New parts vs used

There is no bigger struggle then when in this tuff economy are beloved daily driver starts making noise or breaks and buying the parts to fix your beloved car can be quite expensive that’s why some people have been thinking about used parts.

When buying any car part there are a couple of things you need to know like:

• What part you need to buy, never just guess on a part that’s how you start spending more money than you need to. 
• Don’t be scared to ask questions about your car or be scared to ask about the part you are buying for the car a lot of people don’t know these things and people who sell parts know this and most will help you without judging you.
• If you are struggling to find a part that you need don’t be afraid to call local junkyards or go to swap meets or even call the dealership.

 Now I’m going to go into talking about what parts are okay to use in good condition, and finally, that should never be reused.

WHAT ARE OK TO USE IF IN GOOD CONDITION

These items must be checked for normal wear and tear before reusing. If you are in doubt have it checked by a professional: airbox, body panels, body parts, bumpers, carburetors (to rebuild), cigarette lighter, coolant reservoir, cooling fan, belt-driven, door lock actuators, exhaust heat shield, exhaust manifold, exhaust pipes, fuel tank gas cap, grille, hub caps, intake manifold, interior trim, jack, lug nuts, oil pan, power window motor, pulleys, rearview mirrors, seats, steering wheel, stereo system, sunroof motor, tail lights, throttle body, tie rods, turn signal lenses, vacuum lines, vacuum reservoir, valve cover, wheels, window glass, windows, windshield washer pump, wiper arm. These are just some parts that are okay to use if they are in good shape otherwise don’t waste your time.  

WHAT CAN BE RECONDITIONED AND USUALLY REUSED

Another option for replacing car parts is to buy reconditioned parts. Here is a list of a few parts that are usually OK once reconditioned: a/c compressor, a/c condenser, ABS CPU, ABS sensors, alternator, axle shafts, brake drums, camshaft, clutch master cylinder, coil packs, cooling fan, electric, CPU, CV joints, cylinder heads, dashboard gauges, distributor, engine block, engine mounts, flywheel, fuel injection unit, fuel injector, fuel pump, intercooler, master cylinder, oil cooler, oil lines, oil pump, pistons, power locks, power steering pump, power window switch, pressure plate, radiator, spare tire rim, steering rack, sunroof cables, suspension springs, timing chain, transmission.

THAT SHOULD NEVER BE REUSED

The following is a list of car parts that should not be reused: airbags, air filter, airbag sensors, ball joints, battery, bearings, brake discs/rotors, brake light switch, brake pads, brake shoes, catalytic converter, clutch disc, cooling fan switch, cylinder sleeves, distributor cap, distributor cap, engine bearings, fuel lines, fuses, gaskets, head studs, headlights, ignition coil, ignition condenser, ignition points, MAF, muffler, muffler hangers, oil filter, oil pressure switches sensors, piston rings, radiator hoses, rotor, shifter bushings, shock absorbers, spark plug wires, spark plugs, strut bearings, strut inserts, thermostat, timing belt, timing chain, tires, valves, voltage regulator, water pump, water pump, wheel bearings, wheel cylinders.

When to call a mechanic?

This blog post is probably going to be similar to the last post I made about what you can and cannot do, with that being said some of you might be asking when should I call a mechanic and this is going to be the same as the last one when I say that its up to you and what you are comfortable doing to your car and fixing you car.


Now calling a mechanic can be very stressful because there are so many options on where you can call and get your car fix and you might be asking well how do know if I can trust where I choose to go? My advice on this is if you need a mechanic, I would ask friends and family if they have any places that they go that is fairly priced and they know what they are talking about. There are some places and it’s kind of hard for me to say this because not everyone does this but some shops will take advantage of women and if she doesn’t know anything about their car so you want to be careful if you are women because there are some messed up people out there.


Let’s get back to the question which is when to call a mechanic and this is a hard question to answer because of the fact that there’s no way for me to just tell you when to that’s your decision but if I had to say when you need to call a mechanic I would say that the one big thing that would make me call a mechanic I would say that if there is knocking noise ever coming from your engine I would call a mechanic without hesitation or if the car has died on the side of the road, or if you go out one morning and your car just keeps turning over and wont start, these are some things that if they happen to someone who’s not had automotive technology experience.


Just remember if you are going to call a mechanic to always ask around with family members and friend to find a good mechanic and if none of your family members or friends don’t have any comments then I would always do some research on the internet and always look at the places you're looking at going reviews. Reviews are always a helpful thing when deciding to do anything.

What you can and cannot do.

A question you might be asking is, what you can and cannot do and honestly, I can say that its really all about preference and what you are comfortable with doing. Many people just want to save money and that’s why they start learning how to do things to their car to save money and some people just enjoy taking care of there own car. If you are one of these people good for you, working on cars is a lost art and the fact that people are still wanting to learn how to work on there own car makes me happy about making this blog.


When working on a car there are a lot of things that even thinking about trying to fix on your own can seam like a nightmare so if this is the case then maybe take it to a shop and have them deal with all the bullshit but if you want to change yourself then by all means try and do it on your own and if you do run into problems YouTube is your friend. Cars can be a scary thing to work on by yourself and if ever there is a problem and you can’t even think why it would be doing that you can always do some research.


