Auto Correct | Owner's Manual 101

David in Horn Lake, he's got an oil change question for Coach.

David, you're on with Coach Charlie.

Thank you for taking a look.

I got a question.

Did you get a picture to either start World War III or settle it?

I got a friend.

I got a friend that swears up and down.

We have a bit.

We get some borderline being ugly or whatnot.

He tells me I'm dumber than dirt, and they pay me a quarter.

No.

Because I want to take my vehicle to an oil change place,

and they change the oil.

The controversy comes about this.

His theory is, when you go to an oil change place

and you put a dry oil filter in there,

the oil has to hit that dry oil filter like a sponge,

and you don't get any lubrication

until the filter reads saturation and able to pass through.

He says that causes engine wear damage,

and he swears up and down, but I'm

causing my engine to wear prematurely,

and my counter is, that may have been 30 or 40 years ago,

but the new technology, new cars, new oil pumps

and whatnot, it doesn't matter.

So settle the dispute, please.

Ding!

And now we're in.

Ha, ha, ha.

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Welcome to AutoCorrect.

Helping you correct your auto problems,

our host is Coach Charlie Melton, AKA Professor Charlie

Melton, who's an ASC certified master technician

and a teacher of all things automobiles.

And I'm just germane flood.

Good morning, coach.

Good morning, but I don't have

all those things behind my name.

I know, but I had to add it today.

You just added all kinds of things to it.

And because, of course, we're in owner's manual 101 class

with the teacher of the century of automobiles.

Well, you got to think about, you know,

we're talking about owner's manuals.

And just like when I came in this morning,

I looked at your owner's manual

and the first thing I told you

is that you've never opened that owner's manual.

It's impeccable.

I mean, Paige is crisp.

You can smell the new on it.

That's right.

And it's just impeccable.

Before, listen, before we get into owner's manual one-on-one,

me and you have got to discuss

that Mustang EV you drove up last week

and that coach let me drive.

Yes, I did.

And I gave that EV back to him.

I only drove it for 14 miles in one week.

Coach put that EV right at the driveway

and pushed it back to him.

He didn't even drive.

He just, hey, take it.

I did say take it.

I said, give me my truck back is what I said.

So I got to drive it.

And yes, coach was right.

You take your foot off the pedal.

It stops moving like you've come to a complete stop.

You don't even know it's running.

That's how quiet it was.

The Mustang, of course, wasn't there

because I drove a Mustang for years.

Right.

It don't look like a Mustang.

It doesn't look like a Mustang on the inside,

on the outside.

It does have some hops.

I call it some hops.

I was in a parking lot.

I tried as hoppy as I could be when I pushed on the gas.

It did have a little pep to it.

That's one good thing.

It took a little second to get to the pep.

You could feel the, and then the...

Right, then it would.

It was a little hesitation.

Yeah, yeah.

But it was a learning experience.

You know, if you're going to drive an EV

and that's great, a lot of people drive them,

but you just got to learn how to drive them

because all EVs, when you take your foot off the pedal,

they will stop because it takes the power away

from the motors.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for giving me that field trip lesson.

You're so welcome.

Last week, and here's the thing.

There's a correlation between EVs and gas-powered vehicles.

They all come with owner's manuals.

Every one of them comes with an owner's manual.

And it might have told me that this car

is going to completely stop when you pull your foot off the pedal.

It probably would have, you know,

because owner's manual is just full of so much information

that we just don't look at.

And we say, well, what is this?

Well, owner's manual will tell you what is this.

That's right.

So here's the write-up.

A car owner's manual is a vehicle-specified

instructional guide that provides information

on how to operate, maintain,

and care for a particular car model,

serving as an essential resource for any car owner

to ensure safe and reliable vehicle ownership.

And if you want to discuss this with us today,

or if you have a question, we're in owner's manual,

one-on-one class.

Our email address for questions is auto at mpbonline.org.

The phone number is 1-877-MPB-RING.

That's 1-877-672-7464-RING.

Class is in session.

Let's go, Coach.

Well, when you start talking about owner's manuals,

there's so many different books.

You got supplement owner's manuals.

You got tires owner's manuals.

You got the vehicle itself owner manual.

You got the radio owner's manual.

You got your warranty owner's manual.

So you got about five or six different books.

And I know that you're saying,

yeah, you can go Google all this.

Well, no, you can't Google all of this

if you don't know anything about it.

You have to know what you're talking about

in order to Google it.

Right.

Your owner's manual gives you all that information

that we were talking about last week

as a young lady called and said that her radio wouldn't work

and she said she replaced the fuse.

