Great Talk About Cars and Everything Automotive

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Now, 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 take your calls at 866-594-4150.

And actually, Doug is here to take your calls.

I'm here to put them on the air to get them to you guys so you can answer the questions.

Every once in a while, it's a question I can at least tell where it's going.

I don't necessarily have the answer, but I'll go, oh, that sounds familiar.

Don't sell yourself short. You've jumped in a number of times and said, hey, I got this one.

How many times though have I been correct on even that I understood it?

I'd say it's about 50-50. I'll go, I know what it is.

Is it the torque converter? No.

I think you're 60-40.

Okay. I will take that for sure.

I think you've listened well enough over the years and you're a good enough communicator

that you understand the fine points of listening and responding when you're paying attention.

That is true because sometimes I am doing stuff over here.

If you're not paying attention, all bets are off.

And then I look at you guys like, come on, man, get it done.

That's what I do to Russ all the time.

866-594-4150. Let's go to Utah and talk to Dave.

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

Well, I have a question about scandals.

I have just a cheap one that'll tell me the code number,

but I hear you guys talking about reading the data.

I don't know. I mean, I'm not a mechanic, but not a car mechanic,

so I wonder if I even had one that I could read the data if I'd either been under a scandals.

What kind of mechanic are you?

Well, I was a small engineer mechanic for 20 years.

I was a rock crushing mechanic for a few years,

and I was a service manager, and now I'm a machine.

Okay. So you're very well-rounded.

So I guess, Russ, explain to him what it means when you talk about reading the data.

Well, most scanners, if they read codes, read data.

Even the basic Bluetooth ones that you're going to pick up that are 40-50 bucks

will read some basic OBD data.

What he's thinking of, I think, is live data.

Yeah, live data. You can read it.

So engine coolant temp, oxygen sensor voltages,

any sensor voltage reading and temperature pressures,

they should all come up on most scanners.

Even the cheaper ones are just designed that way.

You may not get everything, but you should get at least some basics.

I know I have, I think, five of these handheld Bluetooth scanners,

and one of them is just, it's all but garbage.

It's the cheapest thing you can get.

It'll only read generic OBD two codes.

It won't even go in and identify Christ or Ford, Chevy Toyota.

It's just OBD, and it reads live data.

And it was like, it's like a $20 tool.

It was really cheap, so it's in there,

but it might be under data-pids or live data or streaming or something like that

to the effect of it does something live other than codes.

It's pretty on a different screen.

I had some of them, they're really hard to,

one of the best ones I have that's a Bluetooth plug-in scanner

is very hard to find the screen that gives you live data.

You have to go into settings and turn it on,

and every time you plug it in, it's a pain.

And then there's other ones that are really good,

but some of them are a hundred bucks are really good.

So, I mean, it's basically, it's the cheapest Matco one

that plugs into the port.

It's not Bluetooth or anything.

So if I can be able to find the voltage values for like on the O2 sensors

and all that stuff, I mean, yeah, okay.

The Matco one, I believe that all the Snap-on and Matco ones,

Cornwall, all those, the basic ones will scan some basic live data.

The OBD live data won't give you live data for body stuff,

but it will for the engine.

It should.

You could always look up that model number on YouTube

and give you all the details,

like I said, they're kind of hidden and you have to go in there

and find out where it's at.

YouTube is a great resource and it is also very frustrating.

It can be.

And when you go to YouTube and start searching for something,

if you have a problem and you start searching for it

and you can't find anything on it

and you've spent five minutes looking,

it's probably not your problem.

What you think is wrong is probably not the problem.

Oh, yeah.

If nobody else has had it, because it would show up if it was...

Does anybody else look for the shortest video?

That's what I do.

Typically.

Yeah.

How can I do this?

Oh, here's a 14-minute video.

Every time.

Pass.

Or I'll search it when I go to that video.

I'll just search the...

As long as they have titles,

I'll go across and search and see what's there

if they've got a good picture.

Because if you start off and it's got a horrible picture,

no, but some of those videos,

I was just watching last night, guys,

and there was...

those automated ones at YouTube

has done a pretty good job lately of taking down.

