In this episode of Drive Radio, we dive into the world of vehicle performance and electrical troubleshooting. We start with a lively discussion on high-performance cars, setting the tone with impressive stats and the allure of horsepower. Then, we shift gears to tackle listener Bob’s perplexing issue with vehicle lights. Justin, Ken, and Josh guide him step-by-step through diagnosing and potentially resolving the troubling electrical problems that plague many car owners.
SPEAKER 18 :
It’s a mighty fancy automobile. Oh, she’s a real road king, all right. Zero to 60 in 7.5. She’ll do a quarter mile, 13.40. 390 horsepower, 500 foot-pounds of torque. Whatever that is. Performance and image, that’s what it’s all about.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s no such thing as a stupid question. This is Drive Radio. All of your automotive questions are just one phone call away. 303-477-5600. Drive Radio is made possible by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. To find one near you, go to drive-radio.com. Now, Drive Radio on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re back, KLZ 560 with Drive Radio. It’s Justin and Ken and Josh here. Let’s go back to Bob. Sorry we had to cut you off, but let’s go back to… That’s okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s okay, guys. You said you had something to talk to me about.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so let’s go from the beginning because I wasn’t here. I don’t think any of us were here on the original show. So what symptoms are you having? And we’ll just see if there’s anything else that you haven’t tried or another way that John hasn’t led you down. We’ll go from there. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, he just told me to check things out really good and, you know, check the ground and do this and do that, check some fuses, and I did. And then he asked me if the lights were flashing in front. All those lights work really good up there, the headlights, the turn signals up there. Now, my daytime running lamps, they don’t work, but that doesn’t make any difference, he didn’t think, with the flashing. Okay. Okay. Because those sockets were actually burned up pretty good, so I’m going to have to replace there. But, like, when I’m driving and my, you know, my turns, you know, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, really, really fast. Then if I push on my, if I leave off my brake, then it just, they kind of blink normal a little bit. But as soon as I push on my brake, they just go wacky. Then my lights in the back go, like I said. from the red down to the yellow, red, yellow, back up and down, back up and down, like really crazy.
SPEAKER 10 :
So from the turn signal to the brake lights?
SPEAKER 05 :
On the rear, on the rear.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, on the rear, sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
And then also the lights from the license plate, those things do the same thing. They’re flashing too, okay. Yeah, and then up above, you know, for the hazards, above the cab. These were looking pretty good. And then last night when I was out there, I put my foot on the brake. I’m in my garage with the door down because it was so cold. And so I’m looking back there and then all of a sudden my red ones go out and I said, you’ve got to be kidding me. So I take that thing apart and I got it in the house. In fact, I got it on my desk right here. And those two bulbs, the center ones were burned out, but the two clear ones on each side that light up for when you’re looking for stuff, you know. They’re just fine, but the other ones were really burnt out. And I don’t know why they go out all of a sudden. So I have done a lot of things to this trying to figure out, you know. And I’ve even looked into, you know, like I said, the ground. John said try to find, you know, get the ground. And like I said, I got underneath. My wife pulled something up for me. And I got down there underneath and, uh, I think I got, it’s kind of behind the block of the engine down low, just, you know, right above the, the seat where I sit at a little bit where my feet are straight up. And, uh, and I got those wires, I cleaned them up beautiful yesterday.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
So they’re all done and hooked back up.
SPEAKER 10 :
We were kind of, we were kind of talking about it over the break and do you have anything plugged into the trailer hitch connector?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, but I’ll tell you what I did do.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, not for a long time. Yeah, not for a long time. I didn’t plug anything into there.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
But what I will say, I did yesterday my adapter for my little boat. I did plug that in just so I could use my light to see if I can find some readings. And all my flashers work when I put the needle in there. And then when I put it into the silver post, you know, the ground, I don’t get a reading on it at all.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I got it grounded real good. I got the clamp grounded real good because, like I said, when I put it in with the flashers, my light goes on and off. But when I put it into the silver post, I couldn’t get a ground. Okay. And that is the ground, correct? That’s coming out, that silver thing?
