Rust Proofing Your Vehicle, Flushing Transmission Fluid, Impact of Missing an Oil Change

and thanks to the help we get from ASC certified technician Nick Stoffel who

runs a place called Lloyd's Automotive in St. Paul. We're gonna help you keep it

running. Nick, good morning to you and happy New Year. Good morning to you

Denny. Yeah, I've heard that forecast. It looks like you and your crews will be

busy probably plowing a little bit of snow before people bring their vehicles

in come Monday. I think it does look that way and I'm sure the kids will be

happy being off of school for the next week here. They'll enjoy that their white

stuff. Well, it'd be interesting to see if again this forecast comes true

because we just heard there is a winter storm watch goes into effect noon

tomorrow to noon Monday three to seven inches of new snow tomorrow two to four

Sunday night. Obviously affecting Monday morning drive time. So stay tuned to

CCO will keep you informed of that. In the meantime, if you have problems with

your car, your truck, your van and you're going to bring it in for service, but

you kind of want to know what could be ailing. It's always kind of good to get

a little heads up information from Nick. He'll give you a little analysis over

the radio. Now you don't have to be some motorhead or gearhead or mechanic

yourself. If you have any kind of a car care question, we'd love to hear from

you, but we want to hear from you sooner rather than later. Nick takes his leave

about 745 this morning, making way for Ted Ferrell's wine chat. So if you have

any kind of a car care question, call us or text us. Just one number will get you

either a phone call or a text. That number is 6514619226 6514619226. Here we

are Saturday, December 27th, making way for a brand new year coming up and some

questions already. Here's one we get from time to time, not often, because I

don't really hear from it. We used to see commercials ads for, excuse me, rust

proofing and a listener wants to know, is that still around? Is it worth it?

That's a good question, you know, and we've discussed in the past and I think

a lot of those products do a fine job, you know, do your research, you know, ask

friends, neighbors, as always, see if anyone has any experience with it. I also

believe, though, if you on a regular basis, even through the winter months, when

you have a warmer day, run it through the car wash and pay the extra buck or two to

have that undercarriage sprayed down. I think that that does an amazing job

keeping things from that buildup of salt, which will create the rust and all

that. And, you know, I think as vehicles have evolved, if you can remember, you

know, a few years ago that the cars would rust out, it seemed like in a few

years and now it seemed that cars are 15 years old and they still look new.

So if you take care of your car wash it, I think that's probably the best plan.

Even vehicles that are parked outside and have no garage, they're lasting a lot

longer. Yeah, so that's a Bravo to the manufacturers for doing that.

I'm looking at another one here. Oh, yeah, there's something wants to know if

there are still block heaters. If those are still available, the manufacturers

still make them or are there after markets? Tell us what is a block heater?

Are they still around?

Not as common as it used to be. To be honest, my truck, like I've mentioned,

is about a year old and I don't think it even has one. And to be honest, I don't

think it's necessary. You know, I think with the evolution of cars have gotten

better and they figured out fuels and the coolants and, you know, the electrical

systems, they found ways to make it so the cars much more efficient and will

start on the coldest days. And essentially what a block heater did,

there were a couple of different versions. Sometimes there's a core plug,

which is something that heating element that was put into the base of the engine

block or the core where they poured or built that block from. And that heating

element would heat the coolant to keep things from getting too cold. The other

version, which was probably more common, would be a magnetic one. And as cars

have evolved, a lot more of them are built with an aluminum block. And the

magnet won't stick to that. So it's a change in evolved. I don't think it's

necessary. You know, if you have a big truck or, you know, a piece of farm

equipment, obviously it's diesel operated, it's out in the cold weather,

something in that type of situation, you might need some extra power or heat to

get things going a little bit quicker for a passenger vehicle. I don't think

it's necessary at all. I remember we, many years ago, and we had it for years,

was a 1997 Ford Explorer and it had a plug, electrical plug, three prong, you

know, grounded plug coming out of the, by the front bumper in that area, coming

out by the radiator. Now was that kind of a built in block heater? Is that what

that was? That's what that was. And as you mentioned, that vintage, a probably

more helpful, and a lot of vehicles used to have them. You know, if you can think

