I’ve done a lot of alternators on Honda odysseys over the years, and though I’ve done the Brazilian times, I always seem to have challenges that kick my butt.
Not this time! 🥳
The customer asked me to just bring an alternator and slap it in, no diagnostics desired, and I went over there, and I pounded it out in about an hour instead of probably the normal hour and a half to 2 hours that I usually take to do the job.
It just… Went smoothly the whole way! 🙃
Wahoo! 🥳
Next on the list was a 2006, I think it was, Hyundai sonata that supposedly was a warranty starter replacement. But when I went out there, after pulling the starter, I realized the issue wasn’t with the starter at all. The issue was that it needed a new flex plate. I put my hand inside the transmission bellhousing, grabbed the flex plate, and gave it a wiggle, and it flopped all over the place.
😬
Super crappy diagnosis for her, and also crappy for me because she didn’t think she had to pay for my visit.
Lovely. Apparently, it’s normal to expect someone to come out and diagnose your car for free. And with this one, I had to pull the starter completely off the car to verify that it wasn’t just the starter making the awful noise.
So I didn’t get paid for that job. She said she’d pay me later, and maybe I should be optimistic, but my experience tells me otherwise.
🙄
🤞
Next up on the list was a Jeep that was having starting issues. Having experienced my fair share of jeeps with auxiliary battery issues that drain the main battery, it was relatively simple to get this one figured out and taken care of.
Three down.
Car number four was a Subaru Forester that the gentleman had accidentally drained the CVT fluid out of. He was trying to change his oil, but he took out the wrong drain plug and drained all the fluid out of the transmission pan.
So I stopped by the Subaru dealership, grabbed several quarts of transmission fluid, and headed over to work on it.
The concept for changing the fluid in the pan is relatively simple. Drain it out, put the drain plug back, Take the fill plug bolt out, and pour transmission fluid in through the fill plug hole until it pours out of the transmission. Then just put the fill plug back on.
Easy peasy, right?
😅
Well, whoever put the fill plug on last time either used an impact wrench to tighten the plug, or use the wrong size Alan had socket, or a combination of the two, as the hole where the Allen had socket is supposed to go into was rounded off to the point that there was no getting the bolt out of the transmission with conventional means.
Gratefully, having been doing this job for as long as I have, I know to carry a hammer and chisel with me, and that, if I’m careful, I can use the chisel to loosen up stuck bolts that are rounded off.
I think I learned that trick because that’s the normal procedure for taking out breakaway bolts that hold on ignition lock cylinder housing around steering columns. Using the principal on purposefully rounded heads I think taught me to use that same principle on accidentally round heads.
So, gratefully, for both he and me, after quite a bit of effort, I was finally able to get the plug out. I didn’t have a pump with me to fill the transmission with fluid, but I did have a long clear plastic tube that I cleaned out and fished in through the top of the engine compartment down and slotted in the hole. With that, I was able to fill the transmission from the top without the need for a pump, which is the standard way of filling the system.
Unfortunately for the customer, since the fill plug was so badly damaged, I couldn’t reinstall it and tighten it down properly. I did put it back on, but only finger tight, and only to keep out dirt and debris until he could get himself another fill plug.
So that job took a bit of creativity, but gratefully, it wasn’t a nightmare, just a strategic challenge.
Card number five, the last car on the list for the day, was a 1997 Toyota Camry that was having an issue with the charging light being on. When I got there, the alternator was charging properly. The battery was fully charged, and the only thing that I could find that was wrong was that the radiator hose was not installed properly, but that wouldn’t cause anything to be an issue with the charging light.
So I disconnected the battery cables, cleaned them off pretty well, and lo and behold, charging light issue resolved.
Wahoo! 🥳
I think I did some more JustAnswer question answering in the evening before calling it a day.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 