Foreign hello and welcome to Live like the World Is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. Today I'm very lucky to be joined by Chips, who's an army veteran and a long time mechanic, and also Brooke, who is co host of the podcast that you're listening to.
Hello.
Hi. Yeah, we're going to talk about fixing shit today, specifically fixing shit with engines, which I think is something that a lot of people like. For whatever reason, lots of people get gendered out of it or there's not someone to teach them or they just grew up in a place where they didn't have the means to fix stuff or wasn't in their, you know, lifestyle. So we're hoping to get you to a level where you can, you can take off and learn to fix things yourselves using YouTube, which is where everyone learns everything these days.
Yeah, autos can be intimidating at first until you like a lot of things. Once you've seen how it comes apart and comes back together, some of these things become a lot less scary. And then some things, especially like computers, electronically, not so much. But that's not the stuff we're here to try and fix. Those are the big issues. They're talking about all the little things that normal people's daily life that they can fix and get a grasp on really easily and give you that confidence in your normal day life when dealing with cars and stuff.
The thing that gives me confidence is knowing that Live like the World Is Dying is part of the Channel Zero network of anarchist podcasts. And we're gonna play a little jingle for another podcast now. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. Was that a good jingle? It's beautiful. Thank you for working. I spent a lot of time, I got my harmonica here and I didn't even get it out, which is sad.
Oh, man.
Next time. Next time. Yeah.
You denied me the harmonica.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe later.
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All right, we're back. And so, Chip, I guess like you were saying, like, cars can be pretty intimidating, right? If you open the bonnet hood on your vehicle, you're gonna see a lot of pipes, you're gonna see a lot of plastic shit, you're gonna see some, some containers for stuff. If people are like, they open it and they look at it and they're like, okay, that's a bunch of pipes and shit. Some of it's hot. Better take it to an expert. First of all, I guess, how can people ascertain, like, let's say car no work, right? Car no start. Where do people who are in that position, what's a good place to start?
I guess one of the best places to start with that if you're just. You get in your car and the first thing it does, no start, no power. Or you try to unlock the car and it doesn't even unlock. And you have to open the door manually. You got to check that battery. You got to get in there and see if you're the power source for the car. When it's not running, is the battery. And you got to make sure that that's either the connections are good there. Like, that's a very common one where a car runs intermittently and things like it runs this time and not now. And it can be as simple as just a loose connection on the battery.
Yeah.
And that little loose connection can cause all kinds of issues, especially with newer cars that need to have constant current, constant electrical connection for all the computers and stuff inside. And so that's a big one. Always right off the bat is just make sure the batteries. Like, you're not going to shock yourself if you just touch the top of the battery and see if those little connections are if you can grab it and move it. That's loose. Like, there should be no movement. That's usually the best place to start with anything is if you don't have battery. Nothing else in that car is going to work.
Right. You can't get it started. So, like, let's say I don't know what a car battery looks like. Right. Where would it. Like, what would be a good way for me to find out? Like. Like, where's the battery? What does it look like, the batteries?
That's the thing is now they hide them. A lot of cars hide them. They. Some cars put them in the trunk. Some. Most of the cars still, it's in the engine bay, but it's usually under a plastic cover or something like that. So usually in your instruction, the owner's manual in the car will have that. But usually you find something that looks like a rectangular box that's usually about maybe a foot by like 6 inches wide. That's usually a black or green brick inside there with a bunch of different battery name brands on there, like Quaker State or. I can't even think I'm so disconnected. From the auto industry. I can't remember a lot of the name brands right now. I'm sorry. Yeah, just something like that. It's usually in a little box like that. And that would be. Yeah. Where the battery power source comes from. Unless you're unlucky and own some older American cars where they decided to hide the battery in the wheel well.
Oh wow.
That was some terrible design decisions American companies made in the wild as the Oldsmobile, I can't remember which one, but you had to take off the driver's side tire, was the passenger side tire and then remove a plastic panel to get to the battery. So some cars are just not made for people.
Yeah, they don't. Let's talk about that actually because we were speaking about this before. Like some cars, they really don't want you to work on them. Right. And some cars are going to be much easier. So like what, what's going to determine if your car is going to like some cars, you need a lot of expensive computer shit to fix. You probably can't even buy if you want to. Right?
Yeah, yeah.
How do you know if your car is the sort of car that has a subscription plan?
I mean anything new, anything relatively new in the last like even the last five years, it's going to be a lot. There's going to be a lot of the basic stuff you can still do. But if it comes to any sort of major issues like newer BMWs, Mercedes, the European varieties, any of the fancier sports cars gonna be not that easy to do on your own. Like they're like sports cards and stuff. Everything's real tight fitting, there's not a lot of space. So like if it's, if you're trying to fix a breakdown, things like that aren't gonna work. It's your older cars, your more family economy cars, those are going to be the ones that are typically easier to work on. Anything pre touch screen era is like usually pretty straightforward to work on. Even like older BMWs from the like everything, anything below before like I would say the early 2000s. Because early 2000s had a lot of weird tech before they kind of. Yeah, they kind of figured out how to do computers and cars. They were doing a lot of weird stuff and every company was doing different things. Yeah, older cars are generally a lot. Your easiest bet for that outside of doing. But even on newer cars, handling basic stuff is still usually doable. Yeah, batteries and, and spark plugs, basic coolant, things like that. All the, all the real basic simple maintenance stuff that is still pretty Doable, but anything outside of that, some of it becomes impossible without computers.
Right? Yeah. Yeah. But I think like, having a newer car is never a problem that's presented itself in my life. So I guess I'm very fortunate in that sense. Having a sports car likewise is not a problem that I've had, not for most of us, overcome, which is very fortunate. So like, I mean, I grew up fixing some shit, I guess like to say I lived like in a very rural area, so we. It wasn't really an option always to get stuff fixed. But I would say 90% of what I've learned is from my friends or videos on the Internet of fixing cars. So like, I don't want people to feel intimidated by this. I don't want them to feel like most of the times, I guess you're not going to fuck something up more than it's already fucked up. Yeah. Unless you really go in there and start.
