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So looking at the cargo cover, one of the strings had been cut down while the other was still as it should be. It'd be easy enough to make two new equal length sections for it, but for now I tied them to the struts and it seems to work OK! It just doesn't lower all the way, I need another half inch or so to get some slack in the resting position. When I replace the string for it I'll also put a washer behind the holes to stop them tearing through.  https://i.imgur.com/j1w6gd9.mp4 Tried cleaning it with some auto upholstery cleaner that I have been using more for cleaning cat barf out of my rugs than in the car:  As for the door card, well, I pulled off mine and found that someone had been in there before:  What a mess! I still had the strip caulk from the Squire door job so I tried scraping off most of it and slapped some more on. I had to tape the door handle up so it wouldn't pull the plastic off the door!  This stuff is great, but wear gloves because it's like chewing gum!  With that mess out of the way I was able to work on the door. These look different just because one is so dirty from the gravel junkyard.  You can see how the back of the armrest was punched in:  Now this was a good stroke of luck, the switch panel was removable! The junkyard one was scratched up and sticky, but with only four screws the entire switch section pulled right off and I was able to swap them:   Here it is fully installed and cleaned up! I documented the progress for my friend in Cali who has an 09 fit, I can't believe in just two screws and something like 8 clips that door comes right off! It's a lot easier to manage than my Thunderbird was which had I think three screws and ZERO clips, it sort of slotted into the door in a weird rear end way.  Also cleaned up that little rear panel:  My dad works on a bunch of different motorcycles and sent me two of these screw drivers he recently fell in love with and I have to say they really kick rear end. They have a weird head design that feels like they bite into the screw!  Now, I mentioned the door thing earlier where it wasn't fully aligned at the top from someone being locked out and prying their way back in. Well, I've been slowly bending it back using a baseball bat:  Just stick it in between the door and the body and give it a little push at the top of the window frame.  Getting closer! Luxrage fucked around with this message at 22:59 on May 30, 2020 |
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May 30, 2020 22:53
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I'm heading down through Dallas to Ft. Worth today because it's triple car parts trouble at the Pick n' Pull!   I'm stopping at the Buc-ee's on the way down for some sunscreen and water this time because it's gonna be HOT!
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Jun 3, 2020 17:24
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Sorry for the delay, here's how it went down! I put all of my little tools in my messenger bag and I stopped at Buc-ee's on the way down for sunscreen and stuff to stay hydrated because good lord it was hot out there! Not a cloud in the sky too! This pick n' pull was the complete opposite of the South Central Dallas location, there was no PPE on anyone and I was the only one with a face mask, and that includes the staff. The first thing I found was the Tracker. It was almost compltely picked over! The inside was trashed as well.   I would have taken the taillights as they weren't sun-baked at all but one was cracked. I did grab the rub strips off the sides in the event I ever want to put them on mine, they're just double sided taped on! I'd put a vinyl white strip over the blue to color match mine, although the GEO logos on the wheel caps I have on my truck are pink and blue.   The next thing on the hit list was the Fit. The inside was, for lack of a better word, destroyed. It was full of gravel, dirt, glass, you name it.  However, I put my work gloves on and dug through the trunk and found the OEM Jack and kit that went with it! That includes the tow hook!   The one good thing about the Ft. Worth Pick N. Pull over the other three is it is tree lined. The Tracker and the LTD I'm about to show were in a good spot to be close enough to the shade that I didn't feel like death while pulling parts!  The LTD was next to the walls of crushed cars which is probably a huge safety hazard as I could easily go between the walls if I wanted to get good photos and get attacked by spiders. The crazy thing about the LTD is there were two of them! The older one I believe is, at most, an 85 because it had an analog clock and carburetor.  What I was interested in, however, was the top trim '88 that had every bell and whistle you could think of, two-tone paint, cornering lamps, climate control, and something special:   It has a tripminder! If any of you saw my posts in the panther megathread, you will remember my two-day job of installing one of these into my Squire! If this works, it's an invaluable spare to have. These were only available in a few Fords from I believe 85-90 as a dealer addon so they're not cheap!  Best part is it's just a clock replacement so it comes out with just three screws (plus the 6 it takes to get the das face off) It's a shame the inside was so bombed out and picked over already. I swear, people must have alerts set up to evaporate these things the day they show up to the yard!  When I got home I pulled out and checked the spare in the Fit. I cleaned up the pan and installed the jack and kit as it should be.    Later I'm going to clean up this TripMinder and test it in the Squire to make sure it works. I can either keep it or sell it for about $70. I made sure to keep the plug and cabling too.  I'll post the neat stuff I found at the yard in a separate post sometime tomorrow, I got some stuff I wanna do on the Fit tomorrow anyhow! Luxrage fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 04:46
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Awesome trip to the yard. Sucks to find vehicles picked over/wrecked as much as some of those examples but looks like you found a couple good items. Feels good to piece together missing items from previous owner. 
