SAmadei

I'd love to have 100% made-in-USA tools... but I question if people fixing a BMW or Subaru really care about that much.

Agreed. This is where I'm fortunate that I can put my size to good use. ;-) Of course, if your breaker bar is too cumbersome, two wrenches linked together can make a nice, slim breaker bar. To tweak DF's post... I would remove the sledgehammer and suggest a mini-sledge. Most people can't accurately swing a real sledgehammer. A mini-sledge can be swung in a wheel well to coax a wrench or breaker bar. Only time I've ever used a sledge (constructively) on a car was to remove wheels that had fused to the drums.

Does it come with a hamster chauffeur?

Has it done this long? How many miles? Is it whining? Does it happen more in the cold? Is it more of a problem turning to the right or left? I would check the level of the fluid. Beyond that, not being as familiar with the Hondas, I could see it being the pump or the rack... but I'm leaning towards the rack... especially if there is a difference left and right. If accompanied with a whining, I would lean towards pump... thinking its not building pressure due to worn tolerances until it warms up and the tolerances allow it to pump a sufficient amount of fluid.

This really depends on what you can afford. According to Walter Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino, all you need is a pair of pliers, some duct tape and a can of WD-40. I'd say you want to get a few more tools to get started. If you are really looking for tools on the cheap, its nice to have a Harbor Freight nearby. You can start off with a $35 130 piece kit... (Item #69331) and you likely will want to pick up a set of Metric wrenches (item #42305), so you can handle some larger, more stubborn bolts. Or you could just go for the $187 (Item 69312) 301 piece fit, which includes a lot more. As time goes on, you WILL break these tools. As you break them, replace them with better tools, such as Husky (Home Depot), Kobalt (Lowes) or Craftsman (Sears). These hand tools will have a lifetime replacement warranty. I've found that its nice to have two quality screwdrivers (flat and phillips), vise grip, a 3/8 drive ratchet, universal joint and 1/4 to 3/8 drive converter at a minimum. These parts will break or wear over time almost regardless of the quality of the tool. If you have more money or would rather start with fewer, but better quality tools, I would shop for Husky (Home Depot), Kobalt (Lowes) or Craftsman (Sears) tool sets. Again, these will have a replacement warranty and will generally last longer. I personally like Craftsman, but I've found Husky or Kobalt are generally just as good. Craftsman has suitable sets from the 101 pc mechanics set at $49.99 to the uber 540 pc mechanics tool set at $1234. Actually, I believe they have kits in the store up to $2500, with 2000 pieces, which include parts you never dreamed of. Anyway, my portable kit, which I use for most repairs is about the equivalent of the $94 200 pc set with a few extra items tossed into a $10 Sears tool bag that I've had for about 10 years without it ripping. Perfect for emergency repairs, going to the pick-a-part or when you need to visit your friends' cars. You can also keep an eye open for yard sales and classifieds, and sometimes you might luck into some tool sets that are Mac or Snap-on, which are generally high quality tools for professional use. I personally find Snap-On tools to be too thin, and I prefer the slightly thicker Craftsman tools for when I REALLY need to crank down on tight bolts. As far what tools you specifically need, that is also pretty wide open... and every job needs different items... sometimes a ratchet and socket is perfect, sometimes you need a couple wrenches... sometimes, you just need a screwdriver. In general, the above tool sets will cover you as a beginner. If you are only working on newer cars, you likely only need metric tools. But if you are going to work on other tasks, like assembling things or doing light plumbing, having the SAE sizes is a real help. Lag bolts don't come in metric. Socket kits are usually pretty complete. You will also may need a couple extensions, conversions and possibly a universal. Some basic kits will have only 4~5 wrenches, which are good for 90% of the jobs, but in time you will need to supplement them. You likely will never need a full set of wrenches from 6mm to 33mm, however. A lot of kits count every little piece, so they go wild including bits for the screwdriver/nutdriver and giving you a bunch of allen wrenches. These are not as important, but can be very important for working on the interior of your car. These screwdriver bits are not a replacement for a couple good screwdrivers, however. There will always be situations where a screwdriver bit set will not fit where a normal screwdriver will. You will also want a vise grip, an adjustable wrench, some needle nose pliers and a standard pliers. These should ONLY be used as a last resort when you can't use a proper sized wrench or socket. You also will want a spark plug socket (similar to regular socket, but it has a rubber holder inside). I would also suggest a hammer... and a sharp chisel. You never know when you need to chisel off a rivet or split a rusted nut. Then there are nice tools to have, such as a real set of Torx drivers. A set of short and long sockets. Ratcheting wrenches. Set of plastic trim tools. Nutdrivers. External Torx sockets. Unless you are doing a lot of work, light duty tools from Harbor Freight will do you fine. Needless to say, I can go on and on. And we haven't even touched on power tools. Finally, I'd just like to say, once again, that even small tool sets will be enough for a LOT of mechanic work. If you need a tool that you don't want to buy, Autozone and Advanced Auto both lend tools... you basically pay for them, and get your money back when you return them.

