Innovative Autocare Blog

     Batteries tend to fail in extreme cold or extreme hot weather.  I have also seen many batteries that will start the car but fail testing. Sometimes we will see a vehicle with too small a battery installed.  It’s no different than having a weak battery.  A weak battery may get you by until you leave the lights on or your starter gets weak too. Then you are stranded.

         Inspect your battery when you check your oil.  The battery should be clean and the sides of the body should be straight with no bowing. The battery should fit the mounting area closely. If you can see extra space in the battery tray area where the battery sits, it is probably not the correct battery. The battery should also be mounted firmly to the battery tray. A loose battery can damage other components or move out of place and create an alternate path for current flow draining the battery. I have even seen rooster-tails of sparks flying when a loose battery made contact with the body as the car made a turn!!! Look for white powder on the mounting terminals. White powder is corrosion. Corrosion can eat the terminals until they break and loose contact leading to a no start. Corrosion can also drain the battery by creating an electronic path from the positive terminal to any ground source.  Most batteries are dated. If your battery is more than five years old you should have it tested.

      If you do not see your battery under the hood, it may be in the trunk or under the rear seat.  These are no different than underhood mounted batteries. Vehicle manufacturers move the battery for better weight distribution and better handling.

       There are two types of battery tests. Carbon pile load testing and electronic load testing. I have seen batteries pass one test and fail the other. For a free battery test, stop by Innovative Autocare.

     When I worked at a Ford dealer in the late 1980′s we still had all the part and repair information manuals for the 1966 model Fords. The repair book was just under 1,000 pages in an over-sized format; it included repair instructions and labor information for all the American cars and Volkswagons too. Today my Alldata system contains 47 dvds (a dvd holds about 96,000 letter-size documents) with repair instructions and labor information for most models sold in the United States. I also subscribe to Identafix and IATN (International Auto Technician’s Network) for additional information.

         In 1966  Ford had 7 different models including F-Series trucks and E-Series vans. In 2006 Ford has 11 different model vehicles! Toyota imported a very small number of cars in the 1960′s. Then Lexus and Scion spun off from the parent Toyota group, creating even more variety.  Now they are the #1 sold vehicle in the world.        

      Imagine how much information a technician needs to access to repair your vehicle! Different vehicles require different tools and different training, greatly increasing the investment required by your technician. A good technician will spend tens of thousands of dollars in tools and the repair shop will spend  HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in heavy equipment.

        Today’s technicians do not have an easy job. New manufacturers, new tools and new technologies can give the most skilled and experienced technician a case of information overload!!!

Innovative Autocare- Experts in foreign and domestic diagnostics and repair!

      Contemporary vehicles have stricter requirements than vehicles from 10 years ago. For example a 2010 Toyota Prius requires 0w20 motor oil. Installing a different weight oil can illuminate the check engine light and even cause a no start condition.

     When servicing automatic transmissions, coolant or differentials the situation gets worse.  There is at least 10 different automatic transmission fluids. Most are not interchangeable and prices vary greatly. Coolant and differential lubes are just as bad.

     In the past there was 10w30 or 10w40 motor oil stored in bulk containers and used on nearly every car. Ethel glycol coolant, Dexron automatic transmission fluid and GL5 gear lube were also universally used.  Imagine having 10 different weight motor oils each stored in a 275 gallon bulk container!!!!

     These varying and increasing costs for products will make that $25.00 oil change and all other fluid services at menu prices obsolete and impossible.

     Finances greatly influence our decision making process. Certainly hindsight is 20/20. When you are presented with a repair estimate one of the most important questions is: What will happen if I delay this repair?

      Last week we towed a 1997 Chevy Monte Carlo. The vehicle had a broken ball joint. When the ball joint broke, the tire and wheel assembly dented the fender and now the door contacts the fender when opening. The halfshaft was also damaged. The customer knew that her car needed ball joints but chose to delay the repair. The estimate for the ball joint repair was $147.00 parts and labor per side.  The price to replace the ball joint and halfshaft including towing was $351.00 not including the body damage!!! 

       We see this cascade of events often. Broken timing belts causing bent valves, Flat tires due to no tread, destroying wheels, ignored oil changes ran for 15,000 miles, ruining engines.  Remember the Fram oil filter commercial of a technician saying “pay me now or pay me later”?

        Innovative Autocare, the best auto repair in Akron. Extended warranty, personalized service and exact price.

