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12th February 2010.



Back to the future.

It may come as a surprise to many younger readers, but once upon a time in a land far away, cars came with a one year
warranty and the styling was changed every year.

Fins on. Fins off. Chrome tits on, chrome tits off and so on.

This encouraged people to buy a new car every year. Since reliability and build quality was about equal to that of a LADA,
trading in every year didn't seem that abnormal. Then along came the Japanese and we said goodbye to the Brits and all
of a sudden, quality and reliability improved enormously and eventually, America realized they'd been ripped off and started
to buy "furrin" cars, starting with the VW Beetle and proceeding rapidly from there.

Let's be clear on this:
Japan has never invented anything, as is seen in Toyotas' failed F1 venture where original thinking and individuality reign
supreme. But Japan has improved on almost all products, including cars, that were originally conceived and produced
in Europe or America. One year warranties may never return,  but fear of the future and increasing reliability issues
has set in and in many instances, the fear is justified.

If you can’t recall the collective anxiety that is attached to the emergence of digital and networked technologies just take
a peek back at the news headlines of yesteryear. Worry about online banking began when the first bank put its customer
accounts on the web. But as the latest systems, including vehicles and the power grid, crossover to the digital and
computing world, and get connected to communication networks, expect the same, if not more, fear.

Both vehicles and the power grid are undergoing massive transformations involving Information Technology (IT).
The so-called smart grid industry has emerged to sell utilities infrastructure based on communication networks,
and companies are building software and services to help utilities manage energy data. The smart grid is projected
to generate $210 billion in investment between 2010 and 2015, and President Obama has called for the installation
of 40 million smart (digital and connected) meters in the U.S.

Cars are going digital and connected, too. Vehicles are now packed with up to 100 million lines of computer code,
and have at least 30 microprocessor-controlled devices. Many automakers offer services based on network connections,
like location-based navigation (enabled by a GPS system) or GM’s OnStar System which is based on a cellular connection.

As electric vehicles emerge in the coming years there will be even more uses of software and communication networks to
manage the vehicle’s charge. Utilities will have to manage the collective charging of customers, so that EV charging
doesn’t take down their grids. 

Before electric vehicles even hit the mainstream market, though, consumers are already getting anxiety over computer
and software dependent cars. Last week Toyota said that a software glitch is responsible for the braking problem in its
Prius hybrid. That’s led to a new round of media headlines taking a hard look at the trend of software and computing in cars.

I’ve experienced software glitches when driving and believe me it wasn’t fun. As the drivers of the Toyota Prius’ with glitchy
software found: beta software just doesn’t cut it at 60 mph.

Both vehicles and the power grid have different relationships with consumers, compared to entertainment, communications
and some types of information. When your wireless network drops or your browser crashes and you’re sitting in front of a
computer, it’s annoying but not life threatening. Software problems and dropped communication connections could have
much more serious consequences in a vehicle (crashing, being stranded somewhere, not being able to get to work, etc),
and for the power grid (outages, surges, etc).

Problems with reliability of software and computing in high-impact areas has been studied for years.
For example, health care: faulty software that caused a string of medical errors for radiation treatments and lead to
several deaths. It’s terrifying to think software that controls radiation shot at someone’s chest, could freeze as easily
as my Firefox browser. The aviation and defense industries have long been dealing with the impact of software and
communication systems on their high-impact technologies.

There’s also the worry over networks being more susceptible to security concerns. Adding a two-way network connection,
means something, or someone, can access the data — that’s the whole point of connecting it to a network.
But that also means the connected system can be hacked and used in ways that it wasn’t intended.

The companies building the future of digital, connected vehicles and the power grid will be smart to look at the lessons
learned through the digitization of some of these high-impact area, like aviation, defense and health care.

These companies will just have to realize how sensitive the transition is to digital, connected systems and remain
hyper vigilant. But expect to see a lot more headlines about digital anxiety over vehicles and the power grid in the future.

5th-February-2010



No blogger worth his salt could possibly overlook further commentary on the Toyota situation.
First, some incidental thoughts and observations:

Ford and GM are beating their chests about how pure are they are these days and yet, over the last ten
    years these two companies, along with Chrysler have recalled 100 times more cars than Toyota ever has.
    Remember the Explorers and their exploding tires, for example? Now Ford is recalling their Fusion hybrids
    with similar brake problems to the Prius.

 If the American manufactures will take your 09 or 010 Toyota in trade and offer you $1000 in cash, what will
    they do with them?
    Pass them along to other suckers who don't watch the news?

Honda is getting a free ride. Their recall of door motor switches that set on fire is flying under the radar.
    The media are in a frenzy only over Toyota.

There is undoubtedly an effort to discredit Toyota in favour of the domestic manufactures by the UAW, various agencies
    and the media and the government that owns them..

The Prius brake problem has been related on this website as much as two years ago, but now everyone is piling on,
    it's suddenly become a "new" issue.

Years ago, again on this site, we reported the mysterious case of trunk lids opening when a car was parked. Turned out
     be stray signals from a local radio station. That problem has existed for at least 10 years. Now suddenly, such signals
     "may" affect electronic control systems in general.
Every Toyota owner that has an accident will take no responsibility and will claim that the car took off on them, that's
     why they jumped the red-light or ran into the back of a bus.
     Sorting out the truth from the fabrications will be a nightmare for Toyota.

Recently, in my weekly industry review,  we published an article saying that Toyota had asked its' suppliers to reduce the
cost of parts by 30%. Which is a huge number and inevitably leads to poor quality, as GM already knows.
They may have already rescinded that idea--one can only hope so.

So how did Toyota get into this mess?

How could it be, many have wondered, that the automaker most associated in the US market with the concept of quality
has slipped so badly?  Because Toyota has been on a decontenting binge since the mid-to-late-1990s, putting profit
above the quality obsession that had defined its operations up to that point. As a result, the current generation of
decontented Toyotas and accompanying quality issues and recalls can be seen as the culmination of a long-term trend.

But why did that transition take place? Though it’s easy to blame greed and mismanagement for the decline in Toyotas
quality, the decline in standards was actually a natural progression of Toyotas constantly evolving, efficiency obsessed
production system.

Since the 50s, Toyota had been introducing management techniques such as kanban (just-in-time inventory management),
shusa (heavyweight product managers), and kaizen (continuous improvement at all levels of production, including
assembly-line problem solving). In the 1960s, what is now known as the “Toyota Production System” came into its own,
as Toyota integrated suppliers into its product development and established Total Quality Control over every area of its
operation.

These developments led to huge efficiency gains, allowing Toyota to launch its full-scale assault on the US market in the 1970s.

By the 1980s, the principles of the Toyota Production System were well-established, and the global auto industry began to take
notice of Toyota as the automaker made increasing gains in the US market and elsewhere. The first half of the 80s saw the
introduction of export limits in the US, which limited production expansion but kept Toyota’s profitability high thanks to artificially
inflated prices. In 1985 however, a sharp jump in the value of the yen put major pressure on the Toyota system and reduced its
competitive advantage relative to US manufacturers.

In the short term, this challenge was masked by bubble-driven Japanese economy, which added another 2m units of annual
demand in the late 80s, but as appreciation of the yen eroded their cost competitiveness, Japanese firms had to increasingly
rely on the quality side of their strength. Real-term productivity growth had been slowing since the early 1980s, but total quality
continued to increase.

The Japanese market took back its volume gains in the early 1990s as it entered recession, and the yen rose again in
1993-94, putting even more pressure on Toyota’s Japanese production. Though the rise of transplant production is the
best-known result of these challenges, it’s no coincidence that Toyota made major changes to its product development
philosophy in this turbulent period.

These changes were a response to the emerging concept of “fat product design,” a term that consciously clashes with
the “lean” ideals of the Toyota system. The “fat product” critique held that Toyota’s increasing reliance on quality advantages
resulted in product “overquality” in terms of design “overquality,” relatively lower component sharing, frequent model changes
and product variety run amok. In short, a weakening Japanese market and upward pressure on the yen created conditions
in which Toyotas strengths with its customers were systematically turned into a concept that was anathema to the Toyota
system: the “problem” of “fat product.”

An area of product development “fatness” that is especially resonant in light of recent developments, is Toyota’s emphasis
on the consumer satisfaction index (CSI) as a measure of customer satisfaction. The use of CSI results in product development
was problematic in the sense that it emphasized the elimination of points of customer dissatisfaction.

Elimination of customer dissatisfaction does not automatically mean higher customer satisfaction, as the two are often
different dimensions. As a result, the pursuit of the CS technique based on the dissatisfaction list may create high-cost
[i.e. "fat"] products that have no problems– but no fun built in, either.

What did “fat product” mean in real terms? Around 1990 Toyota’s global output was about 300k units per month, comprised
of no fewer than 60k product variations, 25k of which were assembled only once per month. The worst-selling half of these
variations made up only five percent of total sales. This variation proliferation was caused by Toyota’s ability to respond to
the market’s demand for product differentiation, but in the cutthroat global car business, this was not a sustainable state of affairs.

In addition to overbuilding variety in response to consumer demand, there is evidence that Japanese firms also overbuilt for
quality in this period as well (although this is often difficult to objectively quantify).

A German car maker in the late 1980s, commented that one of the leading Japanese models was about $500 more
expensive that the equivalent German model owing to overquality and excessive designs, other things being equal.

Whether this phenomenon existed across Toyota’s product range is nearly impossible to prove, but one thing is certain:
in the early to mid 1990s, Toyota’s managers clearly believed that it suffered from “fat product” and moved aggressively
to limit its effects.

In 1993-94, Toyota lost about 100b yen due to currency fluctuation alone, making lean product design a jarring necessity.
Over those two years, Toyota saved about the same amount in cost-cutting alone, preventing the need for right-sizing capacity
or cutting jobs. Instead, Toyota reduced product varieties, increased component-sharing and generally introduced more
“value engineering” into its designs. Again, this was not obviously a product of  cynicism on the part of Toyota’s management,
but a realization that reforming Toyota’s super-lean manufacturing system would not yield the kind of savings the firm needed.

The focus of competition had changed, and Toyota’s response was to de-emphasize individual, product-focused development in
favor of multiple project development which would allow greater component-sharing across models, and fewer variations of each
individual model.

In theory, this sea change in Toyota’s culture could have been effectively managed to prevent the steady decontenting of products
and declining quality. And, in the interest of fairness, it could also have led to even more dramatic drops in quality and content. 

Obviously, we need to know a lot more about the specifics of Toyota’s recent quality woes before we can establish causal links
between the rise of lean product design in the 1990s and the current rash of bad news. The fact that Denso-built pedals do not
appear to suffer from the same problem as CTS-supplied pedals indicates that this might be a supplier-specific problem,
rather than the result of a systemic de-emphasis on quality at Toyota. Still, the Toyota practice of working closely with suppliers in the development process indicates that there’s more than enough blame to go around.

The real extent of this cost-cutting, decontenting and “design leaning” won’t be easy to quantify, but the fact that it’s been taking
place since the early nineties and is only now yielding negative effects suggests that it’s been relatively well-managed.
But Toyota’s reputation was built on those “fat” products of the mid-80s to early-90s, and it won’t be returning to the old practices
that created them anytime soon due to their competitive disadvantages.

This seems to suggest that, once damaged, Toyota is unlikely to ever recover its former quality halo.

With acknowledgemnt to Edward Niedermeyer @ TTAC



We must now have dealt with at least fifteen scenarios with the same basic score.

Car owners who have taken their older car to a dealer for assessment  and been handed an estimate that would
bankrupt Lehman Brothers!

This is a pattern that is developing. In every case we have found things that needed doing, but the total cost has usually
been less than 25% of the dealer estimate.

I speculate that with showroom activity at an all time low, the only place where free cash flow is being generated is in the
service department and when you're on the ropes, I guess you come out swinging.

Take the latest example that has happened over the holidays.

An older couple took their 1998 sedan into a dealer for a check, because they were expecting visitors from the UK who
wanted to drive down into New England while they were here.

The car had 55,000 kilometres on it in total.

I drove it and predicted that not very much would be found to be wrong with it when we did our inspection.

Apart from all the things dealers seem to be selling at every possible chance, such as ball joints, exhaust systems, tie rods,
sway bar links and shock absorbers, there is trend to also want to replace brake and fuel lines.

In the latter case, there is undoubtedly, some need for careful checking, because as cars age these lines under the car can
be susceptible to rotting and losing a brake line produces a soft, on the floor, brake pedal.

However in the case at point, the dealer said that new brake and fuel lines may not be available from the manufacturer
and in which case, they would have to make them by hand - something that we do routinely.

The dealer said that this may take up to twenty five hours and cost at least half of the estimate. In consequence, they wanted
a $500 non refundable deposit. I emphasise at this point, that the brake and fuel lines were not showing ANY signs of being
weak or leaking.

When the owners called the dealer back to tell him they were getting a second opinion,  suddenly they were entitled to a
25% discount and "they would match any price that we would quote".

