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Hello all, this is my first time doing a UOA and I decided to start with my part time daily driver 2005 Honda Civic with the 1.7L VTEC engine and 5 speed manual transmission. I'm not sure of the mileage on the engine since it is a replacement from Japan, but the Amsoil Signature Series 5W-20 and...

What's up with AC accumulator/receiver dryers now apparently being a maintenance item? Now we have Tesla requiring a replacement every 2-6 years depending on the model, GM requiring a replacement every 7 years on at least one model (the Traverse), Delphi recommending a replacement every 2 years...

This is something I have been curious about for a while and have never been able to figure out. On the majority of automotive engines, cranking compression generally reads way higher than expected for the engine's compression ratio and I'm wondering why this is. For example, my 05 Civic has a...

Hello everyone, I just had a somewhat odd experience and I thought sharing it may be helpful to someone at some point and could save an unnecessary engine rebuild or replacement or even save an otherwise okay car from being scrapped. Long story short, I bought a 353,000 mile 1997 Honda Civic...

Hello everyone, I recently noticed something strange that got me thinking about how the winter viscosity of oils (the first number before the W) relates to an oil's pour point. I have always assumed (and generally noticed) that oils with a lower cold viscosity tend to have lower pour points...

Hello everyone, I just bought a new Odyssey Extreme group 65 AGM battery from Autozone and it seems to have more self discharge than I would have expected. It arrived at 12.7 volts which seemed maybe a tad low for an AGM battery, but not at all alarming. Charge it up and it'll be good to go...

Hello everyone, I am trying to help a friend with his 1998 Cadillac Deville after the alternator completely stopped charging and left him stranded. I thought it was going to need an alternator, but I just checked it out and found that neither of the two wires on the alternator's plug have power...

Hello all, I unfortunately I just found out the hard way that Purple Power is not good for cleaning aluminium parts, so I thought I should post my experience for those who don't already know this. Long story short, I just finished doing a couple minor repairs and upgrades to my K24A2 swapped...

I'm wondering how useful continuing to run the radiator fans after shutdown as some vehicles do actually is at helping prevent heatsoak related problems. I understand that the coolant and oil temperature can rise significantly after shutdown since they stop circulating but keep absorbing heat...

Hello all, I'm curious if anyone who uses Pennzoil Ultra Platinum has noticed any excessive sludge/deposit buildup issues. I have been using Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W30 almost exclusively in my 05 Honda Civic 1.7 VTEC and usually changing it around 4K miles or at the very most 5K miles and I...

Just ran across something interesting and somewhat disturbing while I was changing my 05 Civic's timing belt. Last time I changed the belt in 2016, I used a Gates blue belt (their high performance one) and it has not given me any issues, but it was due to be changed. This time I decided to get...

I'm wondering exactly how hot the outside of a block heater is expected to get. I realize that it's a heater and it's going to get hot during operation, but I think mine may be heating up a bit excessively. Several months ago, I installed this Zerostart block heater in my K24 swapped Honda...

For a while, I've noticed that the same engines we get here in America are (unsurprisingly) often used in other markets as well, but sometimes with virtually no differences other than slightly different displacements of as little as 0.1 litres. For example, here in America, excluding hybrid...

Something interesting I have noticed is it seems that there are way more old (say mid 90's and earlier) trucks still on the road than cars from the same era, at least where I live. As an example, I see late 80's to early 90's Ford F150s and F250s on a daily basis still appearing to be in decent...

Hello everyone, several months ago I swapped my 2005 Honda Civic 1.7 VTEC from an automatic transmission to a 5 speed manual and I have been having an idle problem ever since. When I am coasting, the RPM will usually not go down to an actual idle. Instead, the RPM usually hangs around 1000-1500...

I never have been able to figure out how people grind gears when shifting improperly since I thought the synchronizers were designed to not allow the gear to engage if the gear speeds aren't matched up, but somehow some people still grind when shifting. There have been a few times I have...

Hello everyone, I am wondering if anyone has any viscosity curves for 0W vs 5W and/or 10W oils with the same hot viscosity. I have tried to find example curves but I was not able to find anything and I am curious at about which temp the cold viscosity actually starts to significantly differ. On...

Hello everyone, for years I thought that clutch safety switches are a relatively useless and somewhat annoying "feature". I understand that if someone accidental leaves the transmission in gear and tries to crank the engine, the vehicle will jump forwards/backwards if the brakes or parking brake...

Hello everyone, I just found out that Discount Tire no longer patches tires that have been previously plugged. In the past I have plugged tires as a temporary fix and then had Discount Tire patch it when I had time, but I found out the hard way that they no longer do that. A few weeks ago I got...

Hello everyone, I am currently working on a friend's riding mower with a 22HP 724CC Briggs Intek V Twin motor and it suddenly started surging. It starts fine, but it surges at all throttle positions. If I dribble some gas into the carb while it's running or I get the choke set just right, I can...