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If you do a lot of electrical trouble shooting then personally I would invest that money towards a 4 channel scope it can do everything a multimeter can do and so much more I personally just use a fluke 115 for the basic electrical checks but as soon as it gets more in depth you need a scope especially dealing with Can lines or signal wires on modern vehicles ( I tend to deal mostly in vehicles within warranty) being able to see the wave form or duty cycle accurately is invaluable Ps dont get suckered into buying the fluke 123 it claims to have scope capabilities but is way to slow to be useful in an automotive setting.
Same in the Uk we provide all hand tools most special tools are bought by the company but a lot techs buy the most common ones to have in there box as a shared tool is an abused tool.
I personally will buy any tool needed for the brand I am working on I draw the line at buying tools for anything other than the brand Which are sales department pay or any expensive diagnostic test equipment is typically paid for by service.
If it’s broken leave it that way any repair you do you’re liable for it’s not worth trying to do a quick fix to get the car on it’s way, The case that always sticks in my head is an AA man who went to a vehicle after it was leaking fuel he “repaired” the fuel line and told the customer to take the vehicle to a garage to have it repaired properly, they drove it about 100 miles before the pipe leaked again and sprayed onto the cambelt causing it to shred engine timing jumped and that was that.
I was the tech who was given the job when it was recovered to the garage and it ended up costing about $6000 in parts and labour to fix which the AA were now liable for and the patrolmen lost his job over the incident all in all it’s not worth it.
As you know the milky residue is moisture build up this can occur for several reasons one being a blown head gasket, other being lots of very short journeys where the car does not reach a hot enough temp to “burn” the condensation as cars at dealerships are always being moved about worked on a car that has been sitting at the dealerships for some time may well have a milky residue that was not caused by a head gasket issue, it can also be caused by the dealerships jet washing the engines to make them cleaner which makes the technicians cringe every time they see it.
[quote=”fredellus” post=156666]Hi all I just was hired at a local automotive shop and something bad happened… it wasn’t completely my fault however. Anyways this is what happened. I was asked to do a pan and gasket -auto trans. the work order specified to refill it with 7 quarts of atf, so i put in 6 so that i could top up afterward.. long story short after i drive the car the owner tells me its way overfull and that it could have blown a seal. he then tells me that the information they get from Mitchell online is sometimes incorrect and not to trust it. So i feel amiss as to what i should do when faced with this type of job in the future – being without a specification that I can trust. what do i do ? google it every time?
A different technician told me later that day that its safe after doing a pan/gasket job to start with 3 quarts (no matter what type of vehicle) then start the vehicle – cycle through the gears and recheck…-with the vehicle in park or neutral whatever is specified.
If anyone can give me any input on this type of situation where specs could be wrong i would be very appreciative as i’m just trying to do the best job that i can.[/quote]I did the same thing with engine oil when I first started out the amount of oil it needed was booked out and we had automatic filling pumps (put the job details in hold the pump till it stops) checked the dipstick and there was over a litre of oil over.
Just learn from it’s much easier to add more than to remove So always under fill and top up it’s not going to cause any damage as long as there is oil in it .
[quote=”Mechanic2001″ post=156543]Hello everyone, I am deciding whether I should buy a compressor and air tools, or buy a cordless impact? I found a nice 28 gal compressor on CL for $50. it is 150 max psi. Then spend about 120 ish on an impact. Or, save up a little more and get a cordless. What are your thoughts and experiences?[/quote]
$50 for a 28 Gallon compressor doesn’t sound right to me at least not one in good condition not sure though don’t live in the US decent compressors here are expensive.
but personally the compressor is going to be more versatile I own a snap on mg725 air gun and a Milwaukee 2763 and If I’m doing a lot of work the airgun wins out it’s lighter in the hand and can fit in places the electric cant, saying that if I want to do undo a dozen bolts my Milwaukee is there and ready to go
One thing to add the compressor will give you options for air ratchets compressed air blowers die grinders cut of wheels da sanders etc etc. Regardless of whether or not you own the electric gun An air compressor is always handy when working on vehicles.
