Your car’s “check engine” light blinks on, so you take it to the local repair shop that you have been going to for years. The problem is, they can’t fix what’s wrong. It’s a problem only the dealer can correct.Even for simple repairs, today’s vehicle technology requires new, expensive tools and information that manufacturers and dealerships have and are reluctant to release.However, a bill in Congress could help independent repair shops and weekend mechanics by requiring automakers to share diagnostic codes.“(Car companies) are designing a car that limits repair options,” said Skip Potter, executive director of the Pasadena, Md.-based Chesapeake Automotive Business Association. The association monitors independent auto and tire service shops and their suppliers in Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia.“Some people have compared repairing a vehicle to buying a house,” he said. “If the refrigerator needs repair and you go back to the developer who built the house to fix it, it would cost more money and be inconvenient.”A coalition intended as a joint effort between car companies and independent shops exists to monitor the needs between the repair sector and the manufacturers, Mr. Potter said, but there is no legislation requiring carmakers to participate.This means any car company can pull out of the coalition at any time, he said.The Right to Repair Act argues consumers own their vehicles in their entirety and should be able to have access to the codes. Since about the mid-1990s, cars and all their systems have grown increasingly computerized.The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers’ Web site says the modern car packs 1,000 times more computing power than the Apollo 11 lunar module.“It’s almost like a monopoly,” said Gary Anthony, manager of Firestone Complete Auto Care on Bay Road in Dover, of the carmakers’ hold on their information.He said consumers don’t have a choice anymore but to go through a dealer for service needs.Many independent repair shops have had to purchase scanners that cost about $1,200 to read the computers on the newer cars, Firestone service manager Adam Pomales said, but they still don’t have access to all of the codes.“The information is proprietary,” said Jeff Townsend, owner of Townsend Bros. Chevrolet.“It could be used not just for fixing a car, but also counterfeiting parts, which would cause more problems than it would cure.”Dover resident Edward Garrison has his own cure for paying the price to repair a computerized car – he refuses to buy a new one and said he will stick with older models.“I prefer to work on my own car instead of taking it to the shop,” he said.When Mr. Garrison’s daughter showed him the engine in her 2006 Hyundai Sonata, he said it looked like half of the engine would need to be taken apart to fix one part.“Don’t come to dad to get it fixed,” he remembers telling her. “You will definitely need to go to the dealer for that.” News source: News Zap
All posts by John
How to choose a shop
1. Talk to others who are customers of the auto repair shop and see if they would recommend it.2. Check for ASE certification, AAA approved car repair shop.3. Get a second opinion. If you disagree with the estimate or diagnosis take it elsewhere.4. Look for a clean shop. A repair shop that takes pride in itself will do the same for your vehicle. But if is to clean be careful they may not be busy and have to much time to clean it should look used.5.Ask about shop equipment. If they are proud of it,and know how to use it they’ll be happy to show it off. Also a shop that has expensive equipment will have a higher quality employees. 6. Talk to your mechanic. If they are unresponsive then go elsewhere.7. Ask for your old parts to be returned you don’t have to take them home but be sure you see them preferable already in your vehicle when you pick it up8. Check the parking lot if it is empty( all busy shops have some vehicles sitting around waiting for parts or whatever) keep looking also look for cars similar to your own
Dave Blaney on pole
For some time now I have been saying that Dave Blaney and Bill Davis Racing for Toyota will win a race they are getting closer he and the Cat car are on the pole. Still have doubts about Michael Waltrip he is spread way to thin when you can’t qualify it is kind of hard to win.Maybe he should take Kyle Petty’s lead and give the car to someone else and try broadcasting which by the way Kyle is doing a good job at and to my surprise so is Brent Musberger like the way all of a sudden every one in NASCAR is his close personal friend.
