Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor shares a story about a first-time customer who brought in a 2008 Volvo with a salvage title. Shop policy required a full inspection, which the customer agreed to, but his wife was upset about the cost and disclosure. Ron stresses the importance of honesty, comparing it to telling a doctor your full medical history. The inspection revealed past rear damage, but the car was safe if properly maintained.
Later, a caller named Jim sought advice on fixing a persistent oil leak in his Cadillac Escalade. Ron suggested checking for a warped housing and cautioned against sealant on the face of the shim gasket
Another caller, Mike, recommended using a stylus for touchscreens in cold weather, which Ron agreed was practical but noted that some issues are mechanical, not just usability-related. Overall, the episode highlighted the value of transparency and careful diagnostics in car repair.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ron an Aian. She said, you know, I really don't
want to spend any money on it. It's an older
car now and I'm just going to ride it Instagram
and I said, that's okay, you can do that, but
understand when the timing belt breaks, it's instantaneous and you're
on the side of the highway or the side of
the road.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The car Doctor for web.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Before it does knock up on an uphill, it's only
at lowe downhill or I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Gonna think, I mean, the first place I'm going to
go is it low on fluid.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome to the rating on an Aian the car Doctor.
So it's nineteen ninety one. This is where car owners
the world go returned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Are opening, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five five six ninety nine hundred and
now he.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Running.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, I want to talk about in order repair,
how you get what you give. It's a lot like life, right,
there's a lot of things about life there the similar
to order repairs. It is like a box of chocolates.
As Forrest Gump once said, you know, you never know
what you're going to get. And I think that's fair.
I think that's a fair statement. I think that's a
true statement. But I often think, well, let me take
(01:34):
you to the counter this week, all right, you know
some of these some of these stories are just I mean,
they're real. This is what this is what happens at
the counter during the course of the week. A new
customer came in this week to the shop and he
was driving an older Volvo at two thousand and eight
Volvo sixty series. I think it was something along those lines.
But it's old, it's fifteen years old, and it was
(02:00):
you know, listen, you come into my shop as a
as a first time customer. We're gonna look at the
We're gonna look at the car. We're gonna look the
whole car over. I mean, that's just policy, and I
think it's I think it's a good mandatory rule to have.
You haven't seen the car before, you don't know the
condition of the vehicle, and somebody's asking you for an
(02:21):
oil change, which this individual was, and then you get
up with you know what, what are you missing? What
else is there? What are you responsible that you have
to look over? You have you have to put your
name on the car because people are under the impression
an oil change is a lookover, and to a large
degree it is. But it's not something in depth. It's
not something that affords a lot of time because time dictates,
(02:43):
you know, money being spent dictates time being spent being
what's allowed. What can we do in that time frame
of working on the vehicle looking at the vehicle. So
we have a separate checklist. We you know, first time checklist.
It's the vehicle comes in, it's one hundred and fifty bucks.
We go through a drill. We we know what we're
going to look at, you know, stick out your tongue
and say, ah, and let's see what kind of shaped
his vehicles. And then at least when the person leaves
(03:05):
the counter, when they leave the shop, you can say, hey,
it's a good car, it's bad carts of this, and
that you've had the time to allow yourself to be
fair to yourself and then consequently being fair to the customer.
Here's your vehicle, Here's what kind of shape it's in,
because that's that's what this gentleman was looking for and
I thought it was a good conversation, and initially it was.
(03:26):
We we got off on the right foot. We had
a you know, momentary exchange back and forth talking about
what he wanted to do with the car and what
I wanted to do with the car, and what you know,
some of my rules are because I required this and
this to be done first timers, and it baselines the car,
and it's just it's just critical, especially on a car
you know you've never seen it before, a car that
(03:47):
came from out of state, or and here's the catch,
he said, I have to tell you it has a
salvage title. Oh boy, salvage title in New Jersey, like
a lot of states, means that somewhere along the way,
the vehicle was in an accident and it was declared
a total loss by the insurance company. It could be
for substantial frame or body damage. It could be because
(04:09):
it was just deemed too expensive to repair. It could
be for a lot of reasons. But a salvage title
car makes you want to really look a lot harder
than you normally might, because you're looking for what made
it be declared salvage and was it a safe repair
because by very definition of what salvage title is, the
(04:32):
vehicle is defying the rules. It's a vehicle salvage title
means that the vehicle should not be repaired or cannot
be repaired by the insurance company. They've deemed it unsafe
or impractical. And if you do choose to repair it,
the vehicle now needs to be inspected by the Motor
Vehicle Commission to determine was the vehicle repaired safely. But
the loophole with this car was this Volvo had Missouri
(04:55):
license plates on it. I don't know what the salvage
title rules are in Missouri, nor do I know where
this car came from what was done to it. So
I've got a charge for time. I've got to put
some time into this car. Otherwise I'm not going to
be comfortable. And if I'm not comfortable, we're not working
on the car. So he agreed. He was happy. Everything
(05:15):
was great. He dropped the car off the next day,
but his wife came in. And this isn't about the wife.
This is about you know, his partner came in and
she wasn't happy. She wasn't happy for a lot of reasons.
She wasn't happy because we were going to have the
car all day. She wasn't happy because we couldn't give
(05:37):
her a definitive cost because we couldn't We couldn't tell
her oft. But we hadn't looked at the car. And
I pointed out to her. I said, but you have
to understand, this vehicle has a salvage title. And she
said how do you know that? And I said, well,
your husband told me this. She then turned to him, Boy,
(05:58):
you never should have told him that. And why would
you tell him that the car has a salvage title,
And why would you tell him all these problems with
the car that just gives him more to look at. Yeah,
I don't know what to do with that. I just
I bit my tongue for a second. Then I opened
up and I said, listen, my job is to keep
you safe. My job is to make sure that that
vehicle is doing what it's supposed to do under all conditions.
(06:21):
And if it's got a salvage title, why wouldn't you
tell the guy that's attending to it. That's like going
to the doctor and not mentioning that you had three
heart attacks two weeks prior and they're in there trying
to give you a stress test to see what sort
of physical condition you're in. Isn't that setting yourself up
to fail, isn't it? So don't you get what you give?
(06:43):
I think in any relationship, automotive, personal business, whatever you're
working on, whatever you're dealing with, I think we need
to have some honesty and transparency. I think that's how
the best deals get made. And I think to walk
in and I told you this, I said, to walk
into a repair shop you've never been into before and
have judgments about what we're going to do without even
(07:04):
listening to or knowing what it is that we are
going to do. I think that's a dangerous thing to do.
I think that sets the stage for failure on a
lot of fronts and a lot of parts. For you,
the customer, for me, the shop for me, the technician,
any technician, any mechanic that's in my opinion, and my
(07:27):
opinion is the one that counts. Because it's my show.
Your opinion counts too, So speak up if you've got
a comment about this any way, shape or form, But
for the sake of this hour and the next, my
opinion counts. I think the mechanic should know everything that
you know about that vehicle good, better and different. I
think you should be prepared on a first time visit
for that mechanic to look the vehicle over. Now, I've
(07:49):
got to tell you, I look the vehicle over. It's
not a bad car. It really isn't. But Doug, the
owner told me, he said, you know, I feel so
much better knowing that you looked at it. And he
asked me, he said, why do you think it was totaled?
Why do you think it was a salvage title situation?
