NET Auto Services

It's getting to be that time of year when we see more thermostat fault codes. Just a friendly psa that not all thermostats are created equal. Almost all aftermarket thermostats are not manufactured to the same quality standards as oem. To the non-car person, these two thermostats may not appear that different. But they are. The top one is aftermarket, the bottom one factory. Two big differences: The spring and brass piston (the part that holds the wax). Both of these affect how the thermostat functions. The aftermarket one uses a smaller spring and brass piston. This more often than not causes modern cooling systems to function poorly and result in a check engine light. This is not to say the oem is without issues, but they are far fewer, thus the reason we only use oem when available.

Audi is one of my favorite vehicles to work on. That's not sarcasm either. You just pull the front of the car off and everything is right there, easy to get to.

When we say you need to replace your cabin air filter, its not a money grab. We care about the quality of air coming into your car, plus we want your vacuum system to work effectively. This filter looks to have never been changed in the cars 20 years. We only found 3-4 mouse carcasses in this mess.

Can I come into the out now? When transfer case internals wish to become externals.

Dash out Tuesday for this RAM. Another one with a heater core failure.

What a lovely location for this vehicles starter. This vehicle is in for an engine replacement, but this makes you want to put a new starter in while we are here. Oh Nissan engineering is so fun.

Almost had it Toyota, almost. It is nice to see they added a drain spout for the oil filter. However, it drains directly onto the front cross member if one doesn't attach a hose to redirect the flow. I give Toyota an "A" for effort and an "F" for ex*****on.

Why do places do this? They can't get the old sticker off, so they just stick the new one over it. Take some pride in what you do and a couple of extra minutes to do the job right.

Let's have a quick discussion on the importance of installing brake pads in the correct orientation. Generally speaking, it's self explanatory which brake pad goes on the inside vs the outside of the rotor. However, in some cases, the difference may not be obvious, especially to a DIY person.

I recently replaced rear brakes on a 2013 Ford Escape. It originally came in for a wheel bearing. During the wheel bearing removal process, I noticed it was abnormally difficult to remove the brake caliper. This can happen when the rotor develops a deep lip at its outer edge from normal wear. However, that was not the case. Once the caliper was removed, the cause was immediately recognized. The brake pads had been installed in the incorrect orientation. The inner pad was installed in the outer location and vice-versa. This creates some problems.

If you look at the first picture, you will see little metal nubs inside the circles. If you look at the second picture, you will see two holes inside the circles. That second picture is the brake caliper piston. Those holes are used in conjunction with a special tool to screw the piston back into the caliper. Those holes do not align with the metal nubs in the lower brake pad seen in the first picture. The upper pads nubs are spaced further apart and set horizontally so not to interfere with the piston pushing against the pad. The lower pads nubs are closer together and spaced vertically as to not interfere with the out portion of the caliper.

When these pads are installed incorrectly, you get damage to the caliper piston and uneven pressure applied to the brake pads as seen in the last picture. Did this create any noticeable loss in brake performance? I doubt it. Is what it did cause was the premature replacement of the brakes because of the uneven wear. The damage to the holes in the caliper piston was almost severe enough as to prevent the special tool from fitting, which would have required the calipers to be replaced as well.

So, the takeaway, especially for any diyer, make sure you orient the brake pads correctly.