The Troubleshooter 1-3-25

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This is the Troubleshooter Show.

Now, Tom Martine, this is the Troubleshooter Network.

My name is John Fuller for the second day in the row. Welcome to the Troubleshooter Show. This is where we we do here, guys, we help, we help solve problems, We collect refunds, we take a point.

Answer questions and help consumers exactly.

We do a little bit of everything. Here we have Today is car Day. We have a illustrious staff again. Today we've got Jeff Kimmer from or Jeff from Kimmera Transmission and Kevin from Sheridan Auto Tech. We are here to take your calls about every subject under the sun. I, as you know, am a personal injury attorney. I've been doing such in Denver for about twenty two years now, and we're open to take questions on that as well as anything to do with cars or any other subject.

What's going on? Antonio?

Hi?

Well, this issue is is when I was living in for In Colorado, the I, me and my dad were being discriminated against by the police. And it's a long story, but it's a bad one.

Where was this going on, Antonio? It was in for Coons, Colorado, in Fort Collin's. Okay, tell me what's happening.

Okay, Well it began, actually, it began in Greeley when I was when we were living in Greely Callele, there was a murder that had tooken place in at the at this house that we were living at in my landlord's garage, and one of it when I was uh, when it was being investigated, the Green Tribune had featured me in the newspaper with the picture and everything as part of the whole situation.

Hey, Antonio, when did all this happen?

This was in twenty sixteen, Okay, go ahead. And when all this happened, me and my dad were took an in for question and everything, and I had some friends of mine were staying here, had stayed the night there because it was my birthday and everything, and so I had alibis and everything, and they released us. And shortly after that we got evicted from that appartment. Well, during that time I ended up ponics for about a year, and I started noticing some keys, some someone following me

With my brother.

But during this whole time I was homeless managing, and so eventually we moved for Collins. But when when I had gone an apartment in for Collins, we got to notice. This was in two thousand and eighteen. In March of twenty eighteen, we got to notice that we can move into the apartment, but we got a last minute noticing that that we had to wait a month.

Yeah, Antonio, we're still like, you know, six years ago, seven years ago. Why don't we try to move it on a little bit forward? And where are we at today on this.

Oh well that's the thing is uh, I've been to see the whole time we're liven the four Collons I have I have started out giving U signs that there is cameras and microphones in my apartment. I know, the kind of signs to sound crazy and everything. But during this whole time I have recorded U, a serial rapist, admitting here the serial rate that that link I sent you in an email. That link is to the recording of a serial rapist admitting here with the cerial rapist a while raping someone.

Okay, So I have kept trying to so let me make sure I understand this. You've got you believe that because of this murder that took place in your garage that wasn't committed by you, that you were cleared for that fast forwarding eight years, you believe that there's some group or body or entity or something out there that's still surveilling.

You with video and audio in your apartment.

Well, well, the figures is that during one of the people involved in the murder, I believe that it has targeted me due to the whole thing.

So, Antonio, just to cut to the chase here, who's discriminating against you?

Well, that's the thing that when I had I had all I called see. Okay, at one point there was I had a friend that was in my I was cooking dinner and my friend was sitting in the living room. Two people came in in my front door, dragged you out of my apartment at gunpoint and said they'll be back. Well, I woke up my dad and I took him.

We went next door.

Antonio, have you ever thought that maybe you're running with the wrong crowd?

Well, no, I didn't even know. I had just moved to four Calls, I know, but I didn't even know anybody.

You've got some strange stuff going on around you. I would be thinking about my association if I were you. So what can I do to help you today, Antonio, Let's get right to it.

Oh well, I'm trying to find the lawyer that will help represent me because due to the fact that the policeman fall in for Collins self diagnosed me as schizophrenic or whatever, They've pressed false charges on me and I sat in jailed for the whole for eighteen months. But the thing is that the thing is that my dad was being extorted from my son, woulded to getting sold

So Antonio, hold up, hold up, you're throwing a lot of stuff out there. So just as a point of reference, we don't other people can't self diagnose you. So I'm guessing that some doctor along the way decided that you were schizophrenic.

So why did they put you in jail for eighteen months?

Well?

Because, okay, so the night of my arrest.

What did you get convicted of?

I wasn't convicted.

They dismissed it.

They don't put you stayed in jail on a hold for eighteen months before they dismissed your case.

And they violated my secrets.

That's yes, yes, okay.

My sixth Amendment which states.

I know what the sixth Amendment states. I don't need you to recite that to me. I'm just trying to find out. So you were held in jail for eighteen months, and while you were held in jail with charges pending that were ultimately dismissed, what were the charges that got dismissed?

It was a menacing okay, indation, gotcha.

So they accused you of brandishing a weapon against somebody, and you sat in jail for a year and a half waiting for that case to get dismissed. Right, gotcha? So who would you like hold on? Who would you like to hire an attorney to go after today?

I just need to help me.

I don't know.

I'm not asking which attorney you want. I'm saying, who do you want to go after?

I want to go after the city of for Holmes.

Okay, all right, because I got.

I mean, honestly, the gold time I sat, I didn't even get to I didn't I didn't even get to peep gilty or not guilty. Okay, I'm always the whole time I said in general.

So Antonio, let me give you some advice. Okay, there's there's two ways that you could pursue this.

Okay.

I'm going to just assume that you have a valid case here, just for just for the sake of argument. Okay, if you pursued this in state court charges, you might have already lost your ability to do that, because we have qualified immunity, and we have the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, which imposes on you certain requirements that you that you have to meet as far as notice provisions and stuff like that. I'm not sure that you've met those. Maybe there's a way to get around it. I don't know.

But you can't wait forever.

These things have short statutes of limitations that have to be that if you don't pursue them, you lose your right forever to go.

After Hi, John, I have a question.

Sure is there something like the Institute for Justice, an organization like that in Denver that would look into this?

And I have not heard of that organization.

I'm not I just don't know anything about them. There's plenty of different groups out there that you know that advocate for the wrongfully accused and stuff like that, and and and maybe you know prisoner abuse pieces when people are either incarcerated or after they get out.

But it doesn't sound like this is really that. And that's why I'm thinking that.

You know, if there's a case for this guy, it's going to probably be a nineteen eighty recase on the federal end of things, and you're gonna need to find a nineteen eighty three attorney with expertise in the federal courts. Hey, Antonio, thanks for the call. We got to move along here. We appreciate it. Good luck to you, sir. Wow, it is Friday, right, he needs a little look. Let's be a full moon tonight. I think it might be. We're gonna go ahead and take a break right now. We'll be right back.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Welcome back to the Troubleshooter Network. This is John Fuller sitting in for Tom Martine today. We have some call stacked up here. We're going to go right to the lines. We've got John on the phone with a question about a car accident.

What's going on?

John, Good morning, Thanks for listening to my story. Of course, I have a daughter who is involved in a auto accident in Watrich May eighth, twenty twenty four. She was rerevented the police suite repreach I would call. The other driver got a ticket for following too closely and he was fined. What our insurance companies got together is acuity and his was triple A. Turns out his coverage had expired, so at the time he had no insurance.

Okay, he.

Claimed that that point that he had a video of my daughter breaking too hard in front of him, but I was never presented to the police and as we ever surfaced at all. My question is, we got a high deductible at five thousand, but we're more than adequately covered with bottling injury and a fairly high roller. Our costs are going to come out on the repair to fifty seven hundred, so we're going to if he doesn't pay,

Yeah, let me ask you a couple of questions. You sure was your daughter hurt in the accident?

Well, no, injuris no injuries?

Good, good, good, And you're not carrying one of the coverages like uninsured motorist property damage, this would just be under your comping collision.

Yeah, it's just going to be five thousand. We have uninsured motorists, but it's still going to be well five thousand.

Yeah, So let me kind of explain the difference there. You mentioned, and this is just really for everybody else. I'm sure you know this when you mentioned earlier that we've got great liability coverages and stuff. You know, a lot of people are misled to think that great coverages under a liability policy protects them from, you know, damage that another person might cause. In other words, they frequently come in my office and say, but I've got great coverage.

Five thousand was always okay with me because I can beat trivial damages to the car. Yeah, it was more than five thousand repia.

Well, I understand that you're able to absorb that, and you've gotten the benefit of having a low premium by having such a high deductible, and that's certainly your prerogative to make that choice, but it does kind of suck when it's somebody else's fat and you know, and then they end up not having insurance, and so you know, just as an aside, there is one other coverage that you could have on your vehicle, and that's called uninsured property.

Likely the guy won't even show up in small claims court.

If he does, you'll show the pictures and show the accident report, and you're gonna win, and you'll walk out of there with the judgment that The challenge then becomes how do you collect on that judgment? And so you have to really do an analysis of what this guy is all about. Does he work, does he own a home,

Hundred bucks that was left over over the deductible.

So are they going to be would they be very aggressive on just collecting that.

They'd be as aggressive as any collection agency would be. And so you know they'll turn it over The insurance company themselves are not going to dedicate any resources towards trying to collect that. They'll just turn it over to some agency and let them go after it. So the challenge you have is, you know, and I don't know this guy's deal, but if he should happen to decide to declare bankruptcy at some point, that that judgment is gone, you know, absent any drunk driving or bad acting or

John?

Okay, Well, that's that was my question. I'll just let I'll let the insurance company go after it.

Yeah, Dmitry has a comment here. John Haynes, Hey, John, it's Mitrie.

I got a couple of questions for you real quick because it's kind of an interesting topic. Have you done any research on this guy? Do you know if he has a job to see on a house and whose car was it?

He?

I have no idea whose car was. He does have a job, and from the description of where he works, I think he's probably adequately compensated.

Well, what does he actually do? I mean, we don't want to name or anything, but what kind of work does he do?

He's in the let's saying that, uh, psychological business field, that's pretty big.

Well, well so The reason I'm asking these questions is to see how collectible this guy is. I mean, let's say I'm making up things. If he's a psychologist, you're probably make to go back here.

What the psychological What did you say, John?

He said he's in the psychological field.

Well, he's in more of a crisis management.

I don't think that pays my.

Antonio, not a lot.

So I have no clue what much you.

Know what his home ownership situation is, like, does he have does he have an expensive home with you know, not too much more as you have on it?

Like it looks he looks like he's in a home, not an apartment. But I haven't check that out.

And the reason I'm asking about the home is if this driver who's at fault has homeowners insurance, is there's no liability coverage there at all?

No, sir, No, sir, I'm not going to do that.

What do you call that policy that I have? Umbrella? Even an umbrella policy doesn't cover something like that.

Okay, so let's let's just go down that little rabbit hole here.

Well, I have an umbrella policy.

No, sir, John, Hang on just a second.

Dmitri was asking and it's a great question about whether what if the defendant has an umbrella policy. So umbrella policies are like super liability policy. So if he had the underlying coverage, which he doesn't because it was expired, then he would be eligible, presumably to buy additional coverage

Hey, John, I have a question, Well, do you think his insurance premium is going to go up more than seven hundred dollars does it pay for him to even make a claim our insurance?

So you know what I'm saying, that doc is raising the question of whether by using your own company and filing a claim, could they adversely, you know.

Rate your policy and raise your rates.

It's well that that is a question.

Yeah, you know, it's possible, but there is a law in Colorado that says the insurance company can't rate you or can't can't raise your rates for accident that's not your fault. And so whether you're making a claim for medical payments or for uninsured motorist coverage, it doesn't matter. When you're not at fault. They can't penalize you for making a claim.

That just you know.

But with that being said, we're all big boys and girls here. The insurance company can do whatever they want, and I think we've all seen that.

