Car questions

Online auto service manuals have been around for a long time and they are a reliable source of top quality car repair information. The Web based on demand systems are now available to the general public for the lowest price I have ever seen for professional auto repair information.

You can have the exact diagnostic chart or wiring diagram you need to fix your car right the first time in less then 5 minutes from now. This is so much better then the overview type books carried by many auto parts stores!

One of the most common problems with cars is the failure of the water pump, on higher mileage vehicles. The replacement of the water pump provides a few challenges for the Diy auto repair mechanic.

One of the most common car problems that you will run across on high mileage cars is the leaky water pump. Vehicle manufacturers are making the same quality water pumps that they did years ago.

The problem with this is that vehicles today are used well over 100,000 miles. Even the best water pump will need to be replaced at around this mileage. This common car problem will affect almost every vehicle made today, whether it is a Toyota a Chevy or Mercedes-Benz. A water pump just will not last forever. Since the water pump failure is one of the problems with cars that affect so many different models, I really can't get into the exact replacement of the water pump for your model.

There are many online auto repair programs that can guide you step-by-step through the replacement of your water pump. My favorite online auto repair help program would be All-Data online Diy! If you replaced your water pump, and you have an overheating condition bleeding the air out of the cooling system should be your first concern.

Back in the 70s when OPEC learned how to flex its economic muscles, gas prices shot up and U.S. consumers demanded alternative fuels. A few years later when the crisis eased and we got accustomed to higher prices, the idea lost ground. The same thing happened in 2008 and 2011 but with each new push forward the pull back seems take longer.

Even if gas prices pull back for a little while you can be sure this will be temporary and short lived. Be ready for the next storm to hit the driving public. I put some facts together on this subject and show you how to save every day by changing your driving habits with safe hypermiling techniques.

I will use a specific example to show you how this works. You go into a chain store to have your car disc brakes checked. The shop could do a standard brake job or a hang and turn as we call it. A hang and turn is replacing the brake pads and resurfacing the rotors. This service would retail for around $110.00 but the shop would prefer to make more. So they recommend a brake system overhaul. This will mean different things to different shops. In most cases they are talking about overhauling the brake calipers by replacing the seals in the calipers.

A caliper seal kit is very cheap in parts cost and very high in labor costs. The seal kit usually has about 3 or 4 rubber seals in it and cost the shop about $3.00. They then charge you $20.00 for the kit and another 2.0 hours per caliper to install the seals. But here is the scam part. The caliper seals are internal and it's hard to verify that they were actually replaced. The outer seal known as the dust seal is usually the only seal that will get replaced during this unneeded service. The mechanic then throws away the remainder of the brand new seals. The shop usually includes a brake system flush in this service, which I will attack in a moment.

Brake job scams the system overhaul

The first issue to address is do we really need a caliper overhaul. In most cases no we don't. Why is this true? The manufacturers make fantastic calipers from the factory. The reason being it is an extremely important safety related part. The manufacture must be sure their vehicle meets stopping distance requirements.

They must also be sure that the calipers are over engineered to last for the life of the vehicle. The manufacture cannot afford to go to court for lawsuits on brake system failures. Now with this being said do calipers ever need to be overhauled? Yes on rare cases this is the case. But there are warning signs that the service is required. The Number one sign that a caliper is failing is a strong brake pull. To explain, this is when the vehicle pulls right or left during braking only. The harder you brake the harder it pulls to one side. This is because a caliper is binding on one side or the other. Equal braking force is not being applied.

Brake system overhaul

Tell tale sign # 2 is if the red brake warning light is illuminated on the dash. This can indicate the brake fluid is low and may be caused by a brake fluid leak from a caliper. In any case the way the caliper service should be addressed is to replace both front calipers at the same time. I do not trust the individual mechanic to overhaul my calipers.

I would rather replace both front calipers with either new or re manufactured calipers. This way you are assured you have reliable calipers installed. Some re manufactured calipers come loaded with new brake pads and now you have new calipers and brake pads that the mechanic can just bolt on. This requires very little skill from the mechanic and makes for a very reliable repair. Very often you will find that the shop will recommend brake hoses and complete brake fluid change along with your brake overhaul. Once again the factory uses high quality hoses and parts in the brake system to prevent deaths and law suites. But if your car is 10 years old and has over 100,000 miles they may need to be replaced.

This is were you start asking questions and ask to the see the needed parts. When brake hoses go bad they start to deteriorate and crack on the outside. This is highly visible and easy to confirm. In rare cases the hoses will fail internally and cause a brake pulling condition that may be mistaken for binding caliper. But again the vehicle would pull hard in one direction when braking only.

Brake job scams fluid flushing

Now onto the brake system flush. Some shops just throw this in with the brake job like fries with a burger. It is an easy sale and increases profit on a simple brake repair. The brake system flush is the complete replacement of the hydraulic brake fluid. Brake fluid changes are not recommended by the manufacturer because the brake fluid system is a sealed system that requires very little service.

Once again the manufacture makes a very reliable hydraulic braking system not because they love you but because they don't want to go to court for killing people and its bad for sales if that happens. Is a brake system flush ever required? Yes sometimes it is needed. When it is needed it can usually be traced back to fluid contamination. That is when somebody opens your master cylinder reservoir to check the fluid level and either lets dirt or moisture get in the system. I have also seen a few times were someone will add something other than brake fluid to the reservoir and cause massive failure to the hydraulic system. When this happens the fluid will turn pitch black and the brake system seals may be damaged. Visit my website for more information about auto repair scams!

1,001 horse power and 922 pound-feet of torque 0-60 in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 253 mph. The car sells for 1.2 million dollars and I can't believe I am saying this but it's worth it. The technology stuffed in this package is mind blowing. I wouldn't want to work on it but I would pay big money to drive it. The car magazines are all coming out with stories on this unique super car. This article will be a sampling in my own words of what I learned about this mechanical marvel.

Lets start with the things I have never seen in my 23 years in this business. The Bugatti has a horsepower gauge on the dash, this like an on board dyno meter that reports the horsepower at the wheels at any rpm. Also on the control panel is the power key that lets the vehicle obtain its maximum speed. This power key activates on board systems that lower the vehicle by 2 inches and opens undercarriage airports to actually suck the vehicle to the road using a Ventura vacuum effect.

The power key also deploys the rear wing to provide additional down force at high speeds. Now onto the automotive technology in the engine compartment. The 8.0 liter 16 cylinder engine has 4 turbo chargers that provide the neck breaking horsepower. Believe it or not this engine gets 19 mpg on the highway, which is better, then my Chevy blazer. The power gets put directly to the road using the most advanced automotive technology I have seen. The rest of this article can be viewed at my fast hot cars page.