The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has (in its typical life-saving scientific role as the statutory agency designated to forewarn us on climatological conditions) predicted a deluge in many parts of the country during this year’s rainy season. And in view of this, it will not be too much to write one more piece on getting readers ready for a pleasant motoring experience during the predicted downpour.

To start with, I really have to implore you to find the time, about ten minutes (please don’t let your driver do this, except if you know he’s a very reliable person), to personally examine the following: your vehicle’s wipers- if they’re effectively mopping water off the windscreen; your tyres- if the grooves on them are still sharp, because worn tyres can’t hold good friction with a wet road; your brakes- if, in the first instance, they’re holding very well; and make sure the Anti-lock Braking System light is not lit on your dashboard. The ABS, keeps the vehicle from skidding if one has to suddenly press the brake in wet driving condition.

When driving in the rain or through the flood, there’s the possibility of the vehicle’s brakes locking-up. So, do not let your vehicle sit too long in the flood. And immediately you get out of the flood, make sure you drive or move the vehicle around to prevent rust; which might lock up the brakes.

If you happen to be driving when it starts to rain and you enter into a flood, make sure you apply your brake gently, to dry the water out of the brake-system, because water acts as lubricant immediately you get out of the flood, which reduces the effectiveness of how the brakes normally hold.

Also, heavy flood leaves lasting invisible damage on vehicles’ electronics and mechanical components: it makes them fail rather too early or to work erratically. There are many other components of a vehicle that can seem to be ostensibly working well, after having been driven through a large body of water, but can deteriorate in the very near future. Electrical and electronic components and the kilometres of invisible wiring that criss-cross the vehicle, the flooring and under-the-hood of an automobile are usually the vulnerable sections of these daunting troubles.

So, what if the wires get wet? The problem is rust. It soon presents its ugly face where water or moisture/dampness has not been cleansed off well enough. And electrical short-circuiting, which basically disrupts the working condition of the component/s that electricity ought to travel to, say, a fuel-pump for instance.

On some models,? the Electronic Control Unit, which centrally controls the vehicle (commonly called the Brain-Box), is located in the lower region of the vehicle, inches above the flooring. If the ECU gets wet, not only will it need to be replaced, but it can damage many other electrical components as well.

Transmissions (the automatic gear systems) can also be affected by water and may not immediately show any symptoms. When water or dampness enters a transmission system, its normally light-pink fluid turns to a light white or pinkish foamy mix. The entire workings of the transmission are extremely complex and full of wires, sensors, and lots of rubber seals and O-rings. Water will cause the rubber parts to swell and leak and the sensors and electrical components will also soon yield to rust and water-inflicted problems.

Ever since I returned to Nigeria from the USA, where I was trained professionally and practiced for more than two decades, to start practicing in the backstreets of one of Lagos’ slums, Mushin, I knew one of my life’s main purposes would be to help transform the predominantly obsolescent culture of the industry by training the artisans who dominate the workforce.

I started by training, pro bono, NATA Lagos Branch’s members during the time allotted me in their annual state conferences. Six years ago, the God that rewards faithfulness subsequently made possible the platform of a new radio station Radio Continental on 102.3FM in Lagos. And what was supposed to be a once-a-week radio programme, became a daily radio show that the Lagos motoring-public can never seem to have enough of.

About three years into the life of the much-loved radio programme, the visionary management of PunchNigeria Limited, approached my management team to pioneer this solution-providing auto maintenance and repair column to help motorists  to get value for money on their vehicular assets. It became superlatively successful nationally in no time at all.

Three-and-a-half to four years ago, other Nigerians from the Diaspora who also returned home to start businesses, found reasons to collaborate with me in turning my passion and what was no more than a radio programme into what is now a syndicated radio show across major cities of Nigeria. The programme is on print media, TV and social networking sites.

And with men of vision and character (like Gbola Oba, a former TV broadcaster on BEN TV in the UK) who became so strategically instrumental in articulating the actualisation of the aforementioned media assets, we started the Automedics Mechatronics Training Institute which has graduated more than 500 well-trained artisans and young graduates in less than two years.

There are also the equipment/tools and parts’ sales outfits with continuous enterprise development and support programmes for our alumni and those who conceptualised the impactful two-day city-to-city seminars for thousands of mechanics and auto buffs. They include Lekan Odunlami, a UK returnee whose methodical business management skill helps to imbue the drive and ideas of Gbola and I with invaluable sustainability streak; Ben Okoh, an alumnus of Kaduna Polytechnic whose nigh encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary automotive technology is an indication that Nigerian graduates who are passionate about post-college self development can compete with their colleagues anywhere in the world. With assistance of those divinely sent to help my vision, we are ready to physically take the transformation agenda for mechanics, auto technicians and auto lovers to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Just like the success of the Automedics in positively impacting the trade in Lagos which has been largely due to the abundance of support and love accorded us by the leaders of the trade in Lagos (Mr. Jacob Fayeun of NATA and Mr. Moruf Arowolo of MOMTAN), the principal officers of the trade in Abuja, have also been indispensable in making the preparation for the event a success. The event is scheduled for April 6 and 7 at the Pope John Paul II Catholic Centre, 27, Bangui Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja.

Leaders, who are devoted to seeing that their followers’ knowledge and entrepreneurial-base prosper, like Mr. Yahuza Agbu, the chairperson of NATA Abuja and his cabinet members such as Mr. Augustine Onyia, Mohammed Ashioke and Samuel Olaoye became instrumental in facilitating how we got the venue for the event. If the Abuja NATA leaders’ commitment helped to re-affirm our confidence that the pro bono exercise is worth investing our valuable time and money on, the advice and thoughtfulness of Mr. Ayinde Lawal, the national chairman of AAWATON and Mr. Bashiru Abdulkareeem, the Abuja chairman of MOMTAN, have further solidified our conviction that the seminar will be a huge success.

We know that well over 500 participants will come from trade associations and more than 200 residents of the cosmopolitan city have individually registered to attend. Therefore, entrance is free but the gate will be shut when the maximum number of people meant for the venue has been registered. Attendees are advised against coming with any bag, baggage or rucksack, except note books and pens.Defaulters will be denied entry. Lastly, vehicle parking will be allowed far from the venue.

Those who are still interested in attending can text their names to 08080806686. We look forward to a two-day technical knowledge-fest with multi-media, audio-visual and graphic-rich presentation materials with participants in Abuja. Thank you.

I have been an old model Peugeot mechanic for more than two decades. I am almost out of job due to the phasing out of the brand.

I see a new hope of improving myself in modern automobiles through you. I am waiting for your response. Ayodeji, Abeokuta, Ogun State, +2348081541440

In the spirit of generosity that’s overwhelming me in preparation for the Abuja seminar, I award you a N100,000 scholarship. You can freely attend our three-month auto-diagnosis class that’ll start on April 30, 2013. It’s a course that’ll help you bridge the technology gap between the old time vehicles that you know how to work on and the automotive mechatronics gadgets on our roads now.

I want to know how much it will cost me to attend auto diagnostics class and the lecture duration. Thank you.  +2348093174218

Kindly see the details on our website, www.automedicsafrica.com. With a copy of this edition of SUNDAY PUNCH and the confirmation of your above stated phone number, you will get a 50 per cent discount.

I called your number unsuccessfully during the LASTMA radio programme. I am having a challenge with my Toyota Camry 1996 model. After I changed the top gasket, the engine started consuming fuel.

 I tried to get a technician to work on the engine but the problem still persists. The car still consumes fuel above 100 whenever I start the engine. Please I need your advice. Uche, Okota, Lagos, +2347037673700

I will need to speak with your mechanic and get some facts from him before I can be of any help.

Well done for the good job you are doing on Automedics. I want you  to advise me on a new Hybrid Toyota car for use in Nigeria? Can the Hybrid system be repaired if damaged? +2348033314049

Yes it can be repaired, but by a handful of technicians and the other challenge is availability of parts.

My Volvo S40 does not pick up on time. Also, the steering and dash board vibrate whenever they are not in use. What do you think is the problem? +2347039168604

You did not state if it is auto or manual. The vibration could be related to worn/faulty mounts and the engine not running smooth on all cylinders.

My 2012 Sienna spare keys and entry remote were stolen. I want to know if you could change the ignition keys set and help reprogramme the remote. Can I know the cost? +2348033048324

Yes it can be replaced but the cost I cannot discuss on this medium.

I bought a Toyota Camry (Orobo) for my wife about eight months ago. For the past three weeks, the car’s engine stops working while on motion. Several mechanics and rewires have worked on it without success. Please, what can I do? Kunle Fabuluje, Owo, Ondo State.  +2348130555323

You did not state whether the vehicle was scanned, and if it was scanned, what was the result? Though I have the belief that the problem is with the ignition crank sensor, which is located within the distributor. Please run a scan on the engine and send the result to me for interpretation.

I drive an Acura MDX 2005 model with transmission 4 and 5. Only 1 to 3 are working. How can you help me sir?  Victor. +2348125084138

The only way I can help is to first have a scan result of the transmission.

I drive a Toyota Camry -tiny light, 1998 model. I want to scan the car for various similar problems you have identified in other cars. Please send me the address of your workshop in Lagos or any other area near Bariga where I reside. A. Fajobi, +2348023520827

The address is The Mechanic Workshop inside Lagos Television (LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca Cola.

My aunt drives Nissan Quest 1997 model. The problem is that the A /C does not work and she has spent much money on it to no avail. What do you suggest she does? +234 809 871 2281:

I might be able to help when I see the vehicle.

I drive a Peugeot 806 Bus (Tokunbo) 2001 model. The vehicle overheats even when water is in the radiator. Elias, +2347033423975

I believe the problem has to do with the cooling fan module. But I will advice you run a scan on the engine, the result will guide the technician on what to do.

I appreciate your novel efforts toward solving new age automobile problem. I have a Jaguar S-Type. It has a serious wiring problem. The wiper and fuel gauge are not working at all. Most disturbing and worrisome is that due to this mechanical problem, the battery always runs down completely each time the vehicle is on motion. My ‘Rewire’ has worked on it many times but the problem still persists. Please, I need your professional advice and if possible, how do I locate you? Is it possible to send an expert for a preliminary assessment on the vehicle? I reside in Oyo. Bless you sir. +2348175598150.

Unfortunately I am located in Lagos, anybody working on this car will need the wiring diagram to locate and isolate the problem, scanning the vehicle will not do any good. But a professional diagnosis of the electrical system will be the best option.

I drive a Mazda MPV 2001 model. It overheats and my mechanic replaced the radiator with a bigger one because the formal was leaking. He wired the fan directly which I told him to reverse. He also removed the thermostat but I told him to replace it. Now the gasket is burnt. Please advice on what to do.

Olorunmeyan Ezekiel 0803 467 6950, ezekielolorunmeyan, esolorunmeyan@yahoo.co.uk

If the gasket is burnt, it must be replaced. The fault could have occurred before he worked on it. What he will have to do after replacing the burnt gasket is to find out why it overheats in the first place. Something must have caused it, which could be related to any of these parts: water pump, thermostat, radiator, burnt gasket, belt and a cracked cylinder head.

Ordinarily, today’s piece ought to have been titled, “Automedics: At last Abuja here we come!” but as a Nigerian who seldom drives to Abuja, I’ll be betraying the factual and reportorial automotive cum motoring trust of the Nigerian public’ if I were to submerge a more important issue of national interest for the conceit of corporate or brand bragging.

It’s imperative at this juncture to quickly state some facts before I get into some shameful details of my team’s road journey to Abuja. The development made me decide to use this national media platform to send a Save Our Soul message to those in national and state leadership who must urgently do something to save the cherished lives of Nigerians.

Fact number one is that I love driving: Whenever I’m in the US or Europe, I am severally lambasted by missus and friends who say I “find every excuse to log miles behind the wheels.” Two, we decided to go to Abuja by road;  hence, we moved by road our needed equipment and some of the young graduates and persons we are mentoring.

I begged my high-flier colleagues (Gbola Oba, Lekan Odunlami and Kehinde Ekishola) to let us drive in a convoy, if the boys and the tools were going by road; they graciously accepted knowing that I would naturally offer to drive the 7-seater SUV in which we would be borne. Also, they knew that my vocational alter ego, Ben Okoh, would similarly ride in the same vehicle with us. Three, two days before our agreed departure date on April 4, 2013, a major and disheartening traffic carnage occurred on the Abuja-Lokoja deathtrap that is called “a road” (which claimed 18 human lives; this naturally got us, our wives and well-wishers who knew we had decided to go by road).

