A Pilot’s Untimely Demise

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Dan

In the few years I’ve been a mechanic, I’ve seen a few cars that were rusted to the point of being scrap. Sometimes they’re repairable, like with the rusted out subframe on my 96 Civic. Other times it’s the floorboards or other structure, which really aren’t worth repairing a lot of times.

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Mechanical Malarkey Buys a Truck!

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Dan

I’ve teased this on Instagram, and yes, I bought a truck. It’s a 1990 Ford F-250. And it’s camouflage.

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Posted in At Home, My Car | Tagged | 1 Comment

Leaking Heater Core Cleanup

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Dan

Normally you do everything you can to keep water out of the passenger compartment of a car. However, if you don’t want to freeze when it’s cold outside, you need to bring some water inside, preferably contained within the heater core. The heater core is part of the engine cooling system and draws heat from the engine coolant to heat the cabin.

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Stripped Lug and Stud

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Dan

It’s the beginning of winter, so there are a lot of cars getting snow tires. I was taking off the wheels of a car to do another set when one lug nut gave me trouble.

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The Civic Brake Line Ordeal

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Dan

Back in March my dad’s 2001 Honda Civic developed a leak in one of the brake lines. The ensuing repairs ended up taking until September to finally finish, partly due to my free times and partly because I just had to replace more and more things. This is the story of what I had to do.

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Posted in At Home, Family Cars, In The Shop | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Duct Tape Van

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Dan

At the dealership we don’t see a lot of cars older than 10 years old, often when we do it’s for a recall or check engine light. Sometimes those older cars are in pretty bad condition.

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Thanksgiving Thank-You

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Dan

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the United States today, so I just wanted to take a minute and say thanks to everyone who reads this blog or follows me on social media. I love telling my stories of mechanic work and showing pictures of things I find, and I’m glad you keep coming back for more.

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Not gonna stop anytime soon.

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Get A Grip On Your Exhaust

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Dan

Just when you think you’ve seen all the cheap exhaust fixes, you find another.

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Frequent Interior Work

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Dan

One of the jobs I dislike but am given a lot is interior work. In some cases it’s remote start installation on brand new cars, but other times it’s a bit more. In the past couple weeks I’ve spent a lot of time on these. The main thing I don’t like about doing interior work is trying to not damage all the plastic pieces, but I think that’s why I get given these jobs, because I work slowly and carefully and actually follow instructions.

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Rounded Off Drain Plug

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Dan

There are two things wrong with this picture, one may be more obvious than the other.

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