Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor on KVOI 1030 AM:
Summary of Interview with Ron Ananian on KVOI AM 1030:
In this interview with Host Allen Kath, on KVOI AM 1030, car expert and radio host Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, discusses the essentials of summer car care and travel preparation. Drawing on over 50 years of automotive repair experience, Ananian shares practical advice for everyday drivers, emphasizing preventative maintenance to avoid breakdowns during road trips.
Key points from the discussion include:
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Start with the basics: Check oil change history, tire pressure, and perform visual inspections. Faded oil change stickers often indicate overdue service.
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Don't wait until the last minute: Due to ongoing parts shortages and quality issues, repair shops may face delays. Plan maintenance well ahead of any travel.
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Synthetic oils are now standard: Older cars still benefit from synthetic blends, but maintenance intervals should still be followed based on time and mileage.
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Battery maintenance is critical: Batteries often fail in hot climates like Arizona due to heat and vibration. A battery over 3–5 years old may be at risk, especially in cars like Hondas that use high-failure Group 51 batteries.
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Dashboard lights matter: Check engine lights are not decorative—they signal real problems and should not be ignored.
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Women are a significant part of his audience: Ananian notes he aims to educate and empower all listeners, especially women, by explaining car issues clearly and from a safety-first perspective.
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Modern vehicles require more technology: Many repairs now need scan tools and battery management resets, making DIY fixes less feasible for most people.
Ananian highlights a cultural tendency to neglect car care until something breaks, comparing it to how people always find money for a broken water heater or air conditioner, but hesitate on car repairs. He encourages drivers to treat car upkeep as a non-negotiable part of travel preparation.
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Visit us at https://www.cardoctorshow.com
- Follow Us On Instagram - @ronananian
- Visit our You Tube Channel for auto repair tips and videos
- Call Into The Car Doctor Hotline 24/7 (855)560-9900
- Live Call In Show Saturdays 2-4PM Eastern Time
Visit us at https://www.cardoctor
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So let's get right to it.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Almost seven oh six and with us this morning from
New Jersey and from I'm guessing his business in New Jersey.
Are a auto ron a Nanyan. The Car Doctor. Ron's
show airs from five to seven am on Saturday mornings
on KVOI. It's appointment radio for years.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Truly.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I can't tell you, Ron, how much I've learned from
your show over the last several years just listening to it.
I wish it were a little I wish it were
in a little later, but I get up at five
just to make sure I get you every Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I appreciate that Allan, good morning, thank you for having
me today.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's great to be here, Ron.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Because this is a travel and tourism show. We'll we'll
branch off a little bit into other things, but I've
got to keep it between the rails at least for
a little while. And I remember you telling me that
you were going to be a guest on another radio
station somewhere back east about summer car care. And so
why don't we go ahead and lift a pay from
(01:00):
your premise with that and tell us what we need
to you know, the regular person. Pretend you're talking to
a golden retriever.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Sure, you know, listen, it's pretty simple, all right. Now,
let me qualify myself. I've only been fixing cars this
side of fifty years, so I don't really know if
this is my career forever. I'm going to give it
a shot, So I speak from what I see on
a daily basis. Some of the things to get your
car ready for a trip or to decide if it's
roadworthy are pretty basic and obvious. Sit in the car,
(01:33):
look up on the left, because that seems to be
where they all are. Now, those oil change stickers. If
all you can read on the oil change sticker is
the name and the place that last did it, you
can't read any of the other information because it's faded.
Chances aren't You're due for an oil change, and we
see that a lot, and it's kind of mind boggling,
you know. So the number one thing I want people
(01:53):
to do to be self empowered is when was your
last service? When was the last time your car had
an oil change, tire pressure, you know, looked underneath it,
a physical inspection and evaluation, you know. The number one
thing I always talk about when I talk about travel
alan is the road is a very unforgiving place, and
it's you know, breaking down is no fun. A flat
(02:15):
tire is no fun. None of it's any fun, and
it can be a little dangerous in certain scenarios. So
you want to make sure your car is as gung
ho and ready to go as you possibly can. And
looking at that oil chain stick or is a good
place to start.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Ron You know, with these synthetic oils that mainly now
every there is no regular oil anymore. They're all blended synthetics.
It seems I can't find it just a straight oil
anymore for my car. And I have older cars, you know,
I drive daily drivers that are you know, twenty years old,
(02:48):
and I keep them going.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
What's your daily driver, Allen?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I have two O two Priuses.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Okay, and those are great cars.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
They are as far as a bad as long as
you keep those bat in check. And I've got a
guy to pull out the bad cells and put the
good ones back in when they go.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know, the Toyota Prius, you know, not the branch
off here, but I'll be quick. The Toyota Prius was
an example of over engineering. Those cars don't break. It's
it's it's an oil change, it's front brakes, and it's
an occasional exhaust by well back here, back here in
the east. I don't know what it is in Arizona,
because do you guys get snow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Once an every five ten years and it melts up
as it comes down.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So, and you do the answer to that question. You're
a great talk show.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, it's it's you know, it's it's. So that's a
great car. That car can go another ten years. And
that's an example of overengineering. You haven't even put rear
brakes on those.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Cars yet, have you. No, I have it, but I
had to put a cat.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I had to put a cat on it because those
cats are very valuable to meth heads because there are
two of them.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, there are two of them.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So I had to find the cat, put it on,
and then I riveted a cat over the cat so
that they can't get it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Right next time, right, yeah, next time? Yeah, So back
to our discussion, right, oil changes. Then let's we're getting
ready to go on a road. We're leaving two weeks
from today. Don't wait till the friday before the Saturday
that you're leaving to take the car in be fair.
You know, I can tell you this. There is a
parts problem that's been brewing for the past couple of years.
(04:27):
There's a quality of parts issue for replacement parts. There's
an availability of parts issue that's becoming more predominant in
the last couple of months. So you know that old
trusted repair shop that you're going to that maybe was
able to turn the car around in a day or two,
you know it might be two weeks now, So you
don't want to let things go to the last minute.
(04:48):
I know it's hard. You know, a lot of us
are procrastinators, but it's it's just the way of the world.
It's the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I'll bet that Ron, I'll bet that you as the
owner of your auto shop, ra Auto and which town
in New Jersey is it in ron.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Waald with New Jersey? But don't tell anybody. We keep
it a secret.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Okay, Well, I'm not coming out there for an oil change.
I promise you that because I have to change it
coming back. I have the feeling because you said that
there's a really critical crisis on parts. These tariffs may
or may not help that right, probably not.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Help they're making They are going to make it worse.
You know, and some of what I speak is tariff related.
The price of things have started to creep up. We've
seen break parts, break pads, and rotors creep up about
three and a half four percent in the last two weeks,
which it kind of doesn't make any sense to me
because I don't think any of the parts from China
have even hit American shores yet to go through the
(05:46):
distribution chain to you know, actually be here. So I
think they're already raising prices. And the answer your question
is why, And the answer is because they can't. Yeah, profits,
you know, profit, it's all about making a buck.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I have to also think Ron that because you're the
chief cook and bottle washer there, that your job every day,
probably job one, is for you to source parts for
cars that are hard to find. And I remember hearing
you say on your show, we found this part in Texas,
we found this part in Michigan, you know, for an
(06:19):
eight or a tan Ford Edge, or you know, you
said Thunderbirds, threes and fours, great cars, but you can't
find parts for them.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Can't find parts for him. Well, the reason and the
reason for that is just a piece of automotive useless
trivia that I keep in my head is because the
two to five Thunderbird was a conglomeration between Ford Motor Company, Jaguar,
and Volvo. All three car companies were involved in the
development of that vehicle, and now twenty some odd years later,
all the parts are gone for it, which is a shame.
(06:50):
You know. I own an O two and it's a
fun car and a convertible drop top. It's just a
great thing to buzz around it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I looked at one the other day and I remembered
what you said that the parts were impossible to find.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Looked over at car World. Here on Oracle Roady.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I have a couple of them, and both of them
are ten thousand bucks apiece, and I thought, see, that's
cheap if I could find the parts to repair it, right,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Well, you know, maybe the way to look at it,
and this is sort of a fun thing. You think
about travel in vacations, look at the same way back.