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Jun 5, 2020 16:16
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Nice haul! And yes, Pick n Pull lets you set up email notifications for when something from your
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Jun 5, 2020 18:22
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Here's some other pictures from the junkyard. It's a shame about this Colt Vista, it looked well taken care of. Must have grenaded the transmission or engine:   This was in the crushed car pile: I have no idea what these are from, and I don't want to look them up on my IP address:    This is the only Pick N Pull of the four that just has the piles of cars sitting in the actual lot. I could go down in there and take some tasteful photography if I didn't want to get attacked by spiders and/or crushed by falling cars parts:  Also  They do occsionally sell full cars:  So I put the Dashcam in the Fit, and what was going to be a nice drive around the block along with an update to the thread yesterday ended up being a big-rear end project. We ended up getting a new Ikea desk for the roomate and it was 60 1/4'' long. It 'fit' in but I had to knees-to-chest it all the way back from Frisco. I would have taken the Squire but it has in the 90*s here and the Fit's AC works a lot better! One of these days this thread will dive into the AC woes of the Squire and the Tracker, but that's a project for another day.  There's a wierd haze of surface rust on the top of the tailgate, I'll clean that up when I get some touch up paint.  I've been using A119s for just about all my dashcam applications. They've yet to let me down! I positioned the DashCam on my side for a change, I figure it'd be nice to actually be able to press the buttons and take 'photos' on the go with it instead of just hiding it behind the mirror. The Fit's dashboard is so long though, it does give a lot of glare in sunlight: Here's some screenshots:  You can see the Ikea pear cider in the upper left side  Routing it was so easy, I didn't even need any tools for running the cable which I was shocked by! Only a screwdriver for mounting the ground lug on the dashcam's power supply. Bonus spotting on the highway:  A Fiat Coupe and some sorta Alfa Romeo! Luxrage fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 03:27
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You should go back and save that RX-7.
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Jun 7, 2020 04:23
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Seat Safety Switch posted:You should go back and save that RX-7. I want to. But it's far 
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Jun 7, 2020 22:56
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Man I love a good junkyard trip report. Jealous, I cant wait until I can get off this island and junkyard again.
