Just in time for the holidays, from November 19th through December 31, 2020, Dash Designs is offering RockAuto customers an exclusive 7% instant rebate on their Kingston Seat Covers! Kingston is Dash Designs' newest workhorse fabric. Available in four shades, this polyester blend has unmatched durability and a water repellent finish. It is a must for Jeeps, work trucks, or any other vehicle where interior protection is needed!

In addition to Kingston, Dash Designs offers more than a dozen other fabric options available in a wide variety of colors. With material options like Velour, Tweed, Mesh, Neosupreme, and Neoprene, Dash Designs has a seat cover that fits your lifestyle. By hand-fitting patterns to the actual seat and using state-of-the-art CAD-CAM machinery, Dash Designs' covers are truly a custom fit and installation is a breeze with the included instructions, hardware and tool.

Find Dash Designs' Seat Covers for specific cars, SUVs and trucks in the "Interior" category of the RockAuto.com catalog. Simply put the Kingston Seat Cover (marked with a ) in your cart to instantly save an additional 7% off RockAuto's reliably low prices!

RockAuto's prices are reliably low every day of the year. Shop RockAuto.com to get your holiday shopping done early, without having to search for sales!

Parts like a new Tail Lamp Assembly, Outside Mirror, Lift Supports or Floor Mats can roll back the years on a loved one's favorite vehicle.

Do you enjoy wandering through old-fashioned, small-town hardware stores or flipping through catalogs and discovering fun, often inexpensive gift ideas that you did not even know existed? If yes, then you will definitely enjoy perusing the fascinating tools and parts available under the "Tools & Universal Parts" tab!

Discover a Spill-Free® Funnel that makes it easy to completely refill a car's cooling system without any mess. Be amazed by a magnetic Soldering Clamp that provides a long needed second set of hands. Smile as you view a cornucopia of replacement Door Panel Retainer/Clips. Feel peace when you see Tachometers with shift lights that can automatically remind a new driver that the transmission has a fifth gear or announce redline RPM is approaching.

Not sure what someone needs or maybe he/she would enjoy shopping the RockAuto.com catalog on his/her own? Make your gift giving easy with a RockAuto Gift Certificate! A Gift Certificate will let the recipient get the parts or tools he/she most wants!

BlazerForum.com is an online community of Chevrolet Blazer owners and enthusiasts. From the full size first generation K5, to the Blazer CUV, and all other models and variants in between. They are all discussed in this comprehensive forum.

You will find tech articles on maintenance, mechanical, electrical, suspension, modifications, off-roading and just about anything else you can think of; even a "General Chat" section to discuss all things Blazer not mechanically related.

If you are the administrator or member of a forum and you would like to see your website featured in an upcoming newsletter and receive a discount code to share with your members, contact marketing@rockauto.com.

Some years ago, I bought a 2006 Focus SE for my daughter to commute to school. Solid little car, but it had an annoying squeak in the right rear when the car would hit a bump. I lubed everything in sight, tightened every fastener, pulled the rear seat, even injected grease under the sway bar bushings, but all to no avail. I was ready to replace the trailing arm thinking that bushing was shot and there was nothing else left to check. When jacking up the car for one last inspection, I heard a tiny squeak when I touched the parking brake cable.

Lo and behold, the cable was rubber coated and the coating had worn away where the cable was routed through a grommet (also worn away) below the floor pan. Could it be? A two-inch piece of vacuum hose (a part from RockAuto left over from another project) made a temporary grommet, and the problem was solved! And my daughter still teases me about all the hours I spent staring at the underside of that little Ford!

Mark in Pennsylvania

Editor's Note: We hope you find the Blunder stories entertaining but they can also contain valuable advice like this fellow DIYer recently discovered:

"I read the RockAuto newsletter regularly and the "Repairs Blunders" in a recent newsletter saved me from a terrible error. I had been encountering clutch slippage on my 1996 Toyota Corolla and after 289,000 miles had used all the adjustment the hydraulic clutch linkage seemed to have. Like the person who made the error described on the Saturn, it turned out to be a slave cylinder full of crud, keeping the piston from returning fully when the clutch is released. I replaced it and it seems fine now with no sign of slippage! Thank you!"

Tell us about your most infamous auto repair blunder or unconventional fix. Use your woe to help others avoid similar mistakes or share off-the-wall solutions that worked (at least for a while!). Please email your story to flamur@rockauto.com. Include your mailing address and if you would like a RockAuto T-Shirt (please let us know your shirt size) or Hat if we publish your story. See the T-Shirts and Hats under Tools & Universal Parts in the RockAuto catalog. The story will be credited using only your first name and your vague geographic location (state, province, country, continent, etc.) so you can remain semi-anonymous!

