Comments by "SeanBZA" (@SeanBZA) on "Wrenching With Kenny"
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The white centre is the element. The resistor is there to bleed voltage away. The sensor develops a voltage when vibrated, and the spring transfers it to the connector, and then to the ECU. The ECU will show knock, measuring the voltage developed by the sensor, reading up to 30V on the sensor for severe knock, and then adjusting to reduce it. The spring is the connection so it allows the disk to flex, as it is held in place only by the edge, and under it is a small hollow area so the brass disk can bend with the vibration, like a speaker cone. Exact same disk as is used in musical cards, held at the edge, and the voltage applied makes it flex, and produce a sound, but in reverse, the flex making a voltage. Resistor is there to bleed off DC voltage, and also so the ECU can tell the sensor is there, as the ECU applies 5V via a similar value resistor, and measures the DC voltage on the wire, to see the sensor is there, and the wire is not shorted or open. The signal is strong enough that the resistor does not interfere, you can test them with the tapping, after checking resistance is correct, by putting the meter into AC volt mode, selecting the 30VAC mode (as otherwise the meter autorange will make it display all over the place) and tapping it, where a good sensor should develop anything from 5 to 30VAC signal on impact, depending on where you tap, and also how it is held. Some of the sensors ( VW being one, but all that use a bolt through the centre are the same) are very sensitive to the bolt being the correct torque, too little and they do not work well, and too tight and the ceramic material breaks inside the housing, generating low or erratic output.
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@WrenchingWithKenny You are thinking of old generators, where you can get a failed voltage relay, that allows the generator rotor to be powered all the time, and then the one winding burns out from the current, going open. Thus the draw that will, because the engine generally will shut down at a preferred set of positions, depending on the cylinders holding pressure, so that you would get that open coil in position, and no draw, or get one that still works in position and a flat battery.
Alternators draw will be constant, because you have at least one shorted diode, and one leaking one, so that the stator is now always having a current flow. Leaky diodes will not be too much issue, but a leaky and a shorted one causes draw, though normally a shorted diode is nearly unnoticed, as all it does is reduce current capacity of the alternator, and the voltage regulator still controls voltage. Second failed diode kills the alternator, but before that the ones that is opposite the shorted one is getting very hot.
Had that before, one shorted diode, just a power supply that is a little more grumpy. 2 shorted on the same power rail it still runs, till it gets hot enough to burn out, which was a million dollar fix to order the spares, as the transformer came as a complete unit, as the cooking would destroy the entire inside of the equipment box, and fixing was going to cost more than that in spare parts. Was standard when servicing any of them to look for faulty diodes, and replace them immediately. I had a row of failed ones, used for spare parts that had not been totally cooked, for the others. My replacement power supplies came as ordinary untracked parcel post as well, despite being the price of a half kilo of gold.
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Gap was critical with points and regular coils, but with modern ignition systems they are well capable of firing the plugs to a point. Antiseize is good, but yes a thin film, not blobs, as the thread will remove it at the contact points, and the rest will fill the voids, which is what it is there to do, fill up gaps and not allow rust to form. I use a white Loctite anti seize on boats, and where you have corrosion problems, and it works well to keep things from sticking, even in sea water. Boaters that do not use it generally replace motors every 2 years, because they turn into solid blocks of corrosion.
Aircraft you use a yellow anti seize compound, which is specifically for aluminium, but it is a very expensive product, and I used it by the gallon. Worked, only took 6 of us with sledgehammers to remove the leg strut from the housing, and it was slathered with that from the last change a decade or two before. No compound, and we would have had to drill out 600 rivets, and replace the entire strut housing, and rivet the new one in place. We did not want to take another month on that service though. 2 in stores though, from the 1970's, in steel containers and in lots of cosmoline. Old stuff was hard as cement though, but the new strut went in with lots of it after cleaning out the housing well.
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I saw years ago at a Ford dealership workshop the smallest skinniest mechanic, who was the guy they had who did all the interior under dash stuff. His speciality was clutch pedals, brake pedals and putting in the cable reinforcement kits, as he could get up under the dash and do the job, without needing to remove the front seats. When i did the same job I used a pair of chocks on the back wheel, then put the handbrake off, put the car in third gear, and went in from the passenger side, so I could get my head under, with the driver seat all the way back, and passenger seat all the way forward. Did not want to undo all the trim to get to those 4 seat mounting bolts, especially as the trim was almost guaranteed to loose another clip in the brittle plastic, and they were no longer available new.
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Well, you have now met the French design philosophy, make it easy to assemble in the plant, when it comes as a complete assembly, and you simply bolt it in place. They put the rotor there to get it inboard a little, and leave space for a thinner rim with less offset, so it can be lighter, as there is more even loading off the sidewalls, but did not consider that you would need to change rotors outside of the warranty period. Figured pads would be changed every 2 years, and the rotor would not be worn below minimum spec before end of warranty. Who cares if it got grooves or warped, so long as it was outside warranty, more money for the dealership to make off book rate.
The studs are simply using the existing holes for the threaded bolts, as they figured the US market cannot use a bolt into a wheel, too much training needed. So went for the stud instead, simply changing the tooling used on the CNC mill to a drill size for the stud, instead of a clearance hole for a tap, and then a spiral machine tap making the thread. One extra assembly step for the OEM, to put 5 studs into the unit, and press them into position, and on the assembly line just give them the 5 nuts, instead of the regular bolts.
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Brake seals are all made from a synthetic rubber that is perfectly compatible with brake fluid. Other fluids though will make them start to swell, as they are absorbed into the seal, and this means the seals grow, and no longer can slide, and the hoses grow soft, and are no longer capable of holding pressure.
The swollen seals in the master cylinder, the calipers and the back wheel cylinders now no longer can be moved back to the resting position by the release of the pedal pressure, so the calipers stay in contact with the disks causing a lot of extra friction, the drums will not be able to relax to the off position, and the master cylinder can no longer return, trapping fluid in the system under pressure, as as the brakes heat up the pressure increases, making them grip more, till the disks and drums are red hot and the linings are totally degraded and worn.
You also no longer have working brakes, and as well if you have ABS you now also need to replace every rubber seal in the ABS control unit, which means a new ABS block, and for older transmissions where the trans gets brake pressure to disengage it, you now also have to replace the actuator in the trans as well.
In a pinch, if you are totally out of brake fluid, you can add in pure alcohol to the system, as that is compatible with the seals, though it will need to be over 150 proof, to not cause damage, and will need to be flushed fully with new fluid as soon as possible. In ultra cold climates the brake fluid is mostly alcohol, either methanol or ethanol, as it will not freeze easily, though synthetic esters and glycols are more common there, but they are miscible with alcohol.
With modern cars fluids are now critical, if it says use x fluid, use it, do not just chuck generic ATF into the power steering, as you will run into issues, and the same for trans fluids, where there are now dozens of different fluids, and the wrong one can be a very expensive fix. Even manual trans the fluid is critical, many vehicles need a SAE75 oil, and will balk with SAE80 oil, or grind with SAE70 oil in them, and some are even more critical with what they need, you put OEM in only. Even engine oil the same, SAE30 is not going to work on many, especially newer vehicles where the oil viscosity is critical in engine operation.
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Going to say the stuff started with a weak battery, that then dropped voltage as the vehicle sat, meaning different ECU units stopped working at different points, leading to the BCM and ECU loosing comms with the TCM, so the one set error codes, and then the error was left, and with the new battery the modules came back up, and communicated all the errors, refusing to allow start via the ECU because it was unsure of the status of the transmission, thus disabling starting till it could get a valid status. After all safety circuits only allow starting in neutral or park, and with an unknown status of the trans starting could be in gear, so default to no start till scanned and cleared.
