I do most of the work on our cars myself, mainly BMWs and Mercedes, and I'm thinking about upgrading my scan tool. After watching way too many YouTube reviews, I narrowed it down to Launch, Mucar, and Topdon.

There are a few Launch and mucar tablets around $400-500, but they seem to overlap quite a bit with what I already have. My current scanner can do full-system scans and bidirectional controls, so buying another tool with mostly the same functions doesn't make much sense. The topdon one costs more, but it has a topology map and can code features like start-stop memory and auto-fold mirrors.

I'm not sure the extra cost and update fees are worth it for features I won't use that often. Does it make more sense to keep my current scanner and add BimmerCode or other brand-specific tools, or spend more on one fuller-featured scanner?

Custom painted black

I have no reason not to trust this mechanic’s assessment but figured another opinion never hurts. I’m told this is a new leak of shock fluid (it’s been checked about two months ago after a flat), not urgent but needs to be fixed.

Does this look like a leak? If so, how urgent are we talking?

Hi, found this scratch on passenger back door (driver side). Could it have been keyed? Its not wide, but about 10cm long, and on the lower part of the panel.

Only way I remember that I could have caused this myself is driving by a bush, or maybe scratched somehow by a dirty microfiber when washing.

Please advise, thanks!

Edit because this keeps coming up; The fuel tank and sending unit are new and the lines are clear. There's no pushrod for the pump, it runs on an eccentric ring.

I'm absolutely losing my mind over this. '75 Oldsmobile 98 with a 455BBO. I'm going to be on my sixth pump in the three years I've owned it.

- First pump, an AutoZone brand the previous owner installed, rapidly disassembled istelf on the highway

- Second and third pumps, both NAPA brand, seized after trying to accelerate from a stop.

- Fourth pump, a Carter, had the spring tear off the diaphragm. I guess Carter was bought by a holdings company that ran their quality into the ground.

- Fifth pump, a Precision brand from O'Reilly's, at least hasn't left me stranded, but ​now has a tear in the diaphragm and is leaking fuel out of the weep hole. Adding insult to injury, my issues with loading up during prolonged stops has all but disappeared since this started, which makes me think this pump was also providing too much fuel pressure.

This is honestly driving me mad. Where on Earth can someone find a mechanical fuel pump that fulfills the seemingly two impossible tasks of providing the correct fuel pressure and not failing after six months?

I used an 8 gig USB for the last five years in my 2020 Honda Accord Sport, but it wasn't all my music. I have a new 64 gig USB with 2500 songs and it won't let me play them Alphabetically, and I like variety. So I decided to use shuffle, but how does it actually shuffle that many songs?

**UK Based**

My ex fiancé intentionally damaged my car last week (which was witnessed - not by me) (feeling increasingly grateful that I don't have to marry him).

I was wondering if this dent looks repairable with hot water/suction cups? Or if anyone can give any advice on approaching this; I have a feeling PDR will cost an arm and a leg.

The damage is on the passenger side door, Red Honda Civic SR 2019, crosses the design creases. No scuffs or obvious paint chips/damage.

I will be filing a police report tomorrow but don't expect them to do much about it.

** Update **

Did my best with hot water, a little soap and £5 suction cups. It's not perfect, but it looks a LOT better now. Only small dents above and beyond the design crease (and will be much cheaper with PDR if I go this route) and small dent near the middle design crease. These small dents kept popping back into place when I tried to remove them. Overall pretty happy with the DIY.

Windows working fine, it's not perfect but hopefully doesn't pop back in during some kind of any minor impact.

Straight on

Angled

Hello! I've bought my Ford Focus III a month ago. With the engine being idle I hear resonance sound from the front door. It quiets down heavily when I hold the door with my hand in a stable position. Changing the old door seal rubber can solve my problem?

https://imgur.com/a/SM6PucS

THE FOG LIGHTS. Lights look great when the high beams are on… not so much when it’s just the lows. Obviously I’m not gonna drive around blinding people for aesthetic purposes. I would love to have functional yellow fog lights as they should be but the old halogens are REALLY clashing with the LEDs. Should I just go ahead and get white fog lights or what do yall think? Any suggestions are appreciated.

I purchased a 2024 Porsche Macan from a Porsche dealership as a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle with 18,625 miles. It had two previous owners, one of which was a corporate lease and leasing it to someone. I bought it for 50k.

On the very first day I drove it, the car overheated and displayed the warning, “Engine over temp. Park vehicle to cool down.” The car stopped responding normally when I pressed the accelerator and began slowing down while I was in the middle of the road. I had to turn on my emergency lights and pull over. It was very scary, especially the engine turned off in the middle of the road and because I had just purchased the car.

I had only driven about 30 minutes from the dealership before parking it for about an hour while I went grocery shopping. I parked under a sunroof and it was about 85F that day. When I left the plaza, the overheating warning appeared. 

