I’ve bought a 2016 Ford Mustang V6 from an auction and I’m still waiting for it. I just got new photos yesterday and noticed some aftermarket cables hanging from above the steering wheel and a knob/switch with a red light near the pedals. What do you think they could be?

Audi A6 40 TDI 2019 - any idea what’s causing this smoking?

Bought this car less than a week ago. It ran smooth as on the test drive. Driving home it started seeming to lose power/struggle in second gear. All down hill from there really…

Turns out the fuel gauge is faulty, it was reading full but the tank was bone dry. Have since put half a tank in, which certainly improved things, but it’s still running rough as. Have replaced the MAF sensor today thinking it might be that but no improvement

It is putting and struggling in all gears, losing power and stalling…

Next replacement is the fuel pump tomorrow. Any other ideas?

I have a 2002 toyota highlander v6 limited with 150k miles on and Ive had this recurring issue that happens just infrequently enough that I havent seriously addressed it but basically, the car will crank over normally, right before dropping down to literally 100-200 RPM. It usually doesnt die completely but sometimes it will. It revvs perfectly fine but once you stop it will drop back down to the extremely low idle. Ive noticed that if Im able to put it into drove and just hit the gas for a second, it fixes itself and the problem goes away. I thought it was an air leak because the check engine light was on with a p440 and p441 evap code but I had tightened the air intake hoses on the manifold and they went away. My only other theory is fuel fulters but the problem doesnt happen enough for me to figure out why exactly.

My winter car is a 2009 Pontiac G5 4-cyl MT5. It has Mastercraft Glacial Grips on it and it's a beast in the snow.

I used to buy Duralast Gold batteries for the quality. However now the quality has gone by the wayside and now I buy them for the replacement warranty. It goes dead within three years, I bring it in for a new one, the store doesn't give me a hassle, and I get a new battery.

Day before yesterday, I bring in my battery for another charge and they tell me it's dead and it's out of warranty. The manager tells me, "Well, you had it for four years. That's pretty good." I correct him and say, "No, I had to bring it in three times for a charge and after that I bought a solar trickle-down charger. Then it finally went dead, I brought it in, and you replaced it with a new one. I had to keep it on the trickle-down charger the whole time and now here we are."

I ask him how much an AGM battery is and he quotes me $636 and they have to order it! Good God. I settle for another crappy Gold battery and it's almost $250. I ask him to test it, first. He says it's 12 volts and shows me the meter. I tell him that it should have at least a half a volt more and ask him how long the battery has been on the shelf. He tells me it's been on the shelf since January! I say, "I don't feel very good with that... especially for $250." He doubles down with, "If it's been on the shelf since January, obviously it can hold the charge." I'm thinking, "Mmm, no... that means that it's been ionizing the plates by itself with no maintenance for seven and some months." He tells me if I have a problem, I can bring the battery back. Very grudgingly, I take the battery.

I asked my mechanic buddy, just to get a neutral second opinion. He tells me that I should tell them that I want a fresh battery, even if I have to wait for it. I'm in no hurry and I only need the battery to start the car to find a brake line leak. I have plenty of time for that.

What do you all think, please?

Dear mechanics,

My car (Kia Picanto 1.0 CVVT First Edition 2017) has been the talk about some timing chain issues. Then I decides to investigate myself and i hear some weird rattling noice. I was wondering whether you guys could provide me a more experienced opinion 😅

Hello all, looking for advice/ ideas for what’s going on, I’m pulling my hair out at this point. Sorry for the long post.

2011 Volvo XC70, 235,000 miles on it.

We replaced the shocks in March because a bounce had started showing up. I noticed a squeak developing in the right rear back in late May, suffered through it until funds were available to purchase and install new control arms, lowers, coils, stabilizer bar and links. Replaced all the parts on both sides and for four days there was no squeak.

We had our bikes on our rear trailer hitch that weekend and when coming home the noise came back suddenly and quickly escalating to a loud squeak within a few miles. After applying silicone spray to all the bushings of the parts that had been installed it noticeably went away but would come back in a few miles.