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Jun 8, 2020 04:37
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I love messing around in the yards, but on nice, sunny, cloud-free days in the summer months here it really gets to you. The sun combined with every bit of shade being a roasting car interior and no water or bathrooms anywhere really beats on you. I was fortunate to have almost every trip I took for the Maxima be overcast or rainy which really saved my skin (literally). I was talking to my mother on the phone and mentioned the junkyard trip and pulling these parts and she wants to go to one now. I wasn't able to get my point across about the absolute hell-march the junkyard becomes in the middle of a hot August day when she wants to visit! That RX7 was really cool, I should have taken an interior picture of it to see how it looked in there. The yard is really vague on the condition of cars like that, sometimes they claim they run and other times it's just "as is." There was an Escort wagon there last year that I really wanted to pick up if I had the cash on hand at the time:  This weekend's car project, after I fix a dryer line my cats tore open on Wednesday, is going to be to build some sort of holder for the Tracker's roof when I'm not using it. My Tracker, being a 93, doesn't have the removable side windows, so it lays like this:  Honestly just a |____| bit bolted to the wall like a towel rack would probably support it, but I want to make it flush with the wall so the windows don't sag too much. Geo sold a big rectangular duffle bag for them and I need to look in the manual and see how it folds up... which I can do right now because as I'm typing this I just remembered GM still has the PDF of the owner's manual online!    I'm not sure how I feel about rolling it up but there's nothing in the roof other than a zipper. I also really need to clean the thing, it holds dirt like crazy! The only thing impeding my project this weekend is I really need some sort of string trimmer/weed wacker. The house is starting to look like crap compared to the neighborhood (who all have lawn services) and I've been putting off getting one for far too long. I am really tempted to pick up a $50 black and decker electric one for just doing my edging and some simple wackin'. My place is starting to look like the lone crummy house. AND I found another branch in my driveway, this time the bushes caught it. I really want to park the Fit back here, damnit, stop dumping branches!!!  Edit: The Fit "Oil Life" indicator is reading 20%, an Oil change this weekend wouldn't hurt as well. I should add I work a fixed shif so my weekend starts on Wednesdays and Thursdays for alternating 3/4 day weekends. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 8, 2020 23:49
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I picked up an edger and went to town on my driveway and walk way and stuff these last two days, you can see here how overgrown it was: I charged the AC on the Squire, it's not great but it's blowing cold for now. I've been told there are freon sniffers you can buy on Amazon for $30 or so that can help me find where the leak is. I thought I had fixed it before when I found a bad valve in the low pressure port but it's still slowly losing charge over the course of a few months. The compressor is fairly new which irritates me to no end! This wasn't even a rebuilt one either!  
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Jun 12, 2020 04:18
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Does the refrigerant that you just added have UV dye in it? That's another good way to spot the leak; go to town with a UV flashlight once the pressure drops again. I was under the impression that just adding more using a can-with-gauge was pretty frowned upon. I don't have AC in any of my cars, but I've read the AC thread a few years ago, and it's def a good idea to get a full gauge set to monitor the system pressures while running. Might help you diagnose, too.
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Jun 13, 2020 10:24
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I'm pretty sure the can - gauge method is probably the worst way to do it, but I'm definitely going to get this fixed after this summer. I have been told the harbor freight gauge set works pretty well, I've already found and repaired one set of leaks but ik going to troubleshoot thing thing again when I get some free time and see if I can find anything else. It definitely needs a proper purge too, it has probably been sucking in air from whatever leak it has.
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Jun 13, 2020 19:24
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I got a text yesterday from the friend whos family owns the Buick. It wasn't about the Buick, but instead for a friend of his that wants my help on a car that's having an electrical issue. Now I do electrical work for a living so I can handle mouse ruined wire jobs and fixing / troubleshooting botched repair work... but this:  However, I will at least go look at it and try to wick out as much of the moisture as I can I didn't get to work on the oil change for the Fit this weekend because I thought changing out my 40 year old doorknobs was a better project to tackle. I thought it would be as easy as swapping out the knobs, which it would have been if the original install wasn't so sloppy. Another tool I bought for the car came in handy as I had to dremel out the doors to fit the new, much tighter tolerance'd, lever hardware:  I had originally bought the Dremel to cut down the 7 pin connector when I did the Country Squire's Gentex mirror upgrade. The Thunderbird mirror I used was a four pin connector and all modern Gentex units are the 7 pin setup. The 7 pin Crown Vic mirror is what I used for the Tracker and was a much smarter choice because there's thousands of Fords in the junkyard with the 7 pin mirrors and only a handful of MN12 Fords with the 4-pin if I ever need replacements! The Fit requires a crush washer for the oil pan, I'm going to order some in advance and I will get the oil and filter this upcoming Wednesday. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 16:29
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So I took a look at the Porsche yesterday. He had pulled the fuse box out of the engine bay already and it didn't take more than a few minutes to see just how bad things were. Several of the larger wires were completely missing the insulation down as far as I could see. To make it worse this all goes straight into the frame and all over the inside of the car:  However, in pushing it back out of the trees, I asked about the truck that he also had the hood up on. He said that he was also having issues with that and was trying to find why it was bogging down and stalling while driving. He had a new carb on it and had redone the fuel lines and filters, but my experiences with the Squire pointed me in only one direction; Vacuum. I found the source of the problem almost immediately: So at least I got something fixed for him, I wasn't expecting to have any luck with the 944 anyhow. He's finishing up the truck because his daily is a Toyota Cressida and he wants to focus on restoring it. I've never been in a Cressida (or seen a US model one) before, couldn't believe how smooth it was on the road:  He also had a  retro game collection so I'll be over there again soon! I got paid in beer  I also took advantage of being in town to get some more photos of the Buick. I couldn't find the Vin because there was a wasp nest in the door:    I still kind of want it but there's no word on it from his family if they're wanting to get rid of it or even willing to let me work on it. The last registration sticker reads 2005. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Jun 21, 2020 |
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Jun 21, 2020 16:33
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That 944 wiring doesn't look like (just) flood damage - that looks like those wires got extra toasty and burned the insulation off. Either way I'd only consider looking at a full on harness replacement, and that'd be if the rest of the car was in good condition.