There's a few more automated ones slipping back in where it says,

this product is really good and, you know,

it's 4-in-1 and it's an automated voice they throw in there.

This teenager upended the mechanic field.

Does that help you out there, Dave?

Does that get you pointed in the right direction?

Yeah, I'll just have to dig deeper, I guess.

I did have a question about oil.

I listened to you guys,

you know, probably for about a year now,

and you talked about the ZDDC and stuff like that.

And I have an 82 GMC that I always add some zinc into the oil,

but, you know, I have a 2018 Chevy Equinox.

And I thought they took...

Part of the reason they took the zinc out

is so the catalytic converters.

And I mean, listen to you guys talk about lifters

and all this stuff, I'm almost afraid not to put zinc in my car,

but then I wonder if I put a zinc in my car,

plug up the cat, and maybe that's just bad info, I don't know.

I put it in mine and I don't have any problem with it.

My thought was pretty simple for me,

was that in order for it to get into the converter

and cause a problem, the engine has to be burning oil.

And since my engine doesn't burn any oil,

how's it going to get in there?

But if it is burning any oil at all,

oh yeah, it's going to get into the converter.

So is the oil, and the oil's going to plug it up.

Oil will plug up a converter fairly quickly as well.

But it's not like just the ZDP itself

is like a total kryptonite to the catalytic converter.

No, they removed it for emissions.

Yeah, that's right.

If it was for emissions or whatever.

And for going in the ground when they're burning the oil out of the engine,

what's going to happen with it?

People run it in oil burners and it gets into the atmosphere.

They dump it on the ground.

The people still are stupid enough to do that.

And then a lot of it doesn't get properly recycled like it should,

which is so dumb because you can take it

so many places take used oil as long as it's clean.

And if they do the right thing and return clean oil,

that's just engine oil and not mixed with water

and antifreeze and all sorts of other stuff

where it gives these recycling centers,

they get a bad taste for it.

I've had to stop taking,

we used to take oil all the time from customers.

And after like three in a row brought me oil

that was contaminated with stuff I had no idea was,

so we had to pay to dispose of it.

I said, no, we're just not going to take it anymore.

And one guy's really mad because he just drops those containers

off in front of my door.

He expects me to empty all these containers.

He's like, well, did you get them emptied yet?

And I said, no, we're not taking it anymore.

Well, why didn't you tell me?

Because you come in every two years.

I'm not going to find your number and call you,

but just return that oil clean for the,

oh, that's our environmental thing of the day.

Dave, thanks very much for the call.

Good luck.

It is crazy that that's not even just,

that's how we used to dispose of the oil.

That was the way you were supposed to dig a hole

and pour the oil in there.

In Michigan, in the automotive area,

it's the car capital area across the street.

Some of the people I learned a lot about engines period from,

they used to dump all their oil behind their garage

to keep the weeds down.

And there was a lot of it back there.

It was super sticky all the time.

And I bet in the period of time that I lived in that area,

there must have been a couple hundred gallons of oil going there.

I bet you could go there today and dig up the soil

and it would have some kind of contamination.

It's probably, I don't know,

but maybe that area has turned really bad.

I'm not sure, but if it hadn't,

you know, maybe some grasses planted,

but you're never growing a garden or anything in that.

The popular mechanics for somebody at one point had,

they had a diagram of the proper way to dispose of the oil.

When you were saying that,

that was tickling in my head when you said that.

And then there was gravel and sand.

And people used to see.

Real similar to camping, what you have to do.

Well, it came out of the ground.

Why can't you return it, right?

No, no.

Doesn't quite.

You gotta get a little deeper than that

and have a few fossil events.

866-594-4150.

That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show.

866-594-4150.

By the way, you can call that number 24 hours a day.

And if we're not here, you can leave a message

and we'll call you back during the show.

Got a question on the chat here.

Thermostat, we talk a lot about the thermostat.

Tell me what that does.

What is the function and the importance

of a thermostat in the vehicle?

It does seem that when I was a kid,

that was a much more common thing to talk about.

