On this episode of The Car Doctor, Ron Ananian helps a caller with a 2002 Isuzu Trooper that lost four-wheel drive. He advises scanning for common fault codes tied to speed sensors or the vacuum switch but warns that parts for old Isuzu's are hard to find, which may make repair impractical.
Ron also addresses a prior caller’s claim that AC Delco batteries are subpar because they use recycled materials. A listener corrects this, pointing out that nearly all modern batteries are made with recycled components—a standard, environmentally responsible practice. Ron emphasizes the importance of proper diagnostics before replacing a battery.
Later, CRC’s Scott Brownstein joins to discuss brake maintenance. He stresses the importance of cleanliness, proper "bedding in" of new pads and rotors, and using non-chlorinated brake cleaner. Using the wrong products, like carburetor cleaner, can compromise safety.
Ron’s theme throughout: diagnose properly, use the right tools, and don’t cut corners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You're listening to Ron and Nanian The Car Doctor, nationally
recognized auto expert trusted by Mechanics, weekend wrenchers and vehicle
owners alike. Ron brings over forty years of hands on
experience and deep industry insight to help you understand your vehicle.
Join the Conversation live every Saturday from two to four
pm Eastern by calling eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. That's eight five five five six
(00:25):
zero ninety nine hundred, your direct line to honest answers
and practical advice. Looking for more, visit cardoctorshow dot com
for past episodes, repair tips, and Ron's latest insights, and
be sure to subscribe to the Car Doctor YouTube channel
for exclusive videos, real repair footage and more. Now start
your enginies. The Car Doctor is in the garage and
(00:47):
ready to take your call.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, thanks for stopping bye today. If you want to
in the productor obviously your service, we've got a great,
big fun hour for you this weekend, and they're going
to be talking to you of course as you call
in at eight five to five five six zero nine
nine zero zero. And I want to just remind everybody
and let everybody know that down around the bottom of
the hour. We're going to be joined by Scott Brownstein.
He is from CRC Industries. We're going to be talking,
(01:11):
you know, some of the things that go on during
a break repair and some of the things you should
be doing and some of the things that you're doing
that are wrong. And we're gonna get a bit of
an education there. But right now, let's let's go over
to the phones real quick and get started. Dave, Wisconsin, Dave,
how can I help you in your Is that an
O two A Suzu Trooper? There's one left? Holy cow? Right?
(01:33):
So where's Joe Asuzu when you need him? Tell me
the story, Dave, This has to be a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, I bought this new after my son worked in
a dealership and they were phasing out troopers, so I
bought it and I got it really cheap, right and
and well, anyway, I've had it for about two years
or three years ago. Uh I got one hundred and
(02:02):
twenty four dollars now and it's a three point five Leader.
I guess it is V six sure, yeah, D six
hip And anyway, it uh it it stopped. The forewheel
drive doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Okay, did it just did it just die mid use
or you went to turn it on one day and
it no longer worked?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, no longer it works. Okay, the lights and stuff
come on, you know, it's torque on demand, you know,
but it doesn't. I put new brinks in the front
and the back and stuff, and I still had I
still had, you know, the forward drive. But now and
(02:53):
all of a sudden, it just quit.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So anybody try and do any kind of diagnosis to this,
any any scan tool, any scan tool work.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
No, I didn't. I took it to a couple of
places and they go, oh god, you don't want to
fix that. If runs just run it. You know, it
could be up to twenty five hundred dollars to fix that.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It could be and you know what, they're wrong in
the sense that it could be anything. And because it
could be anything, I think the right answer is, Dave,
we're going to charge you, you know, two three hours
of shop time to diagnose it, and then we'll decide, Hey,
can we find the parts, and b do you want
to fix it? You know, I think that's the better answer.
You know, I would want to scan this. I'd start
(03:39):
just like any diagnosis scan it all right. What was
common with those was the torque on demand system. If
it's setting any sort of trouble codes, fourteen and twenty
four come to mind, all right. There were problems with
the speed sensors located on the drive shift, all right,
and it was com com in for those sensors to
(04:01):
short out, and usually the indicator for that would be
that the it would set those fault codes fourteen and
twenty four. Fourteen and twenty four are probably the two
most common sensors for that particular system. Now it's it's
and you know here's that it's a cheap car problem, right,
it's an Asusu. Joe Asuzu never told the system who's
(04:22):
doing all those TV commercials. But you know it's, it's.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
It's.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's a simple system in that there's a five vault
reference down at the sensors, but there's no way to
separate the two and fourteen and twenty four was generally
an indication of a shorted speed sensor. So if there's
no five vault reference on the green wire at both sensors,
(04:46):
you're gonna cut the wire at one of the sensors
and see if the five volt feed comes back on
the other one, all right. If it does, then the
most common failure is that the speed sensor is short
at the ground. And if you can find one, fine
too and change them both. But at least that'll give
you a direction, uh, you know, because finding finding parts
is gonna your shop is right in that aspect. Finding
(05:09):
parts for this is going to be difficult, you know.
The the the other thing that was, you know, sort
of common is the four wheel drive vacuum switch all right,
and there's some things you have to go through. It
would set a trouble code twenty eight before you will drive.
Vacuum switching valve was common. But you know, the stuff's
(05:31):
out there. I haven't worked on in a Suzu in
quite a while because getting parts is difficult. But it's
out there. You just have to find it. So and
I'm sure the Asuzu dealer is long gone, right, he's
still not in town. He's not selling some other brand,
yeah right, you know here in New Jersey, for example,
(05:51):
the nearest Asuzu dealer, And it's probably not I should
say this say it like this because I could be
I could be wrong. I was wrong once the nearest
the Suzu dealers about two hours away, and the only
way you can get parts out of them. If they
don't have it, they would order it, but you'd have
to go down pay for the parts up front. Whenever
the parts showed up, they showed up, and if they
showed up wrong, that wasn't their problem, that was yours.
(06:14):
So it's not exactly easy getting parts with these things,
but you know you can diagnose it. Then it's a
matter of finding pieces best dnswer I got kiddo, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yes, I went on one of those places that told
you where it's worth, right, I think they got it
at four thouars and I guess.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, you know, listen, it's yeah, it's not worth a
whole lot, it's but you know, by the same token,
a car is only worth what it's going to cost
you to replace. What I'd be worried about with that
vehicle is how much rust is underneath it. A twenty
two year old, a Suzu Trooper. I mean, it might
be rust free, and then again it might be the srostolium.
(07:00):
You don't know, you might need a tetanis shot just
looking at it, so you know it's it's it's it's
do you have a regular mechanic that's been servicing it
or trying to service it up to this point? Dave
can say again, Dave, I.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I do what I can, right, I don't nobody wants
to mess with it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Right, Yeah, that's that's the unfortunate side of it. So
why did you do this?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Whyted?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Do you have another car in the family that you
take a different car to a different mechanic, you know,
a different mechanic that works on another family vehicle.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, but they won't work on this.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, ask them, would they at least would they at
least give you an overall appraisal. You'd be willing to
pay for it, right, You'd be willing. You'd be willing
to spend you know, a couple of bucks to find
out what sort of shape this thing is in, because
you know, maybe from aparts and maybe from a rust perspective,
and maybe from a vehicle condition perspective, the twenty two
year old is susu it's time to let it go.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So you know it's inside grand new and outside is
gust free.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Right, Well, the part you're seeing is rust free. You
got to look underneath, right, Oh okay? Well, and you
know what let's let's let's find out for sure, and
then it's just a matter of finding somebody to work
on it, unless you want to drive it to New Jersey,
which you know, that's a that's a whole nother story.
