight, stay right where you are,
a Phil. I'll come back to you. All right, I'm
running any of the car. Doctor, Let's pull over and
take a pause. Don't go away. Welcome back running in
the car, doctor, Phil. You're still there? Yes, okay, I
(33:41):
got a quick minute, so listen to me. Fifty one
bucks five grand to do engine work is not unusual.
Today engine work has gotten ridiculously expensive. My only question
would have been what would have cost? What would have
cost to put a reman engine in it? Simply because
you now have a front, you now have a fresh
top bend versus uh, you know, a ten year old
(34:04):
bottom into the engine you were going to say something quick.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
No, that was my thoughts, exactly right, and he he
never suggested that in the first place.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Right, But I would, I would, I would, I would
always I always ask that question. Engine work has just
it's it's it's a real problem. Number one. Number two.
Go back and look at the invoices, the invoice for
the headwork, the invoice for the flex plate, the invoice
for the wiring inspection. Did they have the same technician?
Look the work over that started working on the car
(34:35):
from the beginning. Very important because technician A knows what
he did. Technician BE doesn't know what technician A did
or touched, and technician CEE he's just going by the
book and maybe not looking hard enough. So got to
go back and talk to them. I think that car
can be fixed. It's just a matter if somebody's got
to have some due diligence. I'm on an ady in
the car doctor till the next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
See you
Speaker 3 (35:04):
S
Ron An Aian, We're putting thousands of dollars worth of
work breaks, mostly into a car that won't go more
than forty miles an hour. And I keep thinking about
this to the irony of all this, but I'm slowly
talking to the owner in I said, let's let's let's
get a Porsche engine for it, so we can, you know,
maybe make it go a little faster.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Shoot it for now, now, the car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The can censor the crank penor the oil fenor and
all to connect to these components.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Basically, I think they're just.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Shotgun in it, and they really.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Don't have a good idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I gotta tell you, Larry, it sounds like they're
shotgunning the two.
Speaker 6 (00:50):
Welcome to the radio home of ron An Aian, the
Car Doctor. Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car
owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors
are open.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
But I am here to take your calls at eight
five five five six ninety nine hundred and now pee.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Running.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I got a lot to talk to you about today.
A lot two words, right, A lot? Is that two words?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I think?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So a couple of things, A little bit of housekeeping. First,
we're waking some changes to the website cardoctorshow dot com
just to make you all aware. We're trying to, you know,
give you more really with YouTube, with podcasting, with the
stream of the show. If you're not in a place
where you can take it and you want to listen,
you can. You know, there's a live stream on our website.
(01:43):
Just click on the link and it's it's active. You know,
Saturday's East Coast time two to four pm obviously in
the afternoon. You know, we put it up there and
we have an active stream there, so that's there for you.
We're putting a YouTube link up, we're going to be
getting we've got a podcast link up. You can get
all the current podcasts there. And we're also making changes
to the podcast where, you know, based on your request
(02:03):
and you know, everybody says they want this, so we're
doing it. We're going to take the interviews we as
we go forward, and we're we're posting them as a
separate clip so you can go up there and you
can download that clip, and you can have that clip
for a reference. Hey I like that topic, Hey I
like that piece of information, you know, And now you
can build your own reference library. So we're doing that.
And then Tom Ray moved this giant rock in his
(02:26):
basement and uncovered this safe where there was a vault
inside of and he went in there and he found
ten years worth of Car Doctor radio shows. And he's
he's going to allow us, because you know it's he's
chief engineer here. We're going to put up what we
call Card Doctor Classics, and every week we're going to
(02:47):
post an hour from a previous show ten years ago.
And thought it'll be fun. We'll try it for a while.
We'll put up on the podcast links. We'll call it
classic card Doctor and you can look back and see, gee,
how if Car's changed in ten years? Do I sound
any better? Do I sound worse? Do I sound older?
Do I sound younger? What do I sound like? But
that's going to be up there too, So we're going
to be adding that to the podcast library as well,
(03:08):
and I'll apologize to the audience in advance, right exactly.
