What did you do to your other vehicle today?

[sab]

Not today, but last Friday (been too busy to post). Last Wednesday was my "Friday" because I took Thursday and Friday off. My personal office is about 20 minutes from home. My firm's main office, which I operate out of one day per week, is an hour from home, through crazy Austin traffic. Fortunately, I was working out of my personal office on Wednesday when failure presented itself to me.

About one mile into my drive home (driving my '98 Subaru Impreza), the BATT light illuminated. Uh oh - that's not good. The only times I've experienced that were due to voltage regulator or alternator failures (including a broken belt many years ago.) Realizing that I was probably on borrowed time discharging an already low battery, rather than stop and waste time, I elected to connect to my Bluetooth scanner and monitor voltage while continuing towards home. I wanted to make it six miles to my turn off the highway onto the country road to home to avoid a breakdown on a major highway and the associated dangers that come with that situation. Plus, on those country roads, I could tow it home with a tow strap without issue.

Voltage was 11.3V, and I suspected the engine would quit at about 10.8V from previous experience with this car. Ok, time is of the essence. I continued toward home with purpose. Of course, six miles from home, I got behind a feller doing 10MPH under the limit, and there are no passing zones anywhere along that stretch. At this point, I was at 11.1V and over halfway home, so I was not too worried. I patiently followed him until my turnoff.

I made it home and grabbed my DMM. Sure enough, the alternator was bad. But I also noticed that my battery terminal clamps were in bad shape, too. So, I ordered a Denso rebuilt alternator from RockAuto and paid $68 for FedEx overnight delivery. I needed to fix it by the end of the weekend so I could drive it to work today (I'm in Austin today.) I also order new clamps from Amazon, and those were to be delivered on Saturday.

Friday morning, I received a delivery notification from FedEx, and to my surprise, Amazon was a day early. So that morning, I pulled the car into the shop, removed the old alternator and clamps, and cleaned up around them. Amazon delivered first, via the postman. Then at 4pm, FedEx finally showed up. By 4:15pm, I was done! Oddly, the whine that started about six months ago was now gone. I've gotten lazy in my old age with daily drivers. When I get a weird noise that's hard to pinpoint, I just wait for the part to finally fail. How's that for easy diagnosing? Sometimes it's not convenient (or safe), though. In those cases, I do better.

This car has over 430,000 miles on it now, and that was the original alternator, as far as I know. It had 125,000 on it when I bought it 22 years ago. I guess I got my money's worth out of that alternator!

 

[OffroadTreks]

Last year I spent, like two months doing a ton of vehicle maintenance to my truck. In preparation for a big trip to Moab. Right before I leave, my Hydro assist breaks off it's mount.



Easy peasy, I remove it for the trip. Oh, but then I nicked the power steering hose without realizing it.... start my trip and suddenly there is smoke...




I manage to fix that, and go on my trip to do the Needles district on the back side of Canyonlands.

And on the last day, I drop a lifter. And I'm in Needles, sooo I say F it and limp home back to Idaho on 7 cyclinders. You can only guess how much my camshaft loved that.

Well... when I got home I decided to do like anyone who has had a bad time. Pour one out and just avoid my problems by buying a TJ and bumming around all summer in the Jeep.

However, I today I finally have a rebuilt engine. Only took a year. No big deal. Bought this truck new in 2016, made it to 125k miles before finally dropping a lifter. So hopefully... I can get another 100k out of it. I ain't selling at todays insane prices. And hopefully everything is torqued to spec. The first time I rebuilt an engine in my early 20's I redid an LT1 in my TransAm and learned the hard way that yes dumb dumb, your head bolts do actually need to be torqued to spec.

Hopefully the truck and the Jeep will be getting out a lot this summer.

 

[sab]

And on the last day, I drop a lifter. And I'm in Needles, sooo I say F it and limp home back to Idaho on 7 cyclinders. You can only guess how much my camshaft loved that.

On one of my hunting trips to northern CO from TX, my 2001 Expedition blew a spark plug out of the cylinder head (the 1st gen Tritons are known for that) going over Raton pass. My hunting partner lived in Golden, so I really wanted to get to his house to figure a game plan to deal with it, so I soldiered on. Then on the north side of Colorado Springs, a second plug blew out. I couldn't believe it, especially since I had installed the insert kit in all 8 cylinders a few years before that was supposed to fix the issue.

