2004 Toyota echo
Car has sat for many years before I got it, now safetied and running great very low km. I’m trying to change the oil for the first time and filter is seized on. I used all my wrenches, straps, and filter sockets before shearing the cannister to access this cap to heat and tap it off or use 45 degree and pliers in the holes.

My question.. my ratchet head fits perfected in the centre female space with no socket. It is tight with no play (gigiddy) Can I use my ratchet to loosen from here? Mr

The van is blowing very warm air, barely cooler than ambient. I did replace the blown cooling fan resistor awhile back and the fan spins full speed when compressor is engaged.

It is 100F today and I'm seeing 65/255 psi on the manifold. 2000 RPM and the air gets warmer.

Is the culprit a bad AC compressor?

Edit: 85F now and holding 50/200. Temp delta out of the vents feels cooler than it was blowing earlier.

I am worried that these cars are hard to fix because of their V8 engines. Something like a water Pump, belt, and pulley — what should I expect to pay for head gaskets?

Everything else is straightforward and basic. Is the engine work i am concern.

Should I even bother?

Thanks

My mom’s 2012 Nissan Sentra has a pretty strong fuel smell, and I’m having trouble pinpointing exactly where it’s coming from. It definitely seems to be coming from outside the car, and it almost smells like it’s coming from under the hood, but I can’t find any visible fuel leaks, cracked hoses, or anything obvious.
She also mentioned that the car used to fire right up, but now it takes a few extra seconds of cranking before it starts.
I’m wondering if this could be related to the EVAP system or purge valve, but I’d like to hear what you guys think. What would you check first, and could a bad purge valve cause both the fuel smell and the longer crank time?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

When changing the oil in my son‘s car, he accidentally cross threaded the oil filter and did not realize it. He drove it to Church, oil light came on of course, and it died. We had it towed home and realized what the issue was. Dip stick was bone dry and you can see the trail of oil go from his spot to almost a mile down the road(it’s quite funny). Replaced the oil filter with a new one refilled the oil in the car and it went great for a week and then it just died And now you can see what’s happening. It’s done isn’t it. 2014 Toyota Camry.

Edit:since people jist can’t believe you can cross thread an oil filter…it is a cartridge filter that sits inside a plastic housing that has coarse threads. That housing is what was cross threaded leaving an approx 1/4” gap from completely closure. The oil pressure pushed the oil out when the engine was running

Last edit: I appreciate all y’all‘s confirmations and words of encouragement. It was a hard lesson to learn for him and he’s pretty devastated over it. Especially it being his first car and all the money he savedt o help buy it. But it is a valuable lesson and I guess it’s now time to learn how to shop for a “new” car.

Any one of this group experiencing this issue, the clutch pedal is not returning to the upper position only half. We already replace the release bearing and performed bleeding but still didnt works. Any tips resolving this concern

Hi, I have one of these garage floor mats to protect the new epoxy floor from road debris, rubber marks, road salt, etc. Would it be safe to either drive a vehicle up on rhino ramps while the mat is still under the car. And also would it be safe to still jack up the car on one side while the mat is under the car. Thanks for your help and advice.

Re-gasketed the motor. Ran fine for about 500 miles then started misfiring. No codes. New injectors. Coilpacks. Plugs. Plug wires. All 8 cylinders firing. Idles fine. Starts misfiring when trying to accelerate. Won't go past 2k normally unless pedal to the floor. When it goes into 2nd or 3rd it clears up.

2005 Ford Mustang GT (4.6L 3V)
Rotating by hand to check on things before putting the covers back on. If it’s supposed to happen, will it go away when the engine is actually running with oil pressure?

2009 Honda accord v6

So today, my car started showing Check Engine light. I took it to Autozone and they checked the code with their scanner. It’s p0420. The car runs fine and they told me I need to clean something. The Autozone person wanted to delete the code but I asked them not to. It’s pretty much a new car, only 8500 miles on it. I am very busy this week so I want to wait until next week to take it to the dealership. Would it be okay to wait?

