Front Disc Brakes and How to Replace Them

Well I've been out for a bit but I'm back with yet another video in the EricTheCarGuy series. This one was requested by more than one of my followers and with good reason. Disc brakes and their replacement are one of the things that will come up in the life of every car. In the case of the car that I worked on the brake pads were not necessarily worn out but it had a brake pulsation that warranted the replacement of the brake rotors, I replaced the pads at the request of the customer and at my recommendation. When you replace rotors it's always a good idea to start with new pads. The old pads after they have been on the car for a while tend to wear into the rotors that they worked with over time, putting new rotors on without changing the pads means that the pads will not have the same contact area that they did with their old rotors. Bottom line, new or machined rotors=new pads.

The tool that I used in this video is easy to make, all it requires is an old soft drink bottle with a hole drilled in the cap. Then take some aquarium tubing or some plastic tubing that you may find at a hardware store and insert it into the opening of the bottle. The tubing that I used was not of a diameter that could go directly onto a bleeder valve so I used a small piece of vacuum line at the tip to attach to bleeder valves. Over time the tubing may get hard or brittle, I keep a little fluid in the bottom of the bottle for weight but it also seems to prevent the tubing from hardening if it stays submerged in brake fluid. This same tool can be used to bleed brakes to keep from making a mess but I've also found it helpful if you don't have a friend to help bleed, you won't suck air back into the system because the end of the tube is submerged in fluid.

I think I may do another video just on removing rotors. I got lucky on this job, the rotors just fell off. This is not usually the case mind you, normally you have to beat on them for some time before they finally come off. I have special magic to apply in these situations that I will share with you at a later date.

I'm also going to cover rear disc brake rotor and pad replacement. These can be tricky because of all the different ways you can compress the caliper piston. Look for that sometime in the future.

I can't think of much else I can impart here. Good luck.

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1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Steering Repair

This is one of those videos that I did because the repair fell into my lap. I had some help from Jason Matherson the owner of this jeep with the camera on this one, thanks Jason. Well I think the video speaks for itself on this one, loose steering, loose parts, replace them and get an alignment, pretty straight forward in the end. A few exceptions however, during the repair I ran into a couple of snags. First, everything was rusted together as expected and I had to break out the "big red wrench" (torches for those of you not familiar with the term) to get things apart. Next I had trouble installing one of the new tie rods because I did not lube the heck out of it with oil before I installed it. I almost ran out of gas when taking the second end loose and barley got this job done. In the end after a bit of sweat and tears I won the day and Jason drove away happy. He got an alignment the next day and says it drives like a new car. He is looking to get another set of tires now that things are all tight and straight, and I have lived to fight another day.

On a side note I'm working on a deal to get some t-shirts made so look for this in the not too distant future.

Hope you enjoy the video.

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No Start Diagnostics

Here is a video I've been meaning to do for a while. I've had a lot of questions about no start diagnosis where people want me to give them the "magic bullet" to fix what is wrong with their car. Do I replace the computer? distributor? fuel pump? etc. So I decided to make this video of the basic steps of diagnosing and fixing a no start condition. The best advice I can give is to keep it simple, so often I see technicians go down the path of a complicated diagnosis only to find that the car was out of gas. The most important thing you can do when diagnosing a no start condition is to keep things simple, follow logical steps and make solid conclusions based on the facts you observe during your testing. Look for spark, fuel, and assess the mechanical condition of the engine before you condemn the computer or some other electronic part that you may not understand fully, it's still an internal combustion engine and they all work pretty much the same and need the same basic components to run, fuel, spark, and mechanical integrity.

With that said I hope this video is helpful in keeping you on the path to an accurate and successful diagnosis and repair.

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Questions Answered #1

This long video is a response to a group of questions posed by a new subscriber, Nobelheight. He had several questions that were all over the place and instead of trying to answer all of them separately I decided to make a little video so that all could see the answers I gave. The questions were everything from a fluctuating idle on Hondas, different color antifreeze, the shielding under cars and why it is there, and lastly one on using bolts instead of studs to fasten a wheel.

I wish I had some feedback from him on whether or not the video helped but I have yet to hear from him. I hope you can benefit from the answers casual viewer.

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Drum Brakes

I'm going to combine 2 videos into this one. In this installment I go over the basics of drum brake operation. This video is like a baby version of the original video that was designed to cover the replacement of brake shoes on your average car. There are many different styles of drum brakes but for the most part they have a lot of similarities. I think what will happen is that I will combine this repair with a couple more vehicles for the finished video so that I can cover some of the issues that may arise while performing this repair. I want the end viewer to be able to watch my video and go out to their garage and replace their drum brakes with confidence, if I do that, I've done my job.

The second video "Drum Brakes, when to Discard" is a response to a question posed by my friend and video artist Readymade777 who wanted to know at what point did drums or rotors get replaced. I thought of just doing a text response but the car that I worked on needed new drums because the rivets from the shoes had scored the inside of them so badly they required replacement. When you get a gift like that I think you just have to go with it so I made the "Quick Tip" video to respond to the question.

EricTheCarGuy started at the end of January 2009 and has grown steadily ever since. It has allowed me to become the "teacher" that I thought I would become at the end of my automotive career. For some reason since I started this professionally I knew in the back of my mind that things would go this way, I just didn't think it would happen this soon. I'm glad your watching and I hope your getting something from what I've created.

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AC System Basics

In this video I cover the basic components of the AC system. It is a very brief overview of the components of the basic automotive AC system. I try not to get too technical in this one, I still feel burned by the O2 sensor video that I posted. I did however feel I covered the basic components and what they do to keep you cool. I think I will be posting future videos on the subject if this one gets some response.

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Throttle Cleaning and V6 Access

These videos were a part of my series "Quick Tips". I shot them both on the same day and posted them together. The Throttle Cleaning video was a video dedicated to BowlingBallOut who posted a question about a sticking throttle on his Saturn. He was so pleased with the result he sent me my first video response. I was happy to help with his car and possibly getting into his wife's "good graces". Chalk that one up for another person helped by EricTheCarGuy.

The second video, V6 Access is about getting just a little bit more room when your working on a transversely mounted V6. I think it will be helpful to those who are looking to swap out spark plugs or in my case replacing a hose to the heater core. I hope I save some scraped forearms here.

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