I don't think the waiting room could accommodate you for
three weeks. Dave might take a while to find parts,
(08:33):
all right, kiddo, Yeah, all right. I wish I could
do more for you. But that's you know, the information's there,
the systems are there. It's just a matter of and
you know, listen, go try and find Go, try and
find a listing. Maybe this is the way to approach it.
Go try and find driveshaft speed sensors for it, going
on the assumption that that might be wrong with it.
(08:54):
And if you can't find those, maybe that makes the
decision about whether it's worth working on or not. Because
if you can't find the two most common pieces that failed,
where are you're going? Right? Yeah, So a Suzu did
not do anybody right as far as I'm concerned. They
were in the market and then they just dropped from
the market and then all of a sudden they don't
(09:15):
exist anymore. So a lot of people with the Suzus
were left hanging. So, yeah, all right, killing So I
understand I got to run, Dave. You're very welcome, sir.
You'd be well. I'm running ady in the Car Doctor.
We are back right after this. Don't go anywhere. We
recently had a caller, I think it was last week's
show or the week before, that was calling in about
(09:38):
his battery. He made some comments about the battery he
was using it. It was an AC Delco and some of
his comments, frankly, just seemed a little off point and
we couldn't make heads or tails out of it. And
even before we as the radio show, The Card Doctor,
even before we could respond to it and do some
research on it, we received a bunch of emails letters
(10:01):
from all of you out there, and we appreciate them.
And I think Bill from Virginia kind of sums it
up the best. He said, hey 'ron, longtime Car Doctor
show listener. Here, I heard the recent caller saying he
was not likely going to purchase an AC Delco battery
in the future, and said he was told that the
brand is all apparently remanufactured. I did some research and
I found some useful information at the below link regarding
(10:23):
recycled materials used in the manufacture of new production AC
Delco batteries. I went to the link global batteries dot
com and how are ac Delco batteries manufacturing and where
they made? That's actually the name of the link, and
it was fascinating in terms of what was done and
how it seems that, yes, to a point, ac Delco
(10:45):
batteries do have some recycled components in them. Recycled light
eighty three percent high purity sulfuric acid with stabilized there's
probably propylene cases tested at a two hundred and fifty
psi birth strength, and calcium alloy grids. Now, some of
these components are new, some of them are recycled, which
kind of makes sense when you stop and think about it,
because when you sell a battery, when we sell a battery,
(11:07):
the number one thing they want us to do is
get a court back, and they want us to send
a core back for I was always under the impression
of recycling purposes. I never really thought about the remanufacturing angle.
But what it looks like they're doing is to a degree,
certain components so that they don't have to dispose of
(11:29):
them or strip the earth of more are being recycled
and reused properly. It's really fascinating if you read the
entire Global Batteries comment about you know, acdecal batteries, where
they may and how they're made. There's so much technology
that goes into this. I'm more impressed with the battery
line now than I ever was before. And it talks
(11:51):
about it goes on, it goes on. Bill goes on
to write he said that auto batteries are one of
the most recycled items out there due to the core charge.
I presume, But Bill, I think you're right in order
to prevent careless disposal of a product containing lead and acid,
which again, that makes sense, right. It doesn't surprise me.
This is Bill talking that there is material inside they
(12:13):
can be extracted, reprocessed, and used again in new battery production.
Your caller said that he changed his battery every two
or three years and asserted this is the reason he
never had threeplaces starter or an alternator. And I gotta
say I agree with Bill here. That sounds like the
guy used to work with that said about his elephant pills.
He said he came to work each day and took
two elephant pills, as they were supposed to keep the
(12:34):
elephants away. So far, so good, they never failed them yet.
The caller claimed that just changing his battery corrected his issues,
but made no mention of looser coroded cable terminal connections
being investigated. A lot of good batteries have been replaced
due to lousy or poor cable connection quality. The act
of disconnecting and properly cleaning and reconnecting would have been
a good regular maintenance procedure. Just so we won't forget
(12:57):
when to do that. He could simply perform this every
time he can cleans the throttle body, because, if you recall,
the gentleman was also saying that he'd never had a
throttle body cleaning. Thanks so much for your show, Bill
from Charlottesville, Virginia. I was intrigued by Bill's letter in
full disclosure. Again, I asked Bill. I said, Bill, would
you please go out and see what other information you
can find? Pick two battery manufacturers and does anybody else
(13:20):
recycle batteries? And here's Bill's reply When I asked them
to do that, I said, hey, Ron, I looked for
technical data on batteries other than ac Delco and could
not find similar information at the same level of detail.
I started my the research with two brands I've used
most often, Advanced Auto and Interstate, and then expanded my
search for any brand. There's an excellent video in the
link below that shows each of the auto battery components
(13:42):
being reprocessed and then new batteries being manufactured. If you
get out to Batterycouncil dot org, you'll be able to
see this video. One thing that is obvious from the
video is that all brands of lead acid batteries are
included on the same conveyor belts that feed the crusher
and begin the separation process. You know, you've got to
understand when they assemble a battery, they take it and
(14:02):
they break apart the case. This I've seen where they
break apart the case. I never realized they were using
it for re manufacturing, to reprocess it. I just assumed
they were recycling it safely. I was bothered by your
caller's belief that AC Delco batteries were somehow not constructed
of new materials when ninety nine percent of automobile batteries
are eventually recycled and reprocessed into base materials for new
(14:25):
battery construction, and yet your coller was quick to condemn
And this is Bill talking and prematurely replace the se
Delco batter with no mention of a vaultmeter load testing
or vaulted drop test despite your suggestions of troubleshooting. You
know that bothered me about that call as well. And
one of the things that you'll always see me say
is can we test it? Is there a way to
look at it? You've got to come up with a
(14:46):
logical reason, because for dashboards to start working again, or
for cars to start running normally again, something's as skew.
And I think Bill was just so spot on in
his commentary here. And I've seen this over and over again.
We all seem to be looking for that magic bullet,
but we won't take the time to diagnose it. Do
I think certain batteries should be changed on a regular,
(15:08):
consistent basis, Yes, full disclosure. And I didn't get a
chance to mention this in that call on that show
a couple of weeks back. But I see Group fifty
one batteries most commonly found in hondas as the number
one most failed battery, and it is it just seems
to get chewed up on a regular basis, So would
(15:31):
I changed Group fifty one batteries every three three and
a half years. I'm kind of hard on them because
I've seen those fail. I've seen those fail with consistent
regardless of brand. That regardless of brand, they just fail,
all right. Bill goes on, I believe the caller was
in Michigan. When searching for my daughter's first car in
high school, I test drove a local grand Dame that
(15:51):
belonged to a university student from Michigan. At drove fine
and had a nice interior. Their engine baying undercarriage where
a crusty nightmare. I would not have taken it for free.
