Brake pad noises and wear out explained

Brake noise is a common part of brake operation. A majority of the time you will hear nothing inside your vehicle. Worn brake pads can make noises you would hear inside your vehicle. The most common noises are a crunch or runch sound. Another noise you may hear is a high pitch shriek. Shriek noises are very common with very worn brake pads or budget “cheep quality” brake pads, even if newly installed.

I like to install OE dealer brake parts when ever possible. OE parts fit correctly and offer the best noise control for the life of the brake pads.

When grinding noises happen every time you press the brake peddle. Your brakes are 100% worn out. the metal part of the brake pad is making contact with the metal brake rotor.

The service “wear out” specs on brake pad thickness can vary from 1mm to 2mm. Brake wear sensors will normally turn on the dash brake wear light around 2mm.

Brake pads that use a noise tab built into the pad, may make a high pitch noise only when backing up, but quiet going forward.

When I inspect brakes for wear, I look at the thinest brake pad to judge the wear % remaining. Once below 30% remaining life (around 3mm of pad thickness remaining) brake replacement will be needed soon.

If you are noticing brake noises, stop in at your local repair shop and have them inspect your cars brakes. Waiting to see if the noise just goes away can cause bigger issues.  If the brake rotors or brake calipers become damaged from metal to metal contact it can increase the cost of your brake repairs.

HeyAnthonyAZ.com

 

All new cars get old

Fact: Your new car will need repairs as it ages.

I have many clients that went out 5 years ago and bought new cars. Now that new car is aging and needs repairs. The Mustang below is only 6 years old and it’s already wearing out. Just because you buy a new car, you are not off the hook for maintenance.

2012 Mustang, out of warranty and in need of repairs. It has 157,000 miles on it and it’s worn out. The engine has been overheated, it burns and leaks oil, plus the front suspension is noisy over bumps.

Repairs will be needed to keep your car working correctly. Wear and tear from heavy use will bring you back to the repair shop. Worse yet, what if you breakdown and have to be towed in for repairs.

Warranty or no warranty, regular servicing and breakdown repairs are going to happen.

The first thing I tell clients is to have an emergency repair fund stashed away. I have cash stashed in my saving just for this type of thing. I have been stuck out-of-town before and cash is king.

The second thing I tell clients is to have a AAA gold card. The gold card is great if you travel out-of-town and need a tow. The gold card gives you all the road side assistance that you get from a normal card, but your free towing is now 100 miles vs 5 miles.

The VW on the left is being towed away today because it needs an engine replaced at $6,200. The VW on the right was just purchased by a client that did not want to overhaul an A/C system on a 10-year-old Honda CRV. Both VW’s are 2015 models and they both have around 40,000 miles on them.

Even if your car is brand new, you should get it serviced before any big trip out-of-town.

The idea is to prevent a breakdown. I have seen brand new cars with major flaws that need repairs.

ASE tech’s will notice wear and age issues that could cause a breakdown way before they become a failure on the road.

Get your car inspected before you hit the road.

One week before you travel, take your car in for service. Even if you’re not due for service, get your car looked at before you hit the road. If your car has any repairs that are needed, the repair shop has time to get them completed before you need to leave town.

2014 Nissan Rogue, with 52,000 miles on the clock. This one came in on the hook. An overheated cooling systems caused an engine failure. Leaks like this can be repaired way before they become a failure on the road.

If you have an older car and it’s too worn out to leave town. Rent a car for your trip. It’s less expensive to rent a car for the weekend than it is to be broken down on the road waiting for a tow truck.

This belt is from a 4-year-old car with 57,000 miles on it. I was installing a new alternator and I advised replacing the belt while it was off. The belts cost was $34.00. The client said no to replacing it. Oddly they let a friend use the car for a week and the belt came apart, allowing the engine to over heat. The driver drove the car till it stopped. The engine was destroyed.

Technology in cars today.

Todays car owners are spoiled by technology. 25 years ago most of the cars on the road visited the repair shop 45% more often than todays cars. Advancements in how cars are built is one reason why they seem to last longer. Service intervals are longer and many parts last a lot longer. 25 years ago most cars needed a tune up every 24,000 miles. Today most cars don’t need a tune up till 100,000 miles.

