Stumpy's Garage

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Cincinnati, OH
Stumpy's Garage

Welcome to Stumpy’s Garage.

I started this during my senior year in college because I grew tired of both the prices and ethics of the nearby auto shops I can do most repairs on cars along with diagnostics for electrical, mechanical and more

03/10/2026

A Honda odyssey owner said her engine sounded rough and she didn’t have a lot of power when accelerating.

After doing some diagnostics on it I found that it had misfire codes for 4 of the 6 cylinders.

Upon taking out the spark plugs it was pretty clear why it was misfiring so bad. 3 of the spark plugs were cracked or missing some ceramic insulation and all were pretty dirty.

When your spark plugs start to go bad your MPG will drop. Sometimes a lot some times not much but replacing them at the millage that the manufacturer recommends helps a lot.

06/05/2025

When your engine is leaking oil it can leak to several area. If it leaks into the area with the spark plugs you can start to have all sorts of issues.

These issues can range from extra engine wear, having to put a lot of in to misfiring cylinder. This one had oil leaking into the coil on cylinder 2. Due to this the coil completely stopped working. Which leads to a really bad misfire and you now are using 25% more fuel.

Ignition coils are generally pretty easy to replace and have a large affect on the cars efficiency and power. They are one of the 3 main components to engine operation which are:

1. Air. It’s pretty hard to ignite something without air.
2. Fuel. Some type of fuel needs to be burned to create the energy.
3. Spark. You have to have some way to ignite what’s been introduced into the cylinder.

If one of these 3 are missing the cylinder will not be used and a lot of power will be lost or fuel wasted.

05/29/2025

Got to work on a Toyota Camry. This guy had quite the oil leak. It was leaking near the exhaust manifold, intake manifold, and spark plug tubes for cylinder 2 and 3.

After removing things the valve cover gasket fell apart. It is supposed to be soft rubber to help with sealing the surface. This one was brittle and cracked in more places than I can count.

When the valve gasket is leaking oil often, depending on where the leak is, the car will smell like burning oil. Most of the time this isn’t that big of a deal but can quickly cause other, more serious problems. If you’re able, get it fixed quickly.

05/22/2025

I’ve never been much of a fan of aftermarket add ons or such. Some are honestly amazing but more often then not I am finding that they cause a lot of random issues.

This little guy is a remote start. The system seemed okay for what it was made to do yet not the safest when it comes to signal integrity.

Although whoever installed it was not familiar with good practices in electrical wiring, splicing, routing and shielding. To put it simply, it was a rat's nest. Also, doubling or tripling wires on a single connector pin is not advised.

When you get something installed on your vehicle, please take it to someone competent and has been doing it for a while. It’ll save you in both the short and long term. If you buy the car with them always double check the wiring and what’s installed.

05/14/2025

Worked on a truck today with a towing package. The system was set up pretty well except for the main wire harness was routed right over the steering column shaft.

Over time it wears down on the wiring harness and will cause issues. Wire routing might seem simple and not a big deal but over time those moving parts will rub through the harness and cause shorts or broken wire.

This was a pretty quick and easy fix. A few zip ties and rerouting of the wiring. The figuring out why things were having issues was not nearly as easy.

If you get any electrical work done PLEASE go to someone who is familiar with electrical procedures and double check what was done. Simple things can make a world of difference.

05/10/2025

I got to do a lot of diagnostics on a car. Often the check engine light and codes can be a great help. They can also be confusing.

If someone is experienced with scan tools there is a lot that can be done to narrow down what the issue is.

With this Toyota it was a bad MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor. The computer wasn’t sure how much it was going into the engine which threw off its calculations for how much fuel to deliver and then in turn when to let the excess fuel vapors stored inside the tank/charcoal canister into the intake. One thing led to another and ended up causing a great deal of issues.

05/08/2025

I get the opportunity to work on a lot of brake and/or rotors. Many places charge an arm and a leg (which I think isn’t honest nor fair)

Much of the price depends on what you are wanting. Do you want OEM parts? Knock off brands? Performance? Mid range quality?

I was asked to check out a 2013 BMW M5. The owner took it to a shop, which quoted him several hundred dollars for a brake job. I asked him what quality level he wanted and then got the range he wanted. Turns out his brakes still had just under 50% of their material left. If something seems fishy or the price too high, get a second or even a third opinion.

05/04/2025

Wondering what’s going on here? Well, when you don’t want something to break it breaks.

This little guy is a switch that controls the heated seats. It decided to break while set to max heat. Having heated seats is great, unless it is summer.

Turned out that this Nissan piece was a pretty easy fix. Simple to take out/put in yet more difficult to not scuff to the trim pieces. The most frustrating thing was the cost of the tiny switch.

04/03/2025

Recently I had the opportunity to do some diagnostics on a Honda CRV with some intermittent electric power steering issues. I went through and checked the most common issues and what tends to ware out first.

Everything came back great. No abnormal wear on any rubber boots, joints, tie rods and such No fuse, relay or voltage issues either. Started checking wires, connectors around the EPS module.

Turned the car back on and it drove normally. No power steering issues. At all. Turned out to be an internal issues either the power steering computer (EPS module). Intermittent issues can be frustrating as there often isn’t a rhyme or reason behind them.

03/27/2025

This little guy holds all the fluid that we use to wash the windshield as we drive. After a while it can get cracked, gunked up or grow mold. Generally it cracks when it freezes (if the wrong fluid was used) or if something other the washer fluid is used it can grow things.

When it gets gunked up or grows mold the pump will spray it and often it’ll dirty the windshield up and make it hard to see.

Generally these are pretty easy and cheap to replace and can help make driving a bit safer and easier.

03/20/2025

Have you ever heard someone opening their car door and it squeaked really loudly??

Well, this little guy is often the reason. This door strap over time gets water in it or simply wears out. It’s just a minor thing and doesn’t affect much but can sure be annoying.

If it goes on for years it can make the door harder to open or sieze the door but that is pretty rare.

Address

Cincinnati, OH

Opening Hours

9:30am - 4pm

Telephone

+15135041343

Website

https://forms.gle/56CSZJ1AAKWAt7yL6

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