Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cars have changed a lot since my dad opened donovan
back in nineteen fifty eight, and car care has two
Hi Dale Donovan from Donovan's Auto entire Center. From digital
inspections to easy online appointment scheduling, We've upped the car
repair game at Donovan's, but at the heart of it all,
we deliver the same promise, honest car repair that you
can rely on to keep your family safe, your car maintained,
and your wallet happy. Donovan's Auto Entire Center three locations,
(00:23):
including the new Donovan's Auto four and near Xavier on
Montgomery Road. Schedule your appointment at donovantire dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
My Pappy said, son, you're gonna drive me to drinking
if you don't stop driving out hot Rod Lincoln Weeds
rock in all the ready, easy down the road. Just
keep in.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good afternoon, and welcome to the car show on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Fifty five KRC. I'm Dane Donovan, your host, taking your
car questions. The number to call five one three, five
one three seven nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's a gorgeous saturday. Uh not too steamy again. I'm
taking your phone call. So number call five one three
seven fifty five hundred that number again, five one, three,
seven nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I do want to get to the callers.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I just uh, man, I've got some I've got some
horror stories on some cars this week.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I kind of wanted to go over with you guys,
and you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Know, just put it out there so you kind of
understand what you may be going through. Or if you've
got a car at a repair shop and they're telling
you it needs thousands of dollars in repairs. Man, I've
got a story for you to stay tuned for that.
And uh, we're I'm extremely confident we're gonna be able
to get this this vehicle fixed. But man, you got
(01:44):
to listen to the story. So but uh, let's go
to the phones. We've got Dave, Hey, Dave, welcome to
the car show.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Hey, Dan, I got a nineteen ninety one miles to
six twenty six. The check engine light lights up occasionally.
How can I read the codes on that?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
The two things one I would probably I'd probably recommend
you can go on like Amazon or to any local
parts supplier and you can buy your own scanner.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Plugging into the you know, plugging into.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The OBD two. It's a ninety one, right, Shoot, I
just looked at that. Sorry, well you're the you'll have
to I thought, I thought. I'm sorry, I thought it.
I should have read I should have read exactly what
year it was? You did say that. But the only
way is there there's a connector underneath the hood, and
(02:44):
you've got to use like a paper clip, and you've
got you've got to jump two wires. And then what
will happens? You jump these two wires, and then the
check engine light will flash a code. Right, so it'll flash.
It might flash two times and then stop and then
flash like four times, right, so it would be code
twenty four. But again the connector, unfortunately, I'm sorry, I
(03:05):
can't give you.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's underneath the hood.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And again you got to use a paper clip, and
you've got to jump two wires.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
You probably would have to.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
If you've got your owner's manual, they'd be able to
tell you exactly which two wires to jump if you want.
If you if you live close by, you can swing
it by. I can, you know, have my technicians jump
those two wires for you and get you that code. Uh,
but you probably find something on YouTube. But again, there's
a there's a connector underneath the hood. You pop the hood,
you jump the connector, and usually again it'll flash. It'll
(03:36):
like flash again two times, stop and then flash four times,
which would be code twenty four. That's what will allow
you to try to figure out exactly what the problem is.
But now, now, I mean ninety one, I mean how
many miles are on that thing. That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
It's got like two hundred and fifty thousands.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Wow, I'm shocked you've got that many miles out of it.
Did you buy brand new?
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Well?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I think I think they Yeah, they did, and then
they got you know, sold to me.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And then.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
The I was gonna say, there something but the mileage.
It's got a bad RUSS problem. Of course, back then
they uh yeah, undercated or something. And it held in
the water.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I heard.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It does a lot of you know, it's got a
lot of rust on it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
All these cars have RUSS problems. I'll tell you what.
That's the number one. I've got a seven f one
fifty and that thing's going to rust away before the
engine run stops running.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
But I got it running real well and stuff. And
another question I had that says six degrees before top
dead center? Is that when you're moving the using a
timing light and moving the distributor?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yes? Is that?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
What that means? You don't always need the timing light?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Right? You can just no, And I'll tell you what
I mean when when I when I got into this industry,
which was twenty five years ago, I mean, cars were people,
I mean, technicians had timing lights. But nowadays everything's marked
and it's just wild how twenty five years the difference
(05:10):
on these cars. But yeah, timing lights, that's something that
you don't hear too often. And I don't have a
ton of I mean in ninety one, I mean I wasn't.
I didn't get into the industry until two thousand. So
timing lights and distributors and everything like that were things
that I just never I hardly ever saw.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You Just keep letting by your ear right, Yeah here, yeah, yeah, okay,
that's all I've got.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right, buddy, Well, thank you, I appreciate you. Have
a great day, right, see it all right? Bye bye?
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That was again, the carburetors and distributors and timing lights
and things like that. I mean, when I got into this,
those things were almost non existent. I mean, we really
didn't see at least when I wasn't. I wasn't like
a top mechanic, right, I started from the bottom. I
started when I was fifteen years old, and I was
(06:06):
every day after high school. I was sweeping, sweeping the
ground and taking out trash and and changing tires.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right, all the top mechanics could do that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But by the time I got to the mechanics, you know,
mechanic level, all of that was absolutely carburetors and distributors
and timing lights just weren't. You know, you had timing belts,
but everything's marked right, so you would just you would
make sure that you would mark everything. You know, the
cam gear, the crank, those were all marked and you
(06:37):
had to make sure that all your timing marks were.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Lined up and you'd put the belt on.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And so it's a little bit different. Nowadays. You don't
even have timing belts. It's all timing chains. And that's
why we have all these engine issues with these cars,
because these cars burnt oil and they burn up the
timing chains. And I got a gentleman right now, I
had a conversation with him. Yeah, yesterday, he's got a
(07:02):
I can't remember what year it is, but it's a
BMW X three one hundred and sixty five thousand miles
check engine lights on called him up. I said, hey, listen,
all of the codes pertained to the vehicles out of time.
It needs timing chains. And the gentleman tells me, he goes, Dan,
that's the third set of chains I've put in that
car in one hundred and sixty five thousand miles. That's
(07:23):
the third set of chains. And it's extremely expensive. I
don't know what he paid for the other two. Nowadays
it's about ten grand to put chains in these BMWs.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Pretty expensive.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And it's because I believe now I can't speak for
this gentleman because this was the first time I've seen
this vehicle. But what happens is these chains and a
lot of cars. It used to be your car would
have one timing chain. Now these cars have you know,
three and four timing chains, and some of them have
front in rear timing chains. And it's expensive, right, And
(07:58):
what happens is these chains. If you run a car
low on oil, these chains get hot. These chains get hot,
they stretch, they jump time you're pulling the engine out
and you're doing, you know, ten thousand dollars worth of
chains on these things because they're running low on oil.
So it's something again that I've harped on this show
a ton and it's important. So the number one thing,
the best thing that you can do is make sure
(08:20):
you're keeping oil in it. So but coming up, we've
I want to walk you through this volvo that we
have at our shop, and it's quite the story and
it's just something that I want to I wanted to
use as.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
A learning.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
As a learning tool, right because you know, ultimately we
we're gonna have to replace our cars. It's gonna happen,
and you're gonna have to just pay the piper at
some point. You're gonna have to. But my goal is
to talk you through and just think about when you're
(08:54):
purchasing a.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Vehicle, all the bells and whistles and all.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The fancy nice things you have, all the luxuries, right
because they're great, they really are, but eventually they come
back to bite you in and they're the most expensive. And
I want to talk about had my first run in
with a vehicle with a interesting batty. I want to
talk about that as well. So phone lines are wide open.
The phone number to call five one three seven four
nine fifty five hundred. That number again, five one, three
(09:20):
seven four nine fifty five hundred. You're listening in the
car show on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
Do you have a truck, camper, r V or trailer
that needs body repair? If so, call my buddy Dave
Breakman Aute. Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair located just All
five seventy five or Route sixty three.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's convenient to both Cincinnati and Date.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
With over thirty years of experience including insurance work and fleetwork,
Franks knows the most important things are quality, worker, customer satisfaction.
Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair prides themselves in doing the
job right and get in your vehicle back on the road.
Call five one three eight two nine ninety thirty eight
two nine ninety thirty the.
Speaker 8 (09:56):
One place for Sean Hannity weekdays at three oh six
fifty five KRC, the talk station.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Taking your car questions again.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Then I'm gonna call five one three seventy four nine
fifty five hundred again.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
The phone LUNs are wide open.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Get you in here quickly, pretty quickly, uh and uh yeah,
I mean probably most people probably out in the yard
or enjoying a bike ride or whatnot. I know that
when we were doing the lemon lemonade stand earlier, you know,
I had a customer of mine, that great customer at
Ridge and he was just happened to be biking down
the street and and stopped by and was like, Hey,
(10:31):
I didn't know you lived here.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And so we had a great talk. And my wife
was like, who's that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I'm like, what, just another donov Entire customer. It's It's
funny growing up as a kid. I you know, growing up,
we only had the one location, right, it was right there.
