Auto Correct | All Email Hour - October 2025

I'm Jermaine Flood, our expert is Coach Charlie Belton, ASC, Certified Master Technician, and

it's time for Coach Charlie's Tip of the Week.

You know, we're talking about a pledge drive today.

We're talking about giving money to MPB in order to have your shows on the radio that

you may be able to listen to.

Well, guess what?

I am an advocate of donating to causes that do the community good, and this is

the cause that does the community good.

People call in, you help them, you help them save money, just like the one where it went

from $3,500 to $350 for a repair.

He would have never known that if he did not call in to this show.

So we'd like you to support MPB with your pledges.

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Welcome to AutoCorrect, helping you correct your auto problems.

Our host is Coach Charlie Melton, ASC certified master technician.

I'm Jermaine Flood.

What's happening, Coach?

Well, you know, in the last couple of days, you know, I've been walking, I decided I

better get a long sleeve shirt at 4.30 in the morning because it was cold.

Come on now.

It was 47 degrees.

Sometimes your blood is thin too, like mine.

That's right.

I got out there.

I love this weather.

Yes.

It's just so beautiful.

I've seen the trees, all the leaves are starting to turn colors.

And I'm excited about that because we went through a dry spell one summer and it was like

it was fall in the summer.

Remember that?

Yes.

I remember that and, you know, it killed everything.

We had the big freeze and then we had the big drought, you know, and it's so

nice.

It's real fall outside.

It is.

Let me tell you about real fall.

Real fall has to last longer than two weeks.

I think we've accomplished that and we are in a true fall here in the state.

You know, if I had to wear a long sleeve shirt, I don't usually wear a long sleeve shirt,

especially not to walk.

I know.

That lets you know what the temperature was outside.

Yes.

All right.

Well, we've got a little temperature going on in here today, Coach.

Today we're going to be answering emails to help steer everybody in the right direction.

So our email address for questions is auto at mpbonline.org.

But before we jump into some emails, we got a follow-up that you need to do, don't we?

Yes.

We need to finish out.

I was talking to Parker.

He called in last week and we were talking about adapted crews.

Really what it uses in order for it to work.

You know, we talk about adapted crews.

We use radars.

We use cameras.

We use sensors.

And his question was, how does it control the braking system?

That was right.

It controls the deceleration and acceleration, but it controls the braking system.

It uses sensors, but it's an electronic controlled braking module.

So it has an electronic control module on it in order to stop the brakes and to control

the brakes.

Okay.

You don't fill it in the pedal or anything.

All you do is fill it, the vehicle is slowing down in order.

So if you have adapted crews, you're going to have an electric braking system module

on the master cylinder in that area.

And then to explain adaptive crews again, that is where the vehicle can cruise, but also almost

in the sense of like an electric vehicle or autonomous like, you know, driving vehicle.

When you're coming up on a vehicle and it's not going the same speed you are, it starts

slowing down.

Your vehicle starts slowing down due to the radars and the sensors that it has.

And so it's really looking at the vehicle and judging its speed.

And it uses all the deceleration of the gas plus the braking system.

It's not fully driving for you, but it's just braking for you.

Well, it's helping you.

Yes.

So you don't run up on that vehicle.

And if you get too close, it's going to stop.

It does a abrupt stop.

It'll literally stop the vehicle, but it'll do it where you don't have a wreck.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, Parker, I hope that helps a little bit more because you did, you gave a good

explanation that last go, but this was an even better one.

So, right?

Just had to, you know, Parker, you've been on my mind all week long because I knew I

didn't answer that question completely.

The way you should have.

All right.

Well, Parker, I hope you heard that.

And I hope that helps.

Let's get into some emails, coach.

This first one though, follows up on a phone call that we receive that we love

to receive every time we get it.

But it was the Mini Cooper phone call from Pam Pivas from Fixit 101.

And this is a follow up to her phone call.

This is coming from Anna.

Anna sent in, she said, I was listening this morning and a woman named, and she

didn't know her name.

She said, Pam or Pat?

It's Pam, but she called in about her 2017 Mini Cooper having an issue driving

in the rain.

What she described is exactly what my Mini is doing.

I was yelling at the radio, yes, this and can't believe my luck in timing

as I usually only listen while driving.

