Picking a Good Mechanic, Explaining the CARFAX System, Following the Fluid Maintenance Schedule

Every Saturday we help keep it running for you if you have any issues with your

car, your truck, your van, and you need to bring it in for service, your favorite

shop or dealer, but you want to know what could be alien before you walk in that

door. You can give a next awful from Lloyd's Automotive ASC certified

technician there a call or a text this morning. As we do every week we appreciate

next help. I know Nick, good morning by the way, next awful. Good morning Danny. I

know our listeners do appreciate the help they get from you from Lloyd's

Automotive every week. We do to learn a lot every Saturday and I promised our

listeners who maybe we didn't get to answering some text questions from last

week and I grabbed those and we can get those underway. But if you do have any

question, any kind of a car care question, keep in mind we always like to

say let's hear from you sooner rather than later because our time goes by so

quickly Nick takes his leave about 745 making way for Ted Ferrell's wine chat. So

yeah, whatever your car care question, love to hear from you. It's either a text

or a phone call. One number will get you either 6514619226. Again from last

week, let's pick up on this Nick. It's a question about a backup camera on a

camera. It appears like a paint smear, mostly green and pink. Is that an

expensive repair and how would you go about doing that? I would suspect if

you're seeing something, maybe some sort of debris or contaminate get on that

lens, maybe take a little of the Windex and Array and locate that camera which

sometimes is not as easy to find as you would think but I find a little glass

lens there and try to clean that off and see that does the trick. If not, if

there's something wrong with the camera itself, quite honestly the only repair I've

seen is replacement of the camera. They're not horribly expensive, however,

gaining access to replace it might be a little time consuming. So first try

cleaning it, see if that gets it working properly again. If not, you have to go to

your shop or dealership and consult with them, get an idea on the cost of

replacement. Right. I'm looking at the text that came in this morning and we'll

pick up on some of the ones from last week. Here is a 2019 Nissan Altima with

47,000 miles on it at what mileage, like you and I were just talking about this,

what mileage should I start thinking about a transmission oil change? Thanks

very much. Let's talk about that. It seems to me what I've been reading, you

correct me. Are there a couple of different procedures with many vehicles as

far as changing the transmission fluid? The procedures have definitely evolved

with the technology and the transmission assembly and fitment. Most commonly now

or vast majority of the time it's a drain and fill, so it's not much different

than your oil change. It's a drain plug that you remove the fluid from. The

fill procedure is going to vary and be different based on the transmission

design. Look in your owner's manual, look online. There is a maintenance interval

for that also. It used to be, maybe it's 30,000, 50,000, they're all over the

board, so read up on that. If it's been many years, you've never done it, it's

probably a good idea to get the fresh fluid, get any debris out of there, but

it's changed. It used to pull a pan down, you'd replace the filter, reinstall the

pan and add the fluid and those days are behind us. There's not many

accessible filters in those transmissions and my honest opinion is the

drain and fill does a sufficient job. We change the fluid on these

vehicles at the maintenance interval and to be honest, it doesn't seem like we

do very many transmission repairs or replacements, so I would say follow that

maintenance interval and you should be good to go. I think I'm going to be

visiting Lloyd's one of these days from my car. I think it's due. Again, our

phone number is the same as the text number 6514619226. Here I think is a

good question from last week and I know you get it from time to time. We talk

about this on the show. This listener said, I've been a customer of Lloyd's

Automotive for 20 years. Wow. I'm now moving to Florida and I would be

interested in your opinion on how to pick a good mechanic. They would prefer

shops versus dealerships and they want to find one in Florida and they

want to make sure they pick the right choice. Whether you're getting

transferred and you're moving to a new city or maybe you just want to find a

new shop, how do you go about doing that? You know, you know, when you get there

you talk to your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends in the area. We

