The past week in Car repair

[gull]

Don't feel too bad, My wife backed into a building once, "I didn't see it." Well it was a rather small 3 story 150 year old drugstore....

They never appreciate it when you point that kind of thing out, though.

[kuklaki]

Don't feel too bad, My wife backed into a building once, "I didn't see it." Well it was a rather small 3 story 150 year old drugstore....

They never appreciate it when you point that kind of thing out, though.

No, no we dont Fortunately my only bad encounter was misjudging the clearance on the Jetta when we first got it. There was this nasty speed bump which taught me that the Jetta was lower than I thought.

[CalAltaDubber]

Update.

The Jetta is going to the body shop for an estimate on Tues. (Monday is a holliday here). Based on that I will find out when they can get it in. (seems to be a long line at body shops here).

I still have to give the manager of the tire store credit. When it happened he had to deal with:

a. me. I wasn't too upset, but he was saying the right stuff or I might have lost it;

b. an upset employee, that was probably very much in fear of loosing his job;

c. his boss (this is never a good thing to report); and

d. the customer that had left the Thunderbird in their care.

I guess in the end it might be an expensive way of gaining a new customer

[Briano1234]

Been busy for a couple of week, My son graduated from HS, partys to hold and cook for...but in between then and now, i dropped the transmission again to change a seal, it still is puking atf, so i ran to a yard and got a replacement on Tuesday cleaned it up, and painted it gold, so now I can rebuild my old one. Daughter number 2 said that her radio wouldn't play and now her car wouldn't start... well she left the lights on the car, killed the battery. The radio, easy fix burnt fuse. Daughter number 3 had a loose a/c belt and a bad headlight bulb. Daughter number 1 came home for the graduation, and needed a fuel injector cleaning, Power steering fluid change, and a new Headliner... which I got finished, and today i went back to work today for the first time is 3 weeks...

But at least now I don't have ATF fluid spewing all over my drive way, and my son is starting to drive the hell outta MY CABBY.

[Briano1234]

Skip forward a few weeks, and here is the list of stuff I did last week.

The new tranny shot 2nd gear... the torque snap from 1 to 3 was amazing. Has to leave it alone to deal with a death in the family.
So last week we swapped it out again, and I have 3 forward gears on the blue one.
All my cars passed emissions cept for my green bunny so I have to figure out why is was over the max no2. But the tranny swap was under way..

Topped the tank with 93 oct,
placed some injector cleaner and "All you ever need"
Reset the sagging door by removing it off the car and bending the hinges, then aligning the window...
Finished the tranny swap, and I will need to get the green car back to tune it up, and change the oil..... then have a retest.
Took the green one for an alignment and the daughter curbed it as the caster is off by 2 inches.... SHEIT.......which explains why the car steers to the left....
But all in all it has been an ok kinda week, busy but well worth it, save for the fact that I probably have a leaking valve cover gasket.

[gull]

The new tranny shot 2nd gear... the torque snap from 1 to 3 was amazing.

Ugh, that's annoying. The 2nd gear syncro is slowly failing in mine. I've been dealing with it by double-clutching all 1-2 shifts, especially if I've really wound it out in 1st.

All my cars passed emissions cept for my green bunny so I have to figure out why is was over the max no2.

Going from memory, I think the most common possibilities for high NO2 are:
- Lean mixture (this will also cause very low CO readings)
- Excessive ignition advance
- Bad catalytic converter

Of course there are any number of things that can cause a lean mixture on these cars. How's it running generally?

[Briano1234]

The cat was replace 2 years ago, and it blew 956 but was allowed 926, so it was really close.. I am gonna run seafoam through the TB, and reset the timing. Change the oil, replace the K&N with a paper one for the re-test and I will change the o2 sensor as a precaution.... it should do okay...

My blue one passed as a automatic with only 2 gears.. I was surprised as hell at that.

[gull]

Here in WA the standards seem to be pretty lax; they're only trying to catch the really big polluters. My '89 passed in spite of a misfire at idle and bad O2 sensor wiring. I'm actually going to be curious to see how its results next time compare to that test, because I've done so much tune-up work on it since.

[CalAltaDubber]

Well it took some doing.

The fella that was helping me with the project car has disappeared. So after a couple of weeks, I have recruted a couple of people that I can trade favors with.

It started today, I finally got the engine out.

I also spent a little time gringing on the body this week end so things are back in the progress column.

Next is to get the car blasted and painted.

[Briano1234]

Well lets see....

Green Cabby, daughter comes in states that the car runs like crap grabs my keys and departs............squeels

Okay. Call her on the phone ask whats up.
Car shakes, sounds like it is dying, all the dash lights are out.......and it squeels

Ok.

Start on the easy stuff.

Replace the LEDs in the cluster with hi wattage bulbs.
Replace the LED in the heater console with a new one.
Replace the BAR light (LED was bad).
Replace the LED in the shifter console.