Well, I looked at my owner's manual and I told her,

I said that it may have more than one fuse.

Mine has four for the radio.

Yeah.

In different places in the owner's manual.

So when you go along and you look at all the fuses,

you got to read out beside the other

and it will tell you what goes to the radio.

Yeah, yeah.

So you got to take and be able to understand

when you start reading on your manual.

And like I said, we're going to start right from the top

and that'd be the table of contents.

If you start looking at the table of contents,

we're talking about the first one in mine

is the instrument cluster.

And it says warning lights and chimes.

All those warning lights and chimes are right there.

It tells you what they are.

Now it doesn't tell you how to fix them

or what made them come on,

but it tells you every one of your lights.

Okay, message center.

If you got a message center,

it'll tell you about the message center.

And then your entertainment system.

Everybody wants to know about the entertainment system.

Well, that's the one that you're gonna have to study up on

because that's the thickest one.

It's got all the buttons and the whistles in it.

It has all the buttons and the whistles.

You're talking about what type it is.

How do you, the USB port

or if any other one's satellite radio,

if you got a satellite radio in there

or you have sync or whatever Siri

or whatever you have in your vehicle

is gonna tell you how to use it

and how to pair that phone.

I wanna know, the question that I have is

because Abram, I know he reads his owner's manual.

Abram, have you cracked yours open?

Is yours as-

I'm an avid reader.

Whatever.

I'm an avid reader.

They need to have owner's manuals

at the book festival this weekend.

Yeah.

So you'd pick up one.

That's right.

But yeah, mine is literally impeccable.

You cannot beat to my pages.

And mine you can see has grease on them.

Coach has got chip grease on there.

He's had it just in his hands all the time.

And I know Liz, she always tells me

that she reads her owner's manual.

She gets in there and tells me different things.

Liz is a reader.

She will read this owner's manual to tell you

anything about her vehicle.

Yeah.

And then too, Liz is the type

that'll find something where if you didn't see it,

it was a free thing that they were gonna give you.

That's right.

Yeah.

She's that type.

So if we get into, let's just say,

mine comes with navigation and multimedia system,

owner's manual itself.

That's that second book that we just talked about.

Or the complimentary book with all of these books,

because I've got six books for my Lexus.

But this is my navigation

and multimedia system owner's manual.

It does say it has a quick guide

where you can just get through quickly

or you can go through the basic functions.

The navigation system,

the audio and visual systems,

the voice command system,

information, phone, the Lexus inform system.

And so all of that's in here.

And I probably would use my radio

and everything a lot better if I've read this.

If you read it, well, driver's control.

A lot of people when they buy new vehicles,

they know nothing about their vehicle.

They don't know how to drive it.

They don't know what this does.

It takes them two or three, four months

in order to say, oh, I found a new button.

What does it do?

Yeah.

Well, guess what?

Your owner manual tells you what it would do.

And, you know, we talked about locks and safety

and how in security, how to get out of that vehicle.

We talked about that last week.

Well, guess what?

That's in there.

Locks and security.

Anti-theft, keys, locks.

It has all that in there.

Safety restraint, airbags and child restraints.

All that is in your owner's manual.

And, you know, and you start talking

about what type of wheels you have,

what type of engine you have and transmission.

Well, that's not really gonna be

in the owner's manual, you're telling you what kind,

but you got another very, very important piece of paper

that needs to go with your owner manual.

And that is that sticker

that tells you how much that vehicle is worth.

Now, that is the one thing

I did not put in my owner's manual pack.

But I think, Coach, it's in the car.

I have mine right here.

And it tells you everything.

It tells you how much warranty you got on what.

Did you know that when you buy a vehicle

from the dealership that they warranty the tires

for 36,000 miles?

No.

You do?

Did not know.

As long as you, if you have a bumper to bumper

36,000 miles for the first 12,000,

they're gonna give you 100%.

Then when you need the next 24,000,

they'll give you 60%.

And the last part, they're gonna give you 30%.

So.

All of that's in there

that possibly nobody even read.

Yeah, because they could've been getting

their tires prorated

where they went out and bought a new tire.

Yeah.

Now, do they get defected?

Sure they have defected.

Those recall tires that you need to know

what type of tires you have on your vehicle.

That's on the sticker.

It's on the sticker on your door.

It's in your, on the sticker that we have

that's going with the owner's manual as well.

Okay, driving.

Well, everybody says, well, I know how to drive my vehicle.

Well, owner's manual says they want to tell you

how to drive your vehicle

to make it work a little bit better

and where you can use a longer.

