Motormouth's Quick Winter Checklist: See Better, Drive Smarter, Survive Longer

Good morning, folks. You're tuned to Car Connection where the coffee's strong, the stories are real, and the

renters never stop turning. I'm your host, Nile Motormouth Jenkins, coming to you from

the Car Connection workshop, where the smell of fresh oil and a little elbow grease is

all part of a balanced breakfast. Around here, we don't just talk cars, we actually live them.

Whether it's a 25-year-old Jeep Wrangler getting a second chance at life,

or a Nissan Rogue getting its brakes back in order, or perhaps a mystery leak that's got all of us

here scratching our heads. This is where we roll up our sleeves and get it done with a little wit,

a little wisdom, and a whole lot of fun. The Car Connection is just about, not just about

nuts and bolts and diagnostics, it's about connection. Connection to our vehicles, to the

people who drive them, and to the community that keeps rolling. Yeah, we keep you rolling here in

the Niagara region. Yes, we do, because when we fix a car, we're not just turning a wrench,

we're restoring someone's confidence, their freedom, and maybe even their sanity.

We're here every week for you, Monday through Saturday, helping you keep your ride safe,

reliable, and ready for whatever road lies ahead. So whether you're a weekend wrencher,

a daily commuter, or someone who just wants to understand what that strange rattle really means,

welcome aboard. Some shop talk, and expert advice, a few good laughs, and maybe a story or two,

as I'm prompted to do so. Well, let's kick off our morning together. If you're just joining us,

yep, I've got a cold. I have to say I'm not new and improved today, but there are some improvements.

Yeah, so all of you that have the same thing going on, a winter cold

cootie that somebody passed to you without permission. Yeah, I came to a conclusion yesterday.

Those that are just kind of looking around and they see that you're kind of suffering with a cold,

they're kind of shifty-eyed. Those are the ones, those are the ones that are giving it away.

So tell them thank you. Hey, thank you very much. Yeah, and have a nice day. I'm just kidding. If

you're just joining us, it's always good to have some crayons, some brown paper, and a passenger

take some notes for you and you can say, did you get that? Get that, yeah, right, yeah, write that

down. Exactly, because you've got to keep your eyes on the road and make sure that your beverage is

tight in your cup holder, because here's a little tech tip I haven't mentioned lately.

Do not. If you have an automatic transmission vehicle and you know where the shifter is,

most cars, the shifter's down below. Yeah, that has a circuit board in it. Did you know that?

Yeah, and it's very expensive. Did you know that? Yeah, and did you know that just like

laptop computers, they don't like beverages spilt on them? Yeah, am I the only one that's happened to?

Okay, all right, so just in case, do not spill beverage in car on shifter controls,

because the circuit board in there will give you one of these. It's going to be how much?

What? No, no, no, this can't be happening. Yes, it can be, and you can lose it.

It's okay at that point, but be very, very careful. I really sincerely mean that. Do not spill that

beverage on that shifter control unit. Otherwise, it's a car no-go situation, goes into limp mode

and the car just stays in first gear. Yeah, and it's a long, if it's a long ride home,

won't even be able to get over 20k. Yeah, there's going to be some honking,

some facial gestures, many multiple number ones out the window, so you don't want to go there.

Well, we got a ton of stuff to get through this morning, but let's share our morning

beverage together. Yes, I'm having tea this morning. I'm taking it from the team.

Yeah, I'm having a girly drink according to others, but it's got some honey in there,

some cinnamon, some ginger, some stuff that really tastes kind of, I don't know.

So on three, keep your eyes on the road, and the other guy, you know who that is.

We all know that person. It's that person that comes up behind you when you're on the outside

lane, just about swapping license plates, and then shoots over into the hammer lane,

only to cut across in front of you to get to the off ramp. You know that guy. Yeah,

that's right. They suck with a K and a T at the end capital, sucked. Yeah, what is that? What kind

of maneuver is that? Really? Think about it. You know, I think they're medicated. That's the only

answer I can come up with for that one. Why? Why would you do that? Come up on my rear bumper,

flashing the lights, honking the horn, give me a gesture, and then go into the hammer lane,

scoot around me, cut me a cut across the front to go off at the ramp. Couldn't you just go off at

the ramp behind me? Would that work? Maybe? I don't know. All right, on three, two, one,

let's have a swiggy together this morning. Good morning to all of you out there, all my friends.

We've got a lot of mileage to cover. And I, while I still have some voice left,

you know, I had really good hearing yesterday, but not so much today. I sound like

I'm in a can of beans. Yeah, it's bad. Three, two, one.

