Your Gift Giving Decisions Just Got Easier!

Why deal with the commotion of Black Friday crowds at the mall? Everybody needs something for their car or truck. A RockAuto Gift Certificate lets the recipient choose replacement parts like brake pads or fuel filters; restoration parts like a headlamp lens or new carpet; or fun parts like a tachometer or seat cover. A gift certificate from RockAuto makes an ideal gift.

RockAuto now offers gift certificates in foreign currencies for the convenience of our international customers! When using the certificate, the amount of their order will be deducted from the remaining balance in the certificate's currency (using the order date's currency exchange rate).

Gift Certificate
Purchase gift certificates and have them shipped directly to you or the recipient. Choose a shipping method in the RockAuto shopping cart.

E-Gift
Need a Christmas gift in a hurry? E-Gift delivery is free. Simply choose e-mail as the shipping option in the RockAuto shopping cart and your friends and family can receive a great gift via e-mail!

Click here to purchase a Gift Certificate today!

Forum of the Month

SubaruOutback.org is a website dedicated to all things Subaru Outback and has many features to make your experience enjoyable. With thousands of discussion topics and knowledgeable members you are sure to get the answer you are looking for! Register today for free so you can take advantage of all the features that are offered.

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact cynthia@rockauto.com.

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

My mother-in-law had a 1985 Oldsmobile Firenza sedan that needed new brake pads. I offered to put them on for her to save her some money and to better my relationship with her. I took the car to my house where my old garage had two sliding barn door type doors. I closed the doors to work on the car as it was a chilly day. After I got the brake pads on I wanted to move the car forward in the garage a little bit. Luckily I had backed the car into the garage because, when I put it in drive to pull up, I realized it had no brakes!

I had forgot to pump the brake pedal before starting the car to get the pads close to the rotors! The car went into my heavy garage door, lifted it up over the hood, over the roof, across the trunk. I was completely outside the garage before it stopped. Calling my mother-in-law to tell her what happened was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. I had a friend with an auto body shop who buffed out many of the scratches, but some remained. A chance to impress my mother-in-law was gone!

She never asked me to help with her car again and I am too embarrassed to offer again. At least now I always remember to pump the brake pedal as soon as I’m finished installing new brake pads on my own vehicles. I learned a simple lesson the hard way.

Scott in Pennsylvania

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for awhile!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and shirt size (large or extra large) and we will mail you a RockAuto "Do it yourself?" t-shirt if we publish your story (see the t-shirts under Extras in the catalog). The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

Automotive Trivia

The first V6 engine powering a passenger car in N. America was the...?

A. 171 cid (2.8L) in the 1974 Mustang II and Mercury Capri.
B. 198 cid (3.2L) in the 1962 Buick Skylark and Buick Special.
C. 235 cid (3.8L) in the 1960 El Camino.

Answer below

A Worthwhile Investment

Last weekend I changed the fuel filter on my wife’s ’93 Ford Tempo. It was a Motorcraft filter that had been on the car for slightly more than 30,000 miles. With the old fuel filter in my hand, I wondered, “How does this filter look inside? Is it full of dirt? Is it just an empty can?"

Tearing open a used gasoline fuel filter is dangerous and not something to try at home. But I am a highly trained engineer and if things went awry then I would at least have a story for the Repair Mistakes and Blunders section of the newsletter. I let the filter dry out for a couple of days and then unsuccessfully tackled it with advanced tools including a can opener, a vice and several types of pliers.

Motorcraft makes their filter cases out of “300-series stainless steel.” “Connector and support washers are brazed for enhanced durability and strength.” That is great news if you want a filter that keeps its shape under pressure and does not corrode, but it sure made it hard to get inside.

An improvised “flame test” using a votive candle and distance determined a spark might not ignite the filter. Wearing protective clothing and face mask, I gingerly sawed the filter open using a hack saw with a fresh blade.

The filter case did indeed have filter material inside. As you can see from the before and after 30,000 miles photos, the filter did collect foreign particles. The ring of mangled filter material and splinters of shiny stainless steel resulted from my rough disassembly, but there is a also a layer of black grime coating all the filter pleats. The dirty white rag patch in the photo was rubbed along the fold of one filter pleat.

My wife drives the Tempo nearly every day and fills it up with gas at reputable gas stations once a week. The gas stations have filters on their pumps. Somehow stuff still made it to the car’s fuel filter. My do-it-yourself lab is not advanced enough to analyze the black grime. I am guessing it is tiny bits of hose, gaskets, plastic, metal etc. from the fuel system and a variety of dirt. Think of how many times that the gas station pump nozzle is shoved into the fuel tank filler tube over 30,000 miles. A couple of foreign particles probably slip in with every fill up.

Those foreign particles do not have to be big to clog up a modern fuel injector. The Motorcraft filter removed 90% of particles 20 microns or larger. A grain of sand is around 200 microns. A typical human hair is about 90 microns wide. All very small, but a fuel injector nozzle orifice might only be 100 microns. I will think about stray 90 micron eyebrow hairs the next time I pump gas.

I luckily did not suffer any injury from my research and now feel comfortable that a new $8 fuel filter was a worthwhile investment in the Tempo. This time I installed a Fram filter, which I probably will not be cutting open after 30,000 miles. RockAuto has fuel filters with transparent cases to fit my old 4-barrel carburetor equipped Chrysler. I might install one of those in case I ever again get the urge to see fuel filter grime.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

Hi,

I thought you might be interested in an English hot rod. The car is a 1956 Ford Consul sedan originally fitted with a 1500cc engine and a three speed gearbox. It now has a 4.6L V8 and 5 speed gearbox from a 2000 Ford Mustang. It also has a narrowed 8 inch Ford rear axle and 15 inch Torque Thrust wheels. Stopping is taken care of by front and rear disc brakes sourced from a Mercedes C-Class, and it has a full leather interior from a 5 Series BMW. The engine was rebuilt using parts from RockAuto.

The service is excellent and, even with shipping and import duties, parts from RockAuto cost less than from UK suppliers!

Regards,
Peter

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