Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - Classic Car Doctor - September 12, 2015 - Hour 2
Ron Ananian The Car Doctor
Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - Classic Car Doctor - September 12, 2015 - Hour 2
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Ron Anian, maybe the way we need to look at auto repair.
It's kind of like a blind date, won't your gut tell you? And as your gut tells you, yeah, I
don't think I want to get married and have kids with this person, And chances are you probably don't want.
I'm working on your car either, the Car Doctor. Has
your son ever driven a stick? No? He has, Okay,
so he's a first time driver. So the likelihood of
this needing a clutch in six months might be more realistic than we realized.
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up the phone and call in. The garage doors are open.
But I am here to take your call at eight five five five six ninety nine hundred.
And now he.
Ronnie, Hey, Hey, welcome Ronin Indian the guard Doctor. You know, gee,
where do we start today? You know, there's so many
things I want to talk about this hour. And by
the way, I'm here at eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero let me start here. Before
the show today, I called Mom. You hear me talk
about Mom all the time, and you know, let's just say that Mom's sitting by a radio right now, and I won't tell you how old she is, but let's just say that she remembers Pearl Harbor and she probably dated one of the pilots, so for our side that you know, So, Mom's been around a little bit. And
she was talking to me today, what are you want to talk about today on the show? And I said, gee, Mom,
I kind of really haven't given it a lot of thought.
I usually created as I go because I find it to be a little fresher that way. I review the
week's events in the top of my head and start of work from there. And she said, well, why don't
you talk about getting your car ready for winter? And
I went, but Mom, we're still in the middle of summer.
You know, summer's just winding down. But you can never
be too prepared. And I thought about that, and the
fact it is Mom's right, you can never be too prepared because chances are where in the tailor the end of last couple of weeks of summer and before you know it, two months from now. We could have the
dirty four letter word snow, but I didn't say it.
So what I want you to think about. I want
you to develop a plan. I don't want anything to
be done at the last minute. I don't want any
automotive emergencies. I want you to be aware that from
this moment forward, somewhere in the next two months, you become good scouts and you're prepared. You take the car
in for service if you haven't done it in a while, Look up at that oil change sticker the next time you get in the car. If it's curled up in
yellow and falling off or worshit, if it's missing, chances are you need an oil change, and ask your mechanic to go over the car. It hasn't going to give
them a physical look at the tires, look at the brakes.
Bell toses not necessarily every year make model car, because a lot of the newer vehicles are going to require a different kind of service and a different kind of approach.
But it's still a mechanical device, and it still requires maintenance in some way, shape or form. If your car
hasn't seen the inside of a repair shop or an oil change place in a year. Chances are you're way
overdue and you've got to get something done before it becomes a bigger problem, because two months from now, when there's snow on the ground perhaps, or three months from now when there's snow on the ground, you don't want to be that guy making the phone call three o'clock on a Friday afternoon going I've got a problem. You
were warned, and just remember mom, we'll call you and yell at you if you don't mine or yours your call.
Hello and welcome ronin any and the guard doctor here at eight five five five six zero nine nine zero zero, here to take your call and answer your question, solve your problem, whatever it is. Give us a call, talk
to Fast Harry, Fast Harry. I'll get you up in Q.
We're gonna be talking to the folks from Delphi, I believe, down around the bottom of the hour about some of the things they've got going on. So we're looking forward
to that. But we are here to take your calls.
Let's kick the garage doors open and get into it and go talk to Mike and Danellen, New Jersey. Some
comments about an OAH Chevrolet and rustproofing. Mike welcome to
the Car Doctor.
Sir.
How are you today, Ron?
I'm very well. Thank you. I always enjoy your show,
especially last week. I thought it was really great.
Well, thanks, Mike, I appreciate that.
A question. My friend has an oh Chevrolet Silver, say
Silverado with a short bed. It's a standard cab, not
the four door one, right, and he says he was looking underneath it the other day and noticed that somehow some things are starting to rust already.
Yep.
