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How to fix a flat tire

1)  Temporary solution, use a Fix-A-Flat tire inflator, this is temporary solution to to minor leaking tire. It would not work if the leaking hole is too big. Again, this is a temporary repair, you need to find nail or leaking hole and do a permanent repair later.

2) Semi permanent solution.  Use seal tire repair kit, As long as you can locate the leaking hole, then plug a rubber band into it using the tools showed in the picture above. This is the most common DIY practice to repair a flat tire, You can do it by your self. Some auto repair shops would also use these plugs to repair a leaking tire to save time. But it’s not perfect. If the hole is too  big, It won’t fix the leak completely. 

3) Permanent repair, Send your tire to a tire shop. Removing a tire often requires special equipment. It is easier to find any nail from inside of the tire. Once the leaking hole are located, the mechanic would sand around the hole area. Then use glue and patch to fix the leak.

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Why won’t your car start?

1) Dead battery, This is the No. 1 reason why you fail  to start your car. There are two reasons which would cause to a dead battery. First, the battery is drained. For example, you turn on your radio, headlights without running the engine. Solution for this is simple, just find another car and use cables to connect two battery together. Of course positive to positive, negative to negative. Second reason, the battery reached the end of its life,It won’t be charged. You need to change a battery in this case.

2) Corrosion on battery terminals, As you can see from the above picture, the corroded battery terminals would cause poor connection. The solution to this is the easiest. But you need to have a 10mm wrench to remove the cable. Clean it with a metal brush, use a knife or other scrapers if you don’t have a metal brush. To avoid the corrosion , you need to apply some battery  terminal protector which you can buy from any auto parts store at about 2 dollars.

3) The faulty starter, When you turn the key, you hear no cranking sound, It means your starter is not working. Please locate the starter, usually it is located underneath between the engine and the transmission. Get a hammier, and find a helper, Let your fellow to turn the key at the ignition while you try to knock the starter for a few time. Starter won’t run again it is stuck. But it won’t run. You need to check the ACC wire. If the light is on. Try to use strew driver or other cable wire to connect two terminals on the starter together. When you connect the two timing together it is equal to you turn the the key to ignition. If the starter run, then the ignition switch is bad, need replacement.

4) Bad ignition switch. As we mentioned above. Bad ignition switch can be diagnosed through the step 3 mentioned above. As long as you turn your key on the ACC position, you can start your car from the starter using a wire or screw driver.

5)Low compression in combustion chamber. This is the worst situation, usually, it the intake or exhaust valves are bent due to the failure of the timing chain. You need to rebuild your engine in this situation.

6)  Bad spark plug, this is rare, very often, bad spark plug will cause missed fire in one or two cylinder. But as long as there is one spark plug is working, you can still start your car. but the engine would be shaking. It is very rare that all spark plugs are bad can cause failure to start your car.

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7 Things Every New Drivers Should Know Before They Hit The Road

1. Buckle up. Make sure you and your passengers buckle up. Abrupt braking is normal for new drivers.

2. Know your car. Make sure you know how to turn on/off the low/high beam, especially the wipers. If you don’t, It could cost life even if you are skilled drivers. In 2016, I visited Big Island for a vacation. I rented a Chrysler town & country Minivan that I had never used it before although I have been licensed to drive for many years. Big Island has a very different weather than we have it here on Oahu. When I was driving on a winding road. The last moment as sunny but it suddenly rained as pouring. There was not any hint at all. The worst thing was I don’t know how to turn of the wipers. The wiper switch on Chrysler are so unique that I failed to locate it. The windshield completely became foggy and I saw almost nothing in front of me. My instinct told me to slow down and turn on the hazard light immediately to avoid rear-end collision. Luckily, the passing cars saw my hazard lights flashing and didn’t hit my car. It took me almost 30 second to figure out where the wiper switch was.

3. Keep your distance. Safety distance for different speed is different. you should maintain an appropriate distance so that you would have enough time to react.

4. keep your car maintenance updated. Follow the recommendations from the owner’s manual. You should know how to check the level of the engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, steering wheel fluid. Make sure you have a good brake pressure or thick enough brake pad. If your braking fluid is low, there won’t be enough pressure for the brake. If the steering fluid is low, your steering wheel may suddenly become stiff and hard to turn.

5. Be cautious to change lane. Generally speaking, it is safe when you are driving on the same lane as long as you don’t drive too fast or too slowly. Be cautious when you change lane, most accidents happened in lane changing.

6. Know how to change a flat tire. If you don’t like to read owner’s manual, please watch some YouTube videos about your car model to find out where your spare tire and tool are located. You need to learn how to use a jack.

