What does the Coconut Grove fire have to do with a car show, click to find out.

WATD presents John Paul, The Car Doctor, All Things Automotive.

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Call or text 7-8-1-837-4900.

Now, here's John Paul, The Car Doctor.

And good Sunday morning, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Car Doctor

program on this Sunday morning.

Hopefully you adjusted your clocks, fell back, or fall back, or whatever the proper expression

is, so you're all set and listening to the program.

Today we have a great program planned for today, and a little bit about my ride here.

I left Massachusetts on Tuesday and drove down to Florida, which is always an adventure.

We'll talk about the adventure a little bit later.

And talk about some of the things I did, you know, prepping the car, prepping the car I

left up there.

We have an old $1,000 Volkswagen that we kind of put away for the wintertime.

We'll talk about how we did that.

And of course, we want to hear from you.

And the phone number to call in is like Rob Hackal had just said, 7-8-1-837-4900.

But right now we have Paul Jovino, also known as Paul from Braintree, on the

phone with us.

Paul has done something that many people have never done, and he has written a second

book, which Paul, that is two more books than I have ever read, I think.

Yeah, it's a task that's enjoyable.

As I always say, writing is easy, publishing is hard.

But it is what it is, and this day, and thank God for Amazon that really helps

us to, if you don't have a literary agent or a publisher yet, it's a way to kind of

bypass the system.

And thanks to people like you, John, who allow me to get on.

You know, it's, well, the book involves some automobiles.

So there is a tie-in to this.

Well, let's first off, let's give people a little background about you.

You were in the radio business for quite a long time, right?

Yeah, I was, in the radio, I was Jerry Williams, executive producer when he came back to

Boston at WRKO.

I guess that's my next book on that and the experience that I had with that.

And for a short time, I had my own talk show and realized that I enjoyed putting

someone else's work together and letting them do it.

I feel like you make it look easy.

It's a difficult job.

Imagine having to talk for four hours without stopping.

I mean, it's, anyway, it's, so I did that.

And when I retired, I always wanted to write and, you know, just some life

got in the way and, and I never did it.

And the first book, my first book was not autobiographical, but it was growing

up in the era, in the era of the death of JFK and the Vietnam War that followed

that and, and how that really changed society.

It's called Portals.

It's also on Amazon.

But the second book is, is also has a personal tie to me.

Um, it's called The Man from Swan Lake, Hero of the Coconut Grove Fire.

And it's about a survivor of the coconut grove named Clifford Johnson.

Um, I should I do it just a quick, quick background on, on a row fire.

Happened, uh, 43 years ago and about two, excuse me, 83 years ago on,

on November 28th, 1942, the most popular nightclub in Boston was

in the Bay Village section of Boston on Piedmont Street.

And it was the night after the BC Holy Cross game, BC lost by great numbers.

So they said there were fewer people from the Boston area and more

from the Worcester area who were there, but a great number of people

from this year were there.

And sadly, 490 people died in that fire.

Uh, the man who owned it eventually went to jail.

Um, there's a great documentary called Six Walked Doors.

And the owner had walked all the doors so you couldn't leave without paying.

It was only one revolving door.

And that's where a lot of people died piled up against that.

And many people died, uh, not of the fire, but of execiation from fumes

over the, the flames and all, but there was one survivor named Clifford Johnson.

It was a 21 year old Coast Guardsman on leave.

He was in the Coast Guard station here in Boston.

He was from some, the Missouri of all places.

And, um, he took his date to the coconut grove, uh, just as the

fire broke out and he did escape.

He went back in several times, thinking she was still there trying to rescue

her and receive burns over 47% of his body ended up at Boston City Hospital,

which had, because Pearl Harbor was less than the year before.

But proceeded our entry into World War two.

So they set up a burn unit expecting that they were going to be treating

soldiers who were burned in the wall.

Little did they know that the first trial for this would be for a fire

in their backyard, basically.

And one of the patients who they treated was this Clifford Clifford Johnson.

And I grew up knowing, knowing the story.

My late dad was a resident of house physician at Boston City Hospital.

When the fire happens happened before I was born.

And Clifford Johnson was one of his patients.

And I grew up knowing the story, uh, because, you know, sitting at the

dining table, I heard my dad tell the story.

And actually when I was about four or five, he brought him to a house

who lived in Quincy at the time.

He brought him to the house and, um, I had a chance to meet him.

Everybody said he sort of looked like, uh, Charles Lucky Lindbergh,

the aviator of the 20s.

Uh, so I guess everybody, you know, every, every nurse wanted to date him.

And every guy who was like the younger brother, a matter of fact,

he ended up marrying this woman, one of his nurses, a young

woman named Marion Dunovan.

And they moved back when he was healed.

They moved back to Sumner, Missouri.

And he became a game warden at the largest, uh, swanning geese preserve

in the country called Audemars Swann Lake.

Oh, okay.

And that's where the rest of his life played out.

And it ended up rather tragically for him, uh, in 1956.

Uh, I won't tell the whole story, but he, uh, attempted to rescue

a swan at, at that time and, uh, and was frozen, the swan was frozen in the lake.

And he, uh, he, uh, was so endeared with swans that one of the nurses

who actually took care of him, when he told the story, she compared him

to Prince Siegfried and the Tchaikovsky, uh, Ballet Swan Lake.

