So, I decided to try a movie of how to do front brake pads on my Honda Accord. A brake job on pretty much any car has the same general concept. There are a few exceptions. Enjoy the movie, tell me if you would rather have the movie or just pictures with words. There are 3 videos and they go up to 480 P. I could only put out 10 min at a time. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeVVGSJwwPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd0gS0p-HKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ko23Wzjilo
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Spark Plug Wires on my 02' Toyota 4Runner 3.4 L V6.
Well, today I had a small battle. I did my spark plug wires on my 02' 4Runner. This one is pretty easy to work on as you can see by the straight shot of the engine bay (with a little Southern Utah sandstone mud from four wheelin'):
Toyota products are some of the easiest to work on for most repairs (at least from my experience). This job was no exception. One of the reasons why Toyota has made some of the most reliable vehicles on the road is due to their simplicity. This engine above is no exception. If taken care of, these engines go 400,000 miles without any major work done.
Since my 4Runner engine is non-transverse mounted, it was easy to take pictures of everything I did.
First I acquired the necessary parts:
Top is the spark plug wires, bottom is dielectric grease. Many people skip the dielectric grease, but I think it is important. It's purpose is to grease all the connections between the spark plugs, and the spark plug wires. The grease is special because it conducts electricity, and since these wires will be in here about 50,000 miles before I change my spark plugs again, it will make it much easier to remove the wires when the time comes. When the spark plug wires can not be removed because the dielectric grease is omitted, they can break upon disassembly later. The grease was about $1, and $1 well spent.
Next, the acquired the tools, which I owned already:
The tools necessary to do this job are: pliers, Phillips screwdriver (plus sign), common screwdriver (flat blade), socket set, needle nose pliers, a 11" x 3/8" ratchet extension, a 6" x 3/8" ratchet extension, ratchet, and spark plug socket. All these tools are very common and can be acquired with ease at any tool store.
First I removed the air intake hose (circled in red):
I undid the clips that hold the wire onto the air intake hose. The clips are marked in green. To do this, I used my needle-nose pliers. I then loosened the clamps with my Phillips screwdriver (circled in blue). The air intake hose is now ready to be removed from the vehicle.
This is the result:
Now we are ready to change the spark plug wires. Here is where my brother failed. You only do ONE spark plug wire at a time. DO NOT REMOVE ALL THE WIRES AT ONCE. Each wire has a specific place, and if you can't remember where it goes your car will not run right or at all. It doesn't matter which wire you do first.
When my dad was in high school, his friends thought it would be funny to remove all the spark plug wires and throw them on the ground while he was at a school dance. His car was a V8 so he had 8 spark plug wires to figure out where they went, in what place on the engine and what length of wire went where. It took my dad and my grandpa (who is a retired mechanic) hours to fix his car and make it run again. In my 4Runner, it has a different setup. I have 3 spark plug wires for 6 cylinders. This is due to these special coil packs. The coil packs say "Toyota" on them in the picture below.
I removed the three bolts holding the coils down onto the engine (circled in red), removed the connectors going into the coils (green) then I removed the spark plug wire connector (blue):
Since we are dealing with electrical connections let me give a huge caveat. DO NOT force apart any electrical connection. Take your time and figure out how it disconnects before you start tugging on them. NEVER pull on the wires themselves. In this picture above, the green circles have a tab that push in. Using my thumb, I pushed in on the tab and pulled out at the same time. DO NOT use dielectric grease on these connections. Since they are well covered with the plastic connector, it is not necessary. The connectors came apart easily with no trauma:
I then pulled the coil pack out, it has a long tube sticking down on the underside of what you see in the picture. Next the spark plug wires have to be disconnected and were a little tricky. I removed ONE wire at a time. They disconnect by not pushing in on a tab, but inserting my flat blade screwdriver at the bottom of the spark plug wire connector and lifting up.
I then followed one single wire to the other side of the engine:
To make things easier, I did remove the small bolt (10 mm) and the "DIAGNOSIS" connector above and to the right of where my hand is. As you can see, the wires are different on this side of the engine. To remove these, you twist and then pull up where the wire goes into the small circle. DO NOT pull up on the wire itself. Twisting the wire before pulling breaks loose the connection to make it easier to pull up. With one wire removed from the vehicle you get this:
I then removed the spark plug using my 11" x 3/8" ratchet extension. I acquired a special extension where it locks the socket in place. The spark plug socket has a piece of rubber in it to hold the spark plug in the socket so when you pull the spark plug out, it comes out with the socket. When installing a new spark plug without the locking mechanism, you can pull out just the extension and not the socket. It is a little frustrating to try and pull out your socket by itself.