Okay.

I cannot wait until we can get a little bit more in depth

especially inside of some of these sections in the book.

Cause my book listed out really easily

and it gives you kind of the quick contents guide

where even like, let's just say for safety and security

it has the main topics listed

even before you peel back in there

and it says child seat, theft deterrent system and more.

And so once we get into some of this

we'll talk about some of this

and I'm excited about this.

The phone number is 1-877-MPB-RING.

That's 1-877-672-7464.

If you want to go to class

or if you've got a question

send your emails to auto at mpbonline.org.

We're an owner's manual 101 class.

Tuition's free.

Yeah, it's free.

It is free.

Just tune in.

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

on your smart device.

AutoCorrect is heard on MPB Think Radio Thursdays

at 10 a.m. with replays Saturdays at 11 a.m.

Here are a few.

It's just a few.

A few is four for me today.

Recent recalls.

The first up is Stelanus latest recall

affects more than 91,700 examples

of his Jeep Grand Cherokee 4XE plug-in hybrid SUV

and involves a software issue

that may cause a loss of drive power.

Effective vehicles include model year 22 to 26

Grand Cherokee 4XES.

A software error within the hybrid control processor

may result in the loss of propulsion

increasing the risk of a crash.

That sounds like when you take your foot off

of the gas on that Mustang.

That sounds like Jeep is almost catching up

with Ford this year.

Well, here's the fix.

There's currently no remedy.

But it's under development.

So yeah, they're getting close.

But right behind that one,

the latest recall from Ford

affects more than 1.4 million vehicles

from both its luxury,

both it and its luxury arm, Lincoln.

The issue involves the rear view camera

which may display a blank or distorted image.

That's light work.

That is light work.

Hey, look to the left.

Look to the right.

Right.

Look to the rear and you wanna see what's behind you

and beside you.

You know what?

Look to the left and look to the right.

Look to the rear.

You'll see what's in sight.

I was, we were getting close to a ride on that one.

I felt that one coming on.

Okay, so here's the effective vehicles.

It's 25 to 17 expeditions,

2015 to 18 Edge and Transit Connects.

2015 to 19 Super Duty F250, 350 and 450

as well as the Mustang.

The 2016 to 19 Super Duty F550 and the Transit.

The 2017 to 19 Econoline and the 2019 Ranger.

Effective, Lincoln's include model year 2015

to 17 Navigator SUVs and 2015 to 19 MKC SUVs.

The rear view camera may display a distorted

or blank image when the vehicle is in reverse.

Turn your head around.

Reducing the driver's visibility

and increasing the risk of a crash as a fix.

They're replacing that rear view camera

as necessary for free.

You know, they could just put like an animation on it

or something when it goes out that would just play a cartoon

or something for you.

Like a cute cat.

That's right or something.

Yeah, something that just says, yeah, I'm no longer here.

Yeah, a little cute cat or something.

That'll just, people will just be driving down

the highway on reverse then.

I can't believe that.

You got a cartoon going the whole time?

Let me show you something.

Let me show you.

The kids start crying.

Turn that on again.

We ain't never going nowhere, I see.

All right, here's another recent recall.

Mazda is recalling a certain mild hybrid,

certain mild hybrid variants of its CX-70 and CX-90

over an issue with the vehicle's fuel gauge.

Effective vehicles include model year 24 to 25 CX-90s

and 25 CX-70s.

The issue is with the fuel gauge

in the instrument cluster,

which may display an inaccurate reading

and you need to know how much gas you put in there.

This could result in the vehicle

unexpectedly running out of fuel,

installing, increasing the risk of a crash.

You know, Coach, my dad, you know, back in the day

when, you know, instrument clusters would just go out.

Go out, yes.

Daddy taught me the way to know,

I guess, how much gas you've got in the vehicle.

I cannot remember that,

but it was like you took, you know, you filled it up

and it was whatever you filled it up on

and I don't know how long you drove

but he was like, if it don't work, do that

and then you'll figure out, you know,

where you should be.

Do you know there is a section in the owner's manual

that tells you that?

Really?

How to calculate your fuel?

No!

Yes.

Ah!

There is a section here that says

how to calculate your fuel miles in your tank

and how much you're getting a mile for gallon.

Does it really?

Yes.

Well, I thought Daddy just knew

because he was smart.

Well, Daddy did know

because it probably wasn't in there back that time.

He was smart enough to maybe even read that name, maybe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it's in the manual.

That reminded me of this.

That's a fix.

So that's in the manual.

That's in the manual.