Hey all the LED's were changed at the same time so go figure 2 years and they all go out together...

Install a lighted a/c compressor cutout switch. dam near looks factory


Tighten the a/c belt and alt belt....
Now for the running like crap.
Start the car and it sounds like it is running on 2 cyllinders.
Replace the plugs, check the wires for spark fairies, and for conductivity with my wire tester wire good, plugs baddddd
Replace the rotor, clean the cap.
In putting in the a/c cut out, I find that the high speed on the fan is bad, go to part bin get fan, test it almost chopped my sons arm off when touching the high speed to the battery. Torque Baby Torque....
Installed a new CTS sensor that I had laying about. Didn't help didn't hurt.
Check the o-ring on the TB bad replaced and teflon taped it.
Replaced the vac lines to the TB with clear to see if the Fuel regulator was blown.... it wasn't.
Checked the time and it was about 1/2 a tooth high on the dimple to valve cover.... so Chris and I re-timed it any way...
Better but Still ca-ca- running on 2 cylinders....
Take the car to the Muffler shop they had to re-weld it together.... Noise fixed but doggy at low rpms and better but sluggish at higher speeds.

I had Shades of the FARGING won't start thread re-appearing.........

At idle is was acting better but still doggy, when you goose the throttle there is terrible hesitation.. Like it was either too retarded or advanced.. but the timing was spot on.

Tonight I sprayed ether all over the fuel lines, vac lines, injectors everywhere I could think Take the ISV off and clean the snot out of it. Debated about pulling the injectors but didn't yet.... Soooooo
I finally am sitting in the car with the engine running, and I hear the Faint WHINE of that FLUCKING MAIN PUMP.
So fuel starvation is most likely the culprit.. I had Chris run it up to the gas station yesterday, and put in 5 bucks of 93 octane, I look at the gas gauge, and it was between the EMPTY and half tank.. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

I order the in-tank pump, and will replace it Wed, and if needed I have another spare main pump...
I figure that when gas spiked at 5 bucks she was putting a bout a gallon a day in it....

Gosh I just want to throttle some kids............................
So now you know how my week is going...... and now it appears that I have 8 motor mounts to change...Gee more fun....

[Calimus]

Don't envy you at all Brian. Nothing like a burnt up fuel pump to cause hours of symptom chase down.

As usual, I haven't done much with my toys. I have started trying to clean up the tranny for the rocco, but either work gets in the way or I do something stupid and hurt my knee (which causes me to not be able to bend down for anything).

Good news, it looks like I should be getting a bonus for work (which I certainly didn't expect with the current economy) which means I can get more parts. Now I just need time. Who wants to fill in for me so I can get some crap done to these cars?

[gull]

Mine's running OK lately except the idle quality has turned to crap as the weather's gotten colder. I'm long overdue to replace the injector seals and the idle bypass O-ring, I think.

Couple weeks ago it blew the oil cooler O-ring, though. That was exciting. Turns out you can get about a mile before you run out of oil and the buzzer goes off. When I pulled over I could see the oil trail leading back down the street towards my apartment complex. Serves me right for running 20W-50 in 30 degree weather, I guess...

[kamzcab86]

Brian: You sent the repair bill to your daughter, yes?

Who wants to fill in for me so I can get some crap done to these cars?

I'd be glad to... provided I get your bonus.

My car has been in the garage for the past 3-4 weeks: had to replace the 10-year-old radiator and figured it was a good time to replace the ground cable. What a chore that turned out to be! I wasn't about to remove the airbox just to lay a cable, so I ended up having to go to NAPA; they cut the cable at my mark and installed two new ring terminals. Thought it was all good to go, but no! Next day I had to go Ace is The Place to get a new chassis bolt (new terminals had larger holes and I didn't have any washers in stock). As long as I was getting a new bolt and washer for the cable, I decided to get a new battery clamp bolt too. (As I'm looking through the bolts, some guy walks up and says, "You know those are metric, right?" ) Prior to the radiator springing a leak, I installed headlight relays, a very worthwhile job that resulted in it being proven that the alternator is still good. The VDO gauge has never had such a beautiful reading!

Next chore: Dropping the oil pan for the third time in the hopes of finally eliminating the f*#@ing gasket leak (and, yes, it's a rubber gasket!)!

[Calimus]

I'd be glad to... provided I get your bonus.

No chance, how to you think I'm getting the parts for all the repairs

Kammy, hope the rubber gasket works out. Is that part of a lower splash guard? If so, those work very well.

[Briano1234]

I'd be glad to... provided I get your bonus.

No chance, how to you think I'm getting the parts for all the repairs

Kammy, hope the rubber gasket works out. Is that part of a lower splash guard? If so, those work very well.

What with JP buying everything up I fingered that you would be busier than a one legged man in a ass kicking contest.