So his, his life plays out if people ever study or see.

Excuse me, Swan Lake, Prince Siegfried, um, fell in love with his Princess Odette.

And because of some evil sorcerer in the, in the ballet, she was turned

into a swan by day and, uh, um, and, and he'd, in his attempt to rescue

this Princess Odette, uh, from Swan Lake, they both died.

And, uh, so, and that frees them from the curse.

But, uh, it's what's kind of interesting going back to, um, what

Boston City Hospital did.

They were experimenting on him and all the other burn patients.

Tennessee had just come in, um, and the war department, which was

actually then called the war department, uh, gave Boston City

Hospital and Mass General as much penicillin as they could use.

And a few other medical, um, breakthroughs had, had occurred.

The ability to break down blood into its different particles and, and, uh, and

plasma, um, something I learned, you would think when you, when you

receive a burn, maybe that would kill all the germs.

It's the exact reverse.

It exposes body to great number of all these elements.

And the skin graft was only, was probably the only way they

could save his life.

But, uh, getting, getting to an automobile part of it, um, we've

all heard of a Jeep, well, back in World War two, Dodge had put

out something called a beep, like sound of a horn.

And, um, apparently that was used.

And my main character rescues, uh, Clifford Johnson in his beep, the

main characters, uh, I mean, Cormac, Firm Oil, and he happens to

be working in civil defense for the war effort.

And he finds himself at the door of the coconut

grow fire on the night that it happened and he rescues them.

He puts them in this, this beep, which I guess, uh, flatbed

truck or Jeep, I've looked it up.

It, um, whether Dodge made it for World War two or not.

Um, I don't know, but, uh, so eventually this main character

becomes, uh, a doctor and he ends up working, documenting,

documenting the, the, uh, treatment that this Clifford

Johnson is getting, um, some of the interesting too, uh,

I didn't know it.

New York never had, uh, a station wagon until about 1940.

It was a producer in California.

His wife knew the general manager of the general motors and, uh,

the car designer at the time, um, famous car designer whose

name escapes me right at the moment, who, um, was with him.

So on the train back to, to Detroit, they designed, designed

what turned out to be the 1940 Buick estate wagon, which is

interesting in itself.

When it was, when it came off the production line, they

delivered the very first 1940 Buick estate wagon to where to

the coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles.

There's an odd tie in to that.

And, and I have it that, um, um, the game preserver through the

estate actually buys that wagon and ends up in some of the

Missouri, but, um, the other cars that show up a lot of

Packard's, um, this car, uh, a firm oil character, Cormac

firm oil, the main character in the book, um, when he becomes a

doctor, his, his goal was to buy a Packard.

So we now find ourselves in 1956 and he purchased the brand

new packet Caribbean or Caribbean, I guess, and what

you, what you call it.

And, um, so the, um, uh, that was an interesting

automobile in and of itself.

It had reversible front seats, so they would wear evenly.

It was, it was a lot of gas for, for, for Packard.

Um, and I think I, and I'm, and I'm thinking the designer might

have been Harley Earl.

You were thinking Harley Earl.

Exactly.

That's what we want.

Oh, and, uh, he delivered this, this, this, uh, 1940

Buick to the coconut Grove in Los Angeles and, um, to

the great work of fiction, it is now in Missouri.

Um, and that's part of, part of the story.

Yeah.

And I, and I seem to remember, I remember when I was a kid, my

father talking about the coconut Grove fire and how because

of that fire and the tragedy, it required all buildings,

commercial buildings to have doors that opened outward

rather than inward.

That's right.

And you'll never find a revolving door that doesn't have two

other doors on either side.

Yeah.

That was part of it.

Uh, the exit signs that you see that are always illuminated.

They have this separate, um, um, uh, lateral connection.

Yeah.

That came out of the coconut Grove fire and there was

some thought because World War two had started that it was

an attack by, by Germany.

It, and, uh, it wasn't.

And the other thought was that a bus boy lit a match to, uh,

change a light bulb in the nightclub and that ignited one

of the palm trees.

That's not the true story.

Apparently what happened, I didn't realize they had air

conditioning back in the day, but they did.

And, uh, to save money, the owner of, um, the coconut

Grove here in Boston used a cheaper form of freon, which

was very flammable and he had also cut corners on the

wiring in the building, but leaking freon and, and sparks

from this wiring and the fire started in the ceiling of

what was called the melody lounge.

If you have a look at the schematic drawing of the

coconut Grove, you would probably never go there.

I mean, it was one twist and one turn after the other, this

melody, uh, lounge was at the very basement of, of this

building and there was only one, one stair out and again, all

the windows were blocked.

So you're right.

Your dad was right.

I mean, all the good things that came out of it, safety

precautions and the new medical discoveries, what they do for

burns today came out of that tragic fire.

The, that was the foundation for treating burns.

And, um, it, it saved, I don't know how many thousands of

lives.

Um, again, this, this Kuffa, Johnson, um, was able to

literally walk out of, uh, Boston city hospital after

spending just about a year on his stomach and the first

skin grass they did fail, they had to do it all over

again.

Um, and you probably needed the stamina of a 21 year old to go

through this, um, his, his body weight went from 160 to about

a hundred pounds.

