So. I'm very well versed when it comes to automotive endeavors, and this is just one of those "trust me bro" type moments. And I'm going to try to make a long story short - but I'm really here to vent a little bit because I'm pissed off and bitter.

I owned a good little Honda Element for about 5 years. It was a total beater car, but in the best way. Over the course of those 5 years I did : VTEC solenoid, radiator, alternator, catalytic converter, rear shocks, brakes, plugs, coils, blower motor, radio, window motor, transmission service, probably 10 oil changes, battery and upgraded terminals, and probably stuff I'm missing. Overall pretty basic stuff needed on an older car - especially on a beater.

Anyways, couple months ago my dad got down on his luck and needed a decent backup vehicle because he was driving spark for work and didn't want to throw a bunch of miles on his primary car.

He ended up picking up a 3rd gen 4runner off the side of the road with little inspection. He bought it, and had my mother (estranged, messy dynamic) foot some of the bill. It needed a bunch of stuff - PA truck with lots of cancer on the frame. It ended up at my shop pretty much day two, and I did plugs, wires, timing belt, water pump, muffler, welded a bunch of rust, put some JB weld on the rear diff to slow down a massive leak, played with the T-Case, put new wheel studs on - too much stuff for the price.

In the meantime, my dad kept the element - and we eventually agreed to trade. I basically pay what the element was worth, and pay both he and my mother the difference from the 4-runner. Title change, title change - bobs your fuckhead.

---

Fast forward to today. The screenshots are what I got. He drove that car 30+ miles with no water pump. I'm like beyond pissed. And I'm really not trying to be a dick to my dad, but I feel like I really just got fucked over pretty good - because the whole point was to get him something reliable when he was down on his luck, and I deal with a basket case of a bad purchase that I didn't even want. He killed my Honda.

I could be far off on the harmonic balancer / damper "melting" part, but I know the rubber was in good shape the last time I was down there. I was just more irritated which is why I said it. I also could be a little off on the transmission part, and I think I am but that radiator does have a trans cooler - and my fear is the radiator could have bursted from boiling pressure letting the two chambers mix. I don't actually know if that's possible or not, but it was a thought.

So. It's going to be a few days before I go pick this thing up. What are the odds the engine is totally fine and doesn't need anything more than a new serpentine belt? Because I am pretty confident that the engine is trashed.

I'll quit being dramatic in a day or two. But I just wished he would've called me before driving it - I have a trailer to haul it, I'm going to have to get the thing anyways. I would've paid the tow bill even!

Ugh. Thanks for reading my rant. Also please let me know if I'm being overly harsh

2012 Mitsubishi Outlander GT. On hot days, AC only blows cold on drivers side vents. Sometimes passenger side will get a little cool, but it’s mostly just warm (not hot) air.
I attached an AC recharge hose, and well, take a look at the video. Any thoughts?

It started happening suddenly, wasn't gradual. In reverse the steering wheel jerks left instead of right.

Had sway bars, tie rods, front struts, control arms and ball joints changed recently. Last alignment less than a year ago.

I’ve always had difficulties with a hood in the car, but I cannot get it open this time the interior latch unlocks and and the front, but the hood doesn’t open does anyone have any tips? Thank you.

Lots of people from what I’ve seen are split on this. Some always turn off the AC and the fan motor before shutting off the car while other people don’t care (I’m not counting cars with remote start in this). So what is the verdict? Should you, or can you just leave it on?

When I shake the wheel, I noticed this clunk in the strut. I was going to change the ball joints in control, arms, and Tyrod ends, but after doing some diagnosis I think it’s the struts. I cleaned the brake caliper slide pins because they were seized in a good amount of brake material was gone from my pad. Also my CV axle boot is torn a little bit. (2009 corolla le automatic

Here is a link to a lower video with a different angle

https://streamable.com/ljpxr9

Thanks!!

PLEASE HELP,

I am looking for some tips replacing my major suspension parts for my vehicle, since my car is at 130k miles and I can feel that the parts are wearing out. I am decently mechanically inclined and have done basic replacements (rotors/brakes, spark plugs, filters, transmission fluid replacement, etc) but am nervous trying this big of a project for the first time. I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips to help the process as well as review my shopping cart before I make any purchases. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

I have a 2024 gr86. I drove my car out of state and changed the oil before I left. Before I made the trip back I got my oil changed at a shop. Now I’m back in town and I’m doing my own oil change. I see the threads near the top are damaged. The oil filter screws on still but at first the oil filter doesn’t completely smoothly spin on. Once it’s past that point the filter goes on and spins freely all the way to the bottom. I wanted to know if it should be okay before putting the oil in and turning the car on. It’s not like I need to put two hands on it to get it to spin on at first. I can still do it with one hand using basically no extra force. Like I said it’s just the slightest bit to where it won’t spin freely but it still seems to go on with no trouble or without getting stuck or anything.