It's almost like I do radio. You think about travel
in vacation, what it cost to go on a good vacation.
Maybe buying a ten thousand dollars Thunderbird, driving it for
four months and then selling it. It's an escape, right yeah,
(07:31):
little top down action, little cruising with the wind in
your hair. You know, it's a fun car. It's really
a fun car. I'll tell you. It's at the end
of a long week, there's nothing better than going for
a ride in the bird.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So when we get ready to go on vacation, make
sure your oils checked. And you know, it's not just mileage,
it's also time right.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Time counts. You know, when was the last time tires
were rotated. So a lot of this we can do
ourselves because we're trying to keep records. We're trying to
be good keepers. You know, look at the dashboard, you know,
get in the car, turn on the turn on the key,
but don't start it. Do all the light bulbs that
normally light up light up. Do you see a check
engine light? Do you see an ABS light? You know,
(08:12):
do your own bulb check because technically that's what the
car is doing. I don't know if anybody realizes that,
but when you go from key off to key on,
engine not running, that is bulb check position. The manufacturers
are expecting you, at some point or level to sit
there and look at your dashboard and say, hey, do
I see all the normal things I normally see, yeah,
everything's there, now, start it up. Now. If we're looking
(08:35):
at the car and I see this a lot too, Allen,
and I don't understand that. You know, I see this
on new customers because existing customers know better and we
explain it to them. Why it's bad. Is the check
engine light on? How long has it been on? It's
not meant to be an ornament or a decoration device.
It's it's meant to warn you that there's a problem
with the vehicle and it needs to be addressed. And
(08:56):
you know that can be a big issue. Check in
in light, don't change color, don't change frequency. The only
thing they'll do other than stay on continuously is blink
real quick if there's a serious engine misfire, something in
the way the vehicle is running on which cylinder. But
you know, if and I get we get cars, we
(09:18):
see cars from first time customers. How long is you
check engine light? But on about a year and a half. Yeah,
so yeah, it's a big that's that's a problem. You
know that, that's a very big story to unravel.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Would you say most of your clientele are female as
a percentage?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You know, it's funny you say that, and I don't
know why, but in all my years on radio and
even in the shop. Yeah, now that you mention it,
I track higher with a female audience, with a female listenership.
And I think it's because I explain things.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well and I think too they trust you.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, I get that, I get that. But you know what,
that goes back a long ways. That goes back to
my teaching days. You know, that goes back to when
I was an instructor. You know, women want to know
about how to keep themselves safe in their car, and
I always attack it from that perspective. A guy gets
stuck on the side of the road. Here, let's tell
(10:11):
the story this way, right, because this is where we
were going to go next. How old is your battery? Okay,
because you're going on vacation and the last thing you
need to do is pull into a rest stop after
a four hour ride through the Arizona heat and the
battery fails because batteries fail more in heat than they
do in cold. Believe it or not, but you know,
for a guy to have a dead battery, it's an adventure.
(10:33):
For a woman, could be a bad situation. Yeah, and
you know you want to avoid that so important.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Ron batteries are at least one hundred and fifty to
two hundred and fifty bucks for a decent one, and
you know you may have that budgeted for your vacation.
It may be pretty tight vacation, and so they just think, well,
I can squeeze one more trip out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Everybody wants to squeeze one more trip. Everybody wants to
get one more.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Month more Ronnie sneak.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But you know, you know what my answer is, Alan,
I want to be eighteen and lose another twenty pounds,
and I can handle the twenty pounds. I don't know
about being eighteen again. It's just not going to happen.
So you got to live in reality, is where I
go with this.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So you're you're a preventive guy, because that's your business.
But on the other side of it, I know you
get the fact that this stuff's expensive. You're not cheap either,
and you deserve to make a great living and I
hope you do, and I think you do. But it's
just not ever planned to be in the budget to
fix your car. It's just turn on and go and
(11:35):
if it breaks, we worry about it.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Then well, look at the wording. Look at the way
we're programmed as a society. All right, I just bought
a new car, so I don't have to spend any
money on it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Bingo.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Look at the look at the thought process.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's someone else's problem.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, it's you know, and I never have to fix it.
How come we buy a house? Right? And when the
water heater breaks, you know, we can find that nine
hundred dollars because we all want hot water. When the
air conditioning breaks. How important is air conditioning in Tucson, Arizona?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Kinda kind of important.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, when the air conditioning breaks, we can always find
that two thousand dollars or whatever the number is. But boy,
I'll tell you what the carnate's four tires. I can
sneak it out.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
A sneak it out, that's right.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
I can on the side of the road. And you
know that's a problem.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It is a problem. Seven eighteen. The car doctor is
with us. He's on from five to seven in the
morning on Saturdays on KVO. I, Roddy, give us your
phone number just in cases one eight eight eight five
six oh what eight eight eight.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Five five you know, eight eight five six oh ninety
nine hundred give him a call five eight five five
five six ninety nine hundred.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Give him a call. It'll go to voicemail. And the
great producer Tom Ray who runs Ron show, we'll get
back to you lightning fast like he did to me.
If you have a car question. We may even take
a couple questions if you want. Ron is brilliant with
this stuff. And I don't know if we'll get a
call on it or not because we didn't advertise that.
We just advertised getting your car ready for tourism in
(13:13):
southern Arizona and beyond. But we'll take the break. Be
right back. Seven nineteen. I'm big out with Ron and
Nanian on the voice Paul Simon with I favored that
song quite a bit because my name's Al and his
name is Ron Inanian the car Doctor that airs on
(13:36):
Saturdays here from five to seven am on KVOI Great show.
I'm a hardcore listener of your show.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Ron.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You were talking about batteries giving it up because of
the Arizona heat. I learned last week on your show
that vibration is probably overall the number one cause nationwide
of battery failure.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and everything sparks no pun inded with
a battery. Today, we see so many strange problems from
erratic batteries, batteries that one minute are sitting at twelve
and a half vaults, because I believe it or not,
a twel vault battery has to have a minimum of
twelve and a half vaults to be considered good. A
battery with twelve point two vaults is actually on the
(14:19):
is actually a failed battery in industry standards for a
lot of reasons. But we see a erratic voltage out
of a battery, and that vehicle will do some very
funny things because it tends to drag down the whole vehicle.
And you know, keep in mind, took a little of
the technical stuff Hondas for example, you know computer controller alternators,
(14:40):
like a lot of vehicle manufacturers. You can actually see
a Honda go down the road at twelve and a
half vaults on the charging system until it sees enough
of a load or a demand and it starts to
bump up the alternator charge rate. And you know, you
start to look at the demands and riggers that are
placed on batteries. It's not you know, this isn't your
there's sixty three Chevy and Pala anymore. It's all in
(15:03):
the interest of emissions and mileage and longevity, and they
do some very different things with electrical systems and charging
systems today. So that battery is key.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That battery hides a lot of symptoms I think too.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
On cars, yes, absolutely, and.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
So if it's three years old, because usually they'll away
warranty them out here for about three years. If you
buy a new one from like an autozonner a checker,
that's after three years you're living on borrowed time.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Well, I think three to five. It depends now here
we go. It depends on the car. If you're driving
a Honda, most Hondas have Group fifty one batteries, and
I'm not knocking Honda's alan, I think Honda makes a
great car, all right. But if you're driving a Honda
and it's got a Group fifty one battery, after three years,
I think you're on borrowed time. Is an absolute true
statement because the Group fifty one is the highest failure
(16:00):
rate battery we see in the market. You know, we
do more Group fifty ones in a given year than
any other size, and a group just means the side
the physical dimension of the battery. It's you know, just
to fit that space under the hood of a Honda,
and that group fifty one is just a high failure
rate battery. Talk to the Honda dealer, ask them how
many batteries they do. It's staggering. We've got a Honda
(16:21):
dealership out here, then on a given busy day, we'll
do two hundred and fifty batteries in the middle of
the winter a day.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Is that just because ron is that just is not
a high failure rate. It's just because there's a lot
of them out there.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well yeah, and well, and there's a lot of them
out there. But you know, for all those batteries to
go bed in what I consider a short time period.