This on the assumption that we would be "cheaper" than them, but would seize upon the opportunity to quote a lower but
highly profitable price. At the end of the day it took $400 dollars to put this car in top shape and rust proof the lines which
were in very good condition under the surface rust.

Bottom line:
Watch out  for dealer service departments.
Until they get busy with warranty work and routine maintenance, they are desperate to make a buck.
You'll notice that I didn't identify any particular dealer or car manufacturer.
That's because they're all at it - across the board.

November 27th 2009

Some more senior members of the car driving community remember the days when flooding a cars engine in winter
merely entailed the removal of the air cleaner cover and the insertion of a screwdriver into the carburettor opening to
hold the choke open and bingo all was well!

Not any more.

The arrival of a 1988 Blazer at the garage this week reminded me to to remind you all once again that fuel injected engines
cannot be started once they flood.

In the case of the Blazer, the battery had been flogged to death and was the usual suspect, but when an external battery
charger was applied at full power, the engine coughed and spluttered and tried to start, but eventually had to be towed indoors.
Apparently the engine had been cranked so much that the injectors had poured gasoline down onto the tops of the pistons to
the tune of about 1/4" of fluid.

The gasoline had also completely contaminated the engine oil so that the pistons could not produce any compression.

Everyone, including the tow truck driver, had pumped the pedal the way we used to do with carburettors.
In fact, the only chance you have to start a flooded fuel injected car or truck is to hold the gas pedal to the floor while you crank.
The throttle positioning sensor then informs the engine control computer that the throttle plate is wide open and it shuts off
the fuel supply by holding the injector solenoids closed.

If that doesn't work, you have no choice. A tow, a change of, or cleaning of, spark plugs and engine oil is the only way out.

In the case of the Blazer, a few rainy days parked outside had found a cracked distributor cap and filled it with water.
A change of cap, rotor, ignition wires and engine oil got the truck running again. The wires were changed when a wet test
showed them to be leaking high tension current.

It is well known that you can cook a christmas turkey quite well between the cylinders of a V6 or 8 engine, which indicates
how high the under hood temperatures are on a long journey. The ignition wires, equally, get cooked and eventually fail.

One word about tow truck drivers. They are all "experts" if you ask them. Some actually are, but most are not and the
diagnosis they hand you is often completely wrong.

So don't beat on your garage too much if the repair turns out to be something completely different than that which you might
have first expected.



The most frustrating part of taking your car in for service is being unable to see what you got for your money.
Where else do we ever pay for something we can't see, touch or smell? Maybe your dentists' office?

Take your typical garage client(s). He (or she) drops off his/her car at their favourite repair shop.
When they return at the end of the day to pay their $1,200 bill, they find the vehicle looking exactly like it did
when they dropped it off. It is still dirty, still has that parking lot dent on the fender and that rust spot over the
rear wheel has not disappeared.

As consumers we place blind trust in those who service our vehicles and, for the most part, that trust is well placed.
But it would be nice to know exactly what was done, why and if it actually needed doing in the first place?

What follows is a game plan for protecting yourself.
But remember, nothing is more important than establishing a trusting working relationship with a repair shop.

Those who arm themselves with flyers and coupons and bounce from place to place looking for the cheapest price
end up spending far more than they actually need to over a lifetime of auto ownership.

The advice that saves you the most comes from talking with the guy under the hoist and saying thanks for keeping
you and your family running on smooth wheels.

The maintenance conundrum

When do I know when it's time to take the car in? Dust off that owner's manual in the glove compartment to find out
when oil changes and tire rotations and such are due. There are two schools of thought about maintenance.
One is to keep the vehicle in good order to prevent breakdowns. The other says if it ain't broke don't fix it.
That group always swears it's a cheaper option.

What the if-it-ain't-broke crowd doesn't consider is the cost of inconvenience and unreliability that comes with their
way of thinking. Who do you think gets emergency priority in my shop on the Friday afternoon of a long weekend,
my regular as rain customer or some stranger who has been staring at a dash warning light for three weeks
and now is in a pickle because their car is overheating?

We have a sign up that says:
"Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for us"

Other than routine maintenance, the conditions that prompt most service garage visits are warning lights,
unusual noises and vibrations, or poor power-train performance.

With warning lights, the check engine and low tire pressure icons top the list of repeat performers.
If you want to save money, check your gas cap.
A loose one is the leading reason for the check engine light coming on.

It will take three start and warm up cycles on the road to extinguish it. But if you have any type of symptom to go
along with that light such as a rough idle, stalling or transmission shift problem, get it checked.

Oil changes and the tale of the dipstick

Do yourself a favour and check your engine oil before you drop the car off. If you pull the dipstick before starting
the car and it's parked on a relatively level grade, you won't even have to wipe the stick and re-dip to get an
accurate reading.

Check the colour of the oil and smell it. For most vehicles, the oil will be a very dark brown (almost black)
and will smell of gas (from countless days of cold weather starting).

See if you can spot the oil filter. On many front-wheel drives with four cylinder engines it is located low on the
front of the engine block. On some four bangers and on most V6 or V8 engines it's impossible to see from above.

Check the other vital vehicle fluids. Many reservoirs are made of plastic that lets you see the fluid level without
removing the top. Don't try to remove a pressurized cooling system cap if the engine has been running in the
last four hours or so (hot antifreeze burns!).

After the oil change has been done, recheck the dipstick. New oil should be a light golden colour and should
have no gas smell. Check the other fluids. Were they topped up? Did anyone take a grease pen or chalk marker
and indicate the engine coolant protection mark on or near the radiator cap?

Air filters and tire valves

Locate the air filter box and look for signs that the latches or screws that hold the lid on have been opened lately.
Take a look at the tire valve stems before you leave the service lot. Are the caps clean, indicating they were
removed to check the air pressure, or do they have the same amount of salt and grit on them as they did when you
dropped the vehicle off? Don't forget the spare and give your shop extra marks if they checked it.

The tire treatment

Did you get the run around wheel treatment? The easiest way to know if your tires were rotated is to mark one
on each side of the vehicle and then check to see if they changed position.

Four fluid flushers

Power steering fluid, transmission fluid, engine coolant, and brake fluid are all targeted these days by service
advisers trying to sell their shops' power-flush treatments.

While regular fluid changes are a good way to ensure maximum life out of your car's various systems,
check your owner's manual to verify the time and mileage recommendations. If your service provider is
suggesting an early replacement, ask him why.

Automatic transmission fluid will have a very dark red colour (almost brown or black) at the end of its life and
a marked burnt smell. Your new fluid should be a much lighter red (rose wine). Power steering fluid will go from
brown to clear, coolant from dark green or red to a clearer, brighter shade.

Unless you've been really neglectful, brake fluid will likely look the same before and after. The reason it's replaced
is to remove any water content caused by condensation.
Find the brake master cylinder cap (yes, that owner's manual is good for something) and see if it's been opened lately.

Signs of brake replacements

Thanks to open spoke wheels on many cars, you can see your brake components. The rotors should have a clean,
dull silver finish if they've been replaced or resurfaced. There should be no rust if they were changed and rust on
the edges if they were resurfaced.

Don't be surprised if your brake pedal has more travel after a brake replacement.

When calipers are rusty, often they don't completely ease pressure they apply when you hit the pedal.

The next time you touch the brakes, there is very little travel required to engage the brake pad onto the rotor.

When a tech replaces pads or rotors, he will almost always clear rust away from the tracks the pads travel on and
thoroughly lubricate them so the pads can retract when letting off the pedal.

This means more distance for the pad to move when going from no brakes to full application and more pedal movement.

Don't be shy, just ask

I, and just about every other service veteran I know, would rather deal with a direct question than let a customer leave
with doubts. There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking for any of the old parts removed from your vehicle or having
someone show you what was done.

The treatment you get when you ask will determine whether you're doing business at the right place.

If the returned parts you requested are carefully packaged and neatly left in your trunk or on the floor of the vehicle,
you're dealing with someone who wants you back.

If your service consultant is patient and explains repairs, he deserve repeat business.
Keep in mind time restraints and peak customer traffic periods at your shop's service counter.

If you're thoughtful enough to ask when's the best time for a few questions, you're bound to get all the professional
attention you need.

November 13th 2009.


The gargoyle.

The night driving season is upon us  and again it becomes obvious that the most under maintained system
on almost all cars is the lights.

First there's the gargoyles. One light or possibly two, coming straight at you. Width of vehicle - unknown.

It seems that in their quest to fit engines into smaller spaces, manufacturers have made it almost impossible to gain access
to headlight sockets. They insist that the shape of new cars and their components has had to change to increase safety for
both drivers and pedestrians, not to mention improving aerodynamics and reducing fuel consumption.

Nevertheless, it seems a bit much that one has to lift out the battery on a Ford Focus, disconnect air hoses and remove the
front bumper on some vehicles.

I wasn't surprised to hear that some garages, having offered a bulb fitting service for a small charge, now tell the owners of
some cars to visit their main dealer because the job is getting too complicated.

But it's not just headlights that pose a challenge; rear lights can be tricky, too. Previous vehicles had an internal plate that
could be removed to gain access to the bulb socket. On new cars, however, the whole external lighting cluster has to be
taken out.

All this makes carrying spare bulbs a bit pointless. Of course some cars now have completely sealed light units, and it is
inconceivable that even the most law-abiding motorist would carry a spare set of those; each one is the size of a couple
of house bricks.

Yet there may be some hope: The problem may diminish as new bulb technologies reach the market. Xenon HID bulbs last
up to seven times longer than halogen ones, but cost $200 on a Mercedes..
And the LED lamps we already see on some new cars may last the life of a vehicle hope that they do, because they cost
more than you want to know..

Then there's the car that has both lights on, but one is shining straight up and the other one is inspecting
the front bumper.

Then there's the non-drivers who don't know that many cars with daylight running lights don't have any lights in the
rear. They are completely invisible from behind. Even though a lot of cars have no instrument lights either, until you
turn on the real thing. Goes to show you what I've long suspected, there's a whole bunch of non-drivers out there who
don't even look down at their instrument panel - as long as the cell phone is lit, who cares?

Then there's the car that has half its' parking lights out, or its' licence plate lights aren't lit, which is a a legal offence
and carries a two point penalty.

Of course blue xenon lights are the latest thing, they tell you that the guy has an expensive car, or has changed to
blue lights for effect. The real blue lights cost about $200 each, so the would be Walter Mittys are buying the cheap
stuff and pretending.

Nevertheless, unaimed blue lights are a menace. Even if they're properly aimed, I have news for Merc and Beemer owners:
they are absolutely useless in a snow storm. Turn them on and it feels as though you're charging headlong into a shower curtain.

Turn 'em off and use the fog lights.

Which brings up the non-drivers who insist on driving about on a clear star lit night with all bulbs blazing.
Fog lights are for fog, dammit, not to "impress" every other road user of your magnificence and affluence.

It's clear that many people run around on high beams, because one of their low beams has burned out and to some
extent I understand this because as we have said, changing light bulbs in a modern car is not easy.

So please, one dark night, on a quiet side road, turn on all your lights, first low beam and then high beam, then take a walk
down the road 100 feet or so, and see whether your lights are aimed properly or are driving other motorists crazy.
Or, sometimes, it's possible to check your head lights in the store window at a shopping mall.

Many cars today have a really useful device under the hood that looks something like a spirit level and with a screwdriver
it's possible to set your high and low beams very accurately.

Then take a walk round and see if all the other lights are lit. Have someone push your brake pedal to see if both brake
lights are working. Have them operate the flashers to make sure other motorists know you're actually about to turn
across their path.  

Visibility at night or in poor conditions is vital. The fact that you can see other cars doesn't mean they can see you.
Take a half hour as soon as you possibly can and check out all your lights - please!

30th October 2009

Unfortunately, the automotive battery is one of many highly abused, seldom maintained, but very important parts
on the modern automobile. Usually no attention is paid to the battery unless it is suspected of causing a problem.
The most common problem encountered with batteries is low voltage or low charge.

Here's a few do's and don'ts to help your battery maintain its peak performance and to avoid having a low charge battery:

  Do's
  --  Whenever working around batteries, make sure to wear proper eye, hand,
      and clothing protection.
  --  Check the terminals where the battery cables connect to be sure they
      are tight and free of corrosion.  If corrosion is present, get a
      qualified technician to clean the terminals.
  --  Make sure the battery is firmly secured to its mounting bracket.  An
      unsecured battery that shifts around can become damaged, and possibly
      cause short circuits.
  --  In batteries other than those that are "maintenance free,"
      periodically check the fluid level.  If the fluid is low, add only
      distilled water to top it off.  If no fluid is detectable, you may
      want to replace the battery rather than fill it, as batteries in this
      condition will usually fail very soon.
  --  Always remember to keep your battery case clean.  Dirt conducts
      electricity, which can discharge the battery.  Battery cases can be
      cleaned with a solution of baking soda dissolved in warm water.  Wet
      the case and agitate with a nylon bristle brush.  Rinse well with
      plain water.
  --  Batteries come in many different sizes.  When replacing a car battery,
      make sure you choose the right size for your vehicle.  When it comes
      to car batteries, bigger is not always better.

