Almost seven years ago, I took my pickup truck to the local Pep Boys to change the oil and have them look at a belt that was whining. When they called to tell me the truck was ready, I asked about the belt and didn’t get an answer. I would have been fine if they just told me yes or no, but the clerk evaded the question, getting increasingly agitated, and eventually said “Just come in and pick up your truck” and hung up on me. I was angered and called back and asked to speak with a manager to advise him that one of his clerks had rudely hung up on me; the manager asked me the clerk’s name, which I didn’t recall, and the manager basically said there wasn’t anything he could do about it. So I picked up the truck (with the belt still whining) and resolved never to go back there.

Awhile later I took the truck to the dealer who found that the reason for the whining belt was that the adjustment bracket on the alternator had broken and they were surprised that the truck still ran. They said they had never seen this happen before and fixed it under warranty. I had to wonder: did Pep Boys break my alternator and try to brush me off? I will never know that answer but the doubt furthered my resolve to never go back there.

Over the last 6 months, my Mazda has been suffering from a rough idle when starting. I have an AEM cold air intake with a washable air filter that hasn’t been washed in a very long time, so I’ve been putting that off but thinking that a dirty filter certainly won’t help the engine idle. This weekend’s drive out to the desert was probably the hair that broke the camel’s back: when I started the engine to go home, the idle was all over the place, and by the time I was on the freeway, the check engine light was on.

I cleaned the air filter and removed and replaced the gas cap (a bad gas cap seal is apparently the cause of many a check engine light), started the car, and the idle was blissfully smooth. But the check engine light was still on, and I figured that it would probably stay on until the code was retrieved and reset. So I drove down to Autozone because they will do a free check engine light diagnosis. Or so I thought. The clerk fed me a line about how the union had complained about Autozone’s check engine light policy, that qualified union members weren’t doing the job and getting paid, yadda yadda. The clerk said that Pep Boys might be able to do it, so I grudgingly drove over to Pep Boys, figuring that after seven years, maybe the management and culture had changed.

I went to the service counter and asked if they could retrieve the check engine code and reset the light. The service guy wrote up a ticket and had me sign an electronic signature device, but never told me what the estimate was or gave me a copy of what I was signing until I had signed. I looked at the paperwork and the estimate was $89.99 to check and diagnose a check engine light. I said, “Ninety dollars? That seems a little steep just to pull the check engine code.” The service guy replied “That’s what we charge.” I said, “Are you serious? I can buy a scanner for forty bucks and do it myself.” The guy said, “So you don’t want us to do the work” and I said “No.”

He gave me my keys back, I went home, disconnected the negative battery cable for 10 minutes, reconnected, and the check engine light is history. I’m holding my breath for it to come back on, but the engine idle is much better now and I’ve gone 50 or so miles without another check engine light.

I refuse to ever go back to that Pep Boys again. Sure, it might be worth $90 to both diagnose and repair a check engine light, but the majority of the time all that’s needed is to pull the code and reset the light which won’t take a mechanic more than 5 minutes. To charge $90 for that is a real racket. I don’t want to bash all of Pep Boys as I’m sure each store is independently owned and operated, but the one at Rancho Del Rey should be avoided if at all possible.

A question I repeatedly raise and never bother to research is whether the batteries in hybrid cars negate their green image. More specifically, what is the environmental cost of manufacturing and disposing of hybrid batteries, and does this cost offset the increased mileage and lower emissions of hybrid cars?

Here is a link to an op-ed that argues that the Toyota Prius does indeed win the environmental debate, at least when compared to a Hummer: Mr. Green on Prius vs. Hummer.

Toward the end of the article, Mr. Green does concede that the conventional gasoline-powered Corolla’s gas mileage is financially competitive with the Prius when the MSRP of the cars are taken into account. While the article does serve to debunk the myth that Hummers trump hybrids on overall environmental impact, it is still unclear whether hybrid cars are more eco-friendly than conventional gas cars of the same vehicle class.

I have become what I despise. Last week I bought a cold air intake for my Mazda3. Last weekend I installed it. And while I was at it, I advanced the engine timing to slightly increase compression, and added a 10 gauge wire from the throttle body to the battery’s negative terminal to give it a better ground.

The advanced timing means I’ll need to spend a little more on gas (89 octane recommended now). But the increased compression will theoretically give me a little more power. For more info about advancing the timing on Mazda engines, click here.

The added ground to the throttle body will theoretically improve throttle response and generally make things smoother. This car has a throttle-by-wire system instead of a traditional throttle cable, which means that when I step on the gas, computers decide where to put the throttle. Apparently there is a weak ground at the throttle body, and because of this weak ground, the chip in the throttle body doesn’t always communicate well with the rest of the power control module, and the poor communication results in poor engine responsiveness. At least that’s what all the folks who sell pricey grounding kits want to convince us. For $5 worth of cable and connectors it seems worth a try.

The biggie of course is the cold air intake. For the non-gearheads, a cold air intake replaces the stock air filter and assembly. The stock assembly draws air from the top of the engine, where air has been heated by the engine. The stock air intake assembly is also somewhat constrictive, meaning that the engine has to work harder to create a vacuum to draw air in. The cold air intake is essentially a 2.5″ pipe from the throttle body down to the front of the driver’s side wheel well, where the air is much cooler. Cooler air is denser and contains more oxygen, which according to the laws of thermodynamics burns with more energy. More energy means more power.

I was apprehensive that the cold air intake would be loud. So far I’ve found that under normal driving conditions, I don’t even know it’s there. But when the RPMs are pushed above 4000, I definitely hear a lower, throatier growl from the engine.

A strange thing happened to me when I blasted onto the freeway this morning. My face contorted into an unfamiliar expression, and I couldn’t contain it. I was actually smiling. While I hate street racers and all they stand for, I think I sort of understand the compulsion to modify cars with exhaust, intake, and headers. That sound is a siren song.