I don't know that it's ever actually been an issue.

I mean, I've had thermostats replaced, I've done,

but I don't think it comes up as much now as it used to.

Oh, it does.

More than you think.

It used to be that your car was overheating.

I gotta get a thermostat in it.

It was a device that was replaced every couple of years

or less sometimes because they were cheap.

They didn't really know how to make them.

They were a coil of wire for the thermal motor in there

and they just worked sort of.

You heat the wire up, it would bend one way.

It would warp one way and close it, cool it down.

It would warp the other way and move the other way.

It would just open and close.

Didn't do a very good job of it.

The temperature regulation was iffy

and then they slowly got better

and our partner over at Motorrad makes thermostats

and they, wow, we talked to them to hear more

of the technology that goes into these

because for instance, in our shop,

we see electric thermostats a lot.

They don't always get replaced when the engine gets replaced.

We'll do it if it's a regular thermostat,

your standard one.

And we use the motor ads for that,

but the electronic ones, when we look

and the price is $300 to $900,

we're not replacing that because it's more of a thermal valve.

This valve is controlled by the computer.

It's 100% closed when you fire it up.

When the computer sees the temperature increase

as it gets closer to that number,

it'll slowly open it so it doesn't peak too fast

and then it maintains that temperature.

Let's say some of them are getting up into the 220 now,

which is hotter than they used to be,

but they can maintain it so well.

It's like your home thermostat.

It's set so at 221, it's opening.

219, it's closing.

It's keeping it very steady all the time,

which keeps your heat inside the cabin

a lot more even as well.

And then even the standard thermostats motor ads

become so good at building these after all these years.

They can take the standard coil-wound type thermostat

that most people are familiar with

and they can get that temperature range very tight.

It stays closed longer until it gets up to operating temperature

and then it opens very quickly when it approaches that.

There's just a couple degrees difference

where if we took a thermostat from 1985,

it's supposed to stay closed.

Let's say it's a 165 thermostat.

This was very common back then.

A lot of 140 degrees, it's already three-quarters of the way open.

It's just not really doing what it should.

So your car was either cold or the engine would run hot.

Then when they broke, they would break closed

and overheat the car.

So that would be replaced

or some people would take them out on the side of the road

and fill it up with water just to get home.

Those days are gone.

We've got a lot of cars now

that will give you almost all of them.

OBD-2 tells you the thermostat's not working properly.

It's not reaching operating temperatures.

The light comes on.

Check engine light comes on.

Then your fans come on high.

A lot of times your air conditioner

won't work when that happens.

And you've got to get a new thermostat.

And some of these, like an Acadia,

traverse 8,900 bucks to put a thermostat in it.

That's insane.

Used to be a couple bucks.

Yeah.

And they're not available right now.

They're out backward.

866-594-4150.

That's a number to reach.

You can call that number 24 hours a day.

If you call it when we're not in the studio,

you will reach the after hours hoodie hotline.

I'm calling from Tahleclaw, Oklahoma.

I have a 97 GMC, a half ton, you know, C15, 4th side.

And somebody has redone most everything.

I mean, it's got, like, whatever,

high-performance stuff done to it

that I don't know why it would cause this.

But while the suspension has been modified,

somebody's made a lowrider out of it.

Catalytic converters removed.

Aftermarket cold air induction.

With the K&N filter,

I see that it should maybe be replaced

because it has a crease in it

that I don't know somebody told me it wouldn't.

It shouldn't be kind of like bent like that.

And I don't think that would be my problem.

Performance space are under the throttle body.

I do not know what that means.

But also, I don't think that would be my problem.

My problem is once it runs,

and I mean it runs,

and I'm the specialist told me

if I wasn't a serious hot rodder,

he would get rid of it if you were me.

And I told him, no, I'm a little old lady.

I just drive on Sunday with my left turn signal.

The truck will not turn over right

and start right hot once it's driven.

Once I go, you know,

I've either got to leave it running

or make sure that when I do shut it off,

I've got to wait, you know,

I've got to be shopping.

I've got to spend quite a bit of time

to let that cool down.