I was still determined to get to his house so I kept going. That thing was LOUD, and it wouldn't idle. I hit typical bumper-to-bumper traffic a few times, and I'd have to throw the shifter in neutral and give it the beans to keep it running, much to the chagrin of the poor people next to me! I'm sure my TX plates, combined with a loud, ill-sounding rig, really caused some rolled eyes and shaken heads.

Good times, good times...

Edited to add the happy ending to the story - I made it to Golden! From there, the story is a long and frustrating tale of a journey that concluded with me swearing to never buy a non-factory rebuilt engine ever again...

 

[Mhass]

Definitely cussed at it.
Cussed at the asshat that used an impact wrench to tighten the lugbolts too.

 

[sab]

Definitely cussed at it.
Cussed at the asshat that used an impact wrench to tighten the lugbolts too.

I hate when that happens! Did you have to drill all three of the bolts in the bottom picture, or just that one? Did you get the wheel off eventually?

And one final question - was the cussing aimed at yourself or at a person at a tire shop? Inquiring minds, and all...

 

[Mhass]

I hate when that happens! Did you have to drill all three of the bolts in the bottom picture, or just that one? Did you get the wheel off eventually?

And one final question - was the cussing aimed at yourself or at a person at a tire shop? Inquiring minds, and all...

Fine. I'm the asshat!

Yeah, wheel is off and only had to drill that one out.
I did dig up my antisieze!

 

[sab]

Fine. I'm the asshat!

Yeah, wheel is off and only had to drill that one out.
I did dig up my antisieze!

Our 2021 Subaru Impreza has very fine thread wheel studs, and the threads are easily boogered up. The steel might be soft, too - I'm not sure. I bought a thread die in that size because I inevitably have one get boogered every time I rotate tires. Not to the point of it freezing in place, but if I ignored it a few times, it might. If I feel any resistance starting a nut by hand, I pull the wheel and run the die down the stud to clean it up. It's a pain-in-the-keester, but it beats having to deal with a problem like you did...

 

[Mhass]

I'm generally pretty anal about only starting and torquing by hand.
I was mad as hell when the wife reminded me that I pulled that tire to plug it while she was at work. No spare in a mini.
Since it was nasty out and I had to do it in a parking lot, I just grabbed the impact wrench.
I think its worse when we do it to ourselves!

 

[bucky]

I had a similar issue with the oil filters on both my Wife’s and Daughter’s cars. I’ve taught them well about the importance of oil changes and put labels on their dashes to indicate oil change time. I service all our vehicles myself usually. I was on an extended business trip and they took their cars to a local shop. The shop must have used an impact wrench to put on the filter because the next time I changed their oil I could not get them off. I have very good oil filter wrenches and none worked. They kept slipping and deformed the filters. I ended up getting a big ass Channel Lock, braced myself on a tire and had to use ALL my strength to remove them. They looked like a crusher aluminum can aftrward.
This is the same shop that did some tire work on my Nephew’s 10 wheeler and he had a set of duels fly off on the interstate because the did not torque the lug nuts down.
They have orders to never go to that shop again and to notify me before they have any work done on their cars.

 

[KennethS]

an LT1 in my TransAm

Sacrilege.

 

[Mhass]

They have orders to never go to that shop again and to notify me before they have any work done on their cars.

We had a similar directive in the last place we lived. Bit of a long story, but here goes-