far enough back, even pickup trucks, they were, you know, they ran off a diesel

would have that netting on the front of the grill to keep the heat in there to

allow things to run properly and keep warmed up. And like I said, with

technology, I think they found ways that that's not necessary. And the cars

seem to start on, you know, well maintained vehicles seem to start on

even the coldest days. And boy, you guys at Lloyd's kept that thing running for

what, 21 years or so? Amazing. I remember the Explorer. Yeah. Well, did you pass

it on to somebody? Is it still on the road? We don't know. I think it may be

somewhere in Mankato. Last I heard. But speaking of that, even the it started

to rust a little bit. But I tried to patch it. So who knows if and when that

thing is still around. But yeah, even after all those years, 21, I had about

106,000 miles on as I recall. But yeah, well, we may find out from from

someone if that vehicle is still around. I'm looking at another text Nick from

a listener saying, Merry Christmas. Thank you. And to you, when doing your

5000 oil chain mile oil changes, is it preferable to do tire rotations as well

or do the rotation every other oil change? What do you guys do with Lloyd's?

You know, I would say that that depends on the vehicle setup, the tire design.

My truck has got these knobby tires on it. So we need to rotate them every oil

change to keep them running smoothly to keep that road noise down. I would say

it's probably more common on most passenger vehicles, you know, the run of the

mill vehicle, it's every other oil change. But I probably want to go much

longer than that because the tires are going to start to wear and you want them

to wear evenly and rotating the tires to different corners of the vehicle help

them last longer because you're wearing different edges of the tires. So to get

the most out of the tires, which have gotten very expensive, performing that

rotation, you know, if it's every oil change or every other oil change will

prolong the life of those tires.

Absolutely. 651-4619-226. We'd love to hear any, any kind of a car care question

you may have, who's on your mind if you drive and have problems, give us a

call or send a text 651-4619-226. This listener sent this text, is the

aluminum F-150 body rust proof? Does that F-4 pickup have an aluminum body?

There are some vehicles that have aluminum panels and it crows differently. It's

not the traditional rust. Obviously, salt will react with the aluminum and

corrode also, but it's much more probably less likely to rust out like you're

thinking of how vehicles used to corrode and rust away. But even at that, the

coatings and the protection that they put in the paint and the panels as they

assemble the vehicles is so much better where, you know, running through the car

wash on a semi-regular basis will do wonders for the longevity of that paint

job and the body of that vehicle. I was talking to my son Tony a couple of

weeks ago about the old Corvettes. I'm not sure about the new ones, I assume

they are sheet metal, but the old ones, were they not fiberglass bodies? Yes, they

were. They've tried a lot of things. You know, if you remember, Saturn, they had

plastic panels on the on the vehicle. So they've tried every product they can

find. And I think that the metal bodies that are, like I said, the

panels are protected much better than they were years ago. So I think they've

kind of figured the trick out to that rust problem. Absolutely. Nick, hang on.

We're going to take a quick break. Let's invite our listeners to join in. Any kind

of a car care question if you wanted to always ask a mechanical question.

Today's your lucky day. 651-4619226. Hey, you can call it in if you want to chat

with Nick or just send a text like other folks are doing. 651-4619226. I want to

reiterate the winter weather advisory. There's a winter storm watch out that is

in effect now for the Twin Cities surrounding area, in effect tomorrow 6th

in the morning until Monday at noon. What are we talking about? We're talking

about during the day tomorrow. There'll be chance of rain. It's going to be really

a mixed bag. But the National Weather Service is saying there's about a 90%

chance this is going to happen. New snow accumulation. This is just during the

day throughout the day tomorrow. Three to seven inches for your Sunday. Sunday

night we could get another two to four inches, obviously affecting Monday

morning drive time. You stay with us here and CCO will keep you posted on these

ever-changing conditions. Again, a winter weather outlook, the winter storm watch