And I said, because it looks like it looks like
(08:12):
the car got hit in the back and it was nosed,
meaning somebody slid under the back bumper, pushed into the
muffler and crushed everything. From that point on, I can
only imagine what the other vehicle looked like. The muffler
had physically been snapped off at the headpipe, and somebody
did a great job of welding it, did a very
nice job of welding it all back together, and they
(08:34):
tore up the belly pan a little bit that had
been repaired. The bumper cover was replaced. There was a
bunch of work there. I don't. I didn't see enough
that made me think, hey, this is a total vehicle.
But I don't know what the numbers were. I don't
know how much of the repair was made. I will
say this nothing effected upper sheet metal, the deck lid,
the two quarter panels still had the vintag. The vintag
(08:55):
is then you can always use this if you're out
looking at used cars. Many cars in the last twenty
years have a vintag. They will have a little white
sticker that has the vehicle serial number on it, and
that shows that it's an original piece of sheet metal.
And you can generally find them up on the hood,
on the inner fenders, and then you'll open the trunk,
it'll be on the trunk lip somewhere, and then it'll
(09:17):
also be on the inner fenders somewhere. So that's a
great way to know, Hey, was this vehicle. How bad
of an accident? Was it ever in or was it
in one? In this case, they were all there, so
all the damage was underneath. And I told them, I said, Doug,
this isn't the kind of car you want to spend
a lot of money on. This is the kind of
car you do your maintenance. You do your oil changes,
you do your fluids. You know you're going to be
(09:40):
faced with some ignition maintenance, some fuel system cleaning requirements.
It's got ninety thousand miles on it. Somewhere between now
when one hundred and twenty, you're going to be doing
plugs and ignition maintenance and fuel system cleaning and throttle
body and all the regular things that I would normally,
in common sense, would tell somebody to do as part
of vehicle repair and vehicle care. But it's not a
(10:01):
bad car. I would drive that car across country myself,
and that's really important because you're trying to create confidence
and somebody can drive the vehicle. And he appreciated it.
It was interesting he didn't bring his wife back the
second time they pick up the car. I thought that
was so I would have loved to have been a fly.
(10:22):
Well not really. I just I don't know why you're
afraid to tell the mechanic what you know about the vehicle.
I haven't figured that one out yet. I really think
the best example I can give it's like it's like
going to the doctor and not telling him everything you're
feeling and letting the doctor figure it out. But you
don't do that, do you? You tell him everything you
(10:42):
won't tell the mechanic doesn't make sense to me? Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. If
it makes sense to you, call me. Let's talk about it.
Eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Ron at Cardoctorshow dot com is the email. Check out
the car doctor Facebook page, and I should point doubt
that Father's Day is coming. Those hats and t shirts
(11:04):
are flying off the shelves at the Car Doctor's story.
Get the cardoctorshow dot com to find it. So let's
pull over to take a pause. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
What's more fun than listening to Ron and any and
the car doctor and getting that car fixed?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Right A?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Five to five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Give Ron a call. Now back to Ron, Let's go
over and.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Talk to Jim and Florida fourteen Cadillac Escalade. Jim. Welcome
to the Car Doctor, sir, How can I help?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah, thank you, Ron, I appreciate taking my call.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Welcome.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Listen. One of the things that drives me crazy is
oil leaks. I hadn't leaked underneath. I thought it was
my rear engine seal. I got that fixed, discovered it wasn't.
It's actually the oil cooling unit. So I changed the
gasket on that. I put a genuine GM gasket in,
and it is still leaking on one bolt, and I
(12:00):
got it as tight as I can. Just trying to
figure out what the best thing to do for that
would be put teflon tape on the bolt or I
have no idea how to fix that.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This is the oil adapter housing at the block itself,
at the engine block itself, where the oil filter used
to traditionally.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Go correctly correct, yes, okay, And.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
One of those bolts is leaking. So there's a and
you've got to gasket in place.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Where I put a brand new GM gasket in and
I thought that would fix it. But it's still leaking.
Not a lot, just enough that I get one drop
on my driveway every every night.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
You know, listen, a dab of Teflon's not gonna hurt.
I've never had to do that, so I'm wondering why
I'm wondering. You know, I can't see the block being
out of square. You can pull it down again and
get a straight edge, get a short straightedge and just
run it across the top, or just just look at
the surface of the block as it's matched up somehow.
(13:01):
Is there some porosity in the block? Heaven forbid? But
you know, is it possible? Could the housing itself have bellied?
You know?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Could What what I did was I just let it
run for I cleaned everything up perfectly, and then I
let it run for half an hour, turned the engine off,
and it was only leaking in that one spot. Everything
else was perfectly.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Cleaned, right. No, I'm saying, but you know, if that's
if if the surface of the oil cooler that let's
call it the aluminum puck isn't isn't flat and square
in that in all surface areas, is it allowing a
cross leak out of the oil? Right? And it's it's
it's allowing a cross leak to get to the bolt
(13:44):
threads to cause that little bit of a seep or drip. Listen,
it's it's not going to hurt anything to put a
dam of teflon up there, all right.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Second, the other thing I thought about was putting some gasket,
taking the gasket off, cleaning it really good, and put
some gasket sealer on both sides of the gasket and
put it all back together.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, that's honestly, that's gonna make a sloppy mess. And
if any of it breaks off and goes to the
wrong place, that's that's going to create an issue. GM
like a lot of the manufacturers went to steal shim
and that elast elast dometer. I used to be able
to say that word, the rubber seal on the hard
shim gasket. You know, they they they they went to
(14:29):
that specific design for a reason. Now you bought your
seal gasket. I know you said you bought a GM piece.
You bought it from a GM dealer or you bought
it online?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, from a Cadillac dealer. I originally had put an
offline one in, but it leaked worse, and then I
put the GM in. Then it was much better.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Okay, and you and you you get the one from
the GM dealer. Came in a GM baggie and it
looked it looked real. Okay, you know I have seen it.
I'm not I'm not disparaging the dealers because I I
think they're up against it too. But I have seen
some problems in the last year where purchasing from a
dealer may not guarantee you a real GM piece because
(15:08):
they don't know. Sometimes they're buying from an outside source.
So some of the things they get are you know.
I know, for example, there's a large GM Delco warehouse
in New Jersey that independence and dealers can all buy from,
and they source, you know, from different places. A lot
of it's GM Delco, et cetera. I don't know exactly
(15:28):
how the distribution works, but they've had conversation with me
where they've gotten caught on certain things where they think
they're buying a GM piece and it's not so counterfeit
parts is an issue, it really is. But I would
I would take a hard look at that that aluminum
cover and see is it concave that's the word I'm
looking for. Is a concave at all?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
If that's, then you'd recommend just replacing both lines the
whole piece in there.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, I don't see how the lines if it's coming
out of the bolt housing, I'm not sure unless it's
is it's sneaking out of the line through that that's
that that that flat shim gasket that the line seals
against the puck with or the housing with.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Yeah, yeah, right there, And I thought it's the worst
case scenario, I just buy a whole new unit to
put in uh, you know, a few bolts and new
housing and yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Then in that case, like I said, I would just
I would just double check the the the deck of
the block itself, you know, think of it. Think of
it like if you were doing a head gasket, if
you've ever done a head gasket on an engine, we
always check the deck for square. And in this case,
the fact that I've got a problem, something's making a leak,
I just I just want to verify. I don't want
(16:41):
to assume higher mileage escalate, Jim, not that it's gonna
matter a whole lot. Yeah, it's not terrible, it's not
a whole lot of miles. So I would just I
would just be cautious. And and you see this drip
appear on a regular basis, right, It's not that it
happens once and then stuff. It can't be residue, it
can't be left over.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
No, it's it's every night.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I'm coming cardboard, right. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
The other thing you could try is if you're having
a problem, you seem to like working on your own vehicle,
Why don't we Why don't we add a fluorescent die
to it and maybe it'll show us something where it's
actually coming from. With a black light and glasses.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Yeah, I did that, and that's exactly where it came from.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Okay, all right, then you're on the right path, my friend.