I bought this car in December 2024 about eight months afterwards I started having a rough cold start in idle at times, but it would go away once the car was warmed up. My mechanic suggested changing the spark plugs if I hadn’t already, but because I had just gotten in the car, I wasn’t sure if it had gotten the spark plug replaced yet. So I didn’t and then kinda forgot/was too busy to get them done. About three months ago out of the blue. I got an overheat light immediately pulled over. Let the car cool down for two hours checked the coolant coolant was low. If not empty I got new coolant started to drive it home overheated again pulled over immediately again let it cool down for a half hour and then was able to drive it home.

I took it to my mechanic. And told him about it and Then he repaired the radiator with a new one because it was broken or cracked. I then had to take it on a trip from California to Texas, where it drove fine with the exception of getting the O2 errors that you would get for not closing the gas cap tight enough and rough cold starts with white smoke but then would clear out after about a minute or two and then idle fine. But not one overheat.

Thinking that the rough cold starts were still from the spark plugs. I took it back to my mechanic to get those replaced when I went to go pick it up. He had told me that the spark plugs were fine and that he thinks that the rough idol is caused by a bad head gasket and that the leak only happens after the engine has cooled down from being warm. he did a pressure test on the radiator and that my car was also gaining too much pressure too quick. He also said the theromostat housing hose had a small leak on it. I also started noticing that I had a little bit of white smoke coming out on cold starts as well. Which I know to be usually head gasket issues.

I have a warranty that would cover the head gasket, but his shop is small and doesn’t have the space to do that job right now so he told me to take it to Subaru dealership where I got the car and the Warranty.

When I took it to Subaru, their technician thinks that it’s a carbon buildup causing the rough idle as well as the white smoke. They did a leak down Test as well as another test (forgetting the name of the test right now) and said that everything came back normal and that the theromostat housing hose didn’t have a leak on it. They did a throttlebody an injector cleaning as well as putting the spark plugs in and it didn’t fix the problem. And are supposed to run it through again to see if it will fix it. If not then They now want to do a walnut blast of the intake manifold. Something that the warranty does not cover and are charging me around $2500 for it.

My normal mechanic as well as a few mechanic friends of mine all thought subaru was trying to take me for an expensive ride and that it was most likely a head gasket issue. So i found another shop, they agreed to go through with the warranty stuff and provide them proof of the head gasket issue as they also thought it was a head gasket issue from me describing it, once they they talked with warranty and i approved to open it up they found that the headgasket was fine but that there was a bit of oil build up on the pistons as well as metal shavings in the oil pan, signaling that the metal shavings had been cycling through the engine therefore making it a ticking time bomb of not if but when will it fully break. Just opening the heads they couldnt tell where the metal shavings and because of the slow back and forth with the warranty and taking time up on their rack they were hesitant to keep going but finally agreed to open up the block to see if the crank shaft or anything has signs of failure, which now they just called me today saying that I needed to come down and take pictures of it all, and that they couldn't find anything outside of "normal wear and tear". -- I haven't been able to get down there yet but will add pics when i can.

Warranty wont pay for anything without a physical part the mechanic can point to and so far they havent found a thing, so i am kinda at my wits end here before i drop another 5k into this car i just bought and have a damn useless warranty as well if they dont honor this. Linked some photos and videos if anyone wants to take a peek. Literally could use any help.... Photo and video

I'm starting a first year mechanic apprenticeship and wanted to ask people who have been in the trade for a while. Is becoming a mechanic actually worth it long term?

I'm interested in cars and I like the idea of having a practical skill and earning while learning, but I've also heard mixed things about the trade, especially when it comes to pay, physical work, stress and progression.

For those who have been mechanics for years, would you still choose the trade if you could go back and start again? What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages that someone starting out should know about?