Okay, so to resolve this issue,

dealers are updating the body control module software

for free or you can go into your owner's manual

and figure out how much gas you got left in that car.

Right.

And finally in recall news,

Toyota is recalling 62,000 examples

of its BZ4X electric SUV

as well as, where do they get these letters from?

As well as RZ300E and RZ450E electric SUVs.

You know, they all mean something.

BZ4X.

That's an easy 4X, so you can remember.

Yeah.

It's over an issue concerning windshield defrosters.

Effective vehicles include model year 23 to 25 BZ4X

and RZ450E SUVs and 24 to 25 RZ300E SUVs.

A software issue in the electrical control unit

may prevent the windshield defroster

and effective vehicles from removing frost,

ice or fog from the windshield reducing visibility

and increasing risk of a crash.

As a fixed dealers are updating the programming

of the effective electrical control unit.

They'll also inspect and replace

the electrical climate control processor,

I mean compressor as necessary for free.

But there's the easy fix, easier than that.

Call the ice scraper.

What if it's on the inside though, coach?

Is that on the inside?

Cause the ice don't get on the inside.

No, ice doesn't.

But I have a hard time.

They fog up.

Yeah, I have a hard time getting my windows

defogged properly.

Okay, well, like there's always a fix.

Yeah, I've got a hard time doing that properly.

You can find out though, if your car has a past recall

by going to the National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration website and inputting your VIN number

that's in htsa.gov for slash recalls

or you can find their safer car app.

We're in owner's manual 101 class.

We just got checked about gas mileage

from Professor Coach Charlie Melton.

We're also taking your vehicle repair questions.

Email us at auto at mpbonline.org.

The phone number though, if you wanna give us a call

like Joe in Mobile, that's 1-877-MPB-RING.

That's 1-877-672-7464.

Let's go to Joe in Mobile, Alabama.

He's got a 2000 Nissan Rogue transmission question.

Joe, you're on with Coach Charlie.

Hi, Coach.

The transmission, I mean, the car runs, the motor's good,

and but it only goes slow.

You can't take it on the highway.

You can go like in the neighborhood, you know,

going slow, but not on the highway, but what?

And I'd call to try to find out about getting a transmission

and ensuring you have difficulty finding one.

Yeah, being that old of a car, you know,

once you think about a transmission,

it sounds like it may not be shifting gears

because it sounds like if it goes slow

and you put it in drive and you press on the accelerator,

does the RPMs pick up and the vehicle just don't,

it just goes the same speed.

Have you noticed that?

That the engine speeds up but the vehicle don't move?

Right.

Yeah, okay.

So that means that most likely that it's slipping

on the inside, maybe the torque converter may be bad,

but it sounds like to me that you have a problem

with the transmission itself.

Maybe a silo noise, not making it shift into another gear,

you know, because you do have silo noise

in that transmission as well.

And what I would do, I would go ahead

and put a scan tool on it

because the scan tool will tell you

what's happening to that transmission

will give you a lead of what's going on in that transmission.

So, but put the scan tool on it first

because I'm sure it has a check engine line on it

due to the transmission not working properly.

Yes, definitely.

Yeah, so put a scan tool on it.

All right, thank you.

Yes, sir.

All right, thank you, Joe.

That, can he go into the owner's manual

for any of that beforehand?

If he's got any questions?

Well, he can go to the owner's manual

and find the specifications of what type of fluid

goes into that transmission,

but not how to put the scan tool on it, you know.

Right, right.

This is for do-it-yourselfers.

Here is just for the owner that don't know anything

about their car, that's really,

that may not be mechanical inclined in this,

maybe for people that do it yourselfers as well.

You know, so the owner's manual has different levels

of what, according to what you're doing.

Yeah, and speaking of that,

mine does have a section called do-it-yourself maintenance.

It's got listed underneath that hood,

positioning a floor jack, engine compartment, tires,

tire inflation pressure, wheels, air conditioning filter,

which I guess you can DIY, electronic key battery,

which is hard.

I've almost tore up my key fob on the monster

trying to do that myself.

I don't, I'm just rough.

Checking and replacing fuses,

headlight aim and light bulb.

So it sounds like I can touch a little.

You could touch some of the stuff in here.

There's like checking your oil,

it tells you how to check your oil,

tells you the maintenance of the type of oil

it takes, transmission fluid, battery.

It tells you the warning that battery's put out gas

and you know, that you don't worry to do it.

It tells you how to get the acid off your hands

because, or if you spill acid on the battery.

It talks about battery relearn.

