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I have a 2004 Ford Freestar where the horn is not working from the steering wheel and the cruise control is not working. The horn works with the FOB.

I had 3 issues occured all at one. The turn signal canceler, horn, and cruise control quit working all at once. I replaced the multi-function switch which fixed the turn signal canceler (broken spring at the tab) but the other two issues remain.

I visually checked all the fuses on the interior panel and everything looks good. I visually checked the clock spring connections under the steering wheel and they look like they are both look like they are making good contact (I didn't yank on them as the battery was connected when I checked).

What might it be? Could my replacement multi-function switch be bad or is it probably something else?

The front rotors on my 2004 Ford Freestar have warped and I am attempting to replace them. I took the front wheel and noticed that there are 3 Torx bolts (looks like T50) that I need to take off.

The question I have is this....

Once I remove the Torx bolts, to remove the front rotors, do I need to remove the brackets that hold the brake calipers? It doesn't look like there is a lot of room to maneuver and get the rotors past the wheel studs.

Thanks in advance

I have a 2004 Ford Freestar minivan. When I hit about 35 MPH, the car emits a constant, high pitch sqeaking sound. The sound reminds me of a brake scraper grinding on the rotor. I replaced the brake pads all the way around (disk brakes on all 4 wheels) about 2 years ago with Raybestous Ceramic pads. To the best of my recollection, there were no scrapers on any of the pads.

I pulled off all the wheels today and the brake pads are still 50% to 75%. The wear on the pads seems even and I don't see any signs of caliper issues (leaks, hung calipers, etc...).

The pitch of the squeak is not change when the brakes are applied. The squeak will go away briefly when the weight of the vehicle shifts from side to side like when I turn. If I put the car in neutral when I am moving to disengage the transmission the squeak is still there.

I am a bit at a loss. I haven't heard a bearing make that high pitched squeal before (though I am only a home mechanic, so the fact I haven't seen it doesn't mean much). I'm not sure if it is the brakes as the pitch of the noise doesn't change with applying the brakes.

Any ideas on what might be causing this?

I'm asking this question here instead of the travel section as this is my target audience.

My wife and I have our 10 year anniversary coming up and I would like to take 3 or 4 days, ditch the kids with the grandparents, and take my wife away. We are in our mid 30's, so active vacations are fine.

We live in the Chicagoland area, so pretty much anyplace in the US is reachable in under 6 hours by plane.

I've considered a 3 or 4 day cruise (Bermuda, Bahamas, or Mexico as our anniversary is late fall). We took a 14 day cruise in the past and it was enjoyable, but it seems a bit overdone.

My wife isn't really an outdoors type so anything involving long hikes, camping, skiing, etc isn't of huge interest to her (though a cabin out in the middle of nowhere is fine)

I grew up in Alaska and we've been there to visit family on several occasions, so that is only a maybe.

We like Las Vegas as we like to see the shows and there are some neat sites in the area. I was hoping for someplace different though.

Niagra Falls is great (beautiful site in the winter), but a friend of ours lives there and died in the area, so while beautiful, we kind of associate the area with a dead friend...kind of takes the romance out of it.

She is an Elvis fan, but I already did a surprise trip to Memphis with her once.

I am the travel planner and this might be a surprise trip (haven't decided that one yet).

I am well traveled, so I have seem many things. My wife is not so much so much is new to her when we go places.

I was just looking for people's experiences. Have you gone to a place that you really enjoyed visiting without the kids? Do you have an out of the way place that is your favorite vacation spot when you and your spouse/SO want to get away? Any vacation experiences or activities that blew you away? Is there a place you went to and would love to go back?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I was watching Hogs Gone Wild on Discovery Channel and they were hunting wild hogs with dogs. I have never been pig hunting so I don't know much about it.

I see that once the dogs had the hog distracted, a person moved in and tied the hogs legs together.

My question is what to the hunters do with the pig after that? I mean if I were planning on eating it, I'd just plug it with a 45 and save the problems of transporting a live animal.

Was just curious what people do with a live wild pig after they tied it up.

Everything is still functional, except that none of the lights in the display work (radio or auto climate control).

The vehicle is a 1999 Mercury Sable. Is this type of problem normally caused by an issue with the wiring (or connectors) or does something typically fail in the Radio/Climate control unit?

I guess I am looking for advice on whether I should try to purchase a replacement radio/climate control unit before taking the vehicle in to have a mechanic troubleshoot it.

Any insight from people with experience in this type of vehicle would be greatly appreciated.

he "inherited the problems from George W. Bush". During Clinton's years of prosperity, it was "despite the policies of George H.W. Bush"?

I have yet to hear one person ever credit the great years under Clinton to Bush Sr...

It just seems that when a Democrat is in office, everything good is their doing, but everything bad is a Republican's fault.

thoughts?

I plan on installing about 400 square feet of ceramic tile in a kitchen. I wanted to know if I need to put down a cement backer board before laying the tile?

If so, how do I determine if I should use 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch?