Please provide her with my info.

I'm absolutely willing to join her in this fight.

It's become a thing.

Change.org.

You better watch out.

So it literally feels like you are about to drive off the road, she says.

It is my only vehicle and I can no longer drive in the rain.

Like her.

I can't sell it in good conscience.

So she says, thank you all so much for what you do on the show.

MPB and NPR as a whole.

I'm thinking on the Mini Cooper just to go back to it just a minute or so.

Mini Coopers, if it is a well-known problem and they have not had a recall on it, I would

still go to the manufacturer and you're going to fight for it.

A lot of manufacturers just send you to someone and they ask you a few questions

and they never get back with you.

You agree with the will enough, you're going to take and get some information.

But you know, these minis are hard.

I don't know how much grease you need to get to Mini Cooper on something like this because

they have so many issues.

Well, you know, it's BMW, so if you can get a hold of the BMW because that is the manufacturer

of that vehicle and, you know, Mini Cooper is just a subdivision of BMW.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I'm in the fight with you, Pam and Anna, because I had to put

my Mini Cooper down, but I didn't want to.

You put the Mini Cooper down.

I had to put the Mini Cooper down.

You put her to sleep.

Yeah.

Just put her to sleep.

And then you know what?

I saw her resurrected on the road not long after I had put her to sleep and I was like,

no, that's that one's mine because it's the only, you know, it was one of the only

ones that year, that colorway.

Well, the person who bought it probably says, dang, I wish I would have left that

Mini Cooper on the lot.

They probably did.

Sorry.

That's it.

I would have left it on the lot for somebody else.

You're right.

All right, coach.

Here's another email with the follow up.

So we had a phone call come in that you answered a question to Beth Hamilton.

I think it's Tom, though.

Tom Hamilton gave us a phone call about his 2011 Nissan Murano.

So I'm going to run this back a little bit so you remember he's asking.

He was asking, is there a way to get the airbag warning light off to go off on

the dashboard?

It came on for no reason about two months ago.

The Nissan dealership said that the dashboard warning light cannot be turned off.

And then to repair, it was at a cost of $3,269.

I don't know if you remember some of this considering the age of the car.

The mileage was at 170,000 and the Kelly Blue Book value was at 4,500.

He was asking, should they make a repair?

Also he had been told that it was okay to drive the car, but the airbag will

not deploy in an accident.

So he called us right and you advised him on the show live on the phone to visit their

local junkyard to find this part to make that airbag light go off.

And he says, as you advised on today's auto correct radio show, we visited our local

junkyard.

The owner was glad to source and order an RH seat bottom and sensor for our 2011

Nissan Murano.

This will correct the blinking airbag warning light problem.

The repair will be made.

He advised that it may run $400 to $500, which is way less than that $3,000 from a Nissan

dealer.

We want to thank you so much for advising us.

Your show is very helpful to consumers.

San Tom.

Well, thank you, Tom.

You know, anytime that you can go to a dealer, when you're trying to buy new

parts, I had the situation with my sister in Houston, Texas.

The same thing.

I don't know exactly what she was driving, but it was going to cost her like $5,000

to fix that airbag.

And I told her what to do.

They did not take my advice.

They went and sold the vehicle back to the dealer and traded it in or whatever.

But you know, you can find these parts out there.

And like you said, they can source them from different sources, not in, if it's

not in the state of wherever you are, they will go out of state and they will

find them and they will ship them and you'll just pay for them.

You can, you know, it's easier that way sometime.

Yeah.

And it saves you a lot.

It saves you a lot of money.

It saves you a whole heap of money.

You know, not saying everything's going to work all the time, but you have a better

chance than paying $3,500.

Right, right, right, right.

Well, you help them again on the phone.

So he wants to just say thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

All right.

Coach, before we head into a break, I'm going to pose a question at you.

And then I'm going to give you a time to think about it when we come back from the break.

So here's an email coming from Grayling.

Grayling says, thank you, coach, and the auto correct staff coach.

I have a 2011 infinity G37 coupe with 38,434 original miles on it that I purchased from

my brother.

He took it to the shop and they're recommending a transmission fluid change.

No issues.

I say no, please help.

So I'm going to pose that to you.

And then we're going to head to the break.

I think I can handle that one.

All right.