Now, did I do any rustproofing on these cars today?
And if not, what would you suggest that he do?
Did they still have like the Rusty Jones type places or not anymore.
I'm not a fan of undercoating, Mike, because, in my mind, from what I've seen, undercoating, you know, will hold moisture and can create some issues on its own. That's number one.
Number two based on the quality of undercoding. Undercoting has
changed a lot over the years. When I re stored
the hot Rod four or five years ago, the undercoating that I was peeling off the floorpan from nineteen fifty four was entirely different in terms of composition and resiliency than the stuff we're using today, and a lot of it's you know, the chemical makeup. They won't allow certain
chemicals to be sprayed anymore. That being said, that two
thousand and eight Silverado. I've got a two thousand and
eight Silverado. You know what, it's eight model years old.
It's been through eight winters now. The last two maybe
three years, I've been using a product called fluid film.
Fluid film, and we were just talking about this last hour.
As a matter of fact, it's funny, first time it's come up in a while. And what fluid film does
is it clings. It's like a clotting, blocking action material
that will cling to the metal and prevent it from, you know, allowing moisture to settle in. And it's a
rust preventative. A lot of the plow companies use it.
They put it on the blades, they put it on the undercarriage of the trucks. Is designed specifically for foul weather.
And I like that. I like that approach and I've
been using that on my truck now for the past two years. Like I said, going on three, one of
the things your friend may have to do is get the truck up in the air and start painting some of those critical areas, scrape off some of the surface trust and start scraping and then painting with the product I use called zero rust paint. If you google it
zero rust paint, you'll find it, or you'll find that it may be a local body shop supply house. And
what zero rust paint does is it will actually permeate into the rust. It'll dig into the rust and lock
it up and prevent it from growing. And yeah, kind
of like a rustolium, but I think a grade above and you know it specifically will attack rust where rustolium, to my knowledge, requires a clean surface. Roustolium is more
of a preventative, where a zero rust will actually attack the rust, lock into it and prevent the vehicle from rusting further. Now there's a third product. You know, how
deep how hard into this do we want to get?
If you want it to pour fifteen the chassis, which requires specific prep time and a lot more work. I
have seen some spray applications of poor fifteen, but from what I'm reading, the best results are obtained with their brush on product, and that takes a bit of work.
That takes a bit of doing. So bottom line, there
are things out there that I think are better than undercoding.
He's fortunate in that it's a two thousand and eight.
He should have vinyl coded break lines on that truck.
Two thousand and eight was the first year for that two thousand and seven down. General motors, trucks, and SUVs
all suffer from steel lines, And for the record, if anybody out there listening happens to own one of those, I definitely have my mechanic look those lines over and be sure they're not rustling and splitting or getting ready to split, because that's a very common, big problem on GM product right now, so much so that there is conversation about potential recoil out there. But I haven't seen
anything else beyond speculation.
Iota because they had really bad rust problem, and.
You know, Mike, there's a lot of rust issues on a lot of vehicles, but for some reason, the public doesn't want to accept that all cars break and all cars have their issues. But yeah, that's that's where he
would be, sir. Okay, thanks again, Ron.
I appreciate you're very welcome, Mike.
You take good care. Rust is a huge issue and
I can't I can't warn us enough about it in that we've got to be you know, a little bit of due diligence. And it's funny, you know, Mike said,
g two thousand and eight. It's like it's a new vehicle,
you know, it's funny. I thought of my plow truck
as a new vehicle too, about three months ago, and I sat down and I said, gee, here I am entering my eighth or ninth winter with it, and you know, all of a sudden, it's not new anymore. It's uh,
it's time to start thinking about you know, preventive maintenance.
Or it was quite some time ago, and I've been doing it ever since. Eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. The car Doctor's coming back. Hey,
LMC truck giveaway while we're supposed to give another one away this hour. Stay tuned, it could be you. We'll
be back right after.
This man, welcome back. Why aren't mending?