Other shop should have, as a first ting, looked at stored codes, noted them down, then cleared them all, as there are plenty of errors that will result in a no start, due to the modules inhibiting it. Either no scanners, or they are only able to be a box and panel changer. till, good money for you to fix their mistakes, just that it costs the customer in the end a lot more throwing the parts cannon at it, and not actually sitting and looking at it first. But we all often will do that, hopefully leaning along the way.
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Yes, just means they do not deal with that manufacturer more than once a year, so do not want to have the software cost, because that $50 per make adds up if you are dealing with multiple scan tools, and multiple makes of vehicle. Also some will charge you per use, unless you pay a stupid annual fee, or are a registered dealer for them, in which case they stop charging per time. Some just flat out refuse to deal with shops outside the dealer network they have, you have to go to them for coding of parts, or have a cracked version of that code around. Then you get the green tractor company, who will invalidate the warranty if you do not use the dealership to do everything, even change the oil on the more expensive things, and you have a very expensive field ornament till they decide to come fix your broken one.
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Oil yes regular changes is important. For a cheap and safe engine clean simply add in a half quart of SAE30 HD3 diesel tractor oil in a few days before doing the next oil change. High detergent oil for farm tractors, it will clean a lot of the gunk off the engine, as it is meant to keep soot in suspension for farm tractors, that spend a lot of time idling.
Yes filters almost always have a bypass valve ( though some of the no name brands do not actually put it in, adds 10 cents to the cost) that will typically open at around 20PSI pressure differential across the filter media, on the theory that having oil flow, even if dirty, is a lot better than no oil flow. But having this valve operate does mean all the junk and tramp metal the filter is supposed to remove, and a lot of the stuff it has removed, and which is inside the can, now can travel past the filters. Not great for bearings and the rotating surfaces, and definitely not great for small clearance holes, like lifters and variable valve timing actuators.
Great on the oil, I got some filters for my car cheap, old stock ones that were sitting at a store on a shelf, at the price they were selling them in 2008. So next service filter is there already. Will differ with you on the dry filter, if the surface is just wiped clean, yes you can put it on dry, as the oil film on the housing will lubricate it, but if it has been washed clean with brake cleaner, oil the filter seal. I just grab a bit of the old oil and wipe it, then pull that seal out, flip it over and oil the underside as well, and make sure it fits back in the groove properly. Recently had a no name filter which, brand new, was leaking, I assume from the metal face not being true, and thus the seal not holding. I only buy 2 brands, GUD or FRAM, as they are locally made by me (20km away), and are the OEM brand for most vehicles in the country. 1 million Toyota filters made by them, they pretty much have it right.
As to tyre pressure, the top end of the vehicle manufacturer spec is the one to go for, as yes that is the one for either heavy load, or for economy. You want comfort make sure you have a high profile wheel and tyre. Painted on rubber and all alloy is always going to be harsh ride, and noisy.
Drivetrain yes likely dry universals, or they lost a needle when putting them in, grease will tell you quick if the UJ was dry, or if you are spending a hour changing both sides. Gearbox simplest first test is change the fluid, fill back to level, and run it, as otherwise the issue is a sticking ball inside, or a seal that is leaking when cold internally.
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Would also suggest getting a trailer relay unit, so that you have the trailer load not on the existing vehicle wiring. Very important on modern vehicles, as the BCM is very often likely to fail with a short in the trailer wiring, though some do come with the trailer module already there, and often enough also will show faulty trailer lights and connections up on the cluster as well.
Made my own, ran a fused wire direct from battery to the rear, and put 4 relays to drive trailer wiring, with the 4 relays driven from stop, left and right indicators, and the side lights, as all vehicles by me are regulation bound to have separate turn signals different from brake lights, EU spec. Thus any failed trailer wiring will just blow a 10A fuse in the front, and not blow an expensive ECU, disabling the vehicle till it is repaired or replaced. Also added in a simple current monitor, which will light up a small green LED on the console, to show that you have at least one functioning indicator or brake light.
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Had that with an AMT box, after changing the clutch. As no dealer support, they went bankrupt and closed, and left the country for a few years, and the new models and dealers do not support older models. Plus spares come from Malaysia via the UK, as they do not deal direct with my country for political reasons. So to teach the TCM about the new clutch, a bit of driving, using a few hills, so as to have lots of start stop cycles, and then drive it so it would hunt up and down the gear ranges a lot, and after around an hour the TCM had learned the new timings. Had to rebuild the AMT hydraulic pump, as the brushes wore out, and the cost of a new one, from Renault, was almost the value of the vehicle, so a new set of $5 brushes, salvaged from a Bosch alternator regulator, was a good fix.
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I bought a can once, on special, and actually used it on my sister's car, as it did not come from factory with a spare. Now she has a working spare, and the can got her through a month of not being able to get to fix the flat. Did check my spare tyre, and yes it was flat, but you have to remove it from the boot to check it. Also with that spare under the car, please take a can of dry chain lube, and spray on the threads of that stud, so it can actually come loose off there when needed. Dry lube, so it does not attract dust and become a dust block. Same for the jack, as they do not come with much lube from the factory, so spray with brake clean, and get the grease off, and spray with chain lube, and run end to end, plus on the bearings and pivots, and then wrap in a cloth, sprayed with a thin coat on the inside, to both protect from rattles, and to provide you with a cloth to clean your hands when changing.
Yes have had the pleasure of getting the spare off, using a hacksaw blade, on the side of a highway, because the steel bolt rusted fast to the nut. Fixed that the next day, stainless steel bolt, and a loose fitting nut, with a nice coat of molyslip between then in the threads, and a split pin to prevent the nut coming off. Was a tank hold down bolt, but 10 minutes with a grinder and a welder, to make a plate that was used to fix to the trailer chassis, and it never gave any issues ever again. Worst came to the worst use a shifter and pliers to undo the 2 M8 bolts that held it down, and slip through the centre hole. Next time I had to change it, again on side of freeway, after finding a nail I assume (only had the sidewalls left, after the middle shredded itself off, actually same spot I twice had to dodge a Hiace half shaft and wheel assembly complete, as it came past me) it was so easy to undo, jack up with the jack, and get the bolts off the trailer wheel.
Tip as well, lube the threads on the wheel fasteners, light coat works, and use a torque wrench to put them on, not Cletus and turn till it half way snaps. Impact driver to put them on means you never get them off with the socket in the car kit.
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Toyota can accept a lot of error in alignment and still drive fine. Likely they, from the damage, sideswiped a Jersey barrier, damage is consistent with clubbing the base of one, pushing front suspension back, and the rest is from the side of the concrete. Yes a thing that should have been disclosed, though the painter who worked it did a poor job, orange peel all over, fisheyes and clearcoated the dust, plus failing to fix the edge damage on A pillar. But matched the colour well, that charcoal colour is actually a really hard paint to match properly, too bad it was applied poorly. Rushed, poor prep of surfaces, and dust in the area.
Yes if the price reflects the fact it was damaged, you take it to an actual alignment place (definitely not toe and go) and get that subframe correct, it should give no issues at all, though your range control will absolutely need recaibration, as the aftermarket bumper covers are different to OEM, which get matched at the factory before they get on the line, and this is then programmed into the ECU as it finishes the line.
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Yes still remember using those kits, and even rebuilding master cylinders, as those also had kits. There were a few engineering companies that also did sleeves, making the bore standard size again, and stainless steel, so it would not need oversize kits. They are common in vingage and veteran vehicle repair, as often you cannot get the original part any more, so either resleeve the cylinders and get seals, or you have to modify (a sin in the classic car show market) to use a compatible modern unit. Even did rebuild a few Morris Minor indicator stalks, rewinding the coils that had burnt out, using modern enamelled wire which had a much higher temperature rating over the old varnished wire, so the new winding would not fail again. Getting those old rivets out was a pain, especially if you needed to get the rusted ones out intact.
