About Me
My name is Purab Kothari. I am 16 years old and a senior in high school. My hobbies are cars and racing. Other hobbies include playing guitar, coding games, and creating Javascript projects. However, I also volunteer at the Oregon Badminton Academy every Friday and teach the students there.
I have always been interested in cars, but being 16, I have a minimal range of what I can do. The only racing practice I can do outside of karting is on the racing simulator I use to play Assetto Corsa Competizione and F1 23. Some other projects I do relate to cars are creating a V8 engine model, and even got a project car to work on. It's a Scion FR-S in great condition. The only issue was that the previous rev-bombed the car too hard, leading the car's crankshaft bearing to wear out. It took a few hours to disassemble the boxer engine, all for a $20 part.
In the meantime, I have been job shadowing at a garage near me and going there for a few months. I have written articles about specific topics in the automotive world and Formula 1 in my spare time. These are two topics that I have a great interest in, and I am very passionate about what I write. I write about current automotive events, classic Formula 1 moments, and even some argumentative pieces on some F1 topics, all on Blogspot and Medium.
Gallery
10/07/2023
On my very first day, the customer brought in an early 2000's Toyota Sienna that had some brake issues. By the time I got there, the car was already on a lift, and the wheels were off, so I had a clear view of the braking system at eye level. My boss taught me how to take apart the brake, replace the needed part, and put the new brake system on the car. After he gave me a demo, he left me to do it myself. The problem with the car was that it had drum brakes, which are much harder to work on compared to regular disc brakes as it's a lot more complicated system. The hardest part was removing and putting on the springs, for which I had to use a special type of plier to grab onto the spring and remove them. Once the brakes were replaced, I helped put the wheels on, and lowered the car. While my job was done, the car also had a thermostat that needed replacing, and since that was a bit too complicated, I just watched from the side.
10/14/2023
On my second day, I learned how to debug issues in cars. The car was an early-2000s Dodge Grand Caravan, where there were some problems with the brake lights and indicators. The first thing we did was find out what problems the car had. It turned out both brake lights and indicators were busted, while the brake light on the top was functional. Next thing was to find out what part of the brake light was broken. Was it the bulb, the fuse, or if it was something else? As it turned out, it was the bulb that was busted. We replaced them, took it for a test drive to see if there were any other problems, then just topped off the fluids like oil, coolant, and washer fluid, and that was it for my second day.
12/09/2023
After almost 2 months, I went back to the garage to get back to work. The owner had some personal issues which stopped him from working for a while. On my first day back, I worked on a late 2000's Toyota Camry that needed a thermostat and timing belt replaced. It did not take too long, but it was difficult to get the timing belt fixed back onto the alternator. The rest of it was trying to find a thermostat that would fit in the pipe.
12/16/2023
This time, it was a short visit because the owner was feeling sick. However, before he left, me and him worked on a 2016 Toyota Camry with a transmission issue, where the car would have no power when shifting. This problem was isolated to the broken Neutral Safety Switch, and we could not do anything until a replacement arrived. However, since there were no other cars there at the moment, he left early, and so did I.
12/30/2023
After 2 weeks, I returned back to his garage, this time starting a project that I was looking forward to for a while, which was working on a hybrid car's battery, specifically a 2010 Toyota Prius battery. It contained 28 battery cells, out of which a few of them were broken. I had to test all 28 cells to find out which ones were broken and had to replace them. The complicated part, however, were the many bolts and screws I had to take out. The plates had a lot of corrosion, which was a reason why there was a loss of charge. I had to fix 56 plates, and once those were done, I had to work around the temperature sensor and the various other cables and parts. The whole thing took me 6 hours to do, and the next time I visit there, I will complete the second part, which is to install it into the car.
01/06/2024
After fixing the battery last time, the Prius had an issue with the steering wheel that required a part replacement. Immediately, I had to go to work disassembling the steering wheel. However, in order to prevent the airbag from blowing up in my face, I had to disconnect the battery to cut the power to the airbag. After that, it was not a very complicated procedure, however it was difficult to work around all the cables there, and to reconnect the correct cable to the correct slot. Another big issue with the Prius was the poor build quality, making it hard to reattach the steering wheel cover once I was done.