It was on Montgomery Road at Ridge Road. It's right
at the corner of Ridge and Montgomery. It was pretty close, right,
and uh, my grandfather started it again in nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And believe it or not, when he started.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
The business, uh, he sold appliances in the front and
then he did tires in the back, right, And there
was no warehouse or lifts or anything like that. They
they would jack up the car change the tires outside
all year round. If it was five degrees outside, they
were changing tires, and which nowadays is like just unheard of, right, Uh,
(11:22):
it's just it's just wild. But anyways, from there, we
would go to just a block away was Nativity School.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That's where I went to school.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I remember growing up as a kid and there'd
be we had we'd have the festival every summer and
we'd go like all three nights, and I would never forget,
like you know, as a kid, you want to go
play the games, you want to do the rides, and
and uh, I just never forget. Like my dad would
like get stopped like every two minutes, like everywhere everywhere
we went, he'd have to stop talk to somebody, and
(11:52):
you know, you grab grab my dad's hand, like come on,
let's go, let's go. And he's as a kid, like
everywhere we went, and uh, he run into somebody knew
and it would just it would drive me nuts and
uh lo and behold on the say same way and
even in my own driveway run into people that are
that are customers. But I think I think it says
a lot that there's a lot of great people in
(12:15):
the greater Cincinnati area that that that know us, that
trust us, I mean coming to us for you know,
twenty thirty forty years, you know, And that's what's great
about It's such a big city, right, but I always
feel like it's it's it's a small town, right. You
always run into somebody, and you know, I love Cincinnati.
It's it's a it's a great, great city. So all right,
(12:37):
we've got the phones. We got the phones lighting up.
I really do appreciate it. Uh, let's go to the phones.
We've got Michael and Michael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 9 (12:44):
How can I help, Well, I've listen to your show
for a very long time. My first time calin thank you,
and I have a twenty twenty Nissan Pathfinder. It has
one hundred and sixteen thousand miles on it. About a
week and a half, a good two weeks ago, I
was listening to one of your affiliate shows. I don't
really want to say his name, but everybody knows who
comes on at three o'clock in the afternoon. I'm fifty five,
(13:07):
But I was sitting in the car for about I'm
going to say, about two or three hours flooding an idol.
So I get out of the car and I go
into the house. And the next day I come and
try to start the car. Up and it's obviously the battery,
which it was the battery. There was a battery issue,
so I couldn't get started, so I jumped it, took
it up to my place where I always take this car.
(13:28):
So they had complete maintenance schedules on it and they
hooked it up to a battery. Tester said the battery
was fine. However, the alternator is supposed to be putting
out fourteen ams because I watched him do it, and
it's putting out thirteen point eight. Now, I have not
been sitting in the car listening to the radio anymore.
Actually when I'm about a cheap AM radio so I
(13:49):
can listen to it in the house, and I have.
I figured, as long as i'm driving a car, I'm
charging the batteries, and you're charging to say you're charging
the battery, it's just not putting to the alternator, not
putting out potential and says your alternator is gonna need
to be replaced. And I have insurance that I paid
for you when I bought this car from Hertz because
they were given them away in twenty twenty. First time
(14:09):
I've ever gone down and extend a warranty. And they're like, well,
the part's fifteen hundred dollars. And see you're not taking
to a dealer. We're gonna go ahead. Your deduction was
gonna be about seven hundred dollars. Now have you said that?
I haven't had a problem since that. Like I said,
I'm not sitting in the car letting an idol, I'm
driving it. I have not had a problem with this
vehicle starting up. Would you think I should go ahead
(14:31):
and replace the alternator now or hold off on it
to it just completely dies?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
A great point. No, I don't think you need to
replace the alternator. How you bought it in twenty twenty.
How have you replaced the battery I'm assuming yeah, twenty
twenty pathfinder.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Have you replaced the battery?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Once once?
Speaker 9 (14:53):
Okay, all right, they they tested the battery. The battery
is excellent. Not the battery.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, where I'm going with it, as I'm thinking, you know, hey,
the car's four years old. Most batteries in this region
last three to four years. I'm like, hey, a lot
of times a battery can test good. But still at
the same time, if a batteries got low voltage, it
can give a false reading on the alternator. I mean
I've seen it a hundred times where somebody goes to
you know, a local repair shop, and they go, oh,
(15:23):
it needs an alternator, and then they put an alternator
in it and guess what, it was just the battery.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I see it all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
But if the battery has been replaced, I mean at
at thirteen point eight, At thirteen point eight, I mean,
did they have the headlights on the radio on the
AC on high?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I mean were they were they loading.
Speaker 9 (15:41):
Up the sea? The ACNE may have been on because
I left the car running. I didn't. I didn't even
I wasn't even gonna go risk turn it off. I
just pulled it into the bay. I went in front
of the bay, like, tell me too, because I can
go to there, must say, take care of my entire.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Fleet of vehicles.
Speaker 9 (15:56):
So, like I said, I haven't had a problem since
then with it, And I haven't been sitting in around
idly listening to the radio with the AC on. I've
just been driving it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, I mean even if it's island. I mean, even
if it's island, it's still charging the battery. So I
mean that, Yeah, I mean I know I wouldn't again
to go back to your question.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
No, I wouldn't replace it, not right now.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Typically it might be you know, it might be charging
a little low. But typically when an alterinator goes out,
you're just gonna you're gonna see you know, twelve O,
it's not you know, fourteen, fourteen, thirteen, you know, thirteen
point eight. It maybe on the men, it shouldn't be
not for a four year old car.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
How many miles were on it again?
Speaker 9 (16:39):
One hundred and sixteen?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Okay, yeah, I stole.
Speaker 9 (16:43):
I stole from hers when they hate to get rid
of all their cars and their Chapter thirteenth. I sold
it for twenty four thousand and twenty twenty Pathfinder. It's
seventeen thousand.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
Miles on it.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Oh wow.
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah, that's the only reason why I bought the extended warranty.
I'd never buy it.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (16:58):
Yeah, So doeshing wrong with the car? I saw the
maintenance records on it. Yeah, And I keep all my
maintenance records also, so I make sure my wife has too.
Any car goes in you put your receipt in the
gloves compartment, or you got a maintenance history besides car facks.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Right, Yeah. You know a lot of times people were
misled by the Carfax thing and say, oh, well, carfaxsaid
didn't have an accident. Well that's not always accurate, and
it depends on if it depends on if you take
it to repair shop, if they report to carfaxs or not.
Not all repair shops reports car facts. I even had
years ago. I had a lady that was bringing me alexis.
I mean I think they it was. It was I
(17:34):
think it was used, but it was like sixty thousand
miles or I'm sorry, sixty thousand dollars is what they
wanted for this thing or something like that. Anyways, fairly news,
you know, pre owned, certified, one hundred thousand mile warning. Well,
she brought to me to have it inspected, and guess what.
The whole front end had been knocked off by one
of the employees of the dealership. So they wrecked. So
they wrecked it. It was totaled. The dealer fixed it,
(17:56):
and guess what didn't show up on the Carfax report.
I found it. I figured out, you know, I saw
all the damage because they didn't. Once you wreckord car man,
you can never put it back together perfectly.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And they ended up not She ended up not buying it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then the dealership pulled the certification from it because
I busted them. So yeah, right, yeah, everybody thinks like, oh,
it's pre owned certified, it's it's it's a perfect car. No,
I mean the dealership wrecked it, they fixed it, didn't
report anything to Car Facts, and then they tried to
sell it as a pre own certified vehicle and then
it was perfect and I busted them.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
So you see, I retired law enforcement, so I don't trust.
I don't trust lawyers, and I don't trust uh uh dealers.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
No, No, I mean I get it. I get it.
Speaker 9 (18:41):
You don't think I should replace the altar. I haven't
had a problem with. Like I said, I'm not idling
with it. And you know what I don't know. I
think the when they tested the AC may have been on.
I know that radio was definitely so that may have
stressed the system will cause the lower reading.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, correct, And like I said, typically when we do
like a battery test, you know that the test wants
us to turn the headlights on high, turn the AC
on high, turn it, you know, the radio on, and
what they want to pull every all the poate can
possibly can and maybe with the air conditioning the radio on.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
It was probably pulling.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
More, you know, but no, I mean, do you have
a battery light or a battery gauge in your car.
Speaker 9 (19:19):
I don't have a battery gauge, No battery lights. There's
no alternator light coming on, check engine light and nothing,
nothing like that. No, no warnings, right.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Okay, yeah, cause you're gonna so most of these cars nowadays,
they don't have gauges, they just have lights. It's gonna
be a red battery. So I would tell you I
wouldn't replace it. I wouldn't worry about it when it
went or if it fails again, with it being four
years old, that's really unlikely. I know, it's got one
hundred and sixteen thousand miles on it.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I've seen them fail.
Speaker 9 (19:50):
You're highway miles.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, i'd assume. So you're gonna get a rid if
you hera knows. If you turn your key on just
to the on position, auxiliary position, you'll see all your
dash lights light up. You'll see a red battery light.
If you're driving that car and you ever see the
red battery light come on, come on, then most yeah,
then yeah, a lot of people think, oh, red battery late,
(20:12):
I need a battery. No, it's because the alternator is
not charging the battery. It's kind of misleading. But if
you're if you're not having that light pop on in
your dash, No, thirteen point eight. I mean I've seen
cars go thirteen eight, thirteen nine. Should be at fourteen
to one, you know, fourteen one, fourteen to two, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
But no, I wouldn't worry about it at all.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I wouldn't replace it now at fifteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
My warranty runs out in one thousand miles. Rights the
extended warranty for seven years, one hundred additional hundred thousand miles.
It was only two thousand dollars. I was supposed to
only pay one hundred dollars out of pocket until the place,
which is a national brand, called them and they said no,
they say we charged too much, And I called the dealership.
In the dealership, our price is their price. No, I
(21:01):
don't know what the unless they're unless they hit something
worked out with the labor. Because he told me it
was gonna be I want to say, six point five
hours and one hundred and fifty dollars an hour.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Mm hmmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, that seems about right, It seems about well.
Speaker 9 (21:17):
Yeah, I was thinking, I'm just wait though it dies.