Not sure it would be as extreme as you think. Most of the GM engines of the 70's were bread and butter stuff... straight 6s and smaller V8s... 350s were popular the entire decade. The big engines started off the decade as somewhat less than common and ended the decade virtually extinct... but they were always numerically dwarfed by the other engines. And since they were generally saved, they are still around as a larger percentage of the survivors. Even just studying the 350, there are a lot of factors to consider as you go from the 1970 L48 with 300hp/380ftlb to the lowly 1979 L65 with 145hp... it really becomes an apples to oranges comparison.

Let me rephrase... they will be as tiny as most of the vehicles sold today. Tiny by my standards. I did recently try out all the stuff at the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership... everything requires removal of head to enter car. I'm still looking to try some models without sunroofs... but unless there is a major difference in headroom, everything Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep has is off the table. I suspect the GL350 has about the same roofline and door size the big Jeep has. Challenger is more comfortable once in the car, but I'm not sure I could live with the daily routine of ingress/egress.

Don't worry, DF, I was in the same boat. My parents actually could have put me on their insurance and it would have saved money, but it also would have left them liable for my mistakes. My parents did not believe I was a hazard, but since everything was entwined with the family business, it was decided that it was better that I have my own policy. That said, I had discounts for good student, college use, driver ed so that helped. What didn't was the new driver cost, the fact it was State Farm and being in NJ during the dark days of our car insurance disaster... so it was just under $2K/yr back in the late '80s, IIRC. You'll note I did not use that word. I realize it is a hot button for Gen Y... and its not usually used correctly. I also agree that a lot of people have this sense of entitlement, regardless of generation. I would also say that the Gen Y'ers on this forum do not have this sense of entitlement (at least in terms of cars) because they own cars and are paying (dearly, in some cases) for them. And they are right. If you have the receipts for something, its not a sense of entitlement anymore... its a proper entitlement when you own it. However, I find it laughable that a generation with such a minority of population as Gen X could ever be considered to be brow beating the massive population of Gen Y. First, being put on a policy with your parents does not require you to be upper-middle class. You only need parents with at least one car. Adding a second in their name, with you on the policy is not world ending expensive. And this is usually done with the idea that one is off at college most of the time.

I'm not saying Mercedes or even Nissan levels of expensive... but when we are talking beater level, a GM beater truck is more expensive than a GM beater car. Real trucks, not S-10s. Trucks can be used for work, plus are worth more as scrap, so they are initially cost more used. It is VERY hard to find a decent beater truck below $1000... pickups are difficult to find below $2000... at least in NJ. 8 spark plugs costs twice 4 does. Bigger alternator costs 20% more. Tires are $125 each instead of $50. More O2 sensors. Etc. When I got the Tahoe, I immediately was going to put tires on it, until I realized that a decent set is going to cost me more than the truck cost and I'd have to mount and balance them on rims I want to remove later (and revert to something OEM). I'll wait until I find a good rim and tire takeoff from a newer truck.

I feel like this is a disgruntled employee making a point to the boss.

Well, its not just the idea that self driving cars might be mandatory, but also "effectively mandatory". If the bridge you commute over is 4 lanes today... I don't want to see 3 "SDC"-only lanes in the future.

