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August 9, 2025 • 34 mins

Ford F-350 Stall Mystery, Jeep Door Hinge Fail & VW Beetle Memories | The Car Doctor Podcast

In this episode of Ron Ananian The Car Doctor, Ron digs into a puzzling Ford F-350 stall problem that mimics a fuel delivery issue despite holding steady fuel pressure. Learn his diesel truck troubleshooting approach, from checking PCM relay pins to comparing injector pulse width with MAP sensor readings, and why capturing data during failure is the key to solving intermittent stalling.

Next, caller Tiffany recounts her battle with Jeep door hinge corrosion—a defect that cost $16,000 to repair but was finally covered after a year of persistence. She also shares the challenges of sourcing parts for a Chrysler Crossfire key fob and explains why her VW Beetle restoration project, a 1972 convertible, is still her favorite car.

Ron wraps the hour discussing oil change mistakes to avoid—including why drawing oil through the dipstick can leave sludge behind—and offers transmission service tips on when and why to drop the pan instead of relying solely on a fluid exchange.

Packed with mechanic shop stories, car troubleshooting tips, and real-world repair strategies, this episode delivers practical advice for both do-it-yourselfers and anyone navigating dealership repairs.

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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 Alife. 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 enginies. The Car Doctor is in the garage

(00:47):
and ready to take your call.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh it's my turn again. Look at this here. We
are once again glad to be here with you, Ronanani
and the Car Doctor at Everybody Service Atay five five
five six zero nine nine zero zero. And I can
see by the comments and the numbers that you guys
are enjoying the YouTube channel. Thank you very much. We
appreciate the feedback. Good in bed. You know, listen, we
want to know what we're doing right, we want to
know what we're doing wrong. And we appreciate you guys

(01:12):
taking a look at the YouTube channel and commenting on
the videos. By all means do so. We appreciate the
T shirt and hat sales they helped fundle all this,
and we also appreciate all the things you guys tell
us on Facebook. So by all means, use our social
media and keep them coming. By all means, keep them coming.
Let's help up the phones right away, because I know
Tom's busy and he's gonna point me in every direction.

(01:35):
So let's go to Steven, Maine, nineteen f three fifty
and see what's going on here. Steve. Welcome to the
car doctor, sir. How can I help?

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, I'm in a pinch and I'm looking for direction.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's a six to two twenty nineteen f three fifty,
and the vehicle is dying and it acts like it's
running right out of fuel. Okay, and you know, so
I put a fuel pressure gauge on it, holding steady
at fifty eight PSI doesn't change. Remember the old cobratd ones.
You'd feather the fuel the carbretor to keep it running. Yep, No,

(02:12):
that's what it acts like, man. And then but it
won't move and there's not enough power for it to move,
and then it just dies.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
And then what do you do to give it to restart?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Turnkey? Sometimes it will start right back up. Other times
you have to crank it for a while or just
let it sit for a while. And the weird part
is sometimes this started for the customer last fall in
the beginning of the plow season. It did it to
him twice, and then he thought the throttle body was
freezing up. I'm like, that doesn't happen no more, right,

(02:44):
So he wanted to put a throttle body on it,
and I'm like, I really and unless I see this
so wrong, I really don't want to do that.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Okay, So well here let's do this. What scan tool
do you have?

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Steve snap on?

Speaker 4 (02:56):
All right?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, nothing wrote that if you crank it while it's
dead or won't start for lack of a better way
to put it. And it's got fuel pressure right yep,
scantool show our PM signal, Yes, sir, we see pulse
with on the injectors.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
That's the one thing it said. Or is it one
point five? Or does that sound right?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
It's it's it shows something right, that sounds low though
you would think that it would be it would be
holding it wide open, right, yes, all right? So so
why don't we do this? Why don't we disable fuel?
I don't care, unplug the fuel pump and crank it
over when it's working. Why don't we look at good first? Okay,

(03:42):
all right, and see what injector pulse with is. Then
I bet it's I bet it's higher than that. I
bet it's probably three to five milliseconds, right, I bet
you it's a pretty high I bet you it's a
pretty high pulse with. And then maybe the clue is,
why don't we have more of a pulse with?

