Q: I own a 1995 Mazda MPV with an automatic transmission and 225,000 miles on it. The transmission will not consistently shift to drive. Some times _ if I'm lucky _ I can shift to drive. But then I can't shift to park or reverse. I'm wondering what's causing this problem.
_Juan
A: Juan, I'm wondering if you may have a cable-linkage fault that is preventing the shifter from delivering the correct mechanical request to the transmission. When the MPV fails to engage drive, do you get neutral instead? How about getting reverse or neutral when you're attempting to select park? If so, a close look at the linkage, particularly at the transmission end of the cable, may steer you to a simple fix.
Q: I own a 2006 Armada with 250,000 miles on it. The car just runs and runs. We love it.
But the driver's sun visor won't stay up. It keeps falling into my sight line, and I don't see any way to tighten it. No little Allen nut or even a way to remove it and fix. Any suggestions?
_David
A: That's good to hear about the Armada's impressive service life. I'm hoping you might be able to remove the sun visor from its mount and shaft by twisting and tugging on it. Then align the visor with the now-exposed shaft and, using a piece of tape, mark a location on the visor about 1 inch back from where the end of the shaft would be if installed.
Next, using a pair of quarters as protective pads, try squeezing with vise grips the sun visor where the shaft would pass through your tape mark. This will be a trial-and-error attempt to gently crush the metal sleeve inside the visor just enough to increase friction when the shaft is pushed firmly back into the visor. Creating a very slight bend in the shaft would be another way to increase friction. Hopefully one of these options will spare you from renewing the $200 part.
I almost forgot: A replacement from an auto dismantler would be another option. Hopefully Nissan uses this same part and trim color on more than one model, increasing your chances of finding a matching donor.
Q: How important is it to rotate tires? I have new car and do my own oil changes and basic services, but rotating the tires is a hassle to do at home with only one jack. I now have 10,000 miles on the clock, and the tires appear to be wearing evenly.
_Jeromy L.
A: The answer to this depends on the type of driving you do, the type of tires you have, and the type of vehicle. About half of my lengthy daily commute is on winding mountain roads, which really take a toll on the outer edges of the front tires, making it important to rotate my tires every 4,000 miles or so. My Volt is also front wheel drive, so the front tires tend to wear more quickly than the rears. A rear-wheel-drive vehicle driven in the city and in fairly straight highway situations could likely go further between rotations. Wider performance-oriented tires require more frequent rotation as well. It's best to aim for all four tires wearing out at the same time so a performance imbalance of two new and two older tires doesn't occur. I'd buy a pair of jack stands and go to the extra trouble of rotating tires at least at each oil change!
