The Car Doctor Radio Show with Ron Ananian – “The Cost of Keeping It Running”
This week, Ron tackles a GMC with wipers stuck on high, a Volvo XC60 with a sunroof that leaks like a sieve, and dives deep into the rising cost of keeping your car on the road in 2025. From 16-spark-plug tune-ups to picked-through parts and poor-quality replacements, it's a no-BS look at life in the bay—and what it means for you behind the wheel.
Real repairs. Smart diagnostics. And always, real talk.
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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 to five five six
zero nine nine zero zero. That's eight five to five
(00:25):
five six 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 engines. The Car Doctor is in the garage
(00:47):
and ready to take your call.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, I'm just thinking about the week in the shop.
I want to know who put the sixteen spark plugs
in the HEMI right to do sixteens plugs in a
V eight Ram. I'll do the passenger side all day long,
but the driver's side, because then the genius engineer that
decided to put sixteen spark plugs in a Hemi Ram
(01:10):
truck also decided to mount the brake booster right on
top of the last two on the driver's side, and
it just makes getting to it a game of contortionism.
So I see they're bringing back the Hemi, which is
what made me think of this. So I just hope
everybody's prepared for the expense of, you know, doing maintenance
on some of these vehicles. It comes at a hefty
(01:31):
price tag. Although, as I said to the owner of
the vehicle when he picked up, you start to look
at what's the replacement cost of a pickup truck? You know,
you can spend eighty grand on a pickup truck today.
It's not hard. As a matter of fact, it's very
easy to go out and buy an eighty thousand dollars
pickup truck. What are the inexpensive transportation? And I think
(01:52):
it's one of the things that we're missing here, you know,
and it's affecting a lot of us. Someone that recently
Dodge wrote in and he said, hey, Ron, how about
his perspective on the economy from an autotech's point of view.
I don't know that I'm qualified or it's really my
position to say, but I think people are tight for money,
if you really want to know the truth. And this
(02:13):
ram pick up is an example of what I'm about
to say. But when they come in, they just want
it fixed because they're not buying a new vehicle and
they're trying to hang on to the older one, you know.
And I'm seeing, you know, this year in the shop,
our vehicle count is down a little bits and I'm
seeing that. I'm hearing that story from a lot of
(02:34):
repair shops. But the gross dollars are up. There's less
people coming in, but the ones that are coming in
are spending more money, is what I'm trying to say,
so that things kind of balance out. And I think
that's a lot in part that people are putting off repairs.
I think they're just trying to catch up. And it's
why in my opening of the previous hour, I was
(02:55):
talking about is your vehicle ready for? You know, rough weather?
So you know the economy, I think it's I think
the overall economy is we'll see. I don't want to comment,
it's not my place, but I will tell you from
a text perspective, you guys are spending less and hanging
on to your vehicles longer that I can say definitively.
Let's go to Larry in Tennessee, Oh for GMC Sierra
(03:18):
pick them up. I believe this is and some wiper problems. Well, Larry,
if you move to New Jersey and you get caught
in one of our downpours, you won't need wipers because
the water hits the windshields, hits the windshields so hard
it just bounces off. So you know, maybe that's the problem.
How can I help you, sir?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes, well, thank you for having my call first, but
I would be okay. The whippers still work on high.
I mean, boy, they do work good on high all right. Anyway,
what happened One evening I was in it. The whippers
were working great, the washer was working. The next morning
I went to get in to kind of wash the
pollen off, hit the washer button on the switch there,
(03:57):
nothing happened. Went through all the intermediate settings, nothing happened.
But when I got all the way to high on
constantly all they worked. Then I could actually toggle back
and forth from constant low speed to high and get
them to take a nice slow swiping. Then they go
back to the park position and I've done done some
(04:19):
repair here. I'm not a mechanic, right, what what parts
of your what?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Which? Which part of the parts? Cannon? Have you fired?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Okay? I have replaced the pulse, the whipper motor, pulse
control board, and the multifunction switch on the steering column,
and I checked the relays out underneath the hood there
that I swapped it with a horn relay and uh uh,
no difference. And I've replaced every fuse that I can
(04:49):
find anywhere on that thing that has anything to do
with the washer winch. You'll washer or wiper lost the
I'm a lot of internet fixes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, where'd you and where'd you get your parts from?
Just out of curiosity?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I got the parts from Rock Auto?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All right? What brand?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Right now? I can't remember what brand that they were?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So do you still have the old switch?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I still do, all right?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So this works By the reason it works on high
is because the switch is the dropping resistor in the circuit.
If you were to look at a wiring diagram, you
would see that you've got four wires coming out of
the switch that have consequence. There's a gray, there's a
dark blue white, and there is a pink. And then
(05:43):
the last one is the ten which is ground all right,
That goes to ground over near the E pillar on
the left side. So that gray wire, that's the wiper
supply voltage signal that goes across a series of resistors
inside the switch and creates a dropping resistor effect to
feeds signal back to the wiper module via the pink wire.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Okay, you're talking the switch on the steering car right.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The switch on the steering column, correct, the multifunction switch.
So in theory, we should be able to go across
the gray and the pink. Do you own an home meter, yes,
and we should be able to go across the gray
and the pink with that switch in different positions. And
see do we have a resistance value drop? You will
(06:28):
see a range of about three hundred homes up to
about forty five hundred homes, and it will increase incrementally
five hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred and so on, eventually
reaching forty five hundred homes.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
You can find specs in a service manual, but that's
generally the number you'll see. I believe six different ranges
depending upon how many speeds the wiper has low, and
then it has multiple delay, and then it has high,
but high see and high. They completely bypass the resistors
and you're just pulling the signal right to ground. And
(07:01):
you could basically take that gray wire if the diagram,
if I remember the diagram correctly, and I will tell
you to look at a diagram before we trust my
memory because it's been a while since I've done this,
but I believe you can take that gray wire, ground it,
and you would get the wipers to run on high
because it's the same effect, all right, So you know
that's basically how this works. I would want to test
(07:21):
the old switch, all right, because the fact that you
haven't changed anything in terms of what's still broken, the
new switch in the old switch should test the same,
correct they should now if the switch shows us open
circuit in one position, and you happen to be lucky
(07:44):
enough to get a new switch that shows US open
in one position right where, you know, it's remember what
news stands for never ever, never ever worked, right, So
we want to know that. Okay, Uh, the module is
a little tougher to check. There really is no way
to check that because obviously, because it's a it's a
(08:06):
printed circuit board. So this is going to become a
case of tell me what's good, I'll tell you what's bad.
The switches are common, all right, so you're not wrong.
I would tell you to carefully check that switch out
before we go too much further. And if you do
end up having to get another switch, bite the bullet
and get it from your local ATTA parts house, buy
(08:27):
a GM by it by a delco.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I would definitely encourage good quality electronics and electrical when
it comes to controls today. So it just becomes that important.
All right, Well, you got your you got you got
your homework. That doesn't work. You know where to find me, sir.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I might be calling you back.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Absolutely we'll be glad to take the call. You have
a good rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay, thank you, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Uh I can't you know, I think I think the
defective returns, you know, if you want to talk about
the state of the economy or the state of the shop,
I think the defective returns are starting to pile up
higher some days than the new parts coming in. And
it's not always that the part is defective, but I
will tell you this. We get a lot of pick
through parts that we return because we won't. We won't
(09:12):
put in parts that another shop has tried, and it
may not be electrical either. We recently got a set
of Moog ball joints from our supply house that the
one box contained a Moog ball joint, but the parts
bag had been picked through. It was missing the grease
fitting and the cotter pin. And I could have come
up with a grease fitting and a cotter pin, but
on principal I sent it back. But the other box
(09:34):
two ball joints. The other box had a car Quest
ball joint in it, and it's it's it's you know,
it's not. I don't anything against the car Quest ball
joint line. I think there's places where I would use it,
but I like a grease fitting. Certain jobs I want
to use a grease fitting, and I'm not putting in
a pick through part like that, so we sent them
both back. It's just amazing how these shops are guessing
what's going on out there. Anyway, let's pull over, take
(09:55):
a pause, and when we come back, we'll go right
to George with his Volvo question and a follow up.
