Today everything just sort of went… well. 🙃
No major problems. Nothing went super sideways. Nearly everything was pretty straightforward.
🥳
I did six cars, and i finished up with the last one about 5:15.
😶
I didn’t reach my billable hours goal, coming in at about 8.8, I think, but hey, I’ll take it!
After the normal Pea Ridge AutoZone parts run, my first job was replacing the crankshaft position sensor in a 2009 Dodge ram 1500.
It’s one bolt. 🙃
😁
So I pulled out the sensor, scraped off some rust to make sure it sealed properly, replaced the sensor, cleared the codes, sent him out for a test drive, and then headed off to the next one.
Car number two was a 2012 Ford expedition. They had called earlier this morning asking for help with their blower motor because they were leaving to drive back to Austin, and his wife didn’t want to drive back with the HVAC system malfunctioning.
They met me at a defunct gas station in northeastern Bentonville, and I diagnose the issue as being a bad blower motor. It was a bit of a pain to get the blower motor out, but I eventually got it out, and I got the new one in, screwed it all down, and he was on his way.
Two down.
I was pretty shocked because I finished that job at something like 10:30, and that was the second job of the day. Quite the difference from Wednesday when I think I finished my second job at like 2:30. 😅
Car number 3 was going to a 2016 Dodge Charger to replace the thermostat and the passenger front fender liner. The thermostat replacement was pretty much easy peasy, so that was nice. I guess the fender liner replacement went a little sideways, but only because they told me to order a fender liner when what they actually needed was the under engine splash guard.
😅
I had ordered the fender liner and had it shipped from an online seller, so it wasn’t like it was going to be an easy return.
Or so I thought.
I started to do a return for the part, and amazingly, even though I didn’t have any excuse other than The part was ordered by mistake because the diagnosis was incorrect, the parts supplier refunded the money entirely and told me just to keep the part.
😶
🥳
Go 1AAuto.com!!! Thank you!!!
That made it nice and easy for both my customer and myself. 🙂
Car number four was going back to that 2014 Jeep Patriot that I went to on Wednesday but realized I didn’t have one of the parts that I needed.
This time I was prepared, or so I thought. 😅
I spliced in the new pigtail for the driver’s front turn signal. Then I attached it to the new socket, and all that went well, but when I tried to put the bowl bolt in, it wouldn’t go in.
🤔
Turns out the previous shop had tried to force in the wrong size bulb. 😅 So I had to go back to the parts supplier, grab the right bulb, and slap it in. But I did, and it went fine, and I was done with car number four by 2:15.
🥳
Car number five was going back to that 2011 Toyota Tacoma that I went to on Monday that I had put a battery in and that needed an alternator. I’ve put alternators in these Tacomas before, but I’ve never put one in that went so easily and smoothly.
I don’t know what made it so easy this time, but it was just… Easy peasy. Yay!!! 🥳
The last car of the day, in Fayetteville (the first four were in Bentonville, number five in Springdale), was a 1999 Honda Accord V6 that had a coolant leak and was blowing white smoke out the back.
I tried to pressure the test the system to find the leak, but I couldn’t build any pressure, meaning it was a massive leak. So I started feeling around in the area where he said he thought the leak was coming from, and I found a hole about the size of a quarter in one of the hoses. 😬
That’ll do it.
I wasn’t able to do a block test right away because I needed to seal the leak first. So I tried and tried to get the hose apart, but The reason it had failed was that oil had been leaking on it for so long that the rubber had swelled up, weakened significantly, and finally burst from the pressure.
Honda, and Toyota I think did the same thing in those older years, had one of those spring clamps with the two knobs on the one end and the one on the other. Those things are just absolute nightmares. I’ve never found a tool that can take those off simply and easily. I probably spent 30 minutes just getting that hose off.
Eventually I gave up trying to do it with limited access, and I pulled out the distributor and was finally able to get it. It was still a pain in the butt because the rubber was so swelled up that the clamp couldn’t go over it, so I had to pry the clamp off while at the same time squeezing it open.
That was certainly a challenge. But eventually, I got it, and I was able to cut off the busted piece of hose and have at least enough slack to attach it back to where it was supposed to go. The hose itself needs to be replaced, but at least there was enough for me to hook it back up to remove the leak from the system, thus allowing me to do a block test.
Amazingly, it passed the block test, notwithstanding the fact that It was pouring white smoke out the back.
The engine oil was clean. The coolant wasn’t full of oil. It did pass the block test, so the only choices we really have are a blown head gasket where the coolant is only leaking into the combustion chamber, but no combustion gases are getting into the coolant, and no oil is getting into the coolant, and no coolant is getting into the oil.
🤔
It’s possible…
The other possibility is perhaps there is a stuck open injector that’s just dumping gasoline into one or more of the cylinders. I’ve seen that dump out massive amounts of white smoke in other vehicles.
The next step is to do a compression test, but they are going to hold off for now.
After finishing up the last job, I swung by that old van that I bought on Wednesday. She had accidentally given me the wrong title, so I picked up the right title, and then I verified which fuel pump it needed, and I started the process of removing the tank.
Surprisingly, when I pulled the fuel fill pipe from its connecting line, fuel poured out, indicating Not only was the tank completely full, but it was over filled.
And it’s a huge tank. 😅
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a 36+ gallon tank.
That might be a challenging one to get down. I guess we’ll see.
From there, I headed home. I planned out my Saturday, which will hopefully involve getting a whole lot of things done on several different fronts.
🤞
Lots on my mind. That’s sort of a perpetuality.
That’s probably not a word. 🙃
Decent chance I’m going to be reaching out to a friend that I haven’t connected with in almost 2 and 1/2 years.
Life’s a trip.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 