Holiday gift ideas with the folks from Alliance Consumer Group
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Car
Porsche 959
The Porsche 959 is a very special sports car made by Porsche in the late 1980s. It's famous for being super fast and having cool technology that was ahead of its time, like all-wheel drive, which helps with traction on the road. People talk about it because it's rare and represents a big step in car design.
Term
engine
The engine is like the heart of the car; it makes everything run by turning fuel into power to move the vehicle.
Term
jump starter
A jump starter is a small gadget that helps start a car when the battery is dead. It can also sometimes inflate tires if it has an air compressor built in.
Term
air compressor
An air compressor is a machine that pumps air into things like tires or sports equipment. It makes it easier to keep them inflated and ready to use.
Term
jump pack
A jump pack is a small battery that helps start your car when the battery is dead. It’s easy to use and can also charge your phone or other devices.
Term
roadside emergencies
Roadside emergencies are problems that can happen when you're driving, like getting a flat tire or your car battery dying. It's good to have tools in your car to help fix these issues if they happen.
Term
evaporative emission system
This system helps keep harmful fuel vapors from leaking into the air. It collects these vapors and sends them back to the engine to be used, which is better for the environment.
Term
synthetic smoke
This is a special kind of smoke that mechanics use to find leaks in car systems. It helps them see where the air or fluid is escaping, making repairs easier.
Car
Volkswagen Passat
The Volkswagen Passat is a family car that's roomy and comfortable. The 2012 version has a five-cylinder engine that provides decent power and good gas mileage.
Part
trunk lock actuator
The trunk lock actuator is a part that helps open and close the trunk of a car. It works when you press a button on your key or use the key to unlock the trunk.
Part
mercury switches
Mercury switches are old types of switches that used a small amount of mercury to turn things on or off. They were used in cars to turn on lights when you opened the trunk or door.
Term
wiring connection
A wiring connection is where two wires are joined together. If the connection is broken or loose, it can cause problems like lights not working.
Part
trunk lock extruder
The trunk lock extruder is a part that helps keep the trunk of the car locked. It makes sure the trunk stays shut while you're driving and can be opened when you want to access it.
Part
wiring diagram
A wiring diagram is a drawing that shows how the electrical parts of a car are connected. It helps people understand how to fix electrical problems in the car.
Part
electric actuator
An electric actuator is a part that helps move things in a car, like opening doors or trunks, using electricity.
Brand
Audi
Audi is another car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are known for their stylish designs and high-tech features.
Term
master cylinder
The master cylinder helps your car's brakes work by pushing brake fluid when you press the brake pedal. This pressure makes the brakes grab the wheels and stop the car.
Term
hydraulic brakes
Hydraulic brakes are a type of braking system that uses fluid to help stop the vehicle. They are more efficient than some other types of brakes, making it easier to stop quickly.
Term
calipers
Calipers are parts of the brake system that press against the brakes to help stop the vehicle. They work by creating friction when they squeeze the brake pads.
Term
brake bleeding
Brake bleeding is when you remove air from the brake system to make sure the brakes work well. If there's air in the system, it can make the brakes feel soft and less effective.
Term
mineral oil
Mineral oil is a clear oil made from petroleum. It's used in cars to help lubricate and operate parts like the handbrake.
Term
bleed car brakes
Bleeding car brakes means getting rid of air trapped in the brake system. This is important because air can make your brakes less effective.
Car
Rolls-Royce Ghosts
The Rolls-Royce Ghost is a very fancy car that represents the highest level of luxury. It’s known for being incredibly comfortable and powerful, and you can customize it to your liking, making it unique. People often talk about it because it’s a symbol of wealth and elegance.
Part
brake pads
Brake pads are parts of the car that help it stop when you press the brake pedal. They wear out over time and need to be replaced.
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Now, here's John Paul, The Car Doctor.
Good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the Car Doctor program
on award-winning 959 W-A-T-D.
My name's John Paul, The Car Doctor here to help you with your car problems on this Sunday morning
and maybe holiday shopping problems.
Jesse and I joked about this last week that we tend to do our holiday shopping on the way home
from work on like the day before Christmas.
Usually at CVS or 7-11?
Yeah, whatever's still open.
But no, there are people that do this and think about this a little bit ahead of time like my wife does
where she starts her holiday shopping in July.
But we can maybe help.
And with us is, on the phone is Stephen Hershack.
He is the marketing manager for Alliance Consumer Group.
Big name, but I know them more as their other product line which I'm pronouncing as Nebo.
Steve, am I even close?
You're absolutely spot on, yes.
Named after Mountain Nebo.
Alright, okay.
And when I look at the products that that lineup of products or things has,
I look at stuff like things that make life easier.
What can you do to make your life easier?
You guys have everything from multi-tool type things to some really cool little flashlights.
Absolutely, yeah.
Everything we design, we try to add that little extra, what could we do to surprise and delight,
but also as you said, to make things a little bit easier.
When we think about who we design our products for, we have the benefit that with the lighting specifically,
everyone is challenged by darkness.
No matter what you're into, no matter what you're trying to accomplish, darkness is a challenge.
And we help you overcome that.
But we like to design in extra things that make it a little bit easier.
With our flashlights specifically, almost everything we make has a magnetic base.
We're very concerned with hands-free lighting, making sure that you can set that light
and point it in the direction you need.
So things like the best all around, I think, is our slide king flashlight.
It has a traditional flashlight top and it slides out to be a larger area work light
and it has that magnetic base.
It's perfect for any situation around the house.
It's built for outdoors.
And of course, automatically, if you're changing a tire on the side of the road,
you've got that magnetic base to put it right on the side of the car and point that light.
