John Paul addresses listener questions about dash cams, car maintenance, and troubleshooting automotive issues. He shares his experience driving from Massachusetts to Florida, discussing the importance of battery maintenance and proper car storage. The episode features a detailed review of the Viewroid S1 4K dash cam, highlighting its advanced features like dual cameras, AI integration, and vehicle battery protection. Listeners also hear practical advice on brake bleeding techniques and tips for enhancing nighttime visibility with headlights.
"... to another edition of the car doctor program on 959 W-A-T-D. My name is John Paul, the car doctor he..."
The Porsche 959 is a really fast sports car made in the 1980s that was famous for being very advanced for its time. It's known for its speed and cool features, making it a special car that collectors love.
The Porsche 959 is a high-performance sports car that was produced in the late 1980s and is celebrated for its advanced technology and engineering. It was one of the fastest production cars of its time and is often discussed for its significance in the evolution of supercars.
"I've seen some prototype cars occasionally. I saw a fully electric tractor trailer one time which was kind of interesting to see."
Prototype cars are special test versions of vehicles that companies make to try out new ideas. They help manufacturers see how a car might work before making a lot of them.
Prototype cars are early versions of vehicles that are built to test new technologies or designs before they go into mass production. They often feature experimental features that may not be present in production models.
"I saw a fully electric tractor trailer one time which was kind of interesting to see. I hadn't seen one before and I'll probably never see another one because it wasn't a"
A fully electric tractor trailer is a big truck that doesn't use gas or diesel; it runs on electricity instead. This helps reduce pollution and can save money on fuel.
A fully electric tractor trailer is a large truck that runs entirely on electric power instead of traditional diesel fuel. These vehicles are part of the growing trend towards sustainable transportation and aim to reduce emissions and fuel costs.
"Tesla one it was the Nicola one and I'm not sure they're even still in business but they made one and they were out there testing it..."
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. They are known for their advanced technology and have several popular models.
Tesla is an American electric vehicle manufacturer known for its innovative technology and electric cars, including the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y.
"they actually were making a fuel cell hydrogen fuel cell truck which kind of makes more sense too."
A fuel cell is a technology that makes electricity from hydrogen. It produces water as waste, making it cleaner than traditional engines.
A fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy from a fuel, typically hydrogen, into electricity through a chemical reaction, producing water as a byproduct.
"I did see a woman in the left lane driving a Jeep and every time she'd hit a break in the pavement she'd be stepping on her brakes because she had what's sort of referred to as the Jeep death wobble..."
The Jeep death wobble is when a Jeep shakes a lot after hitting a bump. It can be scary and usually means something is wrong with the car's parts.
The Jeep death wobble is a term used to describe a severe shaking of the front end of a Jeep, often occurring after hitting a bump or pothole, typically caused by issues in the suspension or steering components.
"...I fill it up with gasoline add fuel stabilizer I'm still..."
Fuel stabilizer is a product you add to your gas tank to keep the fuel from going bad when the car is not used for a while. It helps the engine run smoothly when you start it again.
Fuel stabilizer is a chemical additive that helps prevent fuel from degrading over time, especially in vehicles that are stored for long periods. It keeps the fuel fresh and prevents issues like varnish buildup in the fuel system.
"...batteries are a battery tender um I've had a couple and the..."
A battery tender is a tool that keeps your car battery charged when you're not using your car often. It prevents the battery from dying by making sure it has enough power.
A battery tender is a device designed to maintain a battery's charge without overcharging it. It is especially useful for vehicles that are not used frequently, as it helps prolong battery life by keeping it at an optimal charge level.
"...it could be almost completely wireless for a short period of time and it also had a big solar panel you could attach to it..."
A solar panel is a flat device that collects sunlight and turns it into electricity. It can be used to charge batteries without needing to plug into a wall outlet.
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity. In the context of battery tenders, it can be used to charge batteries using solar energy, making it a convenient option for outdoor or remote locations.
"...I went back to the battery tender brand which I've used um I have something called the battery minder..."
A battery minder is a device that helps keep your car battery charged and healthy. It can even clean the battery to make it last longer.
A battery minder is a type of battery maintenance device that helps keep batteries charged and in good condition. It often includes features like desulfation modes to clean battery plates and extend battery life.
"...that one's interesting because it has a uh uh desolvation mode or so where you press a button and it pulses the electricity..."
Desulfation mode is a special setting on some battery chargers that helps clean the battery. It removes stuff that builds up inside the battery and can help it work better and last longer.
Desulfation mode is a feature in some battery chargers that helps remove sulfate buildup on battery plates. This buildup can reduce battery performance, and the desulfation process can help restore capacity and extend battery life.
"...I'm somewhat torn between car covers sometimes that you know you come over and you know you're trapping moisture in the car covers are supposed to be breathable..."
A car cover is like a blanket for your car that keeps it safe from things like rain and dirt. It's important to pick one that lets air through so that moisture doesn't get trapped inside and cause rust.
A car cover is a protective covering designed to shield a vehicle from environmental elements like dust, rain, and UV rays. However, it's important to choose breathable materials to prevent moisture buildup, which can lead to rust and other damage.
"...I changed the oil on it three or four weeks before we left you know drove what amounted to about 2000 miles..."
An oil change is when you replace the old oil in a car's engine with new oil. This helps the engine work better and last longer.
An oil change is a routine maintenance procedure where the old engine oil is replaced with new oil to ensure the engine runs smoothly and efficiently. Regular oil changes help prolong the life of the engine.
"I have a 2014 Centra SR that I replaced the front and back pads and the master cylinder..."
The Nissan Sentra SR is a version of the Sentra car that has some sporty features. The 2014 model is designed to be fun to drive while still being practical.