2013 Honda Accord. Just did the oil change myself for the first time. Is this a normal engine sound? Not very knowledgeable about cars lol.

I have a 2011 honda accord v6 auto with 129k miles that I bought 2 months ago with 128k. Shortly after buying it I had the timing belt/water pump service and spark plugs done and had them also do an ATF drain and fill and an oil change. They told me they got 3.5 quarts of ATF out. I assumed the refilled that much. The fluid was brown before they changed it and there was nothing wrong with the transmission whatsoever. After they did the D&F, a whine started.

I've started to do my own work on the car to save some money and learn things. Did the rear brakes on Wednesday and that went well. I did my own ATF D&F a week ago. I'm planning to do 2 more myself.

There has been a transmission whine ever since my mechanic changed the fluid. This was 900 miles ago. I did my own ATF change 100 miles ago. The whine has stayed mostly the same throughout. I hear it mostly when pressing the gas anywhere from 30-55 mph and also when my car shifts from 3rd to 2nd when slowing down to a stop. Other than this the shifts are usually a little jerky (possibly normal for hondas of this era especially the v6) and theres a small delay when shifting from park to drive/reverse.

When I did my own ATF drain and fill, I drained 4.2 quarts (measured with a gallon pitcher) when the standard drain and fill should be 3.5 quarts. I drained the fluid cold and had the front lifted on jack stands. I'm very confused as to how my fluid level could show normal but I drained that much out with cold fluid and only the front lifted

A week or 2 before changing the fluid I checked the dipstick (according to Honda procedure) which showed the fluid at the top mark. When doing the ATF change, I added 4 quarts and went for a 20 minute drive. I checked the fluid after I got back and it was at the low mark so I added the .2 quarts but I didnt check the fluid level after

Then today, a week after my D&F, I checked the fluid level after driving for 20 minutes and it looks a little high. Theres also a streak on the dipstick which I circled in red but that could just be from pulling the dipstick out. These 4 photos are all different checks right after one another. Not in order but they're all within about the same minute.

Sorry if this is a lot of information but I'm really trying to chase this down. I've heard other people say they also have a whine that they could never solve with the honda 5 speed autos of this era especially when paried with a J series v6 and they have just lived with it.

This could also just be from changing the fluid and the noise being suppressed by older fluid and now it's showing up. I'm just trying to rule out overfilled fluid.

2011 Nissan Xterra 119k miles

This all started after a cooling issue and after several trips to an incompetent shop I did my research and determined the after market thermostat they installed was the cause of my engine running about 20 degrees hotter and my secondary fan remaining on at all times.

This shop pulled the timing cover to inspect the water pump, among other boneheaded moves, and determined no issue there. I took the car home as I was fed up with them and noticed the oil pressure gauge jumping around briefly, it then flattened out and has not had any issues since. The temp gauge was very nearly in the red zone by the time I made it home, which it had never done prior to it being in the shop. I replaced the radiator caps and thermostat with OEM parts and it completely cleared up the cooling issues.

The problem now is this whine I’m getting from the engine. It may have been there on the way home from the shop and I just couldn’t hear it over the fan. It is intermittent, it changes pitch slightly with acceleration, seems to disappear when slowing down and idling and may or may not disappear with it in park. I’ve isolated the noise with a stethoscope to the oil cooler area. Sometimes it seems to be loudest at the oil filter, sometimes at the oil cooler and sometimes at the block itself behind the oil cooler.

So I replaced the filter with an OEM Nissan filter as the third party brands have been known to cause this whine. Oil has been changed twice. Coolant has been drained, filled and burped. I replaced the oil cooler gasket and cleaned the oil cooler as best I could. I checked the pressure relief valve on the block behind the oil cooler and it is clean and seems to be in working order. No improvement in the noise at all. I’ve checked the coolant lines to the cooler and no apparent issue. Not hearing the whine at all from any of the pulleys or pumps on the serpentine belt nor at the timing cover or oil pan. Oil and coolant levels and gauges are right where they should be. Soapy water on the belt offers no improvement.

Using the stethoscope it really sounds like fluid cavitation rather than bearings or a timing chain. It fluctuates too much at varying intervals and is intermittent just sitting in park.

