And we do welcome you to the CNC auto show. And if you're looking for information on ways to make your car safer, more dependable and long lasting, then don't move an eyelid.
I'm Aaron Clements here to answer your automotive questions and share some tips. You just pick up that phone, dial 800-224-9090. And that's our main number. So jot it down 800-224-9090. And you can call on any Saturday morning between 805 and 10 Eastern time. And you can also listen or watch the show on social media. Just go to ccautoshow.com.
Choose your favorite platform link and you click on it. And someone who clicked on Instagram before has won a battery jump box during the last hour. We'll be receiving that. And during this hour, we'll be giving away a $25 gift card from O'Reilly Auto Parts.
So we got a lot of good things going on. We do have a tech tip quiz laying on the table. And I'll read that real quick just before going to the calls. And if you know the answer, give us a call. And again, 800-224-9090. And we will go to the calls. And let's see here. Andy has a problem and he was unable to receive a resolution. Andy, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
And what can we help you with? Well, good morning. I just reported. I called last week about the replacing the cruise controls on my pickup.
Right. And weren't able. Turns out the cruise control was working. One, the daylight was so bright. I mean, even on the carport, then my lights were so dim. I could not see that the lights were coming on. Two, I was testing it in the local residential area. I wasn't getting high enough speed for it to turn on. It had to be above 35 miles an hour before cruise would come on.
Uh huh. Well, you know, that, that, that is so great that you call back because, you know, not too many items that I think about that much after the show, because 90% of the time, somebody, a call they have an issue, uh, would give the, it may not necessarily be definitely the right answer, but it will, it will all fall into place to where it could likely be the right answer. Yours was very, um, very unusual because if I remember right, your old one was working and then you put the new one in and it didn't work. Then you put the old part back on and it still didn't work. And I even asked one of the technicians just to be sure if that one needed to be reprogrammed when you replace it.
I didn't think you did. And he said, no, you don't have to reprogram those when you replace them. So I was wondering about that and I am so glad you called back and told me that. Well, the old one, I was testing under the same conditions. The lights had been going in that one. So that was, that was what the problem was.
I was not fast enough for it to actually work. That is so great. You know what I, um, what I decided to do a little earlier there, uh, Andy was to the first person that called during this hour, I decided that that person would be the winner of this O'Reilly $25 gift card that we have. And, uh, and it'd be an opportunity to go to O'Reilly auto parts and you get something really nice for your vehicle or something nice for a friend's vehicle or a family member's vehicle and get a chance to just walk in and look around and say, well, I got a $25 here to get, to get something or toward something.
And so you are the winner of our $25 gift card. Thank you. And so I'm going to get you to hold on the line and somebody will be picking up and they'll be getting the information from you. And we were running into some issues today because we just got a new phone system that we're using. And it's, uh, I have, um, it's got a few little issues in there. So actually what I'm doing right now, Andy, as I'm talking to you is I am figuring out how to put you on hold. So here we go. I think I found it. It's got a lot of buttons here, but, uh, I think I'm doing like you, you did with your cruise control.
It's, uh, this thing works, but I'm just not using it correctly. Okay. Andy, I appreciate it. And congratulations on winning the $25 gift card from O'Reilly auto parts. And if you get a chance to go in there and when you talk almost every one of their, uh, facilities that I go in, they have some great parts professionals behind the counter that you can talk to and they can help you, uh, find exactly what you're looking for. And we appreciate it very much.
Okay. The number to call is 800-224-9090. And we believe we have the phone system back in order and doing what it should, but the number is 800-224-9090.
Uh, mentioned that the, that we do have that tech tip quiz laid on the table. John and Mary have teenage son that loves to text message. He was getting his license soon. And they were very concerned that he may have a distracted driving accident. They sit down and told him something that may have saved them from a terrible accident.