SPEAKER 10 :
Ground is, yeah, I think it’s like seven and a half. On the seven pin. Yeah. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER 05 :
On the outside, yes. When I use that four-way plug, you know, just four flat ones.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And then that’s the silver one that sticks out. Oh, yeah, okay. And I did get underneath. Yeah, okay. So shouldn’t I get some type of a light?
SPEAKER 10 :
It should have a ground on that. Yeah, you should have a ground on that. Shouldn’t that light up? No, it won’t light up. It won’t light up? Well, that’s the ground. Yeah, it’s the ground. But is that a factory-installed 7-pin connector back there?
SPEAKER 05 :
That is factory. That is factory, yes. And I got a cap on it. It’s always covered. Sure. Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s good.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I blew it out. I took my air compressor, blew it out. See if there was maybe some dirt or something. Sure.
SPEAKER 10 :
probably uh i would follow that harness up to your to where that plugs into the rest of the tail light harness uh i believe it’s on the driver’s side up on the frame anyway and it’s you know it’s it’s attached to the frame it’s probably a you know It’s probably got 8, 10, 14 wires in it, something like that possibly. Okay, starting in the back?
SPEAKER 05 :
Starting in the back and go all the way up towards the front?
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, it’s in the back. It’s in the back on the frame. So where that harness comes off the trailer connector, go up and check that multi-wired connector that that plugs into because that feeds your taillights and your brake lights and everything lighting back there. And it sounds like we’ve got some circuits that are combined, so there’s shorting back there is what’s happening.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, so the round black thing that if you would plug a trailer into, it’s got all the wires behind it. Okay, now what do I get behind there? Where do I follow it at?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, follow where it goes to the next connector as you go up into there and follow that up. and then see if you’ve got any kind of rubbing on anything back there. Broken sheathing. Right, any kind of melting, any kind of anything.
SPEAKER 05 :
It would be real close to that plug-in. If I go straight up, you say?
SPEAKER 10 :
You just have to follow it. Yeah, it kind of attaches on back there and stuff. I mean, it should be right around that spare tire area, so on the driver’s side where the main connector comes in. Yeah, I would inspect all that for shorting or any kind of corrosion or anything like that in there. And it might not be the connector. It might be in the harness. But, yeah, look for any damage to that harness.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I untaped it, and then it has all that plastic stuff around it, and I did all that, and I tried to get some readings going into that black wire, but there’s a white wire back there. Does that go into the black wire? Would that eventually hook into the black ground? What would that white wire be? It’s pretty big. It’s bigger than the rest. that might be a constant power so yeah it could be if it’s a big wire yeah it’s probably not okay around yeah so yeah but do you think what i did so far up there on that ground do you think i did that right yeah if you cleaned it up yeah and everything looks good there yeah you should be good so yeah okay now you’re talking about a box maybe above that uh guys um How about a taillight junction box? That’s right above where you guys were talking. That would be your first place to look?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’s where I would look next. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
There’s three white ones and one blue one up above. There are four plug-ins right above that, and that’s where it plugs in at right from there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
I took my air compressor, blew all that out too.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
And took some of that whiter cleaner and spread. But I didn’t pull them off yet. Should I unplug them and inspect them?
SPEAKER 10 :
Probably.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
And also try it too. So if it’s going to each taillight, you know, you might isolate the problem too. So by having one unplugged, see if you still have the issue. Right. Exactly. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Isolate it. Okay. Pull the bulbs out of one side and just work the other side at a time. Is that what you mean?
SPEAKER 04 :
Unplug it at that connector. So when you have that connector unplugged, see if you still have the issue then because that should isolate the taillights on it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Up above there, those connectors I’m talking about.
SPEAKER 04 :
Try those one at a time and see if you still have the problem. So if the problem goes away, then you can run towards that taillight and run through the wires and then get to the taillight and see if you have any issues.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. And you guys have a station, right? Right. Are you the guys with the station? Repair shop? Alltech Auto, or is that not your place?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, that’s Ken’s place. We’re Toontech Automotive.
