Car maintenance tips

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I unclogged my heater core this weekend. How?
by using humidifier cleaner. Before I started, the most I could get was 40 F, but when I finished, I had 120 F output.
I reasoned that heater cores clog with minerals from the water, provided the system is otherwise healthy. Humidifier cleaner dissolves these deposits. I disconnected the heter hoses under the hood and flushed it out with water, then blew it out with air. I then poured in the cleaner full strength, and found something else to do for about 45 minutes. I came back and repeated the process, leaving it in for another 45 minutes. Flushed out the solution, reconnected the hoses, and there you have it; I saved myself conservatively around $300.00.

Any other car tips out there?

2

Smart bastard.

Here’s a tip: Don’t let a heater core go bad on a J-body. The connections to it are friggin’ PLASTIC and they get brittle and leak from heat-cold-heat-cold-heat-cold and eventually leak, then FLOW into your carpet. Replace it will an all aluminum core with aluminum piping. Not expensive, but you gotta tear out the whole interior firewall to get to it. ARRGH!

–Tim