I'm ronn Eeny and the car doctor. We'll return right
after this. By the way, just as a little bit
of automotive trivia and useless information. I was watching a
TV show the other day and they were talking about
the history of the GTO. They're talking about history of
muscle cars. Do you know the sixty four GTO is
(10:18):
actually used by the police in Japan as a pursuit vehicle.
Can imagine getting pulled over by that? You know, I
thought about that. That's got to be crazy. You know,
I wonder there's any Japanese GTOs left over there in
the impound yard or the up for auction. What could
they be worth? Right? I like, wow, I never would
(10:39):
have guessed that anyway. Like I said, there's a lot
of useless information I keep in my head. George, Connecticut,
Let's see if I can apply some of this to you.
Ten VOLVOXC sixty. What's going on, George? How can I help?
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yes, you're opening monologue. How your week has been is
what prompting me to give you a follow up call
on this vehicle?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Perfect.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
So I called you before and you were saying, you know,
to check the sunroof because this car had a massive
leak on the right side going to the back floorboard. Okay,
So I had to bring the car to my mechanic anyway.
It needed an all change and rear brakes. So I
told him if he could please look at it, and
then I actually fell sorry for me. He said, I
(11:17):
can look at it, but I'm gonna have to charge
you a diagnostic fee, and a lot of people get upset.
I said, look, I just want this taking care of
him sick and tired of going with towels and cleaning
up the water, right, you know, you know it takes
a couple hours. It takes a couple hours. Well, he
dealt into it, and then he said he could not
believe it. So it looked because I've only had this
(11:38):
vehicle for two years, it looks like somebody did reseal
the sunroof and putting new seals. But you know the
vent tubes, the train tubes, right, they never hooked them up.
So he said he couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
There's always a reason, George, Yeah, there's always a reason,
you know. And I've got to tell you, and I
say this every time I start to talking with somebody
about sunroofs. Did you ever stop to think that a
sunroof is really a calculated leak. No, you're right, a
sunroof is designed to leak, and I can prove it
with the following statement. You're ready. Yeah, if a sunroof
(12:14):
is not designed to leak, then why are their drains?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You wouldn't need a drain because you're not driving around.
I don't most people would not drive around with the
sunroof open in the rain, right, So why do we
have drains up there? I think sunroofs are kind of
one of the silliest things you can put in the car.
I just I'm sorry the expense, the concern. Have you
ever had a sunroof go bad or get stuck in
the open position?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Yeah, I've seen that happen to other people. Thank god, Kno,
got Wood. It hasn't happened to me, but I've seen
it happen to the few people.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, you're in for a rare treat when that happens,
my friend, because a sunroof is basically a power window
laying horizontally, so the whole headliner has to come down.
And yeah, and the concern becomes on an older vehicle,
and you know something a ten You know a fifteen,
(13:08):
even at fifteen is getting old. All of that is
plastic and plastic clips, and you have to be concerned
with what's going to break on the way apart, what's
going to break on the way going back in? What
parts are you gonna need that you can't get anymore?
So sun roofs get to be expensive after a certain age.
I encourage people don't even use them. Just close it
up and you know, put the blinder board the sunboard
(13:31):
forward so you don't have to deal with the sun
in your head getting you hot. But yeah, sun roofs
can be can be tricky, you know, as you as
you found out and now everything is fine, right, everything
is dry.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Everything's fine. I just like it's just you know, prompted
me to make the call. I could not believe. So
they and a mechanic said, they said, I don't get it.
So they sealed. You know, they went through all the
work of putting a new seal in the sun roof,
but never hooked up the drain tubes.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And you would think that the previous zone would have
called back, right, you know, whoever did the seals, you know,
if mechanic ay did the seals, you would think that
you know, who knows. Listen. Maybe maybe it was a
case of they took it back and gee, we can't
find out what's wrong. Maybe that's why they sold the car. Maybe,
you know, we had one like that this week. I
(14:19):
would actually and that's and this is actually true. This
was probably one of the weird stories from the week
because it wasn't a weird kind of a week. We
had a customer bring us a Lexus and O seven
Lexus that they had just purchased, and it was, you know,
change the oil, you know, give it a once over
kind of a thing. He looked at it and he
felt comfortable buying it. It was an one hundred thousand mile
(14:39):
oh seven Lexus, and one of the complaints he had
was the cigarette lighter and the power port and the
center console wasn't working. Okay, so I, you know, I
drew the ticket to in and he was doing something
else and I was, I'm looking at it, and the
cigarette letter fuse is blown. I looked at a wiring diagram.
There's there's two separate fuses, one for the power port
(15:00):
for the cigarette lighter. The cigarette lighter fuse is blown. Okay,
that's that's easy enough. The power port fuse is blown.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So the only conclusion I can come to, and this
is right up there with something weird, right, is whatever
they had plugged into the cigarette lighter, they then plugged
it into the power port. They blew that fuse. They
blew this fuse and nobody could figure out what was
wrong with it, and they got rid of the car.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, how do you drive around without a cigarette lighter
and a cell phone in this day and age to
charge you? Right? So you know it's listen, I'm not
really fixing cars. I'm not really talking about them on radio.
I'm just collecting stories for the book, brother, because it's
it's just the things that go on will go down
in history is some of the most cock eyed things
(15:50):
that anyone person could ever think of or dream of.
It's just it's just crazy. It's incredible what you see.
And uh, it's just hard to explain. You have to
live the life, you know, to stand behind the counter
and talk to people when they come in, because there's
just a different way of thinking at some level for people,
and you just try and help them as best you can.
But it makes no sense. But I'm glad it was
solved for you, George, and kudos to kudos to your
(16:12):
mechanic for doing his job.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
And then at the end he said that, he said,
thank god, I'm going to vacation the end of the week.
And he said, it's been one of those weeks I needed.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I think I think a lot of mechanics say that,
And I think the hardest part. I think the hardest
part about the business isn't the cars. I think it's
the things people say without realizing it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I agree. I had someone the other day say to
me their car came in. It needed exhaust. Exhaust is
expensive today. It needed it needed a complete exhaust system.
It was like two grand. Wow, I have to spend
another two grand after I just gave you two grand
to fix the air conditioning. And I had to explain
to them, well, you didn't give me too grand to
fix the air conditioning. I worked on the car. It
(16:56):
needed a compressor, it needed a bunch of other things.
The car got repaired, and in exchange for the repair,
you gave us two grand. You didn't just give it
to us, And they didn't, you know, they realized that
you got to You gotta watch the power of your
words right. The power of your words is it's it's
very important. It's as I said in my opening monologue.
In the previous hour, the Fellas said, I'm going to
(17:16):
commit suicide over the repair. I called the cops. You know,
you tell me you're going to commit suicide, I will
call the police on you. I want to get your help.
I don't want to see anybody get hurt. And I
will take you at your word. George. Always a pleasure, sir.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Thank you, thanks for taking my call. I have a
nice weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You're very welcome. You too. Enjoy the rest of it.
