Andy Answers Viewer Questions From His Highly Viewed Videos

What's up, guys? It's Andy. We get tons of comments and questions on our videos. I've picked out some of the best to go over.

The first question is from Dillon Gavin. He asked the question on our serpentine belt hack video. We were trying to see if we could use any type of product other than a serpentine belt to get the vehicle home. "Do they randomly break or can a guy just keep on a visual inspection and be okay?" So, yes, Gavin, a visual inspection would be acceptable for a serpentine belt. They normally don't just break on their own, it is something that if the serpentine belt is neglected, and you have, like, 200,000 miles on a vehicle and it's never been changed. Normally, they don't break just at 60,000 miles. What you're looking for in a serpentine belt is making sure there's no crack in it, no dry rot, or any fraying. If the belt starts fraying on the edges, you know it's time to replace it.

In that same video, James Bolin asked, "Why didn't you wrap any of the fixes around the tensioner pulley? That way it forces the fix around the water pump pulley. That's what I would have done." Well, let's go try it. Basically, what James is talking about is these two pulleys right here, and why I didn't run the wire ties around the tensioner and the idler pulley. Now, his theory is if you put it around the tensioner pulley, you'll be able to tighten these up and the pump will be able to spin properly. One of the other reasons why I didn't have it go over these was, you're gonna have to use a lot more wire ties, and also there's more potential for the wire ties to fall off. But we're gonna try it right now and see if it actually works.

So, I'll just tighten these up a little bit, and if I loosen some tension on the tensioner and try to tighten these up a little more. The tensioner is putting a little tension on them. So, that's definitely tighter than how I got them before. So, let's cut the excess off and start the vehicle up to see what happens. All right. So it looks like it's working. Whoa. So, it does seem like it works. I just wonder how long it'll stay on there. I was worried that it was gonna fall off. Even with the belt like that, it seems like there's maybe a little bit of power steering, but really not much. So, that actually worked. I'm kinda surprised. I thought the wire ties were gonna fly off. So, thanks for the comment, James. And this is not a repair you should ever do. It was just a cool video that we had fun making.

The next question comes from Hot Rod 1949, and it is in relation to the engine bay cleaning video that we did. And he asked, "What about steam cleaning the engine? My dealership offers this service." So, I used to work for a dealership, and most of the times dealerships are on point. There is those rare few. So, if you're unsure about this, what you want to do is ask a lot of questions. Ask the service advisor, maybe even get the service manager involved, and just tell them your concerns. But them being a dealership, they should know what they're doing and not mess it up. If they do, they're gonna have to pay for it.

In that same video, Set Ward asked, "Would something like Simple Green be safe under the hood?" And, actually, that's my favorite go-to cleaner whenever I'm cleaning anything automotive-related. So, I think it's definitely safe under the hood, just stay away from those problem areas. Anthony Gianchinta says, "Was that car one that you were sending to the junk yard?" And the answer is yes, eventually. It's gonna take some time. We want to do as many destructive videos to that car as possible, so stay tuned for those.

Our next question is from Kyle Matesic. He asked a question about our leveling kit video. He says, "Did I see a broken end link when reinstalling the strut?" Good eyes, Kyle. We definitely had a broken end link there, and it wasn't part of the video, so we didn't repair that at that time. We were just trying to get the video done and out. We still have that truck, we still gotta fix that end link. And in that same video, Bradley Menezes says, "What about an Avalanche with torsion bars in the front and coil springs in the rear?" Well, let's take a look at some torsion bars.

Some vehicles have coil springs in the front. This vehicle, like an Avalanche, has torsion bars. So, there's a bar that goes all the way to the front lower control arm, and it comes back, and there's a little cam right here. And if you have an Avalanche and you wanted to raise up the front of the vehicle, you can actually do that by tightening this bolt right here. That's gonna raise the suspension. If that's not enough for you, if you want more of a leveling kit, and you want the rear raised up as well, they do make kits where you replace just this cam and it's gonna have a different angle in there, and that's gonna bring the front suspension up even more. And then there's also adaptors for the rear coil springs that you can put on to bring up the rear.

And the last video we're gonna talk about is the breaking down video. The car or trucks breaking down on the side of the road safety tips. Now, a lot of comments got left about how awesome the special effects were, and I want to introduce you to the genius behind that, and that is Sam.

Yeah, I did that.

He's our video editor and videographer at 1A Auto. He does an amazing job.

I do my best. Just trying to make this guy look good.

Hey, he does an awesome job. So, I hope you enjoyed all those videos. If you did, make sure you subscribe to our channel. Ring a bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos. I guess I've said it a couple times lately.