Ask a mechanic.

Let me clarify a little bit on the 1990 toyota. There is no squeak/squeal when it's not moving, so I can't see where it's coming from by just popping the hood. The noise kicks in at about 25 mph, and usually after it warms up, tends to go away(not always). just had front axles redone, but it was present before they were worked on as well. any ideas?
 
could be possible wheel bearing noise. next time you notice the noise start swaying your steering wheel to see if it changes the noise, if the noise comes and goes as you change your steering angle its highly likely its a wheel bearing noise.
 
i know at work our cars have a radio antenna under the drivers seat for reception for keyless remotes. If there is corrosion in the circuit with the antenna, it will reduce the transmission length it can receive, you will have to look up on the web where your antenna is located.
 
most starters on auto transmissions i deal with are a cock sucker to replace. If you have to disconnect the transmission side motor mount and place a jack stand under your oil pan with a handful of folded rags between the jackstand and the oil pan of the motor. Use a floor jack to raise the truck up and down to manipulate some room. This method also works with drive on ramps and a floorjack. If you do this method, keep the other side motor mount still attatched so you dont get the engine so out of shape you cannot line the mount holes up with the subframe/frame again. Key to being a good mechanic is making life easier for yourself.
 
mine is no different its a real bitch and a half, my pop helped/did mine for me not even a month ago. the man is no master mechanic, but he knows his way around a car. 7 hours later, yes, my starter was replaced. getting it out sucked asshole, getting in positioned was a motherfucker, and getting it bolted even? took forever
 
Touching on my question from a few days ago. I went to Kragen today to see if they had panel tools and they had one for $10 that was metal and used for doorside panels. Is it worth the money to buy that, or am I better off just being careful and using a flathead screwdriver?
 
yeah, my tools at work at made from a stiff plastic. I do have some door panel pullers but wouldnt use them on dashtrim. its your call dude, i would just look around for plastic trim tools and if not find something that can be used as a substitute like a dry wall scraper that is plastic. Just walk down the isles in a hardware store. prob cost 99 cents to 2 bucks.
 
Okay, so the car was checked and it said it was a cylinder 4 misfire. He says its nothing and its ok. But today on my way to work, at low gear (picking up speed) its kinda doing the same thing, and then my CEL light would blink for a few then go off again. It seems like the timing is off, could it be the timing belt? His buddy says I should run high grade fuel this time - should I do that? I need some advise. I'm supposed to drive down to PA from NY next weekend, not sure I'm gonna be able to do that. Halp again.
 
She said this was checked and seems to be fine. I don't think it would hurt though right?? What would that set ya back maybe 40 or 50 bones??
 
Def. need some help here.

I drive a 2004 Acura MDX and my driver side floorboard is always wet after it rains, stays wet and is generally a sloppy mess. I know its not all water I've brought in...what can i do?
 
hmmm. is the motor a coil over plug system. Does it have seperate coil pack for each cylinder. Its very difficult to determine a misfire without seeing the condition but normally a single cylinder miss firing is a coilpack or plug. If your husband is somewhat mechanically inclined you can swap a coilpack from a good cylinder into the misfiring one and the suspect one into the known good cylinder to see if the misfire follows that coilpack into the new cylinder. If not, do some plugs. Sometimes right from factory spark plugs are faulty or have an improper gap and most mechanics now a days do not check spark plug gap. DO NOT use aftermarket spark plugs, they suck major ass and can cause misfires very easy.
 
Yean my ex changed the plugs - I seemed to not have the issue driving home, then again it was only about a 10 minute drive. He and his brother who IS a mechanic, but on big trucks, did talk about the coilpack, which is the next step. They're also saying I should get the timing belt done. Dammit I don't have the money for this! haha
 
sounds like a coilpack to me or a sparkplug. If its a o2 sensor it will have a fuel trim fault aswell for slow o2 sensors. If youre unsure of your timing belt read your owners manual for the proper belt change interval, it will be listed in the owners manual.
 
Ok so I'm a fucken kook when it comes to cars, but im looking to buy a cheap, little car. When it says 3speed or 4 or 5 speed, thats this mean that a 3 speed car only has 3 cars and would then be revving the fuck out if you were doing say 100km/hr like 3rd gear in a 5 speed car would be??? No idea about this, please help, also what does the number of cylinders a car has have to do with??? Cheers anyone +K
 
You're looking at manual cars right? yea 3 speed means it has 3 gears to go forward (so 4 all up if you want to count reverse). Gearing varies from car to car so 3rd gear in a 3speed car isnt the same as 3rd gear in a 5speed car (ie you wont be revving the shit out of it). It must be a kind of old car if its only 3speed though (most cars are 5 nowadays).

cylinders dont really have anything to do with the gearing directly. Very roughly speaking cylinders correlate to the power a car has. In a 6 cylinder car there are explosions in 6 chambers (V6) instead of the 4 in a V4. 4 cylinders is generally the conventional amount in your average day to day car.

