ChrisFix

I saw this video where @buttery_daddy was unscrewing some fasteners and I figured I would share some tips to make unscrewing fasteners safer and easier! It’s great seeing people working on their own cars and learning! #ChrisFix

I’m excited for this one. How to fix a sloppy shifter and transmission leak due to a bad transmission seal. This video will bring us another step closer to the Turbo install in the Del Sol! #ChrisFix

Learn how to diagnose and fix a slight misfire. So I have a very slight misfire on my truck that is bad enough where I can feel it vibrating at idle but not bad enough to trigger any check engine light codes. Here is how I diagnose this problem. What I try to do is start with free and easy things to do so you can quickly knock off some basic items from the list. Then I move to the more time consuming or money consuming diagnostics. 1. Check the spark plug wires to make sure they are fully seated on the plugs and distributor/coil. Also check to make sure the wires are not damaged with a visual inspection. Damaged wires could be grounding out the spark. 2. Scan the computer with a scan tool. This can be done for free at your local parts store or unused a cheap $25 scanner. Even though you don’t have a check engine light, you might have a pending code that doesn’t light up the check engine light on the dash. Another thing to check is short term fuel trims. Check under “live data” and make sure the % isn’t over 10%. If it is you might have a vacuum leak which can cause a slight misfire. Usually this is accompanied by high or surging idle but not all the time. 3. Use a fuel system cleaner with PEA in it which is only a couple of bucks and can be added at your convenience. Sometimes the pinhole spray ports in a fuel injector can be clogged but the injector can still work. The uneven spray pattern can cause a slight misfire and a bottle of fuel system cleaner can fix your problem without having to touch any tools. Even if it doesn’t fix the miss, at least now you know your injectors are cleaned. 4. Check your spark plugs. Even though I used platinum plugs and they were only 30k miles old, for some reason my plugs were worn out. You can tell by the size of the gap. The gap should have been 0.042 but it was so warn that the gap was 0.070 which is why the truck was missing a little. The gap was not too wide where it wasn’t sparking but the spark was weak so there was a slight miss. This was the most time consuming and “expensive” step which I saved for last, but it ended up fixing the truck which is good! #ChrisFix #diagnostics #FordRanger @stabilbrand

What common mistakes do you commonly see? Comment below and I will include it in the next video! 1. Putting antisieze on spark plugs This is no longer necessary because spark plugs have a nickel coating on the thread to prevent corrosion. Adding antisieze to threads will make the torque spec inaccurate, and you could easily over-tighten the plugs. And if you over, tighten the spark plugs, you could strip out the threads in the head, which would not be fun. 2. Using oil to lubricate O-rings Some O-rings are oil resistant, but many are not and using oil or Vaseline on the O-ring could cause damage overtime using a silicone based lubricant like this O-ring lubricant, which is specifically designed for O-rings will prevent that from happening. 3. Tightening bushings while the suspension is suspended if you tighten the bushings while the suspension is drooping, and then you put the car back on the ground, the bushings can tear or wear out a lot quicker. So always load the suspension with the weight of the vehicle before tightening any bushings, which will keep those bushings lasting a long time. #ChrisFix

I really need to change the terminal end connector on that battery but for now here is how I got my truck started so I could at least go out! First, when there is a click and then you have no power to anything you can almost know it’s a bad connection somewhere. Could be a bad ground wire, bad power wire, bad connection at the terminal ends where it connects to the battery, bad relay, or bad connection at the starter. I always start at the battery wires to make sure they aren’t loose and in this case it was exactly that and more! So here’s how I fixed it and soon I’ll need to clean all the wires up and make it look and function way better. #ChrisFix

The day before an endurance race while we were testing our car we heard a slight seemingly random knock… it was faint but there. A few laps later it was wayyyyy more evident we had a serious problem. At around 2800rpms we had a serious knock and to identify what cylinder it is all you need to do is disconnect the coil from the spark plug until the knock stops. In this case we had rod knock at cylinder number 4 which means we did not get to race unfortunately. This is the second engine that has blown on this e46 BMW. We think it’s because it’s AWD and the oil pan is causing the engine to starve of oil on turns. Next up, figuring out how to fix this! #ChrisFix

Everyone knows about tires wearing out due to the tire tread decreasing but did you know that even tires with plenty of tread could be “worn out” and need to be replaced? Tires that are 10+years old old are considered past service life and could be dangerous to drive on because the rubber breaks down over time due to ozone and UV light. So if you’re tires are getting close to 10yr old or older consider replacing them. When you get new tires make sure you buy tires that are less than 18 months old. #ChrisFix #Tires