are a AAA facility like I mentioned here a few weeks back. We just reached our

25th year with that approval, so that's pretty pretty awesome to be honest, but

you can go on their website. You can find a AAA-approved facility in your new

neighborhood. You know, we're a Napa Auto Care Center. You know, Napa is very

prevalent in our community here and a lot of the shops do utilize that, that

associations. I would look on their website, you know, but it kind of goes

back to, you know, just when you get there and you make friends and you have

coworkers, see where they're going, you know. Another thing, ASC as you always

mentioned at the start of our show, Denny, we're a blue seal shop meaning all of our

technicians have a certain level of certifications, another good source. So,

you know, you can look online, use those sources, ASC, you know, Napa Auto Care,

AAA, and then ultimately really comes to referrals. You know, we get most of our

business from referrals because we try to do the right job the first time. Yeah,

absolutely. Talk to your neighbors, new neighbors may be, co-workers like you

suggested and yeah, because people need good repair shops and they're out there

like Lloyd's. Looking at another text came in this morning. And it frees. Okay,

this is a multi question here. 2001 Lincoln Town Card, 312,000 miles, well, barely

has any warm air coming through the defrost vents and floor. Texas says I've

changed the blower motor and resistor and both heater hoses are hot when the

engine. I'm not sure what that means here. Anyway, I guess they want to know as far

as the mixture with the antifreeze, that 50-50 with water? It is 50-50. A lot of

it's already premixed. You can get the little suction cup that you pull the

coolant into that and it does a measurement, which is what we use. I doubt it's a

coolant issue if you're not having heat. You know, the heater hoses are hot, so

it's hot, right? You know, that's not a temperature, but if it's really hot to the

touch, we know there's hot water getting in there, but it sounds like the fan is

blowing, but we're getting lukewarm air. I think more simple than one of those

blenders that we talk about from time to time. There's a flap in there that's

going to control the temperature of the heat. So as you turn the knob from hot to

cold from, you know, summer air conditioning to winter heat, which we're

into it now. There's a little door inside that's going to control that air flow

to allow for the hot air to work its way through. My suspicion is something with

that isn't working properly, whether it's that the flap itself, the motor that

controls it, or even the switch that tells it what to do. So I would, I'd

probably seek some advice there, especially as temperatures get colder.

You're going to want to have good heat in that vehicle. Okay. Let's grab a phone

call this morning. Nick Lee calling in from Zimmerman, Minnesota. Lee, good

morning. What is your question for Nick? Yes, Nick. This is going to be a weird

one for you. But I've got a 1998 Chevy Cavalier was my father in law's car.

He's come up here in the wintertime once in a while. But anyway, I've got

possession of the car now. And when it gets below freezing 32, 34 degrees, the

car will turn over, but won't start. Anytime it's warm, summertime starts

right up as nothing to do with gas. I do know it has something to do with the

ignition and the millivolts that go to the ECF. So why wouldn't it and it will

start as long as you leave the ignition on and let it sit for 20 minutes, the

car will start right up. So what's the deal? It's a great question. You know,

quite asked me, we just get the voltmeter out to 98. So it is OBD2. We

try to read some data. Something's, you know, the thermal curve, you know,

things get hotter, cold, they can flex and change. Obviously, when something's

getting cold and it's contracting, we're losing connection. Leaving it on is

allowing the current to flow through whatever it is to warm it up to get it

working again. You know, ignition module, you mentioned ECM. You know, it kind of

comes down to it's not starting. We got to figure out where we're losing power

and ground or power or ground, I should say. So there's a pinpoint there and it's

going to be a bit of a project, you know, talking about why your schematics

laid out on the table and, you know, and of course, after 20 minutes, it's going to

fire up. So you get a very short time and maybe take several different attempts

also. But at some point, we're losing power to something and that's the key.

You know, so we start very basic. Do we have injector pulse? Do we have spark? We

don't have one of them. It's not starting. And then we move back. Okay, so it's on

the fuel side, injector pulse. It is the fuel pump. It's the fuel pressure and then

we keep working our way backwards until we get to a part where we can get in that

wiring diagram and figure why it's cutting out. Same thing on the spark side.