But I'll tell you this, all right, If you bring
me a car, you know, a Ford or a GM
or a Chrysler or something, and it's it's a four
and a half year old battery, there's no point to
test it. You know, it's six months away from five years.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
What are we waiting for to save that two hundred bucks?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
To say that two hundred bucks to be stuck on
the side of the road because they think they can
change the battery in their driveway, which on a lot
of vehicles you can't anymore, because you'll put the battery in,
you'll bolt it up, you'll put it in, you'll try
and do some kind of a memory saver because cars
have operating characteristics. Now you know, I'm trying to stay
in my guidelines here, Allen, you know, but but you
(17:23):
know a car picks up operating characteristics. If Alan drove
the car, and then Ron drove the car, and then
my engineer Tom drove the car, you know, over time
it's going to learn our driving habits and characteristics and
how we accelerate and de accelerate, create shift patterns in
the transmission and behavioral characteristics. And then you disconnect the
(17:46):
battery and all that's gone, and and funny things can happen.
So you want to memory save it, is my point.
And then when you've done, memory save it so that
the computer doesn't lose it to memory and you got
your nice fresh battery in there. Sometimes you need to
you have to tell it, hey, I changed the battery
and do a BMI or battery reset. Whole different conversation
(18:08):
it is.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And I got to tell you that I don't have
a scan tool. You talk about them all the time
on your show. Do you have a scan tool? Did
he use a scan tool? And I would say ninety
five percent, maybe even higher the amount of people that
don't have a scan tool, which should probably be great
if you did have one, but I think that probably
(18:28):
most people can't afford one.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah, no, you can't. Scan tools are an entry level
decent scan tools five hundred bucks today.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, Ron, can you hang around, We're going to pull
over and as you say, take a.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Break, sure, I'll be here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Ron Andanian big al on the voice, seven thirty five.
Thanks Willie, I'm big out along with the car doctor
Ron Ananian, who has, as you just heard, his show
running on Saturday mornings from five to seven am. A
little early for a lot of people, but people that
(19:04):
like to work on their own cars or like to
learn stuff, I would suggest you consider just line in bed,
turn that radio on or streaming it to ten thirty
and listen to Ron. Just go stream of mind on
a stream of consciousness on a lot of stuff. I
specifically enjoy at the top of the hour when you
(19:24):
just go stream of consciousness on the things that happened
in the shop, the past week always interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Everybody seems to like that Alan and I And that
really is off the top of my head, you know.
I somebody once asked me, They said, you know what
kind of prep time? How long does it take you
to prep the show? And I looked at them, I
looked at my watch, and I said, you want me
to do it? Now? I tend to. I was taught.
I went to the you know, hard Knocks School of
Radio broadcasting, where they threw me in a room, turned
on the microphone and said talk. So I learned how
(19:53):
to do it off the top of my head. But
they're all real stories, things from the shop that happen
on a weekly basis. You know, this week we would
talk about, you know, if we were going to do
the show this week, I've got interviews set up this
week because I'm gonna go see my grandchildren, to be honest,
or is that next week? I forget which, but regardless,
you know, we talk about all the new parts we
(20:14):
got this week that were bad out of the box
or you know, missing pieces or damaged. You know, we
waited three days to get an air conditioning compressor for
a car this week. Beautiful compressor from DNSO and I
like DNSO. DNSOL is a good product, but everybody's got
their issues. Took this brand new nine hundred dollars AC
compressor out of the box and the electrical connector where
(20:36):
it plugs in was smashed.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
The connector connect Yeah, well it's.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
The connector you know that that feeds power off the engine,
off the vehicle wiring harness. So I had to swap
out the connector because I can't. I can't get another compressor,
you know. As it was, I had a big borrowing
steel to get this one. And you know, what do
you tell the person that needs their car. She's leaving
for North Carolina in two days. It took me three
days to get you know. It's those are the battles
(21:02):
that go on every day that every repair shop in
the country goes through every day.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And so again just to re just to repeat what
you said, make sure if you're going to take a trip,
get it in early, get it in earlier than you
even think to get it in to have it checked out.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, and everybody should have a trusted mechanic. I know
it's hard, but there's something wrong with the person When
somebody walks into my door at the shop, and they're
in their mid forties and they go, you know, I've
been looking for a mechanic my whole life and I
haven't been able to find one. And I always ask
them how long you've been driving? About twenty three years,
So in twenty three years you've been through how many mechanics?
(21:40):
And they'll tell me seven, and I kind of point out,
you know, seven mechanics twenty three years. What's the common denominator?
Are you giving the person a chance to do their job.
I'm not saying there aren't bad mechanics. There's bad mechanics,
there's bad carpenters, there's bad lawyers, there's bad everybody. But
there are decent people out there that are trying to
make a lie, trying to do it right, not by
(22:02):
somebody's perceived values. If you know what I'm saying, let
the guy do his job, let him show you how
brilliant he can be and see the results. It's important.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Seven thirty eight on the Morning Voice. This show, Tom
Molten's show on Thursday's deals with travel and tourism and
southern Arizona and Arizona in general, and we're stretching it
a little bit to just make sure that you have
a vehicle that's going to make it to wherever you
want to be. If you're going on vacation seeing the sites,
maybe you go into the Grand Canyon. Summertime is always
(22:33):
the worst time for travel here in Arizona because of
the possibility of you having a breakdown. So we are
grateful for Ron to be here with us today. Ron,
We're going to take it a little further and just
ask you about when you see the check engine light
and it's been on for a you said a year
and a half. I understand that that may be an exaggeration.
(22:57):
A lot of people just go to checker and see
that it's. Oh, it's just an ignition in a misfire
on cylinder three, probably needs a spark plug. I'm good
to go for another six months, and then when i
get one hundred and fifty to two hundred bucks, I'll
change all the plugs. Not a great idea, but you
understand it, don't you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I understand why they do that. But first let's clarify something. Okay,
a couple of things. A check engine light is designed
by law, the Clean Air Act of nineteen ninety one.
It's ancient history. The Clean Air Act of nineteen ninety one,
which was put into effect in nineteen ninety six, all Right,
mandated that if a vehicle exceeds one and a half
(23:38):
times the legal limits of federal emissions, it will turn
on a check engine light. So anything in a monitored
or watched system that causes a vehicle to be out
of what we call a mission compliance turns on the
check engine light number one, number two. Some cars, most
cars actually once and it sets a problem. We'll use
(24:01):
your example, a misfire. Once it sees a misfire, it
is no longer going to check the catalytic converter to
see if it's operational or healthy. It's no longer going
to do certain evaporative emissions tests, you know, the gas
cap codes that everybody runs crazy about. So leaving a
check engine light on for that year and a half,
which actually isn't an exaggeration. We've seen it. We see
(24:23):
it quite often. Actually sadly, now we fix that original
misfire problem. And the answer is my question is is
my car fix The answer is when it runs all
of its self tests, all of its monitored tests, and
they all run to completion. And there are no fault codes.
Then I know your car is fixed. And I can't
(24:45):
answer it. You can't answer it. Mister Goodrinch couldn't answer it.
If we dug up Walter P. Chrysler, he couldn't answer
It's it's just the way the software in the computers
are set up. So the guy that's leaving that check
engine light on it, look, I get it. You know.
So you go to an autoparts house, you go to checkers,
you go to AutoZone, you get the check engine light tested.
(25:07):
It's not saying if we get a misfire fault. It
doesn't say ignition. I will correct you out. It doesn't
say ignition. It says misfire fire.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, cylinder three, Yeah, cylinder three.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Do you own a lawnmower?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Never? We don't.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We don't cut grass in Arizona or have grass in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
But you have to have some piece of small operational equipment, right,
I'm cylinder something. If it has a misfire, why does
it miss? It's going to miss for one of three reasons.