The drive from Lagos to Ibadan and Ibadan to Ife-Ijesha roundabout on the way to Aramoko, in Ekiti State, was so bad that the multitude of potholes on the road and the violent vibrations affected the sturdy vehicle I drove and it eventually culminated in the damage of its brake-pipe supplying fluid to the front callipers.

 I started observing the flat brake from the junction where we turned into the newly resurfaced and relatively smooth road to Aramoko from the sprawling Ijeshaland. The peculiarly funny thing about this road is the heaps of sand strategically poured on the road to discourage big trucks and luxury buses from plying it (I guess so that they’ll not quickly wear the road down).

At Aramoko, the convoy waited and we took time to improvise a form of repair on the kaput brake system of our SUV. And soon after leaving Aramoko, it disappointingly dawned on me that the Aramako-Ifaki-Ikole to Ijumuland’s road in Kogi State was a fraud. I have heard so much about the “performing-governor-story” of Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. But as a former Georgia State (in the USA) Department of Transportation engineer in charge of examining the quality of roads built with Georgia’s tax payers’ money, the quality of “patch-patch” work I saw being laid on that stretch is nothing but a fraud to me; it’s just a “wash-wash” job that’ll soon peel off in one or two rainy seasons! I can bet my last bottom dollar on that.

But if that stretch sets us back, the treacherous nature of the contraption called the Lokoja-Abuja road should make our leaders in Abuja cover their faces in shame. I kept thinking, “If these irresponsive lot do not bother to sort out the deathtrap that feeds our federal capital from the southern part of the country, how can we expect them to ever do the Lagos-Badagy, Abeokuta-Sokoto or Lagos-Ibadan express ways or the commercially and strategic Second-Niger Bridge that are light years away from their delusive cocoon in Abuja?”

Lastly, entering the infrastructure-rich Abuja presented little respite: The newly built roads look and feel fantastic, but somebody forgot to put night-luminous road directions. So, driving on the sexy roads at night becomes like an experience with a harlot: the physicality may seem enjoyable but the rudderless emotional anxiety chokes. What a country!

NB: Today is the last day of the 2-day free Abuja seminar for mechanics, auto technicians, auto enthusiasts and members of the motoring-public who care to understand the computers-on-wheel they ride on. Venue: Pope John Paul II Catholic Centre, 27, Bangui Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja. Time: 9am-4pm. Join us or tell your mechanic to seize the opportunity.

We, the strategic officers of Automedics, used to think that there was a major problem of competence in our auto maintenance/repair industry (just like in all other vocational fields such as plumbing, bricklaying, tailoring).

 But our two-day mentoring excursion to Abuja last weekend has revealed that there is more than a problem; we literally have a skills crisis!

The only good thing is that the average Nigerian artisan is willing and ready to engage with any genuine programme designed to help him upgrade his skills. This is why I wish to use this medium to call on the Minister of Labour and the National Automotive Council to target training programmes that will be taken to the mechanic villages and identified cities and towns.

We wish to thank the leadership of the Nigerian Automobile Technicians Association and the national leaders of AAWATON for their tremendous support in making the two-day event a success.

The greatest problem of Nigeria is residual in the myopia of its private sector’s leadership; which is exemplified in the twin unsustainable business cultures of ‘mega profit now now’ and their wrong belief that the duty to train the next generation of skilled workers is the exclusive responsibility of ‘the failed or failing government/s and public schools.”

My business-development alter ego and ideological soulmate, Gbola Oba, who’s also a well known media commentator, once sent me an e-mail with the above quotation, two and a half years ago, when he wanted us to set an enterprise development agenda for the first set of graduates of the now famous Automedics-LASTVEB Mechatronics Institute.

The institute has so far graduated more than five hundred young persons (many came in as unskilled tertiary institutions’ graduates) and practicing artisanal roadside mechanics whose quest for knowledge and self-development led them to us.

Albeit, I felt Oba was, in his usual combative self, a bit too hard when I read the e-mail then, but two years and some months later, I’m inclined to use this powerful national media platform to enjoin leaders of private sector organisations, like myself, to rethink their human capital development agenda (and this is not a call to any form of patriotic altruism, but for sheer existential and self-serving entrepreneurial reasons).

The truth is that businesses are dying in Nigeria today because of the paucity of skilled manpower; the irony is that we (in Automedics) daily get requests and “save our souls” calls from employers in the auto maintenance/repair industry aggressively looking for competent technicians, in a nation where sixty to seventy per cent, if not more, of our youths are literally unemployed and unemployable.

The governments (despite the good intention of some political leaders and, indeed, some chiefs of the statutory agencies specially created at the national and state levels to address this socio-economic malaise) are structured to be ineffectual. The civil service’s bureaucracy and what’s-in-it-for-me-now politicians who usually constitute the agencies’ boards tend to easily frustrate the laudable intention of political leadership; who themselves always woefully fail in the area of performance monitoring.

The public schools (especially the tertiary institutions) are mostly led by men and women who, when they eventually get to the top of the greasy pole of leadership in their institutions, are usually trying to play catch up with their intellectually less brilliant colleagues, who went into the mainstream civil service, and have amassed much wealth, that they are just purely distracted from doing the needful: like stretching the hand of cooperation and collaboration to help fine-tune their stale and obsolescent curricula and position their departments to be financially self-sustaining while grooming industry-ready employable graduates.

I should know that this synergy works: About three years ago, Ben, my partner and fellow grease monkey, and I had the privilege of mentoring some senior lecturers from the University of Ibadan’s mechanical engineering department on On-Board Diagnostic-II auto scanning/examination. And a couple of months after that “college industry collabo”, as GO often calls it, the department kick-started a tuition fee-generating distant learning skills-upgrade training programme for artisanal mechanics; the beneficiaries of the varsity’s programme gained  competence and confidence, while the institution benefited by making money and adding value to the society.

Also, about two and a half years ago a concerned dean then, Adegbenjo Oluyomi, in the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, literally came to beg us to take over the college’s automotive engineering department’s mentorship. We started by obliging some of the department’s students internship placements, and under a new visionary and industry-engaging provost, Siji Olusanya, the school has upped our college industry collaborative experience by literally yielding the auto department’s workshop to us to run as a functional commercial outfit, with the students actively being scheduled to serve as support hands to the professional technicians we’ll deploy to run the workshop. I can afford to say with a whiff of conceit that the college’s auto graduates will soon be the most sought-after automotive engineering graduates in Nigeria.

Therefore, when we received this message on Thursday, “Good morning, in view of the high unemployment rate of university graduates, I see a need to empower them with technical skills, like ‘basic car maintenance and repair’ can your company be of assistance?  I hope to hear from you shortly” from Damilare Odumosu, technical assistant in the faculty of engineering, University of Lagos, I’m happy that the workshop inside the FCET, Unilag’s neighbour, will not only be serving the motoring public in Bariga, Gbagada, Akoka (many inside Unilag itself), Yaba and Ebutte Metta, but the leading schools’ automotive engineering students and Yaba College of Technology’s (another near neighbour) students.  Motorists who are members of staff will turn the workshop into a Mecca of sort for hands-on training and a fulfilling centre for auto maintenance and repair.

In conclusion, I must mention that albeit many public schools are still very distant from industry, but many of the private schools are quite predisposed to collabo: Bells University recently wrote me to be on their mechatronics department’s advisory board and many of the private universities, who tend to compulsorily make their students acquire valuable market-ready skills, are discussing the possibility of introducing practical auto-diagnosis and auto-electrical modules in their schools for youngsters who may wish to choose any or both of the modules as their employment market preparation skills.

Keeping a vehicle clean in our dusty or muddy (depending on the time of the year) environment is a herculean task. But making sure that a vehicle is regularly clean is not only a matter of aesthetics, it has some practical money saving advantages built into it.

It is not uncommon to see vehicles caked with mud and dirt on our roads, what many motorists do not know is that this naturally adds to the weight of the vehicles and the pull of the weight burns fuel. Washing vehicles regularly also helps to keep its resale value respectable and cleanses the vehicle of the acidic and salty muddy water it regularly runs into, which has a high corrosive effect on its metal.

What’s the best way to achieve these? It is better to wash any vehicle either early in the morning or late in the evening, or better still in a shaded environment. It is not advisable to wash vehicles under a scorching sun; because the powerful rays of the sun quickly dries up the water (not allowing for proper drying with the duster), and this leaves patches on the paint work. It is also vital to stress that many types of rags commonly used for this exercise literally scratch the paint work too.

Please do not, as a matter of faith, wash any vehicle with detergent! Detergent is made up of chemicals that are abrasive on oil and wax; and oil and wax are two of the chemicals that give character and shine to any vehicle’s paintwork. To conclude this piece, it is important to state that waxing and buffing a vehicle once or twice a year is good for the paintwork. However, it must be noted that waxing and buffing must be done by professionals who know the art of the trade and use the right tools and work paraphernalia.

The auto spare parts’ market in Nigeria, like many other sectorial markets in this jurisdiction, is all noise and little substance. The market is simply an aberration from the orthodoxy that some of us who have worked abroad are familiar with.

All the parties involved, from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria to the importers/retailers and the mechanics/technicians including the motorists, are literally guilty of sustaining the absurdity that prevails as normalcy. It is a known fact that the SON is practically playing catch-up with unpatriotic importers who generally bring in sub-standard goods into the country. The situation of the auto spare parts’ sector is the vilest of the bad circumstance that generally prevails in most of the industries where imported products are used.

The ‘inmates,’ in this specific case- the importers- are functionally in charge of the asylum in this market; a sizeable percentage of what our importers bring from far eastern countries (China and Taiwan) are sub-standard and not fit for purpose. The irony is that most of the new Original Equipment Manufacturers’ parts brought in from the US and Europe, which are usually very good, were manufactured in China. It is our importers who usually request for the rehashed version of the genuine OEM parts!

On a number of times that I have interviewed some of our brothers who import these sub-standard parts, I was told (and they may have a case, however weak, in some respects) that the main culprits are actually the majority of the Nigerian motorists. They claim that an average Nigeria motorist does not seem to have any modicum of respect for his life.

When pressed further on one occasion, an importer rhetorically asked me, “Oga Kunle, why person go buy N1m to N2m naira motor and e go wan make the brake pads wey den go put for am no pass five hundred naira? Na the cheap things wey the people dey ask for na im we go give them now.”

Inasmuch as this perverted rationalisation is disturbing and the fact that the responsibility to regulate the quality of goods coming into the country lies with our failing SON, it is a fact too that many motorists tend to believe that they are doing their vehicles a favour if they keep it in proper working condition.

This unfortunate scenario has turned our mechanics and auto technicians to the world’s leading canvassers for used auto spare parts. They practically believe that cannibalised parts from Dubai, Europe and the US are far more reliable than the supposedly new parts in our market. In fact, this reverse logic has made the average prices of used auto parts in our market to be relatively costlier than the “new” ones. Many conscientious mechanics and auto technicians have been unnecessarily humiliated because of the funny spare parts’ market’s situation.

In the Automedics family, we are resolved to change this perverted tradition and we will start by running an enlightenment campaign through this column to change bad habits that have been long formed across the auto market’s major segments.

Please let me start today’s piece by playing the comical finger-pointing card: “The positively guilty party in today’s storyline is SUNDAY PUNCH newspaper! Yes, this paper is guilty as charged below.”

About three years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a seminal text message came in on the mobile phone number that’s regularly advertised as this column’s “text only” contact number (which is permanently held by the Bulldog): “My name is Olawumi Gasper, an official of the Lagos State Govt, can I call you because in the PUNCH it says ‘text only’?” “Yes, you can,” was Gbola Oba’s reply to the text-message.

That was how the former two-term rector of  the Lagos State Polytechnic who was then newly appointed as the pioneer executive secretary of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board, the office he still holds, initiated the contact with us after having read this column one Sunday afternoon.

When I returned home from a foreign tour I was undertaking when the above collaboration was birthed, we met with the management and board of LASTVEB (an agency whose statutory brief is broader than the vocational training in the automotive industry) and decided to kick-start a special automotive mechatronics training institute for the skills upgrade of roadside mechanics. Importantly, to get young school leavers and graduates to acquire market-ready auto maintenance/repair skills that will make them easily employable and/or start their own businesses.