Finally, what is the preferred method of securing it to the subfloor? Is is it glued somehow or nailed to the floor joists (I suspect nailed, but I've never used it before).

The subfloor is plywood and seems secure. I am not sure how thick the plywood is yet (haven't gone to the basement and looked for any stamps on it).

I've done ceramic tile before, but it has always been a small area with mosaic tile, so I never put much thought into the backer board.

Thanks

Yeah, CHANGE!!! With a $1.75 Trillion dollar deficit this year, that is all we are going to leave our children with is change after they have to pay the bill.

Any justification for such actions? People rightly crucified Bush for being a trillion over. Obama has doubled that and he has only been in the office two months.

Nothing against the guy, but it seems he isn't off to a great start. I hope he has a miracle up his butt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090227/pl_nm/us_obama...

I have a 1999 Mercury Sable.

When I turn left or right I hear a knocking noise and can feel a pulsating sensation in the steering wheel and in the pedals themselves. The noise isn't a grinding noise and it isn't quite a knock, but a knock is the closest thing I can think of to describe it.

The power steering pump and the rack have seen better days, allegedly due to my dip s**t ex mechanic (supposedly they left an air bubble in the steering system when the flushed it...my next mechanic flushed the system again, but the damage was already done i was told).

I haven't put it on jack stands to take a look yet, but I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas of what it might be so I can at least get an idea of what I might be looking for.

Thanks.

My family has begun sending care packages to soldiers in the Middle East, getting addresses from anysoldier.com.

I wanted to ask my people who did a tour in the Middle East, what things did you find the most useful or what did you really wish someone would have sent you?

We get a pretty good idea from the website, but I wanted to hear from people who have been what things were really useful and/or appreciated.

Thank you for answering and thank you to all who served.

I have a Frigidaire Model GLGR642AS0 dryer that has a bad habit of burning the clothes.

I have found there is a gap between the lower felt and the upper drum glide.

Obviously, I need to replace them. The disassembly looks easy enough.

The question I had is with a problem such as this, should I just replace the upper glide or is it best to replace the upper glide and the lower felt at the same time?

I have an HP Pavilion Slimline PC that has an overheating issue.

I need to get a slot fan, but I realized I don't know anything about them. I really had two questions.

1. What do slot fans use for a power supply? Are the plugged right into the PC power supply, or do they plug into the board and get their power from there like the rest of the cards?

2. I have a slim case. Do all brands of slot fans come with brackets for slim cases or only certain ones? (I didn't want to buy one that was meant for a standard slot size)

Thanks!!

I have a GE model GSS25QFMB Refrigerator/Freezer. The fridge portion is holding steady at 65F. The Freezer is still working pretty well (food on top shelf was starting to defrost).

The fan and condensor is running (I cleaned all that out). The hole between the fridge and freezer toward the bottom was not iced over. I removed the back freezer panel and found the coils were iced over terribly.

It looks like something is wrong with the defrost circuitry. I'm sure I could replace most of the components; however, I know nothing about appliance repair. When an issue like this happens, what is the most common component(s) to fail?

I purchased a house a little over a year ago. When the house was built, the windows they put in where these cheap single-hung windows that looked like they were put in by Mr. Magoo.

Anyway, the point....some of the windows do not lock correctly. One of the locks will lock, but I am unable to lock the other. I can not get the window down far enough to engage both locks.

Is there a way I can adjust the rotating locking mechanism or the lock plate so that I can actually lock the windows with both locks (the windows don't seal correctly if both locks are not locked).

Thanks

I have a Frigidaire Gallery series gas dryer that is about 5 years old (it came with the house we purchased).

The dryer seems to take quite awhile to dry clothes. Even a small load will take over an hour (and we have a front-loading Maytag Neptune which is supposed to cut down on dry time).

The clothes heat just fine. We clean the lint trap with every use. I have disassembled and cleaned the entire vent duct line. We even bought one of those kits to clean the lint from inside the dryer with a vaccuum (and wow..I never knew that much stuff gets stuck in there).

After all the cleaning, it hasn't made a bit difference. The venting ducts go straight up and vent out the roof.

The vent run is roughly 12 feet in vertical length, plus a 90 degree turn at the back of the dryer and another roughly 90 degree at the roof to vent out.

Given the current configuration, is the vent length the issue? Would it help to put a "booter" fan in the vent piping that is meant for dryers?

Well, it happened. I finally blew up a computer for the first time today.

I went to check on something online today and found the comuter was off and wouldn't turn on. I pulled the desktop out to check the cords and noticed smoke coming out of the power supply fan.

I opened the desktop and with a DMM, I quickly figured out that the power supply blew.

I bought a new power supply and installed it. The LEDs on the CD-ROM and the power button came on. The fan also came on on the motherboard. However, the PC would never "turn on".

So...my question is....

When the power supply goes on a PC, it is common and/or possible that the motherboard gets ruined as well?

I figured I'd ask before I started randomly buying new parts. With the price of PCs now a days, its probably just cheaper to buy a new one anyway.