That's exactly how I would do it. All right, Appreciate
you very well. You're very welcome, sir. Anytime. It's a pleasure.
So diagnosing oil leaks can be such a challenge, and
you've got to do it step by step. Diagnosing anything
could be such a challenge. When we come back, maybe
(17:43):
in the second half, I'll tell you about this twenty
ten Ford fusion this week that would lose the brake
pedal on hard right turns and then there's no parts
available for it. But I can't duplicate the problem. So
where do you be a gain? Why there's a story there,
trust me, and we're working on it. It's it's still
(18:05):
on the drawing board, in progress, as we like to say. Anyway,
eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero
ron A Indi and the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Don't go away, just take it.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Let's see, let's beak out of the driver's seat. Let's
get going and move forward. Let's go over to Let's
go to Mike in Pennsylvania. Mike, Welcome to the Card Doctor.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
Sir.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
How can I help.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (18:56):
I have a Dodge Pro Master with one of those
touch screens, okay, and I know in one previous caller
they were talking about it. When you use those touch screens,
I find them a lot better to operate with, like
a stylus pen, to have a stylist pen in the
truck when I use it. It's two different models, the
ones of Dodge and the other one you were talking
about was a Honda.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Right well, and the Honda, but the Honda had a
mechanical difficulty. It had something wrong with it. It was physically broken.
I don't know if I don't know if you caught
that at the beginning of that conversation I was having
with the Gentleman. But that one that was last week's show,
that one, that one would just lock up and no
matter what you did, no matter how you tap the screen,
it would intermittently go into it just it would just freeze.
(19:39):
So you know that was different than what you're talking about.
You use a stylist, do you like it does it work?
Do you find it difficult trying to find the stylust
while you're driving or where do you keep it?
Speaker 7 (19:50):
It's easy enough to keep right there next to the radio,
you know, right, so, because it's got like a little clip,
and all I do is it's just like keeping a
pen next to your you.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Know, kind of makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
And I do find, you know, especially in the winter time,
when the screens are cold, or if my hands are cold,
it ain't gonna work because you know, touch screen is
based off of wet like a heat sensor, right, it's.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's the it's the thermal imprint of your finger. Listen,
and a lot of it. I find that, especially in
the winter time. But as a mechanic with and I
wear gloves, I even still tend to beat up my
fingertips that it's difficult for me to use a touch
screen in general. The State of New Jersey has us
sign in to do state inspection, if you can believe this,
using a fingerprint scan. So you know, here we go,
(20:36):
We're trying to sign in using a fingerprint scan, and
we find that it doesn't even recognize my finger It
won't My fingers are cold, forget it. I have to
I hate to say this, but I have to sort
of suck on my thumb to warm it up and
then get it wet and moist and then the hit
the thumb print and then it works.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
So yeah, No, my objective is keep my gloves on
while I do my controls, right, That makes sense on
you know, my fingers with arthritis. I want to have
those gloves on. It's much more comfortable for me to
hold my steering wheel while I'm driving.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Gloves heated, no heated steering wheel and that pro master.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
Well, that's I believe it. That's not a feature for
the working class. Yeah, it's not a feature.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I will tell you this.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
With those dodges. Now, when I'm on, when I'm when
I'm accelerating, it seems like what's being activated is that
ABS system or or is it the the slipping system
because you can feel the tension that's one of those tires.
It's almost like someone wants to put the brakes on it.
(21:39):
I'm accelerating, but yet I feel this. It's not it
only happens once in a while. It's like it's activating
that slippery road feature, almost like the ABS. You can
feel like this pulsating thing and then it goes away.
You know, it's only for like maybe a second or two,
and you're like, golly, it felt like somebody who was
(22:00):
gonna put the handbrake on while I was.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
This is while you're driving mic just out of the blue.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
It is. It is just out of the blue. And
it's usually when I'm using the accelerator to you know,
to to catch up the speed.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, tires, tires are all equal tread.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
Yeah, you know they I mean we keep a good
yeah on the tread.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah. Why don't you do this if you look at
the side, Well, next time it's up in the air
for service, why don't you check the date code on
the tires and see if they're all the same date code,
just out of curiosity and make sure they're all the
same size. You would think that if you would think
that if it was tire related, it would do it
(22:47):
on a more consistent basis. But what you're describing to
me as an intermittent random abs event or traction control
loss of traction control event. Do you see dashlights starting
to blink and flash when this happens. No, which makes
it even stranger.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
No, right, No, does it only just started after twenty
thousand miles? It's got twenty six thousand?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Does does the engine speed flare up almost like the
trans was in neutral?
Speaker 7 (23:13):
No, it just feels like it feels like somebody else
is hitting the brake, but only for a second and
only a light touch, you know, but you can definitely
feel it. It makes the steering wheel kind of you know,
it makes me think I have to react with the
steering wheel.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And what years this vehicle?
Speaker 7 (23:28):
Twenty twenty four, twenty five? It's a twenty five model.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Okay, there may be. I would keep track of it,
and I would make the dealer aware of it. Have
you talked to the dealer at all?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
And no?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Okay, I would. I would make them aware of it
because things like that they start out as as minor
and then as time progresses, all of a sudden they
become a recall and a software update. Yeah, false false abs,
false traction control activation. I know of nothing at this moment,
but you know.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
They are good things to look into.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, I would. I would just just mention it
because it's got twenty six thousand miles on it. Your
base warranty is probably three thirty six. So if you
don't have an extended warranty in ten thousand miles, you're
going to be out of luck.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
As you happen to know about the oil change, do
you happen to know when the oil is dirty? Is
there a sensor that tells me the oil is dirty?
Because when I take it for an oil change, nobody
knows how to reset the oil change. Apparently I'm asking them,
but they don't seem to know how to reset the
(24:37):
oil change one hundred percent clean oil. But I'm thinking, well,
maybe it's automatic, maybe that the engine knows when there's
new oil.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
No, it does not. You have to reset it. It's
either going to be turned the keyon, engine off, three
pumps to the floor in rapid succession, or it's going
to be through the This has a This has a
touchscreen in the center of the desk. Myths what we
were talking about when we first started this conversation. Right,
this has a touchscreen in the center of the dash.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Yes, with the van functions right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So they're either that or it will be there either.
Look under settings, there'll either be a settings or vehicle
or maintenance tab. I've given up trying to remember all
of them because they're all so different. But I will
generally find it there on a Chrysler and if if
that doesn't work, then three pumps. But you should be
able to or you're going to rotate it around in
front of you in the It's either on the cluster
(25:28):
in the center or in the driver information center directly
in front of you while you're driving through the steering wheel,
one of those one of those controls. Does your steering
wheel have the buttons on the left and right spoke yes,
with with the up and down arrows. Yes, Then you're
going to have information reset in that center right in
(25:50):
front of you in the driver information center.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
It's right direct, yes, yeah, one of those will do
it all right, kiddo. Thank you for your help.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Very welcome. Mike enjoyed the call. Eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero Running in the car Doctor,
We're back right after. This website is cardoctorshow dot com,
(26:24):
by the way, if you want to get out there
for more information about us. As well as our YouTube
channel posted a bunch of great videos. We shot a
really great video in the shop this week about a
twenty thirteen day with rear abs problems. And when you
see the video, you're not going to believe what actually
caused it. So that's something to look forward to. That'll
be up there in the next two weeks. Let's get
over to the phones as they continue. Jeff in New Jersey.
