Thunderbolt Auto Care

Heya, hope everyone is doing well out there.

My name is Jose and I run and own Thunderbolt Auto Care. I like to write articles from time-to-time on interesting car care questions and repairs.

Hopping right in to talk about something extremely close to my heart and not mechanical in nature.

The last election and the current political climate. This is something that I will not do often, but given the current situation, I feel is right to do.

Much like way too many of my posts, this is going to be a little bit long. Sorry in advance. If you do not want to read a somewhat political post, I advise skipping this one.

~ The Subject ~

When I decided to start my own business 6 and 1/2 years ago I could in no way imagine that we would be where we are today.

The amount of support that we've received from both our friends in Garfield Heights when we started at The Boulevard Garage as well as Cleveland Heights when we took over for Hollis Automotive has been absolutely unreal.

It's not an exaggeration to say that it's nothing short of a miracle that we're still alive in this day and age. Owning a small business is tough on a good day, and there's been several times where we thought we may have to hang it up.

These days, things feel a lot more stable, and from a business perspective, I am optimistic about our future.

In short, I owe my success to the community and the amazing people that have had faith in us along the way.

That leads me to another point.

This industry has a bad but sometimes deserved reputation when it comes to women and the LGBTQ community. The reality is that this is a very tough industry for anyone outside of the most “macho” of men. Far too many assumptions about people and what they know based off of the way they look or act. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality that I live in and energetically reject. It's one of the few benefits of being an owner, I can set the tone of my shop and my interactions with my clients.

To be fair, I've noticed a trend over the last 15 years or so where shops are becoming more open-minded. But, unfortunately, the mindset is still there in far too many places.

*Deep breath*

As a general rule, and as a business owner, I normally would not engage in two subjects. Religion and politics. There's too much risk in irritating the ones that support us. And there's no major benefit honestly.

We are here to service vehicles in a timely manner and at an affordable price. And those who choose to spend money with us, hopefully do so knowing that you're supporting a local small business that is knowledgeable and cares. That should be our focus.

Here's the thing though. There are so many people that I care about that fall under the LGBTQ umbrella. Family, friends, romantic partners, and even myself.

I am a firm believer that those who can not speak should be able to depend on those who can. There are so many businesses that skew right these days and there are not nearly enough businesses that take a stance for the oppressed. And it feels like I'm honestly walking on eggshells here. I don't want to irritate my more conservative clients who have been good to us. But I can't look in the room without seeing more that we can do.

So I say with pride and resilience: Thunderbolt Auto Care will always support the LGBTQ community in whatever way we realistically can. Without shame, with grace, and enthusiastically so.

And in case I'm not entirely clear here, N***s are still evil last I checked and a huge F**k You to Elon.

For those who don't have a voice, keep your chin up. You've been through hell to get where you are, we're just not done yet, that's all. Keep stepping forward, don't let those guys win.

"We are like dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours." - Bernard de Chartres

For those who aren't familiar with my story, I used to run The Boulevard Garage in Garfield Heights. We had a fire several years back and had to look for a new home. Not too long after, I purchased my current location from the prior owner, Rick Hollis, who was here for many, many years. It has been a wonderful and humbling experience and for those of you that have supported our transition, I'm eternally grateful.

Rick has become a friend to me.

I want to keep this short as this isn't about me and it feels inappropriate to talk about how I feel about all this so I'm going to dive right in.

For those who know my predecessor, Rick Hollis, I wanted to pass along the following information.

A couple of weeks ago Rick took a spill.

Unfortunately, due to this accident, he's been in the hospital. His health is deteriorating and he's currently in comfort care. He's just been moved here:

David Simpson House
300 E 185th St, Room 139
Cleveland, OH 44119

With the family's blessing, I encourage those who may want to see him to stop in and do so. I'm sure he would love to see you all.

Warm Wishes:

Jose' Quiles
Thunderbolt Auto Care
2857 Noble Rd,
Cleveland Heights, OH 44121

216-441-5333
[email protected]

Happy Tuesday, hope everyone is doing well out there.

My name is Jose and I run and own Thunderbolt Auto Care. I like to write articles from time-to-time on interesting car care questions and repairs.

Today I wanted to talk about something simple, but important. Tires.

Hopping right in.

~ The Symptom ~

Client came in for a courtesy check. Vehicle has a series of issues, some of them related to the way the vehicle is handling. During the test drive, I noticed the vehicle pulled to one side and seemed to hop all over the place over bumps.

~ The Diagnostic ~

I was able to get the vehicle up and check the suspension. While I was at it, I always check tire pressure.

Left Front - 63 PSI / Right Front - 16 PSI
Left Rear - 38 PSI / Right Rear - 62 PSI

(hint, these are wrong, haha!)

~ The Fix ~

Adjusted the tire pressure and the vehicle handles worlds better than it did before.

~ Final Thoughts ~

So, here's where I'm going to focus most of this post.

Everyone knows tires are important, I probably don't have to talk about that part. What I do want to talk about is where you find the information on how to adjust your tires. I've talked to clients that use the side of the tire before, this is super common. Thing is, it's not accurate.

For most vehicles, there is a little white card on the driver's door that has that information.

What I've found is that most small cars are right around 32 - 33 PSI. Some foreign or oddball cars (BMW / VW / Etc.) will absolutely deviate from this. Midsize cars can get up to 35 PSI if it's a little heavy. For basic trucks, you're probably around 35 PSI. If you're vehicle has LT (Light Truck) in the number, you're probably 50 PSI in the front and up to 80 PSI in the rear.