It's got an ignition miss agreed. It could have a
fuel system missed, the engine's running lean a plugged up carburetor,
or a problem with fuel delivery, or it could have
a mechanical problem burnt valve, internal engine problem, that kind
(25:48):
of a thing. So that misfire never says put a
spark plug in it. It says misfire and it needs
to be diagnosed, or like you say, you take the
guess you put a spark plug in it. But if
a spark plug is bad, why did it go bad?
Is there a carbon deposit issue in the engine. Is
it's so badly warned that that was the first plug
(26:10):
to fail, And now you start to change chase all
the spark plugs around, and you know, one at a time,
we're going to go through this torture. So it really
comes back to where we started our conversation today about
scheduled maintenance. Talking to our trusted mechanic. I'm going on
the road. We spend a lot of time, right we
to go away on a trip. We we call the hotel,
(26:32):
or we call the camping site, you know, we call
the airlines for reservations. We do all this prep and
then we pile into the car and say, yeah, it's good,
no big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Always a mistake, yeah, always.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
A mistake, Always a big mistake, and then you're on
the side of the road, you know, and you know,
if your partners with you, maybe they're telling you, I
told you to get this car into the repair shop.
What's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Especially when the kids are in the car too. I mean,
it's just you're kicking yourself that you just didn't go
to someone like you a couple of weeks before pay
the hundred one hundred and fifty bucks for the for
the all car check or whatever whatever it's called.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
It looked at. Yeah, yeah, it's It's just it's just
so much easier. I always think of the poor guy,
you know here in New Jersey. A real quick story.
I'm going to the car practor one Friday night and
I'm pulling up on there's a there's a traffic jam
at the light, and there's a there's a Honda that's stalled,
and I'm mentioning my way up to the guy and
everybody's blowing their horn and the guy keeps cranking it
(27:31):
and cranking it and cranking it. It's one of those
warm summer nights. The windows are down, it's not that hot.
And I pull up next to it and the wife
is yelling at this poor guy. I told you to
get this car in and what's wrong with you? You
didn't get it checked out? And he's cranking and cranking
and cranking, and the husband puts his head on the
steering wheel and he says, my god, where's the car
doctor when you need him? I swear it's it was
the funniest thing, because that's the way my life is.
(27:52):
Life is, life is. The universe always aligns me in
these situations. Where's the car doctor when you need him?
And I looked at him and I said, here, I am.
I am over at me, and she goes, oh my god.
I didn't know it was you when I said, hey,
it's got a broken timing bell. Stop cranking it. You're
going to break something. The light change. I gotta go
see you. The husband mouse thank you to me, and
I pull a yeah. I always think of that, you know.
(28:15):
It just breaking down just creates so much stress, you know,
it's just such a problem.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Out here in Arizona. We have a wide open spaces,
not so much back where you are, but out here
if you break down, especially between Phoenix and Tucson, not
as bad normally as what it would be if you're
one hundred and twenty miles between two other cities. But
it's bad enough, especially when the wind blows. You got
dust and heat, which is not probably something you've ever experienced.
(28:45):
So you have heat and dust at the same time,
like a lot of it of both. Not a great idea,
and you know, it's just I hate to be in
my life. I've never tried to do in my job
being a nervous nelly and telling people what to do
(29:05):
with their vehicle, but or with anything else. But you
really do need to take it seriously and not just
let it go until you see something that's wrong. Even
if there's nothing wrong, it's not going to hurt to
just go take it and have it looked at right.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
You know, a true professional, a true professional, we'll look
that car over and you know, make that car safe
as if their family was going to write in it.
Every mechanic I've ever hired in my lifetime, every time
I've looked at a car, I always look at it
from what I feel safe writing in this car, or
(29:44):
just as importantly, if my wife and kids were in
a car next to this car on the highway doing
sixty five miles an hour, and you know, that's a
two ton missile going down the road. The wheel falls off,
the tirod breaks, you know, the engine stops, and there's
an eighteen wheeler right behind it. It's a recipe for disaster.
And I don't want to scare anybody, but just some
(30:05):
you know. It's kind of amazing the auto industry runs
as good as it does on a regular basis. With
so many moving pieces, there's such an opportunity for issues.
Just getting the car checked out puts you light years
ahead of having a potential problem and keeps you safe.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
To quote an old dude that is probably now a
fairly decent friend, we're going to pull over for a minute.
Seven forty six on the voice, Tom Molton is in Tampa, Florida,
trying to adjust the tourism issue that we may be
having between Canada, Mexico and the US. Seriously, he said,
(30:42):
I'm going down there to talk to Canadians and Mexican
tour operators and people that are in the tourism business
to see if some of this stuff can be salvaged,
which is very laudable for him to do. So I'm
filling in this Thursday for him. He'll be back probably
next Thursday. Doctor Acerley is here on Fridays as always,
we will be back on the Morning Voice seven forty seven.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Seven fifty two.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
On the Morning Voice, I'm Big Out along with Ron
and Nany and the Car Doctor, heard every Saturday morning
from five to seven on kvo I ten thirty am. Ron.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
We've talked a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
About preventive maintenance, probably a little too much for some people.
What do you like on different cars these days in
terms of features? What don't you like about cars these days?
With different features? What are the higher and lower maintenance
things that are good and bad ideas?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I think, yeah, well, the fluids are well. Where do
I start that question? I like the safety features in
today's cars. Who couldn't write the electronics are good for
that vehicle that's up to seven eight years old. We
see vehicles for example, not to pick on a car line,
but we'll have to. The German cars. You keep an
(32:00):
out he passed year seven and eight. It can get
to be expensive. The electronics can be prohibitive. You know.
It's you want to lease the German car experience, not
own the German car experience. We always say, you know,
because some of those features get to be costly, but
you know they're great cars to drive. You just got
to be prepared. You've got to have the budget in
the pocketbook. You know, you can't go in buying thinking
(32:22):
you're buying an economy car when you do something like that.
I you know, the thing that probably takes most cars
out of the realm of do I repair it or
replace it is the electronics, and then its major component
is drivetrain repair. You know, I don't know that it's
necessarily features. If the electronics hold up, it's a great car.
But for example, we looked at a We had a
(32:44):
customer purchase of twenty sixteen Ford Fusion this week with
one hundred and sixty five thousand miles on it. Nice car,
clean car, white, nice interior, first time driver, seventeen year
old daughter. And like I said to them, the speech
at the counter was, great car, keep up on the
main and keep doing the oil changes in the fluids.
But if the transmission were to fail in that in
(33:05):
New Jersey dollars, that's six sixty five hundred dollars all
day long. It's it's a it's a major repair. And
you know you paid sixteen grand for the car. Do
you put over a third of what you paid into
the car and the way of a transmission, because what if,
what if there's an engine problem? Then where do you go?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Ron?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
What do you I kind of know what the answer
is here. What's your opinion on electric vehicles?
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I don't think we have enough time left?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, I mean, you're going to boil it down. I
don't think you like them too much, and that's okay,
but just tell me why you don't.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
I think they have their place. I don't like them
because I think we're being sold to bill of goods.
It's not practical. You know, you start to run the numbers.
How long does it take that diesel bulldozer to dig
up enough raw material to make one battery? And how
much raw material isn't you know? It's just the numbers
and the math don't work time and time again. Every
(34:04):
study says the point where an EV vehicle becomes carbon
neutral or carbon positive, meaning that it hasn't taken from
the environment somewhere around that sixty thousand mile mark. That's
an awful lot of miles for what we're trying to achieve.
I also look at you know, in practicality, we go
out to Pittsburgh to see the grandchildren. We drive through
(34:25):
a little town called Altuna, nice little town, this in
the Alleghenies. And I always turn to my wife every
time and I say, when they can make enough electricity
and figure out how to get it over the Alleghany
Mountains and feed Altuna, we'll have EV vehicles. But until
then it's a pipe dream. It's not practical. Start looking
at the number of vehicles on the road when you're
out traveling this summer, right, and just close your eyes
(34:48):
and not why you're driving, but just close your eyes
and imagine every one of those is an EV. Pull
into a service station and now you know it's a
gas station. It takes roughly five minutes to fill a
car with PE, so you can do twelve twelve vehicles
per pump per hour. You know it takes an EV
twenty minutes. You can do three vehicles per charging station
(35:10):
per hour. And that's a high rate of charge, and
that may not be maximum charge. Start doing the man,
how are you going to support all these vehicles? Do
I think EDS have their place? Yes, I think a
root vehicle. I think maybe for you know, the mail person,
the police, if they're doing patrol not necessarily high speed pursuit.
