The lack of sleep left me zombified this morning.
I got up at 4:30 like normal, but I was pretty much nothing but a zombie through all of morning study and food and everything. It wasn’t until I got out and on the road and going for a good bit to my brain finally started working even a little bit.
But I’ll tell you what, just did that first job, I could Tell the huge impact the lack of sleep has had on me. Emotionally and spiritually, I am sinking, and working on the first car, even though it was the job that I’ve done I don’t know how many times, good gravy… It kicked my butt. 😅
It was just a starter in a 2012 Honda Civic. Easy peasy. Done at a gazillion times. But somehow… Somehow it kicked my butt today. Go figure.
That job was at the Walmart Supercenter in Fayetteville. Next job was a 2009 Mercury Grand Marquis that had overheated. At first, it seemed like it had a blown head gasket because the block test chemical started to turn green. But I didn’t trust it, because it took like 20 squeezes for it to turn green. So I did all my other tests, verified that the issue for overheating was caused by a bad fan assembly, and then I redid the block test after I had the car all warmed up, and it passed with flying colors.
🥳
Car number 3 was a pre-purchase inspection on a 2005 Nissan Xterra from a local car dealership.
It was a mess. All four tires destroyed. Suspension worn out. Oil leak. Catalytic converter code. Poor body panel gaps. Dense and scratches and whatnot all over.
Apparently the guy who sent me out there hadn’t even gone out to see it himself.
Friendly suggestion for all y’all out there: before you pay for a pre-purchase inspection, unless it’s out of state and you can’t get to it yourself, call the mechanic to look at it once you are basically at the point where you are going to buy the vehicle unless the mechanic tells you not to.
Card number four was another pre-purchase inspection. This one on a 2012 Jeep Wrangler. Valve cover gasket leak. Upper oil pan gasket leak. Rear main seal oil leak. Front struts bad. Leaking front drive shaft. Collapsed radiator hose, likely from either bad radiator cap or blockage in the cooling system. Brakes pulling severely to the right when pressed, with both front brakes badly unevenly worn. Front blinkers not working, quite possibly issues with the fuse box…
Lots going on with that one as well.
Card number 5 was a 2008 Honda Accord that died while driving and was a crank no start. From the moment I got there, it just seemed like it might be a black hole, so I gave it probably an hour, and then I called it and didn’t charge him anything for all the work I had done and just made some recommendations. I could probably go back next week and look at it again, but… ugh.
Car number six was going to be a 2019 Pathfinder with an oil leak, but he postponed until Wednesday. (I’ll be taking Monday and Tuesday off because it’s supposed to rain).
So I didn’t go to that one.
The last car, car number 7, was a 2014 Nissan Murano that had overheated. The gentleman had owned it since it had 3000 mi on it and hadn’t ever had any work done to the cooling system, but I found that the radiator had been cracked at some point in time, and someone had repaired it with JB weld Just glopped on. Since he had never had any repairs done to the cooling system, what makes the most sense to me is that a mechanic working on the car accidentally busted the radiator, and instead of replacing it, they did a quick fix.
Not really much else to explain it unless somehow it got damaged within the first 3,000 mi.
Anyway, not going to be a cheap fix on that car. Just the radiator itself is like 300 bucks. Then, it’s a Nissan, so labor hours is up there as well. 😅
Home, another late dinner, and now bed.
Oh, my work phone bit the dust today. I can get it to start up, and I can use it, but if I so much is tap it, the screen flips out and does all sorts of rainbow colors and flashes and… Then it just shuts itself off. Or it’ll skip that step and just completely shut itself off.
Not very effective to have a business phone doing stuff like that when I’m a mechanic. 😅
But I’ve dropped that phone who knows how many times. It’s probably my most used automotive repair tool. 🙃
So it’s definitely been well abused, and I guess it’s about time to have to replace it. I was hoping to just swap my SIM card over to my New Zealand cell phone, but… Reception is so bad on that phone that I Don’t think it’s going to be of any use.
So I guess I’m phone shopping now. I’ve been on Facebook marketplace looking for either an s20 or newer but under $250 or a Google Pixel 6 pro for about $200. I wouldn’t like to spend more than 200 bucks, but I’d like a decent used phone, one of the flagship phones but from a few years ago, I think, is going to be what I go for.
Haven’t really had much of anything to drink today. 😬
I brought a full water bottle, but I don’t think I took even a sip from it today.
Very tired. Time for bed. G’night.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 