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I'm kind of out in the middle of nowhere and left a dome light on (there was a flood light hitting the car...so I didn't see it at night). Luckily there was a maintenance guy coming to the house, so I got a jump. Otherwise, I would have needed a tow truck to come down a dirt road. I've been...

I'm wondering where folks buy their Nokian tires. Apparently there isn't a dealer within nearly 100 miles of the DC area. I'd also like to avoid paying for TPMS on my winter wheels (I know how to use a tire pressure gauge), especially since synching them to the car requires a trip to the dealer...

I cleared the code on my Civic and it didn't come back immediately, but it is still trying to overheat when idling. Or more accurately, the temperature rose and then came back down on its own. Haven't drove enough to truly "clear" the code yet. I meant to do it tonight, but decided to have a...

Well after 212k, the CEL came on and stayed on for the first time in my Civic's 13 years. I do believe this code came on about 1.5 years ago after getting an oil change. I turned around and had the mechanic pull it, and he reset it to see if it would pop again. Didn't come back until now...

So my wife got hit by a driver last week, naturally in the car that isn't even a year old yet. On the surface, it looks like just the rear bumper will require attention. The other guy admitted fault, and his insurance is ready to move forward. I called to ask a couple questions today, and it...

Coming up on 30k after my 3x drain and fill last year on the Civic and I was going to try my hand at doing this myself. I notice the manual says to drain while the car is level. Well, I'm not sure how you are supposed to get the necessary leverage with the car level, the Civic isn't exactly...

So I'm sitting here in my Honda in a Costco parking lot after coolant sprayed out of the front grill and blew up onto the windshield. Temp gauge never went up before I pulled in here. Lucky I was going to get gas I guess. I don't see anything obvious as far as a source for the leak, and it...

The jury is still out on it "fixing" itself, but figured I would throw it out to the hive mind here. Car is my Civic in the sig. I apparently have a failing cat converter, and at the time that was diagnosed, mechanic said the front pipe was getting close to going too. I was planning on getting...

So after one mechanic said my exhaust noise was a front pipe, I brought it to another mechanic who says the front pipe is not leaking, but the rattling is coming from inside the cat. He said he clamped down the heat shields and everything to rule out other rattles and the cat is all that is...

So I'm looking at car listings and come across this one on a dealer site: 2012 Chevy Cruze LTZ, 6AT 29,500 miles Blue Book: $18,522 Internet Price: $11,700 It notes it is a former rental, and the history report shows it to be as well. No accidents noted in the report. Only one picture on the...

I haven't owned a house for that long, and don't remember my parents ever needing roof repair other than when they got it replaced a few years back, so I have zero experience to recall upon. I have a 3 story town house so it isn't real easy to get up there and check things out, but today when...

So I finally get around to doing my first DIY oil change. I get up on the ramps, chock the wheels, took the cap off and slid underneath the undo the drain plug. And I see this: What is going on here? Did someone strip my pan and this was fix? How do you deal with one of these? Just take out...

Before I go set up an account on yet another forum (they are great though), I figured I'd see if the handy bunch here has any opinion on this. My house was built about 6 years ago and at the beginning of the summer I noticed my door bell went dead when a delivery guy had to knock. I took a...

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I am accumulating gear to start trying my hand at some more work on the car, but also these are just some tools that every guy should probably have in their garage. My current wrench inventory is a couple random ones from my FIL that he gave my wife when...

I'm finally ready to dive in and at least start trying to do my own basic maintenance. I realize I'd like try and get some learning out of the way with my 13 year old car, rather than something newer. I'm trying to determine if it is worth buying both ramps and stands, and wonder what the more...

The a/c in my 12 year old Civic has appeared to be slowly diminishing in ability since last summer. Last summer it would work fine, until I got caught in traffic on a hot day (90+ deg.) where it would go hot. Once I was moving again it was fine. Only during prolonged gridlock on a highway did it...

I'm nearing 200k on my Civic, so I am looking ahead to the inevitable timing belt replacement. At 100k, I had the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, other belts, and valve cover gasket replaced while they had it taken apart. The car pretty much performs just like it always has over the past 10...

I'm playing with the idea of buying a slightly used vehicle to replace my wife's current SUV because I have nearly convinced myself that it is a ticking time bomb of repair bills. Anyway, I was looking at Subaru Outbacks and noticed one dealer had 3-4 service loaners listed. Subaru Certified...

I've been thinking of buying one to use for all sorts of work around the house where it would be nice to have two free hands, but good light on the task at hand. I'm just wondering if anyone could recommend a model. Most reviews on Amazon or outdoorsman sites focus on hiking use rather than...

I might go looking this weekend to replace my wife's Xterra. The number of problems I am reading about on the Xterra and Frontier forums for the 2005 model has me spooked about keeping this thing long-term, so I might see about unloading it and upgrading before something big reveals itself. We...