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Speaker 1: Row Lady, days of sun, those days of soda and

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Speaker 1: Patsus and ron Anian.

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Speaker 2: It's been a case at the shop the last three weeks.

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Speaker 2: I'm noticing in the heat as summer is here that

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Speaker 2: we're seeing much higher battery failures, shops.

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Speaker 1: Failure, a basket full of sandages.

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Speaker 3: And the car Doctor then locked the house up.

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Speaker 2: Now, yes, sat, if you're riding around on a battery

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Speaker 2: that's three four years old and it looks like you're

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Speaker 2: growing cauliflower on the battery terminals, you probably need to

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Speaker 2: have the terminals cleaned, battery tested, and maybe replaced.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to the radio home of ron Anian, the Car Doctor.

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Speaker 3: Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the

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Speaker 3: world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.

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Speaker 3: If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up.

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Speaker 2: The phone and call in. The girls are opening, but

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Speaker 2: I am here to take their calls. At eight five

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Speaker 2: five five six oh ninety nine hundred list dot summers

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Speaker 2: at all.

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Speaker 4: And now hee.

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Speaker 3: Running.

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Speaker 2: I think far As Gump was wrong. I don't think

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Speaker 2: life is like a box of chocolates. I think driveability

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Speaker 2: cars are because you're never quite sure what you're really

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Speaker 2: gonna get. Hello and welcome Bron and Any and the

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Speaker 2: guard Doctor here to carry on for the next two

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Speaker 2: hours talking about you and your automobile at eight five

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Speaker 2: five five six zero nine nine zero zero, All Things

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Speaker 2: automotive or otherwise. If you've got a question or comment

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Speaker 2: or a concern, give us a call eight five five

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Speaker 2: five six zero nine nine zero zero. The website for

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Speaker 2: this radio show as always Cardoctorshow dot com. You can

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Speaker 2: find more information there. TuneIn dot com, iHeart dot com,

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Speaker 2: iTunes dot com for podcasting and other show information as well.

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Speaker 2: If you need me during the week you got a

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Speaker 2: car problem, we can't get up here on airon talk

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Speaker 2: about it. Send it to me an email Ron at

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Speaker 2: cardoctorshow dot com. I think driveability cars are getting tougher

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Speaker 2: and I almost don't know if it's the car or

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Speaker 2: the person that owns them. Two situations this week at

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Speaker 2: the shop two thousand and four Volkswagen turreg Turg turreg

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Speaker 2: well VW virtually worth a six or one half a

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Speaker 2: dozen or the other and the check engine light had

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Speaker 2: been on for admittedly of the owner seven months. And

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Speaker 2: the reason we knew that was because this is July.

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Speaker 2: The inspection was December. The check engine light's been on

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Speaker 2: since then, and he about a month, maybe a little longer.

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Speaker 2: So I'm guessing the check engine light's been on seven

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Speaker 2: to nine months and he's been driving it around. It

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Speaker 2: has a lean fuel system code. The reason I know

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Speaker 2: it has a lean fuel system code is because he

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Speaker 2: walked into the shop with his scan tool telling me

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Speaker 2: here's the code. I think it's intake. Guess it's what

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Speaker 2: can you do to fix it? Let me tell you

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Speaker 2: about the right and the wrong way to walk into

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Speaker 2: somebody's house. And I kind of take it personal, and yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, I was asking. I was talking to Sue

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Speaker 2: last night. We were having dinner at this little Italian

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Speaker 2: restaurant again, and I said, you know, maybe my ego's

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Speaker 2: a little too fragile. I don't know. But when somebody

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Speaker 2: walks in and says to me, here's what's wrong with

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Speaker 2: the car, how are you going to fix it? And

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Speaker 2: I haven't even walked outside, gotten as signed repair, haven't

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Speaker 2: even gotten to the point where I've lifted the hood,

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Speaker 2: and I'm being put on the spot. You know, give

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Speaker 2: me a break, walked outside, looked at the car, it's

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Speaker 2: it's used up, worn out, eighty thousand mile oh four

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Speaker 2: Volkswagen that's been road hard, put away, wet, and it really,

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Speaker 2: I won't say should have been shot, but it's getting close.