Do cars last longer?

Todays cars do last longer and they do cost more to repair. Belts and hoses look the same as they did 25 years ago, but now they cost 40% more to replace. Brakes are bigger, tires have changed and A/C systems costs are double what they use to be. When the parts fail, they fail big. The change in overall costs is due to the extra technology to run all the cool gadgets.

A hybrid car looks very cool in the show room, but jump forward 10 years when you have to replace a battery pack at $3,200. Turbo charged engines cost big with any failure. Cylinder canceling engines like some of the GM V8’s and now it’s new turbo 2.7L 4 cylinder engine they will be putting in full size trucks in 2019 cost a small fortune to fix when they fail.

Many failures will happen from age and normal use. Other failures will happen from bad advice and a failure to follow service intervals. Below is an image of what happens when the wrong parts are used to save money. Using the wrong parts can cost you more later.

This is what happens when budget copper spark plugs are used in place of double platinum plugs. Copper plugs cost $2.59 each. double platinum plugs cost $9.67 each. Times 4 on a 4 cyl engine. The plug savings caused 2 coils to fail plus a tow. This was done by a shop just 1 mile away from my shop. The correct repairs cost 3 time what the original tune up did, plus an 18 mile tow.

I have over 4 dozen clients that “ignore” the service intervals on their cars. When they have to be towed in and whine about the tow. I just tell them that better service intervals could have prevented the failure.

98% of the time I am 100% right. 3 Service intervals a year will go a long way to prevent breakdowns on the road.

Just because it’s new does not insure you will not have a breakdown. Let us help you keep that new car new or make your old car feel new again.

Heyanthonyaz.com

 

 

2001 Chrysler Sebring LX No Start

Sebring; No Crank and No Check Engine Light:

The #8 fuse supports many devices. The starter, fuel pump, body control, engine control, ignition switch and 10 more devices. Knowing the product, I first look at the fuel pump, starter motor and starter solenoid. A bad starter solenoid or a faulty starter motor will cause a large amp load on the #8 fuse via the starter relay. The #8 fuse is only a 20 amp fuse. The starter and fuel pump relays are the highest loads placed on the #8 fuse.

The starter relay will normally draw 11 amps under normal conditions. When the starter relay first engages the amp spike can reach 22 amps, after the initial spike. It will take about 11 amps to hold the starter solenoid on. The amp spike is normal and the 20 amp fuse can handle a quick amp spike, just not a sustained load of 22 amps or more. If the starter solenoid is faulty, it causes more amps to flow through the relay. It’s a domino effect, One fault, will cause a failure in a secondary component.

Looking at how power flows through the circuits will shorten the time it takes to find out what device caused the fuse to fail. I start with devices that draw high amps.

The fuel pump relay will normally draw 2.5 to 3.8 amps under normal operation. When the pump first spins up. The amp spike is around 8 amps, then it drops under 4 amps to keep it running. The normal amp current for a fuel pump in good condition is 2.8 to 3.5 amps.

All load devices will have an amp spike when they first start up. That is normal for all devices that use electricity. Your home, car or any type of equipment that uses electricity to make devices, like lights, relays or motors work, will draw amps of current when switched on.

When a working load doubles or triples due to an electrical fault, the fuse will do it’s job and fail.

The fuse is a protection device:  A fuse fails for a reason.

A fuse keeps the wiring from being over loaded, getting hot and causing a fire. I have seen some nasty wire fires from car owners doing a repair or lazy repair tech’s that try to MacGyver a failure to get them by.

The tin foil trick, to jump around a bad fuse has caused many car fires. In many cases, a short cut repair will fail quickly or cause more damage. It’s a risk you take when you do a MacGyver repair.

Replacing the starter solved the clients issue.

heyanthonyaz.com

Cheaper to keep her…

Repair the car you own, it’s cheaper.

At Tony’s we see vehicles in all states of disrepair. A new car will only need basic services and 2 to 5-year-old cars will need bigger repairs as parts wears out. The cars I am talking about are the cars over 10 to 25 years of age and still look nice inside and out.

