New Enhancements To Federated Car Care Program
Recent additions to the Federated Car Care program include the MechanicNet expert automotive marketing program, allowing individual car care centers to create marketing plans specific to their own business, and the BusinessVoice on-hold marketing program that helps shops increase customer share by updating callers on services and driving them to take the next step in the buying process.
ZF Services LLC Releases New Training Video For 6HP Transmission Oil Changes
ZF Services LLC, the strategic aftermarket business unit of ZF Friedrichshafen AG in North America, has announced the most recent video update to the ZF Education Center. The newly added video is a training video for oil changes on ZF 6HP transmissions.
Prolong To Display 1960s Themed 1955 Wagon
Staying true to the earliest days of drag racing, Prolong Super Lubricants will soon unveil a 1955 Chevy 210 four-door Wagon, styled after the classic Drag support vehicles, which were fixtures at drag strips across the country in the 1960s.
Bosch Launches New Digital Marketing University
Bosch has announced a significant new benefit for repair shops that are members of its exclusive Bosch Car Service program. Bosch is launching the company’s new Digital Marketing University to provide new training programs and tools in areas such as website marketing, web scheduling, social media, loyalty and search engine marketing.
Mevotech Releases More Than 500 New Part Numbers For Control Arms And Chassis
Mevotech has announced the release of more than 500 new part numbers for control arms and chassis. According to the company, these latest numbers meet and exceed OE specifications, and many of the parts released have been engineered with Mevotech XFactor features, which include greaseable ball joints, sintered metal-to-metal bearings, knurled housing, corrosion resistant coatings and enlarged ball studs for reduced contact pressure.
Executive Interview: A New Name, A New Era For One Of The Industry’s Top Associations
Earlier this month, Kathleen Schmatz, president and CEO, and Rich White, senior vice president, respectively, of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association, kicked off a media tour to educate aftermarket industry trade media and other constituents on a major rebranding for the association. They recently visited Babcox Media’s corporate offices to talk to editors and publishers about this exciting change.
Inspect The Automatic Transmission Filter And Fluid
Changing the automatic transmission filter and fluid is a great preventive maintenance practice, ensuring a clean and proper working transmission assembly. The most important factors are installing the correct filter for the vehicle application and the correct installation procedures of the filter. An incorrect filter installation or the wrong filter will ultimately cause erratic shifts and possibly cause damage to the transmission assembly.
Maintaining The Cooling System On The 6.0L/7.3L Powerstroke Engine
One of the most overlooked preventive maintenance items in a diesel engine is the coolant system. Maintaining the coolant system is just as important as an oil change – in fact, the coolant condition in a diesel engine may even be more important than in a gasoline engine.
Capturing Unperformed Service Work
We’ve all had those preventive maintenance conversations with customers, but has a customer ever asked you to replace something that didn’t test bad? I had a customer tell me to replace a battery that was barely four years old and it was a 75-month battery. I told him that the battery tested fine and the charging system was working well. That’s when he said something that I now say to my customers almost every day. “You don’t wait until you run out of gas before you put gas in, right? Why would you wait until your battery died to put a new one in?”
Be Sure To Inspect The Bushing
There is no real maintenance schedule for a bushing beyond periodic inspection. While tie rod ends and ball joints might occasionally receive a little “thanks” for all their hard work in the form of a greasy treat, the bushing gets no such thanks. In fact, such a “treat” can mean death to a rubber bushing.
Preventing Brake Noise Complaints
Most brake complaints will be squeak-related, with the common metal-on-metal grinding taking a close second. Both of these noises relate to the pad. The grinding noise is almost always the result of worn pads and the backing plate contacting the rotor, and we all know how to deal with that. To a lesser extent, you’ll also get some knocking complaints.
Take Time To Evaluate The Condition Of Brake Hydraulics
Mileage is an essential criterion for evaluating the condition of brake hydraulics. Keep in mind that, each time the brakes are applied, the master and wheel cylinder piston seals wear. Given time, the rubber cups in master cylinders wear to the point that they will not consistently seal hydraulic pressure. The result will often be a low brake pedal, poor stopping power or an intermittently sinking brake pedal.