Car Repair Advice Live Over The Air You Can Call Us and Ask Questions
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Callers and hosts trade practical used-car and repair advice during a live call-in. They walk through how to price a used car by matching condition to mileage, then pivot to electrical gremlins—starting with a “Christmas tree” dash and troubleshooting that can point to a body control module. The discussion also covers security/anti-theft programming considerations, plus safety cautions around counterfeit airbags. Later segments shift to parts sourcing, collector-plate rules, and buying guidance for engines and CVTs.
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02:31
Term
low mileage
“Low mileage” means the car has been driven fewer miles than most similar cars. People often pay more for that, but the car’s overall condition still matters a lot.
03:26
Concept
condition match the miles
“Condition match the miles” is the idea that a car’s physical state should make sense relative to its odometer reading. A low-mileage car that’s beat up (or a high-mileage car that looks new) can signal issues like poor maintenance, body damage, or odometer discrepancies.
03:51
Term
in a wreck
“In a wreck” means the car was in an accident. Even if it’s been fixed, a wreck history can reduce value and can sometimes hint at hidden damage.
03:51
Term
rust
Rust is when metal starts corroding. If a car has no rust, it usually means it’s been protected from moisture/salt and is worth more when you sell it.
03:59
Term
premium
A “premium” here means you pay more than average because the car is especially nice. Rust-free and accident-free cars often get priced higher.
A “Bonneville” is a Pontiac sedan. The point here is that a clean, rust-free 2004 example can sell for much more than a typical one because buyers pay extra for condition.
05:22
Company
AutoTempest.com
AutoTempest.com is a website that helps you search for used cars. It lets you filter listings so you can find the right one faster.
06:12
Term
Christmas tree of lights
That phrase means the dashboard lights all come on at the same time. It usually points to an electrical problem, not just one broken sensor.
06:26
Term
airbag lights
The airbag light tells you the car’s airbag system has a problem. If it’s on with other warning lights, the issue could be electrical or related to sensors.
06:43
Term
fuses
Fuses are safety devices that protect the car’s wiring. If something electrical isn’t working, checking the fuses can help find whether a circuit is blown.
07:11
Part
battery cables
Battery cables are the thick wires that connect the battery to the car. Disconnecting and reconnecting them can sometimes “reset” the car’s electronics so warning lights go away.
07:31
Part
body control module
The body control module is like the car’s main computer for the convenience/electrical stuff. If the dome light, trunk release, and warning lights act up together, the BCM is often the part to check.
08:02
Term
scanner
A scanner is a tool that connects to the car’s computer so you can see error codes and what the car is doing. It’s how you figure out which module or circuit is acting up.
08:30
Term
grounds
In automotive wiring, “ground” is the electrical return path to the chassis/body. The host is describing a failure mode where the BCM provides power to a circuit but fails to “ground” it, so the lights/outputs never activate.
08:39
Term
programmed
Programming means the module has to be set up to work with that exact car. If you install a used one that can’t be reconfigured, it may not control things correctly.
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Now here is the Under the Hood Show podcast. This is Under the Hood.
Welcome to the Under the Hood Show. We are glad to have you with us.
Russ Evans is here to answer your automotive questions. Thanks for joining us under the hood.
Shannon Nordstrom is here to answer your automotive questions.
Welcome hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune up. I sense that.
Is that... I didn't recognize that. I sense that.
Voice. Is your voice the same? Puberty.
Just unfamiliar maybe. I haven't heard it in a while.
I apologize. It's probably going to happen again but we'll get through it.
I'm Chris Carter here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150. 866-594-4150.
Got some calls coming in. They've been waiting to get on so I don't want to make them wait
while we find out what you were doing last week. That's kind of interesting I thought.
Let's talk to Al first. Al, you're on the Under the Hood Show. What can we do for you?
Yeah, I just think a little information from you guys but I tell you what. I bought my granddaughter
of car first school when she went to college about four and a half years ago and she just
graduated but anyway she's been driving it and I bought it from a friend of mine
that had 47,000 miles on it and anyway she passed away so I bought the car from my granddaughter
and she took really, really good care of it this lady before but anyway I got it from my
auntie and it's really like perfect distance and she got the soul.
Al, hold on a second. We're losing you there. Losing your signal there. Hold on a second.
