2021-08-19 — Um… That Shouldn’t Be Like That

Man, I’ve been tired lately. 😴

You’d think I work a lot or something.

Yup, I’m ready to fall over after another long day. Working on tax stuff right now after getting home around 9:30 ish?

Time is flying so quickly. August is 2/3rds over, and I already find myself thinking about working on cars in the cold cold cold.

Let’s hope I’ve gotten out of this by then, eh? 🙃

Productive day today, and gratefully, not too much in the sideways department. First car was a 2007 F350 6.0 diesel belt replacement. Pain in the rear engine, and after finally getting it where it needed to be, I realized the gentleman bought the wrong belt. So… he gets to pay me to put it in twice. 😬 Super frustrating trying to get a belt in on that engine. Wow. I was grateful I had the knee cushion thingy. It was really hard, but it was softer than what I was kneeling on (radiator support, fan shroud, etc.). So… that was nice, at least.

I was off to a pretty decent start at that point, billing wise, though not so great for the first customer. I went to pick up parts from the dealer after that, and then went to AutoZone to run errands.

I ended up staying at AutoZone for… maybe 2 hours? I waited for parts, and the Arkansas heavens opened up and dumped on us, and I thought about calling it a day, but the next customer had a garage, so I headed that way, and though it was only maybe 8 minutes down the road, the ground was dry.

🙃

It was super hot there, though. Sun baking and humid.

Fun. 🤪

Second car was a 1999 Toyota Avalon. They’d done a bunch of work on it themselves, and it ran really badly after they’d done that work. I got there and the customer mentioned a loud hissing noise, and I found that the PCV valve hose was disconnected from the PCV valve. Plugged it in, and boom. Good to go.

Third car was the 2017 Buick Encore from the other day. I picked up the part and got her taken care of. Wahoo!

Fourth car was a 2007 Dodge Ram 5.9 diesel that she thought she might have blown the motor on because the engine leaked out a few quarts of oil through the dipstick tube because she’d left the dipstick out. But it was a 12 quart system, and I doubted that being 3 quarts low on a 12-quart system would cause lasting ill effects. I did figure some other things out for her. She either has a bad starter or a bad flywheel. She’ll want to get that taken care of ASAP.

Fifth car was a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado. I did that one as an emergency call. He was way out of the way, so I quoted emergency call prices and suggested he try to find another mobile mechanic because it was going to be expensive to do an emergency call, but he elected to do it anyway, so I dropped everything and drove 30ish minutes out of the way, got him taken care of (just needed a shift cable bushing… 5-minute job), and then headed way back down south for my last job.

Last job was a 2006 Dodge Caravan that was making a weird noise. I went out there, and the first thing I noticed was that the engine was sagging on the passenger side, and the motor mount on that side wasn’t. even. bolted. down. 😶😶😶

I reached in and pulled out all three bolts that were supposed to be holding it in but were just dangling there. I… don’t have a clue. They weren’t stripped. The bolts were in excellent shape. The holds in the mounts were solid, as best I saw. They were just… not in their places–completely unbolted.

😶

So I spent a while getting that bolted together. I hoped that could have been the sound–engine rubbing on something. But alas, no, turned out the alternator was starting to shriek, so that’ll be another expense for them.

Too bad.

That was the day. I started to try to go by one more car, but I think I’m gonna back out altogether. She sounds… hard to deal with. Her texts are laced with awful language, her attitude pretty rotten, she’s on drugs, and the only reason I considered it was that she’s in a rough place, but… I really don’t need to get into that kind of situation with a customer like that, already angry and ready to throw down.

Nope. So… I’m gonna find a way to get her help from someone else. I’ve got enough to deal with already than to have that kind of a customer with what could either be an easy one or a douzy (sp?)

Got gas. Came home. Ate dinner. Looked at the news. July’s sales taxes (due tomorrow), noticed I might well have had my best month of my business ever in July. I’m about to finish up the taxes, and then I’ll be crashing into bed.

Love to all.

Lift the World.

~ stephen