One day there was a really nice looking 60’s Ford Bronco parked next to the building next door, so I had to go look at it.
One day there was a really nice looking 60’s Ford Bronco parked next to the building next door, so I had to go look at it.
Ever since I bought my car, a 1997 Honda Civic, the interior dome light hasn’t worked when on the “door” setting. It would work with the “on” setting, so I could clearly tell it was receiving power. Because it wouldn’t work when any of the doors were opened, I could tell it was a problem between the light and where the wires from the four door sensors come together.

Many high-end performance cars have brakes that come painted, often red, so a popular appearance modification people do is to paint their brake calipers themselves. There’s paint sold specifically for this purpose, in spray form.

Up here in the rust belt, everything gets rusty, especially exhaust systems. And when we need to replace part of the exhaust, it often requires heating up the nuts and bolts that hold it together so they’ll come apart.

It’s already December, which means Christmas is coming up. If you have a mechanic in your life or just a tool fanatic, here’s a couple suggestions for tools you could buy them, with links to these tools on Amazon.

So far the only dirty air filter pictures I’ve posted were the cabin air filter, but once in a while I do find something in the engine air filter.

Taking a little break from the usual Thursday post, because it’s Thanksgiving here, and I just wanted to write a little post about some things I’m thankful for.
I’m thankful that I found a career I liked. There’s no way I could stand an office job. I’m thankful that I don’t have to move away from home to get a job as a mechanic, there’s no shortage anywhere.

Photo by Hannah Kathleen Photography
One of my neighboring techs was doing a used car inspection, seeing what was needed to get it ready to sell. Once in a while we find interesting items left behind in cars, but this one was the biggest I’ve seen.

It can be really hard to guess whether we’ll have the parts we need for some jobs or not. A car needed a new glove box and we had it, which I didn’t expect at all, but then something I would is more common, we don’t have.

So many times I’m working on a car and run into problems doing so because the engineers don’t expect you to ever work on them and put things in the worst locations. Brakes are a frequently serviced part of the car, but some designers don’t seem to realize that. Toyotas are very well designed and easy to work on, but the few Hyundais, Kias, and Infinitis I’ve done brakes on were a pain.