  Don'ts
  X   If you suspect that a battery is frozen, do not charge it, as it may
      explode!  One visual sign that a battery has frozen is that the sides
      are bowed out.  This condition is not repairable, and the battery will
      need to be replaced by a professional as soon as possible.
  X   If you need to charge your battery yourself, switch the charger to a
      low-charge setting.  Most chargers have this feature but if not, have
      a professional charge the battery.
  X   Don't charge a dead battery with a car's alternator.  An alternator is
      not designed to function as a charger, and it may be damaged or have a
      shortened life as a result.
New cars perform vastly better than vehicles built only a couple decades ago. A major factor in this has been the
advancement of electronics and their incorporation into almost every automobile system.

One drawback to this advancement though, has been the extra load placed on the automobile battery.

Recently, a client was out of town for a while, consequently, his car hadn't moved for several days, but when he went to start it,
the battery was dead. It needed a boost.

The car doors had been closed, the stereo off, and the lights were off so they were not the culprit.
My client asked me if a 12-volt, 1 amp, trickle charger would be helpful to prevent the electronics from draining the battery
again when the vehicle is in storage or stopped for days at a time. He was correct in thinking a trickle charger would prevent
the battery from going dead, but this should only be necessary for those vehicles that sit for months at a time.

Modern electronics can cause the battery to go dead faster than on newish vehicles. Each electronic device on the vehicle
uses some power even though everything may be turned off. On-board computers are the biggest users of the electricity.
Fuel injection computers, climate control computers, keyless entry modules, lighting computers, digital radios, clocks,
memory seats, and trip computers all have memories in them, with many of them programmed by the driver.
The drain on the battery to keep these computers operational can kill the battery over time.

Some computers "go to sleep", an operational mode where they are using almost no electrical power. They monitor input signals
and data, and if there is a signal that requires them to wake up, they do. Otherwise, the computers just stay in low power mode.
A computer that stays "awake" all the time however, can drain a battery.

Other electronic devices also put a drain on the battery. Alternators, voltage regulators, and ignition systems use electricity
even when not operating. Diodes, one-way electrical gates located inside these devices, are supposed to prevent the flow
of electricity through these parts when the systems are turned off but diodes can fail and cause a larger flow of electricity.
Fortunately, this is rare.

Testing current flow from the battery has changed along with the automotive electronics. It used to be sufficient to place
a test light between the battery post and the disconnected battery cable. If the test light came on, there was a battery drain
on that vehicle. That test no longer is valid for smaller computer drains. The only correct method of testing for a battery drain
is to use an ammeter connected between the battery post and the disconnected cable.

The ammeter measures the actual current flowing from the battery into the electronics systems. A typical engine computer will
use between five and eight milliamps (thousandths of an amp) to keep the memories working.

Most vehicles should show a maximum reading of 25 to 28 milliamps or less when the test is performed, however a few luxury
cars loaded with all the toys may be a little higher. In comparison, a trunk light uses about 900 milliamps or .9 amps and would
drain the battery overnight.

If the measured current flow is too high, then fuses are disconnected one at a time until the faulty circuit or module is identified.
Some vehicles will require a waiting period of up to 1/2 hour before an accurate measurement can be taken.
During this time the computers are "awake" and use more power. After sitting for several minutes without any switches being
operated the computers go back into "sleep mode".

Finally, other factors can cause a battery to go dead faster than normal. Warm temperatures cause the battery chemical reactions
to occur faster. This causes the battery to go dead at a faster rate. Dirt or dust on top of the battery and high humidity levels
also cause a problem. The electricity leaks through the damp dirt directly from one battery post to the other causing the battery
to discharge. Keeping a battery clean, cool and dry will ensure it retains its charge longer. 

Energy is dangerous in all forms when it is compressed.

Sony has found this out as its lap top batteries, minute in size and capable of operating times of up to four hours,
they sometimes set themselves on fire.

Hybrid cars have been known to burn themselves down to the ground and when an accident occurs, rescue crews and firemen
approach the tremendous energy stored in hybrid batteries with great caution, knowing how much potential damage they can
represent.

A stick of dynamite, a gallon of gasoline, a tank of liquefied natural gas and/or hydrogen, all these compressed forms of energy
can bite back very hard if they are suddenly released.

Years ago, as the plant engineer for a large corporation, I had responsibility for both fire protection and shipping and receiving.

The local fire department invited me to a demonstration. It seemed that they were being called to more and more truck fires and the
cause had been hard to find.

However, it seems that most trucks at that time, had their high powered batteries stored under the drivers seat, with a cover on top.
Over time, the cover got misplaced and the springs in the seat sagged until they shorted out the battery.

Maybe that's where the idea of heated seats started out, but the ensuing blaze was not funny in the least.

The demonstration I observed consisted of throwing an old drivers' seat onto the top of a battery and retiring.

Within seconds, the wire in the seat glowed bright red and within a minute or so, the seat was turned into ashes.

So this winter, a good many of you will probably get involved in the jump starting of another vehicle.

I have an article on my website  that chronicles the woes of one poor owner and re-emphasises the dangers of treating
your battery with the contempt it doesn't deserve. And if you want to know more about the  dangers of lithium/ion batteries,
as installed in most hybrid cars,  click here.

23rd October 2009.

Editors' note. My apologies for not having posted any material for the last two weeks.
Unfortunately I ran into a (non-automotive!) accident that rendered me incapacitated .
Since this is a one man show, the website had to suffer accordingly.
However I'm back and so......Onward and upward.


Paradise for car storage - but expensive.

Conveniently, The Chlorine molecule in salt and the Hydrogen molecule in water just love one another.

Unfortunately, those two molecules combine to form HCl, otherwise known as dilute hydrochloric acid.
Dilute acids are very often more corrosive and damaging than concentrated acids.

Which is why those of us in the Great White North who want to preserve our cars, have no choice but to
store them for the winter.

Or maybe we could all move to New Zealand, for example, where the temperature remains moderate all year round
and 25 year old cars in good condition are quite common and still in use.

It's cheaper, by far, to buy a winter beater and keep the good ride locked away. Even  aluminium is not immune to HCl
corrosion and in consequence, those expensive wheels should be stored lying flat in favour of mounting steel wheels
and snow tires, if you decide not to store the whole car.

If you insist on going through with this act of self deprivation, don’t disconnect the battery or you may give yourself
some mysterious problems when you come back. (See below)
If it’s definitely for six months and not significantly more, here’s what you should do, most of which is general advice
that applies to any modern car. (Some drivers may find this very finicky, but that’s because they haven’t got a Porsche!)

1) Go for a decent drive (at least half an hour in daylight) to make sure the battery’s fully charged. While you’re out, half fill the
tank (this will help to stop any water condensing on the tank walls and getting into the fuel while you’re away)

2) Check the anti freeze strength and top up/replace as necessary.

3) Fill the windshield washer bottle with a 50:50 mixture of water and a good quality screenwash.
Spray the washers for about 10 seconds to get the 50:50 mix into the spray jets.

4) Wash the car, then polish it. Make sure the carpets are dry, and no damp coats or umbrellas are left in the trunk.
If the seats are leather, treat them with a leather product

5) Park the car so that you can get to the battery on your return.

6) If the garage is secure enough to leave the car unlocked, leave the windows slightly open.
(Don’t do this if you do have to lock the car, otherwise the burglar alarm will keep going off)

7) If the car has the manual hand brake, block the wheels and leave it off.
(This will be virtually impossible if it’s the later electronic park brake, so see the bit about when you return)

8) Lift the wipers off the windshield (this can be difficult on later models because you can’t simply lift the arms,
so if necessary just put clean paper underneath the wiper blades)

9) Inflate the tyres to the correct pressure, plus 10%

10) Modern cars are full of computers with memories that are best kept alive, so I wouldn’t disconnect the battery.
Double check that everything is turned off before you leave the car, and take the keys out of the ignition. I

11) An oil change, unless the high priced synthetic is comparatively new.

12) Half a tank of gas with fuel  stabilizer added. Run the engine until the stabilizer has reached the injectors, which may take
about one minute or so. Five minutes is more than enough. Since older classic cars run very well on regular gas, the half tank
of gas allows me to run down the road in the springtime and top up with high test until that whole tank of fuel is gone, then I can go
back to using regular fuel. If your car uses high test anyway, it's not a good idea to have too much fuel in the tank.

13) Inflate the tires to a safe but higher than normal pressure. In my case, I usually go up to 38 psi. Do not put the car on blocks,
which exposes the shock absorber pistons to moisture and is just not worth the trouble.

And that's it. Do NOT be tempted to start the engine frequently for a few minutes. This is a really bad practice.

In the springtime, I pull the fuse for the fuel pump and crank the engine over until some slight amount of oil pressure starts to show
on the gauge. Since I use 5w40 synthetic AGIP, this does not take long. I then put the fuse back and hey, presto the engine fires well.

I haven't had any problems with this method of storage in the ten years I've been doing it.

But there is a new wrinkle around that makes some of the advice I just gave you could be a very bad idea.
 
At the moment I'm testing a Schumacher Electric Model Se-1-12S trickle charger. Specially designed for cold weather storage,
it provides 1.5 amps of charge, has reverse hook-up protection, and automatically powers on when the battery starts to run down.
Currently, I'm testing it on my garden tractor battery and it works well. For $20 it's a bargain.
It will be transferred to the Porsche shortly.

This is definitely the answer to leaving electronically infested cars stored for long periods of time.

In the case of late model cars such as BMWs with I-drive or Mercedes with the Comand system, or any car with a lot of electronic
controls such as stability systems, never, ever disconnect the battery, or allow it to run flat. If you do, the car will need a full day of
reprogramming at the dealership and it will have to be towed there!!

Equally, if you have a radio that  is theft protected and goes into "fault" mode if the power is disconnected, make SURE that you
have the restart code for your particular unit.

If your storage area has no mains power, then you have no choice but to start the car every  two weeks or so and
let it run for about twenty minutes.

Remember, snow is not harmful to your car, but salt is, so stay in your driveway or somewhere else where salt slush is not in
evidence when running the car to charge the battery.



By popular demand and for the next few weeks, we're going to be concentrating on winter preparation
for you and your car.

As Toyota undertakes its largest recall ever starting with having 3.8 million owners remove the driver's side floor
mats to keep them from jamming accelerators wide open, let me tell you that although Toyota is taking the blame
for floor mats, every year we see the most horrendous arrangements of water absorbing materials on the floors
of cars.

Everything from a half inch of newspaper to mats that "can absorb up to 5 gallons of water".
Not to put too fine a point on it, hopefully that can absorb up to 5 gallons of blood when they cause you to crash.
OEM floor mats now have one or two hooks that prevents them from sliding forward. From what I can see, Toyota made the
mistake of using only one hook that allows the mat to skew sideways. Our new Mazda3 has two hooks and we are
going to buy winter mats from the dealer that have matching attachments.
A government report from last year indicates many owners will likely have a terrible time trying to stop their cars
in the event of a stuck gas pedal, fire or other emergency.

The report said Lexus ES 350 owners would need 150 pounds of force, five times the normal foot pressure, to halt
their speeding car. They likely would have trouble finding the neutral gear in an emergency.
And the three seconds needed to turn off the engine by continuously pushing the keyless power stop-start button,
found on many Toyota models, "is not widely known by owners." The three-second requirement is not even mentioned
in the owner's manual. Yet one out of 10 of Lexus ES 350 owners surveyed said that they had experienced an
instance of the accelerator becoming stuck open by floor mats creeping underneath!

If your ride fails for any reason during the summer months it’s really not too traumatic.

Apart from the inconvenience and possible expense, that is.

If you happen to be reasonably close to home, then calling a taxi and a tow truck is no big deal.

But breaking down when it's minus fourty degrees outside, now that's a different story, especially
since the chance of either a taxi or a tow truck being available quickly is very much more problematic.

Since faulty hoses, belts, water pumps, spark plug wires, and distributor caps can leave you stranded in the winter,
it's better to have them all checked right now.

It's better than spending far more money after you've been freezing to death in your stalled car for three hours.

Your garage should check the battery, charging system, and belts. Your battery can leave you stranded simply because it's
old and tired. Or it could leave you stranded because your charging system isn't working well, and the battery isn't getting
charged properly.

If you find that you need a new battery, get the biggest, highest powered battery that will fit in your car.
Remember the battery that started your car easily in the summer may not have enough strength to do it in winter.
In winter, the engine is harder to start, because engine oil, even synthetic engine oil, doesn’t flow so easily.
And secondly, batteries lose power as the temperature drops.
So not only do you need more power to start the engine in winter, you actually get less power from the same battery.

Make certain the antifreeze will protect your car at the winter temperatures you'll experience.
You'll need a 50-50 mix of coolant to water. Don’t be tempted to use 100% anti freeze.
The 50-50 mix has a lower freezing point and a higher boiling point than the full strength stuff.

