We do welcome you to the CNC Auto Show. And if you're looking for information on ways to make your car safe, dependable, and to make it last longer, then don't move.
We are here for you. I'm Aaron Clements, here to answer your automotive questions. All you have to do is pick up the phone and dial 800-224-9090 or you can dial 706-863-5800 and that's on any Saturday morning between 805 and 10 Eastern time. And I want to remind you that you can also watch this show live on Facebook.
You give us a call. I also want to welcome car lovers at Newstalk, WEZS in Boston, and KKGX in Palm Springs, California. We are so glad that you jumped on board to ride with us on the CNC Auto Show.
And we like to have a little fun. And one of the things that we do is have a Tech Tip Quiz. And we had a leftover Tech Tip Quiz from the last hour.
And so I'm going to lay it back on the table and hopefully somebody's going to be able to pick that thing up and win the prize package, which includes, and I answered, the Tech Tip Quiz coffee mug. Here's the question. Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route. As she was driving along a road near the beach, her AC stopped getting cold and she called to ask what, called me actually, to ask what she could do. After she told me her symptoms, I told her to try something. She did something on her phone that worked.
She was able to drive the entire two hour trip home with cold air. What does she do? And if you know the answer, you give us a call. Again, 706-863-5800 or 800-224-9090.
Give us a call. And I mentioned that we have been talking about AC systems. During the last hour, we talked about the compressor, the AC expansion valve, the orifice tube, filter dry refrigerant, and a lot of other items on there. So we'll cover a lot more of the items in the AC system, but also some of the things that we want to do is just some other things that may help you stay cooler in your vehicle during the summertime. And one of the things that is a very good option is if you have to park your car outside a lot of times, let's say you go to work and you have to park your car in a parking lot and it stays out in the hot sun all day, you may consider a windshield sunscreen to go.
Those do work. I mean, they do lower the temperature inside the car a lot of times, 10 to 15 degrees. So you may walk out to your car on a hot day and where as normally it might be 110, 115 degrees on the inside. If you have one of these little shades blocking the sunlight coming through the windshield, then you may get down, it may get down to, it may stay about 92, 95, right around in that range. So that's a very good option to think about.
And plus when you have less of that heat buildup inside the car, the interior components tend to last a lot longer. So consider that also. Okay. We'll go over to the phones and we will go over and visit with Nick. Nick, welcome to the CNC auto show. And what can we help you with? Good morning, sir.
I would like to answer the, your quiz today. Oh, absolutely. You know what we need to do though, Nick, we're going to need to put you on stage.
You ready? Absolutely. Yeah. Get on putting on stage is kind of like being on one of those, uh, uh, rides at the fair that kind of shoot you up in the air real quick. Boom. You just blink your eyes and you're up there.
So Nick, you're all on stage. I'm gonna read the tech tip quiz one more time, just to be safe that, uh, we all on the same page, Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route. And she was driving along the road near the beach. Her AC stopped getting cold. She called me to ask what she should do. And I asked her her symptoms. And then I told her something that she could try. And so she got on her phone and she did what I told her and it worked. She was able to drive the whole two hour trip home with cold air and Nick, all eyes are on you. What is the answer to today's tech tip quiz? Yes, sir. So she was driving by the side of, uh, uh, water and the air was very humid.
So you must have told her that you put it on a recirculation mode so that humid air will not enter the air conditioning area and the recirculated air will be a lot less humid and it will get colder. Hmm. You, uh, you a little bit in the ball part there, Nick, I'm uh, what, what would you do if you were driving the scenic route, uh, along a beach, would you be driving slow or would you be driving fast? Absolutely slow, sir.
Yep. You would be kind of going slow. Now, is there anything that could go wrong with an AC system that make would make it not work very well driving slow? See when, when the air coming from the outside to the unit is very humid, so the heat which is removed from the air goes into sort of a, uh, water to be taken out from the air and then coming in.