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Speaker 2: The driver's door doesn't open from the inside anymore. The

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Speaker 2: owner admitted that it needed breaks. It's had this check

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Speaker 2: engine light issue ongoing for quite some time now, and

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Speaker 2: I explained to him that check engine light is the

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Speaker 2: mystery because once you saw that twenty one to eighty

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Speaker 2: nine lean fuel condition bank one fault that his scan

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Speaker 2: tool said was the issue that you've then got the

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Speaker 2: problem of is there anything else there? It's layered, you

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Speaker 2: don't know. We ended up sending that car to the

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Speaker 2: dealer because he wanted to know me or the dealer,

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Speaker 2: and I said the dealer, because walk into the dealer

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Speaker 2: and show them the scan tool and see what they

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Speaker 2: do to you. Second driveability car this week was an

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Speaker 2: O eight Ford Fusion eight Ford Fusion that had a

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Speaker 2: rolling idol between six and eight hundred doar pm and

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Speaker 2: went through every test and diagnosed it the way it

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Speaker 2: should have been. After Ford diagnosed it and two other

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Speaker 2: shops diagnosed it and came to the conclusion that it's

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Speaker 2: a bad throttle body. A five hundred dollars part is

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Speaker 2: that the only thing wrong with it. G I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I've got to get through this. I've got to go

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Speaker 2: one step at a time. I can prove the throttle

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Speaker 2: body bad. I don't know how the rest of the

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Speaker 2: car is because I can't test beyond that point. Like

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Speaker 2: a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going

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Speaker 2: to get. The owner intends to take it to a

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Speaker 2: fourth or fifth, or sixth or seventh shop, I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure what answer he's looking for, but obviously here's what's

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Speaker 2: wrong with the car. I can prove it isn't something

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Speaker 2: to satisfy him. The bottom line, it becomes that you

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Speaker 2: as the owner, you as the vehicle decision maker. It's

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Speaker 2: a lot like caretaking for somebody older or for yourself.

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Speaker 2: You've got to have a clear mind what it is

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Speaker 2: you're looking for before you go out looking, and you've

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Speaker 2: got to understand that when you're talking to a mechanic

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Speaker 2: sometimes the worst thing in the world to say is

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Speaker 2: here's what's wrong with it, how are you going to

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Speaker 2: fix it? Or gee, what if that doesn't fix it?

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Speaker 2: And instill some doubt into the conversation. You've got to

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Speaker 2: get used to the idea that auto repair going forward,

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Speaker 2: there is going to be that eighty percentile guess that

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Speaker 2: hopefully he's a good guesser and a good diagnostician that's

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Speaker 2: going to get you down to that point of here's

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Speaker 2: what's wrong with the car. Hello, and welcome Ron and

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Speaker 2: Andy and the car doctor.

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Speaker 5: Here.

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Speaker 2: We're going to roll along this hour. Coming up next hour,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna be talking to Mark Eaton. Mark is from Dens,

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Speaker 2: so we're going to be talking to him about a

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Speaker 2: ridium and they're iridium TT spark plugs. But right now

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Speaker 2: we have a very full phone bank and fast Tarry's

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Speaker 2: looking at me through the glass with a pained expression

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Speaker 2: on his face, saying open the doors. So let's fire

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Speaker 2: him up. Let's go over to Rick in New Haven, Connecticut,

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Speaker 2: two thousand and one buikh century and some break caliber questions. Rick,

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the car Doctor, sir, All right, what's going on?

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Speaker 5: Well, I'm thought I have a sticking break caliper, and

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Speaker 5: I was wondering anything I could do about that until

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Speaker 5: I replace it.

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Speaker 2: Not really, you know when you say you've got a

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Speaker 2: sticking caliper. What are the breaks pull left or right?

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Speaker 5: Rick another?

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Speaker 2: Okay, Well, generally a squeal is a is a compound

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Speaker 2: issue and not necessarily a stuck caliber issue. If a

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Speaker 2: break caliper is sticking, the vehicle, by all rights should pull.

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Speaker 2: Even the slightest little bit of a break caliper that's

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Speaker 2: hanging is going to cause unequal pressure in the system

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Speaker 2: and the vehicle will have a bit of a drift

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Speaker 2: to the left or the right. Now, you know, we

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Speaker 2: should also see breaks wearing more to one side than

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Speaker 2: the other. Who who's saying that the caliper sticking.

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Speaker 5: I'm a friend with more experience than me.

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Speaker 2: Okay. Any reason why you're waiting to repair it?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, finances?