Yeah, I have one of your little small flashlights.
It's probably, I don't know, three inches tall.
It charges through a non-plug-in style base, a little magnetic base charger.
And it is amazingly bright to the point where it's obnoxiously bright.
Plus you can turn it down and get it to a point where it's, I think,
it'll last for hours and hours and hours.
And really handy as a little pocket tool.
And I noticed you also have a little flat flashlight now that looks like a little pocket flashlight.
I think you call it the Edge 2K or something like that.
Yep, Edge 2K, that's our latest built for everyday carry.
It's perfect for the pocket because of its innovative flat design.
What's really cool about that one, as you kind of mentioned with,
I believe you have a torchy base on your fingertips.
Well, with the Edge 2K, it has a mode select dial on it.
And this is one of my favorite little features that we build into our lights on some lights.
Because you don't have to cycle through all of the, as you said, maybe obnoxiously bright modes.
When you're trying to preserve your night vision, we have a lot of ways to get straight to the lower settings.
But with this mode select dial, whatever you prefer as you kind of go to light mode,
you can leave that mode select dial set to it.
And every time you press the button, it'll go straight to that lower or brighter mode depending on the situation.
Yeah, I was at a car auction on Friday and I noticed your brand was pretty well represented,
the flashlight brand is at least pretty well represented.
People peeking under the hood of a car trying to get a view.
Was this engine really rebuilt or did someone just spray paint it?
I don't think I've ever seen so many.
It looks like somebody raided the local hardware store and bought all of your stuff.
Well, that certainly warms my heart.
Especially, I imagine you saw quite a few headlamps to me suit those purposes very well.
We've got so many options there for floodlight, spotlight, even within the headlamps.
And then one of my favorite lines that we have in that is the micro headlamps
because you can actually, without any additional tools, convert it into a cap light.
You know, sometimes that headband isn't quite what you need because you're rocking your brand cap
and you can slide that right on the rim.
You know, when I will admit, when I first saw a headlight and I don't know whose brand it was,
I was like, that's the dumbest thing ever. It looks so stupid.
It looks like some kind of Cyclops and then I bought one and I'm like,
Holy cow, this thing's, what a great idea.
Absolutely, I was kind of in a similar boat myself.
I didn't think through any situation that I would need.
I'm not an overly, you know, in the garage kind of guy, I must admit,
but I do like to tinker and DIY at home.
And even having that headlamp for that has been a lifesaver.
Even rudimentary things like changing an air filter in the attic.
It just gets that light where you need it when you need both hands.
That's right. Absolutely. And it is real handy.
One of the other things, and you guys actually sent me a couple of these,
was the hand warmer that also can be a little power pack reserve.
You can charge your phone with it.
I gave one to a neighbor who lives up in Maine
and he kept sending me pictures of it while he was working outdoors.
And he says, this thing's great.
He says, I love this. And you guys have expanded that idea a little bit more.
You have heated scarfs and all kinds of stuff now, right?
We do, yes. So that's our thaw brand.
And we really did kind of start in that hand warmer space,
but we now have the heated apparel lines coming out last year
and we've expanded even more this year.
We have some new heated vests that are stylishly designed.
I'm thankful to say, not just hot, but they actually look good
and feel good to wear. But then they have that power bank
that can give you seven volts of heated,
targeted heat and controllable heat too.
We want to make sure that you don't sweat yourself out.
It's important to get that balance right in the cold weather.
But those hand warmers, I mean, you can't discount
how hard cold hands make things and how miserable cold hands can make you.
And regardless of what you're doing outside and that the thaw products,
their whole mission, we designed them to get you out
and doing the things you love more comfortably.
We know you're going to do it anyway, right?
We know in the home and poo poo because of the weather.
But why be uncomfortable when we have new, improved,
innovative ways to bring the heat where we want it?
Yeah, it really makes sense.
And we're sort of talking about a lot of different things.
And I look at a lot of these under $100 items
as what great holiday gifts for people.
And whether you go camping, whether you want some kind of electric cooler,
do you want a portable power station?
Do you want to be able to jumpstart your car?
And you guys came up with a jump starter slash air compressor, I believe, right?
Yes, we did.
Yeah, and that is something that is on my short list of gifts
for nearly everyone in my family.
No one's listening right now.
This is my Christmas present idea.
But it gives you everything you need, especially peace of mind.
What's great about them is, well, a lot of things,
but they're portable jump starter.
So firstly, you can take care of a dead battery all on your own.
You know, you don't need to call for help and you don't need to talk to a stranger
to have them move their car closer to help you jump and get out of that situation.
It will handle it and it's got built in safety measures and guided step process.
So it will tell you if you've connected things wrong before it sends any power to the cable clamps.
So there's no risk of sparking or fear of doing damage to your vehicle or harm to yourself.
It's got everything covered there.
But then we also have the air compressor built in all in one compact package.
So if you also find yourself with a flat tire, you can pump that up.
I was using mine to combat this latest cold front this weekend,
making sure all the tires were pumped up.
And then obviously with Nebo, we've got lighting solutions.
So we have a light built in there as well so that you can see what you're doing
if you do happen to be on the roadside at night.
Or even if you need to use it as an emergency light, a red flashing signal, it has that as well.
Yeah, and working for AAA for ever and ever and ever,
generally the top two or three reasons we go out to rescue people is flat tires and dead batteries.
And people ask me all the time, what do I need to put in my car in case I plan a good long road trip
or maybe my kids and my car are both going to college.
What should I put in the car?
And I've always said in the past, jump pack and a portable air compressor.
And I've been saying that for years now.
And someone wrote to me back about a month ago and said,
I've seen you recommend this for a long time.
