http://www.vehicleservicepros.com/press_release/10859945/insurecom-ranks-fiat-500-most-dangerous-car?utm_source=Professional+Tool+%26+Equipment+News+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VSP130123003

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/20/vw-usrecall-idUSL1E8MK2QC20121120

It doesn’t seem to affect too many cars but please be sure to verify if your vehicle is affected (since this is a safety concern).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2012/11/14/toyota-recall-steering-pump/1703953/

YES:  the test has changed and YES for these cars it is (generally) HARDER to pass!

Cars in this age range have to pass an actual exhaust ‘sniff’ test.  The machine at the emissions test station measures pollutants in the exhaust – the ones that Salt Lake County care about are:  Hydrocarbons (measured in Parts per Million or PPM), NoX (nitric oxide), and Carbon Monoxide or CO (measured as a percentage).  Your emissions report also contains your vehicle’s emissions of CO2 and O2 but these are not regulated.

Having to pass an exhaust sniff test is not new for these vehicles but what is different is how the test is run.  Historically an exhaust test was run with your vehicle on a dynamometer (with the vehicle’s drive-wheels running on a treadmill device) to test your engine under load.  The big change is that now the exhaust is tested without the dynamometer but at two engine running conditions:  idle and 2500 RPMs.  Unfortunately we’re seeing a trend of vehicles in this age range (1968 – 1995) that would pass the old test but cannot pass the new.

What’s the problem?  We are finding cars that fail this new test are failing the idle test.  Typically they are showing results of a rich running condition (HCs that are too high coupled with high CO readings).  These older cars were built with simpler engine management systems (if any at all!) and typically to get the car to idle well without stumbling/stalling at idle or hesitating when accelerated from idle the engine was tuned to run a little on the rich side to improve how it ran.  Today’s engines and their engine management systems can react quicker to a change at idle and thus can be run more lean at idle.  So this compromise of running a little rich to tame the engine at idle is causing the vehicle to fail the idle emissions test.

What can you do about it?  This is the hard part:  if your car meets this new emissions-failing profile you may have a lot of work (and expense) in front of you.  The only thing you can do is to get the idle-condition running cleaner.  This will require the very best from your car:  perfect fuel delivery (clean injectors, perfect fuel pressure management, optimal operating  temps, etc), a good condition ignition system, and a healthy mechanical condition of your engine.  Be prepared to work with a specialty shop (like Integrity First Automotive) that can tune and tweak your car to its optimal emissions performance.  Be prepared that this will require your maintenance to be current, and all of your fuel system to be working correctly.  If this can’t get your emissions in range consider thinking outside the box:  you may need to improve your chances by improving your vehicle’s engine management.  ALWAYS follow the rules or your could be stiffly fined for ‘tampering’ but, where legal, there are a lot of modern solutions to add or improve the fuel injection system on your car.

Be aware that this can be a long and costly process.  If your vehicle isn’t worth much to you it may be time to consider replacing it.  We predict this new emissions test will result in less of these 1968-1995 vehicles on the road in Salt Lake County.  Which, ultimately, is probably the goal.

Newer vehicles’ engines last a lot longer than older vehicles – provided they are well maintained.  In fact engine failures in modern engines are usually a symptom of some other root-cause.  Overheating or poor lubrication are the most common root-causes.  Overheating is caused by some failure in the cooling system (water pump failure, coolant leaks, etc) and poor lubrication is typically due to oil changes being forgotten and/or poor quality oil being used.  This BMW Engine failed due to poor lubrication – completely avoidable if its oil changes had been done on time with the right oil.

In 1996 all vehicles sold in the US had to have a new emissions standard protocol called OBDII – this requirement remains in effect today.  OBD stands for On Board Diagnostics and, in simple terms, is a standard for vehicles to test their own emissions status.  The good news for engine health, is that an unhealthy engine will create poor emissions and thus fail its own OBDII tests.  So, generally, testing the OBDII status of a 1996 or newer vehicle can tell the inspector a lot about the health of the engine.  Checking the OBDII Monitors as well as the basic engine operating data can usually alert a technician to the potential for a bad engine.

