Poor, misunderstood trouble codes! Too many people labor under the misapprehension that diagnostic codes tell us what is wrong with their cars. Maybe the fact that lots of the big chain parts stores advertise that they'll read the codes for you for nothing is partly responsible. This inevitably leads to scenarios in which the store employee reads, say, an oxygen sensor-related code, then clears the code and sells the customer an oxygen sensor. Said customer scampers off and changes the oxygen sensor, only to have the same code come back. How could that be??
A trouble code is only a symptom. Each code has a diagnostic procedure associated with it. The correct way to repair a car with codes present is to perform the diagnostic procedure the car's manufacturer specifies for those codes. This prevents replacing good parts, and insures repairing the actual cause of the problem. Seems like it takes a little more time, but in the end maybe not! Not to mention the wasted money on replacing good parts with other good parts.
I go into more detail on this, and other, topics in my book, Carma - be kind to your car. Just ask, and I'll give you a copy.
Thanks for your time!
Dave
DOC Auto
Friday, September 23, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Three thousand miles - fact or friction?
There's been a lot of confusion over the old stand-by three thousand mile oil and filter change interval lately. Lemme 'splain the facts, keeping in mind that any rule like this is a vast generalization, since no two snowflakes are exactly alike (and neither are any two driver/car pairs).
The three thousand mile (from now on I'm gonna type "3,000 mile" because it's easier) rule was a very sound one years ago for almost all drivers. When I started working on cars, it was cause for comment if somebody had over 100,000 miles on their car. Today, almost any decent car can easily go three times that with a reasonable amount of care. There are many reasons for this, one of the biggest being the demise of the carburetor and the distributor, and the advent of computerized fuel and spark delivery. If you want to know how that revolutionary change allowed engines to run so much longer, ask me, and maybe I'll get into that. But I hate typing.
Anyway, because engines wore so much faster years ago, the seal (no, not the cute mammal in the circus) between the piston rings and the cylinder walls was much looser, much quicker than in modern cars. This meant that the oil was much more quickly contaminated with raw gasoline and combustion byproducts, as well as the particulate contamination that was a result of the faster wear in the first place. Guess how you get rid of that contamination - right, you change the oil and filter! So, in the old days, 3,000 miles was a good guide for most people.
Today, 3,000 miles is still a great guide - for some people, not nearly as great a percentage of drivers as it was in the past. Many manufacturers still recommend it, but lots of people can safely extend their changes to 5,000 miles or more. I think that about the only factor in oil change intervals that has changed with modern cars to decrease the oil change interval is the fact that lots of the new oil filters are tiny, and so cannot hold a great deal of trapped dirt and particulate contamination. Coolant temperatures in modern cars also tend to run hotter, but I'm not sure that this is true of oil temps, at least to the point of affecting oil life.
The tack we've taken at DOC Auto is to allow our clients to decide what oil change interval they'd like to use; if you want some input from us, we'd be happy to help. We can tell you what your car's maker suggests, and brutally interrogate you on your driving habits.
Hope this helps!
Dave
DOC Auto
The three thousand mile (from now on I'm gonna type "3,000 mile" because it's easier) rule was a very sound one years ago for almost all drivers. When I started working on cars, it was cause for comment if somebody had over 100,000 miles on their car. Today, almost any decent car can easily go three times that with a reasonable amount of care. There are many reasons for this, one of the biggest being the demise of the carburetor and the distributor, and the advent of computerized fuel and spark delivery. If you want to know how that revolutionary change allowed engines to run so much longer, ask me, and maybe I'll get into that. But I hate typing.
Anyway, because engines wore so much faster years ago, the seal (no, not the cute mammal in the circus) between the piston rings and the cylinder walls was much looser, much quicker than in modern cars. This meant that the oil was much more quickly contaminated with raw gasoline and combustion byproducts, as well as the particulate contamination that was a result of the faster wear in the first place. Guess how you get rid of that contamination - right, you change the oil and filter! So, in the old days, 3,000 miles was a good guide for most people.
Today, 3,000 miles is still a great guide - for some people, not nearly as great a percentage of drivers as it was in the past. Many manufacturers still recommend it, but lots of people can safely extend their changes to 5,000 miles or more. I think that about the only factor in oil change intervals that has changed with modern cars to decrease the oil change interval is the fact that lots of the new oil filters are tiny, and so cannot hold a great deal of trapped dirt and particulate contamination. Coolant temperatures in modern cars also tend to run hotter, but I'm not sure that this is true of oil temps, at least to the point of affecting oil life.
The tack we've taken at DOC Auto is to allow our clients to decide what oil change interval they'd like to use; if you want some input from us, we'd be happy to help. We can tell you what your car's maker suggests, and brutally interrogate you on your driving habits.
Hope this helps!
Dave
DOC Auto
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
One thousand yards is a LONG way.
Okay, not auto-related, but...
A few weeks ago, I was invited by a great client of ours to shoot a sniper rifle at a target one thousand yards away. Some quick cipherin' on the trusty abacus told me that that is over half a mile, about .57 mile, in fact. Naturally, I jumped at the chance!
When I got to the range, I was amazed at how small a 19" wide torso target looks at that distance. Hard to fathom being able to hit it at all, let alone "kill" it!
What I failed to consider was the incredible knowledge these guys have, and the quality of their equipment. At that distance, the bullet drops almost three feet below its one-hundred yard zero. The great thing about that is that it can be factored into the sighting, since it is, relatively speaking, a constant. What is not a constant is the wind. The man helping me showed me how to "see" the wind, and told me how much to compensate for it.
After some coaching, I settled in behind the rifle, and sent a round downrange. The projectile hit a bit to the left of the target's right shoulder, so we cranked in a little more right windage, and subsequent rounds "killed" the poor "victim". I'd love to take credit for being a great marksman, but as I said before, the credit goes to the knowledge of the man helping me and to the quality of the equipment. Nonetheless, a great experience!
Thanks to DOC Auto's great clients for adding so many amazing experiences to my otherwise drab existence! I was happy to be able to thank the gentlemen at the range in a tangible way by giving them tickets to the NASCAR Cup race in Richmond last Saturday night.
Dave
A few weeks ago, I was invited by a great client of ours to shoot a sniper rifle at a target one thousand yards away. Some quick cipherin' on the trusty abacus told me that that is over half a mile, about .57 mile, in fact. Naturally, I jumped at the chance!
When I got to the range, I was amazed at how small a 19" wide torso target looks at that distance. Hard to fathom being able to hit it at all, let alone "kill" it!
What I failed to consider was the incredible knowledge these guys have, and the quality of their equipment. At that distance, the bullet drops almost three feet below its one-hundred yard zero. The great thing about that is that it can be factored into the sighting, since it is, relatively speaking, a constant. What is not a constant is the wind. The man helping me showed me how to "see" the wind, and told me how much to compensate for it.
After some coaching, I settled in behind the rifle, and sent a round downrange. The projectile hit a bit to the left of the target's right shoulder, so we cranked in a little more right windage, and subsequent rounds "killed" the poor "victim". I'd love to take credit for being a great marksman, but as I said before, the credit goes to the knowledge of the man helping me and to the quality of the equipment. Nonetheless, a great experience!
Thanks to DOC Auto's great clients for adding so many amazing experiences to my otherwise drab existence! I was happy to be able to thank the gentlemen at the range in a tangible way by giving them tickets to the NASCAR Cup race in Richmond last Saturday night.
Dave
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