Jack B

1996 Olds Cutlass Ciera 3100 V6. Exhaust manifold bolts to heads with 2 bolts at each exhaust port for a total of 12 bolts. Just put new heads on the car and while installing front exhaust manifold, a bolt broke off and got stuck in the head. Cannot remove bolt without removing just-installed head. Should I be OK missing this one bolt on the manifold, or am I asking for trouble? Thanks

My friend cracked his tooth and we are out of town. We live in Georgia but we are currently in the Mobile Alabama area. How should we go about finding a dentist that is open on Saturday and we don't need an appointment to see? We need to know how serious the chip is and what we need to do about it.

I'm pretty mechanically able--I do AC compressors all the time; I've rebuilt the top end of an engine once... but I've read some pretty daunting stuff about the starter in the 4x4 Pathfinder. How difficult is it and what exactly is entailed in the process of removal and reinstallation? The more information the better!

I've replaced compressors in 5 GM vehicles but have never done one in a Honda (or actually anything that's not GM). A mechanic told my uncle that his Accord needs one so I'm looking to put one in for him and I just have a few questions: Is there anything unique about changing one of these out, or should it be about the same as any other? Will it be easy to get to? Where is the expansion valve located and do I need to replace it? What would be involved in replacing it? And how do the compressors in these cars tend to fail? Leaking, seizing, etc?

Thanks

I've replaced compressors in 5 GM vehicles but have never done one in a Honda (or actually anything that's not GM). A mechanic told my uncle that his Accord needs one so I'm looking to put one in for him and I just have a few questions: Is there anything unique about changing one of these out, or should it be about the same as any other? Will it be easy to get to? Where is the orifice tube located? And how do the compressors in these cars tend to fail? Leaking, seizing, etc?

Thanks

Could it have either one, and if it could, how could I tell which one it has?

What happens to them?

The car has all new shocks/struts, wheels, and tires. The vibration was there before all of these things were replaced and it's still there. It's not a shimmy. I can feel it some even at lower speeds unless I'm on brand new perfect asphalt, but it's very apparent on the highway going 75 and up. It shakes the dashboard, which is annoying. The rest of the car (not the steering wheel/column/dashboard) rides great, and it drives well. There are no odd noises. I feel like there's even a little more vibration in the wheel than there should be at idle. I don't know of anything that fits this description other than the things I've already replaced and I don't want to rebuild the whole front end of a 13 year old car. I'm going on a 3,000 mile road trip in it this summer and I don't think I could take that many miles of a shaking wheel and dashboard!

I have a 1996 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera with 110k miles on it. The car overall rides great, except the steering wheel transmits alot of vibration, especially from 75-80 mph. So the steering wheel (and I guess the column) shake, which in turn shakes the dash, which is irritating. The shocks and struts are brand new. The tires AND wheels are both brand new and balanced. The car's alignment is correct. The car's been doing this since before I did all of these things, although the new tires cut it down by about half. I can feel the vibration in the wheel even at low speeds, like 20 mph and up, unless the car is on a road with perfect new asphalt. What would cause this? I will update with an answer if anyone asks a question.

I rebuilt the top end of the engine in my car and I'm having trouble getting it to start. It acts like it wants to start, sometimes even keeps going for a second or two after I stop cranking it, but it just won't quite get there. I have spark. I'm 95% sure I have fuel. I've checked the timing about 5 times (it's a basic distributor system) and as far as I can tell without a timing light, it's right at 10 degrees btdc. I just want to get the car started; the timing doesn't have to be perfect. I want to know, just how close does the timing have to be for the car to start? Is it possible that the timing is causing it not to start now?

I was told the car had a bad valve on the #2 cylinder causing it to idle rough, so I pulled the heads and had them rebuilt, then reinstalled them. I can't get the car to start now (not sure why) but I noticed that the #2 cylinder compression is only 30 psi. Can I assume that the ring on this cylinder is bad? 1986 Pontiac 6000 STE, 2.8L MPFI V6.

I'm looking to possibly put a pair of rebuilt heads on a car. It's a 1986 Pontiac 6000 STE. The engine is the multiport fuel injected 2.8L V6 which (I'm pretty sure) was a special high output model made exclusively for the Fiero and 6000 STE. Can I just put any 2.8L heads on there, or are they special for that engine?

