Summary: Headlight restoration kits reviewed for clearing up yellow hazy headlights. Restore head lights to clear condition for safety and better appearance.

We recently had a customer that owns a car wash purchase 100 of Bright Solutions Headlamp Restoration kits. This of course peaked our interest and we had to ask ourselves the question. “Why would a car wash business purchase so many of these kits?” Obviously they were impressed with the performance of the product. Pictures are worth a thousand words, that’s why in this article we’ve decided to let them do most of the talking. Below we show before and after pictures of our test run with this product .Our test subject is a 1997 Saturn with 139,000 miles on it. The headlights are yellow and hazy.

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Image courtesy of TitanTalk.com

The Internet has many oil leak stories from customers that have had bad experiences at Jiffy Lube and other auto repair shops throughout the country. Sometimes the oil leak is due to an inexperienced oil lube tech making a rookie mistake, like double gasketing a filter. Another common mistake is not cleaning the mating surface of the gasket or using the incorrect oil filter to begin with. These can be horror stories no matter which end of the spectrum you are positioned in. It’s horrible public relations for any repair shop to have a previous patron telling everyone who will listen, how awful their experience was. In their mind if the repair shop was the last one to touch their car, they MUST be responsible! Sometimes this is the case, but other times the repair shop is NOT at fault. The following is what happened several years ago when a customer had his car towed to us after all the oil leaked out, following a Jiffy Lube oil change.

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Courtesy of Brainstuck.com

Big three auto makers bubble is soon to burst, the question is should the Government bail them out? What is the best tool to use when it comes to their situation? What would your grandparents suggest? And what guarantee do we have that they won’t come back again later knocking on our door, begging for money like a drug addict in the middle of the night. What remains obviously apparent is that without bankruptcy, the big three will not be able to re-negotiate their obligations with the unions. No doubt, the unions have done their job of getting every dollar that they could for their members. The problem is, they may have just priced themselves out of a job.

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Photo coutresy of Nashville City Paper

Dave Ramsey is becoming more and popular these days, especially with the troubling financial times we are finding ourselves in. Dave Ramsey is a financial expert and writer, his most popular book is called The Total Money Makeover. He’s earned the title of financial guru by learning the hard way about finances and the risk of going head over heals in debt. Dave was leveraged in real estate investments to the tune of four million dollars over twenty years ago. As fate would have it, he lost it all when his short term loans were sold and the new banks demanded payment before it was possible for Dave to deliver. This experience has caused Dave to change his thinking on loans and personal finance. He now advises people to pay debt off and cut up the credit cards. I personally like his country boy, down to earth, shoot it to you straight mentality. Dave Ramsey reminds me of a teacher that I had back in high school. Frank Gentry, my old marketing teacher, had a similar laid back teaching style. Dave Ramsey’s lessons encourage you to think and grow. Few teacher’s names are remembered years later in life unless they have truly affected your way of thinking and how you view opportunites. Dave, like my old marketing teacher is definitely a “glass is half full” type of guy. If your sick and tired of living your life “pay check to pay check”, then you’ll definitely want to listen to what Dave has to say.
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OTC 6521 Smoke Machine – Auto Specialty Tool

OK, so this smoke machine is an automotive specialty tool for Evaporative leak testing and not the type of smoke machine your kids will be wanting for Halloween. But, we have a great deal on the OTC 6521 smoke machine and decided to add it to our first annual Halloween, automotive tool sale. It’s on sale with free shipping and no sales tax charged outside the state of Florida (see current listing).

Engine Fault codes like P0440, P0442, P0455, P0456 and P0457 can be caused by EVAP system leaks. And for those pesky Evaporative codes, nothing beats having the right tool for the job. Leaks are the most common cause of EVAP codes and if it’s not just a loose gas cap, the OTC 6521 will provide a quick easy way to find the source of the leak.

Vacuum Leaks can also be traced easily with the OTC 6521 smoke machine. Fault codes for lean conditions like P0172 and P0174 are typically due to a vacuum leak. If the vacuum leak isn’t a huge obvious hissing leak, then a quick smoke check with the OTC6521 smoke machine will make short work of finding the source of the problem. Just remove any engine vacuum line and block off the throttle body and the smoke will reveal the leak.

Smoke Testing directions using the smoke machine can be viewed in much more detail in our exclusive tech article. The adapter cones that come with this smoke machine will allow much versatility when attaching the machine. Exhaust leaks are easy to find by using one of the included cones to attach to the tail pipe (after the car has cooled off). This is a particularly good test when a cracked exhaust manifold is suspected. So, why not consider a smoke machine for year round use? This smoke machine not only makes smoke, it makes money!

