Gosh it’s hard to fathom how quickly time passes. I thought it had only been a few days since I had written my last post.
Guess not.
I’ve been struggling a lot lately. Really badly, actually.
Guess I’ll just summarize quickly what’s gone on the last week for record-keeping’s sake.
On the 6th, I did two cars. The first was a 2019 Ford mustang that had a hood that wouldn’t latch. Except… When I got there, the hood latch just fine.
She was shocked. 🙃
Apparently, she had several people trying close the hood, and nobody could close it.
🤷
I just held it maybe a foot above the latch and let it drop. Easy peasy. I never put it down and then try and close it with my hands. You risk denting the hood that way. Always just let it drop from maybe 12 to 16 in or something like that– the shortest distance you can get away with.
Since that was quick and easy peasy, I took a look at her brakes because she was a little concerned about those and found that everything was fine, that she didn’t need anything done immediately.
Car number two was a 2005 Chevy pickup truck that wouldn’t start. Turns out he had a bad ignition switch. I was able to get the truck to start without really any problems, but his ignition switch was definitely bad, starting the vehicle when it was in the run position instead of waiting for the crank position.
I also turned in for labor claims. I haven’t submitted any labor claims for a long time. Hopefully I get those paid soon, as it would be nice to have the money those represent.
I did another three cars on the 7th. The first one was a 2006 Honda Civic that would start but had really high RPMs, and then it would die right away. They needed a mass air flow sensor, so I taught them how to replace it themselves, as it was super easy, and then they asked me to look at another one of their vehicles as well. So I did that since I still had plenty of time left in that first hour of the service call.
Car number two was a 2014 Ford f150 that wouldn’t start. It was a no crank, no start, and I found that the battery cables were a bit corroded. Once again, it started for me just fine, but I did take the time to pull all of the cable lens off and wire brush the corrosion down to metal.
The last car of the day was a 2005 Mazda 6 that had a knocking sound. I went over to look at it, and at first I wasn’t quite sure what the sound was, but then inspecting the oil, I found metal, and lots of it in the oil. Accompanied with the knocking noise, that metal spelled doom for the poor little engine and the poor young man who is the owner of the vehicle.
He had suspected that it might be something catastrophic, so it wasn’t a big surprise, but as always, it’s crappy to have to tell somebody that.
I guess I should say on the one hand that it makes for a simpler and easier diagnosis when there’s metal in the oil, as those sounds can sometimes be challenging to pin down precisely. So on the one hand, it’s nice as a mechanic to be able to quickly identify the issue. But it’s not so nice for the customer–obviously. 😬
My mental health has been pretty crappy lately, so instead of being productive on Saturday and Sunday, I pretty much veged all day both days, barely even leaving my room.
I’ve been really struggling a lot. A lot a lot.
I guess I already wrote that.
When Monday rolled around, I had it an absolutely slammed schedule. Gratefully, it went really well. For the last I don’t even know how long, I’ve really struggled to even get out of bed and go work. I’m just so burned out, with almost zero motivation to do even the things that I used to want to do.
But I keep pulling myself out of bed, and I keep working, and Monday was a day of eight cars on the schedule to start the day. Like a couple of the days last week, I was able to plow through and accomplish quite a bit. By the end of the day, I ended up finishing seven cars, as two of them canceled, but it was still 8.7 billable hours and those hours were completed relatively quickly, especially when one considers that I spent nearly two hours of the day driving. I got done at a relatively decent hour, later than a normal job, for sure, but still home before it was just time to crash in bed right away.
The first car on Monday was a 2010 Honda Accord, going back to the one that had weird lights from the other day. The misfire had returned, so I went ahead and replaced the spark plugs.
Car number two was a 2007 Honda Civic that supposedly just needed a belt replacement, but when I got there, after fighting with the belt for a while because it’s a dumb design, When I went to put the belt around the AC compressor, which had been installed fairly recently by another shop, I found that they had not installed it properly, which had led to two of the bolts that held the compressor in being broken, one missing, and one having broken the bracket itself.
Good gravy.