You're in NZ right? Honda civics are petty popular little run arounds down here. good on gas, reliable and because theres fuckloads of them around it shouldnt be too hard to find parts cheaply if something does fuck out. toyotas are definitely worth a look too but end up kind of expensive because of there amazing reputation.

Hope this helps
 
thanks heaps man. I'm in aussie but yeah looking for something cheap as shit to run but reliable, so if im travelling a bit, like from brisbane to sydney, a 3 speed car wouldnt be the greatest aye? or can you cruise comfortably in it without it over heating much? Im so useless with this shit
 
it depends on the transmission. 3 speed auto is fairly common in older cars, its an automatic with 3 forward gears and most likely an overdrive. They do not make manual transmissions for the most part with less than 4 gears, and the last car i can think of off the top of my head with 4 gears is a fiero from the mid 80's. 99 percent of the cars on the road you see today with a manual transmission are 5/6 speed cars. If you have a 3 speed auto transmission most of the time they will have an overdrive function which can help with the problem you are saying meaning "revving the piss out of the car at 100kmph" so if youre getting a 3 speed auto transmission you should atleast try to get an overdrive function.

number of cylinders is how many combustion chambers are part of the engine layout. V6 and Inline 4 cylinders are the most common now a days, V6 being exactly that... the pistons are lined up 3 to a side and in a 45 degree angle in the middle seperating them. Typically the larger the engine you get being ie. 2.0 liter 4 cylinder versus a 3.2 6 cylinder it will normally indicate the 3.2 creates more power but suffers in fuel economy and with more cylinders it means in advertently you will have additional parts on these cars to run 2 extra cylinders.

Honda and toyota are your best bet for "point a to point b" cars, so if you want cheap and easy to fix, stick to japanese makes. The key is to find the lightest and most fuel economic car to reduce cost of ownership. 88-99 civics are bulletproof and are fairly cheap in most areas of the world.
 
Thanks heaps for your help man, cheeers! So if im travelling longish distances, dont really want a 3 speed auto transmission aye?
 
i'm in the market for a new car, and by new i mean used but new to me. i've been looking into a GTI, between 2000-2004, but i'm only able to spend like 5500. all these cars have 100k+ miles, but how much longer will a car like this last? i'm in college, so i wont be driving it every day or very far if that.
 
bad choice if youre planning to stick to a budget. I could think of a list of 10-15 things that could be wrong with a mk4 golf/jetta that fail on every single mk4 when they get into higher mileage. Get a Japanese car if you want to budget, IMO.
 
that's what i expected. for the time being i'm driving a '99 mustang GT that my dad and i have a little work on, my cousin has my car. i'm going to be taking a care to college with me next year, but i can't take a mustang up into the mountains. i'm looking to get something that's quick and agile, and a stick, but i don't know what to look for.
 
One of my mates recently changed his 98 Subaru Legacy Gt from having sequencial turbos to having them both kick in at 3500revs. He says it makes much more sense than the first turbo kicking in at 3000revs and the second at 4500revs. Any thoughts on whether I should to this to my 98 Subaru Legacy GT?
 
Would you have ANY idea or a way to tell if your timing belt is gonna go? I just hit 100k, and I'm getting too many mixed messages of "change it every 60k" and "I'm at 120k and its fine" -- I'm going to save up some money to do it anyway, cause I know it'll fuck up a whole lot more if it does, but is there anyway to know before hand?

'04 Outback
 
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depends on what youre doing. Most twin turbo cars from factory get converted to single turbo cars if youre trying to mod them for speed. Having sequential turbo setup ( one small turbo spools a slightly larger one) normally have a fuckton of vacuum lines that over time will leak from age. Really, I would just keep it stock personally and just replace the vacuum lines as they break, its easier to ensure a properly working system if you dont fuck with it.
 
timing belts are tricky because they can snap with no warning what so ever. The best way you can check the condition is to pop off the top timing belt cover on your car and inspect for cracks on the belt or anything out of the regular. If there is one single crack on the belt, it needs a belt ASAP. You can check timing belts in about 30 seconds on most VW/Audi cars but im not 100 percent sure on an outback.