I then put a little bit of dielectric grease on top the spark plug where the wire is going to connect to the wire. I then put the spark plug back in the engine.
To install a new spark plug you apply a high-temp anti-seize compound onto the threads of the spark plug. It looks like metallic grease. I then put the spark plug into the socket attached to my extension. ALWAYS start threading the spark plug by hand. If you get immediate resistance, you have the spark plug cross-threaded. Loosen it and try again. There should be minimal resistance for a few turns. I then tightened the spark plug with my ratchet. I put a fair amount of torque on the spark plugs. DO NOT ratchet them down until you can't turn the ratchet anymore. THIS WILL CAUSE SERIOUS ENGINE DAMAGE! You want the spark plugs to be tight, but not super tight. A too loose spark plug can loosen itself, cross thread, and tighten itself. If you tighten them too much, you can strip the threads out for the spark plug. Either way, the threads for the spark plug are deep within the engine and require a tedious and expensive process to fix.
Now it was time for a new spark plug wire. All the new spark plug wires had different lengths. So, with the old wire and the new wire side by side, I could easily see which one it was:
I then put dielectric grease on the small end (right side in picture above):
I used my finger to move the grease all around the silver part in the center. I ran the wire where the old one used to be. I made sure that the new wires were well connected and tight by pushing down in the center of each end of the wire.
I then ran the other 2 wires and put dielectric grease on the 4 remaining spark plugs using the same procedure I have explained. I put dielectric grease on all the connections between the spark plugs, and spark plug wires. On the left side (driver side) of the engine, it was a little bit more hairy to get the spark plugs and wires out. For the remaining 2 wires, I did have to remove some brackets and move some other things out of the way. In my opinion, it makes auto repair much easier to move things out of the way if you can. This gives you room to work, just remember where everything goes when you put it back together. You shouldn't have any bolts left over. This picture shows what I thought was necessary to move out of the way in order to change the spark plug wires.
On the left of the picture, I already removed that bolt. The bottom circles a bolt that connects that big black bracket that runs to the top of the engine. I loosened the bottom bolt and undid the top bolt (indicated by the red arrow). This allowed the bracket to swing toward the back of the engine to get it out of the way.
I then put everything back in it's place in the order I removed it. Many removal procedures in auto repair are this way, but don't always assume that it is.
Next, I double checked my spark plug wire connections, and started my truck:
It runs beautifully! If the engine doesn't run right, shut off the engine, and double check all your connections.
Me = 4 Cars = 0.
Next post will probably be front brake pads on my 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe. I took it in for inspection yesterday and they are getting pretty low. I got an "Advise" on my inspection report.
Toyota products are some of the easiest to work on for most repairs (at least from my experience). This job was no exception. One of the reasons why Toyota has made some of the most reliable vehicles on the road is due to their simplicity. This engine above is no exception. If taken care of, these engines go 400,000 miles without any major work done.
Since my 4Runner engine is non-transverse mounted, it was easy to take pictures of everything I did.
First I acquired the necessary parts:
Next, the acquired the tools, which I owned already:
First I removed the air intake hose (circled in red):
I undid the clips that hold the wire onto the air intake hose. The clips are marked in green. To do this, I used my needle-nose pliers. I then loosened the clamps with my Phillips screwdriver (circled in blue). The air intake hose is now ready to be removed from the vehicle.
This is the result:
Now we are ready to change the spark plug wires. Here is where my brother failed. You only do ONE spark plug wire at a time. DO NOT REMOVE ALL THE WIRES AT ONCE. Each wire has a specific place, and if you can't remember where it goes your car will not run right or at all. It doesn't matter which wire you do first.
When my dad was in high school, his friends thought it would be funny to remove all the spark plug wires and throw them on the ground while he was at a school dance. His car was a V8 so he had 8 spark plug wires to figure out where they went, in what place on the engine and what length of wire went where. It took my dad and my grandpa (who is a retired mechanic) hours to fix his car and make it run again. In my 4Runner, it has a different setup. I have 3 spark plug wires for 6 cylinders. This is due to these special coil packs. The coil packs say "Toyota" on them in the picture below.