Wish I could say that’s the first time I’ve seen someone’s carelessness ruin an AC compressor bracket, but it’s not.
That’s one of the reasons why I always like to talk everything exactly down to spec. Yes, it sucks to have to look up the torques back for all the bolts that I tightened down, but I can pretty much guarantee, assuming my torque wrench is working properly, that I won’t over tighten anything, and I won’t under tighten anything. No broken bolts, and no bolts loose enough to allow the Power of the engine to snap off the bolts because they were loose and getting lateral torque put on them.
Those bolts that hold in AC compressors don’t require much torque at all. Probably like 16 or 18 ft lbs. So my guess is they were either put in finger tight and not torqued at all, or they were torqued and broken off. My guess is the former, as If they were broken off initially, the piece is likely would not have been still in there.
Car number three was a 2018 Toyota Corolla that the gentleman wanted a pre-purchase inspection on. I went out to it, and to my surprise, I actually didn’t recommend it. The transmission made an odd whine to it that I didn’t feel comfortable with, and it had some codes that could have been explained possibly by a battery going bad, but also seem to be more commonly associated with computer issues.
Not what I would expect from a Toyota Corolla with only 60k-ish miles. 🤔
Car number four was a 2015 Dodge Journey that was overheating, and I found that the plastic on one of the molded heater hoses had split completely in half, dumping all the coolant out of the car. I couldn’t get the parts locally, surprisingly, so I had to schedule the repair for another day.
Car number five was a 2016 Toyota Corolla that wouldn’t start, and not turned out to just be the battery. So I drove over to the parts supplier, grabbed a battery, taught the young lady how to replace it herself next time if she wanted to, and headed off for car number six.
Car number 6 was a 2008 Toyota matrix. Apparently today was Japanese car day, two Hondas and four Toyota products– with a Chrysler mixed in for good measure. The matrix wouldn’t start, and it’s issue was just really nasty battery cables. I ended up replacing both cable ends. Gratefully, the nasty corrosion hadn’t gone back so far that I had to replace the cables as well. I cut the cables back just far enough to get past the corrosion and have shiny wire, and was still able to attach the cables to the battery posts without any issues. 🥳
The last car of the day was the last of the four Toyota products– a 2010 Scion tC. It had a bad alternator, so I swapped it out and called it a day.
Tuesday, was a bust. I didn’t really want to work anyway, so I only scheduled two cars, but the first one was a friend who didn’t want to pay my normal price, and if I was going to do him a favor, I figured I just wouldn’t charge him at all, so I went out and just did him the favor. He gave me a little tip.
I think a lot of people don’t realize that when they ask for special consideration, it’s not just that they’re paying less: It’s that the worker actually loses money. When one’s livelihood is based on the value of their time, then asking them to earn less for their time is pretty much the same as asking for a gift of cash.
If I’m going to spend 2 hours working on something, and I only charge for 1 hour, then I might as well just CashApp you $100 as a gift and not work on your car at all and go work on a car that I’m going to get paid for in full. It’s pretty much the same. Either way, I lose $100.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I don’t like working for family or friends and being paid for it. I either charge for it, or I do it as a favor and don’t charge for it. If I charge my normal rate, then they feel slighted because they are family or friend.
If a job is going to cost $750 normally, and someone does it for $500, then they might as well be giving you a $250 gift–boom, here here $250. Have a great day.
Just another way of looking at it…
AutoZone screwed up my order and didn’t order the parts for the second job of the day, so that was pretty much the day. I hung out with Miguel at his shop for a few hours or so before heading home.
Pretty much a wasted day, unfortunately. I didn’t make any money but still spent the whole day out and about. Those days suck, but it’s not a big deal.
Chatted with one of my brothers for probably over an hour about the challenges that I’m struggling with in my life. Chatted with one of my sisters for a little bit as well about the things going on in her life. Nice to chat with family.
I’m tired… life tired.
Trying to find hope and energy to make meaningful progress. Failing, but still trying.
Also trying to get back to my daily posting instead of this continually playing catch up thing that I’m doing.
It’s about to get really hot… 14-day forecast is… not fun. 🥵
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 