Long work day today.
First car of the day was a 2008 Infiniti G37 coupe that needed a starter. There were multiple options for removal, the one advocated by Nissan being disconnecting the steering column, but I didn’t want to do that. I hate disconnecting the steering column. For some reason, it just makes me nervous to think about that.
So I fought with different ways of trying to get it out without having to disconnect the steering column, but I failed at each that I tried until I realized that I could get it out by removing the AC compressor, or at least unbolting it. Once I realize that, I was actually a bit excited because I’m totally comfortable disconnecting and reconnecting an AC compressor. 🥳
My efforts to try different ways of removing the starter without disconnecting the steering column made it so that the job took longer than it should have, so I was already pretty significantly behind after just the first job of the day with several more cars on the schedule.
Still, it was good to be out of the house working instead of at home struggling.
Car number two was a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek that would start up the die. That one could have been a black hole job, but gratefully, when I popped the hood, I noticed that the air intake was disconnected, meaning that the engine was getting a lot more air than it knew that it was getting, as the mass airflow sensor was telling the computer one thing, but the amount of air getting into the engine was definitely quite a different story. Thus, the computer was giving a different ratio of gas to air than what was needed.
The third car of the day was a 2007 Mercedes S550 with a coolant leak. I went out there and found that the radiator was cracked on the top driver side.
Super weird design for a radiator, by the way. But I guess that’s German engineering. Vehicle design is often a bit different with German cars, one of the things that makes many mechanics shy away from working on German cars.
I myself don’t like to work on them… But I do.
Replacing the radiator was a pretty huge job to do, and the radiator wasn’t available locally, which was good because I still had other cars I needed to go to, and trying to do that radiator then would have probably taken me into the late hours of the evening.
Car number four was a 2011 Ford F-150. It was that one that I had diagnosed basically for free the other day because the car was working on first was super easy and quick, so I had plenty of time left in that first hour, so I just helped him with his other truck, diagnosing the leak.
Replacing those hoses is a job I’ve done before and was relatively familiar with, so it wasn’t a massive issue. Not easy, but not really all that hard either. So I got the hose assembly installed, got the system filled with coolant, and that one was good to go.
The next car was a 2016 Toyota Corolla that wouldn’t start, a no crank, no start. I got out there and found he just had a bad battery connection with one of the battery cables, which he felt a bit stupid about, but it happens to many of us.
Personally, I was grateful for an easy one.
Car number 6 was a 1999 Ford expedition that he said was making an unhappy noise and not running very well. When I got there, I checked the oil, as per usual before starting a car, and found that it was super low, nothing reading on the dipstick.
So I put in the cord of oil and rechecked.
Nothing.
So I put in another cord of oil and checked again.
Still nothing.
I forget how many quarts of oil I put in, I think it was four or five, before the oil finally reached the safe zone.
Once I had added the oil and started it up, it seemed to do relatively decently.
Darn that pesky necessary oil. 😅
He had some oil leaks, and I think they were a bit worse than what he had thought they were.
The last car of the day, car number 7, was a 2019 GMC Yukon that he was concerned about an odd smell after having some work done on it. When I got there, there were a couple of minor things that I noticed that hadn’t been put on properly when the previous shop did their repairs, but the smell, I think, was simply coolant that had been spilled that was being burned off.
Unfortunately, I added to the amount of coolant that was sprayed around the engine bay. 😅 I was repositioning a hose that had not been positioned properly, one of the main radiator hoses, but the engine had been run enough to have some pretty good pressure built up, so when I released the clamp to adjust the hose, it it squirted coolant all over the engine bay.
😅
I ended up getting a gallon of distilled water from the van to try and rinse off as much of the spilled coolant as I could.
Oops. 🙃
But that concluded the day, and I think I answered some JustAnswer questions when I got home. That’s pretty much how every night goes, making sure that I’m not leaving any customers hanging for too long.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 