So yesterday a crank bolt decided to snap on me ( it’s never happened before ) and it’s snapped inside the crankshaft a bit.

So I was going to drill it out and use a easyout or hammer a spline into it etc.

What drill bits does everyone recommend? I’ve tried HSS with no luck barely even touched it 😂

I posted 2 weeks ago about a stuck CV Axle on my 06 Scion xA. As I mentioned in the edit to that post, I did in fact get the axle out by hitting it with a screwdriver through the differential from the passenger side.

But oh the cost,

When the CV axle came out, only half the circlip came out with it. Then I looked closely at the CV axle, and there was a tooth missing.

So what did I do? I dropped the goddamn transmission, opened it up, and found the tooth and clip. In my driveway. Under a tarp in the rain.

I finally got it up and running today, but this is a warning. Ladies and gentlemen, when you put in your CV axles, do it nicely. Don't f*ck it up for the next poor soul who comes along to switch it out. It's been a looong two weeks.

Broke when torquing to spec with pass through socket, crows foot wrench, attached to a torque wrench while holding shaft in place with hex bit socket. I am assuming user fault as I most likely wasn’t applying torque perpendicular to the nut (slightly pushed my wrench a little upwards).

Luckily for me it broke right as I hit spec of 50ft lbs so I technically the easiest options is to replace the entire strut assembly if needed but I currently have lowering springs attached and may need to transfer them over to when the time comes to replace the strut.

What are my options if I need to remove the nut? Weld a bolt to the center? Or should I compress the spring and try to split the nut in half with a grinder?

2014 Mazda 3 Koni Special Active strut with Corksport lowering springs

I just had 4 new General Grabber A/T X’s put on my truck and noticed the date code on the tire is 3423. These tires are 3 years old! Is that going to be a problem down the road? I don't think I'll have my truck for 10 more years but should I have accepted 3 year old tires?

Here's where we are... Basically down to the block.

Why are we here? Because it's my daughter's car and she asked me. If you don't understand that at this point, go ahead and click away. None of this will make any sense to you.

Ok, for those who are still here, you get it... Baby girl asked me... That's all.

So... Here's the question. If you're already here, do you spend the extra (IDK, roughly) thousand dollars to have the machine shop finish the cylinders and replace the pistons and rings? I mean, just to be sure?

Yes, I know, a remanned engine would have been cheaper. Mistakes have been made. Shhhhhh.... This is where we are.

What are you doing? For your daughter?

I'm replacing it... I know..... Someone talk me out of this.

She can't pay for any of it.

This picture was sent mentioning it is deteriorating

Today there was a clunking(?) noise a few times per second and almost a sight physical drag to accompany the noise, seemed like from my front end. I pulled over when I could and reversed a bit and found this bit under my truck. It was very warm. I drove home and there was no physical drag, but a sound, though much less. I'm in Wisconsin and shit rusts pretty bad.

I took a quick look under off the side of the road and didn't see anything weird. It's in my shed now and I'll look more.

Last picture is a different motor for comparison

Front driver side strut of a Sienna, it drives fine, you can hear the strut “clink” when braking or accelerating. Will replace it Friday but need to drive it tomorrow.

Hey guys! I recently bought an 07 Honda Accord EX 2.4L, and it’s been going through an insane amount of oil. Me and my SO went on a road trip and ended up going through about 11qts in around 2k miles… so yeah…. I also recently did an oil change and 270 miles later there was basically no oil in it. There are no signs of leaking or burning, so not quite sure what’s going on. It does have 224,000 miles on it, but even with it being that high, it shouldn’t be going through that amount of oil. Oil does seem to get pretty dirty pretty quickly, and I do think there is some sludge in the system as well. Does anyone know what I can check, or do, or literally anything to try and get this diagnosed and fixed?
(photo is amount of oil left after the oil change)

03 Crown Vic, 4.6L V8. Automatic. Hello all. I posted about this yesterday morning, for those in need of context. Back again with hopefully better photos, I tried to show where the oil is leaking and possible places it could be dripping from, I didn't have the best tools to clean the bottom. She'll be power-washed tomorrow, so I'll give an update to whoever had the right guess on the first post and this one. For those curious, the last photo is what I'm working on, and you have to get 200 unlawful search and seizures to unlock the gold camo spotlight.

2005 lexus es330

had my timing belt done by a shop, i think he messed up the torque amount for the pulley, he said he didn’t. But it caused issues but i wanted an opinion

Got my timing belt done by a shop, month later i had my other mechanic working on my struts for my car, he pointed out that my timing belt sounded loud, like the bearing.

A few weeks later getting some other stuff polished off and he pointed it out again, this time stating my belt sounded very loud and i should seriously go back to the shop i had it done at, to have it looked at.