SPEAKER 05 :
Toontech. North Aurora. Okay. Aurora. Oh, my God. Okay, well. Okay, now, if I don’t find this problem out here at all, John did mention my shifter itself.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, where you turn signals on. Mm-hmm. Is that possible? Well, the front’s working. It turns them on, and then my windshield wipers work, my water pump works. Would that still be a problem with my shifter? I mean…
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t… To turn single assembly? I doubt it. No, not if the front’s working correctly.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think Ken’s going down the right path. It’s something in the rear of the car. Something in the rear. Tail light, brake light. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Circuits are shorter. You know what kind of a price job that is, guys. So that’s why I appreciate that. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. So now, final, finest problem. Would you guys recommend me just going and getting a…
SPEAKER 10 :
a diagnostic test done somewhere that’s gonna be yeah if you can’t figure it out yeah it’s gonna take him or somebody that can get it depends on how many wires you want to start testing right yeah right there’s a lot of them you’ve only got a 100 miles of wire in there exactly yeah i know yeah okay well uh
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, so start with that then, huh, guys? Just go to that junction box. Yep, try to isolate. Yep, side to side. Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. And what are you guys’ names again?
SPEAKER 04 :
Josh and Justin and Ken. Josh and Justin and Ken. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you. And we’re going to go to break right now. Thank you.
SPEAKER 18 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re back. It’s Drive Radio on KLZ 560. We’ve got Ken and Justin, and this is Josh. Let’s go straight to the phones with Eric. Eric, you have a comment about batteries.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, hey, guys. Hey. Hey, so caller a little bit ago was saying about, you know, that a lot of times with modern vehicles, the systems, you know, the way your voltage regulators are, they’ll cook some of these AGM and lithium ion batteries. And one of the things on that is, A lot of the modern vehicles have a variable voltage charging system. So they jump around quite a bit. And my Frontier, my 15 Frontier has it. I guess I never gave thought to it because the factory battery was lead acid. Well, when I popped the battery out in 2021, one week before or 10 days before the four-year anniversary on the battery, I started having starting issues. Like, well, all right, well, you know, everything else seems good. Let’s go ahead and swap out the battery. Took the battery up, and it was bad. Put the new battery in, and I was reading up on some stuff on the forums about it, because I was like, that seems awful weird that it would have killed, that I had two dead cells on it. And I started reading this stuff, and I have a scan gauge through it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Did it lose you?
SPEAKER 07 :
With the variable voltage system plugged in, when you start the truck, it immediately jumps to almost 15 volts. And then as you’re driving, it’s constantly all over the place. I’ve seen it go as low as 12.5 volts, showing the charge, and it jumps around. And I unplugged that following these discussions, and I unplugged the system. taped it off, and on some vehicles, you can de-pin them, de-pin it also, vicious you feel, but on mine, I unplugged the VDCF, I stay pretty consistent charging 14, 14.1, it doesn’t really jump around, you know, if I’m stopped at a light, at idle, it might drop down a little bit to, you know, like 13.6, 13.7, but Otherwise, it stays consistent right around 14 to 14.1.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that’s because you unplugged a wire from one of the connectors?
SPEAKER 07 :
I unplugged the variable voltage charging system. Oh, I see. Deal. Okay. You had cut out a little bit earlier, so… Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah, by disconnecting that, and apparently this is common, and as I started reading up on this… I saw it on one of the forums for what trustworthiness they are sometimes. But then I started reading up on it. I’ve seen on other forums for other vehicles, especially in the enthusiast crowd, that it’s a fairly common thing when you unplug it. And I guess some of the manufacturers on some of the AGM and some of the lithium batteries recommend, if you have a variable voltage system, to disconnect it. Because it can impact how the batteries charge.
SPEAKER 10 :
Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. If it’s not designed for that or something along those lines, that could sure make a difference. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And another quick thing at the end of the 10 o’clock hour when you guys were talking about these power walls and whatnot for your home. So I’ve got a friend that lives due east, northeast of Bennett. And he is totally off the grid out there now. He’s got… He’s on well. He’s got 15 or 16 solar panels that he runs off of. And then he has a lithium ion base. He’s made his own battery system. He’s got, I want to say it’s 25 or 30 batteries that his solar panels during the day, he’s not really using them, but they keep his batteries charged. And he’s been on that system for three years. And, you know, it’s something that’s easily done yourself. There’s a lot of stuff online on how to do it. You should typically get five to ten years out of one of these batteries depending on how you’re using them.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s pretty good, ten years. Good to know. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, because in some ways it’s no different than with your RV, right? You know, you’ve got your regular starting batteries. You’ve got your house batteries. Sure. And depending on how you’re caring for your house batteries, you know, they’ll last a while.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. As long as they’re being maintained, yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, as long as they’re being properly maintained. So just a couple of battery thoughts for you guys.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, great. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for the information. Yeah, it’s good to know.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yep. All right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
What’s your initial cost there? 30 times?
