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.
Accident Do’s and Don’ts
That fender bender that doesn’t look like there’s any damage, well that may not actually be the case. See, modern cars, they may have all kinds of sensors and different things built into the car. And, even in the back for that matter. Things like radar for cruise control, and parking sensors, headlight washers, even the lights themselves may be LED. They may be… Read More
Track Prep Your Car
Lots of folks like to take their daily driver and experience a track day now and again. Well here to give us some pointers on what you should be doing to prep it, we have Rick Robinson from American High Performance in Lorton, Virginia. Rick, welcome back to Goss’ Garage. Rick: Thank you, Pat. PAT GOSS: Alright, what are some of the things that we should do if we… Read More
Dress For Success
The term “dress for success” may not seem like it applies to motorcycles, but it actually does. And to explain that term, we have Lyndon Abel from Rommel Harley-Davidson in Annapolis. Lyndon, welcome back to Goss’ Garage. Lyndon: Thank you for having me, Pat. PG: Alright, explain the term, please. LA: So dressing for success on a motorcycle ride, you really wanna… Read More
(Un)Leaded Gas
A lot of people with older collectible cars want to know if they have to use a lead substitute in the gasoline they use in their cars. Well, maybe… maybe not. Now, what did the lead do? Well, the first thing that the lead did in the engines of these older cars was that it raised octane. Now octane is the fuel’s ability to resist pinging, and pinging is nothing… Read More
Replace in Pairs
There are lots of things on an automobile that should be replaced in pairs. Now some of those things include brake parts, they normally have to be replaced in pairs. Or suspension parts, like ball joints and so on, if one is worn, the other is worn equally. So, you normally do these things in pairs. Then there are some things that are done in pairs for specific… Read More
Safe Shop Practices
If you’re a do it yourselfer there’s some things do it yourselfers mistakes and so on you don’t want to make. First you need a fender cover and there’s different types of fender covers. Cloth is nice but it’s not very forgiving. See, if we use one of these vinyl ones such as we have over here we look at this and see that its much thicker and that means when you… Read More
Catalytic Converter Issues
Since 1975, virtually all cars have had catalytic converters. Well, exactly what is a catalytic converter? Well it’s a device in the exhaust system that reacts with the exhaust coming out of the engine and neutralizes it. Makes it a lot more friendly to the atmosphere. Alright, now today cars have catalytic converters that look, pretty much like this, on average.… Read More
Engine Mounts
A common complaint that we see in my repair shop is my engine vibrates when I’m sitting at a traffic light what can I do? Well, we start talking to the client and invariably they tell us well I went to another shop and they did a tune up and that didn’t help anything. Well, first the word tune-up should put you on notice that hey, something’s not right because… Read More
Tire Maintenance
Frequently some of the most overlooked parts of a car are its tires. And to give us some pointers on tire maintenance we have our tire expert Matt Edmonds. Matt, welcome back to Goss’ Garage. MATT EDMONDS: Pleasure to be here Pat. PAT GOSS: Alright, what do you got for us? MATT EDMONDS: Well, I’ll tell you when it comes to taking care of your tires and getting the… Read More
Oil Filters
The single most expensive part of any automobile is typically going to be the engine. Yet with all of that expense involved, people still try to get away with the cheapest that they can as far as maintaining it. Oil filters are a good example. Why would you buy an expensive oil filter to protect that expensive engine? Or at least that seems to be the mental… Read More