Shop Talk – September 2010

Here we are with August half over and it finally looks like it might get hot. I’ve already suggested that if your air conditioning is not cooling as you like, a re-charge can usually bring it back to snuff. But with the cool weather we’ve been having, it probably doesn‘t make much sense to most to spend the money.

What many vehicle owners don’t know is that their air conditioning system is used when in defrost mode as well, even if you have the heat on!

What it does is “condition” or “dries” the air that defrosts your windows thus making the windows clear much faster. So there you go, now you will be fixing you’re AC system with winter coming on!!

I almost always write about maintaining your rigs to get the most life and durability out of them and sometimes I think I’m talking to the wall.

This is especially so when we see so many vehicles with poorly maintained fluids, belts and hoses that are original at 150k, brakes worn to the rivets, and so forth. I just can’t stress enough how important it is to have your car or truck inspected on some regular basis to prevent these kinds of problems from occurring.
Even if your friendly technician charges a small fee to do the inspection, it still is pennies compared to what a major breakdown can cost.

One of the examples I’ve used a few times is the cost of a transmission service every 30k (roughly $100-250$), which over the course of 180 thousand miles is about $750-1,000.

We just estimated a transmission in a Ranger 2 wheel drive pickup at $2,900. The bottom line is it costs roughly a third to maintain vs. wait for catastrophic breakdown, and you can’t schedule for a breakdown which almost always happens at the least opportune time.

Another thing about putting off needed repairs is often something simple to fix can lead to very expensive repairs down the line. An example is a bad spark plug; cost roughly 5 bucks. But allowed to continue misfiring, can very easily take out a catalytic converter; cost anywhere from a couple hundred to maybe a thousand dollars!

Just makes sense to fix things when they need to be fixed.

Another suggestion concerning inspections is whenever you anticipate any kind of long trip away from the home base, have a technician give your rig a once over. As someone just this morning said to me, it’s like standing in the forest unable to see the trees.

You drive your vehicle every day and those little noises and other precursors of imminent failure are not noticed, but someone used to repairing mobile machines will alert on things you might not notice and this can save you not only money, but the frustration and expense of a breakdown far from home.

And to finish this article up, if you decide to purchase a used vehicle, have it inspected by someone other than whoever is selling the rig. We see cars all the time that were just purchased and in need of lots of repair. An inexpensive inspection can save you lots of dollars and also can be used to negotiate a better purchase price. Questions or comments – email me at rayscartalk@yahoo.com

Happy Motoring, Ray