One Trillion Dollars For A Car Makers Salary? Were Happy Fixing Cars

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Thanks for listening to the Under the Hood Show podcast.

Here's the show.

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 Cardi here to answer your calls at 866-594-4150.

We got some calls coming in, but is there anything?

There's been a lot of automotive news in the last week.

I've noticed recalls.

I've noticed what I really noticed was the new Corolla.

Did you see the new Corolla?

I saw a spy photo or a pre-production photo.

I did not look like a Corolla.

I got one.

I sent it to you guys, and I can't believe you ignored it.

You didn't say anything to me anyways.

We were talking to each other about it.

They want to keep Elon Musk on as Tesla for another seven

and a half years to help with development

and the furthering of the company.

Can you guess what the pay pad?

They said, oh, here's your salary.

$1 trillion.

I did.

That's a T, folks.

I didn't react to that, but I did see it.

I was like, $1 trillion.

Holy cow.

That, oh my gosh.

Is that safe to say that maybe the largest salary ever paid

to somebody?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So we broke it down.

If you work 16 hours a day, seven days a week,

which is likely for him.

I mean, he's kind of nutty that way.

It's like $360,000 an hour.

Now, when you think about it that way,

for a company the size of Tesla and what they develop

and what they make, yeah, it's still crazy.

$1 trillion.

That stock better go through the roof.

Yeah, I did see that and I didn't react

because I was probably in the middle of something else.

It was kind of like one of them.

Oh, well, is this real?

No, we, I think we talked about the Mary Barra from GM

and she was going to get a salary over like an eight year

period of something, but it was in the low millions.

And we're like, oh, doing like $5 million for how can,

that's crazy.

It's getting up to like sports people.

We thought sports people got paid a lot.

Oh, and you figure out like some of those sports people

and how much they get paid per pitch or per yard or per.

The pitch runs funny because they, they every four,

you know, they're four or five days off in between.

But when you're the master of your craft,

I guess that's what happens.

The market has a demand.

So I got this money.

So I'm here.

How much per word, Chris?

Let's break it down per word.

Hey, I just told the truth.

Have we went past it?

Like, are we past a dime a word yet?

I don't think so.

Some of us don't make that in a lifetime.

You know, the minute, the hour.

Oh my gosh.

Let's talk to Larry.

We have Larry on the line.

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

What can we do for you?

Hey, I got a $73 charger that I've been working on.

And the sponsors don't work.

I haven't been able to locate one other than digital.

I don't have that kind of money to do that.

Is there anybody that you know that work on sponsors

and the clock don't work in it either?

Oh, OK.

Well, you might be lucky.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

So when you say the speedometer doesn't work,

all your gauges don't work, right?

The actual speedometer itself works,

but nothing else does because the speedometer is cable driven.

The speedometer don't work, but everything else does,

except for the clock.

Oh, so all your gauges work?

Yeah, the speedometer and the clock don't work,

but the speedometer, when the car is parked,

is sitting on 20 miles an hour,

and it's off about 21, you're going down the road.

Yeah.

Well, the clock.

It shows that you're going about 80 miles an hour

when you're actually going 60.

That's a charger thing.

That's just for fun.

The clock, I can fix the clock right away.

I grew up in the 70s.

The clock never worked on any car ever.

It's right twice a day.

I've never had a working clock until I was 40 years old.

OK.

Next, now the speedometer.

Yeah, so the clock will be right twice a day.

So at least you got that going for you.

And then it'll be a few minutes off a couple times a day.

I think the car is trying to turn back time.

Yeah.

So if I could turn back.

The way that speedometer works,

it's got a wheel on the outside that spins around,

and then it pulls this biometer up.

So it should always center to zero.

It's probably rusted.

I saw those in the 80s that were rusted when they were 10 years old.

I cleaned them up, lubricated them and made them work again.

The problem is you've got to make sure you use the right lubricant

because if you use the wrong lubricant,

the friction will cause that speedometer to drag

and it'll be going faster when you're actually going.

So it's a fine art.

You can look at videos on YouTube of how people fix these yourself.

And if you're very good with that kind of small stuff,

you may be able to make it work.

At least get it to the point where if it's just a few miles an hour off,

you can compensate and know where you're at and get it to go.

Otherwise, when you have a classic like that,

it's what you want.