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know. 200 bucks, six grand in batteries. And the solar panels and all that. But if you’re not paying for any electricity, then… Oh, what’s your electrical cost?
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s a… Inverter, I mean, getting things converted. Yeah, that’s… I mean, but, yeah. He hasn’t had any issues with it for three years. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s a pretty good setup.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, exactly. As long as the sun stays shining, he should be in good shape.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and if he’s way out in some rural area where they are going to charge you a lot of money to hook up initially to the power. Right, exactly. That’s the other part you could put into it.
SPEAKER 10 :
Depends on how they have to get that power to him. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Can you pay for a transformer or something like that? It could be real expensive.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and they charge by the foot to run it underground or above ground. Then they’re putting in poles if there is above ground power close by. Yeah, I mean, it’s, yeah, depending on how rural he is, it can sure add up quickly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’d be nice not to have to write a check to the electric company.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. Well, and you’re just relying on yourself at that point.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, exactly. That probably takes a lot of bit of work, though, to keep everybody maintained and up.
SPEAKER 10 :
You’re not running a welder. You’re not running, you know, compressors and things like that. I mean, maybe, maybe you could.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then how often do you get to run the dryer or the washing machine or any of that stuff?
SPEAKER 10 :
They’re probably on propane, so they could have a gas dryer still. But yeah, I mean, but yeah, you’re still running those motors and all that stuff. So yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
Quite a bit of stuff.
SPEAKER 10 :
Or just line dry it, you know. That’s what a lot of people still do is line dry it.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not the biggest fan of it. It seems to take forever.
SPEAKER 06 :
It wouldn’t work very well in a day.
SPEAKER 04 :
You just have a very stiff clothes. Sounds good. Exactly. All right. So let’s go on break right now. Go a little early and we’ll have time for the next caller.
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SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re back. Let’s go straight to the phones. We have John and Cheyenne with a question about his Ram. Good morning, John.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, Ken. Hey. I’m not plowing snow today. You’re not, huh? We’re sweeping it, if any. The sun’s melting it off for us here, though.
SPEAKER 08 :
We got like an inch, and there was so little water in it that a push broom pushed it right off the deck.
SPEAKER 06 :
Doesn’t the wind just blow it away up there?
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s one of those scary things when it’s this cold, there’s no wind.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s probably a good thing.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. That air’s too heavy.
SPEAKER 09 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. So my 11 Ram 1500, I’ve been chasing this short forever. When I hit a bump, all of a sudden I get my ABS, my service four-wheel drive, and one of the other lights come on. And when I had it scanned, the guy where I work, we have a shop, and the lead mechanic, he’s got top-of-the-line snap-on scan tool. He scanned it. He said it’s left rear wheel sensor. I said, all right, that’s probably a 20-minute fix. Changed that out. Still does the same thing. When you hit a bump, like I’ll start it right now, and it’ll turn off. It’ll be off. Hit a bump. So I know I got a short somewhere. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to find it.
SPEAKER 06 :
You guys think short or reluctor wheel issue?
SPEAKER 04 :
Probably short because that harness on that truck runs forever. So, I mean, there’s a little bit of harness that you probably got with the sensor. But then, that’s the thing. I mean, it could be from anywhere back at the left rear wheel speed sensor to all the way up where it comes to the, you know, front control module on that thing. Right. Or ABS control module on it. So, I mean.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. Is there any… Any place where you’ve seen it more than others that I might have like a rubbed spot or a short?