In about a year from the date of the aforementioned inaugural meeting with LASTVEB’s board, the first class of the LASTVEB-Automedics automotive mechatronics training institute was rounding off on its curriculum with the “enterprise development class,” when the Bulldog, Automedics’ Chief Strategist, thought aloud, “Kunle, if  we don’t want to end up like the typical Nigerian training programmes, we must work out a form of enterprise development scheme to aid many of these youngsters in taking the step of faith…”

I asked, “Gbola, what’s the percentage of the young graduates in the graduating class?” He replied “Sixty five.” (We enrolled ninety-two candidates in that maiden class and graduated eighty-six).

Our ideological resolve not to see any of the young persons leave the programme and go back to roam the streets made us to buy some high-end auto diagnostic equipment (for cars, SUVs, light- and heavy-duty trucks) for a dedicated equipment rental service. The initiative allows the institute’s alumni to come and pick the expensive sophisticated tools and commercially work offshore (some went with the tools to work in as far flung places like Abuja, Owerri, etc) with them. Many of them literally launched their own businesses from the incomes they made from the use of the equipment rental service.

For different reasons, Gbola and I were not quite satisfied with the palliative enterprise development measure that we believed the equipment rental facility constituted: First, we observed that some of the gifted alumni were marketing-impaired (therefore, they couldn’t visibly benefit from the enterprise scheme);  Second, we honestly believe that because of the ever unfolding prolificacy of electronic cum technological innovations in all areas of the automotive industry, it’s imperative to have an enterprise empowerment scheme that’ll ensure the life-long learning of the beneficiaries (it’s almost a fact that in the next five years, before any technician can work on any ECU controlled system of  any modern vehicle then, he literally will have to connect the system directly with the manufacturer’s server abroad, through the internet, to effect any substantive maintenance or repair work).

This made us to strategically decide to launch a chain of Automedics Autocare outlets in the lube bays of any major oil/petroleum marketing company with lots of well located high-street filling stations as our “synergy partner,” where our alumni can be junior partners (co-owning the shops and are fully integrated in a post-graduation continuous training/skills upgrade programme). As beautiful as the strategy sounded, it presented some roll-out challenges, albeit the greatest asset of any shop will be the well-trained personnel/co-owners, whose cutting-edge knowledge of automotive maintenance/repair will stand them out as oasis of relief to vehicle owners in the desert of ignorance that largely presently defines the sector. The first “oil marketing plc” that approached us (yes, approached us) was too inflexible for our liking. The prohibitive cost of equipping ten outlets too (about N7m per shop) became a vision stagnating concern until a mutual friend of Gbola and I, Kehinde Ekishola, started showing interest in co-investing in the launch.

Kenny, when confronted with the sizeable amount needed to actualise the unique business model that’ll similarly serve as an entrepreneurial umbrella for the youngsters, approached Dr. Oluwole Farinde, a seasoned “business angel” who injected some funds and his invaluable entrepreneurial wisdom into the project’s planning. But at about the time the financial configuration was taking shape about six months ago, the important issue of the oil/petroleum marketing company to roll out with was becoming a nagging logistical problem for us. One day last November, while I was running from one state to the other in the US buying the requisite equipment/tools for the proposed shops, the Bulldog gave me a call, “We now have a company with a chain of nationwide filling stations to work with!” “Which oil company is that Gbola?” “NIPCO Plc” he replied. I think I said something to the effect that I’d never heard about them before, but I knew I could trust my life to the Bulldog.

Last Tuesday, May 7, 2013, the very first of the chain of Automedics Autocare shops commenced operations in the lube bay of the Ojokoro NIPCO Filling Station at Meiran Bus Stop, before the Ojokoro Housing Scheme, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway with a three-man team that’s headed by a 25-year-old HND Business Administration graduate of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Isolo Campus, who, like his colleagues are smoking-hot automotive mechatronics technicians that’ll stand toe-to-toe with any mechatrician from anywhere in the world.

Tuesday evening, just after Gbola left Gasper’s office, subsequent to his visit to the lads, to inform him about the launch of the enterprise facilitation programme, he called me in London, England, where I am presently and said: “Egbon, Engr. Gasper was so elated and he said ,‘This is the kind of story the governor likes to hear about the board; train the youth and get them gainfully engaged. This is a partnership that works!’”

And in a very emotion-rich tone that Gbola is sometimes known for, he said, “This, for me, is not about the money it’s about these kids, their secured future and our legacy. Twenty young entrepreneurs to start with in the first phase and many more to come… To God be the glory.”

I am presently in London, UK, where I seem to have a very light work day (except for the fantastic opportunity to avidly read many of the professional books that the hurly-burly of life in Lagos doesn’t normally allow me to catch up with).

In circumstances like this, one naturally gets to play with a lot of downtime and I’ve methodically devised a routine that keeps me busy. One item in the routine is listening to the live stream of the Automedics radio programme on www.rc1023.FM every morning, which is presently anchored by two of my protégés (Ben and “Little John”).

In about two weeks of listening to the programme, I came to the conclusion that most of our roadside mechanics don’t work smart. Let’s examine some of the common mistakes that our mechanics make. Why would a mechanic worth his salt start to work on a vehicle that’s showing obvious warning sign/light(s) on its dashboard without electronically diagnosing the cause(s) of the warning light(s)?

Indeed, I’m beginning to extend my finger of blame now to vehicle owners who allow such an abuse to be inflicted on their vehicular assets. Before any mechanic starts ripping apart components and parts from your vehicle, tell him to show you the diagnostic report that’s instructing what he wants to do. And when he shows you the diagnostic print out, kindly go on any respectable online search engine, like Google, and put in the brand and model names of the vehicle with the 5-digit diagnostic code/s (that must start with a P or B or C or U backed with four numerals) to see the literal explanation of what the manufacturer says is wrong with the vehicle and how it should be solved.

Many of my fellow mechanics simply suffer themselves and practically beg for humiliation given the absurd manner in which they work. Why would a mechanic want to use a speculative or diversionary (by telling the customer to change the radiator to a double cell, remove the thermostat and/or run the fan direct) method to resolve a simple overheating problem, when he can use a cheap tool like a “cooling system pressure tester” to identify what specifically in the complex cooling system triggered the overheating?

Why would a mechanic want to use his finger-tip to test if the fuel pressure of a vehicle is working to the manufacturer’s specified pressure rating when he can get another cheap digitally calibrated measuring tool called the fuel pressure tester, to physically test and know if the pressure meets the specified pressure rating for that particular vehicle he’s working on? How many of our mechanics know the importance of simple non-costly tools like compression pressure tester and oil pressure tester?

My two-week online listening to my radio show from England has given me a totally new perspective on how I can encourage my fellow mechanics to excellence: Get your diagnosis (electronic and mechanical examinations) right and many of the seemingly intractable problems you daily face on the job will be easily resolved.

Important correction: In my piece last week, I erroneously referred, due to a typo, to Dr. Timothy Oluwole Farinre, Chairman Bafic Investments Ltd, as Dr. Oluwole Farinde.

Some of our valued readers have called us to complain that they have not seen their questions answered having sent them to us in the last three weeks. The truth is that the questions have been answered but the editorial precedence that’s rightfully given to the op-ed segment of this column sometimes chokes out the publication of the answers to the questions we receive weekly. That is why, this week, we give room for the publication of many of the answers to your hanging questions.

I am ardent reader of Automedics. I drive a Toyota Highlander 1999 model. Recently, I noticed maintenance required light displayed on the dashboard. My mechanic checked it and said there was nothing wrong. He said it would disappear after sometime. But it is still showing till now. Do you have a workshop in Port Harcourt or someone you can refer me to? Thanks. Agatha U. Port Harcourt, 07084227xxx

I have someone in Awka, his name is Elias, you can reach him on 08030769896, but you really don’t have any problem. Your mechanic was supposed to reset the “Maint Reqrd” anytime a lube service is done on the vehicle. It does not automatically reset itself; it has to be done manually by a technician.

I am planning to get a Peugeot 406, but many people are discouraging me. They said its cost of maintenance is high. What do you advise I do? 08062515xxx

 I have no view on this particular vehicle, because I have not really seen a lot of it in my workshop.

I drive a 1995 Ford Scorpio 2.9. It has six cylinders and automatic transmission. It has been parked for some time. The body is still rust-free and its power cuts whenever I am driving. When this happens, it refuses to start unless a mechanic works on it. Most times, the fault is with the coil. I have changed the coil and coil cable to no avail. The other problem is that I suspect that water boils in the radiator because I hear sound inside the plastic water container connected to the radiator.

How much does it cost to do a scan? And how can I locate you? Law, 08085311xxx

Your vehicle is an OBD1 system. Yes, it can be scanned. But I think yours needs manual diagnosis more than electronic. I have a feeling the challenge is with the ignition system (crank/cam sensor). Also if you experience overheating like you said, it could be adding to the problem, because when the engine gets too hot it could shut down the crank sensor from performing optimally. We have two locations in the Ikeja area: one is inside the Lagos Television complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola. The other one is at 10, Morrison Crescent, off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa.

I want your advice on my plan to buy a Toyota Highlander 02-05 model. I was told to choose either v4 or v6 types. Please, which one is more durable and economical?  I also think all 4×4 SUV come in v6 or v8.08064820xxx

It is not all 4×4 that comes with V6 or V8 engine, it depends on the size of the SUV. Both are durable but slightly different on fuel consumption.

Please, I want to know if it is wise to change the radiator that comes with an Extera 2009 model with another one when there is no overheating. 08053241xxx

Yes, it is wise to replace the radiator. This is because up to certain years of some Nissan brands, the radiator tends to rupture inside the core and allow coolant mix with the fluid inside the transmission, which will normally damage the transmission. You only replace with a new radiator.

Sir, I drive a Toyota Camry 03\04 model.When the gear changes from one to two, I feel a bump. I have conducted a scan and there is no code. I have also flushed the gear oil but the problem persists. Please assist me. Chinedu, Isolo, 08062152xxx

The challenge you are having could be related to faulty engine with high RPM or faulty engine/transmission mounts.

I live in Osogbo and want to know where your office is around here. 08125675xxx

I don’t have anybody in Osogbo, but I have a young man I mentor in Ilorin. His name is Lanre and his number is 07067718297. Also the Bulldog says we have another beneficiary of our training scheme in Ile-Ife. His name is Afolabi. You can reach him on 08034098794. I believe these ones are near to Oshogbo.

Sir, I commend you for your good work. I just bought a van, Chrysler- Town and Country 2001 model. I will like to know if AP Super V Visco static premium multigrade engine oil SAE20W-50 APÌ SG/CO is good for the vehicle’s engine. Is there a better alternative? 0817674 4xxx

Any good multigrade engine oil will also work. Yes, what you have is good, but adding MSP will do your engine better.

My Toyota Camry 2008 model emits a bluish smoke whenever I start it in the morning. It clears after five seconds and no light comes up on the dashboard. What do you think is the problem? Kolade, 08034489xxx

The problem is that some of the valve seals are faulty, and what normally causes this problem is sludge build up inside the engine. To solve the problem, you will have to replace the valve seals, which requires a complete valve job on the cylinder head.

I do not have a car but I am addicted to automedics column. Reading your answers to questions has really been educative to me. I am almost an expert in detecting problems in the cars of my friends and colleagues. Thank you for your free education. Abiola, 08025932xxx

The whole idea is about educating our populace so that the Nigerian motoring public can get value from their vehicular assets. And may I thank you too for your generous compliment.

I want to purchase a Toyota Venza. How can the GPRS be activated or is there a special way to install it? Thank you. 08020520xxx

All you need is just the Nigerian version GPRS DVD. If you install it in the player, it will activate the navigation system.

Thank you sir for the wonderful work you are doing. Recently, my Infiniti car developed overheating. I changed its gasket, cylinder head and engine. But the overheating did not stop. It wasn’t until I read one of your answers to questions on this page that I decided to run a diagnostic test. The test showed that the engine fan wasn’t running at optimal speed, I changed the car’s fan and voila. It was then that the overheating problem was solved. I am extremely grateful because I was about to sell the car as a scrap. Please continue your good work.  adedeji_fadeyi@yahoo.com

 Thanks for your appreciative spirit.

I think it is wrong to start treating vehicles without first diagnosing them.  How can mechanics do what is right without the requisite education and empowerment? You have really started well on the educational empowerment department, so how about sales of affordable tools? You can guide mechanics when things seem unclear to them. You are a messiah in the area of automobile and you must not relent in your efforts. Iyiola, 08023130xxx

We do help technicians to source some of these state-of-the-art equipment and tools.

