I’m always asked lots of questions. Where is my car air conditioning accumulator? I get this question all the time. The first questions is; what is an accumulator? The second question is where is it located on the vehicle?

An ac accumulator system uses a large metal can to absorb excess presure in the system. You can always tell an accumulator system because of the large can and that the system uses an orifice tube instead of an expansion valve. This is a completely different than a drier system. We’ll talk about a drier system tomorrow.

Accumulators are typically located close to the evaporator so look up against the firewall. The picture shown is a 1998 Chevy A/C Compressor System. You can easily spot the accumulator at the back with all the hoses going into it.

Yesterday I did an article about the checking the Engine Coolant Level. In the article I mentioned it should be flused every 60-90 thousand miles.

The question is how? The typically flush uses an actual cleaning flush solvent that is powered through with an air gun. Sometimes just pouring it through will get the job done. You want to be careful to not use too much pressure as you could damage the radiator.

As always, you want to consult a guide book for your car. Some places online have good deals on car repair manuals. You really should have one for your car anyway.

Its should be pretty common knowledge, but you should always keep the coolant level full. Engine coolant helps keep the temperature of the engine in normal range. Low coolant level cause the engine overheating, which is vital for the engine. Also true is that it keeps the engine from freezing.

How to check the engine coolant fluid level:
The coolant level should be between “LOW” and “FULL” marks in the coolant expansion tank as in the picture. If it’s lower, you should top it up. If there is no coolant in the expansion tank at all, you should add the coolant into the radiator also. But remember, NEVER open the radiator or the expansion tank cap when engine is hot! It can burn you and cause serious damage.

When engine temperature is close to normal, which is usually at least 10 minutes after the engine is off , simply add coolant into the expansion to “FULL” mark. and into the radiator if needed.

Remember, you should also flush the system every 60-90K miles. This ensure that no build up or contamination gets in there. This should be done more frequently if you are driving off road, in high temps, or high mileage. All of these parts and more Toyota parts can be found at BuyAutoParts.com. I don’t have a recommendation on any brand, but stick with the major names.

What is a reverse rotation steering box and when is it used?

A Reverse rotation steering gearbox is when the output shaft turns at the opposite direction to the input shaft. This is done by changing both shafts inside of the box. The input shaft for reverse rotation would need to be connected on the opposite side of the output shaft. This will enable the shaft to turn in the opposite direction.

Reverse Rotation Gearbox is used on most Chevrolet Van Steering Box and on some Dodge Van Steering Box. Most cars put the steering gear behind the front axle. This is considered standard. These vans have very forward chassis designs and thus the steering is ahead of the front axle and unless you want the van to steer opossite, you will need the box to be reverse.

The other reason for reversing boxes is hot rod or specialty applications that are pushing the steering ahead of the axle. Many of these people will have gearboxes changed. Some gears can and some cannot be converted. The Dodge Ram Steering Rack cannot be changed, but many other applications can be changed over. Call Discount Steering at 1-800-617-4492.

I have spent alot of time talking about Black Death and showing black death pictures and i even copied them on my knol.

The black death pictures in previous blogs were of very bad systems. The picture below is from a Honda CRV Compressor. We did a quick test on the system by wiping the inside of the port. In this particular vehicle the contamination that was removed from the Sanden Compressor does not seem that much, but it is plenty to destroy a compressor. This particular compressor locked up and the system failed. Everything had to be replaced.

The lesson from this is that ANY contamination can destroy a system. In this case the level of black death may have been small, but it is way too much. It is crucial to thouroughly clean out the system to ensure you don’t destroy the new compressor. A small amount of debris will cause a compressor to fail.

Read our recent article about Audi Turbo or Natually Aspirated. Now its your turn to vote. Please vote and add some comments.

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So with the price of gas these days, everyone is looking for better mileage. I had a friend who was looking at buying a late model off lease Audi A4. He was looking at both the Audi Turbo model and the non turbocharger model. The question is, which way to go?

Audi offers both the Audi A4 Turbo model and the naturally aspirated version. Both are fun cars to drive, but the extra kick of the turbo and the better MPG usually wins it for me.

The turbo version will typically get much better MPG too. I say typically because if the turbo is not working correctly or has been over juiced, then maybe not. The problem with the turbocharged vehicles is that they don’t have the boost until about 2-3 thousand RPM. Some drivers just don’t like that. They feel like they need that extra power at take-off. I personally can live without it. Especially at $4 gas.

Every manufacturer has different ways of coding their vehicles. If you are looking for BMW parts you often need to know the chassis code. For Audi Parts and Volkswagen Parts it is the Engine Code.

Where do you find the Engine Code? Typically there is a metal plate located under the hood. This will have lots of information about the vehicle. The engine code for Audi is typically a 3 letter code.

The engine code for an 2001-2004 VW Jetta Diesel is ALH. This ‘ALH’ engine is also used in the Beetle diesel engine and can be used to find parts. In 2004 they introduced the BEW Diesel engine. In 2004 it was a transition year. You would need to know this code since they sold both engines that year.

One of the quickest and lightest ways to put steering in your hot rod or other crazy new vehicle is a vega steering box. You can now buy these new for under $200 which makes them a great choice.

My favorite reason for using these is that they require no steering pump, so they are fuel efficient. They are the smallest and lightest Chevrolet Steering rack or box ever made. In this era of high oil prices and $4.50 gallon of gas, you need to be thinking fuel efficient. I don’t recommend you go pull out power steering on every car, but worth thinking about on a repair or upgrade.

You will need to build your system with a pitman arm and inner tie rod ends, but those are straight forward. If you have a light weight car, you need to consider this.

I’ve spent lots of time talking about Black Death in an AC Compressor system. Even now on my knol.

Now I actually have a picture of the damage done by Black Death. You can look at the picture and see the before and after. Many people don’t believe this is possible, but here is the proof. It is pretty much proof positive that the Climate Control system is the most difficult system to work on because of its tendancy to destory other parts. Its could be classified a predator system.

I cannot stress to everyone working on this system that they must start clean. If there is any traces of contaminates in the system then the condenser and evaporator should also be changed. Do not take chances.

Let me know if you have any other cool pictures, I’ll post them up.