Yeah, unless you really start getting in there and start messing with things. Like if you're just taking it like at a real basic level, you're not going to break it any more than it already has if it isn't running. You're not going to do something that's going to make that something that you can't fix at home. Unless you really start trying to really get in over your head and start messing with things.
Yeah. Take things apart and then forget how they go back together, that kind of stuff. So talking to taking things apart, let's say someone wants to do those things you mentioned. They want to top off their coolant. Maybe they want to, you know, to check. Check their fluids. We should explain what that means. And they, they maybe want to do spark plugs. Right. That they want to do little things like that. Right. They want to be able to. Well, I guess let's start with changing a tire. Right. Because that's the thing that like a, A lot of people just didn't get taught how to do that. B, you instantly become a fucking superhero if somebody cannot change their tire and you are able to stop and change their tire. Like one of the best available to a human being, especially if it's raining or something. So like, what tools do they need? And like in some cases those might come with their car and they might not know, so where would they find them?
Good news is usually most cars still have a spare tire donut and usually that entails it having the jack kit and usually the lug nut wrench in the car with them. But if they don't have those you can get reasonable price stuff at like autozone or oreillys or Harbor Freight, which is one of my favorites. And we'll go into the like more tool stuff there. But any one of those places will have a generally just solid capable like jack kit. And usually those places will. If you don't know what size your lug nut is, they have those, those, they look like a cross for your angle wrenches that, for the, the tire lug nut wrenches that will fit on most vehicles because there's usually a handful of sizes that are the most common through most vehicles. Yeah, don't trust anything off of Amazon or Alibaba, that kind of stuff because there's a lot of those real sketchy tools. They come in real cheap but they will fold immediately. Underweight or they'll hold it for a little bit but as soon as it gets some like sideways pressure, they just fold. So as long as you're getting something from a reputable, a reputable company or from a place like an AutoZone or Harbor Freight, like they're generally not selling something that's going to fail you.
Yeah, they don't want to get sued.
Yeah.
Like they can't disappear and then rebrand like a company that only exists on the Internet could.
Yeah, exactly.
Let's explain a little bit about those different things that you mentioned. Right. The jack is the thing that lifts the car off the ground, right?
Yeah.
So do you want to explain like I guess let's talk a little bit about tools in general. Right. You've got your jack that lifts your, your car off the ground. You've got your wrenches, spanners, sockets that undo and do stuff up. I'm trying to think what other. Like I guess those would be basic tools. So can you explain like where would people get them? What are they looking for? What should they avoid?
Some of that will depend on your type of car because some cars prefer like scissor jack. Like there's the screw type jacks which I mean if you just google a screw jack it'll. There's the ones that it screws up and then the little thing like a scissor goes up, up to lift it up or the basic hydraulic ones, which is pretty common too. These are the ones you usually see in an automotive shop is the hydraulic lift on wheels so you can get in there, lift the car up. And again like a lot of that comes with knowing the jacking points on your vehicle. That's another important thing that those will be in your owner's manuals or you can easily look them up on online because that's if you don't pick up the car in the right spot, you're going to damage the underside of the vehicle. That's you can look it up online where guys aren't just they think they're jacking up their little BMW and then they picked it up in the wrong spot and then all of a sudden you see the, the side of the, below the doors just crumple upward because they didn't, they didn't pick it up by the frame or the control arms. They picked it up by just the plastic side body molding. So it just, just, just you just, you've just turned a quick, a quick tire swap maybe $200 tire into a multi thousand dollar repair if you have to go the hard like route through a dealer or something to get it fixed.
Yeah, yeah. So it's probably a good place to start is to learn those, those points where you can safely jack up your car. And so yeah, most of the time you'll get a jack. Most of the time that jack will be fine. I guess if you're buying one you should also check if it's capable of lifting the weight of your vehicle. Right.
Generally they like yeah, again usually that's something that the customer services at those places will be able to at least recommend you in the right ballpark. And they're usually labeled in big letters like what this jack's capable of. Most of them will be able to handle. Most cars you start getting into EVs that can change a little bit because how heavy they are now too. That's another thing to consider is a lot of these cheap jacks aren't going to cut it for jobs like that. If someone has an EV.
Yeah, EVs same with tires. Right. They need special tires because they're so heavy.
Yeah. Like usually they have a heavier rated tire. Like sometimes I'm not sure. But yeah, usually they have a heavy rated tire because the car is running a couple thousand pounds more. Especially on some of the bigger ones. Like it's, they're not light. That's the, the biggest downside about those vehicles is they add so much weight.
Yeah, everything. Lots of EVs. Actually. I'll tell a fun story. I went out to San Diego. You have to qualify periodically to have a concealed carry permit, which is a thing that I have. So I went out to spend all day shooting seven rounds a thing that's seven yards away or it's 21 rounds or whatever it is. It's very Basic qualifications, very easy. One of the people who was joining in that qualification had a very nice electric vehicle, electric truck, and they ran over a target stand, which is a thing that can put a big hole in your tire. So I like helping people. So I went to help. I was like, hey, let's get your jack. Let's get this off. Let's just put your spare tire on. Some EVs, as it turns out, don't come with a spare.
Yeah.
And like, that is something that. And I don't blame anyone for not knowing that. Right. Like, I too, would assume that if I just dropped the down payment for a house on a truck, it would come with a spare tire. Not the case. But, like, that's something. You should check it before you go driving off road in places where there isn't cell phone signal because shit can get very expensive if you need to be recovered back there.
Yeah. That's not a fee I'd ever want to imagine having to pay.
Yeah. It wasn't cheap, I don't think. So. If someone's like, they've identified, oftentimes it's under the floor of the trunk. Right. The spare tire. They've looked in there. They've found the jack. They've seen a little thing that looks like a cross, which is there. The lug nut wrench. Right. Which undoes and does. Or it might look like an L. What other tools? Let's say someone is like, the way I learned to fix cars is every time something broke on my truck, I was just like, I'm not able or willing to pay someone for this. So I'm going to have to like. And like, I. Just to be clear, like, it hasn't always gone well. Two of my vehicles have caught fire. One of those was not my fault. The other one, I probably should have looked deeper into what was causing that. Check engine light. If someone was like, I'm gonna get started on fixing my car. And there's nothing particularly wrong with it right now, but they have a little bit of money or they're saving up their money and they want to be more independent. Right. Like, more. I mean, if we look at, like, what happened in North Carolina recently, South.