This is very important that a lot of people say

they get their batteries changed at the outer part store

and then the car goes crazy.

Well, guess what?

In the owner's manual, it talks about battery relearn

that the vehicle has to relearn how you drive.

Okay.

Step by step.

And you would think something's wrong with it.

Right.

Yeah, you would think something's wrong.

And in the owner's manual, it tells step by step

how to make it relearn.

Yeah.

How far you gotta drive it,

how far it, how long it has to be an idle

for that battery to relearn.

Right.

It talks about different types of coolants, what not to mix.

You know, a lot of people go in there and say,

well, what type of coolant do I need?

Owner's manual tells you exactly what it is

and tells you not to mix certain antifreezes

with other antifreezes.

Yeah.

There are some tips in there that will save you money.

Yes.

And save your vehicle

that you probably didn't even know were in there.

So we're talking about all of that today.

The number is 1-877-MPB-RING.

That's 1-877-672-7464.

When we come back, coach,

I've got a couple of little tidbits that came

in my owner's manual pack

that I think will make it a little bit easier

on a couple of things,

especially thumbing through 455 pages of owner's manual.

Our email address where you can send questions

is auto at mpbonline.org.

We're at owner's manual 101 class

between your car repair questions.

What's in the news?

Why your car is more efficient when you drive slower?

Wants to do that.

I guess we need to.

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.

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In addition to listening to the show on that app,

click on the support button and make a contribution.

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Excuse me, in the news,

why your car is more efficient when you drive slower?

Now, this is kind of focusing on EVs,

which is one that I was in the last week.

But it can kind of go over for gas vehicles as well.

So they're saying, you're worried about range

and you're looking at gas prices

and trying to maximize how far your dollar gets you.

And maybe you saw a Chevy drive

or a Silverado EV drive for about 1,000

or so miles on a single charge

and you're wondering how they did it.

Well, the answer is simple.

Unfortunately, it's not practical.

You can maximize your range easily.

You just have to never be in a hurry.

Driving more slowly will increase your range.

And it's all based on physics around the equations

that deal with drag.

And drag can be calculated with formulas

that I'm not gonna read on here right now, right?

But drag is, it can be broken down like this.

Automakers love to brag about reducing the coefficient

of drag in their vehicles,

making them more slippery in the air

and that's a goal according to the equation.

If all other variables are equal,

drag will scale linearly

with the car's coefficient of drag.

Coach, do you know anything about drag?

Well, the main thing that they're talking about,

if you notice that we used to have square vehicles

and now we have sort of rounded vehicles,

while the air will flow over the rounded vehicle

better than does a square vehicle.

And that will cut down the drag

because it doesn't matter if it's an EV or a gas,

you're gonna get better fuel economy

if you have less drag, even going faster.

And that's why it says EV is going slower

because of the drag and it takes more power

from those motors and from the battery

to cut the wind resistance.

Yeah, so they say increasing a vehicle's coefficient of drag

makes it harder to push through the air.

Increasing its speed makes it much harder

to push through the air,

far more so than anything else in the equation.

It's not something you can get around with engineering,

it is what it is.

And it's literally, you just need to go at slow speeds

with the biggest contributor

being around record-breaking range.

It's not that hard and it's not that complex,

but it's very inconvenient if you were in a rush

like I was this morning.

And that just means go slow.

Yeah, drive slow, everybody.

Yeah, and I don't really drive slow.

Me either.

I drive fast a little bit when I need to, just a little bit.

I drive the speed limit.

Yes, we do.

Yes, you gotta drive the speed limit.

That did not sound like the truth at all.

That was not convinced at all.

I did get a ticket several months ago going too fast for sure.

Yes, we do, Coach.

I'll include a link to this story

in our show's podcast description.

The number, though, is 1-877-MPB-RING.

That's 1-877-672-7464.

If you've got a question and we've got one on the line

from Curtis in Flora,

he's got an owner's manual oil change question.

Curtis, you're on with Coach Charlie.

Yes, the owner's manual says I should change it

every 7,000 miles.

But when I take it to the oil change place

and they put the stupid up there,

they'll put 3,000 and sometime they'll put 5,000.

So should I continue with 7,000?

Well, most of the time on the newer vehicles,

even some of the older vehicles,

they have a oil light that comes on

and tells you the mileage of when it needs to be changed.

Some of them are 7,500.

Some of them are my, believe it or not,

my wife's Mercedes was 12,000 miles before it was changed

because that's what it says on it, okay?

That's when the light comes on and says

you got 10% or whatever left range to change that oil.

You need to change the oil according to how you drive.