The replica 1963 Aston Martin DB5 stunt car used in the latest James Bond movie slid too easily on the roads in Matera, Italy. How was this problem solved?

A. Two undriven "roller" wheels/tires were added directly in front of the rear axle on each side of the driveshaft.
B. Before filming, the wheels were heated to 125 C (257 F) with propane torches while tire air pressure was monitored/released.
C. Learning from the sticky floors in movie theaters, film crews sprayed the roads with hundreds of gallons of sugary soft drinks.

Answer below

Last week, the battery in my '86 Ford Mustang GT finally died after I stopped to fill up its fuel tank. A month ago, the battery in my '92 Dodge B250 van died after I turned off the engine before climbing out to open a garage door. The two dead batteries exhibited identical symptoms which shed light on how to best test a car battery to avoid surprise failures.

Some dying batteries can no longer be charged to 12+ volts. However, many failing batteries still have enough volts but cannot generate enough current (amps). A voltmeter showed my Mustang's battery still had 12.8 volts of potential energy stored in it after it was "dead!" I wired a headlight up to this dead battery, and it burned brightly. My old batteries still had the voltage, could generate enough current to power a light bulb, but could no longer provide the hundreds of amps needed to spin a starter motor that is working to turn over an engine.

A battery load tester is the tool that will tell you if a battery can still produce enough amps. Heavy-duty load testers simulate the electrical current briefly drawn by a starter motor as it works to turn over an engine. If the battery no longer can generate amps close to its original cold cranking amps (CCA) and cranking amps (CA) specifications, then the battery load tester indicates the battery is "bad."

Battery Tester & Voltmeter

RockAuto has both heavy-duty battery testers that can simulate CCA and CA and inexpensive battery load testers that can test load up to 100 amps. Car owners without a load tester can always try a DIY load test at home by restarting the engine three or four times in quick succession. If the engine becomes slower to start or fails to start at all, then the battery is struggling to generate enough current. The batteries in my Dodge van and Mustang were probably unable to handle three quick engine restarts months before they unequivocally died.

Battery life spans vary widely depending on environment (cold is bad), driving conditions (hot is bad) and the vehicle. Some newer vehicles may wear out batteries faster because accessories like heated seats can draw significant current from the battery even when the engine/alternator is running. Short, low-speed drives around town are less likely to fully charge the battery.

Some batteries are clearly too old no matter what. My Dodge van's battery was over 12 years old! I faced the risk of being stranded plus the risk of unnecessarily creating confusing problems if computers lost reliable reference voltages, the alternator constantly ran at its maximum output, etc.

With eerie calm, my spouse asked the rhetorical question, "What if the van's ancient battery had died while we were on that camping trip in August?" I will not be so cavalier about testing my van's new high-tech AGM battery from RockAuto. My spouse's rhetorical questions about the van's reliability might not be so calm in 2032!

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

To read more of Toms articles, click this link and choose from story titles on the Newsletter Archives page.

This is my 1963 Chrysler 300 Sport. I have owned her for five years and have used a lot of service parts from RockAuto over the years including a rotor arm and distributor cap, control arm bushings, driveshaft universal joints, radiator hoses, air shocks as well as brake shoes, cylinders and hardware to overhaul the brakes, and I have just ordered a fresh thermostat and gaskets. She is all stock (apart from the wheels) with 383 big block and push button 727 transmission. The Chrysler recently had a few localized rust issues that turned into a complete "down to the metal" re-spray in Dodge Viper red. That worked out for the better because it helped earn her a five page feature in "Classic American" magazine here in the UK! I tend to use RockAuto for most parts as delivery to the UK does not take much longer than from suppliers here and are usually a little cheaper as well!

Thanks and regards,
Mark in the United Kingdom (RockAuto customer for over four years)

Share Your Hard Work
Do you purchase parts from RockAuto? If so, RockAuto would like to give you the opportunity to have your car or truck possibly featured in one (or occasionally more) of our publications such as the monthly newsletter, collector magnets, RockAuto social media or other commercial use. New, old, import, domestic, daily driver, trailer queen, classic, antique, we want to see them all! Please email flamur@RockAuto.com with the vehicle history, interesting details, your favorite images (tips for taking pictures of your car) and what parts from RockAuto you have used.

The replica 1963 Aston Martin DB5 stunt car used in the latest James Bond movie slid too easily on the roads in Matera, Italy. How was this problem solved?

A. Two undriven "roller" wheels/tires were added directly in front of the rear axle on each side of the driveshaft.
B. Before filming, the wheels were heated to 125 C (257 F) with propane torches while tire air pressure was monitored/released.
Answer: C. Learning from the sticky floors in movie theaters, film crews sprayed the roads with hundreds of gallons of sugary soft drinks. (source: December 2020 "Car and Driver")

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