If you know the answer, you give us a call and we will be looking for you. Now, some of the other items that we're working on here has to do with maintenance on the vehicle. We're talking about text messaging and, or distracted driving, but we're also talking about maintenance on the vehicles. And one of the things that people asked about from time to time is why it's important to replace your brake fluid at certain times. And what happened is many years ago, replacing the brake fluid really wasn't a big deal because the, because the cars, usually it has to be replaced somewhere around 70, a hundred thousand miles. And many years ago, the cars didn't last, but about a hundred thousand miles. So by the time you needed a brake fluid, you, the car had a lot of wear on it. Plus the cars didn't build up as much heat in the braking system, but mainly partly they wasn't as powerful. And the second thing, they use these great big parts in the braking system. Now the cars are more powerful and the components are less.
So you've got a lot more heat. Heat can get things gunky and cause brake fluid to boil, more sugar boil in there. And the other final thing is it used to be the parts wasn't very expensive in most brake systems. And if you had to replace something like a caliper or a wheel cylinder or a mass cylinder, it wasn't a great big deal.
Now you've got more heat, you got more power on the car. You've got some very expensive components in the system too, like your anti-lock brake system. So when that system can be, it can be very expensive and it is very prone to get little chunks of dirt in it. And so I recommend that at a certain time, especially if a test strip shows that it needs to be replaced, I recommend that you having a brake fluid replaced. And that'll save you from having a lot of issues later on down the line, like master cylinders, anti-lock brake assemblies, and a lot of other items. So consider having your brake fluid tested.
There's a little test strip that a technician can stick in there if it changes colors. And of course I love the BG system brake fluid exchange. It's a piece of equipment we hook to the car. It shoots new brake fluid in through the mass cylinder under pressure, pushes all of the old brake fluid out of the vehicle, and just replaces it with new.
And you get a good long-lasting system. So that's a brake fluid exchange. Okay, we are going to take a real quick break.
And when we return, we'll be going straight over to John. He's got a question about new cars, so we'll be right back just after this. The CNC Auto Show is brought to you in part by Dorman Products and their suspension leaf spring. Another solution from Dorman.
Suspension leaf springs will improve vehicle performance in addition to passenger comfort. Learn more at DormanProducts.com. The CNC Auto Show is brought to you in part by Behrman Products. Behrman has been helping consumers and repair shops alike since 1918, providing solutions to help maintain and improve vehicle drivability.
Drive to BehrmanProducts.com for more information. And we are back with you with the CNC Auto Show. If you have a question about your car, truck, or SUV, you give us a call. That number 800-224-9090.
Again, that's 800-224-9090. And we are giving tips on teenage driving. Now's the time of year kids will be going back to school soon. And some will be driving to school for the very first time. And I think it's a good idea to sit down and have a conversation with that teenage driver and let them know some of the things that they may be going to experience as they're working with cars. And you may have a tip of your own of something that you may want to give us a call and say this is what we did with our teenage driver and it worked very well. Or you may have a question about your car. Is it time to change the transmission fluid? How often do you change the coolant on your vehicle?
And what's a good idea there? How do you know when it's time to change the coolant on a vehicle? And all of these things can help in some way. The items having to do with the vehicle, of course, can increase the longevity of your vehicle. What I run into many times is someone will buy a vehicle and when it's new, for the first, I would say, even 80, 90, 100,000 miles, they'll do all the servicing that needs to be done. They'll change the coolant when it's new, the transmission fluid when it's new, and do a lot of other things to the vehicle and keep it maintained. But then as the car gets a little older, they say, well, it's a little bit older car.
I don't really want to spend that much money on it. So sure enough, things start happening. They start having transmission issues, water pumps leaking, heater cores leaking. And they start having all of these things that happen to the vehicle that could have been avoided.
