After overhearing a wife tell her husband they needed to go straight to the gas station because she was on fumes, I told her she really should try to keep it over 1/4 full. Her response was “that’s just a guy thing you say so we won’t run out of gas”; Fiction.
The fact is 99% of the cars on the road have an electric fuel pump. The pump is inside the fuel tank. You may think an electric motor in a tank of gas doesn’t sound very safe. Don’t worry it is very safe. There isn’t much oxygen in the gas tank, even when it’s empty, in fact not enough oxygen for it to burn or explode.
The reason we recommend keeping it over 1/4 tank is the gasoline is the coolant that cools the fuel pump. An electric motor makes heat. That heat causes wear and premature failure if it’s not dissipated. Below a 1/4 of a tank the pump isn’t fully submerge and the small amount fuel in the tank actually warms up and doesn’t effectively dissipate the heat.
That’s why we recommend keeping it over a 1/4 full; if you don’t, we’ll gladly replace your fuel pump when it prematurely fails.
Hometown Garage, along with the major industry trade group ASA opposes the so called Right to Repair Act. We do not have a problem accessing trouble codes or vehicle systems. The information is available, for a price of course, and this Bill will not change that. Factory computers and service information is readily available. A factory computer & service information package with updates runs about $7000 per year per manufacturer. So you can see Independent shops have to decide which is economically viable to invest in, based on the brands of cars they most service. This bill won’t change that.
Right to Repair Legislation has been defeated in the 23 (I believe it’s 23) other states that filed it. This type of legislation probably isn’t necessary and if it is it belongs on a country wide federal level. If the manufacturer has to do something different in Massachusetts it will cost you more to buy that car in Massachusetts, it’s basic economics.
This bill has been spearheaded by the discount auto part chains. They deny claims that the information they will get from the bill will make it easier for them to make knock of parts overseas and that they are funding it to help the independent shops. All I can tell you for sure is we don’t have a problem, so follow the money and reach your own decision.
I’ve talked to people from the MA Right to Repair Coalition. In my opinion they are extremely rude. About every other day I get a call from them. The called starts in with we need you to call your legislator and urge them to pass this. My answer is always the same, ” Why would I want to do that, we don’t support it?” They immediately hang up – click. If this bill were at all legitimate I’d expect to hear something like ” but you’re a shop, don’t you have a problem getting information? This is not a bill or group I want to support.
We urge you to oppose this legislation and let your Representatives and Senators know you oppose it. You can find more information about the bill and a simple way to email your legislators at
http://capwiz.com/asashop/issues/alert/?alertid=15255991
If you were in during March or April for an oil change you may have received a rebate form for a Valvoline Rebate. This was only for cars that use 5w30 or synthetic oil. The rebate is in the form of a coupon card redeemable at the same garage that did the oil change.
If you sent a rebate in you may have received a rebate card with a shop name on it that didn’t make any sense. One customer got a card with only good at “Hometown Motors” in MN, another was only good at another Burlington shop, that shop doesn’t even use Valvoline oil. Valvoline changed rebate processing companies and the new company made some mistakes. Rest assured your rebates are redeemable at Hometown Garage, regardless of what shop name is on them. We will redeemed the incorrect coupons and Valvoline is sending those customers, that we’ve heard from, an addition rebate card to apologize for the inconvenience.
If you received an incorrect card we will accept it and if you let us know we’ll have Valvoline put you on the list for a second card.
Happy Earth Day to all. At Hometown we try to be as GREEN as possible.
We:
- use 100% recycled paper
- we put recycling receptacles in the waiting room & shop
- recycle the steel, aluminum, & lead generated by repairs
- recycle scrap tires
- recycle used oil filters
- use a rubbish company that dumps their trucks in a warehouse and sorts the rubbish to reclaim recyclables
- send the used anti-freeze to be recycled
- use the waste oil generated to heat the shop
- recycle the old batteries
We’re doing a pretty good job but we found an area we could better at. Our rubbish company sorts the rubbish except the cardboard often gets contaminated by the other trash in the dumpster and it can’t be recycled.
To celebrate Earth Day we had a separate dumpster brought in this morning just for cardboard. Now 100% of the cardboard we generate, will get recycled. Almost everything comes in a cardboard box, so that’s a lot of cardboard.
Thank you all for voting us the Best Auto Repair in Region since 2003, in the Reader’s Choice Awards. We really appreciate your confidence and trust. We strive to earn them each and every time you come in for service.
It’s time to vote in the 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards and once again we would appreciate your vote.
Thanks Again
The Hometown Garage Team
Today I saw myself quoted on an email list about a customer who had been up-sold synthetic oil at another shop. Sounds like a good topic.
If your car’s manufacturer specifies synthetic oil that’s what you must use. When we service the car we put in the oil specified by the car’s manufacturer at the minimum. In many cases we put in a better oil.
In this case it was an older car that didn’t require synthetic oil. The customer went elsewhere where they were up-sold a certain brand of synthetic oil. The shop even put a real official looking sticker under the hood that said “only use x brand synthetic oil”. The customer had no idea they had used synthetic oil but remembered the oil change was “really expensive”.
In this case the use of synthetic oil will not likely add significant life to the car. It’s driven mainly in the city and regularly changing the oil will add more value. When synthetic oil first came out there was talk about not changing back to conventional oil because it would cause seals to leak. Wives’s tale or truth; I don’t know but we’ve never been able to attribute a leak to switching back. That was a long time ago, today the oils are without a doubt compatible with each other.
Synthetic oil is a better product; if you want to use it start when the car is new. Switching over in a high mile car won’t make it a low mileage engine. We removed the bogus sticker and put our oil in.