1/17/12

Just had a 2006 Jeep Commander towed in. It is 20,000 miles past due for an oil change!!! The engine has valve and piston damaged which will require a rebuild or replacement. Regular maintenance would have prevented this and saved thousands of dollars.

     There are 3 types of professional auto repair shops. Each has positives and negatives associated with it. The first type is the dealership repair. They are usually very good and have all the specialty tools for the make of vehicle that they sell as new. You are required to go to the dealership to service new car warranty issues.  The biggest problem with dealerships is price. They are the most expensive and may be bound by contract to use only the parts sold in their parts department. They can be weak in their ability to service vehicles that they do not sell as new, due to a lack of training and experience servicing other brands.

       The second type is the franchise. Franchises are usually in the middle as far as price. Most franchises offer a regional or nationwide warranty.  Some franchises are limited in what services they offer.  They tend to focus on tires, brakes, suspensions and exhaust. Some refuse engine work and are less skilled with diagnostics.

     The third type is the independent repair shop. Price, services, quality and warranty can vary widely but they are generally cheapest. They may offer a nationwide warranty and they can buy parts as they choose to suit quality and/or price. The majority of repair shops in the United States are independent. A customer can be a big fish in a little pond and have a close relationship with employees. A good independent repair shop can offer complete service and accurate diagnostics. By not limiting what vehicles they service they tend to learn varied skills and techniques that other techs have never been exposed to.

     Each type of repair facility has benefits and problems. You are best served by building a relationship through trust and communication.  Any type of repair shop can be good or bad at what they do. Check with the BBB, ask your friends and neighbors and check for professional affiliations.

In Ohio, auto repair shops can provide customers with an estimate that can increase by 10 percent legally. Many shops add shop supplies and disposal fees which can add another 10 percent to the final bill.

     We pride ourselves on providing our customers with exact prices that never have fees for shop supplies or disposal. More than a few times we have lost a job due to  estimating, only to have the customer return and tell us that our price was cheaper than what they actually paid when their estimate changed to an invoice!!!

What are your expectations when receiving a free diagnostic service? How much time should a technician spend on a free service? Will their results be accurate? What equipment should the technician use? What happens when the free diagnostic is incorrect? Should the technician be entry level with little training or a technician with years of training and experience?
Many “mechanics” perform free diagnostics because they do not have the training and experience to produce accurate results. They may not test drive, hook up additional equipment or even open a hood. When their conclusions are wrong they simply suggest you install another part and demand more money. This is common practice for most repair shops and perpetuates the bad mechanic sterotype through lost trust and overly expensive repairs.
We specialize in accurate information. Read “The Three Diagnostic Methods” on our Pinpoint Diagnostics page. We believe in providing the customer with accurate information so that they know what to expect, how long the repairs take and how much it will cost. See Greg, our lead technician or Jeff, our Master Technician for quality, guaranteed repairs.
Innovative Autocare serving Green, the Portage Lakes, Clinton, Uniontown and Akron.

This morning the price of unleaded regular 87 octane fuel is $3.399 a gallon at the convenience store across the street from our business. Over the next few weeks I am going to try a few experiments to improve fuel mileage. Hopefully we can all benefit.
The test vehicle is my 2001 Ford Ranger 4×4 with a 4.0 engine and automatic transmission. It has 138,000 miles. The truck is in overall good shape. A used engine was installed recently. The Ranger has good tires and a new exhaust. It gets terrible fuel mileage. Mileage ranges from about 14 MPG local driving and as high as 20 MPG during freeway driving.
I am not going to go overboard with scientific testing methods but I will try to keep the experiments valid. I will be using local driving as the basis for the tests. I am using the same fuel station each fill up and hopefully the same pump. I will be using unleaded regular 87 octane. The automatic fuel pump shut off will serve as our full indicator. Each portion of the test will be duplicated and I will refill at about 100 miles or so using the trip-meter as the mileage indicator.
The first portion of the test will be to confirm current fuel mileage. For the second portion I will be installing a Summit Racing high flow rewashable air filter in place of the original style paper filter. The air filter cost is $44.95. I will also be installing a Tornado vortex device that installs in the engines air inlet tube. The Tornado cost is $64.95. The Tornado swirls the air entering the engine that the makers claim to improve mileage by up to 15% and also improve performance. Both of these items should only take about 10 minutes to install. In addition I will be changing the engine oil to Mobil Synthetic.
The third portion of the test will be the installation of a cold air intake kit that claims to improve horsepower and mileage. I may follow that up with a high flow exhaust system also. Look for follow up postings in about a week. Wish me luck.

