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Cost of brake fluid change: $8 and about 30 minutes of your time.
Cost of repairing corrosion damage to the system: $1,000 and up.
Any questions?
You may have a cooling system issue, like air in the system, or maybe your radiator is clogged. If it’s the original radiator it may be getting marginal. Also chck the AC condenser in front of the radiator, if it has had a lot of insect strikes or bent fins that may be blocking the cooling air.
You may have a cooling system issue, like air in the system, or maybe your radiator is clogged. If it’s the original radiator it may be getting marginal. Also chck the AC condenser in front of the radiator, if it has had a lot of insect strikes or bent fins that may be blocking the cooling air.
The only real way to test an alternator is to put an ammeter on the thick alternator to battery wire. In the old days you had to unhook this wire to insert an ammeter, but now there are clamp-on magnetic ammeters.
If the alternator and voltage regulator are working correctly, you should see like a 10 to 30 amp charging current right after starting the engine, dropping off to maybe 3 amps after a minute. And that current level should not change a bit as you rev the engine. If the current zooms up when you rev the engine, the voltage regulator is bad.
The only real way to test an alternator is to put an ammeter on the thick alternator to battery wire. In the old days you had to unhook this wire to insert an ammeter, but now there are clamp-on magnetic ammeters.
If the alternator and voltage regulator are working correctly, you should see like a 10 to 30 amp charging current right after starting the engine, dropping off to maybe 3 amps after a minute. And that current level should not change a bit as you rev the engine. If the current zooms up when you rev the engine, the voltage regulator is bad.
A quart every 2000 miles isn’t too bad. You could try some of the old tricks, like thicker oil. I know the car makers don’t recommend it, but that’s mostly, I think, just so they can claim a fraction more of a MPG. It’s up to you to decide whether a small fraction of a MPG is worth a quart of oil. Let’s try the math: if we assume 20 weight oil will give you 1% more MPG, and you get 20 MPG, after 2000 miles the thick oil will have used 100 gallons, and the new thinner oil will have used 99 gallons. Hmm, that’s a savings of like $3.50, at the cost of maybe an extra quart of oil burned, about $3.50….. About the same by this reckoning.
A quart every 2000 miles isn’t too bad. You could try some of the old tricks, like thicker oil. I know the car makers don’t recommend it, but that’s mostly, I think, just so they can claim a fraction more of a MPG. It’s up to you to decide whether a small fraction of a MPG is worth a quart of oil. Let’s try the math: if we assume 20 weight oil will give you 1% more MPG, and you get 20 MPG, after 2000 miles the thick oil will have used 100 gallons, and the new thinner oil will have used 99 gallons. Hmm, that’s a savings of like $3.50, at the cost of maybe an extra quart of oil burned, about $3.50….. About the same by this reckoning.
Look under the hood and in your owner’s manual under “fuses”. There should be a fusebox and three ABS fuses. You should only have to pull the main ABS one. Or maybe more, hard to say.
Look under the hood and in your owner’s manual under “fuses”. There should be a fusebox and three ABS fuses. You should only have to pull the main ABS one. Or maybe more, hard to say.
Sounds mighty unlikely.
A cat runs red-hot, so there are not going to be any carbon or organic goo deposits on it, and that’s the only things lacquer cleaner could attack, if it were still lacquer cleaner by the time it got to the cat, which it won’t be, it will be burnt up into CO2.
So, right there, at least a couple reasons why not.
Sounds mighty unlikely.
A cat runs red-hot, so there are not going to be any carbon or organic goo deposits on it, and that’s the only things lacquer cleaner could attack, if it were still lacquer cleaner by the time it got to the cat, which it won’t be, it will be burnt up into CO2.
So, right there, at least a couple reasons why not.
You could try putting a little black silicone goop on each side of the new gasket, that will make up for a lot of gasket problems.
Also check with a ruler than the mating surfaces are reasonably flat. It’s easy to warp a valve cover if it’s sheet metal and you are too enthusiastic with the tightening.
You could try putting a little black silicone goop on each side of the new gasket, that will make up for a lot of gasket problems.
Also check with a ruler than the mating surfaces are reasonably flat. It’s easy to warp a valve cover if it’s sheet metal and you are too enthusiastic with the tightening.
A slipping tranny will sound like the engine is revving up much higher than expected for the amount of gas pedal push.
A problem with EGR usually shows up as poor emissions if it sticks closed, poor idling if it sticks open.