Goss' Garage | MotorWeek

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.

Throttle Bodies Episode 4111

Here’s a part that, well, you probably wouldn’t recognize because, for the most part, it’s outta sight, outta mind. This is a throttle body, and it’s what controls the speed of your vehicle. You see, if you depress on the accelerator, either a motor or a cable is going to operate this lever, and what it’s going to do is open these throttle plates in here.… Read More

Hitch Ratings Episode 4110

Here’s another great idea gone wrong. See, these carriers, well they work really well to carry things on the outside of the vehicle. You can add a lot of carrying capacity to just about anything. But, if you look at this one, it’s almost dragging the ground—now, why? Well, that’s because the person with the vehicle didn’t do proper planning. You see, the… Read More

Vintage Camper Wiring Episode 4109

Vintage camping trailers have become very popular these days. You can find them most anyplace, you can look for them on the internet, or you might just stumble on to one sitting beside a hunting camp or who knows where; but once you buy it, well, then there are some things that you have to do. Number one is that you have to make sure that everything… Read More

Maxton Found Episode 4108

Well, now that we’ve seen our Maxton and we understand that it’s been sitting for the last 20-25 years and its had no use and no preparation before it was put in storage, well, we need to evaluate it. So far, what we’ve done is we’ve looked at the fuel lines and things like that… you look at the fuel… we ran this coat hanger down into uh, one of the fuel… Read More

Prop Rods & Hood Struts Episode 4107

PAT GOSS: If you have an SUV or even a regular passenger car, and you notice that maybe the hood, or the hatch, one or the other, that it doesn’t stay up like it used to, it may slowly come down. Well, that’s because you may have worn prop struts, these are gas-charged struts that hold the hatch or the hood open, and to give us some pointers about these, we… Read More

EV Charging Levels Episode 4106

So, you need a new vehicle, and you’re thinking about something with electric propulsion. That might be an EV, an electric vehicle, or a plug-in hybrid. Either way, you go about it, you need to recharge the battery in that vehicle. Now, most of them come with a Level One charger such as we see here. Now, this Level One charger plugs into the regular… Read More

ADAS Calibration Episode 4105

When it comes to automobiles these days, the word of the day seems to be cameras and computers. Cars are loaded with them. We have cameras everywhere. They give you surround views of the vehicle so that you can back up accurately and so on. They help with steering, they help with braking, they have all of these different things that the cars do autonomously.… Read More

Diminished Value Appraisals Episode 4104

PAT GOSS: So your car is involved in an accident, it goes to the body shop, it gets repaired, and everything looks good to you, and you think that’s the end of it. Well that may not be the case, there is such a thing as diminished value. And we have Mr. Jack Anderson here to tell us a little bit about it. Hi Jack. JACK ANDERSEN: Hi Pat. Thanks for having… Read More

200,000-Mile Maintenance Episode 4103

In my many years here on MotorWeek, I’ve been giving you pointers on how to make your cars last longer. And that comes down to a very simple rule: Preventive maintenance. Take care of it so it doesn’t break instead of waiting until it does break and then fixing it. Well that means things like oil changes, and flushing the automatic transmission and… Read More

Catalytic Converter Theft Episode 4102

Pat Goss: There’s a new problem that’s affecting drivers, and it’s almost an epidemic. And that is catalytic converter theft. And here to give us some pointers, we have Tom Taylor, our online parts guru. Tom, welcome back to Goss’ Garage. Tom Taylor: Thanks for having me, Pat. Pat Goss: Absolutely. Catalytic converters are being stolen right and left around… Read More