The Nissan Sentra SR is a sportier trim of the compact Sentra sedan, known for its balance of performance and efficiency. The 2014 model features a more powerful engine and sport-tuned suspension compared to standard trims.
"...I have a 2014 Centra SR that I replaced the front and back pads and the master cylinder and I'm having a heck of a time trying to bleed the master cylinder..."
The master cylinder helps your car's brakes work. When you press the brake pedal, it sends fluid to the brakes to make them stop the car. Sometimes, it needs to be 'bled' to remove air bubbles for it to work properly.
The master cylinder is a crucial component of a vehicle's braking system, responsible for converting the force from the brake pedal into hydraulic pressure to activate the brakes. Proper bleeding of the master cylinder is essential to ensure effective braking performance.
"...and flaming on the brakes and that they say that will activate it the master the ABS and I've tried driving it on the road..."
ABS is a system in cars that helps prevent the wheels from stopping completely when you brake hard. This helps you steer while stopping, making it safer.
ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System, a safety feature that prevents the wheels from locking up during braking, allowing the driver to maintain steering control. It works by rapidly pulsing the brakes to prevent skidding.
"...kind of door open kneeling down just kind of pushing on the brake pedal with your hand and kind of looking under the car..."
The brake pedal is what you push with your foot to make the car stop.
The brake pedal is the foot-operated lever in a vehicle that activates the braking system. Pressing it engages the brakes to slow down or stop the vehicle.
"...I was able to get it to open it to stop the car with the fob but I haven't been able to program it to do the door locks for instance and now when I got this for the scanner..."
An OBD scanner is a device that connects to your car to check for problems. It reads error codes that tell you what's wrong with the engine or other parts of the car.
An OBD scanner is a diagnostic tool used to read and clear trouble codes from a vehicle's onboard computer system. It helps identify issues with various systems, including the engine and transmission, by connecting to the OBD-II port.
"...a lot of garages use the autel scanner it's about a $6,000 scanner it does it does a pretty good job..."
Autel is a brand that makes tools for fixing cars. They create devices that help mechanics find problems in vehicles quickly and easily.
Autel is a company that manufactures automotive diagnostic tools and equipment, including OBD scanners. Their products are widely used in garages for vehicle diagnostics and repairs.
"...I was using the x-tool scanner and first off I haven't used it in six months so it had 259 updates it had to do first..."
X-tool is a company that makes tools for car repairs. Their scanners help mechanics check what's wrong with cars by reading error codes.
X-tool is another brand that produces automotive diagnostic tools, including OBD scanners. Their devices are designed to help mechanics diagnose and troubleshoot vehicle issues effectively.
"...let's see what it says here how to how to bleed brakes in this..."
Bleeding brakes means getting rid of air that can get trapped in the brake lines. If there's air in there, your brakes might not work as well, so it's important to do this to keep your car safe.
Bleeding brakes is the process of removing air bubbles from the brake lines to ensure that the braking system operates effectively. Air in the brake lines can lead to a spongy brake pedal and reduced braking performance.
"...don't let it run out of brake fluid before working disconnect the ABS actuator..."
Brake fluid is the liquid that helps your car's brakes work. It moves from the brake pedal to the brakes themselves, making sure the car stops when you want it to. It's important to keep it at the right level.
Brake fluid is a hydraulic fluid used in the braking system of vehicles. It transfers force from the brake pedal to the brake components, allowing the vehicle to stop effectively. Maintaining the correct level and quality of brake fluid is essential for safe braking performance.
"...disconnect the ABS actuator and electronic control unit okay so where the actuator is in the control unit says..."
The electronic control unit is like the brain of your car. It helps manage different parts of the car, like the engine and brakes, to make sure everything works smoothly and safely.
The electronic control unit (ECU) is a computer that controls various functions in a vehicle, including the engine, transmission, and braking systems. It processes data from sensors and makes adjustments to optimize performance and safety.
"...depress brake pedal four times with the brake pedal depress loosen the bleeder screw bleed all the air..."
Brake bleeding is when you get rid of air bubbles in the brake lines. This is important because air can make your brakes feel weak or not work well.
Brake bleeding is the process of removing air bubbles from the brake lines to ensure that the brake system functions properly. Air in the brake lines can lead to a spongy brake pedal and reduced braking effectiveness.
"...then tighten it immediately replace repeat steps three and four uh until all the air is out of the brake line tighten the bleeder screw..."
The bleeder screw is a small valve on the brakes that you open to let out air and fluid. This helps make sure your brakes work well by removing any trapped air.
A bleeder screw is a valve on a brake caliper or wheel cylinder that allows air and fluid to escape during the brake bleeding process. This is crucial for removing air from the brake lines to ensure proper brake function.
"...somebody with a toyota sienna van and they said uh the interior lights of our toyota sienna have not been working..."
The Toyota Sienna is a type of minivan that is great for families because it has a lot of space and comfortable seating.
The Toyota Sienna is a minivan known for its spacious interior and family-friendly features. It's popular among families for its comfort and practicality.
"...e i saw somebody put led tail lights in a Toyota Tacoma that didn't have them and it actually caused um a..."
The Toyota Tacoma is a small truck that's great for carrying things and driving on rough roads. People like it because it's tough and can handle a lot of different tasks, making it a popular choice for both work and play.
The Toyota Tacoma is a compact pickup truck known for its durability and off-road capability. It has a strong reputation among truck enthusiasts and is often discussed for its versatility and reliability in various driving conditions.
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W-A-T-D presents John Paul, the car doctor, All Things Automotive.
Have questions?
Call or text 7-8-1-837-4900.
Now here's John Paul, the car doctor.
Good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the car doctor program
on 959 W-A-T-D.
My name is John Paul, the car doctor here to help you with your car problems and different
things whatever you have on your mind.