I have a couple questions here.

Let me start with this.

Is it legal for her to drive that vehicle?

It's illegal for me to take catalytic converters off my car.

Or a shop to do it for you.

Is it legal for her to drive that vehicle?

If she did not take them off herself,

she should be able to drive it.

But by driving a vehicle that has no converters on it,

it's the same.

If you're driving your car with a check engine light on,

it's on and it's usually because of emissions.

If it's a bad oxygen sensor,

if it's a EGR valve, whatever it is,

it's on and it's telling you that there's a problem.

And yes, you're violating the Clean Air Act

by driving something that's polluting.

If you're supposed to take it in,

that's why the manual says you should.

Do people do it?

Everybody that's got a check engine light

on the United States right now has got it done.

I'll guarantee you, there are over a million cars

on the road right now with a check engine light on.

With a check engine light on or coming on and off?

Easy.

Got to be.

We've got 10 people a week coming into our shop.

Don't worry about the check engine light.

I just want the oil changed.

Times that, times hundreds of millions of shops

across the country, you know.

So technically it's illegal or it's illegal?

If you're in a state that,

if you're in a state that has emissions inspection

and they inspect it,

they should flag it.

As far as I know, I think Oklahoma does have

a vehicle inspection.

I remember they had stickers in their windows

so Texas does.

You're not supposed, they don't see a converter.

You're going to be no driver.

No license tabs for you.

So okay, so now let's move on on her problem.

And it sounds like probably somebody has modified

the computer to run without those things.

And the sad thing is you don't have to take

the converters off to make it run faster.

I can make that truck run just as fast

with a good clean converter,

with a high flow converter as without.

There's no reason to look at Corvettes.

And look at the new Ferraris.

You think a 750 horsepower Ferrari

for the United States is going to be built

without catalytic converters?

I don't think, again, they all have converters.

I'm going to have four.

They're made for that.

They see right through them, you know.

But her is not starting when it's hot.

This is a famous problem

for any kind of performance vehicle.

You build up a lot of heat.

If you've got headers on it,

which I would assume with all that other stuff,

it's got to have headers.

They're close to the starter.

They build up heat in the starter.

The bushings in there swell up.

Thing doesn't want to turn.

You got to provide a heat shield

between the starter and your source of heat.

Whether that's a header or an exhaust pipe,

whatever you got needs to be shielded,

or you need to get a high-performance starter

that's made to work with, you know,

hundreds of degrees of heat,

which you can get those from, you know,

JEGS and Summit and stuff,

all those places that have those

high-torque starters available.

You can get those,

and they're made for dragsters

and circle track cars,

and you put it on and it'll work

when you get an excessive amount of heat

build up and crank the vehicle.

Thanks very much for the call.

The end of the Hood Show podcast

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Thanks for listening

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Welcome back everybody.

It's time to get back

under the hood

with the Motor Medics.

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You can.

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The automotive field.

Not universal technical

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Well they are too.

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Instructors.

If you're that kind of

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you could go to school now

learn the trade

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a few years

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not fully educated

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and you can come back

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you could just make that full circle.

Maybe I could be like

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you'd be like welcome back

Cotter you know you

you go to school

and then you turn around

you come back

and you're the teacher.

I could teach a class

in a warm climate.

You're on to something.

On automotive media

and you know

I can

the students might say

Chris how do you

put a studio together

and I would be like

I don't know

Russ did it.

Let's see if

Russ can come down

next week.

I'll see.

Well YouTube

how do you

facilitate like you

facilitate with the callers

you could facilitate

yes exactly

people that

you guys have a YouTube channel

how did

Russ

Russ looked into it

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the ways to do it

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hey and you can subscribe

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look at it

now let's

let's take a break.

Yeah kids

866-594-4150

that's the number

to reach us here

let's talk to Dale

you're on the under the hood

show Dale what can we do

for you.

Yeah I've got a

2004 Impala

that was

my mother's car

so it's basically

the little old lady

car

you know there's only

90,000 miles on it

the

I've got a couple

problems

one thing is

the lights on the

radio

and the dash

when you just have

the key turned on you know

everything is fine

but as soon as you start it

all those lights

go real dim

you ever hear of that?