What's left? Yeah, so yeah, I always I take over
a repair serious. I take comments like that serious. You know,
just another chapter in the book. But it's it's and
you know, to someone's credit. I had someone else walk
in because I have good people walking and he said,
you know, here's my keys, take care of my car.
You hold my life in your hands. And I looked
(17:53):
at him, dead in the eye, and I said, I
get it one hundred percent. And that's really what mechanics do.
So we hold your life life in our hands. We
have to be right and careful. I'm running any and
the car doctor I'll be back right after this. Don't
go away. I just love that Star Wars theme. It's
just so fitting the thread of doom and gloom as
(18:15):
we're trying to do auto repair, sort of like Monday morning.
Let's go over to David in South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What and you look great in that Black Kate?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
You like that? Huh? So here are we going to
talk about September yet? Are we going to tell the
listeners it's too early? It might be a little bit
too early, but go ahead. And so Tom and I
are going on the road. We're going to be up
in West Milford. That's West Milford, right Tom at the
Wallash Homestead for the Passaic County Sheriff's Department PBA car Show.
(18:45):
I believe it's the third weekend in September. We'll get
you an actual date, and we'd love to see everybody
up there. We're doing a live broadcast right from the
show two to four. That's Saturday, taking the live show,
putting it on the road. Black's going to be there.
I'm gonna take the hot Rot, which means I have
to wash it first time in ten years. I'll actually
drive it for the first time in two nominally, kid,
and I've driven it more than that, but we're all
(19:07):
going to be there. We'll have Danny up there with
his Camaro, and we hope to see you guys there.
It's a gorgeous facility, big open field, and we're going
to try and fill it with as many cars as
we can. So that's coming up in September, so mark
your calendars. The Car Doctor and Company will be there
doing a live broadcast. It'll be fun. So we were
up there yesterday scoping it out, and Tom and I
(19:29):
agreed to do it. So off we go. Let's go
to David. Off we go to South Carolina seventeen Nissan Ultimate. David,
what's going on? How can I help?
Speaker 6 (19:37):
Okay, Ron, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You're welcome, sir.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
I bought this car used in twenty March or twenty
had thirty some one thousand miles on it. Fast forward
to May of twenty five, three years later, missed sixty
sixty four sixty five thousand miles. Had transmission problems. What
it turned out to be was basically a censor of
some sort, and I wish I could remember which one.
It was, some kind of sensor. But the long short
(20:02):
of it is the warranty company said, look, it's going
to cost so much money to get in there and
fix it that we're just gonna put a new transmission
into Cary. When this happened, people started telling me, Oh,
you didn't know about the mid tweet mid teens you
know Awsoma's, And I said.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, surprise.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Yeah, so I've heard I've heard bad things about them.
And I've got two different people tell me two different things,
and they're both credible, but you're more credible. So I'm
gonna let you kind of break the tie. So I
have one person saying, don't, don't even do anything to it.
Don't even check the fluid. Don't it's a field thing.
Don't check the transmission fluid. I got another person saying
I would go in there and check it and see
(20:41):
what's going on with it. So I'm trying to figure
out what what would be the best thing for me
to do. Right now, I'm kind of scared, like I
wondn't even drive this car two hours from home just
for fear of something happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Right right are you? Are you getting a fold code, David?
Is it turn it on a check engine light?
Speaker 6 (20:56):
No, nothing's happening now. I'm just I'm just scared from
back three years ago. I'm still a gun shy from that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Oh gotcha?
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So that the trans is operating.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Properly, yes, as far as I can tell you, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And you're not having any fluid loss of you're not
losing any coolant, you don't have any leaks. Everything is
doing what it's supposed to do.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
As far as I can say, I don't see stands
on the driveway.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Soo, and how many miles are on this car?
Speaker 6 (21:20):
I just hit everyone thirty one?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
All right, So you're way past the moment of where
we typically put trans is in those cars, all right.
You know I've I've seen them with as little as
forty thousand on them. I've seen them on average they're
in the sixty five to seventy thousand mile range when
they when they fail the trans So right now, what
would I tell you to do? You could service it,
(21:46):
change the fluid. You might get an indication of what
shape the trans is in based on what the fluid
looks like coming out. It's the price of a fluid change,
typically a couple of two three hundred bucks, or you're
going to drive it till it fails, or you're just
going to put a trans in it because you love
the car and you want to drive it in another five years.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So some person that.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Told me do nothing said I might do damage if
I mess with it. Is that? Is there any logic
that I've no.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I listen, you know the whole the trans is going
to go bad if you mess with it. Concept comes
from the fact on traditional automatic transmissions that have got
miles on them. Let's talk about that. So traditional automatic transmissions,
the fluid, as a carbon based fluid, gets older and
(22:31):
beat up, it will tend to varnish up. I'm sure
you've heard that expression. The fluid is varnished. That that
varnish that that sediment material cakes up on the internal
side of the transmission case. It gets gummy and varnished. Well,
fresh trans fluid on a conventional transmission trans fluid is
very high and detergent. It's a it's a deterreent, scrubbing
(22:54):
kind of a fluid. It always has been, and it
has a great hydraulic action. So if you put fresh
fluid in, what does it do. It tends to scrub
away at the varnish and the particulate. And how does
an automatic transmission work? You put a bunch of fluid
through a very tiny hole under extreme pressure, hoping it
to you know, apply clutches and shift packs and solenoids
(23:14):
and so forth. So you know, could you cause the
trans to fail? You could? It can happen. I've seen
it happen. But I'll tell you what the percentage is
greater of having success. I would say the failure rate
isn't higher than ten percent in my experience what I've seen,
I tend to see a greater success rate with changing fluid. Now,
(23:37):
you know, there's two ways to change fluid. We're talking
conventional here, all right. We haven't gotten the CVT yet.
With conventional, you know, there's two ways to do it.
You're either going to do a drain and fill whatever
you can get out of the pan. Maybe you're going
to open up a cooler line get a little bit more,
or you're going to hook up a machine and do
a complete fluid exchange. If you're talking conventional trans fluid,
(23:58):
you're going to go to BEG. You find a shop
dot com. The BG trans exchange machine works really well.
It's a complete unit. I know the unit. Intimately, I
have one in the shop and it will do a
great job. That's conventional. If you want to service your
CVT cbt's work different their their belts and pulleys. It's
(24:21):
it's not as hydraulic per se it is and it
isn't as a conventional trans The fluid tends to get
beat up. Nissans have a track record of trans failure.
I mean they just do it's it's it's been a
very failure prone transmission. Where do you want to where
(24:42):
do you want to push this to? Before you do anything,
You've got to think long term? What's your long term
goal with this car? And that's my first question to you.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
I want to keep it. I'm hooking three years.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Okay, you want to go another you want to go
another three years with this? If the trans were to
fail and it's five grand to replace it, would you
put the trans in it?
Speaker 6 (25:06):
Probably not?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Okay, then drive it till it breaks.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
So do nothing with it right now?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Do nothing with it because you know in your case,
you know in your case, in my mind, if if
it's doing nothing, I don't want to I don't want
to give you that possible chance that changing the flu
will upset the apple cart. If you said to me,
hey Ron, I'd put a trans in it tomorrow. If
it failed, I'd tell you change the fluid and and
(25:33):
and and get it to go. Maybe we'll get it
to go longer, all right. But if it's hey Ron,
I'm going to drive it until it drops, well, then
you've given me the answer. All right. If the trans
drops tomorrow, you're done. You're walking away.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
And likewise, if I decide, you know what, I probably
wouldn't mind putting transmission. And then I go back to
the other player.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Right, I can help you decide whether or not you
want to put a trans in the car. Is there
anything else mechanically wrong with it? Does it burn oil?