(26:46):
Oh nine Ford focus, Jeff, you're on at eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. How can
I help hi?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Ron, Yes, have a typical New Jersey problem. Okay, a
lot of salt, a lot of brown on the Rhodes.
And this week I was driving and all of a sudden,
I heard a noise coming from the rear of the vehicle.
So I checked it out, and I found out that
the one of the rear swaybar links actually broke. You know,
things corrode pretty well here.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's uh we see one snowflake,
four tons of calcium chloride hits the bricks right away.
It just it's talk about overkill. So so, yeah, you
broke a link. Now, now where does it stand?
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Okay, you know, broke breaking a link A pretty simple replacement.
I got the links. So I was going to do
the job yesterday and I jacked the car up, and
you know, I got the one link on the one
side out, no problem. And then I looked on the
other side and I looked at the lower control arm
in the rear, the rear lower control arm, and I
noticed it was substantially cracked, which obviously is going to
(27:50):
be a big safety issue. So I kind of stopped
the job at that point and said, okay, now now
we're we've dug in a little bit deeper now, and
I definitely want to replace the you know, the lower
control the rear lower control arms. Right, obviously these rear
sway bar links. But also I was under there and
this is where I realized that the rear suspension of vehicles.
(28:12):
You know, I'm fairly handy, but I really just kind
of like, you don't hear much going on back there.
The tires, you know, wear pretty evenly, and I think
that this is probably an overlooked component on a lot
of vehicles, the rear suspension.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I would agree. I think that's and to my point,
I don't know if you caught the show at the
top of the hour, but I was talking about a
new customer that came into the shop, and it's policy,
we get a new car, new customer, we're looking it
over for the first time we do a formal checklist,
because we look at the front suspension, we look at
the back suspension, we look at all the little things
that we tend not to look at because everybody out
(28:46):
of sight, out of mind. So how rusty is the
back of that car that you're driving, Jeff, How rusty
are those control arms?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
That's where I'm going. Absolutely, So I looked at the
subframe is pretty crusty. But I poked around and I
hit it with a hammer. It sounds okay. The rear
control arms, literally, especially the one on the on the
driver's side, is so bad that it's cracked and there's
a little actually a little hole through it. So I
feel it's probably at this point unsafe to drive with,
(29:16):
you know. So I'm not going to drive the vehicle
obviously for now, but I'm going to replace them in pairs.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It's a fairly again, a fairly straightforward job. I know,
I have to be careful with unloading the spring, you know,
when I use a jack to unload the spring, get hurt. Yes,
I'm comfortable with that part, but I did notice, you know,
I didn't realize that there's actually a rear upper control arm,
and there's also a rear link. I think you honestly
(29:43):
parts of the rear suspension I didn't know existed in
my car. And also there's a very fossilized and rotted
alignment bolt that holds the lower control arm to the subframe,
and that that bolt is totally shot.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So is your question to me, d do the uppers?
How far do you go?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's where I'm going. Ron. I know I'm going to
have to replace the alignment bolt. It's a It's a
very large bolt that holds that lower control arm to
the ub Dorman makes that product, and you know I've
listened to your show long enough and know dormant. So
I went right and got that from Dorman. I got
the lower control arm. I'm going to order from Dorman.
They make a quality replacement. But exactly as you're saying,
(30:22):
how far do I go? I'm going to have it apart.
But I don't have any other strange tire wear from
the rear. I don't hear any other noises, you know,
prior to this week? How far do I take this job?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
As far as you need to and as far as
you're comfortable. If you're asking me, what would I do
if if the upper control arms are as rusty and
crunchy as the lowers, it's all it's all going, brother,
because only I only want to do this once. You know,
in the shop we look at cost of labor. We
take something apart if it's an extra fifteen minutes a
(30:52):
half hour to get to the upper because now everything's
apart and out of being under load, now's the time
to do it. It's the price of the part and
a little bit of labor. You know, we're going to
scrub that subframe or that that rear suspension frame as
clean as we could, and we're going to paint it up,
and then we're going to change whatever's rusty. You can
bang on it with a hammer all you want. But
(31:12):
the other thing you're going to think about is if
the control arm is rusty, what kind of shape are
the rubber pushing's in and how deteriorated are those and
if they're beat up and rotted, when does that become
a problem. How many times do you want to revisit this?
Number one, there's a safety factor, but there's also a
convenience factor, right, I take it this is your everyday transportation.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So you know, you want the vehicle to be down once,
not four times. So I have I have no problem
changing whatever control arms are rusted out or on the
verge of being rusted out. It's it's like changing you
ever do a timing belt on a vehicle?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I have?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And why do you change the water pump even if
it's not leaking?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah, you see a little while, but prevented a maintenance
pretty much. You know if it has you know, high mileage,
you know you're in there. Why doing something right?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Proximity of repair is the way I teach it. Proximity
of repair if you can put your hand on it
and it's there and it's a couple of bolts and
it's out price of the part, and then you sleep
better and you know you have more confidence in the
vehicle and you're not hindered. Six months, seven months from now,
eight months from now. And let's face it, this is
New Jersey. It's it's warm out, it's okay to work
(32:23):
on the car. Six seven, eight months now from now,
we're gonna it's gonna be January. We're gonna get that
stuff called snow again maybe, And and you know it's
no fun. I don't care if you've got heat in
your garage. It's still no fun laying on the ground
trying to do this, or if you're doing it outside,
even worse. So this is a summertime repair. It's a
good time to do.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It, all right, Ketto all right, thank you, Ron.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You're very welcome. You're welcome, sir. You'd be well eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. The
car doctor's coming back right after this, so you see,
(33:05):
not all repairs are clear cut. We took in a
twenty ten Ford fusion this week and full transparency. It's
Tom's wife's car, and Tom still loves his wife. So
I've decided we're going to fix it because it's breaks.
We don't want to see anything bad happen to her
or him. If something happens to her before that, she'll
take him out. So the fact that we're going to
continue to do the radio show, well, you get it.
(33:26):
So we're going to fix the brakes. But I can't
duplicate the problem. Sue says that on hard right turns
into work, she does a one tot eighty around a
dumpster and the brake pedal always goes to the floor. Now,
I've got Tom on assignment this weekend. Tom's job this
weekend is to go drive the car and duplicate the
condition so he can have the experience, because we couldn't
(33:46):
duplicate it. But the bigger problem, and Tom learned this
this week firsthand, is that there aren't a lot of
parts available for a fifteen year old Ford anymore. We
found one day master cylinder because we've got some reasons
to suspect that we're going to start there, but we
couldn't find a reservoir. Now, the stupidity of all this is,
(34:09):
if you're changing the hydraulic portion of the breakmaster cylinder,
wouldn't you want a clean reservoir to put fresh, clean
fluid in rather than use the old one. As good
as you scrub it, you're just never going to get
it as clean as a new one could be. And
for the price of things, why don't you just want
to start with a fresh reservoir?
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
There's a problem in this country with getting parts. We
don't make break master cylinders anymore, we don't make reservoirs anymore.
