December 28, 2024 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode talking about his week and a story of two 2014 cars – a Honda that was overheating and an Acura that needed an oil change : takes a call on a 77 Chevy Van that has been sitting for 12 years and now the caller wants to start it : takes a call on a 24 VW Virtus from Danny in Mexico City: the vehicle has trouble maintaining a steady RPM : takes a call on a 17 Explorer with orange liquid on the AC compressor, and he is asking if he should change the timing chains while he’s in there.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Ron Anium, I want to talk a little bit about
the small time repair shops. And you know the value
of small town, small time, big time. You know the
repair shop. I don't think it's the size. I think
it's I think it's the size of the heart of
the repair shop.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We bought it spot.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm going to buy a used SUV or small shock camp.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I've heard we should avoid the COVID.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Car year twenty twenty to twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Is that true?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I've never heard that.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananium, 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.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
The garage doors are open, but I am here to
take your call at eight five five five six ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hundred and nah pe running.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Ramble a little bit, which is different than a rambler,
which was American Motors. But that's a different conversation. It
was kind of interesting in the shop this week. It's
it's a it's a it's a short week, right, it
was it was. It was holiday week, Christmas week, and
the repairs just seemed to be a little bit diverse,
but but simple. It was all simple stuff this week.
It was it was really obvious, staring at you in
(01:34):
the face. Kind of stuff you didn't have to go
looking for. We had two twenty fourteen hondas well. Actually
one was a Honda. One was an Accurate that had,
you know, different failures. One was the the twenty fourteen Honda.
The accord had a complaint of the fan didn't work.
Now you know, here's here's the misnomer, right, here's the
(01:55):
here's the part where you you you have to be
so exact and how you talk to the vehicle owner.
When Steve came in, Well, when Steve made the phone call,
he said, hey, Ron, the fan doesn't work in the Honda.
And I said okay, and he said, yeah, it only
seems to turn slow, not fast. So in my mind
(02:15):
I'm thinking heater fan, because sometimes we call the heater
fan the fan, but it's not. It's to me, it's
the blower motor. But I didn't correct him, you know,
my fault. But I knew I would catch up when
he came in. When he actually dropped off the car.
So he came in the next day, dropped off the
car and we're talking and he's telling me the fan
doesn't work. And I asked him, I said which fan
and he said the one under the hood. Okay, And
(02:37):
how do you know that? He says, well, I watch
it. It never comes on. And he said, and if I
stick my finger in it and try to turn it,
it doesn't make it turn. It just it spins. But
it never it never actually runs fast. So of course,
naturally I had a question. You know, Steve, never stick
your hand in the fan when it's not working, because
you never know when it's going to come on, and
(02:57):
you're gonna get up, you're gonna get a horrible man
here the wrong way, and you'll never need to go
to a manicurist again. At least you'll save money because
you'll have two less fingers. So I explained that to him,
and he said the engines. I said, what made you
think the fan's not working? And watch how we get
to this. He says, well, it's overheating. Oh well, that's
what you should have told me in the first place,
(03:19):
right I You know, how about you calling me up
and you know, sometimes it's how you explain it to
the mechanic. Okay, ssych. I had to give Steve the
speech about you know, when you're talking to the mechanic,
you've got to talk simple, You've got to talk direct,
because it's not that we're not paying attention, but you know,
we're we're dealing with so many other things during the
course of the day. Imagine you're talking with a doctor
in the middle of surgery and you know you're in
(03:41):
there and you're saying, hey, it does this, Well, wait
a minute, which which direction are we going. Steve was
an easy repair, simple. Once we got down to the
meat and potatoes of it, he was he was out
of coolant. The radiator was oh, two thirds of the
way empty, and sure enough we found a coolant leak
the radiator. The plastic tank that sits against the aluminum
crimp had started to seep out over time, and when
(04:03):
we had a longer conversation with Steve, we found out
that the vehicle had been sitting about two and a
half months. He's getting ready to sell it, and he
was taking it out for one last ride and to
try and charge the battery a little bit and clean
the rust off the rotors and and that kind of stuff.
He's found another car for his son, who's now back
from college for the holidays, and he's going to be
driving the newer car. Let's get rid of the older car,
et cetera. So you know, the choices were, do we
(04:27):
put a radiator in it, which is you know, a
five to six hundred dollars repair parts in labor, some coolant,
et cetera. Or you know, can we can we put
a justifiable, fair and equal patch to it. Well, you know,
naturally what I did. You know what I'm going to
tell you. We put a bottle of K seal in it. Yes,
it absolutely worked. Yes, it's absolutely legit. I trust Steve.
(04:48):
I take Steve at face value. Steve said he's going
to tell whoever he sells it to, hey, it needs
a radiator. You know, he's going to show them all
the repair bills, of which on my bill it's going
to say needs radiator. We've added k seal. It'll work,
you know for now, it'll probably work long term. But
you want to be honest with people. You want to
tell them, hey, you know it's coming to a for
a radiator. It's ten years old, it's got one hundred
and twenty thousand miles on it. You don't want to
(05:10):
you don't want to hide something. You know, if somebody
else is comfortable driving around with case inling it, which
I would be, but you want to give people that option.
So that was done. Then we had a twenty fourteen Acura,
which is really a Honda in hiding. They came in
for an oil change and it didn't need much, It
really didn't. It's just that I know the vehicle is
going down to Tennessee after New Year's It's it's going
(05:31):
to head back and we're not going to see it
again for another ten months when it comes back home
next fall. And I know I'm rambling, and I told
you I was going to ramble, and I got through
with the car. And you know, it's hard, right when
a vehicle is out of your touch for ten months,
you've and it's you know, it's ten going on eleven
years old. You've got to be so sure that I do.
I take it very much to heart that I'm sending
(05:53):
out a young person, especially in a car that's going
to be six seven hundred miles away from home, that
it's going to be safe and operable for you know,
the next ten months, and maybe it needs an oil
change in the course of things and so forth. I
looked at the battery. The battery in this Honda had
this Accura same thing, had a date code of twenty
twenty one. It's just coming up on four years. It'll
(06:15):
be March of twenty one, so March of twenty five
will be a four year battery. It passed its load test,
and the day that it came to the shop, it
passed its load test in real life because it was
I think that was the day. It was twelve degrees out.
It was kind of cold. But I said to Kevin,
I said, Kevin, you know, what do you want to
do here? I said, You're not going to have this
vehicle home for another ten months. I said. A group
(06:36):
size fifty one, which is what's in this Honda, like
it's in so many Hondas. Group size is the physical
dimension of the battery. It has nothing to do with
cold cranking amster capability. It's designed to fit the vehicle.
And I'm sure cold cranking, amps and group size all
are intertwined. Then it all comes into effect with each other.
But you know, I said to Kevin, I said, you
(06:57):
know this group size fifty one, the group size fifty
one is the biggest failure battery group size we have
in the shop. And I think a lot of other
shops would back this up. I've talked to guys at
the Handa dealership. They tell me how they'll sell thirty
batteries in a day. It's crazy. Group fifty ones are
just horrible. So I said to Kevin the owner, I said, look,
do you want to send your son down? When do
you want to get the phone call? Is what it
(07:18):
comes down to, you know, And I explained, you know
what we're talking group size, And if you want to
know more about group size, go out to auto batteries
dot com. You can read about group size and CCA
and everything else. There'll explain it all to you. And
I explained to Kevin about group size and he got it.
I said, no, I can't put a bigger battery in.
This is what fits the car and it does. You couldn't.
You couldn't put a different size group size in this
(07:39):
particular accurate because the battery tray is specific for that.
I said, when do you want to get the phone call?