SPEAKER 04 :
Anytime you find it. So what I usually do is I run the harness. And any place you can find an area where it either gets pulled tight or it flexes, you can see, you know, like usually that’s the clean part of the harness because it moves. Like the dirty part is usually not always it because it’s stationary, you know. So you want to look for clean parts of the harness because, you know, you live on a gravel road, so there’s probably mud on all the harness, right? So I would start any place that’s clean. Then that’s where I would look for it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay. All right. So that’s my one question on that. For the first caller today, I have an 80 Chevy plow truck, and that plow motor is hard on the charging system. So I’ve had to replace the alternator a couple of times. And there’s an auto parts place. Can I say the name, the brand? Sure.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Vance in Cheyenne, he’s still got a tester where I’ll take the alternator in if it’s not charging, and he can test it in like five minutes and tell me whether it’s good or not.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and that’s kind of one of those things where they might not be able to test that alternator, but they might. It’s just so hard to say what they have anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s why I’m saying that first guy that called early this morning, I was driving into Laramie, but he might want to Just pull that alternator out. I mean, if it’s as close to the 80 Chevy as mine, that’s, what, two bolts and one plug pretty much? Right, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
And one big wire. That’s it. That one might have had three bolts, but, yeah, either way, yeah, there weren’t very many.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah. It’s like two minutes. Yeah, and it’s right up top, so, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, so other question. This is for an auto sale. My wife and I were looking for a new vehicle. Well, my cousin described it 20 years ago as an unimproved goat path. It’s a game trail. It’s a game trail. Okay, it’s a two-track and it’s bumpy. We need high ground clearance because also we get a lot of snow. And the only SUVs I can find with a third-row seat with a high ground clearance is either the Tahoe for the sequoia off-road package if i was going to go with one of those brand new because i buy everything new and drive it till the wheels fall off sure just go away you know my 11 ram has 239 000 and still running strong john which engine are they running in the in the new sequoia um it’s that hybrid
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Now it’s hybrid. Yeah, I mean, they’re having trouble with that, but GM’s also having trouble with their V8. You’re kind of in a hard spot there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
If you can, I’d almost go back several years while they work out these kinks on both of those newer motors, if you can. I understand when you buy a new vehicle, you get a much better guarantee from the manufacturer, but downtime also costs money, too.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
One more. Limp your car you’re in now a few more years.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I’ve got the 11 Ram 1500. My wife is a 15 Ram 1500. And both of them are fine. And then a Toyota 4Runner. Okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think your best bet on that. No, that’s okay, John. I think your best bet on those two vehicles, if that’s kind of what you’re looking at, go drive, you know, see if you can drive one for go rent one or drive one. Yeah. Drive each one anyway and get, you know, take it home, take it on your roads and things like that and see how it does. and see which one fits you the best, whether you’re putting in car seats or whatever. It’s putting in hay bales or a boat.
SPEAKER 08 :
We have two granddaughters, of course. They’re teenagers. We want something with a third-row seat if we’ve got to put six people in.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, makes sense.
SPEAKER 08 :
And high ground clearance, third-row seat, you’re kind of limited.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
There’s not a lot out there yet. You know, it’s crazy how all the SUVs have now gone to just being, you know, fancy mom cars.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, and even the smaller SUVs, you know, they say third row seat, but, you know, you’re lucky to be able to get one small person in. Yeah, exactly, in that back seat.
SPEAKER 06 :
What kind of money are you looking to spend on a new one, John? Are you 70, 80, 90?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you know, that’s what the other thing I was – we’re not fancy vehicle people, you know. If it’s got four-wheel drive and a third-row seat, I’m happy. I looked at the Tahoe LS, and they’re going 65 to 70. And then the Sequoias are up around 75 to 85 because of that hybrid engine.
SPEAKER 06 :
My personal opinion, and this is strictly my opinion, is I would get the GM 5.3. Stay away from the 6.2. Do the 5.3. find something that’s one owner deep in service history. And if you’re already planning on spending that kind of money, buy one that’s got less than, you know, 50,000 miles and delete the active fuel management system. And I think right there, you’ve got something you can put two, three, 400,000 miles on if you want to.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Okay. So then question, is that something that you guys could do? Cause you’re right in Fort Collins that you guys could help me locate if I needed to.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can email me, justin at ridgelineautobrokers.com. I’ve got a Tahoe right now, but it may be more mileage than what you’re looking for. It’s 120, 130. It does not have the active fuel management deleted. So, I mean, you’re another four or five grand to delete that to make it ultra reliable.