It's very strange, but we're turning cars. We're taking a
few critical pieces and We're turning cars into useless piles
of junk without it, So more to come. We're going
to fix Tom's car next week. We'll let you know
what the outcome is. Till then, I'm on an indy
in the car doctor, reminding each and every one of you.
(34:50):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
See you, Bok setting down on the bed
Ron an Aian. She said, you know, I really don't
want to spend any money on it. It's an older
car now and I'm just going to ride it Instagram
and I said, that's okay, you can do that, but
understand when the timing belt breaks, it's instantaneous and you're
on the side of the highway or the side of
the road.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The car Doctor for web.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Before it does knock up on an uphill, it's only
at lowe downhill or I'm.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Gonna think, I mean, the first place I'm going to
go is it low on fluid.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome to the rating on an Aian the car Doctor.
So it's nineteen ninety one. This is where car owners
the world go returned to for their definitive opinion on
automotive repair. If your mechanics giving you a busy signal,
pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Are opening, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five five six ninety nine hundred and
now he.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Running.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know, I want to talk about in order repair,
how you get what you give. It's a lot like life, right,
there's a lot of things about life there the similar
to order repairs. It is like a box of chocolates.
As Forrest Gump once said, you know, you never know
what you're going to get. And I think that's fair.
I think that's a fair statement. I think that's a
true statement. But I often think, well, let me take
(01:34):
you to the counter this week, all right, you know
some of these some of these stories are just I mean,
they're real. This is what this is what happens at
the counter during the course of the week. A new
customer came in this week to the shop and he
was driving an older Volvo at two thousand and eight
Volvo sixty series. I think it was something along those lines.
But it's old, it's fifteen years old, and it was
(02:00):
you know, listen, you come into my shop as a
as a first time customer. We're gonna look at the
We're gonna look at the car. We're gonna look the
whole car over. I mean, that's just policy, and I
think it's I think it's a good mandatory rule to have.
You haven't seen the car before, you don't know the
condition of the vehicle, and somebody's asking you for an
(02:21):
oil change, which this individual was, and then you get
up with you know what, what are you missing? What
else is there? What are you responsible that you have
to look over? You have you have to put your
name on the car because people are under the impression
an oil change is a lookover, and to a large
degree it is. But it's not something in depth. It's
not something that affords a lot of time because time dictates,
(02:43):
you know, money being spent dictates time being spent being
what's allowed. What can we do in that time frame
of working on the vehicle looking at the vehicle. So
we have a separate checklist. We you know, first time checklist.
It's the vehicle comes in, it's one hundred and fifty bucks.
We go through a drill. We we know what we're
going to look at, you know, stick out your tongue
and say, ah, and let's see what kind of shaped
his vehicles. And then at least when the person leaves
(03:05):
the counter, when they leave the shop, you can say, hey,
it's a good car, it's bad carts of this, and
that you've had the time to allow yourself to be
fair to yourself and then consequently being fair to the customer.
Here's your vehicle, Here's what kind of shape it's in,
because that's that's what this gentleman was looking for and
I thought it was a good conversation, and initially it was.
(03:26):
We we got off on the right foot. We had
a you know, momentary exchange back and forth talking about
what he wanted to do with the car and what
I wanted to do with the car, and what you know,
some of my rules are because I required this and
this to be done first timers, and it baselines the car,
and it's just it's just critical, especially on a car
you know you've never seen it before, a car that
(03:47):
came from out of state, or and here's the catch,
he said, I have to tell you it has a
salvage title. Oh boy, salvage title in New Jersey, like
a lot of states, means that somewhere along the way,
the vehicle was in an accident and it was declared
a total loss by the insurance company. It could be
for substantial frame or body damage. It could be because
(04:09):
it was just deemed too expensive to repair. It could
be for a lot of reasons. But a salvage title
car makes you want to really look a lot harder
than you normally might, because you're looking for what made
it be declared salvage and was it a safe repair
because by very definition of what salvage title is, the
(04:32):
vehicle is defying the rules. It's a vehicle salvage title
means that the vehicle should not be repaired or cannot
be repaired by the insurance company. They've deemed it unsafe
or impractical. And if you do choose to repair it,
the vehicle now needs to be inspected by the Motor
Vehicle Commission to determine was the vehicle repaired safely. But
the loophole with this car was this Volvo had Missouri
(04:55):
license plates on it. I don't know what the salvage
title rules are in Missouri, nor do I know where
this car came from what was done to it. So
I've got a charge for time. I've got to put
some time into this car. Otherwise I'm not going to
be comfortable. And if I'm not comfortable, we're not working
on the car. So he agreed. He was happy. Everything
(05:15):
was great. He dropped the car off the next day,
but his wife came in. And this isn't about the wife.
This is about you know, his partner came in and
she wasn't happy. She wasn't happy for a lot of reasons.
She wasn't happy because we were going to have the
car all day. She wasn't happy because we couldn't give
(05:37):
her a definitive cost because we couldn't We couldn't tell
her oft. But we hadn't looked at the car. And
I pointed out to her. I said, but you have
to understand, this vehicle has a salvage title. And she
said how do you know that? And I said, well,
your husband told me this. She then turned to him, Boy,
(05:58):
you never should have told him that. And why would
you tell him that the car has a salvage title,
And why would you tell him all these problems with
the car that just gives him more to look at. Yeah,
I don't know what to do with that. I just
I bit my tongue for a second. Then I opened
up and I said, listen, my job is to keep
you safe. My job is to make sure that that
vehicle is doing what it's supposed to do under all conditions.
(06:21):
And if it's got a salvage title, why wouldn't you
tell the guy that's attending to it. That's like going
to the doctor and not mentioning that you had three
heart attacks two weeks prior and they're in there trying
to give you a stress test to see what sort
of physical condition you're in. Isn't that setting yourself up
to fail, isn't it? So don't you get what you give?
(06:43):
I think in any relationship, automotive, personal business, whatever you're
working on, whatever you're dealing with, I think we need
to have some honesty and transparency. I think that's how
the best deals get made. And I think to walk
in and I told you this, I said, to walk
into a repair shop you've never been into before and
have judgments about what we're going to do without even
(07:04):
listening to or knowing what it is that we are
going to do. I think that's a dangerous thing to do.
I think that sets the stage for failure on a
lot of fronts and a lot of parts. For you,
the customer, for me, the shop for me, the technician,
any technician, any mechanic that's in my opinion, and my
(07:27):
opinion is the one that counts. Because it's my show.
Your opinion counts too, So speak up if you've got
a comment about this any way, shape or form, But
for the sake of this hour and the next, my
opinion counts. I think the mechanic should know everything that
you know about that vehicle good, better and different. I
think you should be prepared on a first time visit
for that mechanic to look the vehicle over. Now, I've
(07:49):
got to tell you, I look the vehicle over. It's
not a bad car. It really isn't. But Doug, the
owner told me, he said, you know, I feel so
much better knowing that you looked at it. And he
asked me, he said, why do you think it was totaled?
Why do you think it was a salvage title situation?
And I said, because it looks like it looks like
(08:12):
the car got hit in the back and it was nosed,
meaning somebody slid under the back bumper, pushed into the
muffler and crushed everything. From that point on, I can
only imagine what the other vehicle looked like. The muffler
had physically been snapped off at the headpipe, and somebody
did a great job of welding it, did a very
nice job of welding it all back together, and they
(08:34):
tore up the belly pan a little bit that had
been repaired. The bumper cover was replaced. There was a
bunch of work there. I don't. I didn't see enough
that made me think, hey, this is a total vehicle.
