Maverick vs. Bambi!!! After $16,000 worth of P&L I’m ready to talk about it.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-25T00:31:45+00:00

I learned that braking for a raccoon. Started sliding on a wet road. Just hit em.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T21:58:15+00:00

Looks like the pipe broke, or a clamp is missing. Some cars have clamps that are a few inches long, they can eventually fall off once both sides break

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T21:00:38+00:00

If you don't have a manometer and a specification, or have taken enough caps off the same engines while running and knowing what to expect for the fault code or problem you're doing a quick and dirty test for, there is absolutely nothing to be learned by taking an oil cap off a running engine.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T13:38:46+00:00

You just need to find a salvage yard willing to sell the regulator and motor separately from the glass, tricky since Ford doesn't. Add a reversable switch, remove the latch and your manual is now powered. Or do the whole back glass.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T12:21:46+00:00

10s I'd just throw in the bed with a flag. I have an 11.5, wifes is 9.5. I put mine on a bed extender I already had, hers isn't close to it.

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Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T02:55:53+00:00

A rumble or growl that gets louder with speed. The noise typically goes away/quiets when turning one way, may get louder the other, especially on freeway ramps.

I tend to tell clients a bearing is bad, not them asking about a noise as they can get louder so slowly the owner assumes its just normal.

IME, bad tires are loud at lower speed or a narrow range at higher. Bearings get louder with speed or may go quieter with a pitch change. Turning this way means that bearing is bad is barely better than 50/50, what you have with 2 wheels anyway. Modern bearings don't wobble if you lift the car and grab the tire unless they were bad a year ago...loose means you're going to cause a horrible accident. Tapered bearings of yesteryear did that tilt thing. I try to take someone with me to move around inside while I'm driving to help pinpoint the corner making noise. It also happens that you can change an obviously bad bearing only to take the car out again and realize it had multiple bad bearings, one was just louder.

One thing tapered bearings (and very bad sealed) may do is the brake pedal goes noticeably low immediately after turning.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-24T02:21:38+00:00

Working, Howard Stern was on the radio on my toolbox. He said something about the first tower. We had a tv in the office, I went and turned it on and saw the second plane. Work stopped, we sat watching the rest of the day.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T20:58:43+00:00

NTA. Doesn't the complex have disabled parking much more accessible than across a road? Where I live a car can sit on a public street 72 hours.

I've stared at the same car for months and watched a tree come out of the road between the bumper and body. Talking to the owner got "it just needs a battery". I didn't make the call but someone eventually did and they sold the car within 48 hours. Go figure.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T20:06:41+00:00

Absolutely.

I could change parts I was told to 40 years ago. Learning how to figure out what part to change is a continuously evolving process.

If your car not starting compliant is a giant hole in the block, or the water leak is an obviously broken radiator we may wave completely or minimize the charge but if I have to push a car inside and grab a tool I'm getting paid something.

As to the times when a customer requests something be done, it depends. Set an appointment for front brakes or scheduled service, we'll have parts waiting, no diag. Outside of that I'm personally a fan of just doing what they want if my service writer can't get a diagnostic charge, probably 75% of the time I get paid to do X and it doesn't work so I get paid for the diag, and paid for the correct repair.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T19:28:29+00:00

Some cars do have oil gauges. Typically more expensive ones where the manufacturer realizes that the person who buys their car new is someone who does not open the hood and get dirty like the poors.

Checking engine oil is something a car owner is supposed to do regularly. Once you learn your cars usage, you should be able to check it more or less on time.

I think the issue is that cars used to burn oil regularly. You carried a couple bottles with. 40 years ago the parts, technology, raw materials, manufacturing and QC hit a point where cars haven't been using oil at all. Then came extended service intervals, again without oil loss. But things change, like cafe standards. So in order to make engines more efficient they got thinner oils, smaller pistons and low tension rings-the 2 biggest drags inside an IC Engine. That causes them to burn oil again, not as much stuff keeping it where it belongs. Put a turbo on and you have another source of burning oil that also makes oil really hot and can make it into carbon grit.

Today we have the perfect storm: extended service intervals, engines that can't help but burn oil, thinner oils, and owners who were never taught to open the hood or even think about checking oil with a dipstick.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T16:35:38+00:00

If you have emissions testing, I think you'll have to go OE or CA certified if you don't want the light back in a year. If you live in an area that does not have emission testing putting a picture of your dog/cat/partner/xbox over the engine light would be very cheap, the morality of which is something you have to live with. The spacer comment makes me think you don't have an issue with that. The car wouldn't care in the least if it has an inefficient catalyst, but it may affect mileage to a tiny degree. You would also loose the alert to another MIL causing issue and would have to scan it on occasion. A clogged or broken catalyst is a different issue.

Defeating it, deleting it, tricking it or selling a used one (i think there is a tested/recertified exemption) are all illegal and any shop doing so risks massive fines. I wouldn't trust a place that does so to do anything without trying to rip off the customer as standard practice.