You can check the freeze rating of your cars’ coolant yourself with a little device that you can buy in any auto parts store for
a few dollars. Having good coolant in your engine is very important because if the coolant freezes it will expand and crack
the engine block. And that means goodbye to next years’ vacation.

The other main function of antifreeze is to keep your cooling system from rusting. The rust inhibitors in antifreeze break down
over time and need to be renewed. So change your engine's coolant every 3 years or 40,000 miles. Make sure the flushing is
done with a recycling machine so that every nook and cranny of your engine and the heater core have been cleaned out.

If you're driving a General Motors car that uses their Dexcool coolant, pay extra attention to flushing your cooling system on a
regular basis. Some formulations of Dexcool will form sludge after mixing with chlorine, clogging passages and generally
wreaking havoc on engines. Plus, if you have a low coolant level you’ll have no heat!

While many people think of overheating as a summer problem, cars can overheat in winter, too, if they run out of coolant.

And overheating can cause expensive engine damage whenever it happens. If you should be unfortunate enough to see
large clouds of "steam" blowing out from under your hood, stop right there. Pull off as soon as possible and don't be tempted
to drive to the next exit. The cost of trying to drive after an engine overheats in winter can easily exceed $4000.

25th September 2009
 This trunk shows what can happen if animals find their way into a vehicle.  

“I hates those mieces to pieces” is how one cartoon cat used to put it, and most old-car hobbyists will agree.
Mice – and other varmints – don’t just stink up Stanleys and Studebakers.
They can ruin carpets, chew through electrical wires (sometimes causing a fire), nest in heaters and create
a downright unhealthy environment inside your vintage vehicle.

Keeping furry little creatures out of cars is high on the priority list of collectors. Solutions to the problem
have ranged from Rube Goldberg-like contraptions to sonic waves to zipper bags that you drive your car into.

The Funniest Mouse Trap Award goes to the man who took a metal pail, removed the handle and stuck a
long “axle” through the holes. Then he rigged a spoon to act like a pendulum that rotated on the axle.
A gob of peanut butter balanced the spoon, and a piece of wood made a gangplank the mouse could walk
on to almost reach the peanut butter. The pail was filled with antifreeze. When the mouse jumped on the
spoon to eat the Skippy Smooth, he made the pendulum swing and it tossed the rodent into the liquid.
The inventor swore this setup worked.

The best way to keep a mouse out of a car is to keep him out of the building in which the car is housed.
Make sure the building has a “rat guard” barrier that goes around the bottom of the structure and into the ground,
preventing pests from burrowing in. If there are gaps on the bottom of the walls, fill them with steel wool.
Keep doors and windows sealed as tightly as possible.
Use metal collars or rubber gaskets to seal openings for electrical wires, fuel lines and pipes.

Keep food out of your building and cars. If there’s nothing for mice to eat, they won’t stick around.
Don’t leave scraps or crumbs inside the vehicle. Vacuum the carpets, seats, under-seat area, console
and glove box. Use probe tools to get at the petrified French fries on the side of the seat.
Shampoo the carpets so they are squeaky clean and smell fresh.

Traps and poisons are a line of defense against unwanted furry visitors. They come in a variety of models
and prices. They work, but remember that traps are designed to attract mice and then kill them.
Keeping the mice away in the first place works best.

Cats kill mice, but cats also like to roost on cars and may leave claw marks in paint. Heavier cats can
ruin convertible tops. Cats also require food that can actually attract mice, so keep them out of your
garage/storage building.

In most cases, mice and vermin enter a car by scampering up the tires. If the vehicle is stored without tires,
it is a bit harder for them to get inside. Tireless storage will also keep your tires from “flat spotting.”
Rodents can nest several places in a vehicle: the engine compartment, the interior and the trunk.
They’re drawn to the warmth of an engine or heater motor. They will eat electrical wires and even
spark plug wires. Recently a collector stumbled upon a simple way to keep an engine bay mouse-free
– leave the hood up. After he inadvertently left his hood up, his mouse problem was solved.
Vermin can also get into cars through holes around cables, pedal shafts, steering columns and so on.
If you can seal all these openings, mice can’t enter. Leave the sun visors in the down position.
If you want to keep the windows slightly open for better airflow, cover the opening with screening.
Usually, these creatures can’t get into a trunk if you seal interior openings; they usually enter the trunk
from the rear seat. Some cars have drain holes in the spare tire well. These holes should be taped.

Some people put mothballs on the floor around the car. The line of mothballs should have no gaps at any point.
Other collectors place mothballs or scented soap in a cake pan inside the car to keep mice away.
Mice don’t like the mothball smell, but neither will your friends. If you go the mothball route, eliminate
the smell by putting a Yankee Candle under the seat on a hot day.

Zipper bags seal the whole car. There are two types. The first is a big plastic sack with a zipper.
A second type is a plastic bubble supported by a curtain of air. The air pump draws little current
and promotes better airflow. Both bags work well if you use them properly. The trouble is the hassle.
You must be very careful not to trap moisture in the bag.
While the air-curtain type won’t trap moisture, it does require electricity.

One final step in fighting rodent infestation is to make spot checks every couple of weeks.
If you see droppings or notice that unpleasant mouse smell, the steps you have taken so far aren’t working.
In this case, the first thing to do is to get rid of the mice. Then you’ll need to protect the vehicle from being
re-infested. If you inspect the car on a regular basis, you should be able to remedy the problem
before damage is done.
4-September-2009



I know most of you have seen this little sign, or something similar at some time during the last twenty years.
In fact, many of you drive around with it happily shining at you.

Sometimes it can be very bad news and sometimes it can be almost nothing at all.

One of the most common codes is "evaporative system malfunction" which interpreted from geekees,
means "tighten up your gas cap."

But since this extra bit of California bureaucracy was imposed on the rest of North America, the implications
of "evaporative system malfunction" have become much more complicated than just a new gas cap.

For instance, some computers know when you are filling your fuel tank and close a valve to test the vapour
tightness of the tank. There are several solenoids associated with this system and many of them are
outside the tank and exposed to the elements.

In consequence, getting this fault code to cancel is becoming much more expensive as cars age.

One thing we have warned about before, is not to force fill your gas tank as gas prices rise. This can lead to
some pretty expensive problems related to the canister that is supposed to collect gas vapours, liquefy them
and return them to the engine for combustion. If you flood this canister by force filling, it can be expensive.

So as time goes on, don't be surprised if the cost of extinguishing this light when "evaporative system malfunction"
is indicated becomes much greater.

The dealer answer, as ever, is replace every thing that functions.

We adopt an approach of cancel it and wait for it to come back. Eventually, the light refuses to go out,
even for five minutes and at that time, we can zero on in the component that has been causing an intermittent,
but persistent, code.

This requires patience and may involve more then one visit to the garage.
But we don't charge more scanning fees on subsequent visits for a car displaying the same fault code.

One thing is for sure, the gas cap itself is more complicated in its purpose than just a "barrel stopper" so if you
have to, replace it with a one from the parts department at your friendly ? dealership.

31-July-2009



It's a rainy, hot  humid day. You're cool and comfortable inside your car as you pull into the gas station.
It's so awful outside, you pay extra for Full Serve gasoline--but the attendant neglects to clean
your windshield before scurrying off to the next car. And you don't really notice until you head back into the sun,
at which point every particle of dust and smeared bug carcass seems calculated to scatter sunlight.
The road disappears, and you frantically hit the washer stalk and wiper switch to improve your vision.

But either nothing happens, or the results are far from clear vision, bordering on pathetic. 

A few drops of water dribble onto the windshield, and the wipers smear it into a paste, chattering back and forth
across the screen through which you can see even less than before.

Time for a visibility tune up.

ELECTRICAL
When you pull on the wand to spray the windshield, do you get a lot of nothing? You probably have electrical issues.

Start by checking the fuse. The owner's manual will tell you where the fuse box is and which fuse controls the washers.
Fuse good? Get a voltmeter or a 12-volt test light and back-probe the connector that carries current to the pump.
If there's voltage at the connector, there might be a poor connection to the pump's side of the connector.
And considering the high-humidity environment, it's no wonder that a common cause of problems is a rich coating of
green fur on the connector. Clean things up with hot water, and reassemble with a coating of dielectric grease to
prevent any invasion of moisture. If there's good voltage at the connector, and a good connection, then the pump
should run. If not, the pump motor is bad, and will need to be replaced.

RUNNING DRY
Does one of your washer jets not work, or just piss onto the hood while the others send out a strong, fine stream?
It could be clogged. Try sticking a fine needle into the nozzle to dislodge the foreign object.
If you don't get it out, the obstruction may well lodge into the nozzle again in a short time.
Remove the hose from the back of the nozzle, and flush backward with a a compressed air line to blow it out of the fitting.
Examine the reservoir to see if the offending piece of debris has any friends.
They'll need to be flushed from the reservoir to prevent a recurrence.

ONE-WAY
Many washer systems use a check valve to prevent fluid from draining back into the reservoir.
If the check valve is clogged, you may or may not be able to clean it because you can't back flush it.
By design, there's no flow backward. Fortunately, replacement valves are cheap.

There's an even more important reason for the check valve. In cold weather, fluid draining back into the reservoir might
allow a few drops of rain or melted snow up into the washer nozzle. That water isn't alcohol laced washer fluid with a
freezing point well below zero it's plain old water that will freeze at normal temperatures and plug the nozzle until there's
a thaw outside or you park your car inside a heated garage long enough to thaw it. If your washers are inoperative only
at low temps, check these valves. In extremely low temperatures, however, even regular washer fluid will freeze.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
Rubber windshield wiper blades sit on a hot surface in UV-rich sunlight for most of their lives, and that's tough on the rubber.
The useful life span of a wiper blade is only two or three years. Minor streaking can sometimes be reduced by wiping the
edge of the blade with rubbing alcohol. But every other year or so you'll need to replace the blade itself. If you hunt, you can
still find inexpensive replacement rubber inserts, but most of them are more trouble than they're worth

But by the time you need them, the articulated arm itself is probably in bad shape, too. If it's sticking, the blade won't
conform to the shape of the glass, leaving you with streaks or unwiped areas. Spring for a complete wiper blade.
Most are replaced with no more trouble than depressing a catch--or perhaps removing a pin--and pulling them off the
wiper arm. There will be instructions in the package with the wiper blade.
Although it seems that some people can't figure out the many different types of attachments and we do quite a
lot of courtesy fitments for regular customers. (The easiest system is shown in the illustration, some others are
much more complicated)

CHATTERBOX
Does one of your wipers chatter like an agitated monkey as the blade traverses your windshield in one direction or the other?
If the wiper motor arm is twisted so the blade doesn't sit perpendicular to the glass, the blade is far more likely to chatter.
Look along the length of the blade to check. If the motor arm has been twisted, possibly after being savaged by a car wash
brush, just twist it back with a pair of adjustable wrenches tightened on the arm. Remove the wiper blade to make room
for the wrenches, and use a rag to keep from scratching the windshield. Some tape on the arm will protect the paint.

DRIP, DRIP, DRIP
So much for the wipers. The parts unseen the washer components-- can cause just as much mischief.

Does your washer go through a whole gallon of blue fluid in only a few minutes of drizzly day running?
The real kicker: Is there blue stuff on the driveway nowhere near the windshield?
You've got a leak, caused by a hose that's been pinched or perhaps is just disintegrating after a long and arduous
life in the furnace of a car's under hood environment. Get a helper to toggle the pump while you trace the hoses from
the nozzle to the tank. You might use tap water instead of washer fluid for this test: 

Just run your fingers along the line, looking for the leak. Replace the damaged hose (it's probably time to replace it all if
it's deteriorated enough to leak). Also check for cracked plastic fittings, which befall a similar fate under hood, getting
brittle and prone to splitting.

If the flow is poor and there's no leak, you may have a clogged pump which can happen if something other than water
or washer fluid is added to the reservoir. That "something" is usually leaves or dirt from a bucket that wasn't cleaned
or junk that sneaks in because a reservoir top is missing. Check by pulling the hose off right at the pump output.
Operate the washer, and look for flow. If it's good, the pump is fine and the hose may simply be pinched.
You may need to just reroute the hose.

BIGGEST PROBLEM.
If you constantly lose all your fluid almost as soon as you fill up, then the usual suspect is the reservoir itself.
We see many of them crack open, apparently from old age. Unfortunately many of them are buried in the fender,
but access is not too difficult by removing the inner fender. This problem and pump replacements are by far the
most costly of the windshield washer problems we encounter.

24-July-2009


 By the time you get back home, the noise has become so shrill it makes the dog hide under the porch and bark.
The brakes seem to work just fine, but any application of pedal immediately makes the noise louder.
Owww, it’s hurting your ears.
Time to check the brakes.
Let’s make one thing clear right up front: Sometimes your brakes will make noise. If you expect supreme silence,
or expect your mechanic to make your brakes totally mute in every circumstance—that just may not be possible.

Relax, don’t worry.
A squeaking brake can stop a vehicle as quickly as a quiet one.

