I worked today as well, as it just seems to work out better this week to work Tuesday instead of Wednesday. That puts a pretty big gap until my next work day which is going to be Saturday because it’s supposed to rain on Friday. But I guess we’ll see what happens.
Today wasn’t a very effective work day. I spent a lot of time but didn’t seem to get that much done.
My first job of the day was going to a jeep in Bentonville that was having issues with some codes related to the engine temperature and also issues with the heater not blowing hot. Given the time of year, having a non-working heater is a bit problematic. 😅
Well, when I went out there, I wasn’t able to reproduce either of the issues. I never had any issues with the temperature gauge dropping down to zero, like he had had, and I never had any issues with the heater not working. I ran the car for probably 20 or 30 minutes, and still, everything was working just fine.
As best I could figure out from the research that I did, it was most likely that the coolant temperature sensor was going bad. I did a test to verify that the computer itself and wiring was good, but of course, since I couldn’t reproduce the problem, then I couldn’t verify that for sure either.
Intermittent problems are definitely challenging to deal with.
In the end, given that he had codes for both the thermostat being under temperature and a code for the coolant temperature sensor, it seemed much more likely that it was an issue with the temperature sensor, as that could cause both codes. Since I couldn’t prove it, though, I didn’t want to replace the part without being able to prove it unless the customer knew ahead of time and wanted to just go ahead and do it anyway.
With the heater not blowing hot, I was able to verify that one of the blender actuators was not functioning properly, but it was still functioning well enough to blow heat when it was supposed to blow heat. It was just clicking several times, causing the noise in the dash.
Since it was functional as well, and since it would take a bit to replace that particular blender actuator, the customer decided to not replace anything for the time being, and I just let him know that if he wanted me to go ahead and come back later, I would come prepared to replace all of the different possible issues that it could be with the temperature sensor stuff and then also a blend door actuator.
The next car I went to was going back to that Jeep Patriot from last night that I was concerned about. I told him I would come back for free, and I wanted to look to see if the oil smelled like gasoline. So I drove down there, and I smelled the oil, and it didn’t smell like gasoline at all, so that was a load off. I did however decide to check the oil itself to see if there were any metal particles in it, and there were no visible metal particles at all, but I could get just the tiniest little metal flashes in the oil with a magnet right next to the oil and light shining on the oil.
But I know there is wear and tear inside an engine, so I don’t know if that has anything to do with what happened last night or the driving they might have done with the check engine light flashing or whatever.
I took an oil sample with me so that I could learn a little bit more about it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s normal for there to be tiny bits of metal suspended in the oil that are not visible without doing what I did to see it.
Anyway, stuff to learn. 🙃 I’m still nervous because I want to make sure I do right by my customer, but I don’t want to take responsibility for something that’s not my issue.
Life. It’s challenging.
The second car on my list was Ford fusion that was having overheating messages. When I got there, the engine was a little low on coolant, but not dangerously low. I couldn’t reproduce the overheating issue, but I did find a leak at the water pump, and she did admit to me after I’d been there for a while, that she actually had filled it with coolant recently, so it appears that it was probably low enough on coolant that she got her coolant warning message, but that that message hadn’t totally cleared away after she added coolant.
At the same time, it was good that she had me come out because I was able to identify the cause of why she was having to top off her coolant, a leaking water pump, and I also was able to show her that her valve cover was leaking pretty much all the way around.
Number three was going back to the Mercedes that needed a water pump replaced. I thought I only had a little bit to do on it, but it ended up taking me nearly 3 hours, I think. But in the end, I got it done, so we should be good there. The service instructions tell you to fill that one by using a vacuum method, but I don’t have the tools to do a vacuum cooling fill procedure, so I just did the old fashioned way. Everything seemed to be fine, the heater blew out nice and hot without any issues, it never overheated, and everything seems to be good to go. I ended up charging him a good bit less than what I’d originally quoted because I didn’t need all the materials that I had originally quoted.
Car number for, the last car, was a Volvo XC60 that I was called out to replace the battery on. When I got there, however, I found that the battery was less than a year and a half old, and it was a 3-year warranty battery. It was drained down to like 5 volts, four and a half, I think, but there was no good reason for it. It had been sitting for like a week or two, but that’s not long enough to drain down a good battery and less there’s some kind of a draw on the battery.
So I started doing a parasitic draw test, and I found that there was a 0.35 amp draw. About half of that, I traced to the key system, but I couldn’t find the other half of the draw. Then I realized that because it was a European car, it likely had an auxiliary battery. So I started looking for the auxiliary battery, and I finally figured out where it was. Once I managed to get into access it, it was only reading one volt, and it looked like the original battery for the vehicle. Given that it would have taken another 45 minutes of running the car to try and charge up and properly test the batteries, and given that the main battery was relatively new and the auxiliary battery look like it was the original, I went ahead and suggested that after she had run the car for like 45 minutes or so, that she take the car over to AutoZone or O’Reilly’s and have them test the auxiliary battery.
My guess is that one’s going to be bad as well, and just like that customer’s vehicle last week, I’m betting that was part of the cause of the draw.
That’s two or three times now that I’ve run into that issue with that auxiliary battery draining the main battery. I need to remember that as an issue in the future so I don’t get sidetracked on doing a full parasitic draw test, when there’s a good chance there’s just an issue with an auxiliary battery.
Even though it was only four cars, and even though I didn’t get much in the way of billable hours today, I still got a little bit done, and ended up getting home about the same time as yesterday– well after dark, with just enough time to do some brief things and crash into bed. I think I actually made it into bed relatively on time? I don’t remember, honestly. It wasn’t really late, so it had to have been decent.
Interestingly, I’ve been remembering my dreams lately. I don’t usually remember dreams. I’ve had some weird ones for sure.
Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 