That you know? Hey, Dad, I'm stuck. So I thought
about it in a minute and he said, yeah, you're right,
He said, go ahead, put a battery in it. And
we did. You know, it's I'm never going to retire
selling somebody a battery, but I'm going to keep somebody safe,
because that's that's really the job of a mechanic.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
If a battery goes dead, it's an inconvenience. Well, it depends, right.
If it goes dead on a guy, it's an adventure.
If it goes dead on a woman, I think it
puts her in danger. It puts her in a vicarious situation,
you know, And I've I've always thought like that, raising
three daughters. I always want, you know, I always want
to know my girls are as safe as I can
possibly make them. And even with guys. Right in this
(08:23):
day and age, nobody should be stuck on the road.
But it's a slightly different approach. And the reason I
talk to you about this is, you know, it's important.
Don't be like the one customer I had this week, Fred.
And I don't know if Fred listens to the show
or not. I don't really don't care. You know, I'm
gonna call him like I see him. Fred's driving a
(08:45):
twenty seventeen Ram pickup that still has the original battery
in it. That battery is seven going on eight years old.
It's a five year battery, and Fred is working on
the belief system is that when it fails, he'll deal
with it. Everything has a finite life. In order repair
everything has you know, we think it's going to last
(09:06):
this long type of approach, because nothing lasts forever. And
I think you have to read the handwriting on the wall.
If you're driving a vehicle with a five year battery
and the battery seven years old, you know you're rolling
the dice. You might as well go to Atlantic City,
New Jersey. You might as we go out to Vegas
and start playing at the craps table, because you're just
going to try and beat the odds. Cars are a
(09:28):
maintenance bucket, right, You know, there is no free lunch.
Every mile you drive is going to cost you something
in the long run. In the case of Steve with
the Honda, he got three years out of this twenty
fourteen accord. He's found something better. He had to put
a couple of bucks in it. At the end, he'll
make up for it when he sells it. Whether that
(09:48):
person puts a radiator in it or not, it's not
for Steve to decide. As long as he tells him
about it, which I know he will, it's done. Steve
had value for his dollar. He was safe, it was reliable.
Kevin put a back battery in this car before it failed.
Battery was three and a half years old. It'll before
in March, and I think it was the right move.
I really do, because that battery is going to fail
(10:10):
at some point somewhere in the next year. I rarely
see a group fifty one make the five year mark,
and that's when the drama begins. It never fails at
a bad time. And if you're going to keep a
car safe and reliable, you have to work to keep
it safe and reliable. You have to understand and deal
with maintenance on a case by case, month by month basis.
(10:32):
The words I've been saying them for the as long
as I'm here on Radio thirty three going on thirty
four years. You have to plan maintenance for the vehicle.
There has to be that dollar amount per month. I
think the new number it used to be a bucket
a quarter. I think with inflation, in the current state
of the industry and the amount of technology and the
way I've seen repairs change in the last four to
five years alone, I think that new number is one
(10:54):
hundred and fifty a month. I think you have to
put one hundred and fifty bucks away every month, and
whether you use it or not every month, that's okay.
But you know it begins at the three year mark.
So once you're done paying off a portion of that
vehicle at three years, start to put away one hundred
and fifty bucks a month. I don't care where you
do it, but just plan, plan for the repair that
(11:17):
may or may not come, because when it comes in
years four and five and six and seven, you've got
a little bit of a nest egg to fall back on,
because it will come, it will happen, or you're going
to be like Fred. You're gonna be stuck on the
side of the road with a seven going on eight
year old battery saying why did I wait so long?
And then find out not just a battery, but you've
also made the alternator work cards, so now you need
(11:37):
an alternator, and all of a sudden, repairs start to snowball.
Cars are a maintenance bucket. I think that's the best
way I can open today's show and explain to you
that there is no free lunch. There is no way
around it. The only way to save money with a
car is to not own one eight five five five
six oh nine nine zero zero and running eating the
car Doctor. I'll be back right after this to open
(11:58):
the phones.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Don't go anywhere, Laura, time ride it on the wall
so you don't forget to call for car advice.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Done right? Eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. Now back to Ron. Hey, let's get out
to Joel in Pennsylvania. Kick the garage doors open this hour. Joel,
you're off the Car Doctor at eight five five five
six oh nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
How can I help Hi?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Ron, I'm on the cell phone. Can you hear me clearly?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I sure? Ken? What's cooking?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Oh? Beautiful? Okay? I love your show. First of all,
I want to compliment you. It's a great show. I
never miss it on Saturday. But your guy in the
boot told me Tom that you're also on Sunday and
what time on Sunday morning? Well?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Are there are radio stations that take this show? So
our lifetime is Saturdays two to four pm Eastern time,
we go out over our one hundred and we we're
on one hundred and ninety affiliates around the country, so
we go out on the bulk of our affiliates, and
then it's it's sort of like recording something on your
home you know, DVR, your home cable box. Right, we're
just like, we're just like a DVR. So other affiliates
(13:18):
take it, they bounce it off the satellite, they record it,
and they play it back different times around the country.
So you know, or if you want if you want
to hear you know, if you want to hear today's
show over again. Probably the easiest way is to just
get out to the podcast. Just go just write Ron
and Aian podcast and we're everywhere. We're on Spotify, We're
(13:38):
on iHeart, We're on Amazon, Google, you know, Apple, you
name it wherever, wherever. Podcasts are the car doctors there,
so you can download all the show and take it
with you.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So fantastic.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Onto your question, what's your shop.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
In New Jersey? Why I want to come and see it?
Do you do automatic transit?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You have to find me listen. It's sort of as
I've always been this way, Joel. I try to hide.
I try to hide the shop from the radio show.
I really do. It's easy. It's easy enough to find.
I'm just not here to advertise the shop. And understand
the shop's got a line around the corner. I'm always
happy to talk to people, but I try to do
radio here and shop there. If you get what I'm saying.
But I appreciate the thought I do.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I do. I respect that. I respect that. Thank you,
and one one good mechanic to another. A good mechanic
today is hard to find. Here's my question for you,
and I had to take you down memory lane. I
got a seventy seven Chevy van which I used to use.
The rear end blew up, and it years ago, and
I'm here on a farm in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. So I
(14:42):
jacked it up. I took the differential out and I
used short in the drive shaft, and I used it
to run a powered takeoff generator, which we're fine. And
then you know, I came along a good deal and
I bought a diesel generator on a trailer, so I
didn't need the van anymore. It's been a twelve years.
The engine is frozen up, and I want to restart
(15:04):
it and put the engine in something else. That's a
three point fifty Chevy seventy seven Chevy Van. What is
your secret formula for putting oil down the spark plug holes? Like,
what do you use to free up an engine? You know?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
That's a that's a tough deal. You're gonna you're either
gonna pull plugs out and try and fill it that
way by means of a funnel, which is going to
be hard, or an oil can inject it down, or
you're going to pour it down through the intake valves.
But the only way you're gonna get it open is
if you can't crank it open, you're not going to
get to all the cylinders. You know, have you tried
you're trying electrically to get the engine to turn over,
(15:40):
or you're doing this with a bro Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Been twelve years with the starter. Yeah, right, but it
just goes click click. I expected that, and I try
to pipe branch on the harmonic dam from there. What
I want to do is fill it with your special solution,
be it oil or transfluid or whatever you use.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Coca Cola coke is really coc is really caustic. Man,
It'll it'll ruin your teeth and it'll get an engine
broken loose. What you can try, all right, what you
can try is a little bit of trans fluid and
break fluid mixed together, and more more break more brake
fluid than trans break fluid is very caustic, all right.
(16:19):
And you know, but you've got you're gonna have to
pull plugs. I would fill an oil can with a
flex nozzle on it. I would pull the plug and
pump it in that way and just let it sit
and just give it some time, and you know it's
it's there's no magic formula. It's usually a combination of
break fluid trans fluid. Once in a while I'll put
a shot of pbe blaster in there, because I find
(16:41):
pebe blaster in the right proportion will break down the rust.
