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Hi Friends! Excuse the mess as we bring Portland’s first auto repair co-op to life. Please look out for us in the coming months - we’re excited to meet the neighborhood.
Hi Friends! Excuse the mess as we bring Portland’s first auto repair co-op to life. Please look out for us in the coming months - we’re excited to meet the neighborhood.
At Good Carma Auto Repair, we’re more than just a shop—we’re a part of the community. With a team made up of diverse genders, ethnicities, orientations, and backgrounds, we reflect the people we serve. From hwow we approach customer service to our daily decisions, we aim to create the world we want to live in—one built on respect, kindness, and care. Our service advisors are chosen not for their sales records, but for their ability to listen, understand, and communicate openly. At Good Carma, we’re here to make sure you feel heard and supported every step of the way.
We believe that no question is too small or "bad" when it comes to understanding your car. Our team is dedicated to making sure you know exactly what’s going on with your vehicle. Whether through clear explanations, photos, or videos, we want you to feel informed and confident in every decision you make. We’ve all been in situations where auto repair feels confusing, and we’re here to change that experience for you.
At Good Carma, we’re committed to being upfront with you. If your car is nearing the end of its road or repairs are becoming more costly than the car is worth, we’ll let you know before you make any decisions. We believe that trust is built on honesty, and our goal is to help you make informed choices that work best for your needs and budget.
As a cooperative, we focus on making a positive impact on our community and creating a thriving workplace. We cap our profitability to ensure that our staff receives livable wages, because we believe that when our team thrives, they’re better able to serve you. At Good Carma, success isn’t just about fixing cars—it’s about building a supportive and inclusive space where everyone benefits.
At Good Carma, we believe that knowledge is power, and we’re excited to offer workshops on auto maintenance and repair to help empower our community. Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence to better understand and care for your vehicle, whether it’s learning how to change a tire, check your fluids, or perform basic repairs. By sharing what we know, we hope to build stronger connections and give back to the community we love.
If you’re looking for a mid-size truck, Toyota makes great product. These Tacoma TRD trucks are among some of my favorite to drive and work on. This one came in with a water pump leak, and we’re going to fix it right. Water pump, timing belt, cam seals, crank shaft seal, tensioner, and idler pulley! Just another day at the shop.
LET THE DIS-ASSEMBLY BEGIN.
See the crusty red stuff? That’s where the leak is coming from!
Cam seals going in and prepping the engine block for a new water pump.
Parts arrived! Brand new components! Lets breathe some life into this car!
All moving components in. These were the last of the pictures. Someone needs to remind me to take more pictures to tell the story.
Hello Everyone! Don’t mind this test post. Its from our previous shop Columbia Autoworks! Currently testing our blogging features.
It wasn’t until about the end of the entire process when I had realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the actual car we were working on. We’ve been hard at work this tax season, and I guess I had mixed up a few of the pictures of other jobs into this post! I really wanted to talk about this job because I feel like the mass majority looking for information on this job could use it. The pictures are just too descriptive!
This car came into the shop the other day needing head gasket work. Not only that, but the car was reportedly spewing all of its oil out from the bottom side of the motor. A peek on the bottom side of the engine shows a few different signs of head gasket wear.
See the grey matter between the block and cylinder head? That is a mixture of wet coolant and exhaust fumes escaping from the exhaust headers. When looking for a head gasket leak, the most obvious thing you can track down is coolant on the bottom side of the right and left cylinder heads. In the last picture, the white milky droplets are formed when the oil (spewing out from the bottom side of the motor) mixed with coolant escaping from the head gaskets.
It looks like we found the culprit for the massive oil leak. Looks like maybe the guys at Jiffy Lube might have mis-installed an oil filter and caused the gasket to slip! Good thing it wasn’t coming out of the crank case!
So the tear down begins! Here is our motor completely out of the car. Heads are out to the machine shop to get resurfaced and tested.
Back from the shop like straight from the Subaru factory. Now we will prime the cylinder heads and adjust the valve timing.
Theres a great deal of cleaning and scraping when preparing the block for a new set of head gaskets. The old head gasket will be scraped off, and the sides of the block need to be polished.
If I ever suggest buying a new radiator with your head gasket job, and you find it a little excessive, this is the reason why. Not saying everyone does it, but majority of people cross their fingers and dump in head gasket sealer into the cooling system before having the professionals solve their problem. A $35 dollar bottle of “blue devil” will not solve your head gasket problems. It will in fact, create more damage and create more work for the mechanic who in the long run will have to clean it out. The problem is this stuff rarely ever comes complete out of your radiator because of all the bends and turns. Over time, this copper sediment will clog your radiator- hence, new radiator.
Fresh head gaskets in! Love that Fel-Pro Blue.
Torquing the head gaskets. All of the bolts need to be tightened in a specific order, and then tightened back down to factory inch pound specs.
Before
And after!
Keep in mind this is maybe half of the job! Here at Columbia Autoworks, we do things complete (we may fudge on the picture taking). On this job, we installed a timing kit including water pump, tensioner, idler pulleys, both cam seals, front crank seal, rear main seal, valve cover gaskets, intake manifold gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, radiator, upper and lower radiator hoses, thermostat, and radiator cap. Im sure theres more that went into it as well, but- its 7:20 pm. Im signing out.
Thankyou for reaching out, we will get back to you about your request in 24-48 hours!