It seems innocent enough, your car’s working great, you live an incredibly busy life, you drive a lot and the car’s new, so why bother following your vehicle’s maintenance schedule. We encounter this scenario at our shop from time to time and it shows up in a vehicle that has not been maintained to factory specs; in fact the factory schedule has been completely ignored. The consequence of this is two fold: first damage is taking place to your vehicle even if you can’t feel it right now and your warranty will be void should you need to make a claim. Recently we had a client who came in for his first oil change on a Japanese vehicle with 50,000 kilometers on the odometer. It was quite frankly a miracle that his engine was still running but it was and in fact running fine. Tell tail signs of abuse were present however as grungy deposits were visible inside the engine. Hopefully this is one of those rare engines that can take excessive abuse and still survive: we see that on occasion.

What is perhaps worrying is that, should our client have an engine problem, he will have no warranty coverage as he has not followed the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. This could be very costly as a replacement engine job could be $5000.00 or more. Five oil changes costs around $300.00 and more should have been done, but 5 would have satisfied the manufacturer’s schedule. That’s a huge potential cost difference.

Be certain to follow your maintenance schedule: it definitely saves you lots of money and gives you peace of mind.

Oil dipstick after 50,000 km with no oil change. Note the baked on deposit and sludge to the right of the bump in the stick (center of photo): this will be present inside the engine and likely lead to an early engine failure

Tire pressure monitoring systems offer convenience, are a smart safety addition and they are proven to increase the life of your tires!

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We Have Exciting News Today!

We are “WestEnder Vancouver Urban Weekly” Best of the City gold winner for most favored Auto Repair and Service for 2012.

We are thankful of all our customers who supported us. It’s an honour that we take very seriously and will continue to do our very best to take great care of you, your car and/or light truck.

I recently serviced a vehicle for a man who has been my longest client with our relationship going back 30 years. I got to thinking about the car I serviced today, a 2011 VW Golf and the car he owned that I first serviced: a 1980 Plymouth Horizon.

The Horizon, while it got from A to B just fine was quite frankly a piece of crap. The engine revved too high at idle and it thunked into drive with severe harshness. These cars were interesting: they were built at a time when Chrysler was coming out of bankruptcy and Lee Iacocca was at the helm. With the writing on the wall that the big American cars of the 1970’s were out of favour, Chrysler copied the VW Rabbit and created the Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni. They unfortunately were not as refined as their German counterparts. The late 1970’s and early 1980’s were an awful time for American cars and I can’t really think of one that was great.

Fast forward to our VW Golf of today: while not a high end car, it still has a fabulous sounding touch screen stereo, air conditioning and runs so smoothly that you can barely feel the engine running. The emissions coming out the tailpipe are extremely clean. It’s a great and welcome change from the past and makes me wonder what we might be driving 30 years hence.

86 Plymouth Horizon

2011 VW Golf

Fearmongering is a sales technique used by some shops, and sadly, as it is so often associated with dishonest recommendations gives the auto service industry a bad reputation.

We recently had a client who brought her vehicle to us for a second opinion about some brake work that she was told was absolutely, immediately required and “must be done today or her car would be dangerous to drive”. We inspected her brakes (several days later) and found that the rear brake pads still had 4 millimeters remaining which is a far cry from needing immediate replacement. Yes they were nearly worn out but not dangerous. Through using this technique this shop not only destroyed their credibility but tarnished the reputation of the auto service industry.

We advised our client that based on her driving habits her brakes would be perfectly safe for at least 3 to 6 more months. Four months had passed and we replaced her rear pads and rotors. She had driven 11,000 kilometers and those brake pads that were supposedly unsafe still had 3 millimeters remaining. Three millimeters is worn out but still not unsafe.

There are times when we find something on a car that is unsafe and requires immediate repairs but this is rare. In this sort of case we can show you the concern while the car is on the hoist or if this is not possible send a video or photo via e-mail. We always educate our clients on what is good and what is worn or requiring servicing on their vehicle and let them choose when to repair it.

