Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Stack Exchange
Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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What is the large metal bar that sits behind the bumper?

I've seen a few vehicles with their plastic bumpers off recently. They all seem to have a large metal crossbar sitting in front of the radiator. What is this called? Update: And a sideview of the metal crossbar to impact absorber to chassis rail on…
timbo
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Motorcycle Four Body Carburetor Synchronization Balancing

I would like to adjust four-body carbs by myself, in order to avoid spent money every time. What are the basic rules, tools and secrets of synchronizing multiple carburetor bodies?
emanuele
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Spring tensioner safety

I recently ordered this tool kit at an extremely reduced price. While I am confident about the general quality of those tools I am quite reserved about the spring tensioner included in the kit. In other forums people advise strongly against such…
Martin
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What's the meaning of a "lean" vs "rich" air fuel mixture

I'm learning about vacuum leaks on engine intakes and I'm hearing this terminology of lean air fuel mixture. I thought I heard of a rich mixture before too. What's a normal mixture referred to as? A balanced mixture? Also just for clarity, this…
jxramos
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Is it necessary to replace an oil filter every oil change?

I understand the oil filter's job is to remove contaminants from the engine and that it holds some oil in it from the previous oil; however, is it really necessary to replace this every oil change? Could you get by replacing this every other oil…
John Dream
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7 answers

Most reliable way to stop an automatic with a stuck throttle

I was thinking about a recent question here as well as that 2009 Toyota incident. I'm not particularly paranoid of this happening, as it's highly unlikely, but I do like to mentally run through sticky situations so I'm prepared if they do happen…
Jason C
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Why is not replacing the engine air filter bad for the car?

I haven't replaced my engine air filter ever since buying the car used 4.5 years ago and don't know when if ever the previous owner replaced it. A lot of casual car-owners I ask don't even know about the engine air filter replacement. Gas mileage…
CarlGammaSagan
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How can a fuse drain a car battery?

My car battery drained itself after a week of not being used. I was researching how to identify the cause, and saw a comment under this article saying: What if I am not detecting a reading but the battery still drains? You could have a fuse that is…
user56reinstatemonica8
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Tightening Stud Without Bolt Head

What would be the best way to tighten a stud without a bolt head? It essentially looks like this. I need to tighten it to a specific torque(4 of these have nuts tightened on them to hold the tire of my bike to the right fork). I have no idea how I…
nick
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Coolant Flange - What is it really called?

My antifeeeze keeps leaking out and I was told that I had a hole in my coolant flange, so when I was calling to see how much it would be to get fixed no one knew what I was talking about. I am a woman and I have no idea what I am talking about. I…
Theresa Dillard
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Why can't alternators provide full current at idle?

I was reading about load testing and full fielding alternators in a few different books I've got, and one of the points they all made was that to test an alternator's maximum output (or close to it) the rpm's need to be raised to around 2000 to 2500…
Robert S. Barnes
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What temperature should the A/C blow?

The A/C output temperature on my 2012 Chrysler Town & Country feels diminished, especially in the rear seats' A/C vents. So, I had the refrigerant drained, measured, and topped off (dealership did the work, free of charge), but I'm still unconvinced…
bishop
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7 answers

Should the inflation pressure for low profile tires be the same as for regular tires?

I always thought that even if you go the large wheel + low profile tire route one should keep the pressure to what's recommended by the manufacturer. However I noticed that some people swear by increasing the pressure significantly when they switch…
I have no idea what I'm doing
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How is it advantageous for fuel management to detect negative mass air flow?

Here is the flow-voltage mapping for the Bosch sensor utilized by my E39 M5. I find it curious that readings below 0.9 V correspond to negative flows. Questions Is it possible that air can flow the other way (maybe through some sort of pressure…
Zaid
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Recreate new car smell

I bought a second hand Toyota Sienna 4 months ago. Even though it is a 2009 with 100,000km on it, the interior had that "new car" smell to it, and held it for several weeks. Four months later, the smell is gone, so I'm assuming that they sprayed…
Martin Argerami
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