Fuel Injection
The fuel injection system is one of the most significant parts in your car’s engine. It controls the delivery of fuel into the internal combustion engine with the right amount. So I can say that fuel injection is the responsible for your car’s performance, fuel economy, and emissions.Anyway, here are some maintenance guides for fuel injection system, which I got from the Car Care Council website (www.carcare.org).- On cars with fuel injection, some carmakers don’t recommend replacing the filter at all during the first 100,000 miles of “normal” driving. Since “normal” usually constitutes severe driving because of less than normal conditions, it’s best to replace the filter every two years or 24,000 miles.- A contaminated filter can restrict fuel flow from your car’s electric fuel pump, eventually taking a toll on its life. Frequent filter replacements remove all doubt about whether the filter may cause other problems down the road. On 1996 and newer vehicles, your car’s fuel injection system is integrated with a second-generation onboard diagnostic system, known as OBDII.- The PCM stores a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) when it detects a problem in one of the monitored circuits. A professional technician can access this information using a scan tool connected to the vehicle’s Data Link Connector (DLC). Although many DTCs are sensor-related, it does not necessarily indicate a faulty sensor. There may be problems in that sensor’s circuit, or there may be several interrelated problems.- Areas of the country with an emissions testing program are placing added value on OBDII checks, where this technology may be used in place of tailpipe testing. The system also alerts you with a Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL), indicating that the system has detected a problem, which could cause excessive emissions. This light is usually labeled SERVICE ENGINE SOON or CHECK ENGINE.- If the light appears, you should have its cause investigated by a professional technician at your earliest opportunity. If the light flashes, the condition is more severe and must be checked out immediately to prevent damage to the catalytic converter. News source: Auto Repair Info
Removing grease stains
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I have a lot of experience with grease spots on laundry. I used to work at an auto repair shop, and now I’m married to a kitchen manager. Can we say grease city? I knew you could.When I was working at the auto repair shop, I asked the guys how they got the grease stains off their clothes and they typically had two methods: Simple Green and Dawn dish-washing liquid. I’ve found if Simple Green can’t get it clean, Dawn could, and vice versa.One thing I really like about Simple Green is, it works on lots of grease problems. It’s really handy to have around for that very reason. It also whitens up white tennis shoes! It does EVERYTHING! Crew Chief note: for years I have used Dawn to clean oil out of cooling systems when thy have a oil cooler leak seems to cut the oil and float it away the best I just wish I knew why the strange thing is it doesn’t work well on greasy floors News source: Home-ec
Filtering the Filtered With an Added Filter
Your mother always told you that clean is important. After all, you never know when you might break a leg and the paramedics have to cut your underwear off on the scene exposing your skid marks. But that’s underwear. We’re here to talk about engine oil. Keeping the oil clean is very important to your car’s health. We accomplish this by performing regular oil changes using a high quality oil (preferably synthetic oil) and a new filter. Keep this level of maintenance up and your engine could last half a million miles without needing a rebuild. There are a number of companies out there offering an additional tool to keep your oil clean — an oil bypass filter. It’s basically another oil filter added to the system. Manufacturers of oil bypass filtering systems claim they can continually filter out particles as small as one micron (don’t ask me how big a micron is, who knows), keeping your oil particulate-free and allowing you to go much longer between oil changes. The technology has been in place for some time and is used regularly on fleet vehicles and other trucks that really rack up the miles in a hurry. But do you really need this added protection for your car’s engine? Depending on which pocket your keys are in, the research on the subject can go either way. Unfortunately the only “research” out there on car and light truck engines is offered by the companies pushing the oil bypass filtration systems. This doesn’t mean it’s not accurate, but it’s hardly independent. The lack of concrete lab findings leaves it to guys like me, and eventually people like you, to form your own opinions. My opinion? I think adding one of these systems to a car or light truck engine amounts to severe overkill unless you’re driving 100,000 miles a year. The systems add between 1 and 4 quarts of extra oil to the car, along with a bunch of new fittings, hoses and other connections. If one of these connections were to fail, you’d have zero oil pressure and no oil in a hurry, leaving you stranded. Besides, research has proven that using quality oil and changing it on a regular basis (the new standard is 5000 miles) is enough to get you hundreds of thousands of miles out of an engine. Synthetic oil doesn’t break down the same way mined oil does so won’t add particulates to the oil mixture. Ironically one of the companies pushing a bypass system also sells their own brand of synthetic oil which doesn’t break down, so why would you need the extra filtration? In defense of the guys who make these systems, the independent testing performed by the US Department of Energy showed a huge savings in the amount of oil a diesel-engined bus would need over the course of a year, thanks to many fewer needed oil changes. But my gavel still falls on the “no” side. I just don’t see the need to add an expensive set of extra plumbing to my V6. News source: About Auto Repair
Synthetic Oil: Scam or Real Deal?