Personally, for me when my car has a problem and I’m trying to figure out what could cause whatever is happening I always do research on my car before I even deiced if its worth messing with or letting a shop mess with it, research is always a helpful step when working on a car because it really helps you get a sense of what could be causing the problem and it can even show you how to get to the place of part that you need to get too.


In all reality what you can and cannot do is completely up too you as a person if you think you can do it and finish the project that go ahead and do it but if you are sitting there and thinking to yourself that this is going to be a pain and a lot of swearing trying to do it then you should always thinking about taking it to a shop for them to mess with. In all I would do research to deiced whether or not you can get it done by yourself.

How to check brake pads/wear

Checking brake pads is a really easy think to do on your car and if you take your car in to the shop and the mechanic says you need new breaks you have tell him no you don’t because you just checked your break pad wear and you have plenty of break pad left.

The First step: Get what you need

A couple of things you are going to need is a break pad lining gauge and some brake cleaner, you can get these from any parts store or hardware store, and then the tools you use to take your tires off.

The Second step: Taking the tires off

For the second step you are going to need to take your tires off all around and to do that you have to jack the car up all the way around to do this you’re going to need to get the jack out prom the trunk of your car and buy some jack stands you will need 4 jack stands to jack up all 4 sides of the car, most cars have a jack in the trunk so you’re going to get that out and with it should be directions on how to jack your car up and if not YouTube is your friend for anything like this. Jacking up the car with the jack that comes with your car seems really sketchy and it is so only lift the car up as high as you need to too get the tire off.   and get your lug nuts off. Once you have the lug nuts off take the tires off, now that you have the tires off your going to want to spray them all with brake clean.

The Third step: Using brake pad gauge

Once you have the breaks spread down with break fluid and cleaned your going to want to get the brake pad lining gauge and use put the tool up the break pad and see which one of its gauges in the thickness of your brake pad. The color of each one of the gauges lets you know how much break pad you have left, Green: you have all of you break pads and you are safe to drive, Yellow: you should start to think about changing your break pads, Red: you should change your brake pads immediately you do not have the much break pad left.  

How to replace a battery/clean terminal

Replacing a battery can be dangerous if you mix the positive and negative cables up dangerous enough to blow up the battery. It can also be dangerous if you touch the negative and positive with something metal. For this job, you're going to need some safety equipment and those should be some type of eye protection. Changing a battery can be very dangerous but it's also very simple to do and you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself.

Getting the right battery

The first step of this process is to find the sticker on your battery that tells you how many cold cranking amps it has and that’s how you will find out what battery you need. The Cold-cranking amps is a batteries industry rating used to determine the ability of the battery to start or crank up an engine when the weather is cold. What this means is if you get a battery with a lower cold-cranking amp the vehicle will not start.  

Taking the old battery out and putting the new one in

For this step you're going to need a wrench set find the size that fits the bolt or nut that is holding the cables on to the battery, take the cables off. There is going to be a metal strap the holds your battery down loosen that strap and take the battery out.

Now you’re going to want to take the new battery and put it in where you took the old one out and put the strap back on and tighten it up. This is a very important part you have to make sure you put the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative and tighten up the cables make sure the nice and tight and turn the car on and see if it turns over and turns on.  

There is corrosion and green stuff on my battery cables

Your battery cables are dirt which is no big deal it happens now to fix this your going to need a wire brush and some battery terminal cleaner and really scrub those cables down once you have them clean your going to need to add some battery terminal grease it’s a red grease and it helps prevent any more corrosion on the battery terminals.


Changing a battery is an easy thing to do in your car but it can also be very dangerous so if you are going to do this make sure you have the proper safety equipment to get the job done.  

How to Change A Light Bulb in Your Car!

Changing Light Bulbs in your car can turn out to be difficult, but once you learn how to do it, it's not so bad. Changing light bulbs are different from car to car some cars can be extremely hard to do some cars you have to take the whole headlight out and to get the headlight out you have to take the front bumper off and with other cars you just have to twist the light bulb and pull it out.


Before you start trying to just take everything apart to get to the light bulb you should always do a little google search on your car and see how hard it is going to be, after you do your research your going to want to go to your nearest parts store and get the light bulb by going to one of the front desk people to help you get the part number.


Once you have the replacement light bulb we can start trying to get the light bulb out, so for those of you that already know how to get the light bulb out from doing research go ahead and do what you need to do to get it out, for those of you that don’t know how to well were going to have to determine if the whole headlight has to come out and to do that we're going to need to see the back of the light once you get to where you can see the back of the light see if you can take the light bulb out by turning it if that does not work were going to have to take the light out completely and to do this was going to go to are old trust friend YouTube to see what we have to do to get it out.


Once you have the light bulb out you can take some electrical grease and put it in the connector to make sure you have a strong connection and out the new light bulb in and put everything back together that you took apart. Light bulbs in cars can be a tricky thing to replace but you can save yourself a lot of money by doing it yourself, not only is learning how to change a light bulb in a car a way to save you money but you can also help your friends by saving money by helping them change their light bulbs in their car.