Your breakout car-person moments - 4 Labor Day

[bradly1101]

I think cars are a labor of love sometimes. I always liked working on them and the results (repairs, audio, sound deadening...). I never got into an engine or tranny, but along the way different stuff.

I finally felt pretty confident as a car guy after buying a used Previa with exhaust problems, and since I had never gone beyond changing a muffler I took it to the mechanic (the 2>1 connection was leaking badly). They tightened the bolts (I thought) and applied a brown caulk to the leaking areas. On the way home at night on the freeway I heard the car getting louder and louder. A semi behind me was flashing his lights and I could see an orange glow low in my rear view. The joint came apart and the whole pipe swung down since the hangers weren't there, and the pipe was dragging at the front.

It turns out there are spacers that are supposed to go in there. They were cheap, and I got SS bolts, and that car went on into its 24th year. Without hopefully sounding too prideful, that was the day I felt confident to figure out and fix stuff I was chicken to before (maybe doing a better job than the mechanic boosted that).

If you're bored and want to share a story about that 'big' repair you had never tried...

 

[jlee]

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[bradly1101]

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I've been watching for a long time. I had access to an earlier angular one. I just fit, and it was a blast in the mountains. Major respect.

 

[JCH13]

https://imgur.com/a/BH4rS

Full AT Thread: http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/jch13-turbo-miata-rehab-thread.2217920/

One thing that I've come to appreciate is that there really isn't some magic sauce to making good car repairs. Anyone can do it if they're careful and can pay attention to the details.

 

[Paperdoc]

Just a small item from years ago that helped me gain confidence. On brakes, I had done shoe / pad and drum/disk replacements, but never tackled the hydraulics. I found a leaking rear brake cylinder and took it to a garage for replacement. A few days later I found signs it was leaking again! Opened it up and found the pistons has slipped right out the end and one was leaking, so I disassembled. I found that, when it had been made, the pistons had small grooves cut in the outer ends and left with burrs that dragged on the cylinder bore. Smoothed them off with emery cloth, cleaned and re-assembled, and re-filled and bled the hydraulic system. Worked fine after that. This was NOT a problem with the garage's work. I decided if I could do that when forced, I could do more tricky things, too.

One other incident that taught me something. Had an old "64 Ford Fairlaine with troubles in the manual transmission. My brother-in-law and I tackled it a couple times before we discovered the source. The short shaft for the reverse idler gear was held in place by a small keeper strip that slipped into a groove ground near the end, and that piece had broken so ther was no more groove. Well, simple solution - just cut a matching groove in the opposite end and re-install the shaft and keeper, so I went at it with a hacksaw. After several minutes of sawing I had almost NO mark on the shaft! That's when I realized what Case Hardening of steel shafts means.

 

[deadlyapp]

I was basically forced to learn all about my cars immediately upon purchasing them as I didn't have the money to take it to a shop. Within a year of buying my first car at 17, I pulled most of the engine apart to put in new valve stem seals, new oil seals, water pump, oil pump, timing belt, etc. On that car I got very familiar with the engine pretty quickly.

Funny enough, one of the things I wasn't as familiar with until recently was a basic brake tune-up. Previously I had only replaced everything - rotors, pads, lines, etc but never a basic pad change-out.

I've done multiple clutches now, pretty comfortable with electronics, and a handful of other things. The only thing I haven't done is pulled a block apart yet and done pistons/crank/bearings/valves.

 

[repoman0]

I bought my first car right after graduating college and getting a job, and immediately jumped into buying a bunch of tools and doing all the 100k mile maintenance since I got no records with it (and had no money to take it to a shop ...). Plus the power steering went out within a month so I replaced the pump, fluid, reservoir and most of the lines. I was never really into cars before having one of my own to fix and drive, now it's a major hobby.

I have the money now to pay a mechanic and occasionally do for big jobs, particularly if they require cutting and welding, but I do most other things, partly out of cheapness and partly out of enjoyment.

 

[mopardude87]

Electrical is usually where my basic knowledge of cars falls out the window. But i did have my moment when i found my 2000 corolla randomly starting when it felt like it or dimmed out lights occasionally. Came to be some jackass who owned it prior broke a major cable connector and just wedged the wire lazily into the positive terminal and of course it was VERY loose. Easy fix of course.