I always use the example several years.

Ago, I had like three hailstorms in a row, like every Friday, and you know at the time, all State, I mean literally, we had three claims in a row, one Friday after another, and they were big hailstorms, and so we had all the catastrophic people out there. But of course they did it as three different claims, and so you had three deductibles and three you know everything. And the question was, you guys aren't going to raise

We'll be right back.

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All right, all right, all right, this is John Fuller back with the troubleshooter network, and I'm here with my illustrious staff of experts on card day. Here we've were talking off air. We're going to get into some of these issues because we touched on some things that I found to be pretty interesting. And it really kind of has to do with, you know, challenges that the auto

Is that right?

Well?

Getting quality parts or parts? Yeah, tell me more about that. Well, I mean it's a listen. I want to say his name, he said. If I hadn't a scene it with my own eyes, I would have thought you guys are telling stories because we had to go through three alternators to get a good alternator for his car.

And we're not talking wrong with the alternators.

Well, the first one out of the box, the charge light came on and it starts smoking. Oh, second one started screaming high squeal. You just got to hit that with a hammer, right, Well, we tried that, it didn't work, and then we ended up with an oe which we had to wait three days for, right, And that's the reason we went with the aftermarket to start with. And then that took care of the problem.

And that's not just a problem for us, it turns into a problem for the customer. You know, we were talking about a Dodge truck that I've had in the shop. Now we rebuilt it.

Uh.

You know, we're using OE parts and quality parts from the aftermarket, from Snax and whatnot in order to increase their durability. And the soul wide body on this truck has failed now three times, and it's something we're buying directly from Chrysler. Now, the customer all he sees on his end is that, why isn't your transmission working?

I hired somebody I trusted.

It be your fault, the quality control coming out coming out of any of the parts. It's not just you know, I'm not picking on more par We talked about Toyota, we talked you can talk about any of the manufacturers and from the aftermarket as well. We're seeing a lot of stuff that's coming in that doesn't work right out of the box or it's missing components out of the box.

So let me ask you this.

When you say OEM parts and you're talking about all this failure and stuff, is that truly OEM, Like, are the manufactured experiencing the same failure rate, or do they use different stuff.

I depending on the parts too. I mean there's there are certain parts that are more prone. Steering components, racks, rack and pinions are brutal. Yeah, and they're cheaper the aftermarket with a better warranty than the OE. So in the customer's mind, they can save money with a better warranty. But you know, we we were going through them. You know, they come back. The last one we did didn't leave. We ended up taking it to Ford because we thought we were programming it wrong.

But if you're going through back to your alternator, example, if you're going through three alternators before you finally get a good one. I mean, is there a pile of alternators outside the Ford factory that's you know, wonder feet tall of alternators?

Because I talked to my wrap the power steering problem we were having. Yeah, we've been having some some pushback and some issues on these. It's like, well how about little heads up?

You know, do they take those back and then rebuild them and sell them as over again or they then remanufactured.

It's a good question. I don't know what they do with the returns.

In cases like in cases like you know, just as an example, we have a lot of problems with the torque verters for the four ten speeds uh and the vowil bodies. We get a lot of those bad right out of the box. Well, something like a torque verter. Yes, they're definitely going to go through that. It's going to get rebuilt, It's going to come back into the market.

Got you So, how long after the introduce introduction of something new do you guys start seeing it? I mean and know one is going to be a problem, Like how long does it take to really well, most.

Of that depends on, you know, how long people drive, because they're going to drive out of the warranties before they're driving into my shop, because otherwise they're going back to the to their dealer and get that stuff taking care of there. Do you get some whispers you start hearing about things because obviously you know, you know, Kevin and I have both working dealerships in the past. We have friends and dealerships. You know, we also have a social network where n will.

Talk to just be start publishing texting those service boats so you can, you know, catch your eye and keep up on stuff.

But yeah, So by the time you guys to warranty, you already know that there's a problem on the project area.

A lot of cases, you know, some of the aftermarket has already got their eye on it too, and they're trying to come up with a fix so that when it rolls in our door, we're not dependent upon that known failure that we have to put back inside that car. Well, hopefully have something else out there that we can we can refit or you know, match up in order to fix the problem.

That probably saves a customer a lot of money too, just just being on top of what's going on with these issues.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we can. We can tell them right away because Jeff knows like the Silverado's mid twenties early twenties ten speed transmission, it's it's a piece of junk, right, And not only that, but you can't get one. So if you want to get an upgraded one something, I don't think they've fixed them yet. Yeah, so we're you know, the customers sitting there, it's like, well, what do you mean you can't get it? What am I supposed to do?

It's frustrating. That's interesting. So we have open lines here today, guys. So we'd really like to get some calls about your problems and stuff. Uh three or three seven, three, one eight two five five is a number here. You're welcome to give us a call about car issues or any other issues that you have and and and we'll deal with those as soon as you get in. I've got another question that that Dmitri brought up, and it's about shifting back and forth and kind of owner caused issues

Oh?

Yeah, it is terrible on your transmission. You know, you get stuck rocking back and forth in the snow. You're gaining momentum going backward, you're slamming in the reverse. You're taking the momental of you know, six steven and eight thousand pound vehicle and trying to turn everything back on its ear. The same thing comes to you know, just pulling out of a parking spot and how you're ready to go forward. We'll come to a complete stop.

Please.

That is murder on the gear train in there, you know, throwing it in park before coming to a complete stop. You can snap stuff apart and it's heavy damage. When you do that, it's catastrophic and it's expensive.

Yeah, everybody just gets in a hurry because you start your vehicle up and it's got a high rpm. Give it ten seconds to come off the high rpm before you drop it and gear and peaks through the little scrapehule you made in the ice in the window. You know, give it, let it warm up a little.

Do you guys ever work on boats and those kind of motors or anything, or are you familiar with them?

Yeah? That kind of the.

Reason I asked is that so I've I've been voting my whole life, and I've it's one of my pet peeves to stop and let the motors stop before you shift gears. But a lot of times with twin engine boats and stuff, you're using those motors to steer with me, So you don't really have time to just daley dally. You need to kind of get on with it. But but last year or just this past summer, I was

The boat right out.

To the side of the some of the boats that sank, and these guys went out there and just slammed that boat back into reverse to to spin it around.

And I mean they nailed it.

They hit that, not just perfect, but when they did that, about half the boat turned around.

Like what the heck?

You know, are there bigger engines that that you know't have have the ability to not get damage from that?

Or is that kind of it wouldn't really be the engine that you're worried about there.

It's a system, right, That's really what I meant to say.

That drive system. I mean, I think they probably to an extent, can withstand a little bit more of it. But anytime you're changing the inertia and switching it in the opposite direction, especially in an abrupt manner, you're gonna wear stuff out.

It's not that boat, it's the company's boat, so well it's the US government's folks. Yeah, when it's not your property, you get people behave differently.

Hey, we got to go to a break. We'll be right back.

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Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We're back with a whole lot of calls stacked up here. We're going to get right to those, and let's start out with Glenn. What's a question about maintenance? What's going on?

Glenn?

Hello?

John, enjoyed your participation when you're there throughout the weeks and yesterday's show. Enjoyed it very much as well as today.

Appreciate that what's going on with you?

A fan of car day and so I finally have a purpose, a reason to call lay it on us, the original owner of a two thousand and two Toyota Tacoma one hundred and ninety five thousand miles never had a problem. I'm pretty good at maintaining the routine maintenance and preventative maintenance. But I've reached that point where I'm thinking I'm going to have some repairs, and I'm wondering if the guys could give me a kind of a

Hey, Glenn, we'll be glad to deal with that. We're going to go to a real quick break. We'll be right back to deal with those issues.

Thanks.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Yeah, Ript.

News, come run in just as fast as we can.

Shooter's gonna help come man, This is.

The Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martinez, Good afternoon.

John Fuller here on behalf of mister Martino, who is out. I'm sitting in for the Troubleshooter Network today with my loyal staff of experts here.

We've got Jeff.

And Kevin here on card day filling in and offering their expertise. And we were talking to Glenn before the break, who has a two thousand and two Toyota Tacoma with one hundred and ninety five thousand miles on it. And you know, Glenn, if I understand, you're just looking for what the future holds and how you can kind of stay on top of things exactly right.

Yeah.

Is that a four cylinder? Six cylinder? That's that's the big difference.

Six cylinder.

So you do have a belt and you have changed that obviously, you didn't go two hundred thousand on the same belt.

Changed it about nine years ago at about one hundred and twenty.

Sure. Yeah, so that would be about the only preventative thing that you could really do other than what you've been doing, you know, fluids and plugs and different things.

You know, well, thanks, like water pump. Should I just let them go out before I have them repair towed in and repaired.

No, because that's driven by your timing belt. So if you fail the water pump fails, you can knock the belt off it as well. So I would suggest you do a timing kit which includes all the pulleys in the water pump by two hundred.

Thousand, okay, excellently.

Anything else other in fluids, there's really nothing else there.

Well that that gives me an approach on how to keep on top of it. Of course, now the transmission, the only thing that's been done about nine years ago was drained and refilled and kicked or bitch and pieces, I guess. So it's been functioning fine. So is there anything I need to do with the transmission.

Well, I actually recommend that you're servicing that transmission every three years or thirty six thousand miles, not just dropping the fluid out and then topping it back off, but actually dropping the pan and changing that filter in there. The filter over time, the micron rating, it's going to change and allow larger and larger to breed a pass. You do want to change it?

Yeah, that was down about a few years back, so I need to look into that again.

Okay.

Well that gives me some excellent advice, and I appreciate you guys.

Thank you Glenn, thanks for calling. Appreciate that. We've got a couple more callers on the line.

Bill, We're going to get to.

You in just a moment, So hang on, Sean. You're having some electrical issues. Talk to us, Sean fell Off. Okay, Bill, your next talk to us about your shaking issue.

Yes, well, I bought a sixty six Corvette three twenty seven three fifty horse numbers matching car, and I bought it had a slight vibration and just when the car is sitting and wed rib it up between one thy fifty nine of our PM, it would it would amplify even more. So I thought, well maybe you could live a longer. I drove the car the worst it got, so I bring it in and I pulled the clutch out, clutch push played flight real out, take it down to Denver,

Is this shaking?

And excuse me? Is this shaking in park or when it's in gear or just in park in park, sitting there.

Yeah, and it doesn't change when you step on the clutch.

No, Noah continues to shake, continues to shake. Well, it shakes it with the clutch end of the clutch out m or the car driving.

And you've inspected the balancer on the front.

I've changed it, switched balancers. This engine has a smaller balancer on the front YEP. The other sixty six has a large balancer. So I swapped balancers with the new five balanced fly wheel. And it still shakes. And I'm to my WIT's end. I've been around Corret's a lot. I just don't understand what what I'm missing here.

And once you get driving, I mean, do you have any power issues if you either, like going from forty to sixty seventy miles an hour, plenty of power, plenty of power. It's definitely not a mess fire or anything. Yeah.

No, it runs, It runs real straw and it's getting new car rider on it. I mean, it just runs in the idols and starts and does everything's supposed to. Doesn't shake at all the idol but between one thousand and two thousand they shakes like cold. Just can't figure it out, I.

Mean, unless you have an internal balance issue in the motor itself. I mean, it's seems like you've covered it.

Yeah, you even checked the motormounts, you know, to make sure that. I mean that wouldn't necessarily do it's not balanced Solis motor mounse. But do you guys have any of their ideas what it could possibly be?

