Auto Repair Information

This was an auto repair information blog when I started it two years ago. Things stayed on topic, but changed a little when gas prices started to climb in early 2008. This is also when I purchased the water 4 gas systems and decided to share the details of my project with visitors. In today’s post I wanted to return to the original reason I started this blog. And that was to supply auto repair information for people that like to fix their own cars.

After fielding many questions over the last couple years on my car repair help page I have noticed one very common piece of advice that I continue to dispense. It also happens to be the first step in almost all of my automotive diagnosis procedures that I personally use. And this is the visual inspection. It is very common that I will uncover the cause of the car problem by simply performing a thorough visual inspection.

Auto repair visual inspections

I’m going to provide some examples of what to look for, and some of the most common things that I have found. It would seem that a visual inspection during these winter months are more important then in the summer. But regardless, I perform this procedure as a quick first step in automotive diagnosis no matter what the weather is like.

My first example actually happened yesterday and got me thinking about how I should share this with website visitors. I was working on a 2006 Chevrolet 3500 series van. The driver’s complaint was the check engine light was on.

I scanned the vehicle and found a map sensor code. The first thing I did was perform a visual inspection of the map sensor, the connector and its wiring harness. The first thing I noticed was little black chips of plastic that were laying on the intake manifold. These were obviously pieces from the conduit that protects the map sensor wiring harness.

I followed the harness back and found a spot where a rodent had chewed through not only the protective conduit, but also completely through the ground wire for the map sensor. There was no need for any scientific check engine light diagnosis because it turned out just to be a quick repair of a single wire.

Auto repair diagnosis

Another example of diy car repair diagnosis. My nephew called me from up north and said that he had an ABS light on. I live in Florida now, so I was not able to work on his vehicle. But I did notice in the news that they had recently gone through an ice and snowstorm. So I walked him through some simple steps to do a visual inspection on his own car.

I explained to him where the wheel speed sensors and wiring harnesses were located. When he poked his head around the wheel, he noticed a 15-pound ice burg was stuck and pulling on the wiring harness to his left front wheel speed sensor. Since my nephew is not very mechanically inclined, he was forced to take it in for repair.

But he was armed with the information to provide the service center that saved him Diagnostic time, and also the down time of his vehicle. The weight from the ice and snow that collected on the wiring harness broke the wires where they attach to the sensor head.

Auto repair safety

My nephew would have liked to continue to drive around with the ABS light on as opposed to spending the money on car repairs. In fact, I had to talk to his mother to force the repair to be completed. Antilock brake systems are a fantastic safety feature. During winter weather with ice and snow a properly operating ABS system may save your life or at least prevent damage to your vehicle or other drivers.

In closing I would recommend that when ever you have a warning light on your dash fix it. Either using do it yourself auto repair techniques or a car repair shop. And take a few minutes to perform a thorough visual inspection that is related to your problem. External damage by rodents and road debris can be highly visible and solve your car problems.