You're going to have to pay for what you want if you want something.

So you have to decide, do I want this to be original?

Do I want to fix this part?

Let's say that speedometer cluster is $1,500 on eBay

because somebody knows what they've got and it's good and it all works.

Do I want it original?

Or do I want to go to Dakota Digital

and buy a complete digital instrument cluster set up for $700

with all brand new gauges that looks like a spaceship or something nice,

or like their VHX gauges which have needles.

So it looks closer.

You can go that way and have everything working and a clock.

I saw the Dakota Digital dashboards in an ad the other day.

The new ones are amazing.

With the sweep.

Let's go get that.

At the beginning there, he already said it's not quite in the budget though, guys.

Did he say it wasn't in the budget to get the new replacement original?

What were you mean in there?

What wasn't in the budget?

What's the dollar amount?

Well, I don't know.

I guess if I'm going to fix it, I'd kind of like to keep it original,

but if I don't, then that's fine.

But I guess if I go digital, then I'm going to have to save up some money.

Hey, I tell you one other thing I wanted to ask about,

because Russ has tinkered with that stuff,

and when I was younger we tinkered with a lot of it too.

Is the odometer itself still working correctly as near as you can tell,

or just the speedometer is off?

The mileage meter, when I check it from mile to mile, it's about a tenth off.

That's going to be pretty close, but your gauge sitting at 20 when you're parked

means you've got that, and there's some, a gyrameter, I think they call it.

There's names for that part in there.

I only learned it when I was trying to fix one, and I fixed it, and that was enough, no more.

If you don't want to fix it yourself, if you get a, this is kind of old school,

but if you go to get a Hemmings Motor News and look in the classifies in the back,

there's a number of companies that specialize in classic clock repair, speedometer repair,

and you can also find them on a Facebook group also.

If you went on to Facebook and you went on a group for charger enthusiasts and said,

hey, who's on this group that repairs speedometers?

You might find some that enjoys doing it, and they do it for 200 bucks or something like that.

I mean, I'm just throwing things out there.

With technology, the communities have become connected a lot easier,

and there are specialists that just, they love what they do.

They've got a certain, they got a certain love for that car, and they know how to fix them,

and that's another good way to do it if you don't want to do it yourself.

But we've got ourselves a Berkeley One Classic on our hands here.

Hold on a second, Larry, stay right where you are, because we have some business to take care of here with you.

Yes, we do.

This is a Berkeley One Classic.

Partner of ours, Berkeley One Classics, we play the Guess the Color contest.

This is a self-created contest that we really like, and there's a hoodie on the line.

Berkeley One is the place to get your agreed value insurance, and so we get to Guess the Color,

and I think that this 73 charger with a speedometer that's not quite right today is black.

What do you think, Chris?

I, of course, think orange or red.

Too obvious, I thought. That's why I didn't go that way.

That's too new.

I already decided I'm going white.

It's gold.

Gold. Larry, what color is your charger?

Red.

It's a red charger.

I got red.

We went away from that, and we got...

I got it.

I'm going to do that every time.

I'm going to say, I was going to say red or blue, and then I'll choose a third, and I'll take red or blue from it.

Larry, stay right where you are.

We're going to send you over to producer Doug there.

You're going to get a hoodie, a Berkeley one under the Hood Show hoodie.

Those are collector's items.

They are.

You can still get them.

Buy them and collect them.

Get a bunch of them.

Yeah, get a bunch of them.

Christmas is coming up.

Don't forget about that.

Jump on our website.

It's like nine weeks away or something, ten weeks away.

I just downstairs getting something out of our little prize closet for Nordstrom's Automotive,

and I keep a little stash of hoodies there for when people come out to buy them, and we're out of extra larges again.

I got to order some more up.

There we go.

In on hand.

We can get them all the time for order.

866-594-4150.

That's the number to reach us here at the end of the Hood Show.

Let's talk to Donald.

You're on the end of the Hood Show.

Donald, what can we do for you?

Yes, I got a 2017 Dodge Ram Limited.

It's got all the bells and whistles, and the automatic air suspension that takes you up and down.

About two years ago, we were coming back from a trip on the freeway, and I had it on cruise control,

and all of a sudden, the cruise control quit on me.

So by the time we got into town, I noticed that the air suspension would not work.

