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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 25th, 2023

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  • Yes you can, I have seen it done. The real world risk of a fire or explosion is pretty limited, modern cars don’t give off a lot of sparks. One issue may be that if you have an electric gas door release, there’s a chance it won’t open when the engine is running, if that’s how the car is programmed.

    10 minutes of running the engine will probably charge the battery enough to start the car again, so unless the tank is really dry this might be less of a problem than you think.



  • Assuming you’ll be driving a full size van (Transit, promaster etc) I hope you have experience parking this kind of vehicle. I rum a fleet of these vans for deliveries, most of the damage happens when parking. Look up - identify things the top of the van might hit like awnings, gutters, overhangs on carports and garages, etc. Then remember where they are and don’t hit them.


  • Why do you think the engine is seizing? Because the starter doesn’t work? If so, I would focus on the starter.

    If the alternator is bad but the battery is good, the car should start, or at least try.

    It sounds like you should do some more diagnosis and thinking about the problem before you start cutting belts and taking the alternator off.





  • imothers@alien.topBtoMechanic Advice@gearhead.townhelp?
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    1 year ago

    The metal cap is is on the radiator and maintains pressure in the cooling system. This should be “full the brim” under that cap. The black plastic cap is the overflow bottle. The idea is that when the coolant heats up and expands, it overflows from the radiator into the coolant bottle. When it cools down and contracts, it sucks the coolant back. This does not always work perfectly, however. So check the radiator (metal cap) as well as the coolant bottle. If the radiator is full but the coolant bottle is low, you are safe in the short term. However, if the radiator is low, it doesn’t matter if the coolant bottle is full… you could end up with problems due to not having enough coolant.


  • You could probably buy 2 reliable cars that are built to have AWD and have that feature for what it would cost to do a shitty and problematic conversion to AWD on a FWD car that was never designed to be AWD (like a 2012 Camry).

    Sell the Camry, buy a used Subaru (or other AWD car). Or a new Camry, which is available with AWD.

    Or, buy snow tires for the Camry, and an AAA membership in case you get stuck and need a tow.