But they think it's normal. They think, well, every car I get, when I get about 150,000 miles on the vehicle, things start falling apart. Well, many times it starts falling apart because you quit the preventative maintenance. And next thing you know, you start having all those issues, whereas if you would have continued with the preventative maintenance that you were doing in the beginning, you would continue to keep the vehicle in good condition and you'd be able to drive it for many, many more years with less maintenance or less broken items on the vehicle.
And that's what we see here at the shop. There's two types of vehicles that come in, and we have cars that come in that have something broken, a broke car. It's got like a water pump leaking.
It's got a part that's worn out on the suspension. It's got a cooling fan broken, a running hot issue, a broken car. And it used to be at one time about 80% of the cars that come into our repair facility was broken cars. And because of that, we would stay busy, very busy, just repairing these broken items that cars come in for. Some would be engines, some transmissions, some rear differential type work, but we would stay very busy repairing all of those items. As time went on, the car started being built better, but also the people started paying attention to preventative maintenance.
They started discovering that, hey, I can do preventative maintenance on this car and I don't run into all of these broken items on my vehicle that need to be replaced and the really high dollar type items. Instead, I can have my transmission fluid exchange when I get 50, 60, 70,000 miles and didn't do it again when I get 120, 150,000 miles. And I can go many, many years without needing a new transmission. Same way with water pumps, alternators. And my alternators, that would include doing things like not trying to stretch everything you can out of the battery that you have. Many times some want to have a battery and it'll be four years old and they'll know that it's going to be completely bad in five years, but they start hearing the signs of it dragging just a little bit.
They might even have to jump it off from time to time, but they start getting that last little bit out of that battery. And what happens is every morning that alternator has to jump in there and recharge that battery again because it might have enough voltage in there to actually spin the car over and start the vehicle. But it does not have enough voltage to go in and stay and keep the alternator from having to charge. So each morning the battery might have like 11.8 volts and you'll hear it spin a little bit slower. Well, once the car starts up, then the alternator has to recharge that battery and get it back up to 12.6 by usually putting it a charge between 13.8 and 14.5.
And it'll do that until the battery gets good and charged up and it'll do that every morning. And over a period of time, finally, boom, the alternator gives out and the battery goes dead. Well, in your mind, the alternator just went bad and that killed your battery.
But in reality, it's the other way around. The battery went bad and it killed your alternator. And then, of course, the car stopped running. So all of these things that you can do as far as preventative maintenance can save you money because I can tell you a battery is much, much less expensive than having to replace a whole alternator. Same way with doing a cooling system, fluid exchange is much less expensive than replacing water pumps or radiators or heater cores or fittings or gaskets. All of these things can go bad due to bad cooling. OK, we're going to take a real quick break and when we return, we will very soon be giving away our jump box.
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Always use blaster products and work it like a pro. And we welcome you to the CNC Auto Show and we're here to answer your automotive questions. And if you have a question, give us a call at 800-224-9090.
That's 800-224-9090. We are going to the calls and I am going to go over to Tom. Tom, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Hello? Yes, sir. Welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Is this Tom?
This is JC at Aiken. Okay. Yes, sir. JC, are you calling the CNC Auto Show? Yes, I am. Okay. Good morning, Aaron. Good morning.
There must be a delay here. I was calling about my 2012 Dodge or Ram pickup truck. My number six cylinder is bad on the vehicle and the mechanic talked about replacing the engine. Is there anything I can do other than replace the engine? Okay.
Something that can be done with it. Now, how many miles is on the engine? 119,000.
Okay. That's fairly low miles of what I consider fairly low miles. Now, with this vehicle, did he mention what was out on that cylinder? What was making the cylinder faulty?
Is it something to do with compression? I think so because I replaced the coil packs spark plugs. My son did and then it's still done it. And then I brought it into him and it's bent two push rods on it. Okay. Now, did he replace the push rods and see if it would work after that? Yes, he did. Okay.
And what did it bent the push rods again? Yes, sir. Okay.
I have some thoughts on if there's a possibility that you may have a lifter that has stuck in the upward position on there. Tell you what, let me... I think he mentioned that. Yes, sir.
