The (Quality) Auto Parts Store is your Friend! (Part 1)

Before we get too far into the realm of repairing your vehicle, let's first have a chat about where you will get the parts you need. Sure, it sounds overly basic, but I'd rather we know that we are on the same page from the outset.

People who know how to cook well, insist on getting 'quality items, from the quality stores' when it really counts. Sure, even the finest cut of steak can be ruined by a bad cook (or a fine chef, on a very rare bad day), but a horrible steak can't be improved much at all by even the most elite chef. And the same can be said about auto parts. Even the most experienced mechanic (or 'technician' in some shops) can't make a 'cheap' part work very well - or for very long - particularly if the 'cheap auto parts' store sold the wrong part in the first place. Quality auto parts stores will not be the cheapest, generally speaking, but they will cost you less money in the long run!

Here's my question for you: How do the 'cheap auto parts stores' manage to sell their products for such a low price? Seriously, how do you think they make that work, while still making a profit? The simple answer is, they only employ the people that are cheap enough to fit in the budget! Do you really think a 'quality counterperson' would work (or work for long) for a company that paid as minimally as the 'cheap' guys do?

If you need to see proof, try doing this: Call (or even better, visit in person) the parts stores in your area. Contact them, asking for a quote on something - say an air filter, or wiper blades, or something basic like that - for your vehicle. [In fact, wiper blades - quoted in the store - may be a good conversation starter for this task.] While speaking with the employee, take the time to get to know him/her, the store, his/her colleagues. Find out how long each counterperson has been in the auto parts industry, and even where they have each worked. If that feels uncomfortable at first, try the honest approach by saying something like, "I'm looking for my go-to auto parts store, so I want to know a little more about the people I choose to give my business." I can assure you, that statement alone will be an attention-getter.


Once you know where you are going to get your parts - and more importantly, where you *will not* be going - do not be shy about asking them for help. Granted, the quality auto parts stores will *not* do mechanic work on your vehicle; they will, however, help you determine which parts you actually do (and do not) need, based on the information you provide. Alternatively, they will happily refer you to a local repair shop, should the repair be better suited for completion by an experienced mechanic. Whatever your repair situation happens to be, the quality-focused parts stores will be more concerned with selling you the right solution the first time; the 'cheap' guys will be more worried about selling you everything they can (no matter how many visits that takes on a single repair event), under the guise of 'servicing the customer'. Yeah, right! True customer service focuses on getting your repair solution right the first time, by working with you to discover the true repair needed.

[Disclosure: We have trained our daughters to automatically avoid any parts store with a dominant color of red. I'm not naming names, but in the Cincinnati-area, there are certain nationally-based chains that have a high reputation for low quality parts and people. These chains have red as their first - or very close second - most used color on their exterior signage. I refuse to ever work at any of these places, because I value the quality reputation I have built for myself.]

We've covered a lot so far, so let's take a break for now. The next edition will be Part 2 of this topic, which will include helpful tips for ensuring a positive parts store experience. I look forward to sharing more with you on this subject. Have a great week!

Fight Back in the Fuel Price War!

[Sorry to be late on posting this; I ran into a snag when I originally started writing this Thursday night. Enjoy!]


I had been debating in my head what topic to cover in this first edition, when my dear husband (or DH) had to fill both of our cars up this past Thursday evening. We own two Tauruses (or more properly, 'Tauri'), and each of them took over $60 to fill up! Ouch! He refueled his car at the gas station for $3.859/gal, then refueled mine at the grocery store's gas station for $3.719/gal (I had just noticed the price on a previous errand).

The sad thing is, we know that the gas prices generally jump on Thursday nights (around Greater Cincinnati, anyway), but we still find ourselves refueling at the wrong time. You know, busy workweek schedules, timing of the money in the bank versus due dates for various bills, some other random reasons that come out of nowhere... it all just seems to make life in general stack against us in the fuel budget war.

Wait... did I just use the term 'war' while mentioning fuel budget issues? Why, yes I did. As our Congressional leaders attack the nation's budget in DC, we each have our own budget battle going on at home, don't we? We may not have any direct control over the price-per-gallon we pay to refuel our vehicles, but we can fight back in another way: We can make our vehicles 'spend' their fuel allowance more efficiently, so we spend less at the pump in the long run.