Just because a repair may be larger than the value of the car is no reason to give up and sell your car. I hear this phrase at least once a day. My car is not worth that. If you have a car that “blue books” at $4,000 and the car needs an AC over haul that may cost $1,800. The repair is worth doing, if your car is in great condition.

Repair it!

If the same $4,000 car needs an engine at $5,100. The car is still worth repairing, but only if the car has been correctly maintained. The car must be in “great condition”. “No accident damage”, good paint, interior is clean plus everything works correctly and you love your car.

In many cases if you go out car shopping you will buy a car that is over $12,000 and you will get a loan to buy the car and your license tags will cost more. Plus your insurance will go up.

It’s less expensive to repair the car you already own. Buying a new car is the same as fixing the car you already own. Now you are making payments vs a repair bill. You must be honest with your self, if you are a person that just does not care for your car. Your car will wear out and fall apart.

A “neglected” car is not worth repairing, junk it and move on

The owner of the car is the reason a car is in good or bad condition, not the repair garage. Let’s face it, some people don’t care about anything unless it’s broken. Preventative repairs and basic maintenance is not important, but a cat video on YouTube will have front row attention. If properly cared for 80% of cars sold would last 15 years or more. It’s up to the owner to care about keeping it in good condition.

2005 Dodge Neon, yes it has road rash, but it’s fixable. This car needs a $390 dollar repair. Any repair that is less than a monthly payment is worth doing.

 

Everyone needs a $1,000 Emergency car fund.

The average “break down repair” at Tony’s is around $650.00. With an emergency repair fund of $1,000 dollars, a $650.00 dollar repair is no big deal. My repair fund is $2,000. I have 2 cars and a service van. If all 3 need minor repairs in the same month, I should be ok.

If you have more than one car you should “add $500.00 dollars for each additional car”. If you have an SUV or European brand, double the amount in the fund.

It’s a fact, it is less expensive to fix a good used car than go and buy a new one.

Heyanthonyaz.com

 

Head Lights – plastics care & refinishing

Frosted, yellow, faded, ugly head lights.

98% of the vehicles today use plastic head light housings with plastic lenses, no glass lenses anymore. As the clear plastic lens age, the protective UV coating on the plastic goes bad and starts to fade or frost over. Some plastic head light housing do not have a protective film, and they show age within 3 to 5 years from new. 20161111_081537_hdr.jpgWe re-finish plastic head light lenses all the time.

20161111_071929_hdr.jpgNot all lenses can be saved. Rock pits, scratches, and plastic cracking can not be fixed with sanding if it’s too deep into the plastic surface. 20% of the head lamp housings I run across in my shop have major damage and need to be replaced.

Replacing factory head light housings with quality aftermarket units is not super expensive, but the labor to change out the light housing could make replacement out of the question for some budgets. 20161111_081656_hdr.jpgThe process of refinishing the plastic lens is fairly simple, and many parts stores sell DIY kits to sand, polish and protect the plastics.

Doing it your self or paying a repair shop to do this procedure will make your car look newer, and maybe influence you to keep your car vs buying a new one. Looks are everything, and the clients comment right away that it looks like they have a new car again. The second big plus to cleaning and polishing the lenses is your head lights will project farther down the road, You can see better at night.

20161111_084322_hdr.jpgSo here it is in a nut shell, we clean the plastics, wet sand the imperfections out of the surface. Then use a 2 step polishing compound to restore the clear as glass look. Last step is a double coating of wax. Regular car war works fine for this.

Keeping things looking clear depends on the owner washing and re-waxing the lenses, but we can also do that for the client when they are in for an oil change.20161111_084404_hdr.jpg

It’s all good under the hood. HeyAnthonyAz.com

 

FREE Oil Change Monthly Drawing at Tony’s

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FREE OIL CHANGE @ TONY’S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s time to change the oil!

Enter to win! Win a free oil change, enter your information @ Tony’s contact page.

Enter your contact information on Tony’s contact page & in the message box type “Free oil change monthly drawing” and include the make, model and year of your car.

