August 2012 – Page 2 – Humble Mechanic

Buying Tools To Fix Cars 101

Even if you are not a professional auto mechanic everyone should have some basic hand tools. But how do you know what tools to buy? Do buy the least expensive stuff you can find? Or save up and get the high end tools? Like every good question, the answer is, It depends.

There are many things to consider when shopping for tools.While price is usually the first one everyone considers, it is generally not the most important.

When to buy the good stuff

When it comes to tools for work, I generally buy the good stuff. I have a definite preference to Snap-On tools. I do own other brands. I have found that they make a great product, and the tool rep is top notch. The tools I always buy top of the line are

Not upgraded wrench

Things I use all the time.
Sockets, box wrenches, ratchets are things I generally buy the best I can.
Tools that repair damaged fasteners.
If I am using tools from my “Uh oh drawer” I only want the best. Never cheap out on these tools If you are repairing something damaged, you need to make sure the tools are top of the line
Delicate work.
When doing work on delicate parts, like dash work, you want great quality. Anytime a tool can damage the surface, use high quality stuff!

Upgraded Snapon wrench
Seized or rusted fasteners
These can be a pain in the butt to work on with the best quality tools. Try doing these jobs with lower quality stuff, and your in for a world of hurt. Seized tie rods are my favorite example. I had a cheaper wrench from Craftsman. Every time I would break a tie rod loose, the wrench would slip and damage the tie rod. I upgraded to some high dollar Snap-on wrenches, and never had it happen again. Sure I paid a premium for the Snap-on wrench, but it saved a ton of headache.
Precision tools
When it comes to measuring, don’t cheap out! Especially when it comes to small measurements. Low torque fastener are a great example. If your cheapo torque wrench is off by 20%, it can mean the difference between a properly tightened bolt, and a damaged cylinder head. Or it can mean a cheap dial indicator that falls apart when measuring something and all the parts fall into the engine. Lucky for me they fell all the way down into the oil pan. talk about a heart attack!

When to save some money

I will be the very first to admit there are times when you don’t need the top of the line tools. I have some tools that I paid next to nothing for and I still use. Here are some times when saving some cash on tools is just fine by me.

Rarely used tools, NOT listed above
If you have a tool that gets used once or twice a year, not need to spend a ton of money. As long as it does not fall into one of the groups listed above, your good to go.
Dumb Tools
Dumb tools are things like hammers and pry bars. I get most of my hammers from places like Harbor Freight. The 3lb sledge hammer I got there 8 years ago still hits things just fine. As far as pry bars go, I still buy Craftsman, but they put them on sale all the time. Usually for 1/2 off.
Modifying tools
If you have plans or need to modify a tool, don’t spend a ton of money. When I buy stuff I know I will have to modify, I get the cheapest I can find.

Now this post is not meant to be a Snap-on commercial. They are just the tools that I buy and I like. At my house I use Craftsman, Stanley, and that brand Home Depot sells. Since I only work on my cars at home, the fear of damaging something is not really there. Plus I don’t do a lot of wrenching at my house.

It really all boils down to this. For most all your tools, buy the best tools you can afford. Cheaping out on everything will mean you get to buy things again(not in a good way). On the other hand, there is no reason to buy all Snap-on or Matco tools. Well, I guess if you were that person that hit the big lotto you should. But since that is none of us, use good judgement.

What about you? What is “YOUR BRAND” of tools? After reading this, I am sure you know that at work I prefer Snap-on. At my house, I save some money, but still get a good product. I really try to stay away from junk tools like Alltrade and other stuff like that.

August 20, 2012/14 Comments/by Charles

Humble Mechanic

STOP THIEF! Is That Fancy Car Alarm Worth It?

Do you remember that Viper commercial from years ago? The one were the viper scares the would be thief away? Well, I just so happened to find a video of it.

I have a love for cheesy commercials.

But it does bring up a good point. Will that fancy alarm protect your car? It all depends on what you mean by “protect”. I have had a couple of my cars broken into over the years. My Jeep was broken into twice. They took just about everything both times. My Integra was broken into 3 times. Out of those 3 times, only my radar detector was taken.

The different was an alarm. I had a Viper alarm installed in my Integra. It was crazy sensitive. The jerk that lived in the next apartment building liked to set it off when he drove his truck past it. As annoying as that was, it helped me keep my stuff.

Let’s face the truth for a minute. If someone wants to steal your stuff, or your car, they will find a way. Modern cars have an immobilizer system. That system will prevent your car from being started with out an authorized key. That is a great feature. It will stop the average thief, but a seasoned vet has a way. Breaking a window, opening the hood, and disconnecting the battery can take less than a minute. Now the car is silent, and can be towed away. Before you know your car is gone, it has been stripped and crushed. Not much you can do about that.