I removed the three bolts holding the coils down onto the engine (circled in red), removed the connectors going into the coils (green) then I removed the spark plug wire connector (blue):
Since we are dealing with electrical connections let me give a huge caveat. DO NOT force apart any electrical connection. Take your time and figure out how it disconnects before you start tugging on them. NEVER pull on the wires themselves. In this picture above, the green circles have a tab that push in. Using my thumb, I pushed in on the tab and pulled out at the same time. DO NOT use dielectric grease on these connections. Since they are well covered with the plastic connector, it is not necessary. The connectors came apart easily with no trauma:
I then pulled the coil pack out, it has a long tube sticking down on the underside of what you see in the picture. Next the spark plug wires have to be disconnected and were a little tricky. I removed ONE wire at a time. They disconnect by not pushing in on a tab, but inserting my flat blade screwdriver at the bottom of the spark plug wire connector and lifting up.
I then followed one single wire to the other side of the engine:
To make things easier, I did remove the small bolt (10 mm) and the "DIAGNOSIS" connector above and to the right of where my hand is. As you can see, the wires are different on this side of the engine. To remove these, you twist and then pull up where the wire goes into the small circle. DO NOT pull up on the wire itself. Twisting the wire before pulling breaks loose the connection to make it easier to pull up. With one wire removed from the vehicle you get this:
I then removed the spark plug using my 11" x 3/8" ratchet extension. I acquired a special extension where it locks the socket in place. The spark plug socket has a piece of rubber in it to hold the spark plug in the socket so when you pull the spark plug out, it comes out with the socket. When installing a new spark plug without the locking mechanism, you can pull out just the extension and not the socket. It is a little frustrating to try and pull out your socket by itself.
I then put a little bit of dielectric grease on top the spark plug where the wire is going to connect to the wire. I then put the spark plug back in the engine.
To install a new spark plug you apply a high-temp anti-seize compound onto the threads of the spark plug. It looks like metallic grease. I then put the spark plug into the socket attached to my extension. ALWAYS start threading the spark plug by hand. If you get immediate resistance, you have the spark plug cross-threaded. Loosen it and try again. There should be minimal resistance for a few turns. I then tightened the spark plug with my ratchet. I put a fair amount of torque on the spark plugs. DO NOT ratchet them down until you can't turn the ratchet anymore. THIS WILL CAUSE SERIOUS ENGINE DAMAGE! You want the spark plugs to be tight, but not super tight. A too loose spark plug can loosen itself, cross thread, and tighten itself. If you tighten them too much, you can strip the threads out for the spark plug. Either way, the threads for the spark plug are deep within the engine and require a tedious and expensive process to fix.
Now it was time for a new spark plug wire. All the new spark plug wires had different lengths. So, with the old wire and the new wire side by side, I could easily see which one it was:
I then put dielectric grease on the small end (right side in picture above):
I used my finger to move the grease all around the silver part in the center. I ran the wire where the old one used to be. I made sure that the new wires were well connected and tight by pushing down in the center of each end of the wire.
I then ran the other 2 wires and put dielectric grease on the 4 remaining spark plugs using the same procedure I have explained. I put dielectric grease on all the connections between the spark plugs, and spark plug wires. On the left side (driver side) of the engine, it was a little bit more hairy to get the spark plugs and wires out. For the remaining 2 wires, I did have to remove some brackets and move some other things out of the way. In my opinion, it makes auto repair much easier to move things out of the way if you can. This gives you room to work, just remember where everything goes when you put it back together. You shouldn't have any bolts left over. This picture shows what I thought was necessary to move out of the way in order to change the spark plug wires.
On the left of the picture, I already removed that bolt. The bottom circles a bolt that connects that big black bracket that runs to the top of the engine. I loosened the bottom bolt and undid the top bolt (indicated by the red arrow). This allowed the bracket to swing toward the back of the engine to get it out of the way.
I then put everything back in it's place in the order I removed it. Many removal procedures in auto repair are this way, but don't always assume that it is.
Next, I double checked my spark plug wire connections, and started my truck:
It runs beautifully! If the engine doesn't run right, shut off the engine, and double check all your connections.
Me = 4 Cars = 0.
Next post will probably be front brake pads on my 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe. I took it in for inspection yesterday and they are getting pretty low. I got an "Advise" on my inspection report.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
First Post - Gauging Interest......
Well, I am trying to put together this blog. My purpose is to inform, teach and have some eye candy for those of you who like tearing into mechanical things. Car repair is one of my hobbies, and many people have asked me: "Why don't you be a mechanic?". Well I will tell you why: Because I can't picture getting my hands dirty all day every day.
I like working with people and therefore I have chosen a career in medicine. All my life I have aimed for that very lofty goal - to be a Doctor or some other clinical practitioner. I have chosen the path of Physican Assistant.
