Hooniverse Asks: What’s the easiest car fix you’ve ever done?

Jeff Glucker

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Yesterday afternoon I shared a quick car fix as our Last Call post of the day. It involved swapping an inexpensive relay in order to regain the use of my turn signals. Simple, yes. But effective and pleasing at the same time. That’s because car repair sometimes borders on maddening, especially when you’re an inexperienced fool like me. I’ve undertaken “easy” repairs that had me at wit’s end. That’s why, even though it was simple, the fact that I wasted no time in the actual repair, it was inexpensive, and the end result is exactly what I needed, it makes for a very satisfying repair.

So what’s an example of an easy or satisfying fix you’ve had in your wrenching timeline? Share below…

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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10 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What’s the easiest car fix you’ve ever done?”

  1. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    My wife’s car kept blowing the fuse for the HVAC. It was a daily occurrence, and probably would have been even more frequent than that if the fuses were replaced more than once per day.

    While trying to diagnose the problem, I bought a self-resetting circuit breaker with the same footprint. I think the problem had been current spikes when the blower motor was first switched to high. With the circuit breaker, that was a momentary blip and then it would reset while the blower was still spinning, (so didn’t need as much current at that point), and it would continue without perceptible interruption.

    The circuit breaker didn’t necessarily fix the problem, but it eliminated the symptoms, which stopped the complaints. Well worth the $5.

    Reply
  2. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    Speaking of repairs…shouldn’t there be an image on this page? The Hooniverse home page had this story connected to a shot of the Hoontruck underhood area.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      Yep, sometimes it does that and I’m not sure why – we’re looking into it. I added a pic directly to the post to “fix it”

      Reply
  3. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    The 944 died 10ft away when leaving home. I pushed the car back, cycled to work and had a grumpy day.
    I knew the relay that controls the fuel pump using an OK signal from the Motronic is a classic point of failure, so I swapped it out and that didn’t help.
    I wanted to see if the OK voltage came, so I slipped into the footwell in my best Gemini capsule posture and poked around in the relay sockets with my multimeter. While down there I realized that the 12V supply was missing and there was no shiny metal in the slit of the relay board: the connector shoe has slipped off and didn’t burn anything at all.
    Slid it back, relay in, and she started right up.

    I was lucky! Finding this kind of stuff can be days of head scratching, lying under a car with the feet in a puddle, or six hours of workshop. This one took me ten minutes. Not trivial easy, but satisfying easy.

    Reply
    1. wunno sev Avatar
      wunno sev

      ha ha! Gemini posture! I know exactly what you mean

      Reply
  4. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Car would sometimes not start due to corrosion of a battery lead being down to the last few strands, wanted to fix it before wiggling the cable no longer worked! A couple of dollars on a new terminal (that wasn’t moulded in) and shortening the lead slightly took only slightly longer than typing this.

    Reply
  5. wunno sev Avatar
    wunno sev

    I went to go test drive a Mercedes 240D at a super sketchy used car lot outside Austin. trailers on gravel, they could have taken the whole operation to San Antonio overnight if they wanted to disappear. this car had been on Craigslist for months, price cut in half from 4500 to around 2000 in stages. I figured it was time to check it out. the car would barely move under full throttle, and I had to slip the clutch for ages to avoid stalling. I knew 240Ds were slow, but this slow???

    so I popped the hood and observed the accelerator pedal linkage to the fuel pump. there was tons of slack in one link, such that with the pedal all the way down it was just starting to move.

    so I shut the hood, went inside, and made a deal. drove my new car to a nearby Wal Mart at an incredibly slow pace. bought zip ties and zip tied the slack out of the sloppy link. instant success – I took it for a spin and was cruising down a country road at 75. that zip tie held firm for the next year until I sold the car to a college kid. for all I know it’s still holding the linkage together.

    Reply
  6. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    This was an easy fix but painful long expensive journey. I bought a cheap turbo van to fix and play with in 2016. Fast forward to three years later and way too much money to admit . It had lots of cooling problems from all water and zero coolant equaled rust in the system. I had finished a complete cooling system overhaul with a new aluminum head for good measure . After all that in less than 50 miles, it still puked coolant and was getting too warm yet again. I was pissed and parked it . It sat for two years. The culprit in the end was both replacement radiators. the cap flange is not thick enough and the radiator cap did not seal at the top gasket. The fix was to bend the rad cap ears so it was tight. It has not burped up coolant past the cap after it was warm since. Before the end of the next week it was inspected and legal to drive again . After a couple of weeks now I trust it. The real fix after five years of busted knuckles, cursing, auto shop bills and giving up on it , $0. A shout out to Uncle Tony’s Garage for taking the time to figure this problem out, then post a rant about crap parts on his Jeep. He is responsible for putting my project back on the road.

    Reply
  7. Salguod Avatar
    Salguod

    Back in high school, my Camaro wouldn’t start. It was dead for the better part of a week while I attempted to figure out why.

    I had put a new negative battery cable on and when I rechecked it I found I had bolted it to the block using the wrong hole. I had used a blind hole that didn’t allow the cable to be properly clamped, meaning no current. I moved the bolt to the through hole next to it and it started right up.

    Reply
  8. Neight428 Avatar
    Neight428

    Way back when, the steering on my Mustang got really sloppy all of a sudden, and I figured the rack had blown out somehow and was lamenting the cost and effort it was going to take to swap one out. That was when I figured out what a rag joint was and how easy mine was to replace, that was a relief, but this was ~8 years after the thing was built and I have no idea what made it give up like that.

    It’s entirely possible that my brother borrowed the car and nailed a curb or something.

    Reply