|
Great Selection, Great Prices, and
Quick Delivery!
RockAuto always
seems to have the parts I need,
when I need them, and at the most
affordable prices...
I have, and will
continue to, recommend them to friends
and family.
Tony in Arizona
|
|
Upcoming Events
If you would like your event featured here, email us with details. |
|
|
WTW Pontiac Car Show
2/18/2012
Orlando, FL
e-mail
Brill's Motor
Speedway
2/18/2012
Nicoma Park, OK
e-mail
Orangeburg
Dragstrip
2/18/2012
Yemasse, SC
e-mail
Oro Valley
Classic Car BBQ & Blues
Show Family Festival
2/18/2012
Casas Adobes, AZ
e-mail
Vistancia
4th Annual Car Show for Charity
2/18/2012
Peoria, AZ
e-mail
Bairnsdale
Motor Expo
2/18/2012
Victoria, AU
e-mail
MFMC's 25th
Annual Mustang & Ford Roundup
2/18/2012
Winter Park, FL
e-mail
Norfolk Area
Rod & Custom Car Show
2/25/2012
Norfolk, NE
e-mail
Tabacco Road
Cruisers
2/25/2012
Hubert, NC
e-mail
25th Annual
All Oldsmobile Show
2/25/2012
Gilbert, AZ
e-mail
8th Annual
Chandler Car Show
2/25/2012
Chandler, AZ
e-mail
Kansas Rocks
Rec Park 9th Annual Frostbite
Event
2/25/2012
Lenexa, KS
website
Florida Mopars 3rd Annual Car
Show
2/25/2012
Youngstown, FL
e-mail
Atlantic City
Classic Car Show
2/25/2012
Great Neck, NY
e-mail
Until They
All Come Home Car & Truck
Show
2/26/2012
Palm Harbour, FL
e-mail
3rd Annual
Capitol City Car Show Parade
Festival
2/28/2012
Sacramento, CA
e-mail
Motocross
of Marion County-National Vet
Race
2/28/2012
Citra, FL
e-mail
Door Slammers
Cruise Ins
3/1/2012
Tucson, AZ
e-mail
5th Annual
Mopars on the Border IV Car
Show
3/2/2012
Misson, TX
e-mail
Autos for
Autism
3/3/2012
Trinity, FL
e-mail
MHS Car Show
3/3/2012
San Diego, CA
e-mail
1st Annual
Corvette & Open Car &
Truck Show
3/3/2012
Mission Bay, FL
e-mail
West Harrison
High School Band 2nd Annual
Marching Hurricanes Car Show
3/3/2012
Gulf Port, MS
e-mail
RDA Auto Bike
& Swap Meet
3/3/2012
Rockdale, TX
e-mail
33rd Annual
Snow Poker Run
3/3/2012
Laton, CA
e-mail
3rd Annual
American Business Woman's Relay
for Life Car Show
3/3/2012
Thiboduax, LA
e-mail
Citrus County
Cruisers 28th Manatee Car &
Truck Show
3/4/2012
Lecanto, FL
e-mail
Carolina Collector
Auto Fest-Spring
3/9/2012
Hillsborough, NC
e-mail
|
|
|
Moog Complete Strut Assemblies |
|
Do
you enjoy doing your own maintenance
with superior quality parts? Well,
look no further! Premium quality parts
that encourage you to do it yourself
are always being added to the RockAuto
catalog. Newly added to the catalog
are Moog Complete Strut Assemblies.
These complete strut units are pre-assembled
for fast, easy, bolt-on installation
and come from Moog, a brand you know
and trust.
Moog Complete Strut
Assemblies are engineered to improve
vehicle dynamics, provide a smoother
ride, last longer and install easily.
Complete strut assemblies save on
installation time and reduce the number
of required tools by eliminating having
to disassemble and reuse components
and compress the coil spring. A complete
strut assembly with all new parts
often costs less than buying the parts
individually.