Older vehicles, or cases where OBDII doesn’t provide enough information, can still have their engines tested the old-fashioned way:

Cylinder Compression Tests will show if an engine has internal wear or internal problems.  Cylinder Leakdown Tests are used to help find the source of an internal problem.  Ignition Scope tests tell a lot about how well the internal combustion process is working.  A simple intake vacuum test can tell a lot too…  Good technicians have a lot of tests at their disposal, the trick is knowing when to use them.

A good pre-purchase inspection will always include information about an engine’s health.  A smart technician will know when using OBDII information in conjunction with a good visual inspection will be enough to help you decide if you should purchase a vehicle.  This should result in a lower amount of shop time needed for ‘typical’ inspections while keeping the door open for more intensive engine tests when needed.  Be sure your pre-purchase technician has the skills necessary to know what types of tests to do and when they’re appropriate and you’ll come out ahead.

Integrity First Automotive always has a Master-Certified technician on-staff and running the shop – meaning your pre-purchase inspection will have well-founded engine health information.

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I get this question, or some variant of it, a lot.  Here’s my general reply:

A European car is more like a race-horse while a Japanese or Domestic car is more like a pack-horse.

A pack-horse is more dependable, is happy being fed hay, plods along, is boring but reliable.

A race-horse is finicky, fussy about it’s care-and-feeding, but is spirited and fun.

This pack/race horse ‘rule’ applies to all vehicle makes and models.  Some more than others but it’s a good rule of thumb.

The question is:  Which do you want?  Everyone has their preferences.  Just don’t buy one and expect the other – you’re either buying a race-horse or a pack-horse / there is no horse that is both.

I find that students are the most vulnerable to this trap.  Since they’re younger I think the appeal of a ‘fun’ car is higher and most of them, as a used car buyer, are responsible in their approach:  they budget for their car payment, insurance, registration, etc.  What they don’t realize is they also have to have a repair budget.  If you don’t have some disposable income for the unexpected repair that your race-horse is going to need then you’re likely to become disappointed/trapped by this problem.

It would be irresponsible of me not to also mention that before buying a used car, race horse or pack horse, you should have a good pre-purchase inspection done to ensure you know what you’re buying.  More on this next time.

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My feeling is, if someone wants my business, they should have their best price on their products and services all the time.  I think it’s their job, not mine, to monitor this pricing and ensure their price is correct.

Recently a local dealership (whose identity we’ll protect by not naming it) had a vehicle of a type that we specialize in.  Their service recommendations and sales process didn’t convince the vehicle owner to do the work and, instead, she brought the truck in to us for a second opinion.  We did our Integrity Inspection on the truck and, being her advocate, prioritized the recommendations and priced them.

She (the truck owner) then compared the pricing to the dealership’s.  The most important item, a full ignition tune up, was approx $700 to do at our shop and $1100 at the dealership.  Once she presented this difference to the dealership they offered to discount her work to match our pricing.

This is where my concern comes in:  how is it that a dealership can have $400 to give back to their customer and still be able to stay in business??  What’s worse is, at that higher price, there was no additional value – in both cases the work to be performed was the same, the parts were the same, and, in fact, our warranty on the work was twice as long as the dealer’s (2 yrs / 24k miles vs. 1 yr / 12k miles).

Competition, in any market, is a good thing and obviously our competition with this dealership is having an impact on the market – which means the consumer comes out the winner.  Awesome!  Our pricing, though, is not arbitrary.  We have a strict formula for pricing that takes into account our overhead, our staffing costs, cost of materials, etc and prices our services at a fair price that allows us to stay in business and provides a quality product for our clients.  Our goal is always Win-Win and this is the only way that can happen.

Personally, I’m concerned whenever I’m shopping and a business advertises some type of price-matching offer – what does that say about their prices and their approach to Win-Win?  Shouldn’t their price already be the best they can offer while still maintaining Win-Win?  Like most consumers I don’t want them to lose in a transaction but I don’t want to lose either – this means the price has to work for both sides.

Think about this next time you’re offered a price-guarantee.

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What do you do?