not a warning yet, but a watch in effect December 28th, 6 a.m. until the 29th at

noon. Right now we're 32 heading for 42 on Newstalk 830. This is WCCO and we're

back. It is a Saturday morning on CCO when we talk cars, trucks, vans, problems

you may be having with yours. Nick Stoffel from Lloyd's Automotive at St. Paul

answering those questions. It's 651-4619226. Nick, again we always like

to have you give us more information and folks may be needing the help at

Lloyd's. How do we find you? Absolutely. If you ever have a question as we always

say, you don't have to bring it to us, but we can always help you prepare for

that visit to your dealership or shop and you can reach us at 651-228-1316. If

you happen to be in St. Paul doing maybe a little post-Christmas shopping or

getting a bite to eat, we're at 982 grand. It's on the corner of Grand and

Chatsworth to Black's east of Lexington Parkway and if you need more

information you can always look at our website which is LloydsAutomotive.net.

Very good Nick. We'll get you that information before Nick takes his leave

which is about 7.45 this morning. So if you have a car care question any kind

let's hear from you sooner rather than later 651-4619226. This comes from

Jeff and Maple Grove. Is it still necessary to change and flush the

transmission fluid every 50,000 miles? It's a real pain to do so on the

Volkswagen iDrive. I don't know how many folks are able to do that themselves, but

what do you think? Is it necessary? We talked about flushing transmission fluid

once in a while here. What do you think? We do and you know as I'm going to say

check the maintenance and in your manual kind of have an interval that they're

looking for you to perform a service and the transmission fluid services has

evolved as we've mentioned before. You know it used to be if you go back years

ago you'd pull the pan down take out the filter you'd end up replacing maybe a

third of the fluid with that process and then we started doing flushes which

would exchange all the fluid and now that I guess most commonly now it's a

drain infill where there's a drain plug just like your engine that the

fluid will drain out and there's a procedure or process to refill it and I

think that's what the text is referring to because some of them are a little

complex. Temperature can be sensitive having the right tooling a lot of times

even they have any physical access yet they have it up in there so if you have

the capabilities by all means I appreciate it I think it's great that

you're doing those tasks but for most of us you probably need to bring it into

the shop or they can get it up in there and do it do it properly make sure you

get that fluid back in the right spot in the right amount because the last we

want to do is run a transmission low on fluid because that could create bigger

problems for you. You mentioned temperature and I was watching a

video of I can't remember what vehicle but it was they were talking about it

must at least in this case was had to be like between 195 and 200 or something

pretty precise I'm not sure why but how do you how do your crews know if you're

just flushing it and filling it how do you know you're putting the right

amount in there's no dipstick right? Oftentimes there's not a dipstick we

first check to see how much that comes out right you know and if there was any

signs of leaking you know because some is coming in for a service we want to

make sure we do you know the full the full inspection so if we see any

signs of leaking from any seals or joints or anything we're gonna document

that and then when we remove the fluid we're gonna kind of collect it and

determine the level that was in there. Now obviously we have resources that give us

quantities and fluid types because that's the other the other piece of this

puzzle is that transmission fluids I can't tell you how many we have up on the

shelf upstairs but it's it's a growing number I can promise you that it's not

like where there was just one or two and there's a probably couple dozen

different varieties depending on the making model so and the reason why

temperature becomes in place some of them are at a certain temp and as that

fluid heats up it starts to expand which can change the level of the fluid so

you have to make make sure you read that procedure correctly and take your time

when you're performing that task. That's why we leave it up to your crew to check

on their computer right you you'll have whatever the manufacturer recommends

it'll be right there in your computer. Yeah you know quantity fluid type and

even the procedure because you know you know they as soon as they figure out a

really easy way to do something they say this is too easy we need to make it

more complicated so let's let's change how you refill that transmission.

