Broken Wheel

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Dan

Up here in the north, our winters are pretty hard on our roads, leading to lots of potholes. Until it warms up enough for the highway crews to fix them, the roads become a minefield for tires and wheels.

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Collision Repair at Home

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Dan

Last winter my sister had a little run-in with a guardrail when she lost traction in the slush on the road. It was a pretty slow hit so it didn’t do too much damage.

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Bent Wiper Blades

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Dan

It’s winter up here in New York, and my particular area is statistically one of the snowiest in the country. This year hasn’t been that winterlike, but we’ve had some recent cold and heavy snow.

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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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