9/26/11

     We have our baseline mileage. Both tests were suburban driving with little or no freeway time. I did not use air conditioning very much except for a short freeway stint and anytime defrost is on because it’s an automatic function when in defrost mode. The weather has been mild. I recorded temperatures at fill ups in the high 60′s. On my first test I drove 124.6 miles. I topped off the fuel adding 7.085 gallons yielding 17.58 MPG. My second test I drove 127.5 miles and topped off the fuel adding 7.375 gallons yielding 17.28 MPG. Averaging the two tests shows 17.43 MPG. This is a nice surprise and higher than I had recorded in the past with the old motor. I am not going to worry about where and why those improvements came from. What I am watching is improvement after we make changes. Today I am going to install the air filter, Tornado device and change the engine oil to Mobil Synthetic 10W30. I will keep you up to date.

10/6/11

     Bad news! My fuel mileage went down. One important change is that the weather turned cooler. Morning temps are starting in the high 40′s.  The truck’s PCM is definitely enrichening the fuel mixture during cold start-ups. I don’t have any faith in the Tornado vortex device. My past research on similar devices showed poor results. I don’t believe there is any problem with the high flow air filter or synthetic oil. Both have proven effective in testing elsewhere. I even ran 3 tests instead of the normal 2. The average for the 3 tests was 17.3 MPG. I am going to remove the vortex device and retest.  Crossing my fingers!

10/19/11

     Now I am confused. After removing the Tornado device fuel mileage dropped a touch. I ran 3 tests averaging 16.97 MPG. I would like to perform the baseline testing again and do more testing under similar circumstances. Ideally I would run each portion of the test 10 times. I would drop the high and low test, then average the remaining 8 tests. I would also like to be in a controlled environment like a test track and do all testing on a warm engine with ambient temps similar.  I still feel that temperature is having a large effect on the results because the 3 tests range from 16.56 MPG to 18.09 MPG.  Maybe the Tornado device had a positive effect after all. I need to digest the info a bit and decide on a plan of action. I will keep you up to date.

11/3/11

     I think I need to hold up on any further testing right now. The last few mornings the Ranger has had heavy frost on the windows which takes about 5 minutes of idle time to defrost before driving. If the truck were parked in a heated garage each night testing might be more valid and useful. I think there will be some good information here if I can control the the experiments better. To my surprise I found that the biggest influence is the change from the worn out engine that broke a timing chain to the current engine. The extra 2 and 1/2 to 3 MPG is a huge relief to my wallet and a welcome change. I will keep you up to date on future testing. Thanks.

Today is the 10th anniversary of Innovative Autocare. I started the company with 2 basic principles. The first was to not become a sterotype “mechanic.” The second was simply to be the best auto repair shop in town.
There was a lot of hurdles along the way. Most of them were self created. After lots of trials and tribulations I finally feel comfortable in saying that we are the best.
I need to thank my wife, Greg, Adam, Tierney, Todd, the Keplers, Dad, Denny, the South Summit Chamber of Commerce, the Green Chamber of Commerce and most importantly our customers. Without you we are nothing.

     Off brand tires are definitely cheaper but are they worth it? In most cases, name brand tires have superior tread designs and rubber compounds. Off brand tires are less tolerant to loose steering parts or out of spec alignments. I have seen more off brand tires with edges worn to zero tread depth while the center tread looks good.

     In Ohio, 2/32nds of an inch is minimum legal tread depth. You can insert a penny with the top of  Lincoln’s head in the tread. If Lincoln’s head is fully exposed, you need a new tire.  You can also check production dates on all tires. On the sidewall are 3 or 4 boxes. The first will be “DOT.” The last box will be the production date of month followed by year in a 4 digit format. Make sure that a bargain sale tire is less than 3 years old.

      Heat cycling is another consideration. Poor rubber compounds will harden quickly, offering less traction. This also happens as tires age. Tread design is important as it allows water to flow away from the tire. Modern tread designs imitate racing rain tires, with directional tires proving superior in wet conditions.

     I prefer name brand tires. They last longer, provide better traction and braking and give me a secure feeling.