Chris Collins and Christian quiz an editor on automotive jargon service advisors throw at customers without explaining it. He guesses wildly on CV boot, TIPM, and knuckle. The segment shows why advisors should skip the jargon and actually say what these parts are and do.
Questions this video answers
Totally Integrated Power Module
A rubber, grease-filled boot at the end of the axle/CV joint that holds grease in and protects the joint.
A suspension component that connects suspension parts to the wheel area (holds suspension components and links to the wheel hub).
Approximately $400 (mentioned by the hosts).
Around $450, with possible discounts down to about $350–$375.
Chapters
You brought up a good point the other day. And we're gonna, we're going to prove this.
Okay.
In a social experiment right here on the show. Barring I don't get a collect call from a jail in Oregon.
It'll make from. For great podcasting, though.
You were talking about how advisors talk to customers like they know about the car.
Yeah.
They talk about the part, the labor, the this, that. And customers are just like, I want the light to go off.
Yes, that's exactly what they're saying.
Turn my check engine light off if you replace the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we have, we have an amazing crew team here, but for the most part, they don't come from the automotive industry. Right. So.
We'Re, we're gonna bring Michael on and we're going to ask him different things about a car to see if he knows. Now he's just a normal, you know, cool guy to hang out with. He's. He's edited a lot of our videos in the last couple years. So he's done the leadership training. The advisor. Like he is around the lingo also. It's funny, when some of our employees take their cars in for service, they always feel like they need to come back and report to us. Yeah, we hear about it, how terrible it is, what a pain in the ass it is, and how terrible it is. And one of the dealerships that they go to that's terrible actually has our online training.
That sucks.
But they're clearly not watching. Okay, so, Michael, can you come over so we can do this social experiment?
I would say that he probably has a better than average understanding of the business when we look at our normal customer base.
Yes, I would agree. Better than average.
Hello. Here I am.
So just to recap, Christian is going to mention a part on a car and then you're going to tell us what that part does, what purpose it serves, whatever you can imagine about the part.
Right?
Yeah. I'll give you my best guess.
And these things that I'm about to mention, I've heard personally service advisors telling customers that they need this thing without further explanation.
Yeah, it's like the customer would know.
Yes, Michael.
Right.
The first part I would like you to describe is a CV boot.
What do you think a CV boot is?
A CV boot?
Yeah.
Okay, well, first I kind of need to know what the CV is, but I'm going to take a guess.
I want to say a CV boot is some sort of cap that goes on, that goes at the end of the cv. The CV Being the long.
Like, tube that's coming out of the.
Like the radiator, I want to say. Okay, right. And that's where the CV boot, which is this rubber cap, you know, goes on there and stops the.
Gave him the answers before.
Stops the fumes. The fumes from coming out.
That's a hundred percent what it is.
Oh, yeah.
See, I didn't think you'd be good at this. Okay, what's the next one?
What?
Come on. It's a tube coming out of the radiator.
Yeah, that's what it is.
What's the next one?
I can't wait to see how this answer goes, by the way.
At some point, I'd like to know what these things are.
Yeah, we'll get to that.
Okay, great.
You have to approve it first, obviously, and then we'll tell you what it is that you spend money on.
This CV boot's about $400.
Depends. I've seen some.
I mean, rubber is pretty expensive.
Yeah, that's right. It's a product.
So you're assuming the boot's made out of rubber.
Yeah, that's what I'm assuming. I'm pretty confident.
Not leather.
Nope, nope. It's red.
Michael.
Yeah.
Your next part, I need you to explain to me that you need for your vehicle is a tip'.
Em. A tip'? Em?
A tip em.
Yeah.
Oh, God. Okay.
Thinking about Vegas and a strip club or something.
What are you doing?
What was that?
I think he's trying to decide if I made this up or not.
Oh, is that.
It's a real part.
Okay. Tip them, Tip them. Okay.
This is.
Like a. This is a. A bolt. It's like a rubber bolt. And it screws on the end. The tip. Screws on the tip. The end of the.
Of one of the bolts in the. The engine that's holding all the. The pistons together. You know that piece that. Where the pistons go down, it's holding that entire compartment. I don't know what it's called.
The cylinder wall.
Yeah, yeah, it's holding that together.
It's, it's, it's holding the cylinder wall together.
The, the bolt itself is holding it together. And this tip is at the very end of it, keeping everything tight.
Once again, it's like you gave him the answer.
