The exhaust system on my truck was badly rusting out, so I finally got around to replacing it. When I removed the muffler, it started falling apart even more than it already had, giving a good view at what the inside of a basic muffler looks like.
A customer at my dealership was test driving a used car when they heard a strange clunking noise. It was given to one of the technicians to find out what was wrong with it.
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the problem of brand new parts arriving with problems. That caliper with the bent bracket that I showed was an aftermarket unit. Unless you go with the cheapest aftermarket parts they’ll usually be about the same quality as OEM parts, but sometimes they’re just not very long lasting.
This was one of the more unusual problems I diagnosed on a car, so I’m bringing this post from 2016 up again.
Now this was a strange one. A customer came in because she had gotten her tires replaced at a tire shop and her low tire pressure warning light kept coming on. The first thing I did was make sure all the tire pressures were set correctly, and then I started recalibration and took it out for a drive.
This is going to be a long and technical post, but if you want to learn about car engines, this should be a good read even for the non-technician. A Honda Odyssey came into the shop with the check engine light on. I scanned the codes and found two seemingly unrelated codes. When you have multiple codes you have to decide if you can diagnose both at once or if you have to fix one before the other. The two codes that I had were P0171 Bank 1 Fuel System Too Lean and P3400 Valve Pause System Stuck Off Bank 1. Besides both being on Bank 1 of the engine, I wasn’t sure how they could be caused by the same problem.
There are a lot of frustrating things about working on cars, but I would say this is one of the worst. Waiting for parts to arrive can be bad enough, because unless you have work you can do while you wait, you’re stuck and maybe not making any money.
Going back a few years for this one for some engines you don’t get to see every day.
While I was in school, an older friend invited me to her husband’s engine shop. It was pretty cool seeing the shop, all the specialized equipment, and the engines they were working on.
 | Cracked Rotor | Mech… on Breaking Brakes |
| Leaking Aftermarket… on Bad New Parts |
 | AutoInfo on Swollen Lug Nuts |
 | bookworm on What Does Tape Do To Car … |
 | Dan on Recalls and Gloveboxs |