Speaker 5 (03:57):
Have you?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Have you seen the bulletin from Ford September of twenty
nineteen nineteen DESH twenty two ninety four that talks about
problems with the PCM relay terminals.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Nope, but I checked the you know, obviously I checked
the grounds and stuff. But it's hard to check it
when it's not acting up.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, absolutely, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's when you extremely hard.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
When you when you said, when you said this guy,
this is a plow vehicle.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yes, yeah, when it's forty one thousand miles on it.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
And when you said plow vehicle, my ears perked up.
I always think I always think about the connectors.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
She traded in at thirty eight thousand and my my
customer bought it and he's put like four thousand miles
on it, and he thinks she had this problem before
and that's why she traded.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
It probably, So can you.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Be somebody had already been to the grounds and cleaned
them before.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
I was Stevie, can you can you get this into
failure mode? Can you?

Speaker 3 (04:54):
You cannot force it?

Speaker 2 (04:55):
No, No, But I'm saying, can you if you drive
it enough, will it? Will it fail? Will it get
to a point of failure?

Speaker 5 (05:02):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (05:02):
When it gets to that point of failure? Or have
you ever had any communication faults?

Speaker 3 (05:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, when it gets to that point of failure? Can
you scan it?

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Right?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
At that moment, I had a I had a LEAN code.
I actually had LEAN on both banks at one time, right,
And you know I put a fuel pump, the control
module for the fuel pump right, Because the customer was
like he got frustrated with me because they have taken

(05:33):
so long. He's like, I talked to so and so
they said do this. I'm like, you want me to
do I will, But it ain't the problem, right, I
changed it didn't change anything.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Mass airflow sensor right? Uh no, what is the map
sensor vehicle?

Speaker 5 (05:48):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Okay, So I wonder what the map sensor and pulse
with do in relation to each other, Which is the
point I was trying to get to. Okay, so I
would start to look at Let's stop looking at it
when it's broken and start trying to figure out what's bad.
Let's figure out what's good and what's working when it works,
and work our way backwards from there. Take a look

(06:09):
at that bulletin nineteen Dish twenty two ninety four where
they talk about repairing damage PCM power relay pins. Maybe
there's something there, all right, all right, And that's dated
September of nineteen if I remember it correctly. So I
don't know where this fell in the production year. But
then if we've got one and a half millisecond pulse

(06:30):
with doesn't sound like nearly enough you would think trying
to start the average vehicle, that's they're going to run
wide open or wider than that. Now now, and I'm
sure you know this. Of course, we're using a scan
tool for our data analysis, so it's buffered information. So
how accurate is it?

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Maybe?

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Right?

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Right?

Speaker 2 (06:51):
So maybe we just you know, go in and select
I don't know, two four six eight and just just
look at that and see does that speed up the scanner?
All right? And if I want to speed up the scanner,
I'm sure you know this also, but just you've dumped
that out of the scanner, right you don't you don't
hold you don't hold all your records because that slows
those things down. What do you have a Triton or

(07:12):
a Zeus? It's okay, nothing nothing wrong with that, brother, listen,
uh you know it just it just tells me what
we're working with. And I gotta tell you when you're ready.
Take a look at the Triton. I actually like my
Triton over my Zeus. Really, yeah, I have both. I
like my trit and over my Zeus. I like the
wired Triton. I'm not a fan of the wireless snap

(07:34):
on stuff. I see, you know, I like I like
hard yeah, I like I like hardwired. I don't need
that much convenience. I need accuracy and I need speed. Yes,
So take a look at those things and can we
can you call me back and we'll talk about it somewhere.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
All right, definitely, all right, appreciate.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
You're very welcome, sir. Good luck to you. You're welcome. Yeah,
that's and it's broken. So let's look at a broken vehicle.
Let's let's let's see what you know. Let's see what
we can do and try and catch it in the
act of failure. And that's what's so important, all right.
And you know, I also want to know when it fails.