I mean, yeah, it's a gamble, okay, because the warranty
is gonna run out.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Well however, yeah, well, what I was gonna say you
there too a lot of times with these warranty companies,
is they need proof that that alternator is not working
that I'll be honest with They're probably gonna say there's
nothing wrong with that alternator.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
It'll probably deny the claim in my opinion, So it's
kind of a catch twenty two. I mean it's nice
to have. At the same time, I think if the
shot at thirteen point eight, I don't know that the dealer,
especially with the light not being on, they're probably gonna
deny the claim anyway. So I would just keep your
eye on it. I know it's a gamble, but I wouldn't.
(21:55):
I certainly wouldn't do it. I wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (21:59):
All right, all right, thank you, have a great date.
Nice talk with you.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
All right, thank you, bye bye.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I mean, these car repairs, and that's what I was
going to talk about earlier. Man, these car repairs are
getting ridiculous. And it's not because I'm expensive, or Donovan
Tires expensive or anybody else is expensive. It's just what
these things cost anymore. I mean, I want to talk
to you about. Like I said, I just had my
first run in with a lithium car battery, and man
was it expensive.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So all right, I'm taking your phone calls.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The number call five on three, seven, four, nine, fifty
five hundred coming up. We've got Dale and John. You
listening to the car show on fifty five KRC, the
Talk Station.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
I have been a customer of Donovan's for ten years.
It's not always easy to find a mechanic that you
can trust, that isn't going to take advantage of you.
They treated me respectfully, not talk down to me. There
are mechanics right down the road, but I chose to
keep coming back here because they treated me as family,
so much so that four years ago I started working here.
Speaker 7 (22:55):
Hi Dale Donovan from Donovanzatto entire Center, the honest choice
for car repair and Cincinnati since nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Find the one nearest you at Donovantyre dot com.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
It's Glenn Bank You weekday mornings at nine oh six
on fifty five KRC, The Talk Station.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Taking your Car questions then number to call five on
three seventy four nine fifty five hundred. You've got the
phone lines are lighting up, and I really do appreciate it.
So that's what I'm here for is try to help
you guys out every Saturday right one to two. And
and if you can't tune in from on Saturday from
one to two, you can always go on listen to podcast,
(23:33):
or you can call me at work as well. You
can go to donovantire dot com ask for me. Just
be more than happy to help you out and guide
you through your your process. I was telling a customer,
I'm sorry, I was telling somebody today, you know I
have I have. Somebody's like, ohere are you going to say,
I'm going after we were leaving the lemonadestand where are
you going to say, I'm going to do my radio show.
A lot of people don't know I have one.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I don't boast about it, just uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Anyways, I said, look, I even have an eye a
customer that comes and sees me that lives in Maysville, Kentucky.
I mean that is that's that's quite a commitment. I mean,
I know, I'm sure I have customers that drive farther,
but uh, you don't always ask everybody where they're where
they're from, but uh, you know, and they're like, wow,
you sounds like you guys do a great job. I'm like, absolutely,
(24:19):
we try to do the best. Are we perfect? No,
but nobody's perfect, but we do our absolute best and
hardest to try to try to take care of our
customers in their cars. So all right, let's go back
to the phones. We've got Dale.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Hey, Dale, welcome to the car show. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Okay, I've got a couple of small events going on
with my jeep Liberty, and I've got a low tire
pressure alarm that comes on my dash, and I also
have a I have one of these devices that read
the code you know when you get a So the
(24:56):
code says, I have a gas cap leak, and I've
changed the gas cash before just went away for a
while and it comes back, and I'm wondering if there
and I can't get rid of this low pressure alarm
on my tires. I can reset it on my dad,
you know. It comes up and it says gas cap
(25:16):
and I can reset that and that goes away. But
the little the little uh sign symbol on the dash remains,
you know, the low pressure symbols and the pressure if
there's a yeah, low tire pressure. And I'm just wondering
is there a common module or a plug or something
that these signals go to, because I you know, I
(25:39):
don't mind. I don't mind working on a car, but
you know, I this all the sophisticated stuff you guys
go through. It's beyond me.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, let me tell you it's getting even worse. But
all right, so let me ask you something. One, I'm
assuming that you've checked all the air pressures and all
the air pressures are right.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Yeah, that is correct. I've put there was one tired,
it was a little low, and I brought it back
up where the other three tires was. And the manual
says drive it for about twenty minutes and that symbol
should go away. Well after a couple of hours, I'm
figuring it's not going to go away.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, Dale. Let me ask you something.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
When you start the vehicle at any point, does that
tire light flash?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Yes. When I first start the engine up, about four
or five seconds there's nothing, and then it flashes, and
then then it comes on solid.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Solid, Okay, all right, that's the answer I wanted to hear.
So you've got four now on this it says here
twenty twelve jeep Liberty. Does it have a full size
spare on the back side of it.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Or do you have a little No.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
No, the spare is the spare is up underneath.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Okay, all right, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
All of you've got four tire pressure sensors TPMs sensors, right,
Tire pressure monitoring system right. All four of those sensors
are built into the tire valve themselves. Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And all four of these sensors have batteries in them.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay. And with the age of the vehicle it's twelve
years old, these batteries will start dying.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
You cannot replace them. The batteries are not replaceable. You
have to replace the entire sensor in order to get it.
So if the tire light, if your tire light comes on,
you start your car and the tire light's just on solid,
that's just an indication that the system needs to be
reset or the tire is low. But at any point,
if a tire light is flashing, that is an indication
that one or multiple sensors the batteries are dead and
(27:46):
they're no longer responding to that module that you were
referring to. So there's a simple you wouldn't be able
to do it, but you can take it to a
repair shop. There's a tool that what we can do.
Like at my shop, we have a tool. We go
over and we can test each sensor and we can
tell you how much life is in that.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
You know, hey, you know it could be like hey, Dale.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
The right retire personal sensor has fifty percent battery life left,
but the left front sensor has zero.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
It's not responding right, So we're able.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
To test them individually. Okay, Now here's kind of the
kind of the bad news is these things can you
know installed? I mean, it depends on where you go.
On average these sensors installed is about one hundred and
twenty five dollars per tire. You got four tires, it
could get very costly, very quickly. Okay, And typically what
(28:38):
we see is obviously with it being twelve years old,
if one is bad or two or bad most likely
even if you replace that one. Let's just say you
take it to a repair shop and they're like, oh,
just the left front censor's bad will put it in
and all of a sudden, two months later, the light's
flashing again and you're like ready to pull your hair out,
and probably they all typically die around the same time. Now,
I'm not saying you need to replace all four of them.
(29:00):
All I'm saying is don't get frustrated. If you do
take it to repair shopping you do want to fix it,
just know that it's at one point the other ones
will die off, and it can be you know, it
can be frustrating.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
But I understand that. I understand that. Yeah, if you
get it into the shop, you know, I probably could
afford to just do them all, you know, yeah you could.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, just get it over it with the band aid
off and get it all done.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I mean, does it need tires? How are the tires?
Speaker 5 (29:31):
No brand tires? The tires are maybe less than a
year old. I really don't drive much.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Anymore, Okay, okay, all right, because typically if you if
you're gonna need tires soon, just buy the tires and
then while they got the tires off, go ahead and
do the censors.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
But it doesn't matter. It's it's fine. But yeah I
would if.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It was me, I just replace them all be done
with it, because otherwise you're just gonna have to keep
going back.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And it's it's you know, it's kind of a nuisance.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
So I understand that on the gas cap.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Two things for you. The gas cap.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Did you replace it with a factory gas cap or
like an aftermarket like it, you know, autos oil.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Well, I went to I live in Middletown. I went
all the way over to eleven then where I bought
the jeep, and they sold me a gas cap and
the alarm went away right away, and then about three
or four years later, a gas cap alarm come back
on again. So like every other American, and I got
on Amazon and it looked close enough, and I bought it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay, okay, all right, so I bought the gas cap.
So typically the factory gas cap is the one that's
going to see. So here here's what we're dealing with.
We're dealing with the evaporative emission system. Okay, what the
EVAPP system is. Your gas tank is a pressurized system. Okay,
the fumes that are in the tank, the government doesn't
want those just to escape. So if you've ever noticed,
(30:46):
sometimes when you take your gas cap off, you might
hear a little bit of pressure right, release right, because
that tank is pressureized it excuse me.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And what it's designed to do is those fumes that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Are in the tank, they go into a charcoal canister
which filters those fumes. You've got a canister vent valve
which then once that pressure builds up, that vent valve
opens up. It sends those fumes this is not fuel
but just fumes, sends them up to the front of
the engine, and then what's called the purge valve then
opens up dumps those fumes into the engine so they
(31:17):
can be burned and go out the tailpipe. Okay, so
somewhere in that system there is a leak or something.
Either the vent valve is not leaking, I'm sorry, either
the vent valve is not working, or it's stuck open,
or the purge valve is stuck open, or there's just
a leak in the system. I've seen rodents do damage,
eat a hole through a hose, or the gas to
(31:38):
the filler net can have be rusted and whatnot. So
typically how we address this issue is, first thing was
we replace the gas cap with a dealer gas cap.
That's the cheapest and most that's the cheapest thing that
you can do. You've done that. The next step is
to do what's called an evaporative emissions smoke test. Okay,
(31:58):
now you wouldn't be able to do this, you'd have
take it to a repair shop. But what we do
is we run a smoke through the system and if
there wherever the leak is, obviously that smoke will start
coming out.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Now earlier I had just mentioned to you that the gentleman.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Comes up from Maysville where I've had the same conversation
with him, and we ended up having to replace his
gas cap and the filler neck because there was a.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
TSB on it.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Did that, but then we ended up finding another line
that in my opinion, looked like a rodent had chewed through.
