Lola the 02 Toyota Corolla

This is a short story about my ex-girlfriend’s 2002 Toyota Corolla. Specifically what happened when she went in to the dealership for a routine oil change. But first a little background on the car she has named Lola Corolla.

Lola was purchased new in 02 and has celebrated her 10th birthday. I helped on most of the maintenance and repairs that Lola the 2002 Corolla has had performed over the years. The problems with this car have been few and far between. In fact the only repairs this vehicle needed that were not covered under warranty are two very common problems with this model Toyota.

The first one was the inside door handle on the driver side broke. We got the replacement part at the dealership and this was in the $25 range. We later learned these parts are available aftermarket cheaper. In fact you can get a set of 4 aftermarket handles for about half of what we paid for 1 factory part. A year later the passenger side door handle broke as well. This time instead of purchasing it from the dealership we went onto Amazon and bought them online with overnight shipping. I will make the door handle kits available below. Continue reading →

My 2009 Cadillac SRX

I have written about my 2009 Cadillac SRX on several occasions here on the auto repair information blog. Although I haven’t had any problems with my particular crossover it’s getting hard to ignore the problems that others are having with identical cars.

The people that are screaming the loudest would be the ones that are having timing chain problems. Vehicles with a 3.6 L engine have a complicated set up when it comes to the variable valve timing and four overhead camshafts that are all chain driven by the crankshaft. If you pulled the timing cover off a 3.6 L engine I think you would be either impressed or sickened by the complexity. Continue reading →

Oil Drain Plug

After performing well over 2000 oil changes I think I have seen it all as far as things that can go wrong with this simple service. The focus of this article will be on oil drain plugs and how to solve some of the most common problems associated with them during oil changes.

At the very bottom I will include some of the tools and replacement parts that are mentioned. I have seen damaged oil drain plugs ever since I first got into the auto repair business in 1984. Although it was far less common in the old days due to better materials. Back then most of the damage would be taken by the softer drain plug instead of damage occurring to the threaded hole inside the heavy steel pan.

Even if there was damage to the threads in a metal oil pan you could usually chase them with the proper sized tap. But as time went on we started to see the quality of the steel oil pan start to tumble as auto companies used cheaper and thinner parts to save money and reduce weight. Then they took this a step further and started using stamped aluminum oil pans. This meant a whole new series of problems associated with a stripped oil drain plug. Now it was just as common to see a severely damaged hole in the oil pan as it was to come across damaged threads on the plug itself.

Simple preventative solutions for oil changes Continue reading →