(written on the 21st from notes)
I got up late again, as per usual these days. Crashed hard again last night, so that was… discouraging? I’m almost numb at this point, I think, so… I’m not really feeling anything.
Chatted with my mom a bit about moving stuff and all the craziness going on right now, and then I hopped in Happy once again, headed over to Miguel’s shop, and proceeded to spend the entire day helping Miguel. His tech had called in for the day, so it was just him trying to pound through a bunch of cars.
I helped him get a Chevrolet Sonic squared away that his tech had been working on yesterday, and that he mostly finished this morning. I buttoned it up.
I also worked on an Elantra, a Spark, a Tundra, a Pilot, a Sentra, and an Edge (and perhaps more that I’m not remembering 🙃).
Funny… I can’t even remember much of what I did with some of these cars. 😅
The Sonic was mostly just burping the cooling system and making sure it was properly filled. The Elantra… gosh… I took it for a test drive… but why and what did I figure out? 😅
I honestly can’t remember. 🙃
The Chevy Spark had a steering issue concern, and boy did it ever! On the test drive, it would randomly jerk to the right and left. 😬
I didn’t take it on a very long test drive. 🙃
Looks like it’s going to need, at the very least, lower control arms, and likely a fair bit more than that.
Poor lady just bought it and significantly overpaid for it, I think, and now this to deal with. Those little Chevy vehicles are absolute garbage–the Sonic, the Spark, the Cruze, all of them.
Granted, they’re super cheap, so I guess you get what you pay for…
If the chronology of my memory is correct, next up was a Toyota Tundra truck that supposedly was making some kind of noise while driving. It had a lift and big fatty tires, and I could hear a little bit of an odd sounding hum/vibration that sounded like it was coming from the front right of the vehicle, but nothing super distinctive or obvious.
One thing I did notice (and I’m guessing that perhaps this was the customer’s concern?) was that on sharper bends in the road at higher speeds, the ABS would kick in. 😅
I’m guessing that has a heck of a lot to do with the oversized tires and the lift.
Spent some time working on a Honda Pilot as well, taking it out for a test drive to try to hear a noise, but I couldn’t recreate the noise at all with anything that I did on the test drive.
After getting back, I did spend some time underneath the vehicle tapping around to see if I could make anything make an odd noise, and eventually I found that if I tapped the splash guard a certain way, it would make a sort of metallic sound, which was what was described.
The vehicle’s splash shield was missing clips and bolts in some places, so I added some clips, replaced an incorrect bolt with a different incorrect bolt but that would work better, because it was missing the original (which isn’t necessary that it has to be the original, but the original definitely worked better than the one someone had replaced it with).
We went out to eat after that, and then Miguel helped me get the machine going with the AC in my little Z3. He then headed out to run some errands that he needed to run, while I stayed at the shop and decided to keep trying to help.
It was after 5:00 by that time, and he wasn’t going to be back to the shop until somewhere around 7:00 or 8:00. Wanting to help him clear vehicles out for customers who’ve been waiting, I spent a little while working on a ’97 Nissan Sentra that supposedly had a rear wheel that was locked up, but I couldn’t recreate that issue. I did find that things didn’t look so great on the inside of the drum. There was evidence of brake fluid having leaked out and having separated the paint and metal. I couldn’t see any wetness, but… You don’t want to go to all that work and not replace the wheel cylinder if there’s a possibility that it’s currently leaking.
That’s also why whoever does the work should scrape off the messed up paint with a wire brush, so future mechanics aren’t worried like I was today.
Anyway, it’s been such a long time since I’ve worked on cars regularly that I spaced loosening the shoes up before trying to take the drum off, which wasn’t really much of a problem on the passenger side, but got me in heaps of trouble on the driver’s side. 😅
I ended up bending parts and damaging the wheel cylinder.