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Jun 21, 2020 16:54
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IOwnCalculus posted:That 944 wiring doesn't look like (just) flood damage - that looks like those wires got extra toasty and burned the insulation off. I agree with this. At the very least cut all those wires back to a point where there is no corrosion and redo the connector.
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Jun 21, 2020 19:04
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The only other info I was given on the wiring was that the issue was discovered when he had started the car to move it. He said he took it around the block and upon moving it into the parking spot seen above the horn started going off intermittantly. I could see it shorting out a whole bunch and melting things under the hood during it being moved around. I asked if he was going to want more help in pulling it to see how deep it goes but he wants to do it later in the fall when the heat dies down. In the meantime I'm going to keep researching Skylark stuff if they ever let me pick around on it.
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Jun 21, 2020 19:43
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IOwnCalculus posted:That 944 wiring doesn't look like (just) flood damage - that looks like those wires got extra toasty and burned the insulation off. Yeah, that had issues LOOOOOOOOOOOONG before it got flooded - either rotten insulation or crispy wiring. And it's been that way for years. You don't get that kind of corrosion overnight, or even in several months, unless the wires got stupid hot. The plug doesn't show any heat damage, the surrounding wires don't show heat damage either, so I'd bet the insulation started rotting away several years ago. That's not flood damage. That's not even overheated wiring damage. That's garbage wiring that had the insulation rot off. The wires without insulation look quite a bit beefier than the rest, so it's possible the insulation on them was different than the other wires.
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Jun 22, 2020 04:44
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Thanks for the warning on the wires, it'll give me more reason to push him more towards a full harness pull instead of just trying to patch bits here and there. The maintenence minder light finally popped on for the Fit, something I'm not used to in any car. I was going to put up a 2x2 whiteboard square in the garage so I could write down the mileage/dates of my oil changes to keep track of all three of them, Nice to see this one actually keeps track of itself!    What a difference between A and B! I'm still doing the filter with the oil change because who knows when it was done last. Weather permitting I'm going to pull out the HVAC blower fan and inspect it, it's ticking and changing with speed so I suspect there's something stuck inside and rattling around. It looks to be two steps so that'll be a quick and easy! It also dawned on me that, if I follow the directions in the Geo's owner's manual, I can store the roof in a ski or snowboard bag. Finding one in Texas might not be so easy though! Luxrage fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jun 24, 2020 |
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Jun 24, 2020 00:25
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My roommate's new-to-him Lexus has maintenance nannies built into the dash, but he kept asking me to write down when critical stuff needs to be done. It came with the loving owner's manual. I have a scanner/copier/laser printer combo. You know drat well how that went. Basically copies with some highlighting.
