Under The Hood Maintenance Advice
Everyone, I had gone over a bit on changing tires with the carjack procedures to tire puncture fixes by repairshop. Now, we must go to the inside, under the hood, that is. These components had been on the back burner and it's time for me to cover. WINTER is over and that is the time to check up on your ride. Well, we are supposed to check at optimum of once per month to minimum of gauging the use of the vehicle. Let us go before something amiss fucks up your vehicle.

0. I will have to warn you that despite a somewhat easy operation, the funds needs to be high enough to meet the price of supplying goods. Since this is the first step, I would let it roll. Assuming that you have at least driver experience, open the driver's door and lift the (driver designated) hood latch. The latch should be located on the underside below the dashboard dimmer dial (why they call it a switch?).

1. Step outside and leave the car unlocked. Closing the door is optional. Go to the front of the car. If you can observe the hood, it is lifted at an angle. Place your fingers under the hood, and feel to search for a (locally designated) latch under the hood. Why is there two security latches? Well, one is to ensure at least key authenication. The other is to protect the car components. Harhar. Okay, lift and hold the latch. I hope you got some arm strength for this next step. Lift that hood with the latch lifted up. At a higher angle, lower that latch and continue lifting the hood to a higher height. Hold the hood's angle in place while looking for a hood support strut (a rod that looks like a cane with clothing hangar aesthetics). With one arm holding up the hood, lift the strut with the other. Search for an strut socket in the underside of the hood. Place that strut end in the socket. Okay, you can let go of lifting the hood and the strut.

2. Now we getting fucking nasty now. We be looking for fluid tanks. Window washer, transmission, coolant, power steering wheel, and probably many others stretching beyond this text file in the future. The engine oil is a different character, one tank that we can put aside for now. As for the rest, look into each tank's measure level. If too low, you need to use that money to purchase the PROPERLY LABELED fluids. As for the window washer, water will do.

3. We covered the tanks, but there are a few fluid components to check before we are done. There are about two dipsticks. One is the engine oil, the other the transmission (supposedly). Pull each one and look at the volume measurement of the fluid. If too low, look for the screw cap that labels the specified fluid. The transmission should have a bottled remedy at hand. The engine oil? Time for the next step.

4. The engine oil requires a leak of waste oil and refill of new oil. Not to mention the disposal of waste oil. You must locate a auto repair/maintenance shop. When you do, have a double digit of funds, because a paid order is required. After some time past, you should be done with a mileage limit reminder sticker for the next service. Convenient enough. And you should be done with all things fluid. If you got a noisy air filter problem, next step.

5. It wasn't a problem for me, but a tenant of mines told me that my vehicle is fucking noisy when I warm it up before departing in the cold morning. I had to buy another air filter, plus a penetrating oil and water-displacing spray. The tenant offered to help me, which is okay. Looking under the hood, there were latches to pry, screwed braces to loosen, and tube braces to move. The old air filter was quite dirty, but still looks servicable to me. The air filter box has little leaves on the bottom so a blow dryer is required to flush them out. Before replacing the filter, connected tubes were removed to access the gas pedal pressure valve. That's where the anti-oil and water spray comes in to clean up the dirt and grime and lubricate the moving parts. However, a spray is not good enough. Some cloth towels and a screwdriver is required to wipe away the disposing grime. The value may need to be moved by a second person (example being me) stepping and holding the gas pedal on the driver seat. This could take a while. When the cleaning is complete, the air filter gets replaced, along with the tube braces, screwed braces, and latches set back in place. The test results were a lesser noise in operation and probably lower air vibrations caused by engine rumble. The tenant was mightily happy about that! In addition, I noticed that the steering wheel was turning much faster. It's like it got oiled up!