And then we want to also offer you if anybody
has a topic that they would like to hear, you know,
conversation about whether it's be in the form of a video.
Hey Ron, how do I put air in my tires?
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Ron? You know I see a lot of cars do this. Ron,
Why did they ever take away vent windows? You know,
whatever the conversation is, shoot us an email Ron at
cardoctorshow dot com and we'll be glad to either do
it in the form of a video or maybe we
make it a special podcast edition because we're working on
that too. We've been approached by a few people. They
(03:42):
wanted to do something that would be the equivalent of
what I call car Doctor after Hours and you know,
some topics that we won't talk about up here on air,
but maybe we've got time to do it in a
podcast that type of thing. So, you know, we're trying
to tailor this as we continue to go forward more
and more towards you, because that's what this is about.
I had a phone call this week from bart I
haven't talked to barton probably thirty five years, and I
(04:07):
think it was a bet because I think he was
you know, he was talking to his daughter and you'll
understand this in a minute. He was talking to his daughter,
and he said, and he's like, I know this guy.
She's like, no, you don't. He's like, yeah, I do.
Bart remembers thirty five years ago we were in class.
I was teaching and helping. We were doing night classes
out through Westchester County in New York, and Bart had
(04:28):
this mail truck I think it was, and it had
a hesitation and a burble and a stumble and a
miss and it didn't run right. And everybody had gone
through and done everything to it, and we went through
and diagnosed it, and it had a cracked magnet inside
of the distributor reluctor. The piece had spun around and
energized the coil. And he never forgot that. He said,
I never forgot how you guys found that. And you
(04:50):
know you always impressed me as you know, you know
what you were doing. Well, I'd like to think, so
how do we get here? But the point of all
this is about Taylor his daughter. His daughter is eighteen
years old and she's currently working as an automotive technician
in a facility and she really likes working on cars.
And he asked me to just do a shout out.
(05:11):
But you know, Bart, I think I have to do
more than that. I think I have to talk a
little bit about young people in this trade and you
know the potential of what this can become. This is
not an easy business. This is this business is more
than just you know, bad coffee through the morning and
a stale sandwich at lunch, and you know, working on vehicles.
There's a lot of fun in this business, but there's
(05:31):
a lot of responsibility in this business. And you're only
going to be as good as the environment that you're
in and that you create. And I see, you know,
when I walk into other shops, I see technicians picking
up bad habits because that's what the boss allows, and
that's what the boss creates, that's the environment they create.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You know, you're you're only as good at baseball player
as the park you're in, as the mound for the
picture to step on, as good as the bats are,
as good as you know, the gloves, the balls, the equipment.
It's the same thing in audo repair. You know, you've
got to have good equipment, you've got to be current,
you've got to train, you've got to practice, you've got
to be in that type of a learning, nurturing environment.
(06:13):
And that's really it. You know, you can't be in
an environment. Well, we don't have time to train or
learn how to work on cars because we're too busy
trying to fix cars. So I say bravo you, Taylor,
and I say bravo to everybody else out there trying
to learn this trade and tackle it. It's not easy.
It was hard forty years ago, fifty years ago, fifty
(06:36):
one years ago when I broke into it. I'm counting
back now doing the math, and I don't think it's
any easier today. And I think what you have to
do is keep on going. You know, you're working in
a facility, and I think when you've had your taste
of it and you say, okay, this is it, this
is what I want to do, then invest in the
education and either go to a two year technical school
(06:59):
and work part time or start taking training classes at night,
because you can do it either way. Learn the basics,
learn the fundamentals, make sure that you understand electricity and
then into electronics better than the next guy. And that's
how you'll get ahead. And always remember this, you know,
I never forgot this. My daughter when she did her
(07:21):
graduate work, she had to write a thesis paper or
a letter of intro of you know why she wanted
to do what she wanted to do, And to paraphrase it,
she talked about how I learned this from my dad.