First of all that is an extremely low mileage car when he got it and second of all it served a
very good job. It got the daughter through college and now it's got 80,000 miles on it,
87,000 so 40,000 miles driven in college. It's a lot of college driving but we don't know
where that was at or what it was. Let's try again. Yeah, keep going. Yeah. It was a local
I was a mechanic and she lived close to me so it is an actual mile and like I said I bought it
from a friend of mine his mother had it. So what are you thinking? What are you wondering?
Well, I'm wondering what a guy should ask for because I had a 3.8 for driving the work and
I drove it over 500,000 miles that car. Well Al, I think you've got a vehicle that is a nice,
here's what we don't know and you know this is something only you know because you're looking
at it but is the car, does the car's condition match the miles? I mean is the car look nice?
Is the body solid? Is it not all beat up? Is it mint? Is it nice or is it just low mileage?
Is there because there's a difference? How would you answer that question? I'll tell you what.
It is mint condition. There's no rust. There's no scratches. It's never been in a wreck and I know
that's a car that you can ask a premium for. Yeah, you find out what other models just like
it are selling for and you ask more. Yeah, because that car, I mean I'm not... Start high. Just sitting
here right now just like we do. Nothing in front of us but a notepad. You know in 04 Bonneville is
not the dream car that a college kid says, hey can you get me an 04 Bonneville for college now
today? They'd you know they'd want something probably a little smaller and a little easier to
get it out of the parking lots but... We've had a couple of our customers pick up the Bonneville
and the Savor, the 02, 03, 04 and 5 right there and they've spent $7,000 to $10,000 depending on,
well right but also to buy one depending on the shape they're in because they know the reputation.
Yep, so I think that that car is something that you definitely could be rust... You might have just
had my thoughts. Somewhere in that... Most people are going to say what's an 04 Bonneville,
I want $25 or bucks. No, this is a different 04 Bonneville. This 04 Bonneville would command
probably $5,000, $7,000, $10,000. I'd have to look and see what the current market is.
It's a premium car. You'll find them out there for sale. I'll say this, Al, if you look on the
internet, if you search for for sale 2004 Bonneville's, you're going to see a bunch of cars with a bunch
of range. You're going to be at the top of that range. Whatever they're asking is about, right?
I mean that's the easiest way to do it. That one of the places we've looked is AutoTempest.com
because of all the different filters. You can just go by price, search by highest price first,
lowest miles first and find it and you'll be able to... There's so many cars on there,
you'll be able to find one. You'll find one that's similar. But do not be afraid to ask a premium
price for that car if it's as you say in that low mileage. Al, thanks very much for the call.
Good luck. 866-594-4150. Let's talk to Bill. You're on the end of the hood,
show Bill. What can we do for you? Well, I have a problem with the 1998 Buick
park has a 3.8. Kind of like the last color, good car and everything. I had started it up
and I had gotten the Christmas tree of lights on my dash and I just kind of felt that I either
had a bad battery or maybe an alternator had it checked out. They said I had a bad battery,
put a new battery in it, but I ended up also having my airbag lights stay on. A lot of the lights
went out, but my dome light doesn't work, my trunk release doesn't work. I had...
You know, I checked all my fuses, of course, first under the hood. There's some
tough ones to get at under the dash that was in the back of the under the seat. I also had swapped
around or really, I can't remember the name. It was like a T-A-J or something like that.
That made no difference. I talked to somebody that I do bring the car to once in a while.
Normally it'd be my own work. He said try pulling the battery cables off again, but this time leave
them off a little bit like I did before, but touch the two cables together and see if that clears it.
It did not. I'm thinking it's the body control module and let's say I'm just missing something.
I just don't see that kind of thing go bad on a car like that.
Well, then you're not us. I've put in at least 50 of those over the years.
Oh yeah, just don't see them anymore around, but when we did, that was a popular item.
That body control module would fail a lot of times just from changing the battery,
disconnecting it, putting a new battery and all of a sudden now it's not working.
That's no fault of the battery or putting it in. It's just the fault of the car when it shuts down.
