You’re no doubt familiar with using a vacuum to test an A/C system’s ability to retain its refrigerant without leaking.

Sometimes they sputter for a while first, and sometimes they just drop dead in an instant, but every automotive fuel pump will eventually fail. For most motorists, this means a no-start or (making no slur against a certain carmaker) a fount-on-road-dead. Then the fix-it job for most cars is neither cheap nor quick.

We’ve selected some of the more interesting and commonly encountered problems we have heard recently.

Today we have automotive electronics from bumper to bumper, and we’re up to our elbows in electronics every day.

Our primary responsibility when we write up a repair order is to do our best to repair the problem in a professional and cost-effective manner.

This begins several articles we’ll do about independent training services – training, that is, with no direct connection to and no dependence upon any carmaker, toolmaker, parts manufacturer or reference information provider.

A “constant-velocity” joint doesn’t turn at a constant velocity; it moves a roughly the speed the driveshaft does, as the motorist decides.

With electronic blackboxes, we’re now used to the idea that a machine can be too small to see but still big enough to work.