The question we've got is, and if you own a borescope,
it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look
inside the cylinder. If you take a look inside the cylinder,
how bad is the rust? Because is it? Is it rust?
It's not a matter of just breaking it free, as
you well know. But for everybody else out there, it's
(17:02):
a matter of has the rust eaten into the cylinder wall?
Are we just right? Is it pitted? Are we beating
a dead horse? So perhaps the solution is to pull
the engine out in the first place. That way you
have access to everything and instead instead of because you're
gonna have to pull the engine anyway, instead of trying
to do it in the vehicle where it's torture, pull
(17:24):
it out, put it on a stand, pull the heads off.
This way you can get a solution on and let
it soak, and let it soak and let it soak.
Can you get it free enough to the point where
then you can crank it over and then take it
out to a machine shop and have them possibly do
a bore or can they do anything with the current
bore size without having to change pistons, et cetera. This
(17:45):
is about, yeah, this is about the least amount of
damage for maximum return. You're gonna have to rebuild it
anyway in all likelihood to keep it reliable. It's just
a question of what can you do for you know,
to keep it safe, to keep it from you know,
hurting it more by trying to break it free. Is
what I'm trying to say, I appreciate the kind words, Joel,
(18:06):
I appreciate the thoughts and by all means if you
got more. If you want more information, check us out
at card doctorshow dot com. I'm ronning any in the
car doctor. I'll be back right after this. Hey, now
(18:43):
wait a minute, Tom, I can't do this. I just
got noticed my as test questions for recertification came up
on my phone. No, that's okay, I'll answer. I'll go
back to the show. I should get extra credit. I'm
doing questions here. I'm doing questions there are you You
aren't cheating? Are you?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
No?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Tom? How could I do that? Well, you just said
the questions came up on your phone. Well then no, no, no,
they you know I should. Actually it's probably illegal to
do this. Let's do it so like you now, I'll
do it next time. So, but yeah, that's how I
I do resertificate. You can do a S recertification by phone.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
They give you the questions. They give you for the
most ridiculous answers in the world, and then you got
to figure out which one is the right one. Uh,
you know, and there's always extenuating circumstance. But please, we
should get somebody from a sc sounds like sounds like
an FCC test, Yeah, kind of. You know, it's it's
because it's which way is the wind blowing? Is it
a damn day? Is it a dry day? Is what's
the weather? What's so? I just I just got noticed
(19:37):
my eight my eight research questions are up. So let's
see if I can how smart I am next year.
Let's go back to the phones. They can talk to
Danny in Mexico City. Daniel, Welcome back, sir. How are
you today?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I'm telling all right, thank you, Ron, How are you good?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
What do you What are you driving this week?
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Well?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just got a twenty twenty four Bryan's new Volkswagen purchase.
That's a I R TU Okay, that's like a like
a Jetta offshoot, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
It's just it's a little sporty some compact thing one
leader or one point leader. Which engine is it?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
It's got the one six uh non targo multi portfield injection,
non direct injected engine. That's one of the reasons why
I picked up model instead of like the JETI you know,
which comes with the direct injected one point four one
five torbo charged engine. There's also a higher up version
(20:30):
of the virtues itself, which should already comes to the
direct inject at one point zero three fiel under engine,
which obviously was not my option.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
So is this is this something? Is this something you
bought in Mexico? This is this is the Mexican version
of this? Or is this something you Yeah, it's yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Actually I bought from Mexico. I'll, I thought, you're in
Mexico City, right, and uh a car comes in part
it from from India. Okay, it's a Hindu model, right
and had like very many birches punt intended.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Now that I'm getting to the car right, right, right, okay,
So what's going on with it?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Well, I don't know if it's normal, but as don't.
As I got the car from the dealership, I noticed
that it's it was a little bit hard for, you know,
for me to maintain like a steady speed, especially when
on first pier, because it's a stick. As I go
up on the gears, you know, second, third, fourth, from fifth,
it's a little easier to maintain a steady speed. And
(21:33):
by maintaining a steady speed, I'm in a steady rpm.
So I tested it out like you know, keeping a
car in neutral, you know, standing still. Uh, and I
try to accelerate the engines like let's say two thousand
RPMs or twenty five hundred RPMs. It's a check and
(21:55):
see if you look in any way possible for me
to maintain that rpm range. And it wasn't. It's like
the engine either accelerates or the or it decelerates. SOTI
if I ease up on the on the paddle with
my foot with my right foot, once I've reached the
fire rpm range, you know, like for instance, two thousand RPMs,
instead of staying there at the two thousand rpm rpm marks,
(22:20):
it immediately goes down as if I had already taken
off my foot from the accelerator.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
There's some there's some, there's some there's some throttle leg
to this is what you're saying, or there's over compensation,
depending upon where you are in the rpm range.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, it's as if like the accelerator paddle itself was
way too sensitive to the foot input. How many if
it's normally.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You know, how many miles are on this danny.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Well, it's got around six like a thousand, like eleven miles, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Does this Does this have OBD two emissions?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah? It does? Okay, Yeah, I mean it's it's got
like all the all about some whistles from a modern car.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, all the usual stuff. I'm gonna I mean, I'm
going to tell you it's probably normal. But because it's
such low mileage, obviously, I'm going to send you back
to the dealer and ask them to explain it. Or
I'm going to tell you to go drive another one,
you know, ask them, hey, can I take another one
around the block. This is my standard way I would
treat it. It's too new of a vehicle, you know,
is it?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And it sounds like it's a fault in the vehicle.
If this is a real problem. If this was a
real problem, that was how can I say it not
a design flaw? By now, you would have turned on
a check engine light, all right. And that's why that's
why I asked. That's why it Yeah, right, That's why
I asked about ob D two because ob D two
is pretty critical and pretty accurate in its responses, So
(23:52):
it's testing everything all the time on a continuous basis.
So I think the first step is, you know, are
you lucky enough to have the model that well, you know,
we're going to come out with a software update in
three to six months. Then we get one, we'll reprogram
everything and we'll make it work like the way it
was supposed to. And it sounds like you're on the
fuzzy line of that. That's why I want to go
(24:13):
drive another one, or at least I want the dealer
to be made aware of it so when they do
come out with the fix, if there is one that exists,
then you can have your paperwork and go, hey, look
at me. I was here first. Uh you know, just
just you've you've documented it as a concern, all right,
you know, yeah, as a real issue. You know, I
(24:35):
see right, you know, do you do? You have an
OBD two scan?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Told Danny, well, I actually down, but I forgot to
mention that I actually took the car so different bulk
flag and specialized shop, right, they scanned it out. The
thing was that I took the part of this mock
check Pats, which is a mobile one so to speak,
where you actually put the uh we are I'm sorry,
(25:00):
the drive wheels on on a set of like spinning rocks, right,
like triggered a whole bunch of like the coats on
the on the dash, and I actually spoke to the
manager there and she told me that, you know, it
was normal, that it was just a matter of time,
you know, driving it alone that would like clear out
all those coats and sure enoughering the all the lights
(25:21):
went out. But when I took the card of the
uh this shop, I'm telling you about these candidates for coats,
and like, I don't know if they uh they put
it on the most six like like you mentioned, but
you know, sure enough, I mean like six different coats,
but most of them relating to the ABS sensors and whatnot,
and one of them to one vehicle speed sensor wor
(25:44):
WORS two present even though you know the chick engine
when I heard and all other lights were run on
the bay ash because all those the meeting coats from
coasts And I asked him about the iterator thing, and
they told me it was normal. But they in any way,
I mean they they told me that they were going
to reset the throttle to the factory spects and that's
(26:04):
what they did. So there was like a slight a
very light improvement in you know, trying to maintain a
steady speak, you know, as far as that was concerned.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Okay, what I what I want you to do is
take this back to the dealership. I want you to explain. Well,
I want you to explain everything you just explained to me,
because it almost it just to my ear, it sounds
like a flaw in the software such that if you
put it on a Dino you're talking about, they put
(26:35):
it on a chassis Dino to test emissions under load
or a loaded mode chassis test for emissions.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
And yeah, exactly, that's what it was.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Right, That's how they Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
See, so you guys are Mexico is now, so that's
about fifteen years ago here in the States when we
had Dinos, So you're about fifteen years behind us in
terms of emissions. For whatever reason. That's just how they're
doing it. Volkswagon, right, right, right, But Volkswagons should have
(27:06):
that built into their software to account for that that
if you're putting the vehicle in an emissions test, you
should be able to put it in an emissions mode.
