When i sold Jet only thing that was not life time warranty were impact sockets, and depending on what was wrong air tools.
Don't feel bad about the calipers, happens to every dealer tech I know at least once, especially on flat rate when you are in a hurry.
Yeah, it was a bit rage-inducing... almost 12 hours on frozen ground making it to the point where you think you were done, so you start sprinting for the finish line... only to have something as stupid as that happen. We were gutted. As word got out to our friends today we both started getting texts like, "fun fact... calipers have sides". "Nipple up, just like a chick on her back". Oh, the things we do for "fun".
My wife and I are in the market to purchase a small sedan. We basically need these features: -Automatic Transmission -Front wheel drive -Keyless Entry -Air Conditioning -Cruise Control To put in perspective why we need those things she currently has a 2006 Chevy Aveo with a manual transmission, no AC, rear wheel drive, and no power windows or locks. While we love that is fully paid off and gets great gas mileage the thing is POS in the Summer (AC) and Winter (Rear wheel drive). Before I met her I had no idea they even made cars without AC still. We can spend around 17k on it (she went back to college which has really killed our budget). Which basically puts us with these cars- VW Jetta Ford Focus Ford Fiesta Kia Forte Hyundai Elantra Hyundai Accent Nissan Versa Nissan Sentra Toyota Corolla Used Honda Used Mazda 3. I'm not a big fan of Chevy or GM vehicles, so that's why you don't see any of them on the list. We basically need a reliable car that is driveable in the winter and won't fall apart when it reaches 80k. We don't really need it to hall any large amounts of things. I have an SUV that does that. Now for the question- What websites should I be looking at to see the reliability of vehicles? I haven't bought a car in 7 years, so I am kinda out of the loop. Also if anybody has any horribly negative or awesomely positive to say about the above list of vehicles I would love to hear it. Thanks
Have a look at the Honda Fit, should be in your price range, my friend just bought one and is loving it.
I should probably add that she doesn't want a hatchback. She wants a real trunk in the car. Thanks for the suggestion
I can completely agree with that, I don't like hatchbacks. I want a lockable truck that no one can see in.
For reliability ratings I don't think anyone beats Consumer Reports. You have to pay to access their web site, but you can always go to B+N and pick up their annual auto issue. I also like Edmunds for auto research. They show actual market prices for both new and used cars. You probably won't find anything horrible or awesome about any of the cars on your list. It all comes down to personal preference. Toyota and Honda are still at the top with Mazda above average too. VW and Hyundai are at the bottom. Have you considered the Subaru Impreza or Legacy? Their quality is good and they're unbeatable in the snow. A used one a couple years old would definitely be in your price range. Also, your wife's Aveo is definitely front-wheel drive. Its performance in the winter is most likely due to small, crappy tires. That car has tiny tires.
Car out of nowhere is making a fucking lawnmower noise when it accelerates, along with a clickclicklick type noise. Taking it in this morning but want to know what I'm in for.
Better to hope it's the exhaust system coming loose (exposing the normal internal engine sounds to the outside world) than an internal engine component issue that is now making enough noise that it overpowers the exhaust.
What are your thoughts on a cold air intake? My research shows that they're generally a waste of money, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me an example of a real world experience. If I were to install one, it would be on my 2007 Toyota Tundra with the 4.7. The truck is bone stock otherwise, but I do plan to do exhaust work on it sometime.
You can expect to see little to no difference in performance, it is an easy mod to do but the returns aren't worth it in my opinion.
Like Flat_Rate said - expect nil. I've had CAI's on 3 of my vehicles (2 Z's (1 NA, 1 Turbo) and my Durango, but all 3 also had exhaust modifications, so I did notice a small difference. Your engine can only take in as much air as it can expel, so doing a CAI with out upgrading the exhaust is kind of moot. Even with exhaust upgrades you're not going to notice an extreme difference - maybe 10-15 horse - depending on what you do to the exhaust. My NA Z I went for a 2" to 2.5" exhaust and hi-flow cat, the turbo from a 2.5"- 3" with a hi-flow cat, (And a (I believe) 3" turbo down pipe, and my Durango from single exhaust to dual with no cat.
Pretty much what everyone else has said. The problem with most(probably) all is that they aren't taking cold air, they are taking warm under the hood air.
2004 Chevy Silverado 305,000 miles Problem Once the engine is warm, the heat will work and then it'll start blowing cold air. If I do nothing, it will go back to heat again, both driver and passenger side, and then later may or may not go cold again. It's not the blend doors. Those actuators work normally if I move the slider from hot to cold. And, I think I understand that the coolant system runs through the heater core, I am assuming driven by the water pump. When I've been driving for awhile, if the thermostat (or the water pump) was bad, I would think that the engine temp would begin to climb when it switched to cold air blowing, if that was the case. And, it doesn't - the needle pretty well just holds steady right in the middle. So, I think it could be a bad heater core valve that is sticking or failing. Does that sound reasonable? I don't know if I understand exactly how the system works. But, it seems like with those symptoms it's either a water pump coming on and off, a bad thermostat not regulating right, or the heater core valve. I'm not sure exactly what else to start checking to try and diagnose it. Is that valve all or nothing, and definitely needs to be replaced? Or is that something that can get gummed up, and just needs cleaning? And, has anybody every changed one on that series GM? From a quick glance, it looks like I get to the valve from the cabin side behind the dash. But, the quick connects are in the engine compartment. I have a feeling that those quick connects are going to be brittle with that many miles, so I should probably plan on changing them, too.
Very weird for it to be hot, then cold, then hot, then cold and so on. It almost sounds like you have a loose connection somewhere. When the wire gets to hot it expands and doesn't connect, so it starts to cool off and shrink, so then it reconnects and start all over again. That or your body control module is starting to fuck up.
Where do you think I should check first for loose connections? That could certainly be the case. Although, everything else in the panel responds normally - the dual climate control, fan, mode settings, A/C compressor, etc. I'm not sure which harnesses I should start with - is there a wired connection that goes to the heater core valve? Or does that just always run? I had an actuator go bad a couple years ago, so the A/C would blow hot - the actuator defaulted to open the blend door. So, I thought that meant that the heater core was always hot, and that moving the controls to cold just diverted the heat away. The BCM (and PCM) are also not as old as the truck - replaced both of them about 18 months ago, I think.
Easy way to check your heater core is to get the engine warm and then feel the inlet and outlet hose to see if they are relatively the same temp. The hoses are located on the firewall on the passenger side. I doubt it's that being that a heater core being plugged will cause no heat. Do your blend doors move when it gets cold? If they don't move then I'd lean more to a heater core or coolant flow problems.