Automobile repair.......Ugh!

“My SW started to make this really strange whirring sound whenever I got up to around 40. Strangest eeriest sound. Took it to the shop an the mechanic went through all his tests and hunches and couldn't reproduce it. The garage is in a busy urban area, so I asked if he got it above 40 and he admitted he hadn't. I asked him to keep it a few days and use it for fetching lunch/parts etc and give it a good listen. He was able to hear the sound when he got above 40 but not the source. Drove him crazy. To shorten the story... he finally found the problem; a bungee cord strapped across the roofrack. Hummmmmmmmmmmb.”

“Thank him for his honesty! I think you are lucky that he didn't find you had a bad clugemeister and have to replace it for $250 plus labor”

“Oh, I paid. Let me tell you!”

“On the way to my folks today I noticed that some car near mine had horrible exhaust probs. Bluish smoke and nasty stink. You could see the clouds of it float behind us. So I keep trucking along hoping to outrun the stink. I looked at my gauges (something I do periodically while driving) and notice I have NO oil pressure. I think "huh,gauge must be stuck". I keep cruisin along when I realize the stinky oil smell is MY car. I get to the store and check,oil EVERYWHERE in puddles, the entire exhaust system is covered and smokin. So I pull the kid out and call my kin who come by. I add 3qts of Oil (i only drove 10 miles) and headed to the car wash and cleaned it up loooking for the leak. Well it turns out my oil pressure sensor was broken and oil just pumped all over. Fortunately it was an easy fix and cost $21...”

“dignity and self-esteem fix themselves usually Limpmeister”

“sheesh Birch, that sounds like oil blow by...

NOT that I KNOW what oil blow by is, but my old Jeeps seem to live in this domain... and it is NOT a cheapass repair”

“I thought oil blow by was when you ate way too many olestra chips”

“Replaced both front and rear driveshaft universal joints on my van in hopes that would fix the problem and stop the grinding noise you hear while sitting in the back when the vehicle is moving, but noooooooooo!

All the moving parts have been looked at and worked on now, so I'm not sure what could be making the noise. The dood I worked with and I looked at the backing plates of the rear brake areas and they don't seem to be rubbing with the drums. You only hear the grinding noise when inside the van, but not outside, and only in the rear and not the front. I think I just may have to forget about it and keep the volume of the radio turned UP.”

“Did he check the rear differential? It could need to be repacked...”

“I had a grinding noise in a 1977 Chevy van I had and it turned out the rear differential needed some new parts. Some bearings and some new gears in there if I remember right.”

“Buddur, dang man sorry to hear bout the van troubles. Have you checked the muffler bearings or the piston return springs?”

“What about the Johnson rod?”

“When I had the rear axle bearings replaced last month, they had to open the differential to get the axles out of their shafts. They had the "rear end" dood take a look at the gears and he saw nothing wrong. They let me hang around and watch the whole assessment process when they took the pan off and looked at the differ gears, pulled out tht pins and pulled the axles out to look at the bearings and axle surfaces. They could find nothing wrong other than the sound must be coming from my bearings, which wasn't the case.

The sound does come from the rear end just over the differential, though.”

“Ah, just OVER the differential!

It's the stabilizer rocket. Tell all your friends it's the newest safety device for older vehicles. You'll be the toast of your group!”

“grinding noise = bad bushings?

Is it only when you're going 10 mph?”

“Could be transmitting through the frame. Sound has a weird tendency to travel long distances and magicly appear in places it doesn't belong. Check everything directly attached to the frame.

Oh yea, you did remember to check the turn signal fluid? If it's low, the flasher solenoid can make some pretty weird noises.”

“Buddur, are there any thin sheet metal shields (tp prevent damage from rocks and debris) that could be rubbing the driveshaft.”