Okay. Let me get Joe on the line. What I wanted to be able to do is as people call in, I want to try my best to get them in touch with some of the top technicians around. And I'm going to get our producer in there to call Joe so if he can get Joe Deloach on the line with us.
And if he can get him to tune in because he's on the front line every day. And if I'm not mistaken, I was over that way not a real long time ago and they had a lot of stuff off a Dodge engine, that same type truck. And I don't know exactly what they were doing. But my thought is that it could have been something to do something similar to that.
We're working on getting him on the line now. And we're going to see how that goes. Now, you mentioned you had about 119,000 miles. And did this happen all of a sudden or did it kind of gradually start getting like that?
Or misfiring? Yeah. Okay. Right. Okay. All right.
We're not going to be able to get Joe Deloach on there. Okay. What I would recommend doing is with 119,000, that's not a huge amount of miles. I would consider having lifters put in that vehicle and seeing if that solved the issue. When he put the new push rods in, did it immediately do the same thing over again and just bend them immediately?
No, it took a day or two. Okay. Yeah, I would strongly consider just going ahead and putting two lifters in the vehicle. And actually, depending on price, you may be able to consider all. I don't think the heads have to come off to replace that. But no doubt the intake manifold would need to come off of the vehicle and then go in and put some new lifters in the vehicle.
And there's a high probability that's going to take care of your problem. Okay. Do y'all do that? Yes. I mean, it's for lifters in.
Absolutely. Basically, how much? Well, when you get into lifter work, you do get into a fair amount.
You could get into somewhere in the $1,200 to $1,500 range. Now, that's kind of just throwing numbers out. Right. That's not anything exact by no means. But at least that'll give you kind of a ballpark idea of what you could get into. But that is a huge amount less than a whole engine. Oh, you ain't kidding because it's like 10 grand.
I think you gave me a price about $8,500. But the warranty, I wasn't very happy about the warranty on it because it should have been more. But that's what I was wondering if there was an option to put lifters in it.
Yeah. It kind of depends on the own warranties. It kind of depends on where the engine comes from.
A lot of times, that's not necessarily the shop itself. It has to do with what the engine or the company, what type of warranty they give with it. Sometimes, there's some remanufactured engine warranties that I see that can be 50,000 to 100,000 miles. And then there's also even new engine warranties that might be 12,000 miles warranty. So it does vary. And that gives a great suggestion to tell everyone that when they're doing things like checking prices of engines and different things to be sure to ask what that warranty is because it's important that you would know that.
Okay. Would there be a warranty on the lifters like that done in the shop? Well, on the lifters themselves. But I will tell you that when you're doing work like that, there's so many things inside the engine until something like that, you really wouldn't have very much warranty because if a new lifter goes bad, something else would have had to cause it or there's other problems down inside there. So it did some risk involved. And when you get a job like that done, just like even if you were talking to our service advisors, ask what risks are involved. They'd probably tell you anyway because any time you're working on something on the top of the engine, you know what you're doing there but you're not able to see all the stuff that's on the bottom that could act up at any time.
Yeah, the internal stuff. Exactly. But that's the reason for a good technician to spend some time going over it before going in. Technicians and the shop wants every job to be as successful as possible.
So they'll want to spend some time with the vehicle before actually going into it so that they can be sure that it would be a good candidate for a lifter job. Okay. Well, I sure do appreciate it. Well, very...
I'll probably get in touch with your shop or an agent, sir. That is perfect. Well, I really do appreciate your call and have a great weekend. Thank you. All right. Thank you.
Okay. The number to call, 800-224-9090. If you have a question about your car, truck, or SUV, you give us a call and you don't run into a huge amount of lifter problems like the gentleman had. But from time to time, lifters do go bad and they can cause a problem.