The coil's firing. You know, we have a primary signal to the coils, the ignition

module, and you kind of work your way back through the wiring diagram to

figure out at what point are we losing that power and grounds? We're losing the

signal. And for whatever reason, it needs to cycle through and warm up after 20

minutes and it fires up. So there's something that's just not happy when

it's called. It's contracting. We're getting a poor contact connection. I

honestly wouldn't start throwing parts at it because what happens there is you

could create a secondary problem. Now you've solved the first problem and have a

second problem. So I would spend the time to figure out the root cause and then

move forward from there. No easy but on that one for sure.

All right. Nick, we need to take a quick break. Let's invite our listeners to join

in on the conversation. 6514619226. We'll be back with more here on Newstalk

830W, CCO. And a good Saturday morning to you. Welcome back to our Car Care Show.

We are here. Thanks to Nick Stalfel from Lloyd's Automotive answering those

questions every week for us here on CCO. I'm looking at the text from last week

and then I think we should be caught up, Nick, and we'll pick up on what's coming

in today. And this, I know there are variables here and things are more

expensive these days everywhere. My daughter, Texter, says, just bought a

brand new 2026 Kia Sportage, or as I used to say, Sportage. My husband

Googled oil change cost said it would cost 200 bucks. That seems high. Do you

know what it should cost to change the oil? Well, obviously over the years,

that thing, that price has really changed for a lot of reasons. But I don't

know. To me, 200 seems a little high. I would agree. I would say most

vast majority of the vehicles are not going to be that. An older vehicle,

semi-synthetic type oil, which is out there, a good quality filter,

depending on the quantity of oil, which is the biggest thing. This is your car

called four courts or eight courts. So I'm going to give you, on the low end, it's

$50 on some vehicles. $80 has probably come much more common. And some of those

higher capacities are probably a little over $100. Some of the higher end

vehicles, the filters cost more. You could be reaching, you know, some, you know,

up $125, $130. So there's unfortunately probably $100 range on most vehicles, to

be honest. But it really kind of comes down to what oil is for the vehicle, the

filter cost, and the quantity of oil. You know, some of these oils are, can be up

towards $10 a cart. You could have eight or nine courts of oil in there. It's

$80 or $90 right there. So it's a bit over the board. But once you kind of get

that established on your vehicle, it's probably going to stay the same

throughout the life within, within a few dollars.

Very good. Looking at it, Texnick. Good morning. It says 2011 Rx 350 Lexus. I

would like to add a retro kit that would give me cross traffic alert, pedestrian

alert front and rear blind spot where the cars are coming up on my backside. You

know such a unit retro and are there installers that do this?

No, we've had that question before. And I honestly think that they're so

intertwined with the vehicle, the wiring that are mounted in the bumper. And when

they're, the engineers that designed these four of these specific vehicles is

very finite. Like it's, the precision's going to be right on, you know, and to do

an add on is not going to give you the same results. So I, I don't know if it's

out there and I would definitely pause before I would look, you know, look at

something like that because you're not going to have the same, same capacity or

capabilities. Okay. Here's an interesting text that just came in. Can you

explain how the car fact system gets its data? I recently purchased a used car

was surprised at the amount of routine maintenance data the car fact system

had our repair shops required to submit the data on cars, the service or is

it voluntary? All these other questions are repair shops compensated for

providing the information are car owners given the option on whether or not

their cars data is submitted to car facts. It was valuable information. Maybe

you can pick up on one or two of those questions though about the car fact

system. It's a great question. I'm sensitive to people's information also.

So therefore we don't participate in that. And there are different organizations

where you can, I don't believe anybody's compensated for that to be honest. I

really don't know because I'm very sensitive to people's information, you

know, the way the world is. And I understand it's very helpful and useful

when you're going to buy a used vehicle that, you know, they have this car

fact with all this maintenance has been performed. But also people should have

records for their repairs on their vehicle too. So I see both sides of it.