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Speaker 2: Okay, well, and that's a fair statement. Just keep in

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Speaker 2: mind if the brakes do become a problem, and there

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Speaker 2: is an issue and they don't work, the repair bills

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Speaker 2: are only going to go up from here. So you know,

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Speaker 2: keep in mind too that breaks stick or break caliper

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Speaker 2: issues aren't necessarily going to be a squeal all by themselves.

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Speaker 2: Generally it's compound. It could also be that the brake pads,

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Speaker 2: you know, whatever lubricant was supposed to be there. Now,

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Speaker 2: the brake pad could be stuck on the caliper, not

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Speaker 2: allowing it to float all right, because the caliber the

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Speaker 2: pad has to float against the rotor to a degree.

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Speaker 2: A little bit of silicon grease and the right spots

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Speaker 2: goes a long way to preventing squeal. But if the

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Speaker 2: way the pad is mounted is correct, if that break

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Speaker 2: caliper itself is mechanically stuck, then you should have other

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Speaker 2: issues going on here. My suggestion is, before you wait

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Speaker 2: too much longer, take it apart. See what kind of

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Speaker 2: shape the breaks are really in, and if it's something

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Speaker 2: you can't do, have a professional do it, because bad

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Speaker 2: breaks is nothing to fool around with, and it keeps

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Speaker 2: you safe and it keeps me safe. As I'm driving

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Speaker 2: along in the car next to you. Let's go over

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Speaker 2: to Paul in Norway, Maine. I guess that couldn't be Norway, Norway. No,

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Speaker 2: we don't have that kind of reach. See what's going

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Speaker 2: on here with this two thousand and one cameray, Paul,

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the car, doctor sir, How are you pretty good?

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Speaker 6: How are you doing good?

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Speaker 2: What's going on?

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Speaker 6: Well, I'll get a two thousand and one camera and

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Speaker 6: it's a five speed with a two point two, and

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Speaker 6: I bought it for fun, and it's like a second

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Speaker 6: a third vehicle.

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Speaker 2: Actually, what's kind of neat a five speed camera? You

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Speaker 2: don't see many of those.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's why you bought it. YEA had the five speed?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yep. So what's going on that? Well?

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Speaker 6: I had it out of service for a while, and

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Speaker 6: when I went to put it back into service, it

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Speaker 6: would start up and it'll run for a few seconds

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Speaker 6: and then it will quit. Okay, and uh, it got

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Speaker 6: worse and worse, and now it just starts. It fires.

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Speaker 6: You see the tacometa needle go up, and then it quits,

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Speaker 6: and then you can hear the fuel pump working to repressurize.

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Speaker 6: I guess it's something. And then I try it again

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Speaker 6: it does the same exact thing.

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Speaker 5: All right.

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Speaker 2: Let me let me ask you this. Once it goes

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Speaker 2: into this dead it won't start mode. Have you checked

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Speaker 2: to see do you have spark?

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Speaker 6: I'm imagining that I do, because it seems to fire.

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Speaker 2: It fires, right, but but but I'm imagining that maybe

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Speaker 2: you don't, simply because it fires and dies, so it

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Speaker 2: has spark when you go to start it, it doesn't

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Speaker 2: have spark, otherwise it would keep running. We won't be

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Speaker 2: having this phone call right right, so and the play Well, no,

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Speaker 2: how about we take how about we take a coil

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Speaker 2: wire out of off a spark plug. Do you have

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Speaker 2: a spark plug, tester pole, a larger gap plug? Yeah, Well,

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Speaker 2: let's look it up. Let's see if we've got spark,

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Speaker 2: and we should have. We should have an angry orangish

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Speaker 2: hot blue white spark color kind of thing going on there,

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Speaker 2: and it should be an extended gap plug. And if

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Speaker 2: you can fire the coil, then we know it's not spark,

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Speaker 2: and that eliminates about half the possible problems this could be.

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Speaker 2: If it has spark, then my next question is going

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Speaker 2: to be does it have injector pulse? And probably the

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Speaker 2: easiest way for you to tell me that is if

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Speaker 2: you don't have one, go buy a mechanic stethoscope. Listen

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Speaker 2: to the injectors. Do they click, they'll click when it runs?

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Speaker 2: Do they continue to click when it goes into that

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Speaker 2: crank no stark condition? Do those two tests call me

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Speaker 2: back next week?

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Speaker 6: All right, I'll do that, all right.