(35:32):
If you're on a you know, you're the building inspector
for the town of Tucson and you're driving a predescribed route.
But to use them on an everyday basis, I think
that's a future that's pretty far off until a lot
of things change in the way of economy and technology.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Well, we're out of time. You know what that's like.
You live that dream four or five times every week.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yep, yep. Let me just jump in real quick, all
and everybody should get out the cardoctorshow dot com if
they want more information. We got a lot going on
there and we'll keep everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
All right, Kitto, You have a great one. And good
mechanics aren't expensive.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
They're priceless, baby, They're priceless.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
See you, see you,
So let's get right to it.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Almost seven oh six and with us this morning from
New Jersey and from I'm guessing his business in New Jersey.
Are a auto ron a Nanyan. The Car Doctor. Ron's
show airs from five to seven am on Saturday mornings
on KVOI. It's appointment radio for years.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Truly.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I can't tell you, Ron, how much I've learned from
your show over the last several years just listening to it.
I wish it were a little I wish it were
in a little later, but I get up at five
just to make sure I get you every Saturday.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I appreciate that Allan, good morning, thank you for having
me today.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's great to be here, Ron.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Because this is a travel and tourism show. We'll we'll
branch off a little bit into other things, but I've
got to keep it between the rails at least for
a little while. And I remember you telling me that
you were going to be a guest on another radio
station somewhere back east about summer car care. And so
why don't we go ahead and lift a pay from
(01:00):
your premise with that and tell us what we need
to you know, the regular person. Pretend you're talking to
a golden retriever.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Sure, you know, listen, it's pretty simple, all right. Now,
let me qualify myself. I've only been fixing cars this
side of fifty years, so I don't really know if
this is my career forever. I'm going to give it
a shot, So I speak from what I see on
a daily basis. Some of the things to get your
car ready for a trip or to decide if it's
roadworthy are pretty basic and obvious. Sit in the car,
(01:33):
look up on the left, because that seems to be
where they all are. Now, those oil change stickers. If
all you can read on the oil change sticker is
the name and the place that last did it, you
can't read any of the other information because it's faded.
Chances aren't You're due for an oil change, and we
see that a lot, and it's kind of mind boggling,
you know. So the number one thing I want people
(01:53):
to do to be self empowered is when was your
last service? When was the last time your car had
an oil change, tire pressure, you know, looked underneath it,
a physical inspection and evaluation, you know. The number one
thing I always talk about when I talk about travel
alan is the road is a very unforgiving place, and
it's you know, breaking down is no fun. A flat
(02:15):
tire is no fun. None of it's any fun, and
it can be a little dangerous in certain scenarios. So
you want to make sure your car is as gung
ho and ready to go as you possibly can. And
looking at that oil chain stick or is a good
place to start.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Ron You know, with these synthetic oils that mainly now
every there is no regular oil anymore. They're all blended synthetics.
It seems I can't find it just a straight oil
anymore for my car. And I have older cars, you know,
I drive daily drivers that are you know, twenty years old,
(02:48):
and I keep them going.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
What's your daily driver, Allen?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I have two O two Priuses.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Okay, and those are great cars.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
They are as far as a bad as long as
you keep those bat in check. And I've got a
guy to pull out the bad cells and put the
good ones back in when they go.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know, the Toyota Prius, you know, not the branch
off here, but I'll be quick. The Toyota Prius was
an example of over engineering. Those cars don't break. It's
it's it's an oil change, it's front brakes, and it's
an occasional exhaust by well back here, back here in
the east. I don't know what it is in Arizona,
because do you guys get snow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Once an every five ten years and it melts up
as it comes down.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So, and you do the answer to that question. You're
a great talk show.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, it's it's you know, it's it's. So that's a
great car. That car can go another ten years. And
that's an example of overengineering. You haven't even put rear
brakes on those.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Cars yet, have you. No, I have it, but I
had to put a cat.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I had to put a cat on it because those
cats are very valuable to meth heads because there are
two of them.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, there are two of them.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So I had to find the cat, put it on,
and then I riveted a cat over the cat so
that they can't get it.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Right next time, right, yeah, next time? Yeah, So back
to our discussion, right, oil changes. Then let's we're getting
ready to go on a road. We're leaving two weeks
from today. Don't wait till the friday before the Saturday
that you're leaving to take the car in be fair.
You know, I can tell you this. There is a
parts problem that's been brewing for the past couple of years.
(04:27):
There's a quality of parts issue for replacement parts. There's
an availability of parts issue that's becoming more predominant in
the last couple of months. So you know that old
trusted repair shop that you're going to that maybe was
able to turn the car around in a day or two,
you know it might be two weeks now, So you
don't want to let things go to the last minute.
(04:48):
I know it's hard. You know, a lot of us
are procrastinators, but it's it's just the way of the world.
It's the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I'll bet that Ron, I'll bet that you as the
owner of your auto shop, ra Auto and which town
in New Jersey is it in ron.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Waald with New Jersey? But don't tell anybody. We keep
it a secret.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Okay, Well, I'm not coming out there for an oil change.
I promise you that because I have to change it
coming back. I have the feeling because you said that
there's a really critical crisis on parts. These tariffs may
or may not help that right, probably not.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Help they're making They are going to make it worse.
You know, and some of what I speak is tariff related.
The price of things have started to creep up. We've
seen break parts, break pads, and rotors creep up about
three and a half four percent in the last two weeks,
which it kind of doesn't make any sense to me
because I don't think any of the parts from China
have even hit American shores yet to go through the
(05:46):
distribution chain to you know, actually be here. So I
think they're already raising prices. And the answer your question
is why, And the answer is because they can't. Yeah, profits,
you know, profit, it's all about making a buck.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I have to also think Ron that because you're the
chief cook and bottle washer there, that your job every day,
probably job one, is for you to source parts for
cars that are hard to find. And I remember hearing
you say on your show, we found this part in Texas,
we found this part in Michigan, you know, for an
(06:19):
eight or a tan Ford Edge, or you know, you
said Thunderbirds, threes and fours, great cars, but you can't
find parts for them.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Can't find parts for him. Well, the reason and the
reason for that is just a piece of automotive useless
trivia that I keep in my head is because the
two to five Thunderbird was a conglomeration between Ford Motor Company, Jaguar,
and Volvo. All three car companies were involved in the
development of that vehicle, and now twenty some odd years later,
all the parts are gone for it, which is a shame.
(06:50):
You know. I own an O two and it's a
fun car and a convertible drop top. It's just a
great thing to buzz around it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I looked at one the other day and I remembered
what you said that the parts were impossible to find.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Looked over at car World. Here on Oracle Roady.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I have a couple of them, and both of them
are ten thousand bucks apiece, and I thought, see, that's
cheap if I could find the parts to repair it, right,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Well, you know, maybe the way to look at it,
and this is sort of a fun thing. You think
about travel in vacations, look at the same way back.
It's almost like I do radio. You think about travel
in vacation, what it cost to go on a good vacation.
Maybe buying a ten thousand dollars Thunderbird, driving it for
four months and then selling it. It's an escape, right yeah,
(07:31):
little top down action, little cruising with the wind in
your hair. You know, it's a fun car. It's really
a fun car. I'll tell you. It's at the end
of a long week, there's nothing better than going for
a ride in the bird.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So when we get ready to go on vacation, make
sure your oils checked. And you know, it's not just mileage,
it's also time right.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Time counts. You know, when was the last time tires
were rotated. So a lot of this we can do
ourselves because we're trying to keep records. We're trying to
be good keepers. You know, look at the dashboard, you know,
get in the car, turn on the turn on the key,
but don't start it. Do all the light bulbs that
normally light up light up. Do you see a check
engine light? Do you see an ABS light? You know,
(08:12):
do your own bulb check because technically that's what the
car is doing. I don't know if anybody realizes that,
but when you go from key off to key on,
engine not running, that is bulb check position. The manufacturers
are expecting you, at some point or level to sit
there and look at your dashboard and say, hey, do
I see all the normal things I normally see, yeah,
everything's there, now, start it up. Now. If we're looking
(08:35):
at the car and I see this a lot too, Allen,
and I don't understand that. You know, I see this
on new customers because existing customers know better and we
explain it to them. Why it's bad. Is the check
engine light on? How long has it been on? It's
not meant to be an ornament or a decoration device.
