Wow, three slower work days in a row. That’s a total head scratcher this time of year.
🤷
Four cars. Five and a half billable hours. First job was just north of where I live and was a 2009 Toyota Corolla that was having a misfire issue. I found that it was way too full on oil as well, so I drove and got the ignition coil and replaced that, and then I tried to drain the oil out for her.
I’ve got to stop trying to do nice things for people. Every single time I do them, At least as it relates to cars, it bites me in the butt. For whatever reason, every single time I checked her oil, it was wildly different readings. I think it took me an hour and a half to drain out the oil and get it to a level that I thought was accurate. I should have just drained the whole freaking thing out and put in what was right. But it never fails that if I do an oil change, I end up with oil all over my van.
Ugh.
It was a nightmare.
On the bright side, the young lady I was doing the work for was going through a super rough time in her life, and I was able to chat with her and encourage her and be there for her a little bit. So that was a nightmare job with a good I was trying to do on the car side of things, at least it was good to be there for her.
Car number two was going to a 2013 Hyundai sonata that was a no start in Bentonville. It was acting super goofy, and there was an burnt electrical smell. They said it died while it was driving, and it was smelling super strongly of burnt electrical by the alternator, but something just wasn’t adding up. The description they gave me would describe an alternator that’s burned up, but it was a no crank no start.
It took me a while, but eventually I was able to figure out that it was just the starter. Super weird circumstances.
Anyway, they wanted to buy the starter themselves online, so I told them to go ahead and buy it, but I wouldn’t be able to warranty it, but I couldn’t install it for them. So that’s where we left it.
Car number four was a 2004 Honda Accord that wouldn’t start. The tow truck driver told her that it was a bad starter, but I think it just turned out to be Just a bad battery.
Last car of the day was a 1999 Ford Econoline van that wouldn’t start. That van was another tricky car. I suppose I could have just named the title of today’s entry tricky cars, but it seemed almost certain that it was a starter. When I got there, the battery cables weren’t great, so I spent some time cleaning them off, but still had the issue after that, so everything was pointing to the starter. After I got the starter out in bench tested it, it didn’t sound fabulous, but it was certainly not bad.
So I scratched my head and pondered and scratched my head and pondered and wondered what on earth was going on, and finally, and I don’t remember exactly how I figured it out, finally I went back to the battery cables, Hold them off, looked closely at the battery posts, and realized that there was a thick coating of really hard atypical corrosion like a crust on the post themselves.
I think Take a screwdriver to scrape it off because it was so hard and so thick.
I’ve seen that happen before, but I have no idea how it happens. I wonder if maybe it’s some kind of a chemical that somebody is put on it to stop corrosion that has just been on there so long that it hardens and actually does the exact same thing as corrosion.
🤷
Lots of ways to time that I felt like was my fault, so I only build him for the regular service call and not for all the extra time that I was there.
Got done just as it was starting to sprinkle a little bit, as I remember. Don’t remember what else I did that day. I think I got home right around dark or just before.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 