No

we all kind of

kind of a

sensor like

it's reading that the

it's daylight

or nighttime

all the time

couldn't that be

but are you talking

only the radio?

Didn't fill us in

are there more lights

that go in?

Which lights would be

important yes

well

the clock and radio

and then the illumination

and the dash

that's

you know when it does

daytime or nighttime

if you just turn

the key on

and don't actually

start it

the lights

you can read them

or you know you can

read the radio

and time

just perfectly

as soon as you start it

those

lights

dim way down

have you turned the dimmer switch

all the way up?

Try that once

just a bit

Chris

Chris could have just

moved to 65-35

Yeah

for one

that is a good point

because when

the automatic lights

you don't think of that

anymore

because it's not obvious

not like the old days

when you pulled out

you weren't touching

the knob

does it have automatic

lights

Dale?

They do

all of them do

My Camaro

it's constant

I'm driving down the road

and I get to a

it's because of that hood scoop

but the

the shadow

mm-hmm

so it's an

adjustable

it grades on a curve

Is it

does it do this

light sensor?

100% of the time Dale?

Okay

Yeah that light

sensor and bright sunlight

outside

you go under a bridge

it might kick your

lights on

but in really cloudy

weather

then it may not

come on

when you get that

but there's a

light sensor

and it kicks that on

but if you look

at other impalas

about your year

as you go down the road

you'll see that

sometimes

the center lights

are on

for daytime running lights

and sometimes the

regular headlights on the

outside are on

you know it's

which is the high beam

for your daytime

and you can kind of

judge and say

it's overcast

so look for that

dimmer switch

over there

it's right next

to the pull out

dash switch

on the dash

and it's

it doesn't say

dimmer

it's got a weird

on the

cars where the

lights are automatic

obviously

and you have it in

auto or whatever

you might

they have dimmer switches

and it might not even

be connected to

the headlight switch

at all

we're going down

this road a long ways

but Dale's got

something else he's

trying to say

are we totally

running over

the head

the headlights

it doesn't affect

the headlights at all

it's just these

dash lights

right there

because they're

gonna come on

running lights

whether it's day or night

automatically

and the lights

may not change

the dash lights

do not go

they don't come on

the DRLs don't

run until the engine

has started

in the on position

it won't do it

but when you crank

the car up as soon as

it fires

and it sees battery

voltage change

it kicks on

those daytime

running lights

over the

automatic lights

that's why

it could do that

in the way it does

so

what if there was

a carpet on the dash

that could

that could be

have you put anything

over that lights

it'll do it

I was just

imagining a carpet

on the dash

but yeah

I think

I think it's gonna be

it could be dimmer

switch or

if it's not

if it is the sensor

it could also be

like the body control

module

if right

see

yeah

7030 today

well the old

the old old

foreign pala had

a lot of body

modules

that's just

not

let's not gloss over

the fact that I

nailed this

all three things

this could be

and now I can't

solve it

let's be very clear

there too

but I've

you did a great job

talking about this

three possibilities on this

Dale

part of the club

yeah I'm really in on this

one thanks

let's go back to Dale

Dale had another question

it's also got

a problem

on the

transmission

sometimes

when you

you know

take off

and drive

and

stop at a stop sign

stop light whatever

and you go to take off

the transmission

hesitates

or slips

or whatever you want to

call it

and

I asked my regular

mechanic guy

I said

well do the bands

need adjusting

and he says

well I don't

do transmissions

he says but

there is no such thing

as bands anymore

I know

is that right

that transmission

is on its way out

it's a

it's a very common problem

of the

the O4

Impala

Monte Carlo

the

the Regals

Grand Prix

all of them

there's a range in there

the W bodies were really bad

about it

and

it

part of it can come

if the car is sat

for a long time

sticky valves

and the transmission

can do it

and he said this was

an old lady car

with 90,000 miles

there's some hope maybe

if it's been sitting a

lot

I would say

it has been sitting

a lot

and it's only been driven

a couple miles

here and there

you know every month

you might try a

transmission flush

to see if that cures it

but if this

thing was driven

like

you know

100 miles a week

and it just

didn't get driven

a lot

but still

like 100 miles a week

which is still

would put it

about that

mileage range

then it's

