Auto Maintenance & Repairs: Page 7

If your engine isn't generating as much power as it should be, your may have a compression pressure issue. In this video award-winning mechanic Scotty Kilmer will teach you how to check the compression pressure in your engine and determine what to do afterwards.

Have you ever pulled on one of your car's wheels and noticed a disconcerting wiggle? You probably have a worn out tie rod. Watch this video to learn how you can check and if necessary replace the tie rods in your car.

If your car won't start you have problems, finding the cause is the most important and immediate task. In this video you'll learn about three things that can make your car not start and how to fix them: a dead battery, a faulty starter motor, and a low gas tank with a potentially damaged fuel pump.

The battery in your car is more important now than ever before. If yours is dead, not much of your car will work. Watch this video to learn some easy way to inspect and maintain your battery to make sure it works great for as long as possible.

The alternator on your car is arguably the most important part of the electrical system, and if they break even a little weird things can start happening all over your car. Watch this video to learn how to check an alternator and make sure it's working properly.

If you don't mind drilling holes into parts of your own car, read on. In this video TV car talk personality Scotty Kilmer will teach you how you can check a catalytic converter to see if it's clogged using a drill, a pressure gauge, and some small metal plugs.

When replacing your brake pads on your Ford Explorer, you first need to jack up the vehicle and remove the tire. This will give you access to the brakes. Locate the caliper, remove the two bolts and slide the caliper off. Inside the calipers are the brake pads. Pry out the outside brake pad off first, then the inside pad. Then it's time to reverse the process!

More and more car parts are controlled by computers, and the results are not always what we hope they will be. They often break for what seems like no reason and are expensive to fix. In this video you'll learn how you can fix a broken air conditioning control system on your car with a $30 bypass switch that will be much more reliable than your computer was.

After you've applied your auto body filler on your vehicle, you'll need to apply a glaze. In this video, you'll learn how to apply a 3M Finishing Glaze. Their new Dynamic Mixing System is a good one, and the product mixes instantly when it exits the tip of the gun.

The engine has a number of cylinders, whether it's 3, 4, 5, 6… 8…. whatever, and each one of those cylinders is designed to produce the same amount of power. If one is not able to produce the same power as the rest, then that cylinder is down and the engine might miss a bit or have a check engine light. If you think this may be the case with your automobile, this video from Eric the Car Guy will show you how to perform a power balance test on your car's engine. It's very helpful in nailing down...

It's not a new technique in the auto body industry, but cutting and polishing is a great way to smooth out your paint job. This two-part video will show you the process of sanding and polishing your auto paint. The first video shows you the steps for sanding the painted surface before buffing, which removes the imperfections after painting. The second video shows you some 3M polishes for buffing the car finish. This will polish the surface into a luster shiny paint job.

In this video, you are shown how to apply epoxy to your car area after it's been repaired. Epoxy is a great primer because of its advantages in adhesion and corrosion protection. You can apply one or two coats if you so desire. Watch this video and you'll learn all about the advantages of epoxy primer.

The patient in this auto maintenance video is an 04 Mazda van that surges at idle but works perfectly otherwise. This video will give you a quick tip on diagnosing this idle surge problem before you start replacing parts.

The cooling fans on Chrysler cars are not particularly well-made, but that doesn't mean you can assume that they are broken the second the cooling system stops working. Watch this video to figure out how to diagnose problems with the cooling fan relay on a Chrysler.

If the coolant has gone bad on your car, there's a decent chance that you have a leaking freeze plug in your motor. Watch this video to learn how to replace the freeze plugs, which unfortunately requires pulling the engine.

The Mercury Mariner, Ford Escape, and Mazda Tribute are the exact same car with different skins, so what works on one works exactly the same on the others. Watch this video to learn how to replace the rack and pinion steering gears on any of these cars.

If you own a Chrysler van and find yourself with a broken horn and an air bag light on, those are probably caused by the same problem: a broken clock spring. Watch this video to learn how to replace your own clock spring and get your horn back.

Mounting the tire on a car isn't too complicated, but getting a tire to bead up right can be a pain. Watch this video to learn how a little Murphy soap can make the job a lot easier and smoother.

Acuras, like their Honda brethren, are blissfully easy cars to work on. If the timing belt on your 2001 MDX has gone bad, you've come to the right place, because this two-part video will show you how to remove the broken one and install a new one.

Changing the fuel filter on your car isn't too hard and is great way to save money for the DIY automotive enthusiast. This video will teach you how to replace the fuel filter on a Ford Escape, but these principles apply to most other cars too.