Checking the oil, lubrication, battery, belts, air pressure and moving parts are all normal steps for getting the maximum mileage and safety from your vehicle. But now, here’s something else that could literally save your life.

A few months ago in the northeast a man and his wife and three children were on a family trip when a tire blew and their van was broadsided. Two of their children died in the crash and another sustained a serious brain injury.

The culprit was a tire that looked new but was actually over six years old. They bought the tire not knowing that tires can degrade with age no matter how good they look.

Consumer safety analysts say tires should come with a six-year expiration date.

We tell our customers and friends that not all tires are going to fail when they hit the six-year point, but that’s definitely a good point in time when you start to see a disproportionate rise in failures.

So far, there have been 52 documented deaths and more than 50 serious injuries in accidents in this country where an old tire may have been a factor.

And don’t forget your spare. Even though it may look brand new and never been on the ground, spares are especially vulnerable because they can sit in your trunk for years and STILL LOOK NEW.

So what can YOU do?

Check your own tire’s age by finding the four digits of the tire’s “DOT” number if the tire was made in 2000 or after. The first two digits correspond to the week the tire was manufactured; the last two would be the year.

At D&H Enterprises we always promote regular vehicle maintenance by taking care of the little problems with your car or truck BEFORE they become major problems (and a major expense and nuisance).

If you have any question about your tires or any other vehicle question, please come in to D&H for a free safety evaluation. We’ll check it for you so you can focus on your family and the other very important things in your life.

Safe driving,

– Dave Kemnitz
D&H Enterprises

P.S. Click here to learn “When Good Tires Go Bad” from CBS news:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/27/eveningnews/consumer/main698335.shtml

Just recently we had a customer come in with a well maintained, 02 Ford Taurus, with an extremely annoying problem, three  fuel pumps that have failed within 8 months.   All of the fuel pumps had been replaced with factory original equipment parts.   During diagnosing the last failure, we discovered that the Fuel Pump Driver Module had failed. This particular system has a very complex design. The Fuel Rail Pressure Sensor sends a signal to the Power train Control Module letting it know when the pressure is too low. The Power train Control Module sends a voltage signal to the driver module telling it to correct the pressure. The module then sends a voltage signal to the Fuel Pump which increases fuel pressure. Diagnosing was made much  more difficult due to the fact that when  the vehicle died initially the fuel pump had full voltage and it did again the second time around. During the last failure, the voltage was half of what it should have been.  At full voltage it should have full pressure at about 70+ psi. The first pump caused an excessive amount of amperage draw from the module and caused it to weaken. At the initial inspection it did not show its ugly head! Unfortunately for the customer it took two more visits with us for us to figure out this complex problem.

Vehicles have become very complex. What used to be a “Grease Monkey” is now an Automotive Technician who over time will see as many  training hours as a Doctor!! As we say… there is no practice in our industry!!

The cooling system services on vehicles nowadays are a commonly overlooked service, or preventative maintenance.  Manufactures have designed “LIFETIME” or “100k mile” coolants for their vehicles to lower the cost of maintenance over the lifespan of the vehicle, making purchasing a new vehicle seem painless with having a low service overhead.  Truth is there are no such “LIFETIME” fluids that will ever hold up to the needs of our vehicles. DO NOT BE FOOLED!  By the time your “LIFETIME” coolant or 100k mile coolant requires service by the manufacture of the vehicle you will already be in for major cooling system repairs due to the lack of maintenance.

The science behind the coolant is two main parts, PH levels and the formation of electrolysis.  Extreme high or low PH levels that build up inside the system will cause failure/corrosion to the aluminum parts, plastic parts and cast iron parts.  Electrolysis is the electro-chemical reaction that occurs in vehicles due to all the dissimilar metals and components that are used today and causes the metals to be eaten away by the invisible killer. Manufactures are combining cast iron blocks with aluminum cylinder heads along with plastic components.  This metallurgical reaction in dissimilar metals is the culprit.  Fluid passing through dissimilar metals and through the engine (which is the main ground for the charging system) causes this reaction to occur.

I like to bring up one case we had in our shop recently.  It was a late 90’s Lincoln Town Car that had low miles, barely at 60k.  The cooling system had never been serviced at all in its lifetime, which was over 10 years.  The first major catastrophic failure to occur on the engine was the freeze plugs rotted out from high PH levels and electrolysis.  This repair was very labor intensive and the engine had to be removed the properly repair the freeze plugs.  This repair was in the thousands of dollar range.  The vehicle made it roughly one month until the next catastrophic failure occurred, the aluminum heater core for the cabins HVAC system had failed and started to leak badly.  The “dash dive” project as we call it here added up to be roughly another thousands of dollar repair due to the labor intensive sort of repair, where the part cost is less than the labor.  All in all, this vehicle would have been spared from thousands of dollars in cooling system work if the system was flushed out annually.

Now time for the weigh in! Would you rather come to us once a year for your cooling system service and spend a mere $160 for a thorough flush or get the bad news after neglecting the cooling system and spend thousands of dollars in repairs? Choices are yours, keep your cooling system clean and well maintained!

In weather like this, most drivers don’t notice their windshield wiper blades do not clean the windshield like they should. Streaks, chatter, scraping are some signs they need to be replaced. Don’t forget about your tire tread. Low tread can cause hydroplaning. We at D&H check your wipers and tires as a courtesy on every service we do to your vehicle.

Hi I am RJ Shop foreman of D&H

There are many things that consumers can do to keep some very valuable coins in their pocket. Most everyone is struggling in today’s times. It doesn’t seem long ago when most of us didn’t have to worry about money. Full tanks of gas, full refrigerators, and basically buying what ever we wanted at the time! Things have obviously changed dramatically in these last few years, but things are starting to look like they are leveling out or going forward… I hope! Now we all try and squeeze every little penny out of every dollar. That is what brings me to helping you get the best bang for your buck! Our customers have been hanging on to there vehicles longer than they used to. When I see them now, on a regular basis, I find that most are not educated about getting the most miles out of every gallon. There are many ways that you can keep some of those precious pennies or even dollars in your pocket!

To start, the most important and often forgotten rule is remembering to check your tire pressure at every fill up, or once a week. When the tires are low on air pressure it increases a significant amount of drag on the vehicles rolling mass. It takes more effort from your engine to get the vehicle rolling or to maintain a speed with low tire pressure. Second is making sure that your technician is checking your air filter at every service. If the engine is starving for air it takes more fuel and effort to drag in the air that is needed to increase your speed. Last but definitely not least on the long list is the fuel injection service. There are rumors out there that say that this doesn’t work on improving fuel mileage unless your engine is caked with carbon deposits. I have a lot of customers that report to us how much better there vehicle drives after this service. I can even vouch for it myself. Our distributor lets every technician in the shop try this service at no charge so that we believe in it and we will be confident when we recommend this service to our customers. My wife Katie has a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee that has just over 100,000 miles on it that she just loves. I performed this service on her vehicle and since the service we started getting and extra mile per gallon. I was blown away! Even as a technician I had my doubts but I was proven wrong.

There are lots of other maintenance items that can be done to improve your mileage and put those pennies or dollars back in your pocket. We here at D&H can help you get your vehicle to run better than ever. Even if you have a question about improving your vehicles drivability you can email us or call, we will be more than happy to help you in any way that we can.  JUST ASK JACK!!!!