Spektyr

If you ever get stuck in dry sand there's an easy fix. (Note that this doesn't work well/at all with wet sand.)

Pile as much sand against the buried wheel as possible. Then jump up and down on the closest corner of the nearest bumper (or if that's not available, push down as much as possible on that corner of the car to bounce it).

Keep rocking the car like that, each time the suspension hits the top of its cycle a little sand seeps under the tire. Little by little you'll "jack" your way up onto level sand. You may have to repile sand several times.


I used to go four-wheelin' in a 2WD truck out in the loose, dry sand in Florida all the time. This little trick will get you out of stuff a winch won't.

redeye-racing

if you have an electric fuel pump in your car/truck and it ran the last time you shut it off, but the pump was dead when you tryed the next time... have someone crank the engine over while you hit the gas tank with a rubber mallet or hammer or pipe, what ever is handy..the sudden jarring will start the pump just like it does with a starter..the pump will run 'till the next time you shut it off, to get you home.


things you should always carry ...duct tape....vice grips....elec. tape...tie wraps..bailing wire.



if your ever stuck any one wheel is spinning to it's hearts desire, try putting the park brake 1/2 on. the drag can force the diff to transfer power to the other side.

jack92777

AN EGG WORKS TOO

Torlake

honest to god it works! if your rad's leaking, crack an egg into the cap (not the overflow) and drive like heck. you'll probably need a new rad after but if it's that desperate of a situation, it's worth it

Lektrk

I've used rubber electrical tape to repair a leaky radiator hose, held for a couple months until I could afford a new one. (I was in the service then, they didn't pay much)

Also WD-40 will work as starting fluid in a pinch.

dai

to find water leaks put a bright food colouring into the water we used to use yellow that the fast food chains had in their yumbo rolls in the late 70's

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daamon_vexion

if your truck vapor locks, wrap the coolant lines, vacume lines, and fuel lines in aluminum foli, it acts as a great heat shield

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ibmman456987

When I first got my diesel truck i didnt know about the engine warmer that you plug in and one day in winter my truck would not start, so i took many many many heating blankets and covered the entire engine and that worked great! Just dont forget to take them out afterwards

newnewbie

We actualy did these things (at our own risk) a long ,long time ago when we were young and dumb, in order to limp vehicles home.

tied a string to the windshield wipers to pull them back and forth.
used self vulcanizeing splicing tape to patch a radiator hose.
used needle nose pliers to pull out the radiator fins and broke the cooling. tube where it leaked,then roll/crimp it shut with vise-grips.

used whatever liquids we could get for coolant.
wraped aluminum foil around a blown fuse.
used vise-grips for a window crank handle.
gravity fed gas to a carburator when the fuel pump quit.
used a finger nail file to clean up a set of ignition points and a match book cover to set the gap.
used a milk crate for a drivers seat
pinched off a rear brake line and re-filled the master cylinder with boones farm strawberry wine.

I still dont know how we survived our teen years.

TheAtheist

As shown on top gear - "Icelandic rocking trick"

If stuck in snow or sand probably as well. Gently rock the car back and forward using the accelerator, then let it go, dont brake, repeat; each time it moves it shifts the snow and eventually gets you free.

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jaggerwild

If you ever find you don't have brake's while driving and Really need to stop, use the parking brake. Slowly apply pressure to them and it will get you stopped.
I use this often while testing customers brake problems (warped rear drums).

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jaggerwild

PIN size hole in the radiator, use seasoning to fill the hole............

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89camaro

If you're ever stuck in snow you can get free usually by putting it in drive and going forward. before the car stops drop it to reverse. again before it stops put in drive again and rinse and repeat as necessary. it doesn't always work but it has saved me numerous times as i only drive camaros as of the last 5 years. currently on and 89 iroc.

if your car wont start(starter will not engage aka no crank) you can get it started easily albeit kinda hard depending on the car. you need a screwdriver(or any other metal object of appropriate length with an insulated grip. you need to jump the switch terminal on the starter with the battery terminal on the starter(note NOT THE BATTERY ITSELF as it could get dicey doing it there) the battery terminal is the largest terminal on the starter solenoid and the switch terminal is the small one with one wire on it. if you touch the battery terminal on the starter to the grounding post on the starter it will just spin the starter in itself and not connect to the flywheel(which actually spins the motor) i frequently have to do this on my car cause my solenoid is bad on mine and it wont start when hot.

the proper way to jump a car is the following: positive of the good battery to the cables first. than the positive of the bad battery. followed by connecting the cables to the negative terminal of the good battery(or chassis) and finally ground the negative cable for the bad battery to the engine or flame away from the bad battery. the point of this is to keep all sparks away from the battery. although in recent years the risk of a battery explosion has lessened due to sparks it is still always a possibility. when grounding to the engine you need to basically hear it spark a little to know you have a good ground.

