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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

16"

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.

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.

I call that crap "knuckle busters"

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

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.

Doesn't burn any either - and it's 0w20, not 20w50.

Except Mazdas, Chevys, and Dodge trucks - - -

They now come pre-gapped - and the gap is HUGE - .060 to .085" instead of .028 to .035 - so accuracy is relative.

They don't wear/erode any more, so you don't "re-gap" them any more, By the time the gap has changed the combustion seals are getting iffy too, so younjust replace them.

With 20,000 volts, the gap was critical With 60,000 - not so much!!!

Or even 30

When I drive a 2.3 liter 4 cyl ranger down the 401 , my foot is pretty much on the floor, the manifold vacuum is zero, and the engine is working it's poor tail off. The 4 liter V6, is just loafing, throttle barely open - manifold pressure about 13-15 inches - barely working. A LOT easier on the engine. The gearing is such that the 4 cyl is turning 3000 RPM, the 4 liter 2200, and a 5.7 liter iforce Tundra about 1200 RPM at the same road speed.

Makes a BIG difference on engine wear and life.

As for "working harder" - specific power output - the amount of torque and horsepower per cubic inch of displacement -

Call it whatbyou may, but a small engine "works a lot harder" than a big engine to do the same work. - and generally doesn't last as long.

I left Canada for Africa at 21. I had been to the USA many times by then. I was out of country for 2 years.

My daghter turned 16 in France and had travelled to Mexico several times before that. She was an exchange student in France in Grade 10

Yup - no service on planes now unless you pay for it through the nose !!

Yup. It's gonna break when they are applying the most force.

All the kinky tools I just smile at when I see them in the store.

Basic stuff for me.

The only kinky things I need are the slimmer wrenches, the longer ones, the curved ones, the angled ones, etc., all of which are for the toughest jobs and where I generally buy them as oneoffs as needed.

Adjustable wrenches should be banned as a menace to society.

I have a logic tester for TTL circuits (TI 7100 series stuff, as I recall), but nothing for a car's "logic".

A good Fluke DMM is de rigueur though, I agree, for any homeowner.

And an attachment to measure the starter amperage.

But my point is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of "new fangled" tools that we need to work on for a car.

It's the same old tools, with minor exceptions of emissions and ECU/DMU/ABS control, isn't it?

The whole viscosity thing is a red herring where I live. You probably live in really cold areas, where it matters.

Where I live, a straight 30 or 40 would work just fine.

The whole "W" thing only lasts for a minute or two so it's gotta be cold to matter even the slightest bit.

Funny, but I never had any of them. I never had a truck though. Just cars and vans and SUVs, and, oh, yeah, station wagons in the days of yore.

Yeah. Plugs got easier. a. They last forever b. You don't gap them anymore (except in home tools)

And they're still cheap as they always were.

High voltage is nice. You'd think it would wear the metal, but with platinum, it doesn't.

The I4 and V6 engines are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT engines. Take Toyota's 3RZFE and the 5RZFE (from memory). Completely different engines. Both last forever.

Sure, one makes for more BHP, but in reality the gearing handles all that. Besides, did I mention they are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT engines?

You can't say one "lasts longer" than the other when all you're comparing is the external size of the engine.

All I'm saying is that the I4 leaves more room in the engine bay than does the V6. You don't argue with that, so we can accept that as a fact.

Now you're saying the I4 works harder and hence won't last as long, but I just don't take that on face value because I might not have mentioned this yet, but they're completely different engines.

Whether they last longer or not will depend on those billion completely different things, and not on whether they're working harder cruising at

60mph on the freeway or pulling into or out of your driveway.

How long an engine lasts has more to do with how many cold starts it has than what you call "working harder".

Besides, I might not have mentioned this, but they're completely different engines, so you can't compare one thing and say that one thing will make one last longer or shorter. You just can't.

At least not with a serious look on your face you can't.

Nope. Not gonna buy that elixer today. Logic prevails.

There are so many OTHER factors that matter far more to engine life than the size of the engine displacement.

Just too many.

I'm not gonna argue that the V6 has develops more BHP than the I4 but I am gonna let you know a little secret.

Two little secrets in fact.

1. They are completely different engines.
2. Even if they were the same engine, there are so many factors that matter MORE to engine life than displacement that displacement isn't a major factor in engine life anyway.

Now if you told me one engine had 10K cold starts and 20K short trips, while the other only had 1K cold starts and had mostly long trips, then

*that* would be a factor in engine life.

But even then, it would only be one of a zillion factors. Displacement is just not gonna be a major determinant in engine life.

You can sell that one to other people. Just not to me. Displacement is just not gonna be a major determinant in engine life.

And even then, you still get no service. :)