You don't set false codes. Some of those codes could
be affecting how that vehicle operates. But before I tell
you to have somebody going clear codes and start over.
I want it documented it the dealer. So if there
is an issue, you know, hey, it's not something you created.
(27:28):
You followed the letter of the law and procedure. You
went and got an emissions check done their emissions check,
you know, made the car cock eide. And now they've
got to reset it back to zero, perhaps reset throttle, angle,
verify fuel trim, verify mass airflow operation, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, right down the line. So let's let's be
procedural about this, all right, and let's see where it goes. Now,
(27:50):
we may end up right where we are. It still
may be, you know, a little bit difficult to control
in that first twenty PM of the powerband, but at
least we've got And the other thing is, at least
we've got a dialogue going with the manufacturer saying, hey,
is this is this a problem? Are you aware of it?
And if they work the way they do in the States,
they've got to get enough documented cases of people saying, hey,
(28:12):
my twenty four Volkswagen does this, this, and this, and
when they get to the magic number whatever it is,
it will generate a bulletin and possibly a follow up
with a computer reflesh all right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Yeah, And surprisingly, I just came up with that idea
just that, you know, like a couple of months and
I have into the ownership of this car. Just it
just occurred to me, you know, to go back to
the dealership and ask them to test out like a
brand new car, different right your car on the lot,
you know, and just try to do the same thing,
try to replicate the same thing, you know, because if.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That new one replicates the same thing, Danny, then you
know it's a character flow. If it doesn't, then you
can go back to the dealership and say, hey, come
drive my car, look at what it does, and then
they can diagnose it from there. I got to cut
your shirt, babe. I'm sorry. We're up against the clock.
I appreciate the call as always. Give me a call
back in a week or two. Let me know what
the dealership says. We can continue the conversation. I'm ronning
Andy and the car Doctor. We're coming back right after this. Hey,
(29:21):
let's get on over and talk to Gary and Wisconsin
twenty seventeen Ford Explorer. Gary, you're on with the car doctor.
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Well, like I said, I got that seventeen Explorer. It's
sneaking coolant, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Obviously, anyway, my sons have looked at it briefly.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
And come to the conclusion that it is a.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
It is a water pumped Okay.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
My question in a nutshell, for the most part, is.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
If it's got one hundred thousand miles on that or
just about one hundred thousand, would it be advisable to
change timing?
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Change the timing change with a water pump.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, you're gonna Are you planning to keep it? Yeah? Probably?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
If I don't keep it, I'll sell.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It to one of my kids, right, So it's you know,
you know, and the water pumps on these begin to
fail in the eighties, somewhere between eighty and one hundred
and thirty. You're almost guaranteed you're gonna put a water
pump on one of these. I do have one customer
who's got two hundred and ten thousand miles on an Explore,
never done the water pump. It's it's amazing. I keep
telling him you should write Ford, but Ford'll probably repoll
(30:35):
the vehicle, wondering what they did wrong. You know, Yeah,
if you're doing if you're doing a pump. I would
do chains and associated parts, tensioners, et cetera, just because
you're in there. Because it's it's major surgery to do
this pump. There's a lot to it. On an Explorer,
there's almost enough room to do it in the in
the vehicle. On some of the others it's you're gonna
(30:56):
end up pulling it out. But on an explorer you
can almost get away with it if you're careful and
you take your time. But it's just it's it's a
tough repair. It's in a horrible spot. Make sure you
use good quality parts, and I would change the chains
just so I don't have to go in there again.
It's only going to help things, you know, long longevity wise.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, is there a Is there a water punk you'd recommend?
Should I go with Fomako or you know, for Motor Company.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I'd use it. I'd use all for I use all
I would use and I do use all forward parts
on something like this. I don't fool around, all right.
You know, I've had the best success with it. And
you know there are some places we're all using aftermarket pump.
This isn't one of them. I want all the engineering
I can get because I don't want to do this
job twice. Yeah, you know, it's just it's it's it's.
(31:46):
This is open heart surgery. The only way this could
be more complicated is if they tried to make you
do it with the engine running. So you know, it's
it's it's one of those, all right, kiddo, all right,
all right, help, you're very welcome. Good luck. And by
the way, if you are going to do this on
your own, be aware there's a bunch of special tools involved,
(32:06):
so make sure you read up on it and that
you're tooled up as well. It's not just a matter
of parts.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
All right, Yeah, so I'll do that.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Thank you. You're very welcome. Gary, you'd be well, yeah,
it's not it's doable. It's very doable. It's a very mechanical, nutting,
bold job. But you do need special tools. So I'm
running Endy in the car doctor eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. I'll be back right
after this and let's see as we wind it down.
(32:46):
You know, this must be research Kathy's fault. She's off today.
She's out doing haircuts or something. I forget where she
said she was going today. She does haircuts as one
of her careers, and she would have reminded me we
were supposed to give away the Corvette book this hour.
I forgot so next hour Corvette Stingray The Mid Engine Revolution.
We posted it up on the Facebook page. We'll give
(33:08):
it away next hour to some lucky winner that we've
had this book for a while. We're just trying to
clean out the closet to get ready for next year
because I know there'll be a whole new pilot. First
thing that happens when you get older. Man, Yeah, I'm
telling you, your memory goes. You know, it's just yeah.
But the problem is when my memory goes, I'm gonna
start spouting things from nineteen seventy one. You can imagine
all the things I remember. Good lord, you know somebody
(33:29):
said to me the other day. They asked me, They said,
how do you do it? You know it's it's what's
the secret? I go, there is no secret. I just
remember things. Now. I'm at that age, you know, as
we get older, where you know it's it's you know er,
I'll remember this about the car, but I don't know
how to turn that round thing on the door to
get it open. You know, I sort of I sort
of get confused. It's it's what is that? What is that?
(33:49):
And how does it work? What was your name again? Oh? Tom?
So anyway, so next hour we're definitely going to give
away you know, Corvette the American, the mid Engine Revolution,
Corvette Sting, very nice hardcover, full call or copy pictures.
It's a great book, it really is. It's you know,
so we have to do that. Yeah, I have a
question too. By the way, as long as we're kind
of finishing up this hour, I would like to know.
(34:11):
You know, it's no secret. I'm sure you're aware. We've
we've added a car doctor store to the website. If
you get to card doctorshow dot com and scroll all
the way over to the right, there's a button there
that says merchandise. Well, I had a conversation with rich
or Rich and Scott are my web guys, and you know,
do we call it merchandise? Do we call it car
doctor shop? Do we call it shop? Do we call
(34:32):
it logo and gear or I'm sorry, gear and clothing.
I don't know. We ended up with merchandise. If you've
got a better idea of what that button should be called,
please I'd like to know. I would appreciate your thoughts.
What do we call the car doctor shop where you
can get t shirts and hats and hoodies and coffee
cups and all those other cool things. So you wanted it,
you got it. That was this year, So we look
(34:55):
forward to next year with you. Anyway, coming up next hour,
we'll give away Corvette. I'm run an eighty in the
car dock. Sure, what was I supposed to say? Next? Oh?