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Jun 25, 2020 17:03
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^ Is he expecting some sort of unlisted service the car's not gonna tell him about? I slapped a new serpentine belt on the Fit, super easy, no problems whatsoever. I didn't even take any photos because it was a two hand job but also there wasn't much to show. The old belt didn't look too bad so maybe it had been changed before but I wasn't taking chances with how cheap it was. It was just having the car with the hood up* and up on ramps a little bit so I could get under it. *this part is important for what comes next. However, I started having problems with it squeaking under load with the AC on. It was especially bad at a drive-thru where any time I'd put the AC on the car would start squeaking like crazy, especially in drive, while stationary, with the AC on. I poured through all of my work, I mean, there wasn't much to it. I'd double check it all, get on the road, and it would squeak again under load with the AC on. It was driving me nuts! I found the solution, I was so mad!!! (sound on) https://i.imgur.com/wRdvR8G.mp4 I also pulled the blower motor, it is perfectly fine running outside of the housing but when I install it again it starts ticking. I assume the bearing is going bad and causing some slight wobble which is hitting the side of the enclosure, I guess. That was an easy enough pull where I can probably pick up another one from the parts yard and see if it fixes it. Since these are all supposed to have cabin air filters they should all be pretty clean. I was impressed at how easy it was to get to, I thought I'd have to at least remove the glove box door, but it was just the lower panel (sound on) https://i.imgur.com/PM6clJU.mp4   Proof that it spins fine outside of the housing: (Sound on) https://i.imgur.com/JKcpMxo.mp4 Luxrage fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jun 27, 2020 |
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Jun 27, 2020 21:10
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I was going to do the oil change yesterday, and then my AC unit went out. I got the oil, filter, and such and when I got home it was nearing 80 degrees inside. I lucked out and found it wasn't the compressor: The, and I don't know why I didn't notice this sooner other than it being behind a ton of shrubs, FEDERAL PACIFIC breaker gave up and cut the AC off. I spent the day installing a new box that won't set my house on fire: Replaced it with:  When I first bought this place I had the FP fuse panel replaced with a Square D setup because I have heard horror stories from the OSHA thread in GBS about those. Anyways, I got the oil change started this morning only to find that the oil plug was on there with some insane force and was already rounded a bit. The owner's manual states 29lb/ft of torque on it. It took me a 2ft breaker bar and a 17mm bit I had to hammer on the bolt:  Autozone had a replacement, even though it was oddly a 13mm head instead of 17.   I really like the placement of the oil filter in this engine (it was also on too tight), I've never heard of this brand. I used Mobile 1 0W-20. The Fit forums say that oil weight is good for just about every condition although it felt like water when I was pouring it in. Did I mention the oil filler cap was on so tight I had to get it off with a wrench?  I also hung the whiteboard! I think my dad has a template he made for his vinyl cutter and he's going to send me his premade checkboxes and lines to help me fill it out.
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Jul 3, 2020 06:25
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That's a brand usually used by oil change shops / also available on Rockauto for cheap. 0w20 is indeed thin as hell. I've gotten into trouble doing a few changes with it and then pouring a bottle of 10w30 or 15w40 way too fast for the funnel.
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Jul 4, 2020 05:44
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Not much has happened in the last few weeks, the Pick n' Pulls haven't had anything new that I could go for and I've been working on my house every weekend. However I did do a few small things: I was stupid and didn't look close enough at the cargo cover to notice that the hanger-down bits were just on with grommets. I took them off and pulled apart the loop on the non broken thread, retied it, and now it sits evenly and there's only about a two inch gap in the back between the seats and the cover.   Since I haven't done much lately I'll post some oddities in the thread of weird stuff I need to fix or at least look into at some point. A lot of these are random nuisance parts so I'm putting together lists for the Tracker and the Squire of potential junkyard parts to get when I go down there. I'll show you an oddity from the Tracker. The Tracker underneath is rust free and as far as I can see from having the windshield replaced and pulling back the carpet in the rear there's no rust anywhere in the truck but look at the rear support bar for the fold-up rear seats:  The Tracker is also missing the hold-down for the battery and for some reason I don't see anything that the hold down bolts to. I know it exists but I can't find any good pictures of it. The battery kind of flops around in the Truck so I want to keep it secure. The Squire has some body-brace type bars in the engine bay that are also slightly rusty since they feel like they are made of the same cheap rear end metal as that seat support is. I need to just grab a set off of any junkyard LTD since every one I've seen down here have been fine and they are just on with two bolts. I don't have a good picture on hand of what mine is like other than this blurry one:  I know that's very minor and stupid but these are the forgettable things that I really need to take advantage of. The parts yard charges, like, 50c for things like that so I might as well. It's all about the little things! The Squire also has such a low clearance for the hidden wiper blades the previous owner actually rotated the mount upward so it rests like this:  The red wagon doesn't have that large chrome trim on the top of the hood like that and actually had paint missing from wiper blade arms contacting it over the years. I need to shop around and make sure I can get a set that clear it from now on if I'm going to reinstall it properly. Another notable thing is I picked up a wireless OBDII reader for the Fit and it works awesomely. It plugs in and gives me realtime engine readouts through my phone. I am using the app recommended by the Fit forum I found while googling the reader and the realtime readouts are really nice to have. The Fit doesn't have a temperature gauge so I just wanted to get a good baseline of operating temps and some other readouts for future reference if I have to troubleshoot. It's designed to stay in the car at all times so that's kinda cool.  However there's one drawback that nobody else on the Fit forum seems to have. The wireless completely ruins the range of my keyfob and also triggers the TPMS to read a fault because it's interfering with the signal of that. I have to go into the settings and see if there's some options I can change so I can leave it installed permanently. Finally there's a guy in town I've been trying to find. The last time I saw him on the road I beeped and waved and he looked as if I had pulled a gun on him. I saw his car last week at the grocery store:   I am going to FIND him and I will GET his Almond colored car parts! 