So you're if you've already done two gas caps, what
you need to do is get it to your mechanic
and you tell them, hey, I've got an EVAPP. We
just call it EVAP. We just hey, I've got a
leak test. I've got an EVAPP leak. I need to
have it smoked, have a smoke test done. And it's
(32:44):
not it's a round. I mean, we charge about one
hundred bucks to do it. Smoke it try to figure
out where that smoke's going that leads us to what
needs to be repaired. I don't think that the thing
is back in those days, and I know it's not
that old, but in twelve it would see that the
system wasn't building up enough pressure and it would turn
it up, like hey, gas caps you know, gas caps loose,
(33:05):
and uh, it can is the.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Check engine light on?
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Yeah, the check engine lights on? And I've got one
of these little code test shirts and I can go
in there and I can reset that and for a while.
Uh do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Do you remember what the code was or the number?
Speaker 5 (33:25):
I believe I believe, I believe it's a four fifty six.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Okay, that's a EVAPP four forty six.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, So what I would tell you he goes away.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
It goes away for a while, and then for and
then then we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah. You know, Well, you're welcome to if you want.
I don't have a computer on me at the moment.
If you want, call me on Monday at my shop.
I'll scan that code or I can run it through
my computer system. What I believe you need is what's
called a leak detection pump leak detection pump, very inexpensive,
(33:59):
very very very common on Chryslers and jeeps, very common.
We do a lot of them. I believe that that's
what you need. Again, it's probably the part's not expensive.
I mean, if you're a handyman and you can get
it up in the air, you could probably do it yourself.
But like I said, usually for probably a couple hundred
(34:20):
bucks you could probably get it fixed. But I believe
you probably need a leak detection pump, very very common
on those things.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
But if you want, call.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Me on Monday or Tuesday or when you're you know,
at my store, I'll run the code through just to
give you a little bit better advice or a little bit.
Like I said, I don't have my laptop with me
at the moment, but I could.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
That's probably what it needs.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
But call me and I'll be more happy to run
that code through the system and then give you a
little bit of a better costs analysis and where you
can get the part and whatnot.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Could you give me your phone numbers, sir.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Yep, and listen.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
If I don't answer the phone, the gentleman that works
next to me is Michael.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
He may answer it.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You just say, Hey, I spoke with Dane on the
radio and you know i'd like to He told me
to call him.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So but you're the number one, you're ready.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I'm ready five one three, seven, three one eight nine
eight nine five one three, seven, three one eight nine
eight nine. Of course, ask for Dane. But like I said,
if Michael answers, just say I spoke to Dan on
Saturday on the radio and he told me to call him,
and I'll be more happy to help you out.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Dale.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Okay, one more real quick question. The tire sensors. The
tire sensors you're talking about, is that specific to a
particular car or they all like a generic? Uh?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
There's so well, they're there's somewhat generic. But at the
same time, like some vehicles have to have a particular sensor,
they have to come from the vehicle, from the dealer.
So but we can we can talk about that on
Monday when you call me, and I can figure out
if we've got the sensors in stock and see if
we gets taken care of on that on that end
(36:01):
as well.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
Okay, thank you, you bet a big hell. All right, call Monday, all.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Right, Dale, thank you. I appreciate you have a great day.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Okay, all right you too, Bye, all right again.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Taking your phone calls the number call five one, three,
seven four nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Coming up. We've got Dave.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You're listening to the car show on fifty five KRC,
the talk station.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
Do you have a truck, camper, r V or a
trailer that needs body repair? If so, call my buddy Dave.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Break minute.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair located just All five seventy
five or Route sixty three. It's convenient to both Cincinnati
and Date. With over thirty years of experience including insurance
work and fleetwork, Franks knows the most important things are
quality work or customer satisfaction. Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair
prides themselves and doin the job right and get in
your vehicle back on the road. Call five one three
(36:46):
eight two nine ninety thirty eight two nine ninety thirty.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
If taking your car questions the number, call five on
three hundred.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Although we are run a time.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So let's go back to the phones. We've got Davey Dave,
welcome to the cour store.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
How can I help?
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Thank you for taking my car? Appreciate it. I have
an no for Chevy Corvette that the gas lights are
flashing on it once in a while. It says reduced
engine power service, traction system service, active handling and break
(37:24):
before shift and reduce engine powers, check engine lights on.
I took it to the local Chevy dealer. He charged
me two forty dollars and said nothing wrong with the car.
To analyze it. It doesn't do it all the time,
(37:45):
but now sometimes when I'm in the car, I started
up if those lights come on, if I turn the
key off a couple of times and on, it clears
it and then you can drive it off.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
People.
Speaker 11 (37:54):
I came around and drive it all day because the
car's twenty years old. It only has ten hundred miles
on it. Told me it's possibly a weak battery or
I don't drive it enough.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
That's no. No, that's that's ridiculous. No, that's silly. I
mean weak battery maybe maybe, but not not cause you
don't drive it enough. That's it.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Let me ask you something.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Did they test the battery and they're two hundred and
forty dollars diagnosis?
Speaker 11 (38:25):
You know, I don't know if they did or not.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I guarantee I'm sure they didn't you know that's that's
a lot of money. Man, That is a lot of
money for a diagnosis. And I thought I charged a
lot diesel PiZZ So typically do you I would have
to see it, but on an OAT on your vehicle,
and you may not know. This is your throttle body
(38:48):
driven by a cable or is it electronic?
Speaker 11 (38:51):
I believe it's electronic because it was aug it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, so that's why I figured so typically, yeah, typically
on those vehicles, because we've done a ton of them,
it's called drive by wire, right, It's an electronic throttle body.
And what will happen is those throttle bodies go bad.
It's very common, okay, And so that's when the reduced
(39:14):
engine power and everything like that. Now the gas pedals
themselves will go bad as well, so you can get
you'll get a code, and it's usually it pertains to
either the throttle bodies not responding and doing what it's
supposed to be doing, or the gas pedals not doing
what it's supposed to be doing because it's also electronic. Okay, right,
(39:35):
So I don't know when you took it in, was
the light on.
Speaker 11 (39:41):
You know, I don't know if it was or not
because I took it in because somebody is backed into
it and put a scratch down it, and I took
it to your body shop to hear a defender taking
off repainted and told and Tim they check the faults
is coming up on that crash, I.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Mean, And I would agree with them there if the
light was not on it. And a lot of times
sometimes if you shut the car off, it won't store
that code and they can't get into the module, there
won't be anything there. So I do tend to agree
with them on that if they really did what they
said they were going.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
To do and they pulled the codes.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
But I most likely you probably need a throttle body
or a gas pedal. A lot of times the codes
that are set on those in those chevies can be misleading.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
So a lot of times you know, we can.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It's happened to us where we replace the throttle body
and the light comes back on onto the gas pedal, And
there's other times where we've replace the gas pedal, light
comes back on us the throttle body. Because the car
kind of doesn't know exactly which one it is, it
may lead you to being one or the other. I
just want you to know like if you get it
to a repair shop and they replace the throttle body
(40:51):
and it comes back on and they're like, oh, it
needs a gas pedal, and vice versa. Just know the
car doesn't give you a specific which one is is
the result of it.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
What I would tell you to.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Try to do is with uh, you go to you know, KOI,
NAPA and or autos on, whatever's close to you. Get
a can of throttle body cleaner. Okay, get a can
of that in a like a wired brush or a towel. Okay,
do not do not forcibly you can. You have to
(41:24):
take the air hose off, which you can do. Take
that air hose off, Uh, don't forcibly open up that
throttle plate. What you'll do is you'll just turn the
key on and you'll need either somebody in the car
or use a brick or a rock or something like
that hold the gaspeller down with the key on, not
the car running obviously, just the key on that allows
that throttle plate to open. You spray that throttle cleaner
(41:46):
in there, scrub it with that that wired brush, clean
it up. What happens is carbon will build up inside
that on that throttle plate and it'll cause that throttle
plate to stick, and by doing so then it'll set
that code. Now it could be still a bad throttle
body or gas pedal, but this is something that you
can do.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Buy a can of I.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Don't know how much throttle plate cleaner is right now
off the top of my head, maybe five ten bucks
for the cam. But for fifteen minutes of your time,
take that air hose off, clean that throttle plate, try
clean on that carbon off. You'll see it. I mean,
it'll be there and you just you know, spraying it.
Don't spray a ton. Don't try to spray a ton
(42:28):
in the intake. You want to just get that throttle
plate as best you can and scrub it and clean
it with a wire brush or a towel or whatnot.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Clean it up.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It will when you know, obviously you'll take the you know,
take the brick or the rock off the gas plate
or off the gas pedal, and then start it up.
It will most likely kind of run rough for you know,
a minute or two, not a minute, but maybe thirty seconds.
You're gonna be like, oh God, what I do. It's okay,
it's normal. It's burning off that throttle plate. Cleaner and
(42:58):
then every one, fine, try that first. If it comes
continues to come back, or if it does come back
on you know, get somebody to read the codes. And
it's gonna probably need one of those two things, but
that's something that you can do.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
So all right, he's gone, So all right, everybody have
a great weekend. I really do appreciate all the phone calls.
I'll be bit back.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I'll be back next Saturday to answer all your phone calls.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
You're listening to the Car Show on fifty five krc
D talk station.