The card doctor taking his own highway today? At eighty
five five five six zero nine nine zero zero. Let's
get over and talk to Alan from Warwick, New York, ninety three Ford Ranger. Allen, you're on with the card doctor.
How can he help her?
Hey?
Hey, Ron, how are you doing today?
Good? What's going on?
Hey got ninety three Ford Ranger. It's a three point
zero five speed. I'm trying to bleed the air from
the clutch hard. I can't do it.
Yeah, I've got a I've got a ninety seven three point zero five speed. Let me tell you this is
like a religious experience, you know, this is this is typical engineering, automotive engineering design at its best. They may
so that you have to bleed fluid from a system and then provide a limited method and way to do it.
Is the is the clutch master and slave on the truck?
The is the master on this integral with the breakmaster?
Aland or is it a separate clutch master.
It's separate.
That's all separate the way we bleed these. Now, where
did you purchase the new the new setup from from the dealer or the aftermarket?
Well, actually i'm driving the truck. I used that a
year and a half ago.
Okay, and you have you haven't been able to get the air?
Yeah, it's that for about six months, right while it's it's hard to getting the gears.
Is yours the setup where the bleeder is on the master or is there a bleeder on the slave as well.
Just one on the slave. It's not on the master.
Okay.
So and the way that thing's mounted.
Right, it's mounted at an angle, so all the air is trapped at the other end. So the way I've
the way I've bled that particular one is I will raise either the front or the back of the vehicle with a floor jack. Get it up good and high,
open the bleeder and let it sit. Sometimes I let it.
Sometimes I let it sit overnight. Now, if you want
to take it a different approach, take the master and the slave off the truck, bleed it off the car.
Well that's what I did. Try doing that, but I
can't get the master off the.
Right in it, oh, because it's frozen.
Right.
Well, yeah, come back, I guess want to put together and we come back apart.
Right, Yeah, it's it's a one way. You can't take
the clutch pedal linkage off. You can't take that rod
off whereas it is it a captured rod up at the top there.
Well, it goes into the master. I guess it's a
snapping on the rod. Yeah, but it goes together.
But that but the rod on the clutch pedal itself, can't that unclip from the pedal assembly somehow. If you
had to take the clutch pedal out, how would you take that out?
I can get that apart, okay, I just cannot get the whole thing out of the truck.
Okay, then I think we're either going to have to raise one end or the other or if you can find them. Years ago, there used to be a product
for bleeding hydraulics, the break fluid hypodermics. They look like
giant hypodermic needles with little rubber cushions on the end.
Do you remember do you remember seeing those? They were
out twenty years ago. I still got a pile of
them in the shop. And basically you fill them up
with fluid. You tap the bubbles out, you open the
bleeder and you reverse bleed, put it on the nipple on the slave and just reverse bleed and push the fluid up into the master and hopefully any air gets carried along with it and eventually burps itself out. And
you can you can try that as well. Last thing,
if it's not air, that particular trans for gear oil calls for if I call right automatic trans fluid, right.
Yeah, there is AF I did change the transit oil Okay.
You may find that using General Motors manual gearbox oil makes that trans shift a little better. I've got that
truck down just five years newer. I've got a ninety seven,
and I've been down this road. I actually run GM
manual gearbox fluid. In mind, it's not cheap stuff. The
last time I bought it was twenty bucks a court if I remember right, right from General Motors. But it's
their manual trans fluid. It's what GM used to put
in the old s ten blazers a million years ago.
You know.
It's just it's got a little bit more lubricating action to it, and it will help it shift and you know, be a little bit slicker in the way that it works.
So take a look at that and consider that. Listen,
let me help you out. LMC truck one of our sponsors.
I dug into the closet. I'm digging into it again twice.
This weekend. We're gonna send you out a twenty five
dollars gift card. It's good for anything at lmc truck
dot com. They'll also be glad to send you out
a hat or a T shirt as well as a catalog and maybe you can find something in their catalog.
