Automobile repair.......Ugh!

“Birch...remember me driving you Michigan folks up to the Minister Creek trail and you halfway there saying "Do you know you have a grinding sound back here?" LOL

Well, it's been like that for THAT long.”

“Buddur, I thought it was your muffler bearings, go figure.”

“Always wear clean underwear in public,especially when working under your vehicle...from the Northwest Florida Daily News... comes this story of a Crestview couple who drove their car to Wal-Mart, only to have their car break down in the parking lot. The man told his wife to carry on with the shopping, while he fixed the car in the lot. The wife returned later to see a small group of people near the car. On closer inspection, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis. Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underpants turned private parts a into a glaringly public ones. Unable to stand the embarrassment she dutifully stepped forward, quickly put her hand UP his shorts, and tucked everything back into place. On regaining her feet, she looked across the hood and found herself staring at her husband who was standing idly by. The mechanic, however, had to have three stitches in his forehead.”

“I need to get over to Walmart more often....”

“tilt, you want to handle a mechanics sack? gross...”

“The indash engine temp gauge hasn't worked since I had my van serviced last month (surprised???), and I tried everything to fix it because that info is very important. So instead of paying to have it looked at I spent $16 and bought a mechanical one (the stock was electric) and installed it myself.

It was rather tedious since I had to take the dashboard apart and cut crap for it to fit. I had one unused round spot for a gauge so I put it there. After more than an hour I got the gauge mounted. Ran the wireing with sensor through the firewall. Drained most of the coolant and took out the old sensor and installed the new one.

A lightbulb came with it so, not really knowing how to hook it up, I just cut and spliced the wires onto the wires of another bulb and Wa La, the baby worked. The light even dims and turns off with the dimmer switch.

It took me more than 3hrs to finish, but now I have a *reliable* temp gauge, and professionally installed-looking to boot.”

“Kewl Buddur!

I am going out today to get a cd player for my cherokee today...then a cd burner.

I almost bought a really slick neon gauge set for my ride but it was the wrong year.”

“Guess who's starter farted out on him tonight?

You get three guesses...and the first two don't count.”

“My is about a start away from giving up the ghost Buddur. Bummer-rama.”

“I'm going to guess it was Buddur's.



Now was it the starter or the solenoid?”

“Navi is an ex-grease monkey? What? I'd never have guessed. LOL!”

“The starter on our car was acting weird, of all nights, Christmas Eve. It was only the contacts. Once they were cleaned the car went vrooooom! Well, as much as a Corolla can go "vroom!"”

“LOL @ Stump!”

“Just get a whole new starter.”

“Nav, it was the selenoid. I tried byassing the ignition switch with a jumper cable from battery to seleniod and that didn't even work.

I stopped for gas and when done, the dang van wouldn't start..not even turn over. So I got under and banged on the starter with a breaker bar and the van started right up. So I went to my storage shed next and after that it wouldn't start again, no matter how many times I hit the starter.

Well, an Advantage Auto was 1/2 block away, and technically they were closed. But there were still a few people checking out inside and the entrance was still unlocked even though it was 6 min past quitting time. Boy did I get luckey!

The suspense was when I hooked the new one up...was it going to start OR NOT??? Well, needless to say, it started right up. 8)”

“Buddur, I had one of your "famous" auto repair events tonite...

My mechanic buddy invites me over to work on our sweet "new" 1985 VW Westfalia (camper bus w/ stove,sink,fridge...the works). We start with the oil, no prob. We get to the trans fluid. The company I got the gaskets from forgot one so we had to reuse one VERY carefully,plus the fluid was VERY burnt no biggy we fixed it up. Next was a tune up,plugs,wires,distributor cap,rotor and ignition coil. Went great. Next come the three belts. We fire up the VW to make sure all is well with the new spark stuff and Paul says " do you hear that?" I say "hear what". He points at my water pump and notes that it bearings are shot. We pull the belt off and sure enough the pulley has lots of play...BUMMER! So I start callin around "2-3 days" is all I hear. So I called some folks we were supoosed to take our inaugural campout with and cancelled. I hopefully will get it fixed by sunday.D@MN!”

“Guess who's van blew a brake line tonight?”

“and blowing a brake line?




never mind”

“hey hey hey automobile repair aint so bad...just be glad you didnt wreck it and have a whack job like me fixing it then..”

“I got the line off...well, line*s*. Ended up braking a line on the other side of one fitting, the end that goes to the master cylinder, so now I gotta get 2 lines. The old lines have more freakin bends to them, I think bending the new line to fit will be the hardest part of the job. Other than I hate bleeding brakes.

Now I have something to do after work tommorrow. 8p”

“Buddur, you may be able to find some brake lines that are factory bent for you. Go to a local junk yard and pull em off. Its a bit more work but takes out the hassle of bending thin tubing (which sux).At least you are okay.”

“Hey Buddur I can relate. When I picked up my car two weeks ago from the body shop after I got rear-ended back in January, the mechanic noticed oil all around the rear differential. So now I have an appointment for next week to have that looked at. I'm hoping that it's just a bad seal and can be replace without a lot of $$$ from my pocket.”

“Got a recall notice on my goobermobile today - the THIRD one since I've owned it (2000), but it's a 97 model.

It seems that my clockspring is busted.

What's a clockspring? well, apparantly it makes the airbag, cruise and horn work - all of which quit working about a month ago (yeah I'm lazy - I figured it was a fuse). Oh, and I'm just guessing the airbag won't deploy cause the idiot light stays on.

Anyway, the recall describes the symptoms exactly as I have noticed. Guess I'll be heading to the dealer next week to get my clockspring resprung.