Fuel i am getting kind of comfortable dealing with. Went to a pick your part to take apart a similar year corollas fuel pump and assembly out before i possibly did it on mine and it was straight forward and new to me yet obviously easy too. Had issues which turned out to be fuel injectors and well like the pump i took things apart at a pick your part before i did it on mine. I found this really works up the confidence and experience.

Was comfortable working on brakes years ago but with back issues now its most likely the one thing i am paying a shop to do. Maybe i will do the disc brakes but i hate drum brakes with a passion.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I thought I was Johnny Fix-it, back in the 1980s when I'd put on my fatigues and spend a weekend day at the local salvage yard, replacing parts in my old Civics.

Old Civics are simple. Even my '95-vintage truck and SUV are definitely not simple. I figure it will take me a week of contemplation before I remove the lower dashboard of my Trooper to fix a horn connection.

Today, I've got to find a "stop lamp" or "brake light" switch for the pickup. It's one thing, leaning over the engine, or even scooting under a car on jackstands to fiddle with an exhaust system. But I'm not a midget contortionist, and you can't even "get behind" the dashboards on these cars to do any work. You have to remove them. And that includes disarming the airbag inflator modules without blowing your head off when one of them "gets away from you".

I still need to be a midget contortionist just to fiddle with the brake-light switch . . .

At age 30, I could emerge from these episodes beaming with pride. At age 71, I come back into the house feeling half past dead . . .

HOWEVER. This is one of my less prolix thread-posts, so I offer a bit of advice.

GET THE FREAKIN' FACTORY WORKSHOP MANUAL FOR YOUR CAR!

If it's a recent model, this will cost you. A friend with a 2013 Corolla told me it would've cost him $600 when he bought the car. [Please tell me if you think that's an exaggerated BS-Big-Story]. The shop manual for my Trooper, purchased in 2002 when I bought the vehicle, was $100. Sometimes, you can find them online, and you are lucky if you can get a 2,000 page shop manual in PDF format for $20. I had to convert mine to "PDF searchable text", and then I was good to go. But leafing through 2,000 pages? "See chapter 10 for the Supplemental Restraint System". "See Chapter 9 'Body' for dashboard component removal." "See chapter 6B for Horn, Windshield-Wiper-Washer". See this sign! . . . [flip-the-magic-birdie]]

Your next best bet would be the Haynes Manual, which uses diagrams from the Factory Manual. After that -- Chilton's. When these 3rd-party manuals say "for 1987 through 1997", you know what may fall short of the original factory publication.

 

[JeepinEd]

I Knew nothing about cars and used to get ripped off at the local "Lube" places. Once I bought a house, I decided to learn about car maintenance. My first big accomplishment was changing a leaky radiator on my Jeep Liberty. That gave me the confidence to tackle just about everything else. None of my cars have been to a shop since then. My two most difficult undertakings have been installing an AEV lift on my Jeep Wrangler and changing the traction battery on my Prius. I sold the Prius with 380K miles, without a single visit to a shop.

 

[Meghan54]

HOWEVER. This is one of my less prolix thread-posts, so I offer a bit of advice.

GET THE FREAKIN' FACTORY WORKSHOP MANUAL FOR YOUR CAR!

If it's a recent model, this will cost you. A friend with a 2013 Corolla told me it would've cost him $600 when he bought the car. [Please tell me if you think that's an exaggerated BS-Big-Story]. The shop manual for my Trooper, purchased in 2002 when I bought the vehicle, was $100. Sometimes, you can find them online, and you are lucky if you can get a 2,000 page shop manual in PDF format for $20. I had to convert mine to "PDF searchable text", and then I was good to go. But leafing through 2,000 pages? "See chapter 10 for the Supplemental Restraint System". "See Chapter 9 'Body' for dashboard component removal." "See chapter 6B for Horn, Windshield-Wiper-Washer". See this sign! . . . [flip-the-magic-birdie]]

Your next best bet would be the Haynes Manual, which uses diagrams from the Factory Manual. After that -- Chilton's. When these 3rd-party manuals say "for 1987 through 1997", you know what may fall short of the original factory publication.

I cannot agree more completely with your statement than I have. If one hasn't had experience with using a factory service manual and have only used Haynes or Chilton, it'll really open one's eyes. Much more complete, better diagrams, pics, tools necessary for the job, etc. I won't own a vehicle long term without buying the set of manuals appropriate to that vehicle.