Do You Have A Tire Pressure Monitor System?

Starting with the 2008 year model every car sold in this country will have an active Tire Pressure Monitor System on it. In 2006 40% of the cars sold here had to have them and in 2007 it moved to 70%. Now, with the new 08's coming out it will be 100%.

These systems all use a pressure sensor mounted in the tire that sends a radio frequency signal to a computer inside the car that will light a tell tale on the dash when a tire is low.

Some of the older systems were "passive", using the speed sensors from the anti-lock brake system to measure tire rotation speed and determine if one tire had to spin faster than the others. This system would alert you in many cases of a low tire, but could not identify which tire was low, or warn you if they were all about equally low on pressure. The new "active" systems will.

TPMS adds several hundred dollars to the price of a car and will be on everything from the least expensive econo-box, to the high-end luxury and performance cars. They are generally trouble free but there are some things that you need to be aware of.

Never use a tire repair chemical with TPMS. The Fix-A-Flat types of temporary tire inflation will destroy the sensor. Not may; but will ruin it.
The sensors are sensitive to water and dirt. You have to be careful that you use a dry air supply to inflate your tires. The cigarette lighter powered air compressors are fine, as is any other "on demand" air supply. An air supply that has a storage tank can develop a lot of moisture from condensation and may cause a problem.
Keep the cap on the stems. If there is dirt in the stem area and you inflate the tire you will force this dirt into the sensor and ruin it. \ Never us anything other than a nickel-plated valve core. Brass and steel cores will corrode in the aluminum stem and ruin the sensor. The same applies the valve stem caps. There is a special plastic cap with an o-ring seal that comes with each sensor and should be used. If you decide to use a fancier cap be sure it is plastic or aluminum, anything else will corrode to the stem and ruin the sensor.

These sensors are usually mounted at the valve stem opening and are generally part of the valve stem. They can be damaged if you have a flat tire, or when the tire is repaired or replaced. Don't be surprised if after a flat you get a tire pressure warning. Most shops are not equipped to test these sensors off the car and have no way of knowing it is not working until after you drive the car a few miles.

The other big concern is when your tires are rotated. The on board computer has to learn the position of each individual sensor. If you move the wheels around the computer does not know that things have changed unless you have a relearn procedure done at the same time.

The relearn procedures vary from car to car but on the average take about half an hour to do. This adds an additional expense to the otherwise normal maintenance of tire rotation.
Tire pressure effects safety, fuel economy and tire life. After the horrific wrecks several years ago with Firestone tires and Ford Explorers the congress decided it was time to save us from our own laziness and install a system that will check our tire pressure for us. The sensors vary in price from about $100 per wheel to almost $300 for the replacement part.

NAPA Auto Parts stocks a very complete line of sensors fitting most cars sold in America.
Freedom Auto is up to date on the equipment and training to service them for you.

Meet the Staff - Cathy Lozano

Cathy joined the staff at Freedom Automotive about 2 years ago. She and her Husband Ernie owned and operated Ernie's Motors for more than 33 years. Years of road construction that ended with their shop cut off from half of the neighborhoods they used to serve left them with some hard decisions to make. As is often the case this dark cloud had a silver lining. Ernie went to work for the Alief School District teaching young people the skills of auto technology that he learned over his lifetime. Cathy joined us at Freedom Automotive.

Since the first day Cathy has been a blessing to Freedom. Her years of experience, patient personality, quiet sense of humor has raised the standard in our front office.

When you visit Freedom Cathy is most likely the first person you will meet. Don't hesitate to talk to her about anything to do with your car. She is very knowledgeable, a very good listener, and she is an ASE Certified Service Advisor.

Freedom Automotive has been very fortunate being able to recruit and retain an excellent staff of not only technicians, but also the support staff that makes such a big difference in your experience when you visit us. We are proud to have Cathy Lozano as an important part of our staff.

The Cost of Driving

There was a recent segment on the news about the high cost of commuting to work. Houston, it seems is the highest in the land.

This got me to thinking about the cost of driving and I found some websites that claim to figure your cost of commuting.

According to the most popular site, www.commuterpage.com , it cost me $10,900 per year to drive the 30 miles each way to work.
That includes the estimated cost of the vehicle, the estimate cost of maintenance and all the fuel costs. I was a little surprised by that.

The research that I did estimated the cost of vehicle maintenance at anywhere from 6 cents per mile to as high as 10.6 cents per mile. It varies considerably according to the car you drive. This includes the cost of license, inspections, tires, maintenance and repairs over the life of a car.

Just taking the low average of about 7 cents per mile, and the Houston average driver's annual mileage of 17,500 means you could expect to spend about $1225.00 per year to maintain your car.

The estimated total cost of driving a car, including the cost of the car, insurance, fuel and maintenance is about 55 cents per mile.
Of course the first few years of ownership are less expensive, but the averages hold if you own a car more than 5 years.

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING? NOT REALLY!

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and
"lollipop" with your right. (Bet you tried this out mentally, didn't
you?)

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. (I'll bet you're going to check this out.)

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt". (Are you doubting this?)

Oh, By The Way...When You Replace That Battery...

There are a lot of computers on cars today, and many of them have some sort of active memory function or programming that can be effected by the loss of power to the computer module. Because of this it is important to use an auxiliary power supply while changing out a battery.

We have all had the frustration of having to reset all the radio stations in our car after a dead battery. Today the potential for a much more inconvenient problem is lurking.

Some system, like air bags, have a reserve power source inside the control module. This reserve capacitor can discharge if the main supply voltage is disconnected for any long period. Once discharged it can not be recharged and you will have an air bag warning light on.

Some security systems can lose the programming for the remote controls, making it necessary to have them reprogrammed just to get the car started. European cars can be especially touchy when to battery is removed and on some models the will have to "Initialized" so that all the on board computer can once again talk to each other. Here again it means having this done before you can even restart the car.

If an alternate power supply is hooked up before your battery is disconnected you can avoid these problems. You may want to consider having a professional install your battery for you.