It wouldn't bring it down or up.

And it's intermittent, so I turned the car off, and I was going to call the Dodge dealership to bring it in.

And the next day, it was fine.

Nothing.

So it was normal.

They said they couldn't do anything as long as this work is fine.

So then a couple of weeks later, it did it again.

So it's intermittent.

It's been going on for two years.

So I don't know.

Right now, it's fine.

There's nothing wrong with that.

So what did the problem be on that?

They're awful.

That was a bold statement.

Was it cold when it did this?

Yeah.

Well, they're awful.

It was wintertime.

It was wintertime, but we were up a lot bigger.

I'd say the temperature was around 50 degrees.

Okay.

Well, when they freeze, they've had some issues.

They're nitrogen charged.

They're not air charged, but they can get moisture in them, and then they can freeze, and the

dissolving can stick and not work, but they've, they've been a problem on those trucks and

most every independent shop that I've ever heard of won't touch one because they're a

nightmare.

You fix it and it comes back over and over and over and over and over again.

So the dealer, they'll work on them.

Usually when they're in warranty, when they're out of warranty, most of the people that have

come into my shop have said, yeah, I just spent like $6,000 and they replaced the entire

thing.

I said, what was wrong with this?

They don't know.

They just took it all off and put all new on there and fixed it.

And that's the way they do it.

I don't know what's going to happen with yours or what happens with all of them.

I just know with a few of my customers, what they've told me was done to repair it.

There have been some companies that have tried to make some kits like are not to convert them

over to a standard type suspension from the air ride suspension, but they're very problematic

and they can be intermittent like that.

And they can definitely have a problem when they're cold outside with valve sticking and

not operating properly.

It's a system that if I was purchasing one, I wouldn't get it on that vehicle.

Yeah.

Like I said, it was 2017 and it didn't do it until 2022, 2023, right in there.

Yeah, it gave you plenty of time.

I mean, it lasted a while.

Yeah, it lasted a long time, but once they fail, they're extremely expensive to fix.

We've had Cadillacs and Lincoln's and different things have had air ride of all sorts of different

kind and quality over the years.

And we thought those were expensive.

And then we saw the Dodge comes out the Jeeps.

The Jeeps just put an engine and transmission in a Jeep for a guy 21, 20, 2020.

Is that a Grand Cherokee?

Yeah.

And it had the full air ride on it.

And he said, well, I got to put the engine in it now.

Even the engine was about 6,500 bucks for a reman installed, but he had to put the, he

had just put the air ride on it and it was $7,000 for that.

So he said, I'm already into it for this.

I might as well fix it.

And it was a beautiful vehicle.

So I thought, let's fix it.

And that's not the first one that's come in like that with an air ride problem.

And it was just, they replaced the whole thing.

Well, at least on the Ram, it's just a, isn't that just, is that a rear only on that one?

Or is that on the Ram pickup?

You may have all four on his.

Do you have all four on yours?

You got the limited?

Yeah.

Oh boy.

Yeah.

All four.

Well, I think if, if, if someone that's first step is just to ask, go to the dealer

and say, what's it going to cost to look at this?

Tell me, what is it going to cost to tell me how much this is to fix?

And if they say, oh, we can check it out for a couple hundred bucks, then ask the big question.

Typically, what do people spend to fix these?

You've obviously fixed more than one.

What's the price range?

Are they in the $1,000 range?

The 5,000, the 10, I mean, where, where are, where are they?

Because I, I can do that with my customers.

When they call and say, how much to repair an AC system?

Most shops will say, well, it depends on what happened.

You say your compressor's locked up and the belt came off, the clutch came off.

I know there's probably metal in the system.

That means it's going to range between this and this.

And if they're okay with the this, then we fix it.

And often we find it takes a lot less and they're happy with that price.

But you don't want to go in just saying, we'll go ahead and check it out.

You spend the money, say 200 bucks, 400 bucks, they check it out.

And then they tell you, oh, well, everyone, we replace the whole system and it's always 6,000 bucks.

No, I want to know that up front.

Do you ever fix them or just single parts or do you always replace the system?

Ask those questions to protect yourself on the money.

And I think that it would be fair for them if you're going to do that.

Just somebody should, you know, we're talking about worst case scenarios, which happen way too often.

