Stadium Automotive

In the automotive business, we run across patterned failures almost daily. Just as a family will have the same health issues, cars from a particular maker can have common part-failure problems emerge over time. Back in 2002, I bought a brand new luxury car. I just loved it and still have it. At about 28000 miles, the transmission failed and deserted me in Portland. It was repaired under warranty but the whole episode kind of ruined our trip.. At about 45000 miles, I got a notice that the manufacturer who wanted to check and repair something for no change in the transmission even though I had no problem. This service was preformed. Then, as a person who faithfully maintains my vehicles, I changed the fluid with factory fluid at about 60,000 and 90,000 miles. At 97,000, the transmission fails again. The manufacturer knew that this transmission had a problem, extending the coverage to 100,000 or 6 years, whichever comes first. But I was out of time and luck. I got no help from the man ... read more

CNG, compressed natural gas, is the best alternative to gasoline, electric or hydrogen. I will make a bold statement, a CNG vehicle is the cleanest, least carbon foot print of any fuel power vehicle in the world. I say fuel powered to eliminate a human powered vehicle. The reason are vast, yes, an electric vehicle has less tail pipe emissions then a CNG vehicle but to produce and transport electricity, electric vehicles will has a larger carbon footprint then a CNG vehicle. Don’t even get me started about converting electric to separate water into hydrogen and then all the difficulties in storage of hydrogen. It takes about 3 gallons of to get the energy of 1 gallon of gasoline. In my opinion for the past 15 years, hydrogen powered vehicles are a bad idea! The first thing that needs to be established is the difference between energy source and energy storage. Gasoline, natural gas and solar are energy sources while electric batteries, compressed air and hydrogen are just a storage med ... read more

The Oregon Ethics in Business Awards honor those organizations and individuals who have demonstrated ethical business practice in its broadest interpretation: in the workplace, the marketplace, the environment, and the community. The recipients of these awards will have, by act and example, gone beyond the expected to achieve excellence in ethical business practices. We are proud to announce that George Rode won the award for 2012. View all recipients here: http://oregonethicsinbusiness.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=17 Congratulations, George

Last Thursday I attended an all-day seminar about natural gas vehicles (NGVs). According to Rick Wallace with the state of Oregon, NGV fleets in our region — including those operated by the Oregon State Department of Administrative Services Motor Pool, Salem-Keizer Transit and Port of Portland — are paying about $1.27 a gas gallon equivalent (GGE) for fuel, not including road taxes. Compressed natural gas, or CNG, is a very interesting alternative to gasoline. For one, the fuel is very available; the United States has a glut of natural gas. Another, more compelling advantage of natural gas is that it is much cleaner burning than gasoline or diesel. All vehicle types, even big 18 wheelers, could be fueled with CNG to produce much less pollution. These vehicles could be the cleanest-running vehicles on the road. Learn more about this in my July 16 column

Battery power electric cars have been around since the turn of the century but never been the mainstream. The biggest reason is that gasoline has so much energy in a gallon it makes it very difficult to compete against. Think about it, gasoline is convenient, relatively safe, easy to transport and store and huge, huge volumes are available. You can pack a lot of energy in that 20 gallon tank to be able to drive 400 miles. Gasoline is relatively clean also. Gasoline is also the source of energy as opposed to just a storage medium. Crude oil is pumped out of the ground and just has to be refined; battery or hydrogen powered cars have to get their energy from another source such as a power plant driven by water or coal. To say electric or hydrogen cars don’t pollute at all is false, they get their power from the power stations that have their problems with pollution. Lead acid batteries have been used for over 100 years. They have lots of advantages but is real old technology having lots ... read more

If your “check engine” light is on, something is wrong. These lights didn’t exist back when vehicles were tuned every 5,000 to 10,000 miles and it was a difficult procedure to correctly tune an engine. I often compared that task to being the conductor of a symphony, making sure all the different components of an engine were perfectly timed and working in concert with each other. But tune-ups like this are no longer needed, because everything in an engine is controlled by an onboard computer called an electronic control unit (ECU). The ECU looks to many components for inputs to get the firing and air/fuel mixture correct. The greatest ability of the ECU is self policing. It checks the amount of air coming into the engine, burns it and takes samples after it leaves the engine to make sure the air and fuel are being burned correctly (and efficiently, reducing air pollution). It looks for misfires in the engine and, if there are any, activates the check-engine light. On newer vehicles ... read more

It is now summer, the time for vacations and lots of car travel. Car travel has been going up in popularity the past few years, with Americans choosing to spend their leisure time driving to some of the great spots in the United States. Getting your vehicle ready for such a road trip during the hot weather can make a vacation much more stress-free. This is most important for vehicles with more than 80,000 miles and those that have not had good preventive care. The most important focus should be the cooling system, one of the largest systems in your vehicle. Your repair shop should pay special attention to the water pump, radiator, all the hoses and other parts of the system. Newer vehicles include a lot of plastic in the cooling system that gets brittle with age. If one plastic part breaks, it is a good idea to replace all of the plastic components of the cooling system at once. This includes many water pumps, which have plastic impellers. If your vehicle is overheating on the road ... read more

I was asked this as a question by a reader of the Register Guard. I’m always looking for new ideas, so thanks Joe for this idea. People often ask me what the ideal vehicle is and the answer is always easy. It depends on a lot of priorities. Is it basic transportation that you want great fuel mileage and dependability? Is a vehicle part of your ego, want to impress people with want you drive. How many people do you want to carry? Do you need to haul loads that would call for a PU truck? Do you like to go around corners fast and take it to autocrosses? The most important item to remember is that NO vehicle is made that is going to have everything you want. Go for what you are going to use it for 85% of the time. If you have two cars in the household, make sure that you have different vehicles such as one that holds a lot and the other that’s fun to drive. I personally love to get a vehicle fully loaded with all the great new gadgets and that is recommended by Consumer Reports. Both ... read more

The biggest challenge in the auto repair and service department is the check-engine light (which often reads “service engine soon”). Most folks think you simply hook up a scanner and it will tell you what is wrong with the vehicle. Actually, it won’t. It will, however, tell you where to start looking. One great example of this is a Jeep we worked on in our shop. It was giving us fault codes for a device called the oxygen sensor, which acts as a “final check” to see if your vehicle’s exhaust is really clean. Oxygen sensors even measure the pre-catalyst and post-catalyst exhaust to see if the catalytic convertor is doing its job. Many problems will cause an oxygen sensor fault code even when the sensor is doing its job. In this particular Jeep, an exhaust leak allowed extra oxygen to enter the exhaust gases, which triggered the check-engine light. Believe me, these are very complicated systems. The check-engine light, part of a system called OBD2 (onboard diagnostics, second generation) ... read more

I’ve loved gadgets for as long as I can remember. In the fourth grade, back before remote controls, I wired my TV and lights so I could turn them on from my bed. I had speakers all over my room for a surround-sound effect. It was my introduction to gadgets and total living comfort. I remember that was also the time I fell in love with automobiles. They were full of gadgets and mystery. Where else can you control so many devices from a “captain’s chair?” The basics have been there since the earliest days of the automobile, such as steering, throttle, brakes, clutch, emergency brake and gears for the transmission. As automobiles evolved, more devices were added, such as headlights, taillights, turn signals, horn, driver’s side crank-up windows, windshield wipers, window washers and doors that open and close easily. Then came the creature comforts such as heating, air conditioning, radio, rear view mirror and adjustable seat. In the next evolution, even more controls and gadgets popped u ... read more