A good relationship with your car's service technician means you trust them and can talk to them easily about what your car needs. This helps avoid surprises and makes getting your car fixed easier.
A 'five o'clock surprise' is when you go to pick up your car and find out that the bill is much higher than you expected, often because you weren't told about extra charges. This can cause arguments with the service desk.
The Lucid Air is a fancy electric car that can go really far on a single charge and has a lot of cool tech inside. It's made by a company called Lucid Motors and is meant to compete with other high-end electric cars. People might talk about it because it's one of the newest and most advanced electric cars available.
The rear defroster is the part of your car that heats up the back window to melt ice or fog. It has little lines that get warm to clear your view when it's cold outside.
In-house financing means that the car dealership can help you pay for the car without needing to go to a bank. This is helpful for people who might have trouble getting loans elsewhere.
Four-wheel drive means that all four wheels of a car get power from the engine, which helps the car grip the road better. It's useful for driving on rough or slippery surfaces.
The Nissan Rogue is a small SUV that is good for families or anyone needing extra space. The 2008 version is known for being comfortable and having good gas mileage.
The emergency brake is a backup brake that you can use to keep your car from rolling when parked. It's important for safety, especially if your regular brakes stop working.
The 2010 Dodge Ram is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and is often used for work or towing. It has different engine choices and is built to be tough.
The Kia Borrego is a big SUV that can fit a lot of people and gear, and it was made for a few years starting in 2008. It has strong engines and is good for driving off the road, but not many were sold, so you might not see them often. The talk about it might be about some problems it had with brakes.
The parking pawl is a tiny piece inside the car's transmission that helps keep the car from moving when it's parked. It's not very strong, so it's important to use the parking brake too.
The braking system is what helps your car slow down or stop. It includes parts like the brake pads and discs that squeeze together to create friction.
LIVE
Good morning Niagara, you're tuned to car connection where the coffee is hot, the tools
are ready and the talk is always tuned up here.
I'm your host Niall MotorMouth Jenkins coming to you straight from the car connection workshop
where we mix a little humor, a little know-how and a whole lot of horsepower.
Here it's not just about fixing cars, it's about keeping you rolling, saving you money
and giving you the confidence to understand what's under the hood from the classics to
the commuters, the weird noises to the what the heck moments, we've got you covered.
So grab your coffee, sit back if you're driving, don't forget lock that down in your cup holder
and keep an eye on the road and the other guy, that's right.
So sit back and join the crew because this is car connection, your daily, weekly morning pit stop
for stories, smarts.
I am so smart, SMRT and a few good laughs, yeah, so if you spill your hot coffee on yourself
there's a reason the cup says hot, right, got it.
I'm Niall MotorMouth, I'm dead, yeah, it's okay, I just need some coffee.
I'm Niall MotorMouth Jenkins and we're going to shift into drive this morning right here
on car connection, so thanks for stopping by and joining us, hope you get some nuggets
and some nuts and bolts out of this morning's program, it's all about having some fun, learning
about our automobiles and coming away with some information, some knowledge that will
help you and prevent you from spending money that needlessly on your vehicle.
