BAD MANNERS, BAD HABITS, ANNOYING DRIVERS

Have you noticed how good manners are hard to find these days? With the kinetic pace of this electronic age, there seems to be little time, patience or interest in basic niceties. The “Please” and “Thank You” that were so ingrained growing up just aren’t there anymore. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but this callous disregard for common courtesies annoys me, especially when it comes to drivers’ habits.

Rarely does a day go by that I don’t witness a rude move by another driver. A little thing like a car cutting in front of me without using a turn signal is annoying to me. It’s a seemingly minor thing, but it’s discourteous and potentially dangerous. What’s so hard about placing a finger on the stalk and engaging a turn signal for a few quick flashes? Is the other driver too busy talking on his cell phone or texting to drive properly?

It doesn’t take long to make a list. Here’s what I’ve seen just recently:

- I am already driving 5 mph over the speed limit, and someone feels they have to tailgate behind me because I’m just not going fast enough. Pass me, or leave me alone.

- There is the driver that knows there is a red light ahead. They either feel that they have to tailgate, or worse yet, they floor it to pass me, then cut me off and slam on their brakes, stopping just in time for the red light. These are the same drivers that have to pass, and then cut in to make an immediate turn. They just can’t wait a few seconds.

- If someone in front of me is going too slow, I turn on my turn signal to begin to pass, and they speed up to prevent it. It’s not a race!

- What about the driver that stays in the passing lane, with his right hand turn signal permanently left flashing, but never returns to the travel lane? It’s illegal and unsafe for me to pass on the right, but what choice do I have? If anything happens, I’m to blame.


- I find the driver with the hand on the horn aggravating. It’s unnecessary to
blow the horn for every move; when making a turn, rounding a bend or whenever another car is in sight. It’s jarring and rude to other drivers.

- Then there is the uncaring shopper in the parking lot of the grocery store.
Don’t place your bags on my car while you open your door, don’t rest your shopping cart against my door, and don’t use my car’s door as a door stop as you swing yours open. It’s selfish and inconsiderate, not to mention that it’s downright destructive.

This is just a partial list, I’m sure that you have your own. There’s no need to be rude behind the wheel. A little courtesy while driving makes the highways a more pleasant place, not to mention a much safer place to travel. Please and thank you!

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A Woman's Point of View: Let's Talk Belts!

by Colette Cooley, Cars for Keeps Office Manager

For the fashion conscious woman, this is the time of year that our minds turn to our summer wardrobe. Let’s talk belts. There are fashion belts, designer belts, utilitarian belts, chastity belts, cloth belts, leather belts, bejeweled belts, girdle belts, and the list goes on. How about serpentine belts?

No, they are not snakes wrapped around the waist. The serpentine belt is a long, continuous, multi-grooved belt that drives several devices in the engine, such as, the alternator, A/C compressor, air pump and water pump. It increases mechanical efficiency and reduces the load on the engine and increases fuel economy and power. This very important belt must be checked regularly for wear and breakage. If it breaks in two, it can act like a weed whip and do a pretty thorough job of chewing up engine parts.



Other belts include the vee belt, the ribbed belt, and timing belts. The vee belt is the basic belt for power transmission. The ribbed belt is also a transmission belt that has a long life, stability and reduced vibration. The timing belt is used instead of chains and gears, is less noisy and does not need to be lubricated. They are used in the camshaft and are the most efficient at transferring power.

If maintained properly and chanced at proper intervals, these belts help your car remain healthy and reliable. If left without maintenance, many of these belts can become brittle and cause moderate to extensive damage. At Cars For Keeps your belts are checked for wear every time you get your oil changed. You will be advised if you should get a new belt now, or if it just needs to be checked again soon.

Personal note: I wish they came in colors, but basic black does go with everything!

Technician tenacity

Today’s technicians today have to be patient, tenacious and smart in order to diagnose many problems on today’s cars ….

This one is a good example. A client brought us her 2006 Audi A6 Quattro. She said the check engine light was on and car seemed to run a little sluggish.

Master technician Bob Toti began by attaching our VAG tester (the special Audi test tool) to the vehicle’s diagnostic port to read any stored faults. The tester showed two current faults: a cam sensor bank on 2 fault and a small evaporative leak. He also found an intermittent or old low pressure fuel sensor fault.