With that said, I am not going to post every day. I am only going to post once in a while. Some weeks I have many battles. Some weeks I don't have any. I call them battles because sometimes inanimate objects have a mind of their own. Some of the time, repairs don't go as expected and the process takes WAY longer than anticipated. My wife can attest to that. Sometimes things do go as planned and I am always skeptical when that happens. Even though you are as careful as you can be, you can run into snags. The most important advice I can give is: Don't give up. Be calm, try to attack your issue with a level head, take breaks and drink lots of clear fluids.
An archive will be created of the projects I do so if you are looking for something specific, you may be able to find it in the archives henceforth.
I never perform any repair without knowing exactly almost to the bolt what I will be doing. I will spend hours researching and reading before venturing out into the wild of auto repair. When I have not been able to find the information I required, I have suffered. Consider obtaining a repair manual such as a Haynes. Haynes makes repair manuals for pretty much any vehicle and they run about $20 from AutoZone or Checker. I personally prefer the dealership manuals. They are not as easily obtained but provide much more needed information. They are very detailed and can run around $100 and be about 1,000 pages. Haynes manuals are about 200-300 pages.
With that written, I produce my disclaimer: I am not responsible for any adventure anyone reading will take on themselves. You repair your car at your own risk and know that some things if not done right can result in a catastrophic failure (engine or transmission). I will post what I know to the best of my ability and I welcome questions along the way. I will try to post video if I can, but all repairs will include pictures of what I am doing.
I mostly work on Honda and Toyota vehicles. It is what I know. I have worked on domestics but I don't know them as well. There is some common engineering between domestics (GM, Ford and Chrysler) and Honda or Toyota but many problems can be model and manufacturer specific.
Anyone is welcome to post comments and ask questions. I welcome it. If I have time, I will try to help as much as possible.
There is a wealth of information on car repair on the internet. Many ASE Master Technicians love what they do and post what they know on forums on the internet. You can find model and year specific forums for pretty much any vehicle. Almost everything I know is either from experience or reading and researching the forums on the internet. It helps to have a very common car such as a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. I own a 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe and a 2002 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 Sport 4X4. So, my vehicles are pretty common and it is much easier to find information about them than say, for example, a Daewoo Nubria (which I have never worked on, and the company no longer exists).
After all is said today, I hope people can see how I do things. Many people do different things and sometimes it comes down to opinion. For example, some people think that changing your oil every 5,000-6,000 is just right. I believe that changing it every 3,000 miles is essential to a clean engine. How long does it take me to rack on 3,000 miles? About 2 months. Even with the best oil on the market (which I use something comparable), it cost me about $30 a car for an oil change. That is cheap insurance compared with a $2,000 engine (+ 10 hours of labor to put it in). My philosophy is "Do it once, do it right and don't worry about it."
Here are some of pictures of my recent projects:
This is my 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 VTEC 2 door coupe. I did the following:
Valve cover gaskets
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Tube Seals
Manifold and EGR Cleanout
Valve Adjustment
Dealership charge = $600
My cost = $50
Savings of $550
This one had 155K miles at the time of repair and it was leaking a little bit of oil on the backside of the engine. I traced it all the way up to the valve cover gasket on the rear of the engine. It took me about 6 hours in my dad's garage. All those oil changes paid off here because this is the cleanest engine my brother and I have ever seen with 155K miles. Not a spec of dirt inside and absolutely no evidence of sludge (a.k.a. very old and used oil).
I used all Honda Genuine Parts just like the dealer would have and I used my dealership repair manual that I own.
This one is the timing belt, balancer belt, and water pump job on one of the hardest and most technical Hondas to work on: The 3.5. Me and my friend did it in his garage in about 6 hours. The water pump was leaking so it had to be replaced.
Dealership charge = $1200
Friend's cost = $100 (water pump)
Savings = $1100
Parts for Acura are very expensive, even more than Honda (they are both made by Honda). So, we used an aftermarket water pump on this car for a savings of about $100 just on the water pump alone. Since this car had 185K on it, it wasn't worth it to put a dealership part on it.
If you are my friend on facebook, you will recognize this picture. It is from my friends 2000 Honda Accord 4 CYL non-VTEC motor. It is the F series engine. They made this setup for many years. We did the following:
Timing Belt
Balancer Belt
Crankshaft Seal
Balancer Shaft Seals
Water Pump
We worked on this a little at a time, and did it in about a week. This was my first timing belt job and we found a leaky water pump.
Cost at the dealer = $1000
Cost to my friend = $250
Savings = $750
My friends and I = 3. Cars = 0
My posts will be much more detailed than this since I only took one picture of what I was doing. When I post a fix, I will post many pictures and explain how I did it.