01/28/2024
I hadn't been to the shop in a while because of the massive winter storm in my area, but when I did, there was still a lot to do. The first thing I did when I went there was diagnose a problem in a customer's Honda CRV. As it turned out, the car wasn't feeding oil into the engine properly, meaning there was a problem with the V-TEC solenoid. This should've been a simple enough replacement of a piece, but the problem was that the solenoid was in a highly inaccessible area behind the engine block, meaning I had to remove it practically blindfolded. However, that was done pretty quick, and the car was finished. The owner of the shop had a replica of a 1930 Mercedes powered by a 2.0 liter Ford engine. It was a sensational looking car, and I drove it around the block. The throttle was very weird to use because it was more like a button on the floor of the car rather than a traditional pedal, and the brake was barely slowing the car down. There was also no power steering in the car, so parallel parking the car back in its spot was a nightmare, but it was the most fun I have ever had driving a car anywhere. I parked it inside the garage because it had some problems with the taillights when braking, but all I needed to do was replace the bulb, so it was a simple fix.
02/03/2024
Today when I went there, I had 2 cars to work on. The first one was a 2007 Mercedes AMG ML63 that had an issue in the steering wheel buttons. All I had to do was replace the steering wheel, something I had done before. However, there was an issue the moment I started working on it. Behind the steering wheel, there are 2 screws in every car that removes the steering wheel. I got one screw removed, but the other one was not coming out. The wrench was spinning, but the screw would not come out, even after trying to remove it for 2 minutes. The owner of the shop came and tried to remove it, but even he couldn't get it out, so he had to call his friend, who had some tools he could work with. Since I couldn't do anything about it, I started working on the other car, which was the old Mercedes replica I was working with last time. The car was almost finished, but to make sure there were no leaks of any kind, I took it for a test drive, and when I came back, the only thing I noticed was a faint smell, but no leaks. It was a pretty short day, but it was good to see that the car was fully functional again.
02/10/2024
I went there a bit earlier than usual this time, and so I had more time to do things. I started off with diagnosing the problem in a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan with an OBD 2 scanner. The problem, as it turned out, was a broken gearbox which needed some fixing. I handed the car over to another person at the garage, and started on the main focus of the day, which was to replace the steering column on a 2007 Mercedes Benz ML450. To remove the steering wheel first, there were 2 screws on either side of the wheel. I got one screw out easily, but the other side was broken. I used a mirror and a flashlight to inspect the damage, but because of the way the screw was positioned behind the wheel, and the tiny hole that the screw was in, it was very hard to see the screw itself. So I switched to a tiny camera attached to a handheld monitor that would show me live what the camera was seeing. So I sent the camera into the hole. As it turned out, the screw was damaged to the point where we would need a magnet to remove it. However, our magnet was too big to fit in the hole, so I used a drill to widen the hole the screw was in. Once I was done drilling the hole, however, it turned out that the plastic material that was being drilled out was only getting pushed in, which effectively made a wall around the screw. I spent 3 hours trying to pick out the plastic from the hole with a pick, but in the end, I had to give up, and the owner of the garage had to go and get a special tool to help remove the screw and remove the plastic covering it.
02/18/2024
When I went this time, it was a mostly simple day. I started off by fixing a Honda CRV. The car had trouble starting, so I had to diagnose the problem using an OBD II scanner. The issue was that the alternator wasn’t charging the battery properly, so I replaced it. The alternator was in a difficult-to-reach place, so removing it took a lot of effort, but the replacement itself wasn’t too bad.
02/24/2024
Today, I went there a little late, and when I did, there was not a lot of work to do. There was a customer who walked in with a 2017 Lexus RX350 with a Tire Pressure Monitor System warning light. At first, I used a scanner and put it against all 4 air valves because that's where the sensors were placed. I expected 1, maybe 2 sensors to be malfunctioning. However, all 4 sensors failed, so I believed there must be an issue with the scanner. I messed around with the scanner settings for a while before trying all 4 scanners again, but again it resulted in all 4 failing. I tried the scanner on a car whose scanner I knew was working, the owner of the shop worked with the car settings and figured out a way to reprogram the car's computer so the error would go away. After it worked, I did a few more smaller things with some other cars and scanners for a little while until the owner had to leave early, so I left as well.