That's right. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. To see
you
Ron Anium, I want to talk a little bit about
the small time repair shops. And you know the value
of small town, small time, big time. You know the
repair shop. I don't think it's the size. I think
it's I think it's the size of the heart of
the repair shop.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We bought it spot.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The car Doctor.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm going to buy a used SUV or small shock camp.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I've heard we should avoid the COVID.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Car year twenty twenty to twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Is that true?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I've never heard that.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananium, 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.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
The garage doors are open, but I am here to
take your call at eight five five five six ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hundred and nah pe running.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Ramble a little bit, which is different than a rambler,
which was American Motors. But that's a different conversation. It
was kind of interesting in the shop this week. It's
it's a it's a it's a short week, right, it
was it was. It was holiday week, Christmas week, and
the repairs just seemed to be a little bit diverse,
but but simple. It was all simple stuff this week.
It was it was really obvious, staring at you in
(01:34):
the face. Kind of stuff you didn't have to go
looking for. We had two twenty fourteen hondas well. Actually
one was a Honda. One was an Accurate that had,
you know, different failures. One was the the twenty fourteen Honda.
The accord had a complaint of the fan didn't work.
Now you know, here's here's the misnomer, right, here's the
(01:55):
here's the part where you you you have to be
so exact and how you talk to the vehicle owner.
When Steve came in, Well, when Steve made the phone call,
he said, hey, Ron, the fan doesn't work in the Honda.
And I said okay, and he said, yeah, it only
seems to turn slow, not fast. So in my mind
(02:15):
I'm thinking heater fan, because sometimes we call the heater
fan the fan, but it's not. It's to me, it's
the blower motor. But I didn't correct him, you know,
my fault. But I knew I would catch up when
he came in. When he actually dropped off the car.
So he came in the next day, dropped off the
car and we're talking and he's telling me the fan
doesn't work. And I asked him, I said which fan
and he said the one under the hood. Okay, And
(02:37):
how do you know that? He says, well, I watch
it. It never comes on. And he said, and if I
stick my finger in it and try to turn it,
it doesn't make it turn. It just it spins. But
it never it never actually runs fast. So of course,
naturally I had a question. You know, Steve, never stick
your hand in the fan when it's not working, because
you never know when it's going to come on, and
(02:57):
you're gonna get up, you're gonna get a horrible man
here the wrong way, and you'll never need to go
to a manicurist again. At least you'll save money because
you'll have two less fingers. So I explained that to him,
and he said the engines. I said, what made you
think the fan's not working? And watch how we get
to this. He says, well, it's overheating. Oh well, that's
what you should have told me in the first place,
(03:19):
right I You know, how about you calling me up
and you know, sometimes it's how you explain it to
the mechanic. Okay, ssych. I had to give Steve the
speech about you know, when you're talking to the mechanic,
you've got to talk simple, You've got to talk direct,
because it's not that we're not paying attention, but you know,
we're we're dealing with so many other things during the
course of the day. Imagine you're talking with a doctor
in the middle of surgery and you know you're in
(03:41):
there and you're saying, hey, it does this, Well, wait
a minute, which which direction are we going. Steve was
an easy repair, simple. Once we got down to the
meat and potatoes of it, he was he was out
of coolant. The radiator was oh, two thirds of the
way empty, and sure enough we found a coolant leak
the radiator. The plastic tank that sits against the aluminum
crimp had started to seep out over time, and when
(04:03):
we had a longer conversation with Steve, we found out
that the vehicle had been sitting about two and a
half months. He's getting ready to sell it, and he
was taking it out for one last ride and to
try and charge the battery a little bit and clean
the rust off the rotors and and that kind of stuff.
He's found another car for his son, who's now back
from college for the holidays, and he's going to be
driving the newer car. Let's get rid of the older car,
et cetera. So you know, the choices were, do we
(04:27):
put a radiator in it, which is you know, a
five to six hundred dollars repair parts in labor, some coolant,
et cetera. Or you know, can we can we put
a justifiable, fair and equal patch to it. Well, you know,
naturally what I did. You know what I'm going to
tell you. We put a bottle of K seal in it. Yes,
it absolutely worked. Yes, it's absolutely legit. I trust Steve.
(04:48):
I take Steve at face value. Steve said he's going
to tell whoever he sells it to, hey, it needs
a radiator. You know, he's going to show them all
the repair bills, of which on my bill it's going
to say needs radiator. We've added k seal. It'll work,
you know for now, it'll probably work long term. But
you want to be honest with people. You want to
tell them, hey, you know it's coming to a for
a radiator. It's ten years old, it's got one hundred
and twenty thousand miles on it. You don't want to
(05:10):
you don't want to hide something. You know, if somebody
else is comfortable driving around with case inling it, which
I would be, but you want to give people that option.
So that was done. Then we had a twenty fourteen Acura,
which is really a Honda in hiding. They came in
for an oil change and it didn't need much, It
really didn't. It's just that I know the vehicle is
going down to Tennessee after New Year's It's it's going
(05:31):
to head back and we're not going to see it
again for another ten months when it comes back home
next fall. And I know I'm rambling, and I told
you I was going to ramble, and I got through
with the car. And you know, it's hard, right when
a vehicle is out of your touch for ten months,
you've and it's you know, it's ten going on eleven
years old. You've got to be so sure that I do.
I take it very much to heart that I'm sending
(05:53):
out a young person, especially in a car that's going
to be six seven hundred miles away from home, that
it's going to be safe and operable for you know,
the next ten months, and maybe it needs an oil
change in the course of things and so forth. I
looked at the battery. The battery in this Honda had
this Accura same thing, had a date code of twenty
twenty one. It's just coming up on four years. It'll
(06:15):
be March of twenty one, so March of twenty five
will be a four year battery. It passed its load test,
and the day that it came to the shop, it
passed its load test in real life because it was
I think that was the day. It was twelve degrees out.
It was kind of cold. But I said to Kevin,
I said, Kevin, you know, what do you want to
do here? I said, You're not going to have this
vehicle home for another ten months. I said. A group
(06:36):
size fifty one, which is what's in this Honda, like
it's in so many Hondas. Group size is the physical
dimension of the battery. It has nothing to do with
cold cranking amster capability. It's designed to fit the vehicle.
And I'm sure cold cranking, amps and group size all
are intertwined. Then it all comes into effect with each other.
But you know, I said to Kevin, I said, you
(06:57):
know this group size fifty one, the group size fifty
one is the biggest failure battery group size we have
in the shop. And I think a lot of other
shops would back this up. I've talked to guys at
the Handa dealership. They tell me how they'll sell thirty
batteries in a day. It's crazy. Group fifty ones are
just horrible. So I said to Kevin the owner, I said, look,
do you want to send your son down? When do
you want to get the phone call? Is what it
(07:18):
comes down to, you know, And I explained, you know
what we're talking group size, And if you want to
know more about group size, go out to auto batteries
dot com. You can read about group size and CCA
and everything else. There'll explain it all to you. And
I explained to Kevin about group size and he got it.
I said, no, I can't put a bigger battery in.
This is what fits the car and it does. You couldn't.
You couldn't put a different size group size in this
(07:39):
particular accurate because the battery tray is specific for that.
I said, when do you want to get the phone call?
That you know? Hey, Dad, I'm stuck. So I thought
about it in a minute and he said, yeah, you're right,
He said, go ahead, put a battery in it. And
we did. You know, it's I'm never going to retire
selling somebody a battery, but I'm going to keep somebody safe,
because that's that's really the job of a mechanic.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
If a battery goes dead, it's an inconvenience. Well, it depends, right.
If it goes dead on a guy, it's an adventure.
