Vehicle Maintenace General

[Pee Cola]

Is there any truth that I should not change the transmission fluid in a high milage car with unknown history?

Hell no. If anything, changing the tranny fluid would be one the first things I'd do after acquiring such a vehicle.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

On the subject of cars, these "I run a diesel engine on waste oil" 'hacks'- This has to be terrible for the engine long term, right? Like it has to be absolutely fouling the cylinder head with nasty carbon, right? Or is it perfectly fine as long as you don't have any large particulate?

My understanding is that as long as the waste oil is properly treated and filtered, it's no worse than store bought diesel.
That being said, I wouldn't use it with a modern diesel engine that's saddled with the latest globohomo tech such as a DPF.

Though I wouldn't buy any vehicle equipped with a DPF, because they cause more problems than they solve and cost a fortune to replace when (not if) they eventually fuck up.

As long as it's processed well enough there's nothing wrong with it. A centrifuge is required to clean it well enough to not mess up your injectors and pump long term, even after running it through a good filter you'll get crap out of it with a centrifuge. You also have to blend it with diesel and/or gasoline. There are good how to guides on the internet on this, I've tried it, didn't want to invest in a centrifuge though.

Is there any truth that I should not change the transmission fluid in a high milage car with unknown history?

No. The logic behind the claim is that an ailing transmission's old fluid is worn out and not lubricating as well as new fluid so new fluid might cause it to slip. It's just that people go to change a transmission's fluid when it has already started failing and it predictably gets worse with time so the fluid gets blamed. Once a transmission starts showing symptoms of failure something is already wrong, it could be something pretty simple like a solenoid which you'd replace and do the fluid or as well or it could be ruined clutches in which case a transmission replacement is probably cheaper than a rebuild in an old car.

 

[sne dora]

I have quite a bit of experience with heavy equipment and diesel trucks. If anyone here has any questions regarding semi trucks, farm equipment, graders, dozers, skid steers. I am also able to provide any work shop manuals if anyone needs. Feel free to pm me or reply to me on here.

 

[Sperg_rancher]

Do you guys keep any parts on hand?

I always keep the parts for an oil change, and maybe an extra spark plug or 2. Not much beyond that.

 

[Pee Cola]

Do you guys keep any parts on hand?

I always keep the parts for an oil change, and maybe an extra spark plug or 2. Not much beyond that.

It depends on the car.

One of my cars is quite rare where I live, so I've started looking out for a second one that's no longer running to use as a parts car. The other option is to find another one that's in better condition and has lower mileage, and then use my original as the parts car. But I bought this car new about 12 years ago, so I know exactly how it's been treated since the day I took delivery.

For my daily, which is so common down here that I have no problem doxing it (B-Series Ford Falcon), I just keep a few basic parts on hand i.e. serpentine belt, filters, plugs etc. I also keep a set of front lower ball joints on hand, as they're a consumable for this particular model.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

Do you guys keep any parts on hand?

I always keep the parts for an oil change, and maybe an extra spark plug or 2. Not much beyond that.

I have an always growing hoard of known good OEM and sometimes quality aftermarket parts. New aftermarket quality has declined in recent years, OEM are expensive or NLA, and my favorite cars are split between just being old and being known for being unreliable or expensive to keep. It's always good to keep obvious stuff like belts, bulbs, coolant hoses, on hand. I go as far as to keep spare belts and coolant hoses in a box in my trunk.

Example, before I even found my RX7 I had a low mileage rebuilt engine, a spare gauge cluster, a set of used but known good stock turbos, etc. I have one of just about everything known to go bad on the car now. Engines have doubled in price in recent years and I'd rather swap over a weekend when mine starts to fail than rebuild it and have the car down for a month or more.

 

[Jump]

Do you guys keep any parts on hand?

I always keep the parts for an oil change, and maybe an extra spark plug or 2. Not much beyond that.