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Not that I could tell of anything. I'm not gonna
wo here.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Still still still rides well, still operates well, minimal amount
of you know, wear and tear on the body. The
interior looks right, Yeah, okay, it's a nice car, all right.
So then you know what, Go out and price a
replacement vehicle. Seriously, okay, go go place, Go price a
replacement vehicle that gives you the same features, the same quality,
(26:23):
the same luxury, the same level of what that car
is right, And if that replacement vehicle is thirty grand.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
Yeah, that fix transmissions.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
The trans is getting more popular, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
All right, And here's the last piece of the puzzle.
Who's working on this car? Do you have a relationship
with a repair shop? I don't care if it's a dealer.
There's a lot of great dealers out there, all right.
If you have confidence in your repair shop, dealer, independent,
tire store, whatever, and they put the trans in it,
and you have confidence that they're going to do the
job right, that heck, brother, you got the best of
(27:02):
all worlds. You've got a competent shop. You got a
car you like. You know what your fixed expense is,
Go put it, Go put a transient. If it fails,
in that case, change the fluid. See what happens. Maybe
you'll get longer. Maybe changing the fluid, you're gonna find Hey,
the fluid came out and it's really ugly, and they're
gonna turn around and say, David, put a transient it now,
don't even bother service in it. And then you dodge,
(27:23):
and then you dodge the bullet and you don't have
to have the adventure of oh I'm stuck. Now what
do I do it?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
What's funny is the transition guy is when it told me, man,
just leave it alone. But because I kept kind of pressing,
he was like, well bring it in. I'll I'll pull
it and check check your fluid. But he was actually
one who said do nothing with it right.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Well, because he's seen the failures. But you know, you
got to look at the whole picture, which is why
I took you there, David. I got to run all right, sir,
You're very You're very welcome. You enjoy the rest of
the day. A five five, five six o nine nine
zero zero running any of the car doctor. I am
back right after this. I see Maryland is coming in
loud and clear. Let's go over. Talked to Eddie seventeen
(28:01):
Ford Expedition Eddie. Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How
can I help.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Well, sir, I've bought this vehicle back in November. I've
only put about four thousand miles on it. It's just
turned one hundred thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Just broken it.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yeah, it's the next one vehicle, one of the nicest
ones I've ever had. It's a Platinum series. It's got
all the bells and whistles. We had taken a ride
out to the mountains about two hundred and fifty miles ago,
and on the way home, coming up those mountains, I
had it in cruise control. She started missing a little bit,
got worse as we got going, but then she kind
(28:40):
of smoothed out as the ride got flattered. I noticed
the next day when I started the car sounded like
a bag of marbles underneath the hood. There about three seconds,
they're telling me that it's probably a cam phaser problem
to go along with probably a CORPEC problem with the
(29:00):
with the ignition. They said two cylinders were misfiring, and
that rattle under there is indicative of the cam phasers,
and there's probably going to be Apparently Ford Ford had
put out something on these things and extended to warranty. Unfortunately,
the warranty is the last ones that were warranted, was
(29:22):
in twenty twenty three. So I'm basically on my own
with this thing, and they're telling me that it was
like a two thousand dollars fixed from Ford at the time.
They're telling me now to do it right, not just
change the phasers, but to do to change the tensioners,
the guides, everything is including the water pump, oil pump.
(29:44):
They said, while you got it all, part do it all.
You're looking at about five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's my number. Okay, they're not wrong. Now let me
let's let's let's have a little bit of a conversation here,
all right, and let's understand why they're doing what they're doing.
This is a real a good example of proximity of repair.
All right, So let's let's let's let's back into the
conversation like this. That vehicle new, This is how I
(30:09):
convince everybody to fix a car or replace it. It's
one of the other. That vehicle new. You have any
idea what that vehicle new is? Oh yeah, yeah, one
hundred and ten. Yeah yeah. It's a lot of dough, brother,
all right, yeah, it's a lot of dough.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
So I got her on the road for twenty thousand, right,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So you got ninety grand to go. You know, you've
got another ninety that you can still spend and and
and get to the same spot. So who's doing the
work the dealership?
Speaker 4 (30:43):
It's not a dealership. It's a guy that worked for
Forward for twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Perfect and that's and that's just as good, right, you know,
you get one of these guys that's that's that, that's
a Ford Master and he's done it. And I'm not surprised.
It sounded like we're going to tell me it was
a Ford Tech. And I like the way he's thinking.
Once he opens the engine up will be the telltale.
What does it look like in there? Because you don't
(31:08):
know what oil change history is, and that's that's going
to be critical. How cleaner dirty is the inside of
the engine.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
So that's what caused those camphases to fail was.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Dirty oil, dirty oil and lack of changes. Another another
marvelous result of an intelligent marketing department that says, change
the oil every ten thousand miles? What could go wrong?
Speaker 4 (31:30):
And that's what they did. And here the car, it
was a one under car and it had it in
every ten thousand, right.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
And here you are. Here's the argument for five thousand
mile oil change intervals or shorter you know, time and
time and mileage counts, Eddie, It really does, all right,
So I say go ahead and do it. I say,
you know, as long as we're sure that the misfire
wasn't something else mechanical like a head gasket, and I
don't think it is. It's it sounds like the diagnosis
(31:57):
is correct. I just want to throw that out there
as a possible ability.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
The other the other thing I would suggest is at
one hundred thousand miles and eight years old, do you
want to put a radiator in it? Well, you know,
it's a part a fresh radiator on an eight year
old vehicle. Those things run hot. I think it'll help
extend the life of the engine, you know, if we
want to go there. But you know, if you put
eight grand in this truck, eight grand is not one
(32:22):
hundred and ten. Yeah, and you're coming out ahead. It
sounds like you've got the right guy working on it,
you know, a former four tech now doing as an independent.
I say fix it and let him do the whole
shooting match, and obviously make sure he's using good quality
OE parts, you know, or at least something equivalent. I'm
sure he is. I kind of know the type that's
working on this truck. Eddie, good luck to you. If
(32:43):
you need anything else, you give us a shout. I'm
running any and the car doctor I'm back right after this,
and we are back a couple of closing thoughts today.
First of all, I just want to reply Dodge just
sent me Dodge from I think he's from Maryland or Virginia,
forget that must be Virginia. Send me a picture of
the new Virginia State Police pursuit mustangs. Pursuit mustangs almost
(33:07):
makes you want to get pulled over just to see
one of them up close. Great picture, thanks Dodger. I
appreciate it. Just how fast those things are woof, which
tells me they've got a speeding problem in Virginia. But
I know they're working on it, so be careful going
through Virginia, and they're very tough on speeders down there.
I just want to go back to Eddie from Maryland
and comment one last thing. You know, I suggested replacing
(33:28):
the radiator. Why what is a radiator? What does it do?
In essence, a radiator is a heat exchanger. That's really
its purpose. And I've always thought of it that way,
and you think about it's now it's a seventeen expedition.
It is eight going on, yeah, nine years old. It's
(33:49):
getting up there. It's a plastic tank radiator. It's an
aluminum center by now this vehicle is due for a
coolant service. I doubt the person did proper coolant service
if they were doing ten thousand mile oil changes. Eddie,
if you're still listening, good chance to get started with
Peak coolant. Good stuff right mixed right, get the pre mix.
This way we know the water is correct. I'm big
(34:12):
on looking at water that's in coolant now. So but
Peak will have correct coolant for that vehicle. But that radiator,
it's older, and you know what you're gonna find. The
engine's gonna run at proper temperature. It may even run
a little cooler. The air conditioning will likely work better
because engine temperature is more in line. So when you're
looking at a repair of that size, look at it
(34:32):
all proximity of repair till the next time I'm running
any in the car. Doctor, good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See you
You're listening to Ron and Nanian The Car Doctor, nationally
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(00:25):
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start your engines. The Car Doctor is in the garage
(00:47):
and ready to take your call.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You know, I'm just thinking about the week in the shop.