the best substitute for power steering fluid is transmission fluid. cheaper than brake fluid and power steering fluid as well.

duct tape is god

you don't really need your rear brakes even on a rear wheel drive car(unless your in snow or other slipper condition/this applies to rear wheel drive cars only) front brakes do about 70% or so of the stopping of the car. you will notice an increase in stopping distance and response but its better than having no brakes because of a rear line leak. simply crimp the **** outta the line so it holds pressure.

if your car is over heating turn on the interior heat to max. the coolant flows through the heater core and is blown into the car by the blower motor. its not a complete substitute for a lack of a cooling fan but wit will help a bit.

if you have a busted fuel line or tranny line you can patch it by cutting the effected section (this really requires a proper tube cutter since other methods tend to crimp the line which restricts the flow of the fluid) Cut an appropriate length of heater hose, place it over the cut in the hose and clamp both sides. this will work for quite a while but it is no substitute for metal lines since both gas and tranny fluid are petroleum products they do degrade rubber and cause it to crack.(note DO NOT do this on brake lines the pressure there will blow the rubber hose apart.

if you are in desperate need of a fuse you can cannibalize other fuses. good choices are the fuse for your accessories:like power locks,radio, interior lights and hazard light fuses assuming that the hazard circuit is separate from the turn signal circuit. power window fuses wont work as they are usually circuit breaker type fuses and are bigger than normal fuses.

if you have a stripped lug nut and access to sockets you can hammer on a socket that is slightly smaller onto the stripped lug and you will usually be able to remove the lug this way. i will say it is usually a ***** to get the lug outta the socket after that.this also applies to some locking lug nuts. i wont say all cause i haven't dealt with all types.

if you need to add fluids but don't have a funnel you can take a piece of paper and roll it into a cone and use that as a funnel.

if your tranny is slipping don't get the fluid changed. you can sometimes get more life outta a slipping tranny by adding lucas stop slip. i only say lucas cause their entire line is decent. another solution is to add a non friction modified fluid to the tranny. this fluid is more commonly known as Type F fluid. adding the wrong fluid to a tranny will usually void whatever warranty there may be9assuming they can detect you have done so) but if your tranny is slipping you prolly are way outta warranty anyway:P

lets see what else hehe

if your car will start but die immediately on GMs you can sometime unplug the IAC valve(idle air control valve) this is commonly a 2-3 prong connector located on the throttle body(the part that the gas pedal cable connects to) and is protruding off in one direction. this doesn't always work and your car will idle high or low or even fluctuate without it but it can get you going.

on a lot of cars with ac if you cooling fan isn't working if you turn on the ac not necessarily make it cold but select the ac on the HVAC controls this can force the fan to turn on as all cars are wired for the cooling fan to turn on when the ac is on. doesn't always work but usually.

hmmm

on really old fords the fuel pump cut off switch is inside the car behind the rear a-pillars that support the rear window. hitting this area decently hard can jar the switch to allow current to flow to the pump. other places are in the trunk behind the trim panels and these are easy to get too and don't require a hit to reset they have a button.

for some really interesting fun you can get some square dollys and jack up each wheel and put one under each tire.(make sure the dollys have a stop for the tires so they cant roll off. after each is positioned you can roll the car around in circles like a ball its quite amusing to see a car spinning in place. but please make sure that the dollys can support the wight of the car. by dolly i mean in its simples form those things you might have raced across the gym floor in elementary pe class that are basically square with 4 casters one in each corner.

if you have a leaking heater core(signified by coolant leaking into the inside of the car usually near the passenger floor board in the front of the car). you can "by pass" the heater core by taking the heater hoses off the inlet and outlet of the core(these hoses basically but up against the firewall leading to the inside of the car. the core has 2 tubes sticking into the engine bay that these hoses go on and clamp to) and connecting them together with some sort of "T" connector or other tubular construct that can fint into both hoses and join them and clamp said object to the hoses. "t" connectors are pretty cheap like 5 for 5 bucks or so.

duct tape is god hehe.

if your door latch clamp(the thing on the car not the door that slides into the door to shut it) somehow has the metal around it disintegrate but there is still some there you can get this hardening compound i cant remember the name my mom had to use it cause this happened to her, to secure the latch back onto the car itself thus allowing you to shut the door again. great stuff will also work for a little bit. great stuff is basically a hardening foam used to seal breaks in various household things.

