Consumer reports recently released a report that using aftermarket parts, especially cheap China imports, may cause bodily harm. They were very specific about bumpers and the way they are manufactured may cause delayed or premature air bag deployment. The bumper beam or the piece of steel behind the cover is manufactured from ultra high strength steel whereas the aftermarket is made up of two pieces of mild steel spot welded together. This will make a difference in air bag deployment timing. Ford radiator supports are manufactured of magnesium. The non-Ford copy was made of molded plastic with a sheet-metal rib pop-riveted to it. This part raised red flags with Ford engineers because one of the vehicle’s air bag sensors is mounted to the hood latch support bracket which is mounted to the radiator support. The vibrations from these weaker parts could cause air bag deployment at any time. They also compared bumper isolators and brackets with the same result. No real crash tests were done but computer simulations showed a major difference in performance but without real crash tests no air bag deployment data could be obtained. The test results while only limited to two components demonstrate that where safety is involved only original parts should be installed.

After eliminating Mercury from their inventory now Ford Motor Co. is going to cut 500 dealerships and evaluate 700 more. I always thought the idea of sales was to make your product available to the public. Ford sold 230,000 Lincolns in 1990 and 82,000 in 2009. This is going to be a ship that is going to be hard to turn around. On the other hand Lexus has only 230 dealers and sell twice as many vehicles as Lincoln. Hello it’s a Lexus Ford you cannot compete with them by closing dealerships. I assume most of these are underperforming spots that probably need to update their facilities and what a better way to force them to improve there dealerships then to threaten to close. Many of these cannot afford to update and so will close at the loss of jobs and the trickle down here is huge as many additional jobs will also be lost. “We’re fully committed to transforming Lincoln into a world-class luxury brand with compelling vehicles and also a consumer experience to match,” Ford’s Americas President Mark Fields said. I just don’t see how they can compete at this level with the BMW, Lexus and I think Cadillac needs to be included as a serious luxury vehicle. Also many luxury car buyers will be taking a serious look at some of the green vehicles coming out in the next year.

Not auto repair but I thought this was worth sharing.[url”>http://ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm

Elon Musk who was the co-founder of Pay-Pal is offering an IPO for his car company Tesla Motors Inc. The stock rose 40% + during the first day. This is for a company that has never made money and does not plan to until at least 2012. The company is selling 11.9 million shares and Mr. Musk is selling 1.4 million. I don’t know what I am missing here maybe the electric car is the future. The model S is expected to sell for 50K after a federal tax credit. Which sounds high for an electric car but it does 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and will go from 160 to 300 miles depending on what version. They are being quiet about the different versions. They are buying a old GM factory, the smallest of the ones GM has for sale, and if there IPO keeps going as it has I can see a future for this company I just cannot see the American public paying that kind of cash for this car. Its first roadster sold for 109K in 2008, which is a lot of money for a car that runs on an extension cord. They sold 1100 of these worldwide. Is this the same number of friends Elon had?. They are probably not taking his calls at the present as it is rumored he has been trying to borrow money to keep afloat both personally and corporate. A lot of the success of electric cars hinge on battery progress. The charging time and the driving time need to be shorter and longer. Also the dependability and safety of lithium-ion battery needs to improve. There was also a survey of homes of there electrical capacity that showed that many homes are close to being maxed out and would possibly need an expensive upgrade to charge a car. A separate connection would need to be added and no one seems to know a cost of this. I don’t think I will be buying stock in a extension cord company just yet.I will continue to complain every time I gas up but I just don’t think I am ready to plug in yet. I complained before high gas prices as I used to own service stations and could write off part of my fuel and I will probably complain when and if the price goes down.

Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske swapped places on Sunday each winning a major race, one the Indy 500 and the other the Coke 600. The only difference was Chip Ganassi was a second in the 600 giving him bragging rights for the time being. Kurt Busch was strong and followed an All Star win with the 600 victory. The COT with the wing has a very fine line between loosing and winning. Once a team hits it they are almost unbeatable. The line is so fine cars within a team cannot hit the same setup and be successful and luck still pays a major role in winning. Jimmy Johnson seems to have little luck this year as he keeps crashing. Dale JR is still backsliding and as we get later into the year his hope of a decent year seem slim. His step mom Theresa Earnhardt is partner with Ganassi. Marco Andretti claimed he was cheated out of a spot and for a change a driver crying foul was right he moved from 6th to 3rd, which makes for a bigger payday, Danica Patrick dropped from 5th to 6th and was the only female running at the end. Alex Lloyd and Scott Dixon each lost a spot. The builder and engineers that build both the NASCAR and the open wheel cars are to be commended for the safety of these cars. That was horrendous cash at the end of the 500 and we have seen several in NASCAR this year with no serious injuries.On a personal note Ashley Judd is a gorgeous lady but enough of her running down pit road, don’t they have golf carts or was this a publicity stunt. Also leave the Scottish flag at home during our Memorial Day race maybe a little showing but to drag it around the track was uncalled for. One last note, way to go Arizona we as Americans need to take back our country the veterans fought for. Acknowledge our Veterans Today, they are the reason we can do what we do.