Why don't you invent a combination battery jump pack and air compressor?
And I said, well, it's too late because there already is one.
And it's compact, it doesn't take up much room, it can fit in a center console of a car,
it can fit in the glove compartment and it's maybe a big glove compartment.
But it is something you can keep in your car at all times and handle 80% of the roadside emergencies.
That's right.
It pretty much takes care of at least the most common ones for sure.
And I think about even camping too.
You go camp and you don't necessarily think about starting your car every couple days when you're out there
and if it's cold and you go back, the cold kills the battery faster than almost anything else.
So you want to make sure you have that get out and escape, take care of.
And I probably should have looked this up ahead of time.
But do you have a light that also has a laser pointer in it?
We do, we've got a few.
Actually, way back in the day, if I go back to kind of our history archives,
that was one of our first really innovative pieces was the old CSI flashlight.
We integrated a laser pointer on top.
Right now we've got the, in our slimline, our slimline, they're great pocket lights, kind of pocket task lights.
They've got a clip and a light position on the front so they're great for throwing in a shirt pocket
or on a belt and it's still pointed forward.
But we've got that feature built in on that one.
And why I say that is, and I learned this just the other day from someone,
that if you've ever dropped a glass on the floor and you're looking for those little tiny pieces of broken glass,
if you take a laser pointer and kind of shine it across the floor, it's going to pick up the broken glass.
And I'm like, that's a clever idea.
And I was in a shop one day and they were doing a, they were looking for a leak in a car's evaporative emission system.
And what they do is they fill it with synthetic smoke and they look for the smoke to leak out.
Well, that laser, which is nice where you can use it to point to a customer and go,
oh, this is where your leak is and you point the laser and it's right here.
But also when you kind of go across where the smoke is, it highlights the smoke.
And I'm like, huh, that makes it even that much easier to see where literally the smoke is leaking out of the engine.
So, you know, two completely different reasons to have a laser pointer besides amusing your cat with it, which is another thing.
Right. And that's something that I love so much about this category of products is I think when you say to people,
hey, you know, we make flashlights, they go, well, how much can you do with a flashlight really?
You know, it's dark, you turn off the dark. Okay.
But it's those innovative use cases on top of having the innovative multifunctional designs of the products themselves.
We love hearing those stories of, oh, I realized I could use your light for this use case that we never would have dreamed of.
But we can take that back and we can then integrate it with another product set.
Like you saying leak detection makes me think, well, let's make sure we have a UV flashlight with a laser pointer.
Now we've got an olive one.
There you go.
And let's back up about the company itself.
Like you said, you have different names, whether it's true or or Thor or Nebo.
How did it all come together?
That's a great question.
So we're always, well, so let me, let me start at the beginning.
We're Alliance Consumer Group is the parent company and we have, we're a house of brands.
And we do focus on having brands that can hyper specialize on specific categories and needs of consumers when we're designing our products.
And so we do want to make sure that we do each category justice and we have a team dedicated to each one.
That's why we have that degree of separation.
Nebo is where we started out with the lighting category.
But those, you've kind of alluded to this, the lighting category kind of crosses over into everyday carry or, you know, other utility needs and tools.
And so that's where the true brand kind of came in.
We developed that so that we could have a brand focused on the multi tools, the multi function and things that don't need a light on them.
And then the saw brand, same thing.
We have a history and rechargeable products and rechargeable batteries and power banks.
And so we wanted to have a team focused on just the warming output on top of those other pieces.
And then, like I said, the reason we have the separation is so that we can hyper specialize in each one,
but they all have similarities in that they kind of cross over into an outdoor adventure or an automotive utility.
Everything's hyper functional and gives us the ability to design with a little, again, surprise and delight, the innovation side of it.
What can we do different?
And we try to ask why we should do something before we just do it to make sure that it actually makes sense,
especially in the tools and the pocket knives and the true brands.
We want to make sure that we're designing great products that function well.
We have a TI pocket multi tool that we did a lot of research and study with consumers of what are the tools you're most wanting in your pocket
so that we can strip out the other stuff that adds bulk without much functionality.
So that one has full size spring loaded pliers, full size quarter inch driver bit slot driver, a 90 degree and and what 80 degree lockouts
who got different torque methods.
We really wanted to make sure that when we put a screwdriver in your pocket, it's going to function like the screwdriver you want to use
versus just the one you happen to have on hand.
And so we found with having the multiple brands, we can really dive into each category and find those pieces for each one specifically.
Yeah, I have the five and one multi tool.
I keep it in my center console in my car.
And the idea that it has a I really like the idea that the screwdriver locks at a 90 degree angle because, you know, a lot of times, you know, whether it's, you know,
Swiss Army knife or something, the screwdriver is handy, but you can't get a lot of torque on it where yours, you can lock it at that 90 degree angle
and you can you can get a little bit more torque to loosen that odd stubborn screw that you're trying to get out.
Yeah, absolutely.
And one of the other things that we've just recently come out with kind of in the same vein of how can we how can we surprise with functionality in your pocket is our smart knife.
And the WR means wrench.
And so this one has an adjustable wrench on on the where the traditional pommel of the knife is on the back.
In addition to a screwdriver function as well, but it's designed in a slim easy to carry pocket type format.
So you put it in your pocket, it's like carrying any knife and you have all of this extra utility at the ready.
Yeah.
And, you know, I when I was a when I was a young kid, you know, as a Boy Scout and you know, you had a Boy Scout knife and you carry it forever until, you know, the one day I brought it to school and couldn't leave school afterwards.
But the but it's amazing how handy a knife can be, whether it's, you know, you know, plastic packaging that everything seems to come in, or, you know, opening those stubborn Amazon envelopes and boxes.