The burns just, just drained all the protein from his body.

It's really tragic, but it's, it's a miracle of what the

doctors did.

And, and that's more of the focus of my book is the, the

great medical miracles that came out of it and saving,

knowing this close with Johnson's life, but everybody

who went and anybody who was a patient at Boston city

survived and I guess to a degree mass general.

And for some reason, maybe even because Boston city was

closer than mass general, the greater number of patients

from that fire went to Boston city and not mass

general, uh, although they did both did great things.

Um, and, um, there's a mental health building in Boston

called the Eric Lindemann center.

He was a psychiatrist at mass general at the time.

And, uh, he made a study of, of, of survivors of the

coconut grove and how those meant the people would

survive, survive mentally, what they went through.

And so a lot of positive things came out of it, just

horrendous tragedy, uh, the coconut grove and they, every

year on honor, about November 28th, they have a

memorial service.

The coconut grove was, was located on Piedmont street,

which is in the Bay Village section of Boston.

They've changed a lot of configurations of the street

and the actual footprint of where the nightclub was, is

now a condominium.

And they, uh, first put a plaque on the sidewalk in

front of the condominium and the people who lived there

were upset because there was attracting too much attention.

So the city had to remove it.

And now there's a little street named coconut grove

lane, I believe, but by this spring, there's going to be a

permanent monument and what they call the Statler triangle,

which is right behind the Park Plaza, which used to be the

Statler Hotel, which will be a permanent memorial to the

coconut grove, um, to the survivors, uh, to the Boston

fire department that just did a marvelous job.

Uh, you know, this is the war and they, they, they

were shorthanded everywhere.

So it's, it's a remarkable story.

Um, you know, and I, I touched on a lot of bases, I think.

Um, no, it does, it sounds, it sounds real interesting and for

people that maybe don't know as much about it or, you know,

maybe kind of go, that was a long time ago.

It's also sort of a little bit reminiscent of the, um, night

club fire that was in Rhode Island back some years ago, where,

yeah, where, um, and, and did you know Don LaTulop?

Sure.

Yeah.

And his, yeah, and his son Dale, uh, unfortunately died in,

in, in that nightclub fire.

And it was sort of the, it was sort of the same thing.

It was, they put up like mattress foam for sound deadening

that caught fire.

And it was, it was just a variety of bad decisions,

including lock doors and things like that.

Because the place was overcrowded.

They sold way too many tickets.

They, they did the same thing here.

Um, they had a limit of maybe 400 or there were probably a

thousand people in the night club that night.

So, I mean, that's, you know, and a lot of politicians were

bought off to be very blunt, you know, and that happened

to Boston too.

I mean, and that was the, they turned the other way and,

um, tragedy sometimes happens.

Yeah.

No.

But yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not done.

Yeah.

No.

If people, if people want to find out more information

about the book, how to find the book, where, where to

learn more about it?

Um, what do they do?

Well, basically right now, if you go to Amazon, uh, the

book is on Amazon, both as a Kindle, which is online.

Yeah.

Or a paperback.

Uh, the good thing about Kindle, I think they let you

read the first four or five chapters for free.

Oh, okay.

Uh, then if you like it, you can buy the book there.

And hopefully in the few weeks, it will also be

available at Barnes & Noble.

Um, that's a longer story from another show, but, uh,

Barnes & Noble hopefully will be carrying it as well.

So, um, you know, I hope people gather some new

information, perhaps about this part of Boston that

took place 83 years ago.

But, uh, what came out of it has, is, is saving lives

today.

And I think that is an important thing to take

away from this.

Yeah.

And, uh, have you ever considered either of your

books becoming audio books?

I haven't done that yet.

There's an awesome possibility to do that.

Um, I said, I'm waiting for Steven Spielberg to

call me to make a movie out of it.

But that didn't happen either.

That would be the ultimate audio book for me.

But, uh, anybody knows Steven Spielberg?

Well, well, I, I, I will let you know.

And I, and I don't know the person particularly

well, but, um, there's somebody I know, he, he

started writing books when he was in college and

he wrote a book about the rise and fall of the

Beanie Baby fortune, which everybody kind of thought

was kind of silly.

But, you know, Beanie Baby sold for a few

dollars and then went for thousands of dollars

and they went back to a few dollars again.

But, uh, Apple reached out to him and said,

we want to make a movie about your book and, uh, things.

So you never know.

You never, you know, you could, you could be

getting, you could be getting a call from Apple

productions that they want to, they want to

write a, uh, write a book, uh, write, uh, do a

movie about your book.

Well, oddly enough, you know, and, um, Paul

Benzeklin, the late Paul Benzeklin wrote the

definitive book, uh, almost like all the

newspaper articles called Holocaust.

Um, and in my research, I even, um, Boston, um,

Medical Center now, Boston, uh, Boston City

Hospital put out, uh, an anniversary book of

100 plus years of, of, uh, Boston City

Hospital and it's, you could hardly find any

mention of all the great work they did

during the coconut grow fire era.

I mean, it, and so it's almost, it's almost

lost and that's hopefully my book can bring that

back just, uh, to remind people of the great

medical discoveries that occurred then.

Um, and so it doesn't get lost yet.

We have to concentrate on the tragedy of the

fire, but on the other side, all the medical

miracles that came out of it, that should be

what people walk away with, I hope.