I'm sure you can find something in their cattleg to help you with that ninety three Ford Ranger. So stay
on the line. Let Harry get all your information. We'll
get that coming to you from the folks over at LMC truck and good luck to you Alan. Let us
know if we can do anything else. Let's get over
and see Sal Long Island twenty twelve Chevy Travert's and some questions and comments about traction. Sal Welcome to the car, doctor, sir.
How can I help? Hi, sir? What's going on?
Okay, it's the twelve traverse purchase new from pretty much to start the it's a two wheel drive vehicle. Traction issues,
rain and snow predominantly. My wife drives the car. And
how complaint is when she takes off from the traffic light that there is attraction issue. The car has tracks
to control, makes no difference on or off. The car
is screaming to you know, it's it's it's skin.
It just can't it just can't grab what kind of tires are on it?
So yeah, theah they came with the goodyear for Sarah two five, six, five or eighteen Mud and snow we're getting.
We're coming up on forty thousand, getting ready to replace tires.
Like I said, it is a purchase, so I'm really not looking to purchase another vehicle at this time.
I would look at the General Tire, get over the General Tire website and specifically go take a look at the grab or HTS. All right, I am ninety percent
certain they make it in that size, good solid tire.
We put a set of those on a two wheel drive pickup truck not too long ago with a customer complaint about similar problems and the back end of a small pickup truck like this one was. They're generally kind
of skitterish. They you know, you start out on a damp,
dewey day and it just it just it's just not happy, for lack of a better word, and it it. You know,
we put a little weight in the vehicle because it was the back end, and it solved his problem. You know,
he really likes his grab or HTS is you know.
One of the things I will say about General Tire when I when I look at tires, there's two things I consider. I consider how easy is it going to
be to get a replacement obviously, it's it's the company and their name and their reputation, which General has obviously, but I also look at the technology. The HTS is
one of their newer tires in the last couple of years.
They put a lot of money into making that tire and it should be around a long time, and the technology seems to be right on the money. We've sold
more than a few sets and everybody seems to be very happy with them. I would I would take a
real hard back the times Harry Harry Thomas, Sam, Yes or HTS. They also have others and you can review
the website. They should also have an eight hundred number
there if I recall correctly that you can talk to them, say listen, I've got this traverse. What do you recommend?
Here's the problem I'm having, and they can kind of guide you accordingly from there.
All right, sir, okay, appreciate it.
If you know anything else, you know where we are, Hey, coming up next. You know we talk about the quality
of parts and the race to the bottom. Well, you
know a lot of companies are out there are trying to help us solve that's it's a real issue of late the quality of parts that the automotive aftermarket is facing as well as the oees. You know, the oees
don't have an easy road too, and we've reached out to the folks over at Delphi. We're going to talk
to Jeff Denty specifically going to be coming on to talk to us about some of their products and some of the things they're doing, because a lot of what they're doing is being applied across the board through many automotive manufacturers, and it's kind of refreshing you can take a look behind the scenes to hear how manufacturers are are really working to solve the problems for both oes dealers and independence. You know what sort of generated this
conversation we're going to have with Jeff is what I've noticed in the last year and a half or so, and I think I've talked about it freely here on air, that a lot of issues with parts, a lot of issues with things showing up that don't seem to work, and there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
Here.
Let me prove it to you this way. Got an
email in front of me from a Ken in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He's a service writer at a As he puts it an import dealership, and he said, Ron, your comments a couple of weeks ago about the oil change by manufacturer's light are right on the money. We're finding that the
longer oil change intervals are proving to create consumption issues and a lot of vehicles are as included. I won't
mention the brand name. He says, baked and varnish oil
in the rings are causing consumption and it's cheaper to change oil by time rather than face the issue of oil consumption. So a lot of things going on behind
the scene, folks that we don't all necessarily know about. Hey,
coming up next, Jeff Dent Delpi. Stay tuned. We'll back
right after this.
Welcome back.