That's why we bring it up.

But give it a good inspection too.

They could find that.

And it's working.

They could find that there's an obvious place where a wire is chafing because a harness fell off a routing area.

They could find a corrosion spot like, oh, this doesn't look good right here.

This is a suspected problem.

There might be something obvious that can be looked at.

And that needs to be checked first.

Just a good old visual inspection of the system by somebody that's knowledgeable.

Does that help you out there, Donald?

Yeah, somewhat.

I want to know, can I ignore it and just drive it when it isn't working?

If the ride quality is okay for you and the ride height?

Yes.

Okay.

Because if it's when it's not working, there's a couple different failures.

There's one where you've got a nitrogen leak and the vehicle goes all the way to the bottom and it's stuck there.

There's another one where electronically the system is dead and it doesn't adjust and it's just fine right there.

It's happy all day long.

It's just right in the middle and you're okay with it.

So if that's where you're at, you can leave it.

But is cruise controls probably not working?

The cruise may be a function because it may be saying that the ride height is not correct and the cruise is not being allowed because of that.

That would be electronic and you'll find that in the codes.

Can he, if he finds out whatever, can he bring it in and throw a quarter turn in it and put some wedges in it and get it set up?

Put some wedge in it, Rudy?

There's no physical fix to...

No, and the cruise may be a separate issue.

It may not have anything to do with this.

Let's say we've got a ground and it's affecting the cruise, affecting the suspension and maybe it's affecting the flux capacitor.

I mean, it could be something else too.

Do you have a suspension warning light or anything come out of the dash at that time when it wasn't working?

Yeah, it says the air suspension needs service.

And that correlated with when the cruise control stopped working?

Yeah, my air suspension, when that quit, so does the crew.

Just to repeat, that could be because those systems, it's a fail safe to say, hey, if our ride height isn't working right and we can't judge that, we can't run cruise control.

This thing could be sitting way high in the air and roll over hazard and everything else, or it could be way low on the air and we can't handle...

Oh, the computer doesn't know at that point.

Or it could be, like Russ said, a related electronic problem that is causing both those systems to have issues.

But my hunch is it's an air suspension problem stopping the cruise control to work from working.

Thanks for listening to the Under the Hood Show podcast.

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

866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here at the Under the Hood Show.

Don't forget, if you subscribe to our YouTube channel and you join the Hoodie fan club at underthehoodshow.com, you could win a hoodie.

Like Shane Wilcox. Congratulations from all our friends over at Berkeley One Classic, celebrating 50 years of collector car coverage.

And Universal Technical Institute. You find them at UTI.edu.

Because to be a good mechanic or a marine mechanic or a welder, CNC.

NASCAR tech.

NASCAR tech. All those people. You know, little training never hurts. It's good.

The market, it wasn't too long ago we were talking about how the market was really thin.

And people were begging for employees. They were looking really hard for them.

Remember, we were like, oh, what do we do? We need employees. Well, that meant that you didn't need any training.

But now, all those shops and all those businesses have learned to do it without or they're gone.

So the ones that have learned to do without are now looking for good qualified people.

Thankfully, I have two good qualified guys at my place.

Do you think if I went to UTI for CNC, I could make fire rings?

Here we go again.

And put the Minnesota Vikings on the fire rings while I'm still at Universal Technical Institute.

I would like to put the Minnesota Vikings in a fire ring.

They're already in the ring of fire.

I don't know if they're machinery, if their software would allow it because of the trademark.

You definitely couldn't sell it.

But you could buy it made in China on Amazon all day long, probably.

See, I'm thinking, I'm ready to go.

If he uses it for his own use and hangs it in the back shop, they're...

Yeah, by the 7th, 8th one, they'd be like, hey, man.

I admire you two guys for your support and the lines are going to eat your lunch.

There's a good chance they will.

But that's to be expected.

I'm going into this game with if they somehow win, I'll be just totally elated because I don't expect them to.

Exactly. And that's where I am now.

I'm like, if they win, oh, neat.

But the year that you guys win the Super Bowl, it's going to be the exact opposite.

Everybody else is going to be like, you know...

I took a stone or a bad road here. Let's get it back.

As long as you guys live long enough, you'll see it.

That doesn't exist.

My post just was something about this being a microcosm of the biking season.

