Work day today, but not much of one. I did just three cars. The first was a 2009 GMC Yukon that had a broken transmission dipstick tube. She asked me how much it was going to cost, and without looking it up, which was foolish, I said it probably wouldn’t take more than just a service call. I was thinking to myself how hard could the dipstick really be to install?
😅
Error in judgment.
I went over there, and I spent probably 2 hours fighting with the dipstick tube to get it in, only to find out that in the end, the transmission seal was split because I couldn’t get the tube to fit in exactly straight. So I got the tube in, but no longer with a usable seal.
Always look it up before you tell someone the price. 😬
I found out later after looking up the instructions from general motors that you actually have to remove the transmission to replace the dipstick tube.
😶
The funny thing, they could just shorten the dipstick tube by 2 mm, and it would install just fine. 2 mm is the difference between having to remove the transmission and having a challenging, but relatively straightforward part installation.
Foolish me, yet again, thought that since I got it in once, I might be able to figure out how to get the seal in without damaging it. So I ordered another seal, and figured that since I had done all the hard work of fishing the transmission dipstick tube down into its place, which is a feet on its own, I thought maybe I could figure out a way to get the seal installed with the tube without damaging anything. So I told them that I would order the new seal and come back another day.
So I only charged him for the service call, even though I was there for I think somewhere between 2 and 3 hours, but since I told her it was only going to be a service call charge, I couldn’t really go back on that.
Always look it up before you quote.
Even if it seems like it would be simple.
The other thought that came to mind was that they could have just had the dipstick to be underneath the vehicle. Yes, you’d have to get on the ground to check it, but the car is so high off the ground and there are so many vehicles that you have to go underneath to check anyway, why not just have a short little dipstick tube that plugs right into the top of the transmission?
Anyway, so that was a bit of a nightmare.
That job was up in Bentonville. My next job was way down in far south Fayetteville. The gentleman had a belt that went out because his AC pulley seized up. At first, I thought about doing the job for him, though I hate doing AC compressor jobs because It’s challenging to find all of the data that I need to feel comfortable that I’m doing the job like it should be done.
It would have been like an 8-billable-hour job on its own.
But then I thought better of it, and it would be better for the customer to have the job done in his home state anyway, so he had a local warranty, than to have me do it.
So I found an alternative that was able to get him going and get him all the way home without him spending the nearly $2k it was going to cost to do the whole repair.
I went online and found a bypass belt option that some people had posted about in an online forum. I bought the belt, and it worked as a bypass belt! Yay!
Well, let me amend that: It worked, but it was tighter than I wanted it to be, so I drove back to the parts store, grabbed the next size longer, put that one on, and called it good. 🙂
Car number three was an easy peasy job. It was a Toyota FJ cruiser with a screw in the tire that just needs to be removed and plugged. So I removed it, and plugged it. 🙂
I don’t remember what else happened that day, so I’ll just call it good. I’m sure I probably vegged out in front of a screen for a while, and I probably spend some time trying to clean up and organize my room.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 