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IMMIGRANT MECHANICS AT YOUR SERVICE
By Pedro Tababa and José Gonzalez
SOME HOT AIR ABOUT AIR BAGS
MY COMPADRE, José, who hails from what he calls the happiest place on earth, Tijuana, says even though we know very little about car repair, we've got an opinion on everything. That's why we got hired as mechanics here in the beautiful city known as Los Angeles. OK, let me take that back. It may not be a beautiful city, but the babes are ... Hmmm. Me, I'm just from the city known for its amazing sunset, where charming girls hypnotize you with their smiles. That's the enigmatic city of Manila. We're both immigrants. We know how it feels like when an immigrant drives his jalopy to the nearest car shop for an oil change. Twelve bucks to change oil? It won't cost you two dollars back in my hometown, radiator flush included, thank you. And what about the haircut? Costs less half a dollar back in my homeland.
Admittedly, having a car in America could be a horrible experience for an immigrant. So we've decided to run this column and, hopefully, help you fix your minor car problems. We'll field your questions on just about any car topic you want. Send 'em in. We'll try to avoid obfuscating you by avoiding mechanical terms. Go send your automotive conundrums care of this Web site and we'll try to give it our best shot. Did I hear you say “obfuscating” and “conundrums”? Well, I'm just trying to impress you with the first three highfalutin words I encountered here before I got my green card.
Yours truly, Pedro Tababa
The air bag issue is a new thing for most mechanics. But it's a serious issue. After all, everyone's read that air bags save lives and that air bags kill people — kind of contradictory, no? Confusing, even. So, we went to all the experts and put together some stuff on how air bags work, how safe they are (really), how dangerous they are (really), what's with the pedal extenders and all sorts of other questions. We are answering in this column some imaginary questions about air bags supposedly from our friends (we still have some friends 'coz we don't repair their cars). But If you still have more questions, feel free to contact your mother-in-law, er, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They will answer your questions, even if you don't have a green card.
At Your Service, Jose Gonzalez <
José: Isn't it ironic that we should be such profound air bags ourselves, yet we know so very little about the ones in cars? We checked in with the NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington. They told us that the chemical used in air bags is called sodium azide.
Pedro: When your daughter gets into one of her periodic crashes, electricity is discharged into the sodium azide, instantly converting it into an inert, nontoxic gas — and inflating the air bag. After the crash, the gas quickly dissipates through tiny holes in the air bag. The powder you've mentioned is just regular old cornstarch or talcum powder, which is used by the air-bag manufacturers to keep the bags pliable and lubricated while they're being stored. The bag itself is made of a special nylon material. You might want to take these details back to your daughter's doctor, and see if this gives him or her any bright new ideas about how to treat those abrasions. In the meantime, keep her away from the car! In fact, keep her away from *all* cars. We recommend you give her back her bike and buy her a hockey helmet, shin pads and a Kevlar bodysuit. For heaven's sake, remind her she can't drive like she used to. She's already in America!
UNBUCKLING THE ISSUE ON SEATBELTS THAT OFFER FAKE SAFETY
Many immigrants may have experienced this problem. It has nothing to do with cultural differences, it's a question of economy and necessity. One time, the spring broke inside the clasp on the driver's side seat belt on my 1986 Bronco II. The spring is for the button you push to release the belt. A Ford dealer told me that I would need to purchase an entire seat belt mechanism and have the whole thing replaced for $145. He said repairing a seat belt is illegal. I am a new immigrant and I just got employed so there's just no way I would pay even $100 for a seat belt mechanism. I went to a junk yard, and found somebody who was willing to take a spring out of a wrecked Bronco for me, and install it in my seat belt. The total cost, including labor, was $15. Does the law require that an entire seat belt be replaced rather than just the defective part? • Ricky Ramos, via e-Mail, Artesia , CA
José: Our pals at NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) tell us that there's no law that prevents a repair shop from fixing a broken seat belt. It IS illegal to render any piece of safety equipment inoperative ... or take it out and throw it in the nearest dumpster. But fixing it is not against the law.
Pedro: The dealer, I guess, may have a policy against fixing seat belts because of the potential legal liability. Hey, this is America ! The dealer is probably afraid that if you have an accident, and get hurt, you'll find some ambulance-chasing lawyer, not an immigration lawyer, to say that it's because his dealership worked on the seatbelt.
José: The guy who owns the junkyard, on the other hand, doesn't really care. He figures; even if you sue him for all he's got, all he's got is a pile of junk, so what does he care?
Since I am a new immigrant from India, I am only in the market for used cars.But every car I was interested in had door-mounted seat belts or seat belts with motorized shoulder harnesses.
In the different articles I read, they advised against both of these contraptions. Are those writers right? • Rajiv Ashwini, San Diego, CA
José: The articles you read were absolutely right, Rajiv. You shouldn't buy a car with either of these systems.
Pedro: And the blame for these lousy systems lies both with the car manufacturers AND the federal government. When they wrote the law in the 1980s, instead of requiring "air bags" in all vehicles, the feds wimped-out and called for "passive restraints" instead. And both of these seat belt systems qualify as "passive restraints," even though they both have serious potential safety problems.
Pedro: A seat belt that's bolted to the door is no good, because if your door opens during a crash, you're not belted! And in fact, you could be ejected right out of the car. That's exactly how a highway patrol guy was killed.
José: The "motorized" shoulder harnesses have problems in the real world as well. First of all, only half of the belt is motorized. So people get the mistaken impression that they're belted in when they're really not. And it's very easy to forget to fasten the lapbelt when you see the shoulder harness across your chest. And what happens if you wear just the shoulder belt without the lap belt? Well, as your lap slides forward during an accident, the shoulder belt restrains you ... by your neck!
Pedro: The other problem with motorized shoulder harnesses is that they're really annoying. They're always in the way, and a lot of people just disconnect them. And for obvious reasons, a disconnected seat belt doesn't do you much good in an accident, either.
José: So the only cars you should consider are cars with traditional, three-point seat belts mounted to the B-pillar (the metal pillar behind the driver's window), and at least one air bag, preferably two air bags these days.
Pedro: And don't let the dealers of these cars pooh-pooh these safety concerns. THEY may not care what happens to you after you pay for the car, but we do (our editor says we need ALL the immigrant readers we can get, Rajiv).