Even though it's still bleeding a little purple, we're going to harvest a little good out of it.

We'll see what happens.

It's not something you've been in your dreams on.

No, there's always something usable out of it is what you're saying.

Yeah, we'll get something salvageable.

We'll see what happens.

866-594-41. 5-0, let's talk to Kendall.

You're on the end of the Hood Show.

Kendall, what can we do for you?

I've got a 2000 Saab 93.

It's got 75,000 miles on it.

I've never changed any freeze in it since I've had it and I've had it about 12 years.

It looks like it has the green stuff in it, which isn't what it's supposed to have.

I wondered if I have it, the fluid exchanged, if I should go back with the green or go back with what it should have.

I'm not even sure what that is.

I would go back with what it should have, but it's as simple as this.

Our partner, Peek.

Peek, Antifreeze, coolant.

They make Antifreeze for all makes, all models, all colors.

Basically, the bottom line is they make the correct color for your car.

It's not going to cost you any more than buying different coolants that are wrong for your car.

And it's simple as going to any auto parts store and saying, I have a Saab 9.

Can you give me the right coolant for it?

Do you have it in the Peek?

And they'll come out and say, here you go, sir.

And they'll get you exactly what you need.

I would not go with the green.

That car was made for a silicate-free Antifreeze.

If I remember right, I'm almost 100% positive of that, and that's not the green.

Somebody's drained it, whatever reason, they put that in there.

It can be hard on some stuff.

Even something as simple as when you're driving the car.

We have had cars that had a fuel mileage issue because of the wrong color Antifreeze.

You remember that, Shannon?

I just, as you're seeing that, I'm just triggering it in my mind.

And I'll bring it back.

The reason why, if you put a microphone underwater and you tap on the side of the pool on one side,

the frequency that microphone picks up will change depending on the type of liquid that's in that pool.

So if you've got a green Antifreeze and it's picking it up at one frequency,

when you switch back to the blue or red or yellow or whatever it had supposed to be in there,

it's going to be a little different frequency.

If the knock sensor picks up the wrong frequency, it thinks there's a knock or thinks there's a problem

and reduces the timing, which reduces your fuel mileage.

So you're like, when I first heard that, I heard it from an engineer and I said, that's impossible.

How can Antifreeze affect your fuel mileage?

Is it leaking on something?

He said, no, it's this with the frequency.

And he showed me the waveform and I went, I'll be, look at that.

And it's usually not dramatic, but it can be a couple miles per gallon in some cases, depending on the vehicle.

How should that be done?

Should I make sure all of it's out?

Take it to a local garage where they do an exchange or flush it?

I tell you what, they can hook up a machine.

They're going to pull off that outlet radiator hose, put it on their machine,

put their hose from their machine onto the inlet, start up your car.

It's going to run through there.

They'll be done in 20, 30 minutes clean.

They put it together.

100% of it ever drops flushed out of there.

It's so much easier than going and doing it all yourself.

And they can use Pecanifreeze.

In fact, a lot of shops do.

I mean, they trust that and we use it too.

And the disposal's part of the job?

You don't have to worry about disposing it.

You're going to pay something for that.

But not near what you think.

Cool. It's actually pretty affordable.

So you'd be able to have a nice clean job.

And I'll guarantee you, if you haven't done it and you go to do it yourself,

you're going to waste a half a day in the shop.

You're going to buy a lot of stuff you don't need ever again.

You're going to have a mess.

You're going to get these weird wrenches.

You're more than likely going to have the hose pop out

and it's going to go spraying somewhere that you don't want to do.

And you'll have such a sob story you won't want to.

There we go.

Is there any risk in doing it that it's going to break something

and he's not going to be able to replace it and it's going to be a nightmare?

You mean if he has it flushed or does it himself?

Just in general.

It's working.

He's had it for 13 years.

No, but it's time.

If there's no damage, nothing's broken right now.

I would flush it because that's a long time for coolant.

If you were to go get a coolant test strip and check the pH of that coolant,

you're going to find that it's way off.

It's starting to eat stuff up.

And those sobs will last a long time when they're cared for.

Yeah.

Do you have time for one more quick question?

The transmission, there again 75,000 miles on it.

The fluid is red.

It doesn't smell burnt, looks good.

No shifting problems or anything.

Haven't done anything with that either.