Listeners want name me in car doctor. You know, if
you have been listening and are part of the Car Doctor Nation these many years, you've heard me talk, especially this year, how we are in a race to the bottom when it comes to parts and parts quality, and it's an issue. It's an issue when you're repairing cars,
whether you're doing it yourself or whether you're doing it as a professional. And I'm constantly reaching out and looking
for the sources of the best parts. And we wanted
to reach out at this particular point in time. We're
approaching that time of year when fuel systems will be working in colder weather. Not that hot weather isn't a
problem either, there are some issues with both, but we thought it would be a good time of year to talk a little bit about fuel systems and some of the problems that can occur there. And we've reached out
and we are talking today with Jeff Dent. Jeff is
the category product manager for the folks over at Delphi and we're glad to have him with us here on the card. Doctor Jeff. Welcome a Boartzir.
Thank you, Ron I appreciate the time.
Let's talk a little bit about the importance of good parts.
You know, you've been doing this a while, I know, and Delphi has been around forever. And you know, one
of my rants this year is we're in a race to the bottom. It seems that a lot of manufacturers
are trying to cheapen things up, but DELFI is going in the opposite direction. You guys are constantly working to
make the best product, the best quality component, and still bring it to market at a fair price. And it's
got to be a big issue for you guys.
Now, well, what we try to do here is make sure that our pumps and our fuel system components all are manufactured to the ALWAYS specification. And I mean that's
the most important thing, right because the vehicle vehicles are are built at and their fuel systems are designed to work at a certain specification, specific flow pressure current, and it's important to meet those specifications in order for that system to run, you know, in the best most efficient way possible. So you know, at DELFI we try to
meet those OWAYS specifications, and I mean the problem is if if you're not meeting those exact ALWAYS specifications, what's going to happen is your system's not going to work as efficiently as it should and you're going to have for either premature failures or you're going to cause stress on other system components.
You know, we talk about fuel pumps, Jeff. You know,
is there a mileage range when fuel pumps go bad?
When does the listener know to be concerned? Maybe it's
time to start thinking about a fuel pump. Cars last
longer today, and fuel pumps have to last longer too, right, right, I mean.
Quality has gotten better over the years. I think no
one would disagree with that, and you'll see in replacement rates and things like that, those are generally going down overall.
But there's no specific mileage range necessarily, but we do test our product up to one hundred and fifty thousand miles.
The pumps themselves up to one hundred and fifty thousand miles, so we know that we're making a quo a unit.
So I mean that's you know that we can say miles driven or something like that, but it's also you know, how much time are you sitting in traffic?
Right?
How much time are you just idling? I mean all
that all can wear on the fuel pump life as well it used to be, and.
I still think it's true today that one of the factors that led to a fuel pump's possible early failure was something as simple as how much fuel do you keep in the tank? Isn't it true that, you know,
if you tend to run the tank a quarter tank or more, you've got that pump in liquid which helps keep it cool. It is an electric motor, it would
make sense now.
I mean that is especially on some of the older style as well. When you're not we don't have what
we call the fuel module where there's a plastic bucket that keeps the pump in fuel constantly. But if you're
having a maybe an older unit, that's you know, where the pump is exposed to whatever's in the tank and the fuel level is low, it's not getting maybe the cooling that you know, if you're in a hot area or there's there could be condensation in the tank if it's not kept the field's not kept up around the fuel pump, right. But I mean also what you're looking
at is, you know, if you get down to less than a quarter of a tank, you're right at the you know, at the bottom of the tank, you're going to be sucking in not only the last bits of fuel, but they need to breathe.
It might be on the bottom and that's an issue obviously for the pump itself. Jeff, when they get around
to replacing the fuel pump, the advantages, you know, if you're going to replace the entire fuel pump assembly, use the word module, and it's a good one. There are
advantages to replacing the entire fuel pump assembly as a module versus I realize it's cheaper just to do a pump, but there are some issues there right.
Right, I mean, I think the biggest advantage in doing the full module is that it's it's a little bit easier in that you can just take out the old module, put in a new module, make the connections, and you should be ready to go. Whereas when you're only replacing
the pump, there's some disassembly work you have to do.