It's amazing how much you use a knife every day when you have it in your pocket.
And it's always so funny too, because, you know, I probably would never dream of giving my wife a knife.
And yet every time she goes and grabs the scissors and holds them by the sharp edge to open the Amazon box, I cringe and worry about the what ifs.
So it probably would be one of the best things I could give her.
Well, there's there's this year's holiday present.
So there you go.
There it is. And I don't, I don't mean to plug as well.
But just as a tool, I heard you, you talk about the stress of finding a gift.
I want to let you know we put together a tool to help out with this.
We built a website called NeboGiftIdeas.com.
And on there, it has categories of use case or activities that kind of groups our products together and might unlock some of those.
Oh, yeah, I know someone who likes doing that.
They would definitely get some good use out of this.
And then there's also a little gift guru tool on there.
That's pretty fun.
That is worth checking out.
Yeah, and I just actually clicked on on on that.
And I kind of like the old timey look to the ad too.
So and you can save some money, right?
There's up to 20% off at the gift center, depending on what you buy, right?
That's right.
That's right.
So now's the best time to go in and it will help you find the perfect gift for the person you're thinking of.
And then we'll help you save some money on it too.
And, you know, I see your products all over, you know, some of the local hardware stores are all in the end caps of a lot of hardware stores.
That's where I've seen and purchased some of your products and but also online and other outlets as well like Amazon and stuff or just your website.
Where can people go if they want more information about your products?
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, our website is a great tool for more information, but we do have our products listed on Amazon, some other mass retailers websites as well.
So starting with the Google search will get you there.
But Nebo, Nebo's website, Nebo Lights dot com is going to be the first place I recommend starting.
Yeah, no, it's a it's a good place to go.
And that lineup, whether it's the, you know, keep yourself warm with Thor or the tools through true or Nebo with which is lights and and the idea of having you have even ventured into a small battery slash gasless generator backup unit now.
What's it six or 800 watts or something like that?
We've got the full range.
That's something that's newer to Nebo, but we've we've taken kind of our history and rechargeable products in the battery technology and and yeah, we've come out with some portable power stations.
You can with paired with the solar panel, make them a full solar generator.
They're perfect for indoor or outdoor use.
That's one of their main advantages over a traditional gas generator.
So wherever you're having power issues or need additional power, you can take it and it has, you know, just a cooling fan in it noise wise.
So it's not going to be overly loud and it's not going to put off, you know, toxic fumes or gas smells and can go anywhere.
We've got a full range up to right now our maximum wattage output is 2400 watts output with a storage capacity of 1800 watt hours.
So even at max capacity, you could still get, you know, almost an hour at 2400 watts fully out.
But for most use cases, most things are used and, you know, under 100 watts, that thing will last you for several days.
Yeah. And the idea that you could even just use it, you know, you're in a power outage, whether it's, you know, New England winter storm or hurricane or whatever the case is.
And you can use it just to keep your cycle, your refrigerator on for an hour every once in a while.
I mean, some most new refrigerators are using less than 700 watts.
So you could run it, keep it cold, put the solar panel out, keep it charged up, go back and keep the refrigerator cold.
And you could do that probably almost indefinitely.
Yeah, exactly right. And, you know, it's probably a shame on me for not doing my research before.
But I'm always surprised when I search how long can food last in the fridge during a power outage.
And it's four hours is when things start to go bad.
And I definitely am thankful for these power solutions so that I can get that charged cooling so I'm not throwing all my food out every four hours of power outages.
Yeah, I think I'd take a chance on five hours.
Yeah, right. Maybe six.
Yeah, exactly.
But even so, it's that peace of mind to not have to even worry about it.
You just put everything in there. And the best part is you can still open the fridge and get a drink of water if that's where your filter is during the power outage.
Yeah, no, no, it absolutely makes sense.
Great holiday gift ideas. Again, people can go to nebo giftidears.com if they want to find out more.
They can save a little bit of money. I think it's 10% on orders up to like $150 and 20% on orders over $150.
And it's kind of nice that you have it broken up in the category.
So, you know, items for college kids, items for people that are hard to please, you kind of have it all kind of figured out.
And great quality stuff. It's not just, you know, sometimes you look online and you see ads and stuff looks, promises a lot but doesn't really deliver.
Your stuff really seems to deliver.
Well, thank you. Yeah, we've worked hard for that. In fact, most of our products coming out now offer a limited lifetime warranty on them.
Even better. Well, Steve, I want to thank you for taking some time out of your Sunday morning and joining us on the Cardocta radio program up here in New England.
Thanks, John. Enjoyed it.
All right. All right, take care. Bye bye now.
We need to take a break, pay some bills. When we come back, Jesse had quite the live venue experience.
We need to talk about that when he comes back. We'll talk about some of the questions that came in during the week.
Like I mentioned, I was at a car auction on Friday and there was a little bit of controversy. We'll talk about that when we come back.
And Jesse got a surprise in the mail from our Moshion friends or Moshion as they prefer to call it.
You'll listen to the Cardocta program on 959WATD. We'll be right back.
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Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
He's John Paul, the Cardocta on 959WATD.
And welcome back to the Cardocta program on 959WATD.
I was doing something. I have a smart speaker. I think it's an Alexa.
And I actually said, I was curious. I was like, Alexa, can I listen to the Cardocta radio podcast and turn off it played last week's episode.
I didn't know Alexa was that smart. So there you go.
So you can listen to the podcast like Louis from Maryland.
Louis, good morning.
Thank you, John Paul, for taking my call.
Thanks for being there.
Yeah.
