Author: David Sander
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“Free” Inspections
Many new car dealers offer “free state inspections” for life when you purchase a vehicle from them. Why would car dealerships offer this? The answer is to get you into the service department after the sale of the vehicle. If you were to have the dealership perform scheduled maintenance and repairs, they would make money…
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Frozen Calipers
Recently I have seen a lot of frozen caliper slides while replacing brakes. Some of these calipers were relatively new. Usually I can free up rusty frozen calipers with an ATF/acetone mixture, wire brush the pins, clean and lubricate the slides and reassemble the caliper. Sometimes, the slides are so rusty I can’t free them…
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Hot Spark Plugs Vs Cold Spark Plugs
In modern, computer-controlled cars, ignitions are reliable to the point where you rarely consider that they might fail. You have coil-on plugs, also called stick coils, snapped onto the tops of spark plugs, with not even a plug wire between them. The stick coils and plugs are typically hidden inside the engine under a plastic…
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A Franklin Automobile Enthusiasts
Do you remember the TV series Mash? Did you know those helicopters that flew in wounded soldiers were Bell 47s units….and the engines they used were Franklin engines? The Franklin O-335 air-cooled aircraft engines were six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed displacing 335 cu in with a power output of around 225HP. When the Franklin auto company went bankrupt…
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Saab 900
Absent any questions this month, I will briefly discuss some cars in my shop this month. Both of my sons now have cars. I wanted their first cars to be something durable, safe and inexpensive. Somehow, each of them ended up with a Saab 900 four door. When I learned how to drive, people maintained…
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Timing Is Everything!
A co-worker of mine just had an expensive experience with her Volkswagen. The car has the two liter twin cam engine, with a timing belt. The car had 85,000 miles on it, and had the original belt. This engine has five valves per cylinder, and it is an interference engine, meaning the valves will hit…
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A Positively Good Idea
Recently I attended a SCCV driving event. Part of their pre-event inspection is verification of a cover for the hot battery terminal. I checked my car a few days before, and realized the positive battery terminal was not covered. I spent a minute thinking of all the possible ways the positive terminal could be accidentally…
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My rear disc brakes with the emergency drum brake
This was the good news! Something strange happened to me last week. I loaded the garbage and the recycling into the minivan to do the Saturday trip to the transfer station, and the right rear wheel locked up when I backed up. As this happened, the rear axle made unpleasant noises. I thought the parking…
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One Thing Leads to…
With no questions to answer this month, I thought I would share an interesting story. Have you ever been putting off a big job, expecting it to be difficult, only to be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is? I have had this happen to me. I have also had what should be very simple…
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Rust Repair
Recently I have had two cars in the garage for rust repair, a Saab 900 and an MGB. The interesting thing is, on each car the rust was caused by poor body work. Each car had plastic body filler repairing a dent. The body filler was applied to bare metal. At some point, the body…