The more you know, ladies and gents, fellas and fellettes, guys and dolls, here's the
thing, the more you know and understand about your automobile, the better it is when you
take it into the shop, ladies, because when I had my own automotive shop well over a decade
on the Hamilton Mountain, I can tell you this, 85% of our customers were women, they were
always the ones that had to bring the car into the shop and I felt sorry for them because
you know what happens, correct me if I'm wrong, you take care of the car, you authorize the
work to be done, you pick the car up as soon as you get home, who wants to see the bill
and then it's a barn raiser, right, the roof blows off, what the heck, so I came up with
a quick solution for the fellas, the lazy fellas that would not take the car in themselves
for mama, yeah, you drive the lousy car, you give her the good one, that's how it should
work, but that's not how it really worked, mama got the car that could hardly, you know,
it was a collector's piece, you know, drive a mile, go back, collect a piece, you know
the story, here's the thing, so I got these plastic toters so that when, you know, mama
brings a car in and authorizes the work, I would put all the old parts into the toter,
into the trunk of the car, and then I would tell her when she picked the car up, paid
the bill, don't answer any questions when you get home, grunt, hand them my business
card and the invoice and you say, call them, and the old parts are in the trunk, and then
I would tag and bag the components that needed to go back for core credit so that they could
bring me my toter back and I would deal with the old parts and take care of it, that alleviated
a ton of stress for you ladies, that's what I would suggest and that's the only thing
I thought of that I could come up with to prevent you from being in the hot seat and
on the grill when you get home, when it was you who took the reins and got the car fixed
and got it taken care of and got it fixed right, yeah, so this is what I'm talking about,
so we got to work together, that's what we got to do, we got to work together, so I got
a couple more winter tech tips to share with you this morning and then we're going to jump
right in and talk about your vehicle's braking system, but just before I do that, here's
what I want to let you know, especially ladies, when you take the vehicle in to the shop,
make sure a work order gets opened and the details that you give the service advisor,
the service rider is collected properly, have them read it back to you so that as you're
confirmation, the confirmation is the road test whoever's doing, making sure that the
work is completed, the vehicle is as it should be and it's ready to go back to the owner,
that's the confirmation, a road test, a proper road test, so make sure you're doing that
and make sure that if you're authorizing anything that you sign the invoice, make sure that
anything that you're declining is definitely recorded on that work order and here's the
big one, get a detailed estimate, you know, I never subscribed in our own shop to what
we called the five o'clock surprise, when you present the bill and you hear what and
now are you ever going to get it from the fella when you get home? Yeah, we don't want
that to happen, we definitely do not want that to happen, so getting a detailed estimate
and fully understanding the work that's going to be done will prevent you from having the
what? No five o'clock surprise, if you're dealing with a really good shop and the guys
are really watching out for you, then there should be no five o'clock surprise and breaking
that down, what that means is they gave you a verbal estimate over the phone for say five
hundred bucks, you go and pick it up, it's like almost a thousand, it's gone up by a hundred
percent, yeah, not good, that's not how you do business, so if you have an established
working relationship with an automo's service technician at the counter and in the shop
that's a good place to be, but if you don't, you really need to protect yourself so that
you don't have the five o'clock surprise, you're not paying for something, you've not
authorized and then the big argument breaks out at the service desk, it just gets ugly
and how do I know all this stuff because when I closed my shop I went to work at a dealership
and they were known for the five o'clock surprise, so we had to turn that around to get customers
to come back to that particular dealer and give them their business and trust has to be
earned, it's not given, it's that simple. I am a licensed automotive service tech on
a light truck and passenger vehicles as well as highway trucks, diesels, equipment and
highway coaches, always check your service manual to make sure that you're on track with
your vehicle maintenance, what needs to be done and when, alright I thought I'd just
throw that in this morning because that is a huge, huge piece of information, so make
sure that what they're doing and ask questions, yeah like is the coffee hot or the donut stale,
how old are those muffins sitting there by the coffee maker, not those questions, you
want to ask questions ladies and you're good at it, you're extreme, you know 31 years on
the radio, we've just retired out of radio and moving 100% into podcasts and our YouTube