We have as promised we have no guests this week so we have the phone lines are open if
you would like to join us at 7-8-1-837-4900.
I glanced at W-A-T-D's Facebook page and I noticed our buddy Paul Sullivan from Sullivan
Tire got an award and Rob Hackler was there and a few other locals got awards so that
was good to see.
We have a bunch of questions we have to get to and no car reviews because I'm sort of
in between car reviews right now.
I gave up my last car when I was up in Massachusetts.
I did come down to Florida that's where I am now where like New England it's going to
be cold.
It's not cold right now but apparently it's going to be in the 40s on Tuesday so everybody
is going to have their winter coats on and winter boots and gloves and all kinds of stuff
but it doesn't last too long usually when it gets chilly down here but it's always fun
to see.
You can always tell sort of the tourists from the locals because when it's 40 degrees the
tourists are wearing shorts and the locals are all bundled up like there's going to be
a nor'easter so it's always kind of fun to see.
So the ride from Massachusetts to Florida was pretty uneventful.
I always think I'm going to see some really interesting things on the road.
I've seen some prototype cars occasionally.
I saw a fully electric tractor trailer one time which was kind of interesting to see.
I hadn't seen one before and I'll probably never see another one because it wasn't a
Tesla one it was the Nicola one and I'm not sure they're even still in business but they
made one and they were out there testing it they actually were making a fuel cell hydrogen
fuel cell truck which kind of makes more sense too.
I did see a woman in the left lane driving a Jeep and every time she'd hit a break in
the pavement she'd be stepping on her brakes because she had what's sort of referred to
as the Jeep death wobble where you hit a bump and all of a sudden the whole car starts to
shake and you can fix that.
First off you look to see what's wrong with it.
Make sure there's nothing abnormally wrong like tie rod ends are loose or ball joints
are loose and usually a steering stabilizer takes care of that and sometimes you have
to add an aftermarket one if there isn't one there.
That usually takes care of the again what's referred to as the death wobble.
This one didn't have really oversized tires, oversized tires will usually make it worse.
I did see a few interesting cars but nothing really outlandish went to a car show this
past Wednesday the little town which is not so little these days that I live in now usually
has a cars and coffee every Wednesday and since I've been going they're now on their
third location the first location was in a plaza with a little breakfast lunch place
the folks at the cars cars and coffee would go in and have breakfast they all liked it
but the owner of the property rented it out to a rented the rest of the plaza route to a gym
the gym didn't want to see up to what could be 300 cars there on a good day so they didn't want
to lose their parking because of that so then they moved over to another plaza where there is
a variety of stores as well as a supermarket they remodeling the supermarket by remodeling
it was sort of in the middle of the plaza they actually tore it completely down
so there's like two halves of the plaza with nothing in the middle that's where the new
supermarket's going to go in and they said no you can't be here because of construction traffic
so now they're in a public parking area over at a little recreation center and somebody said well
it would be great you know get a food truck over here coffee and donut truck over here
and the problem is right now it's just essentially public parking and you can park there all you want
but as soon as you put a food truck there it becomes commercial same thing even if you
wanted to have music playing other than if people with their cars had music playing but if you
wanted to have like a a dj or something which they've never done at this event
yeah then it becomes a then it becomes more complicated so they said don't you guys can
you know park here if you want that's fine so that's what they're doing now waiting to find
maybe another place at some point to find everything that's uh you know going to work the way it's
supposed to for that so when we came down here um we were pleasantly surprised there was no
hurricanes that or at least any any little hurricanes that they had in Florida didn't really affect
anything the Volkswagen that we leave here I keep on a battery tender and I go through
the same things that you would putting a car away for the winter I kind of put it away for the
summer so I clean it I wax it I fill it up with gasoline add fuel stabilizer I'm still
I've tried I've tried them all I think stable STA BIL is the one that I have always had the
best luck with it's done everything that I've ever wanted to do the gas doesn't seem to go bad
so I like it um you know after I'm sure after years at wood but you know after a little while
never seemed to really have a problem um batteries are a battery tender um I've had a couple and the
only c-tech battery tender which is probably the more advanced of all of them was the one was one
that would it could be almost completely wireless for a short period of time and it also had a big
solar panel you could attach to it it actually quit working so I stopped using it I went back
to the battery tender brand which I've used um I have something called the battery minder
that I keep on the other car that's sitting um and that one works that one's interesting because it
has a uh uh desolvation mode or so where you press a button and it pulses the electricity
and supposed to break up uh the plates a little bit takes all the junk off the plates and makes it
work um there I got a question some time ago and it had to do with that and it was what happens
I've heard that if you hook up an arc welder to a battery and you pulse it on and off it'll
clean the plates off the battery it'll make the battery work again and I have never tried it
I have done some research and it does look like it sort of works uh took a battery that had
you know no voltage in it very little cold cranking amps wouldn't take a charge hooked it
up to an arc welder pulsed it a bunch of times all of a sudden it kind of came back to life
um I don't know maybe there's a maybe there's a cottage industry of refurbishing batteries
using an arc welder sounds dangerous to me but maybe it does work I don't know but anyway so I had
the battery tender on the car came here um had the car cover tied down because we don't have a
garage it was it's in a carport um had the car cover tied down crisscrossed every way imaginable
uh got it all uncovered got inside of it got under the hood made sure nothing was living under there
which is pretty common here in Florida probably even more so than in New England you know I I
always you know always worry about mice getting into cars because you see them all the time
in Florida it's snakes iguanas and rats uh rats are pretty common they're sort of like squirrels
and there's a lot of them around and fortunately none of that last year when I uncovered the car
and took the plastic engine cover off which is a good idea when you put a car away take that cover
off because that tends to be a home for critters when I took the engine cover off I did find evidence
that something had lived there for a little while fortunately didn't chew on anything so that was good
