Trace Elements: Part Two
There’s little doubt that some of you will still be skeptical about the merits of the scope, thinking that all this high tech stuff is a waste of your time and money.
Mirage
For at least the last 15 years, American automakers have been telling us that they couldn’t make a profit manufacturing and selling small cars.
“In Your Face”
Some technicians have become very apprehensive about working on our around cars equipped with Supplemental Restraint Systems (SRS).
Driveability Clinic: Back To Basics
As an independent repair shop tech, you get stuck working on whatever comes chugging, grinding, and smoking into your parking lot.
Trace Elements: Part One
This month’s Driveability Clinic article about a Mitsubishi-built Dodge Conquest with a feeble minded control unit, raises some interesting questions about ways to troubleshoot a car with a complicated driveability problem.
Driveability Clinic: Process of Elimination
“The computer’s bad.” I don’t know about you, but this is always the hardest diagnosis for me to give.
Gasket Case
Oil leaks. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but sometimes it seemed like all we fixed from one end of the day to the next was oil leaks.
Driveability Clinic: Fuel Pressure
How many times have you spent an entire afternoon looking for a problem, only to find that the whole thing was caused by something simple like a loose battery terminal connection?
Cores
Someone once suggested that heater cores were the first part selected from the parts bin during the assembly of a new car.
Tech Tips
Honda Carb Tips; Jetta ECU Grounds; Inner CV Joints; Fuel Pump Cries Wolf; Broken Radiator Drain plugs; Voltage Drops And EGR Valves; Speaker Wire Tracer
Tighten Up
The missus drives a Honda Accord. It’s an ’88, four door, five speed. Not a bad little car. Reliable. Dependable. All the things mother likes in a car.
More Or Less
If the system has enough assist to make slow speed maneuvers relatively easy, the steering wheel ends up feeling like it has been disconnected from the front wheels at higher speeds.
Driveability Clinic: Mercedes Diesel injection Timing
The start of ignition in a diesel engine is similar to the beginning of spark in a gasoline engine with spark ignition.
Audi-O-Visual
Dim the lights please. We’re almost ready to begin our Audi-O-Visual presentation. Our subject this month is electrical troubleshooting on Audi vehicles.
Tech Tips
Toyota Fuel Smell; Magnetic Attraction; Take Two Aspirin and Call Me In The Morning; Nissan Truck Idle; SAAB Idle Problems; Misdiagnosed Oil Leaks; Weird Science; Toyota Throttle Body Deposits; Wheel Cylinders
Water Pumps
Water pumps come in a wide assortment of styles and shapes. On many cars, they are now driven by the timing belt instead of the more traditional v-belt setup we saw for years. Either way, water pumps are largely neglected until they fail completely.
Swift Sprint
Do you think of a family of automobiles produced by Suzuki, a company better known for manufacturing motorcycles?
Six Pack of Trouble
Six basic types of electrical problems which can affect an electrical system.
Driveability Clinic: Pass Fail Four Gas Troubleshooting
More of our metropolitan areas are being selected as EPA testing continues to show that air in these “congested” areas isn’t up to standards.
Driveability Clinic: The Vacuum Gauge
When was the last time you took your vacuum gauge out of your tool box to help diagnose an engine performance problem? It’s probably been a while, hasn’t it?
Six Pack Of Trouble
There are only six basic types of electrical problems which can affect automotive electrical circuits.