But I don't know what the numbers were. I don't
know how much of the repair was made. I will
say this nothing effected upper sheet metal, the deck lid,
the two quarter panels still had the vintag. The vintag
(08:55):
is then you can always use this if you're out
looking at used cars. Many cars in the last twenty
years have a vintag. They will have a little white
sticker that has the vehicle serial number on it, and
that shows that it's an original piece of sheet metal.
And you can generally find them up on the hood,
on the inner fenders, and then you'll open the trunk,
it'll be on the trunk lip somewhere, and then it'll
(09:17):
also be on the inner fenders somewhere. So that's a
great way to know, Hey, was this vehicle. How bad
of an accident? Was it ever in or was it
in one? In this case, they were all there, so
all the damage was underneath. And I told them, I said, Doug,
this isn't the kind of car you want to spend
a lot of money on. This is the kind of
car you do your maintenance. You do your oil changes,
you do your fluids. You know you're going to be
(09:40):
faced with some ignition maintenance, some fuel system cleaning requirements.
It's got ninety thousand miles on it. Somewhere between now
when one hundred and twenty, you're going to be doing
plugs and ignition maintenance and fuel system cleaning and throttle
body and all the regular things that I would normally,
in common sense, would tell somebody to do as part
of vehicle repair and vehicle care. But it's not a
(10:01):
bad car. I would drive that car across country myself,
and that's really important because you're trying to create confidence
and somebody can drive the vehicle. And he appreciated it.
It was interesting he didn't bring his wife back the
second time they pick up the car. I thought that
was so I would have loved to have been a fly.
(10:22):
Well not really. I just I don't know why you're
afraid to tell the mechanic what you know about the vehicle.
I haven't figured that one out yet. I really think
the best example I can give it's like it's like
going to the doctor and not telling him everything you're
feeling and letting the doctor figure it out. But you
don't do that, do you? You tell him everything you
(10:42):
won't tell the mechanic doesn't make sense to me? Eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. If
it makes sense to you, call me. Let's talk about it.
Eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Ron at Cardoctorshow dot com is the email. Check out
the car doctor Facebook page, and I should point doubt
that Father's Day is coming. Those hats and t shirts
(11:04):
are flying off the shelves at the Car Doctor's story.
Get the cardoctorshow dot com to find it. So let's
pull over to take a pause. We'll be back right
after this.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
What's more fun than listening to Ron and any and
the car doctor and getting that car fixed?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Right A?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Five to five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
Give Ron a call. Now back to Ron, Let's go
over and.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Talk to Jim and Florida fourteen Cadillac Escalade. Jim. Welcome
to the Car Doctor, sir, How can I help?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah, thank you, Ron, I appreciate taking my call.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Welcome.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Listen. One of the things that drives me crazy is
oil leaks. I hadn't leaked underneath. I thought it was
my rear engine seal. I got that fixed, discovered it wasn't.
It's actually the oil cooling unit. So I changed the
gasket on that. I put a genuine GM gasket in,
and it is still leaking on one bolt, and I
(12:00):
got it as tight as I can. Just trying to
figure out what the best thing to do for that
would be put teflon tape on the bolt or I
have no idea how to fix that.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This is the oil adapter housing at the block itself,
at the engine block itself, where the oil filter used
to traditionally.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Go correctly correct, yes, okay, And.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
One of those bolts is leaking. So there's a and
you've got to gasket in place.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Where I put a brand new GM gasket in and
I thought that would fix it. But it's still leaking.
Not a lot, just enough that I get one drop
on my driveway every every night.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
You know, listen, a dab of Teflon's not gonna hurt.
I've never had to do that, so I'm wondering why
I'm wondering. You know, I can't see the block being
out of square. You can pull it down again and
get a straight edge, get a short straightedge and just
run it across the top, or just just look at
the surface of the block as it's matched up somehow.
(13:01):
Is there some porosity in the block? Heaven forbid? But
you know, is it possible? Could the housing itself have bellied?
You know?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Could What what I did was I just let it
run for I cleaned everything up perfectly, and then I
let it run for half an hour, turned the engine off,
and it was only leaking in that one spot. Everything
else was perfectly.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Cleaned, right. No, I'm saying, but you know, if that's
if if the surface of the oil cooler that let's
call it the aluminum puck isn't isn't flat and square
in that in all surface areas, is it allowing a
cross leak out of the oil? Right? And it's it's
it's allowing a cross leak to get to the bolt
(13:44):
threads to cause that little bit of a seep or drip. Listen,
it's it's not going to hurt anything to put a
dam of teflon up there, all right.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Second, the other thing I thought about was putting some gasket,
taking the gasket off, cleaning it really good, and put
some gasket sealer on both sides of the gasket and
put it all back together.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, that's honestly, that's gonna make a sloppy mess. And
if any of it breaks off and goes to the
wrong place, that's that's going to create an issue. GM
like a lot of the manufacturers went to steal shim
and that elast elast dometer. I used to be able
to say that word, the rubber seal on the hard
shim gasket. You know, they they they they went to
(14:29):
that specific design for a reason. Now you bought your
seal gasket. I know you said you bought a GM piece.
You bought it from a GM dealer or you bought
it online?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, from a Cadillac dealer. I originally had put an
offline one in, but it leaked worse, and then I
put the GM in. Then it was much better.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Okay, and you and you you get the one from
the GM dealer. Came in a GM baggie and it
looked it looked real. Okay, you know I have seen it.
I'm not I'm not disparaging the dealers because I I
think they're up against it too. But I have seen
some problems in the last year where purchasing from a
dealer may not guarantee you a real GM piece because
(15:08):
they don't know. Sometimes they're buying from an outside source.
So some of the things they get are you know.
I know, for example, there's a large GM Delco warehouse
in New Jersey that independence and dealers can all buy from,
and they source, you know, from different places. A lot
of it's GM Delco, et cetera. I don't know exactly
(15:28):
how the distribution works, but they've had conversation with me
where they've gotten caught on certain things where they think
they're buying a GM piece and it's not so counterfeit
parts is an issue, it really is. But I would
I would take a hard look at that that aluminum
cover and see is it concave that's the word I'm
looking for. Is a concave at all?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
If that's, then you'd recommend just replacing both lines the
whole piece in there.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, I don't see how the lines if it's coming
out of the bolt housing, I'm not sure unless it's
is it's sneaking out of the line through that that's
that that that flat shim gasket that the line seals
against the puck with or the housing with.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Yeah, yeah, right there, And I thought it's the worst
case scenario, I just buy a whole new unit to
put in uh, you know, a few bolts and new
housing and yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Then in that case, like I said, I would just
I would just double check the the the deck of
the block itself, you know, think of it. Think of
it like if you were doing a head gasket, if
you've ever done a head gasket on an engine, we
always check the deck for square. And in this case,
the fact that I've got a problem, something's making a leak,
I just I just want to verify. I don't want
(16:41):
to assume higher mileage escalate, Jim, not that it's gonna
matter a whole lot. Yeah, it's not terrible, it's not
a whole lot of miles. So I would just I
would just be cautious. And and you see this drip
appear on a regular basis, right, It's not that it
happens once and then stuff. It can't be residue, it
can't be left over.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
No, it's it's every night.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I'm coming cardboard, right. You know.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
The other thing you could try is if you're having
a problem, you seem to like working on your own vehicle,
Why don't we Why don't we add a fluorescent die
to it and maybe it'll show us something where it's
actually coming from. With a black light and glasses.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
Yeah, I did that, and that's exactly where it came from.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Okay, all right, then you're on the right path, my friend.
