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Another Happy Customer!

Been in the auto repair industry for almost 30 years. RockAuto is the only on-line auto parts store I use at a time when there are a great many to choose from.

Nicely done ladies and gentlemen. Nicely done indeed!

CW in Virginia

 

Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details.

ECCA Car Show
7/28/2012
Ridgewood, NY
e-mail

Garfield Street Fair & Car Show
7/28/2012
Graham, WA
e-mail

Brookdale Auto Meet
7/28/2012
Lincroft, NJ
e-mail

Coast Guard Festival Car Show
7/29/2012
Grand Haven, MI
e-mail

Minis on the Wreck
7/29/2012
Brighton, UK
e-mail

Cars on Main
7/29/2012
Germantown, WI
e-mail

Madison Classics Events
8/4/2012
Madison, WI
e-mail

Hooters Car Truck & Bike Show
8/4/2012
Harrisburg, NC
e-mail

Downtown Sebring Car Events
8/4/2012
Sebring, FL
e-mail

8th Annual Abundant Life Cruise-In
8/4/2012
Damascus, OR
e-mail

Stallions Gate Mustang & Ford Club Inc
8/4/2012
Maple Park, IL
e-mail

41st Yellowstone Rod Run
8/4/2012
West Yellowstone, CT
e-mail

4UDREW Benefit Car Show
8/5/2012
Doylestown, PA
e-mail

Vintiques Annual Northwest Nationals
8/5/2012
Ellensburg, WA
e-mail

Diablo Motor Sports 2nd Annual Car & Truck Show
8/5/2012
Toluca, IL
e-mail

Cruising on Main
8/5/2012
Manchester, CT
e-mail

Austin-Healey Sport & Touring Club; Austin-Healey Encounter 2012
8/9/2012
Morristown, NJ
e-mail

DC Classic Car Benefit Car Show
8/10/2012
Mooresville, NC
e-mail

Summers Last Blast
8/10/2012
Vernon, TX
e-mail

Del Shannon Car Show
8/10/2012
Coopersville, MI
e-mail

US Car Stammtisch Bremen-Born to Drive
8/11/2012
Charlotte, Germany
e-mail

Spectacular Summer Cruise In Concert
8/11/2012
Piqua, OH
e-mail

Car & Bike Show in the Netherlands
8/11/2012
Tegelen, Netherlands
e-mail

Summer of Fun Car Show
8/11/2012
Wichita, TX
e-mail

Montgomery Township Fire Department Car Show
8/11/2012
Horsham, PA
e-mail

Cumberland Motorcycle Roundup
8/11/2012
Cumberland, BC
e-mail

23rd Annual Yellow Rose Classic Car Show
8/11/2012
Irving, TX
e-mail

2012 Flag City Balloonfest Car Show
8/11/2012
Findlay, OH
e-mail

Car Show AACA Finger Lakes Region
8/11/2012
Auburn, NY
e-mail

Battle on the Bay Car Show
8/12/2012
Corpus Christi, TX
e-mail

4th Annual Ride for Sick Kids Hospital
8/12/2012
Maple, ON
e-mail

2012 Big Saturday Show (8th Annual)
8/15/2012
Lewes, DE
e-mail


 

RockAuto Adds Power Stop Brakes

See what we have from Power Stop

RockAuto has added Power Stop brakes to the RockAuto.com catalog. The addition includes new options for high performance brake pads, high performance rotors, as well as performance brake upgrade kits. The new brake pad and rotor options include:

  • Z16 Evolution; Ceramic Clean Ride Scorched Brake Pads with 20% more stopping power plus noise and dust reduction.
  • Z26 Extreme Performance Brake Pads perfect for high horsepower cars and big wheel upgrades.
  • Z36 Truck and Tow Brake Pads designed to avoid high temperature brake fade and for long life.
  • Gold Zinc Plated Cross-Drilled Rotors run up to 180 deg(F) cooler and provide up to 37% better stopping power.
  • Silver Zinc Plated Cross-Drilled and Slotted Rotors include slots to sweep away gas and dust.
  • Slotted Rotors improve brake performance in off road, racing or other extreme, dusty conditions.