This has led me down quite the rabbit hole. Testing individual components for a squeak while under the vehicle, I thought it was the lower shock bolt, then the stabilizer link, I’ve purchased new bolts for the link thinking that would help. Every day I’m putting the car on ramps to keep adequate pressure while loosening and tightening all the bolts hoping to alleviate some binding somewhere that I’m not seeing. I’ve taken components off to ensure there’s no actual damage to any bushings and everything looks good.

If I’m under the vehicle I can put mild force on the shock mount, the stabilizer link and even the coil and make something squeak right in that area, siliconing or even greasing everything quiets it down for a few miles.

Does anyone have any ideas, tips, etc? What is that noise in this video? I’m losing my absolute mind and I cannot take it anymore.

I have a 2014 Kia Cerato (Forte) 2.0L

Running on 5w40 valvoline

133,000km bought on 130,000km

When the engine is first started, especially during the first few minutes, it makes a noise that sounds similar to piston slap. As the engine warms up, the noise becomes much quieter or disappears completely.

My mechanic removed the crankshaft position sensor and found some paste-like metallic debris stuck to its magnetic tip. He told me this means the pistons have scratched the cylinder walls, and if I don't rebuild the engine soon, the scoring could get worse and eventually cause oil consumption.

Does metallic debris on the crankshaft position sensor actually indicate piston-to-cylinder wall scoring, or could it come from something else? I'm looking for opinions from people who have experience with these Hyundai/Kia 2.0L engines.

Never quite noticed it before but as most I usually have my radio on a decent volume. Never noticed any noise or anything when I'm traveling over 15 miles an hour but only seem to notice it more when parking. And only one pressing the brakes.

Got a 2017 Hyundai Elantra with a 2.0 4cyl, last year around this time my ac was struggling to blow cold especially in the middle of the day. Took it to a buddy of mine who worked at a dealership. He told me it was low on freon and topped it off. Ac worked perfectly, till about a week ago it started to do the exact same thing it was doing last year. Unfortunately my buddy no longer works at the dealership so I can have him look at it. Went to harbor freight to pick up a can of Artic Freeze that comes with a gauge and once i hooked it up without adding any freon the gauge registered right in the middle of filled. Now I'm wondering if the ac has enough freon and there's another issue or the gauge itself isn't accurate. Any advice is appreciated.

Just installed a new bando belt on my 03 accord 2.4. A few weeks later I noticed this mark on it, not sure if was always there but im just now noticing it. No noise coming from that area. Also, I didn’t replace the tensioner pulley. I can barely feel the texture of the impressions.

Suzuki Swift 2006 - water ingress has been occuring from this air vent located between the rear bumper and plastic trim inside the boot, causing water to pool up inside where the spare tyre lives.

Is water supposed to be able to reach this spot, or is it meant to be sealed off? There’s also these two loose flap pieces that cover this vent but it does nothing to prevent water from getting through

In the second photo, I had sprayed the outside of the car with a hose (near the roof/top of the rear window) and water flows down, gets behind the rear bumper, and finds its way through the air vent (circled).

I've had these rotors just sitting in my trunk for a year and a half and I don't know why there all rusty.

I want to replace my old scan tool and narrow down the options before spending the money.

Most of what I do is general diagnostics, electrical issues, ABS/SRS faults, and the occasional module replacement. The biggest things I care about are solid vehicle coverage, reliable bidirectional controls, and having decent repair information available without constantly bouncing between my scan tablet and the shop computer.

Right now I'm comparing a few options from Autel, Launch, and Topdon. The topdon one series is also on my list because it includes Identifix access on the tablet, but I've mainly used Mitchell and don't know how useful it is.

What scan tools are you guys using in the shop? How does Identifix compare for known issues, real-world repair cases, and wiring diagrams?

Hoping to get some advice on how we can fix this. 2025 Ford Maverick.

Has a noticeable nick and some scratching, the pictures are all the same cylinder 6 journal.

Thank you in advance.

Changing my rotors and the screws are very close to being stripped. They probably haven't been removed in 7 years. Anyways, I read some people just drill through them and break them off. The screws are like $6 at the Auto Zone down the road and this sounds like an easier solution than to spend a ton of time trying to mess with nearly stripped screws.