Triple Piston
Rod Seal
Inner and outer seals protect the
main seal from contaminants and pressure
spikes resulting in optimized sealing
performance and durability
Top Spring
Bearing Plate
Tested to one million cycles for smooth
operation and long life
Jounce Bumper
Molded from advanced micro-cellular
polyurethane to absorb noise, vibration
and harshness
Polished
Piston Rod
Highly polished, hard-chrome finish
piston rod for superior strength and
sealing performance
Valving
Precision valving technology that
provides optimum driving performance
combined with outstanding ride control
Hardware
OE-Style installation lower mounting
hardware included on select applications,
making the job easy
Whether you drive
a 2003 Mercury Sable, a 1995 Eagle
Vision or a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, check
the "Suspension" category
to see the Moog Complete Strut Assemblies
you need for your next do-it-yourself
project!
|
Forum of the Month |
|
Mk1Dubz.com
is the only Free Speech, non-profit
forum dedicated to the early water
cooled Volkswagens (first-generation
Golf/Rabbit). We are based/hosted
in the USA, however we have a tight
knit group of members from all over
the world.
We have only one
simple rule: “Treat each other
with respect.” We believe we're
the friendliest forum on the Internet
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
|
|
My
biggest blunder was my first attempt
at changing my own oil.
It was on my '55 Chevy (bought for
$500.00 in 1968). Enlisting the aid
of my best friend, we crawled under
the car with a drain pan in hand.
The car was propped up on cinder blocks
- not something anyone with a brain
would do today, but, being teenagers,
what did we know?
I had followed the manual instructions
carefully, warmed up the engine, etc.
Now all I had to do was loosen the
bolt on the oil pan. Of course, I
started tightening it and stripped
the threads. Having no choice but
to proceed, I reversed directions
and backed out the bolt. The drain
pan was positioned directly under
the bolt. Little did I know, the oil
would spurt out sideways a little
- just enough to splatter my face
with Quaker State's finest! After
my friend stopped laughing, he realized
that this was being done in his dad's
new driveway, so the new concrete
now looked like the floor of an old
garage.
We got the filter out eventually,
but only after much more oil spillage.
We carefully got the bolt back into
the oil pan and it seemed tight enough.
By now, it was flowing down the driveway
into the gutter and down the street.
When we FINALLY got everything back
together, we had made a mess on a
scale that foreshadowed the Exxon
Valdez spill. The new driveway was
ruined and the next door neighbors
were upset from driving into the oil
and tracking it up their driveways.
I can't remember how many lawns we
had to mow that summer to pay for
the mess, but it seemed like every
lawn within a five mile radius!
Tom in California
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 Extras
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 |
|
Which
auto parts manufacturer (using current
company name) invented the automotive
oxygen sensor?
A. Airtex/Wells
B. Bosch
C. Delphi
D. NTK
Answer
below
|
Give Them a Little Attention
|
|
I
do a reasonably good job maintaining
my wife's portion of our fleet.
Her '87 Mazda 323 and '93
Ford Tempo are not exactly finicky
exotics. Give them a little attention
and they are happy. However, there
is one maintenance task I let slip
on the Mazda. After procrastinating
for years, I decided it was a job
to just avoid thinking about, kind
of like that mystery container that
has been sitting in the back of the
refrigerator for months.
The skeleton in the
Mazda's closet was an oxygen sensor
with around 170,000 miles (274,000
km) on it. Of course it was not completely
my fault. Nowhere in the Mazda service
manual does it say exactly when to
replace the oxygen sensor. I found
that omitting when the oxygen sensor
should be changed is also fairly common
for other owner's manuals and repair
manuals. The repair manual for my
'92 Dodge van is the only one I own
that specifically says the oxygen
sensor should be changed every 82,500
miles (132,000 km).
The engine computer
needs the feedback from the oxygen
sensor to optimize the fuel mixture
and other parameters. Waiting until
the car fails an emissions test or
the check engine light illuminates
before changing the oxygen sensor
can mean the car has been wasting
gas and under performing for years.
The catalytic converter(s) might also
be unnecessarily damaged. That is
why it is so surprising that the recommended
maintenance intervals are often missing
or vague. The generic recommendation
is usually to replace unheated oxygen
sensors found on old cars (like our
Mazda) every 50,000 miles (80,000
km) and replace heated oxygen sensors
every 100,000 miles. A voltmeter can
usually test if the sensor is working
at all, but will not detect an old
sensor that is slow to respond to
oxygen levels. A slow sensor with
late feedback can be as useless to
the engine computer as a dead sensor.