This Bearly Used Grizzly Grinder was for sale recently – Classified Site 

Back in the early eighties when I first started working on front wheel drive cars, the Goodyear shop that I worked at got one of these Grizzly Grinders (sold by Bear). It was the newest best way at the time, to sort of machine rotors on the vehicle when doing a brake job. Actually it didn’t really machine the brake rotors, it would grind them. The Grizzly Grinder only worked on front wheel drive vehicles, since there was no built in motor to spin the rotors. The Grizzly Grinder was bolted on where the caliper goes, the grinding discs were adjusted and then you would run the car in drive trying to maintain around 35 miles per hour! Metal would fly and you’d better be sure you’ve got it adjusted right or the rotors would be ground unevenly in a hurry. This was definitely a job you didn’t want the customer to watch.

Ammco Brake Lathes.  Some brand names make you automatically think of certain products. Ammco is one of those brands that makes one thing come to mind…brake lathes. Ammco is one of the oldest and best known names in brake lathes and by far has more brake lathes in use today than any other manufacturer. Ammco was founded in 1922 and has an excellent reputation among professional auto technicians.

Not just Hondas.  For several years there were some Honda cars that had rotors that were not easily removable from the hub. Sometimes bearing damage would occur when using the slide hammer to separate the rotor from the hub. Even if the bearings were not damaged, since the rotor was being machined without the hub, accuracy was sacrificed. That is one reason in the past that many repair shops wanted on the car brake lathes.  

Preferred Method.  Due to possible variances in the car’s hubs, on the car brake lathes are the preferred way to machine rotors on any car today. When the rotor is machined off the vehicle no allownces are figured in for possible hub run-out. When using an on the car brake lathe, the run-out is checked before the machining begins. This insures the most accurate cut is obtained. When comparing on the car machining to turning rotors on a conventional brake lathe, the on the car brake lathe always yields better results, with a much higher likelihood that the rotors will not become warped as quickly over time.

I’m not sure when Bear stopped making the Grizzly Grinder, but I am sure that my Grizzly Grinder experience  is better left, somewhere back in the 80’s…

Some of our most requested tools lately has been specialty tools for aligning cams and cranks for timing chain alignment. In the past changing a timing chain or timing belt only required basic tools to get the job done. The camshaft and crankshaft sprockets only went on one way due to the design that used a key-way which only allowed the pulley to go on one way. Alignment marks for the cam and crank were aligned per directions from the service manual. Now many engines have no key-way and the pulleys are pressed on. Since the key-way is not used in increasing number of vehicles, specialty automotive tools are required to properly Align the cam and crank.

Looking for the Marks.  Many auto mechanics, when changing a timing chain in the past could just look for the timing marks and not even have to look up the timing mark diagram in the service manual (me included). It was pretty simple, bring the number one cylinder to top dead center and look for the obvious timing marks. Most of the time there was only the crank and only one camshaft to deal with and the pulleys went on one way. Times are changing.   

European Influence.  In the past, most of the vehicles that did require specialty cam/crank holders and line-up tools were Volkswagen’s, BMW’s and Volvo’s. More cars sold in the US are using European designed or influenced engines. They are not as easy to work on, some have VVT (Variable Valve Timing), SOHC (Single Over Head Cam), DOHC (Double Over Head Cam) engines that aren’t nearly as simple. Now with American cars using more engine designs from overseas, auto technicians are finding that the old familiar timing marks that were stamped on the timing covers or pulleys are now gone.

Ford Explorer.  One very popular engine that requires cam and crank alignment tools is the German built 4.0 SOHC that is used in Ford Explorers from 1997 and up. Rotunda has been selling specialty tools for years that are used for holding the proper alignment of the cams and crank, since the pulleys can be pressed on in any position. There are eight tools required to align and hold everything in place when aligning the crank and cams. As with many Ford Rotunda specialty tools, once they have been the exclusive supplier of specific dealer required tools for a certain period of time, they start selling these auto tools under the OTC (Owatonna Tool Company) label. The above mentioned Rotunda equivelant auto tools are in a kit, the OTC6488-OCDEM.

All Makes.  Ford is not the only manufacturer that uses European designed engines that require these specialty tools. Chevrolet and Chrysler also have gone with import designs for their engines as well. Alignment tools required for Chrysler are usually labeled Miller specialty tools and Chevrolet required specialty tools are usually labeled as Kent Moore. Rotunda, Miller, Kent Moore and OTC specialty tools along with many other brand names are all under the SPX Corporation (Sealed Power Corporation) umbrella.

Professional Repairs.  Since there are many different specialty tools required for changing timing chains or aligning the old timing chain after having a cylinder head off, this precludes many DIY’s (Do It Yourselfers) from tackling this type of job. This is good news for professional auto repair shops that are willing to invest in the specialty tools required to repair these engines. For the well equipped auto repair shop, there will be no shortage of repair work in the future.