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Fails when hot, my perennial Ford issue, so much so that in the vehicle there was always a distributor module, tested for a few days, a 7mm spanner, and the thermal transfer compound, all wrapped up in a cloth. Those were all aftermarket, simply because Ford/Mazda did not supply them any more, and even the OEM one was notorious for failing. But a 5 minute job to swap it out, and use the cloth to clean your hands, then go buy a new one to put in place of the spare. At the time they were under $10 each.
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Thinknig that the pump could have been killed off by bad fuel, which sent the marginal pump out to pasture. With what came out the filter you probably had a nasty sludge build up that made the pump work hard, and finally die. high pressure at inlet, yet the engine side with barely anything, filter was clogged badly, and then this let the pump work to build up too high a pressure, which eventually caused it to fail, either shedding bits of the impeller, or by the high current draw against the high head, eventually heating up the rotor to make one of the segments go open circuit, not helped by the low flow making it boil the fuel in there as well, which then leads to cavitation, and the hard starting till it cools.
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Labour cost, and not many places around any more that will recondition an engine and block. Cheaper to drop the engine out and bolt in another than strip the head off, send out to be skimmed, do the valves, clean off the block ,check block is still straight, get head back, and install again with new gasket on it. Especially US rates, though take it across the southern border, and the price to do that is halved, due to the lower cost of labour.
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For those saying grinding off the side weakens it it might be true, but a wheel stud is one of the more over engineered parts of a vehicle. That 5 stud pattern is designed so that even 2 adjacent studs being in will still allow the vehicle to safely drive, and not fail for a good time, and thus with all 5 in they run at a very low stress anyway. More likely to snap off from being put on by Bubba, and his 12 foot long cheater bar, shearing off the threads at the end of the nut, than from pulling the stud through the hole when the lip shears off. Or simply having the threads strip off of a well worn stud because there is only a half thread engagement to the thread on the nut.
By me it is so common to see a 3.5 ton Quantum minibus taxi, loaded with 25 plus people, driving at high speed, when you look at the taxi at the rank, and see it has 10 lug nuts shared among the 4 wheels to hold them on, and one will have all 5 still there. Yes common to have the wheels come off them (have been the recipient of that twice), but generally that is because the bearings have long gone out as metal powder, and you get a wheel, brake drum and backing plate, plus half shaft, come off as a unit. Same for buses, though there is is 30 out of 40 nuts, with the broken ones still there in the hub.
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No alignment tool a broom stick works well, or that punch, and a roll of masking tape in an even layer, to build it up. Another tip is, if you are going into the clutch housing for any reason, like a main seal, or gearbox input shaft, is to replace that throw out bearing, unless it is brand new. Any wear on it cheaper to toss it and put a new one, as you already have done the labour.
Should also have taken flywheel off and replaced rear main seal on that engine, they are known to leak as they age, and that one looks like it has never been off from the factory.
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Yes people go for the manufacturer interval, which is designed to get the engine out of warranty before something fails, and thus you either buy a new engine, overhaul it, put in a used one, or trade in the scrap for a new one. All 4 result in profit for the manufacturer, and the long oil change intervals also are profitable, because you go to the dealership, and they can sell you new pads and rotors, because the long interval means you were through the pad and damaged the rotors, or the suspension is shot and needs bushes. But the manufacturer only has to pay for 6 oil changes in warranty as part of a plan, but gets to upsell 6 times, and no 7, with the big sticker shock, is not covered, and you have to fix it, as you still owe money on the loan, and it needs to run for another 2 years before you have paid it off. So loan more money from the dealer, now you are there for another 3 years as customer.
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Alfa had that, though they also did a bigger difference and had inboard calipers, so that a vehicle with standard 15in rims off the factory could have 19in disk rotors, and thus much better stopping power. Handbrake worked the same front pads as well, so the handbrake mechanism provided a lot of holding force, if adjusted properly. the big rotors really helped in driving sporty, you could scrub off speed faster than you could put it on, and those massive rotors did not fade much at all, unless you really were abusing them.
Unfortunately they could not make an automatic adjuster there, so you would need the 2 special Alfa tools to adjust the handbrake to work, or you would find that it barely held after a while. My father did not want to pay for those tools, so instead got some steel rod, and an old 10mm socket, and a 5mm hex bit, and spent a few minutes with a gas torch brazing the hex bit on the one rod, and the socket outside to the other one. That then allowed him to spend 5 minutes a week, when checking the fluids and general condition, to undo the lock nut, and wind up the slack in the cables for the hand brake, to keep it consistent. He wanted it to grip by 3, and fully on at 5. Leave for a month and you might be almost vertical and still have the car able to roll. He really loved that car, despite it seeming being built entirely from compressed rust.
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Yes common faults there. Oil cooler you can do without removing that manifold, but easier if it is off, but doable, and there is an entire kit to do it which is cheap. Likely will need a new valve cover gasket as well, use the blue one there, it will last longer. 2013 at least it is not the later generation known for cracking pistons. Not a bad car, yes it is a Daewoo Matiz, rebranded as Chevy Spark. Quite reliable vehicles in general, you just have to maintain them properly. Will bet when you pull the coil pack (pre 2012 had a coil pack outside there, and 4 wires, so the coils do not run as hot) the plugs will be swimming in oil, and the old valve cover gasket will be as hard as rock.
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Will say that any driveability issues, you get the vehicle with a cup of fuel in the tank, but a fuel pump almost always will show up with a near full tank, so you have to drain it out somehow. Yes that fuel rail was bad, and your fix was a great job.
A tip if you need to bend that hose, but have no mandrel spring that will fit inside, is to simply take lots of copper wire, and feed it into the pipe, to past the bend area, and heat it up with the hot air, then use a tube bender to quickly make the bend. Leave to cool, and pull the copper wires out one by one, till they are loose. The wires keep the pipe from kinking, and then it will hold the shape. Otherwise do like the AC manufacturers do, and wind a steel wire tightly around the outside, making a wire diameter gap between turns, and use that to keep the pipe from kinking. Again remove when shaped and cool.
Another cause for crank no start, but will start eventually, can be the fuel pump relay, very common to have it go faulty and intermittent, as it has both power and a keep alive signal fed to it from the ECU on older vehicles.
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@WrenchingWithKenny Yes exactly the same, finding power on return wire in a single phase system means either high resistance joint, or a broken wire. But in the USA with split phase high power circuits will have 2 hot wires, because to run high power loads you need 220VAC power to supply the needed energy, and not 110VAC, though many of these appliances, like driers, need the common as well because they have 110VAC controls as well as the 220VAC active elements. So a 4 wire cable with hot, hot, neutral/common and a protective ground wire. 3 phase power is not common in the USA residential side, but there again you get some really odd configurations, because the suppliers have to give the 110VAC supply as well, and want to use the same transformer to give it.
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Brake use depends heavily on drive style. Drive like you have a carton of eggs balancing on a small pole and not falling over they last forever. But drive in traffic hard, and the wear is going to be severe. Heavy front of the vehicle and it will wear anyway.
Did mine this last weekend, of course it is "as per sample", so go get the less common rotor diameter, and matching pads, and then take old off, clean caliper, support, hub and backing plate, and apply a thin film of rubber grease on the touch parts, and the hub and bolts, so that they have a little film to keep the rust from making them one. Pads I got are Ferodo, so guaranteed to last 100 000km, though the rotor will be destroyed by the time they wear out. Did put the little screw back in place, but only hand tight on the torx driver, not even a socket handle on it, as it will not fall out with the wheel in place.
Reason for replacing was I felt a slight shudder when slowing down from high speed, and then looked, and saw that, while there is half the pad still left, the rotors have worn a nice set of ridges, and thus the shudder. So off to the spares place, and get what they have, not ATE, which I wanted for pads and rotors, but off brand rotors and Ferodo pads, so I know that in 50 000km I will replace the rotors and the pads again, with the pads again showing no real wear. Old pads were OEM from GM/Isuzu, no idea which local supplier they use, but likely the OEM, looking at the construction, was Ferodo, as they, Girlock and ATE have the local market OEM part supply pretty much sewn up. Filters I use GUD or Fram, as they now are the same company, and I never had issues with the filters from them, but the others I have had issues with leaking and such.