It was still registered Michigan, as there's no way it
would have passed the annual Virginia safety inspection. And he
goes on to include a couple other things, and he says,
even though I believe I struck cal to ac Delco,
I missed another battery. Brands, keep up the great work.
(16:12):
I've successfully used an adopted product you feature with gist interviews,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Best regards, Bill, Charlottesville, Virginia.
I think The best way to sum it up is
this that all batteries are re manufactured. I think that's
what we've learned out of this, that you know, they
take what material they can and revitalize them properly. I
(16:34):
challenge you to go out and do the search ac
Delco Batteries re manufacturing process and read the procedure. It's
it's really staggering the depth in the detail I read
through it. It's done with such accuracy that you have
to give ac Delco credit. They're they're taking advantage of
technology to make what I consider to be a better
(16:55):
product better and to revitalize it and not have to
constantly use new material and be environmentally friendly as much
as a battery can be environmentally friendly. So I think
that's important to note, So let's leave it there. Coming
up next, we're going to be joined by Scott Brownstein.
(17:16):
He is from CRC Chemicals. We're going to be here
talking about some of the different things that CRC does.
I want to talk a little bit about breaks. Scott's
going to take us on a deep dive. We're going
to talk about proper ways to do a break job
and some of the chemical dos and don'ts that you
want to be aware of, So stick around for that.
I'm Ronnin and Andy and the Car Doctor. We'll be back
right after this. Break repairs are such a critical part
(17:39):
of water repair, and it seems like in the day
and age of computerization, breaks are still something that everybody
does and whether you're a professional or a do it yourselfer,
you need to do it correctly. I mean, let's face it,
you know that old adage, what's stopping you and they
talk about your breaks? Well, we gathered up Scott Brownstein.
(18:03):
He is the senior technical manager over there at CRC Industries. Scott,
I said that name right right, yes, and he's going
to help us today talking about some of the important
things about break maintenance and repair. Scott. Welcome to the
Car Doctor, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I always think about there was an ad in the seventies,
maybe the eighties, early eighties where they showed the difference
of doing breaks, and I think it might have been
CRC that actually had the print d where they showed
a picture of two mechanics working on cars and one,
you know, was doing a perfectly, you know, very nice
clean break repair. The rotors were clean, and the other
(18:46):
guy had grease all over the place, and you know
there her fingerprints on the brake pads, and you know,
and they stressed the importance of cleanliness. That's that's fifty
years ago. Cleanliness on breaks. It's just so important, you know,
state the obvious gott tell us why let's start here.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Absolutely, you do not want any grease, grime, oil on
any of the friction material surfaces, the front of the
brake pads where it contacts the rotor, the drums, the shoes,
any of those contabinants. When you do your first initial
bed in, you can actually just ruin a set of
(19:23):
pads and rotors just by burning those oils into it.
And it's so important to use a good break parts
cleaner to make sure all those areas are spotless during
your assembly.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Can we talk about that for a quick second. You
used a term bed in. Boy, I haven't heard that
in a million years, but it's absolutely spot on. What
is bed in? Explain that real quick.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
So when you have a brand new set of pads
and rotors, just it's a relationship. So you want those
two materials to wear in together into each other and
you go out and most people don't read the instruction
anymore nowadays, but most of the brake pads have a
better in procedure where you go out and you do
so many stops stop to zero, but from fifty down
(20:09):
to twenty, and you repeat that a handful of time.
So you put some heat into the brakes, you lay
them the cooled off, and you actually get those two
friction services to marry to one another.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Now CRC and I've been using CRC products full disclosure
here since the late seventies. I remember red, white, and
black cans in all of my repair base. CRC offers
a non chlorinated breake clean That was a big deal
when that came out. So why would someone want to
use that? What's the importance of a non chlorinated breake cleaner?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Absolutely, So it comes down to government regulations and all
the different states have different rules for what chemicals you
can put into products. So some states you're allowed to
use stronger chemicals, other states you have to use chemicals.
And that's really due to VOCs and small contributing compounds,
(21:05):
so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And it's so it's a little better for you to
use a non chlorinated break cleaner. Is that a misstatement?
Is that a childhood myth?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Now it's a step in the right direction. Because chlorinated
products too, they can contaminate waste oil and things like that,
and certain states even ban the use of chlorinated products.
So nonchlor you can get in every state, depending on
what are the government restrictions for it?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
What what leads to break noise? And let me preface
that question, because this is a common complaint, right, I
just did breaks and they're noisy? Did I use too
much break clean? You know how many times a week
I get that question? And that's not really it. Break
clean is actually the safest thing you can use on
a break repair. The guys using carburetor cleaner or fuel
(21:51):
injection cleaner on the roads because they don't want to
buy break clean, they're doing it wrong, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Absolutely Some of those products could have oils and other contaminants.
And then break parks cleaner is the right tool for
the job because it's gonna leave no residue behind, instant
to dry really quickly. Now, break noise, though, can be
contributed to other things I've in the past. In my past, life.
When I was a dealership technician, I've had a couple
(22:17):
comebacks as well. You know, no one's protected from having
a comeback once in the blue moon. We try to
avoid it, and break squeal is very possible, and what
can happen sometimes is you actually get chatter and movement
of the brake pad against the caliber and it causes
a frequency vibration. So there's a product out there we
(22:39):
may call this break quiet, and it's actually like a
tacky jael once it sets up. So you put it
on the back of the brake pads, the non friction side,
and you're only going to draw all the day out
in a little squeeze bile. We sell it in just
where the caliber is going to contact that, let it
sit for five minutes, tack up, put the car back together,
and that is actually going to dampen and absorb and
(23:00):
prevent that frequency vibration from reoccurring, and you have nice
quiet breaks again.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
You know, I always I always equate that frequency vibration,
and that's that's a great way to put it. I
always explain it to people at the counter that the
reason we use disc break quiet the little orange bottle
is it It's like remember at your high school prom
when you were bored and you don't know what to
say to your date, and the water glass was half
full and you're in your finger around the top and
if you did it enough times and fast enough, it
(23:26):
would start to distort and make sound, and you thought
it was the cool thing to do at seventeen.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And that's sort of what that's sort of what the
breaks are doing. They're they're finding that frequency point and
it just becomes a distortion and you're hearing it in
the break squeel. And that's what the disc break quiet
is doing, right, It's absorbing that and keeping the pad
from shifting around so it doesn't chatter, so to speak exactly, carbon,
I want to I want to jump around a little
(23:52):
bit and I want to, you know, since I have you,
I want to talk a little bit about, you know,
fuel system cleaning. If I can real quick, I want
to jump into that. You know, carbon is a big
issue on today's engines. And I didn't realize you were
dealer tech, so I'm sure you've got some dealer tech
stories about the cars you saw. Carbon becomes a problem
and you know today's vehicles, everything is GDI right, gasoline
(24:17):
direct injection, So everybody wants to know fuel system cleaning
and how to go about it, and why is carbon
such a problem today?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Can you tell us absolutely? So with gasoleen direct injection,
we're able to get better fuel economy, better performance in
a smaller displacement engine. But we're bringing back an old
school problem when these prank case vapors come back around
through the PCV system. We're having these oil vapor deposits
(24:50):
land on the intake veils that are hot, and they're
immediately carbonizing up because the intake manifolds plastics of the
oil is not sticking there. It's going to stick onto
the metal down the path and we're not having fuel
injectors up in the port anymore washing over and clean
that carbon off the valve, so they're they're tacking up
the gets gummy and then it starts causing all these
(25:12):
other driveability issues. So cleaning and spraying an air induction
cleaning surf product that we one of the ones we make,
goes through the throttle body and it's going to land
and slowly break down and the multify that carbon and
allow it to come off these intake valves Another thing
(25:33):
is is that now, back in the day, you used
to use a fuel tank additive which would clean the
carbon off these valves. Even though it doesn't work on
the intake valves today, it's still really important to do
that because with these direct injection engines, we're using the
fuel to cool down the cylinder before the next combustion event.
