Your Regular Maintenance Schedule

One thing I love to see is a Vehicle Owner that knows the importance of standard maintenance. This is the Ultmate Key to Prolonging your vehicles life.

  So many vehicles that don't get service done until something is broken. these repairs are (on a typical job) more costly because one failure leads to multiple items damaged, not to mention that at that point You the Owner have little choice on if to do it. Maintenance schedules are available to everyone, these are the typical Preventive items that will save you down the Line
  Really if you look at most repair shops now, you'll see a change from specific repairs to general maintenance services. the reason for this is for several reasons, Most cars now are built to last longer without needing major repairs - but ONLY if the regular maintenance is performed. The shops see this and have adapted to offer these services frequently - what you do want to know is what your car manufacturer recommends, Not necessarily what the shop wants to sell you. Educate yourself  before visiting your repair shop

Regular maintenance is kind of a Generic term used my everyone, so lets break it down just a bit

  - Most Regular Services will include an Oil Change -this includes the Oil filter
     Some will add a tire Rotation
     Then you have an Engine Air Filter and a Cabin Air Filter (dust filter) on some models
    
       funny thing is - That covers the Majority of Every factories Scheduled services

    At certain points you may see a Fluid change - or maybe some other vehicle system inspections
      possibly spark plug replacement depending on the type of Plug

  If these things are taken care of, I am starting to see vehicles that used to be considered
  "throw away cars"     last for 150k + miles

   Lots of sites offer the scheduled services that You vehicles manufacturer recommends here is one
              Scheduled Services
 You dealership can also give you this info with a simple telephone call to the Service department
 
  If your car does need something more then Regular Maintenance then I would suggest getting as much info about your car and probable issues before going to a shop
 -  you could pull up Service bulletins and recalls here -
               TSB -Recall Info

  ... All and All I think that if these services are taken care of when the should be - You'll be ahead of the game. not to mention if something on your car is statring to show signs of damage/wear the maintenance check might pick it up.... that atleast gives you the time to plan for it, rather then being surprised

Any Comments are appreciated

2001 Honda Accord V6 - Coolant system pressure

Well it's been a little boring as of lately
Nothing real great to talk about until just this week.

Recently I came across a nice little issue on a Honda Accord V6 model. The vehicle has come into the shop several times for standard maintenance issues, the customer has stated that every once in a great while the car seems to get hotter. He wondered if the Head gasket could be an issue


We originally checked the system and found that the radiator cap was physically broken. The spring inside the cap had come apart from the top. this caused the Coolant to overflow into the reservoir under very little pressure. The customer stated that the vehicle never overheated, but the gauge was just a bit high. Head gasket combustion gas testing found no fault in the coolant

The cap was replaced for that reason. during the routine replacement I noticed the radiator had some corrosion damage around the portion that the cap would seal against. The customer was informed and was told that the radiator would probably need replacement but it was unsure as to weather or not it would effect or the system pressurizing. Customer agreed and left. About two weeks later he came back and said almost the same problem was happening.

Upon inspection I found the New radiator cap was broken just as the old one was ???? .. Baffled, I warrantied the cap and told the customer that the radiator may be causing the cap to sit at a slight angle and stress the plastic ?? ... (long shot) .. the customer decided to put a New radiator in the Honda .. and we did

Month and a Half .... brings us to the present :
Vehicle towed in with No coolant in engine. Testing system I found that adding coolant to the car caused a BIG mess .. Coolant came out the bottom of the radiator just as fast as I put it in.
The radiator had swelled and the Bottom tank had separated completely.



This crack/separation could really only be caused by an extreme and violent over pressurizing of the system very quickly.

The customer was told that the Head gasket is suspected as the cause.
He had done some checking and found the book value on the car would not warrant a trade in and decided to fix the vehicle.



Starting the job that is suggested as book time about 7 hours. Here we have the engine being taken apart and the basic Idea of what I saw along the way



Then once the Heads were removed :



the back side Head gasket was found to be in pretty good shape. No real cause for concern here :

the front side Head gasket on the other hand shows Leakage from the second Cylinder into the Third and vise/versa :

the Head itself does not appear to have any real damage visibly, but from long term experience I never base a Head condition on a Visual. the Heads (as a Pair) will be sent to the Machine Shop for Planning, Pressure checking and Valve leak down tests. :

this is the Array of Car parts that are gunna be in waiting until I receive the Heads back from the M.S. ....

I hope this can help in some way to make sure you the reader understands that in most cases when an Intermittent concern happens, We as a Repair facility will do everything possible to make the vehicle run strongly and smoothly with out extremely invasive repairs .....

..... Unless absolutely necessary

---- I did warranty the radiator for this customer even though the radiator did not fail under normal conditions ---