What the heck is that? I don't know.

Man, that ain't coffee. I know that for sure. It's supposed to be good for you. All right,

I said, okay, all right, I'm in. A little getting just a tiny bit better is good. Oh,

and did I share on top of that? Oh, here's one quick for you. It wouldn't be car connection

without a story. Yeah, I got this root canal. I know you're already swerving off the road.

Dang, a root canal. Exactly. And a number of years ago, spent like $3,700 on a freaking tooth.

Are you kidding me? I can buy a lot of really nice car parts for that and help some people.

Yeah, so anyways, we fixed this stupid thing up. It's right at the very back. It's almost

in the trunk inside my mouth. It's almost in the trunk and put a gold cap on it, you know,

a whole lotty da. And so like last fall, I'm eating an egg salad sandwich. I made myself

and it falls off like it crumbles away. There's nothing left to the dang thing.

And yeah, you're saying, well, it's a year later. Well, I'm going the tooth is dead.

I don't like the dental chair. It's not hurting. It's not doing anything. I'm not fixing it. There's

nothing left of it. So anyways, a year later, October this year. So it just starts pounding

out of the blue. Yeah. Feeling like the whole side of my cranium, excuse me,

is going to come off. So I'm like, okay, gotta go to the chair, right? Gotta go to the chair,

get this thing done. Well, it's been 10 days. And the opportunity was there for me to get into

the chair. And my appointment gets canceled. Yeah. And I've like not been sleeping well for the last

10 days. And you kind of get a little irritated. Well, I had to keep my stuff together and not

explode. But you know what? It's like, I just said, just get this stupid thing out of there,

would you? And no, I'm never having another root canal ever. I just don't see the value

to put that kind of money into one single thing. And then it doesn't work.

Or there's another problem. Isn't that just like a car? Really? Isn't it? You fix something,

then something else goes wrong. Then you fix something, then something else goes wrong. And

then you're standing there and you're going like, what's next? Like, look at the car and you go,

why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you? I know, we talked to our cars, don't we?

Well, let's jump in this morning before I digress too much. But yeah, how many of you

have suffered some really good tooth pain? Yeah, go to our YouTube channel, put that in the comments

section so that I can, I can also feel sorry for you. Because generally, nobody really feels

sorry for you. Do you ever notice that? They just don't. They don't feel sorry for you. They're

like, well, you know, you should get to a dentist more often. I'm like, yeah, I used to before,

you know, the COVID thing kicked in. That did my dentistry in because my dentist for many years

was in the US. Yeah, down in cold New York, ski country, excellent dentist. If you're ever down

there, cold and dental clinics, say hi to Dr. Michael Dingman and his staff, phenomenal

dentist, phenomenal over the top. Yeah, so I couldn't go there. Now I don't have a passport,

so I can't go there. So yeah, and the, and the story goes on. Put in the comments section,

one of our latest YouTube videos that Niall bought about Jenkins, let me know your tooth

situation, how that worked out. Well, first of all, today's program, I'm going to give you the quick

checklist review. Some items that maybe you didn't catch in our podcast are archived on our car

connection business network.com website. You're going, I got to type that CC busnet.com. That's

the shortest we can go unless I'm willing to pay some idiot $2,000 to get CCBN. Yeah, he's holding

it ransom. And I said, well, you know, why don't you, you know, put that on a plaque and put that

in your room because I ain't never going to pay you two to $3,000 for that. So CCBUS is at Sam

net.com. Merry Christmas to you.

I'm kind of cantankerous today. The tooth did not get taken out. And it's pounding like somebody's

in my head with a cinder block. And you just got to tolerate it. That's all. Well, others are

saying, well, you know, you should have a six month checkup. I'm looking for a dentist in Canada

right now. Okay. Yeah, one that I can trust. And that doesn't kill me. Exactly. Because what doesn't

kill you makes you stronger, right? All right, enough, enough said on that. Keep it on the road.

Watch out for that other guy. I know he's still out there. Honest to goodness. Keep those headlights

clear. This time of year, we never know when we're going to run into zero visibility or poor

visibility and making sure that all the lights are working. And you know, those cloudy headlights

that manufacturers created for us, who makes plastic headlights? Come on. After all these years,

it really makes me really appreciate glass headlights. Because these these plastic headlights,

okay, all right, you take a stone, you break your glass headlight. But not that many times.