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I had 3 cans of spray paint as standard in working on helicopters. First one was water displacement fluid, used on every part. Second was contact cleaner, used on connections. Third was matt black, used, with a piece of paper as mask, to touch up instrument panels. For corrosion control we used Tectyl, but the cans were not easy to get, but the 205l drums were all over, and if it would fit in the drum it would get dipped, then hung up over a galvanised steel pan, next to the drum, to drip dry. Larger in the pan and use a brush to cover it. I put entire instrument panels in that drum, then wiped them down to a clean surface, so that every pore was filled with anti corrosion compound, then would wire it up, put the gauges in, and put it back in service. Would not corrode then.
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Funny about that just today play in a wheel. Looked at it, and was told new bearings recently. So easiest thing, undo the CV nut, pretty tight, then loosen it off, and knock CV loose. the tighten nut again, using long breaker bar ( but no pipe) and standing on it. Got near another turn on it, those bearings must not have seated fully initially. Put back and away it goes. Needs a list of other things, like sway arm bushes, shocks, saddles, valve cover gasket and a camshaft sensor. Those can all be done soon now, now it is running properly, and not a danger. Really needs new brakes, but they are still usable, and owner is going to go back to smaller rims, cheaper to replace the tyres when they wear.
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Blowing gas, so even a new thermostat will not fix the problem, gas in the coolant, and no antifreeze, means it is blowing it out fast, which is a blown head. About the only thing you can do is a can of stop leak, and see if it slows down, but that engine needs a new head gasket on it, and possibly a skim, though it can have cracked already and need either a new head, or stitching together. VW was famous for making a 5 part head if you overheated, cracking between each cylinder.
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My one battery charger was made by GE around 1950, but still is working, after a few repairs and updates to put charge control in it, to not cook batteries. 3A average charge current. Also go another smaller GE with 1A charge rate, that is fine to keep a battery charged all the time. Modified a welder to make a DC fast charge, up to 50A for 30s, which is enough to bring a battery up to something useful.
Issue with the alternator is that the regulator is the wrong type, you have a few different ones that are used, from a plain dumb one that simply acts like an old 1980's alternator, to the more modern ones where the ECU is the thing that provides charge regulation, and varies a PWM signal to control voltage from the alternator, and battery charge. Yes been bitten by this as well, solution was to go to the dealership, and order the exactly right alternator, based on VIN of the vehicle, direct from Korea via the agents. They will give the right part, and i would say your daughter has a failed brush pack on the alternator, worn away. New brushes $1 by me, though for the one I needed a different brush, so bought the cheapest VAG clone, and ripped the brushes out of that.
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You will come across some 2 wire sensors that are polarity sensitive, notably some sensors that use active electronics inside the sensor, so best to make sure you always follow the wiring diagram for pin number to wire colour, just in case you run into one of those rare sensors. I have seen this in industrial sensors, where you get a lot of 2 wire sensors that are very much polarity sensitive, despite being 2 wire, and those are making their way into automotive as well, as they solve a lot of problems in cable routing, as the small signals are conditioned right in the sensor, making it possible to use a much cheaper wire in the loom, instead of a shielded one, saving time in the loom assembly and cost to make.
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Another tip is to small the oil, you can tell if it has stop leak and seal fix in it, and if they added stop smoke, just from the smell, and the sticky feel when you separate 2 fingers that are in the oil. Those mask bad seals and worn rings for a short time, till you change the oil, or they stop working, hiding the problem. Also do the sale for the ATF or gearbox oil, you can smell burnt ATF, or see the distinct smell of burnt gear oil, and the additives added to make noise go away for a while. See that look at another vehicle, or offer lower price, because you will either be rebuilding an engine, or replacing it with a new one, along with transmission, in short order. Price will have to reflect that cost.
Also check brake fluid, and inside the reservoir, clean fluid, in a dirty sludgy stained bottle, says it was just changed recently, and probably just the fluid in the bottle, the dirt is still in the lines and cylinders. in the underside check look for rusted out brake and fuel lines as well, along with other rust damage, and any suspicious freshly coated areas, as that often is a case of paper and filler over rust, and hiding the rust damage without repairing it properly. Seen way too many with cardboard rubberised to the pan to cover the holes.
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My father, amongst his other things, was also an automotive engineer, and he swore blue streaks at automotive engineers for designs they did in the 1980's, with parts absolutely designed to fail. most of his automotive design was with heavy mining equipment, where a design point was to make things as easy to service and as robust as possible, because somebody will be doing this service a half mile underground, in a rock strewn section of tunnel. He did spend the last 30 years of his career though as civil engineer, designing and installing infrastructure to both mines and towns, like conveyors, factories and water and sewage treatment plants, then went into transport logistics for a large brewery, as that required a lot less travel, and paid better. Still needed that automotive engineer, as this included as well procurement and design of fleets, from the trucks and trailers, to the actual buildings they used. I still see trailers he designed in the 1980's, still in use, and still going strong, despite being designed to be at least 5 tons lighter than the competition ones, but with the same load capacity.
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You learn, eventually. Possibly to drive slower, put the snow tyres on, and to add a load of weight to the rear to help with traction. Incidentally that type of reinforced sign is now no longer legal, after a few incidents of them not breaking away, and people being killed by the sign pole penetrating the vehicle. So now they get protected by moving them further back, making them overhead, and putting barrier rails to slow down vehicles who hit that spot.
Did not help with the one I saw, where the idiot driver was speeding, hit the plastic barriers, smashed 100m of them, and then proceeded to punch the steel barrier rail right through the vehicle, including the driver. He had come past us about 15 minutes before, basically low flying, and decided to overtake the line of cars in a construction zone, where it was reduced to a single lane.
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I remember one day walking in town, and seeing 2 boy racers at a light, next to a truck tractor, belonging to the railways. Nothing special about the truck, just the tractor, Mercedes Benz, with the then standard Atlantis Diesel engine and Eaton box. Boy racers were in the then new VW Golf GTI Mk1, and a new 330i BMW. They were revving engine, waiting for the green. On the green the truck driver floored it and left rubber, screaming that ADE engine up to 2200RPM red line, spinning all 8 rear tyres, and leaving the GTI and BMW in the dust. He was at the next light, and stopping, before they were even half way down the street. Both boy racers simply slunked around the corner, quietly and slowly, thrashed by what looked like any old truck. Yes they likely would have beaten the truck if the next light was 1km away, but at 300m they got eaten badly.
Also Steve, in his Mk1 GTI, put money on a fighter pilot he could beat him in a quarter mile (500m) drag race. So one night while we were on night ops, they lined up, pilot on the runway, Steve on the taxi way next to it. On the flag off they both go, GTI easily being in front for the first 200m, jet on full afterburner and 20 tons mass, with extra fuel in 3 drop tanks, far behind. 300m and the jet is catching up fast, 400m and the jet passes the GTI, then flat taps at just under 200kph (Steve had a ticket or two showing he could get to there), with the jet putting a lot of forward stick to hold it onto the runway. 500m and the pilot pulled back hard, just left the undercarriage down for an extra minute while limiting speed, so as to allow it to cool down before selecting wheels up. Steve lost his money.
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Tip for the garage dig a small trench around the outside, about a spade deep, and a spade wide. Then order for yourself 5 20kg/50lb bags of borax, which is very cheap. Then pour into the trench, a nice even layer about fingertip deep, and close it up. Will keep any of them from moving in, and also kill kill any ants as well. Same for the house. Also works to kill fleas and roaches. Will, after doing it, have you finding them all over for a few days, kicking on their backs. Cheap, relatively non toxic, though not pet safe, but works well.
