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<title>Not looking all that professional Giammalvo</title>
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<center><big><big><b><i><font color="#3333ff">Giammalvo Files</font></i></b></big></big></center>
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<img src="mark3.jpg" alt="Mark Giammalvo"
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<p><i><font color="#000000">Mark Giammalvo specializes in driveability
diagnostics </font><font color="#000000">at his family business,
Sam Giammalvo's Auto Sales & Service, Inc. in New</font>
<font color="#000000">Bedford, MA. </font> </i>
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<i><font
color="#000000">Mark, who has been with the business for
over 20 years, is an ASE Master Technician and Parts Specialist.
He also holds the ASE L1 certification, and has an
associates degree in business</font> <font color="#000000">management.
<br>
Mark is also a writer for Motor Age Magazine and is the past secretary
of the Alliance of Automotive Service Professionals, (AASP).</font></i>
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<big><big><b> Not Looking All That Professional</b></big></big>
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<p><small><i><font color="#000000">(Printed in the Journal of The Alliance
of Automotive Service Providers, AASP) </font></i></small></p>
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<p><i><small>(I wish to again thank all the customers that have expressed
appreciation for my recent articles. It has proven to be a conduit
for me to voice and share my personal thoughts on automotive and other issues).
</small><br>
</i> <br>
<br>
Recently a customer came to me with a complaint of poor fan performance
on his Buick. When the customer would turn on the heater/air conditioner,
the fan would not always blow any air. I tested the 2 wires going into
the heater fan motor. The power and ground wires tested good, yet the fan
would not run. If I smacked the fan motor itself, the fan would turn on
for a short period of time. It was obvious that the fan motor was faulty
and required replacement. I figured I would save the customer some money
and order a fan motor from an aftermarket supplier, as opposed to getting
a fan motor from Buick, which would be more costly. Besides, the warranty
on both is the same, so why install the more expensive Buick one?
I ordered the aftermarket fan motor and had the customer come by the next
day. </p>
<p>Just an aside to my story here; The fan motor is mounted on the engine
firewall under the hood. The replacement fan motor does not come with the
fan blade, which in automotive parlance, is called a "squirrel cage." The
squirrel cage does not look like a traditional house-hold summer fan blade.
If you've ever had a hamster or seen a lab rat, they often will play on a
little wheel that they run on like a treadmill. This looks very similar
to the fan blade in a car, hence the name squirrel cage. (Although, I've never
seen a lab test with a squirrel running on one of these. Perhaps it should
have been named "hamster cage.") </p>
<p>Anyway, I swapped the cage from the old motor to the new motor and
installed the assembly back into the car. After bolting everything together,
I gave the customer the keys and was onto my next job, or so I thought.
The customer came back in and said that although the fan now worked, there
seemed to be a problem with the fan's performance. He said that the fan did
not seem to blow as much air on the high setting than the old one did and
that it seemed to vibrate now when on high speed. I removed the fan to recheck
my work. Other than a small crack in the cage, I could not find a problem.
I knew the crack was the most likely cause of the vibration, but I could
not account for the complaint of the fan not blowing as forceful on high
speed. Not knowing whether or not I had cracked the cage, I offered to order
a new cage and replace it free of charge. The next week the new cage came
in and I had the customer come by for installation. Again, I removed the
fan motor and cage assembly, put the new cage on the motor, and bolted the
assembly back into place. Bringing the customer out to the car, I let him
check the operation of the fan. He agreed that the vibration was gone, but
still felt that the fan did not blow as much air on the high setting as
the original fan motor did. Not finding any other problem, I decided to
order a genuine Buick fan motor. Now, here's where the fun began. When
I called Buick to order the motor something interesting happened. The
Buick parts counterman wanted the stamping number off the old motor. Well,
that was not possible since I had thrown the original motor out two weeks
ago. When I asked why he needed the number, he said that there were two different
fan motors and that he needed the old motors stamping number in order to
get the correct one. Well, I wasn't about to go to the dump to search for
the old motor. Needless to say, I told him to order both. They both came
in that week, so I called the customer and had him stop by. I installed the
fan motor that, by my memory, had most resembled the one I had removed two
weeks prior. Sure enough, when it was installed, it performed much faster
on the high speed setting. Not only that, it even came with a new cage. The
customer was happy. I was happy. </p>
<p>Needless to say though, this whole incident left me a little bitter
with the automotive aftermarket parts industry. Yes, the aftermarket motor
was cheaper in price for the customer, but look at all the time and effort
I had to go through. I wound up removing and installing the assembly three
different times. In addition, what about the two different designs? How
come the aftermarket fan company only makes one "fits all" fan motor for
this car? Perhaps they are unaware that there were two different ones on
this model Buick. Although I attempted to save the customer some money, I
sure did not look all that professional in the process. It makes me wonder
if I should just order factory parts from now on and forgo the possible savings.
Well, put it this way, I sure won't be ordering any aftermarket fan motors
anytime soon. </p>
<p>What did you think of this article on the aftermarket parts industry?
Any comments or ideas? Or perhaps a comment on one of my past articles.
Let me know, give me a call or send me an email at: <b><font
color="#0000ff"><a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></font></b>
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