But that doesn’t mean a car alarm is a bad idea. In fact if I didn’t have factory alarms on both of my cars, I would have to use the key to open the door. NO THANKS! 😉 I need my keyless entry. There is also a feature on most factory remotes we forget about. That is the “Panic” button. That button that forces the alarm to sound. Another great deterrent.

So what is really the point? If someone is going to steal your car, or steal your stuff why bother? Auto makers and aftermarket companies will always be a step behind the thief. Overall I think that car alarms and anti theft devices are worth the money and the trouble. Of course I am much more in favor of the factory installed stuff. The alarm my wife had on her Civic would lock the doors no matter what. I got locked out of that car more than once.

Car technology will advance. Many cars have a towing alarm. That will go off if the car is being towed. They also have a “battery backup” for the alarm. That will keep the alarm going even if the battery is cut. None of those advances will ever prevent the smash and grab style break in, but might keep your car from being stolen.

What would this post be with some tips on keeping your car safe? Lame that is what!

Lock your car! It should go with out saying. An unlocked car is a really easy target
Keep your stuff hidden. Don’t leave your ipod, GPS, and laptop laying on the seat. You are begging for a smash and grab.
If you are going to add all the cool high dollar accessories, try and keep them subtle. I spent months trying to find a stereo for my wife’s truck. I wanted a few features, but most of the radios were awful. they had “steal me” lights on them.
“Don’t go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things”That is some of the best advice you can ask for!

What do you guys think? Are car alarms worth the trouble? Post your thoughts in the comments below. Or, if you have some advice on keeping your car safe, post that too.

Do you like this post? How about some other posts on the site? Please consider giving it a share. It will help our community growing. It will also let others know we are here to help!

August 16, 2012/12 Comments/by Charles

Shop Shots

Shop Shots Volume 27 Insider Pictures of Automotive Service

I feel like I have been posting a lot of car pictures lately. But hey, pictures are fun right? I dug deep into the archives for some good pics today.

BOOST!!! This is a close up picture of a turbo charger. This is the side the exhaust bolts to. Turbos chargers are pretty easy to understand.

As exhaust gas exits the engine, it turns this little wheel. This wheel is connected to another wheel called the compressor wheel. This compresses the air coming into the engine. When the air is compressed, more air can fit into the cylinder. More air into the engine means more fuel can be used. More air+more fuel is more power!

This particular turbo is bad. the wheel came loose. It made one heck of a noise when boosted was built. Then is just stopped working all together.

What you are looking at here is a coolant flange. This is actually the coolant flange that I replaced on my Passat 1.8t. This is a pretty common things on most 4 cylinder VWs. The issue generally comes from engine oil.

How can oil make a coolant leak?

Excellent question. Generally what happens is oil leaks onto this flange. The oil will seep onto the seal. This will cause the seal to expand. This will eventually cause coolant to leak past the seal. This is one reason to not put off repairing an oil leak. It can cause a coolant leak too.

It has taken me forever to find this picture. I know the quality is just awful. It was taken with my BlackBerry from years ago. We had a really bad storm at the dealership. It knocked over a few big trees and caused a ton of hail damage. This is an Accord that got totaled! The weird thing is, they put the tree back up. It is still standing today.

The other strange this is the damage that we had. There were 300+ Hondas that had hail damage. Plus the 3 or 4 that got totaled from this tree. We had 4 VWs that had hail damage. What does that say about the build quality of Honda vs Volkswagen?

I was going through the setup for our new VW diagnostic software. When these type of updates come out, I found it VERY necessary to follow the process step by step. This is a the list of our current scan tools. My dealer has the 5051B, and 2 6150 laptops. This is the first I have heard of the 6160 tablet. I can only assume that VW is coming out with some type of Ipad like device. How cool would it be to have an Ipad as the vehicle scan tool?

It also makes me wonder what the price point would be.Generally our scan tools cost a fortune. The 6150 laptop costs about $5000, and that is without the test equipment box. That is another $6000.

Well that wraps up another volume of Shop Shots in the books. I do need a little help from everyone. The help I need is pretty simple. I just need everyone to answer this question.

What do you buy for you, or your car online?

Tools? Car parts? Car wash stuff? I want to put together a little discount club for everyone. I want to make sure that I can include the things you guys want, or already buy. Just with a discount. Help me out everyone. I want to make this a really great program for you guys.

August 15, 2012/12 Comments/by Charles

Humble Mechanic

Road Trip Recap

I didn’t really want to leave you guys out another day. I don’t really share a lot of my non car related life. So today I want to just share a few pics from the trip we took.