I drive a Toyota Avalon 2004 model. The check engine light is showing on the dashboard. I did a scan and the following default codes were detected: P0115 Engine Coolant Temperature Circuit, P0135 Oxygen sensor heater circuit (ban 1 sensor) and P0155 Oxygen sensor heater circuit (ban 2 sensor). Is this scan correct? Where can I buy the sensors? Thanks. Lekan Alabi, Lagos. 08037166xxx

You can fill the online “spare parts form” on our website, www.automedicsafrica.com. But here are some explanations of the codes you need enlightenment on. P0115: The Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor is used to detect the engine coolant temperature. The sensor modifies a voltage signal from the Engine Control Module (ECM). The modified signal returns to the ECM as the engine coolant temperature input. The sensor uses a thermistor which is sensitive to the change in temperature. The electrical resistance of the thermistor decreases as temperature increases.  When is the code detected? An excessively low or high voltage from the sensor is sent to Engine Control Module (ECM).

Possible causes: Low engine coolant level, faulty Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor, faulty engine coolant thermostat, engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor harness is open or shorted, engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor circuit poor electrical connection.

P0135: The code means that there is a problem with the heater element circuit of the heated oxygen sensor. The control module monitors how long it takes the sensor to warm up and start sending an adequate signal. The code is triggered when the sensor is taking too long to warm up. Water getting inside the heated oxygen sensor connector can cause the heated oxygen sensor fuse to blow. Before replacing the sensor, check for the condition of the heated oxygen sensor fuse and connectors. If the sensor and connector are okay, replacing the O2 Sensor 1usually takes care of the problem.

Oxygen Sensors (O2S) or Heated Oxygen Sensors (HO2S) need to reach a minimum operating temperature of 750 degrees F to produce an accurate voltage signal. The faster the heated oxygen sensor reaches that temperature the faster the sensor will start sending an accurate signal to the Engine Control Module.

In order to achieve the required temperature, a heater element is included inside the heated oxygen sensor. The ECM controls the heated oxygen sensor heater element based on signals from the engine coolant temperature and engine load. The ECM controls the heater element circuit by allowing current flow to ground.

The ECM monitors the voltage signal received through the heater element circuit and determines the state of the circuit by comparing the voltage detected with the factory specifications.

Possible causes: Faulty Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1. Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit fuse.

Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit open shorted to ground.

Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 1 Sensor 1 circuit poor electrical connection.

Faulty Engine Control Module (ECM)

P0155 The code means that there is a problem with the heater element circuit of the heated oxygen sensor. The Engine Control Module (ECM) monitors how long it takes the sensor to warm up and start sending an adequate signal. The code means the sensor is taking too long to warm up. Replacing the Front Heated Oxygen Sensor (H2OS) Bank 2 usually takes care of the problem.

This column will again, today, accord pride of place to the answered enquiries of our invaluable readers that are yet to be published due to the constraint of space. I had thought they could be exhausted last Sunday.

But I discovered that there are still so many to be published; hence today is again exclusively dedicated to the publication of answers to readers’ questions.

NB: Members of the Automedics family (especially the newly entrepreneurially empowered young auto techies) want to heartily thank many of those who thronged the newly opened Automedics Autocare centres inside the NIPCO Filling Stations on the Lekki-Epe Expressway (by the side of the landmark campus of the Lagos Business School), including the one at Meiran Bus Stop, before Ojokoro Housing Estate, on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

And for many of you agitating that Automedics should come to Abuja, I can confidently tell you know that the Mushin Bulldog has told me that you’ll have the Automedics Autocare centre inside the NIPCO Filling Station between Obafemi Awolowo Way and Ebitu Ukiwe Street, Jabi Central, before the end of June, 2013. 

Given the deluge of enquiries we get weekly from motorists wishing to get value from their vehicular assets, me thinks it’s about time a corporate entity collaborates with the management of PUNCH Newspapers (that has altruistically sustained this column on behalf of the Nigerian motoring public) to extend this column’s space by branding it. This is the third consecutive week we are devoting exclusively to answered questions and we may still not have exhausted them.

NB: The Automedics commenced a unique college-industry-mentorship-and-commercial-collaboration by taking over the running of the auto-mech department’s workshop of Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos. It will function as a commercial centre, where students can get cutting-edge knowledge. So, if you’re in UNILAG, Bariga, Yaba, Gbagada, Iwaya and other neighbouring precincts, an Automedics Autocare centre is now nearby to you.

Sir, your piece on youth empowerment programmme in SUNDAY PUNCH of May 12, 2013 was great. It not only taught one how to fish but also equipped one with fishing equipment and took one to the riverside. How I wished I had some money, I would partner with you. Keep going on and no looking back. God will continue to support, strengthen and bless you and your team. 08035019xxx
Thanks for the prayer and support.
I drive Honda Accord 2004 model, four cylinders engine. There is oil leakage under it and the power steering oil is always short. The steering is strong and causes me body ache. My mechanic said I have to change the steering rack. Please, I want to know if I really need to change the steering rack. And if you are going to change it for me, how much will it cost? Thank you. Tosin Lebile tlebile@yahoo.com
Your mechanic is probably right, because you have oil leak under the car and you did not complain of engine oil shortage. If you have any leak on your P/S system, especially from the rack it will definitely make the steering hard to steer. You might need to replace the steering rack as your mechanic suggested and sometimes the pump also.
I read your column in SUNDAY PUNCH. I’m a final year accounting student but I love cars, and want to learn how to properly handle them so I can run a garage in future to offer quality services to people. Thank you. tripleb1990@yahoo.com
You can reach us by coming to our office inside Lagos Television Complex (LTV) or go to our website www.automedicsafrica.com.
I drive a Nissan Xterra 2004 model. A light displays service the engine and I want to conduct a scan on the vehicle to know the fault. How much will scanning cost in your workshop? Otunba Olasoji, 08023249xxx
We don’t give quotes through this medium, but you can call any of these numbers to get advice on your question. 08038292296 or 08057777961.
I drive a Kia SEPHIA automatic 1996 model. The problem is that when in drive mode, the gear moves with the third gear and stay fixed without selecting up or down unless I down-shift manually to L or S to use the lower gears.  Also, when on high speed-say 100km/h-the tactometer revs up to 5000rpm instead of the usual 2100rpm. Before the problem started on April 13, I have serviced the gear and changed the oil without any improvement. My technician said the brain box is the problem. I need your advice on this. ayodeleolufemi9@gmail.com, 08077950xxx)
I will advise you to run a scan on the transmission, also be ready to possibly replace the transmission. But don’t just replace the ECU without being sure it is the problem. The scan result will reveal the fault.
Sir, I must thank you for your response on my complaint about the code P1381 that came up when my wife’s Honda Accord 2003 was scanned. Just as you instructed I just cleaned the battery connections and the problem was solved. Olusola Akosile, 08123949xxx
Thanks.
Sir, I need to know if you have an outlet in Ajah area of Lagos. If you do, please I need the address. Thanks. 08038784xxx
Yes, we are about to open one by Lagos Business School, inside the NIPCO fuel station.
My BMW 3 series does not start immediately until after trying it for about seven times. What should I do? 08053940xxx
Please run a scan on it. The result will guide your technician on what to do.
I drive a Nissan Xterra 2001 model. The car consumes fuel a lot more than Mercedes Benz and V/Boot I once used. What do I do?
Run a scan on the SUV, the result will guide you on what to do.
The dashboard meters of my Cherokee Jeep failed at the same time. I later saw ‘check gauges.’  I do not know what to do because many of the technicians I that worked on have been unable to solve the problem. I want you to help me.  08027703xxx
This brand and model of vehicle seems to have this particular fault all the time. The ones I have dealt with seem to have faulty harness to the BCM and cluster. You will need someone with experience with this type of problem to fix it, and sometimes it could be tricky to solve.
I drive 2003 model of Dodge Grand Caravan. It starts overheating because the fan stopped working. I called my technician to fix the leakage and the radiator that was leaking. The technician was unable to fix the problem. What do I do? tirofnigeria@yahoo.com.
What your mechanic should have done first is to run a scan on your van before doing any guess work about the problem you have. But on the brand and year model of your van, there is a control module that controls the operation of the cooling fan which I believe failed. But your mechanic did not understand the workings of the electronic system of your van and that led to all the guess work. I have a feeling damage has been done to the engine’s ECU when the guess work was done, and that is why the engine will not start.
Good day sir. God will bless you and your family. Thank you. Francis Obomhense. 08064189xxx
Thanks for the prayers.
I want to appreciate you for the good work you are doing.  The young man, Lanre, who you introduced to me in his workshop at Ga-Akanbi area of Ilorin, has been able to fix my Pathfinder jeep that has been malfunctioning. He is really doing a good job. J. A Ojo, 08077082xxx
Thanks for the compliments. The goal is to replicate myself in some of these young energetic Nigerians. And also have our own made- in- Nigeria automobile that will meet world standard.
Please, my Toyota highlander 2005 model is faulty. My mechanic serviced it few days ago when its oil light keeps showing. The light goes off occasionally. He suspected that the vehicle’s oil switch may be the problem. What do I do? 08033100xxx
Quickly do an oil pressure test on the engine. The oil pump might be failing due to sludge build up inside the engine, which could cause the engine connecting rod and crank bearing to fail. But I believe the problem is with the dirt from sludge build-up in the engine. If the pump is okay, flushing the engine can solve the problem.
My 2003 Liberty Renegade came up with these codes – PO300, PO302, PO303, PO304 and PO305. Almost all my cylinders are misfiring yet my nozzles, plug cables and plugs are certified okay. What else should I do as my mechanic is now suspecting the brain box as the culprit? – Akosile Olusola, 08123949xxx
The P0300, P0302, P0303, P0304 and P0305 codes mean that the cylinders are misfiring or are randomly misfiring. Start by checking for intake leaks and if no leakage is found, the next step is to replace the spark plugs on the cylinders. If the problem persists more tests need to be done to diagnose the problem, see “Possible Causes”. Faulty spark plugs, clogged or faulty fuel injectors, faulty ignition coil, fuel injectors harness is open or shorted, fuel injectors circuit poor electrical connection, Ignition coil harness is open or shorted, Ignition coils circuit poor electrical connection, insufficient cylinders compression, incorrect fuel pressure and intake air leak.
I am usually amazed seeing Nigerians paying millions for cars they cannot maintain. Some even fail to insure the cars, claiming they are covered with holy blood. Many people, who should buy a 2.0litre saloon, end up buying SUVs only to complain of high maintenance costs. You may wish to comment on this issue. Usman, agensheku@gmail.com.
We, as a society, must give pride of place to maintenance. Many Nigerians buy technological products that they have not factored good maintenance for.
I drive a 2005 Chevrolet Uplander. Sometimes, it indicates Gas Cap message on the dashboard and also check light on. How do I locate your workshop in Lagos to fix this problem? jidozu@yahoo.com, 08023353xxx. Thanks
Check to make sure the “Gas Cap” is tight and not damaged. If it is damaged please replace it. We have two locations in Ikeja area. One is inside the Lagos Television complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola. The other one is at 10 Morrison crescent off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa. Also we are adding some other chains of lube and diagnostic centres across Lagos and beyond.
What is the effect of using leaded fuel on modern vehicles that specify usage of unleaded fuel? Layi, 08033379xxx
Leaded fuel has negative effects on a vehicle’s engine and exhaust systems, such as the corrosion of various components, fouling of spark plugs, and contamination of engine oil by corrosive acids.
It has been estimated that using unleaded fuel can extend engine life by 1.5 to 2 times. Unleaded fuel allows for introduction of catalytic converters that will reduce other emissions (e.g. carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons) by up to 90 per cent.
I own a Honda CRV, 1997 model.  I notice that the car functions well in the morning whenever I start it with the two fans (radiator and AC) working. But when the engine is in motion, the AC does not work. So, I often put off the AC when I am in traffic. How can I make it work all the time? Thanks. Uche Bethel
The way the fans are working right now is wrong. They are supposed to work intermittently on and off. But when the A/C is on the two fans will run continuously until the A/C is off. The A/C should be working at all times; whether in traffic or not. I believe the gas is low, the compressor is faulty or there is restriction in the system.
A friend is willing to sell a BMW 5 Series to me, is it advisable I purchase the car based on the following factors: fuel economy, spare parts and the notion that BMW overheats when in traffic? Please, kindly refer me to a good BMW mechanic. Ayo Ajanaku, ayotome@yahoo.com
I disagree with the notion that BMW products overheat in traffic. And the spare parts are readily available in the market. Also, the fuel consumption is not bad at all. Ben my partner is a BMW freak. I know he will be happy to read about this.
I saw your column in SUNDAY PUNCH and was very impressed with responses to readers’ questions. I am a woman and I drive a Chevrolet Captiva 2007 model. It has a diesel engine. I took it for servicing and it later started showing oil shortage sign. I took it back. My complaint is that whenever I am in traffic for about two minutes, the car jerks badly.  When I intend to move, the acceleration does not respond. I have been to CFAO in Lagos but they were unable to help me. As it is now, nobody has been able to identify the problem. Monica.08133910xxx
The challenge you are facing is with the fuel system, due to the condition of the diesel you get at the fuel station. The dirts normally form into sediments and clog up the strainer/filter and restrict the flow of fuel. And being a diesel engine, it has to maintain a minimum amount of fuel pressure in the system for the engine to be able to produce the power it needs to propel the car. We have two locations in Ikeja area: one is inside the Lagos Television Complex(LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola. The other one is at 10, Morrison Crescent, off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa.

