Author Archives: Dan

Over-Undercoating

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Dan

Road salt and snow take their toll on cars, and most of it happens underneath the car. Because of that some people get their cars undercoated, which is a rubbery coating that gets sprayed on a lot of stuff under … Continue reading →

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Want An MG? How About A Smart ForTwo?

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Dan

Another of those times I had to quickly get my phone out while at a stop light to get a picture of the car in front of me.

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HVAC Dog Food Storage

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Dan

If you need a place to store extra dog food for those long trips with your pet, try storing it in your HVAC system. Actually, no, that’s a bad idea, usually it’s rodents that try that.

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Cheap Exhaust Repairs Can Cause More Problems

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Dan

Up here in the rust belt, also known as New York state, cars get rusty, and one of the rustiest parts is often the exhaust. Over time that typically leads to exhaust falling apart and needing to be repaired or … Continue reading →

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Destroyed Oil Pan & Subframe

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Dan

A Civic was towed in, and we were told that the customer had hit something in the road and that the oil pan was broken. That was a little of an understatement.

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Chewed Seatbelts

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Dan

I’m not a big fan of cars that have had dogs in them. They often smell or have hair everywhere, or have nose smudges on the windows. I haven’t often seen damage caused by dogs, though.

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2001 CR-V Transmission, Speedometer, & Alternator Problem

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Dan

I’ve learned a lesson about diagnosing strange problems. When doing electrical diagnosis you should always check fuses early on, but I’ve now learned that you should also check fuses if you have a strange problem, even if it doesn’t seem … Continue reading →

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Aftermarket Valve Stem Caps

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Dan

One area of cars that people like to customize that is surprising to me is the valve stems on the wheels. They’re such small, easily overlooked parts, yet some people care about them enough to buy special caps to change … Continue reading →

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Honda HR-V Suspension Carnage

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Dan

If there’s anything that can draw a small crowd of mechanics, it’s a car that’s gotten some impressive damage from a crash. Here’s a few pictures of a Honda HR-V that was sitting outside our body shop.

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OBD-II Connector Location

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Dan

Every car sold in the US since 1996 is required to be equipped with an OBD-II connector so all scan tools, and in some cases state inspection computers, can connect to them and read data. There are general requirements for … Continue reading →

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