Don't Sell That Car - Repair It

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subscribe and rate and review us. We appreciate it. Here is the under the hood show podcast.

This is under the hood. Welcome to the under the hood show.

We are glad to have you with us. Russ Evans is here to answer your automotive questions.

Thanks for joining us under the hood. Shannon Nordstrom is here to do the same.

Welcome, hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune up.

I'm Chris Carter here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150.

866-594-4150. Let's go right to the phones and go to Nevada and talk to Cassidy.

You're on the end of the hood show, Cassidy. What can we do for you?

Yeah, I have a 2013 Chevy Impala and I got the windows tinted on it.

I had somebody after market tint them. Sure.

And now the sensor on my dash thinks that it's nighttime all the time and my lights are always on.

How dark did you get it? No kidding.

Did you tint the front window?

Uh, I didn't tint the front window, but I did do limo. I didn't tint the front window at all.

Yeah, which kind of surprised me, you know, but because, you know, when the sun's shining in there,

you would think that that it would tell us it's daytime, but it's for whatever reason.

It's a that sensors made to turn those lights on when it's very heavily overcast outside

for safety, rain, more than I think it's 20, 20% drop in sunlight. So even some really heavy

cloudy days, it can kick that on. But if you tint those windows on the side, more than the

standard allowed, it's the front, mainly the back can be whatever you want, but the side

windows in the front are typically, I think it's 15% or 5%. It depends on where you're at,

depends on the state. But if you go any more than 20% on the front windows,

there's nothing you can do about it. That thing's going to be on all the time.

But you said you did nothing on the front window and you did the really heavy on the sides?

Yeah, yeah, I did.

Yeah, they, they window tints always been one of those things where depending on where you're at

in the jurisdiction and how they feel, they can, they'll, they'll bother people about it.

Nevada is 35%. Is it 35?

That's a lot. I did not think it would be that high.

Yeah, 35 is pretty dark. Yeah, that's enough to trip that sensor for sure.

Okay. And there's, there's like nowhere where I could move that sensor.

No, it's on the, it's on the dash. It's on the top center of the dash right in the front where it's,

it's open. If it only happened after they did the tint, I would suspect that

it's, it is because it's darker. And if you put the car where the sun's shining directly,

you can see it shining directly on that sensor. If it doesn't turn the lights off,

you may have a problem with the sensor. You may have a light sensor issue.

But it's because they do go out every once in a while.

Yeah, but if the sun's shining directly on it, those lights should be off after it's on there

for a couple of minutes. But if you're just normal driving around and the sun's behind you

and you got those tinted windows, it's likely it's going to kick on.

Okay. Well, I'll try a few things. Yeah, I bought, I bought an aftermarket sensor

hoping that it would fix the problem, but it didn't. So same result.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. The lights are just always on.

You know, I've never tried it, but you might look up

a day, look up a daylight sensor for window tint, see if you can word it right.

Somebody might make one that operates at a different light.

Which sounds not good. Like the mess with it doesn't sound like a great idea, right?

I'm guessing it's made in a country where the lawyers don't chase them.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Cassidy, thanks very much for the call. Good luck.

866-594-4150. Let's talk to Mike in Idaho. Mike, you're on the end of the hood show.

What can we do for you?

Hey guys. Yeah, I actually called last week about a simpler thing. It was a same vehicle,

1953 Jeep Willys pickup truck, a little four-cylinder F-134 engine.

Last weekend, I put in an aftermarket heater core with a blower. So that worked well.

Actually, that's not the problem. I was playing with a test drive and I was kind of breaking in

the new engine. And I started, I knew I had kind of low oil pressure, like 20 psi for the new

gauge and everything, freshly rebuilt motor. So I was breaking it in, letting my daughter learn

to drive. And all of a sudden, I looked down. At one point, it was actually at zero

on the pressure gauge. And if I revved it up a little bit, it would go to like five to six to

seven psi at really low. Like, oh crap, that's bad. So I switched seats. I drove it back home. I

probably drove another half a mile, another minute, two minutes. And it stayed slightly

above zero, but it zeroed out by the time I got home. I quick shut it off. It's not

seized or anything, but I needed to change oil anyway because it's break-in. So I dropped

the oil pan. It does have little silver sheen to it. It machines something.

One of the odds, should I just pull the, at least the bottom bearings, drop the

crankshaft? Does it feel bad? I might have fried those bearings or take a chance. I

got to have a new oil pump for it. I'm going to put a new oil pump in it.

Take the oil pump apart and see if something failed in it.

You know, take that apart. It may be that you got brand new engine. There was a little

bit of something in there. Every reman we put in has to be changed at 500 miles.

And I'm really adamant. I tell these people, do it. And I've had a couple customers go

six or 7,000 miles on that. And I say, good luck. I hope it doesn't go bad because

they're not going to warranty it because 500, well, that's just too early. No,

500 is there because when you start that new engine, you're going to have little pieces

of metal and things that get in the oil. Yeah, I'm am. All right. I'm kind of torn.