If you've got a question, send your emails to auto at mpbonline.org.

Today we're answering emails.

Is your car under recall?

I'll tell you how you can find out next.

You're listening to AutoCorrect with coach Charlie Melton.

I'm Jermaine Flood.

If you want even more AutoCorrect, find our podcast on all podcast platforms for

your smart device.

AutoCorrect is heard on MPB Think Radio Thursdays at 10 a.m. with the replay Saturdays at 11

a.m.

Coach, I hate to tell you, but here's some recent recalls and all of them are the

same make.

It must be Ford.

I don't know how you guessed.

It must be Ford.

Well, you know, Ford, you know, they're trying for a world record on recalls.

And they have, I think, accomplished that feat.

They're going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records.

World Handle medal.

They're going to get the medal, the trophy, the certificate, the ribbon, the ribbon.

All right, let's get started.

Ford's long year recalls continues with the latest out for 2992,000 F-series Superduty

trucks affected by faulty backup cameras.

Effective trucks include model year 2020 to 22F250, 350, and 450 Superduties.

The 360-degree camera system, that was, you know what, I want that, and that was on that

Ford Mustang, that electric one that you were driving.

That 360-degree camera system may not display a rear-view image properly in certain lighting

conditions, increasing the risk of a crash and as a fixed dealer are updating the

image processing module software for free.

Have you ever thought about electronics, how they are supposed to improve our life?

And I think on vehicles, they have not improved.

They have made our life more stressful.

You know what I want to know too, especially with mechanics.

I know there's probably a corner of mechanics who deal with imaging processing

module software, right?

Well, you know, I'm 65 years old almost and I've never seen one of those

imaging processors, but I know what they are.

Most odor mechanics don't really work with a lot of these electronic parts.

And they'll just work on older vehicles.

So is it IT?

Who works on these parts now?

No, it's the newer technicians.

Oh, OK, OK, they're coming through.

It's the newer technicians, the older ones are just giving up.

You can go to some mom and pop stores, garages and all that.

They won't work on anything but older vehicles.

I hate to tell you that Pete Tyre, one of our good friends,

he works on older vehicles.

He does not really work on a whole bunch of new vehicles.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But there's still a good split of, you know, people driving older vehicles.

Oh, yes, you know, you've got to have somebody working on those.

You've got to, you've got to.

Well, then then you can just take your car in for a recall

and get them to fix that software for you.

And they may do it over the air.

Yeah, that could that could be as well.

All right, let's get into our second Ford recall of the day.

Just a couple of days after that F-Series Super Duty truck

recall for the cameras, the automaker is now recalling more than

1.4 million Ford and leaking vehicles for another similar issue.

This includes 2015 Explorer SUVs, 15 to 16 Taurus sedans,

C-Max hybrid hatchbacks, escape SUVs, 2015 and 19 Flex SUVs,

2016 Fusion sedans, 2018 and 19 Taurus sedans,

2019 Fiesta hatchbacks, 2020 Mustang Sport cars,

as well as the 2015 MKZ Lincoln sedans, 1519 MKT SUVs.

The rear view camera in these vehicles may appear distorted or blank

when the vehicle is in reverse, decreasing driver visibility

and increasing the risk of the crash to resolve

dealers are inspecting and replacing the rear view camera for free.

So that's the whole camera.

Well, I just think about all the recalls, you know, and the fix is there.

Just do away with that and just use mirrors.

That's it. The fix is there.

That's it. That is it.

All right, so we've got another Ford recall that's recalling

fifty nine thousand Ford and Lincoln vehicles over an issue

with the engine block heater that may lead to a fire

that includes Explorer SUVs, 16 to twenty three

Fusion sedans, nineteen to twenty Ranger pickups, nineteen to twenty four

escape SUVs, twenty to twenty two Bronco and Bronco Sport SUVs,

twenty one to twenty four Maverick pickup trucks, twenty two to twenty four

as well as Lincoln MKC SUVs, sixteen and nineteen

and Kosair SUVs, twenty to twenty two.

The block heater in these vehicles may crack and leak coolant

causing the heater to short circuit when plugged in.

Electrical short circuits increase the risk of a fire.

Owners of the effective vehicles may notice coolant

spots on the ground below the vehicle, an overheating power train,

a warning light for low coolant odor or smoke.