SPEAKER 08 :
Why are we deleting that? Because John, I’ve heard him say yes, and then I’ve heard him say other times no. If you do the oil changes and everything correctly, you don’t have to believe it.
SPEAKER 06 :
If you’re changing the oil, but the problem is you don’t know. I mean, even if Carfax says the thing’s been religiously maintained, it wasn’t owned by you. So, yes, I think those systems are working fine. I think they have been well built if the oil was changed religiously, but… I don’t know. What’s your thought on that, Josh?
SPEAKER 04 :
If it’s used yet, you don’t know what they did, how much they changed the oil ahead of time. I think if you bought it new and you do the oil changes on time, I’ve seen it where those systems make it forever, but then usually the ones that they don’t do the oil changes on are the ones that we have issues with.
SPEAKER 06 :
You can’t inspect the veins of the oil passages and know how clean they really are. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
So then with that engine, I’ve never really. So when I got my 4Runner new, it’s a 23, John recommended EPR with every oil change. Yep. Religiously. And I do that. Is that something like you would have to do then with that Tahoe also?
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. And again, that’s like a 5,000-mile oil change. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
And if you do buy a new vehicle, don’t run the EPR in it until you get up to 10,000 miles.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, right. Yeah, John told me that, too, when I bought the 4Runner. He said, wait until you get to 10,000, then check an oil change. Yep, perfect. But that was one of the things that annoyed me with Toyota. Because they told me I didn’t have to change the oil until 10,000 miles. And I’m like, that’s insane.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I mean, their liability is only until 60K, right? You know, anything can make it 60K nowadays.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I thought it was 100 on the drivetrain. But I might be wrong.
SPEAKER 06 :
It may be, and anything can nowadays make it that long, and then their liability of it is gone after that. But they’re trying to lower the initial cost of ownership. That’s something you see when you’re looking at new vehicles is the cost, and then the cost of ownership. They’re reducing the cost of ownership by making lifetime fluids or longer service intervals.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, my 11 Ram with 239,000 miles in religious – fluid changes, it’s still got 239,000 miles and starts every morning for me to go to work. Yeah, I love that. The only problem is when I hit a bump and those lights come on, now I don’t have cruise control.
SPEAKER 09 :
Mechanically, we’re good. Electronic glitch, huh?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, you know, and it’s one of those things that it doesn’t affect the vehicle the way it runs or anything. It’s just I lose my cruise control and I drive the interstate every day for 20 miles. And we’ve Although I learned how to drive without cruise control. I’m kind of spoiled now.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. Exactly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Prefer not to have to do that.
SPEAKER 08 :
All right. Well, I’ll bring you up to speed if I find that short.
SPEAKER 04 :
Sounds great, John. Thank you. Hey, thanks. Thanks. Have a good day. And with that, let’s go on break.
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SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re back. It’s KLZ 560 with Drive Radio, and I’m here with Justin from Ridgeline Auto Brokers and Ken from Toontech. So what do you guys think of the cold? You think it’s…
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I’m looking out the window here, and it looks like we’ve got some much drier roads.
SPEAKER 04 :
We do this morning.
SPEAKER 06 :
Maybe I don’t have to deal with the multi-car pileups that I had to deal with on I-25 on my way in. Hopefully they got all that stuff cleaned up by now.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right, exactly. Yeah, and I must have come in just a little bit later than you guys, and it was fine to the south anyway. Good. Yeah, so hopefully no issues. But, yeah, you know, one of the things we should probably touch on too, like if – cooling systems of course you know antifreeze things like that making sure that system is working good one of the things that i would say to look for would be if your heater quits blowing hot that usually means it’s lower on coolant or it could be anyway it could be one of the things that’s causing that. If it’s low on coolant, usually your first, your first indication would be your heater not to work.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that’s because it’s the highest, one of the higher. Okay. Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
It circulates through that, the highest level. So if it drops a little bit, it’ll quit circulating through that sometimes. And then you’ll know it for sure. If you throttle it up to accelerate and then all of a sudden you get heat, then you know it’s low. And so be sure and check that and make sure your coolant level is good. And then make sure you’re freeze temperature is good too. And of course that’s always a good thing to check this time of year because like I was saying with tires, they tend to leak more because there’s less pliability, right? Rubber hoses on your cooling system are the same way. So they might be, you know, might not have even been seeping or anything before, but now with the cooler weather, they’re going to, they could start to seep and your level could drop a little bit.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, you know, that same point with, you know, we were talking about, you know, the cost of ownership on these newer vehicles and coolant. I mean, they’re all saying a hundred thousand mile coolant. I mean, do you guys think these coolants are actually going that long? The glycol level staying good. The pH isn’t dropping for a hundred K or is it a time thing? Yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
I think from what we have been monitoring, I think it’s more of a time thing. Yeah. I think it can go a lot of miles. I think it’s just more time that builds up more, you know, the alkalinity and stuff like that changes. And then the freeze points, I haven’t really noticed change much, you know.