I almost want to pull maybe one or two of the block because it's so open of an engine.

Yeah, put it put it in. But for people listening, you've got to change that oil at that 500

miles. And like on this one, though, you may have had something, maybe a piece broke off in

the oil pump. There might have been a casting flash or something. And it jammed in there and

broke the broke something in the oil pump or stuck that relief valve wide open.

So put a new oil pump in it, pull the caps and see what you got.

Did it get, did it get noisy?

No, it didn't get noisy. It didn't smell hot or anything. I crossed my fingers.

When I, when I go put the new oil pump in, I have an oil pump now just showed up today

and I'll try to do it this weekend. So I just debating. I mean, I kind of thought it back

of my mind that probably at least pull the two center crank shafts, like four cylinder.

I can pull a couple of the bottom half of the pillow blocks off and just look at the

bad. I machined out the bearings, if at all, you know,

Mike, we're glad you called back because we forgot to do this last week.

Were you, you brought it up after the show?

Yeah. Then I think Russ wanted the first guess because he said he thought it'd be easy.

But yeah. So, Mike, hold on a second.

What color we're going to guess is this Willie's and I'm going to let Russ guess first

because he was so confident last week. Oh, this one, it's going to be like

maroonish red, you know.

I know. So I'll go next. It's blue.

I'm going to say it's green.

Green. Mike, what color is it? Oh, do you want to pick different?

Shannon picked green. Okay. So he doesn't need, he's undefeated. He's just going to bow out.

Mike, what color is this truck?

Okay. It started life. You're kind of all right because it started life as kind of a cream

color. And my father-in-law bought it in 1960 and then repainted it. A blue, oddly enough,

some kind of factory blue. And then now it's Russ color. It's patina. It's just sun-fated, burnt off.

But I have a question. What should I paint it? I don't really want to go like original. I want

to paint it like old Terry Redland painting and do like a 1960s duck camo, rattle pan job or something.

There you go.

Sounds good. That's cheap. To each his own.

Body works expensive. That's the way that that's a cheap way to go.

Yeah. I think if you're swapping bearings on the weekend, you can do whatever you want.

Exactly.

Mike, thanks very much for the call. Good luck. And then can you clear coat it and make it,

can you bomb can it and then clear coat it shiny?

What? Just keep spraying it over. Is it Russ?

Thanks to our friends at Berkeley One Classics. They help us out with our color guessing. They

don't help us, but they help us a lot, but they don't help us with our guessing.

For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll change the value too, right? I mean, that will,

your agreed value changes if you get it professionally painted.

866-594-41, 5-0. That's the number to reach us here at the Under the Hood show.

What has caught your attention in the automotive world?

Well, you know, it's not like it's a totally major automotive story.

You know, we have a lot of those we break.

I saw there was another recall for backup cameras.

Imagine that. I can't believe it.

Imagine that. Yeah.

It's not a Takata anymore. No, it's just a couple of them here and there lately, but

yep. No, we had a listener send us something here that is really special.

And we've got a note here. This came in the good old postal mail.

And very recently, actually, my wife's birthday is when the letter is written, November 12th.

And this caller had heard us talking about Car Talk and was referenced by a caller that called in.

And he found our show recently while living in South Dakota.

And he used to be a huge listener to Car Talk on public radio.

So much of the fact that he went to a fundraiser event for NPR and brought his book with of

Ask, Click and Clack Answers from Car Talk, which I'm holding in my hand right now.

And he got it signed by Rami Atzi.

And I've got the copy in front of the camera there and he gave us this copy

because he does enjoy our show.

And he met Ray in Columbia, South Carolina is where he met him at at this NPR event.

And he was kind enough to sign the book and he gave it to us.

And he says, do not let Chris draw in it with crayons.

He wrote it here.

I just want to read it.

Can I see it?

And I'll be distracted the rest of the show.

I'll just be reading.

But he had some kind words and he said, even though you guys are always entertaining,

I've honestly gained so much knowledge from your experiences.

Thank you for helping me keep my 06 RAM plain Jane pickup with 240,000 miles running.

If I were a better listener, he put in parentheses,

I would have performed a cylinder blowdown test before I threw a bunch of parts

at trying to solve a misfire.

Thank you again for your efforts.

You all make to present such a solid and beneficial radio show.

Greg Arnold from Lugoff, South Carolina.

That's awesome.

Thank you, Greg.

Here's the book you can look at there, Chris.

And we'll just lose Chris.

He does not have crayons in the studio.

We took them away from him like on year 10.

And so we just, it was a problem.

That is really cool.

Yeah.

I think it's really neat.

What's the, what's the copyright date or the published date on that book?

I didn't even look at that.

It is 1986.

2008.

Okay.

Ten years.

There you go.

Or so.

There you go.

That was fun.

That's really cool.

That's got a picture of him on the front there.

Can you take it home and read it?

Yeah.

Definitely.

I know you like to read books.

I won't get at it right away, but I might.

Eight, six, six, five, nine, four, four, one, five, oh.

Let's go to Idaho and talk to Jeremy.