Stop and go driving.

I would change it more than what it says in the manual.

If you're driving nothing highway,

then you can extend the time that you change,

the interval that you change the oil.

But it's according to how you drive,

even dusty weather or stuff like that

where air dust and all is gonna get in the oil

then once again.

And I do understand what you're saying

because I just had my oil changed

and it says 5,000 miles, okay?

But that's not what the book says.

The book says 7,500.

So it's according to how you drive.

Okay, I also have another question.

Let's say I get the oil change

and I probably drive it maybe seven, eight times in two months

and then I get in the car

and it says oil change soon.

Should I change the oil or?

No, so you're not going very many miles in it, right?

Okay.

Right.

Okay, just like I did on mine,

I got 12,000 miles on my truck, okay?

This is the second oil change

and I've had the vehicle for two years almost.

So you see where I'm going there?

I don't drive it enough to have their oil changed

even with their sticker.

So if you're not driving the vehicle very much,

you just change it with that vehicle

whenever it says change it.

Don't go by the date, go by the miles on it.

You know, because, you know, just say if you have it

for, you know, a lot of people say,

well, I'm gonna change it every six months.

Well, if you don't drive it every six months,

if you don't drive a whole bunch,

the oil's still good

because you haven't contaminated the oil.

Okay, thank you for the information.

You're so welcome, thank you.

Thanks, Coach.

You know, I was literally trying my best to find mine,

but maybe I'm gonna get there.

For the oil?

Yeah, I'm just, I was making it, you know.

Go back to the back of the index

that we haven't talked about.

And I did, I did.

But maybe I'm overlooking it.

I mean, we're gonna go to a phone call.

Okay, let's go.

With Jim and Jackson and I'm well Jim has dropped.

He wants me to find my oil maintenance guide in here.

And I'm just having a hard time.

You know what?

That's a good time for me to talk about these quick guides

that also.

Pivot, pivot, go.

Pivot and go.

So if you don't wanna thumb through

or possibly, you know, these quick guides

may have in what my oil range is,

there is owner manuals, quick guides.

Coach has got the best quick guide

cause all he's got is a fold out pamphlet.

My quick guide still has content section

and pages, but not as many pages.

It only has about 100 pages versus 500 pages.

And then there's also an eOwners manual.

So I can actually put this disk into a computer

and see the owner's manual on my computer.

So this does make it a little easier

when you're trying to look for something specific

and you just don't have a lot of time

to be thumbing through.

But I'm a fine mind.

Once we go to this phone call

and with David in Horn Lake,

he's got an oil change question for coach.

David, you're on with coach Charlie.

Thank you for taking my call.

I got a question that you could pick from there

either start World War three or settle it.

I got a friend.

I got a friend that swears up and down.

We have a dead, we get,

it gets on the borderline being of you or whatnot.

He tells me I'm dumber than dirt

and they pay me a court.

No.

I want to take my vehicle to an oil change place

and they change the oil, okay?

The controversy comes about is

he does his own oil changes.

He takes his brand new oil filter

and he buys wherever, God knows whatever,

but he fills it full of oil

and lets it soak overnight.

And then he fills it up again

and then he changes it all.

And his theory is when you go,

when you go to an oil change place

and you put a dry oil filter in there,

the oil has to hit that dry oil filter like a sponge

and you don't get any lubrication

until the filter re-saturation and able to pass through.

He says that causes wear, engine wear damage

and he swears up and down,

but I'm causing my engine to wear prematurely

and I, my counter is that may have been 30 or 40 years

ago, but the new technology,

new cars, new oil pumps and whatnot, it doesn't matter.

So what'll this be, please?

Ding, and now we're in.

Well, I will tell you that the dealership

does not let an oil filter soak

and if the dealership does not let an oil filter soak,

it's not messing up that vehicle

because the vehicle, the dealership would have to pay

for that vehicle if it messed up because of the oil.

So you're the one that is correct.

He is wrong, I'm sorry to say

because a lot of oil filters are sideways, okay?

And the oil, there is a bypass on all engines

most of the time with oil

where the oil will go straight to the engine

and then it goes to the filter so it can bypass

so there will be no lack of oil going to the vehicle.

So just think about it, when you cut the vehicle on

and you crank it up,

what's the first thing goes up?

The oil pressure, as soon as you crank that vehicle up,

it's got oil pressure

and that means that oil is flowing through the vehicle.

Okay, thank you for still not the dispute.

You won David, you won this one.

And that's why David listens to autocorrect.

That's right.