If you are recirculating the air from the car that is already humidified and that will help in cooling the air instead of getting rid of the moisture from the air. Nick, you are in the ball part, but, and I will tell you that this does have something to do with someone being, uh, driving at different speeds. So you, you, you're getting close. So Nick, I'm, I'm, I'm going to see what the judge is saying. See if you're close enough, but yeah. Oh, Nick, I was concerned about that, that it may not be close enough because the judges just said it's not there.
But I will tell you if you, if that idea hits you again, you give me a call because you, you kind of put us in the right, um, the right area of saying it's something to do with how fast or slow that she's driving. So Nick, you give us a call back. Hey, thank you. Appreciate the call too.
All right. 800-224-9090. Give us a call or 706-8635-800.
If you know the answer to that tech tip quiz, you give us a call. And we're also talking about AC systems. And I mentioned a little bit before about the evaporator, some of the things that the evaporator does and what the evaporator is, is there.
It's normally mounted inside the car. It's a little bit like either a heater core, uh, or a very small radiator. And as the, uh, as the refrigerant goes to the evaporator, it has a restriction. And that restriction, uh, turns the liquid into a gas as it goes up inside that evaporator, and then a fan is blowing across it. And then the, that evaporator gets cold and it absorbs all the heat from the air. And then it blows that chilled air into the vehicle.
And that's what keeps you nice and comfortable. And again, I mentioned before, uh, the refrigerant well, refrigerant over time can get moisture in it. When that moisture gets in refrigerant, it can turn into an acid and that can eat a hole in the bottom of the evaporator. So having the system, a system service normally includes or does include putting the system on a vacuum for a certain amount of time to bring any moisture that's in the system out of there. So things like your evaporator will also last a lot longer.
And then of course, putting the right amount of refrigerant oil in makes the compressor last a lot longer. So keeping the system service, uh, from time to time is a good move. Okay. We will be taking a very quick break, but when we return, we'll be going to visit with George and we will also visit with Robbie and Bill.
We will be right back after these messages. The CNC auto show is brought to you in part by Behrman products, your vehicle, a little sluggish experiencing poor fuel economy. Try Behrman B12 chem tool featuring its exclusive HEST or high energy solvent technology. Behrman B12 chem tool helps clean your fuel system and can result in higher compression, fewer repairs and lower operating costs. Learn more at Behrman products.com We're back with you with the CNC auto show.
We're talking about AC systems and given a lot of tips having to do with that. And we're also answering automotive questions. We have a tech tip quiz laying on the table. I mentioned one thing that I ran into earlier this week, a person come into the shop. Actually, I knew this person, a friend of mine, but he likes to do a lot of the work on his vehicle himself. He wanted us to change his oil and do an inspection on the car. And like we always do, we took a few pictures because of anything that we found that might be needed. For instance, he had a CV axle boot that was busted.
It needed that. But he also has some oil leakage on the back of the engine. And he was asking me what he should do to try to locate what's going on. And I showed, we looked at the picture together and I showed him that it's hard to tell what's leaking below the top part of it because it's running down. So I recommended that he take some of this Behrman, let's see, what is this? B33 engine degreaser and spray that, especially along the backside of his engine so that he could tell if it was a valve cover leaking and running down past the oil pan or exactly what it was. And I mentioned to him that once he cleans the engine off, then the next time it's here, we can look at it and get a much better idea of what's been leaking on there.
So the Behrman B33 engine degreaser is a great product to use if you'd like to do some cleaning on your engine, making it look good. Okay, we will go to the calls and we will go straight over to, let's go to George. Hey George, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. And what can we help you with? Well, I want to try to answer the tech tip quiz.
Oh, there is no try, just do or don't do. Hold on, I think... Well, sometimes you don't like my answer, so go ahead. Let me see, I think a guy named Yoda said that, if I'm not mistaken.
And you must be George Lucas, the director. Okay, here we go. All right, I'm going to read the question real quick again just to be on the safe side. Jennifer was driving back from the beach and decided to take the scenic route. She was driving along the road near the beach. Her AC stopped getting cold. She called me and asked what she could do. I told her, well, I asked her about her symptoms. She told me, I told her to try something. She did something on her phone and it worked and she drove the entire two-hour trip back home with cold air. And George, I'm going to put you on stage. Everyone is looking at you, George.