Whenever you find “current” faults you can verify them by clearing them and seeing how they reset themselves. That’s what we did in this case. Bob found the cam sensor fault came back immediately so he focused on that problem first. After verifying that the voltages at the sensor were okay and wiring from engine module was okay too, he swapped with the identical sensor from bank 1. The result? The same fault occurred. At this point the tech verified that the engine module was reading information from that sensor, but was this information correct?

Master technician Danny Ferrari now took over solving the Audi cam sensor fault mystery while Bob concentrated on other work in the shop.

Using actual values in the VAG, the tech found the intake cam in bank 2 was out of position by almost 10 degrees, when the spec was less than half a degree.

Careful and thoughtful technicians found that this little
bit of screen stuck in the valve was giving the customer
big headaches.  

This car’s cam advance system is able to advance or retard all the 4 cams by letting oil in and out of four solenoid valves. For some reason one of these cams was working at the wrong advance angle, or at least that’s what the sensor was telling us. The next step was checking the actual cam advance valve by opening up the engine and comparing the observed position of the cam with the position reported by the sensor. That check showed the sensor to be telling the truth – the cam was really out of position. But the question of why that might be remained unanswered. So we removed the adjusting solenoid. When we took it apart we found debris tucked into the valve, between the sleeve and the moving part of the valve. The debris looked like really small bits of metal screen. The debris was causing the position problem by not letting the valve close all the way.

Replacing the valve fixed the problem. A long road test after repair did not reveal any other faults. The other codes – the ones we’d read on first examination – never returned. We changed the oil and sent the car down the road with a very happy owner.

Why would this valve go bad on a 28,000 mile car? I wish I knew. There was no evidence of neglect or abuse inside the motor, though some of the stresses that might have led to this failure would not leave a visible trace. It’s also possible the car was filled with the wrong oil earlier in its life. Perhaps the valve was defective from new. It’s a one-of-a-kind problem in this shop. And more and more, that’s what we see. One-off problems other people can’t fix are becoming our stock in trade.

Oil: Why you should probably be using synthetic

One thing that I am frequently asked is should I use synthetic oil or not in a vehicle. In almost every case the answer is yes. I use synthetic in all of my vehicles including the old Bronco II. Synthetic oil in general is better than non synthetic because of:

• Higher film strength
• Better resistance to oxidation
• Better cold flow properties
• Better stability at higher temperatures
• Higher detergent content
• Longer drain interval
• Lower Friction

I frequently hear two complaints against synthetic oil. The first is that it will make your vehicle leak oil or leak more oil than it currently does. The truth is it isn't the oil that makes it leak it is that it cleans out all the crap that was plugging leaks in your engine. So if you have a vehicle that is older and has dried out gaskets it will probably start leaking. It would have started leaking eventually and gaskets are cheep. The other complaint I hear is that it costs more. This is true but you can go to a longer change which usually makes to total cost per mile the same or less that that when using conventional oil. 

Why is higher film strength better?

Film strength is the force needed to push through the film of oil to have metal to metal contact. This higher this is the better protected from wear parts are

Why is better resistance to oxidation important?

Being better able to resist oxidation prevents the oil from breaking down over time. As oil oxidizes its ability to lubricate goes down as it is no longer oil. For those who don't know oxidation is just like burning, except burring is very rapid oxidation.

Why is better cold flow important?

Cold flow is the ability of something to flow like as liquid when cold. The lower temperature oil flows at the colder a vehicle can operate at. Also being able to flow better a cooler temps allows oil to circulate and flow through the engine faster on start up.

Why is better stability at higher temps important?

Heat can cause oil to break down in to other molecules. Some of these molecules could be solvents that thin the oil, some could be tars, some are gases that just escape. This is similar to what is done in oil refineries when they take crude oil and make different thing out of it.

Why is higher detergent content better?

Some may not think this is a good thing as this is what usually causes your engine to leak oil when switching to synthetics. The truth is that this will clean out the crud and crap that has built up over time. If you have seen the Ford commercial where they have the engine that is filled with black stuff that is sludge. It will build up over time and restrict oil flow or prevent oil from getting to moving metal surfaces. Higher detergent contents help clean this out. This is also the most important reason why changing oil regularly is important.

Why is a longer drain interval better?

