Replace the catalytic converter and both oxygen sensors on a Honda Accord

A friend of mine who started out as a client called me the yesterday.

He asked for my advice on his Honda Accord.

You see, he lived in Ventura for a long time but has moved to Tucson Arizona now and it’s an inconvenience for him to drive all this way back to get the work done on his vehicle. However, it doesn’t stop him from calling us for a second opinion. One which I’m glad to provide.

A mass merchandiser of the area checked the check engine light on his car. Codes P0420 and code P0430 were stored in memory.  They surmised the need for the catalytic converter and both the up-range, and post cat oxygen sensors.

He gave me a quoted price and asked if it was fair. I said it was but only if it was needed. I suggested that since they were asking for the converter as well as both oxygen sensors (which suggests fishing for an answer to me), why not replace both sensors first and then, drive the vehicle.

If the check engine light continues to come on with the same codes, then replace the converter.

Let me preface this, I suggested real testing to be done first. In the absence of it, then start with the sensors.

 He called the repair shop back to let them know what he wanted to do. And this is what they said,

They would replace the oxygen sensors but, they could not warranty them if the Catalytic converter caused them to fail. Say what!

Either they are completely ignorant and don’t know what they are doing or, they are flat out fraudulent using scare tactics to pressure the client into purchasing something they may not need?

It is not possible for a catalytic converter to cause an oxygen sensor to fail! It’s always the other way around. Mind you, If the converter were to hand grenade and in the explosion, take the sensor, then I suppose it’s possible.

Either way, it angers me when someone in our profession does something that stupid as people tend to generalize and judge auto repair based on their worst experience.

Light is on my Toyota Scion

"Hi this is Lee" I said. 

The call came in from the owner of the most successful body shop in the area. He is heavily into processes with lots of procedures to minimize any kind of failure and client complaints.

He told me we had done an oil service in one of their vehicles a month ago and the oil maintenance, along with the tire pressure lights were on. He implied our mechanic had forgotten to reset the light when the work was done as he was required to do.

He said he was doing did this to help me and that our processes must be very weak for an auto mechanic to forget to reset the light. While he continued to talk, I started to look up into our Auto repair shop point of sale software, and retrace the circumstances for the vehicle in questions last visit.

"We last worked on that vehicle in January the 21st of this year" I said. This is now over 7 months ago. "But Lee, I'm looking at the lube sticker and it says 7/21/19" he replied.

I explained to him he was reading the date the vehicle would be due again for service, not the date the service was done. I also gave him the last known mileage the vehicle had at the last visit. Well, it is now 7 K miles and 7 months ago. The vehicle is now due for service and that's why the warning light is on, not because we forgot to reset it as he initially insinuated.

Wrong as he might have been, at the very least he had the courage to call me to let me know of the perceived transgression.  I just wish I knew how many people who had a complaint, valid or not,  didn't call and instead just chose to not come back.  

The best or worst thing that happened today

The best or worst thing that happened today.

It’s a cold Monday in July here in Ventura. But it heated up very quickly when I got to work, opened my emails and found we had a Yelp review. I went to my Yelp dashboard and read the review.

It was one of the worst reviews we’ve had in a long time. It stated we had taken a Jeep Wrangler for a simple battery test, had taken one week to get back to them, had no communication in between, and still had no answer as we still had the vehicle here. It was the biggest waste of time they had ever gone through!

The temperature in my body rose very quickly as a read the contents of the review.  But, first things first. I got the other side of the story from the service adviser involved with the vehicle in question. Got the story but he wasn’t all that apologetic. He felt he had done everything possible to address the issues, to mitigate the anxiety of the client and to inform them of the findings and possibly needed repairs. Couldn’t understand why things had gone so horribly for the client to write such a poor review.

Second, I searched into my soul, and into my business, then asked the question, “is there anything I can learn from this?” The answer was a resounding YES! I can learn from this.

In every business, there are processes that are sometimes dropped due to human nature, apathy, boredom, cell phones, etc.  I realized we could have done better, much better! Otherwise how else could we be getting trashed with such poor review?

I left a voice mail for the owner of the vehicle to call me back in hopes we could resolve the matter out of the public forum.