I love it, David, tell your friend

he's got to listen to the show as well

and he may win one of these disputes.

And he can call me and I'll explain it to him.

Yeah, he may win a dispute.

David, thank you so much for your call.

Thank you, have a good day.

All right, you too.

All right, coach.

So I found a little something.

What'd you find?

While David was duking it out with his friend.

I found in my Warranty and Services Guide

I did find these complimentary services up to certain miles

but I still cannot find the oil change.

Like, you know, when I should have my oil change

and I'm in that section that they had in the index

but I'm not seeing them.

Once again, vehicles today have that oil light on them.

So why they don't need to take this out.

They need to let me worry about it.

Well, that's why they took it out of there

is because people would not change the oil

if they weren't towed change your oil.

Okay, so now if you drive in dusty weather,

I mean dusty environments and stuff like that

or cold environments, then you need to change your oil.

If you do a lot of stop and go driving,

you need to change your oil

and that's what consumers need to know.

And that is really why the oil places say 5,000 miles

is because all the stopping go driving.

It used to be 3,000 miles.

Right, right.

So they increased it to 5,000.

But now oil today, just like our last caller

was talking about the technology of the oil

and the way they make it now has changed completely.

You know, when you get a 0,10, 0,W10 oil,

well, that means that is very, very thin oil.

Mine says, okay, it does give me the actual oil, right?

Right.

It says SAE 0W16.

0W16?

Okay, so that's, I've never heard that one,

but 0W16 usually is like 10, 20, or, you know.

Yeah, and then they say if that's not available,

0W20 may be used, yeah.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

That's most vehicles today use 20, 20 weight,

usually 10 to 20.

Okay, okay.

Lexus just wants to be special with this 16.

Well, I will tell you one thing.

If you look back in where maintenance is,

it tells you the type of oil.

Most manufacturers use Ford uses Motocraft oil.

I don't know who makes their oil.

They got Motocraft on it, but they use Motocraft oil.

General Motors is going to use AC oil.

Toyota's going to use Toyota oil, believe me.

That's what it says.

I mean, mine says Toyota Genuine Motor Oil

is used in your Lexus vehicle.

So most of these vehicles manufacturers

are going to use their own oil.

It's blended to be that specification.

That's where the 16 came from.

Yeah, and that's what you need to do, too,

is go to the, if you're going to do it yourself,

go to the oil, go to the parts store,

and make sure in your owner's manual

that it meets those specifications.

Because if it don't meet those specifications

and they say you're changing your oil itself,

they can avoid the warranty.

Okay.

Well, let me tell you what we're in, folks.

We're in owner's manual 101 class.

I have been searching and studying.

I wish that people could see what's going on,

because it's like y'all are at a coffee shop

like at a book club right now,

just like thumbing through a couple pages and stuff.

We got books all over the place.

We do have books all over the place.

I'm in class, and we're taking

vehicle repair questions as well.

You can send an email to auto at mpbonline.org.

When we come back from the quick break,

we've got Daryl and Memphis on the line.

He's got an oil change question.

We started something now.

Send an email again to auto at mpbonline.org.

Here comes a new car review from Casey Williams.

And after that, coach is tip of the week.

This is AutoCorrect on MPB Think Radio.

Here's a new car review from Casey Williams.

It's Auto Casey on AutoCorrect.

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See the full video on his YouTube channel, Auto Casey,

and listen to AutoCorrect

on the MPB Think Radio YouTube channel.

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If you've missed any of the show,

listen to the whole thing

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

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and after the show today, it's Southern Remedy at 11 a.m.

Kids and teens with Dr. Morgan McLeod.

I'm Jermaine Flood.

Our expert is Coach Charlie Melton,

ASC certified master technician

and professor Melton today.

And it's time for Coach's tip of the week.

You know, when you're doing oil changes

when you're doing any type of maintenance to your car,

especially oil changes as you go through the owner's manual,

read it because I'm gonna read what it says here.

It says, do not use supplement engine oil additives,

cleaners or other engine treatments

that are unnecessary and could lead to engine damage

that is not covered by the Ford Motor Company.

Use what the manufacturer says use

and you ain't gonna add no additives.

You ain't gonna do anything

because you're under warranty.

Well, let's go to the phone lines.

We've got Daryl in Memphis.

He's got an oil change question.

Let's see if the manual will help us help him.

Daryl, you're on with Coach Charlie.

Yeah, good morning.

Good morning.

Look, before you all took a break,

I thought I heard one of you say something about

oil changes used to be every 3,000 miles

and I know that to be true

because I've been driving for quite a period of time.