If it goes dead on a woman, I think it
puts her in danger. It puts her in a vicarious situation,
you know, And I've I've always thought like that, raising
three daughters. I always want, you know, I always want
to know my girls are as safe as I can
possibly make them. And even with guys. Right in this
(08:23):
day and age, nobody should be stuck on the road.
But it's a slightly different approach. And the reason I
talk to you about this is, you know, it's important.
Don't be like the one customer I had this week, Fred.
And I don't know if Fred listens to the show
or not. I don't really don't care. You know, I'm
gonna call him like I see him. Fred's driving a
(08:45):
twenty seventeen Ram pickup that still has the original battery
in it. That battery is seven going on eight years old.
It's a five year battery, and Fred is working on
the belief system is that when it fails, he'll deal
with it. Everything has a finite life. In order repair
everything has you know, we think it's going to last
(09:06):
this long type of approach, because nothing lasts forever. And
I think you have to read the handwriting on the wall.
If you're driving a vehicle with a five year battery
and the battery seven years old, you know you're rolling
the dice. You might as well go to Atlantic City,
New Jersey. You might as we go out to Vegas
and start playing at the craps table, because you're just
going to try and beat the odds. Cars are a
(09:28):
maintenance bucket, right, You know, there is no free lunch.
Every mile you drive is going to cost you something
in the long run. In the case of Steve with
the Honda, he got three years out of this twenty
fourteen accord. He's found something better. He had to put
a couple of bucks in it. At the end, he'll
make up for it when he sells it. Whether that
(09:48):
person puts a radiator in it or not, it's not
for Steve to decide. As long as he tells him
about it, which I know he will, it's done. Steve
had value for his dollar. He was safe, it was reliable.
Kevin put a back battery in this car before it failed.
Battery was three and a half years old. It'll before
in March, and I think it was the right move.
I really do, because that battery is going to fail
(10:10):
at some point somewhere in the next year. I rarely
see a group fifty one make the five year mark,
and that's when the drama begins. It never fails at
a bad time. And if you're going to keep a
car safe and reliable, you have to work to keep
it safe and reliable. You have to understand and deal
with maintenance on a case by case, month by month basis.
(10:32):
The words I've been saying them for the as long
as I'm here on Radio thirty three going on thirty
four years. You have to plan maintenance for the vehicle.
There has to be that dollar amount per month. I
think the new number it used to be a bucket
a quarter. I think with inflation, in the current state
of the industry and the amount of technology and the
way I've seen repairs change in the last four to
five years alone, I think that new number is one
(10:54):
hundred and fifty a month. I think you have to
put one hundred and fifty bucks away every month, and
whether you use it or not every month, that's okay.
But you know it begins at the three year mark.
So once you're done paying off a portion of that
vehicle at three years, start to put away one hundred
and fifty bucks a month. I don't care where you
do it, but just plan, plan for the repair that
(11:17):
may or may not come, because when it comes in
years four and five and six and seven, you've got
a little bit of a nest egg to fall back on,
because it will come, it will happen, or you're going
to be like Fred. You're gonna be stuck on the
side of the road with a seven going on eight
year old battery saying why did I wait so long?
And then find out not just a battery, but you've
also made the alternator work cards, so now you need
(11:37):
an alternator, and all of a sudden, repairs start to snowball.
Cars are a maintenance bucket. I think that's the best
way I can open today's show and explain to you
that there is no free lunch. There is no way
around it. The only way to save money with a
car is to not own one eight five five five
six oh nine nine zero zero and running eating the
car Doctor. I'll be back right after this to open
(11:58):
the phones.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Don't go anywhere, Laura, time ride it on the wall
so you don't forget to call for car advice.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Done right? Eight five five five six zero nine nine
zero zero. Now back to Ron. Hey, let's get out
to Joel in Pennsylvania. Kick the garage doors open this hour. Joel,
you're off the Car Doctor at eight five five five
six oh nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
How can I help Hi?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Ron, I'm on the cell phone. Can you hear me clearly?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
I sure? Ken? What's cooking?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Oh? Beautiful? Okay? I love your show. First of all,
I want to compliment you. It's a great show. I
never miss it on Saturday. But your guy in the
boot told me Tom that you're also on Sunday and
what time on Sunday morning? Well?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Are there are radio stations that take this show? So
our lifetime is Saturdays two to four pm Eastern time,
we go out over our one hundred and we we're
on one hundred and ninety affiliates around the country, so
we go out on the bulk of our affiliates, and
then it's it's sort of like recording something on your
home you know, DVR, your home cable box. Right, we're
just like, we're just like a DVR. So other affiliates
(13:18):
take it, they bounce it off the satellite, they record it,
and they play it back different times around the country.
So you know, or if you want if you want
to hear you know, if you want to hear today's
show over again. Probably the easiest way is to just
get out to the podcast. Just go just write Ron
and Aian podcast and we're everywhere. We're on Spotify, We're
(13:38):
on iHeart, We're on Amazon, Google, you know, Apple, you
name it wherever, wherever. Podcasts are the car doctors there,
so you can download all the show and take it
with you.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So fantastic.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Onto your question, what's your shop.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
In New Jersey? Why I want to come and see it?
Do you do automatic transit?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You have to find me listen. It's sort of as
I've always been this way, Joel. I try to hide.
I try to hide the shop from the radio show.
I really do. It's easy. It's easy enough to find.
I'm just not here to advertise the shop. And understand
the shop's got a line around the corner. I'm always
happy to talk to people, but I try to do
radio here and shop there. If you get what I'm saying.
But I appreciate the thought I do.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I do. I respect that. I respect that. Thank you,
and one one good mechanic to another. A good mechanic
today is hard to find. Here's my question for you,
and I had to take you down memory lane. I
got a seventy seven Chevy van which I used to use.
The rear end blew up, and it years ago, and
I'm here on a farm in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. So I
(14:42):
jacked it up. I took the differential out and I
used short in the drive shaft, and I used it
to run a powered takeoff generator, which we're fine. And
then you know, I came along a good deal and
I bought a diesel generator on a trailer, so I
didn't need the van anymore. It's been a twelve years.
The engine is frozen up, and I want to restart
(15:04):
it and put the engine in something else. That's a
three point fifty Chevy seventy seven Chevy Van. What is
your secret formula for putting oil down the spark plug holes? Like,
what do you use to free up an engine? You know?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
That's a that's a tough deal. You're gonna you're either
gonna pull plugs out and try and fill it that
way by means of a funnel, which is going to
be hard, or an oil can inject it down, or
you're going to pour it down through the intake valves.
But the only way you're gonna get it open is
if you can't crank it open, you're not going to
get to all the cylinders. You know, have you tried
you're trying electrically to get the engine to turn over,
(15:40):
or you're doing this with a bro Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Been twelve years with the starter. Yeah, right, but it
just goes click click. I expected that, and I try
to pipe branch on the harmonic dam from there. What
I want to do is fill it with your special solution,
be it oil or transfluid or whatever you use.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Coca Cola coke is really coc is really caustic. Man,
It'll it'll ruin your teeth and it'll get an engine
broken loose. What you can try, all right, what you
can try is a little bit of trans fluid and
break fluid mixed together, and more more break more brake
fluid than trans break fluid is very caustic, all right.
(16:19):
And you know, but you've got you're gonna have to
pull plugs. I would fill an oil can with a
flex nozzle on it. I would pull the plug and
pump it in that way and just let it sit
and just give it some time, and you know it's
it's there's no magic formula. It's usually a combination of
break fluid trans fluid. Once in a while I'll put
a shot of pbe blaster in there, because I find
(16:41):
pebe blaster in the right proportion will break down the rust.
The question we've got is, and if you own a borescope,
it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look
inside the cylinder. If you take a look inside the cylinder,
how bad is the rust? Because is it? Is it rust?