Should I do something with that?

Yes.

It is time for a transmission fluid flush on that.

If the fluid still looks pretty good, you're golden.

That was the perfect time to flush it.

And again, those transmissions do hold up a long time as well.

These are cars that with proper maintenance are known to go a long way.

We've seen them with four or 500,000 miles on some of these.

So yes, that's important.

You want to guess what color it is?

I think it's silver.

Is this a, it is borderline.

Is this a?

It's not a classic yet for one of those.

It's starting to get collectible.

The 90s ones were really, if it was a 1990 or 80s for sure.

But either way, I'm curious what the color is.

I think it's a green.

Russ?

I think it's white.

What color is it Kendall?

Bright red.

Two in a row for red today.

Kendall, does that help you out?

Are you on your way now?

I'm on my way and I thank you all very much.

You bet.

My advice would be don't touch it.

That's fine.

We don't take your advice all the time.

That's true.

I'll ever and shouldn't.

Let me be very clear.

866-594-4150.

Let's talk to Leslie in Minnesota.

You're on the end of the hood show.

What can we do for you?

Hi.

I have a question on my 2009 View Week lacrosse.

I had an aftermarket catalytic converter that was put on probably

about four years ago.

Ever since then, my check engine light has stayed on.

I can't use my automatic starter.

I've been told that the reason the check engine light is on is because they put an

aftermarket catalytic converter.

I'm not willing to spend $1,500 for a GM catalytic converter.

Is there any way to bypass that check engine light?

No, not really.

No, not without tricking something.

I know that's what you want to do is probably trick something.

On the lacrosse, there is no trick because they don't make the tunes for those.

Unfortunately.

On line, sometimes you can buy a little...

The O2 one?

O2 adapter.

They may have those.

It makes the adapter, the O2 sensor, stick out a little bit further.

Sometimes it doesn't read as sensitive in that situation.

I can't believe I'm saying that on the air, but I know people have bought those and put

them on.

It helps sometimes.

There have been times where people have done an emission system cleaning where they'll

come in and you put it through the vacuum port and you clean out the emission system.

Some of that will help clean some of that.

The converter, the reason it was replaced in the first place, was it because you had

an engine problem or did they tell you it just broke apart inside or was it contaminated?

It was smelling like sulfur and stuff.

It was like missing and stuff.

When I brought it in, they told me that's what it was and then they just replaced it.

I wasn't told that if I didn't get a GM ground that it could leave my tech engine light on

and not have my automatic starter.

Let's talk about this a little bit more.

There are different grades of parts.

There's OEM, GM, and then there's good aftermarket, which in a lot of cases has more material

and is stronger and better than the GM and a lot of times cheaper.

Those are rare.

That would be like a Magnaflow or a Walker, the good ones.

Then there's junk.

There's the cheapest ones.

I say they're junk, but what they're meant for is if you have a car and it's on a used car lot

or you're trying to sell it, the check engine lights on, you want it to pass emissions and it's going to work.

They just may not work for very long.

It's got a warranty.

They're usually six months to a year.

I've seen some of them that are 90 days.

They don't have a lot of material and they're made for the situations like that where people want it to work now.

It may not work later.

There's no trick.

It's just a poor quality part.

When they put it on, it should have worked on day one.

Now, if it didn't work day one, then they should have been responsible for fixing that.

Did this check engine light stay on right after you got it back from the shop?

Yes.

At the time, I didn't know what it was, but then the place that did it, of course, closed down and sold.

Then I found out later from another mechanic that that's what happened.

The reason I don't want to spend that money is because I got 193,000 miles on it and I already had to put a used transmission in it.

I've had to put so much money into it this last year that I just don't want to spend that much more.

I'm hoping to have another 50,000 miles on the car, but I just think that's outrageous for a catalytic converter.

Leslie, I'm going to jump on a little soapbox here for just 30 seconds or so.

Some people may have heard I took over as a president of our International Trade Association for Auto Recycling.

One of the initiatives that I'm going to push is that we reverse a 1970s-era rule in the EPA code and work on it so that we can sell you without problem,

a self-certified used catalytic converter that came off of a known good car.

The car can test itself since 1995, 1996.

The car tests itself and tells you whether or not it's pass or no pass for the most part.

The worst thing that happens if you put one on that's not working is you have to get another one.