Carolina, or the flooding.
Yeah. Or Asheville. Around Asheville. I don't know which. Carolina. Sorry.
To our very good friends.
Yeah, we love you. I like Asheville and I care about you all the same. Whichever Carolina you live in, I love you all. If you find yourself in that situation, if you find yourself in the middle of the desert. Right. Like, I Spent a lot of time out in the mountains, in the desert. It becomes empowering to know how to fix your stuff. So let's say someone's in that position and they want to be a person who can do that. What sort of toolkit would you suggest? Like where would they, what would they look for? What should they try and get?
A basic universal toolkit. There are some pretty good ones online from companies. Again, like Harbor Freight has their Pittsburgh brand for real Basic gearwrench is another brand. But stuff like in terms of actual specific tools, your standard socket sets come in both metric and standard, which is the. The 2 version, the 2 slightly different measurements that are used. Most automobiles are going to be metric. Older American vehicles might have more issues where they have like standard measurements for their wrenches and for their. The bolts are on the car. But most tend to be metric these days.
Yeah.
So like just your standard basic socket set with any. Everything down from like, like a 5 millimeter up to the full size. See, what, what size am I thinking here? Sorry. Trying to do convergence in my head because my current job uses standard, not.
Oh, so you have internal. An inch is 25 millimeters.
Yeah. So something up to like 25, I guess that's about right on there. That'll usually cover most basic things that you'll have to deal with. Like your lug nut wrench will cover the size for the bolts for the tire. So don't really need to worry about doing a separate tool for that unless that's something you do a lot and you're just getting into specialty tools to do that stuff quicker. But standard. Yeah, like standard sockets, standard wrenches. Like just. Again, same thing. You want to do small sizes, 5, 10 millimeters up to 25 millimeters. So you've got just a handful of sizes that can cover most things because you can also typically substitute the metric for standard if you don't have standard socket sets, which is what I tend to do at my job a lot. If I don't have the standard tool, the metric will, will cover it. Unless. Unless something's really locked in there and then there's that risk. There's that small, small, small chance of stripping the head of the bolt, which is something you never want to do.
Yeah.
A lot of cars now also started doing like Allens and Torx.
Yeah.
So a lot of the basic tool kits will have like a standard run of the Allen sized heads for small, finicky, small bolts, a good adjustable wrench. Just your standard. Standard. Just roll your thumb on it. Adjustable Wrench I've got that's coming to. To be a great tool, like big one and a small one. Something small so you can get your hands in there with small spaces.
Yeah.
Things like that. Like a lot of the standard tool kits that you can get at. At Harbor Freighter. Those will like, if you just look at those pictures of like they're. Oh, this toolkit has this. And then just start piecemealing out what you need from there. If you don't want to buy that particular brand or something or you don't need the whole. Whole kit are usually pretty good. Because there's. That's the thing with automotive tools is you never know when you're going to run into something weird and it just happens to be that one, that one tool in the box that you. I've had. I've got unfortunately so many tools that I've had to buy for like one job.
Yeah.
On a Mercedes. And then it was like, well, now I've got this full set of, of of double square or triple squares is what they're called wrenches that, that I've never used on any other brand. But when I worked at that, when I worked for that dealership, it was the same customer. I wasn't, I wasn't a dealership. I'm sorry, I worked for. I just work for tires. Plus just a little, little small. Not small. They're a subdivision of Firestone. But I don't like Firestone. I like tires.
Plus, it's a long story.
But anyway. Yeah. Like I use that set on that same customer's car three times in a year and that was the only time I've used.
Yeah. I guess you could probably Google like if you have an older vehicle or non US Manufacturer. Like some older. I was working on a friend's truck that had Japanese Industrial standard screws. They.
Oh yeah.
Look like Phillips screws, but if. When they get rusted, they'll. You will damage the screw to the extent that you can't use it.
Yeah. You learn real fast that it's not a regular screw.
Yeah. So that's something you could probably Google. Right. Like if the vehicle that you own, like you could do fasteners or something because there will be a million Reddit people asking, what is this fastener?
That is the other good thing is the Internet is so deep with resources now. There's usually somebody who's obsessed with that car and they either have a forum for it or a YouTube channel.
Yeah.
Like that will help you, like dig deeper than you ever thought you'd ever want to. Granted in a disaster apocalypse situation, you might not have access to the Internet.
Yeah.
But those are still like, good resources to have. Like to prepare yourself a little bit beforehand. So that way you and. And there are so many good YouTube channels on that are like just good basic car maintenance channels that they cover a lot of. Like. Like do a really good job of showing you, like, how. How does electricity work in a car? How does switches work? Things like that to help those people who don't that something that doesn't translate in a podcast format, like trying to describe electricity work. I mean, want to do it that way. But some of those channels do a really good job. Like, even my job showed a couple of them, like from a guy called Humble Mechanic and another one called Chris Fix, I think is what it was. Like, those are like some of the more popular, like, automotive fixing channels.
Yeah, those are great. You can also see the person doing the thing. Like, you can see where the thing is at. Talking of, like, resources that are online, a resource I have found very useful is the offline Hanes manual. John, explain those to people if they're not Haynes manuals.
I'm not sure if they're even as popular now as they were in the past, but they used to be. Every car got a Haynes manual. Like, and it's basically a. It's basically a service manual for that vehicle. Like. Yeah, it tells you how to do anything and everything. I have. It's not a Hanes, but I have an old Honda CB550 that I rebuilt. And when I bought it, one of the things that the guy gave me was an original full service manual.
Oh, that's cool.
Like a full manual. Like how to do. How to take everything in that bike apart and out of the bike, put it all back in. And you can find like, for older cars, those manuals are gold. For, like, if you've got. Like if you could find one for your older car, they're just worth having and they're. It's a good. Good to go through just to like, just to learn more about your vehicle and how it was, like, how. How certain things work on it.