And when I first read the notice, I wondered why my clock was a safety issue.”

“Guess who has the day off?

Because...guess who's vehicle broke down on a loooooong stretch of highway that doesn't have ANY cell phone coverage??

Guess who needs a dry place to replace his power steering pump???

I'll give y'all 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.”

“Me.
Me.
Me.

No, wait, my car is fine (knock on wood).

Must be you.”

“Is going great i got a new engine 5 months ago i am set for a while!

But with the abuse i put it through i will need a enw tranny real soon :(”

“My Subaru is still in the shop. Should know today weather I'll need a new head gasket or not.



CARS SUCK!”

“Buddur - I guess it wasn't possible to remove the belt from the pump to limp it home? Probably too many other vital functions on that belt?”

“bah...power steering pump. At least your transmission didn't start making strange noises 8 hours from home.

Cars kick ass...you just have ta fix 'em when you run 'em hard.”

“Unfortunately (but actually I like it) techntrek, I've got a serpentine belt.

I noticed a puddle of power steering fluid under the pump yesterday morning after coming home from my hiking trip this weekend. I dumped in some brake fluid in hopes to swell the seal and get more mileage from the pump, but nooooooooooooo.

The pump squealed some this morning when I started it up, then while driving to work I noticed my windshield wiper motor slowed down and my dashboard lights dimmed. So I beeped the horn and even it seemed rather quiet. Then my van started slowing down and head unit and music went dead. That's when I pulled to the side of the road. The pump must've freezed and taxed the alternator pretty bad.

Get this...I had to pull over at the bottom of "radar valley", a long stretch of road descending into a beautiful valley, a hill that typically has a speed trap at the bottom. And there is NO cell phone reception down there. But luckey for me, no farther than a 1/4 mile a logging truck of all things pulled over and gave me a ride to the nearest truckstop. It would've been a loooooong walk...in the rain, even. Thanks to AAA-Plus I had my van towed to a friend's garage free of charge, not even a paper to sign.

I got a new pump, some pulleys to dissemble the pump and assemble the new one, and now all I got to do is wait for my friend to get off work before anything more can be done.

I just hope we don't have to tear too much of the front end out to remove the pump. 8(”

“Buddur too bad about the car, I can relate...

Power window control switch $147
Serpentine belt $30
A/C evaporator $700 parts/labor if I pay(which I wont)
new tires and one rim $500?
new windshield $160”

“Double ugh!! After picking up my daughter from grandmas tonite I turned on my headlights and nothing...no running lights or anything. It was a nice drive blinding everyone with the high beams. I checked the fuses a few minutes ago and they seem fine, further inspection may be needed with them . I really hate trouble shooting automotive electric,DC makes my head spin!”

“I feel your pain. I just had a new transmission put in last week and I'm now a lot lighter in the wallet.”

“ski, I'm headed to the transmission shop today. I hope it doesn't hurt too much !”

“Mine hurt a lot!”

“I was told mine should run $1500 - 1800 !!!”

“spikehiker, Ouch!

I got my car back and they still can't figure out where I'm loosing coolant.
>:(”

“Had to change out a blown brake line the other night and when I was pulling out of my friend's garage after doing the repair he said the brakes should feel much better now. Unfortunately they were still as spongy as ever.

So today we got under the hood and he checked the vaccuum pressure on the booster to find it was less than half it should've been. Upon further inspection he found a bad (cracked) brake vaccuum filter leading from the booster...essentially meaning I didn't really have "power" brakes. Sos I goes and gets a new filter, which also acts as a check valve for the vaccuum pressure, and upon installation I could feel a noticeable difference in my brake peddle while in the garage.

Well, driving home I almost put the poor dog through the front windshield cause I stopped so well. And now my brakes work so friggin good I can't remember when, or if, they've EVER been that good. I can truely "stop on a dime" now.

Guess who now has to learn how to brake all over again?”

“If I had brakes like that I wouldn't have scared the bejesus outta Phantom Soul, Pennsy, Tango and Helinka last July in Ithaca!”

“LOL buddur, Sass and I are literally laughing at the thought of poor buddur dog stumbling in your van as you lock em up. Glad no one got hurt...”

“now all you need is some brembo rotars and hawk pads. Think you stop well now....”

“Seriously Birch, Buddurdog was doing some hardcore anchoring in his seat to keep from falling off when braking. And you should've seen the looks he gave me. lol

Got new rotors last summer and new calipers and pads a few months ago, deathmarch99. And yesterday took off the back drums and adjusted the shoes manually to an appropriate fit.

I'm now getting use to the touchy brakes and can now stop using only one foot to push on the brake peddle. My brakes have never worked better. 8)”

“need to get new roaters and calipers BAD. Heehee doing some major grinding at stops lol. I keep putting it off cause of expenses. Next month...next month...”

“Dropping the car off tomorrow to finally get the head gasket replaced. $900 minimum. Cars suck.
>:(”

“It's a better option than walking 20 miles to work and 20 miles home. Sorry to hear about your car woes, lumberzac. $900 sounds way better than the $2,800 I had to spend a couple of months ago on the new transmission.”

“good luck zac.”

“I'm just hoping the heads aren't cracked.”

“I’ve got nearly 60,000 miles on the Cherokee and just now finally had to have some work done on it. Got the front pads changed and rotors turned. $160 in four years ain’t bad.”

“theres a joke inside there just waiting to be released..... i just know it....”

“Crackhead! Crackhead! He's gonna be stealing his own spark plugs to make one-hitters!”