It's it's meant to warn you that there's a problem
with the vehicle and it needs to be addressed. And
(08:56):
you know that can be a big issue. Check in
in light, don't change color, don't change frequency. The only
thing they'll do other than stay on continuously is blink
real quick if there's a serious engine misfire, something in
the way the vehicle is running on which cylinder. But
you know, if and I get we get cars, we
(09:18):
see cars from first time customers. How long is you
check engine light? But on about a year and a half. Yeah,
so yeah, it's a big that's that's a problem. You
know that, that's a very big story to unravel.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Would you say most of your clientele are female as
a percentage?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You know, it's funny you say that, and I don't
know why, but in all my years on radio and
even in the shop. Yeah, now that you mention it,
I track higher with a female audience, with a female listenership.
And I think it's because I explain things.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well and I think too they trust you.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, I get that, I get that. But you know what,
that goes back a long ways. That goes back to
my teaching days. You know, that goes back to when
I was an instructor. You know, women want to know
about how to keep themselves safe in their car, and
I always attack it from that perspective. A guy gets
stuck on the side of the road. Here, let's tell
(10:11):
the story this way, right, because this is where we
were going to go next. How old is your battery? Okay,
because you're going on vacation and the last thing you
need to do is pull into a rest stop after
a four hour ride through the Arizona heat and the
battery fails because batteries fail more in heat than they
do in cold. Believe it or not, but you know,
for a guy to have a dead battery, it's an adventure.
(10:33):
For a woman, could be a bad situation. Yeah, and
you know you want to avoid that so important.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Ron batteries are at least one hundred and fifty to
two hundred and fifty bucks for a decent one, and
you know you may have that budgeted for your vacation.
It may be pretty tight vacation, and so they just think, well,
I can squeeze one more trip out of it.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Everybody wants to squeeze one more trip. Everybody wants to
get one more.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Month more Ronnie sneak.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But you know, you know what my answer is, Alan,
I want to be eighteen and lose another twenty pounds,
and I can handle the twenty pounds. I don't know
about being eighteen again. It's just not going to happen.
So you got to live in reality, is where I
go with this.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So you're you're a preventive guy, because that's your business.
But on the other side of it, I know you
get the fact that this stuff's expensive. You're not cheap either,
and you deserve to make a great living and I
hope you do, and I think you do. But it's
just not ever planned to be in the budget to
fix your car. It's just turn on and go and
(11:35):
if it breaks, we worry about it.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Then well, look at the wording. Look at the way
we're programmed as a society. All right, I just bought
a new car, so I don't have to spend any
money on it.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Bingo.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Look at the look at the thought process.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's someone else's problem.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, it's you know, and I never have to fix it.
How come we buy a house? Right? And when the
water heater breaks, you know, we can find that nine
hundred dollars because we all want hot water. When the
air conditioning breaks. How important is air conditioning in Tucson, Arizona?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Kinda kind of important.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, when the air conditioning breaks, we can always find
that two thousand dollars or whatever the number is. But boy,
I'll tell you what the carnate's four tires. I can
sneak it out.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
A sneak it out, that's right.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
I can on the side of the road. And you
know that's a problem.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It is a problem. Seven eighteen. The car doctor is
with us. He's on from five to seven in the
morning on Saturdays on KVO. I, Roddy, give us your
phone number just in cases one eight eight eight five
six oh what eight eight eight.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Five five you know, eight eight five six oh ninety
nine hundred give him a call five eight five five
five six ninety nine hundred.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Give him a call. It'll go to voicemail. And the
great producer Tom Ray who runs Ron show, we'll get
back to you lightning fast like he did to me.
If you have a car question. We may even take
a couple questions if you want. Ron is brilliant with
this stuff. And I don't know if we'll get a
call on it or not because we didn't advertise that.
We just advertised getting your car ready for tourism in
(13:13):
southern Arizona and beyond. But we'll take the break. Be
right back. Seven nineteen. I'm big out with Ron and
Nanian on the voice Paul Simon with I favored that
song quite a bit because my name's Al and his
name is Ron Inanian the car Doctor that airs on
(13:36):
Saturdays here from five to seven am on KVOI Great show.
I'm a hardcore listener of your show.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Ron.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You were talking about batteries giving it up because of
the Arizona heat. I learned last week on your show
that vibration is probably overall the number one cause nationwide
of battery failure.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and everything sparks no pun inded with
a battery. Today, we see so many strange problems from
erratic batteries, batteries that one minute are sitting at twelve
and a half vaults, because I believe it or not,
a twel vault battery has to have a minimum of
twelve and a half vaults to be considered good. A
battery with twelve point two vaults is actually on the
(14:19):
is actually a failed battery in industry standards for a
lot of reasons. But we see a erratic voltage out
of a battery, and that vehicle will do some very
funny things because it tends to drag down the whole vehicle.
And you know, keep in mind, took a little of
the technical stuff Hondas for example, you know computer controller alternators,
(14:40):
like a lot of vehicle manufacturers. You can actually see
a Honda go down the road at twelve and a
half vaults on the charging system until it sees enough
of a load or a demand and it starts to
bump up the alternator charge rate. And you know, you
start to look at the demands and riggers that are
placed on batteries. It's not you know, this isn't your
there's sixty three Chevy and Pala anymore. It's all in
(15:03):
the interest of emissions and mileage and longevity, and they
do some very different things with electrical systems and charging
systems today. So that battery is key.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That battery hides a lot of symptoms I think too.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
On cars, yes, absolutely, and.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
So if it's three years old, because usually they'll away
warranty them out here for about three years. If you
buy a new one from like an autozonner a checker,
that's after three years you're living on borrowed time.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Well, I think three to five. It depends now here
we go. It depends on the car. If you're driving
a Honda, most Hondas have Group fifty one batteries, and
I'm not knocking Honda's alan, I think Honda makes a
great car, all right. But if you're driving a Honda
and it's got a Group fifty one battery, after three years,
I think you're on borrowed time. Is an absolute true
statement because the Group fifty one is the highest failure
(16:00):
rate battery we see in the market. You know, we
do more Group fifty ones in a given year than
any other size, and a group just means the side
the physical dimension of the battery. It's you know, just
to fit that space under the hood of a Honda,
and that group fifty one is just a high failure
rate battery. Talk to the Honda dealer, ask them how
many batteries they do. It's staggering. We've got a Honda
(16:21):
dealership out here, then on a given busy day, we'll
do two hundred and fifty batteries in the middle of
the winter a day.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Is that just because ron is that just is not
a high failure rate. It's just because there's a lot
of them out there.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Well yeah, and well, and there's a lot of them
out there. But you know, for all those batteries to
go bed in what I consider a short time period.
But I'll tell you this, all right, If you bring
me a car, you know, a Ford or a GM
or a Chrysler or something, and it's it's a four
and a half year old battery, there's no point to
test it. You know, it's six months away from five years.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
What are we waiting for to save that two hundred bucks?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
To say that two hundred bucks to be stuck on
the side of the road because they think they can
change the battery in their driveway, which on a lot
of vehicles you can't anymore, because you'll put the battery in,
you'll bolt it up, you'll put it in, you'll try
and do some kind of a memory saver because cars
have operating characteristics. Now you know, I'm trying to stay
in my guidelines here, Allen, you know, but but you
(17:23):
know a car picks up operating characteristics. If Alan drove
the car, and then Ron drove the car, and then
my engineer Tom drove the car, you know, over time
it's going to learn our driving habits and characteristics and
how we accelerate and de accelerate, create shift patterns in
the transmission and behavioral characteristics. And then you disconnect the
(17:46):
battery and all that's gone, and and funny things can happen.
