New model changeover is a fact of automotive life.
Cool Honda A/C Troubleshooting Tips
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Box Lunch: 1986 Nissan Stanza 4×4 Wagon No-Start
Twelve Winters and haphazard maintenance had taken their toll on the Stanza’s once-clean engine compartment.
Tech Tips
Leaking Fuel Pressure Regulator; Three Bimmer Tips From Bruce; Random Surging Problems; Worn Bushings; Adding A/C Oil; Battery and Cable AVR Test
Tech Tips
Honda ABS Code 1; Volkswagen Parts Substitution; Don’t Drop The Ball(s)
Midnight Oil: Interactive Emissions Training
The Smoghouse software is divided into three basic sections. Each of the three menu options on the main screen is hidden behind a garage door on the Smoghouse shop.
Hot-Wiring Today’s Car
Cars scuttle along the undulating surface of our planet at the bottom of an ocean of air twenty miles deep. They troll that ocean for its perpetually recirculating oxygen to burn their fuel and continue their scuttling travel. Sometimes their engines need a lot of air, when accelerating or climbing a hill. Sometimes they need […]
Honda Code Breaker Part Three: Fuel Injected Hondas
If you’ve been working on and around a single vehicle line as long as I have (Hondas in my case), you’re bound to pick up the subtle nuances that distinguish one vehicle and its systems from the next. Some people call this ‘product knowledge’ and the only way to get it is by piling up […]
Turning and Burning
Last month’s “Scoping Out The Problem” described a misidentification of an ignition system that temporarily prevented an accurate diagnosis. The technician Jorge Menchu was trying to help thought he was working on an ignition system that employed magnetic sensors to provide the ignition control unit with crankshaft and camshaft position information. This turned out to […]
Tech Service Round-Up
In five years, you’ll look back at the ’99 models and think, “They were pretty simple.” But you won’t think so now. Technology is coming with a rush, and although items related to OBD II still are emerging, a lot more is coming on stream. In addition, a lot of the so-called “routine” underhood service […]
Test Bench: OBD2Scan Software
Who’s the biggest computer manufacturer in the world? IBM? Nope. Compaq? Sorry, guess again. Dell? Wrong. Believe it or not, the world’s largest computer manufacturer is General Motors.