(08:13):
Do I have any communication faults? Or do I have
no communication faults? Can I talk to all the modules?
Is this going into a theft event? Does the vehicle
think it's being stolen for some reason? But you would
think that should set a fault, but it's not. So
I want to know what's good, I want to know
what's bad. I want to know what's happening at the
point of failure. And that's kind of where my mind

(08:34):
is going on. Something like that is very important. And
he's probably right. He's probably right in the sense that
it's a nineteen that's got thirty eight thousand miles on
it when the customer got rid of it, and that's
why they probably uh, that's probably why they got rid
of it because nobody could fix it. So Stevie, you
call me back, babe. We'll fix that vehicle. Let's pull over,
take an early pause eight five five five six zero

(08:55):
nine nine zero zero, run an any of the car.
Doctor coming back right after this. Let us go to
Illinois and talk to Tiffany, because this doesn't sound good.

Speaker 6 (09:06):
Tiffany hry Ron alleged, how are you? I love you.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
I think I'm better than you at this point. How
your Jeep? How's your jeep?

Speaker 3 (09:15):
In?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Your corroded hinges? This is going to be over.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
It was. I do have to say, after fighting with
Jeep for a year, I'm happy I didn't stop fighting.
They did finally fix it. I found a Jeep dealer
that finally would take us in. It ended up costing
them sixteen thousand dollars. My concern is that other people

(09:41):
have the same issue, and before someone is injured seriously
in an accident, I think Jeep needs to do the
right thing and recall. I think it's twenty eighteen to
twenty twenty one. Don't quote me on that, but I
think those are the models. They know that issue. I
was reading online several people have had this issue, and

(10:04):
if there's an accident and those doors fall off, someone
could be seriously injured.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Well, you mean the parts aren't supposed to fall off
the vehicles. That's a sign of failure, you know, you
know what jeep stands for, right, no junk each in
every part. You know, it's either that or just expect
expensive problems. And here you go sixteen thousand dollars. It
boggles my mind and for everybody else out there that
wonders what Tiffany and I are talking about. The door

(10:31):
hinges on certain Jeep models corrode depending on that. You know,
some of them are I've heard it where some of
them are aluminum, some of them are zinc. But there's
a galvanic reaction, galvanic corrosion, and it will cause the
paint to bubble and lift. You know, you start noticing
it when you're at a traffic light in a non
Jeep vehicle. I'm sitting this in these vehicles, Go look
at the hinges on that thing. Wow, that's going to

(10:52):
fall off soon.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
And it was all to lighten the load and get
better gas my ledge out of these vehicles.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Listen, the same person that thought of that created evs,
you know, because they thought that was a step in
the right direction. Oh was I critical. I'm sorry, God,
I have to stop doing that. Somebody sent me, you know,
and I'm going to use this as an opportunity. Thank you, Tiffany.
I love you for presenting me with this opportunity. But
I've got to tell you. Somebody sent me an article
the other day. I haven't looked it up to see
if it's true, but the US military is now buying

(11:24):
Teslas cyber trucks to use as target practice. I saw that.
I thought that was the funniest thing. I said, No,
that can't be that.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
It can't be.

Speaker 6 (11:36):
It's just unbe.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Is that what they're good for? And I've got to
look it up. I've got to google it, and I'm
sure the car Doctor Nation you guys will find out
and let me know and we'll all talk about this.
But how can that be we're actually using cyber trucks
for target practice? Boy, let me tell you. I think
I think they should put the engineers inside of them
when they do well, it's a good thing.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
I don't drive a cyber truck right on the road.
It might be yeah, got it.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
So how did you finally get jeep to solve the problem?

Speaker 6 (12:05):
I just you know what, I went to dealership after dealership.
I was given the run around constantly, and like I said,
I found a dealership in Cedar Lake, Indiana that finally
would take me in. They had the car for quite
a while because they had to take off all the
doors repaint all the doors. So I want to say
they had it for like two months, but it took

(12:27):
me three months from when they initially said, well we'll
do the car. I think it was three months before
I finally got in, and then another two months they
had the car to do the repairs. But it was
just it was my time, right And they're not cheap
vehicles to begin with, So that's probably.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
That's probably a sixty sixty five thousand dollars vehicle entry
level to get in the door. How much was that
vehicle new?