It is like. I don't know if he read that right out of an automotive journal or some sort of repair manual, but it's.
Impressive to use it in a sentence. They would say, I'm sorry, but the tip is loose.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Heard that. Before.
Now, the last one. I think this is probably when he's gonna ace this, by the way.
I don't know what a tipum is.
I'll explain in a little bit. We'll get all three of them together. Right. So.
The last thing I need you to describe for me.
What is the knuckle?
Okay. What is the knuckle? The knuckle. The knuckle. I'm trying to think. I'm like, picturing an engine in my brain. I'm trying to think of what part could be the knuckle.
Yeah.
Or actually, doesn't you have to be the engine? Right. Yeah.
Don't assume it's the engine.
Right. It's just the car.
He goes to the engine, though, regularly. Like, I think it's clear that Michael thinks part of the sunroof.
I think the engine is a pivotal part of the car. That's, you know, so is the sunroof. That's true. That's true. The knuckle. The knuckle. I want to say the knuckle has something.
No joke. We just missed the call.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
My ranting around has caused this.
Another night in jail.
Sorry, buddy.
Oh, that's rough. Anyways, back to the knuckle. The knuckle is. I want to say it has something to do with the door. Like, it's. It's like a piece of metal that's in the door. That is when you. You know, when you open the door, you, like, pull on the thing.
Activates the knuckle. The knuckle opens up the door and. And opens it up.
So it's part of the mechanism that makes the door open.
Yeah.
Once again, it's like he has a crystal ball.
Good at this. He's amazing.
You go. You pull the handle. It activates the knuckle. The knuckle pulls the pin out of the door, unlocks it. Open up the door.
Yeah.
Yeah. And how much. How much is a knuckle usually?
Oh, I can answer that.
They. They usually go for about 450, but, you know, if they give you a deal. Yeah, you could probably get it down to 350, 375.
They're knocking 100 bucks off.
Just like they give you a discounted knuckle percent discount.
Yeah, it's. That's the.
Do care about the quality of the knuckle part?
I'd say. So.
Could it just be any old knuckle?
No, no. You want, like, a name brand Knuckle.
Would you ever put a used knuckle in?
Probably not.
You know, a lot of people actually had that happen. They use CV boots.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I think after a few years you got to replace the knuckle. I don't think they last very long.
No. Doors open and shut all the time.
Exactly.
Yeah. Okay.
Sometimes it gets stuck. And when the knuckle gets stuck, that's another hundred dollars.
Okay, so let's start at the top.
Okay.
CV boot stands for Constant Velocity boot. This is actually this thing that's at the end of your axle which plugs in to make your wheels turn. It's like this big nasty grease filled thing that keeps everything clean while the wheel is turning from the axle.
There's like a joint there, right. That holds the grease around.
Holds grease.
So it has like a metal. It'll have like a metal fastener on each side. Yeah, it's just rubber. So if a rock hits it or anything, it starts to leak that grease out. So on Subarus, when I was a service advisor, CV boots were plentiful.
Yeah, in my day they cracked all the time. Did you have that happen? Yeah, where they just dry cracked.
They also just get hit by a rocker.
But I wasn't far off. It is made out of rubber, right?
Definitely made out of rubber. And it is a tip.
Yeah.
Like it's the top of something. Right.
Connected to the radiant.
Now one that you didn't do so well with was a tipm, which I've heard this word used a lot in the last couple of weeks. Tipum stands for Totally Integrated Power Module. Now here's the funny thing is I don't care what TIPM stands for, what it is. It's the fuse block. Like it's where all your fuses are. So instead of saying that, we say TIPM to the customer who has no idea what that means.
What does it stand for again? What's the acronym?
Totally Integrated Power Module.
So you were close in the door.
Totally integrated.
The door is the knuckle.
Oh.
And then the knuckle is part of the front suspension actually where there could be rear on independent suspension too. But this is where a lot of the suspension components in the front sit on the knuckle. On the knuckle they sit. And it kind of connects the suspension to the wheel area.
Oh, okay, okay.
So I've seen used where, where exactly is the knuckle? That's gonna be close. It's gonna be at the output positions, just behind the wheels.
Right behind the boot.
Actually. I would say it would be above the boot.
Above the boot.
Yep. It's more to it's more to hold suspension cradle suspension components in place.
Give Michael a hand, though.
That was pretty awesome.
Pretty funny. Well, pretty funny.
I tried my best.
You did good. I like it. Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 83333, Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