I drive a Honda CRV 2007 model. I noticed that the AC stopped cooling sometime ago and started letting out a dusty smell and hot air. My mechanic blew out the air filter and filled the gas. This worked well but after two months it started again. What could be the cause? Thanks. Tope, 08178207876

The cause of the problem is that you have a slow leak in the system; that is why it takes about two months for the problem to resurface again.

I changed the brake pads of my Nissan Xterra 2006 model and ever since, the steering wheel has been shaking and vibrating. What do I do and where is your workshop? Tolulope.

You will probably need to replace the brake disc and pads (better with a new one). We have two locations in Ikeja area: one is inside the Lagos Television Complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola. The other one is at 10, Morrison Crescent, off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa.

Thanks for your selfless service to motorists. Please, the clutch (pedal) system of my 2001 Rover 618 (manual) is giving me a hell. I have changed the up and down masters and there is no leakage. But each time I park it over-night or for a long time, the pedal will go soft and the gear will not engage. After moving to a reasonable distance, the situation will return after another long park. Kindly advise me on what to do. Godwin, Abuja, 08066554198.

I believe the challenge you have is either you have air trapped in the clutch’s hydraulic system due to improper bleeding or the seals in the master/slave cylinder are faulty allowing fluid to bypass into the other chamber.

I appreciate your efforts towards pleasurable motoring in Lagos with your column in SUNDAY PUNCH. I just bought a Toyota Highlander 2006 model with hybrid engine. I want to find out if your clinic handles such vehicles and possible challenges one can face in using this type of vehicle in Lagos.
Thanks. Yinka Babalola

Yes it can be managed in my workshop. The only challenge is getting the batteries when they fail.

Sir, the steering of my Honda 2002 model shakes each time I am on motion. What do I do? 08086474224

If it shakes at a certain speed, what you need is wheel balancing.

I want your advice. There is a Jaguar 2002 model which can make about 125,000 miles and it sells for $4000 and another Chrysler 300c makes 180,000 miles and cost $8000. Which one do I go for in terms of durability, running cost and serviceability?  Thanks, Atobase. integrated_electronics_ltd@yahoo.com

If I have to pick I will go with the Jaguar, but the cost of maintenance for both will be about the same. Under normal circumstances, the Chrysler is supposed to be cheaper to buy and maintain, although I cannot guarantee the mileage. Sometimes, the seller will roll it back to deceive the buyer.

I drive a Mazda MPV auto 2002 model. I changed the transmission oil and drove to Akure. After two days, the brake light, ABS, TCS and double pointer (i: e traffic gating) light were permanently on. The horn also ceased. What do you think is the problem and do you have anyone in Akure I can go to? 07036345016

You are better off running a scan on the ABS/Traction system. The result will guide your technician on what to do. The horn problem is an electrical issue you will need an electrician to check the fault for you.

I read your column on youth skill and empowerment agenda on automedics. I will be glad if you can put me through. I want my child to learn automedics. 08082018219

You or your child can come to our office and talk to Mr Gbola Oba. The address is Lagos Television complex (LTV) Lateef Jakande Rd, Agidingbi, opposite Coca Cola.

Sir, the ABS, TCS and brake light of my Mazda MPV auto is permanently on. My mechanic says the sensor needs replacing but he could not get one to fit in. Please, is he right? If he is, do you have the sensors in your workshop? 08052455079

I believe you need to run a scan on the ABS system before you decide to buy or replace any parts.

I am a passionate follower of your weekly Automedics. As my contribution to your reaction on tinted glass; the minister of police affairs’ exemption of factory fitted tinted glass is in This day of February 25, 2011. I attach a photocopy of the article to the particulars of my SUV. What we are facing is a demonstration of in-consistencies in our system. Thank you for the good work you are doing for Nigerian motorists. Tunde Owoyemi.

I drive a 2000 Lexus LX470 which I have enjoyed, until recently, when my mechanic messed things up for me. He left some cables hanging which eventually crossed the fan belt and led to a bridge. The brain box got burnt. Its number is ZUZFE 89666-60261. Another number on the panel reads: 175200-5260 12V. My mechanics have tried to get a replacement but none seems to match. Can you help please? Yomi Layinka

You will need to replace the complete unit of the engine’s ECU and its ignition key with the transponder computer as a unit. But you can contact our parts department on our website, www.automedicsafrica.com, for the parts.

I want you to help me with the following questions. Why do some people remove catalytic converter from exhaust pipe? Does it perform any other functions apart from conversion of harmful gases to harmless ones? Does its removal have negative effects on the engine? What is its relationship with oxygen sensor? Thank you. Dele Ajayi, 08063044xxx

Yes, it does more than conversion of harmful gases to harmless ones. Yes, its removal does have negative effect on the engine, because there will be free flow of exhaust by-product and the oxygen sensors will not be able to monitor the presence of oxygen in the exhaust flow, which it uses to determine how it burns fuel.

I drive a Honda CRV 2007 model. I noticed that the AC stopped cooling sometime ago and started letting out a dusty smell and hot air. My mechanic blew out the air filter and filled the gas. This worked well but after two months it started again. What could be the cause? Thanks. Tope, 08178207xxx

The cause of the problem is that you have a slow leak in the system; that is why it takes about two months for the problem to resurface again.

I changed the brake pads of my Nissan Xterra 2006 model and ever since, the steering wheel has been shaking and vibrating. What do I do and where is your workshop? Tolulope.

You will probably need to replace the brake disc and pads (better with a new one). We have two locations in Ikeja area: one is inside the Lagos Television Complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca Cola. The other one is at 10, Morrison Crescent, off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa.

Thanks for your selfless service to motorists. Please, the clutch (pedal) system of my 2001 Rover 618 (manual) is giving me a tough time. I have changed the up and down masters and there is no leakage. But each time I park it overnight or for a long time, the pedal will go soft and the gear will not engage. After moving to a reasonable distance, the situation will return after another long park. Kindly advise me on what to do. Godwin, Abuja, 08066554xxx.

I believe the challenge you have is either you have air trapped in the clutch’s hydraulic system due to improper bleeding or the seals in the master/slave cylinder are faulty, allowing fluid to bypass into the other chamber.

I appreciate your efforts towards pleasurable motoring in Lagos with your column in SUNDAY PUNCH. I just bought a Toyota Highlander 2006 model with hybrid engine. I want to find out if your clinic handles such vehicles and possible challenges one can face in using this type of vehicle in Lagos. Thanks. Yinka Babalola

Yes it can be managed in my workshop. The only challenge is getting the batteries when they fail.

Sir, the steering of my Honda 2002 model shakes each time I am on motion. What do I do? 08086474xxx

If it shakes at a certain speed, what you need is wheel balancing.

I want your advice. There is a Jaguar 2002 model with a mileage of about 125,000 miles and sells for $4000. The other, a Chrysler 300c has a mileage of 180,000 miles and costs $8000. Which one do I go for in terms of durability, running cost and serviceability? Thanks, Atobase. integrated_electronics_ltd@yahoo.com

If I have to pick, I will go with the Jaguar, but the cost of maintenance for both will be about the same. Under normal circumstances, the Chrysler is supposed to be cheaper to buy and maintain, although I cannot guarantee the mileage. Sometimes, the seller will roll it back to deceive the buyer.

I drive a Mazda MPV auto 2002 model. I changed the transmission oil and drove to Akure. After two days, the brake light, ABS, TCS and double pointer (i.e traffic gating) light were permanently on. The horn also ceased. What do you think is the problem and do you have anyone in Akure I can go to? 07036345xxx

You are better off running a scan on the ABS/Traction system. The result will guide your technician on what to do. The horn problem is an electrical issue. You will need an electrician to check the fault for you.

I read your column on youth skill and empowerment agenda on automedics. I will be glad if you can put me through. I want my child to learn automedics. 08082018xxx

You or your child can come to our office and talk to Mr Gbola Oba. The address is Lagos Television Complex (LTV) Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca Cola.

Sir, the ABS, TCS and brake light of my Mazda MPV auto is permanently on. My mechanic says the sensor needs replacing but he could not get one to fit in. Please, is he right? If he is, do you have the sensors in your workshop? 08052455xxx

I believe you need to run a scan on the ABS system before you decide to buy or replace any parts.

Sir, I want to thank you for the good work you are doing. There is a Nissan Pathfinder 2003 model we just bought and found that its dashboard fuel gauge, speedometer and temperature gauge not working. The mechanic scanned the vehicle and said he only needed to work on the electrical system. Can you give me a guide on questions to ask him and what to look out for before allowing him to work on the vehicle? Thanks. akinlesiliz@yahoo.com.

It sounds as if your vehicle has an electrical problem, what you will need is someone with good electrical knowledge. Also make sure the vehicle does not have a flood history (by checking its history at www.carfax.com), because if it does you will have to change the wiring harness. Just tell your mechanic that it is an electrician’s or mechatrician’s job.

A mechanic advised me to use a bigger radiator (double cell), remove thermostat (to avoid over heating or for better A/C performance) and use 75 amps battery for my Nissan Primera wagon 2006 model. He also said 1.6 engine is better than 2.0, which the vehicle has. Please, what do I do? Tonnie Nwagbo, tonnierich@yahoo.com

In a nutshell, just tell him, No. You don’t need to replace any of those parts unless they are faulty. You need to educate him more by asking him to visit our website “www.automedicsafrica.com” to read more about cooling system and the effect of removing thermostat and bigger radiator.

Please, I just got a Toyota Highlander 2008 model which uses Smart Key System.  Kindly direct on how to get the duplicate of the SKS. Thanks. Akinwumi, 08028952xxx

Contact our spare parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com.

Sir, I drive a Toyota Highlander 2006 model and the vehicle was okay for some time until recently when I travelled to Osun State. As I was on motion, I discovered that the engine check light and VSC light came up. I told my mechanic about this and he said it was caused by the fuel I bought. I am not satisfied with his explanation. Please, what can I do? Folorunsho Abiodun, follyabbey2002@yahoo.com

The only way to find out why the lights came on is to run a scan on the powertrain system of the vehicle.

I drive a Mazda 626 1995 model. I noticed that the temperature gauge often rises to the middle within two minutes of driving. Before now, I used to drive for at least for five to 10 minutes before it rises to the middle. The vehicle does not overheat. Yinka. Ile Ife.

If your car does not overheat, I believe the vehicle is working well at its optimum temperature (that’s when the temperature dial is at the middle top of its gauge). Also, I want you to keep in mind that as the engine racks up more miles/hours it gets older; its performance characteristic will change also.

I drive a Honda Accord V6 2000 model (Babyboy). Lately, it stops moving even with full pedal throttle in traffic or whenever I am ascending a bridge. I have to turn off and turn the ignition every now and then. What do I do? 08023124xxx

Please run a scan on the powertrain. The result will help in proffering specific solution to your challenge (not the usual speculations).

I own a Mercedes Benz GL 450 (2010). How can I activate the navigation system? Do you know where I can get it installed? Thanks. Mr Adebayo, 07063364xxx

All you need is the Nigerian version Sat/Nav DVD and install it in the navigation player.

