Different view$ on electric$

Your political views often hinge on where you stand to view the problem at hand.

One state, Washington, is deeply concerned about the effect the popularity of all-electric cars will (might, may, could) have on revenues raised through fuel taxes. Since the e-cars don’t buy any petroleum fuel, the state’s transportation authorities foresee a drop in income, and thus a loss of funds available to maintain the roads and bridges used by both electrics and petrol-pushers.

So, as an offset, the Washington state senate recently passed a bill assessing an annual fee of $100 on EVs in the state. They say that number is about half of what a typical driver pays in fuel taxes, based on the state’s 37.5¢ per gallon levy. They also stressed that the fee does not apply to hybrids, but only roadworthy cars using all-electric propulsion.

A quick trip through the calculator shows that the $100 fee is equivalent to the tax paid when purchasing 266.66 gallons of fuel. If that fuel was used to achieve 30 mpg, it’s the equivalent of 8000 miles of travel. The EV owner will have to decide if that’s a fair deal or not. A handful of other states are considering similar fees.

But an ocean away, another state is embracing electric vehicles and encouraging their purchase in the name of conserving an expensive commodity. Hawai’i imports more than 95% of its petroleum products and is spinning up its program to encourage EV use. They are supporting and encouraging installation of public charging stations and have active rebate and tax incentive programs supporting the purchase of electric vehicles.

Since almost all their oil is imported, gas prices in the Aloha state are significantly higher than the mainland, averaging about $4.50 a gallon recently. The state’s “EV Ready” program wants to cut transportation fuel usage by 70% by 2030, and they see electric vehicles as part of that plan. The program has also partnered with GM and other companies to develop a hydrogen refueling network by 2015 to encourage vehicles with fuel cells.

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

Not just skin deep

By Jim Taylor, Editor MACS ACtion Magazine

You’ve just received your new radiator and are about to begin the removal and replacement on your customer’s vehicle. Pulling the shiny new unit out of the box, you look it over and read the installation instructions. Everything looks “Go” and you’re ready to begin installation. Great!

But what if you open the box and some of the radiator fins look like they’re going in the opposite direction? Or there appear to be brazing marks on the front of the radiator? What is cosmetically acceptable and what should be rejected?

The heating and cooling engineers at MACS Member Delphi Product & Service Solutions recently developed a picture guide to inspecting your new radiator and knowing what is cosmetically acceptable and what is not.  Radiators are more fragile than other underhood parts, and although suppliers take the strictest precautions when manufacturing, it is normal to have some surface imperfections. We’ll present their guide in sections as space allows.

Brazing – Damaged centers due to braze frame

Accept: Air centers are marked due to core frame, but still operational. This is cosmetic only.

Reject: The air centers are ripped from the core due to removal of braze frame.

Flux Missing – Stained core

Accept: Radiator core without stains.

Reject:  Core with black stains due to lack of flux during the braze process. This defect can cause leaks.

Center Stretching

Accept: Air centers not stretched.

Reject: Any air center stretched. This is due to material condition or set-up problems on the machine.

Compressed Air Centers

Accept: Only one air center compressed through its length in any part of the core. Also accept any core with less than 20 areas of air centers compressed less than 10cm in the entire core.

Reject:  Two or more air centers are compressed through their  length in any part of the core. Also reject any core with more than 20 areas of compressed air centers greater than 10cm in the entire core.

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Training Conference and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

If you don’t know what you don’t know about mobile A/C repair: Boot Camp!

MACS Mobile A/C Boot Camp in two locations in 2012

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide announces two dates and locations for Mobile A/C Boot Camp in 2012.  A two-day boot camp is scheduled for Friday, March 30^th and Saturday, March 31^st at MACS Worldwide training facility in Lansdale, PA (suburban Philadelphia).  An additional Mobile A/C Boot Camp is scheduled for Friday, April 13^th and Saturday, April 14^th at Austin Community College, Austin, TX.

The training schedule and curriculum for the March 30-31 Boot Camp at MACS training facility includes:

Friday, March 30th

1:30pm- Section 609 certification and instruction on how to properly recover and recycle refrigerant using a recovery machine.

