A New Year’s Resolution

Here are some ideas and rebates to help you keep those new years resolutions regarding car maintenance and repair.

• Do-It-Yourself tasks like changing your struts is easier with Quick-Struts from Monroe. Monroe Quick-Strut units include all the components required for strut replacement in a single, fully-assembled unit. They feature a pre-assembled replacement bearing plate, upper and lower spring isolators, upper spring seat, coil spring, boot kit, and a premium strut.
• Do you have slapping, screeching, or vibrating wiper blades? Purchase two Bosch ICON Wiper Blades and receive $15 back by mail-in rebate.
• Is your cabin air filter covered in dust, dirt, and debris? Purchase an ATP Premium Cabin Air Filter and get $5 back by mail-in rebate.
• Are your brake pads worn and need to be replaced? Get up to a $30 rebate with the purchase of two sets of qualifying Bendix premium brake pads or shoes.

RockAuto can help you keep your resolution with our easy to use catalog! Do not forget to check the promotions and rebates page often to find the most current rebates available to help you save even more on RockAuto’s every day low prices!

Forum of the Month

The Turbo Diesel Register (TDR) is a forum dedicated solely to the owners of the Dodge/Cummins Turbo Diesel pickup. At the TDR you’ll find pages of technical tips, maintenance basics, product evaluations, owner feature stories, industry news, vehicle history and development news, and much more. TDR is not only a fun community to be a part of; it’s a place to gain knowledge and a better understanding of your truck.

Visit and subscribe to TDR today!

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact jessa@rockauto.com.

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

When I was in high school, a friend and I decided to take a weekend trip up to his parents cabin. We were in his Volkswagen beetle (a “Baja” type with an open engine bay). As we were tooling along up a slight grade, the car started losing power and slowing down. We rolled to a stop onto the shoulder and got out to see what we could see. At this time, the sun was very low on the horizon and light was fading fast, so we couldn’t see much. My ever resourceful best friend remedied that situation by pulling a disposable lighter out of his pocket, and proceeded to kneel down and get right up close to the engine with the open flame, looking for some obvious flaw to fix. As I stood there, looking over his shoulder, I remarked something to the effect of “Do you smell gas?” An instant later, there was a loud WHUMP! sound, and I swear, the engine case looked like it expanded slightly, and a flash of light was visible from every crack and seam of the engine. Now my best friend had a new look; slightly singed eyebrows and hair.

After hitching a ride back home, borrowing my dads van, and towing the bug back, we found the problem. The rubber gasket of the mechanical fuel pump had ruptured, and, since the bug had an additional aftermarket electric pump installed, fuel had been dumped into the crankcase in a significant quantity. Add an open flame and two clueless High School kids to that and fun soon begins.

I learned two lessons that day: keep open flames away from engines, and stand well back when my best friend tries to “fix” something.

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for awhile!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and shirt size (large or extra large) and we will mail you a RockAuto "Do it yourself?" t-shirt if we publish your story (see the t-shirts under Extras in the catalog). The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

Much Easier than Expected

It is such a great feeling when a dreaded repair turns out to be much easier than expected. It is even better when the repair requires me to add a cool tool to my garage!

In November, spots of power steering fluid started showing up on the ground below my ’89 Ford Crown Victoria Country Squire. I hoped it was just a bad hose, but the leak was coming from around the pump’s pulley shaft. Unfortunately, the pulley covers up the bolts holding the pump on. It is necessary to pull the pulley off the shaft while the power steering pump is still in the car. I figured I would have to remove the radiator shroud and maybe the engine fan to have any chance of getting at the pulley. Then I expected a knuckle busting battle to get the pulley off and back on. I mumbled bad words about the Ford engineers that made an easy job hard by hiding access to those bolts.

I got a remanufactured A-1 Cardone power steering pump and a K TOOL Part # 70300 “Pulley Puller and Installer Set” (found under “Extras” at RockAuto.com) and stuck them in the garage near the Crown Victoria. I hoped their presence might scare the leak out of the old pump. Instead, the leak got worse.

In December my parents were going to be watching my kids and shuttling them around in the Crown Victoria. It is bad enough to be spewing power steering fluid into the environment, but it is even worse to hand your parents a bottle of power steering fluid along with the keys to your car. The Crown Victoria has been a very reliable vehicle. It only breaks down when my relatives are in it. For my sister, the car needed a new distributor. For my brother it was a new starter, heater core, and headlight switch (all on one short weekend trip!). Both started out in the car and ended up on a city bus. The last thing I needed was to give the family another reason to snicker about my beloved old station wagon.

I bit the bullet and started the repair. K TOOL 70300 was designed specifically to pull off and press on power steering and alternator pulleys. The tool set includes a nut, bearing, washers and bolts that cleverly fit together and get the job done. It was not necessary to remove the fan shroud. It took a lot of turns of the nut, but the pulley pulled off the old pump and pushed on to the new pump with no fanfare at all.

A big thanks to K TOOL and A-1 Cardone and I take back most of the curses I directed at the Ford engineers. After all, the original pump did last for twenty years and over 200K miles! It also is a bit of an engineering/machining miracle that the steel pulley presses onto the steel shaft without needing any additional keys, bolts, etc. to hold it on.

The entire repair took about an hour and my parents drove the Crown Victoria all over town. Maybe I should be more pessimistic about every repair I do, because I sure do enjoy pleasant surprises!

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

Hi,

This car has a great history. It was bought by my late father from a junk yard in Alabama, and then trailed home to Fort Worth, Texas. He spent many days rebuilding the engine, floors, quarter panels, and the trunk until he passed away. He left the car to me so I went down to Texas and hauled it to Canada. My father also used RockAuto parts which is how I was turned on to the website. Some of the parts he used in the restoration from RockAuto include a Wiper motor, Washer pump, Heater core, Battery cables, PCV valve, and a Brake light switch. My most recent purchase included wiper arms and floor mats – the small things that make my car look original.

I now too spent many days working on the car. Body prepping, painting, working on the exhaust, troubleshooting electrical problems, and fixing leaks occupies much of my time. Anyway here it is today, not complete (are they ever) but in show condition. I would love for you to show your audience an old man's finished dream.

Clint in Ontario Canada

Share Your Hard Work
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