We need an answer to this tech tip quiz and what is it? Well, since she was going to the beach, obviously it was summertime and hot. Taking the scenic route is often stop-and-go traffic. The car was starting to run hot in that stop-and-go traffic, as it could be. When she called you, you told her to check an app to see if she could find a quicker route home, one with less stops. And she did what she was told because, well, she was married once.
She knew how to follow orders. And that stopped the engine control module from trying to shut down things to save the engine. So it stopped trying to shut down the AC and then she was able to ride home in coverage. Now, what did you say was actually wrong with the vehicle, though? The stop-and-go traffic was causing it to run hot. Why was it doing that?
Stop-and-go traffic, you couldn't get enough airflow through the radiator and to cool things off. Wait a minute. Let me run this past the judges because this is going to be a very, very moment. Hey, George, wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Thank you very much. George, you're a winner.
Yes, absolutely. Jennifer told me that the air would get cold as the car was moving, but not cold as she's at low speeds or at idle. And I knew when she said that that the cooling fans were going to have a problem.
The cooling fans are what moves the air across the radiator and the condenser at slow speeds or when you're sitting at idle. And I told her to go to Google Maps and get on the interstate and keep the car moving. And she did it and she made it back.
And she did end up needing a cooling fan assembly because the motor, the cooling fan motor had actually just gone bad. And so now she's in good shape. And George, now you're in good shape because you're pretty cool yourself, man, because you're a Tech Tip Quiz winner.
Do you feel any different? Oh, man, I just smiling from ear to ear. OK, well, you are a winner.
Congratulations. You stay on the line and they will get us a lot of information and actually take you about 45 minutes. But they'll they'll get all the information. No, actually, hey, George, I will put you on hold.
They're going to get that. And thank you very much for answering today's Tech Tip Quiz. Fantastic. OK, we will go over and talk to. Robby, Robby, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. And what can we help you with? Well, I was going to answer the Tech Tip Quiz.
Oh, Robby, did he snatch it right out from under you? Kind of, yeah, I do have something to do with GPS going a faster route. I do have a question. I am ready for your question.
And what can we help with? I have a 2011 Ford F-150. And recently the wiring between the back door and the door jamb kind of braided. I replaced the wiring harness there.
But ever since I've done it, I've replaced it. My blinker blinks rapidly. My brake light doesn't work. And I've checked the light bulbs and the light bulbs are fine. But then in the mornings, whatever, I do the auto start. You push the auto start, all the lights light up on the back. That's the only time they light up. Ah, okay. But it's the left blinker and left tail light. And what year model is this again now?
2011. Okay, I'm going to put this in front of our research department and put you on hold. And we're going to be right back very shortly with more of the CNC Auto Show. We'll be right back. As we navigate the COVID-19 crisis, O'Reilly Auto Parts is dedicated to serving you. We've been deemed an essential business, so our doors will stay open.
We encourage you to buy online, then pick up curbside. Together, we're committed to getting through this. We are back with you with the CNC Auto Show. I'd love to answer your automotive questions. Give me a call at 706-863-5800 or 800-224-9090. That's on any Saturday morning, 805 to 10.
We've got Robbie on the line with us. And, Robbie, if I'm not mistaken, you've got a 2011 Ford truck. And you mentioned that on one side the blinker is blinking faster than the other. Is that correct? Correct. And the brake light doesn't work.
And the brake light doesn't work. Okay, now, if I'm not mistaken, do you like to do some of this yourself? You want me to tell you a couple of things you could try? Sure. Okay. I can tell you that by far the more common thing that I see.
Now, one side brake light is working, the other side is not. Is that right? Correct. Okay. If you wanted to not, that turns out to be the socket itself.
And if you want to be sure, I don't think those tail light assemblies are very difficult to take out of the car. And I believe you should be able to take, it's the left side that's not working. Is that right? That's right.
Okay. Take the one off the right side and just plug it into the left side. And you won't be able to mount it or anything because, of course, they'll be different. But just plug it into the other side and see if it works on that side. And if it is, you'll know it's that socket.