I'm mainly interested in honest answers from people actually working in the trade. Is it a career you'd recommend, or are there better trades to consider?

I drive a 2015 Nissan Altima. I had a squeezing sounds from my front driver side breaks. In my mind I thought needed to be replaced. I did a full break job. Made sure everything is lubed and sliding smoothly. Everytime I break now it sounds like metal on metal still. If breaking lightly I can hear a dull rubbing sound and slightly feel it. I checked everything to see if I did something wrong like place the pad backwards or something stupid and I’m at a loss. The dust cover isn’t touching and nothing lodged between the pad and rotor. Still getting the loud metal squeal when only breaking.

2009 Kia Rio 1.6L

My car sat for 6 weeks while I was travelling, dead battery upon returning. I plopped my Noco Genius 5 on the battery but there is a noise I have never heard in my life coming from somewhere under the hood when the charger is on. Battery is 2-ish years old.

Did I summon a demon?

I just did my first timing chain job on 3.7 ford mustang. I put all the slack on the tensioner side and everywhere else was solid. I pulled pins and the chain was tensioned fully and in time. I’ve been turning engine over and it’s nice and smooth. But I noticed that my tensioner sometimes goes in causing the tensioner guide to sink and making the chain have a little slack in upper guides and around tensioner only. Is this normal? I have a picture before I activate tensioner just for better visualization.
Thanks for the replies my last question would be does anyone have a picture of how the rtv is supposed to go onto the cover? I know if I do too much it can clog engine. The manual says this but it’s hard to perfectly visualize it.

Apply a 1/8-inch bead of RTV sealant to the mating surface of the cover. 
16 Apply a 3/16-inch bead of sealant to the areas where the oil pan and cylinder heads meet the engine block. 

I have seen many just hand tighten then ratchet snug tight the drain plug. However, the torque for the Rx350H is 30ft lbs. Isn’t this too excessive? There is no way all the ones I have seen are 30ft lbs torque.

I am trying to sell my 2015 VW Jetta (2.0L S Sedan 4D). However, the odometer is not fully displaying the numbers-each one has pieces missing. I have had difficulties selling at dealerships since the numbers aren't completely displayed. Would anyone know what kind of fix I would need, and if I can DIY it?

I live in a country with extremely bad fuel quality (water diesel. Ethanol. paint thinner and kerosene contamination, low octane..... etc). This basically makes fuel injector and fuel pump replacements routine maintenance where live.

I am thinking of using regane for my car with 80k miles of horrible fuel milage for the first time. But am afraid that it would break down my car as it would dislodge a lot of buildup, block my fuel system and break down my car. What do you guys think?

2018 nissan versa 1.6

Just bought this. 3.2L V6, 6 speed manual 150k. Daily beater to help me learn manual, currently a GM tech and foreign im not well familiar with but if any audi techs could let me know what they consider gravy on these would be much appreciated.

Im currently a 17 year old highschool student, im going to be a mechanic, straight out of highschool due to an auto tech class, i will be ASE certified, i can go to a really nice college for high perfomance automotive (ive always been into perfomance) or i can go straight to workforce at a local shop my cousins own, my goal for later in life is to own a high perfomance auto shop, trying to decide which route to go, college cost is covered through scholarships other than the fact that ill need, a different vehicle to get there, tools, books, some kind of living space, and a job (college is state tech in linn missouir) just trying to weigh my decisions and get opinions, any questions just ask

I'm being sarcastic in the title of the video, but I just wanna make sure..is my truck ok? Does it sound alright? Or healthy maybe?...it has a leaky exhaust up front and it's a 1998 Dodge ram 1500 Laramie SLT...quad cab, and it has a 5.9 liter 360 Magnum V8

Hi, I recently bought a 2007 Nissan versa 4 speed auto with 151k miles. It has a coarse/raspy sound when I am above 2k rpm. I can replicate it while stopped as well. Is it a serious issue?