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Those fuses are stamped out of a sheet, and the metal used is aluminium, which has a low melting point, or a tin zinc alloy with a similar low melting point. Then they get inserted in the plastic housing. The melted metal is from oxide forming between the legs of the fuse and the edge of the brass contact in the housing. The cure is to remove all the fuses, and then clean down there with a thin needle file, to make a new clean surface, followed by a thin coat of dielectric grease to keep it from tarnish, then the same on the fuse blades as well. Needle file set, and the single sided flat file, one wipe down per side, and then a thin coat of the grease on a piece of thin card cut to fit, and same on the fuse. Then put in, and check the contacts are what is gripping, and not the plastic, and retension the contacts as needed to get a good grip on the fuse blade.
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Thermal camera on wheel rotor you first need to hit it with a quick spray of paint, no real issue as to colour, as the shiny metal reflects back the temerature of the environment, not the metal temperature.
Biggest use is to run through the fuse box, with all loads on, like lights, AC, fan on high, hazards on, brakes on, defroster on. That then will show up all the hot fuses, and if any have poor contact they will be a lot hotter, so simply remove them, clean the legs with 320 grit water paper, and check the socket, and put back, and it will run cooler again.
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@WrenchingWithKenny By me I see vehicles all the time with bald tyres, and other obvious defects. Not even only old cars, plenty of newish luxury models where the driver only puts fuel in, because they have learnt that from running out a few times. They do not even know what fuel to use, because the garages are all, by legislation, full service. You can bet as well that that vehicle very likely is still running on the original factory oil as well, and they will run it till either the lease is up, or it breaks down on them. Then tow and complain about how unreliable the vehicle is. When you see a soccer mom, drinking her famous Seattle iced frappe with one hand, other on the phone doing her social media, with sparks coming from the 4 bald tyres, and her doing all this at 100plus in a residential area, with 3 children in the car, none wearing seat belts , or even in child seats, you know to stay out of the way, and hope you are not involved in her accident, which will invariable not be her fault, even if she drove into a brick wall.
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I put one in a good number of years ago, because otherwise your car will be stolen. Now it went into a repair shop after it got into an accident, and my friend, who's car it was, forgot to tell them about how to disarm this. After 2 weeks he collected, and found they had been pushing the vehicle up a 2 flight ramp every day, because they had called an automotive electrician out, and he could not figure out the immobiliser. He got in, and started it, and they could not figure out how, because we had discarded the reed switch commonly used, as thieves simply went around with a strong magnet off a broken speaker to try to find them, and instead had a hard to press switch hidden under the carpet in the tunnel. Immobilier itself I used the full 2m of loom it came with, and matched the original tape used on the loom, and cut and pliced, soldered connections all round, into the main loom near fuse box, and simply taped this extra wire into the loom with matching black tape, all the way to the passenger side kick panel, where the control box vanished into a hole in the frame, and was held up there with some foam wrap, and looked like a factory installed loom and module. By me you cannot insure a car unless it comes with a security system, unlike the USA, and even a 1980 Toyota Corolla had to have a minimum spec system. You do not have the easy to steal Hyundai and Kia issue at all, simply because the insurance companies will not finance such a vehicle, so all come with a decent immobiliser.
Though if it is over a certain price, or is one of the top 10 all time stolen ones, which includes the Toyota pick up, all variants, any 1 ton pick up, all larger Toyota sedans, and the biggest seller, VW, you are required to put in at least one tracking device, and often you will get companies putting in at least 3 of them.
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Durham, had any vehicles in that have met the can opener bridge? Or just you doing a drive through of the bridge itself.
Yes the bottom spring is there to keep the element pressed up to the base, but in the middle is the bypass valve, and up top the rubber is the non return valve on the inlet. Using a different filter than the original is fine, provided it is the correct seal diameter and correct thread. You also do not want to downgrade, so longer or fatter is usable, and if you do not have a spec for valves having them is better for cold starts after overnight, where the filter without will drain back down, and thus oil pressure takes a few turns longer of the engine to build up. There are a lot of filters that are otherwise identical in all respects, just the difference being if they have inlet and outlet valves, and there are cross reference charts saying the lowest version is obsolete, and the others that are a fit and suitable replacement.
On my VW I used different filters than OE, as the OE does not come with anything other than the bypass, so I used ones that fit, but have both inlet and outlet valves. Z88, the most common filter by me, to Z147 or Z157, both fitting, just one fatter and shorter than the other, but same area of filter material in them. Older cars you find filters are obsolete, but the modern spin on filter that replaces it is worlds better performance wise, or is supplied by the dealership as a replacement, improving filter ability, or improving cold start performance.
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True on the F150, but the worst is the bog standard vehicle, but has the aftermarket knobbly all terrain wheels on it, with the tyres that make that noise. Yet the most off road they do is onto the pavement to park in a shopping mall, right by the door, because they do not want to walk from the parking.
Yes that fuel line is single use only, because the install makes it conform, and there is not enough wall thickness to allow it to be reused. It likely will soon enough be made with proper fittings and a flexible hose by the aftermarket, to use the correct hydraulic fittings that are meant to be reused, instead of the use once style, but the use once one for Kia is a lot cheaper to assemble, low cost steel seamless tube rated for the pressure, and then cold formed to make the flare ends. Can also probably find an alternative that has the flare ends crimped on the pipe, giving a thick wall flare, that is reusable, but those also cost more to make as opposed to reusing the brake line flaring tool, which will still seal under lower pressure, but not at the 2000PSI the GDI engine has to operate at.
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Vacuum cleaner I took one of the nozzles and cut it down, then used epoxy to attach a piece of thick walled PVC hose to it, so you have a flexible and bendable nozzle to reach into tight places. Diameter inside a little bigger than the width of the nozzle, and it was around 30cm 1 foot long, so it reached into tight places. Was great for removing all sorts of gunk, and was a good nozzle. Washed it, and the hose, with engine degreaser after using to remove blobs of grease and such, so the hose would not be sticky, though you can buy the hose in 30 foot bulk packs, so if it needs replacing easy to fut a new length off the roll and toss the old one away.
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Extraction good luck, I had the one done, 20 years after the first dentist had wanted to yank that tooth out, and went to a surgeon, after my dentist looked, saw it was not going to come easy, curved roots and impacted, and made the appointment. Hospital, went, got the second opinion, and the Monday after went in for the 20 minutes of work with a grinder on the bone. All in all 2 hours there, and walked out drooling, and feeling no pain. Got my lift back home, and only felt pain the next afternoon when I woke up.
Paid cash, and even so it was under $200 for the work, with my dentist giving the exam on the house, normally $40, as I went back after a month to get the check up. Last time I went to hospital great service, just got what I called the $300 bottles of water, plus the co pays for the CT and MRI.
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Yes standard in aviation, where you sample every 100 hours or so, and test to see long term changes. But there as well oil is often changed on run time basis, especially as the oil system covers the entire aircraft, and you need 300l or so of it to change it out. But with 300l, and it moving through a few filters at a good rate, plus cooling off and not being cooked, it does last well. Small aircraft you are changing piston engine oil every 50 hours anyway, because it will be well toasted, and those engines are not cheap to repair, plus not exactly easy to pull over if it fails. You put that oil in and it looks like treacle cold, but hot it runs like water.
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Standard braking on older caravans, because of the mass. Electric brakes never really took off by me, the only thing that has powered trailer brakes other than trucks are pickups with fifth wheels, where there the converter installs an air compressor and tank in the pickup, and the trailer has a pneumatic set of brake actuators, and a proportional valve tied into the regular hydraulic brake system, with an in cab parking brake for the trailer added on. Works really well, and is very effective, and the regular truck trailer mechanics can fix them with no problem, standard drums and S cam units, just a lot smaller than the truck version, and based off a Toyota drum and hub, so parts are not an issue anywhere in Africa for it.
