Stadium Automotive

One of the daily challenges that we have at our shops is the diagnosis and repair of intermittent problems – things like noises, poor running, no start conditions, vibrations that don’t happen all the time. In any kind of problem solving in any kind of profession, there are four logical steps to problem solving. The first is to experience the problem. From this you can move to step two which is to theorize what the problem is. Moving to step three, you test, inspect, diagnose to prove or disprove your theory. The forth and most important of the steps is you repair or replace the part in question to make sure your theory is correct. If that fixes the problem; the proof in the pudding, so to speak. If the problem is not there all the time, you can lose two to three of these steps. This is where the challenge exists. We have had vehicles that will crank over but won’t start. One of the first steps is to read the onboard ECU (electronic control unit) to see if any fault codes are pre ... read more

At Autohaus, Mike installed new front brakes on an Audi A4 that a customer had bought a few months earlier. This car had nice looking aftermarket wheels on it, with sweeping spokes. After installing the wheels back on the Audi, the wheels would not turn; the brake caliper with new pads and rotors were interfering with the aftermarket rims. We had another customer who installed their snow tires at home with the stock steel wheels. The customer used the lug bolts that were installed for the aftermarket rims. Theses lug bolts where longer than the stock lug nuts and they were too long, went through the hub and did a lot of damage when the customer tried to drive the car. Then we had a car in last week, with aftermarket rims, that had a vibration at higher speeds. The customer had just bought new tires and rims, and we found that centering hubs had not been installed to “center” the rim on the hub. Aftermarket rims can make a car look great but be sure you know the potential pitfalls wh ... read more

Your risk factor has to do with how you repair and maintain your vehicle. I had a husband and wife come into the shop last week with a check engine light on. Our shop scanned the control unit in their SUV and found 2 different items that the code scanner read. We also found a bad battery, it was over due for an oil change by 5,000 miles, and was well over due for a major service. It was the wife’s SUV but the husband was to make all the calls on the needed repair on this vehicle. His first comment was “it didn’t need a battery” but I did explain that it is a very scientific approach in checking a battery condition and it flunked the test very badly. It was the only time that the wife said anything about the vehicle, that it was starting very slowly. As conversation about this vehicle proceeded, it became very apparent that the husband was a risk taker. He didn’t want to make this a dependable vehicle for his wife to drive. “She has a cell phone and towing insurance” so she is covere ... read more