So what makes the squeal, then? Modern brakes use a cast-iron disc squeezed between two brake pads lined with
friction material. Under the right conditions, the disc, the pads and the caliper they’re mounted in can start to vibrate
—in exactly the same way a violin’s string vibrates when stroked by the horsehairs on the bow. The violin’s pitch is
controlled by the position of the violinist’s finger on the string, not by how hard or fast the bow is stroked.

Similarly, most brake squeals occur at a single discrete frequency. The speed of the vehicle and how hard you press
down on the left pedal will only change the volume of noise, because the pitch is controlled by the stiffness and mass
of the pad and disc.

Inadequate development at the manufacturer that leaves brake systems prone to noise can usually be overcome
without totally re-engineering the caliper/mount/pad/disc system. We can try to damp out the noise, or simply change
the resonant frequency of the whole arrangement until it stops singing in any audible frequency.

Many brake pad compositions will make a swishing or grinding noise for the first few stops in the morning until the
pads warm up and drive off any moisture they’ve accumulated overnight. Ever notice a hissing or grinding noise
on some rainy or dewy mornings? It’s the pads sweeping a thin film of rust that’s formed on the iron discs,
and it’s perfectly normal.

In the past, brake pad friction material relied heavily on asbestos. Unfortunately, asbestos tended to give asbestos
workers and brake mechanics lung cancer, so the industry has almost completely changed over to less dangerous
alternatives.

Kevlar is one material that’s seen a lot of use, but it tends to be dusty. Improved brake performance is more important
nowadays because of increased safety requirements and equipment—and the extra road-hugging weight that comes
along with these. That leads to the increased use of metallics and ceramics in the brake pad friction material.
And this stuff can make the brakes hiss or even grind a little as you slow down. It’s a small price to pay for increased
performance.

So all pad noise is fine, right?

Hold up there, there’s one brake noise you need to pay attention to right away.
Many brake pads have a small finger of spring steel that will scrape on the disc as the pad reaches its
wear limit. This tells you that it’s time to change pads for fresh, thicker ones before the friction material wears completely
away, and you’re trying to slow down on the metal backing plates. It’s a sound not easily confused with brake squeal
—it’s more of a ripping-sheet-metal noise, not a single, high-pitched note.

Okay, let’s dig in and silence our brake noise. One fix is to simply change pads to a different type of friction material.
It’s usually hard to beat the original-equipment pads for a good compromise of pad life, noise, grip, dust creation and price,
but changing to an aftermarket premium metallic or ceramic pad just might change the interaction that affects the resonant
frequency of the pad and disc and, literally, change its tune.

Go into any auto parts store and you’ll see a shelf full of potions and widgets claiming to cure squeaks.

One class of products I’m leery of is simple aerosols that you spray onto the pad’s friction material. I have no idea if they
actually make the squeak go away, because I’m unwilling to try anything that changes the friction characteristics of the pad.
Let’s not forget, the first reason your brake system exists is, in fact, to make your car slow down.
Anything that could reduce that system’s effectiveness in any way is probably not a good idea.

Still got noise? Or still have plenty of pad material remaining and don’t want to drop fifty or a hundred bucks on a fresh set?
You may be able to decouple the piston acoustically from the pad by purchasing shims made of Teflon, which are intended
to go between the pad and the caliper’s hydraulic piston. We've tried those shims with middling success—sometimes they
work and sometimes they don’t. Warning: Some calipers will not have enough extra travel in the piston bore to allow any
shimming without making the brakes drag, at least with fresh, unworn pads.

You can achieve a similar decoupling without Teflon shims by simply coating the back face of the pad’s backing plates
with high-temp brake grease or even antiseize compound. Unlike shims, this tweak won’t last forever, as water and road
dirt will wash it away eventually.

With high-end ceramic-based pads, the new pads came out of the box fitted with Teflon-coated shims already installed.

Whenever you’re installing any brake parts, be sure you remove any corrosion or road dirt from the mating parts—the
brake pad or caliper housing needs to be able to slide in and out to compensate for wear. Clean up any sliding parts,
which may require a wire brush or a file, until you can push the pads in and out with your bare hands. We prefer to replace
any brake hardware (especially on drum brakes) that isn’t in perfect condition—hey, it’s cheap insurance. We apply a thin film
of high-temp brake grease to any sliding surfaces. Obviously, we avoid getting anything like grease or antiseize on the pad or
disc, and we clean any greasy handprints off the disc surface as well.

17-July-2009


I drive about fifty different cars every week, this being final approval after servicing is finished.

The phenomenon of cracked windshields is becoming ever more present. I look back over my long career in the
car business and I cannot remember cracked or impacted windshields ever being such a problem twenty or thirty years ago.
Even rally cars, driven ay high speed on gravel roads, very often closely following a competitor, never seemed to suffer
so much from damaged glass.

One explanation I have heard from the man who comes to replace windshields on our loaner cars is that auto glass is much
thinner than it used to be, to save weight.

(Incidentally, this man will also come to your driveway to change a windshield and is way cheaper than the proprietary shops).

Of course, back in the old days, cars were not very aerodynamic and stones would tend to bounce over the top of the car,
rather than slide along the profile, encountering the windshield on their way, as they do today.

Most big trucks used to have a little screen along the front edge of the hood, mostly to send bugs over the top, but it's obvious,
the same principle applies.

So, with lightweight, slim glass and as the car gets older, rust forms under the rubber seal around the edge of the glass and
since rust (ferrous oxide) needs ten times more space to expand, it distorts the windshield which reacts by starting a stress
relieving crack that can run in any direction. As you may have noticed, it does the same thing to concrete, pushing the concrete
off in large chunks, helped on by a generous helping of road salt.

Some people have even received a police ticket, because the crack ran right in front of the drivers' eyes.

What can be done to prevent premature cracking of windshields? Not much.

When a star shaped impact spot appears, a preventive repair can be done, but the moment that star turns into a
running crack, it's game over.

This problem is so prevalent now that you will find that your insurance policy either restricts or completely eliminates
any compensation for glass replacement, unless it is caused by a larger accident, such as when an air bag goes off.

There is also the problem of older windshields where the constant bombardment of tiny foreign objects, a large proportion
of which come from brake pad and rotor wear and collect at the side of the road, waiting to be thrown up by the car in front of
you, can cause the glass to be sprinkled with tiny stars of light, enough to dazzle you as you drive into the setting sun.

There's not much that can be done about these either, although a good buffing with a mild kitchen abrasive such as Vim will
help to eliminate some of the more obvious twinkles.

So for the sake of safety and pollution control we now have a vulnerable windshield situation.

The average car today carries 800 pounds of safety and emissions devices that it hadn't used to have.
Consequently weight saving has to be made elsewhere to try and compensate.

It's enough to drive you crackers, ain't it?.




19-June 2009.


Looks pretty simple doesn't it?
Looks can be deceiving.

A reader writes to me this week to tell a tale about a MINI with a Constant Velocity Transmission:

"Did you see the news item on CTV National News re the lady in Toronto with a warranty expired Mini?
Apparently her automatic transmission failed and BMW told her they do not import parts to fix transmissions.
They replace the whole Unit .
Cost is $10,000 and they are firm.
She has parked it on their lot until a more reasonable arrangement can be found.
Amazed they let her put it on national television".

So, as predicted here a couple of years ago, the downside of CVTs (apart from the dreadful driving experience), 
is the downstream costs and you should be aware dear reader, because CVTs require much careful thought before
purchase! Certainly, CVTs become another item that I would not go near in buying a second hand vehicle, right alongside
turbo engines. Except, of-course for diesels where you have no choice.

First, CVTs absolutely cannot be used to tow ANYTHING. I see Nissan Muranos, which come with CVTs as standard,
like most Nissans these days equipped with huge square trailer hitches and I think
"There goes an owner that's about to be caught in the warranty trap".
 Irony of ironies, Nissan dealers will sell you a trailer hitch for a Murano if you ask.
It remains to be seen if they then use abusive towing as an excuse to void the warranty when the tranny fails!
Or if the vehicle is traded in, the second owner is going to rue the day he bought a CVT.
Which means no second hand hybrids, because they are not only equipped with this expensive transmission,
but also with an equally expensive set of batteries.

Repeat after me:
When buying a new hybrid or any other new  vehicle equipped with a CVT, make SURE you are always fully covered
by a comprehensive manufacturers warranty, no matter what that costs.

The internet is starting to fill up with complaints from CVT owners who now find that a "new" transmission is going to cost
US$6000 or more.

Not BMW MINI pricing, exactly, but bad enough.

The MINI that has a CVT has it as an option!

First, who on earth would buy a neatly agile little go-kart like the MINI and then weight it down with a CVT?
And secondly, the towing restriction is even worse. MINI says 1000 pounds and but I doubt that there is much out
there of the follow - along - kind that weighs that little.

MINI, of-course has neatly built in a get-out clause to void their warranty.

"Sir, this transmission has seriously abused, looks like you've been pulling a 40 foot sail boat with it"

You'll notice that the Saturn Vue came with a CVT - for about six months and then GM discontinued it.
I don't know the inside story, but some transmission engineers at head office found something they really
didn't like about CVTs and the alarm bells went off.

My transmission supplier was at a seminar in the USA recently and was told that CVTs CANNOT be repaired,
they have to be replaced with a new unit. 

On a related topic. the new six and seven speed automatic transmissions being installed in a lot of high priced
cars are going to cost as much as $12000 to repair (not replace), REPAIR.

Maybe Bill Gates and The Donald don't care much, ( the Donald probably pays more than that for a new hairpiece),
but you should care.

A decision to buy some of this "green" technology can cost you lots and lots of pesos!

12th-June-2009

 
Yep, if I dig deep enough, I can just about afford a used one of those.

Depressed used car prices can tempt you into buying something that is just a whole heap
of trouble looking for somewhere to happen.

For instance, I know a guy who was happy to be on the cutting edge of hybrid technology when he bought
a Toyota Prius a few years ago.

He's less happy to be on the cutting edge of hybrid-technology repairs. He just paid a bundle to replace the cars transaxle,
part of the vehicle's new-wave continuously variable transmission, which failed just after the warranty expired.

"The dealer initially told me it would be $3,000 just for the labour, and $5,000 for the part.
That's almost 40% of the original base price of the car!"

He says "I pushed back and they waived the cost of the part, maybe because they had recently and regretfully
bought a second Prius from them. … But the labour charge remained. Ouch."

Much of today's coolest car technology is expensive up front and even more expensive to fix. Even the most mundane repair
or replacement can cost a small fortune. You easily could shell out $1,000 to replace a key or a side mirror, $2,000 to fix a
headlight and thousands more to mend more intricate systems such as adaptive cruise control or a rear-view camera.

Just take a look at this price list to replace some of the gee-whiz parts on certain luxury autos:

2005 Mercedes C Class

     Adaptive cruise-control system, which maintains a set distance from the car in front: $3,742
   Xenon headlight with washer: $1,659
     Parking sensor $345

2005 Lexus RX330

     Adaptive headlight with washer: $1,627 per light
     Backup camera: $4,217
    Adaptive cruise control: $1,318

2005 BMW 5 Series

    Adaptive headlight with washer: $2,035
    Parking sensor: $372
     Adaptive cruise sensor: $2,222

2004 Cadillac Escalade
    Ultrasonic rear-parking assist: $934
   Xenon headlight: $765
     Heated side mirror with turn indicator: $997

Remember, this is just cost of the parts. Labor's extra. And the list doesn't touch some of the most popular technology,
like global-positioning systems, headset-mounted DVD players and built-in, hands-free calling systems.


Technology has even transformed one of the most deeply ingrained habits: losing keys.  $103,000 Mercedes-Benz  now
recognizes the key fob you carry in your pocket.
Should you lose it, a replacement would cost about $1,000.

Then there are hybrid technologies. The transmission, batteries and braking systems are costly to replace, and the number
of mechanics qualified to work on hybrids is limited. The potential costs aren't lost on consumers:
a recent poll found that 44% of those surveyed were "extremely concerned" hybrids would be expensive to fix.

Of course, auto repairs in general have become more expensive as manufacturers computerize more systems, incorporate
expensive lightweight materials and experiment with new designs. The cost of the average repair has risen more than 60%
since 1992, outpacing inflation. The average repair bill for the first half of 2005 was $3,912.

But the high cost of replacing electronics and other cutting-edge technology is what often sideswipes drivers.
Big bills from relatively small components also increase the likelihood that an insurer will declare a car totaled after a collision
because the damage is too expensive to fix.

And speaking of insurance, expect to pay more for that, too.

Insurance rates will also be affected by the fact that certain items -- think xenon headlights and airbags
 -- are the favorite targets
of thieves.

Does that mean you should opt for an old beater without any of today's safety or convenience features?
Not at all. But go in with your eyes open:

Scan the reviews, recalls and technical service bulletins. Some research up front can help you steer clear of the
most problematic cars and technologies.
The number and type of recalls and technical-service bulletins (TSBs), which are a kind of early warning
system for auto technicians, can be particularly informative.