I want to know who put the sixteen spark plugs
in the HEMI right to do sixteens plugs in a
V eight Ram. I'll do the passenger side all day long,
but the driver's side, because then the genius engineer that
decided to put sixteen spark plugs in a Hemi Ram
(01:10):
truck also decided to mount the brake booster right on
top of the last two on the driver's side, and
it just makes getting to it a game of contortionism.
So I see they're bringing back the Hemi, which is
what made me think of this. So I just hope
everybody's prepared for the expense of, you know, doing maintenance
on some of these vehicles. It comes at a hefty
(01:31):
price tag. Although, as I said to the owner of
the vehicle when he picked up, you start to look
at what's the replacement cost of a pickup truck? You know,
you can spend eighty grand on a pickup truck today.
It's not hard. As a matter of fact, it's very
easy to go out and buy an eighty thousand dollars
pickup truck. What are the inexpensive transportation? And I think
(01:52):
it's one of the things that we're missing here, you know,
and it's affecting a lot of us. Someone that recently
Dodge wrote in and he said, hey, Ron, how about
his perspective on the economy from an autotech's point of view.
I don't know that I'm qualified or it's really my
position to say, but I think people are tight for money,
if you really want to know the truth. And this
(02:13):
ram pick up is an example of what I'm about
to say. But when they come in, they just want
it fixed because they're not buying a new vehicle and
they're trying to hang on to the older one, you know.
And I'm seeing, you know, this year in the shop,
our vehicle count is down a little bits and I'm
seeing that. I'm hearing that story from a lot of
(02:34):
repair shops. But the gross dollars are up. There's less
people coming in, but the ones that are coming in
are spending more money, is what I'm trying to say,
so that things kind of balance out. And I think
that's a lot in part that people are putting off repairs.
I think they're just trying to catch up. And it's
why in my opening of the previous hour, I was
(02:55):
talking about is your vehicle ready for? You know, rough weather?
So you know the economy, I think it's I think
the overall economy is we'll see. I don't want to comment,
it's not my place, but I will tell you from
a text perspective, you guys are spending less and hanging
on to your vehicles longer that I can say definitively.
Let's go to Larry in Tennessee, Oh for GMC Sierra
(03:18):
pick them up. I believe this is and some wiper problems. Well, Larry,
if you move to New Jersey and you get caught
in one of our downpours, you won't need wipers because
the water hits the windshields, hits the windshields so hard
it just bounces off. So you know, maybe that's the problem.
How can I help you, sir?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes, well, thank you for having my call first, but
I would be okay. The whippers still work on high.
I mean, boy, they do work good on high all right. Anyway,
what happened One evening I was in it. The whippers
were working great, the washer was working. The next morning
I went to get in to kind of wash the
pollen off, hit the washer button on the switch there,
(03:57):
nothing happened. Went through all the intermediate settings, nothing happened.
But when I got all the way to high on
constantly all they worked. Then I could actually toggle back
and forth from constant low speed to high and get
them to take a nice slow swiping. Then they go
back to the park position and I've done done some
(04:19):
repair here. I'm not a mechanic, right, what what parts
of your what?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
What?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Which? Which part of the parts? Cannon? Have you fired?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Okay? I have replaced the pulse, the whipper motor, pulse
control board, and the multifunction switch on the steering column,
and I checked the relays out underneath the hood there
that I swapped it with a horn relay and uh uh,
no difference. And I've replaced every fuse that I can
(04:49):
find anywhere on that thing that has anything to do
with the washer winch. You'll washer or wiper lost the
I'm a lot of internet fixes.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, where'd you and where'd you get your parts from?
Just out of curiosity?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I got the parts from Rock Auto?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All right? What brand?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Right now? I can't remember what brand that they were?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So do you still have the old switch?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I still do, all right?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
So this works By the reason it works on high
is because the switch is the dropping resistor in the circuit.
If you were to look at a wiring diagram, you
would see that you've got four wires coming out of
the switch that have consequence. There's a gray, there's a
dark blue white, and there is a pink. And then
(05:43):
the last one is the ten which is ground all right,
That goes to ground over near the E pillar on
the left side. So that gray wire, that's the wiper
supply voltage signal that goes across a series of resistors
inside the switch and creates a dropping resistor effect to
feeds signal back to the wiper module via the pink wire.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Okay, you're talking the switch on the steering car right.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The switch on the steering column, correct, the multifunction switch.
So in theory, we should be able to go across
the gray and the pink. Do you own an home meter, yes,
and we should be able to go across the gray
and the pink with that switch in different positions. And
see do we have a resistance value drop? You will
(06:28):
see a range of about three hundred homes up to
about forty five hundred homes, and it will increase incrementally
five hundred, eight hundred, nine hundred and so on, eventually
reaching forty five hundred homes.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
You can find specs in a service manual, but that's
generally the number you'll see. I believe six different ranges
depending upon how many speeds the wiper has low, and
then it has multiple delay, and then it has high,
but high see and high. They completely bypass the resistors
and you're just pulling the signal right to ground. And
(07:01):
you could basically take that gray wire if the diagram,
if I remember the diagram correctly, and I will tell
you to look at a diagram before we trust my
memory because it's been a while since I've done this,
but I believe you can take that gray wire, ground it,
and you would get the wipers to run on high
because it's the same effect, all right, So you know
that's basically how this works. I would want to test
(07:21):
the old switch, all right, because the fact that you
haven't changed anything in terms of what's still broken, the
new switch in the old switch should test the same,
correct they should now if the switch shows us open
circuit in one position, and you happen to be lucky
(07:44):
enough to get a new switch that shows US open
in one position right where, you know, it's remember what
news stands for never ever, never ever worked, right, So
we want to know that. Okay, Uh, the module is
a little tougher to check. There really is no way
to check that because obviously, because it's a it's a
(08:06):
printed circuit board. So this is going to become a
case of tell me what's good, I'll tell you what's bad.
The switches are common, all right, so you're not wrong.
I would tell you to carefully check that switch out
before we go too much further. And if you do
end up having to get another switch, bite the bullet
and get it from your local ATTA parts house, buy
(08:27):
a GM by it by a delco.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I would definitely encourage good quality electronics and electrical when
it comes to controls today. So it just becomes that important.
All right, Well, you got your you got you got
your homework. That doesn't work. You know where to find me, sir.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I might be calling you back.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Absolutely we'll be glad to take the call. You have
a good rest of the day.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay, thank you, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Uh I can't you know, I think I think the
defective returns, you know, if you want to talk about
the state of the economy or the state of the shop,
I think the defective returns are starting to pile up
higher some days than the new parts coming in. And
it's not always that the part is defective, but I
will tell you this. We get a lot of pick
through parts that we return because we won't. We won't
(09:12):
put in parts that another shop has tried, and it
may not be electrical either. We recently got a set
of Moog ball joints from our supply house that the
one box contained a Moog ball joint, but the parts
bag had been picked through. It was missing the grease
fitting and the cotter pin. And I could have come
up with a grease fitting and a cotter pin, but
on principal I sent it back. But the other box
(09:34):
two ball joints. The other box had a car Quest
ball joint in it, and it's it's it's you know,
it's not. I don't anything against the car Quest ball
joint line. I think there's places where I would use it,
but I like a grease fitting. Certain jobs I want
to use a grease fitting, and I'm not putting in
a pick through part like that, so we sent them
both back. It's just amazing how these shops are guessing
what's going on out there. Anyway, let's pull over, take
(09:55):
a pause, and when we come back, we'll go right
to George with his Volvo question and a follow up.