Cars have changed a lot since my dad opened donovan
back in nineteen fifty eight, and car care has two
Hi Dale Donovan from Donovan's Auto entire Center. From digital
inspections to easy online appointment scheduling, We've upped the car
repair game at Donovan's, but at the heart of it all,
we deliver the same promise, honest car repair that you
can rely on to keep your family safe, your car maintained,
and your wallet happy. Donovan's Auto Entire Center three locations,
(00:23):
including the new Donovan's Auto four and near Xavier on
Montgomery Road. Schedule your appointment at donovantire dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
My Pappy said, son, you're gonna drive me to drinking
if you don't stop driving out hot Rod Lincoln Weeds
rock in all the ready, easy down the road. Just
keep in.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Good afternoon, and welcome to the car show on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Fifty five KRC. I'm Dane Donovan, your host, taking your
car questions. The number to call five one three, five
one three seven nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's a gorgeous saturday. Uh not too steamy again. I'm
taking your phone call. So number call five one three
seven fifty five hundred that number again, five one, three,
seven nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I do want to get to the callers.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I just uh, man, I've got some I've got some
horror stories on some cars this week.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I kind of wanted to go over with you guys,
and you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Know, just put it out there so you kind of
understand what you may be going through. Or if you've
got a car at a repair shop and they're telling
you it needs thousands of dollars in repairs. Man, I've
got a story for you to stay tuned for that.
And uh, we're I'm extremely confident we're gonna be able
to get this this vehicle fixed. But man, you got
(01:44):
to listen to the story. So but uh, let's go
to the phones. We've got Dave, Hey, Dave, welcome to
the car show.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
How can I help?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Hey, Dan, I got a nineteen ninety one miles to
six twenty six. The check engine light lights up occasionally.
How can I read the codes on that?
Speaker 5 (02:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
The two things one I would probably I'd probably recommend
you can go on like Amazon or to any local
parts supplier and you can buy your own scanner.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Plugging into the you know, plugging into.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The OBD two. It's a ninety one, right, Shoot, I
just looked at that. Sorry, well you're the you'll have
to I thought, I thought. I'm sorry, I thought it.
I should have read I should have read exactly what
year it was? You did say that. But the only
way is there there's a connector underneath the hood, and
(02:44):
you've got to use like a paper clip, and you've
got you've got to jump two wires. And then what
will happens? You jump these two wires, and then the
check engine light will flash a code. Right, so it'll flash.
It might flash two times and then stop and then
flash like four times, right, so it would be code
twenty four. But again the connector, unfortunately, I'm sorry, I
(03:05):
can't give you.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's underneath the hood.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And again you got to use a paper clip, and
you've got to jump two wires.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
You probably would have to.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
If you've got your owner's manual, they'd be able to
tell you exactly which two wires to jump if you want.
If you if you live close by, you can swing
it by. I can, you know, have my technicians jump
those two wires for you and get you that code. Uh,
but you probably find something on YouTube. But again, there's
a there's a connector underneath the hood. You pop the hood,
you jump the connector, and usually again it'll flash. It'll
(03:36):
like flash again two times, stop and then flash four times,
which would be code twenty four. That's what will allow
you to try to figure out exactly what the problem is.
But now, now, I mean ninety one, I mean how
many miles are on that thing. That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
It's got like two hundred and fifty thousands.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Wow, I'm shocked you've got that many miles out of it.
Did you buy brand new?
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Well?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I think I think they Yeah, they did, and then
they got you know, sold to me.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And then.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
The I was gonna say, there something but the mileage.
It's got a bad RUSS problem. Of course, back then
they uh yeah, undercated or something. And it held in
the water.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I heard.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It does a lot of you know, it's got a
lot of rust on it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
All these cars have RUSS problems. I'll tell you what.
That's the number one. I've got a seven f one
fifty and that thing's going to rust away before the
engine run stops running.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
But I got it running real well and stuff. And
another question I had that says six degrees before top
dead center? Is that when you're moving the using a
timing light and moving the distributor?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yes? Is that?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
What that means? You don't always need the timing light?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Right? You can just no, And I'll tell you what
I mean when when I when I got into this industry,
which was twenty five years ago, I mean, cars were people,
I mean, technicians had timing lights. But nowadays everything's marked
and it's just wild how twenty five years the difference
(05:10):
on these cars. But yeah, timing lights, that's something that
you don't hear too often. And I don't have a
ton of I mean in ninety one, I mean I wasn't.
I didn't get into the industry until two thousand. So
timing lights and distributors and everything like that were things
that I just never I hardly ever saw.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You Just keep letting by your ear right, Yeah here, yeah, yeah, okay,
that's all I've got.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right, buddy, Well, thank you, I appreciate you. Have
a great day, right, see it all right? Bye bye?
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That was again, the carburetors and distributors and timing lights
and things like that. I mean, when I got into this,
those things were almost non existent. I mean, we really
didn't see at least when I wasn't. I wasn't like
a top mechanic, right, I started from the bottom. I
started when I was fifteen years old, and I was
(06:06):
every day after high school. I was sweeping, sweeping the
ground and taking out trash and and changing tires.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right, all the top mechanics could do that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
But by the time I got to the mechanics, you know,
mechanic level, all of that was absolutely carburetors and distributors
and timing lights just weren't. You know, you had timing belts,
but everything's marked right, so you would just you would
make sure that you would mark everything. You know, the
cam gear, the crank, those were all marked and you
(06:37):
had to make sure that all your timing marks were.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Lined up and you'd put the belt on.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And so it's a little bit different. Nowadays. You don't
even have timing belts. It's all timing chains. And that's
why we have all these engine issues with these cars,
because these cars burnt oil and they burn up the
timing chains. And I got a gentleman right now, I
had a conversation with him. Yeah, yesterday, he's got a
(07:02):
I can't remember what year it is, but it's a
BMW X three one hundred and sixty five thousand miles
check engine lights on called him up. I said, hey, listen,
all of the codes pertained to the vehicles out of time.
It needs timing chains. And the gentleman tells me, he goes, Dan,
that's the third set of chains I've put in that
car in one hundred and sixty five thousand miles. That's
(07:23):
the third set of chains. And it's extremely expensive. I
don't know what he paid for the other two. Nowadays
it's about ten grand to put chains in these BMWs.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Pretty expensive.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And it's because I believe now I can't speak for
this gentleman because this was the first time I've seen
this vehicle. But what happens is these chains and a
lot of cars. It used to be your car would
have one timing chain. Now these cars have you know,
three and four timing chains, and some of them have
front in rear timing chains. And it's expensive, right, And
(07:58):
what happens is these chains. If you run a car
low on oil, these chains get hot. These chains get hot,
they stretch, they jump time you're pulling the engine out
and you're doing, you know, ten thousand dollars worth of
chains on these things because they're running low on oil.
So it's something again that I've harped on this show
a ton and it's important. So the number one thing,
the best thing that you can do is make sure
(08:20):
you're keeping oil in it. So but coming up, we've
I want to walk you through this volvo that we
have at our shop, and it's quite the story and
it's just something that I want to I wanted to
use as.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
A learning.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
As a learning tool, right because you know, ultimately we
we're gonna have to replace our cars. It's gonna happen,
and you're gonna have to just pay the piper at
some point. You're gonna have to. But my goal is
to talk you through and just think about when you're
(08:54):
purchasing a.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Vehicle, all the bells and whistles and all.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The fancy nice things you have, all the luxuries, right
because they're great, they really are, but eventually they come
back to bite you in and they're the most expensive. And
I want to talk about had my first run in
with a vehicle with a interesting batty. I want to
talk about that as well. So phone lines are wide open.
The phone number to call five one three seven four
nine fifty five hundred. That number again, five one, three
(09:20):
seven four nine fifty five hundred. You're listening in the
car show on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
Do you have a truck, camper, r V or trailer
that needs body repair? If so, call my buddy Dave
Breakman Aute. Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair located just All
five seventy five or Route sixty three.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It's convenient to both Cincinnati and Date.
Speaker 7 (09:38):
With over thirty years of experience including insurance work and fleetwork,
Franks knows the most important things are quality, worker, customer satisfaction.
Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair prides themselves in doing the
job right and get in your vehicle back on the road.
Call five one three eight two nine ninety thirty eight
two nine ninety thirty the.
Speaker 8 (09:56):
One place for Sean Hannity weekdays at three oh six
fifty five KRC, the talk station.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Taking your car questions again.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Then I'm gonna call five one three seventy four nine
fifty five hundred again.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
The phone LUNs are wide open.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Get you in here quickly, pretty quickly, uh and uh yeah,
I mean probably most people probably out in the yard
or enjoying a bike ride or whatnot. I know that
when we were doing the lemon lemonade stand earlier, you know,
I had a customer of mine, that great customer at
Ridge and he was just happened to be biking down
the street and and stopped by and was like, Hey,
(10:31):
I didn't know you lived here.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And so we had a great talk. And my wife
was like, who's that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I'm like, what, just another donov Entire customer. It's It's
funny growing up as a kid. I you know, growing up,
we only had the one location, right, it was right there.