Speaker 6 (12:51):
Well, no, we actually bought it used. It was only
it was only a year not even a year old.
But I couldn't fit in it because you know, Jeeps
are lower and the guy was tall, so his head
was hitting the ceiling. So he traded it in and
we bought it. It was only a year maybe a
year old. And then as soon as we bought it
for forty thousand.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Used, it was only forty It was only right, only
forty thousand. Let's let's talk.

Speaker 6 (13:19):
About But when I saw the corrosion, I thought, no way,
it's already starting. So I was very upset. And actually
it was my husband's midlife crisis. I never wanted the jeep,
but then we were stuck with it, and I thought,
I'm fighting for this and nail to Now, having.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Been through this, would you buy another one?

Speaker 4 (13:41):
No?

Speaker 6 (13:42):
Absolutely? You know what, maybe an old school jeep. I've
always wanted an old school jeep, one that you could
just take the top off, leave it outside.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Drive it through eight feet of mud, don't wash it.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
Yeah, just because I'm having other problems with other Chrysler,
Like my mom has a minivan, her transmission is going.
My dad passed away last year and left note that's okay.
He's always with me, left me a Chrysler Crossfire and
my nephew. We had originally given it to my nephew.
He was going to sell it. I said, no, that's

(14:14):
my dad's sports car. I'm buying it, so I did.
He neglected to tell me that the key fob was
like breaking apart. Well, two days after I bought it,
key fob breaks right and I thought, oh no, I
can't start the car right. So had it towed to
a Chrysler dealer, only for them to tell me that
they do not make that key and they cannot fix

(14:37):
the key. So they said, you can try Mercedes because
it has a Mercedes engine in it. Called Mercedes. I
was given the same response, we cannot fix the key
and we do not make those keys. So I had
to pay some genius carlock guy to come out. He
broke open the dashboard and somehow rechipped the key to

(15:00):
make me a key, but I ended up costing me
nine hundred dollars to do it. So I don't want
to see them. Why that genius can figure it out,
but the people who make the car or the engine
cannot figure it out.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well because they're not paid to figure it out. They're
paid to sell cars. And that's you know, that's the
downfall of technology. Listen. I tell this story a lot.
It happens to me. All the time. I'm always at
the deli. I'm always at Wilkes Delhi over here in
maw On, New Jersey. I'll give pull a shout out.
And you know, I'm always coming out on a Saturday
before the show. I'm always getting my lunch and somebody

(15:32):
inevitably pulls in in some new fancy something Mercedes. Some
guy pulled in with a Corvette, a new vet and he's, oh,
what do you think. I said, Hey, great, you know,
I think it's a giant flower pot in ten years
when you can't get parts for it, like, enjoy you
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars car while you can,
and you know. And but they're like, yeah, no, that's
not true. And my argument is, okay, go find me

(15:52):
a computer that'll run Go find me a copy of
Windows eight. Go find me a copy. Go find a
computer that'll run Windows ten. At this point, and they're
getting few and far between. So technology just overtakes us.
And that's that's part of the problem. By the way,
I like that Crossfire. That's a sharp car, and well.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
My baby is actually in nineteen seventy two Volkswagen Beetle convertible.
That's my baby, and that's my love.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
And those are easy.

Speaker 6 (16:18):
You can pop out the engine and pop a new
one in.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
You had me until you said Volkswagon. I'm telling you
we were going to have this whole thing, but I
just you know, it's.