Just like Kevin said just a second ago, it sounds like you're starting to get into the block itself because he's pretty much covered everything externally, so.

You think maybe it's the engine itself.

It could be.

Yeah, you could have a crank issue.

It's possible, but yeah, because the balance that come from the clutch and flywheel and the balance or in the front or the motor mounts. I mean, if those are all good, there's nothing else there the cause of vibration.

How's how's your crank in play?

I have do, be honest, I haven't checked the crank in.

Play start there.

Before. Before I was going to do next is I was going to put an automatic flex played on it and both the starter up and start the engine with the flex played on it and see if the engine shakes. Wouldn't that if it shakes, wouldn't that tell you that it's internally most likely?

Yeah, I mean you've pretty much. I mean you know it's not the fly will. You've already cut that down. You swapped out your harmonic balancer. So I mean between crankshaft in play and uh, you know, something deeper inside the motor. I think you're going inside that engine for one reason or another, So would you would.

You think it would be crankshaft potentially?

That's just what you need to start with process of elimination.

Yeah, well, I really appreciate it. I'm really stumped on all that. Well, I'd call the experts and see if you guys had something maybe I was missing, but I guess I'll just have to start with the flex plate and then go from there.

Any other ideas, No, he's pretty well covered it. I mean, you know, I'm mad ideas with that. I mean, unless you want to, you know, take the ins and out and you know, have a builder go through it and balance and you know, go through it that way. But that gets extreme there. Yeah, it's it's real pricey, Yes it does. Yeah.

Well, thank you guys very much.

I really appreciate it, Hey, Bill, appreciate it.

I listened to your station, So if someone comes online and has a similar situation that they fixed, I'll be listening.

Absolutely, we'll put that out there. If anybody has any ideas, give us a call. We'll get you right on the air here. So thanks for the call.

Bill.

Hey, We've got a couple of issues to follow up on with the cases that we've been working on the last few days.

One of them was yesterday and and we all heard the story of the young lady with the piano escapades and to maitre, you've got some follow up on that.

Yeah, John, you may recall that Peggy called because gosh, what was call All my Sons Moving had done kind of a half job moving her piano and then damaged it and challenged her twice with what the quote at rate was. So yesterday All my Sons declined to comment on that. Yesterday, so I emailed their media contact email address at their headquarters I think is in Texas. Never heard back from All my Sons. But Peggy called me

Fantastic.

You probably already know, but you know, moving company contracts specify usually somebod like sixty or sixty two cents a pound and which is their maximum liability. And it's a ten thousand pound piano.

But that was a crazy case.

They left this piano out in the backyard with a tarp over it and wished her luck during the waters.

Ranging, right, So she's whatever, whatever it was, it's not that's not how you leave a piano.

You don't leave a piano in the backyard with something covering it and wish the lady Luck.

That's crazy.

Yeah, So she had to hire another moving company to finish the job, and this piano was a gift to one of her friends, and so she covered all the bills. So all my sons is going to send her a check for six hundred bucks and you know, they're not going to refund her part of the you know, the doubling of the price that she had paid. But under the circumstances, I mean, moving companies aren't very.

Easy to deal with.

Hey, I think that's a great outcome, you know, and we identified all the problems that you were going to have with having a second company involved, and and you know, the tendency to say, well the damage must have been caused by the other company and all this stuff. So given all of that, I have to say, that's a great outcome. And I'll you know, give props to all my sons for contacting her and attempting to make it right.

So yeah, I mean it's she's satisfied, and I'm pretty happy that we got a moving company to do something. And I think it's the case is closed and resolved and the color is happy. So I'm very happy.

Being being awesome. That's a good job.

I wanted to talk a little bit about just some maintenance issues. When you talk about like doing a training job every three years and thirty six thousand miles, I mean I've seen transmissions that have gone a couple hundred thousand miles without being serviced and stuff, and then and then you always hear about the first time they service it, the thing drops out of the job.

Yeah, that's why. So you know, back back in the fifties, sixties, maybe even part of the seventies, that might have been truly you know, this must have been literally, I mean, the transmission is probably the second most neglected part of the car, right, Nobody thinks about it until it doesn't work. The only thing the piece it's a battery, right. Uh.

You know, if.

You're doing regular maintenance, you're extending that life. So if you were lucky enough to get two hundred, well, if you've been maintaining it, maybe you could have pushed out the three hunt right Right, that's that's the idea. I mean, there's additives inside that fluid. There's conditioners, there's friction modifiers, there's things need to repel water, and you're trying to keep those additives built up so you maintain the health.

So what really goes bad in a training? I mean, what are you trying to fit.

Six hundred individual parts inside of the average transmission, and just about any one of them can go. It's dependent upon you know what data the week it was built on. Believe it or not, you have you do see problems on the clocks, excuse me, and that come out of the manufacturer where you know, you have lots of units that's from this stage number to this stage number. We're seeing this failure because there was a problem online. You have the drivers themselves. You know, we talked earlier about

So how much does regular service really protect against all those other components going there?

It's like any It's like going to the doctor, all right, It's not just because you go to the doctor does not mean you're not going to get sick or you're not going to come down with an ailment. You're just doing everything you can to prevent it.

Got you, got you? So all right, We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be right back. Thank you.

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Good afternoon, We are back. This is John Puller on the Troubleshooter Network. We're here to take your call, solve your problems, take your complaints, that kind of stuff.

Give us a call. Three oh three eight one three seven two fifty five. We are here. It is car day.

We have Jeff Vic and Kevin Cochin live in the studio, as well as my other able bodied deputies, Doc and Dmitri and we have some open lines here, so definitely give us a call.

We'll try to give you a hand and help with your problem.

So we had a couple of other questions come up offline that I wanted to to address here. But I was just curious, like if you had to just say, what is the single most unreliable car, like the one that you work on more than any other car, what do you think it would be?

Well, right now, for us, we see a tremendous number of Nissans. You, Nissan has put all their eggs into one basket called the CVT transmission, and they are constantly falling out of these cars to the point where they're for a long time there, we couldn't get certain parts, We had to buy a whole units. Depending on which unit we're getting right now, we still may not be able to work on it.

But is that a particular model or year or just.

Any of their CVT. So, I mean, so you've you know, you've got them in the centrist you've got them in the pathfinders, you've got them inside the uh.

Moranos, all of them.

Yeah, yeah, So I mean they're probably the highest failure that we see inside that market.

Are you having this same thing, Kevin, Well, we don't like Jeffson's mostly transmissions, and we every manufacturer has something going on that's common to it. I mean there's not one that you can escape. And you start seeing patterns and patterns and you don't even have to check. I mean, there's not one that's immune. They're all problematic.

Somebody's got to be the winner, though, you know.

Yeah, that's a tough one, you know. I I would say, you know, the the Nissan failure is is chronic. I mean, that's that's just sub with head gas, subrews with head gas. That's what I mean. You can pick a manufacturing can you know Chevy trucks have lifter problems because they had a delete that was part of their package to go from four cylinders to eight and and and they're chronically going out. You know, Dodge has Dodge and Jeep have

With the.

Bodies, the CDF drum, they're all common failures. We get a lot of them. Like I said before, you know, you get replacement parts straight from the manufacturer.

And they're bad out of the box.

That's crazy.

Are there any used slightly used Toyotas or Lexuses that you guys would stay away.

From with with good horns.

With good horns with a little aside joke there, probably Toade is one of the more solid lines there is in Lexus. I mean, if I had to pick one, that was you know, he said the winner. If you will tod in Lexus, Yeah, I don't see nearly starting it. You start there and everybody else falls off below them. Yeah.

However, when I do see them, I generally see much more catastrophic failure. We see a lot of hard part damage when it comes out of the Toyotas, particularly and you know with the Lexus obviously because it's the same line.

Yep.

So when they do fail, they tend to be a little bit more pricey.

Got you, But they don't fail as often, not as often. Car count is down on that one, yes, definitely. In other breaks and stuff, that's all we do mostly with Toyota's maintenance right to a ton of repairs.

So curious you guys both run independent shops and stuff. And you mentioned earlier that you start seeing cars after the factory warranty expires, and I suspect that you get asked frequently about whether a party is better off going with an independent shop or or with the dealership.

What do you say to that question?

Well, I mean the biggest difference is is they can call and like for us example, they can call them talk to me. It's just like, you know what, I got a beef with you. Your guys said this, and we did that, and I need an answer. Well you get right to the answer instead of getting the run around. You know, And our warranty actually is better than the manufacturer's warranty. I see, we do a three year thirty six nationwide and there's just twelve twelve on all the repairs,

Have you ever thought about a cappuccino? I mean it's it's always a question. You mentioned your warranty, like is that a real warranty? I mean, can you tell tell me some stories about where that's really.

It's backed up by NAPA, so that's the that's where the teeth come in.

So there's NAPAs everywhere.

There's a guy in California's alternator goes out, well, we put one on a year ago. So he calls the one eight hundred and I said, okay, here's the shop. You're going to take it too. They call the shop, they set the appointments, and the part handled, perfect parts, labor, everything, no, no nonsense.

So they've sent him directly to the shop. Everything is managed and handled, and.

All shops like our shop is a Napple Gold. We meet certain qualifications for Triple A and ratings and everything else, and they seek out these shops nationwide, so you have to qualify to be on the list. So it's a very qualified set up. And yeah, it comes in handy.

Interesting, cool, Kevin, what do you you know when the time comes for me to replace the starter in my Forerunner? They're not available brand new from the dealer anymore. They're rebuilt units, but I don't know who rebuilt them. And the parts guy over there said, you know, another really good brand is Bosh And is that true? I mean they used to they used to have this aura of you know, really finally made German part. But that was a long time ago. Who knows where bosh is.

Most that manufacturers source it from somewhere. My brother years ago, he was an engineer Ford and he was in charge of their rebuilds. So he would set up the places who rebuild their transmissions and this and this, and they start having trouble, he moves it and they go somewhere else. But they all use a builder, even though they say factory. It's not a Ford employee or toilet employee building it.

But it's like an authorized that's like an authorized rebuilding.

There's a little.

Blueprint of what there's supposed to do to it according to force recommendations or core specifications. I should say.

So, if you had a choice, let's say they're at the same price, would you buy the remand Toyota Denso unit or a brand new Boss unit.

I prefer Denso, you know, thank you.

All right, we're going to go to a break now, we'll be right back and we'll take Andrews calls and we've got a couple other stacked out.

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Good that afternoon, John Fuller.

We're back on the Troubleshooter Network and we're here to take your calls, solve your problems, take complaints, and I help you with just about anything you can come up with. So we're going to go to a couple of calls here and then we'll pick that discussion back up that we left off on the last segment. Andrew, you have a question about an Accura. What's going on?

Andrew, Yes, I kind of heard you, guess talking before the holiday break, kind of about an issue with bus actors. We're looking at upgrading my wife's cars. You have two thousand and eight accurate TL and the thing's been a gym. But we're looking at you don't like maybe twenty twenty MDX or rd X, and I didn't know if there was any issues with those newer ones.

Well, they've had bottom end problems of debris inside the block. So there's a recall on and it's just a certain lock. I'd have to look it up to verify which one is more common in the actors it is a Hondas. I think it only has three of the three of the Honda lines. But yeah, they're failing at a little arming rate, and so they're recalling them, bringing them in and actually changing it out in the entire motors. Really, gotcha?

Is that?

Is that more like the like the d X y X or is it.

That's going to affect both of those? Yeah, but I would I would assume. Now, I wouldn't take it for granted because they all the manufacturers do like the purd stock, but I would assume anything's still allowed on the on the showroom floor has been updated or is outside.