I keep consumables on hand. Brake pads, tune up parts, bulbs,wipers etc. I have my cars saved at Rock Auto and they send a monthly email with "wholesaler closeout" sku's that fit the cars I have saved. Stuff I know I will need I stock up on. I also keep some gear oil and ATF around just in case. And I have a few oil changes on hand. Like when BJ's puts M1 oil on sale I'll buy 5 cases or what ever the limit is.

The markup at places like Autozone and NAPA is massive and shopping there is a last resort.

My "toys" (rolling junk hotrods) I have hoarder level piles of crap. Long blocks, transmission, rears, etc. When I was younger I used to be big in to bracket racing and would be constatly blowing things up.

 

[Abella]

Turns out this old fucker was using dexcool in this little S10, so I’ve had to collect everything by piecemeal so I can replace the system. I replaced a factory hose with a new one as a temporary fix to the leak coming from a crack in it, but either tomorrow morning or next weekend I’m going to have to replace it all, but it’s like 110 outside today.

 

[Jump]

Turns out this old fucker was using dexcool in this little S10, so I’ve had to collect everything by piecemeal so I can replace the system. I replaced a factory hose with a new one as a temporary fix to the leak coming from a crack in it, but either tomorrow morning or next weekend I’m going to have to replace it all, but it’s like 110 outside today.

'94 was around the cut over time. So it might be Dexcool or it might not be.
At this point it doesn't really matter what the OEM was. What matters if someone added the wrong type to top off. As I am sure you know you can NOT mix old school normal green antifreeze with dexcool. If that happened then your in for a little project.

Last time I had to deal with this I took the thermostat housing off and the lower radiator hose off. Took the heater core hoses off.
Reverse flushed the heater core with a garden hose until it was clean water coming out.
Then flushed the engine block with a garden hose through the open thermostat housing and open lower hose.
Then flushed the radiator multiple times. Basically leave the garden hose running and block the lower openings with your hand filling the block and radiator then remove your hard and let it flush the dexcool slime out.

Then put the hoses back on and put the themostat housing back on with no thermostat installed. Filled the system with just water and ran it. Then open the lower hose and dumped the water out. Kept doing this over and over until the water dumped out clear.

Then when I was sure I got all the slime out I could I put the thermostat back in and filled with normal antifreeze. And like everything I own I dropped in a few AC Delco Cooling System tabs. The delco tabs are just crushed walnut shells. Its not a chemical stopleak thing like the aftermarket ones are. GM came out with them to solve annoying coolant seepage on the NorthStar engines.

 

[Abella]

They pretty much mixed them and over the years kept topping it off with traditional antifreeze as it leaked rather than flush everything out with a hose, and fix the problem, which costs what, a little bit of time out of an afternoon? I should’ve taken a picture of the old hose. It was caved in on itself with cracks and you could see the muddy colored rust buildup in it. Like you said, I’m in for a project. I’m not going to drive it in the meantime, but the water in the radiator and reservoir are filthy and it looks like someone took Texas clay, mixed it into water and poured it in my driveway.

 

[Nigger420]

Thank you, pee cola and God's drunkest driver.
The mechanic at the used car lot suggested I leave the transmission alone, and I have heard that before.


Turns out it was over a quart low. I never would have checked without changing the fluid.

Luckily this tranny has a dipstick I will keep an eye on the level

 

[KateHikes14]

Trouble shifting into first especially, and trouble shifting into other gears sometimes. If I accelerate hard in first or second the entire transmission will rotate along the torqued direction and return once engine torque lowers. Already verified clutch fluid level, going to flush and replace the trans fluid soon, learned that my vehicles transmission takes ATF which I've heard of before. Hoping it's not the syncros, but if the flush doesn't work that's where I'm going next, am I thinking about it right?

 

[Jump]

If I accelerate hard in first or second the entire transmission will rotate along the torqued direction and return once engine torque lowers.

