Learn | Make | Fix | Run

Our 2004 Malibu LT had a slow oil leak. Over the Fourth of July, it progressed to a small puddle of oil in the driveway. It took some time to investigate the cause and a little courage to turn some bolts, but now the car is leak-free. Here’s a recap of what I did. The car was leaking on the front of the engine, which in this car means the passenger side. Observing the area by the crankshaft was difficult because the splash shield is a two-part component. Upon inspection, the front seal looked like it was leaking. I cleaned it up and the boss around the seal, and put the liner back in place. Cleaned front seal and boss. Almost immediately, the car started leaking again. A week later, when I re-inspected the front seal, it was clean, as was the boss. I thought it could be the oil pan gasket, the timing cover gasket, or the oil filter adapter gasket. I cleaned the area around the oil p...

My assumption was correct; the coolant system was full of air - it needed to burp. After I returned from my trip, I had time to look at the car more thoroughly. I wasn’t rushed, so I remembered to open the bleed screw and was able to pour in another gallon of coolant. The engine was not overheating, and the heater was blowing hot air. It looks like it is all fixed. Since then, I had the cooling system professionally flushed and filled. Although I could do it myself, I did not want to deal with the waste from flushing the system. The car is making some squeaks when I make turns; I need to look at the bushings for the steering system. I still need to fix my gas gauge too. However, for now, this is a good place to be. Sometimes, we need to take a break or step away to come back and tackle an issue. That’s what happened here. Has something like this happened to you before? If so, please share below in the comments.

The car is back together, but there is a hiccup. The car started right up, which was music to my ears. Then, it had trouble finding idle. Although I originally installed the vacuum line for the brake booster, I took it off to re-route a wire harness and forgot to put it back on. Once I found my error, the car idled great. However, it’s low on coolant; I only put about half a gallon of coolant into the expansion tank and probably drained two gallons from the system. I need to find out how to get the air out of the coolant system. I will need to look at it when I get back to town. I’ve made silly errors, like forgetting to re-connect the vacuum line, failing to plug in the MAF sensor after cleaning it, and failing to plug in the coil packs for half an engine when I have worked on cars. It’s always something different. What about you? What’s your silly error? Please share in the comments below.

This week, I started the head gasket replacement on the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu LT with the 3.5 L V-6. I knew I had the skills to complete the job, but I had two fears with this project. My first fear was that the hardware to the exhaust manifold would be seized from rust. The second fear was cracking a head bolt. Both fears were based on damaging engine parts that I could not repair with the engine in the car. There is no room to extract broken bolts, drill larger holes, and tap for a larger fastener. I respected my fears, moved slowly and carefully, and I prevailed. The exhaust manifold was surprisingly easy to remove from the engine block. I soaked the areas on the top of the exhaust manifold near the head with penetrating oil, but I could not get a good angle to spray the bottom of the manifold. I carefully turned the rachet, and the nuts/studs came free from the top and the bottom. I had difficulty with the other end of the manifold where it meets the catalytic converter. I also soa...

I enjoy watching and learning from the I Like to Make Stuff YouTube channel . Some of the more complicated woodworking projects require what looks like a ridiculous number of clamps to hold pieces in place while the glue sets. The channel uses an onscreen graphic that says “Clamp Champ” during these setups. In my case, I only needed one clamp, but it was the champ because it solved my problem. There was a power steering leak coming from the car. It was running down the hose from the power steering fluid reservoir and dripping from the lowest point of the hose to the ground. I tightened the hose clamp, which didn’t solve the problem. The leak stopped when I replaced the German-style worm clamp with a standard hose clamp. Upon further inspection original clamp was stripped and didn’t provide the clamping force needed to prevent the leak. I may not have used as many clamps as they use in I Like to Make Stuff, but the new clamp is definitely a clamp champ in my book. A $2 clamp solved my p...