You're connecting a new connector to an old connector, and that can you know, that could prove to be an issue possibly, So it's I think, you know, in the secondary advantage, it's just you're replacing all the components on that fuel assembly in one in one swoop, So you're taking out some of the room for error right in some of those connections and sensors and things like that.
Yeah, you know, when you when you stop to think about ethanol and fuel and some of the things ethanol can create as issues. If it affected the life of
the pump, there are other electrics electronics if you will, in the tank and those are going to be affected as well. So yeah, it does make sense change everything
as a module in and out. It's fresh, it's ready
to go. Is it difficult if you were going to
describe to the listeners Jeff. For diagnosing and replacing a
fuel pump, what are some of the steps they might want to consider they.
Have to take.
Well, there's some pretty basic. It's some some tests that
you can do just to make sure it's the pump.
I mean, a lot of the a lot of what happens is you know, the car won't start or the fuel's not getting the engine. No, it must be the
fuel pump. And what you really want to do is
make sure that's the problem, because the last thing that you really want to do is take the time and you know, drop the fuel tank and do all that work, you know, hours of work, potentially one to two hours of work or more when it's actually an electrical issue.
So we recommend doing tests like a voltage dropped between the battery and the fuel system. Flow tests make sure
that the flow the pump's flowing properly and not only flowing, but flowing at the correct pressure, because if it's low or high there you might have some kind of blockage issue with fuel lines or something like that. All those things,
you know, would lead you while you're not getting the fuel to the engine, which might you know, people would automatically jump to the fuel pump. It's it might be
easier to replace, you know, a fuel real or something like that, as opposed to doing all the work to replace the fuel pump.
Right, sure, you know what you're doing before you just start changing parts. Diagnosed, diagnosed, diagnose cleaning the tank, Jeff,
do you still see issues with that at this point in the game. Is it important?
I think it's very important. I think it's a step
that doesn't get taken in many cases, especially I know you have probably seen those vehicles that have the trunk access to the fuel module unit. In those cases, a
lot of times the tank doesn't get dropped and as a result, doesn't get doesn't get cleaned. And the danger
there is Contamination's one of the biggest causes of fuel pump failure. So if you're not cleaning out your fuel
system or your fuel tank, chances are if you replace the fuel pump, it's going to fail again earlier than it should, or some component is going to go bad because there's contamination in the tank. So an important step.
So the logic there, and I agree that if there was contamination, to take out the first pump, you know what, there's it's not going to do a whole lot of good for the second pump. That's an issue, Jeff. I
appreciate the time, sir. Is there a place the listeners
can go for more information?
Absolutely well we have. We're on Facebook and Twitter and
YouTube at Delfi Auto Parts as well as we have a website Delfi autoparts dot com, or you can access information on Delphi product and service solutions and the fuel product.
We have perfect cool beings. Hey, Jeff, we appreciate you
taking the time, and a big hay from the Car Doctor for all the good that you folks at Delphi do.
We'll talk again real soon. Take good care.
Thank you, appreciate the time.
You're very welcome, sir. I'm running any in the car Doctor.
We are back right after this. Well the standout.
Hey, welcome back.
Why are they any of the car Doctor rolling along?
Let's get over and talk to Let's go talk to Roxanna, Palm Springs, California. Twenty fourteen Nissan CenTra. Hi, Roxanne, how
are you? How can I help you?
Hi?
Hi? Pretty good?
Ron?
Hi?
Yeah, I have a twenty fourteen Nissan CenTra.
Bought it new.
Since about the last two oil changes. The dealers suggested
break fluid change or flush. You know, they say it's
getting dark. Car has twenty five thousand miles now, so
kind of I'm just kind of wondering is it necessary now or it seems rather new to be doing that.
I can tell you the cars used in a business, so it does get some use, right, you know on springs here, Yeah, you know we had summer day heats up to one hundred and seventeen degrees.