Nigga you got bad engine mounts or a bad trans mount.
Fix that. Then look for worn out shifter bushings at the trans and in the shift assembly.
If double clutching it makes it slide in to gear easy on upshift or downshift then maybe its syncros. But I would fix the mounts and look for simple external problems first before going in to the trans.

 

[Feral Postie]

Daig - 08 and newer cars take a huge leap forward in tech. The ability to shade tree diag is much more difficult.

It's difficult, but I wouldn't shy away from trying if you have a basic grasp on how things work. An ELM327 and FORscan have helped me a lot when working on my car even if I can't always figure it out myself.

Do you guys keep any parts on hand?

For new, common cars where parts are still easy to get? Not really. I have an older car though with a somewhat unusual configuration and I have a whole second car to pick from because it's cheaper.

 

[Catman from cat town]

Drive a Honda CRV 2004, has about 218k miles on it. The code for the knock sensor went off so replaced the knock sensor, check engine light still goes off with the same code.

Is it a different sensor or is the wiring to the sensor bad?

I’m not too concerned because the car is at the point where the check engine light is on all the time, so I just double check to make sure it’s the knock sensor code when I check my car’s oil.

 

[Bad as Can]

Drive a Honda CRV 2004, has about 218k miles on it. The code for the knock sensor went off so replaced the knock sensor, check engine light still goes off with the same code.

Is it a different sensor or is the wiring to the sensor bad?

I’m not too concerned because the car is at the point where the check engine light is on all the time, so I just double check to make sure it’s the knock sensor code when I check my car’s oil.

Did you clear the code right after you did the repair? Do you remember what brand knock sensor you used? If it was a cheapy or something from a chain auto parts store, I would first try an NTK brand sensor, that would be the closest thing to an original Honda sensor.

If that doesn't work then I would suspect the wiring. In this case it's just a single red/blue wire that goes back to the computer. The brown/yellow wire that wraps around it is just to shield out interference.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

Ugh, my mom drove 12 hours to my place yesterday for an event in the area and only told me today as she was about to leave that her tire pressure warning light had been on for a while, but thought the sensor was faulty. Well, no - it was because her fucking tire was so flat it didn't even read on my gauge, so I had her take my car instead.

We live in The Future where automobiles magically monitor and diagnose their own problems and immediately alert you when something needs to be addressed and people just fucking ignore it. They can't be bothered to even look. Whyyyyyyy?

 

[DavidS877]

We live in The Future where automobiles magically monitor and diagnose their own problems and immediately alert you when something needs to be addressed and people just fucking ignore it. They can't be bothered to even look. Whyyyyyyy?

People have been well trained by the MIL. Oh, it's on, my car runs fine, probably left the gas cap too loose again, oh well.

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

Thought I'd share an adventurous repair I did on my cheap 90s VW Golf, which (for now) has been the most involved repair I've done on my own yet. Keep in mind I'm a complete hobbyist who does it out of curiosity combined with hatred for shitty service shops who half-ass things, and not wanting to overpay for things that (I believe) I can do myself.

Spoiler: Story with pictures

I noticed that the gearbox was coated in oil around the spot where CV axle connects to it, which I've come to a conclusion was caused by a failing oil seal. The first problem was draining the oil out of the gearbox as someone (probably some sketchy service shop) has completely gnawed off the specialized triple square socket for the fill plug:


As expected, no repair shop wanted to deal with it, as they only care about making a quick buck on trivial repairs for people who can't be bothered to do simple maintenance on their shitboxes, so luckily my neighbor came to save the day by simply welding a bolt onto the plug and then successfully screwing it out:


...and here's the new, more standard plug:


At this point, I could finally get to the annoying part of the job, which is slowly unbolting the CV axle from the gearbox to get to the oil seal, which, after some help from a wood screw and pliers, was successfully removed:


...after which the new one was gently tapped into place:


Now, at this point I decided that, since I've went that far, I might as well take a look at the condition of the internal CV joints, and it seems that was a good call, as after soaking it in diesel and brushing it off, I found some quite noticeable wear on them. Considering I saw the original VW stamps in the metal, they served their 20+ years of ~500k kilometers well enough:


Now, at this point it probably would've been more wise to just change the entire CV axle entirely, but I already had ordered replacement joints and boots, so I went with that.