That's exactly how I would do it. All right, Appreciate
you very well. You're very welcome, sir. Anytime. It's a pleasure.
So diagnosing oil leaks can be such a challenge, and
you've got to do it step by step. Diagnosing anything
could be such a challenge. When we come back, maybe
(17:43):
in the second half, I'll tell you about this twenty
ten Ford fusion this week that would lose the brake
pedal on hard right turns and then there's no parts
available for it. But I can't duplicate the problem. So
where do you be a gain? Why there's a story there,
trust me, and we're working on it. It's it's still
(18:05):
on the drawing board, in progress, as we like to say. Anyway,
eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero
ron A Indi and the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Don't go away, just take it.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Let's see, let's beak out of the driver's seat. Let's
get going and move forward. Let's go over to Let's
go to Mike in Pennsylvania. Mike, Welcome to the Card Doctor.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
Sir.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
How can I help.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (18:56):
I have a Dodge Pro Master with one of those
touch screens, okay, and I know in one previous caller
they were talking about it. When you use those touch screens,
I find them a lot better to operate with, like
a stylus pen, to have a stylist pen in the
truck when I use it. It's two different models, the
ones of Dodge and the other one you were talking
about was a Honda.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Right well, and the Honda, but the Honda had a
mechanical difficulty. It had something wrong with it. It was physically broken.
I don't know if I don't know if you caught
that at the beginning of that conversation I was having
with the Gentleman. But that one that was last week's show,
that one, that one would just lock up and no
matter what you did, no matter how you tap the screen,
it would intermittently go into it just it would just freeze.
(19:39):
So you know that was different than what you're talking about.
You use a stylist, do you like it does it work?
Do you find it difficult trying to find the stylust
while you're driving or where do you keep it?
Speaker 7 (19:50):
It's easy enough to keep right there next to the radio,
you know, right, so, because it's got like a little clip,
and all I do is it's just like keeping a
pen next to your you.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Know, kind of makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
And I do find, you know, especially in the winter time,
when the screens are cold, or if my hands are cold,
it ain't gonna work because you know, touch screen is
based off of wet like a heat sensor, right, it's.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's the it's the thermal imprint of your finger. Listen,
and a lot of it. I find that, especially in
the winter time. But as a mechanic with and I
wear gloves, I even still tend to beat up my
fingertips that it's difficult for me to use a touch
screen in general. The State of New Jersey has us
sign in to do state inspection, if you can believe this,
using a fingerprint scan. So you know, here we go,
(20:36):
We're trying to sign in using a fingerprint scan, and
we find that it doesn't even recognize my finger It
won't My fingers are cold, forget it. I have to
I hate to say this, but I have to sort
of suck on my thumb to warm it up and
then get it wet and moist and then the hit
the thumb print and then it works.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
So yeah, No, my objective is keep my gloves on
while I do my controls, right, That makes sense on
you know, my fingers with arthritis. I want to have
those gloves on. It's much more comfortable for me to
hold my steering wheel while I'm driving.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Gloves heated, no heated steering wheel and that pro master.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
Well, that's I believe it. That's not a feature for
the working class. Yeah, it's not a feature.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I will tell you this.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
With those dodges. Now, when I'm on, when I'm when
I'm accelerating, it seems like what's being activated is that
ABS system or or is it the the slipping system
because you can feel the tension that's one of those tires.
It's almost like someone wants to put the brakes on it.
(21:39):
I'm accelerating, but yet I feel this. It's not it
only happens once in a while. It's like it's activating
that slippery road feature, almost like the ABS. You can
feel like this pulsating thing and then it goes away.
You know, it's only for like maybe a second or two,
and you're like, golly, it felt like somebody who was
(22:00):
gonna put the handbrake on while I was.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
This is while you're driving mic just out of the blue.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
It is. It is just out of the blue. And
it's usually when I'm using the accelerator to you know,
to to catch up the speed.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, tires, tires are all equal tread.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
Yeah, you know they I mean we keep a good
yeah on the tread.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah. Why don't you do this if you look at
the side, Well, next time it's up in the air
for service, why don't you check the date code on
the tires and see if they're all the same date code,
just out of curiosity and make sure they're all the
same size. You would think that if you would think
that if it was tire related, it would do it
(22:47):
on a more consistent basis. But what you're describing to
me as an intermittent random abs event or traction control
loss of traction control event. Do you see dashlights starting
to blink and flash when this happens. No, which makes
it even stranger.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
No, right, No, does it only just started after twenty
thousand miles? It's got twenty six thousand?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Does does the engine speed flare up almost like the
trans was in neutral?
Speaker 7 (23:13):
No, it just feels like it feels like somebody else
is hitting the brake, but only for a second and
only a light touch, you know, but you can definitely
feel it. It makes the steering wheel kind of you know,
it makes me think I have to react with the
steering wheel.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And what years this vehicle?
Speaker 7 (23:28):
Twenty twenty four, twenty five? It's a twenty five model.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Okay, there may be. I would keep track of it,
and I would make the dealer aware of it. Have
you talked to the dealer at all?
Speaker 5 (23:39):
And no?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Okay, I would. I would make them aware of it
because things like that they start out as as minor
and then as time progresses, all of a sudden they
become a recall and a software update. Yeah, false false abs,
false traction control activation. I know of nothing at this moment,
but you know.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
They are good things to look into.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, I would. I would just just mention it
because it's got twenty six thousand miles on it. Your
base warranty is probably three thirty six. So if you
don't have an extended warranty in ten thousand miles, you're
going to be out of luck.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
As you happen to know about the oil change, do
you happen to know when the oil is dirty? Is
there a sensor that tells me the oil is dirty?
Because when I take it for an oil change, nobody
knows how to reset the oil change. Apparently I'm asking them,
but they don't seem to know how to reset the
(24:37):
oil change one hundred percent clean oil. But I'm thinking, well,
maybe it's automatic, maybe that the engine knows when there's
new oil.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
No, it does not. You have to reset it. It's
either going to be turned the keyon, engine off, three
pumps to the floor in rapid succession, or it's going
to be through the This has a This has a
touchscreen in the center of the desk. Myths what we
were talking about when we first started this conversation. Right,
this has a touchscreen in the center of the dash.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Yes, with the van functions right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So they're either that or it will be there either.
Look under settings, there'll either be a settings or vehicle
or maintenance tab. I've given up trying to remember all
of them because they're all so different. But I will
generally find it there on a Chrysler and if if
that doesn't work, then three pumps. But you should be
able to or you're going to rotate it around in
front of you in the It's either on the cluster
(25:28):
in the center or in the driver information center directly
in front of you while you're driving through the steering wheel,
one of those one of those controls. Does your steering
wheel have the buttons on the left and right spoke yes,
with with the up and down arrows. Yes, Then you're
going to have information reset in that center right in
(25:50):
front of you in the driver information center.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
It's right direct, yes, yeah, one of those will do
it all right, kiddo. Thank you for your help.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Very welcome. Mike enjoyed the call. Eight five five five
six zero nine nine zero zero Running in the car Doctor,
We're back right after. This website is cardoctorshow dot com,
(26:24):
by the way, if you want to get out there
for more information about us. As well as our YouTube
channel posted a bunch of great videos. We shot a
really great video in the shop this week about a
twenty thirteen day with rear abs problems. And when you
see the video, you're not going to believe what actually
caused it. So that's something to look forward to. That'll
be up there in the next two weeks. Let's get
over to the phones as they continue. Jeff in New Jersey.