But you know what heat heat in your case, it's a dry heat, correct, yes, so you know in your if we're worried about environment, in your case, dry heat is good for the break fluid. It won't you know,
there's not that much moisture for it to absorb, or it's not as prevalent as it would be saying if the car was in New Hampshire of Vermont, you know where there's where there's more moisture and that type of environment.
So bottom line, unless you really your gung ho about buying the service rid lawn furniture, I don't think you really need to change break fluid at this point in the life of the car. You know, at thirty thousand
and I would rather see you stay with your traditional what i'll call the traditional service schedule. If you want
to over medicate the car a little bit and change fluid a little early, do it at thirty. That way,
it's easy to remember. You did it at thirty, you
did it at sixty, you did it at ninety. But
truth be told, if you look at the color of the fluid, I'll be willing to bet the break fluid has still got a nice golden yellow to it. It
hasn't this colored yet, and you can probably go another year.
It's the car's too new. You're absolutely right, you know,
as I've been saying the past couple of weeks, it seems like this is really becoming a problem in the industry, that there's less for dealerships to sell, and this problem is going to work its way down to the aftermarket shops too. In my opinion, the newer cars need less.
They still need common sense maintenance. They just need it.
They don't need it as soon as they once did and twenty fourteen. You know, once the car hits two
and a half years old, then we're going to go to a normal service schedule. Until then, it's you know,
how generous do you want to be? And how good
of care do you want to take care of it?
It's a commercial vehicle, it's probably a business right off, you're going to keep it three to five years and then get rid of it and start over again because it'll have enough miles on it. Maybe you know that's
all you need to do. There's no need. The one
way to do this, you know, heaven forbid. Ron disappeared
next week. You know. One of the things I always
say to everybody, if I weren't here, how would you get information? First stop? Is the owner's manual?
All right?
What is the manufacturer's owner's manual? Say for the vehicle
you're driving. That's not the Bible, but it's a good
place to start. The second step. The second thing you
have to think about is where do you live? What's
the environment? Dirty? Dusty, okay, that's one environment. You know, humid, snow,
a lot of outside element conditions. That's another factor. See
you've got a weigh that as part and parcel of it too. There's no way any manufacturer, I'm building up
to ironism here right roxhand. There's no way any manufacturer
can sell a product in the United States and say they all need this anywhere in the country at this mile is because every situation, every region is different. I
sat down and I thought about it. I mapped out
the country. There's about having different regions of auto repair
around the country in terms of, you know, in Florida it's about air conditioning. In New England it's about you know, heat,
in the Midwest, it's about one thing, and you know, it all varies. So I think what you're running into
is a dealership being a little over zealous. And as
a matter of fact, you're in California. I was talking
about it prior Dave. If you want, go google flush
wallet flushing in California, and you should come up with some articles about the service issues they're seeing in the state with automobiles and you can kind of read that and take the rest from there. All right, sounds good.
Yeah, been more concerned about the transmission and yeah, that's.
Yeah, that's and that's a little early too. I would
tell you at thirty thousand it's air cabin, some fuel system cleaning, and depending upon the trends may be fluid, but it's probably early for all that too. Take a
look at the owner's mount. If you have any more questions,
give me a call back. Hey, five five, five six
zero nine nine zero zero. Run any of the car
doctor back right after this you find that, Hey, welcome back, Barney of the Car Doctor. You know I've got in
front of you. Remember last hour, I think it was
last hour from Bob out in Iowa, the comments about the Kia and I've got the letter from Key and it talks about Kia putting let's see conducting a voluntary service campaign to add additional anti corrosion material to the underbody of all twenty ten, twenty thirteen my Soul vehicles that originally sold the currently register the United States. Blah blahlahlah,
They're gonna put this in.
What will kiya do?
KEYA Dealers will addditional anti corrosion material to the underbody of your vehicle. This work will be performed at Kia
is expense at no cost to you, the vehicle owner.
So why are they charging an eighty dollars a wheel?
