It’s generally a good idea to replace your car’s thermostat as preventative maintenance with every major service interval. They are a critical part of your car’s ability to regulate it’s own...
Saab’s Workshop Information System (WIS) indicates a 20k mile replacement interval for the cabin filter. Occasionally I’d smell something odd coming from the vents and a passenger once said the same thing. I decided to change it ahead of schedule at 15k miles to ensure I wasn’t negligently...
Since I first purchased my Volvo V70XC the hood has been a bit of an eyesore. The paint on these cars is very tough and for the most part should last the life of the car without major issues. However when someone decides to get it repainted for whatever reason the results can easily be...
Spark plugs should be replaced every 60k miles on a 2004 Saab 9-3 Arc. It takes about 30min and your car will get better fuel economy versus that from worn out plugs. For this DIY write-up I’ll be using NGK G-Power spark plugs (part # BKR6EGP) which cross-references correctly for the car. I...
Preventive maintenance always sounds good, but when you have a failure of a worn-out part you want to be careful and review other items that might have been damaged or stressed by the initial failure. In my case, the serpentine belt broke while on the freeway. With the battery light on, the...
I had a driver side door mirror that looked like the glass was peeling away from the backing, creating a visual annoyance. You can see the “peeling” effect mostly on the left and along the bottom of the mirror in the picture below: While I could still drive with this distraction it was getting...
When shopping for replacement Volvo parts, most require little fitment research after entering your vehicle into a website. Oil filters, control arms, and brake pads are generally model-specific with no VIN or Chassis number break for two different revisions. On 93-04 P80 chassis Volvos like the...
Every old Volvo makes some creaks and groans, and it's part of what gives them their unique and beloved character. Ignoring my shaky dash (which I've almost tuned out by now) my '00 Volvo XC70 used to have a terribly obnoxious tailgate cover. I used a repair kit that was able to remedy this issue...
I’m starting to think there are either little gremlins at work inside my car, or it's got a character of its own. A couple weeks ago, I announced to my editors that I may be running out of things to work on as my car has been running beautifully. Hand on heart, there were no immediate issues on...
It is probably safe to say that most of us spend a good deal of our time looking after and caring for our cars. We do the typical maintenance checks, such as maintaining our tire pressure, changing our oil with a quality filter, keeping our paint tip-top with frequent cleanings and good quality...
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