The performance brake upgrade kits include high-performance ceramic brake pads and a complete set of cross-drilled & slotted rotors that will deliver the big brake feel without the big brake price. The kits have custom-matched components that are engineered to work together for maximum performance. These kits are available for the front, rear, or a combination that will include pads and rotors for the front and rear.

The performance brake upgrade kits include high-performance ceramic brake pads and a complete set of cross-drilled & slotted rotors that will deliver the big brake feel without the big brake price.

Power Stop has earned a reputation for high quality by assuring tight tolerances and the best materials. Their demanding criteria mandates high pad bite without high temperature fade or pedal pressure deterioration. Using independent dynamometer testing to validate brake performance including pre-burnish (green) friction, high temperature brake fade, pedal pressure sensitivity, and speed sensitivity ensures quick stopping performance.

Whether you're in it for performance or style or both find the Power Stop brakes in the "Brake/Wheel Hub" category of the RockAuto.com catalog. The performance brake upgrade kits will be listed in the "Rotor" category.

 

 

Forum of the Month

Coloradok5.com

Coloradok5.com is the world's largest online Chevy K5 Blazer forum community where over 60,000 enthusiasts from around the world come to discuss all issues related to the Chevy K5 Blazer, Jimmy, Suburban and Pickup Truck.

By joining our community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, view the photo gallery, and access many other special features. Registration is fast and simple. Join our community today!

 

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact cynthia@rockauto.com.

 

 

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

Ouch!

Love the Repair Mistakes and Blunders stories. For some reason it's nice to know I'm not the only one out there whose brain malfunctions every once in a while! I have a few stories that might qualify. Here's the one that took the longest before I'd admit to it.

I bought a very used 1969 Plymouth Satellite for a winter car in late fall 1981. It was a real yawner -- 225 ci Slant Six engine, three-on-the-tree transmission, no A/C, very few extras except for some reason a towing package including a heavy-duty Dana rear end and a Class III tow hitch. (Maybe they were only considering towing on flat land?) $125 and the car was mine -- such as it was.

Driving it home revealed an alarming lack of real power, even for the small 6 cylinder engine. Having almost no money I was committed to spending as little as possible. A few hours cleaning the spark plugs, sanding build-up off the points, and twiddling here and there woke up the old Slant Six. Greatly emboldened I decided to "invest" in an oil change. $20 brought home oil "recommended for older cars," a new oil filter, a new drain plug gasket, and a bottle of carb cleaner.

The instructions on the oil filter had the now-common advice to "spread a drop or two of new oil on the oil filter gasket before tightening." Well the old Slant Six had been leaking oil for a while, so everything looked pretty oiled up. I decided I knew better and didn't lube the oil filter gasket according to directions. I did, however, torque the drain plug to the specified value.

The Satellite practically jumped to life! I drove it around the block feeling like I'd hit the lottery! Making the last right turn back onto our street I caught the first whiff of burning oil... Pulling over in front of the house let the dense blue cloud catch up with me. I saw a thick, dark trail of oil leading away from where we'd done the work, down the block, around the far corner, then coming up behind and under to where the car now sat. Yikes! My big investment!!!

Opening the hood revealed just how valuable those two drops of oil are. Turns out two drops of oil spread around the oil filter sealing gasket are worth almost one engine-load of oil. The Slant Six had dutifully pumped out 3.5 quarts of oil in exactly one block of running. Not a drop from the new oil drain plug gasket, which had been treated according to instructions. Imagine that.

Needless to say, off came the oil filter, rags cleaned up a lot of mess in the engine bay, and the oil filter was lubed and installed according to instructions. What do you know -- sealed perfectly.

I've never made THAT mistake again!

Mike in New York

 

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for a while!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and if you would like a RockAuto T-Shirt (please let us know your shirt size) or Hat if we publish your story. See the T-Shirts and Hats under Tools & Universal Parts in the catalog. The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

 

 

Automotive Trivia

Automotive Trivia

Today, SKF makes axle bearings, wheel bearings, wheel hubs, seals, and more. SKF has a long automotive history. What car brand did SKF register in 1915 and begin to assemble in 1927?