The Mazda had slipped
so far beyond all recommended O2 sensor
replacement intervals that I guessed
the sensor must be hopelessly fused
with the exhaust pipe. Best to just
leave it alone and not think about
it. That all changed last weekend
when I came up with a way to turn
neglected maintenance into a scientific
study! My wife's Ford Tempo
had 85,000 miles (137,000 km) on its
oxygen sensor, exactly half as many
miles as on the Mazda. I would change
the oxygen sensors in both the Mazda
and Ford and compare the sensors and
the difficulty of the repair. If I
broke my socket wrench or the Mazda's
exhaust manifold, then it would be
part of a carefully planned science
project rather than just a badly neglected
Mazda.
It is embarrassing
to admit that an ‘87 Mazda 323's
oxygen sensor is one of the easiest
to access and change. Some vehicles,
especially those with V6 engines,
might have an oxygen sensor jammed
up close to the firewall. There is
no such excuse for this Mazda. The
exhaust manifold and oxygen sensor
are right out front. Just warm up
the engine a bit, unplug the oxygen
sensor wiring harness, stick on the
special oxygen sensor socket with
a cut out for the wires (found under
Extras
in the RockAuto.com
catalog) and unscrew the oxygen
sensor. I expected major exertion
and possibly disaster, but with a
short length of pipe on the socket
wrench handle the Mazda's oxygen
sensor loosened easily. The threads
on the new Standard Motor Products
oxygen sensor came pre-lubed with
anti-seize compound so I just screwed
it right in and plugged in the wiring
harness. I might say it was as easy
as changing a spark plug, but it was
actually easier because the exhaust
manifold was high quality steel rather
than the more fragile aluminum spark
plugs typically screw into.
Next I tackled the
oxygen sensor in the Ford. It was
slightly more difficult because its
oxygen sensor is on the firewall side
of the engine and harder to reach.
It was easy to loosen once I figured
out how to worm in my hand and the
socket wrench. Just eyeballing the
two old oxygen sensors, they do not
look that much different even with
twice as many miles on one (sensor
nearest the O2 socket in the photo).
I do not have test equipment or an
oscilloscope capable of heating them
up and measuring their reaction times.
According to Bosch, the white dusting
is likely from fuel additives. I do
not use fuel additives so the white
coating might be unavoidable over
time with just pump gasoline.
I am tempted to claim
I got away with something by getting
so many extra miles out of the Mazda's
old oxygen sensor (made by Denso),
but I probably did not. My wife and
I have no idea what the Mazda's
before and after gas mileage is, but
if the new sensor saves even a few
drops of gasoline per tank then it
will quickly pay for itself and start
saving us money. New oxygen sensors
for our Mazda currently start at less
than $11 at RockAuto. Better performance
and less pollution are big pluses
too.
Newer cars
with better engine computers and multiple
catalytic converters rely on the oxygen
sensor(s) even more. My scientific
experiment with the Mazda shows you
may not need to completely despair
if you let your car's oxygen
sensors slip beyond their useful life
span. Grab an oxygen sensor socket
and a new sensor (under Emissions)
and shoo that skeleton out of the
closet!
Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com |
Malcom's 1965 Mustang |
|
This
is my pretty pony – it lives
"Down Under" in Melbourne
Australia. It is a 1965 Mustang, manufactured
on October 13, 1964 (sharing a birthday
with my wife). It has a standard 289
automatic with power steering, front
disc brakes, Pony interior, and styled
steel wheels as original factory options.
Finished in silver blue, it attracts
admiring glances, even from candy
apple red fastback owners!
I maintain the car
myself and have sourced parts from
RockAuto several times – the
most significant being an Eaton power
steering pump which is impossible
to source here. But, also more basic
parts such as an oil sender unit,
oil filter, air filter, gaskets, rotor,
spark plugs and leads. Each time the
order was filled and delivered with
no problem to my door. When I need
parts, I always consider RockAuto
because I know an order of multiple
parts, even with shipping costs, will
be cheaper and easier than buying
here in Australia.
Rock on Rockauto!
Keep up the good service!
Malcom in 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, and what
parts from RockAuto you have
used.
|
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 |
|
Which
auto parts manufacturer (using
current company name) invented
the automotive oxygen sensor?
Answer: B.
Bosch
Back
up to trivia question |
© 1999-2012 RockAuto,
LLC - Madison, Wisconsin USA. RockAuto
name and logo are registered trademarks
of RockAuto, LLC. Manufacturer names
and logos in the RockAuto catalog
are trademarks of their respective
companies and are used only to identify
their products. All rights reserved.
|
|
|