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fixing your car

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and you will know us by the trail of parts

Install New Windshield Glass

We've all heard the argument of the do-it-yourselfer. Doing the job on your own can bring a sense of satisfaction and save money. When things don't go right the results may not be so warming or economical. Thirteen beers or three fried alternators into a pile of sheared bolts and bruised knuckles can result in a job costing far more than planned. Sometimes the financial outlay in tools, materials, and time, don't add up to any savings for the do-it-yourselfer. Worse still is a job done wrong can be potentially dangerous. Replacing a cracked or old front windshield glass is one of these times. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Fri Sep 7 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
3,832 views, 21 comments

Latest by lascauxcaveman: I had a nice-as-new windshield in a parts car and the windshield guy refused to swap it over for me, more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Rebuild Your Carburetor

Back in the days of carbureted and plentiful used Plymouth Satellites, B-52's frontman Fred sang of the devil in his car. Beehive sporting singer Kate did Fred one better by wailing that she had the devil in her CAR-buretor! Having Beelzebub in the float bowl and demons clogging the jets is not a good thing at all. A carburetor rebuild can help exorcise evil spirits. More »

Feature

1:30 PM on Fri Aug 31 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
3,018 views, 24 comments

Latest by zxasqw12: Reminds me of a carb-related Henny Youngman riff... I came home from work. My wife met me at the door. She said, more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Replace Spark Plugs

Along with swapping out the air filter and changing the oil, replacing the spark plugs is one of the few things left that require service on a modern gasoline engine. Some newer than the twenty-year old junk classics in our garage have negated even this task with spark plugs made of space-age materials that can live with their head stuck in a combustion chamber for 100K miles or more. The first and most obvious task of the spark plug is to light the gasoline and air mixture aflame when the piston reaches the top of its compression stroke. The resulting burn pushes the piston back down in the cylinder. So it goes. The second and less obvious function of a spark plug is equally important. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Fri Aug 10 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
6,481 views, 28 comments

Latest by eb110americana: One more time with feeling... more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Weekend Projects Roundup

With the weekend nearly here, it's time to pop open the hood and take a trip down the trail of parts. Those battery terminals and posts that look like a high school science experiment gone wrong need to be cleaned. As long as you're there, find the right dipstick and check the oil. If it looks as if it could be bubbling up from the La Brea Tar Pits, then bust out the ramps or jack and jack stands and change the oil and filter. If the oil was that filthy, then checking and swapping out the air filter might not be a bad idea. After all that it will certainly be time to wash those microscopic contaminants and grubby hand prints off the car so you can look good while driving to get a Coney Island.

12:30 PM on Fri Aug 3 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
511 views, 12 comments

Latest by dculberson: Stinking Lexus dealer gave me the wrong part.. Instead of a no1 and no2 idler I got two no1's. more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Replace Axle and Oil Seals

The automobile contains a number of fluids that should all stay where they're supposed to be. Oil spots, coolant leaks, mystery drips, and other tell tale signs of fluids leaving their rightful place in the automobile are a sign to take heed of maintenance. Denying the existence of the ever-growing number of oil spots on the driveway is not going to make them go away. The source of the leak needs to be fixed. More »

Feature

12:15 PM on Fri Jul 27 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
1,593 views, 6 comments

Latest by TexanIdiot25: A/C is for for wusses. Real men have T-Tops: @TexanIdiot25: In the $600 it was new rear brake disks, pads, parking brake pads, seals, and labor. I believe that more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Finding Repair and Service Manuals

In our explorations into parts and parts replacement, we often mention the service manual. While there are certainly a large part of the monkeywrenching public who would throw directions to the wind, instructions can be a good thing when it comes to things like working brakes and wheels not falling off the car. Finding the service manual can be half the battle. Read on for a few tips for locating the books for everything from a 1971 Ford Pinto Rallye to a late-model Honda That's.
More »

Feature

12:30 PM on Fri Jul 13 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
2,074 views, 17 comments

Latest by Kelly626: Hi guys, I have a few service manuals and I am trying to find out how much they could be more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Replace Brake Pads

While there is a difference between brake pads and shoes, the desired result is always the same when the foot goes down on the brake pedal. Brake pads clamp down onto a rotating disc. Brake shoes push out Flintstones-style onto a rotating drum. Inertia gets turned into heat via the miracle of friction. If all goes well things slow down. Each time the brake pads clamp themselves onto the rotor to put on the whoa, a small amount of the pad itself turns to dust. A smaller amount of the brake rotor also turns to dust. Brake pads are by design supposed to wear out, and for obvious reasons should be inspected and replaced once in a while. Read on for a brake pad bonanza. More »

Feature

12:30 PM on Fri Jul 6 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
5,447 views, 14 comments

Latest by salguod: Nice write up. I'd add that those little flat heads holding the rotors on are frequently not necessary. more »

question of the holiday

What's The Worst DIY Mistake You've Ever Made?

Today's question comes to us courtesy of a reader we'll just call Gregor. True, there are some green zip ties lashing down the front of our WRX. Though, the plastic bolts they replaced were actually inferior. So we can't count that. We do remember a friend with a mid-80s Thunderbird that carried 5 gallons of antifreeze with him at all times because depending on the weather, his radiator would start boiling up green funk. But that was more stubbornness than DIY disaster. Could it be that we've never done anything boneheaded while fixin' our own car? And we're not about to count a 7-cylinder Pontiac as a mistake. How about you? – Jonny Lieberman More »

2:00 PM on Wed Jul 4 2007
By Jonny Lieberman
2,584 views, 34 comments

Latest by Frost Face: Tried to replace a winshield wiper, cracked a $600 windshield. Don't ask more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Bleed the Brakes

The fluid that exists as brake fluid is in reality hydraulic fluid. The helpful property of brake fluid is that it cannot be compressed. This comes in handy when the brake pedal is pushed down. Brake fluid links the parts of the brake system together as one. Brake pedal goes down. Friction is achieved! A hydraulic clutch also uses this same principle, and brake fluid to make shifting happen. An unfortunate property of brake fluid is that it is hygroscopic. Over time brake fluid draws moisture into itself all by itself. Bleeding the brake lines of air is an important step after brake work, and is also helpful to purge contaminated brake fluid from the brake lines. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Fri Jun 29 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
5,435 views, 15 comments

Latest by Khufu01: I have also heard that it's a good idea to not pump the brake pedal past it's normal range of more »

and you will know us by the trail of parts

Compression Pressure Test

Mechanical know how in our case has come largely from two sources. There have been those kind enough to show the way, and there has been the hard way. A long and proud lineup of 500-dollar cars has steered us mostly down the latter route. The way we learned about how and why to run a compression check on an engine came only after bolting on every conceivable replacement part to a 318 V-8 in a 500-dollar '67 Plymouth Barracuda in an effort to make the thing run better. A compression check revealed that the engine was closer to a V-5 and-a-half than a V-8. More »

Feature

12:30 PM on Fri Jun 15 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
4,836 views, 6 comments

Latest by rcarnesiii: I have 95 Ford Ranger and dropped the drive shaft last week on the way home from work. I dont more »