Well, I, I see Donnie Wahlberg as a star.

So yeah, I could see Donnie Wahlberg.

I mean, he's doing Boston, Boston blue.

Yeah.

He's got some free time.

Exactly.

But, uh, so, well, well, congratulations on the

book.

Yeah.

Congratulations on the book and, uh, and, you

know, um, uh, like just, just before you

came on, uh, previously they did a little

wrap-up show and there was a, uh, a guy working

on his 20th book.

So you never know, Paul.

I could do that.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, maybe the next one will be about, uh, being

an executive producer of a radio show.

I think, I think there's a, I think there's

a lot to be said there.

Paul, as always, thanks for, uh, calling

in and, uh, being, uh, and being, uh, you

know, uh, part of the Cardocta radio

families.

Well, thank you.

And, uh, people, I should thank you.

You saved my old car.

I don't know how many times.

And, uh, so it's still working.

Actually, I'm sitting in it right now and, uh, at

126,407 miles, it's still traveling along.

And then it's a minus to six.

So I'm happy with it.

All right.

Thanks, Paul.

Thank you.

Talk to you later.

All right.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

So, uh, check out Paul Jovino at, uh, on

Amazon, uh, soon to be Barnes and Noble.

Uh, check out his two books.

This one sounds pretty fascinating.

There's a little bit of car stuff in there, but

you know, he's, he's been a long time listener to

the radio program, uh, former radio guy.

And when I heard he was doing a new book, I said,

you know what, you got to call into the show

because I don't talk to many authors.

Well, I mean, I shouldn't say that.

I guess I've talked to some authors who

write car books, but still the idea of having

one of our local, uh, listeners, part of

their family here joining us on the program

to talk about something they've done.

Writing a book is a big deal and, uh, and

it's a big job to do it.

So congratulations.

Paul, we're doing that.

We need to take a break, pay some bills.

If you would like to join us and talk

about, I don't know, your favorite book.

You can give us a call at 781-837-4900.

Maybe you have a favorite car book.

When we come back, I have a few things

to talk about, um, including the ride

from, uh, Massachusetts to Florida.

A dash cam someone sent me, which looks

really interesting and some of the

experiences on the road that are worth

talking about.

You'll listen to the car doctor program

on 959-WATD.

Again, the phone number 781-837-4900.

Phone lines are open.

If you'd like to join us, talk about

your car, some car problems, car repair

issues, give us a call.

It's 781-837-4900.

We'll be right back.

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Hi, this is Liz Lones.

Tune in to Twilight Showcase Radio

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Visit twilightshowcase.org.

Twilight Showcase tonight

from 8 to 10 on 959-WATD.

Make an appointment Sunday morning

at 11 for John Paul, the car

doctor on 959-WATD.

Now back to the car doctor.

And welcome back to the car doctor

program on 959-WATD.

My name is John Paul, the car doctor

here to help you with your car

problems, car questions, whatever's

on your mind.

If you want to join us, 7-8-1-8-3-7-4-9-

100, let's talk to speaking of

radio family.

Let's talk to Ken from Topsfield.

Good morning, Ken.

Good morning, John Paul.

Before I ask you for some

assistance with my car problem,

I got to tell you that previous

menu interview and head on was

just outstanding.

Well, thank you.

Just great.

It had, I learned a little bit

about cars, but I got a

re-evaluation.

It was a tragic thing.

I was before my time, but I

was aware of it and boy,

almost 500 people died

terrible.

But what advances and it was

a great interview.

So it blended with your program

terrifically.

I appreciate that.

Now, I have a 2001 BMW Z3

Roadster and it has

45,000 miles.

And in June, the DSC code came

on with his dynamic stability

control something.

BMWs have this.

And I took it to my

independent man and he said

because it was 01, he didn't

have the scanning thing.

So he recommended

somebody in Newberry Mass who

was teachers this and was an

old timer that had all the

diagnostics from time and

memorial when codes came out

and you could check things.

Took it up to them in their

first grade outfit, never done

business.

And they had the car for a

few days and they evaluated

it and and it said, you

know, quotes about the codes

that were stored.

Mm hmm.

They finally came after much

diagnostic.

They reset the your rate

acceleration sensor, zero

point calibration that caused

something.

They replaced the your rate

sensor and they also

replaced your part acceleration

sensor.

And and it was fine.

And then I was driving at

home and it came on again.

I took it back and I left it

for another week because they

have a diagnostic guy, a

specialist that comes in on

you know, work certain days.

Yeah. Long story short, it

did it again. It went away

and it was away for six,

eight, ten weeks.

I don't do a lot of driving.

And it came in again

months and a half ago and

we've been away.

So I've got an appointment

next week because they told

me and they were very good.

They said, we stand behind

what we do.

And I appreciate that,

especially when you spend in

over a thousand dollars.

Oh, sure. Yeah.

So it's going back

and it went away.

When I turn the car off,

it will go away, but it

usually comes back on.

Yesterday, I drove the car

for maybe 30 miles.

It has not come on again.

But my confidence level is

gone because it isn't.

I don't think it's something

that when it generally

it shouldn't come on

unless there's a problem

or there's a thing with

just hearing and an

emergency.