Jeremy, you're on the end of the hood show.

What can we do for you?

So I got a 94 gram, 2500 with the Cummins in it.

And when we bought it, it kind of been the wires that were kind of, you know,

swapped around a little bit and the race lights didn't work.

So I wired it back to stock.

And now the brake lights and the dash lights are on all the time.

So even if I unhooked the ignition switch.

Dash lights.

You talking about the ones that come on when you turn the headlights on?

When you turn the, when you turn the ignition on.

So it's like the ignition is on all the time and the brake lights are on all the time.

So your dash lights, you're not talking about the ignition switch.

You're not talking about the illumination lights that light up when you turn the headlights on.

You're talking about the check engine light, the fasten seat belt light.

Yeah, the ignition light doesn't even come on like the oil or the oil light in the brake light.

That's on all the time with the key out.

With the key, with it even, with the ignition even unplugged.

The ignition switch completely removed.

You got it short.

That's a, you got a,

yeah, you got a short, you got a, you're going to,

that's a mess.

If you got the ignition unplugged and it's still doing that, you've got a cross between my guess.

So here's where to go first before you go crazy and have to pull your hair out.

You're trying to figure out where it is.

Unplug the turn signal switch.

See if everything goes back to normal.

See if the brake lights go off, the dash lights go out,

and then start to truck up and see if everything works like it's supposed to,

except for the turn signals.

If it does, go buy yourself another turn signal switch.

Plug it in before you take the old one out.

Just plug it in under the dash and see if it works.

Because you have to have a cross between something that's powered all the time,

which would be brake lights, and something that's not powered all the time.

That's not on the ignition circuit.

Otherwise the engine wouldn't shut off when you take the key out.

And that would be the turn signal switch.

If you take the turn signal switch out,

and you cut the wire that feeds it to power it coming from the ignition and those gauges,

and you connect it to the brake lights, your brake lights are going to light up,

and you're going to have power fed back.

So your brake lights could be feeding back.

It could happen in the switch.

That's the one common source that shares both those on the same circuit.

So I'm thinking you got to short across that.

Unplug the turn signal switch.

That does happen.

I was going to have you go backwards on that and just ask.

So when you got the vehicle, someone had rewired it in a bad way.

Is that what you said?

Well, they had unhooked the switch from the pedal that activated the brake light switch.

They had unhooked that four-wire pin and had cut the wire from the fuse box.

And it tried to bypass and then hook back into that switch with just two wires.

And the brake light still didn't work then.

So there was no brake lights.

So I wired it back to the way it was and then plugged that four-wire plug back in.

And that's when I started having the problem.

Well, that's the problem they were probably trying to eliminate.

Yeah, it probably had a bad switch to begin with.

So the brake light, you got it.

There's a single brake light on each side of that truck.

So in order for a turn signal to work,

when your brake lights are off, it just applies power.

When one light blinks, the other one doesn't.

But when your brake lights are on, they're already both lit.

So now it removes power from one side and breaks the connection to flash it.

That's all done through the contacts and the little wipers inside of the turn signal switch.

So if that shorts, it's going to send power back into the turn signal,

the power side of the turn signal feed,

and it could light up the brake lights at the same time.

So I think your problem is probably a bad turn signal switch going like old school.

Yeah, a little bit.

Jeremy, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

Let us know if that was it.

If it isn't, you can keep looking.

But if it is, let us know.

I was behind a truck recently that had the opposite going on.

The brake lights were always on until they hit the brakes.

Then the brake lights went off and the tail lights were on.

Oh, god damn.

Yeah, it was just exactly opposite.

And I followed them.

I was going to let them know, figured they would want to know.

And then they didn't, it turns out they weren't going exactly where I was going.

So I let them just follow them to Wisconsin.

I mean, it was, I was, I followed them one turn to let them know,

but then they went a different direction than I needed to.

Some nice highway patrol person will help them.

And it is funny too, because I drive obviously in the middle of the night

when I'm coming to work and it was bright.

You could see, like I thought they were stopped up ahead,

because I was coming up on them for miles.

Oh, yeah.

You could see it was so bright in the pitch dark.

Mine are pretty bright too.

And then when you step on the brake, they're even brighter.

And what really gets me is those, the ambulance,

some of the new ambulance, you're coming up on them.

They're like, whoa, that's blinding.

They're bright.

You think their brake lights are stuck?

And then they hit the brakes and you go, whoa.

And they'll get your attention.

They're super, super bright.

Let's go to Nebraska and talk to Andrea.

You're on the end of the Hood Show.

Andrea, what can we do for you?

Hi.

I was calling for a recommendation for an aftermarket reverse

or a backup camera for a 2010 Honda Odyssey van.

Yeah.

They have one that'll actually work, because the factory ones are...

Yeah.

Everybody's having those problems.

The aftermarket ones are cool.

Yeah.

And this one never had a backup camera on it.

It sold enough at the thought.

Yeah, because that's still the older generation van,

even though they were requiring the cameras,

it was still the older generation.

So that didn't go until the next generation of that van.

