I was pretty late getting started today, I think. I want to say it was like noon before I got to my first job.
It’s been nice to be taking things a bit easier lately.
My first job was with the 2016 Dodge Journey that they said the brakes were grinding on, but when I got there, there was nothing wrong with the brake pads or brake rotors, other than that the front rotors had been significantly overheated on both sides.
What I did find was that the anti-lock brakes were engaging when they shouldn’t be, and there were codes for the ABS sensor on the front passenger side.
So I went over to the wheel, and I found that someone had put the speed sensor from the driver side on the passenger side.
🙄
Once again, mechanics putting themselves above their customers.
Ugh.
It’s plain as day that if you put the sensor on the wrong side of the vehicle, the wire is going to get stretched too tight. Eventually, that wire is going to fail.
And it did.
So I drove to the parts supplier, grabbed another sensor, slapped it on, took it for a test drive, and was on my way.
I headed over to Miguel’s shop to hang out for a little while, but he was so busy because he’s been taking over everything again because of struggles with employees not wanting to work, so we didn’t really talk much or do much or say much, so I ended up heading out relatively quickly compared to how much time I’ve spent there recently.
The next jobs were way down south, first a pre-purchase inspection and Springdale for a 2016 Nissan Altima.
Can you guess what I found?
Yep, It had been in a significant frontend collision and repaired extremely poorly– misaligned parts, residual damage that hadn’t been repaired properly, etc. It really is interesting to me how the untrained eye doesn’t notice what to me are such glaring imperfections. Really large gaps between body panels, misaligned body panels. My brain sort of goes “How on Earth do you miss this?”
But that’s exactly the difference between experience and inexperience. That’s why you pay a mechanic who also knows about body work to inspect any car you want to buy before you buy it.
There were so many issues that the customer just had me stop looking at that car and asked me to go look at another car on the same lot instead. The next one was a Subaru Impreza that was in much better condition. The body was straight, the paint was good, it drove well, etc. It did have one fairly large red flag– The coolant level was below the safe range, and many makes and models of Subarus for many years had issues with head gaskets. So that’s always a concern.
My rule, as I think I’ve probably mentioned, is that if vehicle has an oil level below the safe range or coolant level below the safe range when I get there, I just say no to the car. Plain and simple. It’s just not worth the risk.
The only exception would be if I can get the vehicle for such an amazing deal that if the engine or transmission blow up on me, it will still have been worth the risk.
The last car of the day was a 2011 Toyota Corolla that had a bad alternator. So I swapped out the alternator and called it a day. I was supposed to have one more job after that, but I couldn’t get a hold of them, so I headed home.
Thursday, in the books.
The nonprofit bone in me is being energized a little more each day.
That’s significant because I’ve been so weighed down for so long that even the things I’ve been passionate about have been to overwhelming to think about seriously.
On to Friday!
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 