Thank you everyone for you kind words and advice!
My husband and I have never worked on cars much. I held a flashlight for my dad and handed him tools but that’s about it. Hubs is more of a computer guy. But we are really enjoying tinkering around together. I don’t think we’ve actually fixed anything yet though
I got my steering stabilizer only to realize there was already one on it. So we took it off and checked it over. It seems to be in good shape. The bushings on the sway bar links, however, look like shit. I thought I could buy more bushings but apparently I need new links. Went to O’Riley’s but they didn’t have any for lifted vehicles. I’m not sure if I should just order some now or wait for the weekend when I plan on doing an assessment of all the steering and suspension components. If these are this bad I assume there’s a chance that something else will need to be replaced as well.
Our tailgate wouldn’t open. Took it apart from the inside and now we can get it to open and close but we can’t lock it. Hubs was working on it so honestly o don’t remember what he thought was wrong. Do I need a whole lock assembly?
We are also having trouble getting her to start. So you turn the key and the engine turns over and sometimes she starts right away. Others you have to crank her twice. She always goes on the second time. If I let it crank a little longer sometimes she will go on the first time. It seems like she has less of a hard time starting the more she’s driven in a day. We thought this was due to the bad battery at first but it’s persisted. So we are going to try a new crankshaft sensor. Any other ideas?
We found out the ground cable on the battery was literally hanging by a thread. We unhooked it from the post and the cable fell right out. We stripped some of the wire and tried to get a better connection but the cable was too short and we couldn’t get to wire that didn’t have some corrosion so we replaced the whole thing. We went poking around here because one morning she wouldn’t start at all, not even click. I think it’s resolved…for now.
I attempted to put a 12v charging port where my cigarette lighter was and I am 99% sure I did it right! Though I have never done any electrical work in my life. Only to discover that there is no power going to those wires or my back window defrost and wiper switches. I’m putting that one on the back burner for the moment.
Our little ditch incident made us wonder if our 4WD is working. Guess what? It’s not! Hubs found a pin down there with the linkage (not too familiar with this yet so idk if I’m using the right terminology) that was out of place. He popped it back in and now the lever in the car is much stiffer. I can get it to 4H but it won’t go to N or 4L. Any good threads that will walk me through diagnosing and fixing? There are so many videos and things out there but I have zero background knowledge so its a little overwhelming. He has a video of it on his phone I’ll try and get it in the morning. Oh, I ready about the Savvy cable shifter kit - seems like it might be the best option to fix my problem? But is there anything else o should be looking at?
Oh, we also went to replace the O2 sensor and it wasn’t even connected! The clip on the line it connects to (not the sensor) was broken. So I taped them back together and my check engine light is now off. We tried to trace the line but are struggling to see how we can get to it or what it is that we need to replace.
So there’s a lot going on and I’m just trying to get the freaking check engine light off so I can register the damn thing. But I’m going to get in a focus this weekend so I can prioritize better. There are just so many issues to choose from
I am so in love with it to be honest. And everytime something doesn’t work it makes me laugh. Today I closed my door and something hit my leg and I looked down to find my window crank flew off the door