OTC (Owatonna Tool Company) is a very large tool company as you may already know. OTC’s tool line includes hand tools, shop equipment and diagnostic scan tools. The OTC Genisys scan tool has been a very popular choice in auto scan tools for many years, but now Pegisys is staged to be OTC’s next generation of automotive diagnostic scan tools. Genisys is still a very good scan tool and will continue to be very popular due to it’s much lower cost and it will continue to be supported by OTC. OTC has many automotive code readers, scan tools and diagnostic tools. OTC currently has the OTC 3499 (no fancy name), the Nemisys, the Genisys and now the Pegisys. The Pegisys has AirBridge technology which allows wireless communication with the vehicle and the Internet. I suppose there is a correlation between the Pegisys and Pegasus, Pegasus is a winged horse in classical mythology and is also a northern constellation between Cygnus and Aquarius. It represents the freedom of the wireless capability that allows the auto tech to move around the vehicle when performing diagnostic tests. Auto scan tools normally have an interface cable that keeps the tech in the seat or requires the cable to be draped through the door or window to reach the engine compartment. 

Pegisys has a touch screen. In addition to being able to use the scroll to change frames when using the scan tool, the Pegisys allows the user to make selections right on the touch screen. Everyone knows that guys are “visual” creatures. So, what better way for a guy to find the application he wants than to just touch the image on the screen?

OTC 3825 equipped with a scope.  Sometimes when testing a particular component on a car, a scope is needed to see the wave patterns to help detect momentary glitches. This is particularly helpful when testing sensors like the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor).

Updates through the Internet. The Pegisys comes with a one year subscription that starts when the tool is registered for warranty on the Pegisys website. It comes with USA Domestic and Asian software and even has OBD I and OBD II cables included. Optional software enables the Pegisys to be used on European vehicles and Heavy duty truck applications.

OTC also produces car dealer specific diagnostic scan tools like the Tech 2 Scan tool for Chevrolet. While the Tech 2 has programming/flashing capability it is limited to GM. The key to the Pegisys scan tool is that it has the capability to access many different makes and many systems. This makes the OTC Pegisys a good choice for repair shops that need to service many different makes and models. With access to the Internet, technicians can also easily find more information from Identifix an optional data base that has fixes that auto techs in the real shop environment have uploaded. Indentifix can of course be accessed without the Pegisys, but with the wireless Internet it just makes it very convenient.

Has a slowing economy along with climbing gas prices affected auto repair shops for better or for worse?

As gas prices increase along with almost everything else, most people will inevitably be keeping their cars longer and that means more vehicles with more repair needs.  But, does that mean automotive repair shops will have an influx of work to do?  That depends…

Shops rely on people to bring in their vehicles for oil changes where they hope to find additional auto repairs that will help them turn a profit.  However, with tougher economic times encroaching, many people who would normally bring their vehicle in for a simple oil change will be choosing instead to change the oil themselves and save a few dollars.  People will be more willing to drive their vehicle without air conditioning or take the rise of not getting extensive brake work as long as the vehicle “stops”.  Bare minimum crucial fixes combined with a hope-for-the best mentality will keep many repair shop’s profits down.

On the flip side, because more people are driving older vehicles, many are making repair purchases with more of a preventative mentality by keeping their car in good working order so it will “last”.  So although there might be less work to be had, the shop owner who is able to offer competitive pricing along with having an honest reputation will most likely be the one who drives more people into their shop.

Should your car repair business honor aftermarket extended warranty plolicies? If you are willing to process the claims, there is great potenial for additional business to be gained.

Car owners can elect to purchase coverage for mechanical break-downs with some exclusions. Some policies cover drive-train only. Maintenance like oil changes, tires and brake pads and shoes are commonly not covered. But for the average person that wants to budget a set amount for expenses extended warranties make good financial sense. For example, a transmission replacement might cost several thousand dollars. 

Many car buyers get extended warranty coverage when they finance their car at the bank or credit union. The coverage allows the car owner in most cases to choose any licensed auto repair shop. Once the car’s problem has been diagnosed, the repair shop calls the claim in with the repair estimate. When calling the claim in, it’s best to have the cause and correction well documented. Simply stating that a component is “broken” or “no good” will not be enough to get a repair authorization. In some cases the warranty company may send an inspector to verify that the repairs are in fact needed. The inspector will make sure the mileage (stated in the policy) has not been exceeded, check for impact damage and take some digital pictures to email to the warranty company. Once the warranty company approves the work, the repair is performed, the customer pays a deductible and the extended warranty insurance company pays the balance. 

Yes, dealing with a warranty company can be somewhat of a hassle, but it can also be very lucrative. Since the customer only pays a deductible, it may be easier to get large repairs approved with a customer that has extended warranty coverage as opposed to selling the job to a customer that has to pay the entire bill. Many transmission repair shops have been accepting extended warranty insurance on a broader scale for a longer time than most general auto repair shops. Now with rising repair costs for many general repairs and the higher number of cars that have extended warranty coverage, shops are realizing that accepting this coverage can increase their sales drastically. If your company decides to accept extended warranty coverage it can then include this in advertisements and spread the word to customers coming in for regular maintenance. Towing is usually covered as long as the break down was caused by a covered component. Let the potential extended warranty customers know that they can have their car towed to your shop if their car breaks down.

Does your shop already accept extended warranty coverage? Is it worth the time to process the additional paperwork?