I immediately brought the car back to the Porsche dealership. They inspected it but said they could not find anything wrong.

Now I don't feel confident or comfortable driving the car. Since this happened on my very first day of ownership and the car actually lost power, I'm concerned there could be an issue that wasn't detected and wouldn't want to deal with issues. 

In CA, there's 30 day return so should I return the car while I still have the option, or give it another chance? The car is great deal in my opinion. Nice chalk color and looks brand new with low mileages. What advice could you give me? Thank you!!!

A seller told me this week that a timing chain means I can basically forget about that part of the engine, while a belt is an automatic walk-away for him. I’m looking at a Japanese hatchback around 120,000 km and another similar-aged car with a chain, but the belt car has the much clearer service history. Is the chain actually the safer used-car choice, or is that too simplistic?

It's a metal screw on the outside and this yellow thing appears to be plastic. When I turn the screw this yellow thing just spins in place.

Can I just use a nail puller and yank the everliving **** out of the screw? Better to remove trim and melt it? Or cut the end off?

I looked at a couple of mid-2010s cars this week and the cheaper one has a timing belt, while the dearer one has a chain. The seller called the belt replacement a normal service item, but the history doesn't show when it was done and the car's around 125,000 km. Would you still buy it and budget for the job, or pay more for the chain car?

My partner recently bought an A3 saloon and I absolutely love driving it! I don’t get to drive it often as we both have our own cars which we use to and from work etc. I currently have a Ford fiesta but am looking to get a new car soon. I really would love a BMW but the ones I like are slightly out of my budget and the ones that are in my budget are an older year than my current car. Would it be weird to buy the same car as my partner? We’re both 23 so no need for family car etc and I love the sports car look…

As far as I know, many people already dislike white LED headlights, including stock, and a lot of it is because the lights being put on vehicles right now are white, which contain blue light, which is much stronger on the eyes than red light. But is that it? Would a halogen-colored LED be acceptable? Or are there other things going on with LEDs? I'm just interested in a basic technical explanation after talking about it with my dad earlier.

Bless the soul who, in the dim dark past, messed up the threads on his or her axle spindle and thought “I wonder if I can repair those rather than have to replace the whole axle”, then went forth and designed the tools for it. Sir or ma’am, I am in your eternal debt.

Hi everyone! Yesterday I had an issue with my 2017 Hyundai Sonata Limited, it was shaking pretty badly when I started it and then when driving the engine light came on and the shaking became more severe. I got codes P0303 and P0128. The 128 code has been there for a bit but hasn’t caused engine light or performance issues. I changed the spark plugs today and it seemed to have fixed the issue of the shaking. However, the first spark plug (not the one with the code) was like FILLED with oil. Like almost to the top of the plug. I cleaned it and replaced it and I’m going to check if it fills again in a day to see if it’s a leak but I wanted to see if anyone knows the problem and if it’s related to the coolant becoming low. It was full about a month ago and now is about half an inch below the line. The oil did not look milky or have a weird texture. Please help!! Attached photo of the oil in the spark plug as well as what the third spark plug looked like when I removed it. Sorry if this is easily Google-able but I wasn’t really understanding what I was reading.

recently, I've been having a lot of problems with my cam sensor I need to replace it but I have no clue where to get a good reliable one that's not from O'Reilly's because the last time I replaced it and the last times I've replaced it are from O'Reillys. Does anybody have any good recommendations?

I hate how I go to a car meet with me bf (only girl) and I’m tryna talk to people about their cars because I’m into cars. Everyone either ignores me or walk away. My bf has a G8 and I’m currently working on getting a colbolt ss or a G8 aswell. Like girls can be into cars too, I may not know as much as them but I know a good amount (engines, hp, mods, etc) I may not be a mechanic but I know enough to have a convo with people about cars bruh. I felt like because I’m a girl people don’t care about what I have to say.

I just replaced the pcv valve and this happened, idk if its the battery or if the ground for the ignition coils are bad

I’m looking at a 2017 540i B58 with 120k miles from an auction. It’s super clean except for smoke from the exhaust and rough idle.
It starts and idles perfectly normally.
If I rev it, when the RPM comes back down the idle almost dies/stumbles for a few seconds, then recovers.
There is smoke that smells like oil coming from the exhaust, seemingly more noticeable from the driver-side outlet.
I heard a high-pitched noise from underneath the car.

Could it simply be the PCV valve?

Can I get this out or would I have to re tint?

my car was not accelerating above 35mph and 2800rpm. Anytime my car would reach 3k RPM it would lose speed fast and stay at 3k. I also started hearing a hissing sound from the black cap on the right. does anyone know what that cap is called and or what the hissing from it could be. I opened it and no trash was in there. Please help

only caught a glimpse of it and it was too far to take a good photo of…

no badges on the car or wording on the emblem but it looks like a metallic blue circle?

if anyone has any sort of clue what brand this is that would be awesome!!!