There's no car that can't be fixed. There's no reason
why you can't fix everything. It's just a matter of
thinking outside the box. So tell her there's gonna be
times you got to think outside the box, and I
encourage you to do that because not everything will be
(07:43):
as it appears or as it seems. And it's always
remember this. There's there's no there isn't a car out
there that can't be fixed. It's just a matter of time.
It's a matter of will the customer accept it, will
they want to pay for it. So you know, don't
take it on you your abilities. If you can't fix
that vehicle, maybe somebody doesn't want to. But by the
(08:03):
same token, if they say fix it, think about it,
sit down and don't be afraid to do some research either.
Keep going. And you know, we need people, We need
young people in this industry more than ever because at
some point everybody's going to find out what happens when
you don't train technicians and you don't allow for that,
and you don't put it in shops and in you know,
shop class in high schools and so on that sooner
(08:25):
or later the country comes to a screeching halt. So
you are, you are the basis going forward for what
keeps this country moving. Kudos to you and Bart, thanks
for raising such a great kid. So anyway, that's that's
the concept for today. That's let's talk about that too,
if you want. Let's talk about training young people and
bringing them into this field. You know, it could be
a something as simple as you know, take a kid
(08:46):
to a car show. Car show seasons coming up, and
you know we're going to be out cruising around and
looking at old cars. And I see that. You know,
old cars just hold this place and everybody's heart. Everybody
looks at them going by, and a lot of positive memories.
You see it in social media. You see it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
(09:07):
you know, or x whatever it's called today. Uh, you know,
everybody's got a comment about that. Nobody nobody says anything
about Hey, I had a two thousand and six camera. Boy,
that was a great car. It was good transportation, but
it wasn't sexy like a seventy chevelle with a big block.
So but anyway, phone number here is eight five five
five six o nine nine zero zero. Let me say
that again. Eight five five five six o nine nine
(09:27):
zero zero. I'm running the Indy in the car doctor.
I'll be back right after this.
Speaker 7 (09:30):
Don't go away when you get keep Ron's number handy
eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero
(09:52):
for when you really need advice on your car.
Speaker 8 (09:55):
Here's rober.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Hey, let's wander over and open up the phones and
talk to Jim in New York State. Jim, welcome to
the car doctor. Sure, how can I help?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Happy Easter to you?
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Thank you sir, you too.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
And I just wanted to follow up. I asked you
a while back about a twenty eighteen twer son.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Okay, this is some oil, yeah, the burning oil car.
Speaker 9 (10:18):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
And about a little bit more than a month ago,
the car was running fine. You could started up and
it was running fine. And my wife said, for a
couple of weeks been going on no power. The engine
would go to about three or four thousand rpm, but
the car wouldn't go with it eventually would right, So
(10:42):
I figured it was up on the transmission. So I
took a what we call around the block. There's some
hills and everything, and I have an older code reader
that I plugged in. I took it around the block.
No codes nice as well. The only thing I found
online when there's a lot of speed sensors and he
said and everything else, and it says, well, don't let
(11:03):
him to give it. So Winston Hunting dealer. And the
first thing was the service manager says, I think it's
the converter. An he called back later that day and
he says it wasn't the converter. I got to do
the rear converter. Well, I don't know what a rear
converter was.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I don't know what. I don't know what a
we're not we're not talking catalytic converter or we were
talking torque converter in the transmission.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
That's what I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
So maybe he's talking about Maybe he's talking about the
rear downstream catalytic converter.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
I don't think so. Uh So, what was the analytic
converter downstream?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, there's there's any car can have more than one
cat so it's possible we were talking about an exhaust
catalytic converter. Being restricted, and that would give the car
no power condition.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Uh would that be in the muffler or externally?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
No, that would be in the exhaust system somewhere, but
it would not be the muffler. It would be a
separate car. There's no rule that says a car cat
So anyway, what did he end up doing?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
They replaced the well, if you come under the exhaust manifold,
there is a two boat flange okay, and going in
the mufflers the two bowlt flange.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So they changed the whole thing between.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The two and in between the two there is a
short stud sticking out of the one catalytic converter and
the sensor you know before, and coming out of the
cataltic converter right back to the muffler, there's another there's
a pipe, another two boat flans coming out of the muffler.
