Mercedes ML350 Broken Belt and Crank Seal Leak
Had this ML350 come into the shop after it broke it’s drive belt. I replaced the belt, idle, and tensioner rollers, but after doing that, found we had a huge oil leak coming out the front crank shaft seal. I pulled the front crank pulley off to see why it was leaking. Turns out there was a small piece of shredded belt that jammed between the seal and the pulley. I have never seen that before! Pretty beat up. And …
02May2013
Porsche 911S 2.7L Running Issues
Had this little 2.7L come into the shop this week for some serious running issues. The car would fall on it’s face around 3-4k rpms, bucking like a wild horse. It had been a few other places without much luck in repair, so I got to take a stab at it. The old CIS cars are very tricky to work on if you aren’t familiar with them. I know my way around them fairly decently, but am always still learning …
Had this little 951 come into the shop awhile back to diagnose a missing brake fluid issue. No apparent leaks that they could find, so I took a stab at it. There are 2 places brake fluid can disappear and you won’t notice. One is a brake master cylinder leak into the brake booster, and the other is the clutch master cylinder leaking into the carpet. We had a clutch master leaking. By looking under the dash, you can see …
29Apr2013
Do tire treatments work?
I’ve been using a treatment on my old crusty R comps to bring them back to life and have always wondered if they really did anything. It always felt like they did but I didn’t know if it was placebo effect or not. I decided to find out. I put on a lab coat and glasses, dug out the Type A durometer, grabbed a clipboard and went to work finding out. Here is a freshly minted Hoosier R6… And here …
21Apr2013
Squeeks Maintenance Day RennsportKC
I borrowed Squeeks the other day to replace a battery that was causing a slow start. About 7 years on the last battery, so it was about due for replacement. Once I got in it to drive it over to the shop, I knew I was going to be doing some suspension work as well. Up on the lift to check out a suspension clunk. I found bad tie rods on the lower bar, so I soaked everything up good …
You’ve seen this 965 before, such a nice car. The new owner brought it in to catch up on a few maintenance items that had been neglected by previous owners 😉 With 15k miles on the clock, he wanted to make sure he started with new fluids all around. Brake fluid, oil change, gear oil, and power steering were all flushed. Flushing out the brake system. The 964 has a lot of little compartments in the same reservoir, so you …
We have been trying to nail down a bunch of leaks on this little 964. Each items makes it a little better, but the valve covers just wouldn’t seal up correctly. Pretty common for the lower valve covers on 911’s to warp, and replacement gaskets won’t do any good as the covers are no longer true. Years ago, we developed a solution to this problem in the form of aluminum valve covers. After pulling the exhaust, you have access to …
This little bug came into the shop this week to replace the driver side window regulator. Pretty straight forward job, and it is nice to have working windows 😉 It also got new window switches which had come apart. As you can see, the regulator cables have broken and turned into a mess of wires and pulleys. The replacement regulator comes with an entire new door card which makes replacement a snap. The speaker needs to be swapped over to …
Had this 996 come into the shop this week for a power steering pump replacement. It is a pretty straight forward job, but there are a few things that can fight you a little, including the rear power steering line. 180k miles 🙂 Another issue….notice the left exhaust tip. Engine mounts are shot and sagging, so I will replace those as well. Buried on the motor is the power steering pump. Not impossible to remove, but time consuming. AC compressor …
This little Boxster came into the shop this week to clear up a fairly significant oil leak and a check engine light. After some investigating, I found the car had quite a few issues, all contributing to the problem. The bellows was torn on the oil air separator, causing the CEL. The oil fill tube and spark plug tube seals were also leaking, and they can also cause an air leak and contribute to the CEL. Passenger side was the …