SPEAKER 04 :
No.
SPEAKER 10 :
I haven’t seen that, you know, the alcohol or the glycol or whatever doesn’t seem to evaporate and things like that but you know it’s one of those things where it’s just good to keep an eye on make sure you don’t get a you know high alkalinity or you know i have issues with it wanting to attack your cooling system from the inside out right yeah we’ve been doing a lot of ev cooling services lately on like the the kias the hyundais
SPEAKER 04 :
And even the Priuses, which are hybrids.
SPEAKER 06 :
Priuses, we’re seeing that a lot. And they’re actually calling for coolant system flushes pretty frequently, like 30K.
SPEAKER 04 :
They are.
SPEAKER 06 :
Services on some of that stuff. So I don’t know if that’s because it’s going through, like, thinner veins in the battery.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is. I mean, the batteries are super thin, the ports, you know, as it flows through there. And I think, you know, they don’t want to lose a multi-thousand dollar battery, you know. Right, right. a service that’s, what, $150, you know, something like that. So it’s a lot easier to make sure we have the best coolant in there and something that flows through. Because if you ever, you know, take apart these hybrid batteries or the EV batteries, the ports of the coolant, they’re just minuscule, you know, like tips of a pen, and you’ve got to get this coolant to go through it. Right. And also, you know, the thing is that if you have one of the cells get hot because it’s not getting coolant, then the whole car pretty much shuts down because – it’ll overheat and shut the whole system down. So they’re just trying to not have issues with the batteries.
SPEAKER 06 :
Makes sense. And that’s like breakdown of like the hoses flowing through the coolant? Maybe clogging it?
SPEAKER 04 :
The whole system. And you have so many different metals, so many different parts, you know, plastic. It all breaks down. It all breaks down over time. Everything wants to return to its natural state, you know. So it all breaks down. And you have so many different types of metals you can have. The other thing is you can have the whole thing where it builds up an electrical charge. It becomes a battery, basically, on its own. Yeah, the electrolysis through the cooling system. Exactly. And when you have different types of metals, that leads to electrolysis. But, yeah, that’s one of the things they say you don’t have to maintain them, but…
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, there is maintenance, but, yeah, not oil changes necessarily. Right. But, yeah, they still have batteries, brakes, wipers, you know, cooling system.
SPEAKER 04 :
Three-series Tesla, lower control arms, so.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and that Ioniq 5 that we just serviced had a front motor and rear motor.
SPEAKER 04 :
It did.
SPEAKER 06 :
And this 30K service, we did cool it, and we did drive motors. Front drive motor was clean.
SPEAKER 04 :
Pristine.