They replaced that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay, So they replaced the center part of the exhaust.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Basically.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So your point to me is because front.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
D well, I don't know what the problem was.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Well, it sounds like it was restricted exhaust. Did you
did they did you ask them why they were changing
the converter? Was it under warranty or did you pay
for this?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
No, we paid for it.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Well, that's a long story. The service manager went to
bat Forest pretty good. Originally the Holy Assembly is four
thousand some dollars, right, And he called honey, and he said,
these people are loyal customers. You know they could do better, said,
they said they'd cover seventy five percent of it. He
(13:37):
called back and he said, go do better than that.
Now now covered ninety percent of it.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Now realize this, Jim, in case you haven't that that
car burning oil, burning oil. A car that burns oil
will eventually clog a catalytic converter. Great, so you're you're
you're seeing the result of the amount of oil that
that car burns coming out in the way of a
clogged cat So it will happen again. I don't know.
(14:05):
I don't know in what time frame. I don't know.
You know, you may you may not own the car anymore.
It may happen next year. It's hard to say. It
depends on how bad the old consumption actually is.
Speaker 9 (14:14):
Now. We own it now, right, But.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I'm just saying it's don't be surprised if it happens again.
The car still burns oil.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Correct, Yes, it does, in fact more than when they
replace the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Right, a court and how many miles.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
The catalytic converter was probably plugged up. He's got just
on the one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Right, So a court and how many miles.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Jim, It's hard to say. Uh, my son takes it
through work and he drives mostly up up to Lake Placid,
New York, Okay, and it's mostly hilly.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well, regardless of the hills. How many miles do you
have to go before you put a quarter oil in it?
Speaker 5 (14:56):
It's hard to say. I have to get the piece
of paper I've got down there written all down yet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Well, just keep in mind, you know, the industry
talks about how it's a court in five hundred miles
or one thousand miles. I'm sorry, is acceptable? No good?
But you know understand, the more oil that burns, the
faster that's going to clog that catalytic converter, and the
bigger that issue is going to become, so you will
not see smoke out the tailpipe. We talk about this
(15:23):
all the time simply because that catalytic converter is eating
up the oil, it's being transformed and it's actually staying
inside the cat, and it's coming out the tailpipe in
either such a small amount you don't see it, or
it's not coming out the tailpipe at all. That's what
a catalytic converter will do. It will swallow junk and
you know, just make it disappear in a sense. So
(15:44):
I just know that you may be looking at another
catalytic converter somewhere in the future. It may go another
one hundred thousand miles, it may not, but it would
be interesting to have cut that old cat open to
see what was the cause of the failure, Why did
it why was it restricted? Analytic converters do not fail.
Something causes them to fail in the majority of cases. Misfire, oil, contaminants, coolant,
(16:08):
something flowing through the exhaust. You know, typically catalytic converters
that start failing at the one hundred thousand mile mark.
Something ate that up. Something destroyed that cat, not the
cat itself. So just keep that in mind. I appreciate
the call, Jimmy, and thanks for keeping us up to date. Hey,
you want to try this for fun. We were doing
this this week, just looking to see what's out there.
Get out to autotrader dot com and start looking at
(16:31):
used car prices. We actually started. We were talking to
customers this week about certain repairs and they were considering
replacing the vehicles, and I said, you know what, I
brough up the list from Autotrader, like, you know, looking
at what used cars are going for, and all of
a sudden, repairing the car makes a whole lot of sense.
They've also got a section on autotrader dot com with
(16:52):
regards to new vehicles. You can go look up new
Honda pilots, new Honda or new Honda A Launtras, Nissan Rogues, etc.
