Dirty Air Filters, Volume 3

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Dan

Over the past year since the last batch of dirty air filters I posted, I’ve accumulated pictures of a few more impressively filthy filters.

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Learn From Your Mistakes

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Dan

Last week I had a rough day that reminded me that it’s okay when you make mistakes, you just have to learn from them.

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Odd Seat Adjustments

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Dan

As a general rule I try to always leave customers’ seats in the positions they arrived in so they don’t have to adjust them when they get the car back. Sometimes that means I have to squeeze into cars with my knees pressed against the dash. The only times I do move the seats are when I have to test drive the car, or it’s a stick shift and I can’t use the clutch easily with the customer’s seat position.

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Throwback: Just Making It Work

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Dan

This week we’re revisiting a post from two years ago.

Many times when working on cars we encounter bolts in really awkward locations, that make it a pain to work on. The Toyota 4Runner has a bolt buried behind the alternator that took me an hour to get out. Hyundai brakes have bolts in the worst places, preventing using power tools and making a brake job take twice as long as it needs to. The bolts need to come out, so we just make it work.

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OBD Port Not Working? Check The Fuses

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Dan

If you ever plug a scanner into the OBD-II port on a car and it doesn’t turn on or can’t connect, chances are it’s just a blown fuse, as they often share with some other circuit.

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Tool Review: GearWrench Battery Carrying Strap

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Dan

This may be the cheapest tool I’ve reviewed, but one of my favorites. Batteries are often awkward to put it or take out of cars, so I looked around for something to make it easier, and found this.

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No Caliper Bolts

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Dan

Another car came in for a complaint of an unusual noise. I drove it around the parking lot and clearly heard a clunking from the rear when going over bumps. When I put it on my lift it took longer than it should’ve to find the problem.

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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 the car.

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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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