You can pull up two cars and compare them and you might see one has no recalls and no technical-service
bulletins, while the other has three recalls and 15 TSBs, you'll find that problems surface in the first 60,000 kliks
Cars are either really solid early on, or the ones with problems become obvious.

Consider extended warranties. On many consumer products, extended warranties are a rip-off designed to pad sellers' profit.
On vehicles loaded with new technology, though, they might be a worthwhile investment if you plan to own the car for longer than
the standard warranty or if you're buying it used. Look for the manufacturers warranties rather than those offered by third parties,
which have a bad habit of disappearing. You typically can buy an extended warranty any time before the standard warranty expires,
so take some time to shop around for a good price.

It's a bad idea to buy a car bristling with new technology unless you've got some money to burn.
More modestly priced cars will almost certainly be cheaper to maintain, repair and insure. Besides, yesterday's luxury technology
often winds up as tomorrows standard equipment, so if you wait long enough you may be able to get the space-age goodies on a
mid-priced car. Multiple airbags, CD/MP3 players and heated seats were specialty items a decade ago but now are commonplace
on even some of the cheapest cars.

5th-June-2009


Me? Screw around with you? No, really?

ON a hot summer trip the minivan did a peculiar thing. After an hour on the road, it began to bake the children.
Mom and Dad were cool and comfortable up front, but heat was blasting into the rear of the van and it could not be turned off.

When three dealership visits, days of waiting and the cumbersome replacement of mechanical parts failed to fix the problem,
the owner took the van out and drove it until the oven fired up again. Then he rushed to the mechanic to look for a software error.

Indeed, the high-tech comfort system was confused. The rear temperature sensor of the van had gone bad and was
sending a signal that the children were freezing at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The loyal van was doggedly trying to warm them up.

The minivan's problem was unusual only in the specific form it took. Owners across the country and around the globe have posted
anguished cries to Internet forums about electronic gremlins that stop windows from rolling all the way up, that unexpectedly dim the
interior lights, that drain batteries or that make engines sputter. While most automakers have had problems, quality rankings for some - particularly technology-intensive German luxury brands renowned for engineering - have plunged.

Not only are the glitches annoying, their root causes can be hard to find. Problems are often fleeting and may not be recorded
by on-board diagnostics systems.

Electronics may be the cause of 70% of all warranty claims.

The complexity is increasing and there's just a lot more electronics.

There is more software, too, and it comes from many sources.

It's one of the biggest quality issues the automotive industry is dealing with, the problem is that most of these applications in the
vehicle are being supplied by a lot of different suppliers.

The auto industry was not yet very good at integrating software, so buyers inherit fumbled systems that can interfere with one another
- just as installing incompatible programs can make a personal computer malfunction. A niche might soon emerge for companies
that integrate various software systems before they go into a vehicle, in the way that companies like Dell sell PC's with the operating
system and important programs already working in harmony.

32 percent of warranty costs could be attributed to dealership service visits at which no problem was found.

I.B.M. predicts that by 2010, almost all cars will have essentially the same mechanical systems.
What will make the cars different will be software that operates the systems in ways specific to the brand of car.
With so much of a vehicle's identity riding on computer code, carmakers must get the software right.

That would be fine with one frustrated consumer, who bought a fully equipped Mercedes-Benz C230 in 2001,
she has suffered through a string of hard-to-diagnose electronics problems.

She recounts episodes of her car shaking uncontrollably and sounding as if it's stalling. In October, on a freeway, it simply shut down.

"I take it down the street and it just shakes, people are looking at me, wondering what I'm doing."

This lady has kept a log of the problems, which sent her to the dealership 14 times in three years.
Despite all that scrutiny, technicians haven't found a digital explanation.

"Probably I'm just not used to driving the car," she says she was told.

She has made friends online with five or six other C230 owners, including one in South Africa, who are trying to
diagnose shared problems.
While she has considered legal action, she says what she really wants is simply for her car to work.

"Everything is a sensor," she said, reading from a list of attempted fixes:
"They replaced the fuel-level sensor three times. Replaced the main fuel filter two times.
Replaced crankshaft position sensor two times."

Among the electronic flaws on her car, the software-based service system that sends out maintenance reminders
went haywire, telling her at 12,000 kliks that the car needed its 16,000 klik service.
There have been no more reminders, though the mileage is now 65,000 Km.

As more electronics and software make their way into all sorts of vehicles, hard-to-diagnose problems have
cropped up repeatedly.
Late last year, Ford warned its dealers that software might disable the continuously variable transmissions in some
30,000 of its new Ford Taurus sedans and Freestyle sport wagons. The mechanical parts are fine, but a computer
control meant to detect dirty transmission fluid was putting some cars into sluggish "limp home" mode.
Ford had to rewrite software to fix the problem, which it says was caught before any vehicles reached customers.

But luxury cars packed with electronic features suffer more because they adopt new technology earlier.
And the gremlins may be especially galling to luxury buyers who expect their cars' pricey "surprise and delight"
features to delight them, not to surprise them in unpleasant ways.

Some complaints turn out to be not failures, but features that are difficult to use. Systems that combine many tasks
into a single controller, like BMW's iDrive system, draw lots of complaints.

BMW says it takes an ordinary driver about a month to become comfortable with iDrive.
To help new owners, the company suggests that they bring their cars back to the dealer after two weeks for an
intensive training session.

Mercedes-Benz had to replace many of its early Comand integrated control systems because of failures, and has
since worked to simplify the controls. The company has eliminated 600 electronic functions in its cars, to improve
quality and make the remaining functions easier to use. 

Complex systems that are hard to learn can frustrate early users, but are ultimately accepted.
Other systems, though, tend to crash, just like computers. When that happens, drivers can be maddened by failures
that force them to stop the car, then restart it; that illuminate the "check engine" light; or that send the car into
limp-home operation.

One common problem comes not from software, but from pollution controls. On cars with second-generation
diagnostics, a sensor often interprets a loose gas cap as a failure of the evaporative emissions system,
tripping the "check engine" light.

Often, problems that seem like electronic failures are actually owner oversights. Read the owners' manual.
When you've got all this complexity, the first thing you have to do is spend half a day with the book.

Electronics problems are the bane of modern luxury cars and owners often don't know if they have the latest
version of the software that runs crucial systems.

April 24th 2009.



The worlds' most asinine question, at least in the car repair business is:

 "What's your hourly rate?"

This question is asked usually by e-mail or on the telephone.
And I understand where it's coming from.

The only place in a dealership that's making any money right now is the service department.
I'm seeing hourly rates approaching $100 an hour and in some cases, $120 an hour.

Warranty repairs at a dealership are regulated by the manufacturer, so the opportunity for profit lies in the
repair of out of warranty vehicles, hopefully as old as possible.

I'm being asked to check cars that have been to a dealership and have had an estimate for repair that is
approaching $2000. When we check such cars, we find that maybe half the work is necessary now and the
other half might become a problem sometime in the future.

You can't quite nail the dealer because the ball joint he recommended be changed IS slightly loose, but is nowhere
near ready for replacement.

So we're into a grey area of "should we or shouldn't we?"

In these estimates, of course, come the labour costs and this can be quite a large number, hence the origin of the
stupid question.

But think about it for a moment.

There is nothing more open to fraud than hours worked.

In the case of a dealership, if a super technician gets something done in half the allowed time, he gets a bonus
and you pay the "standard" charge for that job.

In our case, we punch in and out out and the time taken is what's charged.

But suppose you are told that the hourly rate is $50. It's easy to make that rate $75 dollars by charging an hour and
a half for something that actually only took an hour to complete. So shopping around by telephone or e-mail and only
asking for hourly rate is a fools' errand.

It has the benefit of telling us that this is probably a potential client we don't really want to work for. Because it generally
gets worse after the car is in the shop.

We usually and cynically refer them to the "big red triangle". Once they've gone through the experience of lowest labour
rate and highest possible repair cost, they sometimes get the message.

FYI, our labour rate is currently $79 an hour. Overhead costs include rent, workmen's compensation, unemployment
insurance, natural gas, hydro, credit card fees (which have gone up a lot just lately) and of-course, payroll.
When one factors in these costs, we are on the low end of the profit curve and should probably be charging more.

However, times are hard and we have great sympathy for someone whose car is broken and is needed to find a job.

But asking the stupid question just gets people off on the wrong foot before we even get to meet them.

April 17th 2009


Your car is eight, maybe 10 years old.
Leaving work one day, the humidity hangs in the air as you drop all the windows to let the heat escape.

At the same time, you crank up the air conditioning and wait for the temperature transference to take place.

Only it doesn’t.

Hot air blasts out at you.

If you’re like me, you will knit your brow quizzically and try another setting in case it’s just the “high”
setting that is wonky.

Maybe you’ll tip the little vents another way, in case the cold air is just blocked or something.

When none of this works, you will drive home all sweaty and do the only thing that makes any real sense.

You will get in your car the next day and try it all again. Because it just has to work.

Nobody wants to deal with broken air conditioning. There’s a good reason we don’t want to deal with it.

It’s expensive. * (see below).

It can be time consuming.

And it’s often frustrating.

But if your system is blowing hot air, it’s because you have a leak. Your Freon has escaped, and like a bike tire, there is no
point filling it up without finding and fixing the leak.
And unlike a bike tire, it’s not just air escaping, it’s a gas that is rumoured to  be wrecking our environment.

Your air conditioning system is made up of three main parts: a compressor, a condenser and an evaporator.
They are connected with a system of lines and hoses. The challenge is locating where the leak is,
but it’s not a challenge in a good way.

The only way to find a leak is to pressurize the system with nitrogen, a first step diagnosis that is the only way to find the
problem and begin to fix it. We charge about $30 for this basic test; but wherever you go for analysis, make sure you use
a licensed technician.

Forget waiting a year or three. Moisture will set in to form hydrofluoric acid and lead to severe component corrosion.
Which is why used A/C parts from a scrap yard are not usually a good idea.

In a best case scenario, your technician can tell you where the leak is — sometimes it’s as easy as using a soapy
solution and looking for bubbles. It’s fixed and your system is recharged with R134A, the governmentally regulated
Freon that’s been in use since 1993 to replace the older, less ozone-friendly R12.

If a leak isn’t easily detected (after charging, there is no discernable drop in pressure), he may recharge the system
but put a dye in the Freon. As it leaks out slowly, again, you come back and the dye will let him see where the leak is.

The compressor and condenser are fairly easy to access if a leak is detected.

The evaporator, on the other hand, requires the entire dashboard to be pulled out.
Labour costs money, and seeing the innards of your car on a shop floor can be a little distressing.

But let’s say all goes well and your system is doing a happily ever after on the first go.
It’s probably still a cost of about $500 to $700, on average.
These sealed systems are expensive to repair.

The problem? If a leak was in your compressor, there is nothing to prevent a leak a month later in say, your condenser
or your evaporator. All the parts are the same age. 

Sometimes it’s just easier to put down the window.

Get your initial diagnosis. Then consider carefully.

*Here are some typical prices for the components involved and this does not include the considerable
amount of labour that is required for their replacement.

Compressor - $600
The compressor is the heart of the AC system. It compresses and circulates the refrigerant around the system.
Low pressure refrigerant is drawn into one side of the pump, and expelled as a high pressure vapour.
During this process, the temperature of the vapour rises significantly. The compressor is usually driven by a belt
attached to either the engine directly, or the alternator.
   
Condenser - $250
Once compressed, the refrigerant vapour is at a high temperature, and therefore not too useful for cooling the car.
The condenser changes the vapour into a liquid, a reaction which causes a large drop in temperature.
The condenser is like the radiator on the engine, and is normally located at the front of the engine bay.
   
Evaporator - $400 plus 5 hours of labour.
The evaporator receives the cold refrigerant, and uses it to cool the air in the cabin of the car. It is usually located
in the heater air intake. Some vehicles have more than one evaporator to serve different areas inside the cabin.
   
Expansion Device - $75
The expansion device comes in many forms. It can be a brass internally or externally equalized valve, a block type
valve or an orifice tube (the latter being part of an accumulator type air conditioning system).
Expansion Devices have an inlet and an outlet which separates the high side of the system from the low side.
A small restriction in the valve allows only a small amount of refrigerant to pass through it into the Evaporator.
The amount of refrigerant passing through the valve depends on the Evaporator temperature.
The most common reasons for failure are contamination, moisture and lack of regular servicing.
   
Drier - $100
This is where some AC systems differ. In an expansion valve system, the drier is known as a receiver, and in a
fixed-orifice tube system, it is an accumulator. A receiver removes impurities from the system, absorbs moisture,
and ensures that only liquid refrigerant reaches the expansion valve. In contrast, an accumulator prevents liquid
refrigerant from entering the compressor.





It's tire change over time again and our appointment book is beginning to fill up.

Those of you with the foresight and the necesary spare funds to have a spare set of wheels with tires already
mounted, will be in and out in no time, at minimum cost and with a minimum amount of agro.

