2005 Corvette AC & Heat control door resembles a vertical blind.

Corvette has some amazing engineering! Who needs real doors to control airflow in the HVAC (Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning) system, when you can have this material that rolls on spools. This is a masterfully designed system that lasts in most cases until the car is just out of warranty. Kidding aside, if you’re experiencing a problem with your Corvette’s air conditioning, this could be the issue. Codes can be stored and attempts at resetting or calibrating will fail. The weak point is where the material attaches to the spool, on the one pictured it was ripped clean away.

Read the rest…

Calvan 11/16″ drill bit used with air ratchet and 1/2″ socket.

DenLors tools has sold hundreds of the Calvan spark plug repair kits and has had no reported failures. We’ve answered many questions about Ford spark plug thread repairs over the last couple of years and have included them in various places on our site. Now in this auto repair blog ALL of the frequently asked questions to date are posted here in one central location, if you don’t see your question answered, feel free to use the comment form and ask. Included here are questions about repairing spark plug holes after Lisle, Time Sert, Big Sert, or other brands that are thicker than the Heli-Coil, but still have managed to fail and allow the spark plug to blow out AGAIN. We are not out to discredit or slam any other spark plug insert company, we just know from our customer feedback what works and what just works for awhile. The questions below answer questions from real customers with this real problem. We recommend the Calvan Ford spark plug insert repair kit as the best solution, the following will help show why.

Read the rest…

No Verus on this Snap On Truck

I stepped onto a Snap On truck today to get a close up shot of the Verus for this blog. The Snap On salesman said he couldn’t justify the expense of keeping a Verus scan tool in stock, it sells for $8895 without accessories. Quite understandable with today’s economic state and the price of the Snap On Verus scan tool approaching the cost of a new economy car like the Nissan Versa. 

$8895 Verus

$9990 Versa

The Truth. “Obviously there is a huge bias towards the OTC tools on this site, so it is pointless to try and make a direct comparison. The VERUS is an actual COMPUTER, running windows XP, capable of running numerous applications and going to unlimited websites. The Pegisys is simply a custom interface with a touchscreen. The ONLY websites you can access are for software downloads and identifix. All of the information in the “comparison info” on the OTC site is misconstrued and mostly lies. Having used both, the verus has the better screen, better interface, better true shop capabilities, etc, etc, etc… the list goes on and on. What are the major complaints here? personality keys? really? We have been using them for a very long time, it’s not that big of a deal. The wireless link to the pegisys failed multiple times during the demonstration by the napa rep, I wouldn’t try and use that day to day. Also, the verus stores customer information and vehicle information until deleted, not for just two weeks like pegisys. And the ability to graph and record ALL PIDS at once, instead of just the three on screen is critical! The verus is always recording pid data from when you enter the datastream, when I used the pegisys I noticed that the unit would start graphing other pids when you switched to them, but would lose the history of the ones previously shown. To the host here, how can you deny that pegisys is NOT a genisys with a touchscreen. Same information (less actually) no true online capabilities, no true computer capabilities. Why not tell a little truth now and then.”

Read the rest…

Pinpointing oil, coolant and gas leaks with powder.

OK, maybe Johnson didn’t have this use in mind for their baby powder. But, it can help to pinpoint the origin of leaks. This is particularly true if there’s a leak and the source is not obvious. Baby powder is an inexpensive readily available substance, however it will not change colors when it absorbs fluid like Met-L-Check D70, a leak detection powder that some car manufacturers recommend to help verify automotive fluid leaks. After all a correctly diagnosed leak on the first attempt, saves warranty costs for the dealers.

Read the rest…