I don't think necessarily a bad thing. It's just not something I'm willing to

participate in at this point because I just feel it's your information. It's

your history, your maintenance. It's yours to do as you please with. It's not

mine to go out and share with everyone. It's kind of your version of the

HIPAA. I guess so. HIPAA for the car. There you go. 6514619226. That's our

phone number. It's also our text number. Yeah, maybe you want to call and chat

with the neck. That'd be good or just send a text if you prefer. 6514619226.

Keep in mind, Nick will be with us till just about 745. So if you think of

something, give us a shout right away. 2016 Kia Serena won't shift into gear,

stays stuck in park. We used a small screwdriver to push down in the opening

next to the shift handle and that worked to get the car into drive. What causes

this to happen and what's the repair? Off the cuff, my first suspicion is

something with the brake switch is not telling the vehicle to release the

shifter. So by design, you can't just sink the shifter out of parking to a

gear because if you accidentally or somebody accidentally grabbed the

shift, the car would be rolling down the road. So you have to have a safety

point. Depressing the brake pedal tells the solenoid to release, therefore you

can shift it. So if that's not working, the other concern could be too because

I mentioned the brake pedal and that switch are the brake lights working.

So have somebody check on that. You know, had a second person go behind the

vehicle, obviously depressed the pedal, brake lights come on. Okay, you still

have that part of the switch operating, but the shift interlock is not. So

and if the brake lights are not working, well then you need to have that vehicle

toted somewhere because you don't want to be driving and have somebody run into

the back. Yeah, so it happens. It's not that uncommon. Probably not horribly

expensive. Likely the switch is located kind of down by where your feet are up

under the dashboard there, but I would have that looked at before you end up

with no brake lights and or struck we can't get it out of gear.

We have started to and naturally so getting questions about that. I don't

have heat on the passenger side. I don't have heat or it's just blow over the

is there a typical, what would you say is the most common problem when people come

into Lloyd's and say I don't get as much heat as I used to or whatever the question is.

So it's heat related. So my best advice to people is document exactly what's happening.

People come in and say I have no heat and then you say okay is it blowing air? Is it blowing

at all because really there's two different main air areas. Like it's not blowing any air at all

because you know through the fall we may not use the air conditioning or the heater and

something happens. You get in the morning like tomorrow morning which can be in the 20s and

you turn that heater on. It's not working. That's going to be a little cumbersome. The other thing

you can share on the blower side. So it's blowing or it's not blowing. Try the different settings.

You know low, medium, high. You might find that only works on high and not on the lower settings

and that can be something related to the resistor that controls the blower motor.

So that's kind of the blower side of things. If it's poor heat or poor heat on one side or the

other or it's poor heat where it takes a really long time to heat up or it's a poor heat situation

where it seems fine but once I hit the highway start going it seems a cool down. Those are all

scenarios that we see and any of that information you can share with the repair shop when you make

the appointment or drop the vehicle off while streamlining them figure out what's going on.

Because all the scenarios I just shared with you are different problems. It's a thermostat,

it's a blender, it's a water valve, it's the blower, it's the resistor. There's you know five, six,

eight components that could all have an effect on that heating system and it could take a little

time to figure that out. So write down exactly what isn't, isn't working, the scenario where that

happens and share that when you make that appointment because it'll be very helpful

and get to the bottom of that problem faster for you.

You're right Nick we've said it often the more information you can give to the shop

the better and the quicker they can get it done or at least do the detective work.

All right let's take a quick break for that forecast we'll be back with more.

Keep in mind that Nick will be taking his leave about 7.45 so call us or text us

with any kind of a car care question you may have this morning at 6.514619226.

Let's get the weather here. News Talk 830W CCO and welcome back to CCO's Car Care Show.