And usually you can do that. Now, if not, then the next step is you will need to take a wiring diagram and check the power going to that wire. And if you don't have power to the wire, you're going to have to backtrack it to the point to where you're losing the power. And what I found on trucks, do you have a trailer hitch on there? Yeah.
Okay. What I have found in the past is that when a car has a trailer hitch, more often than not, if you're looking for a lighting problem, it often turns out to be near the area where the trailer hitch wires are because it's so common for different things. A lot of times people don't solder the wires that's there. They're not taped up good. They tend to get loose over a period of time. So, one of the first places I would start looking if I was looking for a wiring issue would be right there at where the wiring is for the trailer hitch. Plus, they drag the ground sometimes.
All kind of crazy stuff. So, look in that direction. Always with wiring stuff, I always like to start with the easiest place first or the most likely place first and work my way backwards and coming up there.
So, I'm leaning towards yours being either to sock it or something to do with the trailer hitch area. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. I worked on that yesterday. Well, oh yeah.
That sounded like a great project for this afternoon. Robbie, I appreciate it and appreciate you being willing to jump in there and answer our tech tip quiz and the other gentleman just snatched it right out of your mouth. That was terrible. All right. That's right. He shared this.
Yeah, he did. All right. Have a great weekend. Okay.
The number to call is 863-706-863-5800. If you have a question about your car, truck, SUV, we're also talking about AC units. And there's a lot of things to do with AC units there, but I really want to go ahead and skip a few and mention how important the cabin air filter is because one of the reasons I want to mention that is I see some that are really gunky. I mean, we pull some cabin air filters out of there and it's just all kind of bugs and mildew and all kind of other stuff. And if you think about it, the air is flowing across that into your car. And so you're smelling whatever's inside that cabin air filter. You're smelling it out there.
And it's a really simple and great idea on what they do. Just like your home heating and air system has the filter that filters the air before it goes into the motor or the blower that blows it out into your living area, then the same thing happens on the car. It's pulling air from the outside or from under the dash, blowing it through this filter and into the car. And over time, it gets dust and dirt built up in there and it can cause a problem that has to be changed.
The good thing about cabin air filters on cars, this is most of them, not all of them, is they're pretty inexpensive. And I can tell you, some of them you can change yourself. I mean, some are very easy to change. Now, some vehicles are more difficult. You can get into $30, $40, $50 to replace some.
And I'm sure there's some that's a lot more than that. But some of them are just very simple, almost like changing an air filter on the engine. Just kind of take a few clips off and drop it in there. So consider having your cabin air filter replaced if you haven't. Okay, let's go to the calls. We'll go over to Jim. And Jim, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
What can we help with? I have to tell you, I've been in and out listening to your show because I've been riding in the car. I've missed some of what you said, but air conditioning, since I moved to South Carolina many years ago, has become a very important thing to all of us. I think it's great, especially automotive.
My gosh. But one of the things that I've found as I would buy my used cars, and please excuse me if you've mentioned this in your earlier portions, but I would always take a look in between the air conditioning condenser, the first thing that the air sees when it comes to the front of the car and the radiator that's right behind it, I have found anywhere from nothing in there to huge amounts of grass or debris or nesting material and so forth. And without peeking in that little channel that's between those two, outwardly everything seems to be fine. And just like you were mentioning the cabin air filter, anytime you have a restriction of air flow, you have a handicap of heat dissipation, whether you're getting rid of the heat on the outside of the car or you're getting rid of the heat on the inside of the car on the evaporator. So anytime you can clean that flow up, it's a good thing.
Oh, Jim, that is so awesome. You know, I did mention bugs on the front of the condenser, but I did not mention things between the condenser and the radiator, which you are 100% right. One that comes to mind, it just popped into my mind when you were talking, was a farm truck that we had one time. And the farm truck had running hot issues and the AC just didn't perform like it should. And the technician didn't look there in the beginning. And sure enough, as it turns out, that vehicle had hay from where it was in that farm. It had just sucked a whole bunch of them up between there and cleaned that out. And it helped a huge amount.