If I know you well enough and you call me saying “my check engine light came on – what do I do?” I may (based on your stress level) say “Well – did you check the engine?”.  I don’t use that joke often.

Or you could take the approach Homer takes from my favorite Simpsons moment:  Homer is driving down the road and he sees the check-engine light come on.  He quickly says “I thought I fixed that!” and then proceeds to pick up a piece of black tape off the floor and re-applies it over the light.

Joking aside – what do you do?  Here’s my standard answers:

First – did the light flash at you? If it did that is most dire warning the light can give you – it means your car’s computer was detecting active misfiring.  Misfiring is bad and, if not corrected, can escalate into much bigger repairs quickly.  If the light flashed, or if it is flashing now:  don’t drive the car.  Get it towed in.  The tow-charge may well become your best investment ever.

Did the light just come on / without flashing? Ok – this is a less serious warning.  BUT, we still have no idea how serious the problem is.  Back in Psychology we were taught the stages of grieving as:  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally Acceptance.  I think this pattern holds true for people experiencing check-engine lights too and thus I get a lot of people working on the ‘Denial’ level.  I get questions like:  I just had it serviced or it’s due / overdue for service – is this why the light is on?  Does it come on based on some kind of mileage counter?  Sorry – no.  If your check-engine light is on your engine management system has captured a real error and is reporting it to you via this light.

If you have an active check-engine light on my advice is this:  get it checked as quickly as you can.  Try not to use the car much or drive very far.  Be aware of the car’s behavior / keep an eye on the other gauges and if you notice a change in the driving behavior get the car in quicker.  If there are obvious performance issues (hesitation, stumbling, stalling, etc) get the car towed.

Did the light come on for a little while and now it’s off? If so this is good news / it means that the active error that the engine management system was observing is now no longer active.  You should still have the car checked because the computer system will have information on this historical problem but, unless the car’s performance is somehow ‘off’, you can do this more at your convenience.  Certainly have it checked before going on a road-trip or something like that.

How do I get a check-engine light diagnosed?

One of the frustrations clients have with check-engine lights is that there isn’t really a way for the vehicle owner to judge the severity of the problem.  (With the exception of the light flashing – this always indicates a high-priority problem).  The functionality of the check-engine light is intimately tied to the vehicle’s emission systems and the EPA’s requirements for modern vehicles.  Because of this a lot of the concerns that the check-engine light comes on for are emissions related.  Some of these overlap with issues that can become or are vehicle damaging while others are exclusively emissions-only problems.  The EPA isn’t interested in having your vehicle make this distinction for you because they fear that emissions problems would get less priority.

What about free code-reading offered by parts stores?

The EPA requires that a certain level of diagnostic information be reported though a standard computer protocol that can be read by multiple diagnostic machines (computers or scanners).  This level of data (called OBDII) is easily accessed by low-cost scanners and you can get this info for free or close to free by parts stores, some lube shops, even some tire shops and other less-specialized automotive businesses.  Unfortunately the data available though this OBDII protocol is much less ‘rich’ than the computer data available though the vehicle manufacturer’s native diagnostic protocols.  The more complicated the vehicle the more true this is.  Diagnosing a modern Mercedes Benz with a check-engine light on, for example, with only OBDII information is almost impossible and the probability for an incorrect diagnostic result is very high.

Remember too – a parts store wants to sell you parts.  Providing free OBDII data to you is going to increase the likelihood of you buying parts from them.  It always saddens me to hear of someone spending hundreds of dollars on parts at a part store based on the OBDII error codes in their computer system without fixing anything.  Sometimes this process can even add to the problems.

Why should I pay for check-engine light diagnostics?

Check-engine light diagnostics does not only involve getting as much data from the vehicle’s computer as possible but it also requires a smart technician to then unravel this information, test the systems in question, and determine the real root-cause of the problem.  Factory level diagnostic computers include much richer data about what your engine and its sensors are seeing and doing / these computers can even force the vehicle to perform outputs that help a technician test your engine.

