Author: Jason Kent

I am not a professional mechanic (or writer) but I take pride in fixing cars and not only keeping them going but making them better. I have slightly above average skills just like I would expect a lot of people who find this website do. Please follow my advice at your own risk... sometimes I fix things but sometimes I make them worse!

Our 2001 Volvo S60 T5 has been parked for a few years now after it just quit running on me one day as I was doing about 75 MPH on the interstate. I think that was a result of the alternator dying and the battery being dead, I’ve never had a car do that to me before, just quit running at speed. At any rate, I finally got around to paying some attention to it, wanted to get it going again and give it to a relative who needs another car. I believe the alternator quit because it was getting…

Read More

A few more years ago than I’d like to admit someone ran into my wife as she was driving and did some damage to the fender, busted the headlight scraped up the bumper and busted the running light. It still drove fine, the lights still worked, etc. so I slapped some packing tape on it until I got a round to fixing it. The packing tape held up admirably as it patiently waited for me to find a fender in the right color. I recently took on this project. I’m going to once again just load up my photos and…

Read More

I haven’t added anything to this website in so long but I need to start doing it again, some of these posts seem to help folks. We still have the Jaguar, it’s got around 193,000 miles on it now. I’ve recently done quite a few things to it. As I’ve done with several half baked posts on here, I shall do to this one as well, upload some pictures with the intention of coming back later to fill in some explanation of things.

Read More

We’ve had the car going on 8 years now and I’ve replaced these 2 or 3 times if I recall. I’m not sure I’ll ever write up how I did this but I’m going through posting photos that I mean to post when I do the write ups. A picture is worth a thousand words anyway, right?These photos are from the June 2021 coolant reservoir failure 

Read More

I was in the Honda Ridgeline last week for the first time this year. I noticed the clock was not right and was a bit confused, this clock has always set itself with satellites or something magic like that. I talked with my son who is the main driver of the Ridgeline these days and he told me he’d noticed that and read some forum posts about it. It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this site and I want to start doing it more again. I decided to post this here so I can update it if we…

Read More

This time of year I like to take a little time to change the cabin filters on our vehicles. Most manufacturers recommend to replace them around 15,000 miles which is about how many miles we drive our cars in a year. If you have to drive your car on a dusty gravel road often then you might want to consider changing it a couple of times a year. Fram Fresh Breeze Cabin Filter Open the glove compartment Remove the stop retainers on each side and the slow rod from the right side if equipped Lower the glove box out of the…

Read More

I need to get myself inspired to put in work on my 1996 300ZX. There is a bolt broken off in the motor at this time so it is going to have to be pulled to fix. My original plan was to just do a standard VG30DETT Twin Turbo swap but I’m leaning towards dropping a VH45 V8 in it now. Videos like this inspire me to do so, I love the potential sounds that can be made with the right exhaust setup on a high-revving V8!

Read More

Regular oil changes are a must for proper engine maintenance and to help extend the life of your vehicle. When I started changing my oil back in the 80s the school of thought was that you should change it every 3 months or 3,000 miles. With the advancement of synthetic oils and engine technology this oil change interval is outdated in most cases. I suppose if you do a lot of stop and go driving in a very hot dusty environment on a daily basis then you should change your oil every 3,000 miles but for most of us it is not…

Read More

Sometimes the normal routine that you use to clean your car isn’t good enough. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having calcium buildup on your car then you know this all too well. Most of the time this happens when a car is parked underneath something that is leaking water with high mineral contents (hard water). This often happens in parking garages with overhead fire suppression pipes that leak. Distilled White Vinegar Cotton Shop Towel Automotive Wax Wax Applicator Pads I recently dealt with this situation, the car was parked under a leaky pipe in a parking garage for an extended period and…

Read More