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Aug 5, 2020 |
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Aug 5, 2020 04:01
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Dude you can do all that with a $15-25 adapter and torque app why did you spend $100?
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Aug 5, 2020 05:20
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After seeing how well it worked for my dad I just thought I'd grab one too. I saw on the Fit forums that a few guys run Torque on it with good results. So there hasn't been much going on with the cars. It's still almost 100 every day so all of my large projects are on hold till the fall. I've been doing work on my house most of the time and other electrical projects. I also injured myself which put things on hold for about a week, so it's been slow going. I did at least wall mount a TV, install automatic lighting in my pantry, redo an entire entertainment center, fixed a bunch of outside fixtures on the house with a borrowed hammer drill, paint a few things, and attempt to reorganize my garage. However, a Fit did show up at the parts yard so either tomorrow or next thursday I'm going down there to see what the white rocker panels on that one look like and also see about maybe taking a wheel or two and stuff from the big list of fiddly trim bits I need. Every single one I see has the front end plowed in which is getting annoying for that air dam I am looking for:   I like the yard when it rains, it's all gravel so it doesn't get muddy, but the heat might still be a problem. This lack of to-do with my own cars hasn't stopped work, though. I now have this in my posession:  My coworker's a real nice guy but has a lot of financial struggles and can't afford to keep his second car running which is causing problems at home. I've seen him have to leave work several times to take his partner to the doctor, etc so I offered to take a look at it for him. It has some problems preventing her from using it, so getting those things fixed should help him out tremendously. It's a Buick Century, some year between 2000 and 2003. He's also not the best with cars, which is a shame because he's a wizard with our electrical systems at work, but DC circuits =/= cars I suppose. He's offering to pay me back for my work and parts as long as I use the cheapest option for everything.  It's kinda smelly inside. Those tools are his.  Much like the Maxima this also has this whatever it is going on with the fuel filler area.  I'm having Passat flashbacks, but I am really banking on this being much easier to work on.  Here's what I know about this car, she won't drive it because it overheats at intersections. He also said the coolant is disappearing over time. It has also been parked for six months or so (but was re-registered right before then so I can actually drive it on city streets to verify things work. The first thing I did was have to put a new battery in it. I pulled the old one but it was completely shot. He said he could only afford the cheapest option, and while I would normally object to putting the 50 dollar value battery in it, for something that isn't his "primary" car I let it slide. I just told him to make sure he drives it at least once every week or so because I don't trust the antitheft not to drain it down real fast. I took him to get the battery, but the only cheapo one (or any one actually) Walmart had in stock was over 40 minutes away in Madill, Oklahoma. At least it was pretty up there and I saw a lot of cool abandoned 60s cars to take photos of later and some neat old abandoned rest stops on the side of the county highways. Here's some pictures he took while I was driving.   I really enjoyed watching this get turned around for half an hour:  So now there's a battery in it and I have it at my place (as you saw in the above photos) to poke around with for the next few weekends. I'm in the middle of it right now but I'll post my findings later tonight and hopefully brainstorm what I can do about it. The oil's not contaminated so the coolant isn't going in there, so that's good and the water pump is less than two years old. Having the car sit for so long should help me pinpoint wherever the leak is. He's not super attached to this thing so if I find something huge or major he's not expecting me to do a full teardown or anything, but we'll see what I find. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Aug 28, 2020 |
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Aug 28, 2020 20:54
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Good on you for helping your coworker, hope it’s not the lower intake manifold gaskets that are causing the leak.