So, to get the check-engine light problem diagnosed correctly you are best to have it diagnosed with a computer that speaks your car’s native language (eg a Mercedes diagnostic computer  for a Mercedes, a Land Rover diagnostic computer for a Range Rover, etc).  The diagnostic process should additionally involve time for a good technician to then test the areas that the computer is complaining about to determine the root-cause.  Once the root-cause is found the repair is typically easy to determine and to price.

The thing to remember is this:  typically check-engine light diagnostics involve the best skills of a shop, the most expensive equipment in a shop, and the liability of ‘owning’ the results requires the shop to take on risk.  Ultimately the diagnostic part is the key part of getting your car fixed because if the diagnostics are wrong everything after that will also be wrong.

Who can best diagnose my check-engine light?

Dealers have a natural advantage:  they *should* have the best diagnostic equipment for your vehicle and should have the skills on-staff to find the root-causes.  Why do I say *should*?  Well – dealers are staffed by the same kind of people as none-dealers.  Some technicians are better than others.  If your vehicle diagnostics is handled by a senior technican (who wants to get the right answer) at a dealership the diagnostics should be correct.  When does this not happen?:  when the staffing at the dealership is lacking or the dealership determines that a junior technician is ‘good enough’ or your vehicle is less-critical to them.  Customers naturally assume that going to a dealer guarantees that the technian diagnosing their car is appropriately skilled.  Whereas outside a dealership environment a customer is going to more actively check for this competency.

A big problem with dealership diagnostics is that most vehicle manufactures ‘micro manage’ their technicians and their diagnostics processes are rigid.  Because of this the technician isn’t allowed to think for him/herself.  This results in a lot of overkill answers that ensure the problem is fixed but not necessarily in the most efficient way.  This is done to reduce the risk of wrong answers and to create a more consistent result from dealership to dealership.  BMW’s diagnostic computer, for example, includes the diagnostic tree for a given problem and the technician is required to work though the tree and then perform the repair at the end of the tree.

Another dealership problem:  do they care about or even know your vehicle anymore?  I get odd-ball cars all the time that the owner just didn’t feel good about how the dealer was approaching the problem.  Dealership techs would much rather work on their run-of-the-mill vehicles than the unusual ones that they don’t know well.  This is especially true for older vehicles outside of warranty – the technician has no guarantee that he/she will get any work from his/her diagnostic process because it has to be sold to the vehicle owner.  Additionally if the dealership doesn’t see a lot of value in the relationship with the vehicle owner then that vehicle will be lower priority.

Independent Specialists:

Your best choice for diagnosing your check-engine light is an independent shop with the equipment and competency to diagnose your problem.  The potential dealership problems above are usually not present in a speciality shop where the shop wants to build a relationship with you.  But, of equal important is the shop’s integrity so that you won’t be oversold or otherwise decieved.

How do you determine if the shop is appropriately equipped – ask this question:  Can you update my vehicle’s software with the latest updates from the manufacturer? You may or may not need this service but only the best shops can 1 – do it and 2 – have the confidence to say they can.

The question of integrity is more difficult to answer – I would suggest you start with a referral from a trusted friend where you can.  Also do some internet searching and see what the shop’s customers say.  Understand that nobody is perfect and typically upset customers are more vocal than happy ones but if you do some internet searches and reading you’ll sense a trend.

Final Thought:

People forget this but it’s critical:  don’t shop-hop.  Build a relationship with a good shop and stick with them.  Even if on some repairs they seem higher in price than what you think the going rate should be.  A good shop is like a good family doctor – they will know your car and they will know you.  Your family doctor is much better at helping you than the one at an insta-care that doesn’t know you or your history.  Your best opportunities for saving in auto service is, like in medicine, to catch things early.  A good family-mechanic will help you do this.  Look for this in a shop:  good service history records and the ability to retrieve them is key and demonstrates a more managed business.  It shocks me but I still see hand-written service invoices from some shops.  Consider this:  If the shop is that far behind the times in invoicing – where their money is – what else have they fallen behind in?  A shop that values an on-going relationship with you is your best weapon in any battles with your vehicle for a check-engine light or any other problem.

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Unfortunately testimonial or review websites vary in their policing of the data.  ‘Bad’ (incorrect) data pollutes such sites and makes them less useful to those seeking real information.  The administrators of these sites have a difficult job – they need to allow the public to speak-up but preferably in a useful and truthful way.