it's probably failing

now

how long will it last

it could last

a very long time

yeah would you

would you do anything

if this were here

no not until it got worse

and there's a code

in there probably

that they can check

if it says maximum

adapt

long shift

it's done

it's just a computer

can't adjust anymore

for the wear inside

the unit

it's going down

so we need to get it

inspected and maybe

let's keep the optimistic

side that they can do

a flush

or maybe

maybe there's

something sticking

a little bit

with the old car

866-594-4150

that's the number

to reach us here

at the end of the hood show

let's talk to

Ken in Washington

Ken you're on the end

of the hood show

what can we do for you

oh yeah

Russ and Shannon

you might want to put in

your chemistry

and physics

for this question

but you're talking about

mileage

and an alternative

feel would be

propane

when I lived back

there in Sioux Falls

one of my friends

always wanted to

convert his

old big block

forward into propane

because it was

a bronchial

now allegedly

cork and all that

they could

run at any angle

and I know that

and claim even

upside down

so why is propane

never caught on

because it's reduced

as a high pressure

vapor

and what kind of

mileage is propane

get

the mileage is

less

just like using

very high concentrations

of ethanol

it's got less

BTU

so you're going to

get less than

gasoline

it does burn

very clean

before we had

all electric forklifts

and

at Nordstrom's

here in our building

we use propane

because it was

considered a non

health hazard

in a large

warehouse type

environment

where gasoline

would not have worked

or diesel

even though

I've seen that

in some places

people are crazy

in our business

we see

a lot of

facilities that

do some weird stuff

we had a

we've had a

situation with that

with an older

machine back in the

90s

and it was

like

swans

which is now

aren't they something

else now Chris

like

E or something

I don't know

but they

I just saw that on the news

the other day

why would you change

your name

I got a look at

Tammy and my wife

I said

why did they

change their name

why would they do that

it was great

and unlike

some of that

politically correct

stuff

I thought

swan was

okay

if they continue to use

propane

in their trucks

but I just saw

as recently as

two days ago

one in our parking lot

is like

one of our guys gets

delivery

it says right on it

you know

powered by clean

propane

well that's

that's what they're using

in it it takes more

and the tanks

are big

and you know

that it burns more

because when you

see a propane tank

in a car

it's usually twice the size

of the

you know

of the fuel tank

as far as gallons

propane go

it needs to be maintained

when you have a

fuel leak in a car

you usually smell it

it's usually

a few drops

or it rains on the ground

when a

line breaks

and the car doesn't start

not usually a big deal

I don't know that I've

ever seen a gasoline

fire in a car

unless it's

under the hood

like a carburetor

and even that is kind of

some cars at the fuel

pressure

lines to the injectors

cracked

and then they would spray

fuel onto the exhaust

I mean you've seen stuff

like that

it happens but it's not

it's pretty rare

but in the case of propane

if they're not maintained

there are federal

regulations on it

about inspection times

and they need to be

inspected

at a regular interval

most do not get inspected

ever

if they're not

in a commercial

environment where

as a business you're

concerned about it

those Schwann's trucks

I know for a fact

they've been inspected

regularly by their mechanics

and if you ever smell

propane you need to

investigate it

and a lot of people would

say well I smell it

by the regulator

and they say that's normal

so I don't know the

difference

when a propane leak

occurs in a vehicle

like that

they explode violently

and that's

another thing

a lot of people

are scared of it

so just the

phobia of it

people don't want it

and that cage is locked

they go to get

there

that's another thing

they go get a clerk

to do the swap out

the availability of

that's it yeah

I know of like

four for sure

places in our town

where I could pull up

with my car

and put a credit card in

and fill it up

or my truck

and get propane

but

those are

that's pretty limited

they're scattered out

it's not like

if every gas station

had a propane filling station

for a car

it would make it easier

consider it the same way

with like a lot of electric vehicles

they're wanting

electric vehicles

you know the government is

and they're working hard

and the electric car companies

on putting these places out there

if a person like

Elon musket Tesla said

let's do propane cars

and he built a fleet

of strictly powered

