Fixing Cars

News Release Issued: January 19, 2010 11:46 AM EST

DETROIT, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ — Students will play a crucial role in the continued growth of the automotive industry’s future and can start getting direction in those fields when they attend Automotive Education Day presented by State Farm Insurance at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS).

Southeast Michigan and surrounding area school groups in grades 9-12 and at the college level are invited to attend Automotive Education Day presented by State Farm Insurance at the NAIAS on Jan. 20, 2010 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Cobo Center in Detroit.

The sixth annual Automotive Education Day will allow students to explore the many different career pathways available in all automotive fields through breakout sessions, lesson plans and one-on-one discussions with various human resources representatives.

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Update, we added more information on our Auto Repair Manuals and Car Repair Diagrams page with links to some helpful resources.

If you are trying to learn how to paint your car or perhaps you want a few books on doing your own car repair then these books are a great start. They contain great information for the beginner or even those who have been working on cars for years.

A good technical understanding of cars along with the correct car repair manual for your vehicle will help you familiarize yourself with doing your own repairs. Even if you’d don’t intend on starting right away, just having these materials will give you the proper introduction of what is to come.

Automotive Detailing Manuals will show the proper steps to maintain your vehicles paint using mechanical buffing machines. Its critical that you understand the various types of buffing compounds that are available.

An Automotive Electrical Manual will show wiring diagrams and wiring harnesses. The wiring diagrams or schematics will show your vehicles electrical system for finding bad grounds or locating the testing leads for verifying the proper signal or voltage is being sent.

Automotive Electronic Reference Manual: Illustrated / Print / Diagnostic Trouble Codes / Articles / Bulletins / Scheduled Maintenance
If you haven’t used these types of manuals before, it will be a little overwhelming with data at first. They have “exploded diagrams” of every single nut and bolt that your car has. You’ll know the part #’s and descriptions so you know what the particular part is called. This is helpful when trying to identify parts for replacement. Or even trying to figure out what goes where after tearing into your car to do repair work.

Additional Categories: There are many categories for finding books and reference materials for working on your project. Here are a few categories that have an abundance of selection when it comes to finding the manual you need:

Cars
Pickups, SUVs, Vans
Racing
Motorcycles
Hot Rods & Customs
Muscle Cars
Build Horsepower,
Haynes Books and Chilton Manuals
Trucks & Heavy Equip.
Railroads
Tractors
Ships
Collectibles
Calendars
DVDs & Videos
Prints & Posters

In addition to the repair books, you can find books on how to build horsepower, restore and customize your vehicle. There are categories like restoration, turbocharger, supercharger and nitrous, fuel systems, tools, brakes, and many more.

If you are ready to dive in Click here for Automotive Repair Manuals and have access to the same info your mechanics use.

The HID kit for a Mustang has ballasts, lamps, wiring and brackets. The xenon lights have connectors for the wiring harness to connect to the ballast.

The HID (high intensity discharge) upgrade takes about 30 minutes to install. The result is a dramatic improvement to visibility, with different color options. The options are yellow, typically for fog lights (3000K), white (4300K), pure white (6000K), super white / bluish tint (8000K), and blue (10000K).

The benefits in having the HID lighting is primarily the improvement in your vehicle headlights which usually average about 1200K, so you gain almost 3 times the actual light output. In addition, a typical headlight consumes about 55 watts, where the HID system only consumes about 30 watts.

The installation is fairly simple and straightforward. The mounting brackets for the ballast and wiring is all included in the package. The connectors allow for easy plug and play type install. This is an upgrade you’ll appreciate every time you are driving at night or in times where visibility is limited due to weather conditions.

Here is an example of a serpentine belt diagram you can find under the hood.

The diagram shows how to wrap around the accessories. A 1/2″ drive breaker bar works well to rotate the tensioner. The leverage helps because of the pressure it takes to overcome the tension place on the belt.

Traveling long distances and going on roadtrips is good reason to keep a spare belt in the trunk. This is mainly because of the many different sizes available and the chances that in an emergency you aren’t spending days trying to source new one.

A new serpentine belt will help the cars performance as it drives the accessories and the alternator. The vehicle’s computer system is calibrated and dependant on the voltage coming from the alternator. A worn out serpentine belt can reduce the output of the alternator, thus reducing the overall engine performance.

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1.  Radiator flush - This can be done at most oil change stations for around $40.  They use a pressurized method of flushing so that all the old stuff gets out and you have clean system with fresh antifreeze. I had a car with over 100K miles on it and never really thought to check the coolant let alone have it flushed, but when I did I was shocked. The amount of crud that comes out is unreal, and when its done you can be sure you’re not going to have problems in the cooling system.

2.  Tire pressure - Be sure to check your tire pressure because it can fluctuate in cold weather. There are usually gauges built into the air machines at gas stations but they’ll stab you for $.75 at most of them. You may find one that will activate the air for free if you pump some gas. Maintain the right tire pressure and you’ll get better gas mileage too.