Yeah, I mean, I mean,

what for people that don't

know what Dynamic Stability

Control does, it basically

makes you a better driver

because if you're starting

to go into a skid, it will

apply brakes.

It looks at

G forces almost

that your sensor, you know,

people probably wonder, you

know, maybe somebody heard

that, you know, airplanes

have your sensors so you

know which direction they're

going in. Kind of does

the same thing.

So what it does is it

looks at kind of lateral

forces as your car is

turning and then can adjust

things, everything from

timing to break

input to try to keep the car

going straight.

So when the Dynamic Stability

Control is on and you

probably wouldn't drive a Z3

in the winter, but it

becomes a much easier

car to drive because it

doesn't tend to want to

skid. So that, you know,

can you drive the car with

that acting up? Sure you

can, but does it drive

better because of it?

And one of the

one of the issues and I

don't know, maybe issue isn't

the right word, but you

know, this this car uses

like many cars today use

a computer bus network to

hook all these different

modules together. And it

could be an issue in

the bus somewhere that's

causing it to act up.

You know, it's

module, maybe, but

probably not, probably more

of a, you know, it

could be it could be a

ABS break issue, you know,

and it's going to take

unfortunately, these things

take some time to make

sure that, you know,

this, all the different

parts of this, you know,

get checked out to figure

out what it is. So, you

know, can you drive it

with the light on? Sure you

can. Is, you know, is,

you know, how do you fix

it? Well, so it's, it

takes, it takes time to

figure out what worked

and what didn't. And, you

know, is, you know, the

steering angle adjustment,

you know, doing that

first absolutely made

sense. Looking at

looking at everything

from, like I said, ABS

to other components,

including, you know, the

system won't work right

if the engine's not

running well, for

instance. So if the, you

know, if the engine's

running too lean and

there's a, there's a

code in there, it's going

to, it's going to say,

well, that's not going

to work the way we

wanted to. So we're

going to shut that system

down. Will they just

arbitrarily replace

things? I mean, like

you say in ABS, would

you have to replace

some. No, no, they,

they should, even though,

you know, your, your

guy said he didn't have

the scan tool to do a,

you know, 24 year old

car going on 25 years

old, I guess now. It

still is a car that you

can, you know, with

the right scan tool, you

can drive it and monitor

things like, let's make

sure, you know, all

the ABS signals are

working the way they

should. Let's make

sure, you know, various

components are working

the way it should. But

unfortunately, it's

time. And it's one of

these things that you

have to look at all the

various things. And one

of the key things I

have learned over my

lifetime living in New

England is corrosion is

a horrible thing when

it comes to all of these

wiring issues and

electrical issues with

cars. And all it takes

is a little bit of a

corroded wire, poor

ground somewhere that

can cause these things

to trip up and start

to start to act up. So

what I would do, and

I'm sure what this garage

does, and especially

where they have somebody

who comes in to kind of

specialize in this, is

take some really careful

look at all of the

wiring connections and

ground connections and

and really test them to

make sure that you're

not losing something along

the way that's causing

this light to come on.

So, you know, a good

visual inspection, looking

for any signs of, like,

green corrosion is enough

to cause weird stuff to

happen.

Well, I appreciate that.

I guess I'm just gonna,

I feel comfortable with this

outfit.

Good.

Yeah, who's, who's, who's

the, who's the, who's the

shop? Who are they?

Angie. Angie's

automotive service up in

and he's taught this

man that I don't think

it's Angie. I forget

the man who's, yeah,

the old time up.

But yeah, part really

independent. He takes

his diagnostics. He runs

the class after that.

Yep. Yeah. I actually,

I think I actually know

who he is. So I think

you're in good hands.

I do. And like you, I'm

in good hands and thanks

for the great program.

And, okay.

And what's, what's a little

scary is, you know, the

old timer that comes in,

I think him and I are

the same age. So, I don't

know. So, yeah.

All right. All right.

And I thank you.

All right. Okay. Take care.

Ken. Bye bye.

Thanks. Bye bye.

Our phone number 7, 7, 8, 1,

8, 3, 7, 49, 100.

I think we're going to

Tom and Weymouth. Tom?

Tom. Tom. Hey.

Hello? Yep.

Hello. Go ahead.

Okay, John. I'm looking to upgrade.

Oh, where'd Tom go?

Jesse. Lost him. Lost him.

He was looking to upgrade

his phone, maybe.

Let's go to John and Melrose.

John?

Hi, this is John now.

I have a kind of a simple

question, I guess.

I'm looking to buy the best

air pressure from Gage

for car tires.

Yeah. I have a number of them

and none of them seem to

repeat the same.

I'll have one that they're

just throwing out a number of 40

pounds to say I measure with

another one and it's 45

pounds. But I, you know, the

pencil ones, I got digital

ones, the pen ones.

Yeah. I was wondering what type

which one is the best one to

buy? Well, you know, it's

kind of funny. I, you know, I

just got to Florida a couple

days ago when we leave a car

here, a 10 year old car

here. And the first thing I

did before I even started it

up or second thing

maybe was go around and check

the air in the tires because

I put, you know, the maximum

air pressure for those tires is

43 pounds. I put 43 pounds

in it before we left.

So you will put that much in

the maximum?

Maximum amount when the car is

sitting still and not being

used for a while. Yeah.

