Mechanical Advantage

08/04/2022

Still fixing cars at best price in town.

07/28/2015

http://autorepairbacliff.com/
Looking for competent automotive repair at affordable pricing? Just give me a call at 832-385-5855 to discuss your vehicle service and repair objectives or set up an appointment to discover the most effective solution for your vehicle concerns.

Steve Rathbone,

Home Welcome to Mechanical Advantage. We are located at 4906 Redfish Reef Drive in Bacliff Texas and strive to provide service that is on target with your objectives and repair budget. Some situations are rather straightforward while others require thinking outside of the box to create solutions tha…

07/07/2015

This 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser came in with an overheating at low speeds and while stopped for traffic problem and immediately the cooling fan system became the main suspect in this case as with highway speed airflow across the radiator engine temperature was normal. Sure enough cooling fan circuit codes were stored in the engine computer but when test at the shop the fan operated just the way they should on both high and low speeds. Regardless we replaced the cooling fan relays which at 100,000 miles proved to have contacts that were burned and well pitted thus presenting a problem waiting to happen, so we called it a day and our customer drove off into the sunset. Several days later I’ve got a call informing the car is doing the same thing again, once more a check of the fan reveals normal operation in my driveway. A closer look and manipulating the wiring near the fans electrical connector proved the fault of the fan shutting down could be duplicated and thus isolated. Turns out the electrical ground circuit at the terminal inside the fan wiring harness connection was faulty and splicing a new ground circuit to the affected wiring lead from the fan motor solved the problem. This saved the expense of replacing the fan motor to obtain a new harness connector while at the same time leaving the engine main harness undamaged and got us on the road again with no further problems. Intermittent electrical problems can be tricky to solve at times and often have the phantom ability to hide from detection but generally not forever, fortunately this problem was fairly simple to track down. The take away from this story is that overheating problems should not be allowed to persist and cause further damage, especially on a higher mileage engine that’s head gasket no longer has a sense of humor for an excessive thermal workout, this client took immediate action once the problem was first noticed and in time to keep cost down.

07/07/2015

Here is a 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 Truck with a 5.9 Liter Cummins Turbo Diesel Engine that we had in the shop a while back for overheating problems. Pressure testing the cooling system initially showed what appeared to be a severely blown head gasket however closer inspection upon disassembly revealed a rusted through “freeze plug” or casting core plug in the top of the cylinder head. This allowed the engine oil and engine coolant to mix with the loss of coolant winding up in the oil pan. Once back together and after extensive decontamination of the engine oiling and cooling systems this diesel engine with fairly massive crankshaft bearings seems to have survived the ordeal with the exception of the turbocharger that spins at 75,000 rpm coming apart from lubrication failure. The bottom line here is don’t let cooling system neglect cause a 2 dollar part to rust through leaving you with a major repair and collateral damage.