Those of you with tires only will have to pay for removing the winter tire, cleaning and grinding rust off the steel rims,
putting in a new valve, mounting the summer tire, moving from the mounting machine to the balancing machine,
applying balance weights as the computer dictates (lead is no longer a cheap commodity!) often on both the outside
and the inside and reinstall on the vehicle.

And then Uncle Phil (yours truly) has to take the car out for a test drive, to make sure all is well and the tires
are balanced properly.
And we do this with EVERY car, no exceptions.

If you are blessed with mag wheels or, more importantly, tire pressure sensors, extra charges will apply because more
care, caution and therefore more time, is needed to complete this operation.

Prices will vary from place to place for this type of work and on paper, we're at the top end of the scale. However, we won't go
looking for extra work, unlike many tire stores and particularly the "big red triangle" . If we DO find something that concerns us,
we will stop work until you've had a chance to see it for yourself.

Many times, low prices for tire mounting are set on the assumption that more work, either imaginary or legitimate, can be found.

In the words of the famous nursery rhyme, "Come in to the parlour said the spider to the fly".  

One thing you should note is that the law does not require oil and tire changers to have any automotive qualifications of any kind.
They do not have to have a union, or parity committee, card. So the big discount stores that offer rudimentary auto service are
usually staffed by teenagers right off the street being paid minimum wage. Slinging hamburgers at Macidee is considered to
more challenging.

When the pressure comes on, as it will in a couple of weeks, don't expect to get your rims ground and cleaned before the tires
are installed at these palces, you MAY get a new valve, your wheel nuts MAY be tightened to manufacturers spec, or maybe not.
Not when an impact wrench adjusted to full speed is used and by the same token, you'll be lucky if you don't get any broken studs,
or distorted rotors.

If you're also lucky, the air won't be introduced into the tire until it has settled on the rim properly and therefore isn't egg shaped.

The worst case of "express" tire mounting that I ever knew of personally, involved a lady who backed out of a well known discount
emporium, only to have all four wheels fall off. Not a wheel nut in sight, anywhere. $2000 later the store settled out of court.

One thing you can say for the huge discount stores is that, since they're not in the car repair business, they won't lie to you about
what your car needs in the way of repairs.

I have to boast that my technicians, well paid as they are, take the time to get it right the first time and no-one is going to persuade
them to cut corners, Their attitude is as different to the average tire changer as chalk is to cheese.

January 23rd 2009

As you are no doubt aware, new car sales are way down and going lower, whilst used car sales
are on the upswing, which happens every time there's a downswing in the economies of the
Western world.

Our business blossoms in the car repairs category and also in the area of used car inspections.

Because I cannot emphasize enough, and as many of my clients now know from sad experiences,
how important it is to look before you leap when buying a car (or a house, for that matter).

When we carry out a used car inspection, one of the questions that is most often asked is,
"Can you tell if the odometer has been turned back?"

In the good old days, when speedometers were driven by a cable and the numerals rolled over
mechanically, it wasn't all that difficult to see if those numerals lined up properly and if there were
minute scratches on the numeral faces, where a tool had been used to manipulate each circle of digits.

Then electronic odometers arrived, driven by a pulse from the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) and a
second mileage recorder was secretly hidden in the black box that controlled the transmission.

OK, we thought, game over, these new systems are tamper-proof. I should be so naive.
You can't keep a good thief down and now, it seems, times have changed once again.

It is one of the oldest dodges in the book. Buy a high mileage car, wind the odometer back and sell
the car for a useful profit.

In the past such shenanigans were carried out in a back street garage and involved removing the entire
dashboard from the car. But new technology has meant that today's crooks don't even need to scrape
their knuckles.

No wrenches are needed and neither is a shop. Instead, roaming rogue technicians armed with a
laptop can visit you at home and rapidly increase your car's value while you wait.

Apparently, the whole operation can be achieved in less than ten seconds and business is good.
In the UK, a recent study by a vehicle information company showed that more than one and a half
million used automobiles - almost one in 10 - shows a "distance discrepancy", suggesting that their
odometers had been turned back.

This practice seems to be spreading through the luxury car sector. The more expensive the car,
the more winding back the mileage increases the value, and high build quality means there are fewer
give-aways that the vehicle has been driven hard. The key factor behind this operation is the move from
analogue to digital odometers. As I have said, the old methods of manual manipulation involved quite a
lot of work in removing the instrument from the dashboard. Manufacturers tried to combat these tricks by
installing on-board computers that recorded the car's details, including the mileage, which could not
easily be altered.

But now, someone who wants to alter the mileage can just plug a laptop into the car's diagnostic computer,
and can change its memory. Thereby removing thousands of miles or kilometres from the odometer in an instant.

Apparently, from what I hear, although I'm not a legal expert, the actual operation is not criminal.
It's only when a car that has had its odometer altered is knowingly offered as a low mileage example and
sold, that it becomes a criminal offence.

Obviously, few people would alter an odometer if they did not intend to sell it. There is only one reason for
odometer interference and that is money. It is estimated that on luxury cars, owners or auctions can make
an extra $100 to $200 for every 1,000 Km that is taken off a car's mileage.

Digital odometers may have rendered many traditional ways of recognizing a suspicious vehicle as useless,
but we do have other ways of detecting possibly erroneous mileages.

Wear and tear is the first one. Unscrupulous sellers replace worn pedal rubbers, so new ones should
make you wonder what happened. A driver's seat that is soiled or worn is more expensive to replace however,
and worn carpets around the accelerator pedal are a big give-away. Shiny steering wheels or gearshifts can
also indicate a high-mileage car. Switches that are losing their painted-on numerals or symbols are pause for
reflection. A vehicle that is no longer wearing its original OEM tires is also a subject of suspicion if there is less
than 40,000 Km on the clock.

Then there is the subject of excessive stone chips, a common problem these days. Maybe the car has
been driven on gravel roads a great deal, but high-mileage cars usually have badly chipped hoods and noses.
Badly scratched door sills can also be an indication of heavy usage. And despite what the professional
"turnbackers" claim about their work being undetectable, if you suspect foul play it could be worth plugging
into the black box to interrogate the cars electronic control unit to see if tampering has taken place.

Whether or not the garage can find evidence, the threat of a check is likely to scare off the seller of a tampered car.

There are also internet services that can check a vehicles history for you, for a fee of course (www.autofacts.ca).

And the eagle eyes of a grey haired auto technician are also very useful.
These fellows are hard to fool.
Although I doubt that any of us can detect the difference between 60,000 and 80,000 kilometres, we almost always can
see that a vehicle has travelled as much as double the apparent mileage.

The worst case we ever came across was a VW Jetta diesel that had 240,000 Km showing on the clock, but the general
condition of the car was very suspicious. In particular, the shifter linkage was extremely loose, a condition that we had never
seen on a VW before, not at this mileage anyway. We told the owner, who had already bought the car without an inspection
(a big and surprisingly common blunder), to do some investigation. He went to talk to the police, who opened a file and
discovered that the car had been used as a taxi and had actually been driven more than 750,000 Km.

A gross example for sure and I know that most large and reputable dealers just don't do that sort of thing, but when a car is
traded in and a legal affidavit is signed by the owner, testifying that the car mileage is genuine, the dealer has little choice
but to accept it.

Buyer beware. I don't care where you have your prospective purchase inspected, but get it done.
The CAA has a well developed system and you also have the legal right to know who the previous owner was, although this
may turn out to be a leasing company, in which case you cannot pursue that avenue of inquiry any further - and with excess
mileage costing ten cents per klik, there's even more incentive for odometer interference.

Most low mileage cars at dealerships are exactly as represented, particularly if there is some manufacturer's warranty left.
A friendly dealer can also punch the VIN number into his computer and see when the last service was carried out and at what
mileage, this information is usually available at all dealerships representing the same manufacturer.

This is particularly useful if there is warranty left on the car and you want to register as the new owner and get the balance
of warranty transferred.

The problem arises mostly at what used to be known in my early days as "bomb site" dealers, private sales, or auctions.

December 26th 2008


On Christmas Eve, my wife and I went downtown to a restaurant and left our car in the hands of a parking attendant
on an outside lot.

Driving home later on, the car was almost impossible to drive over 80 Km/h because of steering wheel vibrations that
were rattling (what's left of) the muscles in my upper arms. Sure enough, when we got home, I checked the wheels with
a flashlight and found packed snow on the inside of the the rims.

The parking guy had obviously crammed the lot and used the snow banks where necessary.
And all this was included for the exorbitant sum of $15.

Fortunately, the ambient temperature rose to a rainy +5C the following day and the whole problem disappeared.

Then I remembered this blog, which I wrote at this time last year and is now worth repeating:

"With the early and voluminous snow fall we received - somewhat reminiscent of last year, some special winter problems
have come to light.

The first has to do with deep snow banks and parking therein.

It usually seems to take about three days for the city to clear away the ploughed snow banks and until they do, charging in
and out of them with your steed to park seems to be the only thing to do. With four wheel drive, or front wheel drive, vehicles
mostly fitted out with high tech snow tires, getting stuck is almost a thing of the past, but the snow that is packed up inside
the wheels by these manoeuvres can cause its' own set of problems.

So this year, more than ever, we're getting calls from our clients that go something like this:
"You mounted my snow tires for me about a month ago now I have major steering vibration at highway speed".

We use a Snap On wheel balancer and we road test every vehicle after we've done any repair work. In fifteen years of road
testing I have never once had to bring a car back into the shop to rebalance wheels - the machine is always dead accurate
and so are our technicians for that matter. So this vibration problem is almost always packed snow up inside the rims,
usually in the back where it cannot be seen.

When we balance tires and wheels, a two and a half ounce weight is the maximum we ever use, usually on less expensive tires.
Packed snow can weigh as much as eight ounces and can create really bad vibrations.

The solution? Spend some extra money and park in a warm underground garage somewhere. Alternatively, we can put the car
on a lift and blow the snow out with compressed air, but parking is much cheaper and an occasional defrosting is really good
for the whole car.

Another call we get is rubbing noises on turning and this is usually snow build up in the wheel wells.

Another reason for defrosting.

On the Canadian Winter Rally once, all competitors including us, got into trouble, because there had been a thaw during the day
and there were pools of water everywhere. But at night, the cars' surfaces were well below freezing and every time the cars went
through a puddle of ice water, the water would freeze in the wheel wells. Half way through the night, everyone was holed up in a
service station bay somewhere trying to thaw solid ice out from under the fenders, because the steering wheel simply wouldn't
turn any more. One unfortunate competitor, in real hurry, started chopping through the ice with an axe. In the process, he chopped
right trough his brake lines. Needless to say he was DNF right there and then.

At the time of the famous Montreal ice storm, we repaired a lot of windshield wiper linkages. Since then, there have been some
repairs done on client car wipers, but nothing unusually frequent.

This year as with last year,  we are seeing a lot of wiper problems.
The wiper motor can be heard turning but either one or both wiper arms fail to move.

The internal linkage has failed and it is quite a job to get in and replace it, not to mention that a linkage, which comes
complete can cost $200 or more. This usually happens because the engine has been turned off with wipers running and the
blades have frozen to the windshield. You forget to check that they are free when you return to your car and you turn on the ignition,
the wiper motor automatically starts up and either tears the rubber off the blades, or the mechanism breaks internally.

Some cars have massive tubular linkages and some have a piece of bent tin. The bent tin ones buckle and the massive tubular
ones last much longer but inevitably have miniature tie rods, or ball connections, at each end and it is these that fail and drop
down inside the cavity in front of the windshield.

This year is going to be another one where a few extra precautions have to be taken to ensure that our
driving is continuous and as trouble free as possible.. "
 

December 5th 2008



Years ago, I used to ski every weekend at a fairly remote ski hill in Vermont, known as Jay Peak.

To get in a full weekend of skiing entailed driving down on Friday night after dark and back on Sunday night
after a full day of skiing. The return journey could be a bit challenging since a long drive in a warm car after a full
day out in the cold could bring on the possibility of falling asleep.

Many of the country roads we had to travel along had deep ditches and every one in our ski house knew that a
survival kit was essential, if by chance you should fall asleep or hit a black ice patch and get stuck for several hours.
The news media often show scenes of people stuck off on the sides of autoroutes in a snow storm and their
chance of being rescued very quickly are next to none.

So, it's a good idea to keep a winter survival kit in your vehicle. Having essential supplies can provide some
comfort and safety for you and your passengers should you become stranded. Recommended items include:

Ice scraper and snowbrush.
Be sure to clear your car of all snow on all windows before venturing forth.

Shovel.
Stow a collapsible shovel inside the car. If you go into a ditch backwards you may not be able to retrieve it or even
open the trunk lid. NEVER stow anything heavy on the back shelf, it may become a decapitating flying missile in the
case of a heavy impact. 

Sand or other traction aid.
Unfortunately, this has to be stowed in the trunk, but the same caution applies as with the shovel.

Tow rope or chain.
If some good Samaritan comes along to help you, having a towing cable available can make all the difference to
extracting your car quickly.