So that is a great suggestion to not only look for the bugs in front of the condenser, but look between the condenser and the radiator because you could have some blockage right there. Perfect. Love it. Yeah. Yep. And if you've got an older car that doesn't have a cabin air filter, the same sort of thing can happen on the evaporator. And that can be a little more difficult to look at, but sometimes you can pop the blower motor with four screws and look in there and you can get in there with some proper cleaner to hose that out and clean that rascal out too.
Again, can't see without some digging. Mm-hmm. And Jim, you mentioned in that, give me an opportunity to mention a product we have. Now, we don't tell just everybody that, hey, you need this particular product. It's not something that you do as a preventative maintenance or anything like that. You only do it if someone needs it.
And I like to always let people know it's available either at this shop or wherever they go. But BG Products have this thing called Fridge Fresh, and it's a system for being able to clean the evaporator core very much like a professional HVAC system for a home would clean their unit. You spray the foam all over it, and this comes with a little pipe that goes in to the evaporator, and you spray it down, and that gets debris off of the evaporator. And on some models, you can't get to them, so you have to drill a little hole, and it comes with a kit to cover it back up. But it can run. It's not unusual to see that doing that complete service in the range of $200. But like you mentioned, there's many times, there's a lot of things like that you can do yourself if you like to work with things.
But you're right. In a car without a cabin air filter, the evaporator can get restricted itself. And I think the product you're referring to might perform two functions.
One, debris removal to improve flow. But that might actually have a bacteriostat, I think that's the right word, in there that also attacks that dirty sock smell that home air conditioners can get sometimes. So, if you've got a bad odor, that product oftentimes will clear that out too. That's the reason we have it available.
You're exactly right. That's why we have it available in case somebody has that and says, I just really want to get this smelling fresh again, then we have it. And if you can tolerate it and your passengers can, the last 60 seconds of your travel before you get parked in the garage or wherever for the night, you turn into vents and let a lot of that humidity drain out of there so that you don't have an excessive amount of water sitting in that evaporator for an extended period of time. That'll help clean up any of that odor greatly. I'm going to put you on hold. Let's continue on with tips. Hopefully Jim can hold and we will be right back with more of the CNC Auto Show. And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. We're going to shift this thing into fifth gear because we've got some talking to do. And plus I'm going dirt bike riding this weekend. Can't wait.
It's going to be a lot of fun. Okay. We were talking with Jim and Jim, I asked you to stay just a little bit because you brought up a great point that moisture inside the AC box is part of what can cause mold, mildew, and things like that. And you mentioned something that is a great thing to consider if someone has some smells from time to time in their AC system that they could do.
Mention one more time what that was. Just along the lines of what you mentioned, the preventive thing that I've done is to turn the AC control system to vent on the final approach of a time when you know you're going to be parked for a while, to try to get as much of that moisture out of there as possible. Because when you go to vent, the air conditioning compressor system stops and the compressor system is what generates the moisture in the first place. So you have a little bit of travel time at the end where you're a little more humid, a little warmer than you have been as you've been driving. But the benefit is to dry out the box, and that was one way to keep that humidity down and accumulation down.
And also, I think some cars, if you leave the control on vent when you park, I think it in some cases leaves some of those doors open to the clamping of the car rather than sealing it off so that you'll get a little flow through even if you're not moving and the car is off. I think that helps too. And Jim, I'll tell you, you're always awesome with some great tips. I've mentioned that, and that is a great tip for everybody.
And it's not for everybody. Sometimes some people may have vehicles that drain very well. They don't run into an issue with any kind of mold or mildew smell in the vehicle, but some don't. Some don't drain as good as others. And because of that, this is a method that those that may have an issue and say, well, I want to make sure that I don't have any moisture in my box can do the things that you mentioned.
So great tip, and I really appreciate that. Yep. You betcha. And I heard you used the word dirt bike this weekend. Now, you be careful out there. I will be careful, but I am so looking forward to it. I love riding dirt bikes, and it is ready.