I need an expert to work on my Toyota Camry 1996 model. Can you recommend me to any one? Jandy. 08063298xxx

Call 08037439250. He’s a young South-South man with a passion to do things right. Tell him to call us for guidance before he commences work on the vehicle.

I enjoy reading ‘Automedics’ in SUNDAY PUNCH. One of the programmes I want you to run in future is a car maintenance workshop as a vocation skill training initiative. I also want to know if you may be interested or have an idea of a similar programme. My emphasis is really on programmes that add actual value and give long-lasting results to participants. I know that your skills are invaluable to Nigeria. Will Omordia.

Kindly contact Mr. Gbola Oba. He is our COO and he is in charge of this area.

Please, do you have any shop or a contact person in Badagry area? Tonnie Nwagbo, tonnierich@yahoo.com, 08099866xxx

Call Gbola Oba on 08080806686 to direct you to the shops we run around there.

I drive a 2005 model of Toyota 4Runner and it came with US GPRS. Please how can I obtain the Nigerian version and at what price? Thank you for the good job you are doing. Prince, 08080428xxx

I don’t have an idea of the price or where to get it. But I will research on it and get back to you.

I own a Toyota Camry V6 1998 model. At times, the engine runs as if a plug is faulty and it begins to emit a whitish smoke. At other times, the engine runs smoothly and the smoke disappears. What do you think is the problem? 07033331xxx

I believe one of the valve seals is the problem. You will probably need to do a complete valve job on the cylinder head to solve this problem.

I have a Ford Moedon which started overheating on Sunday, May 5, 2013. The mechanic fixed it. But can I still bring it for scanning at Ikeja? Abdulkabeer Jimoh. 07025405xxx

Yes you can bring it for scanning.

I own a 3-series BMW saloon car, which had been involved in an accident. I had worked on it but my major concern now is the electrical connections. The head lamps are not reliable. They come off and on in the slightest pothole or bump. The indicators are also not firm. And the windscreen heater is not working. Can you please recommend a specialist who can solve these problems for me? Luke, PHC, 08035437xxx

I have a guy named Elias in Awka on 08030769896. But what you need is a good electrician that can troubleshoot and look for loose connection or ground connection where the body work was done.

Sir, I want to thank you for helping us. The Timing Belt of my Toyota Camry keeps cutting. Please, what can I do? Thank you. Titus Emo. 08023077xxx

I will advise your mechanic to first of all make sure the lubrication of the camshaft is okay, because due to lack of good lubrication of the camshaft it tends to bind, which puts a strain on the timing belt and causes it to break.

The transmission of my Mazda, 2001 model is not changing smoothly.

It usually delays till the RPM indicator shows 3000 or 3500 before it changes the gear. Even at that, it does so with a slight jerk. I searched the Internet and discovered that I need to replace the transmission. What do I do? Thanks. Gbenga Bambeke, gbengabambeke16@gmail.com

You can bring it to my workshop, but a scan will still have to be run on the vehicle. The result will guide us on what to do.

I drive a Hyundai SantaFe, 2002 model. I got the following result after scanning.  Thank you. P0171 system too lean (B1), P0453 evaporative emission system pressure sensor/switch high input. Thank you. Hazrat, 08033367xxx

P0171 Hyundai description. With the air/fuel mixture ratio self-learning control, the actual mixture ratio can be brought closely to the theoretical mixture ratio based on the mixture ratio feedback signal from the heated oxygen sensors 1. The Engine Control Module calculates the necessary compensation to correct the offset between the actual and the theoretical ratios. In case the amount of the compensation value is extremely large (the actual mixture ratio is too lean), the ECM judges the condition as the fuel injection system malfunction and light up the Malfunction Indicator Light (2 trip detection logic).

If the P0171 is combined with the P0174 code, it’s very likely that the problem is caused by an intake leak. If there are no intake leaks, the next step is to replace the air filter and clean the air flow meter. If the problem persists the front oxygen (O2) sensor may need to be replaced.

Possible causes: Intake air leaks, faulty front heated oxygen sensor, ignition misfiring, faulty fuel injectors, exhaust gas leaks, incorrect fuel pressure, lack of fuel, faulty mass air flow sensor and incorrect positive crankcase ventilation hose connection

P0453 The evaporative emission system control pressure sensor detects pressure in the purge line. The sensor output voltage to the engine control module increases as pressure increases. The EVAP control system pressure sensor is not used to control the engine system. It is used only for on board diagnosis.

Possible causes: Faulty evaporative emission system pressure sensor, evaporative emission system pressure sensor harness is open or shorted and evaporative emission system pressure sensor circuit poor electrical connection.

I want to buy either Honda CRV or Toyota Highlander. Which of the two is better in terms of maintenance cost, fuel consumption and resale value? 08056167xxx

They are both in the same category. It is up to you to decide which one to buy.

The Timing Belt of my Toyota Camry keeps cutting. What do I do? Thank you. Titus, 08023077xxx

If the timing belt of your Camry engine keeps breaking, you should be looking at the possibility of sludge build up in the engine, which will affect the effectiveness of oil lubrication on the top part of the engine (the valve train). And the possibility of cam bearing starving of lubrication will cause a drag on the camshaft. It will in turn affect the timing belt.

I want to buy a Mustang 1964 model car. Can you link me up with anyone who can provide the necessary information on how to get it? Thanks. 07065608xxx

I don’t know where you can get it in Nigeria. But if you can personally get in touch with me (through Gbola Oba on 08080806686) in the USA where I am now, I may be able to help you.

I drive a Camry 2000 model. I noticed it emits a whitish smoke that clears after a while. I was told that the valve seal is the problem. Please, can you give me an idea of the cost of working on the valve seal? Thanks. Funsho Bamidele, Iju, Lagos.07033104xxx.

The only way to get an estimate is to bring the car to our shop for evaluation.

I need a spare key for my Toyota Avalon, 2006 model urgently. Thanks. 08034522xxx.

Get in touch with our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com for enquiries.

I bought a Toyota Rav 4, 2004 model. It came with only one key. Do you advise I duplicate it anywhere around? Can the car be remotely locked or opened and where can I adjust the key to perform such? I love cars to be operated this way. 08051016xxx

There is no special garage for duplicating keys, but in your own case you need to make sure they give the right key with a transponder chip in it. But you can get in touch with our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com for more information.

I drive a Peugeot 607, 2003 model. It makes 1,500km when I bought it. But now it makes 20km. I need the brake master -d 3 pipe type for V6 automatic transmission 3.0ltr engine. Can you help me get it and at what price. Emeka, Ikota, Lagos. 08023088xxx

Contact our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com

I drive a Nissan Infinity Jeep, 2000 model. It consumes fuel. Please, what do I do? 08055444xxx

Run a scan on the vehicle. The result will guide the technician on what to do.

I drive a Honda Accord, 1997 model. Each time I travel I travel at a speed of 120km/hour; the RPM goes as high as 3.5. I think it is abnormal. What do you think? Balogun Ade, 08052250xxx

The only way to find out the problem is to run a scan on the powertrain, the problem could be on the transmission or the engine. But the scan result will guide in solving the problem.

My Nissan Xterra 2003 model consumes fuel. What do I do? 08094541xxx

Look for a diagnostic garage and run a scan on the vehicle. The result will guide in proffering a solution to the fault.

I drive a Nissan Infinity Jeep 2000 model. It consumes more fuel. Please advise me on what to do.08055444xxx

Look for a diagnostic garage and run a scan on the vehicle. The result will guide in proffering a solution to the fault.

Please, can I use overdrive in a very sandy place like a beach? 08034841xxx

The answer is capital NO. You can only use your lower gear and very low RPM, with 1st or 2nd gear selector for good traction

I need an expert/a contact person around Ojodu axis with necessary automotive diagnostics tools that l can rely on for my Toyota 4 Runner Jeep 1999 model. 08033013xxx

We have two locations in Ikeja axis: one is inside the Lagos Television Complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola, while the other one is at 10, Morrison Crescent, off Kudirat Abiola way, Alausa. I believe the latter is closer to Ojodu.

Sir, which one will you recommend I buy- a brand new kia Cerato 1.6cc engine or a grade A fairly used Toyota Avensis 2009 from the US? Both cost almost the same. My worry is the durability of the new Korean products in Nigeria. Thanks. Kayode, 08055000xxx

There is nothing like Avensis in the US, but you can get it in Europe. The choice has to be yours, but if I have to pick I will go with Toyota. You can get in touch with Mr Kenny Ekisola of our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com for more information on how to get a car from the USA.

I drive a Honda Accord (baby boy) 2002 model. I want to know whether it is better to repair its stirring rack or buy a second hand. The power stirring leaks oil from the rack while driving. Olaniran Oladiji, oladon2013@gmail.com

The best option you have is to buy one outright. The complete parts to rebuild with are not readily available in Nigeria.

The automatic gear of my Honda Accord (baby boy) leaks oil. Please, direct me to where I can get it fixed. 08023063xxx

You can go to any of our two locations in Ikeja. One is inside Lagos Television Complex (LTV) on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, opposite Coca cola.

Recently, this message was posted on Automedics’ heavily followed daily updated Twitter handle (@automedicsnig), “Do you know it is a bad habit to fill your fuel tank to the brim? If you do this, you are spoiling your vehicle’s EVAP system.”  And a follower replied “Please what’s the meaning of evap?” This question has often been asked too by many roadside mechanics. So, I think it’s about time I explained it.

The fuel we put in our vehicles contains loads of chemicals, including benzene, toluene and sometimes even the very dangerous lead. These ingredients can cause dizziness, breathing problems and headaches when they’re inhaled. Inhaling large amounts of petroleum fumes can even cause death. Far more disturbing though is the fact that evaporated petrol is one of the leading causes of air pollution. For these reasons, manufacturers are required to install systems on their vehicles that help reduce or totally forestall petrol or gas vapour leak from the tank/fuel line. This is why vehicles have evaporative emission control (EVAP) systems. These systems are designed to store and dispose of fuel vapours before they can escape into the environment.

A typical system consists of a small canister full of charcoal (commonly called “charcoal carnister”), valves, hoses, vents in the fuel lines and a sealed fuel tank cap. When fuel evaporates inside the gas tank, the excess vapours are transferred to the charcoal canister. They’re stored there until they can safely be transferred to the engine to be burned in the combustion chamber. When that’s ready to happen, a valve creates a vacuum that sucks the vapours into the engine. Fresh air is also drawn in through the vents and valves to mix with the vapours for better combustion. These systems can be controlled mechanically, or like it is on modern vehicles, through the engine’s electronic control unit or the computer. The computer tells the valves when to purge the canister of vapours. This typically happens when the car is in motion, rather than when it is idle. And it helps to maximize the efficient use of fuel by the vehicle when it works properly.

However, when many Nigerian motorists overfill their tanks (in order to avoid running out of gas, especially during fuel scarcity) they, known to them, are choking their vehicles’ EVAP system which is only designed to suck fuel vapour and eventually recycle it for the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. It does this by literally letting liquid petrol escape into the evaporative emission system through the vent hole that is usually after the tank cover. The EVAP problem can also be triggered when, as many ignorantly do, motorists keep their engine running while buying petrol. And the seemingly innocuous oversight of petrol attendants not properly locking the tank covers or when the seal on the tank cover is worn can also trigger the problem.

I am writing this piece from Atlanta, State of Georgia, US, where I’m orchestrating a silent revolution that’ll positively and dramatically change the hapless circumstance that surrounds how Nigerian motorists are compelled, like an addicted win-a-chance-in-multiple-shot gambler, to shop for genuine auto spare parts.

Ironically, when I’m as far away from home like this, I get to know more of what’s happening in day-to-day management of Automedics than when I’m at home. I get to know what happens at home through the regular daily chats I normally have with one of the best storytellers that (I must confess I’m grateful to God to have as a business partner and a friend) the world of TV production has lost to skills cum enterprise empowerment of Nigerian youths.

Gbola Oba, it was, who last Monday told me about an “Ondo invasion” of our corporate headquarters! “Invasion ke?” (What invasion?) I queried. I think it’s better to quote GO extensively at this juncture: “Just as I left the NIPCO Plc plant in Apapa where I went to collect the ‘Letter of Possession’ for the Ikorodu Automedics Autocare Centre late this morning, ‘Egbon’ Gasper (the executive secretary of the Lagos State Technical & Vocational Education Board) suddenly called me, ‘Gbola, where are you?’

