What are some car-repair jobs you always wished you could do but have never done?

Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me. I think about those tools once a decade, but they just sit there otherwise, all packed up neatly.

I forgot about those shims I would slip in to adjust the overhead valves. And I forgot about getting the distributor in the right place.

That bumper came in handy but you had to remember to pull the center wire! :)

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RS Wood
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You bring up pinging, which, I forgot, we now have knock sensors to help control, so that's likely one more reason for longevity (that is, no pinging can occur nowadays, at least not until it overpowers the retarding of the timing that the knock sensors do).

Reply to
RS Wood

I think they should make adjustable wrenches illegal. I can't for the life of me figure out a use for them.

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RS Wood

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Japan was smart enough to listen to him.

Back when they were GOOD tools. The last Craftsman tool I bought was a

10mm socket (yeah, I know, like everybody else I have a LOT of them, I just couldn't find one) -- I peeled some of the chrome off with my thumbnail.
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Cheers, Bev 
   "If you like to stand on your head and spit pickles in the snow, on the 
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Reply to
The Real Bev

The aluminum alloying science has made leaps in the last 50 years - and so has steelmaking and heat treating. Never heard of Cryo treatment years ago. Never heard of powdered metal either. Lots more chromium and moly and cobalt etc used in exotic steels today too.

Synthetic rubbers and plastics have also improved in thousands of ways in the last 50 years. This means seals , belts, hoses, etc can ALL last MUCH longer than their older counterparts.

Emission management , as I noted previously, does a lot more than make cleaner air. How do you think we get as much horsepower out of a 2 liter engine today as we got out of 5 or 6 liter engines in the very recent past???

The oil pressure sensor has nothing to do with it until the engine fails. The coolant temp sensors are much more accurate than they used to be, and now they actually do something more than telling you if the engine is overheating. The oil level sensor is also an afterthought and basically un-necessary - as most engines will go over 3000 miles without using ANY measurable amount of oil.

I've explained it in another post

What is the average MTBF on certified aircraft engines???? Most are doing good to get over 1500 hours. at 60mph that would be only 90000 miles in a car. Many have the top end rebuilt long before that - or cyls replaced. They also burn prodigious amounts of oil.

You don't see it because you do not understand all the implications of fuel mixture control.

There again, you have no comprehension of the inticacies of corrosion control and metal primers etc - not to mention seam sealers. Goes WAY beyond the surface coating, color and shine.

It's more the prep than the paint - but the paint has REALLY changed in the last 20 years - more rhan in the previous 100.

The timing changed when the points wore, among other things.

And you don't think plastics and rubbers have changed appreciably for the better?

Even back in the early seventies I was using wires that allowed me to run my old Chrysler products with a carwash hose trained on the ignition system. The cheapest wires today are better that those top quality "space age" wires.

And unleaded gas is one of the main reasons this is possible today.

The platinum is a large part of this - you never saw platinum plugs in the past. Iridium finewire plugs were the hot item for snowmobiles and bikes back then - and they were PRICEY.

Believe me, as someone who worked on Toyotas back in the very early seventies, quality was not their strong point back then They rusted like a ford (or worse) and they had metalurgy problems in their aluminum heads, and a lot of other places. What made the difference is they learned from their mistakes - the Japs have never really been inventors - but they can refine a poor design into something fantastic

- that's what they do exremely well.

Most cars were junk at 10 years back then. People didn't put on the miles they do today, generally speaking, but I've put a LOT of vehicles over the 200,000 mile mark in the past.

But if they have to work too hard, the bigger engine won't need as much repair - so it sometimes more than ballances out.

She doesn't have a "honey-do" list that, in her mind, takes priority over the car repairs?? "you haven't got it fixed YET???" -

At least my oldest is back in the country most of the time now - even though she's only been "home" for about 3 weeks since the middle of September and she'll only be "home " for about 15 days between now and Christmas. "home" being about 5 miles from here. She will be in Africa and Asia the rest of the time (work)

Reply to
clare

BUT you do need to replace the rotors (wrecking yard is probably OK) if you kept putting off changing the pads until they stopped squealing and the backing plates started grinding deep (1/4") grooves into the rotors. Amazingly enough, braking worked just fine until the hogging-in started.

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The Real Bev

Speaking of ratchet box wrench, I learned long ago that the "fancy" tools were worse than the simple tools.

There's nothing wrong with a box wrench. Nothing.

It doesn't need plastic inserts. It doesn't need a ratcheting mechanism. It doesn't need replaceable heads.

All that stuff makes it BIGGER (which is bad when it matters). All that stuff makes it WEAKER (which is bad when it matters). All that stuff makes it less reliable (which is bad too).

KISS.

Reply to
RS Wood

While I'm sure the fault is always mine for buying *anything* but garbage bins that is made of plastic, I'm not as confident as you that the material is so easy to figure out.

For one, we still don't know what material the garbage bins are made out of (coating or otherwise).