channel has been going for a while now, we're moving car connection to the next generation
we're calling it, car connection next gen 2.0 and excited about it, so you'd be able to
pick up this podcast on iHeart and all the major platforms, let your lady friends know
and your fellows and single dads, single moms, widows, orphans, all of you, I'll do the best
I can like I did for 31 years on radio to give you the same information here and you
have full access to me all the time through our car connection businessnetwork.com website
I know that is a mouthful ccbusesinsamnet.com and our website has all our contacting information
the homepage gives you all our program sponsors and recommended businesses so that you can
have places to go to that you can trust and on the homepage are all the links for YouTube,
Facebook, iHeart and also our merch store, we've got some new merch coming in to add
to our store, we're getting some more in the boutique, be sure to grab your gear and become
part of the car connection crew and show it off as well, so make sure that you ask,
you know I used to tell the ladies when they come in ask a ton of questions, I am so good
with it and if the fellows got to call me and ask questions, have them call me and ask
the questions, don't leave the shop with your keys in your vehicle, if you're walking
away going, do you think, well maybe you get back in there and you ask questions until
you can walk away and feel very comfortable that the communication was good and that's
where the breakdown happens, you know that song, communication breakdown, it is so true
and I'll tell you in the radio business, 31 years in the radio business, I can sum it
all up in one sentence, they're in the non-communication communication business, so true, well in the
automotive business it's equally true, communication between the service desk and the service desk
the customer, the service writer and if the service writer isn't the technician doing the
work that the information from you has to go to the service writer on to the repair
bill then out the window to one of the service techs on the floor in the shop, so there's
a lot of room for miscommunication, so again ask lots of questions, it's okay, if they
want to make sure that line of communication is fully open and that they understand what
you're trying to tell them and that's why I say ask to see the work order or ask the
service writer to read back to you the concerns you have with your car so nothing gets missed
because here's what happens, the end of the day you pick it up then you say oh by the
way did you do this, did you check the air in condition of the spare tire then the service
writer usually gets this look like he's just about to be hit by a Mack truck and that deer
in the headlights look comes out, oh here's what you'll hear I'll have to go ask the service
tech, then when he comes back he's either going to lie through his stinkin teeth and
go oh yeah, yeah we got that, but I can tell you right now 99.5% of the time that's not
true, it's not true, if it didn't get discussed and the tech didn't see it on the work order
it didn't get done, that's simple, so just a couple of tips there, alright here's some
good tips for you this morning, my coffee's hot do you mind if we have a swiggy together
on three two one you ready, okay keep your eyes on the road and the other fella because
we know what goes on out there on the roadways, three two one, that's just the right temperature,
yeah how many ever have gone through the drive-thru you're in a hurry the morning's going bad
and you rush through you order your favorite beverage you're halfway you know you're a
mile or two or a few kilometers down the road and you take a sip and you go that's not
what I ordered, yeah it'll get better that day trust me alright another winter tech
tip I'm not going to give you the war and peace edition this morning I've got lots of
winter tech tips so if you haven't listened to the last couple of episodes I gave you
two rounds of full hardcore winter tech tips you might want to go back and collect those
we have our iPod our iPod our iHeart podcast and again we're on all major platforms Spotify
Amazon music Apple and like 60 other platforms as well but my webmaster has set up our website
so that we are archiving the podcast in two places so you can go to our channel which
is car connection workshop and you can go to our website which is carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com
ccbusnet.com and you can go to the archive section and the podcast for there so I gave
you two rounds of winter tech tips five tips on each episode but today you're getting two
I'm giving you two I'm cutting you back you're on a diet you're on a winter tech tip diet
are you ready number 11 that's what I'm calling it number 11 check your rear defroster
grid you know the thing with the little lines in it yeah a couple of broken lines there
and you'll be peeking through frost stripes like a prisoner let me tell you and it's more
when they rear defrost window heated glass is not defrosting properly it's I find it
super annoying something that's got to be fixed and in most cases to fix it means replacing
the glass they used to have these kits out but they're not available anymore the lines
