When is it really empty?

The question should actually read when is my gas tank empty. I just wanted to see if any of you would suffer pangs of memory guilt. Better yet, do you have a history of driving the car plain out of gas. Do you?

Is it more than likely if the engine stalls and won't restart that your first thoughts are of gasoline? Or what about the light that resembles a tiny gas pump. Does it flash or steadily glow yellow? And it's been doing that for nearly thirty miles so far...?

Look at what 30,000 miles of repetitive vapor driving left in a new fuel filter. That crap was the fuel pump, it was new, but now it doesn't work. look. 

One fact we all seem to forget, this includes myself, our vehicles have fuel pumps. These fuel pumps feed the fuel injection system; they're the heart of the system you could say. These fuel pumps are submerged in the gas tank for a reason.

The internal parts of a fuel pump are cooled and lubricated with the fuel in the gas tank. Let the level run low and the fuel pump wears out at an accelerated rate. So to keep the fuel pump alive try to make QUARTER FULL the same as empty.

EEK! Surely..Shirley is that SMOKE!!

Calming a frightened customer; after they drive up with smoke rolling off of one of the front wheels, this takes talent.

I watched my wife Gail handle the situation with confidence in a calming/cheery manner. Once again our years of experience paid off. Shirley seemed to gain her confidence after exiting the smoking van as well. What was smoking you ask, have a look..

Flushing brake fluid once per year actually costs less than the labor to replace brake pads!

PS: This shows what hot brakes can look like..

HOW ARE YOURS?

YES.. Thermostats are Important!

Complaint; "I have no heat inside my Dodge Grand Caravan. Can you tell me why and fix it?" Why sure I thought; time for the space age tools! Using my laserguided thermal temp gun I was able to deduce that the vehicle no longer had a thermostat. I would find that the thermostat had fallen apart and was now spread out deep within the upper intake manifold. Using my borescope, with grappler attachment I searched the inside of this vehicles lower intake manifold and retrieved 90% of all the thermostats components.

Now the fun begins.

The thermostat assembly in this vehicle was used in two model years, and that's 10 years ago. If I wait another four days I can get another housing. NAH! I decided to reuse the outlet housing, and it was no big deal. By grinding the stakes away I was now ready to install a new thermostat. Only thing left to do is align the thermostat and stake it in place.

These are the parts I finished out of that Dodge Grand Caravan. Yes it needed new antifreeze, and the fluid state might have caused the thermostat to fall apart, or was it simply poor engineering.

Can you recall the last time your thermostat was replaced? I know that IT HAS A PROFOUND EFFECT ON FUEL MILEAGE, but I can't remember the last time it was changed.

Way too many Chefs' before me there were!!

Many automotive technicians have a type of vehicle we dread repairing. It's the one that has already been diagnosed by the owner. This is evident by the numerous amounts of new parts sprinkled in the engine bay. You know it is going to be fun when you see all those new parts. But for grins add that another shops been there before you. They performed their diagnostics with assistance and input from the vehicles owner.

And now it's your turn at what appears to be a fairly simple fix. All hope fades away when you're told about what has been done by another shop and by the owner too. As more and more information is remembered by the owner, you stand there rubbing your head wondering what you've gotten yourself into. This vehicle is well-known for a myriad of problems. It came to you stinking of soot, gas and all the money someone dumped into it in hopes they could get just a few more miles. Man, I mean really!

Using diagnostic tools; one of which is experience, I proceed. I should've said no after discovering that the owner thought someone had stolen one of their tires. This being due to its color difference; should have been a red flag. Actually the rim and tire by the tailpipe had been cleaned. This vehicle ran so poorly 40% of the fuel it was supposed to burn was coming out the tailpipe instead. Oh, what other surprises lay ahead. I include a photo of the first or second KOER string of codes.

Another flag was the fact that the catalytic converters, all four of them, had been gutted.

(There are Federal Laws that prohibit this from being done....)

The engine oil was so chock-full of carbon I was surprised it hadn't seized! The front heated 02 sensors were completely covered with carbon or soot. We can be sure that the pre-cat sensors do not function just by their appearance. I really need to know how to put a time frame; an estimate; a price on diagnostic time after seeing and hearing just the above?

Let us not forget the fact I have connected a breakout box to monitor, test and diagnose PID data. And the holiday season is quickly approaching. Enough for now.

“…and the 4runner waits patiently for snow to fall, and winter to begin again.”

Okay, I know these pictures are six-months old, but everything is winterized for the 2011-2012 season. The truck w/o snowplow was in two car shows this year. Photos of the ice/slush covered 4runner from last seasons dusting of snow and are here too. Temperatures have dropped to freezing at night for the past week, who can say when IT WILL snow next? The 4runner gets the plow attached again this weekend and takes its position backed into the carport.

It’s a Landcruiser kind of day

This Landcruiser, a 1987 FJ60 is getting the best quality lift components available. 4 inch suspension with a lot of articulation travel. Old Man EMU kits rock, no doubt! A shackle reverse kit is being installed as well. And since the SR kit involves removing the stock bumper, time for a one-off fabrication. Pictures and more on the these ToYs a little later.

Lets have a look as we start and finish a 4" suspension lift on this 87 FJ60 •

Need Music? Turn up the radio...

(Produced in 16:9 widescreen)