The Tips and Tricks thread

[Nark]

Hi all,
How about we start a thread listing all the little tips and tricks that we know?

I'll start with these:

* If you have dusty brake pads, try some wax on your mags (stuff such as Meguirs NXT works a treat).

* To easily remove the rego sticker from your windscreen, stick some wet cling wrap to it and leave overnight. Should peel straight off the next morning.

* If you've got a small leak in your radiator, drop an egg into it. (Proven true by the mythbusters).

* When you're installing a new head unit and you don't know which pins in the connector go to your car's speakers, grab a 12V battery and two wires. Hook the wires up to the battery's terminals and probe the pins, when you hear a popping/rustling from a speaker, those are the two wires that lead to that speaker.

That's all I can think of at the moment. It's bed time for me now!

[Yian]

Just in case someone already didn't know this aye.

Make sure you have a sufficient gap between yourself and the car body when checking for spark Or, you could tell a mate you hate to stand near the car.

[mrshin]

Nark, I'd probably suggest a 1.5 or maybe 9v battery for checking speakers, as using a car battery (what most people would think of as a 12v battery) it is possible to cook speakers. Also, you can use a little battery like this to check polarity of speakers - you want to get them all hooked up in the same direction, otherwise they will be out of phase and sound downright terrible. A very common mistake, too...

[Soarer]

WD40 is fantastic for removing road tar or other gooey stuff from both paint and mag wheels. The stuff just melts right off and does not affect paint in my experience.

[brett_celicacoupe]

hack into an old tailshaft and keep the end which goes into your gearbox. then next time you are pulling an engine/box out.....quickly pull out the tailshaft and slide in the short section you have. if your quick you'll get SFA oil come out. sorry what are they called? yoke? brain blank


id also be wary of that egg in the radiator thing. its probly more likel to clog up your radiator and probly the thermostat too. eggs are for cooking, not fixing leaks

[takai]

Yeah, thats a yoke trick with the gearbox.
And a yolk trick with the radiator. Basically its a last resort to get you home or the nearest town.
Another one is if you find a dead gearbox of the same sort as you use, take the input shaft out of it, makes a great clutch centering tool.

[CrUZida]

* To easily remove the rego sticker from your windscreen, stick some wet cling wrap to it and leave overnight. Should peel straight off the next morning.

This is actually written on the back of the sticker backing on WA stickers.
Not sure if they do it on other states.

* When you're installing a new head unit and you don't know which pins in the connector go to your car's speakers, grab a 12V battery and two wires. Hook the wires up to the battery's terminals and probe the pins, when you hear a popping/rustling from a speaker, those are the two wires that lead to that speaker.

Further to this, and what Mr Shin said, if the speaker pops 'out' or towards you, you have +ve to +ve, if it pops 'in' or away from you, you have +ve to -ve

[roadsailing]

um, here are a few

zipties are utterly disposable and quite cheap (dont be afraid of wasting heaps)

a straightened coat hander with a loop at one end is great for running audio cables, just tape the end of the cable to the loop so it doesn't catch, you can even use stiff wire in place of a straightened coat hanger.

might be a victoria thing, but i have never had problems getting my rego stickers off.

buy a steering wheel puller, the hand hammer technique works, but not on flimsy aftermarket wheels like my autotechnica.

use sliced garden hose to protect fuel lines and amp cable from sharp bits

read www.BCAE1.com before doing any stereo work

be careful with head unit installs using the factory wiring and speakers, as some cars (i have seen it in nissans) have a common ground for speakers, and aftermarket head units dont like this.

never do up a bolt finger tight, either torque it down or leave it out, this way you wont have any bolts falling out.

drop your oil when the engine is hot so more comes out,
only ever do up you oil filter by hand, if you cant get it off by hand use some coarse sand paper for grip or buy a filter wrench. yes you can get them off by hammering a screwdriver through, but who can be bothered.

[EldarO]

This is actually written on the back of the sticker backing on WA stickers.
Not sure if they do it on other states.