3.  Gas tank - Try to avoid letting your gas tank go below 1/8 tank because depending on how cold it gets you could have some issues with freezing. I’m a chronic “on E” driver, and sometimes I seriously think I’m going to run out of gas in the most inappropriate time / place.

4.  First aid / Emergency road side kit - Keep one of these in your trunk and have some essentials such as road flares, matches, emergency blanket, jumper cables, first aid, lock deicer, map, disposable camera, etc.

5.  Ice scraper and brush

6.  Refill your windshield wiper fluid

7.  Replace windshield wipers

Deep Snow. Icy Intersections. Advanced Technlology. Perfect Weather for Tires. Shop for Winter Tires.

Finding a good price, the right part, and the information - why is it such a pain to get all 3?  I’ve broken this up into three parts because it covers a lot of information.  This first part is to cover the issue on pricing.

First off, if you are hunting for the best price just be wary of imitations and knockoff parts.  I’ve seen products, such as shifter cables, literally fall apart in my hands right out of the box.  They are cheaply made, with poor material, and will cause more frustration than they are worth with the hassles of returns and fitment issues.

For obvious reasons I won’t go into said example with details about the manufacturers name only because it isn’t something worth my time and energy, I’d rather point out the quality stuff.  It doesn’t necessarily cost more if you weigh the consequences of going down the cheap path.

What is quality when it comes to car parts?  How can one recognize it and differentiate the good from the bad?  These are mostly questions that come from experience, trial and error, but because others have tried you can benefit from not following the same mistakes.  Most enthusiasts will share this information for the good of the group, in the hopes that more people won’t be stuck with the same conclusion.  Car enthusiasts are a tight bunch, they want to see others enjoy their car and get value for the money they put in, so this is why its such a valuable source.

A brand name can carry a sense of quality and workmanship that people appreciate and share with others. That’s really a key indication right off the bat, when consumers speak highly of a brand, because in today’s world we look at reviews, feedback, and it carries a significant amount of weight when trying to decide between brands.  A forum has a search, and instantly you’ll find out whether others have had success or have had nothing but problems.

So where are the best places to buy parts?  Ebay and Amazon both have a marketplace for buyers and sellers to conduct business.  There are some fairly large automotive performance mail order websites such as Summit and Jegs.  What about those seemingly large companies that sell online but don’t seem quite so large when you call them?  There seem to be new ones popping up everyday, and perhaps you may not know but many of them are owned by the same company, just operating multiple different websites.

If you call with a technical question, its obvious that getting any meaningful information is highly unlikely and that leads to purchasing the wrong products, costly returns and a nightmare for manufacturers having to accept these losses.  These companies are good at SEO and electronic data but what do they know about the project you’re working on.  The industry is just not at the point where the data is accurate enough and until then the best way is to speak with someone who’s installed the part(s) you’re looking to buy.

These could be enthusiasts on forums, a local performance shop, or some local car clubs where you can meet and learn about what types of parts to buy and which to avoid.

The main thing is that you really need to have the part number, and with that you can search for it online if that’s your preference, but using the part finders with year / make / model is just like rolling the dice.  The next time you want to buy a part online simply get the right part number and then try entering it into a search engine, and hopefully you’ll get not only a good price, but someone who is knowledgeable and has information for you about the parts as well.

Look for Part 2 in the next day or so - Verifying that the part will fit your car

Car repair can be an expensive problem but there are some things you can do to minimize this expense.  For starters, when you first notice something going on with your car don’t put it off even if you think it could be a big expense.  There are all sorts of ways your car will show signs that somethings not quite right from a check engine light to some strange noises that you’ve never heard before.

If you all of sudden see that check engine light illuminate don’t fret it because thats just an indicator that some sensor picked up an error and stored a code that can be referenced to indicate why the light came on.  It can be something simple as not fully tightening the gas cap, or you floored it and RPM’s reached a dangerous level.

If your car is 1996 or newer you have an OBDII system which stands for “on board diagnostics”.  Older vehicles used OBD1 and the devices used to read the code isn’t as readily available.  Autozone offers a free service to read the code for you on OBDII cars.  Simply pull in to the parking lot and ask them if they can’t pull a code for you.  It literally takes minutes for them to plug in the reader and then tell you what code you have set.

The code is one data point you can provide to a repair shop if its something you’re concerned about.  If you demonstrate some level of knowledge about the problem it helps the shop determine the most probable cause and they can give you some additional information over the phone.

The other types of problems that arise like brake problems, engine problems or transmission problems may be a little more difficult to find out the cause without a deeper knowledge about your car.  The good news is that you aren’t totally out of luck, the internet makes it easy to do some research.  If you know how to describe the problem the odds are good you can find others who’ve had the same problem.  So try entering your year / make / model and the symptoms you have like “brakes squeaking” or whatever you are dealing with.  You might not find the exact answer but after you read a few results you may notice that a common cause is that you might be hitting the metal indicator thats designed to let you know the pads are dangerously low and in need of replacement.  If you notice the brake pedal shaking it could be the rotors are warped and may indicate a slightly more expensive repair.