So, but, but I wanted to

go around because they're

going to, you know, it's been

sitting here for, you know,

five or six months. So I

want to go around and check

the air pressure and see how

it is. And I have a, I

have a gauge

that I have. I probably have

three or four pencil gauges and

one, and one dial gauge and

one little air pump that's

got a built in gauge. And I'm

like, so I went out and I was

the first gauge I went out

there with, you know, read

like 26 pounds. And I'm like,

yeah, so then I hooked up my

little air compressor that's

got a digital gauge in it.

And it said there was 32

pounds. So I'm like, huh,

that's not very good. Then

so I took that gauge and

threw it away and went back

to another one. And and I

don't like the as nice as

the digital gauges are.

Yeah, you know, unless you use

them all the time, you can

remember to put batteries in

them and all that sort of

stuff. And and I kind of

like a good, simple pencil

gauge or a good dial gauge.

And the one I have is made

by an old timey company

called Milton, M-I-L-T-O-N.

And it's just a good little

pencil gauge. It's got easy

to read numbers because, you

know, I'm getting older and

it's harder to read stuff.

And it seems really accurate.

And I compared it to one or

two of the other gauges that

I had. And I'm like, oh, it's

reading, you know, it's

reading 30, 33 pounds, 33

pounds. They're all about

the same. But yeah, some of

these some of these cheaper

gauges. I have I have an

oil filled gauge that, you

know, is fancy. And I'm

not, you know, I look at it

and I'm like, I don't know, is

that 32 pounds? Is it 34

pounds? Because the way they

got the increments marked

off is not that good. I got

a little cheapy dial gauge

that I think I was at a

trade show somewhere. They

were handed them out instead

of business cards. Pretty

accurate little gauge, I've

got to say it, you know,

for what it is, a little

dial dial that spins

around. But the digital

gauges, you know, if

you're only checking your

tire pressure, you know,

periodically, yeah, once it

once the battery start to get

funny on them, they start to

read funny. So and plus, yeah,

one of the ones I had, it was

pretty neat because you could

go around and it would

actually remember all four

tires. So you go around and

then you could kind of click

back through it and go, Oh,

yeah, this one had 32, this

one had 33, this one had

32. And I'm like, I'm like,

but I don't want to gauge

it requires directions on how

to use it. That's, you

know, you know, and it

would also had a little

tread depth gauge and record

the tread depth. And then I

read the I read the

directions for it. And it

said it was accurate within, I

think 4%. Well, the Milton

pencil gauge is accurate to

within like 2%. So the

little regular cheapy

little and not cheap, it

was probably eight bucks or

10 bucks. That little that

little gauge was actually

more accurate than the

fancy digital one. So I'm

sure they're I'm sure

there are $100 digital

gauges that you can look at

and, you know, say, well,

this is the best of the best.

This is what they use in, you

know, Formula One racing or

something. Yeah. But but, you

know, I'm not driving a

Formula One car. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. So I'm not I'm not

worried about that. So so if

I was looking for a gauge,

I if I was looking for a

pencil style gauge, yeah, I

would go with the Milton

gauge. I've had they've

been around they've been

around forever. And they're

right. Yeah. And, you know,

maybe mine's, you know,

maybe mine's a good one

because it's, you know, it's

old. And, you know, it, you

know, came, you know, and I

remember even years ago, I

was friends with the PR guy

for the Rubber Manufacturers

Association. And I was doing

a tire event somewhere. And

he sent me like 50 or 60

gauges. And we gave him

out, we gave him out as

prizes to people. And I'm

like that, you know, it

was probably a four or five

dollar gauge. It was pretty

good. I remember we ordered

some we ordered some gauges

at triple A one time. And it

were these little three or

four dollar plastic gauges. And

I told my boss never never

order these things again.

They're terrible. You know,

so yeah, so, you know, I

think I think if you look

around, you know, spend,

you know, try to, you

know, dill is like dill

pickle. They've been in

the they've been in the

tire business forever.

Milton's been in the gauge

business forever. You know,

something like that. Even

there's a company called

Slime, which makes all kinds

of flat repair products.

Their gauges in bad. I have

had one of theirs for a long

time. I think I, I think I

liked it to a neighbor and

never got it back. But

but but like I said, the

Milton gauge I use was a

pretty good little gauge. So

you know, maybe, you know,

and again, I like the

pencil gauges because the

batteries never go dead.

Because they don't have

any. Exactly. Right. All

right. That one you said the

slim what? Oh, slime.

S L I M E. And you can

find those. You can find

those at Walmart. They make

little air compressors. They

make flat repair kits, stuff

like that. They're okay.

They seem to do the job.

Okay. But like the Milton

gauge and the dill gauge,

the pencil style gauges, you

know, you can drop them

on the ground. You can

throw them at people. You

can do stuff. And they

never seem they never seem to

go bad. I'm sure there's

some adjustment of

something in there. But

you know, as long as

you're, you know, as long

as you're not kind of, you

know, I have to have 32

pounds exactly. And if it's

33 or 31, is it really

going to make a huge

difference? Probably not.