I had a popular shop near the base do the timing belt on an old Subaru because they saw the kit that I had purchased to do the job in the back of the car when I had it in for an annual safety inspection. They said they could do it that day and offered a good labor rate. I figured, for the price, it wasn't worth getting my hands dirty and told em to go for it.
Next day, my daughter (new driver) was driving on the dirt road near our house, there was a bang and the alternator light went on and the power steering went away.
It was actually a good lesson in emergency management. I was with her and had her pull over where we discovered the accessory drive belt had been thrown.
It was only about a half mile to home, so I drove and inspected it once I got there.
I discovered a bolt from the timing belt cover had lodged in the power steering pulley and thrown the belt. Bent the pulley and galled the pump face where the bolt was still wedged in there.
Threw the battery on a charger and drove it right back to the shop the next day. Only 12 miles so the battery was easily able to run the ignition that far.
No lights, fan, ac, power windows, etc.
Went in and explained it to the manager who said it wasn't them, asked for the owner, who asked, "How do you know it was us?"
I was not rude, and explained-"You just did the timing belt yesterday! That's clearly the bolt from the timing belt cover wedged between the pulley and the pump body. How could you claim it wasn't your mechanic?" Showed him the cover hole where the bolt should have been and that it was a shouldered bolt like used in the cover.
No resolution, he denied culpability, so I left before it got heated.
Then the dude calls me saying he didn't feel like I was satisfied and what did I think he should do to make it right.
I told him he should fix it on his dime since it was obviously his mechanic that messed it up.
So we agreed he would cover the cost and fix it.
I bring the car back to the shop and he calls a mechanic out to show him (I assume it was the guy that did the work).
Dude looks at it and walks back to the shop and I'm talking to the manager and think everything is gonna be smoothed over and good.
Then I see this moron walk out with a belt and a big ass pry bar and proceed the try to bend the pulley straight with the pry bar right in front of us!
I yelled at him, "Hey! What the hell are you doing?"
Him, the manager, and the owner proceed to tell me that that's fine and a perfectly acceptable way to repair it!
Told the dude to get away from my car and told the owner he would never touch my vehicles again and I would surely cost him more on lost business than the cost of the repair.
Small town, I worked on the base and had contact with a pretty large population. Word spreads fast. I knew it wouldn't kill his business since he was right outside the gate and had plenty of traffic from that.
Still, anytime a question of, "What shop should I go to?" came up, I made sure to share the story. When ever he'd come back or try to argue, I'd tell him as soon as he paid for the PS pump replacement that I had to do, I would stop telling people.
Douche nozzle never would, just gave me hard looks anytime we crossed paths. Don't know how many times I laughed right at him or how many thousands of dollars or business I drove away from him, but it was a lot.

 

[John Cooper]

Used it to help the wife play in the dirt........

Should have everything finished today.

 

[Mhass]

Well damn! These ain't posed ta be up there dancing off the cams.

 

[Sea Cot]

While transporting Mexican catering for my kid's grad party, I didn't consider how the Archimedes principle applies to food grease in chaffing pans. The overflow from the rear rubber mat channeled the grease in to the body harness cavity on driver and pass sides. Tesa/fuzzy harness tape had to be discarded. I ran ~25gl of water & solution through the hot water extractor. The Tornador, steam cleaner, and air compressor got a work out, too. I loaded up on new products to try, also used Simple Green and Dawn Powerwash. I'm giving the interior a day or two to totally dry off before running the ozone machine. On the bright side, removing a 2023 F150 front seats and center console is ~30min job.

 

[lBasket]

Got new tires for the beemer.

This was a little freaky at 90mph

And then the spare was from 2005 so that was a fun drive home!!

 

[sab]

Was that a tire failure (old age) or a puncture? And you need to mind your tread depth more closely! That tire looks pretty sketchy for winter or wet roads.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Was that a tire failure (old age) or a puncture? And you need to mind your tread depth more closely! That tire looks pretty sketchy for winter or wet roads.

Scott, you do know that Trevor’s middle name is “Sketch,” right?

 

[lBasket]

Was that a tire failure (old age) or a puncture? And you need to mind your tread depth more closely! That tire looks pretty sketchy for winter or wet roads.

Tire is 5y old so I think I must've hit something on the road. Or just bad luck I guess.

They weren't too bad this winter...

 

[MtPockets]

Got new tires for the beemer.

This was a little freaky at 90mph
View attachment 697502

And then the spare was from 2005 so that was a fun drive home!!

Was there something rubbing on the tire, I'd assume? (Forgive me, Benny Hill. You taught me better than that...)

 

[lBasket]

Was there something rubbing on the tire, I'd assume? (Forgive me, Benny Hill. You taught me better than that...)

It looks like it was but I think it was just from blowing out. All the missing rubber was wrapped around the knuckle, so I don't think it was slowly wearing down against something. I did get an alignment with the new tires and they didn't note anything like that