I think 11.

Yeah, I'm trying to think through my head.

I don't know.

When they changed the front end, they went to the camp.

And then they even went to the passenger mirror showing up.

When you turn right, the camera would show in the mirror

for what's on the right side and the blind spot.

Aftermarket cameras are great.

It's the factory ones that we talk about all the time now.

That have problems.

Seem to be problematic.

I rarely have a problem with an aftermarket backup cam.

We put them in our trucks.

I put some in Chris's car.

You can get a back one, a front one, side, all sorts of things.

Visit a place that does car stereo.

They specialize in auto security, TVs for the inside for the kids,

and cameras for the outside and backup and remote starts now.

Those are great places to go.

They'll show you usually firsthand right in their display inside.

Audio playground Sioux Falls has a display.

And then you say, here it is.

And they can show you the camera, what it looks like.

It can be integrated in as either a camera by itself,

or if you want to upgrade your stereo and have it put on the stereo,

they can do that as well.

But if you just want a camera,

they can certainly get you one that's tied in with the backup light.

So when you put it in reverse, it lights up.

And the cameras are pretty nice.

They've got some that can see in the dark really well.

And shockingly affordable.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they're going to be pretty, pretty affordable.

You get what you pay for with a camera.

It's just you'll always have a camera,

but the more expensive ones are great.

Like they can see in the dark very well and things like that.

Do you have a good Bluetooth to your phone right now in your Odyssey van?

Yes, I do.

Okay.

All right.

Because sometimes people can get a double win and they can

upgrade to a newer head unit with all the Bluetooth and everything

and gain a backup camera if they add the camera option to the aftermarket system.

But I guess you'll have to just talk with someone that's in that specialty.

Maybe stop at a couple places if you're not right in our town here

to see our friends at Audio Playground.

But that's where you're going to find some help.

The end of the Hood Show podcast is brought to you by exclusive sponsors

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Thanks for listening to the Under the Hood Show podcast.

Hey, it's Chris Carter with Russ Evans and Shannon Nordstrom Under the Hood.

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Welcome back everybody.

It's time to get back under the hood with our motor medics.

866-594-4150 that's the number to reach us here at the under the hood show.

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Let's go to Michigan.

Dr. Mike, Mike you're on the under the hood show.

What can we do for you?

Hey, hi guys.

Yeah, I just want to make a mention about a week and a half ago there was a discussion

about the lack of sedans and cars in the American market and mentioned that the Mustang

and the Camaro were probably about the only two sedans left being made by the domestic makers.

And I agree with you that the sedans is a great vehicle but we kind of forgot about the Cadillac

line. You know GM and Cadillac has a number of sedans.

Yeah, they got there right.

It kind of pushes that number up.

Yeah, they got a few of them there that we probably weren't thinking of at the

time with the XT series and the different ones they got there.

And that is also where you can buy the last remaining and I hope I don't get this one

wrong but somebody will correct us.

Remaining rear wheel drive straight stick car is a CT5 black wing and crazy performance car.

And that is a rear wheel drive with a Tremac manual transmission.

And that's the last one remaining.

I believe I read in the wrong book.

I almost bought that one we had as a builder up at the shop that had the 6.0 in it.

Yeah, that was a V series.

Yeah, that was a CTS-V with a six speed and it wasn't that bad and it sold

fast when it got over here but I fired it up and went ooh.

This is that black wing is a crazy car but no, that's some good help with the hoodie

getting our knowledge across there.

We forgot about those caddies.

It's a shame that we're giving up the market a little bit to the Europeans and the import.

The sedans are a great vehicle type of deal, right?

Yeah, when I was at SEMA, Toyota was showing concepts of Camrys to come and different things.

So it'll, yeah, the Camry's key is Hyundai's.

But they, you know, they're trying to look where they make their money I think

and they're trying to dig out of a hole that they dug and they're working away at it.

So I watched a thing about the trucks, this in general cars.

Sounds like me.

I watched a thing, whatever it was.

And they, I watched it two nights ago and it was interesting and they made a good point though

that most of the vehicle sales in the United States now are SUVs and trucks.

And they said, you ever wonder how you, how it is that the kid in front of you,

that doesn't seem like he's making near as much as you are, doesn't look it, doesn't act it,

but he's driving a $90,000 Ford Super Duty jacked up with black smoke rolling out of it

or a big ram or something.

You're like, we see that a lot, don't we?

You're like, how is that?

Mom and dad didn't buy it.

They're not, they're not doing that.

And they said they have stretched, they have made payments go out as far as 10 years

as a regular thing now.

So now if you've got, it was about average car payments.

They said the average vehicle payment in the United States now is $900.

If you buy a brand new sedan and you pay for it at four, four or five years

at full price, that's, you're going to pay for it.

So how do you go now from a like a $36,000 car to a $80,000 car?

Well, you just stretch that out to 10 years and get that payment down.

But foolishly, people are paying an $80,000 vehicle.

By the time they're done with the credit and everything,

they're getting close to a hundred grand with and the excess insurance costs that they pay.