Yeah. Now, would you

normally go along with the

pound of pressure that's

on your door? Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah, I mean, on

my drive here to Florida, I

put a little bit of extra

air in the rear tires just

because we had, you know,

stuff in the back of the

car to come down. But, but,

you know, but normally,

normally, if it says, you

know, 32 in the front and

34 in the back or 34 in

the front and 32, I go

with exactly what it says

on the door because when

you start to vary that, you

become a tire engineer. You

know, you're, you know,

you're, you know, they, they

adjust the tire pressure for

a combination of ride and

fuel economy. And, you know,

and when you, yeah, you can

bump up the tire pressure

and you might get better

fuel economy, or you can

lower the tire pressure and

you might get a little bit

better ride. But either

way, you're going to wear

the tires differently. So go

with what, go with what

the manufacturer says.

Yeah. See, the mind says,

I think mine says, I got

a Toyota camera. I think

it's 35 all the way around.

Could very well be.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

It's around for a while, then

you want to maximize it.

Yeah. Yeah. Only because, you

know, tires lose about a

pound of air a month just

sitting still. So if you're

going to let a car sit for

two or three months, you

know, just air them up a

little bit. And then, you

know, before you start,

you know, check the

tire pressure when they're

cool, and then, you know,

let a little bit out before

you start driving it on a

regular basis. So, right?

So does it lose? How much

air would it lose if

they're always driving it?

Does it lose it quicker or

less or what?

Um, you know, the tires

lose tires lose a little

bit of air all the time,

driving, you know, and

temperature affects tire

pressure. But that's why

that's why we always say

check your tires once a

month, because they are

going to lose a little

bit of air and some

tires, you know, some

tires, like Michelin tires

never seem to lose air, you

know, and other tires seem

to lose air a little bit

more because the rubbers,

the rubbers actually somewhat

porous. And that's why some

people will go to nitrogen

in their tires, which is

just an absolute waste of

money. But they'll put

nitrogen in their tires

because the molecules of

air don't tend to seep

out of the tire quite as

much because nitrogen

molecules are a little

fatter. But I wouldn't

spend $100 on nitrogen

when you put regular air

in, which is 70% nitrogen.

So it doesn't make any

sense. Yeah. So when when

the tires part, the pressure

would read higher. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And here's a here's

a funny part about tire

and temperature and all

that sort of stuff. If you

have, say your tires,

your camera calls for

35 pounds of air, and you

have 28 pounds of air in

your tires, and you decide

you're going to drive to

the white mountains on a

hot summer day. By the time

you get there, you might

have 45 pounds of air in

your tire, because because

the heat causes the tires

to to heat up because it

moves the molecules back

and forth really fast and

it generates heat. If you

put 35 pounds of air in

those tires, where they're

supposed to be, drive that

same drive. By the time

you get there, you might

have 37 pounds of air

because the molecules are

bouncing around as much

generating as much heat. So

you know, so yeah, so

you know, you always check

them cold, fill them up

where they should be, and

you should be good to go.

All right. Okay.

Good information. All right.

Okay, take care. All right,

you too. Jesse, where

we going? Mike and

Bridgewater? Yes. All right.

Michael. Morning, John. Good

morning. John, first

things, have you eaten

all the Halloween candy

that you bought? We

don't we didn't buy any

because there's no because

there's no kids. There's no

kids where I am. I think

there's three kids. There's

three kids. And and I said

to my wife, well, we have

to have a little bit of

candy in case somebody shows

up. And yeah, and, you

know, I did have I did have

a Twix last night, but

you know, well, that was

there you go. It's in the

tradition. Yeah, just by

following up with that

other gentleman that was

on. I have a couple of

those pencil gauges

interesting. Some of them

are lighter weight than

others, but I think a blast

from the past is when you

were giving out Boston

auto show tickets. And I

think I got I have one

here. Pretty hefty here. It's

the rubber manufacturer.

Yep. One of the RMA ones.

Yep. Pretty good. Yeah, it

is. It works out well. And

that's hence the reason

I'm calling. I have a

2016 Lexus ES 300 hybrid and

the tire pressure icon

came on the dash and it

started to flash a little

bit. Then it went out. So my

readout is each individual

tire and the numbers

there are just the dashes.

Well, you know, I kind of

honestly, I was over the

years listening to you and I

kind of figured that was

the issue. It wasn't that

there was a flat on the

tire anyway. So, you know,

you pulled over whatever

started the car up. The

numbers came back. Then now

they're dashes. And now you

get the numbers. Sometimes

you get the dashes

sometimes. I think I

remember you saying that if

you go for a sticker, that's

not going to be a problem

because that's not a

requirement. But any

suggestions, anything you

can say it's coming on and

off. So things I should

do not do. What now what

year is the car again?

2016.

Lexus 300 h and I think

I've heard you over the

years. They average the

batteries about seven years.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, John, I

can't remember breakfast, but

I remember what you said. So

anyway, um, so I'm just

wondering, you know, the

cars got more than seven

years. What would you

do? Um, what do you

think it is? When was the

last time you bought tires

for the car? About eight

months ago, seven months

ago. And I asked them about

matter of fact, again,

Sullivan tire, and I

asked to get Michelin. And

I asked them about the

sending units, batteries.