(25:54):
And if these little tiny pindles on the injectors, they
get clogged up with carbon and then you're not getting
a complete tone, animized spray across the filter evenly, which
could lead to hotspots and predetonation. So using a good
fuel injection cleaner is still important today, even on today's vehicles.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You make a good point, Scott, And when we come back,
I want to talk about using tank cleaner and its
effects on catalytic converters. All right, let's pull over, take
a pause. I'm ronning any in the car. Doctor. I'm
here with Scott Brownstein of CRC Industries, and we'll both
return right after this. Don't go away. We are back.
And before we pulled away and took the pause, Scott
(26:35):
Brownstein and I we were talking. Scott's from the CRC Industries.
He's the senior technical manager over there, Scott. The question
that was coming up, we were talking about fuel tank editors.
Now this is a conversation that started about breaks, and
I purposely sort of blindsided you hear, and I'm sorry
we're talking fuel systems all of a sudden, because I
know CRC's history with fuel systems too. Tank additives is
(26:58):
where the conversation was headed. There's a reason beyond the
engine why we put a tank editive in a fuel
tank system cleaner, because that helps the catalytic converter too,
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Absolutely, So anything that is coming out of the engine
has to pass through that catalytic converter, and there are
things that we can do to help clean the catalytic converter,
promote a healthy catalytic converter, and make sure that it
gets the full designed life out of it. So it's
not just even just a passing your emissions test. And
(27:30):
that's what most people related to is, Oh, it's that
time of the year. I have to make sure I
do this. You should be doing this a couple times
a year so you don't get to that point of oh, boy,
now that check engine lights on, I have that forts
one that four point thirty code and I got to
go for my emissions testing in two weeks, you know,
and then there's that panic that sets in.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So that fuel system cleaner, you know, and I'm sure
there's some proprietary blends of stuff in there that CRC uses.
They it basically it attacks the lack of a better
way to say it, and correct me if I'm wrong,
but it attacks the crud and the catalytic converter and
helps keep the the you know, the structure of the
(28:12):
cat active so it stays clean and it's efficient and
it does its job correct. Yes, exactly, so vehicle emissions
testing because you brought it up, so you know, doing
tank additive is good preventative maintenance, and that's also part
of that tank Editive is also part of the CRC
GDI service pack if we're doing a fuel system cleaning,
(28:33):
which is where that conversation started, right, Yes, so that
tank editive part of that pack, and I'm sure it's
available separately, does a good job cleaning the cat. But
then there's something else you guys have, which I've always
wanted to ask somebody from CRC about. You've got something
called guaranteed to pass.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Guaranteed to pass, so that is specifically formulate for cleaning
the crucial emissions components that the fuel touches, including the
CATA converter, and with the cost of CALAE converters to
in the labor to replace them, I always explain to
people this is the best thing to try before you
actually have to spend that amount of money to replace
the cat like inverter. This is using Pea technology, so
(29:13):
polyether imine, and that's what's attaching and breaking down the carbon,
and that's what's getting all the tough crowd out of
the engine.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So suffice it to say, if anybody out there has
a vehicle that's burning oil, and I love I always
love these questions, and true to form, they won't make
the connection until I pointed out, But if you've got
a vehicle out there that's burning oil, a court in
one thousand miles, a court in fifteen hundred miles, using
(29:43):
a tank additive, using something like guaranteed to pass, all right,
you know, fuel system cleaner is going to help keep
that cat healthy because that cat is not only digesting exhaust,
it's diet ingesting oil, which is a carbon based substance,
(30:04):
right splogging up the cat over a period.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Of time, absolutely, and that is something that you want
to make sure you get that engine fixed and rectified
if one of those rings are sticking or something's happening,
so it'll it'll help push you along. But in some cases,
too much oil or even too much fuel for that matter,
dumping down a cafe like a stuck feel injector that's
(30:28):
just going to kill the cat pretty quickly. And you know,
no product on the market's going to help bring that
catalye converter back.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Right other than a new catalytic converter, which can range
in price anywhere from eight hundred to three thousand dollars
plus labor. So it becomes it and it becomes a
chore yep, and a painful expense. In our closing minute here, Scott,
you know, I want to switch gears one last time.
QD Contact Cleaner. That CRC makes you know, there's more
(30:58):
electronics than ever and I love that QD Contact cleaner.
I've got cans of it around the shop. Why can't
I just why can't I just use break clean?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
You know you could use a brake cleaner or a
card cleaner and have become a more costly ex events
very quickly, because now you have to replace that part.
Most of these parts are in all these sensors that
are encased in plastic, whether you're cleaning corrosion now that
the connectors, or actually cleaning an m AP sensor itself,
everything's plastic, and you want to a plastic safe cleaner
(31:34):
that's going to flush out those contaminants and it's going
to dry really quick and most importantly not leave a
residue behind any type of oially residue or anything else.
They're going to skew those sensor readings.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Now, now suffice it to say that mass airflow sensors,
you've got a mass airflow sensor cleaner too. You've got
a mass airflow sensor cleaner, You've got a you know,
you've got contact cleaner, electrical bares cleaner. So if you
guys are making a cleaner for a specific application, it's
not just because you want to print out a bunch
of different cans. There's a specific reason for each and
(32:08):
every product, and we're better off using it than trying
to be adventurous on our own right.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Exactly, mass airflow sensors are so sensitive that the QD
contact cleaner could actually damage an MAAF sensor, right, So
it's actually a very specific, unique formulation for cleaning MAF
sensors cool beans.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Scott, it's been a pleasure, sir. Where can the listeners
get more information?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
They can go right to our website at seriously industries
dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
All right, hey, listen, you'd be well. You have a
great rest of the weekend, and we'll talk to you
again soon. Thanks for taking the time. I'm ronning any
and the car Doctor. I'm back right after this. Wasn't
that a fun interview? Ye, Scott Brownstein from CRC Industries.
There's so much knowledge in that guy's head and the
things that came up during the course of that interview.
(32:56):
I want to go over one of them real quick.
And it's so import the commentary about how they make
specific product to do specific things, and that's so important.