This is where it gets more complicated. There is a third oil, called blended or synthetic blend. It has some of the properties of synthetic and a price closer to conventional oil. We stopped using conventional oil several years ago. Our most basic service comes with blended oil. At most shops and the quick lubes this is an upgrade or add on. At Hometown it’s just part of the “Old Time Value” we put in every job.
If you have any questions about motor oil or what your vehicle takes; send us an email.
I just got back from my nightly walk with Kobi. It’s 20 degrees out but we still did 1.5 miles. While we were walking it reminded me of the cold snap we had a couple weeks back.
The first cold snap of prior years bought in a flood of dead batteries. Marginal batteries give out in the extreme cold. Arriving in the morning we’d find the cars that had been towed in during the night and the parade of tow trucks would continue through the day.
That morning I was surprised to find that no cars had been towed in during the night. There also were no messages on the machine. Unusual, but I was sure they were coming. I was wrong, they didn’t come. At the end of the day we had only done three batteries.Maybe it wasn’t really that cold? I called our battery distributor to reorder the 3 batteries and learned their sales were through the roof that day. They couldn’t keep up with the deliveries. Why did we only sell 3 batteries?
I needed to find out why. I knew our customer base had grown so that wasn’t it. A quick look at battery sales for 2009 showed they were up, so that wasn’t it. Another look at the data showed that battery sales used to spike in the extreme cold and extreme heat, I knew that; but in 2009 the spikes were gone. Battery sales were pretty even all year. Very interesting but why?
What happened? In 2008 I made testing the battery part of our regular maintenance service. We use a very accurate, computerized battery tester to identify a worn out battery before it causes a symptom the customer would notice and before it leaves the customer stranded. My goal was to provide a better service. Did I expect results like this? Honestly, I didn’t.
As this case study shows, preventive maintenance works. It saves money, time, aggravation and inconvenience.
If you have your car serviced at a quick lube, ask them to test your battery; they don’t offer this service. If we service your car, you don’t need to ask, we’ll test it at your next regular maintenance service.
Have we forgotten last winter? Do you remember the incidents of ice coming off of one car and breaking the windshield of the car behind it? There were numerous accidents caused by the same.
As I drove in this morning it seemed quite a few people either forgot or they just don’t give a damn about anyone else on the road. We’ve also seen wiper systems damaged when the person hit the brakes and the pile of ice & snow slid off the roof and across their own windshield, taking the wipers with it. Please take a couple extra minutes & clear the snow.
They make some great snow pushers that reach on to the roof and don’t scratch the paint. They’re available at a number of places, including Hometown Garage.
There is a difference between maintenance and quick lube. When you go into a quick lube, you know the chains stores I’m referring to, they usually have one thing in mind; up-sell. You need to flush everything, need new filters and need a new belt. Sound familiar?
They don’t hire trained and certified mechanics. They train their help to change fluids and they typically get a commission on every up-sell. They don’t inspect the critical components and systems in your vehicle. They don’t check the brakes, steering linkage, suspension, exhaust and many more. They don’t do that work, they don’t sell that work and they aren’t trained to inspect it.
Just yesterday we had to do a $500 brake job on a late model 15 passenger van, with only 32k miles on it. They ran out of brake pad and destroyed the rotors. The reason I’m not happy about it is that it never should have happened. This vehicle is part of a fleet that belongs to a non-profit social service agency. Their budget and state funding has been cut; money is tight. We service their fleet when they break down and rarely see them for maintenance. This van had the oil changed at an Instant Oil Change 3000 miles ago. If a mechanic had serviced it he would have seen the almost worn out brakes and either scheduled the repair before damage was done or would have put in brake pads right then; at a cost of about $130. The last three times this exact situation occurred, different vans, the vans were serviced at an Instant Oil Change less than 300 miles before the brakes started grinding. $500 or $130, you do the math.
I know what you’re thinking, it was more profitable for us to do the larger job. You are absolutely right, but that’s not way we work. We want to sell you what you need , when you need it. We are here to help you maintain the investment you’ve made in your vehicle. That means sometimes selling you a smaller job and saving you money. It means never an unneeded up-sell. It not just about profit – it’s about Trust.
Want to save yourself a lot of money and even more aggravation? It only takes 30 seconds or less. It’s easy, follow these simple steps:
- Turn off your windshield wipers and allow them to return to the parked position before turning the ignition off
- If the temperature is below freezing, make sure the wiper blades aren’t frozen to the windshield by lifting each one up before starting the car
- Clear the windshield of snow & ice before turning on the windshield wipers
- If snow & ice build up on the windshield while driving; pull over in a safe place, clear the windshield and then continue on
How is this going to save me money? It’s simple, the cost to replace a wiper motor or wiper transmission ranges from $300 – $1000, sometimes more. Your wiper system consists of four basic parts
- The wiper motor, an electric motor that rotates when the switch is turned on
- The wiper transmission, sometimes called linkage, a series of pivots and rods that convert the rotating force of the motor into the back & forth motion seen on the windshield
- The wiper arm, this connects the wiper transmission to the wiper blade
- The wiper blade, this is the rubber & metal part that actually clears the windshield
It used to be these were mostly metal and even though not designed to, they would clear several inches of snow. Today things aren’t made as durable, that’s a whole seperate post. Now there are many plastic parts and the metal parts aren’t as strong. We see it every winter; people don’t clear the windshield or they start the car with wipers on & frozen to the windshield. Snap, pop, bang and the wipers stop. It takes a large amount of force to move your wiper blades. When the blades can’t move that force has to go somewhere and something breaks. These parts are vehicle specific and we have to order them through the dealer. A few times last winter the parts were back ordered and took 2 weeks to get. Two weeks without a car, that’s aggravation. And it could have been easily prevented.