are in the glass on in most cases depends on how old your vehicle is that's an area
where you don't want to scrape too hard just get the snow off let the heated glass do the
rest of the work so verify that your rear window grid defroster is working properly
it could be an electrical issue could be a blown fuse it could be a number of things
the sky is falling who knows but we need to check that because when you're backing up
in the winter months reversing is very important to see that you know you want to know what
car you're clobbering behind you at work so you know who to avoid right yeah wasn't me
I had that happen recently yeah and you know how do you look at people the same afterwards
you're going one of these suckers here backed into my ride did some fog light damage and
left a great big kisser on my bumper and didn't say a stinking word yeah it becomes a little
uncomfortable being around them it's like there's a trader amongst us a real serious
laar yeah anyways get past it because they're never going to tell you never you go oh you
know somebody came out to my car yesterday and somebody left me some artwork on my car
oh oh really forget it all right tech tip number 12 I hope you're writing these down
pulled over of course it's always good when you're tuning in the car connection the car
connection workshop have a crayon a couple of them and some brown paper bag you can just
scribble like crazy all right number 12 throw a flashlight in your car well don't really
throw it but you know place it somewhere where you can find it and a lot of flashlights are
just canisters for housing dead batteries yeah it's like a flashlight can be like a
toaster you stuff everything and then some in it and then you go is anybody seen the
exactly you have no idea what's in there so place a flashlight into your car because the
only thing darker than a December night is your mood when you can't see the flat tire
you're changing yeah so a couple of little tidbits there hope you get something out of
that they're funny but at the same time there's not always a lot of haha behind him because
it's so true it's absolutely true well we'd like to give a big thank you out to our program
partners don't want to turn the podcast into a shopping channel or anything but without
them we certainly would not be here to Crystal Ridge Dream Center serving men women children
meals love and hope in the Niagara region changing lives one at a time in the entire Niagara
region and you can be part of that community by simply going to our website and clicking
on the link actually on the logo for anyone of the program partners and advertisers these
are fantastic people that I've known for a long time and we are certainly blessed to
have them with us so check in click on the Crystal Ridge Dream Center logo and a profile
page of pop up all our profile pages are set up exactly the same way just like McDonald's
the bathrooms around the right so that you can navigate your way around our website very
very easily and you can become a volunteer or just donate they there's a lot of things
they could use there they're feeding about 200 people out the door twice a week all age
groups they're doing a bang up job out there and you can be a part of that thank you to
Earl and Louise Grant at City Auto Sales and leasing GTA's premier pre-owned auto store
low mileage vehicles quality vehicles at fair prices they sell no junk at all they do leasing
they also have in-house financing so whether you have good credit bad credit or no credit
check in with Earl and Louise Grant over 25 years in the resale auto business and I'll
tell you you'll find a new family there it's worth the drive to City Auto Sales and to
my good friends Rita and Ramiz Shanuta the brothers at rainbow motors and garage sales
and service you can trust they fix everything you buy and everything you drive up to light
commercial vehicles you can trust them Rita and Ramiz in Scarborough they're in Scarborough
Ontario been with car connection for about 15 years we're grateful to have them with
us they'll take great care of you to our certified financial planning professionals my brothers
from other mothers they're two of the best in all of Canada these guys have 50 years
experience combined I've worked with them both and still continue to do so and when
I say you need to connect you need to connect they're with IG wealth management they do
portfolios debt retirement estate planning mortgages and more and life insurance critical
illness insurance they have all the six pillars to a financial plan there for you and you
have access to them for a complete complimentary one hour at a coffee discovery meeting select
who you want to meet with and I'll tell you what you will be so pleased to my good friend
Dave and Kathy Grimo at Niagara Block 5000 Montrose Road Niagara Falls building Canada
since 1931 building hardscapes landscaping materials that's what they provide hardscape
landscaping materials they're absolutely stunning and building products and their customer
service bar none is the best on the planet to my all my friends at Total Freedom Darien
Center New York it's a campus where you go and you stay there and get your addiction
fixed you get a new life a new heart and a new future if you're Canadian they'll get