It's not a matter of just breaking it free, as
you well know. But for everybody else out there, it's
(17:02):
a matter of has the rust eaten into the cylinder wall?
Are we just right? Is it pitted? Are we beating
a dead horse? So perhaps the solution is to pull
the engine out in the first place. That way you
have access to everything and instead instead of because you're
gonna have to pull the engine anyway, instead of trying
to do it in the vehicle where it's torture, pull
(17:24):
it out, put it on a stand, pull the heads off.
This way you can get a solution on and let
it soak, and let it soak and let it soak.
Can you get it free enough to the point where
then you can crank it over and then take it
out to a machine shop and have them possibly do
a bore or can they do anything with the current
bore size without having to change pistons, et cetera. This
(17:45):
is about, yeah, this is about the least amount of
damage for maximum return. You're gonna have to rebuild it
anyway in all likelihood to keep it reliable. It's just
a question of what can you do for you know,
to keep it safe, to keep it from you know,
hurting it more by trying to break it free. Is
what I'm trying to say, I appreciate the kind words, Joel,
(18:06):
I appreciate the thoughts and by all means if you
got more. If you want more information, check us out
at card doctorshow dot com. I'm ronning any in the
car doctor. I'll be back right after this. Hey, now
(18:43):
wait a minute, Tom, I can't do this. I just
got noticed my as test questions for recertification came up
on my phone. No, that's okay, I'll answer. I'll go
back to the show. I should get extra credit. I'm
doing questions here. I'm doing questions there are you You
aren't cheating? Are you?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
No?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Tom? How could I do that? Well, you just said
the questions came up on your phone. Well then no, no, no,
they you know I should. Actually it's probably illegal to
do this. Let's do it so like you now, I'll
do it next time. So, but yeah, that's how I
I do resertificate. You can do a S recertification by phone.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
They give you the questions. They give you for the
most ridiculous answers in the world, and then you got
to figure out which one is the right one. Uh,
you know, and there's always extenuating circumstance. But please, we
should get somebody from a sc sounds like sounds like
an FCC test, Yeah, kind of. You know, it's it's
because it's which way is the wind blowing? Is it
a damn day? Is it a dry day? Is what's
the weather? What's so? I just I just got noticed
(19:37):
my eight my eight research questions are up. So let's
see if I can how smart I am next year.
Let's go back to the phones. They can talk to
Danny in Mexico City. Daniel, Welcome back, sir. How are
you today?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I'm telling all right, thank you, Ron, How are you good?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
What do you What are you driving this week?
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Well?
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just got a twenty twenty four Bryan's new Volkswagen purchase.
That's a I R TU Okay, that's like a like
a Jetta offshoot, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
It's just it's a little sporty some compact thing one
leader or one point leader. Which engine is it?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
It's got the one six uh non targo multi portfield injection,
non direct injected engine. That's one of the reasons why
I picked up model instead of like the JETI you know,
which comes with the direct injected one point four one
five torbo charged engine. There's also a higher up version
(20:30):
of the virtues itself, which should already comes to the
direct inject at one point zero three fiel under engine,
which obviously was not my option.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
So is this is this something? Is this something you
bought in Mexico? This is this is the Mexican version
of this? Or is this something you Yeah, it's yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Actually I bought from Mexico. I'll, I thought, you're in
Mexico City, right, and uh a car comes in part
it from from India. Okay, it's a Hindu model, right
and had like very many birches punt intended.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Now that I'm getting to the car right, right, right, okay,
So what's going on with it?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Well, I don't know if it's normal, but as don't.
As I got the car from the dealership, I noticed
that it's it was a little bit hard for, you know,
for me to maintain like a steady speed, especially when
on first pier, because it's a stick. As I go
up on the gears, you know, second, third, fourth, from fifth,
it's a little easier to maintain a steady speed. And
(21:33):
by maintaining a steady speed, I'm in a steady rpm.
So I tested it out like you know, keeping a
car in neutral, you know, standing still. Uh, and I
try to accelerate the engines like let's say two thousand
RPMs or twenty five hundred RPMs. It's a check and
(21:55):
see if you look in any way possible for me
to maintain that rpm range. And it wasn't. It's like
the engine either accelerates or the or it decelerates. SOTI
if I ease up on the on the paddle with
my foot with my right foot, once I've reached the
fire rpm range, you know, like for instance, two thousand RPMs,
instead of staying there at the two thousand rpm rpm marks,
(22:20):
it immediately goes down as if I had already taken
off my foot from the accelerator.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
There's some there's some, there's some there's some throttle leg
to this is what you're saying, or there's over compensation,
depending upon where you are in the rpm range.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, it's as if like the accelerator paddle itself was
way too sensitive to the foot input. How many if
it's normally.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
You know, how many miles are on this danny.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Well, it's got around six like a thousand, like eleven miles, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Does this Does this have OBD two emissions?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah? It does? Okay, Yeah, I mean it's it's got
like all the all about some whistles from a modern car.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, all the usual stuff. I'm gonna I mean, I'm
going to tell you it's probably normal. But because it's
such low mileage, obviously, I'm going to send you back
to the dealer and ask them to explain it. Or
I'm going to tell you to go drive another one,
you know, ask them, hey, can I take another one
around the block. This is my standard way I would
treat it. It's too new of a vehicle, you know,
is it?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And it sounds like it's a fault in the vehicle.
If this is a real problem. If this was a
real problem, that was how can I say it not
a design flaw? By now, you would have turned on
a check engine light, all right. And that's why that's
why I asked. That's why it Yeah, right, That's why
I asked about ob D two because ob D two
is pretty critical and pretty accurate in its responses, So
(23:52):
it's testing everything all the time on a continuous basis.
So I think the first step is, you know, are
you lucky enough to have the model that well, you know,
we're going to come out with a software update in
three to six months. Then we get one, we'll reprogram
everything and we'll make it work like the way it
was supposed to. And it sounds like you're on the
fuzzy line of that. That's why I want to go
(24:13):
drive another one, or at least I want the dealer
to be made aware of it so when they do
come out with the fix, if there is one that exists,
then you can have your paperwork and go, hey, look
at me. I was here first. Uh you know, just
just you've you've documented it as a concern, all right,
you know, yeah, as a real issue. You know, I
(24:35):
see right, you know, do you do? You have an
OBD two scan?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Told Danny, well, I actually down, but I forgot to
mention that I actually took the car so different bulk
flag and specialized shop, right, they scanned it out. The
thing was that I took the part of this mock
check Pats, which is a mobile one so to speak,
where you actually put the uh we are I'm sorry,
(25:00):
the drive wheels on on a set of like spinning rocks, right,
like triggered a whole bunch of like the coats on
the on the dash, and I actually spoke to the
manager there and she told me that, you know, it
was normal, that it was just a matter of time,
you know, driving it alone that would like clear out
all those coats and sure enoughering the all the lights
(25:21):
went out. But when I took the card of the
uh this shop, I'm telling you about these candidates for coats,
and like, I don't know if they uh they put
it on the most six like like you mentioned, but
you know, sure enough, I mean like six different coats,
but most of them relating to the ABS sensors and whatnot,
and one of them to one vehicle speed sensor wor
(25:44):
WORS two present even though you know the chick engine
when I heard and all other lights were run on
the bay ash because all those the meeting coats from
coasts And I asked him about the iterator thing, and
they told me it was normal. But they in any way,
I mean they they told me that they were going
to reset the throttle to the factory spects and that's
(26:04):
what they did. So there was like a slight a
very light improvement in you know, trying to maintain a
steady speak, you know, as far as that was concerned.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Okay, what I what I want you to do is
take this back to the dealership. I want you to explain. Well,
I want you to explain everything you just explained to me,
because it almost it just to my ear, it sounds
like a flaw in the software such that if you
put it on a Dino you're talking about, they put
(26:35):
it on a chassis Dino to test emissions under load
or a loaded mode chassis test for emissions.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
And yeah, exactly, that's what it was.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Right, That's how they Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
See, so you guys are Mexico is now, so that's
about fifteen years ago here in the States when we
had Dinos, So you're about fifteen years behind us in
terms of emissions. For whatever reason. That's just how they're
doing it. Volkswagon, right, right, right, But Volkswagons should have
(27:06):
that built into their software to account for that that
if you're putting the vehicle in an emissions test, you
should be able to put it in an emissions mode.