but it was still one of those things that you kind of don't want to see anything living in my cars
and um aired up the tires tires actually did pretty well sitting over a six month period of time
and I aired them up and we were good to go um I also take the insurance sort of some of the
insurance off the car for the summertime uh because it's not being driven so I take that part of the
insurance off and just have you know tree falls on it kind of thing if that kind of damage happens
um so you know got the insurance back up and so far so good everything's working the way it should
but whenever you let a car sit sitting is just not great for anything mechanical
it's just it it's amazing how it ages in place and things can still get rusty I'm
somewhat torn between car covers sometimes that you know you come over and you know you're
trapping moisture in the car covers are supposed to be breathable I'm pretty happy I've been using
Empire car covers for quite a while um the last one seemed to survive a hurricane so it did it did
pretty well um didn't survive the one before that didn't survive Hurricane Ian though that was uh three
days of like 150 mile an hour winds but anyway so the car was the car was all good my little
Hyundai that we drove down here is uh you know I changed the oil on it three or four weeks before
we left you know drove what amounted to about 2000 miles check the oil still full so everything's
good there and driving somewhat cautious not cautiously driving the speed limit ish um just
about 30 miles a gallon so not bad considering you know there was some fair amount of stuff in it
and so you know not too bad all things considered so uh so pretty uneventful drive uh this morning
when I came out here to start work because this is usually a work day for me usually on Sundays
and Mondays I do my AAA work because I still work at AAA part-time and I usually try to work on Sundays
and Mondays because it's quieter um I'm not a sports fan so I'm not distracted by football
and uh so I usually sit down to do my work but I always go over to my broadcast equipment
and turn it on and make sure everything's going to work the way it should and it didn't
now I have you know there's two backups I guess the first backup is I could call over the phone
and do the program over the phone workable terrible but workable the second one is I have an app
that connects to the same piece of equipment that I connect to here it works okay but there's no
good microphone it's all right it'll get by in fact after Hurricane Ian when I came down to see
what was wrong we had no internet and that was the only ability to do the program was with
the app on the cell phone and it was okay it was okay um it did the job the way it's supposed to but
so I started looking to see what was wrong disconnecting things and my modem and router
are tucked away in a closet uh looked there everything all the lights were on the way they
were supposed to be come to find out it looked like it was a bad cable between the router and this
wireless other wireless box that I have or it could have even been between the the modem and the
router and fortunately I always try to plan for the worst so I had extra cables with me
and I was able to swap out LAN cables and get everything to work so everything's working the
way it's supposed to be if you would like to join us our phone number is 781-837-4900
781-837-4900 that's how you get through and you can get through just like Jim from North
Reading is getting through Jim good morning good morning John how are you I'm okay now that my
stress level has gone away wondering how am I going to make all this work this morning but
everything's working the way it should so I'm happy I'm glad you have stress levels down
I have a 2014 Centra SR that I replaced the front and back pads and the master cylinder
and I'm having a heck of a time trying to bleed the master cylinder I have an expensive scan tool
it'll only go up to around 2010 I think it was for the Centra and I've tried driving it on the road
and and flaming on the brakes and that they say that will activate it the master the ABS
and that actually it's not the master so it's the ABS I'm sorry okay the the ABS did activate I could
hear it pulsating but then I bled the brakes after still nothing so is the is the pedal lousy is
a soft squishy pedal yes it is okay here's what I would try and this is going to sound backwards
from the normal normally when you bleed brakes the regular old-fashioned way you you know pump up
the brake pedal have somebody open the furthest bleeder screw away the right rear you know push
it down close it you know you know the procedure um if you can just crack open all four bleeder
screws just open them up just a little bit just so they maybe maybe you just start to see a little
something and then start the car and with your hand just like kind of push on the brake pedal
just like maybe half an inch just kind of steadily with your hand and what will happen is you'll start
to see fluid come out of the closest place first so you'll see it come out of the left front close
that and right front then left rear and then right rear try to try that to see whether
you can get the air out of the system that way I've had really good luck doing that in fact
in fact um an old time an old time actually it was how long ago was it god it was ages ago
an old-time mechanic told me that's how he he always worked by himself and he said that's
how a blood breaks like that for for ages that's how I've always done it and you know and I've
I've you know I've tried the the vacuum you know the the pressure bleeders that they're okay
and I've tried the vacuum one where you attach the vacuum hose to the bleeder and suck out the
fluid that way um but I found this way just and what happens is um it's because you're easy on the
brakes it just tends to push all the air out of all the different systems so you know out of you
know out of the metering valve and you know out of the master cylinder and out of the abs pump
and it tends to get the air out so I would give that a try and see what happens
you're recommending like one person inside the car just pushing down a little bit and then
someone else on the outside closing one at a time close this if you if you have two people
if not just you know if you haven't jacked up a little bit um or not even you know if you
you know if you're kind of door open kneeling down just kind of pushing on the brake pedal
with your hand and kind of looking under the car every couple minutes and see when fluid
starts to drip out usually you get pretty lucky I can give that a shot is there an easy way of
finding a scanner that will do more than I mean I did a lot of research on my scanner I called you
once to program keys yeah I was able to get it I was able to get it to open it to stop the car
with the fob but I haven't been able to program it to do the door locks for instance and now when
I got this for the scanner I it said it did a lot of ABS and that and I couldn't get it to do this
car is there one scanner that can do a lot more and I find out the right scanner uh yeah I mean
yeah I mean multiple scanners garages have dozens sometimes it seems like you you know
I have a wall of scanners I mean a lot of a lot of garages use the autel scanner it's about a $6,000
scanner it does it does a pretty good job I had a neighbor here who said my my heat and my air
conditioning is not working on my car and um I said well come on down and and I'll take a look