That's a lot of money.

And they were also showing that because there's so many of those

and a lot of younger people are getting them, that the accident rate is higher.

Because if you're driving a big truck like that,

you're going to want to drive it a little harder.

And the chance of, and we've seen them come through, you know, more accidents,

it drives the average insurance up as well.

Because now if you bump into one of these things that's got a tail light,

like we had on last week's show that shut the whole system down.

Yep, $1,000 for a tail light.

Sorry, Chris, you drive in the Prius and you bump into a tail light.

Who's going to pay for that?

Your insurance company.

That's crazy.

So if we all drove four-door sedans, right?

They, yeah, and then you've been hearing some just buzz in the news here and there

about stretching out to 50 year interest mortgage rates.

Yeah, mortgage rates.

Well, you know, trying to make houses available.

That thing and the way they do it.

But I do have a family member that has had their last three cars on a 10-year loan.

They keep them for three and they sell them and get another one.

And I agree with it too.

It's almost like a lease.

I agree with the way they did it because their payments are lower

and they never are going to own it.

They're going to get another one.

But if they were going to keep it, let's don't do that

because the interest is going to kill you.

But that cost versus the lease, the lease was almost identical per month.

So let's say it was 920 for the lease and it was like,

I think it was 925 or 928 for the buy it on 10 years.

But they sell it and they did get a little bit equity.

But if they keep it more than three years,

you're upside down in the car and you owe more on it than it's worth

because it drops off real fast.

And you have to be really careful because you can bury yourself in there.

They're playing a scary game.

But appreciation.

You know what Mike said about these cars.

Yeah.

Mike, thanks very much for the call.

That's a good point.

So now we got five, right?

We came up with five if we're counting dodge.

We got the Mustang, Camaro.

Well, that's gone.

Camaro's gone, right?

The charger.

Charger.

The Mustang, charger, and the CT4 and 5.

That's it.

Right?

For domestics.

Yeah.

Let's go do some digging.

That's out of our memory.

But we should do some digging just to see what else is out there.

But I remember when we were talking about, remember when they said,

Oh, the last bench seat car is selling.

Remember, there were like no more bench seats.

We have wrote the show through the last

CD player.

Did we write it through cassette player?

Yep.

Yep, we did.

We did.

Last CD, last cassette.

Well, let's really go back.

Like I said at the beginning of the show about somebody else,

this show was on before Facebook existed, before YouTube existed,

before the internet existed.

We had none of that when the show started in 1990.

I mean, there was an internet, but it wasn't our internet that we have.

There wasn't a Facebook.

There wasn't an Instagram.

There wasn't a Twitter or an excerpt.

None of that was there.

So all these things have been there.

We've gone from cars with carburetors to routinely.

80% of the show was carburetors.

And then to fuel injection.

And then to robots.

For goodness sake, we got robots.

Speaking of robots.

Did you see the horrible unveiling of the Russian robot?

Oh, that was that meme.

That meme is going to be used heavily.

And then when they took the sheet out,

that's the funniest part.

If you haven't seen this online, there was some younger people.

They were, wasn't it in Russia?

It was Russia.

They were unveiling a bot.

And the bot was going to come out and do some things.

And it just fell flat forward.

And they were like trying to grab the side curtain and cover it up.

And it was twisted.

It was twisted and they pulled it down.

You'd almost think it was a bit.

Totally.

It looked like a comedy bit.

They should have had a Tesla bot pick it up.

No, those guys are dead now.

They're for sure.

Well, I see that they're disappeared.

Just recently, just recently, like, who's the leader of Russia?

My brain just quit.

Putin was greeted by a dancing robot at a conference he just went to,

like in the last couple of days when they were producing this show.

And that robot was dancing pretty good.

It wasn't the one that fell over.

But if it was, they fixed it.

Let's talk to them.

Pretty impressive.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Marty.

You're on the end of the hood show.

Marty, what can we do for you?

Hey, I got a battery question.

Okay.

I have a 21 RAM 1500 with the 5.7.

And I bought it new.

Now it's what, going on five years old or so.

And I would consider replacing the battery.

My question is, what should I put, like, I think it's an H7 or something in there?

And you should go to our glass mat or will that overtax the alternator?

It shouldn't.

We've had some discussion lately a little bit about Toyota's and the charging,

when you put an AGM battery in that.

And it's not that the vehicles aren't starting,

but you don't optimize 100% of what you could with an AGM for starting power

because of the design of that Toyota system.

I've not heard of this with the RAM.

I've looked on some of the forums for this specifically when I was looking up the Toyota.

Didn't see that, but there are a couple different choices.

I mean, they have lithium batteries now.

They've got the AGM batteries, but an Optima battery, you know, like an AGM absorbed glass mat

would be a good choice for a RAM like that.

They have different models.

They've got the yellow and the red.

Those are made, so you've got batteries that are made for trucks

in a harsher environment, vibration, the cold, they'll start better.

You get AGM batteries just crank better when it gets very cold,

if you're in a cold climate.

I know around here, when you get down.