Speaker 6 (16:27):
But it's the nineteen seventy two Volkswagen Beetle convertible. Listen,
everybody had one, right.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
There's a lot of stories about me and volks Russell.
My best friend in high school, Russell Right, and we
went to opposite high schools. He was the Volkswagon guru
and I I was just the muscle. We would have
a at his mom's house many a Friday and Saturday night.
Russell had a seventy two super Beetle that we chopped
and put Porsche barrels on it and webercarbureaders and drove

(16:53):
everybody nuts. But we could have the engine out of
that car and literally twenty two minutes on the floor exactly. Yeah.
So yeah, it's definitely definitely a cool car, but you know,
and that's it.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
And then bringing back memories for you, Right, every time
I drive it, everybody says, oh I had one of those.
I had one of the I guess everybody had one
back then.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
You know, you're you're you're starting to sound like Danny
my mechanic, because he bought a Volkswagon, he sold it.
He bought a cabriolet convertible deal and it was broken
and he you know, Danny's Danny's good, but he's you know,
he doesn't. He wasn't around when that car wasn its
hey day, right, And I started to remember working on
those cars and I ended up fixing the car with
a lot of little things. And he's like, see you

(17:31):
remember this. You could work on these again. And I'm like, yeah,
but why would you want to see? That's the point,
you know, it's it was painful, you know, like I
want the wisdom of sixty at thirty, I want you know.

Speaker 6 (17:43):
So listen, Well, my dad was a car guy. He
always fixed cars in the garage. I know nothing.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, I think listen, I think you know enough that
I think you know enough. And I enjoyed the conversation. Tiff.
I want to tell you right up front, you're going
to be the call of the Week this week, so
you can look for it on the podcast. I'm an
out of iHeart the cow, not to make you a cow,
but you're the cow this week, and I appreciate the conversation.
Be well, I'm running ady in the car. Doctor. I'll
be back right after this. Okay, Gary from Delaware, I

(18:14):
guess we have four affiliates, Tom checking in talking about
last week's comments about metal in the oil. Gary, how
can I help?

Speaker 5 (18:23):
Well, my first thought was that this guy, as I recall,
there was a definite record, is going back to somebody
that reported these records, which could lead to be a dealer.
And I think some of them are very inclined to
draw the oil outs to taking the drain plug out,
which would not clean the bottom of the pan as

(18:45):
well as draining a pulling hot motor and pretty let's
wash most of the stuff off the bottom of the pan.
But if you're stucking it out through the dipstick, it
ain't going to do it.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
That's a fair statement. I'm curious though, you know, to
see if he does get any reports. And for everyone
else that's just tuning in. We had a gentleman last
week with the Toyota. If I remember right, it was
a Toyota, wasn't.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
It, Gary, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, I think it was a Toyota to coma and
he was changing oil, and he was getting specs in
the oil, but it was diminishing as he was changing it.
And the commentary I left him with was, here's a
perfect example of using Blackstone Laboratories to do an oil analysis.
And you know, it's what what I remember about it was,
it's one of the few times when I think an
oil analysis was absolutely called for it, and he hadn't

(19:34):
done it yet because I'm not you know, I think
I think we tend to run for oil analysis way
too much, trying to prove something that we have no
control over, you know. And I'm not saying there wasn't
a place for it, but I think it's done for
the wrong reasons in a lot of cases. So and
that's possible, you know, I didn't really think, you know,
it's funny. Right in my universe, I would never even
entertain the thought of drawing oil out through a dipstick

(19:57):
tube this It takes too long, and I guess, you
know what you get into different scenarios in different shops.
I guess they're doing it. And you know, cheating, in
my opinion and doing things the wrong way.

Speaker 5 (20:11):
Isn't the same thing. On the transmissions. These places that
change the transmission fluid by never take pand off and
or the plug out.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, if you're doing a trans exchange and you're using
a machine or you're bypassing and dumping out through the
cooler lines, that I don't have a problem with all Right,
I'd like to see the pan come down some cases,
some of these transmissions there isn't a pan that pulled down,
And in a lot of cases, it really depends on

(20:44):
how often are you changing the fluid. I've got some people,
you know, in my universe, I talk to people that
are changing transfluid every twenty thousand miles, which I think
is extreme. You know, I think if you're doing it
on a reasonable service interval or thirty thousand or fifty
thousand miles, I think you're sort of obligated to drop
the pan and you know what's in there. And that's

(21:05):
one of the reasons I don't drop the pans on
transmissions nearly as much to change the filter as I
do as to what's in the pan, and right, you know,
you'd be surprised what you find. Well, you probably wouldn't be,
but a lot of people would be surprised what they
find it and transpantsjee.