Every vehicle is different though. And I always say to use manufacturer recommendations.

The other thing is there are outliers to this. What I mean is that if you do a lot of highway driving, you may want to bump your tires up just a hair. More tire pressure means less tread touching the ground. This also means you're going to get better gas mileage. Be aware that I'm talking 2 - 3 PSI, not a ton more than manufacturer recommendations.

The inverse is actually true as well. If you do a lot of driving in the snow / wet weather, let a little bit of air out of the tires. You'll have more tread touching the ground and ultimately, you'll have better traction. The sacrifice here is that the more tread that touches the ground, the faster your tires are going to wear. Again, I wouldn't go any more than 5 PSI lower than the manufacturer recommendations.

In an extreme winter situation where you may be stuck, you can safely let about 10 PSI out of the tires and it'll help you get unstuck. I wouldn't recommend driving like this for long though, you can damage the tire sidewall and significantly shorten the life of the tire. But if you're stuck, you're probably looking for creative solutions anyways. Get unstuck and get to a gas station where you can readjust your tires. Or stop by a shop that can adjust them for you.

Please be aware that I encourage questions and comments but may not be able to easily respond. If you do have a follow-up question to the post, give me time to answer as I'll be at work and cannot be at my desk at all times, unfortunately.

If you have a question regarding your own vehicle, reach out at the e-mail below. My partner will gladly answer your question way faster than I will. E-mail is the easiest way to reach out to us.

Be safe and enjoy your week 🙂

Warm Regards:

Jose'
Thunderbolt Auto Care
2857 Noble Rd
Cleveland Heights, OH 44121

[email protected]

9 - 6 Monday through Friday

Happy Monday, hope everyone is doing well out there.

My name is Jose and I run and own Thunderbolt Auto Care. I like to write articles from time-to-time on interesting car care questions and repairs.

This one may be a little tough to explain through text, but it's worth a shot. Plus, It's a pretty interesting failure.

Hopping right in.

~ The Symptom ~

The client came in for several reasons. I'm focusing on one of them.

When we received the vehicle, the engine was running extremely, extremely rough. The client authorized diagnostic time for us to troubleshoot the issue. Now, it's worth mentioning that this engine is a V8 engine. Meaning, it actually has two sides. What we would call bank one and bank two.

The issue that it was having was that bank two was running very poorly, which we call misfiring. All engines require three things: the proper amount of fuel, the proper amount of air, and the proper amount of spark. When everything is running as intended, we call that stoichiometric.

In simpler terms, the engine is always balancing those three things run at its peak optimization. When you get an engine that's running poorly, in almost every case, it's because one of these things is wrong. Too much fuel, too much air, not enough spark, etc.

The interesting thing about the client's problem is that one side of the engine, bank one, showed too much fuel. The engine, bank two, showed too much air. We call too much fuel a rich condition and too much air a lean condition.

~ The Diagnostic ~

I wanted to focus on why the engine was running poorly on the side of the engine that was misfiring. I got the clients permission and we started to pursue why the engine was running lean on bank 2.

My theory was that it was actually running rich for a very long time and the engine was dumping so much fuel that it clogged some things up. In particular, the upstream oxygen sensor.

Now here's the thing, oxygen sensors are used to tell the engine in many cases how it is doing. In other words, the engine doesn't just know it's running great. It's always making adjustments and the oxygen sensors are the primary driver on how the engine performs. If the oxygen sensor is showing too much fuel, the engine is going to throttle the fuel ratio back. And so on and so forth.

And once the oxygen sensor was clogged, it couldn't read. It wasn't giving the engine the right information about oxygen quality in the exhaust and the engine thinks the bank 2 side is not getting enough fuel so it floods the bank 2 side with EVEN MORE fuel.

~ The Fix ~

I started with removing the oxygen sensor. You'll see the sensor in the first picture. What you're seeing is exactly what I suspected. The engine is dumping so much fuel that the spark plugs are having major problems burning it all. You get a high amount of soot in the exhaust and it clogs everything up along the way. The second picture shows the spark plugs. I insisted the client replace all of the plugs on the bank 2 side because I strongly suspect the engine would still miss due to how bad everything is.

~ Final Thoughts ~

Information is important and the engine has to trust the information it's given. It's actually kind of silly how many sensors are on modern engines. If the information the engine is using to run well is skewed or incorrect, it can affect many things and potentially even damage components. For example, with the engine running this rich, the catalytic converters become super suspect down-the-line. One emergency at a time, of course. Still, the client may have many more expensive repairs on-deck before this issue is completely resolved, unfortunately.

The other thing is that we still have to figure out why the engine is running rich. The client has authorized additional diagnostic time for us to chase that issue. Hoping to figure that part out sometime this week.

Right now the engine is running well, although it's running very rich. No misfires and accelerates the way it should.

Please be aware that I encourage questions and comments but may not be able to easily respond. If you do have a follow-up question to the post, give me time to answer as I'll be at work and cannot be at my desk at all times, unfortunately.

If you have a question regarding your own vehicle, reach out at the e-mail below. My partner will gladly answer your question way faster than I will. E-mail is the easiest way to reach out to us.

Be safe and enjoy your week 🙂

Warm Regards:

Jose'
Thunderbolt Auto Care
2857 Noble Rd
Cleveland Heights, OH 44121

[email protected]

9 - 6 Monday through Friday