Yeah, it has the remote start and all that.

Oh, yeah.

And you've got all that, you know, has the heated seats and all that that,

you know, I was just curious, I should upgrade or if that's no, no.

No, that's fine.

And go to auto batteries.com when you have questions on batteries

and charging and things like that.

They've got a redesigned site now and they've got a lot of really good

information at auto batteries.com for that.

Yeah, our partner at Clarios designs the technologies that's used in so many batteries.

So many batteries you don't even know exist.

Exactly.

And so they're putting out these information sources that are,

you know, they're not brand specific per se, but they obviously have their

brands that the technology is in and there's a lot of OEMs that they're in.

And they've got great FAQs and you can contact them.

There's videos and it's all about batteries.

I put an AGM battery in my riding lawn mower 13 years ago and I don't use a

maintainer on it in the winter and it starts, it's started everywhere.

And those, that's the one I used to put a battery in every spring, a regular battery.

And I put the AGM and it was like three times the cost,

but I was putting a brand new one in every year for years.

And I haven't put another one in it.

So they're tough.

Marty, thanks very much for the call.

I do want to clarify quick as I see stuff.

I'm getting texts and stuff.

We were just talking about the traditional three, the big three.

Ford, Chevy and, and.

Yeah.

Yeah, because you go into the Japanese brands and you move the Korean brands.

But even American made now, you could consider Tesla in there.

We were just talking about those three and I take dodge out of that.

I maintain that that's not a big three.

Not American anymore?

Yeah, because it's the Lantus and that's not an American.

So that's, this is a long going conversation.

Let's get them talking on YouTube in the comments.

866-594-4150.

What else has caught your attention in the automotive world?

Well, it's not the automotive world, but did you guys know I cheated on you?

No.

I did.

Okay.

Well, I have to admit it.

All right.

I went on another podcast.

Oh, no.

What was it?

I didn't get your permission either.

Uh-uh.

Some young friends of mine that I met at Marabella restaurant

started a podcast called Vike Night.

And I went on as a special guest.

I went down and did it over lunch hour on Monday before I left out of town after the Bears game.

I did share a link.

Good riddance.

Yeah, I did share a link on our page.

And I got to, I got to give it to these guys.

They are, they, they love playing with technology like a lot of young people.

I say young people.

They're my son's age.

Yeah.

And adults, 30, 30 years old.

They're extremely industrious young people.

I'm very proud to know them.

They're, they're, they're cool.

And they are doing this out of an apartment bedroom.

And it actually, it's tight.

The guy that's helping them produce,

it also works down there.

And Hank was basically in the corner of the closet.

Sure.

Running his little control board.

And Alana and Phil and Lucas, I sat there with them for,

I was there for just a little over an hour.

And I put the link up.

They've got it on YouTube and it's, it's fun.

They just started it this year.

They're, they're lifelong fans, all of them.

And it was fun to do.

I've never done anything like that.

But I, so I cheated on you guys.

Did you tell them, don't, don't just don't fall in love.

Don't, don't do it.

No, they're already hooked.

Yeah, it's, it's not going to, it's not going to pay off.

Yeah, I know.

This, this year is an interesting one.

Russ was texting us when, when the, when the Vikings,

somehow I don't know how that quarterback performance went so well that day.

And then he came back the next, but it's been, it's been a ride.

And that's the life of being a fan of any fandom.

It seems like you can go for some rides.

This one's been a wild one this year.

This year.

This year has been for crazy for some reason.

I don't know.

But yeah, you guys have to check out the Vikingite podcast.

And they got it on YouTube and podcast.

I say they can, if they can have you and the Vikings.

No, I'm fine.

What's the trade?

Nothing.

I don't, I'm going to be a soccer fan.

No, that's not true.

You're not going to do that.

But, oh man, you just, it's,

I predicted the loss to you on text live.

You, you predicted it step by step.

It was an easy one.

Yeah.

What would happen?

This is going to happen.

And it did right down the line.

And yeah, it's fun.

It's fun.

It's painful.

No, I'm fine with it.

I didn't ask for your permission.

I apologize.

I wrote off this, this year.

I've, I've written off every year.

So I get excited.

And then I've had my heart broken in the NFC championship enough that I don't.

Let's stop.

I just wanted to tell you guys I cheated on you.

Yeah, that's fine.

That's all I wanted to tell you.

That's fine.

I was not loyal.

It's, I felt a little dirty.

Yeah.

866-594-4150.

Did you have any other automotive things?

No, I just wanted to pull that out and let you guys know that I was not

honorable.

Okay.

That's you're forgiven.

When we went to Louisville, Louisville, I was, I, you know, ironically, I'm saying that my daughter

who's in college now in Arizona at Grand Canyon University,

her roommate that she's became really good friends with is from Louisville.

Louisville.

And it was, it was kind of cool.

She was trying to teach us how to say it when we were out there moving them into college.

And as much as I probably butchered the American language,

I just apologized to my, my friend Ella and her parents.

There you go.

It's like Whoville with an L.

Louisville.