and I was using the x-tool scanner and first off I haven't used it in six months so it had
259 updates it had to do first um I did that I did that two days ago with these things scanner
yeah and um and it was able I mean it it gave me some control but it wasn't I was a little
disappointed in what I could do with it because it was um I wanted to try to get it to operate the
blend door and that's what I think was wrong with it um although there was no there was no
code for it um when I switched the controls from hot to cold um there was really no change it was
just like the temperature coming out of the vents was just average and um so I'm like well let's see
if I can let's see what I can get it to do here and see what I can get it to get it to read and I
could go into a couple of different modes to get the fan to turn on and I could look at different
things but I it seemed like the one thing I really wanted to do was I wanted to manually manipulate
the um the blend door and I couldn't get it to do it and um you know it was just it was it was it
was a little bit frustrating because it just didn't want to you know just didn't want to do what I
wanted it to do so um so you know is you know with this with this car let's see what we're talking
let's see what it says here how to how to bleed brakes in this um let's see you said it's a 2014
center yes okay uh let's see we'll get over the warning so don't drink but brake fluid so it tells
you to do that um uh don't let it run out of brake fluid uh before working disconnect the ABS
actuator and electronic control unit okay so where the actuator is in the control unit says
disconnect that turn ignition switch off and disconnect the ABS actuator electronic control
unit connector or negative battery cable connect the vinyl tube oh and then it just goes through
regular old bleeding system so nothing not even a scanner and that will do the ABS yeah
according to this it says yeah I mean according to this and here I'll I'll read the steps uh
disconnect the ABS control unit connect the vinyl tube to the right rear brake bleeder press
depress brake pedal four times with the brake pedal depress loosen the bleeder screw bleed
all the air then tighten it immediately replace repeat steps three and four uh until all the
air is out of the brake line tighten the bleeder screw and then uh it says let's see it says uh
remove it kind of goes around then it says replace uh repeat steps two through six
with master cylinder reservoir filled at least the part way bleed out the air in the following order
front uh front right front left right rear left rear so oh yeah yeah so it starts off doing the
doing the furthest away you know until you get fluid out there and then it says um once that
happens tighten the bleeder screw um and then then it says repeat steps two through six with the
master cylinder filled and then uh which is you know the bleeder you know the hose and the
crack the bleeder screw and all that stuff um it says bleed the air so according to the procedure
you don't need to do nothing just disconnect the actuator and the control unit
well what where are you getting this since i've never heard anybody talk about about
doing this is this is this is right off all data
from where we are all data the technical database yeah yeah you have to pay for that one yeah
okay i think i'll pay for it they do have they do have like a single use one and the other thing
um you can also try like your local library some local libraries have subscriptions
oh okay yeah we do have a multiple library system here that you can go to okay you have a good
you have a real good library system i think your library system lends out tools doesn't it it does
and yeah it does yeah it has a scanner but but just the cheap you know yeah yeah yeah but i i
think i was up i think i was up at one of your libraries once and i looked i said you lend out
like drills and saws and stuff and they're like oh yeah like jeez i was so mad i was so mad when
they went to this type of system the new data cabinet all the books they got rid of i says i
would have taken all the automotive books for you and they they got rid of them all i was i cried
used to go there all the time and look yeah books for us yeah oh no yeah no and the other thing is um
you know if you if you are you know if you play around on the internet and i'm trying to look for
it now let's see favorites um there is a what is it here there is a
here it is it's called um if you just do charm c h a r m dot li and just type in that on your
computer charm dot li and um it doesn't have the well i was going to say it doesn't have the
newest stuff in here but it has a lot of stuff in and it's all free and for instance it doesn't have
the centra or doesn't um it only has the center up to 2013 but it has yeah but it has a full
you know repair manual you know all kinds of all kinds of stuff and that's and that's absolutely
free and um you know i don't know i don't know how much i don't know how much on here there is
because i haven't looked at it for yours but you know there is a there is a little bit of
stuff but there's also there's also a lot of um you know engine related stuff you know especially
things like um you know engine mounts and you know tune up and performance checks and things
you're supposed to do and you know you might find that there's some there's some stuff you can learn
and it's and it's free and i don't know i don't know where it came from someone you know i someone
sent it to me one day and said here if you're ever looking for something look here and i remember
sending um somebody with a gm like a 2005 678 uh buick they would have and they were looking
for a wiring diagram and i said well you can it's right here you can get it for free so uh charm.li
okay i i wasn't able to test the the abs but it was something in the scanner that let me test
the unit yeah and it it had one of the screens talked about ACT act
towards ACT T which i had never heard of and you could hit up or down yeah in the test and
i'd never heard those terms so it's it's it's it sounds like it's an actuator for the abs so it's
making a pump run okay because i i could hear either a solenoid or the actual weight is working
depending on the test yeah i mean some i mean yeah i mean some cars you actually you're supposed
to actually run the abs pump to bleed the air out of it but on this one it makes it sound like
when you disconnect it you can bleed it the old-fashioned way okay well i i appreciate that
input and i will be out there today trying it thank you very much there you go okay take care
enjoy the warmer weather i think well well you know it's going to be it's going to be 40 here on
tuesday so you know i'll be like i'll be like being in new england oh okay all right i'll
i'll pity you all right all right take care bye bye uh our phone number again 7818374900
let's go to john and melrose and then we'll take a break john good morning
good morning uh my question is uh a month a couple of months ago i won one of those
spot uh uh detectives uh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah do i show um now i have i have a 2019
Toyota and i also have a 2014 chevri pickup 1500 now i put i scanned my truck
and my truck scans great yep now i've tried scanning my toyota 2019 and i can't get it to
show anything on there it just keeps me referring back to my truck am i doing something on i think
you have to and i and i have it it's funny i just i just was moving stuff around in my shed and i
picked up mine i think you have to add you have to there's a place i think you have to add a second