let's say every one of his

Teslas were propane powered

and he put

propane stations all over

instead of those electric

supercharging stations

and when you went up

to your local Walmart

there was a row of six of them

that said Tesla

and it had a propane hose

that would probably

people would be

with a few people would

be using it

but that's

hits most of the high points

that was our first conversion

for our school district

on clean buses

was we

got a federal government grant

to

or not it was help

I mean the help in a form of a grant

to replace diesel buses

with propane buses

so now in our fleet

at our small school district

that I'm the president of

we've got

two propane powered buses

I wondered why you had

a propane station

and we've got two

now we've got three

electric buses

but we also still have

when we're all

when it all shakes out

we have two diesel buses

that we still have to use

to run our long

activity runs

and those sort of things

because it just the convenience

not the convenience

the necessity of knowing

where your fill points

are going to be at

right for the propane

is a

is a challenge

but we've got it figured out

is that cage locked

and

as far as the electric goes

those buses will not see

anything more than route use

because of

the situations

right

does that help you out there Ken

that kind of

kind of

drilled down on that for you

well my friend had a

older 429

with a 750

double pump

or sitting on top

but

he came to the conclusion

I was going to take too much

work

to get that whole thing

pressurized going to the

top of that

750 so he never did do it

but

I'm just wondering

they make it

they actually use

the swan's trucks

used

had big block engines

we in fact

we took several of them

out here

and converted them

back to gas

to put in gas

powered vehicles

as certified

used engines

they were propane powered

so it's

it can be done

they still sell the regulation kits

online

you can buy them

buy a regulator

and tanks and everything

and do it

you can even make a side burner

for your burgers

that's right

you could have a little

picnic shelter there

looks like your grill's got

a side burner

you can have a little

CRV comes to the picnic table

and you could

for those propane

you could have a grill

and everything

and I think that's the

I mean that is

kind of the answer

to a lot of these questions

Ken's friend who wanted to do it

didn't end up doing it

because it's

not

super convenient

yep

you know just

why don't they do that

well go ahead

you can do it

well I'm

I don't want to do it

I want it to be

perfected

before I get in

and that's a big part of it

exactly

eight six six

five nine four

four one

five oh

we've got some

notes that came in

on chat

this is a Hyundai

2008

I hooked up

an OBD2

scan tool

up two modules

showed

under the OBD2 test

first had three codes

but when I tried to

read those codes

they went away

as I went in to

read them

they went away

and that's possible

so if you have a system

that is not setting

a hard code

and the fault

goes away

the code will disappear

we

we have this often

it's common for us

to plug a scanner

and we're looking at the data

we're looking at the codes

and a code will come

it'll go away

come back

go away

but it's a system that

doesn't set

the emissions codes

they're supposed to

set and stay there

and then go to history

so you can see it

but if you're looking

at the active code screen

it could go away

the history code screen

it's always

let's say it's an oxygen

sensor

and it says

there's an oxygen

sensor short

and it's in history

it's gonna stay there

until you clear it

unless it's gone

for like

50 cycles

but then

when you look

in current codes

it's not there

and then you wait

oh it came back

now it's gone

and it might be a short

you've got going on

okay

shorted sensor even

right

so they can

yeah they can go away

while you're

watching the code

which tells you

that it's an intermittent fault

which can be

a component

computer

sensor

or even the wiring

short in the wiring

or something

here's a

question there

a comment that just came in

on chat from Louise

he's in Great Falls

Montana

says he's not ready for it

four inches of snow

on the ground already

where we are

we're looking at getting

some snow this weekend

what

if

with winter

weather coming

winter driving

what

yeah winter driving

is gonna be here

whether you're ready

or not

soon

no matter where you are

we had our first snow

clear the ditch

as people are coming in

what

tell us

what

what should we be

if I'm just

I know winter's coming

I got a month maybe

what should I be

looking at on my car

to make sure

I'm ready for

is that

because all new cars

have it now

look at your climate

control

the little thing