We all learned to say it on Sports Center.

That's where you learn to say those, the, that's how I, I get all my pronunciation.

And it had not hit my radar for some reason.

I am a big sports fan.

I'm, I, I enjoy sport.

I enjoy some, if I, if I turn, no, but if I turn,

if I turn on something.

Oh yeah.

I eventually, I've instantly picked someone I want to win or lose and I get into it.

And I don't know.

I don't know.

It's just a thing.

Totally.

And so I did not, it, it's been this way for a long time.

It never hit my radar that where the Louisville, Louisville Cardinal basketball

team plays the college basketball team, which is a wagon.

I mean, they've been good for a long time is the KFC Yum Center.

Oh.

And I guess it's been that way for a long time.

It's the Yum Center.

Why you am like, yum, yum brands.

Yeah.

I just, I did not.

All right.

Did not know that.

Let's take a breath.

Get back to it.

Eight, six, six.

This is an automotive show.

Five, nine, four, four, one, five.

Oh, let's talk to Rich.

You're on the end of the hood show.

Rich, what can we do for you?

I have a 97 Ford Taurus.

That's had the factory Ford anti-theft unit put on it.

Must have been a dealer.

I don't know that the factory puts them on, but it's a factory Ford one.

And it's goofing up to where you can't even start the car now.

And I was wanting to know if you can unhook, if you can just start snipping wires underneath

the dice there and throw that thing away or what.

That's a dealer installed.

Yes, factory Ford.

There's a box underneath there and it comes right.

It says right on there, Ford.

Yeah.

See, the factory stuff doesn't say that.

The dealer installed unit does.

It's an aftermarket piece, basically.

Okay, it was dealer installed.

Yeah, they endorsed it.

So you put it on, comes a little Ford remotes.

And yeah, you can remove it.

You've got, when you remove it, you've got to connect the factory wires back together.

So it cuts into that.

I think it's the yellow wire in the ignition harness.

There's some big fat wires, like 10 gauge wires.

And it's going to cut one of those for the starter kill.

And then they wired indirect to that.

You can take that out.

If you take the system out, you've got to put the factory wires back together.

You'll see where they were cut and this was put in.

Just put the factory wires back where they go when that's cut.

And you'll be fine as far as that starter system goes.

And is it that simple just cutting that out and putting the wires together?

You just, yeah, you'll see that this unit

has cut the factory wire in the middle and pulled the two wires down

and put their two wires from this unit.

So I've seen some that just use piggyback saddles even.

Well, they still have to cut the wire.

Let's assume that Rich isn't going to do that.

I mean, that he's not going to be opening up.

Where do you bring your car to have this done?

And any car stereo shop, they do those things.

You know, sometimes a auto repair shop will do it too.

Car stereo shops, that's what they specialize in.

They'll be able to put it back where it belongs.

Rich, did you have another question?

It's only two wires?

No, that's just for the start portion.

They've still got the door locks and everything tied in.

But you could, if you're using it for your door locks and they work,

then you might as well just disconnect the starter portion.

Put the starter kill back.

Because you turn the ignition on two, three times and put it back to off

and the doors go boom, boom, boom, boom, up and down numerous times.

That tells you that it's in programming.

That tells you it's in programming mode at that point.

When you do that, you cycle the key like three times and leave it on

the third time and then it'll go lock, lock and unlock.

Then you hit the button on the remote to reprogram the remotes to work with the car.

If the remote doesn't work.

Okay, I see.

But I just want to eliminate it.

So I could care less about the locks.

It's got a lot of miles on it, but it's a great running old car,

so I just want it to run.

And I do have another question real quick.

Okay.

You guys would know.

With the way back when I had an old Torino,

a carburetor Torino and a guy come along and sold some Slick 50 it was.

He said, put your four quarts of oil in when you change oil

and then start it up and pour your Slick 50 in for your fifth quart.

And when I'd done that, I mean it idle, let's say 600 RPM or whatever it was

and I poured that Slick 50 in.

And within an instant that idle went way up to 1,1100 or whatever I had to turn the carburetor

idle adjustment down.

Now, wasn't something like that, that Slick 50 worked for these new vehicles

with the TAM phasers that are going out, wouldn't that help them last a little longer?

No, that's a different type of problem in there.

But they do make additives, you know, Justice Brothers, our partner,

they have metal conditioner in a lot of their products.

And that's what all these additives do.

They have metal conditioners that treats the metal, not the oil,

to give it more lubricity and reduce friction.

And these things keep the engine from wearing as fast internally.

With CAM phaser engines, if you would start using the proper additive the day you get the car,

basically as soon as the engines broke in, start using it.

Yeah, I believe that that engine would last a lot longer.

Do you have to?

No.

Do people do it?

Not as many as they could or should to try to get it to last longer.

But it does if you really want to take care of yourself or a car,

you can get any of them to last longer.

By doing additives.

Yeah, and doing the things you should do in time.

Proper maintenance.

People, you go buy a candy bar or you buy whatever and you put that in.

It's not great fuel.