Oh, Jim, you saying that reminds me of something. I want to say thank you to Trevor over at O'Reilly Auto Parts. That joker, I needed a part for that dirt bike. I couldn't find it anywhere. He got on the phone. He didn't have it in stock. He got on the phone and called around until he found me the part that I needed. And even though it wasn't him making the sale, he tracked it down for me, called me and said, this is where you can find it at.
And I thought that was so amazing. So Trevor at O'Reilly Auto Parts was fantastic. And thank you, Jim, for reminding me of that.
But yes, I am going to ride dirt bikes. Well, and you do the same thing for one of your customers. If you don't have it, you send somebody to get it. Just like that movie, Miracle on 34th Street, where they had that book out there, and they'd tell the customer, find it here, find it there.
And all you do is end up really locking in a customer for all the right reasons. Yeah. You and Trevor are going to be tighter now than you were before. Yeah, we will be. And Jim, I really do appreciate the calls that you make to get. You always got fantastic tips, and it's very helpful, and I'm sure that helps a lot of people. And thank you. Well, I listen to this show.
It helps me all along. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Okay, the number to call is 706-863-5800, or you can call 800-224-9090. We're going to go over here and talk to Jeff, and Jeff, welcome to the CNC Auto Show.
What can we help you with? Hey, good morning. Yes, sir. I just wanted to ask if your shop will do a tune-up on an F-150 with the aluminum head. I've been told that only dealers will do that, but do y'all do that at CNC? Oh, we definitely do that. I mean, it's something common that we do. Now, we do have to, in the very beginning, let people know that there is some risk of the spark plugs having a stripping, because if one is pretty much welded in there, there's nothing that can prevent the threads from coming out.
But, we still tell, each time we do one like that, we do give the risk involved. But, I don't think we've had one that we've actually had to, that's actually stripped with us getting it out. Now, we do receive vehicles where somebody was doing it their self, and they got a little rambunctious, and boom, it's stripped out, and we've had to put the repair kit, Dorman makes a repair kit for those.
It's a very nice kit. It works very well, but we hadn't had to get one for one that we stripped out. So, there's some procedures to go. One of the procedures to go with, of course, is warm up the engine, spray everything down with PB Blaster real well, and then it absorbs down through the threads, makes it easier, and then a bumping-type motion.
And the technicians that do that, they've got it down to where they just don't have that issue anymore, like years back. Okay. Well, I appreciate it. I'll be giving you a call next week to get a tune-up done to this vehicle. We would love to do it, and Jeff, I do appreciate your call. Thank you. Thank you. All right, number to call, 706-863-5800. Like I mentioned, we were in fifth gear, so I'm going to shoot right on over here to JC.
JC, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Hey, good morning. How you doing?
I am doing very well, and what can we help you with today? I brought a 2015 Sonata to your place last week. They told me it was a spark plug issue, so during that time, I rode another vehicle that's at my house on my normal route of work, and I stopped at the same gas station, and now I have the same issue with another vehicle. Do you think it's bad gas? Bad gas is really kind of rare now, and I'm not saying it can't happen, but the most common time that we see bad gas, we'll get like bunches of them at one time. Let's say a station was pumping, was filling up their tanks, and the truck that they were getting gas from had water in it, and they did it, and we would get like 10, 15, 20 at one time of people having gas issues, but as far as a station having individual things and it not being something well known for that area would be very rare.
Definitely don't want to say it won't happen, though. Now, what's this vehicle doing to Hyundai? It's in South Carolina, so most people probably wouldn't be bringing it back over this way, is my guess, but just when you start it, it's shaking real bad, and when you ride down the road, it's skipping. It's like not running smoothly. Okay. Well, there is a possibility of bad gas. Now, one thing that can be done, a technician's able to take a fuel sample, and we do that. It's pretty much a simple test.
We just let some gas pump from the fuel rail into a white jar or a clear jar, and we look for contaminants after it sets a little bit, so it's worth testing that, but also it would be another option if you suspect that you might be able to try some fuel additive from Berryman products, that you could pour that in there and see if that makes a difference. Okay. Got to run. Okay. We'll see you next week with more of the CNC Auto Show.