Of that recall status.

All I see, gotcha, Okay, I appreciate it.

So on recall issues like that, do they typically take care of those motors outside of the traditional warranty when they've identified there are issues.

Yeah, most of these are failing inside wuarrantines, so you know that's there, and they're seeing enough of them that they're making the steps to go forward and prevent it. So they don't want that brand on their name. So yeah, they're bringing them in their changing out, changing out engines, fix them the problem that was on that assembly line.

So if somebody comes to your shop, do you have the ability to kind of redirect them and avail themselves of that one?

Yeah? The time.

Quite frankly, you can too. You can go on to the National Highways Traffic and Safety. You can punch in your vent and see if there's an open recall in that car.

A lot of manufacturers do that. The key is in Hyundai, they extended a lot of the engine warranties, super extended a lot of the transmission warranties to from fifty to seventy thousand, a lot of different things.

Right, So people don't always know that. I mean, they don't know to go on a website and look and see if something. They may not even know what the problem is when it just dies and they get towed in.

So but you guys go through these issues.

You know, in most cases, particularly if you're the first owner, you know you're going to get notification from the manufacturer.

Right cool, All right, thanks Andrew. Jackie, you've got a question about judgments. What's going on, Jackie?

Hi, good morning. I have a judgment against someone and I'm trying to decide or need help deciding whether or not to put more money into this because he's crying poor and.

Really Yeah, so Jackie, tell us a little bit just so we understand. How did you end up getting a judgment against this person?

What happened?

Well, I hired an attorney to get the judgment. Okay, he defaulted on a loan a long time ago, and I had I don't know, it was a couple of months before the statute of limitations expired. I hired an attorney and he was able to contact him. The guy did not he didn't dispute the fact that he owed

So are you contemplating the whether or not to renew the judgment or what is the next stepping off point for you from an investment standpoint?

So the judgment is a twenty year judgment that we got in February. Okay, so the judgment doesn't need to be renewed. But the next stepping off point is how much more money do I put into the attorney and that sort of thing.

Jackie, There are a number of people out there that work in the collections field. There are some that do it on a per hour type basis, and there are others that do it as a percentage, which you know, they kind of have to put their money where their mouth is. What are you hearing on as far as your options?

Well, I haven't I haven't pursued that yet. The attorney that we have, I've asked him and he's on vacation right now, but he's been great. But I've asked him about whether or not we can the interrogatories that the the detter filled out are not totally complete, and he's been pretty compliant in filling them out, but there are holes.

Attorney to do that.

Let me ask you a couple of questions. Ballpark Jackie, how much money are we talking about here?

Over half a million dollars?

Okay, so you're in district. This is not a county court judgment. You filed. You filed what rule sixty nine interrogatories and you're trying to get the information to as as kind of a first step towards garnishment and collection on your own.

Yes, do you think this guy has the ability to pay you? Our gal could be a gal? Those what it is?

A guy?

You don't know how to.

Give equal opportunity to our deadbeats here, you know?

Sorry, go ahead, yeah, well you don't know until the interrogatories are filled out and completed incorrectly completed, right. I know he's I'm sixty four. I know he's older than me. He was a horse trainer in Wild County, and I don't know if he has If he has assets, I believe they're probably hidden or in somebody else's name.

Yeah, I'm inclined to probably agree with you. But you know the thing about interrogatories is they have teeth, but it's really hard to police them and and to really figure out, you know, if somebody is being deceitful, and particularly when you've got a debtor that's trying to hide assets in God, you said, you said horse trainer, And oh my goodness, what an amazing field that is in terms.

Of opportunities to you know.

I mean, I've seen and heard stories about you know, registered horses and they changed the They just you know, deceive people on which horses which, and which papers are which, and you know which horse died and and all this kind of crazy stuff.

And it's and it's you can't police it.

I mean, there's no way to really go out and do a DNA test on every horse and the guy's farm and likely anything that had value is at somebody else's place.

When that day came to pass. So it's tough, it's it's really tough.

The interrogatories if you find out that they failed to answer, or they they came up short on their answers. I mean, they they will put people in jail, they will issue lawrance, they will you know, they will do all of those things. But but really that doesn't help you. That doesn't put money in your pocket. And so, you know, I would here's what I would suggest. I mean, you sound like you've got an attorney that's that's doing a good job

Any ability to pay.

And so you know, you have to make that judgment. If the guy's got the ability to pay, then some further investment in the attorney's efforts to get him to

Yes, it does.

And I'm taking notes about this. Do you have a recommendation as to who might do this on a contingency?

I do not off the top of my head, but I would, I would, you know, start googling around for that. And I mean, and you I hate the work collection agency because then apply some call center that's just going to harass people. But there are there are some attorneys that do you know, high end collections like that that that you just need to find.

I don't play in that sandbox, so to speak. So I don't know anybody.

John, but Tom has one that he recommends. If you call back on Monday and ask Tom or Mark don't be able to give you the name of someone.

That they recommend.

Yeah, so maybe that's great advice. So Jackie, we wish you the best of luck on that. We're got to take a break right now, but thanks for calling.

I don't remember.

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All right, all right, all right, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We are back for the third hour of the show today and we are cranking through some calls. We're going to go right back to the phones here. If you have a problem that we can help you on. That is our mission. We have over three hundred million dollars in cash, merchandise, exchanges and refunds directly due to this show, and we're looking forward

Yeah, thanks for taking a call. Purchased a dishwasher about two years ago. It's out of the factory warranty. Okay, Now on to the extended warranty.

Who is the extended warranty.

With product protection plus?

Was that a something you got when you bought the house or something. How did you come about this?

We purchased a dishwasher from a vendor up in Port Collins.

Okay, so it's through the vendor. So what's going on with it right now?

Yeah?

So the control panel, we had some issues pretty much since we purchased the unit. Control panel a little spend, replaced about four or five times now, you know, and it just every time they come back, something else happens. Now it's they just serviced it this morning and it's leaking of the door panels. So I'm afraid the problem's not getting resolved. And then on top of it, like the unit's not getting put to keep back together correctly, just continues to have recurring issues.

So what do they tell you when you keep calling them back and saying there's ongoing problems.

They essentially just tell me that.

Built send the service techout service, thatch comes out, discovers the same issue. It takes about two or three weeks for them to order in the park to come back and then replace it. And then two or three months later it happens again.

So you said the guy was out this morning, but it's already leaking today, correct, did they run it while the tech was still there.

Yeah, and he left it after about five minutes, you know, and then.

Yeah, can you tell where the leak's coming.

From the bottom of the door panel?

Okay, that's not normally a place where water goes in a dishwasher. What is it about the door panel that's leaking?

Do you know? I'm not trying to be coy.

I'm just I think it's I think it's no. No, I understand, So it's a seal either they're not putting the door panel back together correctly.

Okay.

You know.

One of the things too, is now when I open the door, it sounds like a dog dying.

I don't know.

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Ripped need advice, So you don't have.

Come running.

Just astas as you can.

Shooter's gonna help coming.

Man is the.

Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martine.

Welcome back.

This is John Fuller sitting in for Tom Martino and the Troubleshooter Network and we are moving right along here this afternoon.

We were talking to Brian before the break.

Brian has a dishwasher that has gone out four or five times and he's dealing with an aftermarket or the secondary warranty company. Brian, have you what does your contract say with this warranty company? I mean, do you have any any any next steps that are available in that What do they say about your ability to call out perhaps an independent or something like that.

I haven't looked into that part of the contract, honestly, I'd have to pull that back up. And it's not something I've reviewed before going into the show.

But purchase the unit.

The vendor had told me after the third time typically that's when they started to replace the unit. Okay, the third time for the same issue.

I should clarify.

Right, you know, if it's anything like the aftermarket warranties for cars. I mean you should be able to pick your own technician. I mean, obviously the technician has the

What brand is this dishwasher?

Brian ge profile the fairly expensive unit. It was about I think twelve hundred bucks, you know, and it sounds like they were going to be more of a reputable units out there that weren't front to break.

So that's why we purchased it.

So you said that after what three or four times they start talking about replacing it, are you having that discussion with them yet?

Yes, and I've been That's what I was sold on with the vendor. The warranty company is the product protection plus the repair texts they contract out in experand source.

Well a likelihood about them replacing it after the third failure on the same item as probably aside that first two years. I sincerely doubt that any extended warranty company is going to, you know, reach out and accept that kind of responsibility when all they're getting is the cost of the warranty.

Sure, yeah, and you know it is a four year plan. I don't know that that helps it.

All, Brian, if you pulled out your contract and just reviewed it, because you know, there's a couple of things you got to be careful about here. One is, as Jeff was mentioning, I mean, they may pro rate the value of that towards the end of that period, particularly since they don't really kick in until after your factory

But I think that what I would do is review your document, review the contract, Review what it says about a third party vendor coming in and doing the repairs, just so you know what your rights are and whether you have that ability to pick and choose who comes out to look at this, because clearly you're not getting a good repair or you wouldn't be having this issue.

Yeah, and yeah, I think ultimately my problem is they pulled this thing out, put it back in, taking it apart. So many times. There's seals that are failing, you know, Like I said, there's other issues that are.

Starting to come up with this.

Yeah, I don't know.

So I'll review that contract and see what I can do about getting the third party out there. I guess it sounds like that's kind of step one here.

Yeah, In every contract issue, whether you're dealing with a warranty or a lease, or you know, anything at all that involves a contract, Step one, period is to drag that document out and start reading it and looking at exactly what your rights are under that contract. And it sounds so simple and so, you know, silly, but that really is. In my practice, that is step one. That's

All Right, Hey, thanks for the call, Brian, we appreciate it. Moving right along, We've got Jeffrey next on the line with a question about SUVs. What's up, Jeffrey, Yeah, hey, hey there, thank you.

A question for the auto guys looking for or since you're going to start looking for a large issue, if you wanted something like suburban size, would you say go more forward expeditions, suburbans, what engines, whats some issues to look.

For and not.

Just want to help us in shopping.

I guess yeah.

You're getting to be somewhat limited because the big SUV market is not large. I mean you're going to have just those the GMC, the Ford, you know, whether it's Cadillac, Lincoln. I mean, it's all the same thing. So it's more of a preference. I mean they're both expensive, and they're both you know, pretty reliable, I think on hold, yeah, I mean.

There's a mechanical device, so it's prone to failure just by definition of the words. So yeah, you know, whatever you crawl into. If you don't like driving the Chevy, then you want to look at the Ford.

Yep, Okay, maybe something two years old. Is there issues? I've heard there's some transmission issues with the GM stuff.

There definitely is. There's definitely what the Fords. Yeah, there definitely is with the Fords as well. When you get at a ten spe we were talking about that a little bit earlier. So I mean, if you're looking at any of the four ten speeds and it hasn't already had a transmission replaced, well you can count on you know, a ten thousand dollars bill coming down to pick pretty soon.

It's going to happen. When's that going to happen?

You know, we see a lot of them around the sixty to eighty thousand mill mark. Yeah, so I mean, you know, whatever you're going to get, and we've preached this for years, you know, you take it into somebody like Kevin and get an all around look over that vehicle and see what the condition.

Of it is.

Yeah, what is an inspection like that cost? Kevin?

We only charge one hundred and twenty And it's I say only, but I mean it's it's a two hour, you know experience.

We go through them.

We do a lot of research online as well, so we can heads off different things.

How many times do you think you you find something that makes it just a deal killer, you know, something that is concealed or or just not known, or just.