So you want to memory save it, is my point.
And then when you've done, memory save it so that
the computer doesn't lose it to memory and you got
your nice fresh battery in there. Sometimes you need to
you have to tell it, hey, I changed the battery
and do a BMI or battery reset. Whole different conversation
(18:08):
it is.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And I got to tell you that I don't have
a scan tool. You talk about them all the time
on your show. Do you have a scan tool? Did
he use a scan tool? And I would say ninety
five percent, maybe even higher the amount of people that
don't have a scan tool, which should probably be great
if you did have one, but I think that probably
(18:28):
most people can't afford one.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Yeah, no, you can't. Scan tools are an entry level
decent scan tools five hundred bucks today.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, Ron, can you hang around, We're going to pull
over and as you say, take a.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Break, sure, I'll be here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Ron Andanian big al on the voice, seven thirty five.
Thanks Willie, I'm big out along with the car doctor
Ron Ananian, who has, as you just heard, his show
running on Saturday mornings from five to seven am. A
little early for a lot of people, but people that
(19:04):
like to work on their own cars or like to
learn stuff, I would suggest you consider just line in bed,
turn that radio on or streaming it to ten thirty
and listen to Ron. Just go stream of mind on
a stream of consciousness on a lot of stuff. I
specifically enjoy at the top of the hour when you
(19:24):
just go stream of consciousness on the things that happened
in the shop, the past week always interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Everybody seems to like that Alan and I And that
really is off the top of my head, you know.
I somebody once asked me, They said, you know what
kind of prep time? How long does it take you
to prep the show? And I looked at them, I
looked at my watch, and I said, you want me
to do it? Now? I tend to. I was taught.
I went to the you know, hard Knocks School of
Radio broadcasting, where they threw me in a room, turned
on the microphone and said talk. So I learned how
(19:53):
to do it off the top of my head. But
they're all real stories, things from the shop that happen
on a weekly basis. You know, this week we would
talk about, you know, if we were going to do
the show this week, I've got interviews set up this
week because I'm gonna go see my grandchildren, to be honest,
or is that next week? I forget which, but regardless,
you know, we talk about all the new parts we
(20:14):
got this week that were bad out of the box
or you know, missing pieces or damaged. You know, we
waited three days to get an air conditioning compressor for
a car this week. Beautiful compressor from DNSO and I
like DNSO. DNSOL is a good product, but everybody's got
their issues. Took this brand new nine hundred dollars AC
compressor out of the box and the electrical connector where
(20:36):
it plugs in was smashed.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
The connector connect Yeah, well it's.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
The connector you know that that feeds power off the engine,
off the vehicle wiring harness. So I had to swap
out the connector because I can't. I can't get another compressor,
you know. As it was, I had a big borrowing
steel to get this one. And you know, what do
you tell the person that needs their car. She's leaving
for North Carolina in two days. It took me three
days to get you know. It's those are the battles
(21:02):
that go on every day that every repair shop in
the country goes through every day.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And so again just to re just to repeat what
you said, make sure if you're going to take a trip,
get it in early, get it in earlier than you
even think to get it in to have it checked out.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, and everybody should have a trusted mechanic. I know
it's hard, but there's something wrong with the person When
somebody walks into my door at the shop, and they're
in their mid forties and they go, you know, I've
been looking for a mechanic my whole life and I
haven't been able to find one. And I always ask
them how long you've been driving? About twenty three years,
So in twenty three years you've been through how many mechanics?
(21:40):
And they'll tell me seven, and I kind of point out,
you know, seven mechanics twenty three years. What's the common denominator?
Are you giving the person a chance to do their job.
I'm not saying there aren't bad mechanics. There's bad mechanics,
there's bad carpenters, there's bad lawyers, there's bad everybody. But
there are decent people out there that are trying to
make a lie, trying to do it right, not by
(22:02):
somebody's perceived values. If you know what I'm saying, let
the guy do his job, let him show you how
brilliant he can be and see the results. It's important.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Seven thirty eight on the Morning Voice. This show, Tom
Molten's show on Thursday's deals with travel and tourism and
southern Arizona and Arizona in general, and we're stretching it
a little bit to just make sure that you have
a vehicle that's going to make it to wherever you
want to be. If you're going on vacation seeing the sites,
maybe you go into the Grand Canyon. Summertime is always
(22:33):
the worst time for travel here in Arizona because of
the possibility of you having a breakdown. So we are
grateful for Ron to be here with us today. Ron,
We're going to take it a little further and just
ask you about when you see the check engine light
and it's been on for a you said a year
and a half. I understand that that may be an exaggeration.
(22:57):
A lot of people just go to checker and see
that it's. Oh, it's just an ignition in a misfire
on cylinder three, probably needs a spark plug. I'm good
to go for another six months, and then when i
get one hundred and fifty to two hundred bucks, I'll
change all the plugs. Not a great idea, but you
understand it, don't you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I understand why they do that. But first let's clarify something. Okay,
a couple of things. A check engine light is designed
by law, the Clean Air Act of nineteen ninety one.
It's ancient history. The Clean Air Act of nineteen ninety one,
which was put into effect in nineteen ninety six, all Right,
mandated that if a vehicle exceeds one and a half
(23:38):
times the legal limits of federal emissions, it will turn
on a check engine light. So anything in a monitored
or watched system that causes a vehicle to be out
of what we call a mission compliance turns on the
check engine light number one, number two. Some cars, most
cars actually once and it sets a problem. We'll use
(24:01):
your example, a misfire. Once it sees a misfire, it
is no longer going to check the catalytic converter to
see if it's operational or healthy. It's no longer going
to do certain evaporative emissions tests, you know, the gas
cap codes that everybody runs crazy about. So leaving a
check engine light on for that year and a half,
which actually isn't an exaggeration. We've seen it. We see
(24:23):
it quite often. Actually sadly, now we fix that original
misfire problem. And the answer is my question is is
my car fix The answer is when it runs all
of its self tests, all of its monitored tests, and
they all run to completion. And there are no fault codes.
Then I know your car is fixed. And I can't
(24:45):
answer it. You can't answer it. Mister Goodrinch couldn't answer it.
If we dug up Walter P. Chrysler, he couldn't answer
It's it's just the way the software in the computers
are set up. So the guy that's leaving that check
engine light on it, look, I get it. You know.
So you go to an autoparts house, you go to checkers,
you go to AutoZone, you get the check engine light tested.
(25:07):
It's not saying if we get a misfire fault. It
doesn't say ignition. I will correct you out. It doesn't
say ignition. It says misfire fire.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, cylinder three, Yeah, cylinder three.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Do you own a lawnmower?
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Never? We don't.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
We don't cut grass in Arizona or have grass in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
But you have to have some piece of small operational equipment, right,
I'm cylinder something. If it has a misfire, why does
it miss? It's going to miss for one of three reasons.
It's got an ignition miss agreed. It could have a
fuel system missed, the engine's running lean a plugged up carburetor,
or a problem with fuel delivery, or it could have
a mechanical problem burnt valve, internal engine problem, that kind
(25:48):
of a thing. So that misfire never says put a
spark plug in it. It says misfire and it needs
to be diagnosed, or like you say, you take the
guess you put a spark plug in it. But if
a spark plug is bad, why did it go bad?
Is there a carbon deposit issue in the engine. Is
it's so badly warned that that was the first plug
(26:10):
to fail, And now you start to change chase all
the spark plugs around, and you know, one at a time,
we're going to go through this torture. So it really
comes back to where we started our conversation today about
scheduled maintenance. Talking to our trusted mechanic. I'm going on
the road. We spend a lot of time, right we
to go away on a trip. We we call the hotel,
(26:32):
or we call the camping site, you know, we call
the airlines for reservations. We do all this prep and
then we pile into the car and say, yeah, it's good,
no big deal.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Always a mistake, yeah, always.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
A mistake, Always a big mistake, and then you're on
the side of the road, you know, and you know,
if your partners with you, maybe they're telling you, I
told you to get this car into the repair shop.