They're advised not to plug the block heater in until the remedy has been performed.

Well, most of those are going to be up north because we don't really get

oh, yeah, hold enough time here for block heaters.

But most of them will be up north.

And like I say, coolant, that's one of your main signs that you can see.

You know, the block heater is probably made out of plastic

and has a sensor in it to heat it up.

And once they crack, coolant starts coming out of the side of the block.

Well, they are replacing that block heater for free, as it thinks.

So that's that. And then finally in Ford recall news, not not car recalls.

Just for just for they are recalling three hundred and thirty two thousand

plus examples of the Mustang sports car over an issue with the front seatbelts

that may increase risk of injury during crash.

This includes twenty fifteen to seventeen Mustangs, water and road salt

make a road the front seatbelt anchor pretensioner cables causing them to break.

This may prevent them from restraining an occupant in the event of a crash

increasing risk of injury and to resolve dealers are replacing

both front seatbelt anchor pretensioner assemblies and remove sections

of the carpet and underlayment that contact the cables as necessary for free.

If that makes any sense, all those Ford recalls and not one of them.

My truck is not involved.

I like that.

Well, that is that.

You can find out if your car is a past a recall by going to the National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, nhtsa.gov, Ford slash recalls

and inputting your VIN or find their safer car app.

We're answering emails.

We're taking email questions.

Our email address is auto at MPB online.org.

OK, let's get back to that question, coach, that twenty eleven

infinity G 37 coupe, thirty eight thousand miles on it.

Purchased it.

He took it to the shop.

They're recommending a transmission fluid change.

They're that the Grayling says no.

OK, this is not thinking on transmission changes in the first place.

The vehicle manufacturer recommends that most transmission fluid

should be changed at 50,000 miles.

That's what most people, most manufacturers, OEM says.

But that vehicle has thirty eight thousand miles.

So that means it hasn't driven too much.

What I would do, I'd pull the stick of the transmission stick

and see if it's good and red and see if it doesn't smell.

If it doesn't smell burnt, I just keep on driving.

Just keep on trucking.

I wouldn't worry about changing it because, you know, a lot of

times if there was a problem with the transmission,

once you flush the fluid out, maybe that problem is going to show up.

OK, you know, but this one here shouldn't have no debris in it.

It shouldn't be burnt.

It should be usable.

It should be good to know.

And if it's a sealed transmission, you know, some transmissions

are lifetime fluid as well.

OK, you don't have to change it. OK.

So you won't have to worry about all that.

Right. That's good stuff.

Look at the owner's manual.

I know that it's been in there for a while, but you can take

and pull the stick if it's good and clean, it doesn't smell burnt.

I wouldn't worry about it.

All right, Grayling.

You may be on to something with that with that heavy no.

It was a capital N-O on this.

He said no on this email and I say no.

Right.

Coach agrees.

Our email address where you can send questions is auto at

mpbonline.org.

We're answering your emails.

What's in the news?

Six car mods that hurt resale value.

I'll tell you more next.

Thank you for listening to AutoCorrect on MPB Think Radio.

Coach Charlie Melton, retired instructor from

Clinton High School's Automotive Tech Program is our

expert host.

I'm Jermaine Flood.

AutoCorrect is heard on MPB Think Radio Thursdays at 10

a.m. with a replay Saturdays at 11 a.m.

In the news, it is six car mods that hurt resale value

and five that improve it.

And Coach was trying to guess on the break.

Well, you know, modifications can help the

vehicles resale value and they can hurt the resale value

according what you're putting on that vehicle.

That's right.

So here's six car mods that hurt resale value.

This is all decrease it after market exhaust.

Explain why, Coach.

After market exhaust, I guarantee you I walk at 4.30 in

the morning every day and I hear a race car driving

down Lakeland Drive.

It has to be 10 miles away and I can hear that

exhaust pipe.

A lot of people don't want this also in there

because it changes.

If you go to another state, you may not be able to

get the tag and registration because it may not

pass APA.

OK, second one, custom paint and wraps.

Well, nobody wants your paint choice.

I think that's their paint choice.

That's not your paint choice.

You know, a lot of times you just want the plain

Jane car, you know, if it's red, white or silver or

black, you know, right, right, right.

