Posts from — May 2009

Oil change guy Joe pulls a Nashville Cab van in for an oil change.

As we prepare our barbecues, get ready for summer fun, and enjoy the day (many of us) we have off, please take time to remember the freedom we have is thanks to the men and women who have served our county. Thanks to all veterans, we enjoy our freedom as Americans.

Well, it’s been air conditioning time for awhile, really. At least time to use your air conditioning. But interestingly, manager Jeff Ford told me something interesting about getting your air conditioning repaired:

I don’t recommend having your air conditioning charged in the early spring when the temperature is still inconsistent. Instead, have your AC charged once the weather is warm consistently like it usually is in May or June. Temperature differences can cause expansion and contration which could cause you to have to get more freon later in the season. There’s no need to spend more money when you can just do it once!

Good advice, Jeff. My own air conditioning has been blowing warm for awhile, so I’ll be up at the shop soon having it recharged. If your AC is blowing warm, bring it on down to Master Tech and have us take a look at it!

This may be the most frustrating thing of taking you car to the auto repair shop. You take your car into the shop, tell them what’s going on with your car, and they can’t replicate the problem so they can figure out what’s going on. I always joked that technician Kevin was the worst about this. One day I made him come with me all the way to Nashville-back roads all the way- to get my car to do the weird slippy thing my car would do. No dice. All the way from Murfreesboro to Nashville and back, and the car ran like it was brand new the whole way.

This is why it’s so important to try to remember the exact conditions your car does its strange things under, so you can help our technicians replicate the problem. Does it happen when the car has been running awhile, or does it happen when it is first started? Does it happen when you’re going uphill, or downhill? The more information you can give, the more it helps when trying to get a diagnosis.

And sometimes, the car just won’t act up when it’s at the shop. That’s okay. We can usually catch the problem with our pinpoint computer diagnosis, and if not, we’ll drive the car and figure it out. A test drive can help us diagnose many problems that occur with cars. This is one of the reasons we have you sign our estimate sheet- to give us permission to drive your car if necessary.

Tell me, what’s going on with your car? Does it run like a champ or does it have weird things it does? A customer once said the reason his car was running strangely is because it’s a machine, and machines do weird things. I can’t agree with his assessment more.