It's.
There's again, like, it's something I don't think about anymore because everything's online. But yeah, for an offline source, Haynes is great.
Yeah. Yeah, I. I have the thing. I keep it in my track because I'm so often so far out of signal. And like, I believe there's like a phone app that just downloads it kind of to PDF and then you can search it. So that's a very useful. And that's like also a great. If you're someone who wants to help someone get like better at fixing their vehicle, that's a great like 20. I don't have cost 20 or $30, I would imagine gift.
Not much. Yeah.
And it is like it will explain every maintenance process. And sometimes it's nice to watch a video, but I know that's got me through some fixing shit when video is not available. And they're great.
There will be cases when like even there are. There are people who've done everything on a bike. Sometimes you'll be that, that edge case, that first guy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The one who doesn't make it to YouTube. What. So we talked about like getting a good socket set, good set of like wrenches, an adjustable wrench. Right. A manual. Are there any other like tools, items or supplies. Right. Like that people should have on hand or should know about Shop rag, something.
Like that to clean up messes and spills. Especially when doing anything with liquids or anything with grease and stuff like that. Something to catch oil and mess like that. Just some try and not make a mess of the environment. Because if you're doing an oil change, obviously like they, they sell the buckets and the little catch trays and stuff at the stores that you can use. Those are always good to have.
Yeah.
Doing any sort of work.
Thinking like I know people who take Those big like $5 things of salad and get, you know, the, the big plastic things that salad comes in and catch the oil in there. But like you really. And you have to take that oil somewhere. Right. Like, cool. It's in salad box now. Like, how are you going to transport that to a place where it could be safely disposed of? I think that is one of those things that's worth spending the money on.
Another thing like for people who are working on cars and say your car, your car runs, but it's throwing a code. Like you get the little warning, the little check engine light on the dash. Those tools can be expensive, but there are cheaper ones on Amazon and stuff like that. So you can do some of the harder electrical diagnoses. Like there's mult. There's decent multimeters that you can get for cheap now, which is just basic voltage tools. And like I said, those, those. They basically call them. They call them ODB2 sends. ODB2 readers.
Yeah.
Like I have to use them on forklifts because even they use that because they have standards. Yeah. Yeah, you can get those on Amazon for like 100 bucks and they're pretty decent. Yeah, all of them will be. And if you don't want to spend the money, you can go to autozone or oreillys and they, if you ask them, they, they have an ODB scanner there. They'll come out and plug into your car so they can be like, hey, I gotta check engine light. Can you check my ODB and see what the, what, what code's reading? And they can look it up and they can tell you, hey, this is what the code says. Now will that if it says, oh, this sensor is bad or this sensor is throwing a code or something that more than likely is it the sensor. It's a good chance, but it does, it's not a guaranteed fix. So don't take it out on the O'Reilly's guy. If you, you buy a part and fix something and it doesn't fix it because. But that's a great starting point and that's a good free resource that a lot of people probably don't even think about.
Yeah, totally. Because it can at least get you to the right area, right? Like you have a misfire, okay. You, you know, you have an emissions or evap system like that gets you to know where you're starting. And most of the time like I have found people at auto parts stores. Granted, like I present at the auto parts store as a six foot three white guy, right. I go through the world in that way. But I found people to be pretty helpful and they're not, most of the time they're not going to try and sell you something that you don't need.
Yeah, I used to work at O'Reilly's. I did that while I was in school going for my history degree which has been so relevant now unfortunately, you and me both. But yeah, like everybody there was generally like, oh, do your scale, let's try and help this person. Everybody was usually pretty on board with helping you because they're not, they're not there to get an extra buck just for, we don't get anything out of that. But they're usually there to help because something like that's the most interesting part of their day is doing something different to help a customer instead of just stocking a shelf or just cashing someone out.
Yeah, yeah, totally. Like they get to, most of the people enjoy fixing cars, that's why they're there.
So like, yeah, that's how I got there is like, I like cars and O'Reilly is somewhat car Related. So let's go there.
Yeah. So I ended up working at bike shops. Like, and I think also, like, if people, if you're used to taking your car to the dealership when it breaks, that is a different experience. Right. That can be pretty predatory. Like, they. You are likely to come out bleeding money. Yeah.
It is not your process.
No. So, like, if you're not used to going to an auto parts store, give it a try, Give it a chance before you go to the dealership.
Yeah. At least then, like, you're going to the dealership or whatever repair shop you go to with an idea. Like, at least. Okay, I know the code saying this. So that way when they come back to you saying this is this, you can be like, no, I need to. Like, that's not what I was told. Like, okay, now explain why you got this instead of what I got.
Right.
Like, they help you. Like, just be more aware.
Yeah, totally. You can get. You're less likely to get completely taken for a ride.
Yeah.
Start replacing everything which can happen in dealerships. Like, people come out with huge bills. So let's talk about parts. That's another thing that can be really difficult for people. Right. Let's say. Okay, a relatively basic maintenance task would be changing your spark plugs. Right. You could do that with the tools that you've listed. Plus a wobble socket, which has a technical name that I don't understand. What would they call it if they were Google?
We always call them wobble sockets, too. I don't know if there was a technical name. I missed it.
Okay, there you go. It's officially a wobble socket now. So if you have one of those and your socket set, you can do spark plugs. Right. But you need the spark plugs. So spark plugs are an example of another thing you could buy, use. So how would one determine which spark plugs one's vehicle used and then go about buying suitable spark plugs?
Same thing. Like, you can go to like an auto parts store and they will, hey, this is my car. What spark plugs does it take? And they will be able to pull up a list of. These are the brands that will fit your vehicle. And then usually with that there will be, if not with them, if in your manual or if you look at other resources, it'll tell you, like, this car recommends, this brand of spark plug or whatever.
Yeah.