Thanks to Nick Stoffel, Lloyd Zahnemotive. We are here every Saturday in the right

after the 7 o'clock news break and Nick I wanted to ask you as usual for folks that need

the help from Lloyd's how do we find you guys? Yes sir and absolutely if you have a question

need some advice before you take in or make your appointment we will help you without a doubt so

you can reach us at 651-228-1316. If you're in St. Paul we're at 982 Grand Avenue the

corner of Grand and Chatsworth and if you need a little more information you can check out our

website which is Lloydsautomotive.net. Recommendation the thumbs up thumbs down texture has a 2019

Titan V8 they are recommending front and rear differential service transfer case service and

transmission fluid service mostly road miles on this you think it's necessary? I do think

following the maintenance schedule is necessary that being said it's a guideline you know depending

on your driving habits and conditions might be a little bit sooner a little bit later but the

nice thing about the maintenance interval it's always there if you follow it and do it you can

forget about it you know it's been done if you're going to try to change your adjust it to your

driving styles you got to remember to do it when outside of that schedule so it's probably just

the easiest to do that you know we always know to change oil and then we think oh differentials

don't have to do it yes you need to do it transmission yes you need to do that you know the

the coolant I mean all these fluids every fluid on the vehicle has a maintenance schedule that needs

to be followed sometimes like I said we might recommend doing it outside of that based on a

reason you know it might be a certain fluid that looks pretty used and abused and we're going to

recommend that a little bit ahead of the schedule to keep things working properly so if you have a

good working relationship with your shop they're making those recommendations it should be based

on some findings or something they can tell you or show you so I would I would maybe ask a follow-up

question with them but likely yes I would perform those services very good uh Texter has a 20 or

rather 2004 Honda CRV 140,000 miles on it two weeks ago they say I loaded a heavy piece of

furniture into it and upon starting the car a dash light quote maintenance required flashed a few

times now the dash light now flashes a few times every time I start the car what does this mean

it's nothing related to putting the furniture in there coincidental uh but you hit a certain

timeline a certain mileage and the vehicle identifies that and saying hey we're due for one

of those maintenance items so you can contact your your shop or your dealership get on their

schedule say got a maintenance light on you bring the vehicle in they can look to see if there's

any information within the vehicle itself they can look at the maintenance records if you've

taken it to that place for a while and they can also check the maintenance schedule and give you

recommendations based on what they what they've learned well we want this problem solved right

away it's a radio one yeah it's a 2022 Subaru Outback sometimes in both the navigation system

and the radio are on suddenly a noise a screech occurs and then the radio stops working what's

happening that the radio stops working and what can be done about it I want to be able to listen to

wcc when using my navigation system we do too absolutely and there is an app you can download

so you're not without you know so we can still you can still listen to us uh with radios you know

years and years ago Danny there used to be some backfeeding but that's in the rearview mirror

that's not something that can happen really anymore that being said typically the nav the radio that

whole unit is one unit the fact that something's screeching and cutting out makes me wonder is

the amplifier on that unit giving out you can definitely take it in if there's any separate

components that input to it we want to check those the antenna if an amplifier is external

any those things that are external we want to make sure that they're working properly

but ultimately you might find out that that unit itself is bad and it replaces a complete assembly

listener who wanted to know in your opinion on as far as wiper blades silicone versus

rubber do you have any thoughts on either um you know I suspect the silicone ones are a little more

expensive and they likely last a little bit longer but my biggest opinions you need to replace them

it's one of those things that people say oh no they're fine and then I said this in the past in

the show I always joke like well I'll give you the passenger side one for free but you have to pay

double for the driver's side when you come back so you put one on the right side and they can see

clearly out that side and then you realize how bad because you know it's one of those slow things

it's kind of like our eyes as we get older because you need cheaters right well uh wipers need to be

replaced and if you look at uh look it up online they're going to say it's annually you know depending

on your driving habits maybe it's every other year uh but they need to be replaced more often than we

do and as they do deteriorate they can start to wear into the glass a little bit which you cannot

undo that so if you get any kind of scratching or imperfections in that glass that's permanent so

