Servicing Cars

  • How to Save Lots of Gas

    If you really want to reduce your fuel costs then don’t drive.  Simple, but true, try walking, biking or talking someone else into using their gas. If you are going to drive your own car and use your own fuel… Continue reading

  • Honda Civic Project Car – part 2

      The Honda Civic spent another week in Jim’s Garage to get some miles subtracted. The owner had found that the front brakes were vibrating after some hard stops.  We had replaced the rear brakes, but the fronts were stock. … Continue reading

  • The Garage Girl’s Guide

      If you have ever watched the early episodes of Overhaulin’ or Spike TV’s Power Block on the weekends you have undoubtedly seen Courtney Hansen.  She is a pretty face, is photogenic, and knows how to look good on TV.… Continue reading

  • Honda Civic Project

       This was an interesting car to tackle as it had a good deal of miles on the clock (144,000) and was used primarily as a commuter car and airport car.  What I mean by airport car is that the… Continue reading

  • Filling Tires with Snake Oil

    The original set of tires that came on my Evolution MR lasted to just under 13,000 miles (12,812).  I had heard the stories about how little mileage to expect from the Yokohama Advan A046 tires.  Many Evolution owners quickly looked… Continue reading

  • Volvo P1800 – What do you do after 2.6 million miles?

      I’ll be frank and let you know right from the start that I have little or no love for Volvos.  With perhaps a single exception (a sedan from the 60’s that Noel owned) I have found them to be… Continue reading

  • Great Garages – Times are Changing

    Service garages today fall into two basic classes: the dealership and the independent.  The dealerships keep the sales floor full of new vehicles for sale and a service writer between you and the tech that does the actual work on… Continue reading

  • On the Road – California and LA

    Time for Service Today the Evolution hit 30,000 miles so I had to bring it in for service this morning.  Fortunately there are plenty of Mitsubishi dealerships around and I drove to one that was about six miles from my… Continue reading

  • Nitrogen – its a gas

    As part of my preparation for this road trip I tried out something new.  I went to a local car dealership and had the air in my tires cleaned out and exchanged for nitrogen gas.  I had known that NASCAR… Continue reading

  • The Miata Project – part 4

    This is the part you have all been waiting for.  This weekend we return this pocket sports car to its owner.  I cannot wait to find out what he thinks of it. It started out as a request to fix… Continue reading