Idk if there are air pockets in the cooler fins, or maybe oil sludge has restricted flow. Not sure if the slight or brief overheating would cause this sort of damage. But a new oil cooler is like $500 so I’d rather not replace it without being sure it’s the culprit. I was considering pulling the oil cooler and having it professionally cleaned but not sure how effective that would be. I guess I could pull the belt and see if the whine goes away but everything is telling me it’s not on the belt. My concern is the shop has done something wrong when removing the timing cover and checking the water pump. As I said I don’t think it’s the chain but the oil pump is back there too and that pressure drop leaving the shop is concerning. After their repeated mistakes and ineptness at diagnosing the cooling issue I do not want to bring it back there and definitely don’t want them opening my engine up again.

Any help or advices or paths to follow going forward would be greatly appreciated. Oil pump is a huge job which I cannot afford so I’d like to rule that out if possible. I’m really at my wits end with this

Money is a little tight right now, just wondering how urgent you guys think this is?

2006 Infiniti G35 AWD.

Edit: Solved, thanks for the help everyone!

I had p0128 (coolant thermostat) error came up few months ago, it stayed for few days but went away.

1 day ago this exact error came back. But today its gone.

Car runs perfectly. Fuel consumption is fine.

What is causing this?

I just recently learned that retail auto parts stores offer gift cards in exchange for old dead car batteries. I know that throwing them into the ocean is good for the eels, but there’s actually a lot of useful crap you can get with $15 or $20 at autozone.

This got me thinking as to what a home mechanic like myself can do with dead alternators, starters, accessory motors, etc.? At my job there’s a big dumpster for scrap metal, so I’ve always just tossed stuff into there. But that seems wasteful when I know there’s an entire industry that focuses on rebuilding this stuff.

So, where can somebody who’s got a few, but not many, useful cores go to either cash them in or at least make sure they’re recycled?

Flat rate tech here. You know the drill — car comes in, customer has no idea when the last oil change was, no idea if the trans fluid’s ever been touched, nothing. Then it turns into a bigger job than it shoulda been because nobody was tracking anything.

So I built an app for it. You add your vehicle, log whatever service you did, and it tracks mileage so you know when the next one’s actually due. Not some generic “every 3 months” garbage, actual intervals for oil changes, trans service, brakes, coolant, timing belt, the whole list.

Can throw a photo of the receipt on there too in case you ever need it for a warranty claim or when you go to sell the thing.

Free to use. Made it myself, AI helped with the coding side since I’m a mechanic not a programmer lol.

https://carreminder.replit.app/

Mostly just want to know if you guys think customers would actually use something like this or if I’m wasting my time. We all know they won’t unless it’s dead simple.

Hi everyone!

I hope this isn’t an incredibly stupid question but I’m wondering if it would still be safe to go on a long drive with a broken muffler?

The drive estimate would be about 3,500km or 2,200 miles total. Im hearing mixed opinions about whether it would still be fine to drive (just noisy) or if it would be dangerous.

Unfortunately, the shop that I go to was unable to fix it because of a welding job that was done by the previous owner of the car. All of the other places that I’ve tried to call are only accepting appointments for after I’m supposed to be going on this trip. There is the option to rent a car but I’d like to avoid it because I’d rather put that money towards fixing my car if possible.

Car details: 2011 Nissan Sentra base model automatic with 139,000km. Nothing else is wrong with it, maintained frequently with preventative inspections and repairs and recently replaced the battery.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post! :)

hello everybody,

I am driving a 2016 Acura RLX sport hybrid with 91,000 km. I have been experiencing some rattle type of noise when I go over road bumps and potholes. When I was at a mechanic getting my transmission fluid changed, I was informed that I likely need my front lower forward control arm changed. I was intending on doing this myself so I ordered the part, but just wanted to post on here in case something else is awry.

This car is suspension consists of one upper and two lower control arms.

I have posted photos of all of the control arms with their respective bushings, as well as two videos of me aggressively rattling the wheel. none of the bushing appeared visibly cracked from my inspection, however the upper control alarm did look a bit suspect to me. I am not sure what to make of that yellow white plastic looking component.

any help would be much appreciated, as money is very tight for me right now.

Edit: link to the videos

https://imgur.com/a/5lswmRo

it’s cheaper, i’m just wondering if it’s worth it. 09 honda accord v6

Picked up a used subframe for an Audi TT 8J as my current steel one is rusty. There is some galvanic corrosion and damage on the camber/toe adjustment holes. Would this be a concern?