What did you do with your truck/shop today

[StinkyCheese]

Yeah I'll only gone a week and 2 of those 7 will be driving to/there so I guess 5 days there.  I doubt I drove more than 250ish miles while I was there last year.  This year I'll probably drive more since I'm driving my sister to and from whatever airport she's flying into.  I think it's only about 45 minutes away.  I've never bothered with an oil analysis, been thinking about doing them for years, just lazy.  Maybe now that I have a Fumoto valve I'll get around to doing that.  Oh yeah I installed one of those when I did my oil change yesterday.  Amazing how great it fits if I'm sent the right part.  I went to install one on my previous oil change and Amazon sent me the wrong one.

[Jsdirt]

Nice. That'll make oil samples a breeze.

 

If an engine stayed running it's whole life and was never shut down, you could run gear lube in the crankcase all winter, and be fine. It's the startup events that hurt engines with thick oil.

 

My Grand Marquis has 15w-40 Rotella in the crankcase - if I tried to fire that thing up now, it would knock LOUDLY for 10 minutes. Temps below 50° make it rattle BAD. Sucks, since I still need to move the thing to get my mower out for the final mow of the season, and also get my waste oil burner out, and moved to the new shop. Might have to just wait for a warmer day ...

 

We ran 10w-30 all winter in our '89 S10 Blazer - that had a '00 GMC Jimmy engine in it. I installed a block heater, so that eliminated any start up lubrication issues.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Jsdirt

[StinkyCheese]

Cleaned my fog/driving light lenses.  Not perfect but definitely a ton better than they were.  Also took another stab at cleaning the driver's headlight.  Now it doesn't look like it's cracking from the sealer adhering wrong, it's just foggy.  Especially compared to the crystal clear passenger side that I just replaced earlier this year.

 

The shake/wobble saga continues.  Since the dealer said nothing was wrong, yet again, I got up early this morning and went to Action Gator Tire to have the right rears road forced.  Their road force machine ended up breaking, or wasn't known at the time to be broken, so all 6 tires were balanced.  Looked like the outer right was wobbly though.  Since they had time they checked the drive line and front end for me for anything that could cause a shake.  All that checked out.  Decided I wanted to know if the tire was bad so I went to another AGT.  The right rears both came up as fine on road force, they did it a couple times too.

 

They put the tires back on and ran it up on the stands, right rear wobbles.  Pulled the tires off checked them again still came up fine.  I asked if they ran it w/o the tires on so we did that, hub is wobbling.  Thanks dealership.  So back to the dealership since they're the ones that "fixed" it so it's their problem to fix it.

 

My problem now is I have a road trip I'm leaving for on Saturday.  They have no loaners and don't even know if they'll get a chance to look at the truck tomorrow.  I wonder if I can just give them the bill for the rental I'm going to end up getting because they can't ever seem to have enough loaners on hand.  I should have given them the bill for the last rental I had to get while I waited for them to get around to checking the truck out that time.

 

I hate people...I don't understand they don't believe someone who has been coming to them for years and has demonstrated that he's not completely mechanically stupid.  I said something wasn't right.  Guess what, I was right, every single time!

[Jsdirt]

Seems dealerships are in the business of stealing your money, or trying to make you go away.

 

If you don't know much about vehicles, they steal your money. If you do, they don't want you as a customer.

 

At least you finally found the problem. Maybe the lot tech was hotrodding around in your truck, blew it out sideways, and cranked a curb - wouldn't be the first time I've seen that ...

[Jsdirt]

Took the Silverado to the city today. Had to bring my buddy's snowblower back to him after going through it. He hasn't done ANYTHING to the thing in 8 years - not even change the oil! 

 

Truck was already white after that trip. The town next to the city dumped literally 4" of road salt on top of some runoff. Idiots. Someone probably crashed there, since driving skills out in that part of the state are "sub-par", to put it nicely.

 

Left the truck outside when I got back, then dug out my '05 Sportsman 800 that's gone maybe 1 mile in the past year an a half, ran that up the road to get the fluids moving, moved the RD, my generator, and a bunch of other crap, excavated my waste oil burner, and w-2-wheeled the thing out of there through a maze around the Marquis, my mower, and everything else that's piled up in there.  Was able to put the RD where the stove was, which freed up some space for some more dead snowblowers, and a rototiller from the new section. Dug my snowblower out and also moved that to the new section, then got my buddy's truck up on the lift so my wife can park underneath it tonight.  Then had to hook up the battery charger for an hour and a half to get this '95 Blazer fired up, so I could move it way out in the backyard. Big mad scramble to get ready for snow.

 

You guys down south are lucky! I'm ready for a nap already. Back is throbbing ... and I get to move all this crap bright and early tomorrow AM, then start tearing into a Dana 60 front axle.