The extent, the extent of the repairs needed. Leaks and just common repairs is what we find more than anything. People trade them in before they fix them. Yeah, so it's almost highest fifty percent of the time. Really, Yeah, it's probably a fifty to fifty shot where yeah, you got a clean car, goo for it, or you know, you get about four or five grand of work coming. So to keep that in mind when you negotiate. So it's to me, it's well worth one hundred and twenty.

So if you're looking at that two year old car hoping to save money because of just depreciation, you know, if you're going to have to finance it, you're going to be paying substantially more for that finance and than you would on a new vehicle. It's going to be much lower in the new vehicle. So you actually have to do the math to make sure it's going to work.

Okay, what's your guys have thought some opinions on the GM's little diesel they're putting in the SuDS.

Now they're they're running well. I mean we're getting good reports by people liking them, but you know they do have their failures. You are going to be in the shop from time to time, and anytime you're dealing with diesels, you can add anywhere from a third to fifty percent higher on.

The cost of that repair.

Wait, why is that just the cost of the parts?

Oh, they're much more expensive.

Gotcha, gotcha, Jeffrey. Good luck on your search. Hope you find something good.

Go see these guys to get a Please get a diagnostic check before you commit on something used. So when you're talking about doing these diagnostics, how much could you diagnose, like a trainny, I mean, is that something you would recommend that somebody come out just to have you look at that issue or what it is what Kevin doing kind of.

Pretty much what we're going to be able to see is what Kevin's gonna be able to see. So if you can get somebody who's like Kevin, who's going to look at the whole car. I mean, we do just focus in on drive train. So it's really the outside of our sandbox, to use your terms, So we don't like to well inside that area, but you really do just get a snapshot of today. What's the condition of the fluid, how does it smell? Are there any codes presence? What maintenance has or hasn't been done?

Right?

Yeah, because it's it's a challenge. I mean, can you tell me the tree and he's going to go out in twenty thousand miles?

Now, I can't tell if it's gonna go out tomorrow. Most exactly, you have it all the time, it was working all the fine, and all of a sudden it just did this. Well that's life.

That does happen, right, But the evaluation that you do for this this inspection is the same evaluation you would go through if you were looking at them.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

I mean they're they're getting the best efforts you have going through these cars.

Because it's a full visual you know, we'd call it a shakedown. We put it up in the air, wiggle waggle, pull on everything, and you know, and then plug it in. We download whatever data we can find. Hopefully it hasn't been cleared. You know, that's a big problem, you know, coming out of some dealers. They clear everything.

Well, tell me about that. What can you clear?

I always thought if you got the Carfax stuff that had been transmitted to Carfax stays on that.

I'm talking about failures and different things. Codes. We can see FREDES error codes, and we can see free streamed data from the error codes. So if it's been clear and we can tell when the last time it was cleared. Oh, but if there is no info, you know, we're somewhat handicapped there, you know. So they're getting a real good look.

Is there any reason to clear codes that's not nefarious?

No, no, no, not except for have to repair. Yeah, if they did a repair, they would reset, Yeah, they would reset.

Yeah, typically you will a major component that had been problematic that might be the time to repair it or to reset the computer and stuff.

Sure, yeah, to reflash if you changed. A lot of models require reflashing to program that to the car, so you know that is that possibility. But on a used car lot, if it was cleared the day before you took it to be checked out, yeah, not so much.

Speaking of reflashing, this is something we were talking about during one of the breaks. You know, when you take take your vehicle into a shop, make sure you have at least a half a tank of fuel in there. Not only do we need it for the purposes of test driving and whatnot. In the event that we have to do some sort of programming, A lot of vehicles will not accept programming unless you have a minimum half a tank inside the vehicle.

I never heard of that before today. So that's great advice. So we're gonna go to a break right now.

We'll be right back. Give us your calls.

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All right, good afternoon, Good afternoon.

John Fuller here on behalf of Toime Martino for the Troubleshooter Network, and we're going to get to some of the inside secret that I've always wanted to ask about cars and maintenance and stuff like that.

We have open lines right now. We are waiting for your cause.

If you have a problem, We solve problems, answer questions, take complaints, give us a call.

It is car Day.

We have the two pre eminent experts here in the studio, Jeff Vick and Kevin Colkin.

So I've got some questions motor oil.

Is there any debate about whether synthetic oil is better than conventional.

As far as debate, no, I mean, synthetic oils are definitely superior. I mean, obviously there's a little bit more of a cost involved with them. The technology has gotten to the point though it has broughtened down the price point of synthetics, so it makes it a much easier buy. But as it is, you know, it's nonsequeen or anyway, because you have to use synthetics in today's vehicles. They are not built for going on conventional oils.

Okay, Yeah, the clearances are so so so small that it's synthetic or nothing on most of them.

Why does the synthetic work so much better? Is it just temperature or is it viscosity or everything?

All of it, All of it, the friction modifiers, everything in it are more superior. The temperature doesn't break down, the viscosity doesn't vary in temperature. Where conventional is the viscosity cold, obviously it's going to be thicker than when it's warm. The synthetic maintains its viscosity over a broader temperature range.

Right.

So No, I've been a believer in synthetic for years and years. I actually had a dealership.

One day do an oil change and put conventional in and actually had them take it out and put the synthetic in on the top of it.

You know, I just I just am a big believer in it.

So, oh, there's so many myths out there too. It's like I started with convention, I was told I can't switch. I don't know where that stuff starts, but yeah, yeah, it's and we talk about it. You know, the dealer recommends ten twelve thousand on oil change.

Why why would they actually recommend that. It would seem to be not in their best interest or in the consumer's interest.

It's actually playing to the consumer's wants. I mean, nobody wants to have to maintain your vehicle. You'd rather be able to take that money and take your wife out to dinner. You know, the idea of being able to stretch out my maintenance schedule. I don't have to go in all the time. I don't have to spend all this money. And it made it look approachable, so it was started. You know that you didn't have to do it for fifty thousand for a transmission oial change than

It is a lifetime of the transmission. That's the lifetime anything else And.

One of the bigger things you're dealing with when it comes to one oil change is the quality of filters you're putting in there. You run ten thousand miles on a cheap filter, it's probably done in three.

Talk about that.

So when you go to the cheap little roadside oil change places, and and and I know that you can dictate to some degree if you have an oil preference usually and stuff, But do you really get a lesser quality filter at those places.

Unless you request the one that request to go with like the premium package and want through I want the ultimate filter. Then yeah, you're going to get the bottom of the barl because that's going to increase their profit margin.

And how much does that make a difference in the in the the effectiveness of the change, the life.

Of the night and day.

It's the life of the change too, because the filters, the cheaper ones are not made to go more than three four thousand miles.

They're paying an element of breakdown starts breaking down.

I heard you say something earlier that just didn't seem right, but you said, as the filter gets older, larger particles start going.

Yeah, micron read micron red clouded up, and it's a little bit different than it is with a truck with an engine. The transmission filter itself, by the micron waiting, you've basically beaten stuff against that that element in.

Order to trap it.

Okay, Well, as all that stuff's going through there, it's going to break down, and so all those little holes are becoming bigger holes, and they were going to allow larger and larger to breathe to get through.

Interesting. Interesting, So what about in diesels, it's the same. I mean, I don't have a diesel today, but I've for many years had diesels and hauled big horse trailers and boats and that kind of stuff. I actually had one of the old six tozo forwards back in the day. Yeah, for sure. But I actually, for the longest time, you know, I tried Rotella and then you know, eventually I didn't

But it was it was good.

It was good for a while here. When it died, it didn't die as bad as it could have died before.

But but what is the difference?

I mean, how does that happened that one motor just likes a particular oil better than another one, where you get better, you know, better power, better consumption, better less oil consumption.

Talk to me about that.

I think it's all in the viscosity because, especially with diesels and things, they use the oil pressure to open and close injectors, so you have more than just lubrication in a diesel. It also affects the fuel system, right, So if you can maintain the proper viscosity throughout the day of the vehicle, everything works better.

But to some motors, just like one oil over another.

Aden to some degree, I mean, some people may experience that from time to time. It's no different than you know, if Kevin and I both bought an F one fifty truck and mine insists on half and a half mid grade in order to avoid pining, and where he's able to run on the regular run leaded. You know, you can until you can't, right, And.

If you're Dimitri and you're driving like less than the speedling that out there, do that, how does that really impact this analysis here?

You know, well, that's when you put a second hole on a car.

So what is it with you? Dimitri? And two horns here, I don't I don't understand.

Well, if you ever get a chance to listen to a Buick Park Avenue to know the horn, it's a glorious sound.

It's now out on forty five. By the way, What do you guys.

Think about Blackstone Blackstone oil analysis service? Is there any practical reason that a guy like me who doesn't maintain a fleet, who just maintains one car, is there any reason for me to get a Blackstone analysis?

And what am I going to do about the only time you might would be if you're purchasing, you know, a used vehicle. Is that that what's inside that oil will tell you a lot about the health of that engine. So spending a couple of bucks on it, you know you probably won't have that luxury. If you're dealing with a dealer or something like that, they're going to try to move that car. It's probably not gonna be there

What you got.

That's that's an awesome hint.

I didn't think about that.

That's perfect, thank you.

Where do you Where do you get that from? I haven't heard of that before.

So there's a company called Blackstone, and they have some competitors too, but Blackstone is certainly the pre eminent provider of this service. You can register on their website and they at no charge, mail you a little a little bottle, a little plastic bottle, and then when you change your oil, you fill up the plastic bottle and comes with a mailer and then you just drop it in the mail and then a few days later, their turnaround is real fast.

It's kind of like a Cola guard thing for your vehicle there.

Yeah, to think of the terms, Yeah, probably a little bit more pleasant to deal with, we hope, so at least so well, that's interesting stuff.

So we got a collar here, Bill with an issue with an oil leak. What's going on? Bill?

Yeah, Hi, thanks for taking my call. We're dealing with a two thousand and eight Volkswagen Turig. It's a V six and looks like we're getting.

A little bit of coolant in the.

Reservoir, I mean, not coolant, oil mixing in with the reservoir in the coolant reservoir, and I'm being told that the oil cooler is probably the issue.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, it could be the transmission or the engine all killer could be either one, could be either one. Yep, Okay.

I don't know if that's common issue that you've heard on these in the past, but there's definitely no oil on the dipstick in the engine.

It just seems to be in the cooler, right.

Yeah, that that detailed changes things. Yeah, yeah, you definitely you could have a head gas. You could be leaking through the turbo a couple of different places.

Okay, yeah, this this.

One doesn't have a turbo on it.

But they're saying both that this is.

The initial diagnosis is probably the old rings that seal the old cooler to keep a portion of the block.

Well, it could be checked. It's not something you would assume either way.

But Kevin, based on the fact that there's no oil left on a dipstick, that sounds like this engine is not long for this world.

Well, if he keeps running into oil on the dipstick, yeah.

It's still it's got a little on the dipstick.

There isn't any milk or any any cooling, so it's a it's going to other the oil is going into the cooling.

Yeah yeah, so yeah, it's it's very possible. It could be the oil cooler. Yes, all right, Okay, what you want to do is just pressure it up and see if it bubbles through your cooling. You know, you have to disconnect the oil cooler from the engine and then you pressurize the cooler and see if it's leaking, just like looking for a hole in a tire, I mean the same thing.

That's something you can do at your show.

Oh yeah, all the time.

Cool, bring that buy and get it checked out. Bill. Okay, all right, we're going to go to a break now. Thanks for calling Bill.

