The astronauts. Their ride around the Moon.
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) April 11, 2026
The Artemis II astronauts pose for a group photo after viewing their Orion spacecraft — which they named Integrity — in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha following their splashdown. pic.twitter.com/dLicqJPoox
What is your car telling you? #1
I got the idea of doing a short post on different noises and what they might mean because, really, some people don’t know. The first one I’m going to deal with is from recent memory; and the one that started me thinking about these posts in the first place, it’s the Wheel Bearing noise.
What’s that humming?
A wheel bearing noise is often a constant hum at a speed more than approimately 15mph and will be louder the faster you go. It should be said that it’s not always the case they start at 15mph, they can be there at a much lower speeds too. Just a good rule of thumb.
Continue Reading
When a car comes in with a faulty daytime running light, warnings in the dash and a worried customer. And you see this.
But this was repaired a few months ago, she can’t understand why it’s happening again.
Well, this is why it’s happening again. One of the worst wiring repairs I’ve seen in quite a while.
Identifying Parts From My Workshop Floor
I found these parts on my workshop floor a few of weeks ago. At first, I thought that a strut mount bearing assembly had failed and these were the remnants.
I haven’t changed out struts recently so it wasn’t from a reassembly gone wrong.
Continue ReadingLike a lot of people I drifted away from Twitter a while ago, I can’t get used to calling it X, but lately I’ve been checking in there again.
The fact is that the news and many other interesting things are still mostly happening there. This was confirmed with the NASA Artemis account in the last few days.
So I’m giving it another go and trying to ignore the noise.
Sometimes this can just be the sign of a bad oil cooler. We can replace the cooler flush the system and it’s job done.
Unfortunately that wasn’t the case here. We ended up doing an engine replacement in then end.
It’s very possible, almost inevitable, that in the near future people won’t even remember manual gearboxes existed in cars.
Most younger people I’ve done work for recently, enthusiasts aside, can’t even understand why anyone would want to shift gears themselves.
In the pursuit of finding a problem it can look a lot worse than it is.
The story of this diagnosis is a long drawn out saga that finally came to an end after many twists and turns.
I Thought That Was Standard
Daily writing prompt
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
COVID threw quite a few curve balls my way but it did not ultimately change how I do anything.
At the time some car manufacturer workshops were advertising that a pollen/cabin filter was now part of a service.
Wasn’t that always part of a service?
I haven’t had a chance to listen to everything in my podcast playlist recently, I’m slowly working through them. Today in the car I hit shuffle and the first one to play was Pizza Boxes by The Economics of Everyday Things podcast from Freakanomics.
It was so good I turned off shuffle and queued up another one from them, Car Washes, which was equally interesting.
Living in NE Ohio Im surrounded by car washes so it piqued my interest.
Why Does My Car Shake When Braking?
The other day I got a call from someone concerned their car was shaking violently when braking. They couldn’t figure out why it was happening and it was starting to worry them.
Common symptoms could be
- Steering wheel vibration when braking
- Pulsation through the brake pedal
- Whole car shaking when braking
- Vibration that gets worse over time
So let’s list a few things that could cause this, how it might happen and what to do when it does.
Continue ReadingIt’s not impossible until we fail. If we fail, we fail searching for greatness
Ferruccio Lamborghini
One of the industries that’s changed the most
I think that my job as a mechanic has been one of the industries that has changed the most. Computer technology is the main reason why. The two have grown side by side.
When I first started over 30 years ago, your toolbox could fit in the trunk of a small car. Now you’d need a small truck just to move it. Back then, a basic set of sockets, screwdrivers, pliers, spanners, and a good hammer would get you through a surprising amount of work.
The Job That Taught Me to Ignore the Noise
It’s the car that – almost – kicked my butt! A few years ago I had a VW Touareg in the workshop with a crank no-start complaint. It came in running, but not well. And it was pot luck if it would restart once switched off.
This Volkswagen came in with a lot of strange stuff going on. Don’t under estimate the power of a ground!
Pun intended.
Todays @WordPress.org prompt was about confidence. It ties into working on cars perfectly. Confidence will get you through the job, it’s about having faith in yourself and your ability.
Clean Cars Get Better Diagnosed?
Someone recently told me that clean cars get a better level of diagnosis and I laughed. But the comment stuck in my head and after a day or two of it rattling around in there it started to make sense to me.