A. MG
B. Saab
C. Volvo

 

Answer below

 

 

Better Yardsticks to Measure With

RockAuto

 

Gates Corporation has a smartphone app that evaluates the condition of an automotive serpentine belt based on a photo of the ribbed side of the belt. That sounds neat and worth a try if I ever get an iPhone. Even without an smartphone, Gates’ new app already sort of worked by pushing me to inspect the serpentine belt on my wife’s Ford Tempo with the assistance of my digital camera.

Wear often can be hard to detect on today’s newer belts. The belt, especially the smooth side, might look fine up until the day it snaps. The Gates Corporation app is designed to measure wear indicators like belt rib depth which are next to impossible to evaluate with just your eyes.

But eyeballs assisted with a bit of magnification can still work well for inspecting serpentine belts. I used my camera to zoom in on a spot where the rib side of the Ford’s belt was exposed. There were other parts in the way and a half dozen or so pictures did not turn out, but, a couple did. After I loaded the belt photos onto my computer and zoomed in, it was easy to see the belt’s ribs were covered with splits and cracks.

It was easy to see the belt's ribs were covered with splits and cracks

I doubt the Gates app would know how to interpret this mosaic of cracks. The Haynes repair manual for the Tempo says small cracks running across the belt ribs are “acceptable.” If pieces of the belt ribs are missing then it is time to replace the belt. This serpentine belt is about 85 inches (216cm) long. I would really need to remove the belt to see if any of the “acceptable” cracks had turned into unacceptable missing chunks.

Another belt inspection resource for this Ford and many other cars is the wear indicator mark on the belt tensioner (see photo below). If the mark on the moving part of the tensioner goes beyond the marks on the fixed piece, then the belt is over-stretched and/or the belt tensioner is worn out. The wear mark on the Tempo was still in the acceptable range and did not move about when the engine was running.

Wear indicator marks on the belt tensioner

This example Motorcraft belt is over seven years old but has less than 50,000 miles on it. My wife mostly uses the Tempo as a comfortable place to sit in city traffic. Engine hours and years rather than miles are better yardsticks to measure what this belt has been through. Five years or 75,000 miles is the typical recommended replacement interval for serpentine belts. The Tempo’s belt is way past the five-year mark and including all the hours of engine idling, it has probably endured the equivalent of 75,000 miles.

Without further ado, I am going to go ahead and replace this old, cracked serpentine belt. A new serpentine belt for this 2.3L Ford costs between about $10 and $30 at RockAuto depending on the brand (Dayco, Gates, Goodyear, Motorcraft, etc.). July is our wedding anniversary month so I needed a gift idea. Thank you Gates for the nudge from your belt inspection app!

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

 

 

Luke's 1993 Mazda MX6
Luke's 1993 Mazda MX6

This is my 1993 Mazda MX6. My previous being an immaculate bright red 1992 MX6 which was written off in a crash. I still had the MX6 bug and quickly bought this abused and neglected car feeling that, with the loss of one MX6, I had to restore another to keep the legacy going.

It spent its first fortnight in my garage as I quickly swapped out the entire interior from my old MX6 and fixed up a bunch of issues and leaks with the help of RockAuto.com, which also provided me with a whole new ignition system and engine mounts to massively improve driveability. At the moment, I'm just taking this car one step at a time to bring it back to its former glory with the use of the 1992 MX6 parts car and an extensive list of parts from RockAuto.

Cheers,
Luke in Victoria, Australia

 

Share Your Hard Work

Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to feature you & your car or truck in our monthly newsletter. New, old, import, domestic, daily driver, trailer queen, classic, antique, we want to see them all! Please e-mail flamur@rockauto.com with your vehicle's history, interesting details, your favorite images, and what parts from RockAuto you have used.

 

 

Let RockAuto Help

Let RockAuto Help

Are you organizing a car show or other auto related event? From goody bag stuffers to gift certificates...we can help. We can even publicize your event in our newsletter.

Just send us an email with information about your show.

 

 

Automotive Trivia Answer

Automotive Trivia

Today, SKF makes axle bearings, wheel bearings, wheel hubs, seals and more. SKF has a long automotive history. What car brand did SKF register in 1915 and begin to assemble in 1927?

A. MG
B. Saab
Answer: C. Volvo

SKF & Volvo logos

 

Back up to trivia question

 

 

 

 

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