It's just insane that they cannot be reused.

If that would happen, that would be so helpful for the American consumer in situations just like yours.

I've got a good friend of mine that sells a recertified catalytic converter.

They take the OEM ones and they've created one of the only, I think, in the country dyno-type setups where they can test these converters and get the correct credentials through the EPA to tag them and resell them.

That's a more affordable option and you get a factory original converter.

I have hope that there's a couple options out there.

The other thing that I wanted to say is that when that converter failed, Russ, you know why I'm saying this.

Well, it's been four years.

Right. If it was truly why that converter failed because the converter went bad, okay.

But most of the time, there's another upstream problem that causes the converter to fail.

And if that upstream problem wasn't fixed and you were starting to say, I think that you had a misfire for a while and the misfire might have been a cause of the catalytic converter failure.

And they might have fixed something else along the way when they put that converter on.

But if that car is not in the right state of tune, if the vehicle is using a little too much oil, if it's got a antifreeze leak, those type of things, those contaminants that get in there, break down those converters and kill them.

Many times when Russ puts in an engine package for somebody because somebody had an engine go bad, it usually was an oil burner first.

A lot of times they got to put a catalytic converter on at that time because they can't get the flow out of it after they put the new engine in it.

So I said a lot there, but it's a little soapbox moment because I think it's important and we're going to work on that.

But right now there is another option out there and our sales staff might be able to help you with that because we do broker parts with that company.

But having said that, I feel for you.

It's a tough spot and I would not spend $1500 for a new one at this point in life of that car.

I'd rather just drive it as it is and just realize your lights on.

But that will start not working.

It's no fun.

Leslie, thanks very much for the call. Good luck.

866-594-4150. That's the number to reach us here at the end of the hood show.

We haven't talked on our regular show about our trip to Texas.

Not a bunch. We got to go down and be a part of the Toyota Employee Car Show.

October beast. After the last show we did post some stuff on our social media.

Our good friend Tim from Berkeley One Classics had salvaged a picture that I needed to get a post done for our winner.

You guys got to get your winners posted. We got to get that figured out.

I don't have a picture of him with the thing.

I have a picture of the thing.

The vehicle.

I know I do.

Russ and Michelle, I think you guys had some pictures with the winner.

Don't start looking at pictures on your phone.

Put that down.

Nobody can see it except you.

I just want you here.

The winner of Russ' contest was a guy that also has his own social media presence.

That would be something that we want to make sure people know about.

It's a pretty big one. I looked it up. I was like, oh.

We were down there for October beast and it is an employee appreciation event at the Toyota North American headquarters in Plano, Texas.

I want to do it again and get in and talk with a bunch of those people.

Walk around and talk to them.

They had so many cool stories about cars.

We did so much neat stuff there.

We interviewed Rick with his 68GTO convertible that ended up being more of a classic than he realized.

He's got a great story to tell.

I'll get that posted up on YouTube this weekend.

You'll like it. It's pretty cool.

We got a chance to see all these wonderful vehicles that were there from the employees.

Joe with the GTO.

Was it Joe?

It rhymes. Joe, GTO.

Sorry. I'm bad at that sometimes.

But you were going?

I listened to Russ had set out the podcast so I caught myself at work playing it in the background at the beginning.

Then I did some skip-throughs because I wanted to get to the point where we were...

I was stuck in Dallas with that air traffic whole thing and it got worse this past last week.

So I was stuck. It was like, I'm cursed. I can't get out of Texas. I might as well stay.

Chris was like, no, gotta come back.

And to get that podcast posted was a trick because I said I don't need my laptop, right?

Because I'm going to be back Sunday night.

So I'm trying to do all this stuff through my phone. It took me four hours to post that podcast to get it.

That's just about how long your plane was delayed Monday night. Four hours and 20 minutes.

No, I was supposed to... I had to have it posted Sunday night.

I'm just saying though, I'm just using a comparison. That was not anything more than that.

I was supposed to get out of there Saturday at one in the afternoon and I couldn't get a flight until Monday night.

I was listening to the podcast that we just posted.

So it was a labor of love getting out there for us.

We now know there was a lot more behind the scenes about getting that posted.

But at the beginning, I really did screw up and you guys were trying to correct me and I wouldn't let you.