Further to this, and what Mr Shin said, if the speaker pops 'out' or towards you, you have +ve to +ve, if it pops 'in' or away from you, you have +ve to -ve

i just use a kitchen sponge with a tea towel behind it to prop it up so it makes half decent contact with the sticker.

comes off peice of cake in 10 mins or so.

Eldar.O.

[Joorsh]

A bit of diesel in your tank will help clean out the injectors. Not too much though!

Don't skimp on oil filters. For the cost of a genuine one, it's not worth messing around.

If you've got a bit of a sloppy gearstick in centre neutral, head up to your local toyota and spend the $30 or so on a new set of shifter bushes (just the easy-access ones at the top will do). They're simple to install and can go a long way to improving the shift and dead play.

RainX washer additive is tha bomb.

Always have the heater turned one when bleeding the coolant system. Park on a steep uphill if you can, and pop off the rear inlet to the heater core control to make sure there are no air bubbles trapped back there either.

Never wash, wax or polish your car in direct sun (duh). If you MUST wash it on a hot day, park it in the shade and give it a bit of a hose down to help cool off the body.

Inox is tha bomb.

Always be polite to the boys in blue. It's surprising how far a bit of civility & respect can get you. According to some friends of mine who work in the force, stay in your car. Apparently they hate it when you get out without being asked. I don't know if this is just a personal hate of my friends, or if it's a universal cop thing. Either way, you can't really go wrong with wiating in your car to be told what to do.

If you're going away for more than a week or so, disconnect your car battery and get yourself a car cover/blanket. If you're going away for more than a month, try to avoid leaving your car with a full tank of petrol. It does actually go off. You don't want to be stuck with a full tank of bad petrol. Not so much of an issue with most aussie delivered cars, but it may be an issue for imports or aftermarket tuned cars.

A good set of tools are worth their weight in gold.

Car Bra's are the devil.

[takai]

If you own a 7M or 4A then buy the appropriate oil filter SST for the car. Oil filters under exhaust manifolds suck hardcore.

[Nark]

Nark, I'd probably suggest a 1.5 or maybe 9v battery for checking speakers, as using a car battery (what most people would think of as a 12v battery) it is possible to cook speakers. Also, you can use a little battery like this to check polarity of speakers - you want to get them all hooked up in the same direction, otherwise they will be out of phase and sound downright terrible. A very common mistake, too...

Oops, silly me. I meant a 9V, not 12V battery.

RainX washer additive is tha bomb.

RainX on the side mirrors is great!

[o_man_ra23]

Car Bra's are the devil.

Car bras are worth their weight in gold when used correctly on long distance trips, especially in qld if you have expensive paint. Just be sure to have ALL small particles of dust etc completely removed, and the bra on tighter than scrooges wallet. This will stop it rubbing anything.

When using a hydraulic trolley jack, jack either from the centre of the diff, the centre of the front crossmember, or from under the wheel hub. The jack will destroy rocker panels, subframes and floorpans with no mercy. Jacking the centre of the diff or crossmember will lift the entire half of the car with no worries and will be balanced for you to put axle stands under. Never work under a car which is solely supported by a jack, of any kind

Cheers, Owen

[takai]

If you have a proper trolley jack (i.e. not a $20 one form Kmart) then get a piece of carpet and put it over your jack plate, itll stop stuff slipping around on it so much.

Also, as per TA22_GTs thread. Old housing forsale signs are useful for testing and mocking up airflow plating and mocking up a wide variety of other things. Should be able to get them for free (esp the custom printed ones which are useless after the house is sold), and are easy to cut up with various tools.

Polystyrene foam is also good for making moulds of items for fibreglassing. Especially hollow items where you can glass around the entire thing and then pour thinners or metho into the inside which will melt the polystyrene.

[ndgcpr]

drop your oil when the engine is hot so more comes out,

isn't oil thicker when hot? i would have thought it was best to do it cold, this is interesting, anyone want to give a quick run down on why more comes out?

Thanks