I'm ronn Eeny and the car doctor. We'll return right
after this. By the way, just as a little bit
of automotive trivia and useless information. I was watching a
TV show the other day and they were talking about
the history of the GTO. They're talking about history of
muscle cars. Do you know the sixty four GTO is
(10:18):
actually used by the police in Japan as a pursuit vehicle.
Can imagine getting pulled over by that? You know, I
thought about that. That's got to be crazy. You know,
I wonder there's any Japanese GTOs left over there in
the impound yard or the up for auction. What could
they be worth? Right? I like, wow, I never would
(10:39):
have guessed that anyway. Like I said, there's a lot
of useless information I keep in my head. George, Connecticut,
Let's see if I can apply some of this to you.
Ten VOLVOXC sixty. What's going on, George? How can I help?
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Yes, you're opening monologue. How your week has been is
what prompting me to give you a follow up call
on this vehicle?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Perfect.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
So I called you before and you were saying, you know,
to check the sunroof because this car had a massive
leak on the right side going to the back floorboard. Okay,
So I had to bring the car to my mechanic anyway.
It needed an all change and rear brakes. So I
told him if he could please look at it, and
then I actually fell sorry for me. He said, I
(11:17):
can look at it, but I'm gonna have to charge
you a diagnostic fee, and a lot of people get upset.
I said, look, I just want this taking care of
him sick and tired of going with towels and cleaning
up the water, right, you know, you know it takes
a couple hours. It takes a couple hours. Well, he
dealt into it, and then he said he could not
believe it. So it looked because I've only had this
(11:38):
vehicle for two years, it looks like somebody did reseal
the sunroof and putting new seals. But you know the
vent tubes, the train tubes, right, they never hooked them up.
So he said he couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
There's always a reason, George, Yeah, there's always a reason,
you know. And I've got to tell you, and I
say this every time I start to talking with somebody
about sunroofs. Did you ever stop to think that a
sunroof is really a calculated leak. No, you're right, a
sunroof is designed to leak, and I can prove it
with the following statement. You're ready. Yeah, if a sunroof
(12:14):
is not designed to leak, then why are their drains?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You wouldn't need a drain because you're not driving around.
I don't most people would not drive around with the
sunroof open in the rain, right, So why do we
have drains up there? I think sunroofs are kind of
one of the silliest things you can put in the car.
I just I'm sorry the expense, the concern. Have you
ever had a sunroof go bad or get stuck in
the open position?
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Yeah, I've seen that happen to other people. Thank god, Kno,
got Wood. It hasn't happened to me, but I've seen
it happen to the few people.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yes, you're in for a rare treat when that happens,
my friend, because a sunroof is basically a power window
laying horizontally, so the whole headliner has to come down.
And yeah, and the concern becomes on an older vehicle,
and you know something a ten You know a fifteen,
(13:08):
even at fifteen is getting old. All of that is
plastic and plastic clips, and you have to be concerned
with what's going to break on the way apart, what's
going to break on the way going back in? What
parts are you gonna need that you can't get anymore?
So sun roofs get to be expensive after a certain age.
I encourage people don't even use them. Just close it
up and you know, put the blinder board the sunboard
(13:31):
forward so you don't have to deal with the sun
in your head getting you hot. But yeah, sun roofs
can be can be tricky, you know, as you as
you found out and now everything is fine, right, everything
is dry.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Everything's fine. I just like it's just you know, prompted
me to make the call. I could not believe. So
they and a mechanic said, they said, I don't get it.
So they sealed. You know, they went through all the
work of putting a new seal in the sun roof,
but never hooked up the drain tubes.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And you would think that the previous zone would have
called back, right, you know, whoever did the seals, you know,
if mechanic ay did the seals, you would think that
you know, who knows. Listen. Maybe maybe it was a
case of they took it back and gee, we can't
find out what's wrong. Maybe that's why they sold the car. Maybe,
you know, we had one like that this week. I
(14:19):
would actually and that's and this is actually true. This
was probably one of the weird stories from the week
because it wasn't a weird kind of a week. We
had a customer bring us a Lexus and O seven
Lexus that they had just purchased, and it was, you know,
change the oil, you know, give it a once over
kind of a thing. He looked at it and he
felt comfortable buying it. It was an one hundred thousand mile
(14:39):
oh seven Lexus, and one of the complaints he had
was the cigarette lighter and the power port and the
center console wasn't working. Okay, so I, you know, I
drew the ticket to in and he was doing something
else and I was, I'm looking at it, and the
cigarette letter fuse is blown. I looked at a wiring diagram.
There's there's two separate fuses, one for the power port
(15:00):
for the cigarette lighter. The cigarette lighter fuse is blown. Okay,
that's that's easy enough. The power port fuse is blown.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So the only conclusion I can come to, and this
is right up there with something weird, right, is whatever
they had plugged into the cigarette lighter, they then plugged
it into the power port. They blew that fuse. They
blew this fuse and nobody could figure out what was
wrong with it, and they got rid of the car.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, how do you drive around without a cigarette lighter
and a cell phone in this day and age to
charge you? Right? So you know it's listen, I'm not
really fixing cars. I'm not really talking about them on radio.
I'm just collecting stories for the book, brother, because it's
it's just the things that go on will go down
in history is some of the most cock eyed things
(15:50):
that anyone person could ever think of or dream of.
It's just it's just crazy. It's incredible what you see.
And uh, it's just hard to explain. You have to
live the life, you know, to stand behind the counter
and talk to people when they come in, because there's
just a different way of thinking at some level for people,
and you just try and help them as best you can.
But it makes no sense. But I'm glad it was
solved for you, George, and kudos to kudos to your
(16:12):
mechanic for doing his job.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
And then at the end he said that, he said,
thank god, I'm going to vacation the end of the week.
And he said, it's been one of those weeks I needed.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I think I think a lot of mechanics say that,
And I think the hardest part. I think the hardest
part about the business isn't the cars. I think it's
the things people say without realizing it.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I agree. I had someone the other day say to
me their car came in. It needed exhaust. Exhaust is
expensive today. It needed it needed a complete exhaust system.
It was like two grand. Wow, I have to spend
another two grand after I just gave you two grand
to fix the air conditioning. And I had to explain
to them, well, you didn't give me too grand to
fix the air conditioning. I worked on the car. It
(16:56):
needed a compressor, it needed a bunch of other things.
The car got repaired, and in exchange for the repair,
you gave us two grand. You didn't just give it
to us, And they didn't, you know, they realized that
you got to You gotta watch the power of your
words right. The power of your words is it's it's
very important. It's as I said in my opening monologue.
In the previous hour, the Fellas said, I'm going to
(17:16):
commit suicide over the repair. I called the cops. You know,
you tell me you're going to commit suicide, I will
call the police on you. I want to get your help.
I don't want to see anybody get hurt. And I
will take you at your word. George. Always a pleasure, sir.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Thank you, thanks for taking my call. I have a
nice weekend.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
You're very welcome. You too. Enjoy the rest of it.
What's left? Yeah, so yeah, I always I take over
a repair serious. I take comments like that serious. You know,
just another chapter in the book. But it's it's and
you know, to someone's credit. I had someone else walk
in because I have good people walking and he said,
you know, here's my keys, take care of my car.
You hold my life in your hands. And I looked
(17:53):
at him, dead in the eye, and I said, I
get it one hundred percent. And that's really what mechanics do.