that says outside temperature

pay attention to it

and don't be dumb about it

because

people

in this area

it was warm

two weeks ago

we were in the

high 90s

and then

it dropped down

and it's dropped down

a little further

now we've been getting

rain

like every Wednesday

and Thursday

for the last

this is the fourth

week in a row

so now here we are

and you're like

cars are gradually falling

but now

in another day or two

it's going to break that

that ice mark

at 32

and people aren't watching

that screen

and by the time it hits 35

on that screen

you better be watching

no more driving

75

and a 55

thinking that

everything's great

because

with the cruise on

all of a sudden

boom

you're going to be like

whoa what happened

and we see it

with the first

ice or snow event

every single year

off the road

in the ditch

people crashed

because they're not

watching

it's like Shannon says

you want better mileage

drive for better mileage

if you don't want to

crash in bad weather

drive like you're driving

in bad weather

and then

very important things

super important

driving three customer cars

over the last day

every one of them

had horrible

wipers

and I'd be leaving you out

if I didn't talk about

our partner at peak

yeah

with their wipers

get yourself some new

wiper blades

and the peak ones

are great

they work really well

they clean the windshield

some installation tips

don't just go down

I'm driving on the road

right and oh

wipes

this is horrible

I better get some new wipers

so you pull into the store

you grab yourself

a set of peak wiper blades

and you just

put them on

and you drive off

right

wait wait wait

clean your windshield

first

but when you need this

so just a tip

either clean it there

but if you don't

you can't do it on spot

there's probably a gas station

within a block of everywhere

pull into the gas station

get your gas

whatever

clean the windshield

and then go in

and pick up your wiper blades

put them on

they're gonna take you

probably two minutes

to snap on with no tools

in most cases

and then the last longer

and to keep them working longer

whatever you do

do not ever

clean your frost

or ice off your windshield

by using your wipers

they're not

people turn their washers on

I've done it in the past too

but I know

I'm probably gonna need wiper blades

because you turn it on

and as they go back and forth

you're

when

we have all

been trying to scrape

the ice off our window

with our bare hand

at some point

we go

oh is that hard ice

or is that soft ice

and you rake your hand on it

and your hands cut

like oh

that was sharp

I hit a sharp piece

or you're smacking it

when those blades

go back and forth

that rubber on there

you know whatever

polymer they're made out of

they're getting cut up

so

quickly

they wear out

most people are putting

if you want blades to lat

like you're

think of that brand new windshield

crisp

brand new wipers

on that newer car

and you're like

oh these are great

and now it's like

why do they

you get the wiper farts

going on as they

go back and forth

because they're not

they're hard as a brick

and they make

winter wipers

and summer wipers

and people have asked

is what's the difference

the difference is

what happens

when you pick up

a crappy garden hose

in the winter

and you can't bend it

it's like

it's stiff

that's a summer blade

you pick up that

Flexzilla hose

that

that's like

a wet noodle

in the middle of

20 Below Zero

that's a winter blade

same way with winter tires

if they're softer

they grip in the winter

where as the

the summer tires

do not

they're

they're hard

so

I shouldn't be trying

to chip away at the ice

with a scraper

while they

trying to time it

with the intermittent wipers

probably not the best idea

no

shoot the thing

oh okay

you've done that a lot

but yeah for sure

yeah

but hey our partner peak

would love it

because then they could

sell you more blades

some of you

don't look at me like that

once

it tackled me

we've all done it

but if you want it to

last longer

it's going up in prices

it's all about saving

more money now

get yourself a good

set of blades

and take care of them

and see clearly

that'll do it for this hour

of the under the hood show

until next time

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for Russ Evans

Shannon Nordstrom

I'm Chris Carter

thanks for joining us

on the under the hood show

with Russ Evans

this is Shannon Nordstrom

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

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Great Talk About Cars and Everything Automotive

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Chevy Equinox

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burning oil

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