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[Music] Hello Ahmed. Here we are again at your shop, the car not shop.
I'm so happy to be here. It was almost a year ago when we met and here we are second time and of course I see you on live stream and so forth.
But
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>> thank you >> to be here at your shop. Beautiful.
You have open house tomorrow. It's going to be amazing.
Uh you guys know I met from car care not probably the most genuine most authentic most amazing person who not just takes care of your car but also just about life in general you've got
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such amazing philosophy and mindset >> very inspired all the time so >> but we're here for a very important topic and it's about keeping a car for a very long time maybe even lifetime >> we're hope >> because you can keep anything a lifetime if you take care of it right >> yes >> uh but there's also a lot of controversy
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because every time we talk about oil change some other stuff. There's a lot of people saying, "Okay, now you can't do this or you can't do that or it costs too much." And so, let's maybe be very open today.
That's sort of my take and talk about 10 specific things you can do
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to hopefully keep your car a lifetime if not for a very long time. Anyways, >> and I think Ahmed and I very much aligned in terms of what those things are.
Uh, we both agree on it, but we may have a different perspective. Mechanic versus engineer.
we might have a slightly different viewpoint which is
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what you guys probably want to hear from us. So first and most important thing is the oil change.
I talk about it, you talk about it a lot. I interviewed many uh chief engineers who claim you should A do A or you should do B and they may have a different viewpoint but generally
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speaking you and I both agree that the scheduled maintenance from the owners manual from the car companies are too long 12 15,000 km or miles and and you say at many time it should be for non-turbo and non-hybrid it should be
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5,000 mi which is about 8,000 km >> in 6 months. 6 months time is also as important as >> for non for non-turbo for non-turbo >> non-turbo turbo earlier >> even earlier.
So we'll come back to the turbo one but the important thing is why 5,000 why not 7,000 why not 10,000 what
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is the magic number to do with 5,000? It's it's not it's not really a magic number, but if if you look at the average how much folks drive a year, it's anywhere from 10 to 15,000, right?
>> Basically, at 5,000 miles and what we
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see from our just working on cars, that's around the average miles of the average driver in the average driving conditions, right? Not >> that's when filters start to bypassing.
Basically, they're no longer filtering anymore and they get bypassed. That's
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when oil has enough saturation with fuel, has enough breakdown of of >> contaminants, I guess, >> like the additive package and whatnot. Although, when you send it for a test in a lab, it's going to, oh, it's great and all that.
Great. >> But that's when you start seeing like
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varnish buildup, >> right? Cuz it's degradation, right?
General degraation of that. you open up an engine, you you see at the top of it, you're going to have all kinds of varnish build up everywhere.
We see with engines that go over 5,000 mi over the course of their life, they'll have significantly more when you do over
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5,000. So 5,000 came up as as a general recommendation.
And look, >> if you're going to do it at 3,000 miles, you cannot hurt an engine by changing the oil too frequently. There's no such thing.
But there's something important that you just mentioned earlier and that's about the oil analysis because I
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get that a lot from people watching my videos. They say, "Hey, you know what?
Uh, at 5,000 miles, you you send this engine oil for a sample. It looks totally fine.
It's still functioning and lubricating as an engine oil." Um, but what most people don't realize is that it gets contaminated with, as you as you
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talked about in the past too, with water, other debris from the from the engine. And so it's it's you know it's not so much how how effective the engine oil is, but it's also the fact the engine oil is carrying other sediments, other contaminants, and it's mixed with the engine oil.
So the engine oil itself
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might be okay, but it's no longer the same engine oil that you put in when you first change the oil. And that's why you you need to change it because you need to get rid of all the stuff that's saturated and that's mixed in with engine oil.
Is that something >> the thing the thing we're seeing with with analysis is very accurate. Some
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folks have said, "Oh, it's all hoax and whatever." It's not. Of course, it's very accurate.
It's science and it's it works. It's accurate.
>> But the problem is, think of it this way. When we talk about a doctor in the human body, you go do a blood test, it doesn't tell you everything, >> right?
>> And then a blood test today and a blood
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test 3 months from now could be a very different story because there are other factors that you just cannot detect in the oil. >> Factors like >> contaminants that stay.
You take an oil sample. You took an oil sample of the cycling oil, but what about the oil that does not cycle?
What about what it left
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behind? You're not opening up the engine and taking multiple samples from multiple locations of this engine and sending it.
That's right. That's unrealistic.
>> Small percentage. Yeah.
Small samples >> and and Okay. And this is the biggest thing with oil analysis.
You get the the results back. Okay.
You have this metal
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elevated. >> So, what do we do now?
Tear the engine down. >> Damage is already done.
You have metal in the oil. Damage is already done.
We're trying to not get to that point. And you do oil analysis, it's good, it's good, it's good, then it's not good.
>> Then it's too late. >> What changed?
The oil analysis did not
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help you prevent what changed. >> That's the problem.
>> Yes. I I hopefully people understand the the importance and significance of the engine oil because it's probably the cheapest insurance, right, for a car.
