Answers to your car questions
QUESTION
My vehicle is a 2006 Chevrolet half-ton and I recently had the valve cover gaskets replaced because of leaking. The garage has been very fair with me but the gaskets seem to be still leaking. They have again replaced one of them but it is still leaking. The garage has pretty well told me that they cannot do anything more for me than what they have already done. Do you have any idea what the solution is for me? I would appreciate anything that you can advise. Mat from Dunnville
ANSWER
When I spoke to your garage, I asked them if they had had any problems removing the valve covers in order to replace the gaskets. They told me that the left valve cover was very difficult to remove and that they had to pry it off after the retaining bolts were removed. I had a similar situation many years ago when I was on the bench. I had to pry one of the valve covers off an engine and it would never seal properly after that. I suspected that the prying off of the valve cover twisted it and it would not seal properly. I put on cork gaskets and then rubber gaskets and the leak persisted. The only way that I could get the leak to stop was to replace the valve cover along with a new gasket. In your case, the garage was reluctant to agree that they might have bent the valve cover but I did get them to agree that if you purchase a new or used valve cover, they would install it for you at no cost. There is a chance that a used valve cover might also be bent so I would recommend that you purchase a new one for the garage to install for you.
QUESTION
I read you column all the time and just wanted you and your readers to know that contrary to what you said in your column on 09, 07, 2018, the court does take sympathy to ones speedometer not being correct. I received a speeding ticket in a school zone and I insisted to the officer that I was only going the posted speed. The officer told me to take it to court if I found out that the odometer was incorrect. I did as you suggested and used the GPS and found out that the odometer was reading six kilometres slower than what I was going. The ticket was dismissed. Marty from Simcoe
ANSWER
You certainly did arouse my curiosity so I reached out to you by phone and your wife answered the phone. She told me that the ticket was dismissed but not because of the issue surrounding the ticket but that the officer did not show up in court. I also found out that you put bigger tires on your vehicle, which would alter the speedometer reading unless you recalibrate it to account for the bigger tires. Now that you are aware of the speedometer discrepancy, I hope you will mind your speed around the school zones in the future.
QUESTION
I’ve been an avid reader of your column for quite some time, always interesting and informative. Last week the topic was raised about the legality of somebody having work done on their vehicle by either themselves or another person who isn’t a licensed mechanic, especially items relating to safety, for example brakes, steering components etc. I retired from the heating and air-conditioning field several years ago. In that field, the person performing the work must be licensed. If it involves fossil fuels, they must be an insured contractor registered with “The Safety Standards Authority.” There is not however, a law prohibiting a person from doing his or her own furnace repairs. Before they do work on their own furnace, the homeowner best check with their insurance provider. Some companies will not cover the owner if a fully qualified and insured contractor did not do repairs. If the furnace was to cause a fire and the house burn down (God forbid anyone get hurt), the Insurance Company may not pay. It would be interesting to know if any of the Auto Insurance companies have similar stipulations regarding auto repairs involving safety related items. Al from Smithville ON
ANSWER
You asked a good question so I contacted the Insurance Bureau of Canada and this is their E-mail response: “Sorry it has been a crazy week with IBC responding to the tornado response in Ottawa and Gatineau. There are no exclusions under the auto policy to prevent someone from doing repairs on their own vehicle. The auto policy would respond to all claims unless there was a violation of the policy unrelated to the repairs to the vehicle. The Ontario Auto policy provides coverage for most claims, but for those where criminal charges/convictions are made, and even then for example drunk driving there are minimum limits available. Overall, there are no exclusions for individuals who do their own repairs. If the repairs (in this case brakes) were the cause of the loss the damage for repairs to the vehicle would be covered under collision. It would likely be an at fault-loss, especially if a single vehicle collisions and deductible would apply.” Steve Kee Director, Media & Digital Communications
MY COMMENT
What we are being told by the IBC, I have to accept but because of the numerous possibilities of improperly doing safety work on your own vehicle when you are not qualified, sure does put your life and the life of everyone else on the road in jeopardy.