We hit the road around 1:30am Thursday. Stopping only for fuel, coffee, and the inevitable bathroom break.. We rolled into Munster,IN about 2:30 central time. That is about 14 hours of travel time. We spent the night in IN, and enjoyed a few brews at 3Floyds brewing.

The next two days were jam packed with visiting as many friends and family as possible. We didn’t do everything that we wanted to. We didn’t get to see all the people that we wanted. Over all it was great to see the people we did. The far and away high point was seeing our cousin Mag. She has spend the better part of the last 2 years fighting the “C” word. She looked amazing! We chatted all through lunch about this and that. I even got to share some gardening tips with her. Just being around such an amazing person really does warm your heart. I am so proud to know her, and call her family. Congrats to you Mags, you are a hero!

Much like the trip out, we got rolling about 2:30am. The trip home is always worse than the trip out. I need to give a shout out to my wife. She pulled about 3 hours of driving time. That is huge for her.

The Passat did great. Not one hiccup or anything. Here is a run down of the stats

Overall MPG 26.9
Miles Driven 1893.3
Fuel fill ups 7
Average speed 69.1(that was on the return trip)

I like to think that all that prepping really helped! Here are some pictures of our trip. I almost forgot. We did get to see some of that meter shower. I couldn’t get any cool pictures, but it was really neat.

August 14, 2012/3 Comments/by Charles

Humble Mechanic

No Post Today or Tomorrow

Hey everyone!

As you all know I spent a few days road tripping to Chicago. It was a fun trip, but super busy.

Because of the time away from home, I have not had much time to put content for you guys. Rather than put some junk out for you, I am taking a few days off.

August 13, 2012/2 Comments/by Charles

Shop Shots

Shop Shots Volume 26 Insider Pictures of Automotive Service

WOW, Wednesday always seems to come around in the middle of the week. What’s the deal with that?(you have to say that like Jerry Seinfeld) I have actually been out of the shop for a few days. My wife and I are taking a little road trip. So, I am going to be really selfish on this Shop Shots. I know I know, I should not be selfish. I still think you guys will like this weeks Shots!

This is what a complete body wiring harness looks like. Never mind the seatbelt mixed in. This harness came from the 1998 Jetta that I picked up. This must be about 40lb of wires, connectors, fuses and tape. I was not sure what I would need for the engine swap, so I took it all. Basically every connector that is not the engine. Every light, button, airbag, and switch is on this harness. Replacing this harness might be one of the worst jobs a mechanic has to do.

This is a picture of my tool box at the house. YES I know it is a total disaster. I keep my work box really neat and organized. For some reason, I just can’t keep my box at the house straight. I think it is because I wont buy the organizers for it. This is actually the box I started as a professional mechanic with. It lasted about 2 years before I ran out of room.

I took a picture of it because I might be trading it. A buddy of mine has a yellow Matco box that I would like. So I might trade it for a tool cart, then trade the cart for the yellow box. I must admit, I will be a little sad to sell this box. I need to figure out how to save a few of the stickers that are on it.

Ah yes, back to the donor Jetta. When you remove an entire wiring harness, most of the interior needs to come out too. This is what it looks like behind the dash board of a car. I have seen so many cars with the dash out. It makes me cringe every time. I don’t dislike doing dash work. It is just not my favorite. I think that I have stipped all I can from this car. It will be given a proper send off. It has been smashed and abused it’s entire life. I am the 7th owner. It has been totaled twice. Now she has donated organs to help another car live. Thank you Jetta for your sacrifice.

GRRR. This is a picture of the rear bumper on my Passat.(please ignore the chicken legs in the reflection) We got rear ended last week.

We were coming home from seeing Batman. This very bad driver in front of me basically cut me off. I had to slam on the brakes. The guy behind us didn’t stop. He hit my poor Passat. We pulled over and the guy that hit us took off. No one got a ticket, even though the lady that cut me off should have.

Maybe I should do a post on what to do if you are in an accident. Odds are, the bumper will need to be replaced. Ugh!

Well, thanks for checking out another round of Shop Shots. I will be out of town the rest of this week, and into early next week. Be sure to stay tuned. I will be doing some fun posts from the road!

August 8, 2012/9 Comments/by Charles

Video

Replacing the Side Marker Light In A Volkswagen Passat VIDEO

I was prepping my car for a road trip, and found I had a side marker light out. Here is a quick HOW TO video on replacing the light. This is the same as replacing a front side marker light on a Jetta and a golf.

August 7, 2012/1 Comment/by Charles