Again I was going to comment I saw something on the internet of course we

all know that it's always true what you see in the internet. This had to do with

the BMW and again this may have been a joke there was a picture of a it could

have been a bolt or maybe a screw whatever it was it was just a piece of

hardware that this thing on Facebook said BMW and is moving toward certain

hardware that the do-it-yourself or can't do it's you need a special tool for

so those people who are really good do-it-yourselfers would not be able to

do it they'd have to bring it in for service I don't know if that's true or

not. Well there are some tamper proof type hardware that will take a certain

inverted torques but you can still get the tool they're available there's not

the common tools that most of us have in our little handy toolbox at home and I

think for part of the reasons of safety liability you know you know like once

again if you have the tooling and the resources I think it's great that people

repair their own stuff whether it's a vehicle or their dishwasher or whatever

it may be I think it's great that we use our minds and hands together yeah but

if you don't have the know-how and you go down go down that rabbit hole you

oftentimes can make things more complicated more expensive for yourself

right we were talking about block heaters earlier in the show and this

listener said I came from rich in St. Paul I had an inline heater that was in

one of the coolant lines love the show thanks rich have you heard of that one

there were you know the heater hoses used to also add those flushing tees if you

remember and you know same thing I think if you went back a couple decades it

was a product and an item that helped us get the cars on the coldest days

especially when they were carbureted you needed every and a little luck to I

would say some starting fluid a screwdriver block heater you know you

name it to get those cars running years ago was a little more of a dance but now

with the fuel injection systems and the way cars are designed like I said on the

coldest of days if your vehicle is maintained properly it's going to start

up yeah let us grab a phone call this morning Nick Jim checking in from my

aisle I believe this morning Jim thank you what is your question for Nick well

good morning happy new year Danny I have a question I'm 85 years old and for the

last 50 years someone told me back way back when when you're warm up your

engine to put it in neutral put the automatic transmission in neutral that

warms up to transmission now I've been doing that with my new vehicle which it

doesn't even have a shift lever it's just got a dial now does that still make

sense or is that just a fallacy no I think years ago that the transmission

fluid didn't circulate everywhere until it was in neutral or whatever it was

reversed that you know until a certain temperature then once things warmed up it

would circulate through the rest of the unit there and even at that time I don't

think it was ever really necessary because the idea is it's like that kind

like a thermostat on your engine that thermostats can stay closed until the

engine warms up once the engine is up to running temp it'll open and circulate

through the radiator and the rest of the cooling system the transmission was

kind of doing the same thing so I don't I don't think it was ever really

necessary you know people had their own their own their own steps and procedures

which is fine but I even on today's vehicle you definitely don't need to do

that I think you start the vehicle I think within a few moments the car is

satisfied to get going it's more to our comfort to make sure we got our windows

cleared and a little bit of warmth in the vehicle before he had down the road very

good thank you Jim happy new year to you thanks for the call keep in mind that

Nick will be with us for right about now maybe another 15 minutes 13 14 minutes

so don't hesitate give us a call send a text any kind of a car care question we

welcome your 651 4619 226 Jim had mentioned and you had mentioned brother

thermostats and we had a text that came in earlier about thermostats are they

are they still change regularly or like they used to many years ago what's the

story on thermostats do they just last forever well I think they kind of fall

in line with the everything we've kind of touched on here that I think the way

they're designed and manufactured is much better we still replace them they

still people will come in with an overheating situation or a poor a poor

heat type situation where that thermostats bypassing but I think you know

with it with the changing the coolant itself you know we should change our

antifreeze every other year now they'll go 100,000 miles so I would say as

things have evolved most all items have gotten better in thermostat included so

I don't think it's something that would be on a regular interval or scheduled to

replace it's more of on a and I need base as something were to fail that makes

sense hang on Nick we'll take a break we're gonna look at that important

forecast stay with us and again you can give Nick a call with any car care

question that's on your mind 651 4619 226 either a phone call or a text from

news talk 830 this is WCCO and welcome back CCO's car care show we're around

thanks to Nick Stoffel from Lloyd's Automotive every Saturday right after

the 7 o'clock news break answering any kind of a car care question you may have

just call us or text us 651 4619 226 here is another text for you Nick

2023 GMC Yukon XL that recurrently goes into something called limp mode in cold

weather only always appears to occur at freezing temperatures it is characterized