So many times I see guys using carburetor cleaner or
fuel system cleaner to do break clean job and it's
just wrong. Break clean is designed to operate and do
(33:17):
what it's supposed to do, so it doesn't, you know,
it doesn't hurt brake pads, it doesn't you know, get
into the wrong places and do the wrong thing. Same
thing with electrical contact cleaner, and then mass airflow cleaner,
and you could look through their product line and think,
you know, that's sort of a guided tour of does
and don't, so be aware till the next time I'm
running any in the car. Doctor, good mechanics aren't expensive,
(33:37):
they're priceless.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
See you
You're listening to Ron and Nanian The Car Doctor, nationally
recognized auto expert trusted by Mechanics, weekend wrenchers and vehicle
owners alike. Ron brings over forty years of hands on
experience and deep industry insight to help you understand your vehicle.
Join the Conversation live every Saturday from two to four
pm Eastern by calling eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. That's eight five five five six
(00:25):
zero ninety nine hundred, your direct line to honest answers
and practical advice. Looking for more, visit cardoctorshow dot com
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be sure to subscribe to the Car Doctor YouTube channel
for exclusive videos, real repair footage and more. Now start
your enginies. The Car Doctor is in the garage and
(00:47):
ready to take your call.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, thanks for stopping bye today. If you want to
in the productor obviously your service, we've got a great,
big fun hour for you this weekend, and they're going
to be talking to you of course as you call
in at eight five to five five six zero nine
nine zero zero. And I want to just remind everybody
and let everybody know that down around the bottom of
the hour. We're going to be joined by Scott Brownstein.
He is from CRC Industries. We're going to be talking,
(01:11):
you know, some of the things that go on during
a break repair and some of the things you should
be doing and some of the things that you're doing
that are wrong. And we're gonna get a bit of
an education there. But right now, let's let's go over
to the phones real quick and get started. Dave, Wisconsin, Dave,
how can I help you in your Is that an
O two A Suzu Trooper? There's one left? Holy cow? Right?
(01:33):
So where's Joe Asuzu when you need him? Tell me
the story, Dave, This has to be a good one.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, I bought this new after my son worked in
a dealership and they were phasing out troopers, so I
bought it and I got it really cheap, right and
and well, anyway, I've had it for about two years
or three years ago. Uh I got one hundred and
(02:02):
twenty four dollars now and it's a three point five Leader.
I guess it is V six sure, yeah, D six
hip And anyway, it uh it it stopped. The forewheel
drive doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Okay, did it just did it just die mid use
or you went to turn it on one day and
it no longer worked?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, no longer it works. Okay, the lights and stuff
come on, you know, it's torque on demand, you know,
but it doesn't. I put new brinks in the front
and the back and stuff, and I still had I
still had, you know, the forward drive. But now and
(02:53):
all of a sudden, it just quit.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So anybody try and do any kind of diagnosis to this,
any any scan tool, any scan tool work.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
No, I didn't. I took it to a couple of
places and they go, oh god, you don't want to
fix that. If runs just run it. You know, it
could be up to twenty five hundred dollars to fix that.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It could be and you know what, they're wrong in
the sense that it could be anything. And because it
could be anything, I think the right answer is, Dave,
we're going to charge you, you know, two three hours
of shop time to diagnose it, and then we'll decide, Hey,
can we find the parts, and b do you want
to fix it? You know, I think that's the better answer.
You know, I would want to scan this. I'd start
(03:39):
just like any diagnosis scan it all right. What was
common with those was the torque on demand system. If
it's setting any sort of trouble codes, fourteen and twenty
four come to mind, all right. There were problems with
the speed sensors located on the drive shift, all right,
and it was com com in for those sensors to
(04:01):
short out, and usually the indicator for that would be
that the it would set those fault codes fourteen and
twenty four. Fourteen and twenty four are probably the two
most common sensors for that particular system. Now it's it's
and you know here's that it's a cheap car problem, right,
it's an Asusu. Joe Asuzu never told the system who's
(04:22):
doing all those TV commercials. But you know it's, it's.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
It's.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's a simple system in that there's a five vault
reference down at the sensors, but there's no way to
separate the two and fourteen and twenty four was generally
an indication of a shorted speed sensor. So if there's
no five vault reference on the green wire at both sensors,
(04:46):
you're gonna cut the wire at one of the sensors
and see if the five volt feed comes back on
the other one, all right. If it does, then the
most common failure is that the speed sensor is short
at the ground. And if you can find one, fine
too and change them both. But at least that'll give
you a direction, uh, you know, because finding finding parts
is gonna your shop is right in that aspect. Finding
(05:09):
parts for this is going to be difficult, you know.
The the the other thing that was, you know, sort
of common is the four wheel drive vacuum switch all right,
and there's some things you have to go through. It
would set a trouble code twenty eight before you will drive.
Vacuum switching valve was common. But you know, the stuff's
(05:31):
out there. I haven't worked on in a Suzu in
quite a while because getting parts is difficult. But it's
out there. You just have to find it. So and
I'm sure the Asuzu dealer is long gone, right, he's
still not in town. He's not selling some other brand,
yeah right, you know here in New Jersey, for example,
(05:51):
the nearest Asuzu dealer, And it's probably not I should
say this say it like this because I could be
I could be wrong. I was wrong once the nearest
the Suzu dealers about two hours away, and the only
way you can get parts out of them. If they
don't have it, they would order it, but you'd have
to go down pay for the parts up front. Whenever
the parts showed up, they showed up, and if they
showed up wrong, that wasn't their problem, that was yours.
(06:14):
So it's not exactly easy getting parts with these things,
but you know you can diagnose it. Then it's a
matter of finding pieces best dnswer I got kiddo, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yes, I went on one of those places that told
you where it's worth, right, I think they got it
at four thouars and I guess.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, you know, listen, it's yeah, it's not worth a
whole lot, it's but you know, by the same token,
a car is only worth what it's going to cost
you to replace. What I'd be worried about with that
vehicle is how much rust is underneath it. A twenty
two year old, a Suzu Trooper. I mean, it might
be rust free, and then again it might be the srostolium.
(07:00):
You don't know, you might need a tetanis shot just
looking at it, so you know it's it's it's it's
do you have a regular mechanic that's been servicing it
or trying to service it up to this point? Dave
can say again, Dave, I.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I do what I can, right, I don't nobody wants
to mess with it.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Right, Yeah, that's that's the unfortunate side of it. So
why did you do this?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Whyted?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Do you have another car in the family that you
take a different car to a different mechanic, you know,
a different mechanic that works on another family vehicle.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, but they won't work on this.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, ask them, would they at least would they at
least give you an overall appraisal. You'd be willing to
pay for it, right, You'd be willing. You'd be willing
to spend you know, a couple of bucks to find
out what sort of shape this thing is in, because
you know, maybe from aparts and maybe from a rust perspective,
and maybe from a vehicle condition perspective, the twenty two
year old is susu it's time to let it go.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So you know it's inside grand new and outside is
gust free.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Right, Well, the part you're seeing is rust free. You
got to look underneath, right, Oh okay? Well, and you
know what let's let's let's find out for sure, and
then it's just a matter of finding somebody to work
on it, unless you want to drive it to New Jersey,
which you know, that's a that's a whole nother story.