you there and you will be well looked after but you've got to be ready to say I'm ready
to deal with whatever the addiction is that you're suffering there's also a campus in
Sydney Manitoba Canada with Rick and Robin fantastic facilitators there that is a men
only campus and you can Google that and find Sydney Manitoba Total Freedom all right let's
jump into our topic this morning I won't bore you with it but I will bring it to the table
for you you know breaks you know this past summer if you become a subscriber to our to
our YouTube channel which is under Nile Motormouth Jenkins we'd appreciate that we'd love to
have you along with us because the videos teach you five things all the time every single
video we shoot videos every Monday morning and this is the beginning of the week we kick
it off well some people say Sunday is the beginning of the week but if you're following
the Mayan calendar well we won't go I digress let's not go down that it's the beginning
of the week it's Monday let's kick it off let's get rolling but let's also be able to
stop that particular vehicle that you're sitting in so regardless of whether you have traction
control all-wheel drive sometime all-wheel drive sometimes four-wheel drive front-wheel
drive that won't save you when the brakes are broken and we shot a lot of videos this
past summer on several makes and models brakes absolutely destroyed I mean destructed the
last one we just videoed was an 08 2008 Nissan Rogue and out of the whole thing the rear
brakes were absolutely shot including the emergency brake so three videos we did this
summer on that come to mind on three separate vehicles the parking brake the emergency brake
and rear brakes were absolutely nothing left to work with I mean nothing left to work with
the components that make up the fasteners and all the moving components were absolutely
rotted out and destroyed not saveable so what does that mean for you that means what I call
a gut job and that is a big can turn into a really big cha-ching so I'm here to help you this time
of year you know brakes are important all year round but when we're heading into the time of
year where the roads can be slick slippery and pretty treacherous you need equal braking on
all four wheels and ladies no matter what your fellow says if you have an automatic you still need
to use the parking brake if he says oh no sweetheart no that yeah we know you know the guy is wrong
we don't need to do that give him the stink eye okay give him the stink eye because and then send
him to our YouTube channel to look up the 2010 that was the first one we did was a 2010 Dodge Ram
Hammy four-wheel drive brakes all the way around parking brake destruction second one was a 2010
Kia Borrego yeah they didn't make a lot of them so you may not even know that model it's a jumbo
SUV rear brakes same thing parking brake not working properly a mess third one as I just
mentioned the 2008 Nissan Rogue all-wheel drive rear brakes parking brake non-existent and that's
all on video on our YouTube channel so if your fellow says no no sweetheart that guy's full of
you know he doesn't know what he's talking about well I am licensed since 1988 yeah I got 40 plus
years in the automotive service and repair business as well as heavy-duty trucks and equipment motor
coaches diesels and tractors and skid steers and all kinds of stuff yeah the parking brake is
needed very much so and needs to be used every single day to keep those rear brakes whether
their disc brakes or drum brakes to keep them working right because when I say we need all four
brakes on your vehicle to break equally yeah you'll be the first one to know they're not the cars
not breaking equally even if you have traction control with ABS the ABS system can only re-correct
the vehicle from a skid or a yaw which is what we call it I call it a yeehaw because you're going
somewhere and the car's taking you there off the road you've got to have all four brakes
breaking equally to keep that vehicle straight when you need to apply the brakes perhaps a little
heavier than normal so if you're gonna hit the road this winter and a lot of people were getting
into that season where it's going to be travel time right visiting people you don't often get to
see and it's that time to gather together and have food family and fun and beverage whatever
that may be don't forget the brakes not only give them a listen to see if they're squeaking grinding
or grunching or the brake pedal doesn't seem to be normal and then hubby gets in there goes oh yeah
alright it's all good no it's not it's not good here's what I know about you ladies that are
listening you're very accurate in your descriptions of well what kind of noise is it making or does
it feel right to you and you'll get no that's why I'm here it does something's not right so well
done ladies so even though the car seems to break but you're hearing things and you're
feeling things in the brake pedal and it ain't just background music that's squeaking that
grunching that groaning that scraping yeah I developed the word grunge because it really it
really nails down and break sounds grunching yeah that's your ride begging you for help so
brake parts are cheaper than a tow from the middle of nowhere and trust me I've been there I've broken
