Going back a couple years for a throwback to a special visitor in the shop.
It’s a regular Saturday morning at work, when one of the techs finds some fur in the engine compartment of a car he just pulled in. It turned out to be a live cat that rode for 45 minutes next to the engine. Luckily it was on the far side of the car from where all the belts and pulleys are, which are what usually kill stowaway animals.
Another car with an air conditioning problem came in. This time, the air conditioning would work fine for a little while, but then would completely stop working. I hooked up the A/C machine to see what the pressures were doing, and found that as I held the engine at 3,000 RPM, the high side pressure would just climb until it hit around 500 psi and the pressure switch would shut off the compressor.
When threads get damaged on bolts or in bolt holes, there are two options: taps & dies, or thread chasers. What are they, and what’s the difference between the two? Why do I have sets of each?
Brake pads need to be lubricated periodically, or they’ll stick in the holders. When that happens, they can start to overheat. Overheated pads don’t last very long.
Most cars these days have the rotor separate from the hub and bearing, but some trucks and older vehicles use rotors that contain two sets of tapered bearings inside them and include the studs for the lug nuts. They’re more complicated to service, so here’s a guide on replacing them. You will want a lot of rags and gloves for this.
Rust is never a good thing when it comes to cars, and one of the parts most subject to rust is the exhaust system. Usually it just ends in a rusted out exhaust pipe or muffler, but this one caused something more.
If you know me well, you know that I absolutely loved my first car, and wanted to keep it running forever. So why did I replace it last week with a 2007 Toyota Corolla?
It’s been a long time coming, but I finally pulled the trigger on a replacement for my Civic. I’ve been looking for over a year, and while I would’ve preferred another Civic like what I had, it was starting to fall apart enough that I needed to settle on something else.
I recently did a brake job on my truck, and found that the calipers are attached differently than on newer vehicles, so here’s a how-to guide if you’re doing them yourself. You don’t need any sockets or wrenches, just a hammer and a screwdriver.
I was trying to figure out why a Chrysler Town & Country didn’t have any air conditioning in the rear. Usually when you don’t have any air conditioning it’s because there was a leak and all the refrigerant leaked out, but it was working in the front, so that obviously wasn’t the issue.
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| Michael Smith on Broken Flex Plate |
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Mechanical Malarkey 