Cars we will be driving in 10 years list a number of surprises. Bugatti and Porsche among them, there advancement in carbon fiber technology makes them a leader in lightweight bodies. BMW and Audi are also among the front runners the only USA manufacture is GM, but I think they are behind in the battery technology. The GM Granite looks like a good concept but it is not a high mileage vehicle and is Fuel engine powered. Another manufacturer not mentioned was Toyota and they plan to come out with 8 hybrids in the next few years. China is expected to double their car sales by 2015, I still think of the Tata and all the problems they have had whenever I think of a cheap foreign car.

I have to give Toyota an atta boy for stopping production and or sales due to throttle issues. Of course they may have just needed a reason to slow down production as the sticking throttle seems to be a none issue. Supposedly it occurs over time as the linkage wears, if so then some of the responsibility could be placed on the consumer. If the throttle requires extra effort to move then have it checked if it is a recall or not. 2.3 million vehicles will be affected after they just recalled 1.09 million vehicles for floor mat interference with the throttle they earlier recalled 4.6 million for the same problem. Only a small percentage of the vehicles will be affected, 1 in 100,000, as only the parts built by CTS Corp. are causing problems. The local dealer is advertising a free inspection, as it should be, but if your vehicle is affected they will give you a car to drive until a repair is available. I remember the days of the Explorer or as it came to be called the exploder when they were rolling over and it ended up to be a tire issue, still have some doubts over that conclusion. Remember the pinto and the Chevy pickups with side tanks that would burst into flames when involved in an accident. Although none of these occurred while the vehicle was still in production but they seemed to drag their feet on the recalls. I hope the big three take note of this action by Toyota and finally wake up and put the safety and customer satisfaction first in future recalls.

I recently wrote about wires and I stated that sound is carried on the outside if the wire. I have received several Emails “telling me I am nuts among other things”. In truth no one knows where it is carried to an absolute certainty. Many fields of thought subscribe to the theory that the power is pushed through the wire and returned by the ground. My problem with this is that no ground should be required if all of the amps are used by resistance in other words if a lamp uses all the available, amps, by resistance, ohms, then the lamp should light with no ground necessary. The holes theory, which makes more sense to me, has a feeder from the ground that draws the power from the source and the power follows that to a ground. Or to put it bluntly the ground sucks. This is seen as nature as a lighting strike. A feeder comes from the ground and the bolt follows that to ground. A car system works the same a feeder on the inside of the wire is a path from the ground that the power follows to ground. This is why a ground is needed to light the lamp. This is simplified and to the extent I understand the holes theory. Electricians will talk about delta among other theories mostly as it pertains to 240 and higher voltage but they all still need a ground. I understand battery, DC voltage, as in cars more than I do house power, AC voltage. To further add validity to my theory this is why ground controlled systems perform better then controlling the power. IE fuel injectors I don’t think we could turn the power on and off as rapidly as necessary using a power controlled circuit. Also when using lower voltages the ground controlled systems seem to work better. I don’t know how a return reading from an O2 sensor or a TPS would work. You would have to measure the resistance and this would not be adequate as to the required accuracy.

In these trying economic times when gas and grocery prices are through the roof it is difficult to keep your transportation maintenance on schedule. Evan worse is to not repair problems as they turn up, or to cut cost on the repair and not do it properly. Something as simple as a noisy brake can escalate in cost if not properly repaired in a timely fashion. A check engine light when it is ignored can also increase in cost if not checked. Many times the engine is still running OK when the light is on on but it may be causing damage that will show up at a later date. Today’s oils have improved drastically so you may get by with running it a few more miles than normal, but don’t push it too far. I have also heard of changing the oil and not the filter here again it may cause problems later on. Running on bald tires is dangerous more so with winter just around the corner, don’t skimp on tires there are many decently priced tires on the market but there are also some that should not be on the road. Many tires from China can no longer be imported. Most major brands offer an economy tire but you have to shop and you may even have to get a little nasty. Remember the tire shops along with many other auto repair shop are having a tough time

There has been a lot of finger pointing in the auto industry so I think it is time put in my 2 cents. First I believe that the unions and retiree benefits became a financial burden that the industry could not handle. Many assembly line workers were making in excess of $60 an hour including benefits. I am not against unions but there has to be a line in the sand where the company cannot afford what the unions are asking for, I know a lot of the time the companies are crying wolf but this was not the case of the auto industry. Also the health benefits for the retirees were killing them and this is the case in many areas where the retiree’s health benefits are covered by the company. The older retired are an expensive part of our health careTo many cars designs were directed by what the executives liked and not what the public wanted. Yes it worked for Ford and the Mustang but very little success since then. The advent of cup holders started the decline of the industry. After the Chrysler minivan to many interiors were designed around the cup holder. Cars of today are designed around the fridge, cell phone and cup holder Bluetooth and DVD. We need to recall the reason is to move us from place to place in relative comfort. The Nissan cube is available for under 10K after rebates and that is exactly what it does is move people from place to place. They call it a mobile device and that is what it is it will be interesting to see how it sells. The last nail in the coffin of the auto industry was quality and warranty repairs. The major items such as drive train they improved on, many used cars are in excess of 150K but all the accessories killed them. I remember the early 90 alternator from GM some wouldn’t make it around the block.The answer I don’t have but I do think they are on the right track the only problem I have is waiting to replace executives, in some cases next spring, when the boat starts to sink and the Captain caused it you don’t wait until it sinks to replace him to do it now in hopes of saving the boat.