Doesn't make any sense. So if you're out there listening,
don just be aware. There's a something rotten in Denmark.
It's called lawn furniture. Let's go over to Paul Stanton, Virginia. Paul, welcome,
to the car doctor, sir, how can I help in my last couple of three minutes?
Here?
Yes, or got a ninety one Bronco and it's full size with the automatic overdrive transmission. And uh when you
when you when you's when it's still cold and I warmed up yet? Uh, and you've got it in gear
at idle you can hear a R and uh it is from the transmission. You know. If you if you
put your head unto the hood, you don't hear it?
Can you can you make that sound one more time?
It's like a er now it sounds like when a uh, when a power cereal pump is well, it's fluid right, and uh, but I checked, I checked those day dipsticks and uh, it's it's right where it should be.
If if you shifted, is this in gear in park when it makes that noise? No?
In gear?
Okay, if you change it and put it in reverse or you know if you're in reverse, if you go to drive, if you go to the go to an opposite gear, does it change anything? If you go to park,
does it change anything?
No, it seems to be the same. Once you've driven
like two miles, you could stop right and let's support and it's gone.
Does it sound like so does it sound like a power steering system that's that's low on fluid per.
Se, That's exactly what it sounds like. Okay, and you
know it's it's not loud, but so it's like at the very beginning.
Higher mileage on the trans itself, Paul, I'm not going to ask the vehicle. It's an older vehicle. I'm sure
it's got miles on how many miles around the unit?
Actually the whole vehicle's only got one hundred ten thousand miles silver aniversary.
Addition, you know, but it's a ninety one. It's so
it's say twenty and it's twenty five years old. You know,
what you could be faced with is some of the internal seals in the trans particularly the front pump. The
rubber's a little dried out and it's not providing as good a hydraulic seal as it once did when it was warm. So perhaps there are seal supplements that you
could purchase local autoparts do or try one of those Lucas makes a great trans additive that you could possibly take a shot at that and see what that does for you. But I probably wouldn't get into it until
it showed me further symptoms, because the cost to replace it might be more than you need to at this particular point. Let me know your thoughts. I'm not an
ending of the car doctor. Mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless.
See you
About this episode
Ron Ananian’s “Car Doctor” focuses on smart, preventive maintenance and avoiding unnecessary dealer upsells. He urges listeners to plan for winter: check oil-change timing, inspect tires and brakes, and don’t wait for emergencies. Calls cover rust prevention on an ’08 Silverado (he prefers products like fluid film and rust-penetrating coatings over traditional undercoating), clutch bleeding on a ’93 Ranger (technique and possible fluid/gear-oil tips), and traction issues on a ’14 Traverse (tire choice and weight/handling considerations). Delphi’s Jeff Dent discusses fuel-system quality, pump/module replacement, and contamination prevention. Other segments debate brake-fluid and transmission service intervals, plus a Kia corrosion campaign and a Bronco transmission noise.
Original notes
Winter Prep, Rustproofing & Cold Weather Fuel Concerns | Classic Car Doctor Wisdom
As winter approaches, Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor, opens the hour with a conversation inspired by a recent call from his mom—who reminds him that now is the time to talk about getting your car ready for cold weather. It sets the tone for an hour full of practical advice that still holds up today.
Ron takes a call on rustproofing options for an ’08 Chevy Silverado beginning to show corrosion, helps a caller sort out stubborn brake bleeding issues on a ’93 Ford Ranger, and talks through traction concerns on a 2012 Chevy Traverse. Then, in a standout interview, Ron welcomes Jeff Dent of Delphi to discuss the value of quality parts, fuel system concerns in cold weather, and why cheap parts can cost more in the long run.
Also in the hour: a brake fluid service question on a 2014 Nissan Sentra, plus a 1999 Bronco with transmission noise that sparks a classic diagnostic discussion.
This episode is a great snapshot of the kinds of car questions drivers were asking years ago—and how much of that advice still matters today. Seasonal maintenance, smart diagnostics, and using quality parts never go out of style.
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