(26:46):
Oh nine Ford focus, Jeff, you're on at eight five
five five six zero nine nine zero zero. How can
I help hi?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Ron, Yes, have a typical New Jersey problem. Okay, a
lot of salt, a lot of brown on the Rhodes.
And this week I was driving and all of a sudden,
I heard a noise coming from the rear of the vehicle.
So I checked it out, and I found out that
the one of the rear swaybar links actually broke. You know,
things corrode pretty well here.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's uh we see one snowflake,
four tons of calcium chloride hits the bricks right away.
It just it's talk about overkill. So so, yeah, you
broke a link. Now, now where does it stand?
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Okay, you know, broke breaking a link A pretty simple replacement.
I got the links. So I was going to do
the job yesterday and I jacked the car up, and
you know, I got the one link on the one
side out, no problem. And then I looked on the
other side and I looked at the lower control arm
in the rear, the rear lower control arm, and I
noticed it was substantially cracked, which obviously is going to
(27:50):
be a big safety issue. So I kind of stopped
the job at that point and said, okay, now now
we're we've dug in a little bit deeper now, and
I definitely want to replace the you know, the lower
control the rear lower control arms. Right, obviously these rear
sway bar links. But also I was under there and
this is where I realized that the rear suspension of vehicles.
(28:12):
You know, I'm fairly handy, but I really just kind
of like, you don't hear much going on back there.
The tires, you know, wear pretty evenly, and I think
that this is probably an overlooked component on a lot
of vehicles, the rear suspension.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I would agree. I think that's and to my point,
I don't know if you caught the show at the
top of the hour, but I was talking about a
new customer that came into the shop, and it's policy,
we get a new car, new customer, we're looking it
over for the first time we do a formal checklist,
because we look at the front suspension, we look at
the back suspension, we look at all the little things
that we tend not to look at because everybody out
(28:46):
of sight, out of mind. So how rusty is the
back of that car that you're driving, Jeff, How rusty
are those control arms?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
That's where I'm going. Absolutely, So I looked at the
subframe is pretty crusty. But I poked around and I
hit it with a hammer. It sounds okay. The rear
control arms, literally, especially the one on the on the
driver's side, is so bad that it's cracked and there's
a little actually a little hole through it. So I
feel it's probably at this point unsafe to drive with,
(29:16):
you know. So I'm not going to drive the vehicle
obviously for now, but I'm going to replace them in pairs.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It's a fairly again, a fairly straightforward job. I know,
I have to be careful with unloading the spring, you know,
when I use a jack to unload the spring, get hurt. Yes,
I'm comfortable with that part, but I did notice, you know,
I didn't realize that there's actually a rear upper control arm,
and there's also a rear link. I think you honestly
(29:43):
parts of the rear suspension I didn't know existed in
my car. And also there's a very fossilized and rotted
alignment bolt that holds the lower control arm to the subframe,
and that that bolt is totally shot.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So is your question to me, d do the uppers?
How far do you go?
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's where I'm going. Ron. I know I'm going to
have to replace the alignment bolt. It's a It's a
very large bolt that holds that lower control arm to
the ub Dorman makes that product, and you know I've
listened to your show long enough and know dormant. So
I went right and got that from Dorman. I got
the lower control arm. I'm going to order from Dorman.
They make a quality replacement. But exactly as you're saying,
(30:22):
how far do I go? I'm going to have it apart.
But I don't have any other strange tire wear from
the rear. I don't hear any other noises, you know,
prior to this week? How far do I take this job?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
As far as you need to and as far as
you're comfortable. If you're asking me, what would I do
if if the upper control arms are as rusty and
crunchy as the lowers, it's all it's all going, brother,
because only I only want to do this once. You know,
in the shop we look at cost of labor. We
take something apart if it's an extra fifteen minutes a
(30:52):
half hour to get to the upper because now everything's
apart and out of being under load, now's the time
to do it. It's the price of the part and
a little bit of labor. You know, we're going to
scrub that subframe or that that rear suspension frame as
clean as we could, and we're going to paint it up,
and then we're going to change whatever's rusty. You can
bang on it with a hammer all you want. But
(31:12):
the other thing you're going to think about is if
the control arm is rusty, what kind of shape are
the rubber pushing's in and how deteriorated are those and
if they're beat up and rotted, when does that become
a problem. How many times do you want to revisit this?
Number one, there's a safety factor, but there's also a
convenience factor, right, I take it this is your everyday transportation.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
So you know, you want the vehicle to be down once,
not four times. So I have I have no problem
changing whatever control arms are rusted out or on the
verge of being rusted out. It's it's like changing you
ever do a timing belt on a vehicle?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
I have?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
And why do you change the water pump even if
it's not leaking?
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah, you see a little while, but prevented a maintenance
pretty much. You know if it has you know, high mileage,
you know you're in there. Why doing something right?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Proximity of repair is the way I teach it. Proximity
of repair if you can put your hand on it
and it's there and it's a couple of bolts and
it's out price of the part, and then you sleep
better and you know you have more confidence in the
vehicle and you're not hindered. Six months, seven months from now,
eight months from now. And let's face it, this is
New Jersey. It's it's warm out, it's okay to work
(32:23):
on the car. Six seven, eight months now from now,
we're gonna it's gonna be January. We're gonna get that
stuff called snow again maybe, And and you know it's
no fun. I don't care if you've got heat in
your garage. It's still no fun laying on the ground
trying to do this, or if you're doing it outside,
even worse. So this is a summertime repair. It's a
good time to do.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It, all right, Ketto all right, thank you, Ron.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You're very welcome. You're welcome, sir. You'd be well eight
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. The
car doctor's coming back right after this, so you see,
(33:05):
not all repairs are clear cut. We took in a
twenty ten Ford fusion this week and full transparency. It's
Tom's wife's car, and Tom still loves his wife. So
I've decided we're going to fix it because it's breaks.
We don't want to see anything bad happen to her
or him. If something happens to her before that, she'll
take him out. So the fact that we're going to
continue to do the radio show, well, you get it.
(33:26):
So we're going to fix the brakes. But I can't
duplicate the problem. Sue says that on hard right turns
into work, she does a one tot eighty around a
dumpster and the brake pedal always goes to the floor. Now,
I've got Tom on assignment this weekend. Tom's job this
weekend is to go drive the car and duplicate the
condition so he can have the experience, because we couldn't
(33:46):
duplicate it. But the bigger problem, and Tom learned this
this week firsthand, is that there aren't a lot of
parts available for a fifteen year old Ford anymore. We
found one day master cylinder because we've got some reasons
to suspect that we're going to start there, but we
couldn't find a reservoir. Now, the stupidity of all this is,
(34:09):
if you're changing the hydraulic portion of the breakmaster cylinder,
wouldn't you want a clean reservoir to put fresh, clean
fluid in rather than use the old one. As good
as you scrub it, you're just never going to get
it as clean as a new one could be. And
for the price of things, why don't you just want
to start with a fresh reservoir?
Speaker 7 (34:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
There's a problem in this country with getting parts. We
don't make break master cylinders anymore, we don't make reservoirs anymore.
It's very strange, but we're turning cars. We're taking a
few critical pieces and We're turning cars into useless piles
of junk without it, So more to come. We're going
to fix Tom's car next week. We'll let you know
what the outcome is. Till then, I'm on an indy
in the car doctor, reminding each and every one of you.
(34:50):
Good mechanics aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
See you, Bok setting down on the bed
Host
Ron Ananian
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