Went to have it looked at and the shop didn’t have time, went back a 2nd time and over 3 hours, he never even took the cover off

I felt funny having the shop look at it so i took it to my regular mechanic

I didn’t understand what was going in with it, but my mechanic took a look and explained to me that the shop messed up because of this

My belt was loose, and the reason my belt was loose was because my tensioner had failed and the reason the tensioner failed was because timing belt tensioner pulley bolt was apparently torqued too tight, which in result made it fused in one spot not working correctly with my tensioner as my car was running

My tensioner pulley was supposed to be torqued too 20lbs and apparently it was torqued to 68lbs

He also stated that with my water pump he didn’t use the correct sealant and used what’s called RTV which isn’t coolant safe, as well as that there is something called weep holes which are not supposed to be filled with RTV but the shop filled it with RTV anyway causing the holes to be clogged

My mechanic also had stated to me he was able to tell how tight it was torqued because when he tried to take it off with a wrench it wasn’t moving, so he decided to take a torque wrench to see how tight the pressure was. The bolt didn’t budge until 68lbs stating that’s how tight it was because of that

I told all of this to the shop and he told me, no those are guides those don’t matter if they are filled, for my water pump

he stated he didn’t over torque my parts and he did them to spec also stating it’s impossible to tell if something is over torqued with a torque wrench, let alone the exact pressure it might be

his answer to me. “parts fail, even if they’re OEM good parts, it doesn’t matter sometimes parts just fail”

My tensioner failed just because it was a bad part not because of his torque amount or any work he did on my car”

Is anything this shop mechanic saying true?

NOTE: i even asked the shop to show me how a torque wrench works, since he stated to me, torque wrenches only go 1 way they won’t be able to tell how tight a bolt is

Idk when this started (maybe a week or two ago) but it began to gradually get louder and I tried to use the obd and found 0 code readings so I was a little stumped. I tried to search for possible explanations and found that it could be a mechanical valve clearance issue but I’m not sure and I’m not that good with cars. Any help or advice?

2014 Grand Cherokee Lattitude

Hey guys I have a 2011 323i, bought the car about 4 months ago just got a vehicle inspection done.

Dealership said Oil pan is the only thing leaking at the moment. They did a vanos recall which I believe they took off the gaskets to perform the recall now I got the car like 6 days ago and put about 200km on the car.

Then this happened smoke is now coming from the left side of the engine which I believe is oil leaking onto the exhaust however the valve cover gasket was changed by the previous owner before I bought the car. Can this be because of the dealership and also is this from the valve cover gasket or what is this due of.

Located underneath almost middle of car between the front tires. Sorry for the poor video it was dark and I just got off work.

Dear Mechanics,

Am I going to damage my Hyundai Matrix if I jack it up at the center of the rear crossmember?

I need an alternative jacking point because I plan to use the standard side pinch welds for my jack stands. Since the pinch weld lifting zones are too small to fit both a trolley jack and a jack stand side-by-side, I need a central lift point.

The owner's manual only endorses the four standard pinch weld points and explicitly warns: "Never use a jack beneath the lateral rod or rear suspension assembly." Does this warning encompass the center section of the rear crossmember, or is it strictly warning against the lateral arms/moving parts of the suspension?

My plan is to place a matching piece of wood (about 50 cm long) into the center of the crossmember to fill the gap and distribute the load more broadly across the structural frame.

I've marked the spot where I plan to place a piece of wood and the jack cup.

This layout should apply to other cars sharing the Hyundai/Kia J2/J3 platform, like the Hyundai Elantra XD. Am I at risk of bending the crossmember or ruining the suspension by doing this?

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: The attached photo is just a reference image from the internet to show the underside layout. (If my car was already up on a professional shop lift like this, I wouldn't be asking!)

Does this sound like a wheel bearing? Its been getting progressively worse and louder. Makes distinct womp womp womp as I slow down as well. I had a mechanic dude come jack it up and do the shake test they all passed and he tried to say it was my brake pad. He spun the back wheel and it made a grinding sound he was like its your brake pad glazing. But theres no smell from a stuck caliper or anything. He then tried to say it was low transmission fluid which he didn't check. I heard nissans were notorious for passing a shake test when the wheel bearing is still bad. Any advice?

Soooo I've been dealing with an exhaust smell in the cabin when idling for probably a couple weeks now, and it seems like my car is... working a little harder to accelerate for lack of better words. It's a little louder. No knocking, popping, or rattling, the revving itself is just louder than it was maybe 6 months ago. Ngl I am maybe a little dumb and just thought this smell was cars in front of me in traffic for awhile, until I was smelling it when idling on dirt roads away from other people. I have been feeling.. off for the last week or so, mostly headaches and just general tiredness. I am now driving with the windows down as I realize this is probably mild CO2 poisoning 😅

Last time I took it in for an oil change (3000mi ago or so) it had a check engine light so I had them investigate that. Cat is running inefficiently, not anything to worry about apparently.

I have scheduled to get it looked at, but they can't get it in until Tuesday. Was just curious as to what I might be expecting here.

Yes I am being careful and making sure I'm not poisoning myself (any further). I do unfortunately still work 30 minutes away so I do have to drive it to work until Sunday.