“I replied that I was on Ikorodu Road heading for the office (in Ikeja) and I was teasing him, as I usually do (the twosome have bonded so much that they relate like elder and younger brother); about the fact that I had actually gone to NIPCO to get another outlet opened for the entrepreneurial empowerment of some of the youths we’d trained for LASTVEB. (We, having noticed that some of the successful young beneficiaries of the LASTVEB-Automedics automotive mechatronics training searched for paid employment after completing their skills acquisition, went into a visionary agreement with the nation-building management of NIPCO Plc. It was designed to establish them as independent entrepreneurs who are junior partners with Automedics in running the well equipped lube bays as modern auto maintenance/repair franchises; where their continuous on-the-job skills upgrade forms a vital part of the franchising agreement and help to give them competitive edge in an industry yawning for competent technicians).

“’Gbola, I’m serious: I’ve got august visitors from Ondo State led by the newly re-appointed Commissioner for Technical and Vocational Education, Hon. Remi Olatubora, with me and he’s been following LASTVEB’s relationship with Automedics and he wants to replicate the model of our Government-Industry synergy with which we train and entrepreneurially empower our youths in Lagos’. Here you come again ooo Egbon, you didn’t tell me this before and… ‘Gbola, that’s the beauty of dealing with private sector service providers: nimbleness and flexibility; anyway we are half way to your workshop, who shall I ask for to show us around?’ ‘Ladi Abiodun, one of the non-executive directors of the company, is there he’ll be your guide before I join you sir,’ I said.

“About 15 minutes later I arrived at the office and promptly joined them on the workshop floor. Kunle, it was obvious when I joined them that the commissioner was smitten by the story of Wale Kapo (who, after the commissioner had watched him electronically diagnose and analyse the problem of a modern SUV and stating how the problems could be corrected using the vehicle’s manufacturer’s e-workshop manual, got to know that Wale just graduated as a student of International Relations and History from Lagos State University less than a year ago!)

“Engr. Gasper, on sighting me, practically stampeded me in front of the commissioner to tell the Automedics story. Indeed, that was when I realised that they came with a camera crew. Knowing full well that Gov. Olusegun Mimiko (who I was told would watch the video recording and with whom I’d had the honour of having conducted a couple of one-on-one personality interviews when he was the state’s SSG and later when he held the federal appointment as Minister of Housing under the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in my former life as a TV broadcaster on BEN TV, UK) may find my presence in a modern auto maintenance/repair workshop talking the lingo of automotive mechatronics utterly surprising, I started by telling them how you (Kunle, a returnee from the US, who trained and practised for more than two decades there) came back to Nigeria about 10 years ago and was disillusioned with the poor quality of knowledge of  the majority of our roadside mechanics that you started your workshop with them. How you took it upon yourself to voluntarily start conducting training for local mechanics through their association, NATA Lagos State branch, including how fellow returnees like myself joined you.

“The commissioner was further gobsmacked when he got to know that Wale was one of the young guys running your interactive auto maintenance/repair solution-providing radio show while you’re away. As he was talking about our visiting Akure, I told him that we were actually nurturing some Automedics-LASTVEB beneficiaries for other major cities of the country, like our present unit head in Lekki—at the NIPCO Station by the Lagos Business School, Samuel Bolanle, also a graduate ex-Stanbic-IBTC employee, who I told him would be seconded to our about-to-be started outlet inside the lube bay of the NIPCO Station in Alagbaka, Akure. It told him further that Bolanle would be the pioneer regional mentor of the skills/enterprise empowerment programme in Ondo and Ekiti states.  As I was talking, I beckoned on another trainee who graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Ernest Ejeh, that’s being nurtured for Kaduna. He kept saying, ‘These are graduates who ordinarily could have been looking for employment.”

I cannot conclude this piece without emphasising my pleasant surprise at the prolificacy of technical and vocational programmes out there for serious-minded young Nigerians to tap into. It’s obvious that a state like Ondo is even raising the bar by elevating the portfolio to cabinet status with a dedicated commissioner. However, it’s imperative to accentuate the need to collaborate with reputable private sector operators across all the trades and industries where governments may be championing TVE; operators who can help usher the beneficiaries into sustainable entrepreneurial independence.

And this is where I also must chip in a word or two for the Federal Government on its enterprise galvanising YOUWIN programme for the youths: Automedics was privileged to mentor one of the beneficiaries of its maiden scheme to successfully start his business; Odejobi Adebayo of Auto-Streamline Services, 08036211195, who voluntarily did our skills training course and for whom we helped stretch the value of his financial award by helping him import his auto-body shop’s spray booth, compressor and other vital equipment from the US. Indeed, a young Benue lady, Joyce Adams of Auto-Lady Synergy Limited, 08036504287, who is a beneficiary of the second scheme dedicated to women entrepreneurs is currently undergoing enterprise mentorship with us.

But according to GO, who coordinates our enterprise mentorship programme, the collaboration of the YOUWIN programmes management office with the beneficiaries enterprise mentors seem so porous.

REACTIONS TO AUTOMEDICS

I want to get a school bus that is shaped like a Ford or Explorer and that will not consume fuel like a normal Ford. I need ideas on how to save money on fuel consumption. 08027356xxx

What you need is to get any van with an engine that is less than 5.0L which is in good condition and is well maintained.

I drive  a Nissan Maxima. I notice that it delays gear transmission early in the morning or whenever it is parked for few hours. It only starts transmission when it is driven for about five minutes. What do you advise I do? Aderoju,Abeokuta. 08034922xxx

My advice is that you run a scan on the transmission. The result will guide the technicians on how and what to do.

I appreciate your responses from the readers of your column. I drive a Sienna 2000(Automatic).Can I use gear labelled two in a very sandy/swampy place. Thanks, 08136059xxx

The answer is a No, No. What you have is two wheel-drive, a front wheel drive, not a 4×4.

I drive a 2004 VW Passat GLX V6 FWD. Please, can you assist me to obtain a transmission control unit (TCU) 3 BO 927 156 AT. Tony. 08033155xxx

Yes we can source for the parts, but you will need to contact our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com.

Thank you very much for the work you are doing on Automedics. There is a slit problem with my Toyota Rav4 1999 Model. It also consumes a lot of fuel and emits a black smoke from the exhaust with a low performance. My mechanic said air flow metre caused it. What do I do? Thanks, Tony, 08036016xxx

The best thing to do is to first run a scan on the engine. The result will guide your technician on how to solve the problem.

I just bought a Benz C320 4matic 2003 model. I observed that when driving with the AC on, the temperature goes up rapidly though the temperature is around 85 deg C if the AC is not on. Please, what is the possible explanation to this? Thanks, Osuolale Adebayo, adebayouronline@yahoo.com

Your average temperature should be around 90-95 deg C with the A/C on. If it does not go above that range, most especially in traffic, I believe your vehicle is okay.

Please, I drive Camry 1994 model (Orobo). Recently, the silencer was forcefully removed when I hit a stone. The catalyst of the silencer got faulty while a panel beater was working on the vehicle. Help me because I have been spending much on fuel, 08085022xxx

All you have to do is contact our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com to source the part for you.

Do you have anybody in Akure you can recommend to me to help with my Mazda MPV? Each time I turn the ignition of the vehicle’s fans, it starts immediately before the engine picks. Is this normal for Mazda MPV brands? 07036345xxx

It is not normal for the fan to come on when the key is turned on. It should only come on at a certain specified temperature that is defined for vehicle. The only time both fans should automatically come on is when the A/C is turned on.

I read your interview column online and was quite impressed.

I have been having problems with my car for about two weeks after I changed the fuel pump, filter, nozzles and serviced the car engine. The D4 keeps blinking and whenever it blinks, it hampers the car’s movement. If I switch off the engine and restarts, it stops momentarily for five minutes after which it restarts.

I changed the ATF after I read on the internet and yet it is still blinking. I had to browse the internet after the rewire ran a scan on it and he discovered a code P1786. He read his manual and did not see anything significant that can aid his diagnosis. I changed the ATF and another rewire fixed it (after he diagnosed several wires). The problem persists. After I finished washing the car, I checked everything I need to check and started the engine. After seven minutes, D4 started to blink again. Please what can I do? Please, your advice is crucial at this stage. Adenuga Ibrahim, kadenuga@noun.edu.ng

Possible failure of OBD II Fault code P1786: Signal line open signal line short and diagnostic Procedure using Scan tool.

The PCM/ TCM monitors the actual mainshaft speed (rpm) and countershaft speed (rpm) ratios and the commanded ratio. The PCM/TCM computes these ratios continuously. A malfunction is detected when a difference between the actual ratio and the commanded ratio occurs, and it is over the specific ratio.

When the third to fourth upshift has been made, then the PCM/TCM detects neutral position while driving in fifth gear a malfunction is detected.

Also please always mention the brand and model of vehicle.

I bought a 2006 Sanyong Stavic 270 with a converted four plug carburetor 2 RZ engine in place of its original engine. The former owner said it used diesel. The first problem I had was that it slows down terribly on hills then stopped changing gears. We replaced the gear box with a Tokunbo 2 RZ gear box-it changes very well now but it still slows down on hills or when I decrease speed and want to speed up again. Please, how do I increase the car’s speed? Thanks you a lot, Linus Ohanehi

I believe the engine that was converted is part of your problems. The reason is because of the sensors’ calibration and wiring harness connection to the sensors. You will need to get the right harness and possibly the ECU will also need to be replaced.

The engine of my Skoda Octavia 99 model car burns oil. I wish to overhaul the engine. Can I get all the necessary parts to “ring” the engine from your company? If yes, how much will it cost? I also want MSP (4 litres). How much is it and when can I pick it up? ademola.abejoye@yahoo.com. 08023276xxx

Contact our parts department at www.automedicsafrica.com.

I scanned my Toyota Camry 2005 model and it came up with this code: P0793. What does it mean and do I fix it? God give you more grace for the work you are doing. Ese Akpodovhan, esechi4life@yahoo.com

The P0793 code is detected when the vehicle speed is more than the 31 mph and the park/neutral switch is OFF or the engine speed is less that 300 RPM.

This sensor detects the rotation speed of the counter gear. By comparing the counter gear speed signal with the direct clutch speed sensor signal, the Engine Control Module detects the shift timing of the gears and appropriately controls the engine torque and hydraulic pressure according to various conditions. Thus smooth gear shifting is performed.

Possible causes

Faulty Shaft Speed Sensor

Shaft Speed Sensor harness is open or shorted

Shaft Speed Sensor circuit poor electrical connection

The first thing any driver should know is that when his or her vehicle’s temperature needle is at the middle point of the temperature gauge, and it does not go beyond the point at anytime in the working session of a vehicle’s engine – however brief or long the session is, the vehicle is not overheating.

It is important to clarify this because there is a group of drivers out there who wrongly believe that when the needle gets to the middle level then the engine is overheating. They quickly drive to their roadside mechanics to complain about overheating.

Instead of telling the vehicle owners that the needle being at the middle or a little above the middle position is still normal, some of our roadside mechanics immediately suggest radiator change to a “double-cell” one and thermostat removal. The fact is, if the needle suddenly moves toward the red position (try to make sure that it does not get to the red zone), which ends the temperature gauge to the right side, the driver must seek help immediately.

Indeed, as soon as you notice the needle reaching or touching the red position, put off the engine; so that either the head gasket or cylinder head (or, indeed, the engine block) is not messed up. Damages to any or all of these will be costly to repair.

However, when a genuine case of overheating, as graphically illustrated above, occurs, the causes can be anything that decreases the cooling system’s ability to take-in, move and dispel heat: A low radiator water level, say a leak through internal or external cooling system’s fixtures; poor heat conductivity inside the engine because of collection of dirt in the water jackets; a defective thermostat that does not open; poor flow of air through the radiator; a tripping fan clutch; a bad electric cooling fan; a defective lower radiator hose; a worn down or loose water pump impeller; and/or even a defective (sometimes, invisibly-leaking) radiator cap.

In concluding this article on overheating, we wish to suggest the following corrective measures: Make a careful visual inspection of the entire cooling system, and then do a pressure test of the cooling system and the radiator cap. A pressure test will reveal likely internal leaks such as seepage past the head gasket as well as cracks in the (cylinder) head or block. A good system should hold 12 to 15 psi for 15 minutes or more with no loss in pressure. If it leaks pressure, there is an internal coolant (or water) leak (most likely a bad head gasket but possibly also a cracked cylinder or engine block).