“maybe you need to change your summer air in your tires to winter air... hee heee.
there are some really intresting comemts on this thread..
I once had a customer ask me, how much it costs per pound to put air in the air compressor...sooo funny. I had a woman whom we put new tires on the rear and did not have time to get the protective blue off the white wall, and she was soooo proud that when she got home that she told her husband that she found the exact color of blue in a spray can to paint the front.. luckly she did not have the chance to paint the front, her husband explained it to her, and she was so imbarassed... the poor thing.. Another funny one.. a woman came in with a note from her husband that stated: oil, lube, filter and rotate the tires...she said that i dont know why we have to rotate the tires?.. dont they do that when you drive... heee heee toooo funny.. and its not only the women its men too.”

“Call Click and Clack.”

“Sometimes I impress myself (most of the time I'm a self-humbler)

The power doorlocks in my van have been rather sketchy for a while and today the driverside's powerlock wouldn't unlock at all, oh, it would lock ok but not unlock.

So I took the housing off, took the locking mechanism out, took it apart to find electric contacts where when you press the lock-lever up or down a lever inside will press the contacts together therefore making the things work. I just cleaned off the contacts, hooked them up and they now work like a charm. I also did it to the passenger side because it also was faulty and now it too works everytime.

And now it's Miller time.”

“The Champagne of Bottled Beer.”

“Things like that anoy you for years and then you end up fixing them right before you sell the car!”

“I love when stuff like that happens. Nice going Buddur. You're a real man. Enjoy the High Life, soldier!”

“Buddur, thats great that you were able to fix the locks. You saved yourself big bucks at the reapir shop for sure.”

“Well, 2 nights ago when I went to start my van it wouldn't start right up, however, I did get it running with the idiot light on and got home. Yesterday the thing ran with a funky idle, so I got a few parts to replace. I put on a new fuel filter because I did run the tank pretty dry the few days before and maybe it got clogged from crud in the tank, and I replaced the oxygen sensor because that's one of the major reasons for the idiot light "Check Engine Soon" for coming on because it reads the oxygen in the exhaust and in turn senses how much gas to feed the carburator to create the correct air/fuel mixture and if the mixture isn't correct, the idle will be off.

Well, this morning I started the van to warm it up, it ran for about 5 minutes, but when I got in and put it in reverse it stalled and I haven't got it to start since. I just hope it isn't my timing chain because (now that I've been thinking about it) the symptoms the van showed are what happened when the timing belts went out in my past vehicles. Ugh!”

“just took my civic in for an oil change and had the "free" 27 step inspection. Mechanic told me I needed plugs and wires and a gas filter. I changed all 3 myself about 8 mths ago so he was wrong there. He also said, "are you hearing a boombada, boombada, boombada from the front left wheel?" I replied, "No." He said, "Not at all?." I said, "nope, car drives great." He said he heard it. I'm thinking to myself he just drove the car 50 ft through the parking lot riddled with snow and ice. How could he make that judgement unless he was driving on a flat surface for a respectable amount of time or distance? He then proceeded to tell me I needed a full set of new struts b/c of the noise. He also told me the rear brakes needed to be adjusted. However, that was done 1 year ago when I bought the car. He told me the drive belts needed to be replaced b/c they are drying out. He might have a point there as the car has 60K on it with original belts. Before I went home and checked my receipts proving him wrong, I actually gave him a tip b/c I thought he did a thorough job checking out my car. What am I trying to accomplish with this story? I have no idea, but thanks for listening.”

“First thing we kill all the mechanics.”

“Someone tried to steal my car twice in three weeks late last year. Having just spent $300 getting the quarterlite window replaced after the first one. They then punched the lock out and tore up the door with pliers, leaving me with a bill for $700. Both times the alarm has scared them off. I wish they'd just knock on the door when they decide to try and steal it and I can hand them $100 and we're both better off!! - sorry - I know this slightly off subject but annoyed the hell out of me”

“kill all the mechanics... apparently you have not found a reptuable one yet... thats too bad..i can see it now, the only mechanics left would be the "backyard mech".. boy i bet the streets will be safe then.”

“Geo et al have a point though, there definitely seem to be more dishonest mechanics than honest ones. All the more reason that we should go back to riding horses, but of course then we'd be wanting to open cans of whup-ass on the veternarians.”