Speaker 5 (21:21):
I got a question if you. If you do this
where you pump it through the all cooler, you take
your all pool line off the pumpet, which direction are
you pumping that through the filter?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I always do it so that I let the out
of the cooler dump into a pan, and then I
will either fill through the line, It depends on the transmission,
or I will put a rig up so that I
will fill the pan up using whatever they want me to.
However they want me to add fluid. If they want
me to add fluid from underneath the pan through a
nipple valve into a birdbath type of ad, I will

(21:54):
add it that way and then dump out through the
through the film. It just depends on the particular vehicle.
Of late, we've been doing more cooler line exchanges whatever
the factory method is, because now we've got a Mala
transfluid machine with the correct exchange adapters, which is similar.
I should point out the MALA machine is exactly like

(22:14):
the BG machine. You know, they're one and the same.
We actually have one of each so we can I
can see the clarity of them, you know.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
They My question is which direction is it taking? You
all through the filter the normal the normal way. The
transmission does.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
It normally normal way.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
That's yeah, go ahead, Well then the transmission filter. It
depends on you know, if it's a screen, that's one thing.
But it looks to me like if there's step in
that filter, you just you didn't remove it at all.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
That's true, and there's the argument for changing dropping the
pen and changing the filter. But I guess the people
that are doing it every twenty thousand miles are going
on the assumption there's no sentiment in the pan. Now
you would think you would think, if the filter is
really clogged, number one, you're not going to flow in.
Number two, If there's a lot of sediment, you would
think the fluid is going to come out extremely dirty.

(23:05):
So maybe that's the barometer they're using.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
Well, in college, I took a power mechanics course, and
I'm an old hot rudder from back in the sixties
and raced and rebuilt automatic transmissions and stuff like that.
But this power mechanics teacher I had, he wasn't into
racing at all, but he was pretty good on basics.
And he said, this is at Purdue University. He said,

(23:31):
ninety of the normal ware of a transmission, and he
emphasized normal occurs in the first ten thousand miles after
it's noon. He said, if you change your transmission fluid
at that point, the transmission will probably be good for
the rest of your life.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I don't know if I can say that about today's transmissions.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Mean, I get where he's coming from. But I always
get nervous thinking about something that I you know, there's
certain things My first buss, right, your first boss in
this business was always always made the biggest impression one
either could or bad. Right, And I think about some
of the things Billy said to me, and some of
those things still apply today, but a lot of those
things don't because it's changed so much. So I get

(24:17):
where you're coming from. Look, I'm not arguing. If it
was up to me, I'd put a pan gas, getting
a filter and look in the pen and see what
kind of settiment I got in there on every every time.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
Well, I bought a youth nineteen ninety Visibishi Backer. I
don't know, it had sixty thousand miles on it. The
guy that had owned it before I got in touch
with he had every record of ever service he'd taken
it back to the dealer for every service it had
to transmission, flood changed twice and filter. When I dropped
the pan, there was gasket filings in there from when

(24:50):
it was brand new.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Kind of makes you kind of makes you well. And
it survived, right, So it went sixty thousand miles with
foreign material in the pan.

Speaker 5 (25:00):
Well, it's I've seen that before, especially back in the
day when the stuff wasn't this, you know, the workmanship
wasn't this good. But but where you have a little
slivers in the gasket that was that was there from.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
The factory, right, And I guess the filter, I guess
the filter did its job.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
Well, it was all it was all just in the bottom. Yeah,
it was in the bottom, right.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
But the filter did its job because it kept it
from going through the circuits.

