Blogs

Well my friends, the Car Commando is seeing another year go by. Soon, very soon another Birthday. As they say "Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt" :-)

I think about all of the friends I have made this year, and the ones I lost. Dana Baum is the first that comes to mind. Dana passed away this year, and I miss his calls and banter. He was a good frined to me, and he'll never be forgotten.

VW is recalling almost 380,000 cars in North America, for a potential fire hazard due to chafed fuel lines under the hood. Keep this one in the back of your mind, you might very well need to make the fix for one of these cars in the not so distant future.

Here's the text from the NHSTA document:

Vehicle Make / Model: Model Year(s):

VOLKSWAGEN / JETTA: 2006-2010 
VOLKSWAGEN / JETTA SPORTWAGEN: 2009
VOLKSWAGEN / NEW BEETLE: 2006-2010 
VOLKSWAGEN / NEW BEETLE CONVERTIBLE: 2006-2010
VOLKSWAGEN / RABBIT: 2006-2010

And I thought the auto market was still tight. Here's the press release that Audi issued yesterday:

Audi breaks U.S. sales record; on pace to exceed 100,000 vehicles sold in America for the first time
- Audi sold its 93,507th vehicle of 2010 Monday evening
- The old record of 93,506 models sold was set in 2007
- Audi sales executives confident of surpassing noteworthy 100,000 mark

Toronto was COLD, but warm. The seminar went well with 47 techs on board. Had some really smart fellows at this seminar and enjoyed the entertainment.

Never left the hotel, as it was bitter cold all day and especially the evenings, but met a number of friends while I was there. We got some great interviews for our Podcasts and some video of the "tool guys" while we were there.

So stay tuned, you'll be seeing them launched very soon.

Here's a car that has trouble with the windshield fogging in cold temps. When the driver gets in the car the windshield is clear, but as soon as the fan is turned on the windshield fogs badly and then takes forever to defog...even with the fan on high. Diagnosing this one means we need to think hard about just how the defroster works in this car.

Customer had one master key/remote stolen so they want to replace all locks and have new remotes. Replaced all locks and EWS module.

Programmed EWS module to car but unable to initialize new remotes.
So why are the remotes not initializing?? This is EWS II, as it is 1997 E39 model 528i......for those that do not know their chassis designations.

Good idea on a situation like this is to check Fuse 53 located in the trunk. Your scan tool will NOT show a fault for this issue.

Well,started this excursion by way of Tallahasee as my son graduated from Florida Highway Patrol. He recieved the "Directors Award" for best recruit. Got to admit, he made me proud.

Between the 42 new troopers and the 200+ Law Enforcement officers attending this graduation, I got a rush of paranoia, and I haven't done anything illegal, yet : )

Perfectly suited for our modern attention spans, the Autoextremist Peter De Lorenzo's October 20th Rant tells all about the auto industry, in tweets! Comments on most major auto manufacturers, each in 140 characters or less.

Look hard at his comments on our German friends, Porsche comes out clean but the others...well, you'll see.

Autoextremist

So as I'm watching the series "House"....as I have been told I am a lot like him....but in the automotive world. I retort with "I think I invented that!"....he didn't.

Onto this "Differential Diagnosis" thing. Every time I read a POST on my Technical Support Site: www.euro-diagnostics.com

I see this "Differential Diagnosis" thing happen. You know that we all are "Doctor's of the Wrench", as we Diagnose a sick car and then if we are good enough, we fix it.

As doctors of the human machine, they bury their mistakes....we marry ours.

So now it's Chicago. 6 down.....two to go. I am feeling little "toasty" from all of this travel. But chicago is one of my favorite places:

Muldinado's Pizza
Super Dog
Big Bowl
The traffic.......nah......hate the traffic!

Arrived Wednesday, and been at my terminal all day. Went and had Deli at George's.....the Matzo Ball Soup is to die for!