So we hold your life life in our hands. We
have to be right and careful. I'm running any and
the car doctor I'll be back right after this. Don't
go away. I just love that Star Wars theme. It's
just so fitting the thread of doom and gloom as
(18:15):
we're trying to do auto repair, sort of like Monday morning.
Let's go over to David in South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What and you look great in that Black Kate?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
You like that? Huh? So here are we going to
talk about September yet? Are we going to tell the
listeners it's too early? It might be a little bit
too early, but go ahead. And so Tom and I
are going on the road. We're going to be up
in West Milford. That's West Milford, right Tom at the
Wallash Homestead for the Passaic County Sheriff's Department PBA car Show.
(18:45):
I believe it's the third weekend in September. We'll get
you an actual date, and we'd love to see everybody
up there. We're doing a live broadcast right from the
show two to four. That's Saturday, taking the live show,
putting it on the road. Black's going to be there.
I'm gonna take the hot Rot, which means I have
to wash it first time in ten years. I'll actually
drive it for the first time in two nominally, kid,
and I've driven it more than that, but we're all
(19:07):
going to be there. We'll have Danny up there with
his Camaro, and we hope to see you guys there.
It's a gorgeous facility, big open field, and we're going
to try and fill it with as many cars as
we can. So that's coming up in September, so mark
your calendars. The Car Doctor and Company will be there
doing a live broadcast. It'll be fun. So we were
up there yesterday scoping it out, and Tom and I
(19:29):
agreed to do it. So off we go. Let's go
to David. Off we go to South Carolina seventeen Nissan Ultimate. David,
what's going on? How can I help?
Speaker 6 (19:37):
Okay, Ron, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You're welcome, sir.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
I bought this car used in twenty March or twenty
had thirty some one thousand miles on it. Fast forward
to May of twenty five, three years later, missed sixty
sixty four sixty five thousand miles. Had transmission problems. What
it turned out to be was basically a censor of
some sort, and I wish I could remember which one.
It was, some kind of sensor. But the long short
(20:02):
of it is the warranty company said, look, it's going
to cost so much money to get in there and
fix it that we're just gonna put a new transmission
into Cary. When this happened, people started telling me, Oh,
you didn't know about the mid tweet mid teens you
know Awsoma's, And I said.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, surprise.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Yeah, so I've heard I've heard bad things about them.
And I've got two different people tell me two different things,
and they're both credible, but you're more credible. So I'm
gonna let you kind of break the tie. So I
have one person saying, don't, don't even do anything to it.
Don't even check the fluid. Don't it's a field thing.
Don't check the transmission fluid. I got another person saying
I would go in there and check it and see
(20:41):
what's going on with it. So I'm trying to figure
out what what would be the best thing for me
to do. Right now, I'm kind of scared, like I
wondn't even drive this car two hours from home just
for fear of something happening.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Right right are you? Are you getting a fold code, David?
Is it turn it on a check engine light?
Speaker 6 (20:56):
No, nothing's happening now. I'm just I'm just scared from
back three years ago. I'm still a gun shy from that.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Oh gotcha?
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So that the trans is operating.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Properly, yes, as far as I can tell you, all right.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And you're not having any fluid loss of you're not
losing any coolant, you don't have any leaks. Everything is
doing what it's supposed to do.
Speaker 6 (21:15):
As far as I can say, I don't see stands
on the driveway.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Soo, and how many miles are on this car?
Speaker 6 (21:20):
I just hit everyone thirty one?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
All right, So you're way past the moment of where
we typically put trans is in those cars, all right.
You know I've I've seen them with as little as
forty thousand on them. I've seen them on average they're
in the sixty five to seventy thousand mile range when
they when they fail the trans So right now, what
would I tell you to do? You could service it,
(21:46):
change the fluid. You might get an indication of what
shape the trans is in based on what the fluid
looks like coming out. It's the price of a fluid change,
typically a couple of two three hundred bucks, or you're
going to drive it till it fails, or you're just
going to put a trans in it because you love
the car and you want to drive it in another five years.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So some person that.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Told me do nothing said I might do damage if
I mess with it. Is that? Is there any logic
that I've no.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I listen, you know the whole the trans is going
to go bad if you mess with it. Concept comes
from the fact on traditional automatic transmissions that have got
miles on them. Let's talk about that. So traditional automatic transmissions,
the fluid, as a carbon based fluid, gets older and
(22:31):
beat up, it will tend to varnish up. I'm sure
you've heard that expression. The fluid is varnished. That that
varnish that that sediment material cakes up on the internal
side of the transmission case. It gets gummy and varnished. Well,
fresh trans fluid on a conventional transmission trans fluid is
very high and detergent. It's a it's a deterreent, scrubbing
(22:54):
kind of a fluid. It always has been, and it
has a great hydraulic action. So if you put fresh
fluid in, what does it do. It tends to scrub
away at the varnish and the particulate. And how does
an automatic transmission work? You put a bunch of fluid
through a very tiny hole under extreme pressure, hoping it
to you know, apply clutches and shift packs and solenoids
(23:14):
and so forth. So you know, could you cause the
trans to fail? You could? It can happen. I've seen
it happen. But I'll tell you what the percentage is
greater of having success. I would say the failure rate
isn't higher than ten percent in my experience what I've seen,
I tend to see a greater success rate with changing fluid. Now,
(23:37):
you know, there's two ways to change fluid. We're talking
conventional here, all right. We haven't gotten the CVT yet.
With conventional, you know, there's two ways to do it.
You're either going to do a drain and fill whatever
you can get out of the pan. Maybe you're going
to open up a cooler line get a little bit more,
or you're going to hook up a machine and do
a complete fluid exchange. If you're talking conventional trans fluid,
(23:58):
you're going to go to BEG. You find a shop
dot com. The BG trans exchange machine works really well.
It's a complete unit. I know the unit. Intimately, I
have one in the shop and it will do a
great job. That's conventional. If you want to service your
CVT cbt's work different their their belts and pulleys. It's
(24:21):
it's not as hydraulic per se it is and it
isn't as a conventional trans The fluid tends to get
beat up. Nissans have a track record of trans failure.
I mean they just do it's it's it's been a
very failure prone transmission. Where do you want to where
(24:42):
do you want to push this to? Before you do anything,
You've got to think long term? What's your long term
goal with this car? And that's my first question to you.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
I want to keep it. I'm hooking three years.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Okay, you want to go another you want to go
another three years with this? If the trans were to
fail and it's five grand to replace it, would you
put the trans in it?
Speaker 6 (25:06):
Probably not?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Okay, then drive it till it breaks.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
So do nothing with it right now?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Do nothing with it because you know in your case,
you know in your case, in my mind, if if
it's doing nothing, I don't want to I don't want
to give you that possible chance that changing the flu
will upset the apple cart. If you said to me,
hey Ron, I'd put a trans in it tomorrow. If
it failed, I'd tell you change the fluid and and
(25:33):
and and get it to go. Maybe we'll get it
to go longer, all right. But if it's hey Ron,
I'm going to drive it until it drops, well, then
you've given me the answer. All right. If the trans
drops tomorrow, you're done. You're walking away.
Speaker 6 (25:48):
And likewise, if I decide, you know what, I probably
wouldn't mind putting transmission. And then I go back to
the other player.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Right, I can help you decide whether or not you
want to put a trans in the car. Is there
anything else mechanically wrong with it? Does it burn oil?
Speaker 6 (26:00):
Not that I could tell of anything. I'm not gonna
wo here.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Still still still rides well, still operates well, minimal amount
of you know, wear and tear on the body. The
interior looks right, Yeah, okay, it's a nice car, all right.
