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!