So question, I have a sister has a 2012 Passat sedan, SEL, 2.5 liter, five cylinder engine, non-diesel.
The other day, we were emptying our stuff to the trunk and noticed that her trunk light was not working.
I said, Oh, no big deal. I found out the right size for the light bulbs, common size and swapped it out and the lights still did not come on.
So was we online to see what could be the issue of thought maybe fuses, but then it heard that if it's the fuse, it would have issues with the interior lights, which all interior car lights worked fine.
So it mentioned that if I unlock the car from the inside and the instrument panel would have like an indicator light saying the trunk is open.
And so when I did that, the trunk light indicator did not come on on the instrument panel.
So I wonder if you think it could be maybe the trunk lock actuator, the actual trunk lock switch that's in the side of the trunk itself.
That could be the issue.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking it was. And you know, that's where it used to be at one point that courtesy lights would have little pin switches.
And some of the trunk lights and hood lights were actually mercury switches back in the old days and when you open up the trunk, it would make the circuit.
Today, most of them are built right into the lock mechanism.
So when you either hit the lock button remotely or you or you use a key if you have if it's still the key, that's what turns on.
That's what turns on the delight.
So it is possible it is in there.
It could be a wiring connection, broken wire, something along those lines certainly could be, you know, could be that.
And that's probably where I would start to look to see if, you know, maybe something like that.
The one thing the car about a year ago was in the was rear ended itself, not enough for frame damage, but it did require, you know, the bumper to be repaired, the trunk to be repaired itself.
It's straight on the center itself.
But as far as I remember at that time, the trunk light was looking fine afterwards itself.
So I don't know if the trunk lock extruder was actually changed out at that time.
Maybe it didn't need to be changed out.
So maybe over time, the wires got frayed a little bit or stretched out a little bit.
Very well.
It very well could be, you know, that could be very well the case.
And, you know, what I what I would like to do is look up the actual wiring diagram for this just to see how that what turns that light on.
And if you want to send me an email, I will try to I will try to look up the wiring diagram and see what actually turns the light on.
I suspect it's exactly what you said.
I suspect it's built right into there.
But I also want to see whether it picks up a ground somewhere.
Is there a ground side to that light that maybe is disconnected and it's, you know, it was in that back corner of the car somewhere.
I always look for certainly switches are part of it and easy enough to check to see whether that's the case.
And a lot of times if this vehicle actually has a alarm system in it, one of the one of the kind of cheat methods to do this would be, you know, set the alarm and then open the trunk and see if the trunk, see if the alarm goes off.
And if the alarm doesn't go off, you know that there's a switch in there that's not working the way it should.
But also I want to make sure that there's no wiring problem.
And, you know, as at a 1213 going on 14 year old Volkswagen Passat, Volkswagen's can be kind of fussy and a lot of times they do share ground circuits with several other circuits within the vehicle.
A lot of the courtesy lights will run through some of the network.
That's how they get some of their signals to work the way they're supposed to.
But I'd really like to be able to take a few minutes and look it up and really understand the theory and operation of something as simple as a, as a, you know, you think, well, how hard, how hard can it be to make a, you know, something like a glove compartment light or trunk light work.
Well, you'd be surprised sometimes, sometimes it's not as easy as you think.
And you're like, well, is there a switch in there?
And, you know, even something like the glove compartment actually has a built in switch that turns turns the light on and off as those probably this trunk light.
So kind of all combined together.
I'd want to, I'd want to look at both my email jpaul at a northease.com send me an email and I'll see if I can get you to try to highlight the wiring diagram and send it back to you so you can take a look at it and kind of give you my thoughts to go along with it.
Thank you. So quick, quick follow up.
If nothing is done, do you think with the pasta damage that was done about a year ago and repaired that if nothing is done that the trunk may not even open itself or because it's like, because I read that there's been some trunk issues with this with Volkswagen in general itself that old itself with old actuators that could really give you trouble.
I mean, it's, you know, that that is entirely possible.
I, I fielded an email from somebody with a Nissan the other day and I think three out of four of their door latches have quit working now and they're all electric actuator type things.
Does your, does your Passat have external key to open the trunk or Passat?
Yes, yes, yes.
It does. Okay.
So that, at least that's, at least that's something.
My, we have, we have two Volkswagen's in our family and the older ones an 09 and that one, the only way you can open it is either a button inside or with the remote, there's no switch of any kind.
The newer one, we have at least when it's, when it's in the unlocked position, you can flip up the emblem and it, and it opens up the trunk, but the older one, it relies 100% on an electric actuator.
And when the actuator goes bad, you're, you're trying to crawl in through the backseat.
Yeah, thank you, John.
Yeah, I do appreciate it here.
I do.
You had a couple Volkswagen, so I figured you'd be the one to talk to.
Well, and Volkswagen, anybody, anybody who works on any other kind of car will go, oh, Volkswagen's, because they can be, you know, there can be a little frustrating, you know, back a month or so, maybe a little while ago, before that we had Charles the Humble mechanic and he's a Volkswagen Audi guy, really super guy.
And, you know, even he says, you know, sometimes Volkswagen systems can be a little bit frustrating.
So, yeah.
But no, send me an email and we'll see when we can come up with a little bit better answer for you.
Great.
Thanks again, John.
All right, take care.
Bye-bye now.
Thanks for listening.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
If you would like to join us, our phone number 7818374900, you can always give us a call or send us a text.
Somehow we can do that.
I don't know how.
Never been there to watch, but we can do that.
And also, last week we were talking to a frustrated owner of a car who was trying to get the air out of his brakes because he thought there was still air in the brakes, whether it was or not.
I'm kind of leaning towards maybe it is really a defective new master cylinder, but I did something I've never done before.
