(written on April 20th)
Another full day today, gratefully. Six cars, just shy of 10 billable hours.
The first three jobs of the day were all in Bella Vista, the first being a 2013 Chevy Camaro in absolutely gorgeous condition that he wanted front brake pads and rotors replaced on. As is off in the case with brake jobs with me, it took a very long time, It was a bit frustrating, but I got it done.
I ran into a little bit of confusion with the particular construction of The braking system, and which of the torque specifications I was supposed to follow. I eventually figured it out, and got the job done, gratefully.
The second Bella Vista car was also another brake job. It was a 2012 Subaru Forester, and I ended up doing brake pads on both the front and the rear, a little unexpected, and that put me a little behind for the rest of the day, but overall, it helped get me almost to my billable hours goal.
So that was nice.
No major hiccups that I remember, went decently well. 🎉
The last Bella Vista job of the day was a 2001 Chevy Silverado that he had started working on but had run into issues removing a bolt. What he didn’t say was that he had been rounding off the bolt.
Why do people never explain the full extent of the damage they’ve caused on their cars when they ask for help? Oftentimes they simply say they need help with this job. They don’t say that they already tried it and screwed stuff up. You don’t find out till you get there. And of course, as often as that happens, just about as frequently, I forget to probe and ask to find out such things. 😅
Anyway, he asked me to spend the hour just getting done whatever I could get done, and I was able to get his wheel bearing off, get the new one installed, and get the job almost completely done in that hour. The only thing left for him, I think was to finish torquing down some bolts and putting the wheel on and whatnot. I’d already stayed a little longer than the hour, but wasn’t charging him for it.
Vehicle number four was a 2007 Honda Civic in Bentonville that after running for a little while the car would turn off it would start again with a jump start. He had bought an alternator, and I went ahead and put it in for him, I believe. I’m having a hard time remembering, but I believe that’s what happened. He bought an alternator online, and I went ahead and put it in.
The next car was another Honda (this time an accord) That needed an alternator, and it was also in Bentonville. I had come prepared, given the customers description of the issue, with both sizes of alternator that came with that 2010 model year. It did turn out to be an issue with the alternator, and it turned out to be the pricier alternator.
Install isn’t too hard on those, though I think I did have to transfer some components from one alternator to the other, but not bad.
The last car of the day was in Rogers and was a 2012 BMW 650i that just needed a battery replacement. I’ve probably already mentioned this, but I only replace BMW batteries with the factory batteries. I don’t use aftermarket at all because none of my scan tools have ever been able to properly reset the BMW battery monitoring system with the aftermarket battery specs, and being the perfectionist that I tend to be, I want to make sure that the battery monitoring system has all the correct information to make sure the battery life lasts as long as it possibly can. As I understand it, incorrect data means improper calibration.
Anyway, so that was the day. 9.85 billable hours. 🎉 If I remember correctly, I think I actually got home at a relatively decent hour. 🥳
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 