New cars just keep adding more and more plastic covers on the undersides. They are usually for aerodynamics or protection of less-robust parts. It can make it harder to perform some services because of having to remove these shields, but they can also cause their own problems.
It’s important to check your tires regularly. Tire pressures should be checked every month, especially in places with widely varying temperatures. Every 10 degrees Fahrenheit of temperature change will affect the tire pressure by 1 PSI. Proper tire pressure is important for good wear, fuel economy, and safety.
I took my truck to lunch one day, and later that afternoon I noticed that the lens from my left headlight was missing. The housing is broken so there’s very little holding it in, so I figured it probably fell out while driving through a bumpy parking lot.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my 1990 Ford F-250 has had its wiring hacked together by previous owners. Recently this came to light again as my brake lights stopped working.
Getting the right battery for your car is important. It needs to have enough power to start your engine on a cold morning, and that depends on how big your engine in. Batteries are usually rated by their cranking amps (CA), cold cranking amps (CCA), and reserve capacity (RC), but along with those there’s also the size and design that need to be right.
We recently had a Civic in the shop with zero oil pressure. The oil was full, but while running there was no oil coming out of the oil filter or pressure gauge port. That meant that it needed a new engine, and unlike a lot of times, we were able to keep the old engine. The master tech that did the engine swap was curious what the reason for the lack of oil pressure was, so he gave it to another tech, Tatiana, to take apart.
A CR-V came into the shop with a complaint that it went dead every few days. After confirming that the battery is good, the next step is to check for a parasitic draw on the battery, which is when something is using power when the car is off. There was a draw, and the first step is to remove any aftermarket accessories. This car had an aftermarket remote start system.
I’ve seen cars filled with trash, I’ve seen dirty floor mats, but then there are some cars where I put on gloves before driving.
My 1990 F-250 has led a hard life, and the wiring has taken a beating. It’s been hacked together enough that I don’t even want to touch any of it if I can avoid it. One thing I noticed with some of the wiring that had been done was that they didn’t use the wire you can buy at the auto parts store, they used house wiring.
And it is a walnut. But walnuts have caused a surprising number of problems in cars compared to other plant material.
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Mechanical Malarkey 