if somehow not i really mean somehow as i have no idea it happens accidentally as i have had it happen to me. if somehow the latch clamps in the door itself get stuck in the closed position. meaning that the door thinks its closed and latched to the post on the car, and you are unable to shut the door meaning that you close it and it bounces right back into the open position. it can sometime be easily fixed by holding the external door handle in the open position then taking a screwdriver/other metal object/pen/or your finger can sometime work; you can move the latches so that they are back in the open position. the handle must be held in the open position.

also a braking trick is while driving(assuming you need to stop faster than your brakes can stop you) is to use your gear selector and drop the gear of the car. ex: OD(drive with a circle around it or simply d aka 4th unless more than 4 gears are present) drop from there to the next one down like D(no outline;may also be 2 or even 3) this will make the tranny on autos down shift outta OD and into the next lower gear causing the rpms to raise and the engine to slow the car called engine braking. this wont hurt the transmission as long as a few rules are observed. never drop all the way down to the lowest gear at speeds over 30 mph even than it is dangerous. never drop more than to the second selection unless under say 70 mph may be higher or lower on some cars. to find the limit for each selection drive in said gear and watch the tach(if one is present) and when it gets to just below the yellow line on the tach(some cars simply have a redline in that case to just below the start of the redline).
some general rules for gear selecting are 1st no more than 30-35
second no more than 60-65 although some cars can go to 80 in second my first camaro could and it was just under 4500 rpms.
3rd really no restrictions as this gear isn't really straining on a tranny when selected but that doesn't mean there isn't.
please don't hold me accountable for any damage. it is hard to explain this properly for me with out showing how to use the engine braking but it is especially useful in snow. as well as driving in second in snow as the increased rpm can give more traction.

please forgive the length and sloppiness of the typing

i'm sure i have more as i have done many fixes to just keep going ill add more as i can think of them if it would please the forum.

enjoy rednecking your car to keep it going!

89camaro

i wanted to edit my post above to add a comment but the button seems to be missing. i already edited it a couple time to add stuff so if a mod could merge this with that id appreciate it.

i wanted to add that i drove my car with no brakes, no revers,overdrive, or second gear. meaning only gears 1 and 3 (the car will shift to 3rd at the very end of first gear) by using engine braking and the parking brake.
yes im really crazy

Snoopdogie187

To add, i mostly drove stick. For the most part i never used the brakes untill i was going slow enough and had to come to a complete stop. I would always downstift and keep doing that till in first gear about 1000 rpms.

Also, to add more for stick... it is possible to not use the clutch. Not sure how bad it is, i have heard stories from my uncle, and i did try it a little. I do not suggest trying it unless you have a good idea of what you are doing. This can ruin the clutch/trains if done wrong. It also works for downsifting but it is harder. To do this, you basically have to match the speed of the trans to the engine. Once they are matched up, it will slip into gear. It does not require a lot of force, you are not really forcing it in either. I did it with a 94 Hyndaiu Scoupe (mostly drove this) and i could do it almost all the time with pratice. To downsift it is harder as you have to step on the gas to raise the rpms of the engine. I also did it with a 92 pathfinder. For that i mostly applied a little force wen sifting and it went in when it was ready, the 94 i had to do it a lot quicker and i worked off timing for it.
Downside: do it wrong, it can grind the gears and do a lot of damage.

Also, hard to do, but if you have a car that stales when stopping, step on the clutch normally, and i fund it eaiser to just use my right foot to control the brake and step on the gas enough to keep the engine going, but do it carefully since the more you step on brake, he more likely you are to step harder on the gas too. Also, if you NEED to stop quickly, let it stall, just go for the brake and forget everyting else.

I adivise you that if you are going to try any of this, do so in an area that is controlled, with no one else around. Just be smart and do not put your life in danger or anyone elses. Also, i am warning you, some of this can damage your car, as the person above me, i gave you a lot of warning, so please do not hold me accountable for anyting either. Some of this, is do so at your own risk.

Also, just courious, i never had a problem yet, but maybe some one else knows. When you stoped useing the tranny, and no brakes, there will be no brake lights even if they work. Is it possible for a cop to bother you about that?

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89camaro

my guess is no. i frequently sit at stop lights in neutral in my auto and have never been bothered. also i have stopped without brakes and never had problems its when you slow suddenly with no brakes that there could be a problem since a gradual stop is very easy for someone behind you to match.
also it should be noted that you do not have to apply the brakes to the point that they are stopping the car or slowing for your brake lights to be on. they will turn on with the lightest amount of pressure onthe pedal. its just how that witch is designed.

onewolf1952

I had some one cut my fuel line once long ago for reasons I will not go into but I used a bic pen barrel to put the two haves together works great.