And if I'm not mistaken, I feel like some of the shops have had that very same problem before. Now, one of the things that I wanted to take just a minute and mention had to do with the transmission fluid on vehicles. A lot of times people forget about transmission fluid. The transmission fluid is kind of working.
Everything's working right. Transmission is shifting good. So you kind of put it out of your mind until you feel something unusual with the transmission.
And sometimes that might be too late. So transmission fluid, it's not uncommon to see it last anywhere from 50, 60. On some cars, even 100,000 miles. But it does lose its properties of being able to lubricate those fast-moving parts.
And when it does, that can start causing wear. And of course, then you get the wear particles inside the transmission fluid. And over time, that can work like sandpaper and cause a lot of wear inside the transmission and cause some major issues.
So the trick is to catch that before it gets to that point. And you can do that by, in many cases, looking at the color of the transmission fluid. If it's kind of a clear color and it's still got the tint, usually a reddish tint on most transmission fluids. But if it's still got that, then high probability, you're okay. Still not a bad idea to change it due to mileage in some cases. But if it's starting to discolor a little bit, and if you put it between your fingers, loses its viscosity, then it may be time to have that transmission fluid change. So remember the transmission fluid.
It can help you a huge amount. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back after these messages. The CNC Auto Show is brought to you in part by Dorman Products and their suspension leaf spring. Another solution from Dorman. Suspension leaf springs will improve vehicle performance in addition to passenger comfort. Learn more at DormanProducts.com And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. If you have a question about your car truck or SUV, you have us call that number 800-224-9090. That's on any Saturday morning.
And we will go over to, let's see here, we'll go to Mike. Mike, you mentioned you may be having some brake issues and you've just replaced your pads and rotors. What's it doing to you?
Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. I went on YouTube and it looked like a fairly simple task to change the rotors and the pads. So I thought, okay, I can do that. And so it runs fine. Driving around the block after I did the job, everything seemed fine, it worked great.
Just driving around town, it worked great. And then a few weeks later, I got out on the freeway and I had to touch the brakes and I had exceeded 60 miles an hour. Now I don't know why 60 would be a thing, but it seems like every time I try and brake over 60 miles an hour, I get really severe vibrations.
And as soon as it goes below 59 and it's back to normal. And I've taken the wheel off and I've looked and I can't see any defect or any warping or the pad's fine. Have you ever encountered anything like this before? Well, I can tell you that what I found on most cars, now this is not every car because they're engineered different ways for different vehicles. But in many times, if I'm trying to make a decision on if a vibration is coming from the front or the back, and I'm doing this without putting a dial indicator on it to check the warpage of the brake rotors and all that. Most of the time I have found that if I'm coming up to a stop sign and I feel a heavy pulsation as I'm coming to a stop sign, then most of the time it's the front brakes that are doing that. But if I'm riding down the road and going 50, 60 miles an hour and hold very slight brake pressure on it and feel a heavy vibration coming from the vehicle, most of the time that's the rear. So now that don't explain, evidently this just started doing this after you did the front brakes?
That's correct, yeah. Okay. And I mentioned different designs, different cars. What type of vehicle is this?
A 2013 Corolla. Okay, 2013. And it's funny. Oh yeah, go ahead. No, I'm sorry. This phone has a little bit of delay, so sometimes I jump in there.
Okay, and what was that you were saying? So the braking isn't coming to a stop. It's like, you know, if I'm going 65 down I-20 and I'm pulling off on exit 199, and so I'm just slowing down to about, you know, 50, 45, whatever, so I can get into the off-ramp. That's the moment that it vibrates so badly.
Like I said, once I get below 59, then it's fine again. Yeah, now that's the case I found just like that is when I found many times it's the rear, but that's not on every vehicle. It kind of depends on which one, how they got the load set up on the vehicle, how much they're putting on the front, how much stopping power they put on the front as compared to the rear. If yours just started it after you put these brake rotors on there, my guess is you've got some bad rotors.