It's the cheapest thing you can do. I know it's not cheap anymore to take it to a local dealership, but hopefully you
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find a shop like AMT's uh shop here where it's cost is reasonable and they're honest and uh but the point is it's, you know, compared to anything else that you do with a car, it's the cheapest insurance to keep the engine lasting a long time. And of course, if you have electric um car or a plug-in
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hybrid, it maybe things change a little bit. You're not using the engine as much.
But for all non-turbo, all non-hybrid vehicles, that's the rule that we both stand by. Now it's a little bit.
So we have like a couple cars here. Non-turbo car here.
We have a What? What engine do we have on this Supra?
Come on
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this way for a second. >> That was actually a turbo.
That's a turbo. 2JZ GT turbo.
>> We got the naturally aspirated V8 on this one. >> 2.
So if it's a if it's a turbo or hybrid, there's additional stress in terms of the engine oil carrying contaminants and so forth. Tell us what
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you suggest. >> The biggest thing with turbos is heat.
Turbos could generate a lot of heat and the driving habits of folks is what cooks the oil. You drive a turbo engine, you've been just driving it hard on a highway, turbos been spooling for a very
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long time. They're really hot.
You stop and you shut it off right away. Well, oil flow will stop.
And that oil that is sitting in the line in the turbo just gets subjected to extreme heat where it's gonna it's going to cook that oil so much. First you created some sludge in the passages and then once you start
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the engine again that cooked oil will cycle into the eventually you do that so many times. >> We notice in in turbo engines oil get significantly more like >> contaminate full and dark and the
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engines turn to >> kind of they build a lot of varnish very quickly when you have a turbo cuz you're you're adding a secondary source of heat in addition to the engine itself. Now, keep in mind, some of you guys who might remember the horror stories from the 70s and ' 80s with the turbo, it's not quite
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that way anymore because the turbos do stay cycles. It stays cycling, I should say.
Uh, and therefore, uh, the engine oil doesn't get cooked as soon as you turn off the engine. So, they did resolve that.
>> Not always. >> Not always.
Not always. True.
But generally speaking, the engine oil is not like it's not in the 1980s where
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>> tur turbos have gotten better where they don't have like there we have ball bearing turbos. Um oil technology has has gotten better, cooling has gotten better.
That's why we're we're able to kind of minimize that effect. But is it
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still there? Absolutely.
Of course, if you overdo it, it's going to happen. But it's it's a lesser chance.
But still turbo car, keep it simple, less than 5,000. I mean, if you if you ideally keep it around 3,000 m.
>> 3,000 mi. So for turbocharged engine,
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again, 3,000 mi is what you recommend. >> 3 months.
>> In 3 months, not 6 months. Now, a lot of people say they can't afford the time or the money to change that often.
What do you What do you say? But what's the compromise here?
>> Uh engine oil is cheaper than an engine. >> That's true.
If you want to keep it for
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a turbo, our premises here is that if you want to keep a car for 10, 20, 30, maybe lasting a lifetime, then this is what you have to do. If you want to keep the car for 3 years, a little bit different, >> right?
You're going to just run through the a lease cycle and return the car.
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Well, that's not the same thing as what we're talking about here. So, 3,000 mi, 3 month, if it's turbocharged engine.
Yes. >> What about hybrid?
>> Same same thing with the non non-turbo ones. 5,000 mi, 6 months, regardless of the engine comes on and off.
Just keep it simple. 5,000 mi, 6 months for
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regular cars, turbo engines, 3,000 is ideal, but anything below five is ideal as well. >> All right.
So, that's the engine oil. That's the first one.
That's very important. Second thing that people talk about uh or ask about is transmission fluid.
And that's a little bit trickier. >> Yes.
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>> Uh because >> transmission fluid, most manufacturers are moving towards, oh, it's a lifetime fluid. >> What's the lifetime?
the end of the warranty that I think is more like it for the lifetime for Toyota. Now, every manufacturer will be different, but I specialize in Toyota and Lexus.
For Toyota Lexus, 60,000 mi, 6 years seems
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to be a good interval. Fluid is not heavily contaminated, but you're not This is the thing with transmissions.
You don't want to overdo it, but you don't want to not do it. >> You don't want to change the oil every 5,000 mi on the transmission cuz some folks have done that actually are harmful.
>> Yeah. You don't also want to go well
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over 100,000 miles without changing the fluid because then the opposite effect happens. Now you go change the fluid.
Now we are introducing problems. Complicated the reasons why, but >> we'll keep it simple for a transmission.
Don't fall for the lifetime fluid because there is no assisting. Nothing
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is lifetime. We are not lifetime.
>> That's right. >> So change the fluid at 60,000 mi for Toyota Lexus.
6 years. >> Six years.
Keep it simple. Hybrid or not >> number.
And then if you're you have over 100,000 miles though and you've never changed it, possibly leave it alone
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>> because you're going to cause more harm than good. >> Yeah.
So sometime if you are changing the transmission fluid for example, you don't want to do the flush flushing, right? You don't want to you just want to just let the oil drain.
>> Flush is too harsh. You can do it but it's too harsh.
A drain of flow is is
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probably safer. >> Safest.