Look on the shelf of your local auto parts house and you’ll see more oils than breakfast cereal choices at the supermarket. It wasn’t so long ago that you had about a half dozen to pick from, and since they were all made from the same gunk, it didn’t matter much anyway. Then in the early 1970s popped up a new batch of lubricants — synthetic oils.The Slick Truth on Synthetic OilMade popular by brands like Amsoil and Mobil 1, die-hard gear heads, racers and enthusiasts started using synthetic oil exclusively. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until almost two decades later that the major oil companies started offering synthetics to the masses. Despite the number of benefits over mined oil (the stuff they pump out of the ground), Americans still haven’t fully embraced this advanced technology.So what’s the difference? Synthetic oil is produced in a lab, which means the only stuff in it is what they put in it. Despite the high-tech refining of crude oil, there are still contaminants in the oil that can build up and eventually damage an engine. Changing your oil and filter removes any loose particles that form, but often the build-up occurs in an isolated area of your engine, usually where it gets really, really hot. This build up can clog oil passages and valves, which can eventually lead to reduced engine life.There are also ecological benefits to using synthetic oil. Its viscosity (ability to lubricate) stays higher than mined oil at high temperatures, enough to even affect your gas mileage. Since it breaks down much more slowly than petroleum-based oil, you can greatly extend the time between oil changes. One truck driver drove his semi 409,000 miles on synthetic without changing the oil! Think of how much less oil would have to be collected and recycled if we used half as much every year.The bottom line is synthetic oils are an easy choice. The extra bucks you spend for an oil change will be returned in no time. News source: About auto Repair
Tire to Speedo error
The Plus concept was developed by performance-minded car owners and tuners who wanted to be able to put wider, bigger wheels and tires on their cars without sacrificing speedometer accuracy. The ProblemYour car’s speedometer is calibrated by telling the needle you see on the dashboard how many times the wheel spins around. The problem is, if you make your wheel diameter smaller, it’s going to spin more times to go the same number of miles. Your car doesn’t know you monkeyed around with your tire and wheel size, so it will give you an inaccurate reading.The SolutionIn order to keep your speedometer accuracy, you need to change your tires and wheels in such a way that the overall diameter of the setup does not change significantly. For instance, a 225/60-16 has the same rolling diameter as a 245/50-17. The larger tire will give better traction and cornering because it is wider and has a lower aspect ratio, but won’t throw off the speedo. The Plus OneThe Plus concept takes it a step further, and formulates the tire size you’ll need if you increase your wheel diameter by an inch, for instance changing from a 15-inch to a 16-inch wheel and tire. As the wheel diameter goes up, the aspect ratio goes down to compensate for the changes. There are also formulas for Plus Two, Plus Three and so on depending on how big you want to go.You can even do a Plus Two or Plus Three, as long as you keep the dimensions under control. For a cool way to see the difference your tire size choices make, and to calculate what your options are, check out this Plus Sizing Conversion Calculator from the able minds at Miata.net.Crew Chief note Chris-longhurst.com is also an excellent site for this info News source: About auto repair
Extra Oil Filter
You mother always told you that clean is important. After all, you never know when you might break a leg and the paramedics have to cut your underwear off on the scene exposing your skid marks. But that’s underwear. We’re here to talk about engine oil. Keeping the oil clean is very important to your car’s health. We accomplish this by performing regular oil changes using a high quality oil (preferably synthetic oil) and a new filter. Keep this level of maintenance up and your engine could last half a million miles without needing a rebuild. There are a number of companies out there offering an additional tool to keep your oil clean — an oil bypass filter. It’s basically another oil filter added to the system. Manufacturers of oil bypass filtering systems claim they can continually filter out particles as small as one micron (don’t ask me how big a micron is, who knows), keeping your oil particulate-free and allowing you to go much longer between oil changes. The technology has been in place for some time and is used regularly on fleet vehicles and other trucks that really rack up the miles in a hurry. But do you really need this added protection for your car’s engine? Depending on which pocket your keys are in, the research on the subject can go either way. Unfortunately the only “research” out there on car and light truck engines is offered by the companies pushing the oil bypass filtration systems. This doesn’t mean it’s not accurate, but it’s hardly independent. The lack of concrete lab findings leaves it to guys like me, and eventually people like you, to form your own opinions. My opinion? I think adding one of these systems to a car or light truck engine amounts to severe overkill unless you’re driving 100,000 miles a year. The systems add between 1 and 4 quarts of extra oil to the car, along with a bunch of new fittings, hoses and other connections. If one of these connections were to fail, you’d have zero oil pressure and no oil in a hurry, leaving you stranded. Besides, research has proven that using quality oil and changing it on a regular basis (the new standard is 5000 miles) is enough to get you hundreds of thousands of miles out of an engine. Synthetic oil doesn’t break down the same way mined oil does so won’t add particulates to the oil mixture. Ironically one of the companies pushing a bypass system also sells their own brand of synthetic oil which doesn’t break down, so why would you need the extra filtration? In defense of the guys who make these systems, the independent testing performed by the US Department of Energy showed a huge savings in the amount of oil a diesel-engined bus would need over the course of a year, thanks to many fewer needed oil changes. But my gavel still falls on the “no” side. I just don’t see the need to add an expensive set of extra plumbing to my V6. News source: Auto repair about
Exhaust tampering
It is against Federal law to make any changes to the exhaust system. There is a very heavy fine and possible imprisonment for violating this law. Furthermore it is illegal to sell a vehicle with tampered emission systems. So if you trade it in, at a dealer, on a new car, they will probably report the violation to the EPA.If you sell it to a private individual, they would be obligated, under the law, to report it. Also there would be no way the vehicle would pass inspection.By law I can’t help you tamper or modify the emission systems in any way.