An important diagnostic tool, Patience!

Recently we had the opportunity to service a late model Honda CRV for a customer. Her complaint was that the car died. The problem for us was that the car died one time, only one time.

On her first visit to the shop we did some basic testing and of course nothing showed up so we had no idea what to repair. The car was past due for some routine maintenance and we suggested that be done while the car was in the shop anyway. We didn’t think this would fix the customers complaint, but it was needed service that had been put off too long already.

A couple of days later we got a call. The car had died again. Now, because we had done the service work on the car it was our problem, not the customers. We invited her back to the shop and put her into a rental car until we could nail down the problem. In talking with her we found out that the car had died one more time. After a few minutes it would restart.

We explained that this may take some time to figure out and begged for her patience as we worked through the process.

For the first day we drove the car around the shop area taking short trips of 2 to 5 miles. We let the car run in the shop for hours with all sorts of diagnostic test equipment hooked up to it. Nothing happened. All the computer histories were clear. Driving fast or slow, over bumps, uphill or down made no difference.

The second day Jim (the best technician I know since my brother Allan died) decided it was a matter of pride. He arranged things around the shop to run without him for a few hours and took off with the Honda. He headed north on 59. Around the 1960 exit the car finally died.

Jim nursed the car back to life and made it to Beckwith’s Car Care on 1960 in Humble. Lynn Beckwith is a good friend and an advertiser on our radio show. There he was able to do some quick checks and found that the ignition switch was going bad. He managed to get the car running well enough to make it back to our shop and we replaced the ignition switch.

Before we were willing to return the car to the customer we had to know it was really fixed. Off he went again. This time he made it all the way to Humble and back without a single hiccup. He declared the car fixed.

This was a 3 day process. Not many customers are willing to let the shop have a car 3 days to find a problem, but sometime, as in this case, that’s what it takes. All the technical expertise in the world doesn’t help much if the problem does not present itself while we are looking at the car. I have to commend the customer and Jim for their patience.

As for the shop? Well we spent several hours the first day in short trips, 4 hours the second day, and 3 hours the third day just driving the car around to duplicate the problem. That is all non-billable time. A lot of shop owners and dealerships will not devote that amount of time (money) to solving a problem for a customer. At Freedom Automotive we consider it customer relations and advertising!

This picture is real and was taken by a Transportation Supervisor for a company that delivers building materials for 84 Lumber. When he saw it in the parking lot of IHOP, he went to buy a camera to take pictures. The car is still running, as can be witnessed by the exhaust. The driver finally came back after the police were called, and was found crouched behind the rear of the car, attempting to cut the twine around the load! Luckily, the police stopped him and had the load removed. The materials were loaded at Home Depot. Their store manager said they made the customer sign a waiver. While the plywood and 2X4s are fairly obvious, what you can't see is the back seat, which contains -- are you ready for this? -- 10 bags of concrete @ 80 lbs. each! They estimated the load weight at 3000 lbs. Both back tires exploded, the wheels bent and the rear shocks were driven through the floorboard.

Summer Again!

Summer heat is almost on us again. It is time to prepare your car for the coming high temperatures, vacation trips and kid shuttling that you will be doing. Here are a couple of things that you can do to help your car make it through the summer.

Service you air conditioning. Modern systems still lose a little Freon just as a normal part of the system design. None are completely air tight. Most cars today only hold about 20 ounces of Freon, so even a small loss can cause a big reduction in cooling ability.

Service your cooling system. Cooling system failures are the second most common cause of on the road breakdowns. A cooling system inspection every year and having it flushed every two years will almost completely eliminate this possible disaster.
Have all the other fluids check. Transmission, power steering, differential and brake fluids all deteriorate and can cause some pretty serious failures.

Tires are the number one cause of being stranded on the road. You would be amazed at how often we service a car and find tires with the steel belt showing through the rubber. Most of us do not look at our tires unless one of them is flat. That’s too late.

Of course Freedom will be happy to do a free inspection of your vehicles to make sure you are as safe as possible on the road this summer, but whether you do it yourself, have the “other” guys do it, or bring it to us the important thing is getting it done.

We do not want to see you sitting on the side of the road!

Mixing Politics and Business

One of the first things I learned as a business manager was to NEVER mix politics or religion with business. I was taught that I could hold firm to my beliefs, but that to share them openly with customers, vendors or competitors was a sure way to alienate a large percentage of them.

I held pretty consistently to that principle over the years. Of course anyone who knows me well knows that I am a conservative, vote mostly, but not always Republican and hold to the basic tenant of the Judeo-Christian beliefs. This is not about any of that.

The public discourse over politics these days seems to be polar opposites attaching each other on every topic. The News appears to do its best to inflame any differences and overlook any common ground. The vehemence is almost pathological.

Yet, in conversations with my friends I have not found that to be true. Most of the people I talk to and deal with on a daily basis are sane and reasonable folks. Most of them want our country to be strong, both physically and financially. Some of them disagree with my views on topics, but they don’t attach me personally for it. We have discussions, mini-debates that focus on what facts we know, not on the personality of the other guy.

Politics now resembles professional wrestling more than the statesmanship of the past. So what happened?

In my opinion (open to debate of course) I think that we as a people have abrogated our responsibility to govern. It says, “Of the people, BY the people”. In the last primary election here only 16% of the voters turned out. In the runoff elections it was half of that.  For the most part only the polarized voters turned out. Where was the sensible middle of America?

If we want our government to reflect our beliefs, our needs and our goals we need to speak up clearly and let them know what we think. Opinion polls, news stories, and protest marches are one thing, but the firm and clear voice of America is heard at the voting booth.

Too many today only remember the third part of the earlier quote, “FOR the people”.

Punishing...

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says "Dam!

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it immediately sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.