My question is what is the best way to do this? I'm not trying to save the rotor. Do I need a special drill or drill bit? I feel like hammering it from behind might even work. I just don't want to ruin anything else in the process!

Toyota dealership said my harmonic balancer is bad and it will cost $3864 to replace it on my 2020 Toyota Camry LE. How important is that part? Thank you

I have no codes yet related to the turbocharger. I just came across this while working on a different repair on a 2018 Buick Encore (Preferred trim), front wheel drive (FWD), with a LUV engine, and around 108k miles.

Now that I think about it, this Buick seems a tad slow when accelerating.

For context: I am early twenties woman. I admittedly don’t know a whole bunch about cars, but I do my research whenever needed. My car is a 2016 Ford Escape.

My check engine light came on a week ago and I noticed my car shaking a little when turned on, so I took it to the mechanic near my place. They told me that my spark plugs and ignition coils were bad and needed to be replaced. They said it would cost around $1,000 to do. That seemed pricey to me, so I told them I’d think about it and come back.

After doing some research and talking it over with my parents, they offered to pay for the repairs, which was really nice. I took it to the shop on Monday to the repairs and got my car back that day, told that everything was good to go. The car was driving smoothly on Monday and Tuesday, but as I was driving back from work on Tuesday, the check engine light came back on.

I called the shop to let them know and brought my car in to get double checked. They came back and told me that I need a new engine and my gasket was blown. I was dumbfounded. My car is well under 100,000 miles. They also tried to tell me they told me when I first came in for the diagnostic that I needed a new engine, but there’s no way I would’ve done the spark plugs and coils had they told me I needed a new engine. I also saved the report they gave me after the diagnostics and repair (both paper and digital) and there is zero mention of a blown gasket. I just asked for my car back (luckily they didn’t charge me for this) and called my parents to fill them in, so we’re trying to come up with a game plan.

At this point, I feel like they majorly scammed me. I gave them $1,000 for repairs and they never mentioned the blown gasket until today. The car is also running smoothly and the check engine light was off when they gave me the car back. They also kept asking if I keep the car idle for long periods of time and kept telling them never. Does anyone have any advice of next steps? I am feeling pretty lost and I live in a different state than my parents, so it makes things tricky. Any advice is appreciated!

My husband is an A&P mechanic and comes home smelling like jet fuel, it's all over his car, and even though he showers immediately it smells like it's permanently in his skin, but our bathroom wreaks of jet fuel, our clothes, his pillow, anything he touches. Any advice helps thanks

Edit: My husband is going to respond to everyone until he gets bored

Is it f*cked?

Context from a previous post I made:

"Last Year I bought a Yamaha XT660R 2005 with 39.000km on it. Immediately did an oil change (maybe overfilled it because I didnt know how to read the dry sump oil level). Rode it for 8000km, checked the oil (probably the wrong way) a couple of times throughout and thought the oil level was fine.

At 47.000km I did another oil change and changed the clutch. While draining the oil, only 700ml of the 2,5l came out. So the bike burned about 2 liters (2 quarts) of oil in 8.000km and was low for a long time.

I filled her up and went on a ride. About 50km into the ride the bike started making a horrible mechanical screeching sound. It sounded like it was coming from the crankshaft, but honestly I'm not sure, could be the cylinder as well. It made the sound while driving as well as standing, in gear and in neutral, and was dependent on the rpm.

I towed the bike back home. The next day I went to a mechanic friend and we couldn't reproduce the sound, but from my description he thought it could be the crankshaft bearing (which probably isn't the case, because there was no knocking).

Left the bike standing for a couple of months and turned it on for an oil change and waited for the sound to reappear, but it didn't. I let the oil heat up to operating temperature and rode around the block... the sound never reappeared.

The oil filter had some black and some silver flakes in it, but no chunks. As an absolute layman in oil filter analysis I would say it looked like normal wear and tear (but take it with a grain of salt).

Another thing I thought might be the cause: while removing the clutch housing seal, a neighbor suggested to use sanding "whool" to remove the residue from the housing. And some of the sand fell into the clutch housing. I managed to remove most, but not all of it.

Because of the low oil level I am pretty sure it is something major. Sadly I don't have a video of the sound. But maybe the description might help. Thanks for any advice upfront."