Getting back to the fearmongering shop, a better, and more honest approach would be to advise the client that their brakes are almost worn out and instead of falsely creating fear and attempting to sell work this shop could have built trust through honesty and waited for a few months to do the service.

Close-up of worn out rear brake pad, note the yellow arrows which show the remaining pad material which is 3 mm thick (new pads are 8 mm)

The cost of replacing a fuel pump on Domestic vehicles (GM, Ford & Chrysler) has risen dramatically over the years. While this seems like a bad thing there is good news also!

There was a time, in the early years of domestic fuel injected vehicles, that most fuel pumps would be dead within a 100,000 kilometers: not a very long life. Pumps were not extremely expensive but were installed inside the fuel tank making the job labour intensive. In the mid 1990s fuel pumps became part of an assembly which included the fuel tank sending unit, the strainer, wiring, all mounting hardware and evap sensors (if equipped). Replacing the pump still required the labour intensive fuel tank removal but the pump assembly was just slipped in and out of the tank.

As you might guess making it more complex costs more: where once a fuel pump replacement may have been a $500.00 job, it is now often over $1000.00 to replace.

So what is the good news?

Quality is way up: usually these pumps last well into the 200,000 to 300,000 kilometer range so replacement is less often. An added benefit to the pump being included in an assembly is that everything gets replaced including the fuel guage sender so it leaves less chance of something else inside the fuel tank failing and requiring future costly repairs.

What about fuel pumps in Japanese or European cars? They have always made very durable fuel pumps that last a long time. I can’t remember the last fuel pump we replaced on a Japanese or European car, however we do replace them. Often (but not always) these pumps are expensive but labour is simpler as many of the import vehicles provide access holes through the trunk or inside the car to remove the fuel pump from the tank.

The silver lining with the new designed pumps is durability, for when a fuel pump fails it is usually without warning: your car dies and needs to be towed for repairs. The less often this happens the better!

The fuel pump as it was once replaced (the old and less expensive style)

The fuel pump assembly, the pump shown above sits inside this unit

Complete CV Joint Failures Due to Breakage Are Extremely Rare

However that is what we found recently when a 2004 Ford Freestar was towed to our shop. Upon removing the axle shaft, taking off the CV boot and investigating the failure – we found the cage, which holds the 6 balls in position had split in half, allowing the balls to slip out of place.

Never before had we seen this sort of failure!

1/2 of the broken CV joint cage

Complete CV joint: note the intact cage and the large ball bearings in proper position

We speculated that the cage may have been damaged by a previous accident as there was evidence to suggest that the control arm had been replaced with a used part: a classic sign of a collision repair.

Possibly the vehicle had been hit on the right side or been driven hard into a curb. Any of these stresses could have damaged the CV joint though there was no visible evidence or symptom noted when driving. This is one of the liabilities of having a vehicle repaired from a collision.

There are many components that are hidden and cannot be inspected that could be weakened by a collision.

We think this CV joint shows just such an eventuality.

Note the yellow paint numbering on the control arm: this is indicative of a used part, likely replaced in a collision repair

Some further notes to our story: the owner of this vehicle did not have any knowledge of such an accident and was not the original owner. This damage though, based on the evidence: the replaced control arm and the unusual nature of the failure and that the failure could be caused by severe inward impact… seems to overwhelmingly suggest a collision caused this.

What can you do to prevent such an occurrence on your vehicle?

Unfortunately not much, for even a thorough independent inspection after repairs will not likely find any concerns. When an insurance company repairs collision damage they will repair and replace all noticeable damage and anything that affects the vehicle’s driving operation which was clearly caused by the collision.

The hidden things remain so and may unfortunately show up one day just like this broken CV joint did.

Finally a Newly Designed Central Port Fuel Injection Unit is Available

This replacement part is for GM trucks that use this fuel injection system. And there are many trucks: millions of them, built from 1992 to 2002. This system was fraught with problems almost from day one and it’s surprising that it took so long to build a replacement part to address the original design flaws.