Yeah. Drain then >> less intrusive, >> but not it's not lifetime.
That's the main thing. >> There is no such thing.
>> Okay. Okay, so we covered the engine, transmission, any other fluid.
What about coolant? That's also >> coolant is very important lately because we're seeing manufacturers use long
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super long life coolants that supposedly also last forever. >> But we're seeing a lot of gasket erosion, high acidity.
We're seeing all kinds of leaks caused by coolants there too long. >> As simple as that.
>> Coolant is the same thing. coolant over
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time gets acidic and starts attacking any usually what they attack is not like we have metal gaskets now and things are really high-tech they start attacking coatings on top of gaskets cuz you can't put a metal gasket alone you need some kind of coating on top of it
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>> they start attacking that we're seeing head premature head gasket failure water pump failures um multiple other components that have gaskets they start leaking prematurely with coolant at least with Toyota 50,000 miles, 5 years is a good
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interval. This is where we usually start seeing problems beyond that re reaching to the 100,000 mi factory interval.
>> Five years is actually a long time. >> I see folks buy new cars.
>> All they're doing is oil change until you get to 50,000 mi. You do the
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coolant, get to 60, do the transmission, and then we go another >> 50,000. I mean, that's not that's not bad.
>> Now, I know some of the older cars uses a red coolant. Some are the new ones are pink coolant.
What's the difference? >> The red coolant was the like the regular
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coolant that actually coolant. Yes, that actually has a 30,000 mi interval.
The red coolant loves to uh cause corrosion toward the end of its life if you leave it like it's common to get like old '9s cars with the original coolant. You'll have like a block of rust at the bottom
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of the radiator. That's very common with red coolant when you leave it.
>> But >> the pink coolant is better in that aspect. It does last longer.
You don't have that flash like corrosion inside, but then it turns acidic much faster. >> Right?
>> That's the problem with some folks have
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said pink coolant is a problem. It's not pink coolant that's a problem.
It's the intervals. 150,000 miles.
>> That's a long that's a long interval. That's way too much.
50,000 miles. And folks, I'm just going to say this this something we we have discussed.
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>> If this is too much for maintenance, just remember things cost a lot more when you have problems. And if it's too much, learn to do it yourself.
>> Save yourself on the labor. That's use the right fluids, but learn to do it yourself.
That's that's what we have all these YouTube videos for, to help you do
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things better with your car. >> And some of the work is not as difficult, right?
I mean, everyday person can can do that. Now, just coming back to the coolant, um, can you put the new type of pink coolant in the older cars where the red coolant was?
>> Ideally, no. >> Ideally, no.
You stick with the same
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type. The old cars will have old gaskets and they're different material gasket.
You put the pink, the chances of that attacking these is much higher. So don't mix coolants.
Use the factory coolant. If your car has red, stay with the reds.
If your car has pink, stay with pink. >> At least for Toyota.
>> Okay. All right.
Anything else with the
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fluid that we should >> few other fluids, brake fluid, you want to test it for moisture content. Unless it's a performance application, you do want to change it every two years.
If you use on a heavy track, use two years regardless of moisture content. The other thing is differential fluids and
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transfer case. If you if it's an a truck off-road every 30,000 mi.
If you're not off-roading or not towing 30,000 mi, then 50,000 mi after that. The first replacement is 30,000 ideal.
Get some of the initial shavings from the build,
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whatnot. >> Right.
>> So, for those people who do uh towing and so forth, the intervals are a little bit uh uh more stringent. >> Yes.
30,000. But for for average user, average consumer, you don't have to do as often.
>> You can go the first replacement we like it at 30, but subsequent replacement
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every 50 is >> the first one's important because you want to get some of those debris out. Same thing for all fluid.
>> We see the heaviest contamination on new cars on the first replacement. Like you do 30,000 mi, heavy contamination, you go 60, like the next 30,000 mi, not as
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much as the first replacement. Very important.
Yeah. >> All right.
So those are the fluid. Now what about the brakes?
Something that sometime gets ignored. Brakes are often ignored until you hear squeaks and so forth or people finding problem with the brakes.
What again compared to what um
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owner's manual is saying, it's I think with the brakes is more to do with as you figure out how much is worn out. Right now we're moving away from intervals a little bit more.
>> Recommendation on on brakes. Every car in my opinion should get an annual inspection.
Doesn't have to be by a mechanic. It could be by your by the
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owner of the car if they're savvy. they're involved with their car.
You should check your brakes on a yearly basis. If you drive excessive miles, you should move that to 6 months because brakes the first, like most brake pads, 10 11 mm, depends on on the type of car.
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The first 5 mm of wear will take a lot longer than the second 5 mm of wear. So, folks need to be aware of that.
When you're at 50% point on the brake pads, your your degradation to 10% is going to be a lot faster because you don't have
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as much surface on the pad and and you don't have as much area to dissipate the heat. >> It's going to increase.
That is pretty typical. That's why when you get to 3 mm, we recommend replacement on the brakes because the travel from 3 to 1 mm, which is critical, >> yes, >> is a lot faster.
So, you get to 3 mm on
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your brakes and how would you find that if you don't check them? check them on an annual basis.
>> So now we're moving into areas where you do based on the need, right? So it's not necessar like filters and then other suspension components, leaks, whatnot.
That all
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needs to be part of the of the animal inspection. Okay.
>> Now that reminds me back to the engine oil. We do change the oil engine oil filter at the same time as every time.
>> Every time. That is that part.
>> Yeah. Do do not do not see folks do this where they change the filter every other oil change.
Don't do that. Don't do
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that. >> That's a bad idea cuz the number one thing that stops working after 5,000 mi is the filter.
>> Filter. Yes.
So that's >> it gets clogged. >> So coming back to the brakes again.
Um so again do an inspection either either you yourself you're capable you can do a
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check or take it to a shop. Um but it's based on on how you drive.
So it's not based on the time so much but you're going to check on the bra uh the amount of brake pass left. And of course the type of brake path you choose also affects intervals.
affects the performance. Some are noisier, some are
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quieter. Any comments on that?
>> In my opinion, when it comes to Toyota and Lexus, don't buy aftermarket pets. If you if you admire the original right quality of the car, look, majority of Toyotas are not performance cars, right?
>> They're more comfort oriented and kind of reliability oriented. I would stick
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with original pads. That's just my opinion.
You can experiment. You'll have noise, premature wear, strange stuff even with good pads.
This is something with Toyota. I don't know what's the deal.
They're not very aftermarket friendly with brakes, >> right? >> Yeah.
Especially like drum brakes,
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they're really not. But disc brakes, we've seen a lot of issues with aftermarket.
I always stick with original. >> Which brings up to this same point here, which is the fact that you should always buy OEM parts, original equipment manufacturers part if you can.
>> Uh I know some third party brands are
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really good, maybe sometime better. are some equivalents or like in the case of Toyota, a Toyota radiator and a Denzo, they're basically the same unit.
Not exactly the same, but similar unit. >> Um, another another one is like Denzo
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plugs. Denzo really I think or that's another manufacturer of of the OE manufacturer.
>> Yes. But you guys might not be aware, Denzo and Aish are both owned by Toyota.
It's it's basically a Toyota company. uh they are very large some of the largest
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suppliers in the world uh but for all intents and purposes they function as part of the Toyota subsidiary so >> we see that in their part quality it's very high >> even the my wiper blade in my Lexus SC4 430 it's made by Denso it's a DO wiper blade you know like nothing else seems
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to perform the same way >> any parts that you think are okay if it's not OEM so let's forget Denso but and I is a transmission manufacturer they're obviously part of a Toyota family of businesses. But anything else that you think is okay that's not OEM?
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>> I don't know. Air filter.
>> Maybe air filter. Maybe blades.
>> I I may be a little on the extreme side because I work in the repair industry. >> Yeah.
>> You want to keep the car reliable, just buy original parts. You're not I see this all the time.
Problem problem
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problem with aftermarket parts. And here's the biggest thing.
>> Most original parts Yes. for Toyota, they are more expensive because they are better.
Yes, >> not because they're just more expensive because but sometimes aftermarket parts are more expensive which is
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>> actually often time it is more expensive. Uh, I mean the only exception is I really like Bosch wiper blades.
Moving away from mechanical things and I I use the icon Bosch wiper blades on many cars because these days I think there's something about the wiper blades that have happened the last several
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years where there seems to be moving to cheaper material and they skip a lot more than in older days because older days we had a metal wiper blade is heavy. It doesn't skip.
Now it's all plastic. Now it's all wind aerodynamically designed and they skip a lot.
So, I tend to use a heavier wiper
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blades. All right.
So, now we're on to the sixth point, uh, which is about the spark plugs. Okay.
Something we didn't talk about earlier. >> How often should you be changing?
>> So, the spark plugs will vary by manufacturer. I'm going to talk about Toyota.
That's what I specialize in. We have three intervals with Toyota.
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>> Old schooliums, 120,000 miles. They seem to hold at 120,000.
A lot of folks will take them out at 120, look at them. Oh, they look fine.
The gap's good. Look, that's the whole point.
You don't want your spark plugs to be completely destroyed and you're driving on them. >> The second interval is 60,000 miles.
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Some of the direct injection engines, not all of them, some of them they are requiring 60,000 simply because of the harsh conditions with direct injection. >> Turbo engines 40,000 mi,000, which is a pretty short interval considering.
But
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>> again, the harsher the conditions in the combustion chamber, the more often you're going to need to change plugs. And a lot of these cars, they're simple to change the plugs.
Some of them are more complicated, but definitely something I if you have a four-cylinder Toyota, definitely recommend you do it
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yourself. It's very simple.
>> Buy original plugs, though. That's the biggest thing, folks.
You go buy even Denzo plugs. I us typically kind of be wary from them.
I know that the factory ones are Denzo. You go buy a Denzo plug.
It's a universal one sizefits-all. Not
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specific to this car. The gaps are different.
You have to set the gap. Setting a gap on a radium plug is very tricky cuz if you put just the old school thing, you just wiped out the idium tip.
>> That's the problem. >> So the the miles you just mentioned is that that's the Toyota's intervals.
Is
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that your recommendation for start? >> That's the Toyota interval.
Correct. >> So you're saying we can stick with that?
>> Yes. I haven't seen any issues with that.
>> Okay. So here's >> 120,000 mi.
You pull a plugs decent. >> So here's an interesting one.
We're actually saying that for spark plugs, we don't have to do more often.
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>> Not everything. Some some intervals are okay, some of them are not.
>> But in the spark plug, we're we're okay to stick with uh whatever the Toyota recommends. Obviously, you're going to check it.
Like you said, once you got to check it, something might be wrong. But so here's one bonus then.
In this case, you don't have to change more often than what Toyota is telling you, but still
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stick with the OEM parts as we mentioned. >> I I definitely would.
>> Now, here's an interesting one. Tires.
Something that people don't always talk about when in the context of maintenance. uh and I have a bit of a interest in tires just because I worked in a number of different factories that
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also produce tires in the past and you know there's all this misconception and misunderstanding about you know below uh 7° Celsius sorry about that 7° C uh you know all season tires are useless uh also tread depth also number of years
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and so there's a lot of confusion what what is your current recommendation when it comes to when you should replace the tires >> well in the United States Yes, >> 332nd is illegal in most states. That's the measure rate of the tread.
>> Most folks will will be able to tell
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when their tires are worn. You know, they're looking at it.
Some use the penny, whatever the case. Although, I recommend you buy a gauge.
It's very inexpensive. Amazon few bucks.
>> Check it. It's It's the most accurate way.
Most folks will get their tires right when they wear down. But there's something I see all the time.
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>> Time. >> Yes.
People forget the time. Do you know how many cars I see in the shop on 10, 15 year old tires?
They look perfect. Tread depth is but rubber dries over time, folks.
And you get a tire that becomes so stiff and hard. It has dry
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rod cracks all over it. You hit one bump hard enough, it's just going to it's just going to break.
And that's that's the more dangerous thing is when you look at the tire, oh, I have plenty of life left on it. And you actually don't.
>> All tires will have a build date on
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them. Usually four numbers.
The first two numbers are the week of the year they were built. The second two numbers are the year.
You got to track that. I mean, >> and how long how long would you say >> six seven years I would want to replace these tires the most.
I see folks driving on 10-y old tires on the highway
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at 80 mph. That's dangerous.
That's very dangerous. >> Now, I will admit uh as a as an engineer, I would say it's also weather dependent.
So, you know, let's say in Vancouver where I'm from, the weather is very mild. We don't get too much freezing temperatures.
the rubber compound will chemically speaking last longer than if you're in a very cold
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climate or if you do off-road then you're going to get the compound to work itself through and it's going to wear out more often. So obviously more severe driving will require you to think about that and it might be six years or 5 years but but generally speaking the other important thing is that people
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wait until it's almost worn out. >> Yeah.
>> And then so let's say it's within seven years or six years but it's almost worn out and they say you know what I can still make it. I can go another year.
What people don't realize is not the maintenance side but the performance side which is ability for tires to actually grip dramatically is reduced
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when compound and the tread is is at the last last 10% let's say. Yes.
>> And so people don't realize how danger it is to drive an oldseason tires that's almost worn out in the middle of a winter. Let's say in Chicago >> even in rain.
>> Yeah. Or even rain is more than enough to >> it's going to aqua plane on the highway
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and it's super dangerous. So, I usually recommend people to change tires way often and way more than than based on the tread depth because they're just not very useful.
And you know, the funny thing is you see the forums, people say, "Oh, I went from Bridgestone to Michelangelane, let's say, oh, the tires
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are so much better." And they don't seems to realize you're comparing a car that's 7 years old, almost worn out to brand new tire. If you switch to the exact same tire, but it's brand new, it's going to feel way better also.
So don't listen to the comments in the forums and so so forth where people are
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making a a statement based on old tire versus new. It's not a fair comparison.
And also tire technology changes a lot. When it comes to tires, I'm quite picky about it.
And uh so I change my tires more often. I like to try different tires.
You can't go wrong. >> Yeah.
So try different. They're
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expensive obviously, but probably the most important as aspects of performance because it's the only thing that's keeping you in contact with the road, right? There's nothing else between the car and the road.
So, so tires are very tires are very important. >> All right.
So, we're kind of getting to
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the uh end of this 10 list, 10 golden rules I call it. Uh but the next one is about the type of gas.
This is uh very important. is really confusing because so many of normal Toyota cars are now asking for premium.
Yes, >> of course premium has 89, 91, 93, 94 and
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different different versions of octane rating and as more and more cars are requiring um premium. What is your take on where this whole thing is?
>> This is actually an old conversation on the Lexus side. Early Lexuses, they used to take premium and folks will say why I
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have the same engine in my Toyota. Why does this one take premium tuning?
>> Yes, >> that's the biggest thing. So, we'll keep this one simple because this one has been heavily debated.
>> Yes. >> If your car takes premium, stay with premium.
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>> If your t car takes regular, put regular. What you're not going to do is put regular in a premium car.
Immediate harm. Especially if you drive a little bit hard, you're going to hear it, spark knock, and severe damage is on the way.
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that that's I cannot emphasize it how important that is the point but if you equally if you have a regular car the car that takes regular gas and you put premium you are just wasting your money some folks have reported oh it's get better gas mileage better this there
27:58
really isn't a scientific reason why that is the case but you're absolutely not doing anything to the car here's the biggest misconception premium fuel is better cleaner runs makes the engine and better. That's not the case.
It's just
28:13
an octane number, folks. >> Basically, we're not going to get into the science behind it, but >> if you want to put better gas in your car, at least in the United States, I don't know how things are in Canada, there's something called top tier.
It's an agreement between the oil companies of certain standards above the
28:31
requirement from the government that we're going to adhere by, cleanliness, certain additives, certain things that we're going to do to make this fuel better. I would seek those better than going to put premium in your regular car.
>> So that's I think that by that you're saying certain brands of gas might be
28:48
better than other brands >> potenti yes that actually not potentially top tier and non- top tier. >> The the other companies may do something similar >> but top tier is a standard that has to be adhered to.
>> So I'm with you on this one. So I wouldn't recommend that you buy gas from
29:04
some brand that you never heard of because it's just a little bit cheaper uh because you may same attitude in the same condition, >> cheaper for a reason. >> But what about um cases where the manufacturer recommend the premium but not requiring premium?
>> That's a tough one. That's that's a
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tough one. They're basically I think that's a marketing gimmick honestly because you can't have both.
>> Yes. >> And the and and the level of engineering and design that has to happen for the car to detect what you have Yes.
>> is just not feasible. I feel like
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they're putting that to to basically tell the consumer, well, you can put regular just for you to buy the car and thinking you're going to put regular, but then once you drive it has severe performance issues until you put premium, which is just put premium. When you see that I think this I'll kind of
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call this car as a premium. >> So, so this is where I have uh a very similar opinion as you but slightly different from a different angle.
And so what they do is when they recommend a premium or a premium is required then the emission standard and all the testing is done at the octane rating. So
30:07
when they publish the horsepower and the torque and the RPM that the peak torque range are all done with that particular gas. And so what happens is that if it's let's say if it's a recommended premium but you put regular gas you get a little bit less power a little bit less torque not much you know usually between 1 to
30:23
3%. Little power less power less torque.
uh also the peak RPM changes a little bit and therefore it's no longer the same as what the manufacturer said to you in the brochure. It's not meeting the spec.
So but but you can drive that way. So I I think uh what I want to
30:39
emphasize I agree with Ahmed that whatever is either recommended or required stick with that but if you if it's recommended but not required and you put regular gas you can get almost all the performance uh but not quite. I I would my guess is between 1 to 3% uh
30:55
less power, less torque, a little bit less efficiency because it's less power. Of course, you you tend to adjust your um you know acceleration due to less power for example, but you can drive the car that way.
So I do want to emphasize that it's not a problem in the short term. Longer term it could cause a
31:11
problem. So I would still say that if it's recommended but not required, you should still stick with the premium.
But there is a kind of marketing side of whole thing >> that rule you can put this but nobody has told you that your car is actually becoming lesser less power less everything and technically speaking from
31:29
a technical side. >> Any car can technically do that.
They're just kind of programming the fuel map and everything to to be able to have a wider room of adjustment because most cars when they take premium you put regular it's going to knock. It's going
31:44
to back off the timing. Yes, >> completely where it reaches the maximum amount of timing it can back it off and it's still knocking.
That's when it cannot do more and you start harming things >> on the cars that have a recommendation perhaps they have a wider room of adjustment where it can back it off
32:00
enough where they tested it with regular where we can get it to a safe level but at the cost of >> cutting the performance. It's still not ideal because you are basically asking the computer to kind of revert the timing so back to to compensate for
32:15
this. Just put premium.
That's what I'm going to say. >> And to kind of final comment on this is that what if you put like ultra premium like 94 versus like 91 or 92.
You know, my comment probably will be same as yours, which is you're probably wasting money. But unless you're on a
32:31
track pushing pushing the car to its limit, maybe >> there's some benefits, but >> a little bit. Again, >> usually not not indeed, right?
>> Not enough to offset the cost of the gas. But if you're asking me, do you get more power and do you get more torque?
You do. But it's kind of range 0.5% to
32:48
maybe 1 to 2% above and beyond the premium to the ultra premium. So, it's not going to save you money.
But if you were trying to squeeze out every power and torque you can, yes, you do get a little bit more if you put the maximum amount to octane rating. >> Yes.
>> Okay, enough on the gas. Anything else
33:03
we want to talk about? What about winter storage?
Something that is important for you guys. It is >> not so much for us in West Coast, but a lot of people don't know what to do with salt, you know, underneath, you know, do you put the oil on the frame?
Uh what happens to the battery? That's very important thing.
The battery u you know,
33:18
basically disintegrate if you don't charge it and and so forth. What any any suggestions?
>> Two two things you could do with batteries. Battery maintainers >> or and this is a little bit of an old school way.
So you park your car. You're not going to drive it in the winter.
Let's say for example, this is my car
33:35
has a 24F size battery. I have another car that has a 24 FS size battery.
I'm going to drive it all all year long. uh gonna take the battery out of this, put it in that car, drive it because you will not, no battery maintainer will get this battery fully healthy like driving
33:52
it where it's charge, discharge cycles regularly. >> You could do that.
That's a little bit more work. But the other thing is disconnecting the this is this is what folks don't realize.
Disconnect the battery and leave the maintainer on it because every car will draw a very small
34:08
amount. >> That's right.
Yeah. which >> up to a month it's fine but 6 months in storage >> yes >> you're putting this maintainer basically the maintainer is fighting that draw all the time >> that's right >> you can disconnect it and leave the maintainer just to maintain the battery where it doesn't have a draw >> that's right yeah
34:25
>> eventually though even with the maintainer you leave a battery sit it's going to degrade >> yes >> instead of it lasting five six seven years it's going to start lasting less and less and less it becomes less reliable that's one thing on the battery for storage the other thing is which is the thing that gets the most damage.
34:41
Tires. >> Flat spots.
>> I mean, they're >> not moving. >> If you have some expensive tires that you want to preserve, ideally pull them off the car, put them on a shelf, not stacked on top of each other on the side, and store them that way.
Maybe if
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it's a very expensive car that you're very expensive tires, buy yourself a cheap set of wheels, put some cheapo >> tires just for storage purposes and throw it on because tires once they get flat spots, you cannot >> it's hard to get rid of it, right?
35:12
You're going to take it's just there's nothing to >> feel when you drive on the highway. But but here's an easier advice and practical advice which is just try to find a ways to drive the car for a short time.
That's usually cars are meant to be driven >> not for 1 minute or 2 minutes, but if you're in able to just drive it, you
35:28
know, even the parking lot, run the engine, move around. >> We actually recommend minimum 15 to 20 minutes driving because >> in the winter time especially, >> it's actually more harmful for cars to start it, let it run for 5, 10 minutes and shut it off.
That is not good. >> Uh so ideally, you drive it even in the
35:43
winter time, let's say once a month, you know, top up the battery, make sure fluids are okay, let the engine run through. in bad weather, you're not going to have snow installed every single day of the year.
So, you can find a day that is a little bit better and you can take it for a quick drive, it's not going to harm or anything. >> And the battery, just going back to the
35:59
battery thing, you know, I I I now connect uh the maintenance battery charger. All that on every car, even if I don't drive for about 3 weeks or so, even they come down quite dramatically.
And I have a 1981 Elorado and I have a battery dis disconnect. So, I just
36:15
disconnect. Yeah.
But just keep in mind that on modern cars when you disconnect the battery it could give some issues. uh the passports and everything gets reset and you may have to uh well of course Ahmed can do that but for average person you know if you if you disconnect
36:30
the battery will reset certain things you may have to go to the dealership to >> Toyota and Luxes are probably one of the easiest companions you can actually do it yourself like usually Windows but there isn't >> most of their computers are now memory
36:46
kept alive it doesn't really wipe out the main stuff usually it'll idle funny. Like older cars, if the throttle body has never been cleaned, it'll idle funny.
But Toyota seems to be one of the better companies when it comes to disconnecting. >> They don't have as much strain stuff.
>> The memory seat though is it's often a
37:03
problem. You have to calibrate.
>> Most of the calibrations you can do it yourself in if you know what the procedure is, but it doesn't require a scan tool for the most part. >> Yes.
Yes. Yeah.
So it it's not uncommon to see um the not just the memory seat, but the power seat gets initial
37:19
initialized. you have to actually to reset that.
Move it all the way back, all the way forward, fold it down, move it forward, and then it resets the memory again. But uh but those are minor thing.
So I'm kind of keeping the last one, which is the 10th point open here. Any other thing that we didn't cover
37:35
today? >> I'm I'm going to share.
>> Oh, sorry. Actually, I'm very sorry about that.
Um but I forgot to talk about should you put oil and sulfur underneath to make sure that uh you know underneath the car under coating or oil if you live in a salty salt I call it salty area. If you live in the area
37:51
where salt is used under coating is very important >> and any any under coating is there style you >> not a specific one. I like the ones that are like non-permanent like >> fluid film, like blaster shield to name a few >> because they they do come off, wear off
38:09
as you drive, >> but they're not invasive where you can't wipe them off if you need to because the problem with the permanent coating, if they're not prepped right and done right, rust could start forming behind it. I have a full video dedicated to how that process oxidation works, but >> under coating is definitely recommended.
38:26
Big recommendation. >> Okay.
Nothing else in terms of winter storage. They have to keep in mind tires.
>> Not necessarily battery. >> The best the best thing to do for winter storage is not to have winter storage.
>> Cars are meant to be >> buy the winter tire and then drive it. That's
38:42
>> I understand. You know, I have cars that I store in the winter as well.
Fortunately, some damage will happen. You have to accept that.
There is no way around it. Battery maintenance is important.
Tire maintenance is important. But >> yeah, >> last one.
Anything top of your head? I'm going to I'm going to say two things.
38:58
Okay, sure. Two things.
>> I feel like at the shop with customers, I say it every day. Two things.
>> Take care of it and it'll take care of you. >> As simple as that.
Very simple. >> You don't have to be a mechanic.
You don't have to be a DIYer that's constantly working on your car. It's
39:13
okay to take your car to a shop, but it's not okay when you have no idea what happened to your car. You just take it, hand the keys, hand them a check.
Don't don't be that type of car owner. You need to keep a journal.
It's very simple. Keep little book, keep it in the
39:30
glove box. >> You have better things to do with your life than your car.
I understand that. That's 99% of folks are like that.
Whenever you do service, write the date, what you did, mileage. >> You can probably get an app.
>> Simple as that. You can even get an app, but if you want to keep it old school,
39:46
simple as that. Keep the receipts.
Don't throw stuff. Keep it organized.
So when you're asked, hey, when was the last time you did a transmission fluid? I don't remember.
It's been 6 years, 60,000 mi. You have a record to go to.
So you're not you're not neglecting
40:01
maintenance, but at the same time, you're not overdoing it and wasting your money. That's the number one thing.
The second thing is, and this is this is the opposite extreme of that, >> if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I see this all the time.
>> Overdoing is not good.
40:17
>> Overdoing things when they're not broken. Because cars as they age, things get fragile, things get brittle, things are old.
The less you disturb, the better. Don't go just for no reason, just because we want to
40:33
do things. Start changing things and doing this because that's how you sometimes create problems.
If it ain't broke, >> leave it alone. >> Fix it.
If you have the engine open, obviously there's stuff you're going to take and you want to preventatively change them. That's a different story.
But if the car runs perfectly fine,
40:49
leave it alone. Casing point is AC.
You should not service that AC system. If it works perfectly fine, get it checked out.
Check pressures, check whatnot. Have a professional look at it.
But there's no reason to recharge it because it's a sealed system. >> Yes, >> it has no leaks.
But that's how you
41:05
introduce contaminants and now we have problems because we couldn't leave it alone. That's >> what I mean by that.
>> So, one extra bonus you added and I'll add one more making it 12 points. tempo and that is just uh because I'm a former body engineer in terms of paint um
41:21
keeping the paint in good shape the whole body in good shape so obvious thing is like if you get a scratch where the scratch actually goes into the bare metal make sure you touch it up even if you don't have the right paint just just put something in there to protect it from further damage and then worst thing
41:36
you can do to the paint is bird poo because it's acidic and if it sits on there it leaves a permanent damage not repairable often time it go through the clear coat onto the, you know, second coat and maybe even the base coat. So, you got to always wash out.
Bird poo. Tree sap's also really bad.
41:52
>> Dries up. >> Yeah.
Difficult to remove. >> Very difficult to remove.
And then you have to use a strong cleaner to remove it, which isn't good. So, um, you know, you don't have to buy a expensive $2,000 ceramic coating, but at least wash it and then wash off all the dirt,
42:07
contaminants, and then put some simple wax on. It doesn't have to be expensive.
There's so many good waxes these day. The point is to keep the paint slippery so when bird or some other things falls onto it you can wash it off and or it doesn't stick to the paint at all
42:23
because you only got as I as as you guys know I measure the paint taken all the time there's only about 120 microns of total paint which includes under coating and the paint and the clear coat above the metal microns I mean it's super yeah it used
42:38
to be like 250 microns and now it's half >> and uh so it's the paints are not durable anymore. >> Uh so yeah, I do recommend if you can put the PPF on it, but PPF just don't forget it's not permanent.
>> It's expensive and they take the parts apart to put it on. So I don't do PPF.
I
42:55
do ceramic coating like a not expensive one but affordable one and that keeps most of the contaminants off the paint and it's easy to wash. So that's our last advice.
I hope if you follow Ahmed's advice, some some of my comments and so forth, your car cars will easily
43:10
last 10 years, 20 years. I have a 1981 Elderorado.
I have a 2004 Lexus SC. They're both in great shape.
>> Got to bring that one to the shop. >> I got to bring both of them to your shop.
One of these days I'll do a road trip and come and visit Ahmed here and bring the Alexus here. Um but yeah, our
43:27
wish is that you'll keep your car for a long time. Enjoy it because cars expensive and they don't make them like they used to.
It's very true in terms of engineering and manufacturing is very true. So the older cars are really uh meaningful and they're worth something because they feel different.
I love driving the older Lexus and Toyota
43:43
models with you as well. >> So, uh, hopefully those things are helpful.
If it was helpful, put some comments so Amed and I can also learn from you or, you know, be able to make some comments in terms of the questions you might have. And if you haven't subscribed to Amed's channel, please please do that.
He's already way bigger
44:00
than mine, but his channel deserve to to to continue to grow. And hopefully you'll like like my stuff and subscribe to my channel as well.
But until next video and hopefully not one year later, Amed say goodbye for now and best wishes to
44:16
to you and your family. You're mean so much to the whole community and to us and you're always the bright stars in my my life and we always secretly say we're two brothers from different from life background.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Goodbye guys. >> Bye guys.