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The Trax is Sonic-based, isn't it? There are many plastic parts in the cooling system, all of which get brittle with age.

As unpleasant as it can be, in the past I have turned on the heat when stuck in rush-hour traffic in hot weather. If the Scangauge showed the coolant temperature going up much past 105°C (221°F), I would set the heat to maximum and the fan to its highest speed. The heater core served, in this...

@00scrub, I would check the rubber air pipe after the MAF and before the throttle body - they tend to crack on the bottom, admitting air which isn't seen by the MAF.

Does this imply the engines were not producing the expected thrust?

My wife or I will often mention something, and the other one will have been thinking about the same thing at the same time. It's a bit uncanny. This might be common with couples who've been together for a long time. I'm not sure if there's any sort of paranormal thing happening here, or...

My wife was stopped a light around four years ago, and our van was rear-ended. No significant damage, but the plastic bumper cover was deformed (though not cracked) and the paint was damaged. The driver who hit her asked that she not go through our public insurer - he would prefer to pay the...

Some years ago we were on holiday, and my wife pulled into a hotel parking lot. I had already been nagging her a bit about her driving (typically following too closely), and didn't want to instigate a spat by suggesting that she pull ahead into a spot with no one beside us (as I would have...

They wore quickly this past winter. Last November they looked like they had one more winter left in them. In retrospect, they should have been scrapped then. They were on Jr's Kia van. I think we changed over to the 3-season tires in April. Good eye, they are Nokians, and served well...

Perhaps not - those steel strands hurt!

@cyclopathic, good article, thanks for sharing it. The A-h capacity vs. CCA capacity jibes with my experience. I've had a couple of marginal batteries that passed a CCA load test (100 A for 10 s) fine, but failed an A-h test badly. I have a Schumacher CCA tester - basically a big resistive...

Certainly, as ballast rather than as tires. 😁

I don't reckon these'll be good for more'n another two or three winters. 😉

After taking in a couple of loads I realized I was barely breaking even on the cost of driving there. Now I collect scrap metal in a cardboard box in the garage. When it's reasonably full, I put it out in the back. It always disappears. The scrap salvagers come down the back lane regularly...

Good thoughts. Perseverance is a huge factor. The old saying about insanity being doing the same thing over and over without results does not apply when it comes to separating rusted parts.

I went through this a few years ago with our '09 Mazda5. I don't know if this helped, but I rigged a an old plastic jar, sitting horizontally against the hub. It was sealed around the contact surface with RTV or caulk. I had some wood underneath to support it. I had cut a hole in the top...

Rex and Brodie dropped off four cubic yards of quarter-down crushed limestone for me. Brodie is the puggle. The dump truck is a 1976 Chevy 6500 with a 366 V8.

Thoughts on FCS? The owner can get them online from a non-RA supplier he's dealt with previously. I presume they're Chinese. Their website (not surprisingly) makes them sound pretty good.

That's a good question - I assumed that because the van was only offered with one powertrain (Pentastar 3.6 and 6-speed AT), there were no variations in the springs installed at the factory. However, apparently the R/T models had stiffer springs. I understand the concern when a...

A friend has a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan he bought new. It's close to 250K km now, and is due for front struts. The owner would prefer to replace the struts with the "quick strut" style, rather than reusing the factory springs. Of the choices shown on Rock Auto, I would likely go for the KYB...

C. 1970*, President Nixon commissioned a study on poverty in America. IIRC, the researchers found that 78% of America's poor had done at least one (and usually more than one) of these three things: - had a child out of wedlock, - had a child before age 20, and - had not completed high...