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Really cheap one is around $10, which will read codes, read monitor readiness, and show live data. Monochrome LCD, and sold by a good number of places, and a good enough unit that you can leave in the car all the time.
But yes a really good set of procedures, which are applicable to all vehicles, even worth doing if all you are doing is renting it for a week from one of the rental companies, to at least make sure you are getting a vehicle that is functional, and where you will not be dinged for damage when returning it, that was there, but not noticed, or noted on the sheet, when you signed for it.
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Mahindra makes a few pickup up trucks, which are not in the US market, because they do not pass US standards, though they do have a good number with Euro NCAP ratings. In the USA they would be considered underpowered, with only a 2.2l engine in it, based sort of on Toyota and Nissan engines.
Opel in the USA is sold under the Chevrolet name, which is basically all the smaller Chevy cars on the road, as pretty much all of them are manufactured by Daewoo, who based a lot of their designs on the German Opel models. Seat and Skoda are all part of the VAG group, but are pretty much all now using parts made by VW, though your VW will also say on trim and such the branding VW/Seat/Skoda on a lot of the trim, as they reuse the parts in different model types over time.
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By me trailer bearings are very easy to do, you go to the parts store, and ask them for a golf 1 rear wheel bearing set, 2 bearings inner and outer, a lip seal, a nut, either nyloc, castellated or plain with the matching pressed steel locking collar, and a split pin, plus a new cap. Plus a bag of grease to fill them up, and you spend 15 minutes per side removing the old hub, knocking the bearings and seal out, then filling the new bearings and putting them in, along with the seal, and placing back in position. Light duty only, unbraked trailers for the most part, unless you get one with an actual brake, in which case you will be buying a set of VW golf 1 linings and drum as well, as that also is a standard thing. comes from the biggest and oldest manufacturer being Venter trailers, who started building them about the time VW introduced the golf into the country, and they used the stub axles from them, as it is a cheap and common part, so easy to get, and they used the whole thing for braked, and a simple inner socket for unbraked, to make a trailer suitable for up to 1000kg, and which was very easy to get certified, as they used parts with a certification already, making it easy. The cups never fit, so often the old ones go right back on, unless you are going to shrink them slightly to make them fit, or use brute force like there.
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Isuzu, back in business as a brand now by me, seeing as GM decided to shrink back to being a US only company, and sold off everything they had just about worldwide. Who knows, you might see Holden come back as being a US brand again, Though GM seems to be in the game of shooting themselves in the foot time and again.
And yes I currently drive a GM product, even if all of my spares come marked Daewoo corp Korea. Did get a scan tool though, you need it with modern cars, so got a used Ancel one, a step up from the generic OBD reader, and the bluetooth OBD dongle as well. OK not covering all models in market, have met a few already that it does not cover, and with no real ability to borrow a Maybach or a Bentley either, unable to test that it works on those, but it does speak GM, Kia, Hyundai, Honda and VW, along with Mercedes, so has come in useful there. too bad it does not speak Proton other than via OBD, but that at least allowed us to repair the AMT pump, as it identifies as a Renault Clio II, though it does not speak French well, being from Malaysia.
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Engine rev range is there to use. Yes high revs in drive with brakes on will heat up the trans fluid fast, but most modern ones will very rapidly tell you trans overheat, and limit engine RPM. Driving in my car there are times it will be sitting close to the limiter for a few seconds, then I will change gear, because torque peak is high up, and power peak is somewhere around there, so use them when you need to. Long term not great to run there, most engines are designed to run around half the rev range, but are fine with the occasional spirited drive cycle, here called a free State tune up, because it causes peak pressures in the cylinders, and does a bit of work to clear out carbon build up inside, and on the exhaust side. GDI it does nothing for the inlet side, that you still have to clean.
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Only issue is that you will eventually end up with a recovery machine full of air, and then need to freeze the tank to almost all liquid, then discharge the gas out. Even residential units I often would recover the gas, made a manifold and used old fridge freezer compressors to do the scavenge, which meant I could get 90% of the charge out before changing the compressor. Did put a big drier in the suction and discharge lines, to handle the moisture and stuff that could be in there from the compressor failing, and those would eventually land up with the scrap units.
Supplier hated that I had good enough records to be able to claim compressors under the 5 year warranty, though often I would have had to replace a condenser coil at 3 years, because those turned into confetti and rust, especially on the window wall units. I was about the only customer who bought coils, other than those machines that failed within the 1 year full warranty. Capacitors were pretty much an annual replacement item, you might get 2 years out of them, even the OEM ones, and new compressors always got a new capacitor, and for some of the larger units also a hard start kit as well, especially those that were oversize for the load, and thus ran short cycles.
Bought 3 sets of gauges, original cheap one, then one that did R134A as well as R22, then the last one because I needed R410A capability. Note as well that those hose sets do eventually wear out, and they start to leak through the rubber, and get stiff and brittle. Vacuum pump better to spring for the dual stage units, they get better vacuum, and are almost good enough to make neon signs with, or at least use as a roughing pump for them. Change the oil regularly, all too often see pumps with either chocolate milkshake in the inspection port, or solid black sludge there. Refrigerant mineral oil is good enough, and cheap as well, and a 5l ( around 1.3 US gallons) bottle of it lasted around 20 oil changes.
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Will add that a sneaky way car shysters by me hide a rebuild title from casual view, is to move the car registration districts a few times. As the title paper only shows the last 5 registration authorities they often will buy it off auction, then register it at another adjacent province, then move every month to a new one, in the interim actually fixing it to the point it will run. The moves are just on paper, the vehicle gets a roadworthy test, then, in the validity period of this bought one, vehicle not needed (6 months validity) for test, it gets "moved to 5 different registration authorities, each one giving a pro rata reduction in fee for the previous one, as the vehicle is "sold" to different dealers for a low price, or on consignment, or as a swap. After 5 moves, the original registration, easy to search for and get accident info, along with auction info, rolls off, and they then finally fix the vehicle, or at least get it running well enough, and then get another current roadworthy that it might actually pass (sort of, if Stevie Wonder was doing it, and had Beethoven there to hear the noises) before selling it to some schmuck.
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Automatic bleed is also a good thing when doing a brake fluid change, as you get all the old fluid out of the ABS module as well, and bring in fresh fluid. You probably could change the fluid again after doing this, to make sure as much of the old i out, but simply emptying the reservoir and filling with new fluid will get most out, as it all gets returned there, so a change there, followed by the second round, will get good results. Also you will need to do 2 full fluid changes, with the ABS bleed, if going from any under DOT5 fluid to DOT 5, or vice versa, to make sure you get the incompatible fluids completely changed out.
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@skiboskeeskiblets By me there are no guarantees about insect damage. You can tent it, and it is pest free, but that week one can fly in and start up the damage again. However I did see a house, 100 years old, where there were absolutely no bugs in the wood. Owner would, till he died, having gotten it from his father and grandfather, go into the attic every year and paint all the exposed wood with a mix of creosote, linseed oil and paraffin, so the wood all got a coat. Pest control came to inspect after last family member died (original copperplate hand written deed, complete with original OHMS wax seal with ribbon, and later on stamp duties and addendums on the rear as it was passed down) and said this place was impossible, not a single bug, not a single fly, not a single gecko lived in that roof, doors or frames. Frames just got the linseed oil and paraffin every year, smelled for a week, and were slightly tacky till it polymerised. hose is in what is termed the borer belt, where you can be sure pretty every house has some, treated wood or not, unless you have very old house with green arsenic chromate treated timbers in the roof.
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Bearing races the inners and outers, so long as they are the same lot number, are interchangeable, and even if slightly worn will work. The reason you do not want to mix them is that they can be different size, as the factory makes the inners and outers, and measures them into different size ranges, and makes up the complete sets from them. so any from the same lot are interchangeable, and will wear the same in use as well. But a different lot will possibly be a different diameter, and thus you will get a small section that takes all the loading, wearing out fast there, and then after a while running with excess clearance.