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I'm back on the Tom Martino Troubleshooter Show.

We are rock and rolling through the afternoon here, and you know we've talked about a number of different subjects here. We've got open lines. We'd welcome your call anything car related today. We've got the pre eminent experts in the house, Jeffic and Kevin Colkin live in the studio as typical on Fridays to help us out. So give us a call with all of your car related issues. I am

Why don't you share it with us?

Yeah, a really difficult case that we're gonna need some serious help with. This lady named Calliah called us a couple of weeks ago, and she owns she's a school teacher and she owns a very modest, tiny little condo in Denver, and it started flooding a couple of years ago, and it was kind of the water source was kind of a mystery for a long time. But the flooding was so severe that her homeowners insurance company actually paid to have there the entire unit ripped out, The entire

What in the world is in two years to get resolved?

Well, yeah, exactly so. The HOA guys wouldn't talk to me, But in two years, I can, you know, you should be able to find the leak. There's only one unit above her. It's a two story building. And it turns out they hadn't even inspected the unit above her for any leaks to see if that if that's where the water is coming from. So they, for reasons I don't understand, they it feels like they've been dragging their feet. Now

Well, that didn't work.

So the place is unfit for occupancy, not just based on our observations, but according to the city too.

It seems to me.

Do yeah, it seems to me to answer your question, No, I don't think there's any way to get the condo declared to total loss by the insurance company. However, if it's the HOA that's standing in the way of her figuring out what that leak is, that may be your avenue for relief.

And so again I hate to keep going back to it. I would start with my dex and.

Bylaws and have that reviewed by a good real estate attorney as to exactly what liability they may have to her, because there is a common you know, area element to this problem here in that the internal piping and stuff.

Is this a condo or a town home. It's a condo condo, okay.

So the essence of a condo is that you know, you own the entire unit, and that would include the piping and the stuff that's internal. But so does the guy upstairs, and so that person may bear some responsibility for failing to address the issue, and the HOA itself may if they're allowing this unit to go practically into

Yeah, I agree, And you know my plan is when we're back to work on Monday, to talk to We have this great real estate where that you know Bret O'Brien, right, So I'd like to get his opinion on this on Monday morning, see if he.

Has a suggestion. Keep us posted on that.

Oh, it's a heartbreaking case.

And I have a question.

If the city says that the leak has to be plugged, can't there be an action against the HOA for not going along with.

Well, that's kind of what I'm saying is a failure to follow those regulations and stuff. Where she's the actual victim of their failure to follow the rules. You wouldn't be able to do anything against the city, but they may kind of open the doors to you bring in an action against the HOA.

Yeah, and even you know, immediate relief, kind of an innerim relief would be to have them pay for her apartment. I mean, she literally is out of money.

Maybe so given free jobs, that's something that.

You could address, and you know, some sort of litigation as if the sides start trying to work through the issues, how can I.

Make them pay HOA dues if the place is happening.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Well, and John, and she has no more money left, right, so she can't even hire an attorney to go pursue these people. And I think and maybe that was part of their nefarious plan. Maybe they know that eventually they can wait you out, kind of like the government can out litigate anybody.

That happens a lot.

So Hey, we've got a number of calls back to up, Pete, Todd, Sandy Don. We're going to get to all of you guys. We are going to take a real quick break. We'll be right back and start in on our calls.

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All right, good afternoon, John Fuller. We're back live on the Troubleshooter Network. We have a pile of calls stacked up here. We're going to get going right away. Pete, you've got a question on transmissions. What's going on?

Pete?

You're to you.

Has a have son that has a four three five I BMW and the transmission module has gone out of it, UH called BMW's down Denver. They said that that part is no longer manufactured by BMW.

So correct, it's going to be absolete, way aged out.

So what do you do?

Just the car obsolete and the car is.

Not necessarily obsolete.

I mean you can try your local map or Advance or somebody like that, or get online. There are actually people who do rebuild them. Sometimes they'll rebuild yours, sometimes already have rebuilt in stock. Obviously, a BMW three twenty five I is not nearly as common as something like an F one fifty, so it's less likely they're going to have yours in stock, and you may be pulling it out, shipping it to them and having them literally rebuild that computer.

And send it back to you.

Well, so they said that if we got a new part. You know they make after part one after market ones, but they won't when you get a new part put in there, you have to have them reprogram it. Only BMW reprograms.

They will not reprogram.

Anything other than that.

Well, you send out.

That's why you send out your computer to a rebuilder, it's going to come back already programmed.

Already programmed. Okay, yep, well that's a good thing.

Yeah.

So if they took one out of a junk yard and put on that car, would that work?

Do you think?

I mean, say, if the car was running.

When you know it's a crapshoot, it's a crapshoot.

You might get lucky. They do have actual different serial numbers, uh, different model numbers and different programming for four different cars sometimes even for areas. I mean, California's got very specific rules that you know, Kentucky doesn't necessarily comply with. So I mean it's a crap shoot doing that. You're you're better off pulling your computer sending it out just waiting.

Right, good advice, Get Google, Google, somebody to do that.

There's a there's a bunch of Yeah, there's a bunch of them out there. As far as doing one in particular for BMW, you just have to make sure that whoever you're sending it to is going to actually work on that computer.

Okay, all right, great advice. Thanks for the call.

Pee, appreciate it. Next, we're going to go to Todd. He's got a question about a car accident.

What's going on? Todd?

Hey, how are you doing? Tom?

Or Tom?

But John Ford?

Doing good? Doing good? How can I help good here?

Well, I have a friend that was in a car accident about two weeks ago, was hit by a drunk driver. Okay, and it was his the drunk driver's fault, because he was doing shots of whiskey when they pull him out of the thing up here in Greeley. My question is the friend he had to have surgery and rebuild his ankle and part of his knee, and the lawyers that he's trying to find a good lawyer, but he hasn't found one. And I said, well, I'm going to call Tom Martino because he knows everyone.

I just happened to know one four years. Let me make the seat.

Hey, I got I got a great lawyer for you, John John Pone.

Tell me.

I'm guessing there's something more challenging about the case. Did the guy have insurance or what's going on that's being problematic?

Well, he has dementia? Your friend does or no?

The guy that hit him?

Okay?

And he this is like his third d y. Okay, my question is the lawyers that he's finding it went are winning between thirty five.

And forty.

Compensation on what they get okay, typical injury.

Yeah, I can tell you that that there's a range of fees that you find, like in any business. I do know some people that charge that much. My fees are a little bit lower than that, But I do think you see a range that's out there. You know, the important things are not so much the rate that you're being charged, but the quality of the work that's

Is it also possible that they're hearing something with this case in a longer conversation than what you're getting, that they're boosting their rates to.

Get I don't really know anybody that does that.

I think it's kind of a threshold issue between we'll take it or we won't, depending on the facts of the case. It's not that we've raised our rates. I've personally never done that. In twenty three years or whatever of doing this, I've never once raised my rates because I perceived the complexity of the case to be greater

Looking for for your friend.

Yeah, and yeah, I think what my main concern was, he's twenty one or twenty two, and they his carvice total. He's been off work for two weeks now, and they were like, oh, we can get you about twenty five thousand, and I was like, you're gonna be off for two months or three months and then medical after that. It says you would need more than that. Plus you, yeah, we're still paying on your car that was totaled, so so that I.

Was thinking it was young.

But yeah, so that brings up a great issue and not knowing the facts of the case, it may just be helpful for people to really understand and Colorado minimal limits that are required coverages are only twenty five thousand. That means to be legal on the roads, you've got to have at least twenty five thousand. And that's what you see in every like Fred Loyer contract, every bottom of the wrong insurance contract out there, no matter how high risk the driver is.

That's called liability insurance. It's required.

Sometimes you see liability insurance that goes up, you know, northwards of a half a million. You even see umbrellas and stuff that go a lot more.

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Rid of.

Need so you don't have to.

Run anxious as fast as we can Shooter's gonna help come man.

This is the.

Troubleshooter Show now Tom Martino.

Good afternoon, John Fuller's I'm standing in for Tom Martino here on the Troubles Network.

It is our fourth hour of the day with.

The illustrious experts Jeff Fick and Kevin Colkin in here for card day. We are currently talking with Todd, whose friend got in a bad car accident with a drunk driver, and we were talking before the break about, you know, the decision of hiring an attorney and what should be important, and the comment was made that one of the attorneys said, you know, we can probably get you the twenty five thousand, and my response to that is that, you know, anybody

I just need to check what is underinsured the same as uninsured sure is.

Yep, absolutely, so that's the same same thing. Yep, that's the same thing.

The second thing to look at is whether or not we have other people in the same residents that are related to your friend that might also have insurance under a different policy. And since you mentioned that your friend is twenty one years old, that could be a really

There.

So it's a serious case, you know, it's the ultimate insult that you can cause that much damage and have the crappiest insurance that the law allows you to have. But if the right moon and the stars lineup and we can stack a few policies up on his side and get a great result in negotiating those medical bills, we can still get a really good outcome for your friend.

Does all that make sense there, Todd, Yes, thank you.

So I'll have him call you.

I'll give him the information in your phone number that you gave me, perfect and.

Have them call you to talk to you.

And yeah, do I in trust you guys down there? I want to listen to you guys.

So hey, I appreciate that.

I'll be happy to talk to your friend and stuff and anybody else that has questions along that. That was a lot of information, really really fast. But that's the kind of stuff that we do every day at my law firm. It's not just a matter of you know, handling a simple case and filing a claim and getting paid. These things are complicated. The rules that apply to these insurance companies and these medical providers that want to get repaid.

One and you'll end up paying the price as a result. So appreciate your call.

Anybody else that has stuff along those same lines, we'd be more than happy to take your call this afternoon as well. We are going to move along here. We've got another caller, Sandy here with the real estate question. Sandy, what is going on with you?

I have a question on rentals right now.

They've changed all the laws in Colorado and it leans quite heavily for the tenants. And we have a rental, but.

We would not like to get caught up in all the laws. Like you can have more people move in, you know, if it's just two on the leaf, you can still have more move in. With a new laws, it takes longer to a victim I just wonder if there's any way you can keep a rental in Colorado and have have.

It so that the rules are not so lenient towards the tenants.

Well, it's tough.

I mean we're going through a phase right now where the perception is that these greedy landlords like you are out there taking advantage of people. And and I'm being facetious, of course, but the perception is that everybody that's a landlord is rich and just you know, goes back and forth between their yacht and their mansion and may drive by the rental on the way to just you know, cash checks and stuff like that. But we all know

Okay, what.

Type of property do you have, Sandy? Okay?

You know I found a good protection with a rental that I had years ago.

Is uh.

I actually went through the Air Force base. Oh okay, and it was military families exactly. So they were always fantastic renters. They kept the place clean. When it was a problem, you got a phone call. There's a lot more security in that. Now. The downside is in the event of a you know, they get deployed someplace or they get reassigned, you have to littlem out of their lease immediately.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I recall back in my little days as a lowly, little enlisted army guy, the last thing in the world you wanted to have happen with somebody called the captain and say, you know, Fuller has neglected to pay something he was responsible for.

That was a bad day at.

WARL Bounce a check to us in Castle Rock at a shop I had down there, right, and he worked at the Air Force base, and he was on the phone within fifteen minutes of the phone call, sir, please don't call my captain back, sir please, I'll be on my way, I mean, yeah, as fast as he could drive to make that right.

Absolutely, that's a great that's a great suggestion. Are you anywhere near a military base.

There, Sandy, I'm right, Noelvada.

No, I'd be a reserve you close by. But yeah, what what experiences have you had before this, Sandy?