And usually you try to stick with what the brand recommends because then you can start having slight. Not most cars, it should be fine. But again, like, I had a BMW and if it didn't have the right spark plugs, it would start to misfire. And it was just, it did not like off brand spark plugs. For whatever reason. It needed to be the Densos, which was a. This is a reputable brand of spark plugs.
Yeah.
And it needed to be those and it couldn't be any others or it would. I'd always get a misfire. Only on cylinder three too. Like it was a very specific, specific misfire I kept getting.
Yeah, like, so I don't. Yeah, I would agree. Like, don't. And then that's not an Internet buy. Really. Like I would go to a store.
Yeah. And the thing with that is, is even then there's those predatory like those ones, like, oh, it's got dual spark. It's got all these. If you see these spark plugs with extra bells and whistles on the packaging like those. Nobody buys those. Nobody needs that. It doesn't make the car run better. It doesn't make it more efficient. Like just a good, like solid. Not the cheapest spark plug because again, the cheapest spark plug might work, but your car might not like it. Especially with, with the way cars have gotten more efficient too. Everything's technically a higher performance vehicle because they're trying to squeeze better fuel economy, better power out of smaller engines, smaller turbocharged motors, that kind of thing. And so all these little things add up if you like, oh, you put in a cheap part here that creates the weak link and this would fail and causes the car to run bad, which it could eventually lead to further issues down the line because it's not. Fuel's not burning at the right ratios. And like really good solid car maintenance is really with just doing, doing it right and doing it not with the cheapest parts available. Unless obviously you don't have a choice. You have a choice. But yeah, some things you can't really cheap out on. And spark plug is one of those that it's always like, don't, don't ever go cheap out on spark plugs.
Yeah, that's a good. I think. Let's talk about what you can cheap out a little bit. Because there are some things, like a thing that I like to do is to go to the pick and pull. It's better if this. I imagine this isn't quite as like good of an opportunity if you live somewhere where it's wet and everything rusts all the time. I like to go to the pick and pull in Arizona.
Oh, those would be great.
Yeah. Yeah. That's where they put the airplanes. Right. When the US government isn't using its planes, it parks them there because nothing rests because it's.
They call it mothball. So everything's mothballed no matter what out there because nothing gets wet.
Yeah, it was wild in Covid to see all the aircraft just chilling there in peak Covid in 2020.
Oh man.
So like what are sort of. If people wanted to go, let's say. Yeah, you asked, you know, it can be expensive. Parts can be expensive. OEM parts can be very expensive. So if you were looking to save a bit, like what are some, some places to look, a place where you can save like you said, like those.
Junkyards, those pick and pulls, those can be good places for cheaper parts. Like if you just need to replace a wheel, like you can probably find a wheel that's straight enough that can go on a tire balancer and get balanced. Yeah, that's another thing. Don't cheap out on tires. I didn't mention this earlier. Don't cheap out on tires, people. They'll get you at those places with those really cheap, like, oh well, you can get this brand like those places that sell used tires again, if you absolutely have to. I still don't recommend it because you don't know where those tires came from. You don't because they're just matching up four tires of the same size and calling that a set. And nothing against those individuals, but like you don't know where that tire has been. You don't know what the previous owner drove that vehicle, how they treated those tires. And usually you can get a good cheap set, like not like a name brand set. But there are cheap tires you can get at, at reputable parts stores like discount tires or Firestone stuff for pretty cheap, like 50, 60 bucks a tire. And that's not going to be. And those will have a warranty on them too. Yes, because they're coming through a dealership from an actual reputable sales place. So if that tire fails while it's in warranty and it's not from whatever, like they'll usually they'll cover either the cost of the tire or they'll prorate the tires tread wear and get you into a cheaper pair of tires. Whereas those other places, there's no. You get. You buy that tire, you bought four tires for 50 bucks a pop. That's what you got. And like nobody's covering anything after that.
Yeah, I've had, I forget where one of those big tire chains offers like sort of no questions asked warranty. If you pay a little bit more. And someone in front of me jettisoned a barbecue grill driving on the freeway and that took out three of my tires. I mean it just, it turned into like mangled metal at like 80 miles an hour.
That's a razor blade.
Yeah, yeah. Like I was. I'm glad that it just took out my tires. Like, I'm fine. Yeah, that was not a good day. But yeah, I got this tire to replace for free. Stoked. Yeah. So that's a great thing though if you're like, if you're in a position to get that and you're in a position of where replacing two or more of your tires could be genuinely financially like really difficult at times like that. Like at the time when that barbecue grill took out my tires, I would have struggled to put.
Yeah.
Anything other than get like remoulds or used tires and that would have been sketchy. So like I'm really glad I had that. And what about like, if people are looking for used car parts, Right. Are there good places online to find those?
Yeah, there's like Rock Auto is still around, I believe. I haven't bought car parts online in a minute. But like Rock Auto is one of those places that has been pretty good with like they usually have a little bit of everything and like you can find those. And they'll usually have like the price comparison. And that's the thing too is like check that website and then check Autozone O'Reilly's look for those cheaper parts. And if you can, like you talking about with those pick and pulls. Like if you can find your vehicle at a pick and pull, that can be a lifesaver. If it's not like a crucial critical component that's like, needs to be once over. Like you can usually get by with the pulling parts out of there and seeing if they work and swapping things out. And those will have. You'll see those. They have those days where you'll. I've seen a couple of Tiktoks where it's like whatever you can carry out the door is like, like. And you see guys with like five tires on a rig they built out of rope and farmers carrying car doors and just whatever they can carry to get a. You gotta walk across like a 20 foot span. If you can get it across there, like everything's 75 or something like that.
Yeah, I took some of that with my buddies. It's been a fun. Yeah, you can do if you go on one that I found pretty good. I don't know what your experience doing with it is car. It's car-part.com.
I'Ve not heard of that one actually.
Okay. It seems to just be a register of scrapyards.
Oh nice.
And so like you can put in your vehicle the part you need. You can sort it by like distance from you or price or whatever and it'll give you like a it. I've been able to find stuff now often the problem you're going to run into is you find a car part that fits your vehicle that is in good condition and it's across the country and like you're not going to pay to get like the front axle of a truck. Posted by USPS it gives you an idea, right? You can have, you can sort by distance. And so if that's something and if you have a way to get there when your vehicle doesn't work, then that's something that I found to be pretty useful.