7. Know what to do after an accident. After pulling safely out of traffic, call police to report the accident. Exchange insurance information with the other driver but don’t discuss who is at fault. Use your cellphone camera to take pictures, and take notes of what happened.

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With limited buddget for a used car, what is your best choice?

If you are my followers, you would probably know that I am the owner of a car rental business and a self-taught mechanic. I don't want to get a loan from a bank. Therefore, a new car is often not an option for me. In the past 2 years. I purchased about 70 used cars on craigslist all with cash. Some of them were problematic then I sold them after weeks. Some never had any big problems from day one since purchase. If you are young students or new drivers, you probably don’t know much about cars. I don’t recommend new drivers to buy new cars unless you are super rich because you would likely to scratch your cars the first week on the road or in the parking lot. Buying used cars is strongly recommended. But what kind of car should you buy? Not every seller would honestly tell you what problems the car has. I have some advice for you to help you decide as follows.

First, be prepared. Please watch some videos on YouTube before you check out a car. At least you should learn how to identify an accident car. It’s not difficult. There are so many good tips on the internet that help you to identify an accident car. You should have an inspection list and check them one by one.

Second, be aware! Let the seller tell you the VIN before you test drives a car. Free Carfax is available online. Here is a sample URL: https://vincheck.info/free-vehicle-history/free-carfax-report. The Carfax report would tell you if the car has been reported for stolen, accident, mileage, etc.

Third, believe the mouth of the word. Please search the internet for reviews of the model of the car you want to buy. Few people may get paid to write good reviews. But most reviews would honestly tell you what the common problems are for this model.

Fourth, choose some models that have had many generations of production. The longest the models have been around, the most favorable these models would be. If you want me to name some, from my personal experience, I would say cars such as Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, Mazda 6 are the models you should consider. This post may become a positive review of Camry, Accord, and Mazda 6. But I am neither a Japanese national nor am getting paid from these Japanese car manufacturers. This is my honest recommendation. Believe me, because very few people have the experience to purchase about 70 cars within 2 years. Finally, good luck, remember, Be prepared, be aware!!!!

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If you are looking for a used car, you probably want to spend the least money to get the best-looking car. As most people would do, you probably would see a few different cars and compare them by the exteriors and interiors before you decide which is your favorite car. If you don’t know much about cars, you would likely end up buying a Volkswagen car. Why?  Because there are plenty of Volkswagen cars in the market with perfect shiny paint and good-looking synthetic leather seats. Volkswagen cars tend to be the cheapest cars available out there for the same year, exterior and interior conditions. I made the same mistakes.      In 2018, when I started my car rental business, I didn’t have much money in hand. But I want to purchase as many cars as possible. I purchased about 25 cars in 2018. About 7 of them were Volkswagen . I purchased 4 Tiguan and 3 Passat CC. They all looked pretty new inside out. From the renter’s review, we can see that they loved the Volkswagen cars.  But these Volkswagen cars started to show problems one after another after about 2 months. First, my 2009 Tiguan engine failed because the timing chain was off. Volkswagen Honolulu quoted about $6000 for the rebuild of the engine. That’s too much for me. Then I tried to watch YouTube videos about how to rebuild the engine. Luckily, the vw TSI engine is simple enough for DIY repair. I purchased parts such as head gaskets, cylinder head bolts, timing chain, timing chain lock tool, lower timing chain cover, and a tube of cylinder cover gasket. They cost me about 500 dollars, and I fished the jobs in a week. I kept telling me, I have saved about 5500 dollars on this car. Once the timing chain was done, the brake kept making squeezing noise. I was so surprised because all the brake pads were almost as thick as new. Then I googled the internet to find a solution.  Many said it’s a common Volkswagen problem. One review said my Brand-new Volkswagen started to make squeezing noise after 2 months on the road…oh no...      I can live with the squeezing noise as long as it can run and make money for me. But customers mention the squeezing noise and gave me bad reviews from time to time. After I fixed the engine for my 2009 Tiguan.  My 2010  Volkswagen Passat CC  had a problem with the transmission. Transmission repair is a much more complicated job. I decided to send it to a transmission shop to repair it. I spent about 3000 dollars for rebuilding the transmission…and about 2 months later, The same Tiguan that I rebuilt the engine by myself had a transmission problem. This time I didn’t want to invest more money in it. I finally sold it at 1000 dollars. The other Volkswagen cars were also problematic. I sold most of them and kept the ones with low mileages. Today there still about 3 Volkswagen cars in my fleet. I am planning to sell them all after the mileages getting higher.