Saturday, March 31^st

8am- Mobile A/C Best Service Practices and Compressor Replacement Procedures

After Lunch

Electrical Principles and Troubleshooting

The training schedule and curriculum for the April 13-14 Boot Camp at Austin Community College includes:

Friday, April 13th

8am- Mobile A/C Best Service Practices and Compressor Replacement Procedures
After Lunch

MACS 2012 Mobile A/C Update

Saturday, April 14th

8am-Section 609 certification and instruction on how to properly recover and recycle refrigerant using a recovery machine.

Registration is now open for both MACS Mobile A/C Boot Camp weekends. The cost to attend is:

Section 609 day only: MACS Members $35/Non-members $55
Best Practices day only: MACS Members $175/ Non-members $295
Friday and Saturday: MACS Members $210/ Non-members $330

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

MACS mobile A/C training schedule

Here is the latest schedule of MACS mobile A/C training clinics planned for 2012:

March 5&6th-Reno, NV @Ranshu
March 20th – Tucson, AZ @ Coolstream Distributors
March 24th – Harrisburg, PA – An AASP Event
March 27th – Appleton, WI @ LKQ
March 28th-Largo, FL @ Ranshu
March 28th – Milwaukee, WI @ LKQ
March 29th – Chicago, IL @ LKQ
April 4th-Allentown, PA @AAA
April 10th – Minneapolis, MN @ LKQ
April 11th – Des Moines, IA @ LKQ
April 12th-Warren, AR @Johnny’s Radiator
April 12th – Davenport, IA @ LKQ
April 18th – Cleveland Metro Area @ RadAir Complete Car Care
April 23rd-Brooklyn,NY @Auto Tech Training Center
April 24th-Wichita, KS @Central Electric
April 24th-San Diego, CA @NAPA (Section 609 class)
April 25th – Lansdale, PA @ MACS Headquarters
April 26-Taunton, MA @LKQ
May 8th – Gorham, ME @ LKQ
May 9th – Manchester, NH @ LKQ
May 10th – Worcester/Boston Area @ Massbay Community College
May 16th-Leesburg, VA @ ASE HQ

Many of these clinics have specific points of registration. For more information e-mail macsworldwide@macsw.org

 

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

Ya can’t make this stuff up

By Jim Taylor, Editor MACS ACtion Magazine

Some random head-scratchers from recent automotive releases and general news items.

● Kaggle introduces itself as “an online platform that brings together thousands of intelligent minds to come up with a predictive model on a given industry.”  They recently did a “study” on how to avoid vehicles that are most likely to have defects. One of their conclusions for ducking used car problems was to “pick an orange car — they are less likely to have been badly treated.” They also advised avoiding red and purple ones.

● In off-road news, a Minnesota man was recently taken into custody after being found drunk while operating an ice-rink resurfacing machine ­– yup, the Zamboni. Parents at a PeeWee hockey match noticed the operator weaving on the ice and bouncing the machine off the boards during the break and called police. The driver failed a field sobriety test at the rink.

● A long-fallen flag may be coming back – Studebaker, last seen on a hood in 1966.  A U.S. business group is looking into bringing back the name, and they propose to paste it onto a line of cars, trucks and motorcycles imported from Korea. Right now, the project isn’t much beyond the proposal and napkin sketch stage though.

● By any account, January was a really good month for U.S. car sales. Almost all the OEM’s were up, but Chrysler led the pack with more than a 40% sales increase against January, 2011. Add to that news of its $1.83 million profit for all of 2011 and that the company will make its first profit sharing payment to workers since 2005. Moreover, CEO Sergio Marchionne recently told the U.S press that Chrysler’s overall success in 2011 sustained parent company FIAT”s bottom line as well; without the Yanks, the Italian company would have shown a yearly loss of over $80 million. Would you have guessed that a year ago?

● Go on, admit it…you watched the Super Bowl for the commercials. Nielsen, the folks who take great interest in what you watch on TV and why, recently looked at five years of Super Bowl ads. In terms of money spent (roughly equal to the number of commercials aired), the auto companies have held first place status for the last two years, although closely followed by beer ads. No news there, but who holds third place?—movie promos! The next two rankings are “regular soft drinks” and tortilla chips.

● Sun Oil, providers of Sunoco fuel and oil products, has shut down its 330,000 barrel per day refinery in Philadelphia. It will either sell or de-commission the plant. The company noted that its refineries had operated at a loss for the last three years and cited “declining demand for motor fuels” as part of the reason.