So asking wouldn't work unless we knew what answer we wanted to hear. What I'm saying is that it's not so simple.

I'm also assuming that NOBODY here knows what the answer should be. Do you?

What chemical are we looking for?

Luckily, Costco takes anything back (except electronics), even years later.

I don't disagree. I hated working on mufflers. That was before my gas welding days.

With a gas welder, removing mufflers would have been a *lot* easier.

Not gonna disagree. It's like replacing "just" the water pump. Once you rip all that stuff off, you may as well do the thermostat, hoses, radiator, cap, overflow tank, etc.

My bimmer is approaching 20 years on the same exhaust system.

Reply to
RS Wood

Not so. There is a BIG difference between some good rotors and some cheap one - bad metalurfy will cause hard spotting, and glazing and pitting and warping. The trick is finding the good ones -

Or retractor tools for rear disc brakes with integral e-brakes.

No, some rotors DO warp. So do some drums. Most "warped" rotors, however, are either pitted or hard spotted.

The kind of stuff you learn working on hundreds of cars a year for 1/4 century, and supervizing a shopfull of mechanics for a decade.

Reply to
clare

I have not changed an exhaust system or a muffler in about 20 years - and my current vehicles are 16 and 22 years old. But then I buy REAL cars that come with stainless exhausts from the factory.

The last system I had to replace I put on stainless for only a few bucks more than OEM (Ford Aerostar). Lasted another 140,000 km before the truck was scrapped.

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clare

Because they need to sell you picnic tables to stay in business. The garbage collectors smash up the bins so they still get replaced.

Actually, it's both.

You won'r buy it for $29.99 if it's made of the "good stuff"

I gave up on patching mufflers after the first one.

It is on most cars - actually from the manifold back - and often even the (tubular) manifolds.

Reply to
clare

Lots of good stuff there.

Good stuff there too.

Ok. Good stuff there too.

Gotta agree. Mine leaks not a drop.

Can't disagree with you.

Gotta be true because rust buckets don't seem to exist anymore.

See above. No rust buckets anymore so there is truth in there somewhere.

Yeah. I forgot. It has been, oh, how long since we adjusted timing? Decades at the very least.

Maybe. I still see lots and lots of buna o-rings that should be viton.

Gotta agree with you. Wires don't even exist much at all but those that do exist, seem to last a long time nowadays. We used to replace ignition wires with every second or third tuneup, as I recall.

I even bought the set where you cut them and made them to fit. Dumb idea because they stunk the most.

I don't know enough to disagree. Detergents (polyetheramines) probably helped too, Techron be known.

Must be the platinum because a plug is a simple thing. I'm sure engineers fret about every little thing, but pretty much you buy the right one and put it in. I never found anything useful about changing the heat ratings. It's amazing to me that we don't gap them anymore though.

You'd wonder why the gap mattered in the days of yore and now it doesn't matter. I don't get that.

Yeah. I forgot about my "Z" cars (Datsun days). They were rust buckets.

Yep. 10 years was about it. Now it's 20 years. Double.

Not gonna take you up on this one. There's no such thing as 'working harder'. Just not gonna fly with me. The torque curve is the torque curve and the gears do the fixing of that for me.

The SIZE is physically different. I'm not gonna believe a small engine has to 'work harder' than a big engine and so it won't last as long.

Nope. That's the one thing you're going to have to prove to me. (The rest I believe you on.)

Yeah. But I don't think she even remembers my name anymore. :)

That's another thing. My kids have been flying to other countries since they were born. When did YOU first leave the country? I think I did when I was in my thirties. Maybe late twenties. Boy oh boy though, did the airplanes have service!

But that's another difference in the days of yore!

Reply to
RS Wood

Ltad oxide and lead sulfide conduct. Lead sulfide is a semiconductor (galena?) formed by reaction of lead and sulphur in gasoline.

The lead sulfide cannot be blasted off (it is yellow/green) and causes severe misfires

The platinum is NOT plating - it is a platinum chip welded to the (usually copper cored) steel electrode. Many have plat chips on the ground electrode now too.

Reply to
clare

A good low impedence multitester, and occaisionally a "power injector", and occaisionally a logic tester (generally part of the power injector)

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clare

Nope - just a real shallow socket on a steel bar about 1/8 x 1/2 x

16"
Reply to
clare

I do it all the time. Cut off the flanges and fit a pipe over the joint. Clamp or weld the sleave. Use stainless pipe and stainless clamps. The flanges rust off because they are welded with mild steel amd/or are not passivated after welding.

What crap are you driving??? Most have been stainless steel for over

20myears.
Reply to
clare

I'm confused by what you wrote, especially in context with the words "warp" when rotors never warp (or almost never, and never in terms of mattering).

So anyone who *thinks* rotors warp, is an idiot.

The replacing of rotors is also determined by idiots most of the time because people don't have the concept of measuring the thickness because many people don't have the concept of owning a micrometer.

