Idle Talk about Engines (Causes of Rough Engine Idling)
November 26, 2023
When you slow down at stoplight, your vehicle's idle should be smooth as silk. But what happens when the engine is missing or idling roughly? That's your engine's way of telling you, "Hey, I've got something wrong with me and if you don't get someone to find out what it is, I may not start the n... More
When "Oh, no!" Turns Into, "All right!"
September 24, 2023
Things we don't expect happen to our vehicles. And let's face, no one really wants to spend money on an unexpected repair. But if you are putting off going to your vehicle repair facility because you're dreading bad news, you might just be putting off some good news. There was one minivan driver ... More
The Edible Engine
September 3, 2023
You may have had a friend whose vehicle was the victim of hungry rodents. After all, mice, rats and squirrelseven rabbitshave been known to gnaw on wires in engine compartments, causing vehicle electrical systems to go haywire. They can disable a vehicle completely and be very expensive to fix.... More
DOG FOOD IN YOUR ENGINE (Keeping Rodents out of your Engine)
July 2, 2023
A technician was telling us the other day that he was servicing an engine and spotted something he'd never seen before: A collection of dry dog food siting on a horizontal metal ledge near the base of the engine. It was neatly stashed and was in a spot where the food pellets couldn't have simply... More
A Squirrely Problem (Animals Nesting in Engine)
June 18, 2023
If you park your vehicle outside, you are exposing it to all sorts of critters that would love to use it for nesting, food storage and shelter. There are plenty of pictures online of people who've discovered there was more than an engine under the hood. In one case, the driver of an SUV started... More
That Vexing Vapor Venting (Vapor Coming out of Vents)
June 11, 2023
You may have noticed sometimes on a hot and humid day, vapor will come out of your vehicle's vents when you have the air conditioning on. Is that something to be concerned about? Well, it depends. Sometimes that steam or vapor can be caused by water accumulating in the vent system after it has c... More
In the Hot Seat (Repair and Maintenance of Seat Heaters)
February 12, 2023
It's chilly outside. You flip on that switch that looks like a picture of a seat with little heat waves rising from it. You expect soon you'll feel that warmth but wait! It's not getting warmer. Oh no, what's wrong with my seat heater? There could be lots of reasons it's not working, and it cou... More
The Part You've Never Seen (Flat Tires and Solutions)
January 22, 2023
They say your vehicle has one, but you've never seen it. And you might not even know it if you stumbled on it accidentally. We're talking about the jack, that tool that allows you to lift one corner of the vehicle up so someone can change a flat tire. So you say you'd never try to change a flat ... More
The Best Book that's Not a Best-Seller
November 13, 2022
Sometimes the movie is better than the book, sometimes it's the other way around. But when it comes to your vehicle, the best book of all is the owner's manual. The plot is simple: Owner wants long life and dependable performance from the vehicle, manual has the way to achieve that long life and... More
Tacky or Techie? The Tachometer.
October 9, 2022
There's a gauge that many vehicles have that says RPM on it. And there are a lot of people who either don't pay any attention to it or don't even know what it is. Here's why it's a good gauge to know about. It's called a tachometer, and that "RPM" label means it is measuring how many revolutions... More