It was on Montgomery Road at Ridge Road. It's right
at the corner of Ridge and Montgomery. It was pretty close, right,
and uh, my grandfather started it again in nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And believe it or not, when he started.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
The business, uh, he sold appliances in the front and
then he did tires in the back, right, And there
was no warehouse or lifts or anything like that. They
they would jack up the car change the tires outside
all year round. If it was five degrees outside, they
were changing tires, and which nowadays is like just unheard of, right, Uh,
(11:22):
it's just it's just wild. But anyways, from there, we
would go to just a block away was Nativity School.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That's where I went to school.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
And I remember growing up as a kid and there'd
be we had we'd have the festival every summer and
we'd go like all three nights, and I would never forget,
like you know, as a kid, you want to go
play the games, you want to do the rides, and
and uh, I just never forget. Like my dad would
like get stopped like every two minutes, like everywhere everywhere
we went, he'd have to stop talk to somebody, and
(11:52):
you know, you grab grab my dad's hand, like come on,
let's go, let's go. And he's as a kid, like
everywhere we went, and uh, he run into somebody knew
and it would just it would drive me nuts and
uh lo and behold on the say same way and
even in my own driveway run into people that are
that are customers. But I think I think it says
a lot that there's a lot of great people in
(12:15):
the greater Cincinnati area that that that know us, that
trust us, I mean coming to us for you know,
twenty thirty forty years, you know, And that's what's great
about It's such a big city, right, but I always
feel like it's it's it's a small town, right. You
always run into somebody, and you know, I love Cincinnati.
It's it's a it's a great, great city. So all right,
(12:37):
we've got the phones. We got the phones lighting up.
I really do appreciate it. Uh, let's go to the phones.
We've got Michael and Michael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 9 (12:44):
How can I help, Well, I've listen to your show
for a very long time. My first time calin thank you,
and I have a twenty twenty Nissan Pathfinder. It has
one hundred and sixteen thousand miles on it. About a
week and a half, a good two weeks ago, I
was listening to one of your affiliate shows. I don't
really want to say his name, but everybody knows who
comes on at three o'clock in the afternoon. I'm fifty five,
(13:07):
But I was sitting in the car for about I'm
going to say, about two or three hours flooding an idol.
So I get out of the car and I go
into the house. And the next day I come and
try to start the car. Up and it's obviously the battery,
which it was the battery. There was a battery issue,
so I couldn't get started, so I jumped it, took
it up to my place where I always take this car.
(13:28):
So they had complete maintenance schedules on it and they
hooked it up to a battery. Tester said the battery
was fine. However, the alternator is supposed to be putting
out fourteen ams because I watched him do it, and
it's putting out thirteen point eight. Now, I have not
been sitting in the car listening to the radio anymore.
Actually when I'm about a cheap AM radio so I
(13:49):
can listen to it in the house, and I have.
I figured, as long as i'm driving a car, I'm
charging the batteries, and you're charging to say you're charging
the battery, it's just not putting to the alternator, not
putting out potential and says your alternator is gonna need
to be replaced. And I have insurance that I paid
for you when I bought this car from Hertz because
they were given them away in twenty twenty. First time
(14:09):
I've ever gone down and extend a warranty. And they're like, well,
the part's fifteen hundred dollars. And see you're not taking
to a dealer. We're gonna go ahead. Your deduction was
gonna be about seven hundred dollars. Now have you said that?
I haven't had a problem since that. Like I said,
I'm not sitting in the car letting an idol, I'm
driving it. I have not had a problem with this
vehicle starting up. Would you think I should go ahead
(14:31):
and replace the alternator now or hold off on it
to it just completely dies?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
A great point. No, I don't think you need to
replace the alternator. How you bought it in twenty twenty.
How have you replaced the battery I'm assuming yeah, twenty
twenty pathfinder.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Have you replaced the battery?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Once once?
Speaker 9 (14:53):
Okay, all right, they they tested the battery. The battery
is excellent. Not the battery.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Well, where I'm going with it, as I'm thinking, you know, hey,
the car's four years old. Most batteries in this region
last three to four years. I'm like, hey, a lot
of times a battery can test good. But still at
the same time, if a batteries got low voltage, it
can give a false reading on the alternator. I mean
I've seen it a hundred times where somebody goes to
you know, a local repair shop, and they go, oh,
(15:23):
it needs an alternator, and then they put an alternator
in it and guess what, it was just the battery.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I see it all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
But if the battery has been replaced, I mean at
at thirteen point eight, At thirteen point eight, I mean,
did they have the headlights on the radio on the
AC on high?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I mean were they were they loading.
Speaker 9 (15:41):
Up the sea? The ACNE may have been on because
I left the car running. I didn't. I didn't even
I wasn't even gonna go risk turn it off. I
just pulled it into the bay. I went in front
of the bay, like, tell me too, because I can
go to there, must say, take care of my entire.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
Fleet of vehicles.
Speaker 9 (15:56):
So, like I said, I haven't had a problem since
then with it, And I haven't been sitting in around
idly listening to the radio with the AC on. I've
just been driving it.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, I mean even if it's island. I mean, even
if it's island, it's still charging the battery. So I
mean that, Yeah, I mean I know I wouldn't again
to go back to your question.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
No, I wouldn't replace it, not right now.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Typically it might be you know, it might be charging
a little low. But typically when an alterinator goes out,
you're just gonna you're gonna see you know, twelve O,
it's not you know, fourteen, fourteen, thirteen, you know, thirteen
point eight. It maybe on the men, it shouldn't be
not for a four year old car.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
How many miles were on it again?
Speaker 9 (16:39):
One hundred and sixteen?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Okay, yeah, I stole.
Speaker 9 (16:43):
I stole from hers when they hate to get rid
of all their cars and their Chapter thirteenth. I sold
it for twenty four thousand and twenty twenty Pathfinder. It's
seventeen thousand.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
Miles on it.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Oh wow.
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah, that's the only reason why I bought the extended warranty.
I'd never buy it.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (16:58):
Yeah, So doeshing wrong with the car? I saw the
maintenance records on it. Yeah, And I keep all my
maintenance records also, so I make sure my wife has too.
Any car goes in you put your receipt in the
gloves compartment, or you got a maintenance history besides car facks.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Right, Yeah. You know a lot of times people were
misled by the Carfax thing and say, oh, well, carfaxsaid
didn't have an accident. Well that's not always accurate, and
it depends on if it depends on if you take
it to repair shop, if they report to carfaxs or not.
Not all repair shops reports car facts. I even had
years ago. I had a lady that was bringing me alexis.
I mean I think they it was. It was I
(17:34):
think it was used, but it was like sixty thousand
miles or I'm sorry, sixty thousand dollars is what they
wanted for this thing or something like that. Anyways, fairly news,
you know, pre owned, certified, one hundred thousand mile warning. Well,
she brought to me to have it inspected, and guess what.
The whole front end had been knocked off by one
of the employees of the dealership. So they wrecked. So
they wrecked it. It was totaled. The dealer fixed it,
(17:56):
and guess what didn't show up on the Carfax report.
I found it. I figured out, you know, I saw
all the damage because they didn't. Once you wreckord car man,
you can never put it back together perfectly.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
And they ended up not She ended up not buying it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And then the dealership pulled the certification from it because
I busted them. So yeah, right, yeah, everybody thinks like, oh,
it's pre owned certified, it's it's it's a perfect car. No,
I mean the dealership wrecked it, they fixed it, didn't
report anything to Car Facts, and then they tried to
sell it as a pre own certified vehicle and then
it was perfect and I busted them.
Speaker 9 (18:28):
So you see, I retired law enforcement, so I don't trust.
I don't trust lawyers, and I don't trust uh uh dealers.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
No, No, I mean I get it. I get it.
Speaker 9 (18:41):
You don't think I should replace the altar. I haven't
had a problem with. Like I said, I'm not idling
with it. And you know what I don't know. I
think the when they tested the AC may have been on.
I know that radio was definitely so that may have
stressed the system will cause the lower reading.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, correct, And like I said, typically when we do
like a battery test, you know that the test wants
us to turn the headlights on high, turn the AC
on high, turn it, you know, the radio on, and
what they want to pull every all the poate can
possibly can and maybe with the air conditioning the radio on.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
It was probably pulling.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
More, you know, but no, I mean, do you have
a battery light or a battery gauge in your car.
Speaker 9 (19:19):
I don't have a battery gauge, No battery lights. There's
no alternator light coming on, check engine light and nothing,
nothing like that. No, no warnings, right.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Okay, yeah, cause you're gonna so most of these cars nowadays,
they don't have gauges, they just have lights. It's gonna
be a red battery. So I would tell you I
wouldn't replace it. I wouldn't worry about it when it
went or if it fails again, with it being four
years old, that's really unlikely. I know, it's got one
hundred and sixteen thousand miles on it.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I've seen them fail.
Speaker 9 (19:50):
You're highway miles.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, i'd assume. So you're gonna get a rid if
you hera knows. If you turn your key on just
to the on position, auxiliary position, you'll see all your
dash lights light up. You'll see a red battery light.
If you're driving that car and you ever see the
red battery light come on, come on, then most yeah,
then yeah, a lot of people think, oh, red battery late,
(20:12):
I need a battery. No, it's because the alternator is
not charging the battery. It's kind of misleading. But if
you're if you're not having that light pop on in
your dash, No, thirteen point eight. I mean I've seen
cars go thirteen eight, thirteen nine. Should be at fourteen
to one, you know, fourteen one, fourteen to two, you know.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
But no, I wouldn't worry about it at all.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I wouldn't replace it now at fifteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 9 (20:38):
My warranty runs out in one thousand miles. Rights the
extended warranty for seven years, one hundred additional hundred thousand miles.
It was only two thousand dollars. I was supposed to
only pay one hundred dollars out of pocket until the place,
which is a national brand, called them and they said no,
they say we charged too much, And I called the dealership.
In the dealership, our price is their price. No, I
(21:01):
don't know what the unless they're unless they hit something
worked out with the labor. Because he told me it
was gonna be I want to say, six point five
hours and one hundred and fifty dollars an hour.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Mm hmmm, mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, that seems about right, It seems about well.
Speaker 9 (21:17):
Yeah, I was thinking, I'm just wait though it dies.