You can look at any new car you want. It'll
show you where it is in the area and what
it cost is I was looking at some of the costs,
you know, new vehicles. The least I saw a new
vehicle starting at was about twenty two thousand dollars. And
you know that's a stripped down basic model. So maybe
(17:14):
putting a couple of grand into year older vehicle, maybe
that's not such a bad idea, and maybe you can
justify that. But interesting reading, call me weird. I read
used car want ads to see what things are worth,
and the auto Trader is a great place to get
it and see what it's all about. You know, when
we were kids, there was a there was a thing
in North Jersey called the Want Dad Press and I'm
(17:35):
going way back, and it was a little you know,
we called it the Rag and it came out on
the news stands once a week on Tuesdays, and you
would find all the older cars. And you know, I
came across some of the garage sale last year and
it was interesting to sit down and read what cars
were going for, you know, Shelby GT. Five hundreds, eight
(17:55):
hundred dollars, you know, probably a half a million dollar
car today. So we missed it. I missed my mark. Anyway,
I'm Ronning any in the Card Doctor. Eight five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. Happy to be
here for you. Give us a call and I'll see
you right after this.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Don't go away, Love me, Love.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Me.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Welcome back running the Card Doctor. Let's go over to
Brian in Pennsylvania with a thirteen Chevy Malibu. Brian, Welcome
to the Card.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Doctor, sir. How can I help.
Speaker 9 (18:47):
Ron?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I'm good, sir? What's cooking?
Speaker 8 (18:50):
Hey? I got a twenty thirteen Chevy Malibu, that the
radio is stuck on one station and it doesn't the
volume nothing works, the volume zone it stuck, doesn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So is it a station that plays me?
Speaker 8 (19:08):
Uh no, but I listened to you every week on
the on the through uh my phone, So okay, then.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I guess, then I guess we'll have to fix the
radio anyway. So you know, it sounds like an internal
radio problem. The way I think you have to attack
this is, you know, understand, you think that's a radio
you're looking at, that's actually a computer, that's actually a
module on the on the data bus. So it would
be it.
Speaker 8 (19:33):
Because I was I was looking at it because I
YouTube because I had a junk one, a junk car
sitting in the yard and I didn't know whether I
was going to take out the control panel or replace
the whole screen or replace the It comes in three sections.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Right, and the other The other issue is that if
you put another radio in, you're gonna have to program
it to the vehicle. Programming is going to be required
because it's it's it's locked in by vin So you know,
chances are that radio, the internals of that radio are bad.
But the first thing I would do, is you know,
(20:09):
get a get a year make model scan tool, not
OBD two. I want something that, you know, we can
go in and look at and query all the modules
on the bus and see who doesn't respond? Does the
radio respond? If the radio responds, meaning it says, hey,
I'm here, right, you know, we know that the connections
to the radio are good. If it doesn't, then we've
(20:32):
got to ask ourselves why, And then we'd have to
go in and look at, you know, power, there's a
there's a there's a you know, the X one connector
at the back of the radio. Make sure there's power
on pin forty four. Make sure there's good ground at
pin thirty eight, all right, And then the only other
thing I would look at is when you turn the
car off, does the fuel gauge drop within three to
six seconds? And if it does, everything's powering down correctly,
(20:54):
then I'm gonna say you've got a bad radio. You know,
you've got a bad internal You know I've got an
internal problem in the radio itself, and you know, at
least it's got to be pulled and tested. We had
something similar about two years ago, and I ran through
every test I could find couldn't prove a thing and
on an educated guest, knowing that it had power and
(21:14):
ground and then I could talk to it, but the
radio wouldn't function properly. We sent it out for what
I call an electronic evaluation, sent it out to a
test center and they plugged it in and they can
test at a higher level than what we can do
in the field. And that's just by virtue of you know,
there's just only so much a repair shop can do.