Something that has something red on there and

you're having to drive somebody else.

Oh, somebody drives by.

Oh, that's I know who owns that car.

Well, they don't own that car no more.

Yeah, or like you love your dog so much, you got

his face plastered all over the car.

I don't even I don't have that kind of doll.

I know.

OK, up next, the third one, non-functional

aerodynamics and body kits.

Those flare kits at the bottom and that spoiler on

the top, you know, you're really

catering to a special group of people.

You know, you limit your customer

consumer group out there because you have all

this low body stuff, you know, where street

huggers with little lights in it, your limit, your resale.

They say giant carbon rear wings and all type of stuff.

Right. That's spoilers and all that.

Yeah. And this is only if you would want to resale, though.

Right. This is only if you may think down the road,

I would want to get rid of this.

Well, sooner or later, you get you're not 16 no more.

Right. Right.

Right. Or you don't like red anymore or whatever.

You know, you go out of that phase.

Yeah, you're right. You're right.

All right. So this is the the fourth one.

It's custom engine modifications.

If you think about custom engine, could be a cooler intake.

Could be electric fans.

It could be all kinds of different things that you're putting on.

You could have red, your whole engine, red,

with wrapped in red or orange or blue.

You know, if you're everyday mom and pop does not want to see that,

you know, once again, you're going to grow out of that stage

and somebody else is going to have to buy what you got in there.

And then maybe everybody can't really fix what you put in there.

Maybe you put a chip in there and nobody knows you put that chip in there

and you can't go back to OEM and it's going to cost you some money

to change it back out.

So to follow up on that one, custom interior modifications.

Well, custom interior, different lights, you know,

now you can buy vehicles, new vehicles that will change the color of the lights

and stuff in there.

And, you know, a lot of people just want the regular old cars, you know,

and maybe we don't like the carpet,

shag carpet in the vehicle or whatever, you know,

so you got to be careful of what you do with the interior as well.

And you mentioned this one, but you mentioned the word OEM,

installing non OEM parts.

Well, once again, any time you go after market, you know,

they're not going to be the manufacturer.

Maybe they be not up to the specs for manufacturers.

And so doing nine, nine manufactured parts, OEM parts.

A lot of people look at it, you know, because there's a lot of people

that take their vehicle right back to the dealer always.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, here's some here's five that will improve it.

Upgraded tires, of course.

Yeah, if you go from, you know, tires have a different type of tire,

tire rating, speed ratings, low ratings on them.

And so you get a better tire on there.

That vehicle is going to be worth more money.

And high quality sound systems.

You put a Bose in there.

I may buy it.

That's how you put a Bose in there, you know, whatever the Lincoln has

or the Cadillac has or something like that.

One of those high dollars systems there is going to make it sound better

and people will get more money for it.

OK, performance mods from reputable tuners.

Once again, those are the chips that they put into the computers

and, you know, just make sure they're where somebody can work on them

that they you have all the paperwork with it

and make sure that somebody else could do the tuning as well.

And then manual swaps on factory automatic cars.

You're talking about changing from a manual to automatic transmission.

Yeah, yeah, you can do that.

You know, a lot of people like standards,

but you just don't see standards around all the time.

Now, OK, OK, I love a standard.

And then finally, the fifth one, fixing known issues from the factory

would help it. Yeah, if you that's why these recalls

you didn't make sure you take your vehicle in for the recalls

because they're still going to be there.

Check engine lights come on.

You need to make sure those check engine lights are turned off

but not just turned off but repaired. That's right.

Well, I'll include a link to this story in our show's podcast description.

Today we're answering emails.

You can email questions to auto at mpbonline.org.

Let's get back into them.

Coach, here's an email coming from Michael.

Michael says, Hi, my Camry has a cartridge oil filter.

Can it be retrofitted to work with a spin on filter?

Well, not really, because the cartridge filter usually is at the top of the vehicle.

You know, and sometimes they're on the side.

But no, you really couldn't do that because they don't make the housing for it.

Unless it's according to if you can go to infinity, I mean, to Lexus

because Toyota and Lexus are the same thing and see what type of filter

they have on it because, you know, a lot of a lot of those are interchangeable.

But I wouldn't change it out to a spin on. All right.

Well, Michael, I hope that helps. Here's another email.