This letter to you my roadside mechanic friend (which will likely be read and interpreted to you by our vehicle-owning middle-class compatriot) is informed by a profound sense of social-responsibility to redress your head-you-lose-tail-you-lose circumstance.

Or how else can one describe a situation in which governments-local, state and federal-who, in the last two decades plus, have obviously failed to provide robust alternative means of transportation or competently train the people who are constrained to work on the only available medium of transportation—vehicular transport—that’s commonly used to move man and materials in Nigeria?

I know you sometimes feel like you’re alone in this world. On some occasions you don’t even know which side the car-owning middle-class man is. Especially on those days when, unbeknownst to him that you too only try to “braggado” your way to resolving some of the confounding technical issues with his modern vehicle, he stops laughing with you, gets you arrested and locked up by the police who’ll not let you go unless you “pay something”.

Don’t blame him, he’s also very frustrated because his life somehow depends on that vehicle; if it stops moving he can do anything, rightly or wrongly, to get it speedily running again. However, if your unfortunate situation is as a result of your functional illiteracy, the middle-class person’s ignorance about what his vehicle’s dashboard is daily telling him is unpardonable! This is borne out of his penchant not to bother to read anything that does not give him “money now”; unlike the middle-class people in other societies who take the time to read manuals of their vehicles, so that they can get value for money on them. Anyway, “na tokunboh cars sef full our roads and e no easy to see manuals inside them”. Ironically, many of them don’t really know that they can download free digital copies of their vehicles’ original manuals.

In the last seven years I’ve done quite a lot to reach you through my daily radio programme, which was pioneered on Radio Continental, 102.3FM, Lagos, (which, in addition to another interactive daily radio show on Lagos Traffic Radio, 96.1, still subsists), and through this popular column which started four years and some months ago. It has been my belief all these years that these media assets would surely help you to up your game.

Truth be told, I’ve since noticed a major cultural change taking place in our beloved trade (through the thousands of your peers who’ve attended our several training packages; at the Automedics Automotive Mechatronics Training Institute or through our itinerant city-to-city two-day seminars). But my frustration is because of people like you who cannot leave their garages in, say, Uyo in Akwa Ibom State or Sokoto in Sokoto State and sit down for too long for any kind of training in Lagos.

I’ve therefore perfected another grassroots strategy to help you at your door step. You or some of your colleagues in the trade, may have noticed that some of the lube bays of the NIPCO Filling Stations nationwide now carry “Automedics Autocare” signage, anywhere where you see such a NIPCO lube bay and you (as a local mechanic has a technical need) simply walk in, identify yourself and ask for the team leader. The team leaders are usually young university or polytechnic graduates (not necessarily in engineering or the sciences; indeed, the first four teams that were set up were made up of business and accounting graduates) who have gone through our comprehensive training and were made to do raw practical apprenticeship on our workshop floor for a period not less than six months.

These team leaders, who essentially lead teams of either roadside mechanics who have been retrained or youngsters who did formal apprenticeship with us, are trained to be mentors, radio presenters and/or public educators. In fact I’ve been away from Nigeria now for months and these lads do my daily radio shows (except the 8:05am show on Radio Continental that Ben Okoh, my technical alter ego religiously leads with one of the boys) and still run the businesses/shops where they’re part owners.

You may be asking why you would need to go in and talk to any of the team leaders. Any time you’re confronted with a hard-to-crack job you’ll do yourself a whole lot of good to walk in and have a chat with the leader of the nearest Automedics-run NIPCO lube bay to you. One, he can access online, through his laptop, the original manufacturer’s workshop manual on how to do anything on the vehicle you’re working on. Two, he’s equipped with state-of-the-art tools like oil, cooling, fuel and compression pressure testers that’ll easily make a whole world of difference between speculating the measurement or scientifically measuring if these vital systems are working to the manufacturer’s specification. Three, he has a backup of technical support like me and Ben to call on for illumination on any tricky issue. Four, which is the most vital asset, he’s mandatorily anchored (like all his colleagues) to a continuous training programme that keeps him updated with some information you may not know. For example, have you ever wondered if that intractable/recurrent problem you’re battling with had made the manufacturer to “recall” that vehicle and, say, in the area of ECU programming/reprogramming, they’ve released patches to correct the glitches in the original software program?

Soon, as it’s been our tradition to work with and through bonafide trade associations, we’ll be organising scheduled local seminars that these young mentors will be handling. Please don’t take your customers with you when you’re visiting so they don’t dump you!

Vehicles, in an economy like Nigeria’s that mainly depends on its network of bad roads, are as essential to individuals as they are to businesses. Like a customer once asked me rhetorically: “Kunle, what can one do in Nigeria without a car?” This is why it’s important for individuals and, particularly, companies to have a strategy that can help them get value out of the automobiles in their fleets.

 Modern vehicles are designed to help you help them. The irony is, the vehicle knows what’s wrong with it and wishes to tell you how to solve the problem, but instead of working with the in-built technology of the vehicle, many of us take our vehicles to auto mechanic workshops who attempt to speculatively solve problems that already have their answers in the vehicle’s Electronic Computer Unit (“Brain-Box”, as most semi-literate Nigerian mechanics call it)!

 This is why I believe that even when a company out-sources its fleet maintenance account to a reputable auto maintenance/repair workshop, it’s imperative for that company’s fleet manager or senior drivers (in charge of the logistics department) to have some basic knowledge of how to diagnose any of the brands of vehicles in his employer’s fleet, and be able to effectively use a basic diagnostic tool, with the electronic copies of the brands’ workshop manuals to ascertain the integrity of any work claimed to have been done on the automobiles.

 The advantages of this sort of basic functional knowledge, which can be acquired in about five working days, are numerous: one, problems can be discovered before deteriorating into far more financially exacting state; two, vehicular assets’ down time will be drastically reduced; and, three, in the few instances when vehicles have to go for major maintenance/repair overhaul, relevant officers of the company will be in position to vet the quality of work done before the work is agreed as completed.

We, Automedics, in collaboration with the visionary leadership of the Lagos State Drivers’ Institute (a statutory agency that all corporate and commercial drivers practicing in Lagos must be trained and certified by), under its chief executive officer, Ayodeji Peter Oyedokun, are drawing up a five day training package that will conjoin the agency’s statutorily mandatory training with a value-adding automotive technical literacy training that’ll make their employers get the literal mileage out of  their vehicles.

REACTIONS TO AUTOMEDICS

Hello Mr. Shonaike. I enjoy reading ‘Automedics’ in SUDAY PUNCH and on twitter. Thank you for the good work.  I drive a Toyota Corolla 2003 model. I noticed that anytime I start the engine and drive immediately it makes this noisy sound for about five minutes, however if I leave it to warm for at least 10 minutes before I drive it, the sound doesn’t occur. I would like to run a scan on the car at your workshop but my fear is your charges. I do hope that I would be able to afford it.

 Again can the workshops at Ijora and Akoka handle this or should I just drive straight to the LTV complex? Thank you. talktotricia2001@yahoo.com

 Any of the shops can handle all types of diagnoses. But the noise I believe could be related to lifters noise, due to sludge build-up in the engine.

Where can I get automedics service in my area (Akoka-Bariga). Thank you. 2348027629xxx

 We have a location inside Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka.

Dear Kunle, thanks for the wonderful job of enlightenment and deliverance from ignorance. I drive a Toyota Corolla 2005 model automatic gear which has permanently displayed check engine sign on the dashboard. Secondly there is a few seconds delay when you engage the reverse gear and at times it engages after a light pressure on the accelerator. I ran a scan at my mechanic workshop here in Ibadan and this is the result. Error code P0741, Torque converter CKT Performance or Stuck off. Kindly explain the meaning of this and how to go about repair. Many Thanks. babatopeakinwande@yahoo.com

P0741. The torque converter clutch solenoid valve is activated, with the gear in D4, by the Transmission Control Module (TCM) in response to signals sent from the vehicle speed and the Engine Control Module (ECM). Lock-up piston operation will then be controlled. When the torque converter clutch solenoid valve is activated, the torque converter lock-up clutch will engage creating a 1 to 1 RPM ratio between the transmission input shaft and the rotational speed of the torque converter.

 Lock-up operation, however, is prohibited when A/T fluid temperature is too low.

 When the accelerator pedal is depressed (less than 2/8) in lock-up condition, the engine speed should not change abruptly. If there is a big jump in engine speed, there is no lock-up.

Possible causes

 Low transmission fluid level, dirty transmission fluid and aulty torque converter clutch solenoid valve. Torque converter clutch solenoid valve harness or connectors. Torque converter clutch solenoid valve circuit is open or shorted transmission internal mechanical problem.

I just bought a Mazda MPV 2000 model two months ago. Recently I discovered that it’s not engaging the reverse gear. My mechanic said the whole gear has a problem. He said it’s either I buy a new gear or repair the existing one. 2347056776xxx

 Please, run a scan on the transmission before you repair or replace any parts.

I have a 2007 Super charge Range Rover. After changing the brake pads (front and back) for almost three months, the dashboard is still showing change brake pad sign, which is very disturbing and scary. Kindly help me out. 2348034763xxx

 The pads’ wear sensors should have been replaced when the new pads were installed.

I bought a 2004 Toyota RAV 4 last month. I changed the oil, oil filter and pump but, the sign ‘service engine’ is showing on the dashboard. Please what should I do as I don’t want the mechanic to add to the problem? 2348033260xxx

The light has nothing to do with normal service, what you need to do is to run a scan on the engine and transmission.

I have just stumbled across your column and found it very valuable. Please, is it a must that we remove the car thermostat as soon as we buy it? 2348032313xxx

 You do not need to remove the thermostat unless it is faulty. You can go online to our website www.automedicsafrica.com and read more about it.

I am a lover of your page of SUNDAY PUNCH. I started with your article of “Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” which was based on the issue of thermostat. I was in your office at LTV to make enquiries on Vehicle Diagnostic Training and I was well attended to. The issue is in the area of cost. I am a retiree but doing some little supplies. I need your assistance on a little reduction. Thank you. Remi, 2348025099xxx

 You can talk to Mr Gbola Oba about this issue.

Dear Kunle, I recently bought a Mercedez Benz E320 4matic, and the gear was not selecting. I serviced the gear but the problem persisted. I was advised to run a scan which I did. The code I got was 024 and 120.Kindly help with the meaning. Thanks Kunle 2347055549xxx

 Code 024; Left adjustable camshaft timing solenoid (Y49/1), open or short circuit (119 only).

I am in need of the website address of Toyota Corolla car Company. I need to download free digital copy of my Toyota Corolla manual. Olu Abolude. 2348030419xxx

 All you need to do is to google it, you can get it from different sites.

I want to know if it is possible to install air conditioner in my Golf 1999 model which has 1.6 litre engine? Will it affect the engine performance? Thank you. Olanrewaju Eboda, lanre.eboda@gmail.com

 If the installation is done right it will not affect the engine.

I drive a Nissan Z350 sport convertible. I want to change the tarpaulin roof. Please where can I get good service? Innocent, 2348035870xxx

 You need a good upholstery shop to do it or you can order for a replacement roof.

I drive Mazda mpv automatic. What is the meaning of TCS OFF, which shows in my dash board? I also want to know when to engage gears 3 and 2 as I only use the D-drive gear always. Thank you. 2347036345xxx

TCS means “Traction Control System”. You are better off to use the D-drive when you’re moving. The manual drive gears (1, 2 and 3) are only for someone who knows how to use it.

I drive a Honda Accord 2002 model (Baby boy). Since I bought it, it does not pick swiftly or respond to the accelerator pedal until after about 30 seconds or one minute. When the air conditioner is on, it even gets worse. I have tried all manners of repair to no avail. How can one download digital copy of original vehicle manual? Thanks. Akin. 2348028221xxx

 I don’t believe what you need is the owner’s manual. What you need is to run a scan on the engine and transmission, the result will guide you on what to do.

 Sir, I want to find out why any problem affecting my 2001 Toyota Camry is not appearing on the dash board? Thank you. Titus. 2348023077xxx

You may have a problem with your instrument cluster if nothing comes on because it is the only thing that warns you of any impending danger or problem.

Hello Kunle, thank’s for been a pride to my generation. Where is your workshop in Abuja and the phone number to call? Gabriel Nwadike, Abuja.

 The Automedics Autocare Abuja location will soon come online inside the Nipco Filling Station.