These plastic ones are just not standing up. They go cloudy, they go foggy, they turn yellow,

they suck with a big K and a big capital T. So you've got to stay on them. This time of year,

you cannot ignore those yellowed, fogged out, hazed plastic headlights. I can't even say it

are they really environmentally friendly? They don't get recycled. I'm just saying, you know,

the plastic on headlights is not recyclable. Try it sometime. You know, change that yellowed

headlight and put it in your your recycle box. Watch what buddy does with it. Yeah. Yeah, incoming

spiral through the front window, headlights looking cloudy, that haze cuts down nighttime

nighttime visibility. Big time. So just imagine how much light is diffused by zero visibility.

Snow flying, you know, a snow event, snow flying. And you can't here's the here's the thing.

When we're in those conditions, those road conditions, and we're all going to experience it,

perhaps we don't know for sure, maybe sort of, we'll just have to wait and see. But it's when

it happens, you can't change things, right? When you're in it, you can't win it. You got to deal

with it the best you can. You we all need to see you. It's not that you can see. It's that we,

the other people can see you. And that's what we have to think about. That's why making sure that

your wipers work and they don't suck, so that you can see what you're going to hit. I hope not,

nothing. I'm hoping nothing for you. But you need to have 100% visibility when that moment happens.

You can't fix it when you're in it. And that's what we have to think about. Safety is number one,

and we got to get to it before that moment happens. And when that and if that moment happens,

where you're caught in zero visibility with headlights that are yellowed out,

hazed out, fogged out, and the oncoming traffic can't see you spinning for the fourth time,

that's a problem. Then nobody can get the heck out of the way or stop. And I had that happen. I

seared that story. The fella held the traffic back while I'm doing my third 360. He said it was,

it was almost like car ballet. Yeah, he says your truck did three perfect peri-o-ettes.

And I'm going, and I just filled my pants. Thank you. I need to change. So

there's nothing worse than your headlights looking cloudy and the haze cutting down on

nighttime visibility big time. There are polishing kits out there from part stores.

I wouldn't do that. What I would do is I'm going to tell you a little secret.

I'm going to tell you a secret. Head over to our YouTube channel, Nile Motormouth Jenkins. We have

almost 200 videos up there. I think we're getting up to 200. And we just hit our first thousand hours

of listening or in viewing. And we're almost at 300 subscribers. So the whole idea of our

YouTube channel is that we get it monetized as quick as we can so that we can serve the widows

and orphans, the seniors, the single moms, fixer cars here in the car connection workshop. Let us

shoot the videos we pay for the parts. How cool is that? We want to be able to serve. And that's

the whole purpose of our YouTube channel and everything that we're doing. We've got Instagram,

Facebook, Stevensville on the web. I just came off of 31 years on radio. We're now jumping to

podcasts, podcasting through iHeart, radio, Spotify, Amazon, music and Apple podcasts,

and all the other platforms. Why? Not so I can be a big shot, just a little shot that keeps shooting.

I don't need another shiny thing. You know what? A great legacy to leave is serving others.

That's right. Taking the eyes off ourself and serve others. That's the whole purpose of everything

we do, our merchandise. You buy some merchandise. It helps those going through an addiction

to get into an addiction campus where they can get their life back because there's a new life

form. So everything that car connection does is to serve others. Like I said, I don't need another

shiny thing. You know, it just gets to be way too much when your stuff owns you and you don't own

the stuff. And you know, if you were to go to your great reward tomorrow, nobody cares in a couple

of days. All your stuff gets divided up. See you later. Thanks. Well, that was a good score. Yeah.

So let's not go there. So if you go over to car connection or Niall Motormouth Jenkins,

our YouTube channel, and all our links are on our webmaster, Mike, he's done a great job.

He's put all our contacting links where we can be found. You can see bloopers and outtakes and

reels and goofy stuff, all on the homepage of our website at carconnectionbusinessnetwork.com.

CCBUS is in SAMNET.com. I always put all the information in the description of all our videos

as well as our podcasts. Our podcasts are archived on our website. But on the homepage,

top right hand corner. That's where you'll find our YouTube icon, Facebook, Instagram,

Stevensville on the web. I like to be tied in with Stevensville. That's where my pops lives.

Lots of great business out there and fantastic eateries. Check out Scuttlebutts.

And we also have our merch store link right there. So you go in, pick what you like, pick your color,

put it in your shopping cart, sound familiar, pay for it safely online, and proceeds go to

Total Freedom, Darien Center, New York, and Total Freedom, the Man Only campus in Sydney,

Manitoba. And those are addiction campuses. So everything circles back. That's what's important.

So as I said, go to our YouTube channel, look up in the library, polishing headlights.

I discovered a way to do it on my own very, very quickly. And all you need is a battery-powered

drill. You're going to invest in a buffing device, and I tell you what it is, and some compound that

lasts for at least a year or so. But it is a process that even if you buy one of those buffing kits,

you're going to need to do it again. And then you're going to need to do it again.

Then you're going to need to do it again, because that's just the way it is. So I came up with a

method that takes, you'll be blown away how I can do a pair of headlights in less than 15 minutes.

And they look like brand new, with a simple power drill, a buffing device, and some compound.

That's all you're going to invest in. And what I do is when I wash the car, before I wash the car

and get the car wet, I buff the headlights out, wipe them off, wash the car. Good for,

I find that it lasts, it will last up to almost six months if I let it go. But I just do it as a

maintenance. So it's just a routine that I get into and buff it out. Then it just takes literally

minutes. So if you want to check that out, you can head over to our YouTube channel. Let's move

on this morning, because I do have a motormouth winter tech tip for you. And it's winter tech tip

number. Where are we at? I think I, I think I forgot. Are we at 22? No, we're at 23.

22 was yesterday. That's old news now. Yeah, that was test your 4x4 system before the first

storm. So you want to make sure that if you have all wheel drive, track control,

and 4x4, that it works. Go to a grocery store parking lot and turn it on and make sure that

you feel that it's working. That's the best thing you can do. Anyways, that was yesterday. So today,

it's motormouth winter tech tip number 23. Check your antifreeze mix before it checks you. Frozen

coolant means a cracked engine block. And that's a Christmas gift you don't want. In fact, the

the 1997 GTJ Wrangler Sport Rescue, we rescued it from the crusher. That's what took that vehicle out

was the engine exploded. Yeah, neglect, cooling system neglect. So you do not want to neglect

your vehicle's cooling system. I've done a couple of videos on that on YouTube, testing antifreeze,

checking antifreeze. What are we looking for and showing you the test results also have done a

podcast on that. And I think our first week of podcasting. But I want to make sure that

you all know how important that is. It's not just the freeze point of your vehicle's antifreeze.

What we're checking for are more than just one item. Freeze point, boiling point, acid corrosion

level, pH balance and alkalinity. No, it's not a pregnancy test. It's check that those are the

things that we're checking and testing for in your vehicle's cooling system in the antifreeze.

So it can look good, smell good, but it fails the pH balance, alkalinity and corrosion test. It's

done. It's got to come out. It's poison in your vehicle's cooling system. So I'm not going to do

I'm not going to break out into another antifreeze cooling system podcast at this point because

we've covered that a few times. Cooling system is the number one most neglected area of maintenance

on every single automobile out there. Everybody has really got sucked in, caught like a carp by the lip

on the term maintenance free. No, they're not. Automobiles are made by man. Man is not perfect.

It's things are mechanical. They break. They need maintenance. Every single thing on a car needs

maintenance. There is nothing on an automobile that is maintenance free. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Nope, not even the door handle. They break, especially the outside ones if the door's frozen.

And as I said the other day, yanking on it like you're starting a lawnmower,

that plastic handle is going to snap right off in your hand and you go honey. I'm sorry, but

I broke the new handle off as well. Can we get warranty on that? Probably not.

Thinking no. So enough said on that. That's how important cars are. Do not get sucked in

by the salesperson that oh, you don't need to do vehicle maintenance. This car is maintenance free.

No, it's not. And when they say that's lifetime warranty, I'm going to give you right here

the translation of what that means. Are you ready? When you hear the term

lifetime warranty, that's covered by lifetime warranty. Okay, here it is. The translation

as per manufacturer and selling dealer. Lifetime is the mileage you hit first or the month

that the warranty is now void. So example, four years, 60,000 kilometers. So if you hit 60,000

kilometers in two years, you now have no lifetime warranty. That's lifetime. It's not 25 years. No,

no. It's the time frame of your manufacturer's warranty. That's what lifetime is to the sales

guy. And one time, guy that was 86 years old was a salesman for almost 55 years. He said,

Moldermouth, how do you know when a salesman's lying to you? I go, I don't know. When his lips are

moving. That was from a car salesman. Yeah, nice, nice chap. He was great to talk with. Just

he just made me laugh for hours. Yeah, I think I pee my pants. But anyways,

don't buy into that. There's batteries, not maintenance free. No, they're not. If they're,

if it's a sealed battery and you can't check the fluid, that battery is going to die once the acid

boils down and it does. It'll boil down until the plates in the battery are exposed.

And then the battery sulfates and it's dead. Yeah, the maintenance free batteries when I had my

repair shop on the Hamilton Mountain, we had a skid full. This time of year, we would have a skid

full of maintenance free batteries. And I used to laugh because the top of them said maintenance free.

Yeah. And I'm going, why are you on the skid then? If your maintenance free? Because that's

exactly what would happen is batteries, they run hot when they're charging and they boil and the

H2SO4, which is the battery acid, it boils just like water. And there's a vapor that comes off,

which is hydrogen gas, very explosive. And the level, fluid level drops in the battery until

the plates are exposed and the plates get buckled, then that maintenance free battery is kaput.

It's finished at that point. So I just wanted to jump in on that. You really got to know what

lifetime is. You hit 60,000 kilometers first or four years, whichever one you hit first,

your manufacturer's warranty, your lifetime warranty is done. Finished, you're at zero.

You got nothing. Zippo, Nada, Bupkiss, Zilch at that point. That's the backside translation

of the manufacturer and selling dealers lifetime warranty.

Time or mileage, whichever one you get to first, no, you don't win, you lose at that point. Yes,

you absolutely lose. All right, some quick tips before I rattle on too much here. We're already

a bit over our time this morning, but enjoy being with you. I hope you enjoy the podcast,

share it with your friends, and come along for the ride if you ever have questions or

things that you want me to have covered, like I had a number of emails come in.

Can you interpret the information on a sidewall of a tire for us because I'm confused?

Now, if you're like me, it's usually dazed and confused, but confused. So, we shot a video

last week. I just finished the edit yesterday. It will be going up this coming week, so Tuesday

of this coming week as we head into the first week of, yes, December. Yeah, we're there. We're

there. So, I'm going to go ahead and do a quick review of the travel kit. These are just quick

reminders. If you haven't caught the podcast before, here's some quick reminders, the quick

checklist review. Winter travel kit could save your life or someone else. It is valuable. It is worthy

of putting that together. I use a clear tote so that, you know, if the two-legged mice are looking

through the window of my vehicle, they can see there's absolutely nothing worthy of taking out

my window to get my winter travel kit totored. Number two, yes, you can clean all the windows

and warm your vehicle up. No, you don't need to run your vehicle for half an hour like my neighbor

does. I think she's baking muffins on the exhaust manifold. That's a little too much. 15 minutes.

Here's the deal. Clean off, this is what I do as a habit. Clean off the driver's door so, you know,

you don't open the door in a big wad of snow, ice falls on your seat, so now your butt's going to

be wet on the way to work or wherever you're going. People are going to say, do you know that your butt's

wet more than once? So, clean off the driver's door, get in there, fire it up, put the defrost

up, put the heater on, now clean off the rest of the car by the time and that means all the windows.

I don't want you to be that person that I'm driving behind and I'm thinking I'm in a

white-out situation here and it just seems to be isolated behind your car. Yeah, please take the

time to clean it all off. The vehicle needs to warm up, get some pre-warmth for at least 15 minutes

then when you set off, take it easy on the beast, would you? Because when everything is cold,

metal parts break and it's usually very expensive metal components. I'm just saying it's never a

cheap deal, it's always a very expensive metal component that is worth buca bucks. Take it easy

on your car until the temperature gets up to normal range, then you can drive it like you stole it.

You know who you are, there's many of you out there. All-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, four-wheel

drive, traction control, get this, does not save you from poor driving habits. It won't.

You can call your friends when you're on the roof of the car upside down in the ditch and go,

what happened? I have traction control, all-wheel drive. Yeah, it might have had something to do

with not adjusting your driving to road conditions. So I leave you with that. Have yourself a wonderful,

wonderful day. You've made it to the weekend. We have another program tomorrow morning for our

Saturday people that, like myself, for 31 years on radio, I never had a Saturday off. I worked

weekends, period. So this is special and help us to build our iHeart radio community on all

podcast platforms. Come and join us. Got questions? You can get in touch with me. Just look in the

description box and you'll see all the links on how to do so and grab yourself some car connection,

motormouth merch, and help someone break free of an addiction. So make it a great day and we'll see

you tomorrow. Happy motoring and keep it under 100. Put that coffee on because we're going to come to

your house.

Motormouth's Quick Winter Checklist: See Better, Drive Smarter, Survive Longer

About this episode

Jeep Wrangler

Nissan Rogue

automatic transmission

shifter control unit

limp mode

plastic headlights

nighttime visibility

polishing kits

4x4 system

antifreeze

cooling system

pH balance

alkalinity

maintenance free

mechanical

vehicle maintenance

lifetime warranty

manufacturer's warranty

sulfation

H2SO4

tire sidewall information

defrost

pre-warmth

metal components

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