Fortunately, when you do a job like that, and you have the whole system apart, you need to replace the shoes anyway, so bending the shoes wasn’t a problem, and if you’re going to replace one wheel cylinder because it’s potentially leaking, you just replace the other one as well, so you know you’ve got two good cylinders in there, so there wasn’t any lasting concern for Miguel because of my forgetfulness, but it was still kind of dumb. 😅
After messing with the Sentra and getting it to a point where I couldn’t really do anything more, because I needed parts, I decided to work on one last car, taking the Ford Edge out for a test drive. The customer stated that the vehicle brakes were locking up, but it seems to be fine on the test drive. I drove it, used the brakes, and was totally fine all the way up to the Lutheran Church where I often drive circles in the huge parking lot to test out suspension and steering and whatnot.
Just as I was getting ready to leave the parking lot, I made the poor decision (in retrospect) to press the brakes pretty hard.
It was then that I felt them start to lock up a little bit.
And then they locked up completely–while I was in the middle of one of the entrances to the church parking lot. 😶
When I say locked up, I mean locked up, as if I had an emergency brake cranked down on all four wheels. 😶
It wasn’t too long after that had happened that a semi truck wanted to pull into the church parking lot, but I couldn’t move.
And I didn’t have any tools with me. 😅
And that was a couple of miles, or so, away from the shop. 😅
I did have my scanner, and I tried to use my scanner to see if there was something that I could do. I tried to do an electronic bleed procedure, and each time the scanner let off the ABS, the car rolled maybe an inch. But in the middle of the test, you can’t just turn it off, so once the test finished, everything was locked back up again. That seemed to indicate that the issue was with the ABS module and not with the brake booster or master cylinder, but that didn’t help me while I was stuck there.
I tried disconnecting the battery, but that didn’t work. I tried to access the vacuum line going into the brake booster, but because it’s a stupid Ford, you can’t get back there without taking a gazillion things off.
It’s just mind-boggling to me how they build cars nowadays. I think we did better in the ’80s with our little compact cars that got better gas mileage than cars do now that were much simpler and more reliable.
Personally, I think all the EPA crap that’s federally required is an overall net negative for the environment, because of the sheer number of parts that need to be fabricated, the fact that all those systems make vehicles less reliable and less efficient than they used to be, which means more repairs, which means more parts that need to be replaced, which means more parts that need to be manufactured, which means more pollution, and on and on.
I could go off on that, but… probably not best. 😅
Anyway, I eventually managed to force the vehicle off the parking lot exit ramp and down onto the side of the road–on a blind turn. 😅
Oddly, Miguel wasn’t answering texts or phone calls, and my phone was almost out of battery, so after fiddling around with the car a little longer, I finally gave up.
Gratefully, the semi-truck driver who had finally been able to get into the church parking lot (though he had to back up on the main road, turn onto another road, and enter the other entrance), stopped with his… wife? who had come to pick him up and asked if I needed a ride. 🙏
Miguel arrived back at the shop shortly after I got back, and together we headed back to the Edge to try to figure everything out. It was around 8:00 by this time. 😅
Miguel suggested that maybe we pull the ABS relay, but it didn’t have one, so we pulled all three of the fuses related to the ABS system. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to do anything, so Miguel hoped that maybe he could get the brakes to loosen up by forcing them for a little bit.
That seemed to work for a little while, but then they locked up completely again.
When we finally gave up and decided to go back and get tools, suddenly, the brakes went back to normal, and Miguel was able to drive all the way back to the shop.
We’re guessing that pulling the ABS fuses took a little while to kick in, so to speak? Maybe waiting to take effect until after the vehicle had been turned off again. 🤷
Once back, Miguel and I chatted for a bit about car stuff, then he had some customers come over to pick up one of their cars, and then a guy came over who was interested in a job working for Miguel helping with the car sales side of things.
By the time we finish talking to everybody, and by the time Miguel and I finished chatting after everyone else had left, it was almost 10:00, so we bit each other farewell, and I headed back.
Miguel wanted to pay me for all the work I’ve been doing, but I declined, as it wasn’t done to make money. Not to mention that I don’t want to deal with having to file an Arkansas tax return.
Although… I might have to anyway since I’ve been selling stuff that’s still located in Arkansas?
Ugh. I hope not. 😬
Long day. Productive day… at least in terms of helping Miguel.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