Today, I was flipping through a Haynes manual that said it covered 1985-2005 GM C/H body cars (LeSabres, Park Avenues, Bonnevilles, etc.). However, it had no information on supercharged 3800s. Never even mentioned them. If I wanted to work on a 3800 supercharger system, what manual would have information on it? Does the Haynes W-body manual cover supercharged 3800s? What about a Chilton manual? It just seems odd that they would leave that out because they put alot of superchargers in Park Aves and Bonnevilles.

Tomorrow I'm putting new front and rear shocks on my uncle's 2002 Toyota Tacoma 2WD. It's a pretty basic truck to do them on; it doesn't require any coil springs to be compressed. I was wondering what a shop normally would charge for all 4. I want to give him a good deal and he wants to make sure he pays me fairly. We were thinking around $75. Does that sound about right?

OK, so for 4 months now I (and pretty much everyone I know) have been trying to fix this truck (1995 Toyota T100 V6 5 speed, 200k miles). It runs well for a couple minutes but runs terribly when warm. Gets to the point after a few minutes where you can't drive it. It jerks HARD (almost back and forth) under acceleration. It's like a really bad ignition breakdown or maybe a leaning out of the fuel mixture caused by the computer changing modes. Anyways, I haven't been able to fix it, nobody knows what the problem is, so yesterday I took the truck into the Toyota dealership as a last resort (I have NEVER taken a vehicle I own to a shop; I'm a pretty able shade tree mechanic). The guys there yesterday were stumped, so this morning the 'master tech' looked at it and said the problem was a hole in the exhaust behind the catalytic converter. The truck's been driven thousands of miles with the exhaust system rusted out with no problem. My question is, could there possibly be ANY MERIT WHATSOEVER to this guy's claim that a lack of back pressure caused by a hole behind the cat is causing my truck to be completely undrivable? They charged me $105 just to look at the damn thing... what a ripoff...

OK, this truck has had some weird ignition problem for months now and it renders the truck effectively undrivable. After it's warm, it does this thing where it jerks under acceleration/load. It seems like a simple misfire at first, but after a minute it starts to jerk hard, and I mean HARD. Practically back and forth. It's a 1995 with the 3.4L V6 engine and manual trans. Here's the weird thing: I haven’t been able to drive the truck out of my neighborhood since this problem started months and months ago. But last Saturday I drove it around some and it did fine, so I tried to drive it to my uncle’s house about 40 minutes away and it made it the whole way with only a bit of a misfire after I’d been driving for half an hour. It drove around fine all day; not perfect but WAY better. But the next day, it was just as bad as ever. Every day since, too. Another weird thing: If it starts having the problem, I can just put the clutch in and restart the truck and it usually does fine for a few more minutes. My uncle was a mechanic for a long time, and knows his stuff; he’s even familiar with this engine, but this problem has us all stumped. I’ve changed the spark plugs and wires and Ohmed out the coil packs (they checked out fine). I even checked the MAF sensor. On Tuesday the truck threw a CEL code for ‘fuel trim malfunction on bank 1’. Is it probably the ECM? A sensor feeding the ECM? I’m running out of ideas.

It's like the clutch is stuck. We used to be able to 'break it free' by stepping on the pedal again and again until it worked. The linkage on the outside of the tranny looks good, so we figure a new clutch kit will probably fix it. Yes? No?

Exactly which cars and had the 4T60E-HD automatic transaxle and what years did they have it? I know it's something like 1992-1996 3800 supercharged, 4.9L V8s, and maybe some 3400s and 3800 minivans, but I'm not entirely sure. Also, is there any way to identify a 4T60E-HD? Does it have 4T60E stamped on the pan just like a non-HD? I can't seem to find this information anywhere and would appreciate any answers or guesses I can get.

I'm just wondering, why do they take off the lower seat cushion of every car before they put it out on the yard for people to pull parts? I don't know if all yards do it, but the two large pull-it-yourself places that I go to here in GA both do. It's the funniest thing, they put a row of cars out, and they are almost untouched--the keys will be in the ignition, personal belongings and trash lying around... except the lower rear seat cushion is invariably no longer bolted down. Why is this? Are they looking for contraband or something? Just curious.

The AC compressor on my friend's 1996 Mazda Protege 1.5L is seized and won't turn at all. The car doesn't use a single serpentine belt; it uses a couple. The one in question goes around the crankshaft pulley, AC compressor pulley, and power steering pulley. Does anyone know of a reason why I couldn't just use a belt made for a Protege without AC that only goes from the crankshaft to the power steering? I can't look at the car because it's far away but I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work.