I mean, yeah, it's a gamble, okay, because the warranty
is gonna run out.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Well however, yeah, well, what I was gonna say you
there too a lot of times with these warranty companies,
is they need proof that that alternator is not working
that I'll be honest with They're probably gonna say there's
nothing wrong with that alternator.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
It'll probably deny the claim in my opinion, So it's
kind of a catch twenty two. I mean it's nice
to have. At the same time, I think if the
shot at thirteen point eight, I don't know that the dealer,
especially with the light not being on, they're probably gonna
deny the claim anyway. So I would just keep your
eye on it. I know it's a gamble, but I wouldn't.
(21:55):
I certainly wouldn't do it. I wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (21:59):
All right, all right, thank you, have a great date.
Nice talk with you.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
All right, thank you, bye bye.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
I mean, these car repairs, and that's what I was
going to talk about earlier. Man, these car repairs are
getting ridiculous. And it's not because I'm expensive, or Donovan
Tires expensive or anybody else is expensive. It's just what
these things cost anymore. I mean, I want to talk
to you about. Like I said, I just had my
first run in with a lithium car battery, and man
was it expensive.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So all right, I'm taking your phone calls.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
The number call five on three, seven, four, nine, fifty
five hundred coming up. We've got Dale and John. You
listening to the car show on fifty five KRC, the
Talk Station.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
I have been a customer of Donovan's for ten years.
It's not always easy to find a mechanic that you
can trust, that isn't going to take advantage of you.
They treated me respectfully, not talk down to me. There
are mechanics right down the road, but I chose to
keep coming back here because they treated me as family,
so much so that four years ago I started working here.
Speaker 7 (22:55):
Hi Dale Donovan from Donovanzatto entire Center, the honest choice
for car repair and Cincinnati since nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Find the one nearest you at Donovantyre dot com.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
It's Glenn Bank You weekday mornings at nine oh six
on fifty five KRC, The Talk Station.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Taking your Car questions then number to call five on
three seventy four nine fifty five hundred. You've got the
phone lines are lighting up, and I really do appreciate it.
So that's what I'm here for is try to help
you guys out every Saturday right one to two. And
and if you can't tune in from on Saturday from
one to two, you can always go on listen to podcast,
(23:33):
or you can call me at work as well. You
can go to donovantire dot com ask for me. Just
be more than happy to help you out and guide
you through your your process. I was telling a customer,
I'm sorry, I was telling somebody today, you know I
have I have. Somebody's like, ohere are you going to say,
I'm going after we were leaving the lemonadestand where are
you going to say, I'm going to do my radio show.
A lot of people don't know I have one.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I don't boast about it, just uh and uh.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Anyways, I said, look, I even have an eye a
customer that comes and sees me that lives in Maysville, Kentucky.
I mean that is that's that's quite a commitment. I mean,
I know, I'm sure I have customers that drive farther,
but uh, you don't always ask everybody where they're where
they're from, but uh, you know, and they're like, wow,
you sounds like you guys do a great job. I'm like, absolutely,
(24:19):
we try to do the best. Are we perfect? No,
but nobody's perfect, but we do our absolute best and
hardest to try to try to take care of our
customers in their cars. So all right, let's go back
to the phones. We've got Dale.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Hey, Dale, welcome to the car show. How can I help?
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Okay, I've got a couple of small events going on
with my jeep Liberty, and I've got a low tire
pressure alarm that comes on my dash, and I also
have a I have one of these devices that read
the code you know when you get a So the
(24:56):
code says, I have a gas cap leak, and I've
changed the gas cash before just went away for a
while and it comes back, and I'm wondering if there
and I can't get rid of this low pressure alarm
on my tires. I can reset it on my dad,
you know. It comes up and it says gas cap
(25:16):
and I can reset that and that goes away. But
the little the little uh sign symbol on the dash remains,
you know, the low pressure symbols and the pressure if
there's a yeah, low tire pressure. And I'm just wondering
is there a common module or a plug or something
that these signals go to, because I you know, I
(25:39):
don't mind. I don't mind working on a car, but
you know, I this all the sophisticated stuff you guys
go through. It's beyond me.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, let me tell you it's getting even worse. But
all right, so let me ask you something. One, I'm
assuming that you've checked all the air pressures and all
the air pressures are right.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Yeah, that is correct. I've put there was one tired,
it was a little low, and I brought it back
up where the other three tires was. And the manual
says drive it for about twenty minutes and that symbol
should go away. Well after a couple of hours, I'm
figuring it's not going to go away.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Yeah, Dale. Let me ask you something.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
When you start the vehicle at any point, does that
tire light flash?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Yes. When I first start the engine up, about four
or five seconds there's nothing, and then it flashes, and
then then it comes on solid.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Solid, Okay, all right, that's the answer I wanted to hear.
So you've got four now on this it says here
twenty twelve jeep Liberty. Does it have a full size
spare on the back side of it.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Or do you have a little No.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
No, the spare is the spare is up underneath.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Okay, all right, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
All of you've got four tire pressure sensors TPMs sensors, right,
Tire pressure monitoring system right. All four of those sensors
are built into the tire valve themselves. Okay.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
And all four of these sensors have batteries in them.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Okay. And with the age of the vehicle it's twelve
years old, these batteries will start dying.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
You cannot replace them. The batteries are not replaceable. You
have to replace the entire sensor in order to get it.
So if the tire light, if your tire light comes on,
you start your car and the tire light's just on solid,
that's just an indication that the system needs to be
reset or the tire is low. But at any point,
if a tire light is flashing, that is an indication
that one or multiple sensors the batteries are dead and
(27:46):
they're no longer responding to that module that you were
referring to. So there's a simple you wouldn't be able
to do it, but you can take it to a
repair shop. There's a tool that what we can do.
Like at my shop, we have a tool. We go
over and we can test each sensor and we can
tell you how much life is in that.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
You know, hey, you know it could be like hey, Dale.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
The right retire personal sensor has fifty percent battery life left,
but the left front sensor has zero.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
It's not responding right, So we're able.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
To test them individually. Okay, Now here's kind of the
kind of the bad news is these things can you
know installed? I mean, it depends on where you go.
On average these sensors installed is about one hundred and
twenty five dollars per tire. You got four tires, it
could get very costly, very quickly. Okay, And typically what
(28:38):
we see is obviously with it being twelve years old,
if one is bad or two or bad most likely
even if you replace that one. Let's just say you
take it to a repair shop and they're like, oh,
just the left front censor's bad will put it in
and all of a sudden, two months later, the light's
flashing again and you're like ready to pull your hair out,
and probably they all typically die around the same time. Now,
I'm not saying you need to replace all four of them.
(29:00):
All I'm saying is don't get frustrated. If you do
take it to repair shopping you do want to fix it,
just know that it's at one point the other ones
will die off, and it can be you know, it
can be frustrating.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
But I understand that. I understand that. Yeah, if you
get it into the shop, you know, I probably could
afford to just do them all, you know, yeah you could.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Yeah, just get it over it with the band aid
off and get it all done.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
I mean, does it need tires? How are the tires?
Speaker 5 (29:31):
No brand tires? The tires are maybe less than a
year old. I really don't drive much.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Anymore, Okay, okay, all right, because typically if you if
you're gonna need tires soon, just buy the tires and
then while they got the tires off, go ahead and
do the censors.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
But it doesn't matter. It's it's fine. But yeah I
would if.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
It was me, I just replace them all be done
with it, because otherwise you're just gonna have to keep
going back.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And it's it's you know, it's kind of a nuisance.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
So I understand that on the gas cap.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Two things for you. The gas cap.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Did you replace it with a factory gas cap or
like an aftermarket like it, you know, autos oil.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Well, I went to I live in Middletown. I went
all the way over to eleven then where I bought
the jeep, and they sold me a gas cap and
the alarm went away right away, and then about three
or four years later, a gas cap alarm come back
on again. So like every other American, and I got
on Amazon and it looked close enough, and I bought it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Okay, okay, all right, so I bought the gas cap.
So typically the factory gas cap is the one that's
going to see. So here here's what we're dealing with.
We're dealing with the evaporative emission system. Okay, what the
EVAPP system is. Your gas tank is a pressurized system. Okay,
the fumes that are in the tank, the government doesn't
want those just to escape. So if you've ever noticed,
(30:46):
sometimes when you take your gas cap off, you might
hear a little bit of pressure right, release right, because
that tank is pressureized it excuse me.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And what it's designed to do is those fumes that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Are in the tank, they go into a charcoal canister
which filters those fumes. You've got a canister vent valve
which then once that pressure builds up, that vent valve
opens up. It sends those fumes this is not fuel
but just fumes, sends them up to the front of
the engine, and then what's called the purge valve then
opens up dumps those fumes into the engine so they
(31:17):
can be burned and go out the tailpipe. Okay, so
somewhere in that system there is a leak or something.
Either the vent valve is not leaking, I'm sorry, either
the vent valve is not working, or it's stuck open,
or the purge valve is stuck open, or there's just
a leak in the system. I've seen rodents do damage,
eat a hole through a hose, or the gas to
(31:38):
the filler net can have be rusted and whatnot. So
typically how we address this issue is, first thing was
we replace the gas cap with a dealer gas cap.
That's the cheapest and most that's the cheapest thing that
you can do. You've done that. The next step is
to do what's called an evaporative emissions smoke test. Okay,
(31:58):
now you wouldn't be able to do this, you'd have
take it to a repair shop. But what we do
is we run a smoke through the system and if
there wherever the leak is, obviously that smoke will start
coming out.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Now earlier I had just mentioned to you that the gentleman.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Comes up from Maysville where I've had the same conversation
with him, and we ended up having to replace his
gas cap and the filler neck because there was a.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
TSB on it.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Did that, but then we ended up finding another line
that in my opinion, looked like a rodent had chewed through.