This one's coming from Mary. Mary says, Good morning.

I have a question regarding my 2011 Toyota Camry, which has 107,000 miles.

Car has always been serviced by local dealership.

I recently noticed an oil type leak in my driveway.

I took my car to the local Toyota dealership, which advised

my car needs RR engine main seal, valve cover gasket and tube seals.

I would like another opinion on the oil leak matter.

Where can I take my Toyota car for another opinion repair?

Maybe possibly in the Greenville or Jackson area.

You know, first of all, the rear main seal and the valve cover

gaskets and your tube seals.

That means the tube seals where the spark plugs go and they have little

seals so the oil can't get in and really they come off the

valve cover as well to keep it oil from getting into your spark plug hole.

Now, all of those are not going to go bad at the same time.

I hate to tell you that.

So what you want to do is go to a Jackson.

You know, there's a lot of different ones.

You know, I really don't want to recommend anyone personally

because, like, say, if something goes wrong, you're going to come back

to me and say, Well, you recommended these people.

So I don't really don't like to do that.

You know, but there are a reputable dealers out there that will help you.

I know there's several women in the Jackson area just tried to make sure

that you do a little research on them and make sure that they can do what you need done.

All right, Mary, I hope that helps with that Toyota Camry.

All right, this one's coming from Paul Morgan.

He says, Dear Coach, I've been considering a purchase of a 25 Honda

CRV hybrid, which does not come with a spare tire.

You may have answered this before.

So my apologies if this question is redundant.

I've researched both run flat and self-sealing tire technology

and was not able to locate any self-sealing tires in the size for this vehicle.

The size is 23560R18103H.

I have read on owner forums that the run flat being a heavier tire rides

harsher decreases mileage, et cetera.

It might also wear harder on the bearing and brake components as well.

I have a question into the dealer whether going to different tire

such as this might avoid the warranty as well.

Right now I'm considering a non-hybrid since it comes with a spare.

I hear the RAV4 hybrid comes with a spare, but my tall son will not fit in a RAV4.

Have you heard or read any news as to whether or not Honda plans

to modify the tires for the hybrid in a future year model?

Thank you, Paul.

Well, I quit buying Mercedes for one reason and one reason only

is because I had a flat in Russellville, Alabama, I mean, Arkansas,

driving down the road with three doctors in the car.

And I told my wife, I said, oh, we can fix that flat in 15 minutes.

I got out and there was no spare tire.

It cost me $1,000 to $1,500

because I had to have the car towed.

I had to have it.

I had to get hotel rooms for three people.

I had to do all this stuff, cost me my near $1,500

because I didn't have a spare tire.

So what I did after that, I talked to the dealer

and I made the dealer buy me, not buy me, but give me a spare tire

because they said mine did not come with a spare tire, but others did.

So what you need to do is talk to the dealer and see if there's any way

that you can get a spare tire for that vehicle,

because that's the only way because they're going to tell you

there may not be a place for it.

But, you know, that that is my experience without having a spare tire.

You better get one, Paul.

You better give the spare tire.

I never went anywhere else without a spare tire.

And I did buy a Honda HRV because it had a spare tire.

Well, Paul, I hope that helps.

Today, we're answering emails to help steer you in the right direction.

You can send one to auto at MPB online dot org.

This is AutoCorrect.

If you've missed any of the program, listen to the whole show

from AutoCorrect dot MPB online dot org.

AutoCorrect is heard on MPB Think Radio Thursdays at 10 a.m.

with the replay Saturdays at 11 a.m.

and at 11 a.m. at Southern Ribony, Kids and Teens.

I'm Jermaine Flood.

Our expert is Coach Charlie Melton, ASC, Certified Master Technician.

And it's time for Coach Charlie's Tip of the Week.

You know, we're talking about a pledge drive today.

We're talking about giving money to MPB

in order to have your shows on the radio

that you may be able to listen to.

Well, guess what?

I am an advocate of donating to causes that do the community good.

And this is a cause that does the community good.

People call in, you help them, you help them save money,

just like the one where it went from $3,500 to $350 for a repair.

He would have never known that if he did not call in to the show.

So we'd like you to support MPB with your pledges.

That's right, Coach. That is right.

And you know what?