Here are a few tips to help your vehicles make the most of the fuel they receive:

1. Change that fuel filter! Most people don't realize this, but in-line fuel filters should be changed about once a year (or every 12,000 to 15,000 miles). As time and miles go by, bits of sediment in the fuel are stopped by the in-line fuel filter. That's great, because they are prevented from reaching the engine. But, the filter can only store so much of the yucky stuff before it runs out of room. Eventually, the flow of fuel gets choked off by the traffic jam in the filter. Your fuel pump also gets overworked from increasing the flow to push passed the clog, which sometimes causes clumps of yucky stuff to be forced along toward the engine. Bad news, indeed.

2. Check Engine light on? Read your code(d message)! Okay, so maybe your little light says something else ('Service Engine Soon'), or just shows a picture of an engine (or you don't recognize what the picture is supposed to be). Think of the lights on your dash as messengers. If any light comes on and stays on (other than normal 'cruise control is on' type of stuff), that messenger is trying to get your attention. The 'Check Engine' light alerts you to the fact that a code has been stored in your vehicle's computer (also called ECM or 'brain box'). The light is saying 'you've got mail', but the mail is a coded message that must be retrieved by a scanner tool. If you have a 1996 or newer model year vehicle, nearly any code scanner will speak your car's language ('OBDII' - aka 'On Board Diagnostics 2'). If your vehicle is 1995 or prior, you need a scanner that speaks OBDI (that's OBD 1). Those are trickier to come by, and usually are mostly found in scanners that are 'bilingual' (reading codes in both OBD1 & 2). Due to expense, they are usually found at repair shops... And yes, shops will generally charge a fee for this service. However, often they will offer a deal where the diagnostic fee is applied toward the repair service that addresses the code and symptoms presented.

3. Keep your fuel level at 1/2 tank or fuller. What good does that do? Well, while you might first think of how much more often you would have to refuel, I submit it's not as often as you would think. The vast majority of vehicles on the road are fuel injected (as in, not using the old carburetor set up), with an electric fuel pump that actually is in the tank. [These can cost $300-$500 for the part alone, not to mention the labor cost.] The very fuel that it pumps, helps to insulate it from overheating. Not to mention the less effort that is required to pump fuel when it is on the fuller side, and the higher ratio of fuel versus sediments actually going through. Also, if the 1/2 mark is your new zero mark, you give yourself greater flexibility to choose when and where to refuel. Why stop in the middle of rush hour traffic, when waiting until closer to home is less stressful and probably cheaper per gallon (especially when you time it well, before the customary price hike times).

4. Read your owner's manual. Believe it or not, that little book is chock full of useful information. No, it won't tell you how to fix your vehicle; for that you need a 'repair manual', like the ones Chilton and other companies produce. Your owner's manual identifies the various parts of your vehicle  (oil dipstick, fuse panels, the components of your dash and instrument cluster, spare tire and jack, etc.) along with their locations. The manual gives helpful tips on how to use/interpret the assorted accessories (including what your dash lights tell you), but it also provides you a 'service interval' chart. Note: If you do not have the owner's manual for your car (because either you lost it along the way, or a previous owner never provided it to you), you *can* get a replacement one. Either get one through your dealership's parts department, or go to Helm, Inc's website (www.helminc.com).

5. Abide by your owner's manual's Service Interval Chart. The adage about prevention being a vital thing is very true with vehicle repairs. Vehicles that are given 'preventive maintenance' (also called 'PM') at the right times last far longer than ones serviced only when a component fails. Doing PM allows you to be proactive about vehicle repairs, with the side effect of less money being used on vehicle upkeep (or replacement). For example, a Taurus with a 3.0L OHV (12-valve, the more plain and common one) has a typical 150,000-mile life expectancy on the Automatic Transmission. Because my husband and I did proper PM on our 2002 model - transmission fluid flushes every 24 months/24,000 miles and the like - we didn't have that component fail until about 245,000 miles! (And *that* only happened because a soft metal bushing from the right-hand axle dissolved and got into the fluid, tearing up the internal gears of the transmission.)

And there you have my top five tips for fighting back in the fuel price war. Tip #3 is about the only one you wouldn't find (yet, that I know of) in your owner's manual. Otherwise, if the only tip you remember is #5, that will be enough of a memory jogger for you to apply 80% of the tips I've mentioned.

Now that we know how to do it, let's fight back in this fuel price war!