You will be automatically entered into the drawing for the next months free oil change drawing. Enter as often as you like. The winner of the free oil change will be contacted by Tony’s at the end of each drawing month. The free oil change offer will be running till December 2015

The oil change includes, up to 5 qt’s of 10w30 synthetic blend oil, an oil filter, and under hood fluid top off’s, plus a vehicle safety inspection. This is a $30.00 value at our regular price & a great saving if you win it for free. So enter today, it’s easy and free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HeyAnthonyAZ.com 2014 ~ It’s all good under the hood…

Rent a car for your small trip.

Ryan has a 9-year-old Pontiac G6 GT with 218,000 miles. The car is not road ready. It is not ready to take an 800 mile trip at high speeds. Taking a long road trip in a car that needs many repairs and could leave you stranded at the side of the road.

Waiting for a tow truck is no fun.

Ryan is heading out-of-town for a 4 day weekend in Las Vegas. Renting a car is a great idea for a small weekend trip. Ryan’s car needs 1,800.00 of basic mechanical repairs. Plus his vehicle also needs tires. New tires will set Ryan back another 1000.00 bucks.

Ryan has been a client for many years and I did not want to see Ryan have issues out on the road.

Without a doubt, Ryan’s car needs many repairs, but what else could fail on a long road trip? It’s hard to know what could go wrong out on the road.

We offered Ryan a rental with an upgrade to a Lincoln for his long trip. Ryan is going to travel in style and his G6 GT is going to be getting the repairs it has needed for many months. When Ryan gets back to town his car will be ready to go.

The idea is to let the rental car take the beating. Driving out-of-town at high speeds, up hills with the AC cranked on high is a lot of stress for any car, so let the rental take the beating and save your ride for the easy in-town driving.

It’s all good under the hood, heyanthonyaz.com 2014

 

Adjust it till it fits?

Hack Jobs Happen…

I see some crazy short cut repairs (hack jobs). “Hack jobs” by owners, shade tree mechanics and approved auto repair shops. Then I wonder why, why try, why risk a comeback. Why take the short cut in the first place. Why risk loosing a client when the hack job fails, leaving the vehicle owner stranded on the side of the road.

A hack job will fail, it’s a sub-standard repair.

 

Today I had an odd repair issue pop into the shop. Ronda had a fuel pump replaced on her 1995 Chevy Suburban about 30 days ago in Sedona Arizona. The truck has a 5.7 TBI fuel injected engine. (Throttle Body Injection System) Ronda only had one issue with the repair, the fuel economy was reduced by 30 to 40% and this was noticed right after the pump was installed. The shop that installed the pump had double checked the fuel system, and said nothing was wrong.

Ronda had moved to Sedona last year.

The client (Ronda) use to live right around the corner from our shop, but had moved to Sedona in 2013. Ronda happened to be in the valley for some doctors visits, so Ronda stopped in to see if we had time to look at this issue.

Testing showed the fuel system was running too rich. The scan tool (a computer that talks to the car’s computer) showed that the PCM (the car’s computer) was subtracting a lot of fuel. The engine computer uses a pair of fuel trim ratio numbers to display fuel system compensation (larger number = more fuel added to the engine Or a smaller number = less fuel, fuel reduced to the engine). A repair technician can view the fuel trim numbers “live” as they update (in real-time) and watch how the system is operating, rich, lean or normal.

Next I attached a gauge used to test fuel pressure to the engine’s fuel system. The fuel pressure gauge showed that the fuel system pressure was around 19 PSI of pressure. (Why?) The TBI system specification is 9 to 12 PSI. So why was the PSI so high?

I suspected it had the wrong fuel pump installed. So, I removed the fuel pump and found a big mess. What I found was a major issue, the person that did the repairs, must have had a huge loss of reasoning. The part was clearly the wrong part for the truck. When I entered the pump part number into a parts jobber, part interchange system. I discovered the part was the wrong pump for the truck.