And they said all came

out fine within parameters

and all that. You know, I

probably should have done

something about it when

they would. Yeah. I mean,

other than it would have

saved you a little bit of

money, you know, labor

wise if they put new ones

in. And yeah, the tire

pressure monitor light won't

cause you to fail or it

never did cause you to

fail an inspection in

Massachusetts. So that's

not mandatory. Um, the

idea that you're losing

the readout to me says

that the the transmitters

in the wheels are starting

to go bad. Um, yeah. So

can you just ignore it and

check the tires with a gauge?

Yeah, sure you can. Um, should

you want to fix it at some

point? You know, the the

factory Lexus sensor, you

know, is probably 100 bucks.

And aftermarket one made by

a quality maker was

probably half that. Um, you

do have to program them. They

do have to be cloned or

programmed so they do work.

You know, you could spend

$400 to get the light to go

up. Yeah, the lights out

join. It's not on the dash.

Yeah, but you know, I'm

getting the readout, but

but it'll it'll it'll come

back on when it'll come on

one of these days. Because

what happens is the longer

you drive, it starts to

look at the readings. And

what happens when you're

driving slow when you're

driving five or 10 miles an

hour? It's not really

transmitting because the

idea behind that is if your

car sits all the time, they

don't want to be they don't

want the little batteries to

go dead inside the

transmitters. So it doesn't

start to work till you

start to move. And the

idea that, you know, once

you drive 20 30 miles, the

computer that looks at the

pressure is going to go,

wait a second, I'm not

seeing a reading. And it's

going to look at that for

a while. And then it's going

to maybe turn on the tire

pressure monitor light that

says the and it's not

going to fly. It's just

going to come on, which

just tells you it's not

seeing what it's supposed

to see. So yeah, so

you know, um, Gandtool

worth putting it on just

to verify that. Yeah,

yeah, I mean, yeah, you

could. Yeah. And and even

the tire pressure monitor

tools, they use like when

you go to a cell of a tire

and they rotate your tires,

they have to tell the

computer where the tire

went back to. So, you know,

if it was on the left front

and you took the left front

and put it on the left rear

and that and that you

didn't tell the computer

you moved it, you know,

that's going to come on

and you're going to go,

well, no, the tires

fine. But it thinks it

doesn't know you moved it

to a different spot. So

yeah, um, I ended up

calling up seldom and just

to ask them. So in the

ballpark, it's closer to

500. But um, yeah, so

yeah. Okay, so is this a

flip a coin or

tolerance? Yeah, I mean,

I mean, it's it's a it's

a nice car. And it's nice

to have when when you

have a nice car, it's

nice to have everything

working. And, um, you

know, would I spend the

money to make to get the

light to go out? If I was

planning on keeping the

car a few more years,

yeah, I probably would.

Okay. All right. Because

yeah, the Sullivan was

quoting about $80 for each

sending you. Yeah. Yeah.

That's about right. Yeah.

And he bucks the program.

And I will let you know

the last time the last

time I went to Sullivan

tire, which was years ago,

I went and had a tire

repair. And they charged

me I don't know $35. And

I was like, wow, that's a

lot of money since I

used to fix tires. And I

just recently the old car

that we keep at home. I

had a slow leak in it. And

I got tired of putting

the air in the tire. And

I knew it was leaking

around the rim because I

couldn't find any nails in

it. I brought it to a

little gas station and

said, hey, can you fix

it? Oh, yeah, we can

get it right in. And

guy goes, oh yeah, it's

leaking around the rim. He

just broke it down, wiped

it off a little bit, put

some goop around it, put

it back together. It was

$50. Wow. Oh, my God.

Yeah. And I mean, he got

it in right away. You

know, I was kind of

chit chatting with the guy

who was doing it a

little bit. And I'm like,

yeah, holy $50. You

know, yeah, yeah, it kind

of hurt my feelings a

little bit. Hey, we

got to get going. We have

another break to take

before we get yelled at.

All right, take care. Bye

bye. Jesse, do we need

to take another break? I

think we do. Let's

desperately take that

break. You listen to the

Cardocht program on 95

9 WATD where we'll be

right back and then

probably go away. Even

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AAA dot com slash join.

That's AAA dot com slash

join. Hello, Chris

Bethany of Bethany

Builders here. You want

us to build your new

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Builders has got you

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W A T D. Now back to

the car doctor.

And welcome back to the

car doctor program. We

are just about out of time,

but I want to thank Paul

Yovina for calling in in

two weeks. We're going to

be talking tires, which

we did a lot with today

with West Bowling from

a from the no key entire

company. So that music

means we need to go away.

Al and Tom call in next

week. As far as I know,

I don't have a guest book.

We got plenty of room for

calls for next week.

So Al and Tom call in

next week and until next

week, make sure you're

where you see me.

We'll see you next week.

Until next week, make sure

you wear your seatbelt,

drive safely, be good to

your car. And if you do see

an emergency vehicle by

the side of the road,

slow down or move over

safe lives. Talk to you

all next week. Bye bye.

What does the Coconut Grove fire have to do with a car show, click to find out.

About this episode

Buick Estate Wagon

Packard Caribbean

reversible front seats

Harley Earl

BMW Z3

DSC (Dynamic Stability Control)

computer bus network

steering angle adjustment

ABS

Formula One

Toyota Camry

tire pressure

Michelin

nitrogen in tires

Lexus ES 300h

Lexus 300h

aftermarket

programming

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