I can. It would be interesting experiment... but its not the vehicle I would ever recommend for a newbie... because I would consider this to be an enthusiast vehicle... something that people buy, customize, beat the hell out of, uncustomize, sell to next guy who customizes it again and beats the hell out of it. Camaros, Firebirds, sports trucks, hot hatches, certain SUVs are in this group. I usually recommend GM versions of the Blight Zonda Discord to people who need beaters on a budget. Especially those grandma fresh ones you refuse to believe are out there. ;-) Few people customize a '94 Delta 88. In any case, I suppose my truck being the wrong kind of beater negates my repair knowledge and tools. (Though to be honest, these trucks use a lot of GM parts I'm not real familiar with... ripping the door apart was a learning experience. Yep. Well, like I list above, I'm not sure I'd recommend a Cherokee for a newbie (not calling you a newbie). Their popularity means cheap ones have problems. Better to buy something nobody loves... like an Aztek. Sure it ain't trail rated... but its drive-to-work-and-school rated. As far as your buddy driving that Jeep without failures... he is aware of one of my beater buyer corollaries... buy the car that someone just replaced a bunch of stuff on.

I got these the other day... no driver side photo, as it was still covered in bird crap and I didn't feel like walking across the street. Since then, its gotten a half-ass wash, I accidentally broke the antenna off (not a huge loss) and put a new side marker on.

Something like this... Though I might just settle for these at $5.50 a pair on eBay. Normally GM has connectors like this soldered onto the speakers themselves, to accept the factory harness connector... but I can't find a photo of one online.

I look forward to it. Various solutions to this have been posted. Rhymed with Blight Zonda Discord. ;-) Incidentally, if you followed my posts about my recently acquired '97 Tahoe 2 door... that is a sub-$1000 purchase. In fact, even with the various minor initial repairs, I haven't gone over $1000 yet. It even got inspected. Perhaps we can watch over the next months and years just how much it costs to maintain... though I am at a disadvantage since its inherently more expensive to repair trucks and because I planned to bring it back to decent shape, instead of just getting by with it.

What you've done is make a compelling argument for autonomous vehicles. In addition to those would would like the convenience to use it when they wanted, there are those, young and old, who should not be allowed to operate 2+ tons of mass. Also those brake stories were true, in case you were wondering. I can believe that... you can't fix stupid. I don't like to believe the average person is that stupid. Actually, I'm on the fence about self-driving cars. I get tired of driving every so often... though its fairly rare. I doubt I would buy a self driving car, however, as I'm certain that for the near future, its going to be tiny, have too many tiny doors and no trunk space... and as an IT guy, I am skeptical about the real world use of self-driving cars. Most people, even the most clueless, realize their car is broken by driving it. If the rider in a self driving car is asleep or engrossed in porn or working on Candy Crush level 514, they are not going to recognize the brakes going soft, the bearing rumbling or the engine running rough after OBD-5 puts the car in limp-home mode because an O2 sensor is acting up. The safeguards that need to be put into the system are absolutely mind boggling. I don't mind if they are on the road, and since I predict that their coding is going to drive very conservatively, I love the idea of 75% of traffic staying right on the freeway and not tailgating me with their high beams on. My only fear is that at some point, self driving cars will be given exclusive use of the majority or entire roadway.

I should mention, I wasn't referring to the $12 pigtails Crutchfield sells... I'm looking for where I can buy the connector itself... possibly in bulk.

Please explain. Seriously, please explain, even if you prefer to discuss in PM. I'm in need of some integration. I'll even overlook that you seem to have had a car your entire adult life.

Does anyone know where one my buy the male GM speaker plugs (the ones on the speaker)? When I install aftermarket speakers, I prefer to wire these onto the new speakers, rather than chop up the door harness and/or make the speaker permanently attached to the door. To the best of my knowledge, GM has used the same plug setup for years, but I am tired of cutting them off blown speakers at the junkyard when I need them.