The shop decided to adjust the wrong part till it would fit in the tank. But wait, that’s not all. The pump was for a 1996 5.7 MPI engine. (Multi Port Injection System) not a 1995 5.7 TBI system. The 1996 MPI system runs at 60 to 66 PSI. This is clearly too much pressure for the system to handle. To bleed off the high PSI. The shop that made the repairs, had removed the hose clamp to the PSI fuel coupling hose that connects the fuel pumps outlet pipe to the metal pipe going out to the engine’s fuel injector’s. Plus the old fuel pump harness was installed on the new pump, and the electrical connector had a broken retaining clip.

The adjustments and compromises should have never happened, but they did.

Just buy the correct part, and if the part arrives wrong, get the correct part. The correct part was available in Flagstaff, less than a 2 hour round trip from Sedona. The client had already waited 5 days, what was one more day to get the right part.

We fixed the truck and it is running correctly, with the correct part. The client is happy and the mileage is back to normal. Plus Ronda will be bringing her truck to us when ever she is in town every 3 to 4 months.

Keeping up on the needs of an older vehicle may seem costly, but if you do the math. The right older vehicle can be cost-effective in the long run. Every vehicle needs repairs someday, new or old.

It’s all good under the hood, heyanthonyaz.com 2014

www.carfax.com How accurate is the service?

Buying a used car can drain your savings, if you buy the wrong one.

In the last 10 months I have preformed 35 pre-purchase inspections, 27 cars and 8 trucks. Every vehicle had a clean carfax report. 5 of the cars and 1 of the trucks had un-reported major accident damage. They all looked fine on the outside, looking good, like nothing was wrong.

Carfax is only as good as the people who report the accident damage.

If the vehicle owner has accident repairs fixed for cash, under the table, by a discount shop. The accident damage will never be reported to carfax.

This type of repair may be hidden from view and the only thing you can do, is to make sure you do not buy any vehicle without an inspection. If the vehicle owner does not want you to take it and have it inspected, do not buy it!

You work hard for your money and it would be horrible to find big dollar repairs after you just paid a big chunk of money for what you thought was a nice used car.

Even if the vehicle has a clean carfax report and a good story about why the owner is selling the car. Get all the facts, get it into a shop for a full inspection!

The money you spend for the inspection will give you peace of mind. No one wants to buy a lemon.

It’s all good under the hood. www.HeyAnthonyAz.com 2014

Tony’s Service Center 5362 North 16th St. Phoenix, AZ 85016

Ms. Kate

Ms. Kate asked; why can’t you guarantee the repair will fix my car?

Ms. Kate has an almost broken car. Some failures and repairs will fall into a gray area, and Ms. Kate’s Ford was just that, a gray area repair.

The car would stall out when coming to a stop, but restart. Plus it would sometimes not start when hot. It would start after it cooled down for about 1 hour. The condition is intermittent, and it has never acted up for us in the shop. Plus the car’s computer had no codes.

The client never had time to leave the car for a full day.

Ms. Kate does not trust the car and fears driving it because it could stall at the wrong time.

After testing the car a couple of times, my best guess was it could be one of three things. #1 it could be a faulty crank shaft sensor. #2 it could be a faulty fuel pump. #3 it could be a wire fault related to a poor connection at a wire connector or wire junction. More testing was needed.

The big issue for the client is she is on a tight budget and can only spend what is needed to do the needed repair. I understand this all to well. I have a budget and have to stick to it.

To help the client, I advised her to let me have the car for a couple of days so I could leave my test gear hooked up and drive the car at random times. Ms. Kate did not like being without her car, but it needed to be done.

What I found; it did have a faulty crank shaft sensor and a bad fuel pump. The crank sensor was related to the stalling condition and the fuel pump was related to the random hot no start.

I always like to test the car and confirm the fault area. Guessing about what repairs are needed can lead to wasted money and time.

Some times a best guess is all we have, but it must be a good solid guess, 80% chance or more. Give me some time with your car and we can find the fault part 100% confirmed!

I want all my clients to feel good about the money they spend. I want 100% of your business, and I want you to be happy that you used Tony’s Service Center for your repair needs. Ms. Kate is happy because we fixed the cars issues. It did take three days to get it to act up, but only 4 hours to make the repairs once we knew what was broken.

It’s all good under the hood. Anthony Xavier ASE Master Technician

copyright: All rights reserved @ HeyAnthonyAZ.com 2013