I have an electric bike and I don't ride it very often.
It's here at the Tin Shack in Florida and I went to go take a for-ride and the brakes were terrible in it.
Come to find out they are hydraulic brakes like a car.
Each hand grip is a little master cylinder that has fluid in it that goes down to the little calipers.
Normally there's coaster style brakes.
You have kids' bikes, caliper style brakes that squeeze, use a cable actuated that squeezes rubber pads against the rim.
And then ones with actual discs will use a cable style caliper that squeezes on a disc of sorts.
And then others have a hydraulic brake and I kind of went, huh, well now you get the air out of this because I think it's just bound up with air.
And I took it from very little braking to no braking, so I broke it basically.
So I looked on the company website who makes the brake components and sure enough they have a brake bleeding system.
And it's very reminiscent of how you bleed brakes on a car.
It actually came with what looked like three plastic syringes, one of them was just a reservoir.
And you take out the screw in the handbrake area, you screw this in, you fill it full of mineral, it uses a special bicycle mineral oil.
You put the mineral oil in and then you take the other syringe, unscrew the, they're not bleeder screws, they should be, but they're screws.
You take those out, you stick the other syringe in and you literally suck the fluid from the top to the bottom.
One of the things you have to be careful with is you have to make sure the handbrake is actually level.
And that is what makes sure you get all the air out of the system.
Then you go back and forth, you do that like three or four times.
So very reminiscent of how to bleed car brakes, only the idea that you can actually see it all happen and went from no brakes to brakes again.
So that little experiment cost me like $40 in parts to figure out how to do that.
I tried doing it without the little special tools, couldn't do it, needed the special tools to do it.
Jesse, you had a live event for your podcast this week, what was that all about?
It was kind of live.
Kind of live?
Actually it was the opposite of live, we were alive.
You were alive?
Well that's a good start.
Yeah, we met up with our good friend Chris Jericho, people might know him from WWF back in the day or AEW these days.
Is he really your good friend?
I can now call him a friend, yeah, he's texting us and linking up every time he comes to town.
And we're regulars on his show, so he has the Talk Is Jericho podcast which is pretty big where he interviews people from all walks of life, rock stars, other wrestlers.
But he also has an interest in ghost stories and spooky places and paranormal stuff which is obviously what our show is about.
So he has us on, I think we've been on like six or seven times now, we're like his go-to guys when we're talking about ghosts.
But he happened to be in town, so he's in a couple bands.
One of these bands is Fawzi which is kind of the bigger band but he's also in Quarantine which is kind of like a obscure kiss cover band.
And I'm not a big kiss fan.
The way you said that, I'm like, well I can tell, you're not in the kiss army.
Yeah, they exclusively cover songs that Kiss made before they wore the makeup.
Which means I knew none of the songs.
But anyways, there's a big fan base for that, so that combined with fans of just Chris Jericho in general.
They had a show down at Fall River so we had kind of, actually the show was in New Bedford but we had reached out.
Long story short, we're like, hey, do you want to maybe link up and do a tour of the Lizzie Borden House which is in Fall River.
And he was like, yeah, he's like, see if they'll allow us to bring in a camera crew and film an episode of Talk Is Jericho there.
We're like, oh, that's a cool idea.
So we reached out to them and their big Chris Jericho fans so they were like, please absolutely come in and do this.
And we actually hired a good old WATD zone, Kevin Tocci, to work with his camera crew because he has the local TV access thing that he does.
So he agrees to do it.
Abington Cable, I believe.
I think so, or Brock didn't, or both.
Anyways, yeah, so he showed up with his camera crew and they were very professional and awesome and they filmed the whole thing.
And then afterwards he brought us on me and Rob to go and film the concert, which was kind of cool because it was funny.
We went to the show and this was a few hours after the live recording that we did.
And Jericho was like, yeah, come up and just get some footage of us playing and then we'll cut up the footage after for social media and stuff.
I'm like, yeah, we can do that.
I get to the venue and I just double check.
I talked to the sound guy or the person next to him anyways and I was like, hey, listen, I'm the camera guy so I need to be able to get back to the stage access and all that kind of stuff.
And they're like, yeah, you can go next to the stage but you can't go on the stage.
And I was like, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to follow those rules.
So it took me all of 10 minutes to just like, of course I understand it.
Like how am I going to get good footage from next to the stage?
So yeah, I went right on stage and it was awesome.
We got some really cool footage but it was very interesting.
Very cool.
Yeah, it sounds it.
And, you know, the idea that, the idea that, you know, he's had, he's had some, like you said, he's had some pretty interesting guests on there and the idea that he's also a fan of spooky stuff.
So yeah, it worked out nicely.
It worked out nicely.
Yeah, it really did.
And the idea you utilized W80's own Kevin Tocci.
Yeah, it was a dream come true.
One day I talked with Kevin Tocci.
Yes.
No, Kevin's awesome.
And he's a big wrestling fan but he, he kept that fandom inside of him.
He was just completely professional the whole time.
So he didn't geek out or freak out like some people would.
It was, it was cool.
Are you, are you, you know, you say that, are you a fan of anything that would make you become a geek when you saw somebody?
Celebrity wise.
Yeah, I've been star struck a few times.
So we've had the, the privilege of meeting quite a few higher up celebrities.
I think the one that got me like a star struck was Jason Momoa and we didn't even expect to run into him.
But we were outside, we were filming at a Comic Con in Boston and Jason Momoa is from Game of Thrones.
He was, you know, Aquaman obviously.
And yeah, we're just standing outside filming a little like thing, you know, a little intro out front and Momoa just walks up and just stands behind us.
And I'm just like, dude, that's the Dothraki guy.
