Why You Should Never Take Your Car to an Automatic Car Wash

It’s springtime! Time to start working on your project car, learn a new wrenching skill, learn how things work under the hood, or just spruce up your daily driver. All month, we’ll be looking back at our best informative, maintenance and DIY articles from Jalopnik’s near 20-year history to...

Sep 13, 2025

All The Craigslist Shitboxes Readers Have Been Tempting Me With Lately (Vol. 4)

I don’t need any more vehicles in my life, but I sure as hell want more. And readers know this, so they continue sending emails. They tempt me with my favorite type of automobile, known in the deepest, darkest reaches of Craigslist as “the shitbox.” My favorite flat-fender Jeep is...

Sep 13, 2025

My Dodge Ram Gave Me A Subtle Reminder I Haven't Fixed Everything Yet

My Dodge Ram 2500 drove quietly and comfortably on in Anaheim, California. The same couldn’t be said for the return venture back to Kansas. Somewhere near Flagstaff, Arizona, a low -pitched growling began emanating from within the steel beast - the 3,400 mile trip had uncovered another fault in the...

Sep 13, 2025

I'm Buying That 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle Because It's Freaking Amazing

I didn’t want its beautiful gold wheels, red and gold decals, and bronze-tone rear quarter windows to hypnotize me into making a rash decision. So I took a few days to think about whether I should buy that I looked at last weekend. And—with help from readers—I’ve now realized that...

Sep 13, 2025

Behold This Insane V12 Made From Two Toyota 1JZ Engines

Modifying engines is all fun and and good, but that gets done a lot. A tuning shop in Minnesota refreshingly didn’t go that typical route, instead combining turbocharged six-cylinder engines pulled from two Supras and combining them into a V12. Don Groff at Nth Moto had the idea to meld...

Sep 13, 2025

How A Car Company Decides If It's Going To Warranty Your Modified Car

There are equal amounts of fear and bravado when it comes to modifying new cars. Many owners worried they’ll void their warranty don’t modify their car at all. Others make modifications they can reverse if they need to take a car in for warranty work. But few know what...

Sep 13, 2025

Did Ford Install The Wrong Head Gaskets On The Focus RS?

For many months, owners around the globe have been freaking out about head gasket failures. The issue has led many to believe that Ford screwed up its gasket design, but in recent weeks posed a different theory: the gasket wasn’t flawed, per se; it was just the wrong part. I...

Sep 13, 2025

My $800 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Runs For The First Time In 12 Years But My Project Is Still Doomed

For months, my has sat pathetically in my backyard, wondering if someday its 5.9-liter AMC V8—which hadn’t seen combustion in 12 years—might some day live again. Now it no longer has to wonder: the engine runs. But the Easter Jeep Safari is two months away, and I have a crap-ton...

Sep 13, 2025

The Most Underrated Mechanic's Tool: The Headlamp

I’m the only one of my friends who uses a headlamp while wrenching, and that means just one thing: my friends are fools. So today, in an effort to enlighten the masses, I will describe the sheer joy and wrenching efficiency that 1,000 forehead-mounted lumens can bring. Since the dawn...

Sep 13, 2025

All The Craigslist Shitboxes Readers Have Been Tempting Me With Lately (Vol. 5)

For some reason, even after I announced the questionable purchase of my eighth dysfunctional vehicle——readers continue sending me Craigslist links to total shitboxes, which I definitely shouldn’t buy... Right? I’ve been told repeatedly by my doctor, shrink, accountant and mother that I should probably stop buying less-than-running cars if I...

Sep 13, 2025

Ford Finally Issued A Fix For The Failing Focus RS Head Gaskets

Finally, after many months of owners complaining about failing head gaskets, the automaker has issued a technical service bulletin that will replace head gaskets—and, potentially even entire cylinder heads—on vehicles built between Aug. 2015 and July 2017 free of charge. Here are the details of that fix. If you want...

Sep 13, 2025

My $800 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Off-Road Project May Not Be As Doomed As I Thought

The Moab Easter Jeep Safari is less than two months away, and my $800 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, , is still in shambles. But I’m not as worried as I was, because I made a lot of progress last week. Normally, my off-road project updates consist of me declaring that ,...

Sep 13, 2025

All The Craigslist Shitboxes Readers Have Been Tempting Me With Lately (Vol. 6)

I’m starting to , so naturally, it’s time to surf Craigslist to find another shitbox. Actually, that’s a terrible idea, but it hasn’t stopped readers from tempting me with all these links to Craigslist crap-cans. Let’s get straight to the weirdos, starting with the horrendous in the photo above. For...

Sep 13, 2025

These Wrecking Yard Cars Are Breaking My Heart

A trip to the U-Pull-It yard can be an adventure. Every once in a while, wandering amongst the rabble, you might stumble upon a longtime crush or a car that should have had a better fate. Let’s take a look at some of those. Like Disneyland is for the youths,...

Sep 13, 2025

This 'Airbnb For DIY Garage Space' Lets You Wrench In Random People's Garages

Thirty one-year-old Andrew Koretz just emailed me about his new company, “,” which apparently allows anyone to rent out unused garage space to people who just need a place to wrench. It actually sounds like a great idea. Andrew told me over the phone that he’s a car enthusiast who,...

Sep 13, 2025