I can't count the number of times I've heard someone say to replace the rotors on the second pad change, where the real answer is to replace the rotors when they are worn down to the minimum thickness (everything else being ok).

In general, the rotors are ok except for pad deposition which is solely a driver-caused problem (long story later if people ask).

Sure, grooves can be there but gouges have to be the size of the Grand Canyon to matter (just look up the specs, you'll see) so grooves are, in reality, not what makes rotors into paperweights.

Sure cracks can happen, glazed hard spots can happen, and yes, even warpage can happen but realistically it's not gonna happen. So it's thickness that matters. (Excess runout is usually something else and that's what the dial gauge is for anyway.)

In practice, the way you determine when/if to replace rotors is so simple that it's not funny. If they're thinner than the stamping says on the edge, then you replace them. If they have one thousandth of an inch more than the stamping says, you keep them (they'll certainly lose that thousandth of an inch but the stamping takes that into account).

I get about a thousandth of an inch per thousand miles roughly.

Pads? I wear them down to the metal backing. Well, just one moment before it reaches the pad backing. Although that means replacing the $15 sensor sometimes, if I'm lazy.

The beauty of doing your own brakes is that they don't ever worry you. You do them when you do them. You can wear them down to the bone. And then you just do them.

The only rule is that if anyone tells you their rotors warped, run (do not walk) run away fast. Don't look back. Run.

Reply to
RS Wood

I call that crap "knuckle busters"

Reply to
clare

Most are made of polypropelene. Some are made of Polyethelene. The table was likely made of ABS orPVC

Most are made of polypropelene. Some are made of Polyethelene. The table was likely made of ABS orPVC

Reply to
clare

There are very few things I'm gonna disagree with you on.

Just like the garbage-bin guy, it sounds great to tell me to buy the right plastic (or coating) after asking what's the plastic (or coating) used - but in practice that's shit advice because there are a billion kinds of plastic and you have to know which are the better ones.

Same with rotors.

I've heard everything there is to hear from people telling me about crappy Chinese rotors. While I generally go Brembo or Meyle, if someone else gave me a good price, I'd go with them.

If I hear one more guy tell me to buy Zimmerman drilled and slotted, I'm gonna go postal on him. He's the same guy that insists that rotor warp caused his brake-related vibration at speed. Run, do not walk, run away from those people.

Same with anyone who tells me to buy good solid rotors.

I have nothing against quality but you can't tell a good solid rotor from a bad solid rotor if they're the same thickness, same cooling veins, etc.

You just can't. How are you gonna know the metallurgy? Really?

You can't. You just can't.

Unless you give me a way to tell (other than just saying a brand name), then I'm not gonna believe the advice ... not because it's not true advice ... but because it's like saying don't breathe when someone farts.

You can't give advice that is unusable in practice.

Specifically, how are you gonna know a good rotor metallurgy from bad rotor metallurgy if all you have are two unbranded rotors in your hands that are the same size and cooling vein arrangement?

I forgot about that tool. Yup. $10 and you have a brake-pad-sized C clamp that pushes the piston(s) back into the calipers. Thanks for reminding me of that tool. I only have one, which is fine - but someday I'll buy a second one so that I can do both wheels on an axle at the same time. :)

Nope. But I'm not ever going to say that a rotor "can't" warp (because it can).

But I will tell you I have heard ten thousand times that some idiot says his rotors warped and each time I asked him how he *measured* it, and guess what?

Never once in my life have I found a single person who has *measured* the warp.

You know why? They don't even know *how* to measure rotor warp. They don't have the tools to measure rotor warp

(Hint: It requires a flat benchtop and feeler gauges and it's not hard - but they don't know that because they didn't measure a single thing.)

Nobody but nobody who claims their rotors warped actually measured a single thing. They lied. Worse, they don't even realize they lied. It's like the original sin. They have it and they don't even know it because they were born with it.

Street rotors just don't get hot enough to warp. They just don't.

It's pad deposition I tell ya. Now it could be other things too. But I'll betcha 90% of the time it's uneven pad deposition. And 0.0000000000000001% of the time, it's actually rotor warp.

What makes the morons think they're geniuses is that the short-term solution to both pad deposition and rotor warp is the same.

It's the long-term solution that is different.

That is, while the short term solution to both is the same, the long term solution to rotor warp is completely different than the long term solution to pad deposition.

And that's the shame because these two solutions are nothing alike even though most people do the wrong solution since street rotors just don't warp (in practice) because they can't get hot enough to warp.

Nope. Street rotors don't warp in practice. They don't get hot enough to warp. Look it up.

I'm not gonna disagree with you on too many things, but if ANYONE is gonna tell me their street rotors warped, I want them to tell me at what temperature steel gets that flimsy and I want them to tell me how they MEASURED the warp (because never once have I found anyone who said they warped who knew those two answers).

Sure you can *LOOK* up the answer. But they never did the measurement so they can't ever tell me offhand what I already know they don't know.

Reply to
RS Wood

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