Holar, my lovelies. 😊
Happy Wednesday!
Another day up earlier than expected. Apparently, it be my knew normal. 🤷
The day was unexpectedly busy today. For some reason, I thought I had very little on the schedule, but I guess it was more than I thought. I went to eight cars, got paid for seven.
First car kind of stood me up. I told them I’d be there sometime between 8:00 and 9:00, and I arrived at 8:35, but they wouldn’t answer their phone or their text messages, so at 8:55 when I was just leaving because I had already waited 20 minutes for them, I didn’t want to wait any longer for them to walk over from where they lived. So we rescheduled.
Second job was way out in the middle of West fork nowhere. Somebody’s soon to be ex-wife saying that her car had a flat tire, And she couldn’t get anywhere.
Well, that wasn’t true. When I got out there, the car tire pressure was a little low, but the tire was easily full enough to drive pretty much anywhere you would could want to go.
But I guess it was a bit of a messy situation because The soon to be ex-husband and his new girlfriend were paying for it for whatever reason.
🤷
Hey, as long as they pay, right? 🙃
So we’ll call that car number one. Car number two was a 1999 Toyota 4Runner that he needed a battery installed and a diagnostic for low power done. I took it on a very very very long test drive trying to figure it out. Finally got it to reproduce the problem and realized that it’s misfiring on multiple cylinders. I swapped out some coils, and The misfires all stayed in the same place as, so we’re going to start with just a basic tune up, as it looked pretty old in there.
He also badly needs a timing belt. I noticed that the last time the timing belt was changed was 20 years ago and 130,000 mi or so ago, so that’s super dangerous. Could blow the motor at any time.
Third car was a 2010 Chevy Malibu. They asked me to not do any diagnostics at all, but to just change out the alternator. So I changed out the alternator, and it turned out that the issue wasn’t the alternator. So I did the diagnosis for free for them because I was able to get the alternator in a lot quicker than expected. Turns out the cable between the alternator and the starter was completely fried.
Fourth car was a 2011 Dodge caliber that the kid wanted me to put in a crankshaft position sensor. Once again, he didn’t want any diagnostics, just wanted it installed. So I installed it and sent him on his way.
Fifth car was a 2007 Chevy Impala that he said the belt fell off on. I told him that 90% of the time that means he’s got problems elsewhere in the system, but he thought it would just be a belt. The 90% proved to be true again today. Somebody had not properly installed the AC compressor, and over time it had eventually worked itself free enough to snap one of the bolts off, have another one fall out, and, well, there you go. The AC compressor was free to move, and with the tension on the system, that jerked the belt off.
So he needs a whole new bracket, because there’s a bolt broken off inside the bracket that holds the AC compressor in place.
Sixth car was a 2011 Chevy Cruze, the one that’s been on the list forever and ever to put on the new heater hose assembly. I installed it, and I also took the time to try and put on a little rubber part that had fallen off when I had taken the starter out the last time. Unfortunately, it was a wasted effort because the starter that she bought online had a different shape to it, so the little rubber plug thingy wouldn’t work anyway. Oh well, at least it’s off my list of concerns. It’s not going to do her car any harm that I can think of for that little rubber piece to not be there.
The last car was a 2007 Subaru Forester that had the oldest battery I think I’ve ever seen that was still working. It was an 8 and 1/2-year-old battery that had only just barely stopped working. Good gravy! We’re lucky nowadays to get three years out of a battery it seems. Anyway, so I installed a battery for him and called it a day.
I went home, ate some dinner, and That was the day!
Love and hugs. 😊
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 