Goss’ Garage
Pat Goss, MotorWeek's resident master technician, helps consumers understand car problems and how to speak the same language as their technician. As cars becoming increasingly complex, fewer repairs can be accomplished at home. Effective communication with a repair shop is vital to keeping consumer and operating costs under control. From rattles and squeaks to leaks and drips, Pat covers a myriad of issues designed to keep cars on the road and out of the repair shop.
Hybrid Batteries
Every year, vehicle manufacturers offer more variations on hybrid technology and on electric cars. Well we’re going to be concerned primarily with hybrids. You see, one of the things that a lot of people seem to be believe is that a hybrid doesn’t really need any service. Well it does. The gasoline engine needs all the same service as a conventional car does, plus… Read More
Odds and Ends
This time we have tons of tools. One of the first things that we really love in the repair shop is this extension for a ratchet. You put the ratchet-just plug it in to one end of it, the socket on the other end. And the two ends are connected by a chain inside. So this turns this, and you can put it at whatever angle you want. Really clever. Alright, here: lots of… Read More
Road Trippin’
Most everyone likes a road trip, whether it’s on a motorcycle or in a car, or whatever. But there are some things that you need to have along with you so that that trip can be safe. And we have Lyndon Abel from Rommel Harley-Davidson to tell us some things about bikes, and a little cross over for cars. LYNDON: Sure, so great to have a little bit of a safety, or… Read More
Peel It Off
There’s some exciting new automotive coatings available today, that you can do some really interesting things with. And we have Mark from Rail Performance Coatings with us to give us some of the ideas about it. First, I have you to tell you Mark, I used one of the do-it-yourself rattle cans to black out the ugly gold emblems on my Camaro here. But that’s just the… Read More
Gaskets
If you’re a do-it-yourself-er, you probably have something like these in your toolbox. Stiff wire brush, some kind of a gasket scraper or chisel like this to get rid of old gaskets. Well you better throw them away if you have a late model car, because they use aluminum, and aluminum can easily be damaged. So if you’re going to clean a gasket, you need one of… Read More
Catch Can/Oil Separator
Wow, there’s a lot of chatter out there about a new form of deposits that can form in the intake manifolds of cars. It seems that a lot of technicians are calling these GDI deposits. Well, GDI is gasoline direct injection, and they’re blaming it on the direct injection. But, I think it’s something different. I think that it has to do with low tension, or low… Read More
Fluid Checks
Proper lubrication is one of the most important parts of any vehicle. And here to give us some pointers about Harley-Davidson motorcycles is Lyndon Abel from Rommel Harley-Davidson. Lyndon, welcome back to the show. LYNDON: Thanks for having me, Pat. PAT: Alright. We get a lot of questions about, “how do I check my oil?” Seems like a lot of people don’t know, and… Read More
Don’t Brake It
If you own an older car or truck, you might have a dangerous situation lurking underneath it. And that’s in the form of the steel brake lines that transmit the hydraulic pressure to the wheels. See on older vehicles, these brake lines were made of just mild steel, without any kind of coating on it. So they easily rusted. Newer stuff has a coating…sort of this… Read More
Handy Helpers
This time we have some handy helpers for you do-it-yourself-ers…First is a magnetic finger. This comes from Snap-On tools…has a magnet on the end, and you can hold those really difficult bolts like up under the dash. Alright, here we have Fertan, this is a rust converter. It converts rust into a surface that can be sanded and prepped for paint. Does a good job… Read More
Mobileye
Many newer cars have crash avoidance systems. Now, suppose you want one of those systems, but your car doesn’t have it. Do you have to buy a new car in order to get it? Well maybe not…we have Mark Medawar, from Mobileye, to explain their system to us. Mark, welcome to Goss’ Garage. MARK: Thanks for having me here today, Pat. PAT: Alright, whadda got here? MARK:… Read More