Whether you're a dealer or an independent dealers do the
(21:35):
same thing. We sent it out for an evaluation and
they came back and they said, yeah, there's a problem
in this unit. We need to, you know, give you
another one. And they sold us another one. We were done,
So it might come down to that. But if you've
got something else used, just understand you will have to
get it programmed. The will they will have to clear
the vent and then you know, a program it in
because obviously they're concerned that you know, it's the right
radio for the car.
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Makes sense, yep, makes a lot of sense. I got
a guy that can that's able to program it because
I have I had the same year make model and
I was just going to swap the radio and then
I'll just I'll just have to see if my guy,
my guy said he can program.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
It, right, Yeah, if he can program it, which he
should be able to if he's got if he's got
J twenty five third, well, J twenty five thirty four
may not do it because technically that's not emissions. But
you know, I've I've seen J twenty five thirty four
do more and more as time goes on, meaning that
it was its main intention for that protocol of software
flashing was to do emissions, but now they've allowed other
(22:33):
things to be added in there. But as long as
he's got you know, the ability, you know, if not,
then you want to look for a shop that has
something something along the lines. If they haven't Opus Opus
scan tool and Opus ivs that you hear me talking about,
that tool will have the ability to flash that radio.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
And if the tea that's a tool that he has.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Perfect, then he's your set and let it remind him.
I'm sure he's aware. But if for some reason the
tool itself won't flash it, they have the ability to
install factory level software in that tool, dealer level software
in that tool, and that will flash it. So you're
in good You're in good hands, You're in a good spot.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
So all right, all right, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You're very welcome, Brian. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
I really do you too. Bye bye, Let's go over
and talk to uh I guess let's go talk to
Bart in New York. Look at that. Look look what
I stirred up here? Professor Bart.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Ron, How are you all right?
Speaker 1 (23:38):
This is this gentleman. I haven't seen this gentleman in
probably thirty five years. This is the funniest thing.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
He remembers.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, it's it's Bart remembers when we started doing when
I started doing radio. That's how long. That's how Bart's old.
But it's not as old as me.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
So, uh, I know I am older than you.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Now you're not, I'm telling you. But to be continued, So.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
I was, I'm from nineteen fifty seven. Can you beat that?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Nineteen fifty six?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
What month in nineteen fifty six?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Oh, there you go. I'm December.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I'm August. Say, I'm older. Got you by three months?
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Bundy? Yeah, okay, God, bless you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Still here.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
I'm going to tell you got great music between the commercials.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
That's my engineer. He has good choice, he has good taste,
so it has good taste.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
He brings back a lot of good memories.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yep, well, thank you your daughter. Did your daughter hear
all that?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
No? You know what, I couldn't get a holder. She's
out and about little boyfriend. They had bought a Miata
to rebuild, and they're doing a great job. She's learned
that breaks on it. She did struts last week, so
she's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And you know, all that stuff, all that stuff is
the foundation bart. That's you know, they got to learn
the nuts and bolts and that's important. And you know,
it's sort of like they've got to do the foundational work,
the breaks, the shocks, the suspension work, the tires. They've
got to get dirty, and you know, do they like that?
And then they've got to have the frustration of installing
(25:07):
apart and then finding out the part doesn't fit, doesn't work,
you know, broke two minutes later has to be redone.
They've got to go through all that. They've got to
deal with that frustration. I think that's so important. You know,
we we my boss, Yeah, go ahead or on.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
An old car like that. You're absolutely correct, and that's
because you have rusted nuts and bolts in a regular
socket's not going to do a trick. You have to
learn how to maybe you know, heat it up a
little bit with a torch, right, so on and so forth. Well,
he works in a very quality place and they they're
teaching or this, and she's learning. You know, they did
some arc welding the other day. Yeah. Yeah, at the
(25:45):
end of the day, you know, you always go back
to simple basics as the starting point, you know, and
somewhere along the line sometimes many times you find the
problem before you get to the complicated part.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Absolutely and and the whole the whole purpose. And you know,
well my old boss Billy used to tell me all
the time that you know, you've got to do the
basics right and the hard stuff comes later. And that's
just that's just so so gushed important.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
I think most, I think more than half of my
repairs over my lifetime in the industry, that basics was
the repair, you know, going back to something really simple.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Right, Always keep it simple, you know, always keep it simple.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
And you know what, Ron like yourself, you have a
passion for this business. Like I did. I mean, once
I was fucked. Once I was you know, started, I
was fucked, and I seems my daughters the same way.