vehicle or more vehicles oh what do you mean a place to add well like like when like when you
use the app that goes with it i think there's a way that you do a new vehicle on it right don't
but i'm i'm guessing because i don't remember so yeah um and and and uh let's see i'll have to
figure that out yeah it's uh let's see what it says i have a spark device welcome aboard
um no it should it
yeah i think you i i think i think it's well you know i was just looking at the app on my phone
and it leads me to believe that it should find it on its own but you know you need but you know they're
you know you need to make sure you know your bluetooth on on your on your phone and all that
stuff but also um there may be there there may be an issue with data from toyota and the only
reason i know this is one of the databases i use is motor repair manuals to look stuff up
and and motor doesn't have a license for toyota so you know they have all this different stuff
but there's no license for toyota because i don't know if they can't
if i don't have motors manuals gotten a fight with toyota somewhere but you know it seems like
everything's so it might have something weird to do with that but i know i thought i found
everything i needed to find you know and i haven't used that spark thing in
you know six or eight months so i don't don't remember but but i think you don't you don't
do the same thing make sure your bluetooth on on your phone um you know make sure plugged in keys
on all that and see if it does it find the device when you plug it in uh huh when you plug in the
spark thing to the obd does your phone find it does it see it um no it doesn't no it doesn't
okay so so it may you know it may be that maybe your you may have to go into the bluetooth settings
on your phone and then find it find it on that all right i'll give that a shot okay all right
thank you see what happens all right good luck john take care bye bye why don't we take a break
pay some bills if you'd like to join us talk about whatever's on your mind give us call it
781-837-4900 we'll come back i'm gonna talk about the viewroy dash cam this is the most sophisticated
dash cam i have ever seen and we'll talk about that when we come back my name is john paul this is
even car geeks and do-it-yourselfers rely on triple a to give them extra peace of mind on the road
triple a offers 24 seven roadside assistance whether you're in your own vehicle a friend's car
or even a rental combine that with great rates of insurance hotel gas and buying savings and
discounts on 8700 brands and you're covered on and off the road get a special membership offer today
at aaa.com slash joy that's aaa.com slash joy
hi i'm jeff kohen all around nice guy and owner of the best painting company on the south shore
one stop painting i have a fleet of trucks and over 30 people on staff year round their painters
their carpenters and their power washes waiting to show you why we are consistently voted the
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hi this is liz loans tune into twilight showcase radio
hosted by sandy stride and keith james visit twilight showcase dot org twilight showcase tonight
from 8 to 10 on 95 9 w atd
honored with a lifetime achievement award from the national highway traffic
safety administration he's john paul the car doctor on 95 9 w atd
and welcome back to the car doctor program on 95 9 w atd i was just looking at a second location
just uh jim got me curious whether there was anything different uh exactly the same
procedure uh looking someplace else turn the ignition off disconnect the abs actuator
electronic control unit connect the vinyl tube to the right rear brake bleeder press
depress the brake pedal four or five times with the pedal depressed loosen the brake
bleeder to bleed air in the brake line tighten immediately repeat steps three and four until
all the air is out of the brake line so you're getting it all out of that right rear tighten
the bleeder valve to the specified torque and then replay repeat steps two through six with the
master cylinder filled at least halfway bleed the air in the following order front right front left
right rear and and rear left so same same idea so apparently there's no magic to this
so i hope that hope that works for you um so i got this dash cam from a company called view
roid v u e r o i d and i have a dash cam in my car and you might say why do you have a dash cam in
your car well when we were originally thinking of coming to florida years back um i thought we
were going to bring a uh we're going to we're actually going to buy a small utility trailer
like a little five by eight utility trailer and i have never towed anything long distance
so i thought having a camera in the car just in case something bad happened wouldn't be a bad idea
so i got the camera kind of horse before the cart i guess um tried to order the trailer
from lows and this was during kind of the middle of covid time and i think i tried to order it in
august may try to order it during the sales tax holiday and i said how soon will it be ready
and the woman at the desk at lows called up the company who makes them
and told me it would be ready in a year so i said well that's not going to work so
we didn't bring as much stuff with us which was good um but i still have the dash cam and it just
sort of sits up it's tucked behind the it's tucked behind the review mirror i don't really see it
it's it's a garment one and what it will do is if you drift out of the lane it will chirp
if there's a car that's going to stop short in front of you and you don't it has sort of like
advanced driver assistance features sort of built into it you know although it doesn't do anything
other than makes noise so if you drift out of the lane it lets you know if you don't stop quick
enough it lets you know if a car in front of you moves forward and you don't move it beeps and
lets you know um in the event of a you know collision or or anytime you make a hard stop
it'll start to record and it records kind of constantly uh at short periods of time
fortunately i've never had to use it for anything other than novelty purposes
and it just sits up there and doesn't bother me it's not in the way of anything um this one is
it's called the s1 4k infinite i n f i n i t e it's a 4k 60 frames per second camera and it's
two channel it actually has a rear camera and again it is one of the most sophisticated things
i've ever seen um it has a ai app so artificial intelligence app it has heat monitoring in
case it gets too hot in the car it will um it will um shut down before it breaks it has a
pretty wide angle view it has vehicle battery protection this looks like if you
you know if jesse decided that he doesn't work enough and he wanted to become an uber driver
this is the kind of thing you'd want to have because it's it you can set up the rear camera to
keep track of what's going on inside the car and then your forward facing camera so you can see
what's going on in front of you and that rear facing camera um besides keeping track of what's
going on in the car could also see out the back so you would have a full record of everything
that's going on in your car and somebody couldn't say you know all the uber driver tried to take me
someplace i didn't want to go or you know tried to extort money from me or whatever the case is
um it looks like a really good unit i haven't hooked it up to try it yet um but it looks like a