03/17/2024
After almost a month of not visiting the garage due to multiple problems, this visit was one of the busiest days I had. There was a 1987 Mercedes 300 SDL with a 6 cylinder diesel engine that had problems idling. However, before I started working on this car, I replaced the tires on a Toyota Prius from snow tires to summer tires. This was actually the first time I changed tires on a car despite working with cars for years, and it was difficult because the tire was not properly fitting onto the car, but it turned out that I needed to properly hammer the wheel in to make sure it settled. Once that was done, I finally started working on the Mercedes. The first thing I had to do was fix the ignition timing. It was difficult to lock the timing in because of the way the took was working since I needed to rotate the tool using a small screw. I had to use a saw to cut the screw slit open a little bit more so that the screwdriver could properly rotate the tool. The next thing I had to do was remove the diesel pump. Normally, I would learn how to fix the current part of the car instead of replacing the part, but repairing this one would require a special machine that we didn't have, so I had to settle for just removing the part for now. However, it was easier said than done, since the 4 screws that held the part to the car were in such a difficult position, the tensioner could not properly reach the screws, so I had to find some workarounds to get the part out. The next thing I needed to work on the car was so hard to remove, it was outside my skill level, and required the owner of the garage and his brother to work together to remove the piece. This was the diesel injection system, which was super difficult because there were multiple connections between not only the diesel pipes, but the oil connections as well, leading to multiple spillages. I also spilled a lot of oil on my pants and shoes, which I halfway cleaned off using acid and brake cleaner on them, then wiping it down with a rag. The final thing I did was replace the ignition coil on a customer's Toyota Sienna, which was difficult because the engine had just been turned off and I almost burned my fingers off. While all of this was already labor intensive, I had to do all of this in the outdoors on an especially sunny day, which completely wiped me out.
03/23/2024
I went to the garage this time with a Subaru Forester on the car lift with a hood popped up and an engine missing. The engine was on the side, and it needed a head gasket replacement. With almost any other car, the head gasket could be a relatively easy replacement as long as the engine was an inline engine or a V shaped engine. However, since Subaru makes boxer engines with the cylinders on the side, the easiest way would be to remove the engine from the car just to replace the head gaskets, which is super inconvenient because a head gasket is the most common thing to fail on a Subaru. However, a head ghasket replacement was a lot more difficult than I thought. Simply tightening the bolts and screws would require the bolts to be screwed in a very specific order on a particular amount of torque, and then they would need to be tightened again at another torque. Along with tightening the bolts, I also tuned the valves to make sure they would be functioning properly by making sure they were at the exact perfect height. I would have stayed there until the engine was back in the car, but then I had to catch a flight because I was going to a trip to see some colleges, so I left a little early.
06/01/2024
After not going to the garage for a few months, I had a big project on the first day back. The owner had a 4 cylinder on an engine mount, and he was just finishing fixing the engine block. I spent the next 6 hours outside in the heat putting the engine bit by bit, fitting things like the timing chain, the individual valves, spark plugs and the engine head. I was fried by the end of the day, but I still had a 45-minute drive back home. Working the timing chain was the most difficult part of the engine rebuild because I had to adjust the two camshafts with wrenches while adjusting the crankshaft at the same time to align the chain properly. It took 20 minutes just to fit that, but once it was done, all I had to do was put the timing cover on, and finish the rebuild with the engine head.
06/08/2024
A 2005 BMW X5 was the focus today. The car came in with a check engine light, and the OBD scanner revealed it had a misfire in cylinder 3. After swapping the ignition coil with another cylinder, we confirmed the coil was bad. I replaced the coil and the spark plug, and the engine ran smoothly afterward.
06/22/2024
Today was a bit of a throwback. I worked on a 2000 Honda Accord that had a rusted fuel line, causing a leak. This was a bit of a challenge because the line was corroded in multiple places. I had to cut out the bad sections and replace them with new lines, which took a lot of patience and precision. In the end, the fuel system was sealed up properly, and there were no more leaks.
07/06/2024
Today, a 2015 Volkswagen Jetta came into the shop with issues related to the air conditioning system. The AC wasn’t blowing cold air. After checking the refrigerant level, we found it was low, and there was a leak in one of the lines. We replaced the line, recharged the system with refrigerant, and the AC was working perfectly again.
07/17/2024
This was a really exciting day because I got to work on a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The car had a tire puncture, and while fixing that was straightforward, the owner also asked us to check the suspension and the battery health. I got to learn how to use Tesla’s diagnostic tools, and everything checked out fine. It was interesting to work on an electric car, which is very different from the typical internal combustion engine vehicles I’ve been used to.
Contact
Email: purabkothari07@gmail.com
Instagram: purabk07