However for many applications mix and match is fine, I have done it often enough for non critical bearings, where the more worn side got replaced with a less worn used one, and it went on running for a good number of years again.
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You want crazy things change a fan on a DKW air cooled engine, which is powered by a pulley between engine and gearbox. Or try Deutz engines, where the power is determined by the number of cylinders, and where you have to remove the single piece head and bore to do the valves. But as a bonus they only come in one size, you want a more powerful engine, it just becomes longer. Had to remove one with a seized piston using a cutting torch, because the crank bolts are on the top, and it would not turn over, even with a 48V jump on the 12V starter. One new pot, valves, piston and conrod later, it was running again. Even wrist pin, because it also had to be burned away to release the pot. Hundreds of them still running around me, mostly in older fire engines and agricultural equipment, they are really hard to kill, other than with neglect.
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There are still worse ones...... Where the job first requires you to drain coolant, then remove injectors and inlet manifold, then you can see the starter.
Then you get some vehicles where removing the starter first required a cutting torch, because you needed to cut a hole in the panel, because the manufacturer welded the engine bay together, so you either made the hole, or stripped out the entire engine and transmission. Cut the hole in the light weight quarter inch steel, and use a welder to make that into a bolt on panel, was the approved method. 16 ton vehicle, of which 10 tons was just the body itself, welded from steel plate up to an inch thick. Standard accident repair kit was a can of yellow paint and a brush, because not many had really managed to ever dent one. Not that what they hit survived, but those that went to the scrap yard were truly broken.
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I almost had that the other day, but, being paranoid about things, i always check battery cables twice before connecting to jump a vehicle. Does not help that I only had the one can of battery terminal spray, red, on the terminals, because I ran out of the green with only a half can of the red left, after also using it on all of the chassis ground lead connections in the engine compartment on other vehicles. So now all are red, though positive is also hidden under a cover, like many vehicles now are, to add to the confusion. But with a double check, no issue, and the heavy leads I made are plenty capable of starting the other car, even with a totally dead battery.
Yes the cable tie on tape is needed, especially in a hot engine bay, though another trick I have often used is to use PVC weld on the tape, not the coloured one the USA has, but the plain one made with polystyrene in acetone, which dissolves the PVC in the tape to make a solid join that will not come apart with time or heat.
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Failing coils, so the ECU increases on time on the injectors to compensate, thinking from the misfire that it is running lean, as the oxygen sensors when hot are giving implausible readings from all the carbon. Then long on times heats the injectors, causing the marginal ones to break down and start to be intermittent. Higher resistance is in secondary side of the coils, primary side of the coils will be in the low ohm range, typically under 5 ohm, as the ECU is the one setting coil current and timing, and anything over around 5 ohm on the primary will never be firing well. Will bet as well if you take one of the fake coils, and slice it open with a grinder, that the wire inside is the horrid CCA wire, silver in colour, and this will always fail with time.
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Funny though My 2001 VW I only ever changed bearings all round once, rears because the drums wore oversize, so a new set of bearings with the new drums was a kit, and front one hub at a time, as front hub assemblies are not that much more than the bearings alone, and save you that 2 hour cursing session getting the bearing block out. But done that, they were out of stock at the time, so time to use the big hammer, the big steel drift and the piece of pipe support instead, plus a lot of lube and a bit of heat to break the rust free. New went in with a layer of grease, so changing would be easier next time.
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@StringerNews1 Yes true, the tanker that comes to fill up is owned by the refinery, or a contractor that does deliveries, so all the stations on the route get exactly the same fuel, as there is generally only 3 internal tanks in the trailer, with each having the possibility to hold a different fuel, but all have a gate valve at the bottom of the tank, that leads to a common manifold and a meter, so that when filling the customer (the fuel station) is billed for the volume of fuel. Might be filled all with one grade of fuel, or a different one in each tank, but the area filling stations all get the same fuel delivered to them.
By me that would be either 95 unleaded fuel, or regular diesel, or low sulphur diesel. Some tankers have 5 tanks, so also will have a small tank that is used for illuminating paraffin, which is often illegally blended with diesel as it is cheaper, as a lot of filling stations also sell it as a heating and cooking fuel, alongside LPG.
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@StringerNews1 Pipelines it is easy, you have an inline density meter, that is measuring the density of the fluid. You change at the sending end, and the receiver simply waits till the density starts to change, and switches tanks. A few thousand litres of different fuel in a 100kl tank is barely going to be noticed at all.
Refineries are owned by a oil company, but sell to all in the area irrespective of brand, and the base fuel they supply is the same. No fuel station puts in additives any more, just sells the same base stock in different grades only. They will sell it retail, as that way is a lot more profit, for what is basically a blend of paint thinner, turps substitute and some extra solvent, with a dye to colour it, in a fancy bottle.
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The actual flex part is actually a flexible printed circuit board, which is very cheap, and which is generally quite robust in use. They normally get small cracks in the copper foil that forms the tracks on them, often in the middle of the flex, and, unless you clean off all the scmoo that is there to act as a lubricant, and also as a damper for vibration of the flex boards, so they do not vibrate and rub against each other, you will not see the break. You have to clean it off, then hold up against a strong light, and hope that the traces on both sides of the board broke in the same place, as there is a base plastic film, and each side has an etched set of wide copper traces, often overlapping, so the board is opaque, and then each is covered with another polyamide film, and laminated in a high pressure high temperature press to cure the laminates, then punched out of the film, or cut out with a CNC cutter.
The ends will be fixed using insulation displacement connections, pressed through the film, and are arranged so they make good contact, then the ends are often sealed in with a little epoxy applied there, or a plastic clip on cheaper models, or even soldered on some. Ends break as well, especially where the flex and rigid parts are, another place to check, but with the ones epoxied in nothing you can do to fix. Break in the middle you can often scrape the outside insulation away, and solder some thin copper film to bridge the gap, then coat with clear nail varnish as a temporary fix, as it will be stiffer, and break again near there.
Yes replace is best, as often the breaks are such that the horn only works in particular angles of the wheel, and same for radio, while the airbag has the red bag lit all the time, as it periodically checks the airbag for continuity, and detects the open wiring. Very rare do you get shorted wires, though if the outer insulation wears off on high use vehicles (think a taxi that does a thousand turns an hour, in a dense city centre, and which has worn out a few steering racks already) you can get that, though pretty much all of the designs separate the horn wiring from being on adjacent locations to the SRS wires, which are normally duplicated on 2 or more parallel windings, and also are spaced on the film, so there are no wires, adjacent on others, that will ever be able to touch them and accidentally provide a trigger voltage. At least 2 layers of insulation have to fail, before they make copper to copper contact.
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@BillyWillicker I worked on avionics where the cover screws, and any threaded parts going into the aluminium main castings, were all equipped with helicoils from the factory. 100 M4 inserts per unit, just for the 2 covers. Electric screwdriver was the first tool I bought, though I did make my own driver, using a long hex wrench with the angle cut off, and brazed into a brass hex spacer that was 1/4in across flats, and fitted the screwdriver. Long, as I knew i would have wear, so a quick grind of the worn end made it new again. Did have to replace the gearbox in the driver, the new Black and Decker gearset was powdered metal, instead of the plastic of the original, and lasted a long time, inserted with lots of light grease to help, unlike the original.
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VW 2l, so every piece of plastic in that engine is already toast, and needs replacing. Oil leaks, so you are in for a lot of seals as well, plus likely water pump as well ,which means head is warped, and valvetrain is worn. Yes drop in a less well used block, complete, preferably one that came as a front chop complete. Will still need a lot of plastic parts, but will give you the missing parts, the missing bolts and the connectors that broke as well.