really high quality unit very well made cables and connections all look really really good um it
looks like again it looks like a high quality unit that will do its job and and maybe it's just maybe
everybody's kind of follows the uh the apple way of life where packaging makes a real difference
these days and this thing if you've purchased a ipad or an iphone um it's packaged almost the same
way like the packaging is almost as good as the product is uh the user manual is pretty straightforward
tells you how to install it um and again all the uh the main unit the main camera unit is um
uh i would say about two and a half inches by three and a half inches big display screen so
you can see pretty well adjustable lens on the front um really good the rear camera is probably
one by two inches and again you can mount that it's optional however you want to do it um and it
comes with all the various connectors and wiring and all that sort of stuff um everything's pretty
simple plugins like the two cameras just plug into each other and again it's one of these things
that you look at you know you know they they put a lot of thought into how it's packaged how it's
wired uh looks like looks like a pretty simple although to do it right you know to you know you
gotta spend a couple hours to tuck all the wires away so you can't see them um but i think if you
are somebody who wants to you know kind of keep track of everything that's going on inside your
car you know this is this is a really good unit for that and it's one of those things that
i think uh if you have a need for a dash camera this is one of those ones that you might want to
really consider i saw i saw something very similar to this looks like a very similar design uh recently
on it was in a um i think it was some european video that i was watching and it had uh because
they were they were getting in the car on the opposite side so i was like oh and it looks
like looked like the same dash camera setup so again it's it's a looks like a really high quality
product and again i haven't tested it yet i assume it's going to do everything it says it's supposed
to it uses a dual sony uh cameras again a hybrid lens a real wide field of view
it has night vision and it actually has plate capture so you know it you can actually kind of
single out a license plate so if something something bad happens you actually have the
license plate so i don't know it's it's a good unit it's uh i don't know when i'm going to get
get to installing it i might install it um before the drive back home whenever that's
going to be because the plan is that we might leave the Hyundai here and take the older
Volkswagen back home with us to replace the even older Volkswagen that's up north so we're going to
do that if you'd like to join us and talk about oh cars car stuff car questions whatever's on your
mind you can do it um got some interesting questions this week um somebody with a toyota
sienna van and they said uh the interior lights of our toyota sienna have not been working for
over a year when the doors were open the interior lights would come on we tried everything to get
them to come on with no avail uh this is a problem especially at night when there's no sunlight
could you please advise well you would if you've been around for a while if you've been tinkering
with cars for a while you know that used to be dome lights were simple there was a uh little pin
switch that grounded a wire the wire made the light come on pretty much it nothing much more
complicated than that well not anymore even in this car which is seven years old it's a pretty
complicated system there are four fuses that run the system only one really runs the dome light
but the other fuses sort of run the stuff that goes up to it there's a pretty complicated
wiring harness the wiring harness goes to a body control module there's a timer circuit
um i would start by the simple thing so let's make sure it just didn't blow a
10 amp fuse that runs the dome light circuit um so check all the fuses get there with a
a test light and check all the fuses make sure they all work um i would use a test light or
an oh meter to make sure the fuse is okay use an oh meter that can handle a little bit of current
draw across it make sure that's okay and then um once the fuses are all good i would start by looking
at any wiring issues but the next thing i would look at there's a relay and it's a timer relay
what happened when you get in a a lot of cars today when you close the door the lights dim
sort of dim theater style dimming they'll do the same thing when you open the door they'll
tend to get bright slowly i would look at that and um make sure that's working the way it should
then after that it becomes complicated then you need you know you need a gym and north ready to
scan tool and you need to plug into the car and you want to make sure all the door switches are
open and closed when they're supposed to be open and closed and then you want to see if you can
actually wait the door switches you want to see if you can actually wait lights and so forth and
i guess just to be silly you want to make sure that all the bulbs work you know is there a manual
control that you can turn the dome lights on make sure they all just come on sounds kind of silly
but you want to make sure you know there there has been troubleshooting around and people try different
things um you know worth looking at um
question just came in i need more light in like 2005 highlander the bulbs are 905 and 906
when i look on the web i see many different kinds of bulbs that claim 8000 percent more light i see
led xenon and others can tell me what kind of light does that really put out i've used these
80 watt and 100 watt bulbs but i've found that they get too hot for my light housing
yeah i mean led bulbs are definitely brighter the problem with led bulbs led bulbs need to be
designed for the reflector housing that they're in and they're not and that's why companies like
sylvania who makes you know every kind of light bulb in the world they'll advertise led bulbs but
they only advertise them for like fog lights and driving lights not for headlights because they would
like to be able to sell them and the problem is when you put in a led bulb um it could be
really bright but the light is really scattered because it's not focused it's not it's not where
it needs to be um xenon bulbs which are high intensity discharge bulbs those are those require
a transformer the other problem with led bulbs led bulbs don't draw as much um amperage don't
draw the same amount of current as a regular bulb does and you may end up with a light that comes
on on your dashed it because the car thinks there's a headlight out and then there's kits then there's
another kit you buy the tricks it to puts the light out um i would try you know i use sylvania
silver star bulbs they're whiter they're a little brighter they're not a lot brighter they give a
little bit more light um the problem is they burn hotter not temperature wise well i guess maybe a
little bit they burn a little bit hotter and they don't last as long you know regular headlight
regular headlight bulbs last you know five to ten years although realistically they start to dim
after about three years so if you have three-year-old bulbs in your car they're they're already putting
out probably 60 of light output when they were new that's why sometimes when you put some of these
brighter bulbs in like the sylvania silver star plus or the ge i think they're nighthawk bulbs