I don't think the waiting room could accommodate you for
three weeks. Dave might take a while to find parts,
(08:33):
all right, kiddo, Yeah, all right. I wish I could
do more for you. But that's you know, the information's there,
the systems are there. It's just a matter of and
you know, listen, go try and find Go, try and
find a listing. Maybe this is the way to approach it.
Go try and find driveshaft speed sensors for it, going
on the assumption that that might be wrong with it.
(08:54):
And if you can't find those, maybe that makes the
decision about whether it's worth working on or not. Because
if you can't find the two most common pieces that failed,
where are you're going? Right? Yeah, So a Suzu did
not do anybody right as far as I'm concerned. They
were in the market and then they just dropped from
the market and then all of a sudden they don't
(09:15):
exist anymore. So a lot of people with the Suzus
were left hanging. So, yeah, all right, killing So I
understand I got to run, Dave. You're very welcome, sir.
You'd be well. I'm running ady in the Car Doctor.
We are back right after this. Don't go anywhere. We
recently had a caller, I think it was last week's
show or the week before, that was calling in about
(09:38):
his battery. He made some comments about the battery he
was using it. It was an AC Delco and some of
his comments, frankly, just seemed a little off point and
we couldn't make heads or tails out of it. And
even before we as the radio show, The Card Doctor,
even before we could respond to it and do some
research on it, we received a bunch of emails letters
(10:01):
from all of you out there, and we appreciate them.
And I think Bill from Virginia kind of sums it
up the best. He said, hey 'ron, longtime Car Doctor
show listener. Here, I heard the recent caller saying he
was not likely going to purchase an AC Delco battery
in the future, and said he was told that the
brand is all apparently remanufactured. I did some research and
I found some useful information at the below link regarding
(10:23):
recycled materials used in the manufacture of new production AC
Delco batteries. I went to the link global batteries dot
com and how are ac Delco batteries manufacturing and where
they made? That's actually the name of the link, and
it was fascinating in terms of what was done and
how it seems that, yes, to a point, ac Delco
(10:45):
batteries do have some recycled components in them. Recycled light
eighty three percent high purity sulfuric acid with stabilized there's
probably propylene cases tested at a two hundred and fifty
psi birth strength, and calcium alloy grids. Now, some of
these components are new, some of them are recycled, which
kind of makes sense when you stop and think about it,
because when you sell a battery, when we sell a battery,
(11:07):
the number one thing they want us to do is
get a court back, and they want us to send
a core back for I was always under the impression
of recycling purposes. I never really thought about the remanufacturing angle.
But what it looks like they're doing is to a degree,
certain components so that they don't have to dispose of
(11:29):
them or strip the earth of more are being recycled
and reused properly. It's really fascinating if you read the
entire Global Batteries comment about you know, acdecal batteries, where
they may and how they're made. There's so much technology
that goes into this. I'm more impressed with the battery
line now than I ever was before. And it talks
(11:51):
about it goes on, it goes on. Bill goes on
to write he said that auto batteries are one of
the most recycled items out there due to the core charge.
I presume, But Bill, I think you're right in order
to prevent careless disposal of a product containing lead and acid,
which again, that makes sense, right. It doesn't surprise me.
This is Bill talking that there is material inside they
(12:13):
can be extracted, reprocessed, and used again in new battery production.
Your caller said that he changed his battery every two
or three years and asserted this is the reason he
never had threeplaces starter or an alternator. And I gotta
say I agree with Bill here. That sounds like the
guy used to work with that said about his elephant pills.
He said he came to work each day and took
two elephant pills, as they were supposed to keep the
(12:34):
elephants away. So far, so good, they never failed them yet.
The caller claimed that just changing his battery corrected his issues,
but made no mention of looser coroded cable terminal connections
being investigated. A lot of good batteries have been replaced
due to lousy or poor cable connection quality. The act
of disconnecting and properly cleaning and reconnecting would have been
a good regular maintenance procedure. Just so we won't forget
(12:57):
when to do that. He could simply perform this every
time he can cleans the throttle body, because, if you recall,
the gentleman was also saying that he'd never had a
throttle body cleaning. Thanks so much for your show, Bill
from Charlottesville, Virginia. I was intrigued by Bill's letter in
full disclosure. Again, I asked Bill. I said, Bill, would
you please go out and see what other information you
can find? Pick two battery manufacturers and does anybody else
(13:20):
recycle batteries? And here's Bill's reply When I asked them
to do that, I said, hey, Ron, I looked for
technical data on batteries other than ac Delco and could
not find similar information at the same level of detail.
I started my the research with two brands I've used
most often, Advanced Auto and Interstate, and then expanded my
search for any brand. There's an excellent video in the
link below that shows each of the auto battery components
(13:42):
being reprocessed and then new batteries being manufactured. If you
get out to Batterycouncil dot org, you'll be able to
see this video. One thing that is obvious from the
video is that all brands of lead acid batteries are
included on the same conveyor belts that feed the crusher
and begin the separation process. You know, you've got to
understand when they assemble a battery, they take it and
(14:02):
they break apart the case. This I've seen where they
break apart the case. I never realized they were using
it for re manufacturing, to reprocess it. I just assumed
they were recycling it safely. I was bothered by your
caller's belief that AC Delco batteries were somehow not constructed
of new materials when ninety nine percent of automobile batteries
are eventually recycled and reprocessed into base materials for new
(14:25):
battery construction, and yet your coller was quick to condemn
And this is Bill talking and prematurely replace the se
Delco batter with no mention of a vaultmeter load testing
or vaulted drop test despite your suggestions of troubleshooting. You
know that bothered me about that call as well. And
one of the things that you'll always see me say
is can we test it? Is there a way to
look at it? You've got to come up with a
(14:46):
logical reason, because for dashboards to start working again, or
for cars to start running normally again, something's as skew.
And I think Bill was just so spot on in
his commentary here. And I've seen this over and over again.
We all seem to be looking for that magic bullet,
but we won't take the time to diagnose it. Do
I think certain batteries should be changed on a regular,
(15:08):
consistent basis, Yes, full disclosure. And I didn't get a
chance to mention this in that call on that show
a couple of weeks back. But I see Group fifty
one batteries most commonly found in hondas as the number
one most failed battery, and it is it just seems
to get chewed up on a regular basis, So would
(15:31):
I changed Group fifty one batteries every three three and
a half years. I'm kind of hard on them because
I've seen those fail. I've seen those fail with consistent
regardless of brand. That regardless of brand, they just fail,
all right. Bill goes on, I believe the caller was
in Michigan. When searching for my daughter's first car in
high school, I test drove a local grand Dame that
(15:51):
belonged to a university student from Michigan. At drove fine
and had a nice interior. Their engine baying undercarriage where
a crusty nightmare. I would not have taken it for free.
It was still registered Michigan, as there's no way it
would have passed the annual Virginia safety inspection. And he
goes on to include a couple other things, and he says,
even though I believe I struck cal to ac Delco,
I missed another battery. Brands, keep up the great work.
(16:12):
I've successfully used an adopted product you feature with gist interviews,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Best regards, Bill, Charlottesville, Virginia.