People really do appreciate you and all of our other expert hosts

for giving them sound advice and information.

So thank you for helping us help everybody out here in public media.

You know, I do this to help people.

That is my only concern.

And my only thing I want to do is help consumers and help the public

not spend so much money when they have these repairs.

That's right. Well, thank you, Coach.

All right, let's help somebody else right now.

We've got to help Robert with his 2008 Scion XD.

He's had a slow start, no start issue for about six weeks.

It's got 225,000 miles on it.

He says when it quit starting, battery and starter were replaced.

All was well for a bit.

Now it's hard to start again.

Seems like it's worse as the engine warms.

Otherwise, car runs fine.

Advanced Auto checked yesterday and said the voltage at starter was low,

but alternator, battery are fine.

And he thought sometimes while trying to crank the switch, the starter,

sticks keeps turning, cranking after I have tried to move key to off position.

OK, well, first of all, Scion is made by who Toyota?

OK, so that's that's a Toyota manufacturer.

So what you need to do on that Scion, the first thing,

even though you replace the starter, you replace the battery in that thing

and you check the alternator, you know, you said that the voltage

was low at the starter. Yes.

So what I would do is check the battery cable, the positive battery cable

going to the starter from the battery.

It gets corrosion up and under the insulation.

And when it gets corrosion up in the nation,

it takes the voltage away from the amperage away from the starter.

OK, so that would be the first thing I would start.

If you checked everything else, I would check that battery cable.

Check the battery cable and possibly that slow start, no start issue

may remedy. Yes. OK, because the corrosion is

drawing the amperage is taking the amperage out of the battery.

OK, and it's not getting to the starter.

OK, so what do you need to change cable?

You would have to change that cable. OK, but what you want to do,

you want to look at it and make sure it's not corroded because usually

that what happens is that a lot of times you can't see the corrosion.

I would just skin the wire a little bit and make sure it's not green.

OK, all right. All right.

Don't get get that corrosion off of there.

Thank you so much for that email, Robert. Here's another one.

This one is coming from Tiffany in Oxford.

Tiffany says, hi, I have a 2010 Hyundai Elantra wagon

and had to have the starter replaced.

The mechanic told me that the new starter needs to line up with the flywheel

and to line them up exactly.

The transmission has to come out.

The implication was that just live with it as it is.

And I guess replace the starter as needed.

He said the starter has a lifetime warranty.

So I've got the new starter,

but it doesn't seem to be grabbing the flywheel properly

as it makes a noise when I turn the key as it catches kind of a grinding noise.

Yesterday, it took several turns of the key to get it to grab.

The engine did start.

But for a minute, it seemed like I might be stranded.

I haven't contacted the mechanic today to ask about my experience

yesterday and I trust what he told me.

But should I take it back and ask him to adjust it?

Or does the transmission need to come out to get the starter and flywheel lined up?

Well, first of all, you shouldn't have to line the starter up

with the flywheel because the hose and the engine or the where the boat holds

go and the starter, they line up automatically.

The only other problem that you may have is a bad flywheel itself.

So the teeth might have hit the flywheel and that's that grinding noise.

You see, you hear and that the vehicle may need a flywheel

and the transmission would have to come out to replace the flywheel.

But that does not typically happen on all these newer vehicles.

Most of the time it's the starter itself.

But if it has to have shims, you know, the shims would come with it

from the OEM and what I would do, I would go get an OEM starter

because they're not going to pull the transmission to line up a starter.

I've never done that a day in my life.

So that's what he was telling her, though.

That's that's not true. OK. OK.

The only way you're going to pull the transmission and

is the flywheel bad. OK. OK.

Because it has teeth on there and when you put the starter in,

it should line up regardless if it has even if it has to put shims in it.

Sounds like to me he just wants to pull a transmission

and charge you for the labor of it. Yes. OK.

Well, Tiffany, don't let him pull that transmission.

And I hope what coach gave you as a as a as advice helps.

Well, have somebody check the flywheel, pull the starter

and check the flywheel and see if it's bad. OK.

And you don't have to pull the transmission to check the flywheel.

You just turn it and you can look at the teeth on the flywheel.

Let's debunk these things.

Coach, you did it. You did it today.

I thank you so much.

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Auto Correct | All Email Hour - October 2025

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