It really comes down to product range I went with Milwaukee because of there diverse product range buying bare tools is a lot cheaper than the full sets.
The m12 impact is my favourite so powerful for a little 12v perfect for running things down and undoing bolts under 15mm the m18 1/2 is a bit bulky especially with an xc battery pack compared to it’s air gun equiv but that can be said for all electric impacts.
My most used are the m12 3/8th and the m18 3/8th the m18 gen 2 fuel is awesome but the older model is still very good and a very reasonable price.
I tend to use the 12v cig lighter ones that come with the slime kits usually a few bucks on ebay just dont rely on the gauges on them as there junk.
Yes it works but for the cost you could pay a garage many times over to remove it for you, Personally I use a 3/8th impact gun with a flare nut crows foot to remove stubborn 02 sensors. if you cant remove it will the tools you have buying that section of exhaust used is also another way to go, OEM exhausts are only a few bucks per section at breakers yards and for the hassle it can it save may be worth it.
The short answer is no classic car restoration is a really over saturated market since the host of tv shows showing them making “easy money” up until recently I worked in a main dealership and the biggest demand at the moment is diagnostics, that’s not to say you cant make money on classic cars but having completed a few myself I’ve personally found doing as little as possible yields the best profit. Clean it up get it running make it safe and leave it as a blank canvas for the newer owner to build as they want. My first project was a total restore with only evening and weekends at my disposal it took nearly 6 months and hundreds of hours when sold it made about $4000 over the parts + car cost the next project was bare bones had it running and stopping and nice a clean about 16 hours in the car and about less than $800 (excluding the cost of the vehicle) and that made just under $2000 profit all in saying that I’ve had a project or two that I’ve put 20+ hours and struggled to sell it for more than I paid for it.
What I will say is give it a try just evening/weekends and see how you get on, you really need to be proficient at a lot of different things as outside labour charges will destroy any potential profit very quickly.
[quote=”AlfieH” post=151000]Hello all.
I am a building a beach buggy from an old holden jackaroo, it’s been stripped down to just the chasis and and drivetrain. i’ve slowly built the rollcage around everything and now i find myself sorting out wiring.
Now i’m not horrible at wiring but i cant figure out how to start everything off. i need some advice on how to power everything without having lots of wires running off 1 central 12v point.
what are some tips of power everything with neat wiring. it’s carburated and has a single coil.[/quote]when i’m making a new loom I will start by lying a wire down by a tape measure and putting accurate measuring marks on it I will then take use the wire as a guideline for all the lengths i will need to connect to the various sensors after working out how i wish to route the connections and make sure I have earth points that will allow for the routing buy as many different colour wires as you can with different tracers as well and make sure you make detailed notes of all the wires the pins they go to terminal 15 terminal 30 12v 5v input etc maybe not as relevant on older cars but a must on newer engines.
When I start wiring I tend to start with the ECU as I’m pretty sure the holden doesn’t have one then I’d suggest starting at the fuse box wire in your ignition lights if you have the engine in wire that up as well everything will go to the fusebox so Bit of a long way around but start there.
I paid $199 for a Milwaukee 2763-20 which just runs rings around the ryobi the main issue I have with these guns is that there almost good enough but on the large rusted bolts that you really need the impact they let you down and you’re left swinging off the end of a breaker bar hoping the bolt gives before the bar, I use my 2754 for most work and the 2763 is only pulled out for doing wheel nuts hub nuts or when the 2754 fails personally if you’re going to spend the money on a cordless impact it needs to be able to undo every bolt i put in front of it otherwise you’d be better of with buying an air compressor and buying a much cheaper pneumatic impact.
The micro switches in the lock mechanism are a common failure point in the audi TT the ford C max the only major incident with those were keyless entry versions being incredibility easy to steal, I’m not sure of any technique that would break the locking mechanism in this way without leaving any noticeable damage.
Most thefts in the UK are carried out by signal jamming and signal relaying I wont go into massive detail as it’s mostly all out there online keyless being especially easy to steal by signal jamming then programming a key via the OBD
Or the much more basic route of stealing the keys.
The days of being using break in tools and airbags are very quickly dieing out.