I think The best way to sum it up is
this that all batteries are re manufactured. I think that's
what we've learned out of this, that you know, they
take what material they can and revitalize them properly. I
(16:34):
challenge you to go out and do the search ac
Delco Batteries re manufacturing process and read the procedure. It's
it's really staggering the depth in the detail I read
through it. It's done with such accuracy that you have
to give ac Delco credit. They're they're taking advantage of
technology to make what I consider to be a better
(16:55):
product better and to revitalize it and not have to
constantly use new material and be environmentally friendly as much
as a battery can be environmentally friendly. So I think
that's important to note, So let's leave it there. Coming
up next, we're going to be joined by Scott Brownstein.
(17:16):
He is from CRC Chemicals. We're going to be here
talking about some of the different things that CRC does.
I want to talk a little bit about breaks. Scott's
going to take us on a deep dive. We're going
to talk about proper ways to do a break job
and some of the chemical dos and don'ts that you
want to be aware of, So stick around for that.
I'm Ronnin and Andy and the Car Doctor. We'll be back
right after this. Break repairs are such a critical part
(17:39):
of water repair, and it seems like in the day
and age of computerization, breaks are still something that everybody
does and whether you're a professional or a do it yourselfer,
you need to do it correctly. I mean, let's face it,
you know that old adage, what's stopping you and they
talk about your breaks? Well, we gathered up Scott Brownstein.
(18:03):
He is the senior technical manager over there at CRC Industries. Scott,
I said that name right right, yes, and he's going
to help us today talking about some of the important
things about break maintenance and repair. Scott. Welcome to the
Car Doctor, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You're very welcome.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I always think about there was an ad in the seventies,
maybe the eighties, early eighties where they showed the difference
of doing breaks, and I think it might have been
CRC that actually had the print d where they showed
a picture of two mechanics working on cars and one,
you know, was doing a perfectly, you know, very nice
clean break repair. The rotors were clean, and the other
(18:46):
guy had grease all over the place, and you know
there her fingerprints on the brake pads, and you know,
and they stressed the importance of cleanliness. That's that's fifty
years ago. Cleanliness on breaks. It's just so important, you know,
state the obvious gott tell us why let's start here.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Absolutely, you do not want any grease, grime, oil on
any of the friction material surfaces, the front of the
brake pads where it contacts the rotor, the drums, the shoes,
any of those contabinants. When you do your first initial
bed in, you can actually just ruin a set of
(19:23):
pads and rotors just by burning those oils into it.
And it's so important to use a good break parts
cleaner to make sure all those areas are spotless during
your assembly.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Can we talk about that for a quick second. You
used a term bed in. Boy, I haven't heard that
in a million years, but it's absolutely spot on. What
is bed in? Explain that real quick.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
So when you have a brand new set of pads
and rotors, just it's a relationship. So you want those
two materials to wear in together into each other and
you go out and most people don't read the instruction
anymore nowadays, but most of the brake pads have a
better in procedure where you go out and you do
so many stops stop to zero, but from fifty down
(20:09):
to twenty, and you repeat that a handful of time.
So you put some heat into the brakes, you lay
them the cooled off, and you actually get those two
friction services to marry to one another.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Now CRC and I've been using CRC products full disclosure
here since the late seventies. I remember red, white, and
black cans in all of my repair base. CRC offers
a non chlorinated breake clean That was a big deal
when that came out. So why would someone want to
use that? What's the importance of a non chlorinated breake cleaner?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Absolutely, So it comes down to government regulations and all
the different states have different rules for what chemicals you
can put into products. So some states you're allowed to
use stronger chemicals, other states you have to use chemicals.
And that's really due to VOCs and small contributing compounds,
(21:05):
so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
And it's so it's a little better for you to
use a non chlorinated break cleaner. Is that a misstatement?
Is that a childhood myth?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Now it's a step in the right direction. Because chlorinated
products too, they can contaminate waste oil and things like that,
and certain states even ban the use of chlorinated products.
So nonchlor you can get in every state, depending on
what are the government restrictions for it?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
What what leads to break noise? And let me preface
that question, because this is a common complaint, right, I
just did breaks and they're noisy? Did I use too
much break clean? You know how many times a week
I get that question? And that's not really it. Break
clean is actually the safest thing you can use on
a break repair. The guys using carburetor cleaner or fuel
(21:51):
injection cleaner on the roads because they don't want to
buy break clean, they're doing it wrong, aren't they.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Absolutely Some of those products could have oils and other contaminants.
And then break parks cleaner is the right tool for
the job because it's gonna leave no residue behind, instant
to dry really quickly. Now, break noise, though, can be
contributed to other things I've in the past. In my past, life.
When I was a dealership technician, I've had a couple
(22:17):
comebacks as well. You know, no one's protected from having
a comeback once in the blue moon. We try to
avoid it, and break squeal is very possible, and what
can happen sometimes is you actually get chatter and movement
of the brake pad against the caliber and it causes
a frequency vibration. So there's a product out there we
(22:39):
may call this break quiet, and it's actually like a
tacky jael once it sets up. So you put it
on the back of the brake pads, the non friction side,
and you're only going to draw all the day out
in a little squeeze bile. We sell it in just
where the caliber is going to contact that, let it
sit for five minutes, tack up, put the car back together,
and that is actually going to dampen and absorb and
(23:00):
prevent that frequency vibration from reoccurring, and you have nice
quiet breaks again.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
You know, I always I always equate that frequency vibration,
and that's that's a great way to put it. I
always explain it to people at the counter that the
reason we use disc break quiet the little orange bottle
is it It's like remember at your high school prom
when you were bored and you don't know what to
say to your date, and the water glass was half
full and you're in your finger around the top and
if you did it enough times and fast enough, it
(23:26):
would start to distort and make sound, and you thought
it was the cool thing to do at seventeen.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And that's sort of what that's sort of what the
breaks are doing. They're they're finding that frequency point and
it just becomes a distortion and you're hearing it in
the break squeel. And that's what the disc break quiet
is doing, right, It's absorbing that and keeping the pad
from shifting around so it doesn't chatter, so to speak exactly, carbon,
I want to I want to jump around a little
(23:52):
bit and I want to, you know, since I have you,
I want to talk a little bit about, you know,
fuel system cleaning. If I can real quick, I want
to jump into that. You know, carbon is a big
issue on today's engines. And I didn't realize you were
dealer tech, so I'm sure you've got some dealer tech
stories about the cars you saw. Carbon becomes a problem
and you know today's vehicles, everything is GDI right, gasoline
(24:17):
direct injection, So everybody wants to know fuel system cleaning
and how to go about it, and why is carbon
such a problem today?
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Can you tell us absolutely? So with gasoleen direct injection,
we're able to get better fuel economy, better performance in
a smaller displacement engine. But we're bringing back an old
school problem when these prank case vapors come back around
through the PCV system. We're having these oil vapor deposits
(24:50):
land on the intake veils that are hot, and they're
immediately carbonizing up because the intake manifolds plastics of the
oil is not sticking there. It's going to stick onto
the metal down the path and we're not having fuel
injectors up in the port anymore washing over and clean
that carbon off the valve, so they're they're tacking up
the gets gummy and then it starts causing all these
(25:12):
other driveability issues. So cleaning and spraying an air induction
cleaning surf product that we one of the ones we make,
goes through the throttle body and it's going to land
and slowly break down and the multify that carbon and
allow it to come off these intake valves Another thing
(25:33):
is is that now, back in the day, you used
to use a fuel tank additive which would clean the
carbon off these valves. Even though it doesn't work on
the intake valves today, it's still really important to do
that because with these direct injection engines, we're using the
fuel to cool down the cylinder before the next combustion event.