When the owner called me back, he started by apologizing profusely. He told me the car was his 16-year-old daughters first car, which they had just bought. He told me we had indeed called him and informed him in a timely manner, we had done everything possible to work with him and a vehicle with a failed battery purchased elsewhere. 

Unfortunately, his daughter wasn’t in the repair loop. All she knew, was that she was without her new (used) car for almost a week now and desperately wanted it back. And no one was updating her. So, she took the matter into her own hands. She posted a review on Yelp from her own perspective of the matter. And that’s what brought us back to the father calling me back apologetically for her daughter’s behavior.

Fortunately for us, we dealt with a father with a strong moral compass who was willing to right a wrong. He demanded from his daughter the removal of such review and she did. I felt vindicated, but at the same time, I did acknowledge to the father his daughter wasn’t all wrong. Maybe in her approach but perhaps not in content.

You see, when they brought the car to us for something as simple as a battery test, we should have been able to address it on the spot. Not a day or two later. I understand there were other underlying circumstances that conspired to delay things. Mainly, the owner wasn’t in a hurry to get back to us.

In that regard, that bad unposted review, will have help us make the changes to become better. Changes that without that bad review, we may not have considered. Thank you, Emma. Next time call us first please!

Took my Chevy to the,,,,,,auto repair shop

The subject this time is a 1978 Chevy El Camino with the V8 5.0 L engine.

A very elegant looking gentleman in his late 70’s brought us the vehicle and stated that he needed it to run better when cold. All was fine once the engine came up to operating temperature.

We kept the car overnight for us to duplicate the concerns. I, being the old man of the shop, and the only one who worked on those vehicles, started the car and took it for a road test.

I set the choke (Google it if you don’t know) and cranked the engine. It came to light and running at high RPM’s as it was intended. Dropped it in gear and started driving. It didn’t drive poorly at all, it’s just that it doesn’t run as good as a car with fuel injection would today. And that’s the point of this story.

We’ve all seemed to have forgotten how poorly carburetor cars run, we accepted it because we had no choice. And then came fuel injection to spoil us all. Gone are the days when you had to let the car run for 5 to 10 minutes prior to starting your trip in order to warm up the engine and avoid those troublesome stumbles and hesitations. Gone are the quitting, cutting out and stalling of those carburetor days.

The car in this tale sits most of the time in a garage collecting dust, it isn’t until that one time a year when nostalgia overwhelms the car owner and he feels compelled to drive it around the block for those fortunate souls to see.

I guess I’m at a loss on how to tell him he forgotten how carburetor cars used to run. I’ll tell him to count his blessings and forget about spending money to make this car run better. It already runs darn well! Proportionately speaking,

A sad Lexus

Preface:

It all started with a quote over the phone, about a year and a half ago. Another shop had looked at the vehicle and made some repair suggestions. 

For some reason, the owner did not feel comfortable to have the work done there and instead brought to us. Once the car got here, we inspected the vehicle prior to the work and corroborated the items suggested by the other shop.

In addition, we found a large number of other things needed that had been missed. We proceeded to let the client know about our additional findings.

The vehicle had some issues with the front suspension, the tires were wearing out rapidly. We replaced the control arms, the sway bar links, the front and rear struts, the rack and pinion and the power steering high pressure hose. We did a front brake job as well as they were worn down to the last 1 mm. 

Despite all the work done, there was a long list of suggestions that went unheeded. This is not uncommon as a portion of all clients, feel the suggestions made to them by their repair shop may be without merit.

Now, this were not necessarily a steady and faithful client.

They decided not to do any of our additional suggestions. They were going to only do what they brought the car for and would “think about the other stuff for later”

One of the suggested items on the repair order “recommendations” were all the cooling system hoses, upper and lower radiator, the water pump and the intake hoses, along with heater hoses. They appeared original and in poor condition. This vehicle was 16 years old and pushing over two hundred thousand miles.  

Epilog:

We got a call today from our infrequent client. They wanted to know how much it would be to replace the engine on their Lexus. It turns out one of the heater hoses blew out and caused the engine to overheat and seize. They were now requesting the price to install a used engine as they had an emotional attachment with the vehicle.

What could have been $350.00 a year and a half ago, became a quote for $6500.00 for a used engine today.