And finally, everything was assembled back and was looking (and behaving) better than before:

From the pictures it might seem that it's a lot of work for some shitty old car, especially considering that I'm still playing catch-up with a lot of failing parts that haven't been maintained properly, but that's just something you have to do if you want an older car that's much easier to work with than modern ones, not to mention that I paid like 600 eurodollars for it when I bought it off some guy and it has already served me well for over 7 years, despite all it's flaws and high mileage. Plans for the future include learning basic body work by getting myself a MiG welder (VWs have horrible rust protection) and eventually committing to removing the entire gearbox out of the car so I could service the worn down clutch, and also have the gearbox diagnosed by professionals, just to be safe.

Working on cars might not always be fun, but the end result is very rewarding

 

[Smar Mijou]

If you own a Toyota that has an OBDII port and a laptop, you can get OEM diagnostic tools for $30. Pick up a "Mini VCI J2534 OBD" cable and then get a pirated version of Techstream on rutracker.org. It's 1000% better than your regular elm327 OBDII bluetooth devices. You can run self diagnostic checks, key programming, ECU flashing (don't do this), TPMS reprogramming, pull up body/SRS/AC/EVAP error codes that only top of the line scanners can touch in functionality.

If you have a non-Toyota I'd recommend searching "your car manufacure + diagnostic software". Honda you can do a similar thing with HDS and i-HDS. Dodge requires expensive cables and modules. mhhauto.com is a great forum to see what is available for your cars, though tthey require a $30 signup fee to download anything so use it as a last resort to get software.

While I won't PL my personal vehicles for obvious reasons, you can get a VCX Nano loaded with manufacturer specific diagnostic software that may or may not be hacked/chinesium in origin, and it works great. Even from legitimate sites like Amazon. With a compatible laptop you have bidirectional communications and scanning/programming capabilities.

And as others have said, MHH auto, RuTracker, and AutomotiveHackingForums are great places for all kinds of software, legal and otherwise. VXDiag, OBD360, and others are great for actual programming/diagnostic/scanning tools like MPM ecu programmer, UPA-USB, ELM327, KESS programmers and others. There's a whole cottage industry built around circumventing the manufacturers and their "Fuck you" mentality in making everything proprietary and necessary to go back to the dealership for everything from a key replacement to a fucking brake pad job.

My understanding is that as long as the waste oil is properly treated and filtered, it's no worse than store bought diesel.
That being said, I wouldn't use it with a modern diesel engine that's saddled with the latest globohomo tech such as a DPF.

Though I wouldn't buy any vehicle equipped with a DPF, because they cause more problems than they solve and cost a fortune to replace when (not if) they eventually fuck up.

As long as it's properly filtered and treated, a diesel will run on anything that will burn under pressure with the proper cetane rating. Cooking oil, used engine oil, fish oil, etc.

And yeah, the modern emissions systems are completely bullshit and hamper the drive trains, and the government and manufacturers both know it. Prime example brought up by Dave's Auto on YouTube here of a US military truck with no DPF filter or emissions from the factory.

As he says in the video, if the government doesn't want the bullshit on their vehicles, why are they forced upon the public? I'm all for legitimate gains and efficiency working towards cleaner vehicles with less pollution. But these things aren't it, and they know it.

Probably the worst example is in California (because of course it is) they now have "EPA compliant" wood burning fireplaces and stoves. So you can rest easy that while your heating efficiency is fucked up and the flue is choked off so you don't get optimal burn and your chimney fills with soot, you're doing your part so the air will at least be cleaner..... at least until the next California wildfire that burns a quarter million acres or more annually.