if you put those in you'll find that they look really bright compared to what you took out because
what you took out already started to dim other than that
it's it's kind of it's kind of interesting i went up to visit rob hackler at the radio station
i like to try to stop in once a year to say hi and um when when i was up there we we just
got talking about vision and uh the guy who owns king optical and brain tree was there
and we were talking about things like you know he says he gets people coming in all
time is a way that you can do anything more for my nighttime vision and i just sort of casually
throughout there that yeah i'm between the time you're 20 and 60 you need three times as much light
to see and by the time you turn 80 years old you need four times as much light to see unfortunately
it's just sort of a fact of life with aging you're just going to need more light to see so
i wouldn't try the leds because i think
i think you might be disappointed in the overall performance of them and
i always worry about and i've only seen this happen once or twice i saw somebody put led
tail lights in a Toyota Tacoma that didn't have them and it actually caused um a check
engine light to come on and it actually did some damage not a lot but it did some damage
so i always worry about different voltage different current doing different things
the one leds that and you see them occasionally on older cars in fact the post office is using
them on some of their older vans it's where the regular old one piece seal beam was
it's a complete replacement with the le with like four led bulbs and it's a complete replacement
made into the seal beam those are probably better because that bulb was made for that reflector
but just sticking a led bulb in there that's going to be half an inch longer or three quarters
and it's shorter than the bulb that's in there is going to cause problems in my opinion some people
put them in they you know i've seen some of the videos online i saw one that was a jeep and
you know he was putting lights in and he had it parked up against garage door and he's like look
how much brighter it is and it was it was a lot brighter but are you blinding oncoming traffic
and is the light usable light the thing with like factory xenon and led bulbs they're brighter
no question but it's also very controlled usable light if you look at the light output it's very
squared off it shines just where it's supposed to shine so so jim i don't have a good answer other
than i tried the sylvania silva star plus see how they work for you um somebody else wrote to me
and said this was kind of funny they wrote to me at 7 14 this morning hi my tire pressure warning
light is on i turn on the car and flash it for a while then go solid i hold the tpm s button for
a while but the light doesn't flash three times any ideas and then five minutes later it's fixed
i held the button for 10 seconds kept the car in the on position and the lights off that's what
you're supposed to do but hopefully what they did is they inflated the tires properly so put
whatever they're supposed to be 32 33 34 pounds of air in all four tires then press the reset button
this is an older style tpm s system that's that also might be at the end of his life so um you know
do that uh guy by the name of michael wrote to me and said i have a 2026 genesis gv 70 with two
distinct key fobs i'd like to link the driver one profile to one key fob and driver two profile to the
other co-pilot microsoft's ai service provides some very detailed instructions how to do this
they don't work the genesis salesman says the vehicle cannot perform this seemingly simple
function but the fingerprint reader could be used to do it fingerprint reader is awkward
particularly wearing gloves in the winter using the entertainment infotainment system to switch
profiles works but that's a multi-step procedure ending with an additional step to confirm
which profile you want are you aware of a simple method to switch profiles on the key fob
and i have definitely seen this ability to do this before in other cars where you know the key
fobs are sort of locked into the car where you can program them differently so when you use one
key fob um you know it sets the radio stations the seat the mirrors and all that stuff the other
key fob different radio stations different mirrors setting different seats but can't be done on this
one and i and people say to me you know sometimes where do you get your information i try to get it
everywhere i try to get it some of it's just experience from doing stuff some of its repair
manuals technical information some of it's as simple as going to the owner's manual and today
nearly every owner's manual is online and when i looked in the owner's manual it said uh
you can have different profiles but the campaign tied to a specific key fob they link to the driver's
profile on your car's infotainment system system can automatically switch profiles if you use the
digital key enabled smartphone linked to your profile so you can't do it there's the answer
why don't we take another break when we come back we only have a couple minutes left and we'll
talk about what we got coming up next week you'll listen to car doctor program in 959 WATD we'll be
right back even car geeks and do-it-yourselfers rely on AAA to give them extra peace of mind on
the road AAA offers 24 7 roadside assistance whether you're in your own vehicle a friend's car
or even a rental combine that with great rates of insurance hotel gas and buying savings and
discounts on 8700 brands and you're covered on and off the road get a special membership offer today
at aaa.com slash join that's aaa.com slash join hey there folks it's quinn kelly reminding you to
tune in sunday night at five for the south shore's first voice in sports talk radio the sports exchange
unmatched coverage of local high school action as well as a relatable voice on all things boston
pro sports we've got you covered live at five every sunday night have a question for our host
miss last week's show or just want to share a great sports story you can find us on twitter
at se on WATD but remember mark your calendar folks and we'll see you sunday night at five
for the sports exchange on 959 WATD make an appointment support morning at 11 for john
paul the car doctor on 959 WATD now back to the car doctor
and welcome back to the car doctor program on 959 WATD it sounds like i just skipped
so coming up next week we're talking with our friend west bowling he is from
no key in tires we're going to talk about you know getting ready for winter time sort of like the
you know tire pressure monitor system so we're going to be talking to him coming up next week
i think and near the end of the month we're talking to christin brokaw from car md
they're the ones that make scanners but they also have this new little tiny plugin under dash scanner
and what's kind of neat about it besides it keeping track of where your car is it also has a
artificial intelligence feature where you can ask it questions and it gives you
and it's pretty good it actually gives some pretty good answers back so pretty good thing
uh so we got that coming up in a couple weeks too so we have a lot going on over the next few
weeks so stay tuned to the car doctor program at 959 WATD so until next week make sure you're
where your seatbelt drives safely be good to your car and if you see an emergency vehicle
by the side of the road slow down or move over and save lives talk to y'all next week bye bye
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