It doesn't reboot when it's time to restart, but it can be checked. You can get a scanner
plugged into it, read it, open the body control module page and push the trunk button. See if it
shows input. If it shows input, but no output, the body control module is bad. Look at the dome
lights. Does it say that the dome lights that you got a door open, but you don't have any dome
lights and you've got power to them and ground? There's your problem. The body control module
grounds that there's power through the orange wire that powers them all the time, and if it's
powered but that body control module is not grounding it, then that's your failure right there.
So it's got to be programmed when it's installed. I think if you put a used one,
cannot be programmed in that car, only a brand new one, but if you plug a used one into it,
you could pick one up in a U-Pullet yard and then you're going to own it because it's going to be a
test part. I did pick up a used one for $30, but it said that when I was reading on Lyon,
I think because of the age that you could reprogram it, but you don't think that you can.
We've never been able to reprogram one, just brand new ones and those. Some modules are
programmed, some are not, but when you could put it in and use it for a test part and see if the
trunk works. If you plug it in even without programming, you should be able to push the
button and get the trunk to open. So if the trunk opens, then you know that that's your failure right
there. Could you get fortunate enough if you found a car that had the same options and put it in
there that it might function and work correctly? The things that don't usually work are fog lights.
There's a few things that won't work. You can put it in and sometimes they'll work if the car will
start. That one's got a chip type VAT security system on it, so it may it may run, so it does
and all your stuff works. You could be fine. So Bill, you have another one. Have you just not
put it in yet because you heard it wouldn't hurt you? You haven't programmed it or anything,
so you have an extra one? Yeah, I just had my wife pick one up at one of them car dash part places
and I have not put it in. She picked it up yesterday. It said that it had to be programmed
when I read on the internet or the car won't start, but I know you're talking about the chip and the
VAT system and whatever. I'm going to plug it in and see what it does. I didn't want to do it myself.
Yeah, there you go. So plug it in and I'm not going to hurt anything. And if your trunk works,
I can always go back to my old ones and that car will start. Oh yeah. Do you know what the one
that was purchased, what it came out of? Because there's a bunch of them that use the same part
number. Well, they didn't give me a 1998. It said 2000 on the Park Avenue,
minus the 1998 Park Avenue. Yeah, same circuitry, same setup inside the car. And that's what we'll
run into sometimes. There's a lot of modules that are programmable in those early cars,
but it's changed. What Russ has been finding is doors have been getting closed here, there,
over there, as far as what's available for programming on certain things. And not exclusive
to whatever tool someone might have or whatever access someone might have, our personal experiences
that we haven't been able to recently. But if you have that correct part number and it's out of a
another Park Avenue, I'd plug it in and give it a try and see if you're not going to hurt anything
else. It might work, but at least it'll give them the trunk test too. Bill, thanks very much for
the call. Good luck. 866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood
show. You were gone last week and you were somewhere interesting. I was. If I wasn't
going to be here, it's most likely somewhere interesting. That's debatable, but go ahead.
No, I'll debate that with you. It's probably interesting or else I'd be here because I like
being here. But I'm interesting to you, but not. I mean, yes, for you, it's more interesting,
but there are times where that's not. Okay, I'll tell you where I was. Yeah, do that. Then I'll
get back to that if we need to. No, we were in Washington, D.C. for our, it was always an annual
event for the Automotive Recycle Association, but with COVID, it got stopped. And so we
respawned the event here a couple of years ago for our annual hill days. And I remember going
there as a, well, I guess probably a 30-year-old for the first time. I got to think about, but
you start putting ages to this stuff, it makes you wonder. But going there for the first time and
what we do is we get industry leaders and industry members from around the country.
And it's not an uncommon practice for fly-ins, that kind of thing. So we get together and we go over
legislative positions, things that affect our industry. And then we go and we approach our
congressional offices and we visit and we tell our positions and our asks. And occasionally,
we get to meet with the senators and the representatives themselves, depending on the
schedule. Otherwise, you're talking to a key staff member or a legislative aide and
you're dropping off information that you hope gets moved to the next step. But everybody's going
to their respective states and asking about the same issues at the same time, trying to find out
if there's people that'll assist us, people that are willing to co-sponsor bills, people that might
know somebody in the EPA in this particular case, trying to make the right connections.