by loss of power steering power brakes with a maximum speed limit of 43

miles per hour any idea what causes this well usually if there's something with

one of the safety the throttle something with a braking system if there's a

reason why the computer system would be concerned about our safety it will go

into a limp and mode is the easiest way to describe it typically though if it

goes in a limp and mode finding that reason or the source is pretty

straightforward you know we'll connect our scan tool record a bunch of data

figure out from that data or the codes what part of the vehicle we need to

assess you know from there kind of break it down and figure out what happened

but they've limp in modes been around for a while a lot of times related to the

throttle the lesson they want is the vehicle accelerating what it shouldn't

be so they sense one of those sensors or switches is not working properly the

car kind of locked itself down to keep us safe and still able to move but not

you know how we would like so you got to get that in to the shop to figure out

what had happened and how to get it repaired very good comes from Dave

north folks thanks Dave I love your show texture says I own a 1993 Chevy Cavalier

wagon well very rare I have to add coolant every so often no physical

leaks so I assume the head gasket has the leak is it being burned off in

combustion to think that that would be my suspicion I would take a look at the

coolant maybe test it oftentimes if coolant is getting into the combustion

chamber exhaust is getting out and that's the case that coolant might need

some new servicing cleaned out and such it's an older vehicle depending the

amount and the quantity kind of based on the recommendation there if it's still

operating fine you're getting good heat good power we're doing that we're

replacing the cylinder head gasket a machine in the head can be quite costly

obviously the vehicle is a little bit older not sure if the cost is worth the

return on investment I guess you could say so I would I do a little more

research check the coolant I think if you have flushed it out keep it full by

yourself some more time and hopefully you don't have to go down the road of

replacing that looking another by the way Nick will be here for another few

minutes or so and we still have time for yours we have a couple of texts to get

through in the meantime 2024 Buick 9500 miles on it texture says I had an oil

change of 5000 miles when do I need to get the next change well I probably

there's a candidate to read the manual right absolutely and you know each

manufacturer has their own recommendation personally you know I've done this my

whole my whole life pretty much I think 5000 miles on a synthetic oil is the

right interval I think at that point the vehicle gets a good check over you get a

new clean filter good clean oil in that engine and I think with the type of

mechanical repairs that we are doing these days I think an oil change on a

regular basis will help minimize or prevent some of those mechanical failure

so I feel pretty strongly about five miles obviously read your owner's manual

talk with your shop your dealership take their recommendation consideration

but I think if you do a little homework you'll get the answer that you need I've

probably asked you this before Nick but in your experience you've been at Lloyd's

a long time what have you seen as far as people maybe never changing their oil

in X amount of miles what have you seen once you you tried to change that

whatever's left we've seen it we've seen where people never ever changed oil and

then their engine stopped ran out of oil that's an extreme case but I think more

commonly what we see is we're busy and we forget and then we're a month late two

months late you know we go a couple thousand miles over you know doing that

one time isn't the end of the world but that's part of the normal practice when

there's a issue or a problem we see excessive wear and camshafts we see

rocker arms push rods we see oil sludge you know a lot of these smaller engines

have smaller turbos and those ports that use the oil to lubricate it are very

small they get filled with sludge and crud oil can't flow through and lubricate

it and then we have component failure and that's what I'm referring to is that

these are very expensive repairs and just doing that oil change on a regular

basis saves yourself a lot of headache a lot of money and it gets the car into

the shop they can prevent other failures you know maintenance is a lot more

reasonable than a repair because when you have the repair you still have to do

the maintenance in addition to that repair so try to avoid that piece of it

just take care of your vehicle like we we talk about every week to be honest and

I was thinking of all the maintenance so we can not do ourselves but but have done