But when you have a passion for this industry run
and a challenge arises, you know, you become more determined.
You want to be that tech that makes the proper
repair so you can brag about it. Listen, I was
the one that fixed it and that nobody else could.
(26:45):
And and that's the beauty of this business because so
many people could look at it like doctors, but there's
that one that really, you know, can figure it out.
And wasn't that due At the end of the day,
it builds your customer base up, you know, if you know,
they holds up confidence when your ability you know, you know,
to repair their car and what happens word of mouth,
(27:06):
and you get more customers, more clientele, and you know,
you end up like a Ron Armanian.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
You know, I always, I always, I always go back
one step further bart And I always say, the smartest
people I know are mechanics. The guy that walks into
the family room and sees the chimney and goes, your
flu is dirty, get it cleaned because they realize there's
a restriction, and that's you know, it's it's just there's
just so much common sense and effect in order to
(27:32):
repair that causes your day to day to make it work.
Bart Pleasure, I got I gotta run, but hay to
your daughter and she can pick this up again that
this will become a podcast. This will be the first
hour podcast gets posted about two hours after the show
goes off the air today and she can listen to
that open maybe you can surprise her with it. And
if you need anything else, you know where to find me.
I'm Ron anany and the Car Doctor. I'll be back
(27:53):
right after this. Don't away, Hey, welcome back. I want
to name the card Doctor here eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. Keep in mind cardoctorshow
dot com for updates, podcast, YouTube, you name it, it's
(28:14):
there or it's going to be there right now. Let's
get over and talk to Phil and Vermont thirteen Grand Caravan. Phil,
Welcome to the Card Doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Ron?
Speaker 9 (28:24):
Howll a you to that bit?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Sir?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
What's going on?
Speaker 5 (28:27):
Well?
Speaker 9 (28:28):
I had a noise in the bottom end of my
engine on that van. I brought it up to McGee's
the Dodge dealership, and they said it was the rocker
arms and the lifters, so they replaced them. And when
I got it back, like, I hadn't drove it for
a couple of days cause my wife picked it up
because I was working, and then I drove it and
(28:49):
it was it was a wicked clatter of noise. So
I called them up and they brought it up, or
I brought it up and dropped it off, and then
come to find out it was a flex plate, which
I think was the problem in the beginning. And then
when I got that back, now every time I opened
the door, the rear of de froster comes on. And
I brought it back up to them and they said
(29:10):
they checked it all out, because I thought maybe they
pinched the wire and highness or pulled out a thing.
And now the door locks in the back as they
drive along the door of a lock and I'll go,
h really noisy, and they're driving me nuts.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Know what the heck are they going to said it
wouldn't show up.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
On the stool, so well, great, okay, and ask them
how did they fix cars before scan tools were invented?
Did they use that thing between the R right I
you know, so listen, Yeah, it could be it could
be related to something they did, but we've got to
diagnose it. They've got to diagnose it. They've got to
accept the fact they they did some work. You know,
you're always obligated to go back and look over your
(29:49):
work and then solve the problem as the customer brought in.
If if you brought that problem in and they hadn't
done the flex plate, how would they attack it? And
that that would be my conversation with them. You know,
I know how I would do it. Because that car
is so highly computerized. The first thing I would do
is using a scan tool. Can I talk to the
(30:09):
components that control the rear defroster or and the door
lock and whatever else is not working? Can I can
I buy directionally control it? Which there's things I can
do through a scan tool depending upon the year of
the vehicle, you know, Can I do what is allowed
to be done to that vehicle by scan? If not?
