Answers to your car questions

A READER’S SUGGESTION

Hi Dennis,

I read your column in the KW Record regularly to find any new information about car problems. There is one problem that I came across with my 2008 Honda CRV, which might be helpful to the readers of your column. Honda put a spring bolt coupling between the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter in my 2008 Honda. This is a very high heat area to have a spring. The spring and the bolts slowly burn out and let the exhaust leak slowly into the cabin through the cabin air filter. You can’t hear any exhaust leak like other areas of the ex-haust system. You can’t put your hand near the coupling to feel the leak either. It is a poorly designed system and can be dangerous if gone undetected. The on-ly way it can be noticed is if you take your CRV regularly to the dealership for maintenance. Other garages may not notice this if they are doing other repairs. This design is also the same on Honda Accords. I would appreciate it if you would advise the readers of this potential problem and to be aware of an ex-haust leak without any noise. You have to ask the garage to test for a leak at the exhaust manifold to catalytic converter spring bolt coupling. I hope these are a couple of interesting points that your readers would be happy to read. Keep up with your column.

Roger from Waterloo

ANSWER

You have made some very good points Roger and I thank you for that. I am sure that you have made many motorists think about having their vehicles checked for that specific exhaust leak.

QUESTION

I was driving up north about three weeks ago and ended up in a snowstorm. I was following a large transport truck when a chunk of ice came from the top of the trailer and hit the front end of my car. It broke my grill but also put a hole in my radiator. I was in a bind so I put Stop Leak in the radiator until I could get home to have the radiator repaired. I took it into a rad shop in Hamilton and they said that the radiator could be repaired. About four hours later, I received a phone call about the repair and was told that the radiator was going to have to be replaced and could not be repaired. I never had any overheating problems but I had to give the go ahead to replace the radiator because they had the car in their shop. I had a slight disagreement with the garage when I went to pick up the car because I did not believe that the radiator could not be fixed. I told the garage that I wanted the old radiator back, which they did give to me. I then took the radiator to my garage and told them what had transpired. My mechanic took a look at the radiator and told me that in his opinion, the rad shop just sold me a radiator that I did not need and that he found that rad shops are notorious for selling radiators that are not needed. Can you look into this for me?

Don from Milton

ANSWER

It always bothers me when a licenced technician will defame another technician who holds the same certificate when they do not have all the facts. I spoke to your mechanic and asked him on what basis did he decide that the radiator did not need to be replaced. He told me that it was his experience that radiator shops routinely replace radiators that do not need to be replaced and that he did not have to answer to me. When I told him that an accusation like that against another technician, who holds the same certificate, certainly takes away the professionalism that is expected of a licenced tech-nician when that technician bases his opinion on conjecture rather than facts.

He hung up on me.

I then called the radiator shop and this is what they told me. The radiator shop had told you that they would have to flush the system out because you had put two cans of Stop Leak into the system to try and stop the leak. One can of Stop Leak is designed to plug a small hole but two tins of Stop Leak has the potential of plugging the complete coolant system. The radiator shop tried twice to flush the system and only charged you once. They then determined that the radiator was plugged to the point that it would need to be rebuilt or replaced. They also told you that your heater core was cleaned, as best as they could but also might need to be changed in the near future.

I think that you owe the radiator shop an apology and while you are at it, ask your own technician to value his me-chanical certificate and to not defame another technician who holds the same certificate, if he values his.

To my readers: Please indicate the town, city or village that you live in. Be advised that unfortunately not all emails can be answered. Send your questions (including address) by email to: dennis.osullivan665@gmail.com