So then you know what, Go out and price a
replacement vehicle. Seriously, okay, go go place, Go price a
replacement vehicle that gives you the same features, the same quality,
(26:23):
the same luxury, the same level of what that car
is right, And if that replacement vehicle is thirty grand.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
Yeah, that fix transmissions.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
The trans is getting more popular, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
All right, And here's the last piece of the puzzle.
Who's working on this car? Do you have a relationship
with a repair shop? I don't care if it's a dealer.
There's a lot of great dealers out there, all right.
If you have confidence in your repair shop, dealer, independent,
tire store, whatever, and they put the trans in it,
and you have confidence that they're going to do the
job right, that heck, brother, you got the best of
(27:02):
all worlds. You've got a competent shop. You got a
car you like. You know what your fixed expense is,
Go put it, Go put a transient. If it fails,
in that case, change the fluid. See what happens. Maybe
you'll get longer. Maybe changing the fluid, you're gonna find Hey,
the fluid came out and it's really ugly, and they're
gonna turn around and say, David, put a transient it now,
don't even bother service in it. And then you dodge,
(27:23):
and then you dodge the bullet and you don't have
to have the adventure of oh I'm stuck. Now what
do I do it?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
What's funny is the transition guy is when it told me, man,
just leave it alone. But because I kept kind of pressing,
he was like, well bring it in. I'll I'll pull
it and check check your fluid. But he was actually
one who said do nothing with it right.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Well, because he's seen the failures. But you know, you
got to look at the whole picture, which is why
I took you there, David. I got to run all right, sir,
You're very You're very welcome. You enjoy the rest of
the day. A five five, five six o nine nine
zero zero running any of the car doctor. I am
back right after this. I see Maryland is coming in
loud and clear. Let's go over. Talked to Eddie seventeen
(28:01):
Ford Expedition Eddie. Welcome to the car doctor, sir. How
can I help.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Well, sir, I've bought this vehicle back in November. I've
only put about four thousand miles on it. It's just
turned one hundred thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Just broken it.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Yeah, it's the next one vehicle, one of the nicest
ones I've ever had. It's a Platinum series. It's got
all the bells and whistles. We had taken a ride
out to the mountains about two hundred and fifty miles ago,
and on the way home, coming up those mountains, I
had it in cruise control. She started missing a little bit,
got worse as we got going, but then she kind
(28:40):
of smoothed out as the ride got flattered. I noticed
the next day when I started the car sounded like
a bag of marbles underneath the hood. There about three seconds,
they're telling me that it's probably a cam phaser problem
to go along with probably a CORPEC problem with the
(29:00):
with the ignition. They said two cylinders were misfiring, and
that rattle under there is indicative of the cam phasers,
and there's probably going to be Apparently Ford Ford had
put out something on these things and extended to warranty. Unfortunately,
the warranty is the last ones that were warranted, was
(29:22):
in twenty twenty three. So I'm basically on my own
with this thing, and they're telling me that it was
like a two thousand dollars fixed from Ford at the time.
They're telling me now to do it right, not just
change the phasers, but to do to change the tensioners,
the guides, everything is including the water pump, oil pump.
(29:44):
They said, while you got it all, part do it all.
You're looking at about five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That's my number. Okay, they're not wrong. Now let me
let's let's let's have a little bit of a conversation here,
all right, and let's understand why they're doing what they're doing.
This is a real a good example of proximity of repair.
All right, So let's let's let's let's back into the
conversation like this. That vehicle new, This is how I
(30:09):
convince everybody to fix a car or replace it. It's
one of the other. That vehicle new. You have any
idea what that vehicle new is? Oh yeah, yeah, one
hundred and ten. Yeah yeah. It's a lot of dough, brother,
all right, yeah, it's a lot of dough.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
So I got her on the road for twenty thousand, right,
I got it.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So you got ninety grand to go. You know, you've
got another ninety that you can still spend and and
and get to the same spot. So who's doing the
work the dealership?
Speaker 4 (30:43):
It's not a dealership. It's a guy that worked for
Forward for twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Perfect and that's and that's just as good, right, you know,
you get one of these guys that's that's that, that's
a Ford Master and he's done it. And I'm not surprised.
It sounded like we're going to tell me it was
a Ford Tech. And I like the way he's thinking.
Once he opens the engine up will be the telltale.
What does it look like in there? Because you don't
(31:08):
know what oil change history is, and that's that's going
to be critical. How cleaner dirty is the inside of
the engine.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
So that's what caused those camphases to fail was.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Dirty oil, dirty oil and lack of changes. Another another
marvelous result of an intelligent marketing department that says, change
the oil every ten thousand miles? What could go wrong?
Speaker 4 (31:30):
And that's what they did. And here the car, it
was a one under car and it had it in
every ten thousand, right.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
And here you are. Here's the argument for five thousand
mile oil change intervals or shorter you know, time and
time and mileage counts, Eddie, It really does, all right,
So I say go ahead and do it. I say,
you know, as long as we're sure that the misfire
wasn't something else mechanical like a head gasket, and I
don't think it is. It's it sounds like the diagnosis
(31:57):
is correct. I just want to throw that out there
as a possible ability.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
The other the other thing I would suggest is at
one hundred thousand miles and eight years old, do you
want to put a radiator in it? Well, you know,
it's a part a fresh radiator on an eight year
old vehicle. Those things run hot. I think it'll help
extend the life of the engine, you know, if we
want to go there. But you know, if you put
eight grand in this truck, eight grand is not one
(32:22):
hundred and ten. Yeah, and you're coming out ahead. It
sounds like you've got the right guy working on it,
you know, a former four tech now doing as an independent.
I say fix it and let him do the whole
shooting match, and obviously make sure he's using good quality
OE parts, you know, or at least something equivalent. I'm
sure he is. I kind of know the type that's
working on this truck. Eddie, good luck to you. If
(32:43):
you need anything else, you give us a shout. I'm
running any and the car doctor I'm back right after this,
and we are back a couple of closing thoughts today.
First of all, I just want to reply Dodge just
sent me Dodge from I think he's from Maryland or Virginia,
forget that must be Virginia. Send me a picture of
the new Virginia State Police pursuit mustangs. Pursuit mustangs almost
(33:07):
makes you want to get pulled over just to see
one of them up close. Great picture, thanks Dodger. I
appreciate it. Just how fast those things are woof, which
tells me they've got a speeding problem in Virginia. But
I know they're working on it, so be careful going
through Virginia, and they're very tough on speeders down there.
I just want to go back to Eddie from Maryland
and comment one last thing. You know, I suggested replacing
(33:28):
the radiator. Why what is a radiator? What does it do?
In essence, a radiator is a heat exchanger. That's really
its purpose. And I've always thought of it that way,
and you think about it's now it's a seventeen expedition.
It is eight going on, yeah, nine years old. It's
(33:49):
getting up there. It's a plastic tank radiator. It's an
aluminum center by now this vehicle is due for a
coolant service. I doubt the person did proper coolant service
if they were doing ten thousand mile oil changes. Eddie,
if you're still listening, good chance to get started with
Peak coolant. Good stuff right mixed right, get the pre mix.
This way we know the water is correct. I'm big
(34:12):
on looking at water that's in coolant now. So but
Peak will have correct coolant for that vehicle. But that radiator,
it's older, and you know what you're gonna find. The
engine's gonna run at proper temperature. It may even run
a little cooler. The air conditioning will likely work better
because engine temperature is more in line. So when you're
looking at a repair of that size, look at it
(34:32):
all proximity of repair till the next time I'm running
any in the car. Doctor, good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See you
Host
Ron Ananian
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