Speaker 5 (25:24):
That's exactly. I think that car just had a screen
in it basically right.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Well, and a lot of them, did you know. I
also think we tend to as an industry, we can
overanalyze some things, and I'm amazed at I always think
about I always think about oil filters. Sometimes I'll use
a NOE filter, sometimes I'll use a Wix. Sometimes somebody
wants it down and dirty quick cheap oil change on

(25:48):
the three hundred thousand mile beater that they don't care about,
and their content when it blows up, it blows up.
And there's that mindset out there. And you try and
give most people what they want, right, what's in their
price range, what's in their price And yet a lot
of cars out there use what we deem as cheaper
filters versus good quality filters, good oil versus quote unquote

(26:09):
bad oil or cheap oil. You don't hear engines blowing
up every three feet, though, do you, right? You think
about the number of cars that are on the road
in America today, you know, you wonder what the percentage
of engine failures is today versus five, ten, fifteen, twenty
years ago. Though right now, that's probably a bad question
to ask. With GM four, Toyota and christ are not

(26:31):
able to keep an engine in a vehicle in certain
trucks some of the problems they have. But you know,
you get my point.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
I wonder when we go to Florida once or twice
a year and gove down ninety five and you're down
there in Georgia and not as much in Florida, where
they kind of down to it. You're running eighty miles
an hour and cars are going by, like you said,
and still and they got. I wonder, I wonder what
the tires are like on that car. I wonder I
wonder when the last aus on that car, and just

(27:01):
what condition these cars are into their running that fad.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
You know what else I think about, Gary, And this
is what I always try to point customers towards and
everyone here towards, is we think about oil changes all
the time. Think about the whole vehicle as a package.
Trans fluid, coolant, right belts, hoses. Still today, you know,
modern cars, if it's more than ten years old, it's
probably due for a set of belts. It's probably due
for some hoses, it's probably due for coolant. It's you know,

(27:28):
so it's It's one thing Billy said to me, and
I talked about this a little earlier in this weekend's show,
is you got to look at an engine and a vehicle.
A whole thing is a package. It's all a bunch
of moving parts that work together that's supposed to get
you where you want to be and get you there safely.
And that, fifty years later, is still an absolute truth. Gary,
I appreciate the conversation. You'll be well, my friend. I'm

(27:49):
Ron An Andy and the car Doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Let's keep it going and crews on
at eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero.
By the way, I should point out we're going to
be doing some taping this weekend, so don't be surprised
if you're call in after show hours. Leave a message
at eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero.

(28:10):
Don't be surprised if one of us calls you back
to get some calls in Q for some things we
got going on. Some projects Tom and I are working on.
Let's go to John in New Hampshire and see what's
going on here too. For a nickel today, John, what's
going on?

Speaker 5 (28:23):
Hey?

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Tom? So twenty ten Honda CRV. Okay, we are on
year four of a group fifty one R battery that
was warrantied for three years. It's an AGM battery and

(28:44):
I'm figuring it I should replace it before it fails.
If we brought the car to your shop, what brand
and type either AGM or you know, traditional lead acid
would you put in that car?

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Would that car have a car should have had a
traditional group fifty one in it, non AGM.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
Correct, that's right. But the last time you had talked
about agms and they sounded great, So that's what I
went with.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Okay, I would either put a plane fifty one R
Delco conventional lead acid battery, or if I wanted to
go back to the AGM route, I would go visit
the Optima website and find one of the Optima power
batteries and put one of those in. What brand battery
is in it?

Speaker 4 (29:31):
Superstart from O'Reilly.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Okay, so it's it's it's O'Reilly's private brand, right, right,
So there's a huge difference between a private brand AGM
from an O'Reilly versus an Optima AGM. In my opinion,
the Optima agms, I can speak from a track record.
I will typically see those batteries do five to six years.

(29:55):
Doesn't doesn't mean it doesn't mean it's a guarantee, but
it's a safer bet.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
So you know, if we really want to talk about
you're looking for longevity and peace of mind, and you
know the best for the case, you know, I would
put that optim AGM in it without a doubt.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
Okay, Good thank.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
You, all right. Second question, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Our daughter acquired a twenty two Toyota Prius all wheel
drive a couple months ago. Okay, very low miles. She
got it with twelve thousand miles on it. We have
used the new Hampshire oil undercoating on our CRV, right,
and we had mentioned to her, you know, maybe you

(30:37):
should do that with the Prius because of the hybrid
and the electric motors and all that stuff. Are there
any concerns doing that on a hybrid vehicle.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I haven't seen any, and it's a fair question. I
have not seen any jount. I know people that have
done it, and they have not had any issues. There
is a newer product from Nhou. It is more of
like a hardshell ceramic coding. I forget the I forget
the actual brand name or specific brand name of the product.