down in a customer's vehicle on a road test the brakes just went out the out the window done got
nothing you got to wait for the tow truck to come pick you up get the flatbed out there so this
time of year my biggest recommendation I can give you is a four-wheel brake inspection and yes the
parking brake needs to be working and you need to work it but if you haven't used it for some time
it needs to be checked and serviced before you apply that park brake if you were to show up here to
the car connection workshop and studio you could look in the window of any vehicle that we drive
around here and you will see the parking brake is on the only time I will not set my parking brake
is if it's raining and things are going to freeze up overnight or I've come off the road and I've
been in slush all day it can tend to hang up and not release so that's the only time I will not
have my parking brake on it's a habit you need to create every single time you park the vehicle
parking brake goes on now there's other terminology for it set brake park brake emergency brake I use
the term it's a parking brake it holds the vehicle by a braking system not on the transmission
so you can tell your fellow this it's just between you and me there's a very tiny
teeny weeny piece of metal in the transmission on an automatic that's called a parking
pawl pa w l all the weight of your vehicle hangs on that little tiny piece of metal
that keeps the transmit automatic transmission in park should that little tiny piece of metal
brake your car is set free it's instantly in neutral that is the purpose two purposes of the
parking brake take the weight off the transmission's little tiny parking pawl and number two keeping
your rear brakes adjusted and fully functional properly saving you a ton of money so when hubby says
you know it's an automatic that's a that guy's full of he's full of bologna he doesn't know what
he's talking about yeah I do and I can prove it again go to our youtube channel Niall motormouth
Jenkins and look up some of the brakes that we did this past summer in the shop studio so
it's this time of year all wheels off this is what I'm going to leave you with a brake
inspection is not a peekaboo through the wheels yeah looks good no it doesn't you've got to get
in and see all the brakes all the components that make up your braking system so it's how I've been
trained it's wheels off all four I'm going to take the calipers off I'm going to make sure all the
components that should be fully functional working moving components that they're all working they're
all doing their job everything that is cleaned and lubricated properly so that the brakes have
equal pressure all the way around so that's how we service brakes and that should be done a couple
times a year but at this time of year we want to make sure when you've got to apply those brakes
the car stays in its lane and doesn't take off and go out to the rhubarb patch wherever that may be
we don't know roads where we're going there are no roads so till next time don't forget
to like share and follow on our youtube channel like share follow put a comment down below on
our youtube videos and ring that notification bell subscribe so you don't miss a single
video that comes out every single week we do three videos every week two for Tuesday one every
Friday and become a part of our iHeart podcast community and we'll see you in the next one so
keep it under 100 and put that coffee on when you get home we're going to come to your house
About this episode
Winter driving requires special attention to your vehicle's braking system. Niall MotorMouth Jenkins shares essential tips for ensuring your brakes are ready for the slick roads ahead. He emphasizes the importance of a thorough brake inspection, including the often-overlooked parking brake, and offers advice on how to communicate effectively with service technicians. With humor and practical insights, this episode aims to equip listeners with the knowledge to maintain their vehicles and avoid costly surprises at the repair shop.
Before you hit the highway this winter, it's time for a good old-fashioned brake check. In this episode of Car Connection Next GEN 2.0, I walk you through the simple things you can do right now to make sure your brakes won't surprise you when the snow flies.And because I love to spoil my listener's, I'm tossing in two bonus winter tech tips-easy, practical, and designed to keep you safely rolling through whatever Mother Nature throws at us. A little peace of mind goes along way when the temperature drops. If you're gearing up for a road trip, commuting, or just want your vehicle winter-ready this episode is your warm cup of automotive wisdom. CALL TO ACTION-JOIN THE MOTORMOUTH CREW: Like, subscribe, comment your thoughts below, and ring the bell to get notified of new videos & Live streams. Like & follow us on Facebook @ nile motormouth jenkins for reel and videos you won't find anywhere else. Catch us locally on, StevensvilleOnTheWeb.ca-click on the Businesses tab for exclusive outtakes and bloopers. Don't forget to grab your Car Connection Merch- winter gear is on the way and the order is IN! We'll see you in the next one! #WinterDrivingTips, #BrakeSafety, #CarConnectionPodcast