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the tbelt cover appears to be the black cover that is directly behind the rap cap in this picture. Normally there is little metal hook/clips that are on the sides of it, just take a flat blade screwdriver and twist it to pop those clips off.

tbelts can break due to age with no visible signs of wear, so tread lightly. If the tbelt snaps, you are honestly looking at motor replacement so its wise to just start setting aside some cash each pay cheque till you can spare the cash to get it done. If the subaru has a t belt driven waterpump, its wise to get that replaced at the same time. At work when we do timing belts we will also pull off the crank pulley and replace the crank seal and pull of the cam gears and replace those seals aswell, so maybe look into the standard practice for timing belt replacements for your car. Also, I would consider getting the tbelt service done at the dealership because if there is any sort of issue, if its a decent dealership they will take care of the problem with no questions for 1 year or 20k km. hope this has helped.
 
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just one picture of what happens when a timing belt snaps. Ive seen many different kind of damage in person and they vary car to car but 99 percent of the time youre going to needs some major motor repairs.
 
is it ok to mix oils? andddd how much would it cost approx to replace the seals on oil tank/motor/sump thingy??? Also what would the approx cost of putting a window back on its tracks? ie taking the door apart and putting it back on?
 
youre not supposed to mix oils, and never mix synthetic and conventional together. Its tough to say how long it takes to do an oil pan seal because it varies greatly car to car, on some trucks it requires engine removal but on most smaller cars it takes me roughly an hour to do service on an oil pan. each car maker has a different style of making window tracks aswell, maybe look into if you can just replace the entire unit is a used one for 20/30 bucks from a wrecker yard.
 
I've noticed that my car ('98 corolla with 170KM) is blowing a noticeable amount of smoke and is using a fair bit of oil. (you can see the smoke even if I just let her sit and idle when she's cold). pretty sure its a bluish smoke from what I can tell. internet diagonsis tells me its 'probably' the valve stem seals?. how can I (or rather a mechanic) test to confirm this? I don't want to go somewhere and simply have them tell me I need a complete rebuild or whatever if it might only be the seals...

Other crucial info: car runs completely fine otherwise, wouldn't even know something was up if it wasnt chugging oil smoking (esp when cold).

Cheers
 
typically if valve stem seals are starting to go, you only get the blue smoke at start up because oil drips into the combustion chamber over night. valve stem seals typically dont all of a sudden "go" either, they progressively get worse and worse. The only things that lead to oil consumption is typically worn piston rings, worn pcv system, and valve seals. In some cases a blown head gasket could lead to some oil consumption but typically i would suspect the others first. If your smoke is only at first when you start the car, its possible its the valve seals. I would take a quick peak under your hood for and visible broken pcv hoses ( they are a rubber hosing system) as they are a common issue and much cheaper and easier to fix than the other 2 options.
 
Not so much of a car mechanical question, more of a car title question.

Inherited a car from my bro. He wrecked it years ago, totaled, bought back at salvage price. He put in all the work years ago, bending the frame back, replacing body panels and such. Now it's road worthy but he never sorted out the paperwork with the state to get it R titled. Now he's passed on and we have the car, but it's still a salvage title. I have no idea where any of the documentation for the work went.

Any idea how to get this thing road legal again?? I've heard we can pass the salvage title by selling it, then the new buyer can just have it inspected and apply for an r title. Is this true?? Or do you know any way to get this thing road legal again?? I've also heard sell it across state lines?
 
any estimate on how much a new radiator and compressor is gonna run me in a 2005 saab 9-3? my car got fucked up by a blown tire on the highway
 
What are some cheap, replaceable parts that should be changed every once and a while to keep the car running nice. I know of air filters and probably other filters, but is there other stuf like that? My forester is coming up on 100k miles.
 
plugs, wires ( if applicable ), air filter, do a fuel/emission service from BG products, coolant should be replaced every 2 years aswell, lubricate all your door latches and hinge points, check tire tread depths for possible rotation. Do not replace fuel filter, its much more trouble than its worth.
 
opps, i totally missed these replies guys. My bad. Yeah coils are very very suspect on these cars, so it wouldnt surprise me if you had faulty coils again. Plugs foul super easy on passat as well for some reason.
 
i know youre joking but the muffler might increast the hp a bit depending on the setup. the faster the air leaves the car the more power youre gonna get. for example i put straight pipes to a flowmaster on my car and got a 65 hp boost.
 
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