SPEAKER 06 :
But that rear drive motor, you said when you did that, you said it was surprisingly dark already.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it was like a rear end on a car that— gone a hundred thousand miles it was just pitch black and i don’t know why because it kind of the same setup so i couldn’t really figure out why your rear wheel bias or could be i don’t know it was weird clutch packs in there for that’s what i would think
SPEAKER 10 :
some sort of mechanical yeah on it but it it was definitely it was night and day the difference between the front and the rear drive motors so they’re not exempt from service by any means maybe less service yeah yeah there’s a lot less yeah maybe less frequent and yeah things like that so yep and so yeah and that was just one of the things that i was thinking of you know just cooling systems but it is you know because people say well their heater’s not working it’s like well That’s usually the first thing we like to check is make sure that that level is good. And that’s something that somebody could do on their own, too. And obviously, if it’s low, it’s good to get it checked in or get it checked and see if there’s something leaking or something along those lines because it usually doesn’t just go away. No, it doesn’t. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
That heater core always seems to be the weak spot when it comes to dirt and debris, too.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, they are more apt to get restricted.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s like the most expensive thing to repair or replace, and it’s so small.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right, exactly. Like Josh was saying with the batteries, they have such small ports through them because they want the heat expansion or the— exchange to be maximum and right and then all of a sudden oh we got a little debris okay a little more and it’s like okay can’t flush it out either so those coolant exchanges are cheaper than ripping the dash out of the range right for sure yeah exactly especially anymore we pull the whole dash then we have to pull the whole hvac box out of it and then there’s
SPEAKER 04 :
It feels like there’s always an hour and a half of just ripping the box apart to get to the core anymore. Like, they don’t make it easy. Right. It used to be we had, like, a door. We’d get the dash back on the older Fords and open a little door and slide it out and put the new one in, and now it’s pull the whole assembly, put it on the bench, and spend a few hours taking it apart and put it back together.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right, exactly. And replace any kind of worn parts that might be in there, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, yeah, because doors, all the doors and all the door actuators anymore. So it’s not cheap when you go in there. Yeah, right. Exactly.
SPEAKER 06 :
Get all the jelly beans out of the box.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Everything that’s fallen down those vents over the years.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I mean, the Subaru’s where they had those upper vents. I don’t know how many times. The driver’s side has heat and the passenger’s side doesn’t, and you look down there and there’s a pin or something slid down and is binding the door on it. Something so small. Like you said, jelly beans, I don’t know, French fries, all kinds of good stuff.
SPEAKER 10 :
Leaves and rodent debris. Yeah, exactly, and you pull the cabin filter out and it’s got a stack of leaves that have been in there for 10 years. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you can pretty much grow a garden on that cabin filter. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER 06 :
So those cabin filters are pre-airbox or are they post-airbox?
SPEAKER 04 :
They’re usually pre-airbox. So when it comes in, they’re supposed to catch it before it goes to the fan and pushes it all out.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, so that’s helping keep those doors free and everything.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s why a lot of times when you pull a cabin filter, I like to have a little vacuum there because as you pull it, all the leaves and everything that kind of came from the outside would drop in that fan and then sometimes kind of get a harmonic and it’ll drive somebody insane.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, and then you’ve got to pull the blower out and clean it and stuff like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
So it’s worth doing those cabin filters. It is. Yeah, I would say on a regular basis. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, you know. 10,000 to 15,000 miles, I would say. And it gets you better flow, too, airflow.
SPEAKER 09 :
It does.
SPEAKER 10 :
So especially on a day like today when you need that extra volume coming out, it definitely makes a big difference.
SPEAKER 06 :
It seems to be often if we buy a used car from the auction that we’re getting ready to sell and there’s a smell to it that we don’t want, a lot of times it’s hidden in that cabin air filter or something so simple. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. It’s doing its job. and stuff like that, a lot of times it catches all that ash in there. So by swapping out the cabin filter, you get rid of that smoky smell that we get a lot.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s always fun when Napa does the competition. Right. You send in the picture who’s got the most dirty one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right, exactly. Sounds good. Well, it looks like we’re about the end of the show today. So thank you very much for coming down, Ken, and hanging out with us.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, this is great. Yeah, thanks. Always good to be here. Yeah, thanks, Ken. Thanks, Josh.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thanks, Justin, for coming down. Thanks for hosting for John. Yeah, this is awesome. Backup crew in today. That’s right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hope everyone stays warm today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Drive safe. That’s right. And the Broncos win tomorrow, right? Oh, please. It’s going to be a nail-biter. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for listening today. This is KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 03 :
Still haven’t had enough? Go to drive-radio.com, email your questions and comments, download previous programs, and find lots of useful information, including your nearest Colorado Select Auto Care Center. That’s drive-radio.com. Thanks for listening to Drive Radio, sponsored by the member shops of Colorado Select Auto Care Centers. On KLZ 560.
