For years, contemporary wisdom said to let the spark jump ¼ inch, and if you had that much spark, it was enough. But spark can jump that far in sea-level air pressure and still not have enough pop. Finding the spark is the place to start with hard starts.

My spare ride is a 1980 model Ford pickup with a 300 straight six. While I enjoy tinkering with cars and trucks at work with my students, having to fix one of my own when it breaks is like having to repair the lawn mower when it's time to cut the grass.

There's a lot going on between the road we're traveling and the hood of our cars, and with all the dynamics related to brakes, suspension, steering and wind turbulence, noise-hunting isn't for the lazy or faint-hearted. But what do you charge someone for chasing a noise that can sometimes gobble up most of the day?

The Dodge Stratus came to us with three primary concerns, and Ethan tackled the MIL concern first. But there was a PO128 code, and we found that the thermostat had literally broken. But other vehicles were not as easy to fix.

Today's transversely mounted V6 engines are stuffed in really tight engine compartments, particularly in minivans, and handling heat on those platforms is always a serious concern. A healthy emission-friendly engine generally needs to run no cooler than 200 degrees F and not much above 230. With that in mind, it's quite interesting that some electric cooling fans don't even kick in before the Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor reads nearly 230. That's a pretty tight temperature window, and little things can upset the balance.

Water management is a wonderful thing that we take for granted until it doesn't work right. Harness grommets can become unseated and give water a path. A wire harness with a tape breach in the upper side can carry water to a place inside the car where the harness droops and drips water on the carpet. Then there are convertible tops.

One of the niftiest things about opening the hood on a car that has been at several other shops is that in many cases, they've done all the hard work for you. Be that as it may, it's wise to gather the data that you know is pertinent and come to your own conclusions.

A Lexus SC300 came into our shop once with an oil leak that we identified as a power steering pressure line leak. The owner later brought in his mother's 1996 Chevy Blazer to have its engine worked on. From that Blazer to oil leaks in Chevy trucks, the author details a number of situations encountered on Chevys.

A driver brought his Probe into the shop with an inoperative A/C and a dead charging system, and both concerns had happened simultaneously. When they opened the hood, they saw that the 2.5L had tossed its outboard serpentine belt (the one that drives the compressor and the alternator) but the inboard belt (which drives the water pump and power steering) was still in place. There were other surprises that appeared after the belts were replaced and the driver tried to leave the shop.