That's, that's called Drogo.
And like, we just completely forgot what we were even talking about.
And he just gave us a little head nod.
I'm like, that guy would, would kick my, you know, my butt.
He's a big dude.
Yeah.
So that was cool.
And then we almost hit Lil Wayne with a car one time in Miami.
And that was funny.
It was almost not funny.
I was going to say, we were down at Ocean Drive and we actually had a show with Lil Wayne on Saturday.
But this was like a couple of days before.
And we just happened to like the driver that we had just slams on the brakes and it's just Lil Wayne just standing there like in the headlights.
And we're like, dude, we just almost ran over Lil Wayne.
He was just crossing Ocean Drive to go grab some food at a restaurant or something.
But that was funny.
But I, I, I never quite did that, but I almost ran over.
Who was, who was the guy who?
Kevin Tocci.
Yeah, Kevin.
No, I didn't run over him.
The Boston Pops guy, the conductor.
Oh.
Keith Lockhart.
Yeah, don't do, don't do that.
No, he was, he was, he was Jay walking down by, down by the Symphony Hall and ran out in the street.
Fortunately, I have lightning quick reflexes, so I didn't run him over.
He apologized for not looking where it was going.
Imagine how lost the band would have been without their conductor.
I always wonder, because I, you know, like I'm classically trained in music and I've, I've done the thing like the high school bands and stuff like that.
And I always wonder like, how lost would those professionals actually be if they just played the songs without the conductor?
Without the guy, without the guy with the little stick?
Do you think it would sound exactly the same?
You know, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to upset the conductor community that you have out there, but don't you think they'd do all right?
I think they would do all right, but I think a good conductor knows where to point to say, okay, you guys over here, you guys need to be strong right here.
Yeah.
And he's keeping the tempo because they don't really have a drummer and mostly saying, yeah, maybe they do.
So I think, I think it would sound, I think if all of a sudden you were going to a pops or symphony hall kind of thing and the conductor, you know, got sick, I'm sure they could be fine and people would go, it was good.
But yeah, I think, I think the conductor has a good part in that to make it sound the way it should.
But I have no classically trained music experience like you.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I did when I was in junior high school, tried to play the trombone as close as I got.
What a silly instrument.
Anyways, speaking of trombone players, we have Tommy Kingston online.
Do we?
I don't think he's a trombone player, but do you know who is a trombone player?
Brian Lones from the National Highway Traffic.
I was going to say Kevin Toshi.
Yeah.
Well, he may, but Brian Lones, who's the NHRA announcer credits his ability to do race car announcing for the entire day, his ability to play the trombone.
Yeah, I guess maybe with like breath control.
And he drinks about five gallons of water.
So he keeps his throat from getting dry and the breath control from playing the trombone.
So there you go.
All right.
But let's go over to Kingston.
As if people didn't need more inspiration to learn the trombone.
I think they do.
We'll take a call and then we'll take a break.
Sounds good.
All right.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So a question about the person that leads the band.
A lot of times I see the people playing the instruments, they're not even looking at him.
They're looking at the music when they're playing.
Tom's on my side.
I knew he was an experienced trombone player.
There we go.
There we go.
Hey, listen, they have a 2019 Toyota Sienna van.
Yep.
And we lost the signal when you're losing your, when you're going out of your lanes.
You know how you get the beep, beep, beep.
Is there something that we disconnected or un-programmed?
There is a switch to be able to shut that off, which most people do because they're really annoyed by it.
Where is it?
It's, I don't know.
It's, it's, it's, it could be built into a menu.
It could be a button.
It could be a button in an overhead console.
It's going to be two lines with like a little car picture.
On the screen.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, that's a manual that you get with it.
Yeah, you could look, you could look at that thing.
That's scary.
Yeah, I know.
But, you know, some of, Toyota, Toyota's usually pretty good because what Toyota does is they,
I think they have an index in the back.
So you don't have to, you don't have to look through everything.
You can.
Give me an idea.
What would you look under?
I would look under lane departure warning.
Good words.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Yeah.
Right.
Um, you know, without looking real quick, I mean, it does use a, there isn't any other
warning lights that say it's not working.
No.
No, that's good.
That's good because it uses a front, it uses a front camera to make it work.
So, um, I would guess it's, I would guess it's built into like steering wheel control,
maybe, but that's just a guess.
When all else fails, go for the manual.
Go for the manual.
Yeah.
It is, it is the best looking part in a junkyard when you go, if you go look for used parts.
The manual always looks in good shape, but yeah, I would, I, it's, it, it, it, if you're
not getting a warning that says something's broken, you somehow shut it off.
And, and I will say, and this is as a National Highway Traffic Safety Award, Lifetime Award recipient.
Um, I just find it annoying because, um, sometimes it is one of those things that if it picks
up a crack in the road, it will beep and chirp and tell you, you're going out of the, out
of the, out of the road the way it should.
My car does not have that, but I have a dash cam that actually has that built in.
So if I'm going more than 30 miles an hour and I cross over the fog line or something,
it'll beep and chirp at me or if I cross over the, you know, broken line in the middle,
beep and chirp at me.
So I have, I added it as a safety feature to my car just because, but, um, when I, I remember
the first time I was ever in a car with that type of system and it tripped and beeped a
lot.
I said, oh, this thing doesn't work.
And I remember talking to somebody from whatever the company was and they said, well, really
you're just a crappy driver.
There's the issue.
Ooh.
And I'm like, and I'm like, well, you probably right, you know, and, and since then I've tried
to center my driving a little bit more, stay in the lane, don't try to sightsee quite as
much as my wife accused me of doing that kind of thing.
Right.