Booster cables
Be careful how you use these cables, make sure you follow the instructions. Not properly used they can blow up
the computers in both cars.

Road flares or warning lights
You’re just over the brow of an icy hill, stuck halfway out into the road and anyone approaching too fast could
easily run into you. Warning flares are essential

Flashlight and batteries
Always useful, both for use inside and outside the car.

First aid kit
Shoveling and other urgent activities can sometimes lead to skinned knuckles or worse.

Fire extinguisher
This isn’t necessarily a winter related item, but it’s always useful to have available.

In the event that you actually get trapped inside your car, with nowhere to go, the most natural thing to do is to keep
the engine running to keep warm, but if your exhaust system is not perfect condition, any small leak of exhaust gas
can accumulate as carbon monoxide, a deadly gas that can put you to sleep forever.

So that some other long term survival items should include:

A small tool kit, including duct tape.

Extra clothing and footwear.

A thermal blanket. One for each occupant.

Non-perishable energy foods – e.g., chocolate or granola bars, juice, soup, bottled water and a couple of apples.

A candle, a small tin can and some matches in a damp proof container..
A large diameter candle, can actually keep the car and the windshield a lot warmer than you might think.
It also saves the battery since it will give plenty of light.

The radio should be used sparingly and as required.
   
In blizzard conditions, especially overnight, make sure one person stays awake, because help could take some
time to arrive. Maintain circulation by moving your feet, hands, and arms.

Road-Ready and Weather-Wise

    * Listen to the radio for road and weather updates and check conditions before leaving.
      The Weather Network is continuously updated with information.
    * Plan extra time to get to your destination and consider delaying your trip in bad weather.
    * Notify a friend or family member of your destination and anticipated arrival time.
    * Always exercise caution and drive according to conditions.
    * Watch for the flashing lights of snow and ice control vehicles. 
      When approaching them from behind, slow down, stay back and be patient.
      DO NOT PASS around or between them.

Since my skiing days, one item that is probably the most useful of all when rescue is required, is the cell phone.
Make sure it’s fully charged, or that a charger is stowed in the glove compartment.
This modern device was not available in my rallying and skiing days but is now a basic essential for those
who have become victims of winters’ icy grip.

November 28th 2008

  October 24th 2008
Even the best can get it wrong...........

With wintry weather a real possibility for those travelling long distances this winter, I thought I'd share some safe
winter driving tips.

Those of us in the Great White North are probably better prepared for snow conditions, but the chance of snow and
slush in the South, or on the way down to Florida, can only mean a lot more chances of accidents and mishaps.

Time:
Give yourself plenty of extra time for getting to your destination. Speed limits are for perfect, dry conditions.
On winter's icy roadways, even half the speed limit may be excessive.
Prod the brakes a few times, when no one is following you, to test for tire traction - you may be surprised.

Vision:
Take the time to clear all windows of snow, ice or moisture before starting out.
Also clear any snow off the hood and the roof - it comes loose when driving.

Lights:
Even though you can see, drive with low-beam headlights in snow, fog or just winter murk.
Those bloody awful blue lights are horrible in blowing snow conditions.
Keep all lenses free of dirt by wiping them periodically. Dirty headlights can cut visibility by 50 percent or more.
Don't forget the directional lights, tail lights and parking lights.

Tires:
Be sure your tires have adequate tread for traction in snow and to reduce the risk of hydroplaning in rain or
puddles on the road. You may hear that putting extra weight in the trunk or truck bed gives better traction.
Traction might be helped a little but this is at  the expense of steering control and longer stopping distances.
Likewise, you may hear that reducing tire pressure is another way of increasing traction. Reducing air pressure
will not give you more traction and your tires will be seriously under inflated, affecting steering.
Keep in mind that every time the outside temperature drops 10 degrees, the tire air pressure goes down
about one pound per square inch.
Remember too that under inflated tires are the major cause of tire failure.

Ice/Freezing Rain:
At 30F (0C) degrees ice is twice as slippery as it is at 0 (-15C) degrees. It also forms first and lasts longer
on bridges and in the shade. If you hit an unexpected patch, don't try to brake, accelerate or downshift.
Ease up on your accelerator, declutch a manual transmission and let your vehicle "roll" through the slippery area.
When freezing rain is occurring resulting in icing conditions, pull over to the side of the road until the
road has been treated with sand and salt or slow down to what may seem like a crawl -  until you have to brake.

Skidding:
If you go into a skid, act quickly by holding your speed steady. Keep your foot off the brake and steer in the
direction the rear of the vehicle is skidding.
In other words, if the rear of your vehicle slides right, turn right. If goes left, turn left.
Hold the steering wheel loosely and don't make large turns. Use a light touch to correct the skid.

Braking:
Your owners' manual will usually recommend the braking technique most suitable for your car.
For front and rear wheel drive vehicles with disc or drum brakes the National Safety council recommends the
following procedure:
Squeeze your brakes with a slow, steady pressure until just before they lock. When you feel them start to lock, ease
off until your wheels are rolling; then squeeze again.
If you have anti-lock brakes, push hard on the pedal and hold it that way.

Following Distance:
Maintain at least three times the normal following distance on snow or ice.
If you are being followed too closely, maintain an extra distance behind the vehicle ahead so that you can slow down
or brake gradually. Be prepared to adjust speed and/or stop to avoid colliding with the vehicle in front of you.
Plan ahead when approaching intersections so that braking can be done smoothly.

Stay on the Beaten Path:
Stay in line when travelling to or from a snow zone. Don't blaze your own trail, especially going downhill
- you'll only manage to create a worse situation. You could block off the only open space in which emergency
snow vehicles can travel.

Walking on Ice or Snow:
After being in a warm vehicle, the soles of shoes or boots are warm enough to melt snow or ice, creating a
film of water between the sole and the snow or ice surface. Be especially cautious for the first five minutes
after leaving the vehicle. When walking on snow or ice, use short steps and keep your hands out of your pockets.
These factors will help you maintain your balance.
If you do fall, tuck your arms close to your body and roll with the fall.

Stay Clear of Ploughs and Sanders:
Watch out for these vehicles as you round corners, curbs, etc. They do not travel at a high speed; therefore,
you'll tend to come up on them quickly. Slow down. Ploughs and sanders will pull over periodically to let traffic pass.
It's risky to pass on the left of a snow plough because of flying snow.
Never pass on the right. Flying rocks can damage your car if you pass a sander.
If it's also spreading rock salt, it can ruin your paint job.
The best advice is to stay three car lengths behind ploughs and sanders and be patient.

October 10th 2008


Some intelligent preparation can make winter driving much more comfortable.

For instance, you really want to be sure that  your existing wiper blades clean the windshield well, and allow you to
see clearly in wet weather.
Even when there's no active precipitation, salt spray and water from melting snow and slush or trucks and buses
is often thrown up onto your windshield.

The new one piece wipers that have no “bridge” structure work very well in all seasons.

If your wipers are stuck to the windshield in a morning, turn off the engine and free them manually before
you burn out your wiper motor.

 Keep your tank reasonably full in the winter, because if you do get stuck or stranded, the engine will be your only
source of heat.

And you don't want to have to worry about conserving gasoline, you just want to stay warm. You can run the engine
almost indefinitely at idle to stay warm. However, if you have an older car, crack open the window a bit.
Old cars are more likely to suffer from exhaust leaks.

Do not fill your tank on your way home. Gasoline in winter is quite cold and if you then park in a warm garage, the fuel will
expand and leak out onto the garage floor.

Not only is this dangerous for fire hazard, but the smell is harder to get rid of than a skunk attack.

   On a bad day, you can easily go through half a gallon or more of windshield washer fluid trying to keep your windshield clear.
For that reason, it's also a good idea to keep some extra fluid in the trunk in case you run out.
And make sure you get the good stuff. 
Even though it may say "Good to Minus 30," some of these cheaper fluids start to freeze around minus ten degree mark!

Even if you buy the good stuff, if you live in a very cold area, you also may need to supplement your windshield washer fluid
with some extra alcohol. A small bottle of gas line anti freeze – which is nothing more than ethanol, will do the trick.

If you have a rear-wheel-drive vehicle, such as a two wheel drive pick up truck, that needs help in the snow, you can put a
few bags of sand over the rear axle. It can always be used for traction, by shovelling it out and spreading it around the drive
wheels if necessary. A front wheel drive car, with the whole weight of the engine and transmission over the drive wheels
needs no other aids in getting power to the ground.

Never put any bags of sand inside your car's passenger compartment. In an accident, they can become projectiles.

If you live anywhere between Fargo, Chicago and Montreal, consider adding a block heater to your engine.
That's a small electric engine heater, rather an electric kettle element that plugs in at night. It's really a good idea for diesel
engines in frigid climates. But it can be used on regular gasoline engines, too. And for less than a hundred dollars, you can
be virtually guaranteed that your car will start. A side benefit is that you'll have almost instant heat in the morning.
If the cost of house power is a problem for you, then a special, heavy duty cable with a built in timer can be purchased.
Four hours of continuous charging is usually as good as plugging it in for the whole night.

 A rear defroster that works is almost essential these days. Sometimes certain lines of the defrost system embedded in
the rear glass have failed. This problem can be over come, using a special conductive paint to repair the broken elements.
If the connectors have come away from the glass at each end, the repair can be much more difficult, sometimes impossible.
In which case, reverting to the old practice of connecting up a small fan on the rear shelf, to blow air on the rear window,
is the only other way out.

Not good, but better than nothing.


Other blogs worth reading (aren't they all?)


5) Stop the stop signs - literally.

6) Interiors of new cars may smell rich, but they can be really bad for your health.

7) Safety: A highly over emphasised vehicle feature that can persuade you to buy
     a really bad car.

9) Tire choices proliferate - what's good for your car, or truck?

10) Big brother's already in your car and you're paying for it.

11) Out of favour used cars can be quite a bargain.

12) Pontiac Solstice and other rushed-to-production cars.
13) ABS brakes: not the ideal system they're made out to be.

16) Do it yourself is just about dead.

17) ABS Sensor ring problems on Tributes and Escapes

18) Run flat tires - a bad idea and an expensive one.

19) Advice to GM - stop producing four cylinder engines - you haven't got a clue.

20) Breaking in a new car - what NOT to do.

21) Car price is no longer an indication of reliability or quality.

22) What's a poor widow lady supposed to do?

23) Stupid German car designs. (We have ways of making you do what we want).

24) K&N filters: OK for race cars, useless for anything else

25) Dexcool: The dreaded yellow Jello.

26) Independent garage advertising is useless: If I don't know you, I won't trust you!!

27) The purchase by a garage of unecessary equipment leads to customer sales pressure.

28) Before you buy an upscale car, make sure you know what it's going to cost to repair.
29) The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to go wrong. Especially on a used car.

30) Better pay attention to Consumer reports, they're still your best guide to what you should buy.

31) We really need manual back up systems for such items as automatic door locks and windows

 32) DIY: Oil change instructions for men.
32) Hybrids are not electric cars - they burn lots of gasoline.
33) Media are not factoring in the cost hybrid maintenance.
34) All hydraulic four wheel drive - invented in the 50s by Jensen Motors.

35) Unqualifed teenagers servicing your car at the chain stores.

36) Wankel rotary engines: Oil users that are difficult to rebuild.

37) Women still suffer from discrimination in the auto industry.

38) Touring by car in Croatia.

39) Winter storage.

40) Treat your car battery with respect, or it can kill you.

41) In praise of the good old station wagon.
42) Porsche 944 and 968. Great hobby cars - just for fun and relaxation.

43) The fatal flaws in the Kyoto accord.

44) Future shock, the unending complication of electronic devices in you car.

45) Overheating engines.

46) Why I do this.

47)  The case for annual safety inspections.

48) Speed limits are for the sick and the elderly
49) The Chevy Volt; a ridiculous and boastful claim by a corporation on the ropes.

50) Rusty brake rotors (or discs)- no easy solution.

51) The piston engine is going to be with us for a very, very long time.

52) Avoiding rip offs in the car repair business.

53) What the hell is a PCV valve?

54) What does a thermosat do? And why do I need one?

56) Air bags: without a seat belt they're next to useless.
57) Paint protection and car polishing.

58) Electronic brake force distribution.

59) Low mileage, long time.

60) No dipsticks: Sheer folly

61) Hydrogen vs electricity - no contest.

62) Touring in Panama by 4x4.

63) Why flushing brake oil makes sense.

64) When should I change my oil?
65) Of stop signs and speed bumps.
66) W/W antifreeze and long term warranties.
67) Nitrogen

68) Recirc A/C

69) Inspection by test drive.
70) Electric car radiation danger
71) Fuel saving devices that don't
72) Force filling

73) The horsepower race.

74) Not all cars are lemons.

75) Scheduling repair appointments.

76) Tire pressure monitors

77) Winter wiper blades
78 Modern design of alternators and batteries.

79) Autumn leaves.

80) Touring in Puerto Rico.

81) Expensive_gremlins _in high_ end_cars