I think a couple wiper blades to prevent that and number two keep you seeing well while you're driving

especially at night in the wet conditions is well worth the price see I have no idea what you're

talking about about eyes there's nothing like that but it's true uh you you said it exactly I've

done that very thing I thought well I don't need that and I did replace one blade one time and it

did make a difference but fortunately I didn't have to pay double for the other one all right here

is a uh a text there we do have time I purchased Texas as a 2021 forerunner and heated seats no

longer work who can I call to fix that you guys have worked on those we can and do uh the first

thing we're going to check is the fuse we're going to check the switch but ultimately what we've

learned is that something got spilled on the seat at some point in time gets into that little wiring

element in the base of the seat or the back of the seat it can often short out and make it not work

so be careful if you've heated seats not to have any liquids that are spilled and if they are spilled

wipe them up immediately you can replace the pads but people oftentimes that find it's quite expensive

you know taking this disassembliness seat to do that is maybe not often worth the cost of the of

that luxury so but it can be a switch it can be a fuse it doesn't have to be necessarily worst case

scenario so at least have it assessed figure out what's going on get a real price then you can

determine if that extra add-on is worth it to you all right I think yes so another one just came

me let's see my window texture says squishes when closing I use silicone on the frame it works for

a little while but it comes back what can I do I'm not sure how a window squishes what are they

saying you think I suspect there's some debris in the window channel yeah and then you lubricate it

so it softens it up and then it sounds good again you know maybe you got to clean that out you know

very carefully take a rag some Windex or some gentle detergent and try to get into that window

channel clean that out see what's in there maybe a little bit of compressed air I don't I don't want

to be going crazy and wild and force it a bunch of air or water somewhere because you don't want

to short something out that's in that door but there's some debris that's kind of made its way

in there I need to kind of find a way to clear it out you know we talked earlier about heat and

lack the lack of heat in the wintertime and I was thinking about because I was parked under a tree

and all these leaves had gathered in that little trough beneath the windshield wipers

should those be cleaned I'm thinking you know as we head into the heating season which we're at now

should that be cleaned of that I try to keep that clean myself but that's where the air comes in

right that is correct so at the base of your windshield and that as you call that trough

is it most often they are intake for your heating and cooling air conditioning and heater system

and that debris what's the cabin filter will catch if I make its way in but you know in these

months when it's wet you know that debris starts to break down and kind of get that musty smell so

if you have a musty smell likely it could be that that could be the source it could also restrict

air flow which can affect your heating especially in winter months so we don't want that stuff frozen

in place we don't want that stuff breaking down and decomposing so it's just a matter of cleaning

it out and when they replace your cabin filter if they mention there's a significant amount of debris

in there they're gonna have to clean that out also and to minimize that keep that area clean at the

base of the windshield sometimes you might have to open the hood and where the hood comes to the

vehicle there's another area there you'll see where stuff collects takes two seconds to just

take it out wipe it out and throw it away well you know what I do and I know I'm a little obsessive

compulsive every so often not you know maybe once a year twice a year I'll do that very thing and then

I will not only throw it out by hand but I will take a brush and vacuum with my shot pack because

some of that stuff gets in those screens right absolutely and that will affect the air flow and

you don't want that you know especially on those harsh cold winter days you need to have all that

air flow to give you good heat and I'm very serious about the decomposing and that musty smell

that's absolute one of the main causes of that it's easily prevented and you said open your

open your hood look there you see you know this time you see all those leaves take it out wipe it

out even take the shot back vacuum it up and it'll keep you and your car happy absolutely we'll be

happy if you come back again next week but in the meantime Nick how do we find loads on a motor

absolutely if you have a question as always don't hesitate to call you can reach us at 651

228 1316 if you need our help and you're in st paul we're 982 grand avenue two blocks east of

lecington parkway and finally please do check out our website which is Lloydsautomotive.net

see your guys on Tuesday nick and we'll talk next Saturday thank you Denny very good next awful from Lloyds

Picking a Good Mechanic, Explaining the CARFAX System, Following the Fluid Maintenance Schedule

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