I know how to work on cars now. I didn't decades ago. Sure, I gophered for Dad when he pulled engines and transmissions, but I was a kid with a typical short attention span. If someone is so stupid to not understand that without brakes, you can't stop the car, what is to stop them from getting in a car and not know what pedal to press to stop the car? One reason so many people lack common sense is because they don't have practice using common sense. You have to learn somewhere... and in 2014, you can put in a few keywords in Youtube and watch someone do the repair and give you precautions on what NOT to do. My buddy who is slowly retiring from a lifetime patching radiators, complains because he loses business to this. A few weeks ago, a mid-50s woman with a Taurus wanted a radiator replaced... but scoffed at the labor. So she ordered it though him and she installed it herself... it was her first car repair ever! It was survival... but I had a love of cars, too. I dreamed of having the cool, restored musclecar. I wasn't happy to watch my quasi-musclecar first car fall into worse and worse disrepair... actually, it was absolutely heart wrenching. The disconnect is get from point A (wanting) to point B (having)... and this disconnect is what Gen Y is glossing over. The mechanical victories, however small, still felt good. It was nice when the car ran good... even if it looked like hell. Seriously, who is the wiser, the old fogey (who still has his wits) or the teenager? My grandfather used to lament that by the time you figured out the world, and accumulated the things you needed to do what you wanted to do, you were too old to benefit from them. I'm not sure it always applies, but I can definitely see where he was coming from. I'm not an old fogey (regardless of what you young guys read into this), but I know a few things besides cars... and I seriously question how Gen Y is going to succeed in the long run if they can't be self-mobile. I'm not convinced an online degree is as good as physically going to college (if it was, why do we still require high school students to report to school?). Telecommuting does not give you the benefits of being in office... telecommuters tend to be the first let go and the backlash against telecommuters is just beginning. Sure, you can forgo a car in NYC and a few other areas... provided you live REAL close to work. But for many in other areas, this can be a time waster. Does Gen Y value their time? Waiting for the bus is a huge waste of time. One of my high school friends decided to forgo a car as a young adult. Due to the local buses, it limited her work options to McDonalds... where she quickly rose to manager... and still wasn't making decent money. After about 7 years of this BS, I taught her to drive and she took the test in my beat-up car. And passed. She soon had her own $600 car and her employment options opened up and she now can make 3x what she used to make. Not bad for someone who had to drop out of high school to work. The turning point was getting the car. Today, she has a fairly nice, modern, reliable car. Most of my bus-bound friends found themselves severely stunted careers. Bringing this back to Gen Y... colleges are charging more than ever... jobs suck more than ever... nobody wants you without a heap of experience... they are forgoing cars until "When they Can Afford Them"... Well, when is that? Cars are not getting an cheaper. Insurance is not getting any cheaper... Gas and parts are not getting cheaper... mechanic labor isn't getting any cheaper. My Gen Y relative came from a well off house-hold and still drove beaters. He's been able to go from university to internship to career in quick succession. Six figures a year at 28, he can now buy whatever he wants. Of course, since life is essentially graded on a curve (if an entire generation is a bunch of slackers, the top slackers are going to get the cherry careers), some Gen Y'ers are going to fall into dream careers and drive dream cars... but I question if the rest of Gen Y ever makes the jump... and spends a lifetime in a deadend job, trapped by public transportation options, waiting for the bus... then two hour-long transfers... having a 6 hour daily commute to go 11 miles and back... dealing with all the homeless and thieves that love hanging out at the bus station. Years ago, the bus riders were the ones who envied the person driving a beater. However, the media has trained the public that public image is so important that riding the bus is somehow better. Kind of ironic... just like the hipsters who are cool because they dress up like the homeless. Maybe I'm completely off-base and being poor is the new rich. I doubt that. Honestly, I have no vested interest in whether Gen Y fails to launch or not. I only try to offer advice... because, god knows, along with what does work, I know most of the stuff that DOESN'T WORK... But Gen Y seems to be more stubborn than their parents, and seems to know better than I... so, as far as I'm concerned, they can make their own mistakes if they want. If living at home with the 'rents until they come up with a new internet meme and become Twitter celebs or write a killer iPhone app is the turning point to getting that new car, then who am I to deflate that dream. But I do have an story about my friends who were going to become rock stars and sports superstars... Guess I'm done rambling for now.

Wow... so much desire to look down your nose at things. In any case, then stop driving. Driving is inherently dangerous. You're more likely to die from someone being inattentive who never even touches their brakes. Just because a car is being sold for $800 does not mean everything is broken or beyond use. We're not Cuba... people are constantly upgrading to some slightly shinier or cooler. I see the cars in the junkyard... usually in pretty good shape... but nobody wants them. On the other hand, just because its selling for 5 figures, it can be as much as a deathtrap... running on 26" with stock brakes... or tinted windows to the point of affecting outward visibility... or "stanced"... or using five different hub adapters... 4000 watt megastereo blasting so loud is blurs your vision. Pick your poison. Or how about the danger of me, strapped into a brand new tiny car so tight I can't see out the window or turn my head to see cross traffic? I'd rather drive with people who avoid wrecking because they know once its gone... its walking. Or, they have to rebuild it.

