Driving a four-door coupé in the winter is not my idea of a good time. The impracticality of this front-wheel drive sled is exacerbated by the wide front wheels (Skinny snows? Nope.) and poor rear...
Over the holidays I had an idle and running issue. The car displayed a irratic or hunting idle, hesitation on acceleration between 800-1500, and was throwing a CEL. I went through all the normal procedures to diagnose the issue, finally discovering my O2 sensor was causing the trouble. Knowing...
This morning my BMW X5 3.0i was making a rattling noise with a light screech from the engine bay. The outside temp gauge read 23 degrees fahrenheit and as my engine started, so did the noise. My car has the updated style hydraulic drive belt (alternator) tensioner installed from the factory, but...
Seven years and four P80 Volvos have taught me there are some parts you don't want to let fail. These parts have either made me late or totally stuck - not something I like to admit considering Volvo's normally excellent reputation for reliability. Brake Light Switch Failure Point: 170,000...
We recently had our friends from CRP Industries drop in to our FCP office, and they showed us something that I thought was really important to point out. Like most other maintenance items on your vehicle you should always replace your brake hoses in matched pairs, left and right. This point was...
If you have been experiencing poor braking performance in the form of a stiff pedal, don’t immediately think you need a new master cylinder or brake booster. The simple and cheap replacement of the one-way brake booster valve could help remedy these braking problems. My Volvo 940 recently...
As a BMW ages, the transmission begins to become imprecise. This is due to age and wear of the associated parts. As a result, poor shifting, sloppy/loose gearing, and missed shifts can occur. When this happens it is best to begin to replace all the parts in the gearshift assembly. The following...
Winter is still coming on strong, and rain is still falling. We've written a lot about what to do to prepare your vehicle for the severe weather, but sometimes good preparation is not enough – even the Titanic had a bilge pump! If your car should flood this winter, it's not the end of the world,...
The fuel filter on the Volvo XC90 is one of the easiest to change in any passenger car I've worked on. It's generally recommended to change the fuel filter every 60k miles or so, but on my XC90 with an unknown service history I decided to change it out at 80k miles when I purchased the car. The...
One of the things most often found in forums and online communities of car enthusiasts is a discussion on horsepower and torque, and their relationships to one another. There is quite a lot of misinformation that travels the circuit, and when posed as fact, that misinformation can be very...