The "Power" of Steering...

Today's blog is about the power steering fluid and system. This fluid is very often overlooked. It resides in a reservoir and runs through a little "blender" called a power steering pump every time the engine is running. This fluid is an oil, just like any other. It does have some special additives and characteristics that are unique, but still, just another fluid. The power steering fluid will slowly populate with fine aluminum/metal shavings from the power steering pump, much like when you sharpen a knife on a stone with oil. These shavings will eventually work their way throughout the system and find a place to call home. They usually will embed by seals and o-ringed areas. Since the fluid is pressurized from the pump to operate, the seals in the system are important to keep the fluid from leaking out. All seals, over time, will harden up and not seal as well. Once a piece of the shavings gets between the seal and whatever it is sealed against, a leak will occur. When the power steering fluid is serviced, which is not as easy as performing an oil change, the fluid gets transferred out and clean fluid installed. Quality fluid usually will have some sort of rubber conditioners in it which can help keep the power steering systems seals alive for a longer period of time. So, can you get away with not servicing the fluid? Sure, but you will definitely be resealing and replacing some items, at a much higher price......

The car is not worth that much!?!?!?Is it?

Hello readers, it is a sad time in a car's life when it reaches that 8 and 10 year old mark (so young) when the inevitable replacement of items starts to happen. If your shop has not been proactive in the recommendation of wear items, they can start to add up. $900 for struts, $600 for hoses, $500 for ball joints, etc. If that is all recommended at once, with some fluid maintenance, you are sitting at $2,100. The question we get asked, mostly by newer customers of ours is...."The car is not worth that much, is it?" In all fairness, some are not, but most are, depending on how you look at it. If you have a car that selling value is only $2,500 but needs $2,100 worth of work, what questions do you need to ask yourself? We have a couple. How has the reliability been? Do you still like the car? If the answers are good, and yes, the answer is "yes" it is worth it. Here is why....if you go to buy a new car, let's say 30K or so, the dollars lost are $2,400 in sales tax, not counting the immediate loss of value, and a payment of $500 or so (unless you can just write that check). If you want to calculate the cost for the year on that repair, it is $175.00 per month, for only 1 year or $5.85 per day for you to utilize a car that you are already familiar with and registration is affordable! In short, there is a point in a cars life when you have to look at the value as ownership value over selling value. Cars are basically public transportation that you can utilize whenever you want, to go wherever you want, any time you want. So if you can determine what your cost per mile works out to be, you will see that even with repairs, your older car is more likely "worth it"

Synthetic oil vs. Conventional oil THE CONTROVERSY!

A question that our customers ask is “What do you think about synthetic oil?”  Our OPINION goes a little something like this..... We like synthetic oils. It is a better quality oil by far. Molecularly it does not break down like petroleum based or conventional oil, which means it is fighting against metal wear. We would suggest that everyone convert to synthetic oil. That being said, there is the idea that it lasts twice or three times as long in there as conventional oil, which molecularly is true, but it still will burn away because it is oil. When oil is new, it is a beautiful golden liquid, if you pour a little bit in a dish and try to light it on fire, it is not easy to do. Anyone who has changed their own oil, knows that when it comes out....it is anything but beautiful looking. It is black and stains anything it gets on. This blackness is a combination of fuel and carbon which is a naturally occurring event inside a combustion engine. If you pour this into a dish and attempt to light it on fire, it may result in a smoldering flame. The fuel and carbon that is infused in the oil IS combustible. This is why the oil will burn out of the engine if left in there for long periods of time (miles). We have found that somewhere between 4,000 to 5,000 miles, depending upon engine age, this seems to start occurring. The newer car service schedules have seemed to stretch between 5,000 to 7,500 miles between oil services, which usually lead to the inevitable 500 to 1,000 miles late visit to the shop :-) That is 8,500 miles or more in some cases!  This has less affect on newer low mile engines, but as miles are accumulated, the metal wear that IS occurring with the longer intervals will now start to show, with oil not being on the dipstick after 4,000 miles. Some manufacturers have up to 8 quarts of oil in the engine, to make sure some is still in there at those longer intervals! The bottom line the oil is burning out of the engine which will always cause damage to things, catalytic converters, spark plugs, even air quality.

     Even though synthetic oil is more costly than conventional oil, we would recommend changing it at normal 3,750 to 5,000 mile increments still. This way, it does not get a chance to “blacken up” severely and while it is in there, it is doing a fantastic job. We have vehicles coming into our shop with over 300,000 miles on them, and because of timely oil changes, the oil that comes out is not "stained tar" resulting in limited engine wear over those many miles. It truly is cheap insurance for your $20,000 to $60,000 investment in the vehicle. So if you intend on keeping your vehicle around with you and not having to carry around spare oil to make sure it still has some in it. Get that oil changed every 3,750 to 5,000 miles like clockwork WITH OR WITHOUT synthetic oil.

Dealer or Independent????

We are asked this question quite a bit, so we decided to write down our OPINION on this subject. Firstly, a dealer is a great option if you do not have a solid "independent specialist" within reasonable distance of convenience. The dealer offers all high quality OEM (original equipment parts). Their skill set is generally good. There is however a big curve of skill set at a dealership. There are "just started today" low dollar apprentices all the way to high caliber/paid diagnosticians or Masters of their trade. When you take a car in for routine maintenance at a dealership, the odds that your vehicle lands in the "masters" or high cost bay is usually pretty slim. They are working on more complex work. Everyone needs to start somewhere, but at a solid independent specialist, the owner is usually one of those "masters" that went out on their own, so if they are training a newbie, you still have the "masters" eyes on your vehicle when even the simplest of tasks (oil changes, etc.) are performed. They are usually using high caliber OEM parts as well. Ultimately, in today's world of information at your fingertips where you can price many things side by side, service and skill set is the hidden price factor. Would you now still be willing to pay the same price for the same service, one performed by a master, the other by a possible apprentice on his/her first week on the job without the OWNERS name on the line?

Maintenance.....truth...or lies!

Hello all!  This is our first Blog post. We just wanted to touch up on our theory/opinions on true maintenance of a vehicle. Since we are Honda vehicle specialists, our view on maintenance goes back a long way. When most vehicles were taken into the shop to be "fixed", certain manufacturers had a "maintenance schedule" for their vehicles. This brought about statements like.."Wow, they last forever".. and "It has how many miles on it?" To say that fluid maintenance and adjustments are important is an understatement. The cleaner you can keep a fluid, the less wear will occur, period. It cost approximately 10 cents less per mile to drive a maintained vehicle as opposed to the exact vehicle non maintained due to premature repairs. If you let your quality repair shop maintain your vehicle on average 3 to 4 days out of the 365 days in a year, you should have a vehicle that runs well with a high reliability factor.
More on this subject later...