The Honest Mechanic

08/11/2026

2013 chevy Cruze head gasket replacement this is one of my vehicles unfortunately it overheated and turned off it wouldn’t start after getting it towed home found coolant inside the cylinders after removing the spark plugs, cranking the engine over all the coolant came out of the spark plug holes replaced the head gasket and a couple of other things and put it back together car started right up no more overheating.


08/11/2026

2010 Subaru car just died in the middle of the road. Customer told me it was the timing belt. I asked them if they were sure it was the timing belt and not the serpentine belt. They assured me it was the timing belt. I went out there to check another vehicle for them and I told them I could check the Subaru and see what happened after removing the timing cover. I noticed somebody had replaced the water pump timing belt,and pulleys the timing belt didn’t snap or anything. The timing belt tensioner was loose at first I thought whoever replaced the water pump and belt forgot to tighten the bolt but the bolt had broken off inside the block and I’m guessing after they took off the bolt ended up snapping completely and that’s why the engine turned off. I was able to remove the broken part of the bolt got a new bolt and told the customer there was a 50-50 chance. The engine might still be good since this is an interference engine after setting the timing and putting the tensioner on with a new bolt and torqued to spec I had to give the customer the bad news that the Pistons did hit the valves when that bolt snapped and the timing belt got loose. there was no compression at all when cranking.

08/11/2026

2020 Toyota Chr 1st start up after engine replacement

08/11/2026

2020 Toyota Chr engine replacement

08/11/2026

08/11/2026

Hey everybody, here’s that other job that took me a while. Another engine Replacement. This is a 2009 Honda Civic. Customer hit something on the road ended up breaking the oil pan left a big hole in it. The customer ended driving the car home after it was home he turned it on a couple times before he even looked under the vehicle to see what happened He said it was starting fine and then when he tried to start it again, it didn’t do anything he ended up, locking up the engine. I tried to rotate the engine with a breaker bar. It would not budge. It would shake the whole car. Customer ordered a engine from Dallas JDM and I had a little accident. I broke the oil pan on the new engine by accident I put a screwdriver in between the oil pan and the motor mount bracket trying to pry the engine forward to get the old motor mount out, but I told the customer that I broke his oil pan on his new engine so I went to go buy a new one and I replaced it no charge to him after I was done replacing the engine on this car the customer took for a test drive came back really happy. He told me how fast he went on the freeway when he went for a test drive, not gonna say how fast but he was really happy. The old engine had 311,000 miles on it if he wouldn’t hit something on the road, he would still be putting miles on that engine I told him now he has a new engine that he can put another 300k miles on.

08/11/2026

Whats up everyone here’s one of those big jobs I replaced the engine on a 2020 Chr they had taken the car to a previous mechanic for a cylinder. Two misfire, he ended up changing their spark plugs and this customer told me they were charged $600 for four spark plugs. That’s crazy The car was still misfiring. They took it back. He said it was something inside the engine and they would need to replace the engine. They reached out to me after doing a diagnosis and testing found that cylinder two had no compression after further testing found the piston rings for that cylinder to be the issue. I told the customer it would be more expensive to rebuild the engine then to replace the engine. Customer decided to replace the engine. I ended up finding one with 59,000 miles. Customer place an order for the engine once it was delivered. I replaced it with a bunch of new stuff, once the engine replacement was complete I test drove the car for a few miles when the customer came to pick up their car. They were extremely happy after they came back from test drive they said they couldn’t even tell the car was on at a stop or a red light

08/10/2026

Hey, what’s up everybody? I know I haven’t posted in a while but I’ve been really busy at the moment. I’ve had a lot of big jobs and I’ve been trying to take care of a couple people in between these big jobs where I have to wait for parts. I will be posting things soon.

06/17/2026

Hello everyone, it has been a while since I last shared updates on my work. Although I have not taken pictures of my recent projects, I do have a couple to share, starting with this one. I recently worked on a 2018 Chevy Traverse that the air conditioning stopped functioning. Upon inspection, I discovered that one of the AC hoses was rubbing against the motor mount, causing damage to the hose. I replaced the entire hose assembly, with a brand new seals as it is a single unit, and then vacuumed the system to ensure there were no further leaks. After recharging the system, the air conditioning was working properly again, and the customer was very satisfied.