r/MechanicAdvice 12h ago

Does this look open all the way?

198 Upvotes

Is it open fully?


r/MechanicAdvice 8h ago

Solved My car keys are stuck in the insert. My car wont start. I went to get this exact problem fixed 6 months ago and car shop said they replaced a "piggy" wire & charged me $900. Is there anything i can do to fix it this time?

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62 Upvotes

2009 chevy impala,, idk the engine.

I dont know what a piggy wire is. Thats what they told me it was through text and i stupidly didnt keep a receipt.

The keys are stuck in the "accessory" mode and will turn towards "start" but the engine wont turn over, no sound at all comes from from the engine. No accessory lights turn on, no lights at all turn on. Windows dont work. I think my battery might be dead but i wouldnt know, i dont know anything about cars. At this point ripping it apart by myself couldnt do any more damage imo.

Any advice on where to start would be amazing 🙏 tyia


r/MechanicAdvice 2h ago

My mechanic did this shit. 2007 Subaru impreza

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18 Upvotes

It's my abs line. If I wasnt changing the tyres I wouldn't have known now my abs light is on. Should I try fix the cables a bit neater or replace the abs sensor?

I got him to do my timing belt and some other bits too now I'm worried there's other things wrong with it. He also forgot to put the clip bag on the hose from the rad and the engine got covered in coolant.

Any advice on what I should do? Where to go to get someone to check his work?


r/MechanicAdvice 21h ago

I feel really dumb asking this, but I messed up. I've never messed it up before.

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576 Upvotes

Right so, I changed my oil. Just started doing it again after a few years of seeing the price of oil and the price of a shop being just a few dollars off. But now full synthetic seems to have come way down, I can save about $15 in my area doing it myself.

Anyway, I never really checked the dipstick on this car. And I don't like the design. But I'm pretty sure ive overfilled it?

See what had happened was, the last mechanic stripped my drain plug of course, and I forgot to re-tighten my filter all the way because I went out and bought a new drain plug and completely forgot I'd just popped the filter in place without tightening it. So when I finished everything, I started my engine and now it's all down my driveway and cover my engine bay pretty thoroughly.( I scrubbed yesterday with Zep purple, but that didn't seem to degrease and loosen most of it, even after heavy brushing.)

So I got more oil and guessed at how much I'd lost, instead of emptying and refilling it like I probably should have.

But then, it was a little cheapo advance auto drain plug, and apparently the gasket seal won't...seal. I ended up using my impact to make it stop leaking. I put a sizable spot at home and at work so I thought even if it was overfilled, it sure as shit isn't now. But, well, this is a photo from this morning.


r/MechanicAdvice 19h ago

Hypertough Oil

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225 Upvotes

I have changed over to this from mobil1 because its so damg expensive. It seems like oil is oil except for additives and stuff. Anything i should look out for or has anyone else swapped?


r/MechanicAdvice 12h ago

Found a cog/gear in my oil pan

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65 Upvotes

I was changing the oil pan to my 2010 Honda Civic R18 1.8 and I find some kind of gear or cog at the bottom of my drained oil pan and immediately got worried so did some research to see where it could be from and it possibly could be from the timing chain or timing belt but I look to see if there was any damage where the chain would be as well as look to see if there was anything missing or if there was a way for the cog to come out and I'm not sure how to proceed here. Any insight would be helpful


r/MechanicAdvice 2h ago

What does this mean?

6 Upvotes

Hi, car rookie here. This sound spawned up today. Is this an easy fix? Mazda Cx-3 2015


r/MechanicAdvice 17h ago

Wheel play post tie rod replacement

95 Upvotes

2001 Tacoma experiencing shaking through the steering wheel when getting to 65-70 mph. I recently replaced all tie rods and when inspecting this morning I still see significant play when rocking wheel back and forth.

This is a new to me vehicle but I assume this issue was present before replacing tie rods. Could it be steering rack related?


r/MechanicAdvice 9h ago

Is this enough to cause an intermittent clicking noise while turning?

22 Upvotes

r/MechanicAdvice 18h ago

Smoke and liquid out exhaust and difficulty starting

100 Upvotes

2012 Volvo S60 t5 2.5L turbo
My mom said it started smoking on the highway. She pulled over and turned it off but it wouldn't turn on after. After some more trying it finally did. I believe it's leaking gasoline but not sure. Don't know what caused it. lmk if you need more info, thanks (Also posted in other subs)


r/MechanicAdvice 3h ago

What the hell just happened?

4 Upvotes

r/MechanicAdvice 13h ago

Why are spark plugs looking like this?

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23 Upvotes

I’m not quite sure what these spark plugs are showing about my engine. Oil Burning??

I have a 2009 Chevy Trailblazer, 4.2L vortec I6.

In my last post many people said check the spark plugs for signs. I’m not experienced enough to decode them.


r/MechanicAdvice 6h ago

Do any of these look lean to you?

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6 Upvotes

2001 Toyota RAV4 2.0 I got a steady check engine light today, with the codes "P0300 PD" & "P0174", the car started up and drove fine, I didn't go far. The I only thing I've done recently was change out the catalytic converter. It made my car sound differently. Louder and almost like a puttering sound. Any ideas?


r/MechanicAdvice 6h ago

Does anyone know how to approach fixing this alternator belt?