Yeah.
Good.
All right.
Go ahead and do that this week.
Look at, look at, look in the owners manual.
And if, uh, if I, if I have the opportunity during the break, I'll try to look in an owner's
manual too.
Okay.
Great.
All right.
Thanks, Tom.
All right.
Take care.
Yep.
Bye-bye.
Why don't we take that quick break when we come back?
Uh, well, Jesse got kind of a early Christmas present from the people at motion.
We'll talk about that when we come back.
You listen to the car doc program on 95.9 WATD.
Yeah.
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Make an appointment Sunday morning at 11 for John Paul, the car doctor, on 95.9 WATD.
Now, back to the car doctor.
And welcome back to the car doctor program on 95.9 WATD.
I did not have a chance to look at the owner's manual because apparently now Toyota says
you have to sign in to see the online owner's manual, which I tried to do quickly, but I couldn't.
But it looks like you can.
Certainly there is a way to be able to do that.
Just didn't have the time to do it.
But yeah, so often I actually just go to the owner's manual and come up with the answers to things.
I know it sounds a little funny, but so often I do.
Before we go to our next call, Jesse, you got a little surprise in the mail the other day, right?
I did.
Yeah, I was shocked.
And I almost discarded the package as probably just another Christmas present that the wife had piling up.
So I put it in the pile of Christmas presents and the wife was like, hey, that one has your name on it.
I was like, oh, what is this?
And it sounded like liquid inside.
I was like, oh, perhaps someone sent me whiskey, but it wasn't.
The only thing I like better than whiskey is free energy drinks.
I was honestly, I was like, no way.
And then I was like, how do I get my address?
But we'll leave that story out.
But yeah, it was a sorted pack of these new energy drinks that you were talking about last week.
And I think all I said was like, well, what about me or something like that?
And there we go.
It's right on my doorstep.
And, you know, when they sent me the assortment and I talked about it and I sent a link to the guy and I never heard back from him.
And I'm like, maybe he didn't like us making fun of the Mosheon name, which is Mosheon.
And he emailed me back and he says it was quite funny, actually.
So then I said, oh, by the way, can you send some to my producer?
He was in the address.
I'm glad he said like everything was good, except you never should have done that and then we just gave him the air and did it again.
Would that be something you would put in your pizza shop?
Energy drinks actually haven't done that well.
They sent us Celsius once and the problem with that was just staff drank it all and I don't think we sold it.
But I don't know, they stopped sending us Celsius.
I guess it must have something to do with Pepsi because we are in contract with Pepsi.
But yeah, no, we are exclusive to Pepsi products.
So even if we wanted it, I don't think we could do it at the restaurant.
Well, my next-door neighbor would love going there because she's a big Pepsi fan.
Well, look at that.
Hopefully she's a big pizza fan and fan of violence.
A lot of that around the pizza shop.
We have John and Melrose.
Well, let's talk to John and Melrose.
John, good morning.
Hi, John Paul.
I got a 19 Toyota, 2019.
I changed the pad on the brakes a few thousand miles ago.
But my front one squeaked.
Is there anything I can do to remedy that?
Did you resurface or change the brake rotors when you did it?
No, I didn't.
No, I didn't.
Okay, change the pads.
Yeah, I mean, you could try taking the pads back off.
Make sure your shims are all in there and you can also get, there's like a sticky, goopy stuff you can put on the backside of the pads that kind of keep the pads glued into place.
You could try putting that and also take some, I don't know, 100 grit sandpaper and just sort of rough up the rotors a little bit.
That might be just enough to knock some of the glaze off the rotors and that might help a little bit too.
Don't get real aggressive.
No.
Glazed rotors actually work pretty good, but they will tend to cause a squeak a little bit.
Also, was it a decent quality brake pad?
Yes, it is.
Okay, all right.
I bought what I thought was just about the best ones I could, but I can't remember the neighbor.
Okay, that's all right.
As long as you didn't buy like the $9 set, as long as you bought the better ones, you should be okay.
What I would do is I would take the pads back out of the calipers and go to the auto parts store and try to get a disc brake silencer.
It's like a goopy stuff that comes in a little squirt bottle, stick it on the back of the brake pads.
Even though the shim should take away some of the noise, sometimes you put a little bit of that on the pads in between the pad and the shim.
It's enough to glue it all in place and that will isolate the noise for you.
Okay.
I got one other question if you have the time.
We don't.
We actually just ran out of time.
I'm sorry.
Thank you very much.
So am I.
All right.
Talk to you next week.
That music means we need to step aside.
News is coming up at noon time.
So until next week, make sure you wear your seatbelts.
Drive safely.
Be good to your car.
And if you do see an emergency vehicle by the side of the road, slow down or move over.
It saves lives.
Talk to you all next week.
Bye-bye.
About this episode
Holiday shopping tips take center stage as John Paul, The Car Doctor, chats with Stephen Hershack from Alliance Consumer Group about innovative gift ideas for automotive enthusiasts. They discuss practical products like multi-tools, flashlights, and heated apparel, emphasizing their utility for everyday situations. Listeners learn about the features of these items, including magnetic bases for hands-free lighting and the convenience of portable jump starters with air compressors. The episode is packed with suggestions for thoughtful gifts that blend functionality and innovation, making it a great resource for holiday shopping.
Original notes
In this episode we talk with Stephen Hersack Marketing Manager Alliance Consumer Group. You may know their brands NEBO, THAW, TRUE and HALO. We take some calls one from a podcast listener in Maryland. Executive producer Jesse Wilkins tells us about his meetup with his friend Chris Jericho --yea that Chris Jericho.
The Car Doctor Podcast
John Paul
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57:28