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

It’s not just us

By Jim Taylor, Editor MACS ACtion Magazine

We’ve written a lot here and in ACTION magazine about the delays, conflicts and general uncertainties surrounding the introduction of R-1234yf as a replacement refrigerant. The North American release of new vehicles using the product has been delayed for any number of reasons and many are beginning to ask what’s going on.

We are also discovering that the problem has longer reach and deeper roots. Remembering that the entire exercise is being driven by European legislation requiring low GWP gasses, one might think that Europe is well ahead of other markets in releasing both the product and related information on its use. One would be wrong.

In the Jan-Feb issue of the Automotive Airconditioning Reporter, a European industry magazine published in Netherlands, editor Ron Henselmans recounts the roadblocks being encountered on their side. With Ron’s permission, his “Dear Reader” column is reproduced below. His magazine is on the Web at auto-ac-reporter.com.”

 

“It is quite worriesome to notice that just before the number of supplies of cars with HFO-1234yf that are released from the factories will reach serious levels, it is still difficult to get information about the systems and the cars. Under normal circumstances the introduction of information and publicity about the systems, the cars that carry them and how good they are for the environment. Nothing of that here. Car, aircon system, and refrigerant manufacturers still draw up smoke curtains to hide the new refrigerant and its systems from too much publicity.

Even its price level is still unclear. When I sat down writing this introduction, the wildest rumours still went around. Not only about the price levels for the service industry but also about conflicts between car makers and refrigerant suppliers. Just think of it, within now and the next 12 months, approx. 1.5 ­– 3 million vehicles will be supplied with the new refrigerant. In some cases carmakers haven’t even reached price agreements with their suppliers.

This is of course unacceptable. The change from R-134a to R-1234yf may be more gradually, in terms of quantities it is many times bigger than the one from R-12 to R-134a. If prices for HFO-1234yf will really be so high as some say, ranging up to 10-12 times price for R-134a, not many may have realized yet that this does not only affect refrigerant suppliers and its direct customers, but may have an impact on the entire way of  working in the industry. From the design of the system, handling the refrigerant, to much more accurate working procedures in the service industry. Don’t think that customers will be forgiving when costly refrigerant has escaped from his system after a repair of the system has failed.

Such a drastic change in thinking and working requires the necessary preparations. Such preparations also need to be implemented in time to be successful. Think of the training of service personnel and adapting service equipment and the working environment to the levels that are legally required. Speed is of high importance here.

Without any doubt manufacturers of alternative refrigerants are already luring to enter the market. Especially if it should turn out that handling HFO-1234yf systems and refrigerant is becoming uneconomic because of a lack of information, high price levels or costly safety rules by the authorities. The existence of even more refrigerants that would not only be harmful to the industry, but may even affect the popularity of auto aircon service and, as a consequence, the product auto aircon system as a whole.”

 

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL

Time machine

By Jim Taylor, Editor MACS ACtion Magazine

This one was just too good to pass up, although it may be gone by the time you go looking.

A friend sent a link to an Ebay auction for a 1954 Lincoln Capri Two-door hardtop. The California car looks to be in very good condition and will probably bring the seller a nice price. It was a desirable model in its day and this one is well-optioned including a combination outside mirror and spotlight (ooooh!), 4-speed hydromatic trans, and stylish chrome rain guards over the tops of the windows. But to live large in the mid-Fifties you needed…

…air conditioning, parts of which are in the trunk!

What we have here is a living example of an early, factory integrated A/C system. The huge compressor is under the hood, belt-driven by the V-8 engine; long hoses run to the rear of the car and connect to the evaporator, fans and ductwork neatly packaged in the trunk. Cold air is delivered into the cabin by plastic outlets on the rear shelf.

According to the service plate, the system uses four pounds of Freon 12, and the seller notes that the “A/C will require servicing for use” — but the almost 60-year old system is still believed to be operable.

These pics were provided by the seller, and there are more at the bidding link below.

Even if old cars aren’t your thing, this one’s worth looking at if only as a commentary on how far we’ve come. At this writing, bidding was just under ten grand, with the reserve price not yet met. Let us know if you buy it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130644399190+&viewitem=

The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!

When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.

If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.

You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.

The 33rd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place February 7-9, 2013 at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL