As long as electronics have been around and as long as they will exist, someone will always try to economize on circuit materials. When too much current is applied for the circuit materials to handle, the electronics overheat. Heat is the skulking menace of electronics. If all the heat could be dissipated effectively, most electronic […]

Part Four of the “Front Counter Mechanics” Business Software series (Import Service, November 2000) described how to retrieve certain facts and figures from shop management programs, then import the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This month’s article describes how to import data that Excel doesn’t recognize. Please log in below to view content. If […]

It looked very sharp for a nine-year-old car. The still shiny ’91 Camry came in running fine, on its own with no obvious problems – no misses, no smoke, nothing scraping, banging, flapping, clanking or dragging. It was clean as a whistle and rustless entirely. So why did the man behind the wheel look so […]

The recent SAE Future Transportation Technology Conference in Costa Mesa, California, provided information on hybrid electric vehicles, 42-volt electrical systems, alternate fuel and fuel cell technology, Intelligent Data Bus (IDB) and OBD-II+ systems. All of these technologies will (perhaps) find their way into new vehicles in the not-too distant future. However, I believe the Intelligent […]

When you are the world’s greatest automotive detective, you meet all kinds of guys. Well, guys like Dave. That’s Dave as in “Dave’s Transmission City,” formerly “Dave’s Lifetime Brake & Muffler,” still earlier “Dave’s International Auto Repair,” “Dave’s Dependable Towing,” “Dave’s Quality Detailing” and so on back through a long chain of sequentially failed automotive […]

To a ‘civilian,’ a no-start seems like the most frustrating and difficult of all car problems. It’s always unexpected and inconvenient. And entirely inexplicable! After all, ‘didn’t the engine start fine thousands of times before, with the same gas in the tank and the same key in the ignition slot, just like now? Doesn’t it […]

Part Three of our Business Software series (Import Service, October 2000) described how to export data from shop management programs with built-in export utilities. This month’s column describes how to retrieve data when your shop management program lacks an export utility, as well as how to import data into Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. Please […]