And now with today's technology,

it's recommended that you change oil every 5,000 miles.

Now, my question is, would that apply

even if you're driving a vehicle

that's let's say maybe 10 years old?

What I would do on that,

you know, once again, it's still a stop and go.

It's according to how you drive,

you know, what environment you drive in.

If you change the oil 3,000 miles,

if you were doing that on that older vehicle,

it may still, I would probably still do it at 3,000 miles

because it's used to be in that oil

so it's staying clean and thick

because what happens as you drive carbon

and everything gets up in that oil

and you know, it gets thicker.

Well, at 3,000 miles, you change the oil,

the oil's gonna be thinner

what the vehicle's supposed to have in it, okay?

And so that would still be good for that

but in the scheme of oil,

everybody says 3,000, some people say 5,000

but that's one of these new oil lights are on there,

7,500, 12,000 miles.

You know, you can drive an 18-wheeler,

15,000 miles before you have the first oil change,

you know, and the cars are doing the same thing.

And so, but I would stay in that same interval

if you were driving an older model car

that you've been doing at 3,000.

You know, and that's just because it's used to it,

you know, engines get used to things

just like we as people get used to things

and that's how I'd keep that.

Does that help, Daryl?

Okay.

Yeah, I guess I have the medium would be about 4,000 miles.

Yeah, just like if it's an older vehicle.

Because really, if you think about it,

oil has changed and so it is better

so you could extend that a little bit longer,

you know, than 3,000, yes, for sure.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

All right, thank you, Daryl.

And like we learned with mine

and we just gotta either wait on the lighter,

call Lexus and ask him what's the,

when do I need to bring it in?

Because like you say, for me,

it's like how much you drive it,

what's your driving habits?

So the oil light will come on and what do you do?

It's on, it's on right now.

Okay, so you need to go have it changed.

I know, it's on right now, it's on right now.

So it's percentages, it goes in percentage

of how much oil life you have.

Because what they're doing,

they know what their oil does and how it deteriorates.

And so it's percentages of the oil

it tells you how good the oil still is.

Okay, the last day of this month, I'ma go.

Well, you need to get it in there.

Can I wait two weeks?

Well, you probably waited a month already.

No, no, no, no, he came on last week.

Okay, okay, well, we're gonna hit you that one.

He said, Jermaine, I know you.

It came on last week, I promise it came on last week.

And I was like, oh, it's too far into September now, honey.

You know what else I got inside

of my owner's manual kit that I think was dope?

It's the Lemon Law Guide.

And even though we don't have specific lemon laws here,

especially as it relates to Lexus,

it gives you the lemon laws of all the other states.

And some of these lemon laws are pretty substantial

where like if you feel like your vehicle has a defect

that substantially impairs its use or whatever,

you can come in and possibly get a new vehicle

or get that fixed.

And within three times of them trying

to fix that specific defect,

if it doesn't get fixed, they kind of replace this car.

Well, that's what in the owner's manual,

it talks about arbitration,

it talks about mediation of the vehicle and who you call.

And that is, once again, going back to the manufacturer,

talks about calling the better business bureau

about automotives.

So it talks about where you can really,

if there's a safety problem that you see with the vehicle,

you can call and turn that in.

So there's a lot of things in the owner's manual

that you just didn't know

that is there for your information.

And as a consumer, that's what you need to know.

Now, one other thing real quick,

I had in mind a roadside assistance five years

didn't cost anything.

And now look what they do.

They give you free towing.

They give you non-warranty towing, collision towing,

battery jumping start, they'll bring you gas,

they'll give you, they'll lock it,

let you get out of your vehicle, they'll fix the locks.

And everybody was probably still using their AAA.

Right.

And this is five years don't cost anything

it comes with the vehicle.

That's nice.

Five years or 60,000 miles.

Everybody crack open that glove box right now,

pull out that big old book

that you ain't never come through.

And you get to thumb in, that'll help you.

It'll help you.

It'll equip you with the knowledge

that you need to understand your vehicle system.

It empowers owners.

And we want you to feel empowered today.

That'll wrap us up for today's order correct.

Our crew engineer, Abram Nanny,

call screener Marissa Vaughn

for coach Charlie Melton master technician.

I'm Jermaine Flood next week.

It's cruisin' Clinton car show 2025

in the 17th annual Renaissance Eurofest classic

European auto and motorcycle show.

Thank you for listening to auto correct on MPB Think Radio.

This is an MPB Think Radio podcast.

To hear previous shows, visit mpbonline.org

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Auto Correct | Owner's Manual 101

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