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Speaker 2: Kitt Well, thank you, and you keep us posted eight

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Speaker 2: five five five six zero nine nine zero zero the

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Speaker 2: Card Doctor's twenty four to seven phone number. Give us

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Speaker 2: a call anytime, day or night and leave a message

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Speaker 2: fast Harry. We'll call you back. I'm running dye in

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Speaker 2: the Car Doctor. I'll be back right after this. Welcome back,

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Speaker 2: run an Indie in the Car Doctor here. If you're

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Speaker 2: new to us, we want to thank you for stopping by.

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Speaker 2: If you've been here a while, we want to thank

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Speaker 2: you for sticking around. This radio show for you newbies

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Speaker 2: is all about your car and it's problems. So if

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Speaker 2: you've got a question, if your mechanics beating you up,

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Speaker 2: if the car doesn't seem to make sense, if gee,

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Speaker 2: the last build seem too expensive to me, then give

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Speaker 2: us a call. Eight five five five six zero nine

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Speaker 2: nine zero zero will help break it down, and I'll

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Speaker 2: put it into a language in a way that you

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Speaker 2: can understand it and listen. Maybe your mechanic's wrong, though,

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Speaker 2: we can kind of talk about that too. But this

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Speaker 2: radio show's here for you, and it's dictated by the

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Speaker 2: calls and the questions that you ask, and that's how

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Speaker 2: we run this show and have for the past twenty

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Speaker 2: four plus years. Let's get over and talk to John Shadyside, Ohio,

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, Honda Civic and some problems with a

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Speaker 2: fuel level center. John, Welcome to the car doctor, sir.

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Speaker 2: How can I help?

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Speaker 5: Hey, Ron, I.

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Speaker 4: Ran out of options because nobody can get the part,

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Speaker 4: and I was wondering at first any way that I

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Speaker 4: can get a fuel sensor, any fuel sensor would work

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Speaker 4: in that car.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's see two eighty three. What am I saying?

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Speaker 5: Eighty three?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my dad's car. He passed away, and I'm

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Speaker 4: trying to restore it a little bit, you know, running.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the car is only thirty two years old.

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Speaker 2: It's still got some life left in it. I think,

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Speaker 2: you know. My one question would be before I talk

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Speaker 2: about getting a replacement part, John, is is it that

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Speaker 2: the gas doesn't work? Have you pulled the fuel level

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Speaker 2: cender out? Do you know that it's bad?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, because the gas that in the tank, okay for

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Speaker 4: twenty years. Okay, so I just decided, you know, to

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Speaker 4: give it a shot.

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Speaker 2: Well, then the next question I've got is that the

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Speaker 2: fuel level cender went bad and it, you know, because

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Speaker 2: the gas turned to gelatine and whatever else. It varnished

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Speaker 2: down into what's the inside of the tank look like.

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Speaker 4: No, No, the dealers they they they can can't get

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Speaker 4: a new tank. Okay, they can't get a answor Okay.

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Speaker 2: So you know, all that sensor is, all that sending

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Speaker 2: unit is is a potentiometer. It's a variable resistor. So

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Speaker 2: I've got to think, with a little bit of creativity

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Speaker 2: and ingenuity that it can't be the most impossible thing

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Speaker 2: to transfer another sending unit that has the same range

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Speaker 2: value and resistance value to make that gauge work. What

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Speaker 2: I would tell you to do, is it if we

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Speaker 2: were at the shop. I have this device, it's called

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Speaker 2: a variable potentiometer, and all it is is just a

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Speaker 2: big riist at It lets me very resistance in a

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Speaker 2: circuit so I can get things to do what I

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Speaker 2: want them to do. It's basically a fuel level cender. Now,

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Speaker 2: most fuel level cenders are zero to ninety oms. Sometimes

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Speaker 2: they're they're they're ten to one hundred and twenty oms.

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Speaker 2: They vary by car manufacturer. If you put a if

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Speaker 2: you put a potentiometer, a variable potentiometer to that signal

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Speaker 2: line back to the gauge and measure Wear's e Wear's full.

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Speaker 2: Then you just got to find a potentiometer that matches

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Speaker 2: that range and then attach it to the sender.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, but where do you get this?

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Speaker 2: Well, what the actual part, the replacement part?

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Speaker 4: No, any of them that would work. I'm not pick a.

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Speaker 2: Car once you. Once you. The most important thing, and

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Speaker 2: my point is the most important thing is to know

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Speaker 2: what range cender you're looking for.

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Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I don't know that.