Some good, some bad?

Yeah, mostly Okay, nobody's ever wrapped it or anything. It's it's you know, every tenant has a different problem and you either can resolve it or they have to move.

Yeah. What kind of problems have your tenants have come up with in the past.

Well, one gal had a dog and she never told us, and then she was when we told her she needed to move out because we were going to remodel it.

That was years ago.

That's when we found out she had a dog. And then she said it was a dog she was taking care of for.

Someone and service dog or you know, yeah, we.

Didn't we didn't pursue it.

So I'm mostly animals.

The animal problems where they don't tell you they have one. We don't have too many problems with rent, and right now I think people are just looking for a place to rent. It's not going to be hard to rent it. I just want to make sure I get the right people in there that aren't going to flute in all their friends or whatever.

Sandy, I really think that's the key to it all is just you know, it's just like hiring an employee or or anything else. The more you do to investigate the background and know what you're getting into with that person, the better off you're going to be. So best of luck to you, say any thanks for the call. Good luck to you, John.

Do you think there's any correlation between how much you pay for rent, how much your tenants pay, and the level of confidence you have that they'll be good tenants?

Well, I mean, if you want to apply every stereotype in the world to you know the economics of that, Certainly people that pay a higher rent earn more money, at least in theory. But I don't know that you can make that correlation. There's dead beats at every level. Of you know, earning and ability to pay and stuff.

So I don't know, what do you guys think, Well, I'm not talking about ability to pay them, just about any destruction of the other property.

I don't know, man, I've seen some things on the news where people have.

Rock stars are millionaires and they trust buildings. So yeah, I mean, there's no correlation to that.

They've absolutely destroyed homes that you see, you know, going on the market because it's just been completely demolished and they put you know, bombs down in the toilets and stuff like that. I mean, I don't know that there's necessarily a course.

I don't think you're safe by having like a really expensive rental, right, And I don't know that you can make that make that argument.

I've just thought it'd being an interesting point of discussion.

Yeah, it's an interesting question there. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation. In comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three, seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Actually a choice on a bumper music there. Good afternoon, John Fuller here for the Troubleshooter Network. We are working through all sorts of fun issues today in the studio this afternoon. We have an accomplished set of deputies. Today We've got Jeff Vick and Kevin Colchan. It is car Day. They are our resident experts on all things cars. So if you have anything you'd like to give us a call on, We've got a few open lines right now. Now would be a really good time to get in

Why don't you share that with this Oh, you know.

I was just discussing the ethanol free gas that you can now buy at Maverick gas stations, and you know what, one of the things I was wondering about. The obvious benefit is I really do get a noticeably higher gas mileage because the gasoline is a higher energy content than ethanol does. Right, But am I giving up anything in terms of the detergents that I would get in a brand name gasoline.

No, definitely, not intellectuality most I mean that was the gas post cars were designed to run onto Again, with the ethanol itself is highly much more corrosive, and so they've had to change a lot of the components for you know, ceiling, whether it seals them cells or gaskets in order to live up to that corrosive property.

So there's no downside to me using ethanol free gas other.

Than the fact that it hits your pocket book a little deeper.

Yeah, I've noticed it's a lot more expensive than the improvement and gas mileage and.

Justify we've talked about it. And when it comes to marine sports and power sports through the ethanol free is the choice to go to.

What about you know, I've always I grew up hearing that shell gasoline is the best thing you can put in your car.

That's because Shelle told you it was.

Okay, they but you've heard that myth before, right is you know, I mean.

It's all about detergent factors, and yes, all of them are a little bit different.

So we come up with two lives today, Shell and that Toyota's never break down.

No, they're gold. They're both gold.

No, the lifetime you were thinking of a lifetime fluid claim that that some many manufacturers are now making.

Right.

Good to know.

Hey, I stumbled across something on the internet earlier today when I was just bopping around, and I just wanted to kind of verify this.

The top ten least reliable cars. What do you guys think tops the list according to who? Well, this is Kelly Bluebook, Okay, Range Rover, rangeover Mercedes not even on the really list. Range Rover is not in the top ten at all. A reliable, unreliable, reliable top the least unliable cars. You said unreliable, Well that's the same thing. Least reliable is unreliable.

Okay, never mind, So just to summarize, you're looking at a list of the least reliable Automobiles.

See ten Least Reliable Automobiles.

Well, range Rover and Mercedes have got to be at the top of that list. Jaguar is probably number three, one would think, yeah, but one would be wrong. Okay, Actually Mercedes is number two.

Okay.

Range Rover did not even make the list. That's just surprising, I know, and neither did Jaguar. I think more because of the just the sheer number of them on the road. You know, statistically there's just more X, Y and Z vehicles than than those two. But would you would you guys agree the number? Well, I'm gonna save it for right now. Let's start at the bottom. The four point fifty hybrid. Do you guys work on hybrids some?

Yeah, but there there's not very many of those on the roads. I don't know how that made the list either.

Yeah, I don't. I don't think they're having.

I don't think I've seen one in several years. Yeah. Yeah.

What about all electric? Do you guys ever touch those?

Not with us?

Well, we do alignment, suspension breaks, things of that sort of. What's the work on them? Yeah?

What I mean are the transmissions? There is no transmission, Well, there there is, and it's a direct drive from the orders and stuff.

There's nothing that's serviceable in those. It's a complete swap out. If anything goes exactly interesting, I'll tell.

You mine was ten years, one hundred thousand miles. So the warranty is pretty good on.

Those, right. Interesting. You just things that make you go right, yep. Number nine Hyundai Kona full Electric once again, doc ten year, ten thousand. Oh, good to know, right, good to know if that's true. Of course I don't believe you, but that's right here on the list.

Well that was from twenty one to twenty three.

Really, yeah, they got it all dialed in right right before you bought the car.

Or I will let you know if I have any problems, all right, the first to know that that car is on there?

Yeah, all right.

Number eight Lincoln Aviator. You know that may go back somewhat to the Lincoln, the transmission issues that you were talking about or something.

That was just that.

I mean, they are suspension alan has been a huge problem inside those.

Yeah.

Is it across is it just the aviator or across the whole Lincoln.

It's pretty much the aviator, is it?

Oh?

Yeah?

But I mean don't get me wrong, the like writing a couch on a cloud and right, but these are constantly in the show up we get to know somebody.

The steps that go up and down brutally expensive defense and they're always broken. Good to know.

I'll keep that in mind. We have a call here.

We're going to keep going through the list. But Phil, you've got a question about service. What's going on?

Phil?

Yes, I'm non mechanic. I've got twenty sixteen hondas CRV two for sixty thousand miles service? What should I have done and not miss at all?

Well?

They do have a you know, there's a list and a guide that you can go with depending on the mileage, whether it's severe or non you know to go by. Have you looked that up online at all? That that's where I would start.

Well, and first of all, if you're in Colorado, we're considered we're considered severe. But I mean it definitely zero A lot all of your fluids go through go through change that your aunt a freeze, change your your transmission fluid. If it's all most likely four wheel drives, So the PTU unit for the four wheel drive and the real differential. I mean, how the other well, a lot of the other stuff needs to be inspected. You know, belts and hoses and and those have a valve adjustment.

That is the single biggest missing thing on Honda's So if that's required at sixty, you be sure and do it.

Okay, belt adjustment, No valve adjustment, Oh, valve adjustment. How about air filters?

And uh yeah, that should just be routine. You shouldn't even have to worry about mileage. Just do it on a regular schedule.

Sure, Okay, you said there's a guide. I can just look it up.

You can look up service intervals and then put your car in it. It'll give you a whole list of things they recommend it what mileage?

Okay, that sounds great.

All right, thanks thanks for calling Phil. Good luck with that.

All right, we're moving on up our list here. The next one you mentioned earlier, Nissan CenTra, no dispute.

Well, it's pretty much an entry level car. When it runs out, it's like a big lighter when it runs out of gas, throw it away, it away.

So is it is it the drive train issues that just keep coming up on those cars?

The whole thing, Yeah, the whole car is pretty much electronics are tough, tough to work on.

Yeah, yeah, really hard.

Where do you where do you start getting into I mean, as you go up the ladder of Nissan products, where do you kind of cross over the line to to decent quality.

Or do you.

Well, the transmissions they're hanging on almost every car that comes out, so, I mean that's that's the weak link.

Yeah, when you start to get a little bit into their truck line. You you know, when you get into the frontiers, or at least the older frontiers that we were a typical longitudely mounted engine, those were those were good. The Titans, they're still running conventional inside those ye, so they're a pretty decent truck when as a matter of fact, we've very seldom to see a Titan.

In the shop.

Interesting is it is it Nissan and Honda that are contemplating a merger? Merger here now?

Yeah, we're hoping the Honda overrides a lot of Nissan ideas, right yeah, right, I.

Mean is that just bringing superior technology to the table.

Or the two companies that are suffering, so you know, hopefully that they can take the best of all to make a supercar that'd be ideal.

Does that give Honda kind of a low line economical vehicle to help kind of boost their averages or what do you think the logic behind that that marriage is.

I think it's desperation because I don't see a real outside to it.

Trying to maintain relevance. Yeah, exactly interesting, all right. The next one on the list, sorry to see this Ford Explorer. Now there's gazillions of those on the road, so that that could potentially sway the results here.

But what are your thoughts on Explorers?

Not terrible?

You've got the surprise bost engine, you know.

Yeah, now, but that that whole next generation of turbo hanging force owners is going to be a problem for everybody. That's not just for You're getting a motor. It's designed to do something and making it do something else by by boltons, right, you know, just adding kits on the cars and making them super fast. Yeah.

So the smaller the engine and the higher the output that they they squeeze out of it, it's just exponentially increasing.

And it just stresses everything, you know, So they're short term cars, I think.

You know interesting, what about the trainees and stuff? Do you see the same issues?

Yeah, I mean we do see them. They seem to come through in rashes. It's not like a daily or a weekly, but when we do see them, it seems like, you know, we'll see five or six this month, we'll see two or three'll dwindle down and then it disappear for a while. But that training is kind of a joint venture between four General motors. There's a bunch of differences between the sixties series and the six F series, but as a general rule, they're a pretty good little unit.

Yeah, interesting.

Chevy Volt. Another that's an electric car too, isn't it the volt? Okay, we've got a lot of It's gate. That's a tirey little car. Yes, tiny, yeah, yeah. All these little electric cars kind of scare me and stuff. So we're gonna get to the rest of the list. We're gonna go on a quick break. We'll be right back.

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All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here back on the Tom Martino Troubleshooter Network. We were going through a riveting list here of the ten least reliable cars, and we are trucking right through them. The last little entry was the Chevy Bolt, a fine little electric vehicle. There's a lot of electric vehicles on this.

I don't know.

We were talking off the air about kind of where that whole industry was going, and you guys are talking about hydrogen cars, So talk to me about that.

I mean, the battery fought out, it's just a stepping stone into you know, these electric cars. You know it's going to be a hydrogen fuel source. You'll have fuel cells possibly in both ends of the cars, and they're converting that into energy, spitting water at the tailpipe right right?

How many how many of those vehicles do you think are on the road right now?

As as far as quantity, and I'm not sure, I mean, there's not going to be that many of them. I think right now, the only place that I know of for sure that does have any sort of source for uh, you know, reliable filling stations is in California, right so, I think there's only about four different models that are actually even driving on the road in the United States. New Zealand's a way ahead of us on that.