When your $1000 car dies for good, you sell it to the scrapper for $600. My "first" car was one year older than I was. Got the white guy part right. Old is debatable. Everything else you got wrong. I grew up on what was technically a farm. It was my parent's greenhouse business, which was failing. I worked unpaid for the family business. I got my car 7 days before leaving for college by cashing every bond I ever got. I would spend five tumultuous months at "back home" over the next 4 years and would not return until Dad died and I quasi-inherited an uninhabitable property. I started with a junk toolset bought from a flea market and worked on the car in the street, parking lots, friends' houses, etc. I barely afforded housing for the next ten years... lived IN the car during a few stretches. When I was in college for 4.5 years, C's would have killed my scholarship and my college aspirations, so I had to drop some classes I couldn't finish either due to working 3 jobs or the crushing depression I suffered from. During this time, I had to buy my next $200 car and add my mother to my insurance so she didn't have to walk to work... I've done all the work on that car gratis, as well, in the street. I left school three classes shy of graduating because financial aid would not take "Parents do not have tax forms" as an answer and would not return for a decade during which I worked 60 hours a week to build a nice internet business FOR SOMEONE ELSE. Sure, I finally got on top of things and got my degree... and have spent some time making good coin... but I don't take it for granted. The only good thing for years was that I had my physical health... but otherwise, I know crap situations more that most people will ever imagine. Every GenY'r show watch Richie Parker work on cars... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIAP04cc6qc

Its a worse case scenario quoted by a guy who is a perfectionist. Can't afford coolant? Water. Going to freeze tonight? Drain it. Refill it and drive. Rinse and repeat. I've been there. Can't afford oil? I used my roomate's USED oil. You can do a lot of repairs with a $50 set of Harbor Freight tools. Buy it. Fix enough to get by. Prioritize your repairs. Brakes come before cooling. Cooling comes before shocks/struts. All of this comes before seat covers and a radio. Dude, I bought a $180 car from a DEALER and drove it for nearly a year before replacing anything major. This was in the 1990's, not the 1940s. One of my other cars didn't get shocks for years. Safe? Well, safe enough... they always had brakes, tires and parts weren't falling off. Move. Otherwise, you got to do what you got to do. The college cops eventually just left me alone. In NYC, its perfectly legal to do ANY repair in the streets. Got a friend with a house? Become his roommate. Houses are just as easy to rent as apartments. As far as mechanics go, they aren't suffering around here. I've watched several family auto repair places expand like a weed... If you're charging the customer $90/hr and you can't make money, you got bigger problems. IMHO, that's a situation she put herself into by either poor planning or irresponsible behavior. Sure, you might sleep on the RR tracks and wake up in a hospital disabled for life... you've made life a lot harder for you... but if you had some marketable skill or learn one, you can get ahead. People are doing it. But that's all a different discussion. I paid more for my tools 20 years ago than I can buy from Harbor Freight. Are they all good? No. But they get you started.

A couple GM potentials listed today... http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/4294410687.html '93 Cutlass Supreme. Probably needs a sensor. $800 http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/4294395301.html Caprice. Needs Alternator. $1000obo http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/4294351543.html '92 Acheiva. Minor issues. $800 http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/4294409295.html '98 Grand Am. Shiny! Unspecified $200 repair. $800. There were lots of other makes, too... including a few trucks that could earn some money.

Fixing your car builds character. Half the daily drivers I had over the years cost me under $600. I've bought 4~5 cars for less than $200. Granted, this is going back to 1989... but adjusting for the cost of scrap, I see plenty of cars well below $1000. Insurance is a killer... but one should be able to get a a low level plan for an 18 year old for less than $2000/yr if they look. Now you got $2000 left over for parts... assuming you bought something that don't need an engine or transmission, that's a lot of parts. Having ANY car opens up opportunities, if you are in a place with abysmal public transportation. Don't want a 1994 Olds 88 with fading paint? Walk. Don't learn how a car works... a skill that pays better than a lot of college jobs... I might add. Enjoy living with your parents when you're 40. There are no handouts... if you're poor, you're going to stay poor until you work your ass off. Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!