Now that used to be very common. We used to get a set of brake rotors and pads and put them on the vehicle, and it wasn't very uncommon that they would have this vibration. So years ago we would actually even return brand new rotors so that they would be smooth before we put them on the car. Then as time went on they started building rotors better and better. Some people said it had to do with the way they were stacking the rotors years ago, and now they do things to make them know where they don't stack them the same way so they don't tend to warp. Others say that it had to do with the way the rotors were built, and now when they're building them they're much truer than they were before. But if you didn't have the problem before and you have it now, I would recommend going back to the place where you bought the brake rotors from and say these rotors that I purchased are out around and need to be replaced. Now I always recommend also, now of course, before you do it make sure that all your caliper bolts are good and tight, and then if you do put the new rotors on there again, double check your caliper bolts, make sure all that's good. But really the things that you described with it not doing it beforehand, you had to have got a hold to some bad rotors. Is it just bad to try and do something like this yourself?
Do you save it for the experts? Well, not necessarily because you're not good at what you're not able to do it, but you're doing that one brake job every couple of years, and so you don't know what items happen or not. For instance, we might find that if we buy rotors from one place that we're more prone to have problems than if we buy rotors from another place. As a matter of fact, when we buy rotors, a long time ago you used to buy a set of pads and then if it needed rotors because the old ones couldn't be turned, you would just buy the rotors separate. Now they come in a brake kit. We buy brake rotors and kits and knowing one place you may purchase a set that you're more prone to get good ones than another. And it won't necessarily, it can vary from one time to the next, just like at one time we used to return rotors after we bought them. And so now we know we don't have to do that because they fix that issue. So I guess what I'm saying is more that technician would have the experience level. And of course there are a lot of tricks to brakes, like you're supposed to put anti-seize compound on the slide pins to make sure that they don't stick at times. You're able to, but sometimes it has to do with just knowing where to purchase what parts.
And if there are any other tricks along the way, in helping with squeaks, there's a washing procedure for rotors that most technicians do. So I would say it's a good idea, but if you're saving a lot of money, but I realize also sometimes people do things like that not to save money. Sometimes they do it because it's kind of like gardening, it's kind of like playing golf or something else.
They do it, sometimes people do it because they enjoy it. They want to say do it as long, and I'm good with that as long as they're safe. You want to make sure people use jack stands and don't put a jack stand in mushy areas to where it could go down. And that's the reason I love to tell people the safety along with the other, but it's just fine to do it yourself. But you may run into some issues just like you're running into now, every now and then.
But it sounds like you've got a hold to some rotors that are not good. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much for your time.
I just have to say welcome to the mechanical world on that part, because we go through it sometimes. I appreciate it. All right. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you. And the number to call is 800-224-9090. If you have a question about your car, truck, or SUV, you give us a call. And we have, oh, let's see here.
We have Bobby. Welcome to the CNC Auto Show, and what can we help you with? Good morning. I appreciate your show.
Well, I appreciate you calling. I've got a 2009 GMC Acadia, and recently it had a, well, if I found out it blew a fuse, it wouldn't start. It wouldn't do anything. And I checked the fuses and found one blown, and it turned out to be the ECM fuse. I replaced it, and when I attempted to start it, it blew it again. So I put it in a local shop, and they said they had to put a new ECM, PCM, or BCM, or JCM, or something, module.
Something like that. And that did repair it, but since then, it's been skipping. And a simple question, you know, before I, shall I say, confront them with this problem, would that, and it's a brand new module, might have rebuilt, would that module cause it to skip? It is possible. Yeah, a module, it does control each cylinder. Now, years back, it would have been very difficult for a control module to kill just one cylinder, because they used to be all grouped together, and if one fired the other one. Now, they fire individuals, so it is possible for a driver in one to go out. We are out of time, and if you would, give me a call back. The shop will be fine, and I appreciate it very much. Okay, we are out of time, and we enjoyed being on the C&C.
