I drive a lot of different vehicles for my job. The two items I dislike the most are our Ford’s F150 automatic transmission, too easy to screw up and leave the selector in the “wrong” gear, and wondering why the damn truck is revving to 5,000 rpm. Oops. The other is their turn signal stalk, press lightly, three blinks;…

My Sunbeam Alpine had a bumper sticker: “The Parts Falling Off This Car Are The Finest The British Empire Produces”.

Seattle dropped the speed limits on most major arterials to 25 miles an hour by putting up a gazillion speed limit signs without actually changing the light timing. What happens now is the Prius drivers are moving at sub 20 mph while those of us trying to get around town efficiently are still doing the old limit plus…

I have taken to using defunct political signs (Vote for Schmoe 2018) under the windshield wipers of my car on nights where frost or snow is forecast. Driving with a clear windshield after about 20 seconds of effort: Priceless. Thank you Joe Schmoe.

Solara. Our 2000 has 112,000 miles and will outlive both of us. Other than battery, brakes, wipers and tires we’ve done nothing but oil changes. 

“That guy” was my boss, and it went down exactly as you described. He sent me out to where the Cherokee was sitting near the flooded rural road. I could not pull the dipstick out as it had gotten jammed by the broken internal parts. I called him, told him the engine was toast...he sued the dealer, using the ad where a…

The entirely mechanical Bosch K-Jetronic is a pretty robust system. The smog control trend in the 1980's brought about KE-Jetronic so that the system could be electronically managed. KE-Jetronic, in my experience (1989 W124 300CE M103) is a raging piece of shit that is difficult to diagnose, expensive to repair, and…

If I went to my bank to deposit $10,000 and the teller pulled out a gun and took the money, I would look to the bank for reimbursement and to the law to put the crook behind bars.

Front wheel drive. Did I miss that, or was it not mentioned?

It appears the fan is pushing air forward through the radiator, not pulling air back through the radiator. 

Had an Escort with a heater core issue, it was simpler to take a cutting wheel to the firewall from the engine side, R&R the core, then use some sheet metal screws and cheese it back together. Worked fine.

Not a car, but a Mercury 50 horse twin cylinder starter. The three and four cylinder models of this design had enough height so that removing the starter allowed it to miss the lower housing. Not so on the twin cylinder. The book called for removing just about every bolt holding the transom clamp, leg and lower…

I think you are forcing bolts and thusly breaking them. Put oil on the stuff you want to disassemble, let it soak a few days, add some heat. I’ve heated hopelessly stuck bolts with a propane torch and then touched wax from a candle to the stuck bolt, capillary action sucks the wax between the threads and lubricates…

How much did the sway bar and the bushings/mounts weigh? Maybe the weight was placed there to balance things when they decided it wasn’t getting a sway bar.

My own 1989 300CE, signal red over black leather, has 90,000 miles. Looking at the 188k miles on this unit would have me recommend that you flee post haste in the nearest Toyota. Our Mercedes has been chewing through my liquid capital on the regular with a cascade of failure modes, while the Solara convertible we…

Take a boat, commercial or pleasure, from Puget Sound to Alaska and you will be in Canadian waters for many a mile along the Inside Passage.

Drive to Bellingham. Drive onto the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry.  Avoid 2,200 miles of wear and tear. Sip a whisky and watch the scenery as they supply you with good food and lodging.

But does it still leak oil?

Parboiling one’s nutsack would definitely portend a vile end, and likely lead to a heart attack.

One arming the Miata top to it’s reclined position while at the stop light, Biff took a drag on his Galoise, soon reaching 90 mph after smoothly and effortlessly putting the five speed through it’s paces. “Life is good”, Biff mused as he dialed the A.C. to a comfortable 72.5 degrees and adjusted the headrest speakers…