That is a pretty good one. I did not know that one existed.
It's an old ass website. Like I'm looking at it now, it.
Does look pretty ancient but as long as it works. It works.
Yeah. Yeah. Like occasionally you'll get a picture and the picture is always like horribly fish eyed or like taking on a potato.
Just some old guy in the traditional old guy at the junkyard just taking a quick photo of his little parts. Try and sell it before he.
Yeah, exactly. Like he's just discovered the Internet. Like he's trying to sell his stuff. But yeah you can find some real bargains on there. And again like oftentimes folks will be pretty chatty at junkyards and give you some suggestions or I guess another thing we should cover is like interchangeability. Like I know a lot of vehicles for instance like Subarus and Toyotas like use the same engine, right?
Yeah. Across different vehicles like, like Chevys and GMCs. Those are essentially the same. That's the same company. They just have different badging. Yeah, like Ford, Ford doesn't really have Buick anymore. Like Lexus, Toyota.
Yeah.
Honda Acura. Like Nissan Infiniti though who knows how long Nissan's going to be around. Much longer.
Yeah.
I'm still waiting to see how that goes with them.
It's Audi and VW at the same sometimes as well.
Oh yeah, not so much as like the other ones but they, they will share. They have cars that they do it more now I guess than they used to. It's technically Audi, vw, Lamborghini.
Yeah, that again hasn't presented itself as an issue in my life.
Yeah, but a lot like, a lot of the parts on like the normal cars that you come across are interchangeable like that. Like Ford Chevy, like Silverado, like Ford, the Chevy Silverado and the, the GMC 1500, whatever they call them these days. Like things like that. Like they're usually pretty interchangeable outside of like they just re repackaged the shell and rebadged it.
Yeah.
Different interior.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I know a lot of, Yeah, a lot of those. Like I've, I've used different engines and different. Like another thing which is like a little too complicated for this podcast. Just like buying engines of retired vehicles from Japan is the thing that people do. And then.
Oh, that's a huge, like the, the old Nissan SR motors were the, the hotness for the longest time. Now it's these Honda motors. The K series motor is like the one that everybody is importing and yeah.
I did that with the Subaru. Like it is good. I will say if you're interested in like doing this, it's good to know what your engine is called as well as what your vehicle is called. Like, you know, there are some.
Yeah.
Engines that Toyota has used for a decade.
Yeah.
The 3.4 V6 that they use in a lot of different trucks. Like if you know that then you can, A, you can search for maintenance videos with that and B, you can search for parts with that.
Yeah. And depending if you have some of the older American vehicles, like some of those engines were used, like I said, like some of those Toyota motors, some of those are using dozens of models for dozens of years. So like if you need to look for parts, you don't necessarily need to look for the car that like I need, I need the one for my specific Toyota pickup truck. No, you can look for the Lexus pickup truck or the Lexus truck and say they had the same engines or sometimes it'll be the same engines in a car. Is it the same as in a light truck? Like there's a lot of crossover there in terms of finding parts that can, that can work for different vehicles that way.
Yeah, it can save you a bit of money that way. Let's talk finally about power tools because this is a thing where like people can get stuck in like this strange brand loyalty that becomes like gender affirming capitalism for men. Power tools can be super handy as well. Right. They can do, they can make shit a lot easier.
It can save you time and energy.
Yes.
And injuries. Because if you're beating things up with your hands, you're Throwing out your wrist or elbows or smacking your hands on stuff. Because if you're a mechanic, you just. I've, I've had, I, I recently got injured. I tore a bicep tendon. So I've been out of the game being a mechanic for the last four or two months and my wife was joking about me about how soft my hands have become because I've been sitting in an office at my work, my job for the last two months. So like all my work calluses are gone. So like, oh, like I'm going to go out there on my first day and my hands are going to like explode because I'm just going to. All these soft man hands. You're going to be trying to work on forklifts and just like we shouldn't.
We should mention that. Yeah. If you're not, even if you are used to working on things. Getting a good pair of gloves.
Yep.
It's a good idea. And take it from someone who has mutilated their knuckles.
Yep. Like a good pair of just cheap shop gloves you can get from any of those stores will be a huge hand, a huge helping hand just for helping with grip. Even just a cheap, usually the, anything over like the 5 or 6 millimeter thickness latex gloves, you can get those at any of Those Harbor Freight Autozone, O'Reilly's, any of those places are good for keeping your hands clean because that's the other thing. My hands have also been cleaner than they've ever been because I was always a mechanic for the last five years. So like you just naturally your hands get stained with grease and oil.
Yeah.
And so if that's something like you don't necessarily want, like I usually keep a pack of gloves, a pack of small towels in the car shop rags either little like at the same thing at the auto store, they just have packs of shop rags, those red shop rags, the iconic red shop rag. If you've worked in any auto shop, you've seen hundreds of thousands of these things and they're cheap. Just throw them in the back of the car and that way you've always got something to wipe your hands clean or clean up what you're doing or clean up after you're doing something. They're just nice to have.
Yeah, no, that's a good call. Otherwise you end up making a mess of everything. So power tools, like.
Yes.
What are good power tools to get? Where should people look and what should they watch out for?
Power tools to look out for. Not quite. Like the good thing is now Is power tools are getting cheap and power tools are getting pretty good across the board. Like the really good power tools are really, really powerful. Like the, the electric cordless impacts have gotten crazy in the last couple years. Like so if you have the 3, $400 to drop on a, on an impact, you're getting a really powerful capable impact wrench. And but like if you need a cheap one again, Harbor Freight, like the rule of thumb for most of the entry level mechanics is if you can't afford like the name brand tools, go to Harbor Freight. Buy what you need be an electric wrench, a rat, electric ratchet, whatever, any of those decent electric tools as your starter. And if it works forever, it works forever. And it does what you need it to do, it works. And if it breaks determining your head like how long did it take to break? Did it break quickly? Okay, I need something of a better quality. Otherwise you can probably get by with those cheaper ones. Because I went down a rabbit hole on like cheap. Like it was a. I think it's called the torque test channel. It compares all these different brands of impact electric impact wrenches.