That would be Chris because I just look at you and go...

No, you guys tried twice to correct me and I ran right over you.

That's what I got out of listening to the podcast.

So if you guys listen to the podcast, which we hope you do, you're going to know...

Contest.

You're going to know that I was a little more bullheaded than I realized.

You know what I'm talking about? What is it? Can't tell them?

I was doing the symbol for the... Is it a make and model issue?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And I didn't... I'm dumb.

And were you thinking of that make and model or were you just misspeaking?

No, no, no, no. I think we're on two different pages here.

Oh, okay.

It was about the sign that divided the sections of cars.

Oh, yes, yes. That one was funny too.

I was thinking of the make and model one later.

Here's your sign.

Yeah, the competition sign, right?

Yeah.

The competitor sign.

Yeah, there you go.

I don't know what I thought it meant.

You thought it meant like drag racing.

Anyway, I was bopping through using the fast forward to get to the point where we interviewed

Nick Miller, vice president of marketing, and just trying to...

Because I didn't have a lot of time, but I just wanted to get a flavor for it.

You skipped all that content. It was so hard to get it posted.

You're going to have to deal with it. I'm not the only one that did. I guarantee it.

Hey, we got a view or a listen.

But no, I went through there and it was really just fun listening to all...

You could hear all the energy in the background.

We were worried that it might be too much, but it actually was really cool to hear.

Yeah, they had a background band playing. There was people mulling around talking.

You could hear the... It's like you're at a fun party.

And we were right in the middle of it.

You should see the video, the video I had that cut out.

Before the sun overheated your phone.

There's a bunch of people that were walking in front of the camera.

Like they would turn around, they were giving thumbs up and waving.

And the girls that came up, they were all like taking a selfie in front of our camera.

Oh, that's funny.

It was nuts. I should post some of those clips.

Yeah, I think we should.

I'll cut some of those out.

But that event was a ton of fun.

And the people at Toyota could not have been any more gracious.

The folks from Toyota Insurance, Michael and his crew that were there helping us with the marketing side of things.

And getting an opportunity to go inside and be a guest in the Toyota Experience Center.

All those cars and so many of them were brand new.

The original crown that was imported into the United States.

The crowns and the stout.

I've never heard of a stout and there was one.

But some of them were repaired, but they were still like the number one off the line.

But there were a number of them that were never driven.

They just took them off the line and they carried them and set them there.

I was like, there's a tundra with brand new.

It's an old to see those old cars and kind of go back like an old Celica.

There's a Celica with two miles on.

It was fun.

I didn't realize as I walk through there how much Toyota I had in my early vehicle history going through there.

I had Toyotas that I'd kind of forgot about.

And they have a flying car that actually works.

Yeah.

I got so excited that you contributed to the win.

That's posted.

Including the gas.

Yeah.

Check that out too.

Look for the flying car video.

Runs on hydrogen or methane.

Yeah, it was just such a great.

There was parks next to the hydrogen cars.

It was so much fun to go down and do that.

And Jose who hosted us throughout the trip.

It just was a great, man, that was fun.

It was a lot of fun.

I can't believe just before we wrap up this hour.

I forgot to bring up the Toyota small truck the whole time.

We had talked about the Toyota mini truck or the possibility of them releasing a small truck to go with the Maverick.

And we were at Toyota.

I had had plenty of opportunity.

I forgot all about it while we were there.

And the minute we got home, I was like, oh yeah, the small truck.

Did you see the look you gave me too when I asked Nick, I said, why not?

You've had Prius all these years.

Why not like a diesel hybrid Prius?

And he just was quiet.

And I was like, there's things I can't tell you and there's things I can tell you.

And I'm like, what about a diesel Prius?

That was pretty cool talking to him though.

It was pretty great.

Yeah, you have to listen to that podcast and check it all out.

And we'll post some more pictures up on social media, a few clips here and there.

So just keep up on our social media to see a lot of that stuff.

With Russ Evans and Shannon Nordstrom, I'm Chris Carter.

This has been another hour of The Under the Hood Show.

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

Find out more by visiting UnderTheHoodShow.com.

Under the Hood is produced by Prairie House Productions.

All content is the property of Nordstrom's Automotive Incorporated

and may not be used without our permission.

Copyright Nordstrom's Automotive, Inc.

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