We monitor our reputation on the internet and are very grateful for the time our clients put in to saying good things about us.  I think a lot of that positive energy comes from new clients who were grateful to the old clients that came before them and provided independent testimonials of our business.  Testimonials that made the new client comfortable.

There are four types of reviews or testimonials available on the internet:

1- Positive / from a real client:

These constitute the bulk (probably 30-40) of the reviews on the internet about us and we are very thankful for them.  We will work hard to continue to earn the trust, business, and praise of all our clients.

2 – Negative / from a real client:

Rarely – very rarely – we will find a review or testimonial that we don’t like.  If we can identify the author we will reach out to that person to try to fix the problem.  (This is our policy in ANY situation where someone is unhappy with us.)  I have only ever found two such reviews on the internet:  one I tried very hard to make happy but eventually agreed to disagree with the client / the other I cannot identify the author.  It does happen.  The best we can do (besides trying to make the client happy) is to learn from it.  We’ve paid the price – we might as well use it as a learning experience but it can take some “crow eating” (as an old boss of mine used to say).

3 – Negative / from a fake client:

I know of three of these – all of them are on Google Places and all appeared shortly after declining the services of internet marketing companies offering to help our internet ranking and reputation through the purchase of their products.  (I won’t name-names on which companies are likely responsible.)  All of the reviews follow the same formula:  they suggest the other reviews on Google were faked-up by us.  This is an interesting attack because they make no comment on our services or business practices.  My frustration is that Google won’t remove them even though they aren’t reviews of our business at all – merely comments on our internet reputation.

3 – Positive / from a fake client:

I know of none of these for Integrity First Automotive.  I know enough about computers to know that Google is likely tracking enough data about a review posting to combat this kind of abuse from a business owner.  Google wants value in their search-engine results or Google’s usefulness and popularity would suffer.  So if Google can spot a fake I suspect Google will trash it.  If Google saw multiple fakes I suspect Google would punish the business by reducing its ranking or dropping it altogether from Google’s search results.

The challenge for a potential client is to get a full set of a business’ reviews to help with the purchasing decision.  Most consumers are savvy enough to weed out the anomolies and instead rely on an overview or trend.

To help with this we’ve added a new section to our site:

Consolidated Web-Reviews of Integrity First Automotive

We have taken the time to seek-out all of our internet reviews and have copied them here so that they can be in one place.  Also our clients can add a review for our business directly on our website.

For us this is an easy decision to make because we have a great internet reputation.  We’re not too proud to think we can’t learn from our mistakes – we have made some and, unfortunately, we’ll make more.  But we will work very hard to correct them.  We feel having this open-door policy will help combat fraud and will provide a better resource for those deciding if we’re the right company for them.

To our existing clients: If you love us – add a review to benefit others / if you don’t let us know and we’ll make you love us yet!

To our potential new clients: We will work very hard to leave you will as good or better feelings about our business than our good-clients have shared with you on our site.

We are sincerely grateful to all our clients that put their trust in us.  It is an honor.

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NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 10V331000

Summary:
BMW IS RECALLING CERTAIN 2010 AND 2011 5-SERIES AND 5-SERIES GRAN TURISMO PASSENGER VEHICLES MANUFACTURED FROM JANUARY 12 THROUGH JULY 1, 2010. THE VEHICLE’S FUEL LEVEL SENSOR WITHIN THE FUEL TANK CAN BECOME WEDGED AGAINST THE TANK.

Consequence:
IF THIS OCCURS, THE FUEL GAUGE IN THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER WOULD DISPLAY A LARGER AMOUNT OF FUEL THAN WAS ACTUALLY IN THE TANK. AS A RESULT, IF THE TANK BECAME EMPTY, THE VEHICLE COULD STALL INCREASING THE RISK OF A CRASH.

Remedy:
BMW HAS NOT YET PROVIDED THE AGENCY WITH A REMEDY PLAN AND NOTIFICATION SCHEDULE. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BMW AT 1-800-525-7417.

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