You don't set false codes. Some of those codes could
be affecting how that vehicle operates. But before I tell
you to have somebody going clear codes and start over.
I want it documented it the dealer. So if there
is an issue, you know, hey, it's not something you created.
(27:28):
You followed the letter of the law and procedure. You
went and got an emissions check done their emissions check,
you know, made the car cock eide. And now they've
got to reset it back to zero, perhaps reset throttle, angle,
verify fuel trim, verify mass airflow operation, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, right down the line. So let's let's be
procedural about this, all right, and let's see where it goes. Now,
(27:50):
we may end up right where we are. It still
may be, you know, a little bit difficult to control
in that first twenty PM of the powerband, but at
least we've got And the other thing is, at least
we've got a dialogue going with the manufacturer saying, hey,
is this is this a problem? Are you aware of it?
And if they work the way they do in the States,
they've got to get enough documented cases of people saying, hey,
(28:12):
my twenty four Volkswagen does this, this, and this, and
when they get to the magic number whatever it is,
it will generate a bulletin and possibly a follow up
with a computer reflesh all right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Yeah, And surprisingly, I just came up with that idea
just that, you know, like a couple of months and
I have into the ownership of this car. Just it
just occurred to me, you know, to go back to
the dealership and ask them to test out like a
brand new car, different right your car on the lot,
you know, and just try to do the same thing,
try to replicate the same thing, you know, because if.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That new one replicates the same thing, Danny, then you
know it's a character flow. If it doesn't, then you
can go back to the dealership and say, hey, come
drive my car, look at what it does, and then
they can diagnose it from there. I got to cut
your shirt, babe. I'm sorry. We're up against the clock.
I appreciate the call as always. Give me a call
back in a week or two. Let me know what
the dealership says. We can continue the conversation. I'm ronning
Andy and the car Doctor. We're coming back right after this. Hey,
(29:21):
let's get on over and talk to Gary and Wisconsin
twenty seventeen Ford Explorer. Gary, you're on with the car doctor.
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Well, like I said, I got that seventeen Explorer. It's
sneaking coolant, okay.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Obviously, anyway, my sons have looked at it briefly.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
And come to the conclusion that it is a.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
It is a water pumped Okay.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
My question in a nutshell, for the most part, is.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
If it's got one hundred thousand miles on that or
just about one hundred thousand, would it be advisable to
change timing?
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Change the timing change with a water pump.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, you're gonna Are you planning to keep it? Yeah? Probably?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
If I don't keep it, I'll sell.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It to one of my kids, right, So it's you know,
you know, and the water pumps on these begin to
fail in the eighties, somewhere between eighty and one hundred
and thirty. You're almost guaranteed you're gonna put a water
pump on one of these. I do have one customer
who's got two hundred and ten thousand miles on an Explore,
never done the water pump. It's it's amazing. I keep
telling him you should write Ford, but Ford'll probably repoll
(30:35):
the vehicle, wondering what they did wrong. You know, Yeah,
if you're doing if you're doing a pump. I would
do chains and associated parts, tensioners, et cetera, just because
you're in there. Because it's it's major surgery to do
this pump. There's a lot to it. On an Explorer,
there's almost enough room to do it in the in
the vehicle. On some of the others it's you're gonna
(30:56):
end up pulling it out. But on an explorer you
can almost get away with it if you're careful and
you take your time. But it's just it's it's a
tough repair. It's in a horrible spot. Make sure you
use good quality parts, and I would change the chains
just so I don't have to go in there again.
It's only going to help things, you know, long longevity wise.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, is there a Is there a water punk you'd recommend?
Should I go with Fomako or you know, for Motor Company.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I'd use it. I'd use all for I use all
I would use and I do use all forward parts
on something like this. I don't fool around, all right.
You know, I've had the best success with it. And
you know there are some places we're all using aftermarket pump.
This isn't one of them. I want all the engineering
I can get because I don't want to do this
job twice. Yeah, you know, it's just it's it's it's.
(31:46):
This is open heart surgery. The only way this could
be more complicated is if they tried to make you
do it with the engine running. So you know, it's
it's it's one of those, all right, kiddo, all right,
all right, help, you're very welcome. Good luck. And by
the way, if you are going to do this on
your own, be aware there's a bunch of special tools involved,
(32:06):
so make sure you read up on it and that
you're tooled up as well. It's not just a matter
of parts.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
All right, Yeah, so I'll do that.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Thank you. You're very welcome. Gary, you'd be well, yeah,
it's not it's doable. It's very doable. It's a very mechanical, nutting,
bold job. But you do need special tools. So I'm
running Endy in the car doctor eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero. I'll be back right
after this and let's see as we wind it down.
(32:46):
You know, this must be research Kathy's fault. She's off today.
She's out doing haircuts or something. I forget where she
said she was going today. She does haircuts as one
of her careers, and she would have reminded me we
were supposed to give away the Corvette book this hour.
I forgot so next hour Corvette Stingray The Mid Engine Revolution.
We posted it up on the Facebook page. We'll give
(33:08):
it away next hour to some lucky winner that we've
had this book for a while. We're just trying to
clean out the closet to get ready for next year
because I know there'll be a whole new pilot. First
thing that happens when you get older. Man, Yeah, I'm
telling you, your memory goes. You know, it's just yeah.
But the problem is when my memory goes, I'm gonna
start spouting things from nineteen seventy one. You can imagine
all the things I remember. Good lord, you know somebody
(33:29):
said to me the other day. They asked me, They said,
how do you do it? You know it's it's what's
the secret? I go, there is no secret. I just
remember things. Now. I'm at that age, you know, as
we get older, where you know it's it's you know er,
I'll remember this about the car, but I don't know
how to turn that round thing on the door to
get it open. You know, I sort of I sort
of get confused. It's it's what is that? What is that?
(33:49):
And how does it work? What was your name again? Oh? Tom?
So anyway, so next hour we're definitely going to give
away you know, Corvette the American, the mid Engine Revolution,
Corvette Sting, very nice hardcover, full call or copy pictures.
It's a great book, it really is. It's you know,
so we have to do that. Yeah, I have a
question too. By the way, as long as we're kind
of finishing up this hour, I would like to know.
(34:11):
You know, it's no secret. I'm sure you're aware. We've
we've added a car doctor store to the website. If
you get to card doctorshow dot com and scroll all
the way over to the right, there's a button there
that says merchandise. Well, I had a conversation with rich
or Rich and Scott are my web guys, and you know,
do we call it merchandise? Do we call it car
doctor shop? Do we call it shop? Do we call
(34:32):
it logo and gear or I'm sorry, gear and clothing.
I don't know. We ended up with merchandise. If you've
got a better idea of what that button should be called,
please I'd like to know. I would appreciate your thoughts.
What do we call the car doctor shop where you
can get t shirts and hats and hoodies and coffee
cups and all those other cool things. So you wanted it,
you got it. That was this year, So we look
(34:55):
forward to next year with you. Anyway, coming up next hour,
we'll give away Corvette. I'm run an eighty in the
car dock. Sure, what was I supposed to say? Next? Oh?
That's right. Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. To see
you
Host
Ron Ananian
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