And so that was our hill days. It was tied together this year with something that our
executive director had an opportunity for people that signed up early and members of the executive
team to be able to go out on a boat and sit in Chesapeake Bay outside the Naval Academy because
it's graduation time and watch the Blue Angels practice right over our heads. That was, you
know, I know you two are both way more into this stuff than I am. I almost felt wrong that I was
there instead of you two because... Well, Chris did. He felt wrong. Because I mean, I know you
guys just really, really enjoy that stuff, but I think it's obviously cool. And we were able to be
out there for the whole day and they did an early practice and then they came back and kind of did
the show in practice formation. They had, you know, the things that you guys probably know
that I didn't. And in this particular case, they had the VIP playing up that was flying near the
squadron given the rides. There was an F-35 that came out and played. That was just incredible to
watch. You know, I didn't, you know, study the technology like you folks, but just watching
that thing coming in just dragging with the hatch open from... And then it just stops and
starts rotating. I was like, oh my goodness, that is some crazy... That's just technology we get to see.
Right. But that was something that was an opportunity that came from the event.
But then probably just getting back to another opportunity is when we got there on Monday,
I had flight problems getting in and we had a meeting that I was going to try to make
with our executive director, Vince Edavan and myself, to meet at the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration. And we met with some folks that are in the defect department that had been
there for a long time, 20-year employees, and we had an opportunity to meet with them. And
we didn't know exactly what it was about. They had reached out to us as far as in our
our ARA Trade Association, and they wanted to know more about our certification program.
And I'm the chair of the certification committee, and I've helped design the certification program
that we have today for our industry. And they were wanting to know more about it. So my flight
got delayed and delayed, and I was texting with Vince and trying to figure out who could go with
and our consultant, Sushals, who was awesome, and she happened to be in town already. She
decided to go with Vince. And I got in a little bit early from my delay, and so I texted, I said,
hey, I think I could make it. It was it was going to be a 130 or a 230 meeting. And I said,
I think I can make it. And so got off the plane and got a taxi. That was the quickest thing I could
find. And with my luggage, I went over to the Department of Transportation headquarters and
sat down in a meeting with people from the higher up to NHTSA. And what they ended up wanting to
talk to us about is just how we can partner with our industry is kind of how it came out in the end
to help further uncover Chinese counterfeit airbags. Okay. And they have information they
showed us that was crazy. The amount of deaths when these particular units deploy is the percentages
are extremely high. And they're having bad actors smuggle these into our country. They said in doll
houses, they found them, they're they're they're coming in as just ignitors and people are putting
them together here in the States. And what they showed us in this particular instance is that
the igniter is encapsulated in a case from a properly made airbag. This particular Chinese
knockoff looks the same. If you picked it up, it feels the same. But the canister on the back,
instead of being properly welded together, is a screw. It's it's it's screwed on like you'd
screw on the top of a coffee cup, a coffee mug, and it's screwed up into there. And so when it
when it deploys, and it expands, the threads don't hold and it just blows apart. And it's
very, very bad. And so they're just wanting to make sure that with our recall certification
process that we have within our industry for people that are part of that,
it gives us an opportunity to be able to sell our airbags like on eBay and places like that. If
you're one of the currently it's 200 give or take recyclers that are in that program. And just trying
to walk through it to make sure that we have every opportunity to catch something like that.
And what training is needed, what other resources they can they provide. And so that is what
was my first meeting when I got out there. It was very, very,
it was pretty neat to be part of. And they actually pushed two other meetings once we got there to
talk to us longer about it. And they're also in charge of child seats and some of that stuff too.
And so it was just just it was for a, I don't know, from a farm kid from South Dakota, I felt
kind of neat sitting there. I think that's interesting. And so you hear about the Takata
recalls and that is very, very low percentages of problems, but real stuff. I mean, it's happened
where they've had those inflators not correctly deploy and cause pressures that cause, you know,
shrapnel to come as they blow. But this is a different situation with these Chinese replicas.
And so they're very concerned about taking advantage of that situation. Exactly. Exactly.
And so, of course, an argument that was strongly made by our group and myself, especially was,
you know, the recycled airbag that we take out of a car that is non deployed, the non deployed
OEM airbag is the best alternative for people that are trying to fix something on a budget.
Not everybody can go out and buy the brand new thousand dollar airbag. So they leave them out.
So they leave them out or they look for cheap things. So as much as they might want to curtail
some of those things, it's in the best interest of the public to have those factory designed
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