Yeah.
And all of them are like so tight with like, like the going. They're going so into the weeds on battery life and how much torque, how much initial torque, how much long term torque and these different tools make and they're all pretty comparable. So like and for it comes down to like it's hard to recommend. It's like whichever. Excuse me, sorry. Whichever one you can get the best deal on at the time is probably the best way to go. Yeah, like, like as long as you're getting any one of the names like Milwaukee is super popular right now. DeWalt. I've been using DeWalt for a long time. They're rock solid. I've dropped them off of forklifts dozens and dozens of times and they still go. Most brands are since they're all competing for that same space. They're all pretty decent. It's just how much are you willing to pay and what do you need specifically? Yeah, like again the cheap ones like Harbor Freight has turned up its game in the recent years. Like I wouldn't even recommend like high end ratchets from other brands anymore to be honest. Because they have a brand called Icon at Harbor Freight which is like their, their upper tier brand which is still cheap. And it's as I've had, I've had wrenches from them that are as good and have lasted as long as any of my top tier Matco stuff. And they have the same unlimited warranty where if it's broken, you just take it back and they'll replace it.
Yeah. And they actually have a shop that you can go to, which.
Yeah. And it's surprising how good those tools have become because it used to be like, oh, you get this real basic ratchet, but it didn't have many teeth and it kind of felt cheap. But I'm betting a lot of these places are probably made in the same factory. And then they just change the tooling.
Yep.
Change the packaging, and then voila, you got your competitor's brand wrench. And then do it again for the next company.
Yeah. Like, and often Harbor Freight will have sales and where you can get stuff very cheap. They have a little coupon book you should look for if you're not familiar. I've had, like you say, I tend to buy stuff from there, and then if I break it frequently, then I might buy something else. But there's a lot of shaming around tools. Like, I think it's a conspicuous consumption thing. It's sad. Yeah. Like, I don't think people should be. You can get a lot of used tools buying power tools used can be fine.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's true, too. If you can go online and check Facebook Marketplace and actually get your hands on the tools first before you buy them and test them out. Electric tools trust somebody with a little bit more knowledge before you just buy random electric tools. But most ratchets and stuff, you can at least get your hands on it and see that it still works, see that it's not been horribly abused. It's still just a piece of steel that's gonna work. Like, they're like, the. Most of them aren't complicated. That's the nice part is it's just a ratchet and you can tell if it's bad or not.
And I think once you, like, start using stuff and fixing stuff, especially, you know, I grew up fixing bikes, I guess, so I had that. Once you start understanding how stuff works and like, oh, this moves here and this locks in here. Like, fixing things, it's not. It does not just, like, your vehicle. Right. Like, it becomes. It becomes a really empowering skill. Like, yeah, we were talking about this. I'll give another example. Like, I was recently in Arctic Alaska, very, very far north, and we were riding a four wheeler, a quad bike, an atv, whatever you want to call it. Right. And the back brakes died. And like, I've been fixing things with disc brakes since I was old enough to ride things with Disc brakes, right. And I could go down to the river and clear all the six inches of mud that was around the brake lines and work it out and fix it. And like, in that moment, you go from being like, a person who's annoying and you have to bring them around everywhere because they're a journalist, to like, someone who is a useful member of a community. And that's such a cool thing to be able to do for someone. It's such an empowering thing to be able to think that way.
It's. It's nice. And especially it's always been satisfying for me, like, when, like, just showing people, like, hey, like, oh, you need to check your coolant. Like, I don't know what that even is. Like, oh, it's just. Here, I'll show you. You pop the hood. It's just this little cap right here. Don't touch it when it's hot. Like, if you have to do it like this. And then like, just helping those people, like, oh, this was like getting your hands in there and just seeing, understanding how some of that works. It just takes a lot of that stigma off and it really makes people, like, just a little extra confidence and that excitement. Just like, hey, I did this. I can do this now. Like, like you said with changing a tire.
Yeah, definitely scary because, like I said, for gender reasons or other reasons. Didn't get a chance to, to learn that. No. But I think it's a lot of people didn't get this when they were younger and they get super empowering. And it's cool to learn new shit when you're a grown up.
Oh, yeah.
Like, I don't necessarily want you to listen to this and go and spend $500 on tools, but, you know, if you spend a little bit and like you were saying, if someone's doing your coolant for you, Most mechanics, if they're not super stressed and it's not like a dealership or whatever, you can be like, hey, I'm trying to learn. Do you mind if I just watch? As long as you're not, like, in the way or not in an unsafe place, other people will let you watch or explain how it works.
Even our shop would be. We were more than willing to take the customer out there and be like, hey, this is why this is broken. This is what it looks like. This is what, what it's supposed to do. This is what it's doing now. And like, we were always like, at least some of the shop I was at, we wanted our customers to know that we weren't on his shop. That's why my boss. I didn't realize the shop I was at was so good as it was at the time, because he put his heart and soul into that thing. And he. He was like, our manager was the reason the customer base was there, because he was so honest and willing to. To let us take customers out there and do that kind of thing. That it. It just confidence and just helping them get that basic understanding of they got rid of all that stigma and fear and. And just helping them understand this. This big, complicated steel missiles. Maybe not quite that complicated.
Yeah, I think that's a really. It's kind of a good place to finish up, maybe. Like, it's not that complicated. What happens in your car is some fuel mixes with some air and a small explosion happens, and that makes something move.
Yeah, and that's. That's still, like. That's one of the things that's always fascinating. Nobody, like, talks. Oh, it's just a combustion engine. It's an explosion engine. It's an engine that runs because we've managed to figure out how to put an explosion in a steel tube and make that tube go up and down.
Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.
And then it's like, oh, yeah, we've got this engine that has 10,000 rpm V12. Like, that's 12 cylinders making 12 explosions 10,000 times, probably like a quarter of that because of the whole combustion cycle. But that's.
Yeah, you can.
You can Google that if you need to know that.