would you say that an oil change or regular oil change whether you're

using you know most places are all new cars have the synthetic right there's

no yeah for the vast majority is a synthetic oil though the weights keep

changing as you know you go far enough back you know years in straight weight

and then 1040 and 530 and 1030 and now we're down to 016 in some some

manufacturers so just yeah doing the oil change because the oil change itself the

new filter are just probably the biggest thing you can do for your vehicle but in

addition to that the car is getting looked at it's up in the air we're

checking out the front end with the steering the suspension making sure

there's no worn parts your brakes your tires all these things that keep us safe

on the road get a good look at when that happens it helps you know what the

condition of your vehicle if you're headed on a long road trip you want to

know if you're gonna make it there not not get stranded somewhere yeah it makes

sense texture says I drive a BMW X5 that has larger size tires in the rear than

on the front do I still need to rotate the tires but just from side to side you

can yet them check to see if the directional also because in some cases

when they have two different size front and rear wheels sometimes those tires

are directional which means that they're on that corner meaning if you move it

from left to right it's gonna be going the wrong direction so you know rotating

your tires is an important piece to I think maintenance but in some situations

like that vehicle and some other other sportier vehicles out there that'll

have different size front and rear tires you have to keep in mind that you

can't necessarily rotate those other than side to side as long as they're not

directional tires yeah that's a whole different animal one more here any

recommendations texture says on products to add to gas as an injector cleaner

there's a lot of products out there and I think that they're fine but I'm not you

know here's why this is what I know factually you cannot fix a car from a

can meaning if there's some sort of problem that problem has to be resolved

now can you add some of these products as maintenance for sure you can and do

they help I'm sure they do but if you have a known problem or a failure once

it's that point like if you have a fuel injector that's leaking or failed that

can of products not gonna fix that fuel injector if your fuel pump is going out

I mean those types of things there just failed components now keeping things from

sludging up and gumming up I think those products can definitely help you'll

have to figure out if it's worth the cost to you you know there's a trade off

there also some of them are quite expensive so just do your research you

know you know careful reading what you see online as you mentioned earlier but

talk to your friends your mechanic see what people have done in the past that

they have a common a common product that they like to keep that thing running on

the road I you know it's worth a try I guess very good I want to alert our

listener listeners Nick that those that we didn't get to and if you add to them

via text I'll save those and we'll open up the show with those next week that

we didn't get to so thanks for your patience Nick for those that again need

help from Lloyd's on a motive tell us how we find you guys yes sir if you have a

question before you take it into your shop or dealership we can absolutely help

you with those questions you can reach us at 651-228-1316 if you need to stop

and say hi we'll have you anytime we're at 982 Grand Avenue in St. Paul which is

two blocks east of Lexington Parkway and if you need more information you can

always find that on our website which is Lloyd's automotive.net some of the

nicest most knowledgeable people you will ever meet right there at Lloyd's

Nick thank you so much happy new year to you and your family and all the good

crew at Lloyd's let's do this again next week in the new year that sounds good

Danny you have a good safe new year and as all of our listeners too very good

thank you Nick next awful from Lloyd's automotive

Rust Proofing Your Vehicle, Flushing Transmission Fluid, Impact of Missing an Oil Change

About this episode

rust proofing

undercarriage

block heater

coolant

diesel operated

Ford Explorer

miles

oil change

tire rotation

Ford F150

aluminum body

Chevrolet Corvettes

fiberglass

transmission fluid

fluid flush

drain and fill

dipstick

Volkswagen Rabbit

carbureted

fuel injection systems

automatic transmission

thermostat

GMC Yukon

limp mode

Chevy Cavalier

head gasket

synthetic oil

camshaft

oil sludge

BMW X5

fuel injector

fuel pump

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