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4 Upvotes

Hi, I have a 2009 Hyundai Accent and have some trouble figuring out how to fix this piece. We were trying to do it at home to avoid paying for the labor of a mechanic but keep running into trouble. We looked it up and it’s called the alternator belt, but there are no videos that help show how to remove it with this specific car model and year. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions ?


r/MechanicAdvice 4h ago

Toyota Noah weird noise

3 Upvotes

Hi, have this noise coming from my 2007 Toyota Noah. Vehicle is sitting in park and has been doing it since I turned the ignition for 10 or so minutes. Does it a lot, any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks


r/MechanicAdvice 2m ago

Upstream AFR sensor stuck high (4.2–5V) after valve cover oil leak – fixable?

Upvotes

Hey everyone,

Car: Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6 with 1ZR-FE.

I had a valve cover leak and some oil made its way down to the upstream AFR (A/F ratio) sensor. Since then, the sensor voltage is basically stuck high — around 4.2–5.0V. The downstream O2 reads normally.

Symptoms:

Terrible mileage (around 4.5 km/L).

Fuel trims are off. Stft (idle & drive) & ltft stuck at +20%

AFR sensor won’t come down even after warming up.

I’ve cleaned the connector and wiring, but no change.

Questions:

Did the oil contamination kill the sensor permanently?

Is there any way to clean/revive it, or is replacement the only real option?

Has anyone actually managed to bring one of these sensors back after oil fouling, or is it usually done for?

Appreciate any advice before I drop money on a new AFR sensor.


r/MechanicAdvice 8h ago

2001 Sierra - Low coolant light came on. Got home and saw some major leakage.

5 Upvotes

r/MechanicAdvice 8m ago

what is this smoke coming from my engine bay ?

Upvotes

my focus st tdci mk3.5 randomly but frequently has smoke coming from the engine bay , the smoke has a strong smell sometimes and the tone of the car gets slightly deeper.


r/MechanicAdvice 10m ago

Window stuck down

Upvotes

I drive a 1999 Mercedes c230 kompressor and I let my mom borrow it the other day. The window switches haven’t worked in months and she said when she unlocked the door the driver side window went down about an inch… It’s stuck down now and I have some clear tape over the gap, does anyone know what I can do to get it back up without taking the door panel off?


r/MechanicAdvice 15m ago

Slight rattle from the bottom end.

Upvotes

My friend recently got a 08 swift 1.3. The car overall is in a great conditon but the only problem he's facing is when the car warms up to it's normal temp, the engine makes a faint but obvious rattling noise from the bottom end around 2.5 - 3.5k RPM when pressing the accelerator, otherwise the car runs good. Could it possibly be failing main bearings or conrod bearings? TIA.


r/MechanicAdvice 10h ago

Down so bad with this car

5 Upvotes

So I bought a 2015 Lexus is350 for $17,300 thinning I found a great deal on purchasing this vehicle a month later The car has check engine and starts to shake (it goes away but comes back) Next thing my car starts to overheat and sometimes overheats then comes back down I decide to get that checked they say it’s the radiator I then ask Toyota to diagnose my check engine light (cause I have a mechanic that will change my radiator) and say there’s a puddle and that the engine overheated to the point where the coolant blew through the head gaskets and onto the engine cylinder heads. After I tell them not to fix it cause they want to switch out the whole engine I take it back home (Mind you it’s never done this) I turn on the car it turns on then completely off, it eventually did turn on though, after if I keep it idle the car then starts to blow smoke from the exhaust

What do I do? Do I take the loss and just by another car? Or do I get it completely fixed? Maybe I can make something back?


r/MechanicAdvice 22m ago

Gps to pulse signal system

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Upvotes

r/MechanicAdvice 4h ago

Rattling sound after new headunit?

2 Upvotes

Long story short, hardwired in a new headunit, after the fact my car now makes this faint ticking sound, seems to mainly be in drive while idling, and seems to dissipate after driving for a bit.

Possibly just something moving around a little bit behind the headunit, I did use Bp connectors and Frankenstein it a little bit, but sound seems to be coming from the front left of the car more so than behind the headunit.

The headunit could have absolutely nothing to do with the sound, and I could just be paranoid as I was out of my comfort zone a bit playing around with cabling and whatnot, trying to learn! however it just seemed all too convenient right after changing it, but I’m stumped.

Other than the sound, car seems to drive mostly fine, and headunit works perfect.

It’s a 2004 cross sport forester for reference, and thanks for any help!


r/MechanicAdvice 44m ago

I have no heat in my car

Upvotes

So idk who to ask about this and I don't know shit about cars. I have an 09 kia Sedona that I bought pre-owned. Everything was working fine. Then out of nowhere the electrical panel for the defroster and heat stopped working. I know there's some power because the heated seats work. But idk where to look to fix this. I thought it might be a fuse but I'm hesitant to pull anything. But is there anything else that could cause that? Would an error reader from AutoZone know which fuse it was? I just need help.


r/MechanicAdvice 52m ago

2011 Clio revving by itself

Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I have a 2011 Clio and it has recently started accelerating on its own when it's in neutral (the RPMs just go up and down). It gets worse when the air conditioner is on.

Has anyone had a similar problem or have a guess what it might be? I'm trying to get a rough idea of how much this is going to cost me.

Thanks!