What's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Especially when the kids are in the car too. I mean,
it's just you're kicking yourself that you just didn't go
to someone like you a couple of weeks before pay
the hundred one hundred and fifty bucks for the for
the all car check or whatever whatever it's called.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
It looked at. Yeah, yeah, it's It's just it's just
so much easier. I always think of the poor guy,
you know here in New Jersey. A real quick story.
I'm going to the car practor one Friday night and
I'm pulling up on there's a there's a traffic jam
at the light, and there's a there's a Honda that's stalled,
and I'm mentioning my way up to the guy and
everybody's blowing their horn and the guy keeps cranking it
(27:31):
and cranking it and cranking it. It's one of those
warm summer nights. The windows are down, it's not that hot.
And I pull up next to it and the wife
is yelling at this poor guy. I told you to
get this car in and what's wrong with you? You
didn't get it checked out? And he's cranking and cranking
and cranking, and the husband puts his head on the
steering wheel and he says, my god, where's the car
doctor when you need him? I swear it's it was
the funniest thing, because that's the way my life is.
(27:52):
Life is, life is. The universe always aligns me in
these situations. Where's the car doctor when you need him?
And I looked at him and I said, here, I am.
I am over at me, and she goes, oh my god.
I didn't know it was you when I said, hey,
it's got a broken timing bell. Stop cranking it. You're
going to break something. The light change. I gotta go
see you. The husband mouse thank you to me, and
I pull a yeah. I always think of that, you know.
(28:15):
It just breaking down just creates so much stress, you know,
it's just such a problem.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Out here in Arizona. We have a wide open spaces,
not so much back where you are, but out here
if you break down, especially between Phoenix and Tucson, not
as bad normally as what it would be if you're
one hundred and twenty miles between two other cities. But
it's bad enough, especially when the wind blows. You got
dust and heat, which is not probably something you've ever experienced.
(28:45):
So you have heat and dust at the same time,
like a lot of it of both. Not a great idea,
and you know, it's just I hate to be in
my life. I've never tried to do in my job
being a nervous nelly and telling people what to do
(29:05):
with their vehicle, but or with anything else. But you
really do need to take it seriously and not just
let it go until you see something that's wrong. Even
if there's nothing wrong, it's not going to hurt to
just go take it and have it looked at right.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
You know, a true professional, a true professional, we'll look
that car over and you know, make that car safe
as if their family was going to write in it.
Every mechanic I've ever hired in my lifetime, every time
I've looked at a car, I always look at it
from what I feel safe writing in this car, or
(29:44):
just as importantly, if my wife and kids were in
a car next to this car on the highway doing
sixty five miles an hour, and you know, that's a
two ton missile going down the road. The wheel falls off,
the tirod breaks, you know, the engine stops, and there's
an eighteen wheeler right behind it. It's a recipe for disaster.
And I don't want to scare anybody, but just some
(30:05):
you know. It's kind of amazing the auto industry runs
as good as it does on a regular basis. With
so many moving pieces, there's such an opportunity for issues.
Just getting the car checked out puts you light years
ahead of having a potential problem and keeps you safe.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
To quote an old dude that is probably now a
fairly decent friend, we're going to pull over for a minute.
Seven forty six on the voice, Tom Molton is in Tampa, Florida,
trying to adjust the tourism issue that we may be
having between Canada, Mexico and the US. Seriously, he said,
(30:42):
I'm going down there to talk to Canadians and Mexican
tour operators and people that are in the tourism business
to see if some of this stuff can be salvaged,
which is very laudable for him to do. So I'm
filling in this Thursday for him. He'll be back probably
next Thursday. Doctor Acerley is here on Fridays as always,
we will be back on the Morning Voice seven forty seven.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Seven fifty two.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
On the Morning Voice, I'm Big Out along with Ron
and Nany and the Car Doctor, heard every Saturday morning
from five to seven on kvo I ten thirty am. Ron.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
We've talked a lot.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
About preventive maintenance, probably a little too much for some people.
What do you like on different cars these days in
terms of features? What don't you like about cars these days?
With different features? What are the higher and lower maintenance
things that are good and bad ideas?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I think, yeah, well, the fluids are well. Where do
I start that question? I like the safety features in
today's cars. Who couldn't write the electronics are good for
that vehicle that's up to seven eight years old. We
see vehicles for example, not to pick on a car line,
but we'll have to. The German cars. You keep an
(32:00):
out he passed year seven and eight. It can get
to be expensive. The electronics can be prohibitive. You know.
It's you want to lease the German car experience, not
own the German car experience. We always say, you know,
because some of those features get to be costly, but
you know they're great cars to drive. You just got
to be prepared. You've got to have the budget in
the pocketbook. You know, you can't go in buying thinking
(32:22):
you're buying an economy car when you do something like that.
I you know, the thing that probably takes most cars
out of the realm of do I repair it or
replace it is the electronics, and then its major component
is drivetrain repair. You know, I don't know that it's
necessarily features. If the electronics hold up, it's a great car.
But for example, we looked at a We had a
(32:44):
customer purchase of twenty sixteen Ford Fusion this week with
one hundred and sixty five thousand miles on it. Nice car,
clean car, white, nice interior, first time driver, seventeen year
old daughter. And like I said to them, the speech
at the counter was, great car, keep up on the
main and keep doing the oil changes in the fluids.
But if the transmission were to fail in that in
(33:05):
New Jersey dollars, that's six sixty five hundred dollars all
day long. It's it's a it's a major repair. And
you know you paid sixteen grand for the car. Do
you put over a third of what you paid into
the car and the way of a transmission, because what if,
what if there's an engine problem? Then where do you go?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Ron?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
What do you I kind of know what the answer
is here. What's your opinion on electric vehicles?
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I don't think we have enough time left?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, I mean, you're going to boil it down. I
don't think you like them too much, and that's okay,
but just tell me why you don't.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
I think they have their place. I don't like them
because I think we're being sold to bill of goods.
It's not practical. You know, you start to run the numbers.
How long does it take that diesel bulldozer to dig
up enough raw material to make one battery? And how
much raw material isn't you know? It's just the numbers
and the math don't work time and time again. Every
(34:04):
study says the point where an EV vehicle becomes carbon
neutral or carbon positive, meaning that it hasn't taken from
the environment somewhere around that sixty thousand mile mark. That's
an awful lot of miles for what we're trying to achieve.
I also look at you know, in practicality, we go
out to Pittsburgh to see the grandchildren. We drive through
(34:25):
a little town called Altuna, nice little town, this in
the Alleghenies. And I always turn to my wife every
time and I say, when they can make enough electricity
and figure out how to get it over the Alleghany
Mountains and feed Altuna, we'll have EV vehicles. But until
then it's a pipe dream. It's not practical. Start looking
at the number of vehicles on the road when you're
out traveling this summer, right, and just close your eyes
(34:48):
and not why you're driving, but just close your eyes
and imagine every one of those is an EV. Pull
into a service station and now you know it's a
gas station. It takes roughly five minutes to fill a
car with PE, so you can do twelve twelve vehicles
per pump per hour. You know it takes an EV
twenty minutes. You can do three vehicles per charging station
(35:10):
per hour. And that's a high rate of charge, and
that may not be maximum charge. Start doing the man,
how are you going to support all these vehicles? Do
I think EDS have their place? Yes, I think a
root vehicle. I think maybe for you know, the mail person,
the police, if they're doing patrol not necessarily high speed pursuit.
(35:32):
If you're on a you know, you're the building inspector
for the town of Tucson and you're driving a predescribed route.
But to use them on an everyday basis, I think
that's a future that's pretty far off until a lot
of things change in the way of economy and technology.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Well, we're out of time. You know what that's like.
You live that dream four or five times every week.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Yep, yep. Let me just jump in real quick, all
and everybody should get out the cardoctorshow dot com if
they want more information. We got a lot going on
there and we'll keep everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
All right, Kitto, You have a great one. And good
mechanics aren't expensive.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
They're priceless, baby, They're priceless.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
See you, see you,
Host
Ron Ananian
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