Most of the concerns with this system are due to sticking poppet valves and a leaking fuel pressure regulator. This system is unique in that poppet valves are located inside a ‘box’ from which the fuel lines and injectors are connected. The poppet valves are electronically controlled inside this ‘box’.

The redesigned part’s major change is to install electronically controlled fuel injectors at the end of the fuel line. This allows for very precise fuel control which the original unit lacked. It also eliminates the need for the troublesome poppet valves.

A Recent Repair Illustrates How Bad This Can Get

We had a 1996 Chevy pickup with a V6 towed to our shop for a no start concern. After a thorough diagnosis we found that the fuel injection unit was defective and causing the starting problems plus an array of other concerns:

• Very Rough Running Engine
• Poor Starting
• Horrible Fuel Mileage
• Vehicle Was Running So Rich That the Catalytic Converter Had Been Destroyed

The good news is that after installing this unit our truck ran great. Even better news it that these new and improved parts cost less than the old designed parts!

The new and the old: New, redesigned part is on left, note the wires and larger electronic fuel injectors on the ends. The old unit is on the right.

90% of our AirCare repairs produce these huge results.

Some folks think that AirCare is a scam or at least a waste of time and I’m here to say that those thoughts could not be further from the truth.

We fix several cars and trucks per month and from experience I can say that the results speak for themselves. Check out the latest AirCare repair that we did on a 1995 Jeep Cherokee: the results are profound and just by fixing this one vehicle, less toxins are being released into our air.

AirCare before and after readings. The failed gas is circled. Note the huge reductions after repairs.

Most modern cars, especially the new models are very clean and release mostly CO2 into the air. This is a global warming substance and of great concern.

However, the most toxic pollutants are carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen emissions and properly running modern cars minimize those pollutants.

Air Care’s purpose is to keep these toxic pollutants to a minimum and it does a great job of doing so by identifying vehicles which put out excessive emissions. If you care to know more about the hazards of these pollutants there are many websites with detailed information.

Lets look at the details of this particular inspection and what the results really mean.

Before repairs this vehicle emitted the following amounts of pollution in 100 kilometers:
• 40 grams of hydrocarbons
• 664 grams of carbon monoxide
• 168 grams of oxides of nitrogen

After repairs this vehicle will now be able to drive:
• 5.7 times farther (571 kilometers) and emit the same level hydrocarbons
• 19 times farther (1900 kilometers) and emit the same level of carbon monoxide
• A whopping 83 times farther (8300 kilometers) for the same oxides of nitrogen pollutants.

These are big numbers that mean much cleaner air for all of us. Next time that you think that AirCare is a waste of time, please take time to reflect on these numbers.

This is not unique. 90% of our repairs produce these huge results.

Proper diagnosis is essential before repairs. It sounds simple and makes sense but it is amazing that some folks would rather avoid this critical step. The same holds true for many auto repair shops who would rather guess at what is wrong and waste your money on unneeded repairs.

We recently serviced a 2000 Dodge Truck that had a check engine lamp on and a slightly rough running engine. The vehicle had been at another shop where they replaced spark plugs, ignition wires and a fuel injector in #8 cylinder. We found that the check engine lamp was on for a code P0308 which indicates a misfire detected in #8 cylinder. While the previous shop must have found this code, the fact that a number of parts were replaced and the concern remained indicates that diagnosis was not done. In all fairness the spark plugs and ignition wires may have been old and been due for replacement but it looks like the fuel injector was just a guess.

We took the time to do a proper diagnosis and found the concern was caused by poor compression in #8 cylinder. After the cylinder head was removed and tested, a crack between the intake & exhaust valve seats was found to be the culprit. With a new cylinder head installed the truck ran great, as it should have if proper diagnosis was done the first time.

Dodge V8 cylinder head showing crack between valve seats