“treebeard and myself had a great one a couple of years ago. but he up and moved to his home country. man. it was really hard to see him go. its like loosing a good doctor when you loose your mechanic.
But we have been lucky, we have a good one. but we dont see him as offten as the other guy. hmmmm makes you wonder......”

“This guy is great. He's an old school mechanic. No BS. Won't overcharge you for any job and doesn't make up jobs as he goes along. He won't undercharge you either. But, I feel if get away with the right job done at fair market value, then I am ahead of the game...”

“Don't know the year of your van, but had similar problem with a car. It could be the 'computer.' Replaced the timing belt on my wife's car, lasted 2 days, ended up being the 'computer.' Can we say $$$$?”

“Having just listened to my van's rough idle AFTER JUST REPLACING the plugs, wires, cap and rotor this morning, I came to the same conclusion Stumprider...the problem HAS to be electrical.”

“maybe its your idle sensor control?”

“Buddur - it could be the fuel pump - what kinda car you got?”

“It's a '92 Chevy full-size 3/4ton van with a 350 5.7L engine.

I took off the air filter and examined the carburator while the engine was running to see if there was any sign of injector problem, but it appears to be getting a fair enough and equal amount of gas on both sides, so I doubt it is the injectors or the fuel pump.

I already dumped in some drygas on Mon night, and today I dumped in fuel line cleanup fluid that should clean out clogged fuel injectors, remove carbon and varnish deposits and lubricate the whatnots in the thingamajig.

Tommorrow I may take it to a shop to have a tech give it a onceover.”

“Replaced a fuel line today. A friend (who is a TV repairman and has the ultimate set of tools) has a garage helped me because the line is between the tank and the filter and we had to drop the tank to relace the line.

All this work in the past week begs the question...WHAT NEXT???”

“what next? Prolly the muffler bearngs or the piston return springs.”

“No, no, no, the exhaust injectors!”

“No, refill you blinker fluid!”

“That canuck valve can be a real bugger too. I always use a metric size crescent wrench and a left handed screwdriver.”

“It will be the Johnson Rod!”

“You have to use a left-handed wrench to refill the blinker fluid.

You can get lots of those hard to find gadgets at kalecoauto.com”

“Thanks Capn...That's a great site for all you shadetree mechanics out there. I especially like and plan to get the RedHead HeadLights...
Be the talk of the town! Are you tired of being uncool with those white headlights? Don't think the blue ones are unique enough? KaleCo RedHead Headlights are especially popular with law enforcement! Flash your lights at him, he's sure to stop by and say hello! (Pending DOT legality in all 50 states)”

“The differential of my van has had this grinding sound for a while now and I've already done some repairs that should've but didn't fix the problem.

Well today me and a dood I use to work with, who has just about every tool and loves to work on vehicles, got into the rear end of my van today.

We took out the spider bearings and other than normal wear and tear (in his words) they looked alright (to me they had parallel markings that were inline with the grooves...he said they were ?heat stress marks?). The pin was kindof loose and the two spider bearings that went on it were slightly loose also. He suggested that while in there we take out the whole shebang and inspect the bearings. Well before we did that he pushed shoved wiggled and jiggled and found that one of the bearing reaces was loose even though the U-housing that bolts it in was tight. So we took the wheels off and pulled the axles and pulled the shebang apart.

Sure enough one of the bearing races had a few massive pitting marks about 5-8mm across, and the large washer that goes on the outside of the bearing was ground from the turning of the race. The other bearing and washer looked good.

I called a parts store and found two bearings for ~$30 and we replaced the old ones. We put everything back together and took it for a test drive and NO GRINDING...Yahoo!!!

I paid ~$20 for the differential cover gasket and synthetic gear oil, about $30 for the bearings, and paid my friend $30 (hourly fee of $15/hr) for helping to make a total of about $80.

Anybody want to go for a spin in my van???”

“yes, please. come get me. :-)”

“Buddur, aint it great having mechanic buddies. I have a mechanic friend who offered me the use of his garage anytime,havent needed it yet but when I do...

Glad to hear you are rolling noise free!”

“Ya that is a good deal I can't even think what a pep boys or some place like that would have charged...

8)”

“Sweet! :-)”