(25:54):
And if these little tiny pindles on the injectors, they
get clogged up with carbon and then you're not getting
a complete tone, animized spray across the filter evenly, which
could lead to hotspots and predetonation. So using a good
fuel injection cleaner is still important today, even on today's vehicles.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You make a good point, Scott, And when we come back,
I want to talk about using tank cleaner and its
effects on catalytic converters. All right, let's pull over, take
a pause. I'm ronning any in the car. Doctor. I'm
here with Scott Brownstein of CRC Industries, and we'll both
return right after this. Don't go away. We are back.
And before we pulled away and took the pause, Scott
(26:35):
Brownstein and I we were talking. Scott's from the CRC Industries.
He's the senior technical manager over there, Scott. The question
that was coming up, we were talking about fuel tank editors.
Now this is a conversation that started about breaks, and
I purposely sort of blindsided you hear, and I'm sorry
we're talking fuel systems all of a sudden, because I
know CRC's history with fuel systems too. Tank additives is
(26:58):
where the conversation was headed. There's a reason beyond the
engine why we put a tank editive in a fuel
tank system cleaner, because that helps the catalytic converter too,
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Absolutely, So anything that is coming out of the engine
has to pass through that catalytic converter, and there are
things that we can do to help clean the catalytic converter,
promote a healthy catalytic converter, and make sure that it
gets the full designed life out of it. So it's
not just even just a passing your emissions test. And
(27:30):
that's what most people related to is, Oh, it's that
time of the year. I have to make sure I
do this. You should be doing this a couple times
a year so you don't get to that point of oh, boy,
now that check engine lights on, I have that forts
one that four point thirty code and I got to
go for my emissions testing in two weeks, you know,
and then there's that panic that sets in.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So that fuel system cleaner, you know, and I'm sure
there's some proprietary blends of stuff in there that CRC uses.
They it basically it attacks the lack of a better
way to say it, and correct me if I'm wrong,
but it attacks the crud and the catalytic converter and
helps keep the the you know, the structure of the
(28:12):
cat active so it stays clean and it's efficient and
it does its job correct. Yes, exactly, so vehicle emissions
testing because you brought it up, so you know, doing
tank additive is good preventative maintenance, and that's also part
of that tank Editive is also part of the CRC
GDI service pack if we're doing a fuel system cleaning,
(28:33):
which is where that conversation started, right, Yes, so that
tank editive part of that pack, and I'm sure it's
available separately, does a good job cleaning the cat. But
then there's something else you guys have, which I've always
wanted to ask somebody from CRC about. You've got something
called guaranteed to pass.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Guaranteed to pass, so that is specifically formulate for cleaning
the crucial emissions components that the fuel touches, including the
CATA converter, and with the cost of CALAE converters to
in the labor to replace them, I always explain to
people this is the best thing to try before you
actually have to spend that amount of money to replace
the cat like inverter. This is using Pea technology, so
(29:13):
polyether imine, and that's what's attaching and breaking down the carbon,
and that's what's getting all the tough crowd out of
the engine.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So suffice it to say, if anybody out there has
a vehicle that's burning oil, and I love I always
love these questions, and true to form, they won't make
the connection until I pointed out, But if you've got
a vehicle out there that's burning oil, a court in
one thousand miles, a court in fifteen hundred miles, using
(29:43):
a tank additive, using something like guaranteed to pass, all right,
you know, fuel system cleaner is going to help keep
that cat healthy because that cat is not only digesting exhaust,
it's diet ingesting oil, which is a carbon based substance,
(30:04):
right splogging up the cat over a period.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Of time, absolutely, and that is something that you want
to make sure you get that engine fixed and rectified
if one of those rings are sticking or something's happening,
so it'll it'll help push you along. But in some cases,
too much oil or even too much fuel for that matter,
dumping down a cafe like a stuck feel injector that's
(30:28):
just going to kill the cat pretty quickly. And you know,
no product on the market's going to help bring that
catalye converter back.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Right other than a new catalytic converter, which can range
in price anywhere from eight hundred to three thousand dollars
plus labor. So it becomes it and it becomes a
chore yep, and a painful expense. In our closing minute here, Scott,
you know, I want to switch gears one last time.
QD Contact Cleaner. That CRC makes you know, there's more
(30:58):
electronics than ever and I love that QD Contact cleaner.
I've got cans of it around the shop. Why can't
I just why can't I just use break clean?
Speaker 4 (31:11):
You know you could use a brake cleaner or a
card cleaner and have become a more costly ex events
very quickly, because now you have to replace that part.
Most of these parts are in all these sensors that
are encased in plastic, whether you're cleaning corrosion now that
the connectors, or actually cleaning an m AP sensor itself,
everything's plastic, and you want to a plastic safe cleaner
(31:34):
that's going to flush out those contaminants and it's going
to dry really quick and most importantly not leave a
residue behind any type of oially residue or anything else.
They're going to skew those sensor readings.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Now, now suffice it to say that mass airflow sensors,
you've got a mass airflow sensor cleaner too. You've got
a mass airflow sensor cleaner, You've got a you know,
you've got contact cleaner, electrical bares cleaner. So if you
guys are making a cleaner for a specific application, it's
not just because you want to print out a bunch
of different cans. There's a specific reason for each and
(32:08):
every product, and we're better off using it than trying
to be adventurous on our own right.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Exactly, mass airflow sensors are so sensitive that the QD
contact cleaner could actually damage an MAAF sensor, right, So
it's actually a very specific, unique formulation for cleaning MAF
sensors cool beans.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Scott, it's been a pleasure, sir. Where can the listeners
get more information?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
They can go right to our website at seriously industries
dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
All right, hey, listen, you'd be well. You have a
great rest of the weekend, and we'll talk to you
again soon. Thanks for taking the time. I'm ronning any
and the car Doctor. I'm back right after this. Wasn't
that a fun interview? Ye, Scott Brownstein from CRC Industries.
There's so much knowledge in that guy's head and the
things that came up during the course of that interview.
(32:56):
I want to go over one of them real quick.
And it's so import the commentary about how they make
specific product to do specific things, and that's so important.
So many times I see guys using carburetor cleaner or
fuel system cleaner to do break clean job and it's
just wrong. Break clean is designed to operate and do
(33:17):
what it's supposed to do, so it doesn't, you know,
it doesn't hurt brake pads, it doesn't you know, get
into the wrong places and do the wrong thing. Same
thing with electrical contact cleaner, and then mass airflow cleaner,
and you could look through their product line and think,
you know, that's sort of a guided tour of does
and don't, so be aware till the next time I'm
running any in the car. Doctor, good mechanics aren't expensive,
(33:37):
they're priceless.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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