But.
Right again, these are fascinating things, which is why I think they were so much more popular. There's been talking in the auto industry about how, like, they're not as popular anymore. And I think it's because they've been like, they've been pushed out of people's minds. And, like, don't worry about a dealership, only you can't fix this yourself. Don't think about it.
It's really cool to be able to be like, oh, like, I can look at that. Well, I get a break, Right? You know, like, there's a hydraulic reservoir, and it moves the fluid and that moves these two pistons, and they move the pads and they touch the rotor and then the car stops.
Yeah.
Once you know that, you can be like, okay, what isn't happening? Well, that's what's fucked. And then I can. And fixing, I guess. Be careful fixing your brakes. Most of it's pretty. Pretty easy. You can change brake pads and stuff, but just don't be driving 80 miles an hour the first time you roll out the door after you've fix your brakes. But yeah, I think that stuff, it's empowering, it's fun. Like, I genuinely enjoy working on trucks. Like few hours of my weekend where like, I am not hearing the news, which is nice right now. And it makes me feel empowered and like it doesn't need to be a crisis or a flood or a hurricane or whatever. Like, like we all live in the crisis that is slowly killing us all, which is late stage capitalism. And like fixing shit is also a way to reduce wasting shit, which is a way to make the world a better place. And it's a way to help people. Like, I love to help someone fix their car. It's also a way to like, we talk a lot, right? About how the most important thing you can prepare is community. Like, if there is someone on my block and they're having trouble with their car. I'm not the only person. I'm lucky to live in a place with a lot of folks who like to fix shit. But I know that I can. I helped my neighbor's nephew fix something the other day. And my neighbors know they can come ask me if they need to borrow a tool. And I know I can come ask my neighbors if I need three large people to jump on the end of a breaker bar to get something that's stuck unstuck. But like, all these things play into each other, right? And don't be afraid if your neighbor is working on their vehicle. I guess to be like, hey, I'm new to this, but I want to learn. Do you mind? Most of the time I would love for someone else to come and hold something for me.
One thing a car enthusiast likes more than anything is getting somebody else into being a car enthusiast too. Because it's like, you're one of us now. Get in here.
Yeah, someone to scheme with. But yeah, don't be afraid of asking that stuff. Don't be afraid to be new at something. I think that's something that, like, we talk a lot about skills, but it's something a lot of people struggle with is being new and an expert. And especially I guess, for men. I guess it's kind of. I don't know if you, if you don't know that it can be emasculating or whatever. But like, don't, don't let that bullshit get in your way.
Yeah, nothing matters except like you expanding your knowledge and knowing that you can fix something. When something happens and it's not a crisis, it's Something that you can approach and handle.
Yeah.
Like pretty straightforward.
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's. Yeah. Making things less stressful, less like a crisis chip. If people want to. If you want to follow you on the Internet, learn about fixing forklift trucks, is there anywhere that you'd suggest they do that?
Oh, let's see. I'm only really active on one thing, and it's usually just me. Y. At the Internet. I'm on Twitter, SLX @Damos rises. That's. You'll put my link in the descriptions or whatever. But that's me, the forklift ranger on. On Twitter. And just. Yeah, feel. Feel free. Give me a follow and you have any other questions, ask. I was helping. Well, not even helping. I was just inquiring with you the other day about your work on your truck.
Yeah, that helped me.
Always willing to help and talk with anybody about any of this stuff.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that was great. Thanks for listening, everyone, to our podcast Live like the world is dying. If you'd like to find out more about Strange Cinema Wilderness, the collective that puts out this podcast and several other wonderful podcasts, you can do that by going to the website tangledwilderness.org beautiful. Thank you, Bert. If you would like to be one of the many people who supports this broadcast, you can do so by finding us on Patreon. Do I need to do the socials as well? Nah, you can just say we're on socials. This is a really, really clean outro we're doing here for y' all today. Okay. All right, guys. Yeah. This is what they call professionalism. I'm the only one here who makes a full time living. Well, I don't, but they pay me the medium to. Not very much, actually. Bucks for making podcasts. That is why I fix my own truck. And I've never owned a vehicle from this millennium. The people who very kindly support us on Patreon at a very special tier get to get their names read out. Also written out today, it's by a British guy who's never seen the list before. Special edition. Yeah. You're about to fuck some shit up. Okay, from the top. Hoss the dog. Nicole and Tikva the dog. Micaiah, Chris, Kirk, Micah, Dana, David, Paige, sj, Theo, Militia Papa Runa, Ali, Janice and Odell. Princess Miranda. Community Books of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Lord Harken, Carson, Julia. People's University of Palestine. Violet Boldfield, Portland's Hedron Hackerspace. Appalachian Liberation Library. Appalachian Liberation Library. There's a pronunciation note that didn't read till afterwards. Sorry. Appalachian Liberation Library. I enjoy your Mine Wars. I like your area. Ephemeral. Amber Sunshine. Aiden and Yuki the dog. Jenny and Phoebe the cats. Jason Shulva. Blinkat Feral in It's at West Virginia or just WV probably, but I don't know. Yeah, we don't know.
Never know.
Yeah, well, they'll never find him. The Massachusetts chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association. The Canadian Socialist Rifle association, which is a different thing. Karen Lancaster chooses love. I noticed that they have phonetically spelled Lancaster for the correct pronunciation, which is nice as well. Enchanted Rats of Turtle Island. Max a Future for Abby, Alexander Gopal, the Incredible rena Rai, the Ko Initiative. Jonathan the Goose, the Golden Gate 26 Tiny Nonsense. Mark Vale Ferreau, your Canadian friend, Mr. Craft, Sarah Baby Acab and her three great pups, TSNB, Opticuna and the Athens People's assembly of Athens, Georgia. A BI Weekly potluck. Am I saying the bi weekly potluck? It's on the list and we just read the list.
That sounds pretty dope.
Yeah, I would go to that. I like Athens. Yeah, I'm not going to go into stories of when I lived in Georgia. We've done.
That's where I used to live, too.
Thanks for listening. Yeah, bye.
Thanks for having me.