Interesting, you know that the objections to these are always the same, you know, as technology changes. You know, you talk about these self driving cars and then you know, people in Colorado go waite and minute, what about snowy days and you know everything else, and that's not going to work for that. And then you get a report of you know, bitter cold temperatures somewhere, and you see parking lots full of electric cars at the charging stations because it's too cold to take a charge on the

I do know engine It's the same electrical engines, just different fuel. So yeah, I think they're going to have the same inherent problems that they have now with temperature and variations. They do almost have to.

So when you say it's the same electric engine, how is the hydrogen is.

It it's converted to the electric to run the engine. It just replaces the battery. Basically interesting.

Okay, so you probably would have the same challenges.

And similar Yeah. If not, you know, you don't have the vaulted storage, but you have some sort of storage. Temperature is always going to be a variable inoding machine.

Do you think we'll ever get away from an internally cobusted engine completely?

No?

Yeah, not in our left drive anyway.

I mean, they've already got electric semis and stuff and self driving semis and you know, but you still got the weather issues. That's never going to be you know, you're never going to replace the.

Need for reportation, and there's no field of transportation flying ships.

I mean, weathers just can't get away from the idea that you can you can eliminate the need for the judgment that goes along with the live driver. You know, we can, we can program every self driving thing in the world. But when I look at crash videos and stuff and we dissect what happened in some of these accidents, it almost always comes down to driver error, and there's subtleties in judgment. You can't write a rule that's black or white. In every circumstance.

You have to do this.

You have to speed up, slow down, turn left, turn right, those kind of things. It inherently comes down to the driver being able to make a judgment call, and it either is the right one that eliminates the possibility of an accident or a wrong one with catastrophic results.

Along that for a lot of years, was you know, when it comes to the autonomy of the vehicles, was one of the challenges they had is writing immorality clauses inside the software. Right, But now you actually have I mean, I believe it was in Las Vegas. I saw you've got a taxi company that's piloted out I think there's ten vehicles out there. There is no driver. It is

Would you get in that vehicle?

Not Miss Chams.

I think AI is advancing so quickly that I think within ten years you will have one non human driven vehicles.

I don't know. I don't think I would be too crazy about jumping in one.

And it will eventually come down to a day where you don't own a car, you own a car service. So you know, the family of four with Bobby's got to go to soccer practice after school, and Dad's still at work, and Mom's got to go get the groceries, and Susie's got to get the piano class. You have to just you are literally summoned a service. A car will pick you up, it will take you to your destination, it'll drop you off, and it'll return when you have

Oh, you mean something like Uber?

Well, I mean, you know, there's a lot of people that currently don't own vehicles that live via Uber and Lyft and all that stuff, and that's you know that you've got to have a particular lifestyle to be able to do that. You can't, you know, you can't. I don't know.

I think it would get incredibly expensive to do. You know, like things that we take for granted, like you're going on a hunting trip, or you're going to the mountains or for the weekend, or you want to you know, do whatever. Those kind of things are not very uber, you know.

Yeah, but there's people in big cities that never driven a car.

I know that.

Yeah, I can't imagine it. Yeah, I can't imagine.

But if you ever lived in New York City, you could easily understand why you don't need a car. And if you want to go away for the weekend, that's when you go rent a.

Car to go up to the mountains. So how old were you before you started driving? I unfortunately eighteen.

Here's on his way to Kitty Hawk.

But you really, I mean, you really don't need a car, if you know, if you're if you're working.

You know, I hear people say that you don't need a car. I need a car. Okay, I may not people. I can survive without a car, but I need a car. I I just don't understand that mentality that you know.

I don't know, it's crazy. I guess, you know, to each their own. If you live in that environment and you kind of, you know, have grown up in the idea of these car services and stuff, it's it's all well and good. But for those of us that are not really of that error, we we're already in around owning our own car and and going and doing on

That one really surprises me. Really. Yeah, we've got.

Being a Ford guy myself, I don't find it all that hard to understand. It seems pretty straightforward here, Chevrolet.

I don't know.

I think part of this may be just the sheer number of vehicles on the road, and you know that that's got to play a role because some of the notoriously crappy cars out there, like range Rovers and stuff that that Doc was mentioning, are not on the list at all. So we've got a couple of callers here, Dave, you've got a question on oil.

What's going on? Dave?

Hey got now, guys, Hey, I got a question between Mobile I and Costco oil. I kind of looked at Bob the oil guy, and they kind of rate pretty close, but I change them oil six thousand miles religiously, So does it really make a difference as long as them kids just changing it?

Well, I mean Mobile one is a little bit better. I mean Costco. A lot of Costco's brand stuff that comes with the Kirkland name or Costco name, it's not made by Costco. I mean they're they're vodka. I believe it is Gray Goose, but it's got the Kirkland name on the label. So being interesting to know who's actually, you know, producing that oil and what they're relabeling it from.

And do you even know if it's the same manufacturer every time?

I mean, yeah, yeah, it could be Mobile one. Yeah, he could be buying the same oil for just a different price. They're both very similar oil.

Though, Okay, do you think well, I mean, the Kirkland brand is most of the time is quite a bit cheaper than the Mobile one.

Yep. I don't think you go wrong with either. O. You know, as long as you're doing the intervals properly, you're not overextending and everything else, you should.

Be fine and spend extra money on a good filter filter.

Yeah, even you know, fresh cheap oil is still better than old and dirty good oil, right, absolutely, so, I mean it comes down to your interval. If you're gonna if you're going to really push things out to the outside edge of that envelope, you want to probably have a higher, higher.

Quality or what guys swear by Royal purple. Then it's twice the price everything else, and it's it's very very good oil. But it's designed to, like you said, push limits with right.

Yeah, interesting, all right, thanks Dave for the call. Appreciated. Jim, You've got a service question. How can we help you? Jim?

Yeah, I've got a Toyota twenty fourteen Toyota and I'm just curious it's got any nine thousand miles on it and I got it when it had over sixty thousand miles, and I'm not sure if the training's ever been serviced. And I'm wondering if the first offer of those transmission is pretty good, and what kind of service I need to do.

Well. You know, I've said up before and I just can't say it enough. You know, I recommend any transmission here out there is every three years or thirty six thousand miles, you know, just because you've gone over that, you know, I mean, depending on what you see in as far as debris and whatnot. There are times where a guy stops and says, wait a minute, there's something more going on with this. We're not going to do

Are those transmissions pretty reliable?

They're decent. I mean they're kind of mid grade. I mean, toyotas you know, we joke around the toilet makes themselves look like gold. But you know they do have a lower failure rate than the average.

Which Toyota do you have? You didn't mention the model Venza?

She wrote it down. I thought you saw it there. It's a twenty fourteen Venza.

Oh so, I mean it's kind of a lower level car as far as Toyota is concerned. But like any car, you know, the more you take care of it, the more you service it. Oh, you know, your maximizes eting the longevity of that vehicle.

But with sixty years it hasn't been.

It hasn't been DVN a lot, which isn't always good, you know, I mean, vehicles do need to be driven in order to stay healthy. Uh, you know that's not terribly unreasonable for that car.

But right, okay, thank you for sure.

All right, thanks Jim, appreciate the call. We got to go to another break here, guys, we'll be right back.

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All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We are getting close to wrapping up today. We've got a couple more callers here. Let's go to Sandy with a question on a catalytic converter.

Sandy, Hello, I was wondering if you could tell us how you go about getting an exemption from the state on catalytic converters. We can't get ours to turn off.

Get your check engine like to turn off. Yes, Well, depending on the work that you've done, there's a threshold that you have to spend, and then you make an appointment at the Admission Tech Center and they're the only ones that can give you a waiver through the Admission Tech Center.

What kind of car are you dealing with, Sandy on two thousand and three Honda? Okay? And how long have you been dealing with this issue?

Oh?

About three years?

Four years.

We have a new catalytic converter on it.

Too, and you're still getting a catalytic converter code or what code are you getting?

Check engine light?

Is all I could tell you, sir.

Okay, Well, a check engine like could be related to a lot of things, a lot of different things, sir. But just because you have a check engine light on you replace the cat that doesn't mean anything.

Yeah, depending on the repairs you go. Like I said, if you look at the Emission Tech Center, they're down at like Second and Bryant. It's part of the state program. You have to there's a threshold you to have receipts and everything with you. I think it's four six hundred bucks towards the repairs towards the problem. In other words, you can't do repairs that don't relate to the problem. They'll give you a waiver.

Now when you replace the cat, did you use a California Colorado Compliant cat?

We use the Colorado Compliant can't good good good California.

Yeah, yeah, c RB. Yeah. It just depends on the code. It depends on why the light's on as to whether or not they will issue a waiver, because if the converter is not related to the check engine light, then those repairs don't go to that problem.

So well, okay, but look up.

The Mission Technical Center. It's part of the state program and they can help you more with that.

Yeah, you'll actually end up having a face to face meeting with somebody and they inspect the vehicle and everything else, and then depending on what they see that, you know, they'll give you, you know, that next two years where the car's got to be fixed or they won't pass it again.

A good outfit. It's very straightforward.

Okay, thank you, Thanks Sandy, appreciate the call. Do you guys still run into a lot of emissions problems or is it really becoming less and less of a factor I.

Think it's becoming more of a problem with people holding onto their cars longer now than it was before. But yeah, that's it's still an issue. Yeah, you know it was for a while with the stolen cats, but that's kind of died off because they they crossed the price of the recycling, so it's not worth stealing anymore.

So who did that? How did that happen?

I think the market just did it. You know, it was kind of they may have had any somebody may have had some influence on that.

For the about the people that were putting like VENs and serial numbers and stuff. I mean, did anybody ever cross check that I was useless? Yeah, total waste to till.

There was guys that took advantage of that and you come in for a hundred bucks, we'll put this on there.

It's like, okay, I have never known a metal you know, recycler that would give to you know what about numbers on something that he's fixing to crush.

Well, most of them they knew they were stolen anyway, So of course they're not legit to start with, so you can't put a legit program on top of them.

It's real common for you know, some of the you know, like the Yuzu NPR cab over type trucks you see, like the one got trunk junk trucks and whatnot. They actually put these large steel cables that are or a big cage that are locked down and there just to keep you from tapturing tampering with the cats.

Right, yeah, that got bad. It's it's laid off a little bit here, thanks thankfully. But you know, the state and you know, incorporating the c r B limits on everybody on the cats didn't help either, right, couldn't get them right?

Yeah, is that still a problem or is it.

It's loosened up. It's just a cost, ye know there three times cost got you?

All right?

We got to get through our list here before the day is done. Coming in third Jeep Gladiators.

No surprise there, no, no none at all.

I don't talk to me.

Well, they've had problems with believing it or not the clutch programming on the stick shifts and the clutch itself. They've actually generated enough heat they've set vehicles on fire. They will come apart and they will, like you will have the clutch exit the case. They've been huge problems with it now, Gene or GM, excuse me, Jeep actually change the programming on it because they don't have a

So that is crazy to me that they've got a program and they don't have a fix for it.

Fix for it. There are aftermarket clutches that you can put in there, and those are holding up. But obviously Jeep themselves will not put those in, but they're the one liable on these. You know, I had literally had a vehicle in the shop that had twenty seven hundred miles on his on his third clutch.

All right, so we're gonna we're gonna get through here. We already know about Mercedes bench at the top worst car for reliability according to Kelly Blue Book. Jeep Wrangler.

Any surprise, no surprise, same problems, No, same problems. Yeah yeah cool. Hey, thank you. I appreciate all your help, everybody, save all your problems.

Thank thank John for being here doing a great job.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, and we really appreciate it.