(31:10):
I know Nhou makes like a ceramic kind of like
you know hardshell ice cream, right, soft ice cream with
the hard chocolate shell. You know it. It's kind of
like that, and I would tell you I would use
that instead of their traditional I'll call it liquid oil
because I think I like it fixed in place. We've
used some of their ceramics stuff on various vehicles, and

(31:32):
the fact that it's newer, it will work. It works
best when it's on a newer, clean, quote unquote clean
clean vehicle. So I think if she's going to do anything,
I think that's the way to go. And you can
find out more information at their website. Nhou. I know,
I'm sure oil undercoding dot com. I think it is
a Renhou dot com. I forget, easy enough to find

(31:53):
with the Google machine.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
So right, all right, okay, great, I appreciate the information.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Very welcome. John well A five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. We're back right after this. I'm
going to close out this week's show with some comments
for Justin and California. Justin Wrights in CALIFORNI years our
fifth affiliate that we don't have, and Ron, I thought
you'd appreciate the following update. Carr currently has seventy five

(32:20):
thousand miles on it. Against your advice, we kept the
yakre as my wife really loved it. Justin I think
that's the smartest move because if mom's not happy, nobody's happy,
So keep the car. Absolutely came time for the first
oil change after the crack cylinder had situation everybody remembers.
Justin's car had a crack cylinder head and he had
to go back to the dealer to get it repaired,
and his wife took the car back for a first
oil change after the cylinder had replacement. She got a

(32:41):
checklist from the mechanic a couple of hours later that
listed the condition of about forty things on the car,
from tires to breaks, the winshill wipers, et cetera, transfluent
and cooler. We both listed his bad and his wife
decided to call him before the dealer dude did the work,
and Justin said, I told her that we had a
transfluent exchange about a year ago, and when they fixed
the crack cylinder head, I'm pretty sure they put new

(33:02):
coolant in it at that specific dealer. So I told
her to, you know, relay my comments and pass on
that work. He said. A week later, I'm back from
a business trip and I drove over to the dealership,
which I agreed, Justin, It's actually what I would have done,
and I speak. I spoke with the service manager. I
told them that we're all in the customer service business,
absolutely true, and that I wanted to bring something to
his attention to help them improve. We sat in his

(33:22):
office and I told him that I was concerned that
their text were just going by mileage and date, not
actually looking at fluids. If my white had and cold
and reached me earlier in the week, she probably would
have paid for both services. The service manager, Justin said,
had admitted that they were. This was indeed the case
in the express service texts who just do oil changes
entire rotations go buy mileage and date. And although the
transflud in our vehicle couldn't be checked, which is nonsense, really,

(33:45):
there's a way to check it, but there's a time
process involved, so you go by mileage and age, which
means you look to see when it was done last. Justin,
you're right there, wrong and the cool and should have
been checked right, easy enough. I was pretty disappointed with
the service manager. I've heard you say it before. We
run there's good dealers and bad dealers. Unfortunately I found
a bad one. Justin from California. You absolutely did. Justin, Listen,

(34:07):
we do checklists in the shop all the time. You
guys don't really hear me talk about the shop a lot,
but in this case, I think it's justified where we'll
do a checklist, we'll look at a fluid, we'll look
at the last time it was done. It's based on history, mileage,
and actual condition before we pull the trigger. And I
think any good shop that's worth their weight is doing
it that way because that's the absolute right way. The

(34:29):
rest is just putting money in their pocket of the
dealership when it doesn't necessarily have to till the next
time I'm running Andy and the Car Doctor. The mechanics
aren't expensive, they're priceless.
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Ron Ananian

Ron Ananian

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