Well, I think that sets us up for now. We will see what happens in my future battles!
I like working with people and therefore I have chosen a career in medicine. All my life I have aimed for that very lofty goal - to be a Doctor or some other clinical practitioner. I have chosen the path of Physican Assistant.
With that said, I am not going to post every day. I am only going to post once in a while. Some weeks I have many battles. Some weeks I don't have any. I call them battles because sometimes inanimate objects have a mind of their own. Some of the time, repairs don't go as expected and the process takes WAY longer than anticipated. My wife can attest to that. Sometimes things do go as planned and I am always skeptical when that happens. Even though you are as careful as you can be, you can run into snags. The most important advice I can give is: Don't give up. Be calm, try to attack your issue with a level head, take breaks and drink lots of clear fluids.
An archive will be created of the projects I do so if you are looking for something specific, you may be able to find it in the archives henceforth.
I never perform any repair without knowing exactly almost to the bolt what I will be doing. I will spend hours researching and reading before venturing out into the wild of auto repair. When I have not been able to find the information I required, I have suffered. Consider obtaining a repair manual such as a Haynes. Haynes makes repair manuals for pretty much any vehicle and they run about $20 from AutoZone or Checker. I personally prefer the dealership manuals. They are not as easily obtained but provide much more needed information. They are very detailed and can run around $100 and be about 1,000 pages. Haynes manuals are about 200-300 pages.
With that written, I produce my disclaimer: I am not responsible for any adventure anyone reading will take on themselves. You repair your car at your own risk and know that some things if not done right can result in a catastrophic failure (engine or transmission). I will post what I know to the best of my ability and I welcome questions along the way. I will try to post video if I can, but all repairs will include pictures of what I am doing.
I mostly work on Honda and Toyota vehicles. It is what I know. I have worked on domestics but I don't know them as well. There is some common engineering between domestics (GM, Ford and Chrysler) and Honda or Toyota but many problems can be model and manufacturer specific.
Anyone is welcome to post comments and ask questions. I welcome it. If I have time, I will try to help as much as possible.
There is a wealth of information on car repair on the internet. Many ASE Master Technicians love what they do and post what they know on forums on the internet. You can find model and year specific forums for pretty much any vehicle. Almost everything I know is either from experience or reading and researching the forums on the internet. It helps to have a very common car such as a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. I own a 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe and a 2002 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 Sport 4X4. So, my vehicles are pretty common and it is much easier to find information about them than say, for example, a Daewoo Nubria (which I have never worked on, and the company no longer exists).
After all is said today, I hope people can see how I do things. Many people do different things and sometimes it comes down to opinion. For example, some people think that changing your oil every 5,000-6,000 is just right. I believe that changing it every 3,000 miles is essential to a clean engine. How long does it take me to rack on 3,000 miles? About 2 months. Even with the best oil on the market (which I use something comparable), it cost me about $30 a car for an oil change. That is cheap insurance compared with a $2,000 engine (+ 10 hours of labor to put it in). My philosophy is "Do it once, do it right and don't worry about it."
Here are some of pictures of my recent projects:
Valve cover gaskets
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Tube Seals
Manifold and EGR Cleanout
Valve Adjustment
Dealership charge = $600
My cost = $50
Savings of $550
This one had 155K miles at the time of repair and it was leaking a little bit of oil on the backside of the engine. I traced it all the way up to the valve cover gasket on the rear of the engine. It took me about 6 hours in my dad's garage. All those oil changes paid off here because this is the cleanest engine my brother and I have ever seen with 155K miles. Not a spec of dirt inside and absolutely no evidence of sludge (a.k.a. very old and used oil).
I used all Honda Genuine Parts just like the dealer would have and I used my dealership repair manual that I own.
Dealership charge = $1200
Friend's cost = $100 (water pump)
Savings = $1100
Parts for Acura are very expensive, even more than Honda (they are both made by Honda). So, we used an aftermarket water pump on this car for a savings of about $100 just on the water pump alone. Since this car had 185K on it, it wasn't worth it to put a dealership part on it.
Timing Belt
Balancer Belt
Crankshaft Seal
Balancer Shaft Seals
Water Pump
We worked on this a little at a time, and did it in about a week. This was my first timing belt job and we found a leaky water pump.
Cost at the dealer = $1000
Cost to my friend = $250
Savings = $750
My friends and I = 3. Cars = 0
My posts will be much more detailed than this since I only took one picture of what I was doing. When I post a fix, I will post many pictures and explain how I did it.
Well, I think that sets us up for now. We will see what happens in my future battles!
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