So you're if you've already done two gas caps, what
you need to do is get it to your mechanic
and you tell them, hey, I've got an EVAPP. We
just call it EVAP. We just hey, I've got a
leak test. I've got an EVAPP leak. I need to
have it smoked, have a smoke test done. And it's
(32:44):
not it's a round. I mean, we charge about one
hundred bucks to do it. Smoke it try to figure
out where that smoke's going that leads us to what
needs to be repaired. I don't think that the thing
is back in those days, and I know it's not
that old, but in twelve it would see that the
system wasn't building up enough pressure and it would turn
it up, like hey, gas caps you know, gas caps loose,
(33:05):
and uh, it can is the.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Check engine light on?
Speaker 5 (33:11):
Yeah, the check engine lights on? And I've got one
of these little code test shirts and I can go
in there and I can reset that and for a while.
Uh do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Do you remember what the code was or the number?
Speaker 5 (33:25):
I believe I believe, I believe it's a four fifty six.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Okay, that's a EVAPP four forty six.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, So what I would tell you he goes away.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
It goes away for a while, and then for and
then then we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah. You know, Well, you're welcome to if you want.
I don't have a computer on me at the moment.
If you want, call me on Monday at my shop.
I'll scan that code or I can run it through
my computer system. What I believe you need is what's
called a leak detection pump leak detection pump, very inexpensive,
(33:59):
very very very common on Chryslers and jeeps, very common.
We do a lot of them. I believe that that's
what you need. Again, it's probably the part's not expensive.
I mean, if you're a handyman and you can get
it up in the air, you could probably do it yourself.
But like I said, usually for probably a couple hundred
(34:20):
bucks you could probably get it fixed. But I believe
you probably need a leak detection pump, very very common
on those things.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
But if you want, call.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Me on Monday or Tuesday or when you're you know,
at my store, I'll run the code through just to
give you a little bit better advice or a little bit.
Like I said, I don't have my laptop with me
at the moment, but I could.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
That's probably what it needs.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
But call me and I'll be more happy to run
that code through the system and then give you a
little bit of a better costs analysis and where you
can get the part and whatnot.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Could you give me your phone numbers, sir.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Yep, and listen.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
If I don't answer the phone, the gentleman that works
next to me is Michael.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
He may answer it.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You just say, Hey, I spoke with Dane on the
radio and you know i'd like to He told me
to call him.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
So but you're the number one, you're ready.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I'm ready five one three, seven, three one eight nine
eight nine five one three, seven, three one eight nine
eight nine. Of course, ask for Dane. But like I said,
if Michael answers, just say I spoke to Dan on
Saturday on the radio and he told me to call him,
and I'll be more happy to help you out.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Dale.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Okay, one more real quick question. The tire sensors. The
tire sensors you're talking about, is that specific to a
particular car or they all like a generic? Uh?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
There's so well, they're there's somewhat generic. But at the
same time, like some vehicles have to have a particular sensor,
they have to come from the vehicle, from the dealer.
So but we can we can talk about that on
Monday when you call me, and I can figure out
if we've got the sensors in stock and see if
we gets taken care of on that on that end
(36:01):
as well.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
Okay, thank you, you bet a big hell. All right, call Monday, all.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Right, Dale, thank you. I appreciate you have a great day.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Okay, all right you too, Bye, all right again.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Taking your phone calls the number call five one, three,
seven four nine fifty five hundred.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Coming up. We've got Dave.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
You're listening to the car show on fifty five KRC,
the talk station.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
Do you have a truck, camper, r V or a
trailer that needs body repair? If so, call my buddy Dave.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Break minute.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair located just All five seventy
five or Route sixty three. It's convenient to both Cincinnati
and Date. With over thirty years of experience including insurance
work and fleetwork, Franks knows the most important things are
quality work or customer satisfaction. Frank's Heavy Truck Collision Repair
prides themselves and doin the job right and get in
your vehicle back on the road. Call five one three
(36:46):
eight two nine ninety thirty eight two nine ninety thirty.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
If taking your car questions the number, call five on
three hundred.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Although we are run a time.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So let's go back to the phones. We've got Davey Dave,
welcome to the cour store.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
How can I help?
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Thank you for taking my car? Appreciate it. I have
an no for Chevy Corvette that the gas lights are
flashing on it once in a while. It says reduced
engine power service, traction system service, active handling and break
(37:24):
before shift and reduce engine powers, check engine lights on.
I took it to the local Chevy dealer. He charged
me two forty dollars and said nothing wrong with the car.
To analyze it. It doesn't do it all the time,
(37:45):
but now sometimes when I'm in the car, I started
up if those lights come on, if I turn the
key off a couple of times and on, it clears
it and then you can drive it off.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
People.
Speaker 11 (37:54):
I came around and drive it all day because the
car's twenty years old. It only has ten hundred miles
on it. Told me it's possibly a weak battery or
I don't drive it enough.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
That's no. No, that's that's ridiculous. No, that's silly. I
mean weak battery maybe maybe, but not not cause you
don't drive it enough. That's it.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Let me ask you something.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Did they test the battery and they're two hundred and
forty dollars diagnosis?
Speaker 11 (38:25):
You know, I don't know if they did or not.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I guarantee I'm sure they didn't you know that's that's
a lot of money. Man, That is a lot of
money for a diagnosis. And I thought I charged a
lot diesel PiZZ So typically do you I would have
to see it, but on an OAT on your vehicle,
and you may not know. This is your throttle body
(38:48):
driven by a cable or is it electronic?
Speaker 11 (38:51):
I believe it's electronic because it was aug it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, so that's why I figured so typically, yeah, typically
on those vehicles, because we've done a ton of them,
it's called drive by wire, right, It's an electronic throttle body.
And what will happen is those throttle bodies go bad.
It's very common, okay, And so that's when the reduced
(39:14):
engine power and everything like that. Now the gas pedals
themselves will go bad as well, so you can get
you'll get a code, and it's usually it pertains to
either the throttle bodies not responding and doing what it's
supposed to be doing, or the gas pedals not doing
what it's supposed to be doing because it's also electronic. Okay, right,
(39:35):
So I don't know when you took it in, was
the light on.
Speaker 11 (39:41):
You know, I don't know if it was or not
because I took it in because somebody is backed into
it and put a scratch down it, and I took
it to your body shop to hear a defender taking
off repainted and told and Tim they check the faults
is coming up on that crash, I.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Mean, And I would agree with them there if the
light was not on it. And a lot of times
sometimes if you shut the car off, it won't store
that code and they can't get into the module, there
won't be anything there. So I do tend to agree
with them on that if they really did what they
said they were going.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
To do and they pulled the codes.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
But I most likely you probably need a throttle body
or a gas pedal. A lot of times the codes
that are set on those in those chevies can be misleading.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
So a lot of times you know, we can.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
It's happened to us where we replace the throttle body
and the light comes back on onto the gas pedal, And
there's other times where we've replace the gas pedal, light
comes back on us the throttle body. Because the car
kind of doesn't know exactly which one it is, it
may lead you to being one or the other. I
just want you to know like if you get it
to a repair shop and they replace the throttle body
(40:51):
and it comes back on and they're like, oh, it
needs a gas pedal, and vice versa. Just know the
car doesn't give you a specific which one is is
the result of it.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
What I would tell you to.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Try to do is with uh, you go to you know, KOI,
NAPA and or autos on, whatever's close to you. Get
a can of throttle body cleaner. Okay, get a can
of that in a like a wired brush or a towel. Okay,
do not do not forcibly you can. You have to
(41:24):
take the air hose off, which you can do. Take
that air hose off, Uh, don't forcibly open up that
throttle plate. What you'll do is you'll just turn the
key on and you'll need either somebody in the car
or use a brick or a rock or something like
that hold the gaspeller down with the key on, not
the car running obviously, just the key on that allows
that throttle plate to open. You spray that throttle cleaner
(41:46):
in there, scrub it with that that wired brush, clean
it up. What happens is carbon will build up inside
that on that throttle plate and it'll cause that throttle
plate to stick, and by doing so then it'll set
that code. Now it could be still a bad throttle
body or gas pedal, but this is something that you
can do.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Buy a can of I.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Don't know how much throttle plate cleaner is right now
off the top of my head, maybe five ten bucks
for the cam. But for fifteen minutes of your time,
take that air hose off, clean that throttle plate, try
clean on that carbon off. You'll see it. I mean,
it'll be there and you just you know, spraying it.
Don't spray a ton. Don't try to spray a ton
(42:28):
in the intake. You want to just get that throttle
plate as best you can and scrub it and clean
it with a wire brush or a towel or whatnot.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
Clean it up.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It will when you know, obviously you'll take the you know,
take the brick or the rock off the gas plate
or off the gas pedal, and then start it up.
It will most likely kind of run rough for you know,
a minute or two, not a minute, but maybe thirty seconds.
You're gonna be like, oh God, what I do. It's okay,
it's normal. It's burning off that throttle plate. Cleaner and
(42:58):
then every one, fine, try that first. If it comes
continues to come back, or if it does come back
on you know, get somebody to read the codes. And
it's gonna probably need one of those two things, but
that's something that you can do.
Speaker 3 (43:10):
So all right, he's gone, So all right, everybody have
a great weekend. I really do appreciate all the phone calls.
I'll be bit back.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
I'll be back next Saturday to answer all your phone calls.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
You're listening to the Car Show on fifty five krc
D talk station.
The Car Show with Dale and Dane Donovan News
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