My Car: Plans for 2016

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Dan

Last year, right around the time I graduated school and got promoted at work, I finally bought my first car.

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Bad Dipstick Location

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Dan

In yet another edition of “what was the engineer thinking?” we have an example from Ford.

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Broken Coil Spring

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Dan

When I’m given a used car to look over to find what’s needed to make it sellable, I usually start off with a test drive. But when I got into this Camry, and pulled out of the parking spot, I heard a very disconcerting noise. An occasional loud popping sound that would make me cringe. Because I didn’t know what it was and it sounded bad, I drove right into the shop instead of taking it for a drive.

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Tighten Your Lug Nuts

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Dan

Of all the fasteners on a car, some of the most important are the lug nuts. You don’t want a wheel coming off.

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Bad Machining Job

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Dan

When I first bought my tools, at the start of my first semester of automotive school, I got a whole bunch of Snap-On stuff. I didn’t know that much about tools at the time, so for a while I thought this was on purpose.

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In my set of combination wrenches, 10 to 19mm, the 19mm box end was just round. For longest time, at least a year, I thought it was on purpose, though I had no idea why it would be. Then at school I noticed a classmate’s set of Snap-On wrenches all had properly machined box ends, so I got a replacement from the local Snap-On guy, and managed to keep the old one. I’m not sure how a wrench could miss that portion of the machining process, but it’s a cool thing to have.

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-Dan

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Animals in Cars

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Dan

One of the last things you want to find in your car is an animal. Another bad thing is finding evidence they’ve been there. Animals can do lots of bad things to a car, from chewing wires and hoses to getting caught in the serpentine belt. Thankfully I haven’t seen the latter, but I’ve heard of it.

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Who Needs a Bumper?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Dan

I don’t take many pictures while driving, I always make sure I’m stopped. I was on my way home from work one day and spotted this one.

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Quick & Dirty Fix: Heater Coolant Valve

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Dan

One morning on the way to work, I discovered I had no heat in my car. Not a nice thing when it’s cold out. The engine temperature gauge was reading normally, so I could tell it wasn’t a lack of coolant. It was consistently cold, not intermittent, so I knew it wasn’t just air in the cooling system.

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Plastic-Wrapped

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Dan

A customer brought their car in, saying there was a crunching sound when turning. I took it for a short drive to confirm, and did hear a little something.

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Old SSTs

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Dan

Years ago, long before my time at the shop, my dealership used to sell Buicks along with Toyota. A strange combination if you ask me. Relics of that have always been around, one of them being all the old Special Service Tools (SSTs) in one of our tool rooms.

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