Shade Tree Hero Beta test

A toolbox
for whatever
we drive.

Pick up one tool or all of them, in any order. The garage, the gauges, the scanner and a free report cost nothing. The AI tools are Pro: ten bucks, once.

no ads. no subscription. no horseshit.

Asked a real question. Got a real answer.

// AI MECHANIC
ASK JACK
PRO⚙
YOU
Getting P0301 and a flashing check engine light. Safe to drive it home? 40 miles.
JACK
A flashing CEL is an active misfire — cylinder 1 on your 4.3L. I wouldn't run it 40 miles like that.

You had the cap and rotor done at 181,040 — 6,402 miles ago. That's not your problem. Here's what is.
RISK PRIORITY7/10
SAFETY5/10
DRIVEABILITY7/10
LONG-TERM8/10
// SUGGESTED STEPS
!Don't drive it while the light is flashing — a hard misfire dumps raw fuel into the cat and can cook it.
1.Swap the cyl 1 plug with cyl 3. Clear the code, short test drive.
2.Comes back P0303 — it's the plug. Stays P0301, check the cyl 1 wire.
3.Still there? Compression test before throwing parts at it.
No verified plug gap for your exact engine config on file — check the underhood label before you set them.
📷🎤Ask Jack anything about cars...SEND

Any twelve dollar reader.

Poverty Edition
FULL CUSTOM BABY!
// LIVE DATA
OBD2
● CONNECTED⚙
RPM x1000
18
%
LOAD (CALC)
0
mph
GPS SPEED
4:08
RUN TIME
194
°F
COOLANT
62
%
FUEL LVL
14.7
AIR/FUEL
13.9
V
VOLTAGE
NW
GPS COMPASS

Half the yard might have the part.

// PARTS RUN
JUNKYARD
?⚙
// JUNKYARD COMPATIBLE VEHICLES
FOR: 2004 CHEVROLET ASTRO AWD
ALTERNATOR
Jack knows this platform well. Figures are solid, but verify anything safety-critical against your own eyes before you turn a wrench.
1996–2005 CHEVROLET ASTRO / GMC SAFARI
Same CS130D unit — direct swap
1996–2004 CHEVROLET S-10 4.3L
Verify pulley & connector clock position
1996–2005 BLAZER / GMC JIMMY 4.3L
Same mounting bracket pattern
1996–2002 CHEVROLET EXPRESS 1500 4.3L
Check amp rating — some are 100A
// SOURCING TIPS
Cut the pigtail with 6" of wire while you're in there — the connector is brittle and free is free.
Get in and out like a boss, or wander the yard like a chump... geeee lemme think

Stop keeping it all in our heads.

Hey, what's wrong with writing it on this burger wrapper??
An oil-stained note on a workbench: changed oil last month, oil and filter done, mi 92,300
A grease-covered fast food wrapper covered in scribbled service notes in two colors of pen

Something's wrong. Let's work it.

// TROUBLESHOOT
DANG IT!
PRO⚙
2008 DODGE SPRINTER
3.0L V6 diesel
DANG IT · CLOSED
Floor overheating
Discover
Floor behind the seat got hot enough to melt the carpet.
Analyze
Traced the heat to the exhaust running under the floor.
Name the cause
Jack's call: a clogged particulate filter holding heat in.
Gut-check
Read up on it. Symptoms match a bad DPF.
Implement
Swapped the DPF.
Test
Short drive. Floor stayed cool.
walks us through it step by step. like a buddy who actually finishes the job.

No light. No codes. Still broken.

no codes, no lights, no evidence. not a single @#&!ng clue. Like Henry Ford's Model T, as primitive as can be

Wimpy's Garage

Diagnostic Report
12 Sep 2026
Experience: Shade Tree
Jack: Humor 3 · Language 3
Vehicle2006 Subaru Outback 2.5i
Engine2.5L H4 · EJ253
VIN4S4BP61C•••••••••
Odometer168,200 mi
Complaint

Fuel economy has been sliding. Runs fine otherwise — starts, idles, drives normal. No check engine light and no stored codes.

Ran a Highway Cruise log to see what it does under steady load. Held 65 mph for eight minutes. Throttle barely moved, rpm sat flat at 2,450, speed held. Long term fuel trim stayed pinned around +14% the whole time.

That's the finding. At a steady cruise trims should be sitting near zero. Yours are asking for 14% more fuel than the computer thinks it needs, continuously. It never set a code because it's just under the line that trips one — which is exactly why you couldn't find it any other way.

What's probably wrong
  • 1
    Intake manifold gasket leaking. Known weak spot on this engine. A small leak lets in air nobody counted, the computer adds fuel to match, and the trim climbs and stays there. Fits what your log shows better than anything else on this list.
    Start here
  • 2
    MAF sensor reading low. Dirty sensor under-reports airflow, computer trusts it and adds fuel. Same trim number, different reason. Cheap to rule out — ten bucks of cleaner and twenty minutes.
    Likely
  • 3
    PCV hose split at the fitting. Same story as the gasket, smaller and easier to find. Check it while you're already in there rather than making a second trip.
    Possible
How to find it — in this order
  1. Smoke test the intake, engine cold. Pump smoke in and watch where it escapes. Work along the manifold where it meets the heads, and put your hand on every vacuum hose while you're looking — some only open up when they flex.
  2. Clean the MAF sensor. Proper MAF cleaner, not brake clean. Twenty minutes.
  3. Check the PCV hose at the fitting. Squeeze it, look at where it seats. Splits hide underneath.
  4. Run the same Highway Cruise log again after the fix. Same road, same speed. Trim should come back down toward zero. That's your proof it's actually fixed — not a guess, the same measurement that found it.
Worth knowing

A 14% trim at cruise won't throw a light, but it's still costing you fuel every mile. Roughly speaking, that's most of the economy you noticed going missing.

Nothing in your history shows intake work. Whatever this is, it hasn't been touched.

Times depend on your tools and your patience. Anything marked like this came from general knowledge, not from your vehicle — check it before you spend money on it.
Shade Tree Hero
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What it costs.

Free: the garage, the gauges, the data logger, the scanner with its free report, the junkyard lookup, all six smart tests, every code. Everything that runs on the phone.

Pro
$10

Once. Turns on all the AI: Jack (text, voice, photo), Jack's 2¢, DANG IT, the donor VIN scanner, and the diagnosis sheet.

Questions run on credits. Put in whatever we want to spend, any amount. Five bucks is roughly a thousand quick questions or a couple hundred heavy ones. It's a range, not a promise. Credits don't expire.

Or paste our own Anthropic key into Settings and pay nothing for the AI, ever. It's right there, not buried.

help us keep the lights on and we'll keep making cool mostly-free stuff
no ads, ever. nobody's selling our data. nothing auto-renews, so there's nothing to cancel and nobody gets charged twice for forgetting.
Big Wrench Inc. doesn't have to charge us all that. They just want to, and then they vampire more out of us with ads.

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