This should be simple, you don't spend as much on oil. You also don't consume as much oil. Previously when using standard oil I would typically change oil at 2,500 miles, with synthetic I typically change it at 5,000. I have heard of some people going as much as 12,000 to 15,000 between changes but I just can't seem to force my self to go any were near that long. I have gone as much as 7,000 when I couldn't get to it for about 2 and a half weeks and it didn't look much worse than it does when I change it a 5,000.

Why is lower friction better?

Friction is the amount of energy to move one thing across another. By lowering the friction in your engine it takes less energy to move all the moving parts. This means that you get better fuel economy and also your engine produces more power. It makes your engine more efficient.

When you shouldn't use synthetic oil
There are few cases where I wouldn't recommend using synthetic oil:

• Your car already leaks oil and it leaks from engines seals not gaskets. If you use synthetic oil you will just leak even more oil.
• You have an older engine that is worn. Here you will just burn lots more oil than you already do
• You are doing an initial engine break in

Rattles in late model Land Rovers

Does your Sport or LR3 sound like the spare tire is loose under the vehicle?  Have you looked and looked but found nothing loose?  If so, there's a good chance your problem is a worn sway bar.

What is a sway bar, you ask?  I'll tell you . . .

A sway is a torsion bar connecting the left and right sides of your suspension together.  The bar simply swings up and down when both wheels move together.  When one wheel goes up, as when it hits a curb or pothole, the bar resists that movement, adding to the spring rate.  When one wheel goes up and the other goes down, which is what happens when the vehicle leans into a corner, the sway bar resists doubly as its ends are twisted in opposite directions.

Sway bars are what keep your car flat when it makes a hard corner.  Without them, the body would lean on the springs to the point where you felt you were about to turn over.  Anyone who drove an old 1980s Rover without sway bars will remember this feeling well.

The Sport is a pretty high performance rig, so it has particularly beefy bars.  And of course these are heavy vehicles.  To handle all that the bars on my 2006 truck are almost an inch in diameter.  When they twist against the mounts during cornering, they twist hard.

For many years we have seen sway bar links wear out; not just on Land Rover but on BMW, Mercedes, and most other high performance cars.  The links are the rods with ball-and-socket joints that connect the sway bars to the suspension, out by the wheels.  We're accustomed to finding those worn out and rattly, but when these newer style Rovers began coming in with heavy clunks those links were surprisingly tight.  What gives?

It turns out that the bars themselves get loose in the mounts.  When they get loose, they rattle. At first we thought there was an easy fix - install new bushings.  However, the bars themselves are wearing down from friction with the bushings, so new rubber just fixes the problem for a month or so, and you have a comeback.

We have actually cured some trucks (including my own) by making sheet plastic sleeves that we fit between bar and bushing.  You're probably imagining something pretty high tech, but actually, we cut a strip out of an old windshield washer solvent bottle and wrap that around the bar.  Cheap and effective.  If you don't like that, or it does not work, your next step is to replace the bars themselves but that is a several-hour task involving lifting the truck body from the subframe to get the bars in and out.

Once you've heard a few of these noisy bars you learn to recognize the sound, and repair is pretty quick.. But we struggled many hours to find this one the first time . . .

New-Used Cars: Be Smart Before You Buy!

by Dennis Sweet, Cars for Keeps Customer Service Manager

Have you bought something and regretted it afterwards? I'm sure we all have. While there's nothing we at Cars for Keeps can recommend for shopping sprees, we can help you feel better about your used car purchase, while saving you money down the road.

When you're shopping for a new-to-you vehicle, everything looks good! New used cars are shiny, have less miles than your vehicle, and they're new and different to you. Buying that used car sounds like fun, it's in a price range you can afford, and you really like how it looks. You buy it, you feel good and then you bring it in for its first service visit. The auto garage brings you back a list of items which need to be fixed three pages long! You get the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, you are angry, disappointed and you begin to realize that your decision to purchase that vehicle may not have been a good one.



I hope you never find yourself in this situation. At Cars for Keeps, we can ensure that this never happens to you by performing a pre-purchase used car inspection on any vehicle you're considering purchasing. This a bumper to bumper inspection, after which we provide you with complete list of items that a vehicle needs or is going to need in the near future. This way, you know what repairs a vehicle needs and what its true working condition is, so you can make the best, most educated decision. We have helped my clients over the past 20 years with this decision making process.

When if you find yourself looking for a different vehicle, happy hunting!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Service Manager,

Dennis

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