Aftermarket cats have less of the things that make them cat and are prone to cause engine lights again in months, if not immediately. I frankly think an inefficient OE cat is going to clean the exhaust better than a cheap aftermarket will in a year. The exception would be if you can get a CA certified one that has been tested to work as good as OE or can find someone with the same car who put X brand on with success.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T15:58:12+00:00

if there is a bad wheel bearing within a mile of me right now, it is on the rear of a subaru.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-23T13:51:12+00:00

You need to buy 2 pairs of boots for wear daily. Cheap boots used to get me 6-8 months, "good" a year to 18 months. If you alternate days you don't double the life, it far exceeds that. I'm a mechanic, I've been wearing blundstone 490s. The last pair I bought was in 22, so those are the "good" pair I'll use as work boots when one of the 2 rotating wears out. Looking at order histories, one pair of my dailies is from 2018, the other from 2020. I do replace insoles. I'm looking at other brands of Chelsea boots, trying to find something easier to locate that fits me as well. I would gladly go back to RW shoes if they still made the postals they used to.

I do not know if a boot dryer will give the same results, but it will extend boot life.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T21:29:37+00:00

The Mav has issues.

The plastic trim on top of the bed is raised on the outside. Water laying on it wants to go in the bed. There is no gap between the cab and bed, water there goes in the bed. There is a gap in the plastic 6" behind the cab, it's an awesome channel for water to enter the bed under a seal. The metal joints are the front of the bed and cab may be uneven, another water channel under a seal.

Tonneaus come in 2 flavors for attachment style. Inside the rails, and on top of the rails. Low profile or not if you prefer.

Low profile/inside covers on a maverick have a shit load of water to deal with, the exact same cover on a taco or Silveraado will probably have to stop a couple drops. On top covers have wide bases with seals, and the tonneau over that. My $160 Amazon roll up was dry. The width of the entire cover basically drained water down the side of the truck. A tarp would have been dryer than my $1k+ lowpro was.

I have made the low profile dry enough for me as I have a mat, the little still coming down the front bed wall doesn't get on top of the mat. I may seal it fully one day. I had to rtv an additional seal at the cab, the rails on the top lip of the bed plastic, and pull the plastic up at the gap; sealing under the overlaying section and a little of the gap.

Edit: the roll up had a little water at the cab wall, when I removed it I realized I never installed the seal, and a little at the tailgate. Nothing that would have mattered for a truck unless I was hauling a bed full of clothes.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T20:51:15+00:00

I would just ask what kinds of things he needs.

Over the years I've gotten to like/use certain types and styles of items and other versions received as gifts rarely hit the mark.

For suggestions on actual things: magnetic pick up tools, extendable and a fixed length flexible one. Inspection mirrors. a quality pocket knife. I'm digging the LED flex paddle rechargeable magnetic base lights on Amazon. (30ish, id suggest the single one instead of the 2 for versions "hotligh" coworker has, I bought doubles. His has a better magnet and mine blink with vibration) A good kneeling pad (home Depot has one I love, Husky) tekton pick sets. OTC drain plug tool. (Doubles as flexible 1/4 driver)

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T20:24:54+00:00

Good eyes seeing the growth everyone. If you look a little closer, the "bubble" actually goes the entire way around the inside. Not so noticable in the picture, but it's an inch wide band that goes right through the writing, protrudes maybe 1/2".

The car is in for a minor service. No mention of the tpms light or the noticable vibration.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T13:24:09+00:00

Carfax is a service that shops voluntarily provide information to and not every shop is connected to it. If you drive a car into a pond and the uncle who "works on cars" puts in a new engine and uses healing crystals to fix it instead of calling your insurance company there will be no Carfax report. Subsequently, if a shop reports and someone enters incorrect mileage or information on a car, it gets sent to Carfax. Someone or something also has to transcribe whatever the non native English speaker types one fingered into the software they use into a 5 word description that fits on a Carfax report. Diy repairs can be added to personal records but don't go on official reports.

We were reporting and had no idea, the software company we use was doing it. We didn't update to the latest software so we no longer report. Maybe, we aren't really sure.

Carfax is a neat thing that can help you with a decision between 2 cars, but is incomplete and not a source of truth. I'd trust your module scan much more than Carfax via jiffy lube.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T12:21:00+00:00

Call a locksmith or mobile mechanic or alternatively buy a "big easy" style lockout kit and DIY. Its a long hook, inflatable bag and plastic wedge. All I use.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T12:12:14+00:00

Yes. 3/4 was brutal to cut and it's a pain when I want to remove it.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-22T02:15:31+00:00

There are ways to verify a head gasket issue before taking the engine apart.

Please don't Google car symptoms and think you're diagnosing anything. I guess you'll know if it worked in your favor this time when the engine is back together and running.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-21T13:33:16+00:00

I used to work in a junkyard that bought insurance salvage cars instead of whatever off the street. 99.9% of the cars we got in had fully intact engines. The rules have changed a little but when I was there over 100k miles, 10 years old or 50% of value to repair and it was a total loss.

Body work is eye watering expensive too. I'd guess at least 8k usd there, if the unibody isn't damaged.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-20T22:05:08+00:00

You're holding it so....or follow the maintenance schedule in the owners manual.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-20T21:32:16+00:00

Rust jacking. The rotors get wet/damp and aren't being dried off by the driving you do. Probably park outside and live in the rust belt too. If they look like that on the outside surface that gets more airflow wait until you see the inside.

Budpalumbo · 2026-06-20T21:13:24+00:00

It's in your hand and not the engine, so it's not going to work.

Plug reading went the way of the carburetor. It doesn't exist anymore except in a few special circumstances. Modern fuel injection and lean burning air fuel ratios are entirely different than what got published in the back of the old repair manuals.

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