 

[Colossus]

8 hours ago, Jsdirt said:

Seems dealerships are in the business of stealing your money, or trying to make you go away.

 

If you don't know much about vehicles, they steal your money. If you do, they don't want you as a customer.

 

At least you finally found the problem. Maybe the lot tech was hotrodding around in your truck, blew it out sideways, and cranked a curb - wouldn't be the first time I've seen that ...

That is why you do not go to a dealership unless it is for a recall or warranty item. You find an good trusted independent repair facility that respects you and who is willing to talk shop with you. 

[RyanbabZ71]

Can’t go anywhere and get good service. Sitting at discount tire having a wheel replaced due to poor workmanship [emoji35]


Ryan B.

[rkj__]

3 hours ago, Colossus said:

find an good trusted independent repair facility that respects you and who is willing to talk shop with you. 

Sometimes, that's easier said than done.  Of the last 6 shops I've tried.

 

1.  After replacing hub, ABS sensor wire was not routed properly, causing ABS failure.

2.  Charged obscene prices for parts.

3.  Took two return trips to properly balance my tires.

4.  Did not torque wheel nuts, causing my wheel to almost fall off while towing down the highway (at least they admitted their mistake)

5.  Did not tighten hose clamp, causing an air hose to blow off, causing check engine light and poor performance.

6.  Left dirt / grease all over the fabric in my door panel.

 

 

[Daryl LBZ]

What an enjoyable morning. Shoveled the car out of the snow only to have it get stuck 6 feet away from where it was parked, after shoveling it out a second time I got it parked back in its spot. Told the wife that I would have to take her to work in the truck only to have it blow a brake line while trying to get it out of its parking spot. I really hate winter.

[Jsdirt]

Gotta love it. Everything always fails when it's cold and snowy, every time. Friggin salt destroys brake lines, and domestic manufacturers still to this day refuse to use copper/nickel alloys. The Volvo has them OE - 25 years old, still as solid as the day they left the Swedish factory, just with a green patina.

 

 

I blame 95% of problems at repair facilities on the pay system. Flat rate encourages speed, not thoroughness. With shops cutting back at every turn due to costs of everything going up, plus state taxes and regulations that nearly bankrupt them, the fight for a decent paycheck has everyone working as fast as humanly possible. I can't work that way - I make too many mistakes!

 

 

Got a packed house in here today. Barely fit the Volvo in.

 

[rkj__]

37 minutes ago, Daryl Z71 said:

What an enjoyable morning. Shoveled the car out of the snow only to have it get stuck 6 feet away from where it was parked, after shoveling it out a second time I got it parked back in its spot. Told the wife that I would have to take her to work in the truck only to have it blow a brake line while trying to get it out of its parking spot. I really hate winter.

I read a tip once.  Use a small pair of vice grips to crimp the blown brake line closed / plugged.  Re-fill reservoir.  Drive with three wheel braking to repair shop.  Fortunately, I've never had to try it myself yet, and find out how well it works.  Even if it does work, driving without a front brake on one side would not be great in winter conditions. 

[rkj__]

32 minutes ago, Jsdirt said:

I blame 95% of problems at repair facilities on the pay system. Flat rate encourages speed, not thoroughness. With shops cutting back at every turn due to costs of everything going up, plus state taxes and regulations that nearly bankrupt them, the fight for a decent paycheck has everyone working as fast as humanly possible. I can't work that way - I make too many mistakes!

 

Yup, makes sense. 

 

It's insane how fast guys in tire shops are trying to hustle during the busy winter tire changeover season. 

 

I don't have all the skills, time, patience, tools, or space to do too much of my own repair work, but I at least do my own oil and tire changes.

Edited November 16, 2018 by rkj__

[Jsdirt]

I did 5 sets of tires in 2 days, and I'm just a nobody, 1-man show. Gets crazy this time of year.

[Chevor]

2013 srw 
592,424 - oil change, air filter, fuel filter,  Newish (takeoff) General Grabber HTS 245/75/17s placed on rear.  The ones on rear moved to front and gauged @ about 8,000 miles.  9/3nds. New ones are 12/32nds

[Daryl LBZ]

3 hours ago, rkj__ said:

I read a tip once.  Use a small pair of vice grips to crimp the blown brake line closed / plugged.  Re-fill reservoir.  Drive with three wheel braking to repair shop.  Fortunately, I've never had to try it myself yet, and find out how well it works.  Even if it does work, driving without a front brake on one side would not be great in winter conditions. 

 

I've heard that as well. I'm going to try it so I can get it moved down the street a block where it's easier for a rollback to pick it up. My parents garage is a 45 minute drive from my house so that's farther than I would like to chance driving it that way. I have towing on my car insurance anyway so I might as well use it I suppose.