No matter what, now that you’ve gathered a bit of information you can find out what it would cost to get repaired.  You can simply call a couple shops and ask them for their rates for new pads and rotors and compare prices, ask them if they only use dealer parts or if they use aftermarket as the bill will be more expensive for dealer parts.  Keep in mind that scams do exist, and though it may appear to be a legit family run business, there are some things that mechanics just don’t want you to know about.

If you have a serious need to save money then here are a couple more tips to keep in mind.  You can research the price of the actual parts to see if the shop is marking them up too high.  You can call the dealer and ask them for the part numbers for the pads and rotors and enter those numbers into google and see what you find.  You can call a local Autozone, Napa, Shucks etc. and ask them to cross reference the number to an aftermarket replacement and also ask about the warranty they offer on the parts.

Now that you’ve done your research and have a figure in mind you can walk into the shop and negotiate a better deal with them.  Print out the parts you found online and see if they can match the price.  It may be a long shot but odds are you’ll be getting charged quite a bit less than walking in off the street without a clue.

If this was helpful to you and saved you some money just remember TuneyFish when someone else has a car problem and how you dealt with it.

With the economy the way it is, some people may be interested in doing some additional DIY projects and changing the oil in your car is one that may come up.

Its not the cleanest of jobs so the first thing you’ll want to do is get a set of clothes on that you don’t worry about getting ruined.

If you have an owners manual, look up to see what type of oil they recommend using. If you need synthetic, Mobil1 is a great brand.

If your car tends to burn oil, meaning you have to add oil between oil changes then you might want to consider using a oil designed for higher mileage engines. This will cost slightly more but you should really notice a difference in the amount of oil it burns. There are also products known as honey oil which can have a positive effect but in many cases they are just a temporary fix and will reduce the oil burn rate.

So get setup with the tools:

1. Oil filter wrench - This is a tool used for loosening and removing the oil filter which can become very hard to do by hand due to the amount of heat and length of time its been in place.

2. Ratchet and socket - Each application is different so check to see what size socket you’ll need to remove the drain plug.

3. A catch basin - These can be purchased at any local parts store and they come in a variety of different ways. A very basic metal pan is just round and completely open on top. Another type is plastic and its top is enclosed with a slope towards the center in which the oil drains down and through a small threaded hole. The hole has a plastic plug that is put back in once the oil is completely drained.

4. Funnel - Plastic or paper funnels are fine.

5. Rags - For clean up and to wipe the dipstick after checking the level.

6. Floor jack or ramps - Need to get the vehicle raised in order to get at the oil pan. Obviously the ideal situation is with a lift.

That about does it for the tools, now to discuss the materials.

1. Oil - Usually about 5 quarts of your favorite brand

2. Filter - Get the proper filter as specified in your owners manual, AC Delco are a good choice.

Step 1. Drain the oil

Once you are ready with the tools and the materials you can get your vehicle in position so you can access the drain plug. Its a good idea to have a few rags with you just in case you miss the pan.

With the vehicle raised (note: Extremely important to have all your safety procedures followed, jack stands, e-brake set, etc.) position the pan below the drain plug.

Raise the hood and remove the cap from the oil filler neck. This will allow the oil to drain smoothly. Then go under the vehicle with the ratchet and begin loosening the drain plug.

Don’t be in a hurry because when it’s ready to come out you are going to notice that it doesn’t just drain straight down.

This is what the rags are for. So when you have only a few turns left have one hand on the pan and get ready to move the pan so it catches the oil.

Once its fully drained you can reinstall the drain plug and tighten it. Do not over-tighten the plug.

If you had you car on a floor jack you can now lower it back down, this will make it easier to access the oil filter which is under the hood.

Using the oil filter wrench get it around the filter and loosen the filter. Unscrew it and be sure to keep it upright as it will be full of oil. You can toss it in the oil pan and discard it later.

Take the new filter out of the box. Dip your finger into the old oil and just run it around the rubber seal once to help give it a good seal. Screw the new filter on and snug it up with the filter wrench. Do not over-tighten it.

Now get your funnel placed on the filler neck.

Open your first quart of oil and pour it in. Once you’ve emptied the 4th quart take the dipstick out, wipe it off and check the level. You may need to add another 1/2 quart or so.

Once the oil level looks good you can put the dipstick back in. You can now go and start the car and let it run for a few seconds. That’s it.

The only thing left is to dispose of the oil. Most local auto parts stores allow you to bring your old oil in and recycle it at no cost. Simply walk into the store and ask them where you need to take it. Usually they’ll point you towards the back and you can hand it to a worker. They’ll hand you back your empty container.