It just wears you down and eventually you look like me and Chris.

If you want to look like Shannon, you've got to get up every morning and work out for an

hour and you've got to eat right.

And I'm not doing that second part very well lately.

But if you do, you can extend the life.

Like with a car, you put in new oil every 3,000 miles.

But what if in between when your oil was a little bit low,

you put a quart of dirty oil in it?

It's not going to last as long.

Clean oil will get you a lot farther.

Rich, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

One of those things where when you're traveling,

you don't pay as close attention, but now you're traveling so much that you...

This last trip I thought they were getting me ready for market.

All right.

There we go.

That's the show.

Now this is the after show, but we're kind of...

Anything else?

We kind of covered a lot.

We didn't cover a lot of ground.

I don't know what to do with this.

I got a wonderful gentleman that set a...

Craig and he's...

I'm guessing probably not watching on YouTube.

But this is...

When I get somebody that sends me a rust, get some too.

But we're talking about a two-page letter.

Illustrated.

Illustrated with questions.

That compels me to want to at least try to help.

I'm ready.

And I just...

This came...

And I placed it underneath another thing that we got.

And it came September 1st.

But Craig, if you are listening, we'll study this letter a little bit.

Maybe on one of the future broadcasts,

we can kind of consolidate the question and answer that he needs.

He's got a problem with his D21 hard body, Nissan.

Okay.

I could imagine.

Hands on hard body.

We're still thinking about that.

We went to the location where you had told us the story.

Harked right on the spot where the truck was at.

And you're like, oh, that's great.

We could say we were there.

Yeah.

It wasn't that impressive.

The dealership is now the warehouse for another car dealership.

So there's no storefront.

And the Kmart across the street is gone.

So we pulled in there in Longview, Texas,

to the new McCann Street grill, which is not like the old one.

The waitstaff was kind of fun, but it wasn't the old one.

But yeah, everything changes.

So that's the old hard body there.

Looking at Craig's letter there.

And I couldn't tell what I was looking at really,

until when he shows the front of the truck and you go,

oh yeah, that's a Nissan.

That paint job is all Nissan.

Yeah, the front of the hood there.

Looks just like they all do.

Craig there, but it is a 86 and a half D21 Nissan XE king cab

four by four with a four cylinder.

He purchased it in 1987 with 800 miles on it.

That was a truck that most kids with a basic job could afford.

If you bought one without the air conditioning,

which was rough to do in Texas,

but they'd buy them without air,

without a radio, nothing.

And I want to say they had kits for air install on those.

Yeah, they did later, but I could be wrong.

But I want to say that truck was 3995.

Look it up, Chris.

See what the price of a 86 and a half Nissan hard body was.

The basic work truck, I think was it was either 29 or 30.

I want to say I remember the billboard.

And I think it was 3995.

If you got the base and it was like 69.

If you got that extended cab with a radio and air conditioning,

but you could buy that underdash.

I put a lot of those underdash.

Well, factory basically kits in put the evaporator thing in.

I think I want to say those were like 700 bucks to install that.

And we're a time similar to a lot of money,

but nowadays that sounds cheap.

Yeah. I mean, it was it was hard to find it as you can imagine.

Oh, Wikipedia base price, probably.

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for.

There were a lot out there.

And so people would buy a base truck.

And that was a good truck.

Oh, yeah, they'd buy the base truck.

They would with the five speed,

they would cut the top off it,

put the California customs convertible kit,

which came with latches and seals.

So you could just saw us all take the roof off

and make it a convertible and then put a big stereo in it in the bed.

You know, and you just you'd have a looks like 6495.

That was probably one with the air conditioning and the was the original for the base.

6495 to 12995.

Is that the scope there?

It's a little higher, but that might be my one of my biggest regrets,

my car regrets.

I bought my brother's 1987 Nissan pickup

and had it for a year or two and then sold it to get another family car.

So kids, that's my regret.

That's I think is really what.

Yeah, yeah, it was kids before that.

I had the pick I had the extra pickup.

It was all going good.

And then I had to had to replace that.

And now here it is.

And now we're 25 years later and yep.

Are you OK?

Still still trying to get back to not do

are you OK for that?

And just have a pickup.

All right. I think that's it.

Anything else?

No, I don't.

I know.

Tired.

Yeah, you you got to get some rest there, buddy.

Russ did it. It's just you got to power through it.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks for watching the end of the hood show with Russ Evans.

This is Shannon Nordstrom thanking you for tuning into the Nordstroms under the hood show.

Have a great day and remember PTLA.

The opinions heard on this program,

based on the many years of experience of Russ and Shannon,

are offered for entertainment value only and as a guide to your repair needs.

No claim to repair or cause is given or implied.

Always consult with your own certified technician

and follow all safety procedures before attempting any repair.

To be a part of the show call 866-594-4150.

Find out more by visiting underthehoodshow.com.

Under the Hood is produced by Prairie House Productions.

All content is the property of Nordstroms Automotive Incorporated

and may not be used without our permission.

Copyright Nordstroms Automotive Inc.

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