Why not? All right? If they had if they did
(30:30):
a flex plate, they either had the engine out or
the trans out. My guess is they had the trans
out or both. Maybe they took it out as an
assembly and what part of the world, right, Well, they
left it so they left one half or the other
in the vehicle, but they had a major component out,
all right. To do a flex plate, you've got to
(30:52):
split it in half. And whether you take the whole
thing out and then split it or you know, split
it in the vehicle. And at that point, yeah, what
what could they possibly have rubbed touched? You know, it
just seems awful coincidental, you know, Phil, that that all
of a sudden, now you've got this issue. And did
they charge Did they charge it the second time for
the flex plate?
Speaker 9 (31:14):
Yes, they did. It was the first price was fifty
one hundred dollars or fifty two hundred. Then the second
time it was see I forgot, I think it was
another eighteen hundred dollars. Then when I brought it back
to check the the wire in, it was another seventy
seven dollars. So I will never ever go back there
(31:35):
again because I think the flex plate was a problem
to begin with.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
It sounds like it to me. Well, it's all it's awful,
it's awful coincidental, all right, it really is. So at
this point, if you're not going back to them. You've
got to find you got to find a diagnostician. First
thing I want to know, can we talk to the modules?
All those components you're talking about are controlled by a module.
They're all controlled on the data bus. Can we can
(31:58):
we talk to those modules? Do we have clear cut communication?
All right? If we have clear cut communication and there
are no fault codes, then we've got to go over wiring.
And I would sit down and look at critical critical connectors,
especially anything in the engine compartment that was taken apart
because wiring was disconnected to pull the trans or the
(32:19):
engine out, and it's just a simple matter of going
back over what they found that. If it's not that,
then my suggestion would be, let's break the circuit in half.
Find the middle of the electrical circuit disconnected there. Can
they get the system to operate up to that point
correctly by placing perhaps a bulb in the circuit. Can
we turn the bulb on and off for the rear
(32:39):
to frost? You know what I'm saying. So instead of
the red defrost you're coming on, the bulbull light up,
we'd put some kind of electrical load in it. And
you know, same for the door lock. Although the door
lock sounds like you're describing a bad actuate or something
that the gear is stripped on on the inside. But again,
you know it's coincidental. It's subjective this point. So have
(33:01):
you talked to the service manager yet?
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Phil?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (33:05):
Several times?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Okay, I think it's time. I think it's time to
have a heart to heart. You know.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Does that sound we're getting expensive to you?
Speaker 4 (33:13):
About fifty two.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
Dollars for the four cams and the lifters.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
No, that's engine work. That's engine work. Hey, Phil, I
gotta go, stay stay tight, stay right where you are,
a Phil. I'll come back to you. All right, I'm
running any of the car. Doctor, Let's pull over and
take a pause. Don't go away. Welcome back running in
the car, doctor, Phil. You're still there? Yes, okay, I
(33:41):
got a quick minute, so listen to me. Fifty one
bucks five grand to do engine work is not unusual.
Today engine work has gotten ridiculously expensive. My only question
would have been what would have cost? What would have
cost to put a reman engine in it? Simply because
you now have a front, you now have a fresh
top bend versus uh, you know, a ten year old
(34:04):
bottom into the engine you were going to say something quick.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
No, that was my thoughts, exactly right, and he he
never suggested that in the first place.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Right, But I would, I would, I would, I would
always I always ask that question. Engine work has just
it's it's it's a real problem. Number one. Number two.
Go back and look at the invoices, the invoice for
the headwork, the invoice for the flex plate, the invoice
for the wiring inspection. Did they have the same technician?
Look the work over that started working on the car
(34:35):
from the beginning. Very important because technician A knows what
he did. Technician BE doesn't know what technician A did
or touched, and technician CEE he's just going by the
book and maybe not looking hard enough. So got to
go back and talk to them. I think that car
can be fixed. It's just a matter if somebody's got
to have some due diligence. I'm on an ady in
the car doctor till the next time. Good mechanics aren't expensive,
they're priceless.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
See you
Speaker 3 (35:04):
S
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