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@WrenchingWithKenny Best luck for that, if I was in the USA you would be my mechanic, but being your own mechanic does mean I do most of my own servicing, plus I know a good shop for those that need special work. Of course I did see a nice '07 Cadillac in there, and I did do some free help with the owner on it, because you very rarely see a '07 Cadillac with mostly all original parts, mostly because the 1907 was more than half wood. Also a lot of MG cars, and those are nice, even though I cannot fit in them easily, but they are fast, even when you drive slow, because of that low and open body.
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Yes buying older semi luxury vehicles you have to remember the spares are still priced at semi luxury prices, not cheap at all. Funny thing is that Audi and VW are essentially the same car in a lot of models, but the spares can differ by up to 50% in price, depending if you ask for the unit using the VW part number, or the Audi part number, both of which appear on the box. Same part, same warranty, but price depends on end use vehicle.
I used to buy VW wiper blades for my Ford, simply because the VW part number was actually cheaper than buying them from the regular spares outlet, and the VW part was a very good quality Bosch wiper blade, much better than the retail version, bat was sold by VW for use on a Golf. But buy the same blade for the equivalent Audi, and the price was nearly double.
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Just remember that the big name tool suppliers no longer actually make the tools, they just have a contract with a supplier to make them with the brand on.
Push pin and body pin kits are worth it, even if you buy the kit for one particular part, still cheaper than OEM prices, and the rest will find a use. Jack stands got a few, from the ones I made as apprentice, to the ones my father made up one day for his own use, and even a pair I got on auction, made by some sheet metal worker, and well made. Will add that a jack is not a long term lift, just to get the stands under the vehicle, though we all are guilty of doing just a quick thing with it. Even used the car scissor jack a few times, and it got lubricated the next day, because it was dry.
Good thing as well, a chain block, even if you do not use it to lift things, they can be quite useful with an I beam as a puller for really suck things. Do not forget to always have spare ratchet straps as well.
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Yes likely harness has a flat spot in insulation, which rubbed through under the sleeve, and the data lines were shorted together. Moving it away got it to rotate the wires away. Probably best fix would be to unplug the TCM connector, pull out the loom, and check for frayed wires where it was next to the hose, and sleeve them and tape up again, so you can be sure. Any of the CAN wires separate them in that area to see if they were crushed, and any bare copper, or thin insulation, there was your problem. No broken CAN wires though, that would set that CAN was in a degraded mode and you would have a slew of other errors about bus speed being dropped down.
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@mph5896 Last one I did was close to $2k, but that was both head, new seals all round, new water pump and new clutch. Head not blown, but it has to come off to get to all the valve guides, seals and do the valves properly, so all done then. Clutch was because rear main leak, so a new clutch was only the cost of a clutch plate and pressure plate, plus new release bearing anyway. Water pump and timing belt same, they are coming off, why go back on. This was at a shop.
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Oil changes are needed, and the factory interval is calculated to get them out of warranty with less than 0.1% of the engines failing, and needing warranty replacement. But the services are often part of a maintenance plan, so they want to spend bare minimum on them, as they cut profit.Change every 3k and they need 11 services maximum, before warranty or free service expires, and every 12k only 3 max, a big profit away from the dealer. But also that warranty is time based, so all the parts will fail after 5 years or so, again profit, in that they want to use the cheapest part that will do 5 years.
A thing to note is that eg BMW offered a motorplan that you could have up to 20 years of full coverage, only thing you paid for was fuel, tyres, alignment and top up oil, plus accident damage. Covered the entire vehicle, all parts, no hassles. Now only 5 years, and you can only extend to 7. You wonder why, it was costing them more on older vehicles than they made off selling them. Know one person who did his extension to 20 years, paid up front, and 3 months after this sunroof packed it in, and needed to be replaced in entirety, along with the interior lining and airbags. Cost of parts was more than the entire extension of plan by a long shot. He paid a $10 bill for "sundries", which was cloths, and the car wash.
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The cover on the new lights is also an anti tamper seal, so you do not get one that got used and returned because it was defective in some way, or was incorrect for the previous buyer.
Lamps buy brand name, I prefer Osram or Bosch, as they are both OEM lamps, and are good quality, and widely available. Cheap ones you get what you pay for, some last a week ,some last a month, but buying your common lamps in a pack is worth it. Also, for headlights, change both as a pair, especially if they were original, as one failing means the other will go very soon, and often the modern vehicle the labour is high, as you have to remove a front bumper skin, fencer inners and a grille, so changing the other is cheap insurance.
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Yes, avionics we were taught that high stress areas and a split pin, replace when removed, as it is a very cheap item, but the failure of that joint is not. so i keep that big box of assorted split pins in the shop, and when I come to one snip and toss, grab a new one. As to the install pretty much the standard has been it must not move. so tap the head into the hole, bend over the top of the nut, and back down to the head , and cut off flush with head for that side. Other end tap down, flush with the nut. Only other was for pins that are there for pivots, where it was tap head hard in hole, and bend tang back around to be cut off next to head, as the split pin could not fret then and wear, and it was, along with a washer, the only thing holding that pin in position.
Locking wire done plenty, had the holes to prove it, but was lucky I did not do engines, where you have a single locking wire that goes around the engine every segment, that holds all those fasteners with a single wire, and it has to be correct every time. That one lock could take a day to do, and inspect, per engine ring section, just for the locking wire alone. 20 odd case sections to bolt together, and most of the fasteners there are all single use only, so there was a massive box of bolts and nuts that were free to use for anything else. Sheet metal shop used to make sculptures out of them, in lovely colours, as the titanium bolts hot to different temperatures as they heated up. Same for rivets, still have the odd bottles of assorted left over rivets that I use for joining sheet metal, as they are perfect for this, and better than pop rivets.
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Will tell you of a water pump deciding it was tired, and seizing. 12km out of a small town ( easy to remember, because at that point there was the "Welcome to Ermelo/Ermelo verwelkom jou" sign, and normally 310m past that was a speed camera, in the now 60kph zone), and we went from 120ish to 40 in about a car length. Coast and pull over, then turn over the engine with the crank pulley, no binding. Start up, running, but rough water pump. Note Ford CVH engine, water pump runs off cam belt, and this is an interference engine.
So drive the 12km to town, pull in at the garage, across the road from the Ford dealer. Go there, spares closed 4PM, but they say try the spares place next to the garage. Now, 5 to 6, and go into spares place, and ask him for a water pump. He says no stock, but there should be one at his other branch. Quick call, and 5 past 6 in walks the other shop cashier/manager/stocker, with a new non OE pump. At the same time my friend walks in, with the old pump. Spares guy asks where is the car, and we point to the red one outside, with the open bonnet. He asked how, because we pulled in 20 minutes ago. we had done a few water pumps on those engines, because it just so was the one engine in a custom piece of equipment, and yes they did rather fail a lot, so he had gotten really good at changing them, plus on his car he had cut the cover, so he did not have to remove the crankcase pulley like the manual said. Paid, and 20 minutes later we had fitted the pump, filled up with fuel and water, and were off, also having gotten the dinner for the road in the cafe there.
Another time drove down with the exhaust in the car, because at night we found a log, which popped it off the front connection, and bent it slightly, and tore the hangers all off. So a very loud trip down, with exhaust ending just behind the firewall. Next day exhaust place fitted it back, after making it more or less straight.
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Yup had the same. New car for a sales rep, and he drove it to 60 000km, with the factory oil and filters still in it. He was fired, not for that, but that he got a speeding ticket. ticket was for a day he was supposed to be in an area, and had sales calls marked as done, yet he was 6 hours drive away. Then they looked at the toll and fuel records, and saw he was driving Thursday there, and going back Tuesday morning, yet still had calls and sales for the Friday and Monday at the places he had on his list. Small sales, so they looked and saw he was phoning them. that area went to another rep who was phoning, and she got nearly triple the sales volume he had at any time.
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