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Speaker 2: I'm not mechanic, right, Well, the mechanic would have to

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Speaker 2: know that, John, That's what I'm trying to tell you, Okay,

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Speaker 2: all right. So in other words, the mechanic would have

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Speaker 2: to have the smarts to understand that a gas gauge

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Speaker 2: is a variable resistor circuit. All right. Let me explain

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Speaker 2: it like this. If the gas gauge didn't work in

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Speaker 2: the days of nineteen eighty three, eighty five, ninety ninety

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Speaker 2: five and so on, we would get out of variable

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Speaker 2: potentiometer and we would do a sweep test of the gauge.

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Speaker 2: We'd put it at zero, bring it up towards the

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Speaker 2: top end. We watched the gauge go from E to F.

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Speaker 2: All right, So he's got to do the same thing

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Speaker 2: to that car. In doing that, he's going to determine

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Speaker 2: what the range of that sender is. Once he knows that,

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Speaker 2: then it's a simple matter of referencing a later model

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Speaker 2: vehicle and saying, and I would probably start to look

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Speaker 2: somewhere in the mid nineties, because I'm sure sending units

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Speaker 2: are available for those, and say, okay, a sending unit,

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Speaker 2: for example, for a ninety five civicx Aveil. I'd find

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Speaker 2: one and transfer over that sending unit to the existing

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Speaker 2: one that's in the car. And it can't be that

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Speaker 2: hard to do. Fabrication of parts isn't the most impossible

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Speaker 2: thing in the world. Where there's a will, there's.

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Speaker 4: Away, So there's a way to do it if you find.

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Speaker 2: The right If you can find somebody that understands variable

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Speaker 2: resistance and how and how to really understand how a

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Speaker 2: fuel gage circuit works, then you can find somebody to

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Speaker 2: repair this. If all your mechanic can do right now

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Speaker 2: is swap parts, then all you can do. All you've

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Speaker 2: got is a parts swapper. And that's why you're confused

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Speaker 2: about it, all right, This is this is a fairly

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Speaker 2: simple circuit and a fairly simple problem. I wouldn't let

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Speaker 2: something like this stand in your way and keep you

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Speaker 2: from getting this car repaired. So good luck to you. John.

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Speaker 2: If you need more information, send me an email ron

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Speaker 2: at cardoctorshow dot com and we can kind of pick

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Speaker 2: it up and go from there. Hey, listeners, just real

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Speaker 2: quick before we pull over and take the pause. My

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Speaker 2: spies tell me and I've got some updated info. Buick

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Speaker 2: Is just has just unveiled with the twenty sixteen Cascadia. Wow,

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Speaker 2: you've got to google this Cascadia cisca DA. What a

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Speaker 2: good looking convertible this is. And you can see where

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Speaker 2: General Motors is going with this car. If the mechanicals

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Speaker 2: are correct and the mechanicals work, they're taking square aim

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Speaker 2: at BMW and Audi for this and everything's going to

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Speaker 2: that European look. But the Cascadia, I saw pictures of it,

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Speaker 2: and I was quite impressed and pleased to see how

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Speaker 2: they're how they're changing their design. It comes out as

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Speaker 2: a convertible. It's got a very sleek windshield. The top

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Speaker 2: goes up and down and in only seventeen seconds they

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Speaker 2: can lower the top up. Speeds up to thirty one

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Speaker 2: miles an hour the spec say, and it's got a

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Speaker 2: very wind swept exterior design. So you know you can

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Speaker 2: see ton what do you think? Let me turn this around,

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Speaker 2: ton look at that? Is that a sharp looking car? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I got thumbs up from Tony. Tony knows, so the

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Speaker 2: Tony and all his boys are like that. And take

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Speaker 2: that out for a road. So a lot of technology

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Speaker 2: out there and a lot of good looking car that

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Speaker 2: General Motors is coming up with and part and parcel

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Speaker 2: real quick. One last thought on John's problem. One of

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Speaker 2: the things I see people make mistakes with is the

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Speaker 2: part's not available. That means I can't fix the car.

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Speaker 2: That's not the case. What you've always got to do

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Speaker 2: when you're faced with a no part available scenario is

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Speaker 2: how does the circuit work? And then make a part

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Speaker 2: from there. It's not that car companies make parts anymore.

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Speaker 2: They subcontract them out, and a lot of things are very,

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Speaker 2: very similar, So always understand what you're working on before

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Speaker 2: you try going to solve the impossible. I'm running any

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Speaker 2: of the car doctor. We'll be back right after this