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Aug 29, 2020 02:43
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Assuming that's the 3800, which is pretty bulletproof, but that may be the 3100 with it being a base model (which... isn't great, but it'll usually get you there). My first step would be to get one of those "is there exhaust in the coolant?" tester thingies to make sure the head gaskets aren't popped (you can rent them from Autozone for free + deposit, just have to buy the test fluid). If they're not (and they don't pop easy on the 3800), start looking at the LIM gaskets for leaks, and make sure the radiator fans are coming on. Drain/flush/fill wouldn't hurt either since there's no telling what he's been using to top it off. The cheap green poo poo is fine in these so long as you get all the Dexshit out. I think Walmart's store brand long life coolant (which is typical green) will mix with some Dexshit so long as you make an attempt to get most of it out, and it's cheap (especially if you get the concentrate). It's what I'm running in Brokeback for the same reason - I had no idea what was in it, and didn't want to bother flushing the whole system (old stuff was green, but you can't go by color anymore). Does the AC work? If so, easy way to check the fans - start the car, turn on the AC with the hood up, jump out, see if they're running. If the compressor is engaged and the fans aren't running, you've found your overheating problem. If the AC doesn't work, GM likes to run things kinda hot for emissions reasons - IIRC they generally kick on low at 223F, high at 230F. If they're not on by 225F over OBD2 (or by the time the gauge is a little past 1/2), you've got an issue with the fan(s) or ECT. Looks like the ECT threads in directly below the thermostat housing. I think it uses two different sensors - one for the gauge, one for the PCM/fans. Dead center on the gauge should be anywhere from about 195-220 over OBD2 (GM puts a dead spot in them on purpose). I want to say the one that triggers the fans is also the one the PCM goes by, so if the gauge is climbing and OBD2 is reporting something like 150, it's probably the ECT. For future reference, Pick n Pull sells used batteries for cheap. Cheaper than $50 and a drive to Oklahoma! And the antitheft on this is pretty basic - it just watches for a door to be opened. That's it. No glass break sensor, no shock sensor, it just watches the same switches that turn on the dome and trunk lights, it's built into the body control module. The rest of the antitheft lives in the ignition switch; these generally didn't even use a chip in the key, they just had a 2nd switch within the ignition switch itself that the tip of the key presses, and it went through a specific resistor (there were maybe a dozen possible values?). If it ever refuses to start and sits there with an angry security light, the ignition switch has poo poo the bed. You can cut a wire and just live with the security light lit up (and deal with doing a 30 minute re-learn every time it gets jumped or has the battery disconnected), or drop $20 on an OEM ignition switch on Rockauto (and do the 30 minute re-learn once). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 14:41
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So here's what I ended up doing yesterday and the day before, sorry for the delay but I was absolutely trashed by how hot it was yesterday. So here's the initial information I was given on the Buick for when I started work: *It's a 3100 V6 *The Buick runs hot *The heater doesn't work *The Buick is losing coolant *The Buick was last driven daily about 6 months ago, but that was for a few weeks, the last time it was really driven properly as a daily commuter was about October of last year. *The radiator has been topped off (how many times I don't know) when it was being driven 6 months ago with tap water, but he says he notes that he knows it takes the orange stuff, so I'm *The Water pump was replaced last year I began with a look over, the car looks pretty rough but still drives OK, the tires are fine, the brakes feel OK for what it is. I looked in the radiator and it was nearly dry. The benefit of having the car sit for six months prior is everything is super dry under the hood which I hoped would give me some clues. I had my first break, oddly enough, when I was getting ready to do the flush:   This is where the radiator drain plug is, and this is how much it leaked after only being driven only a mile and a half from his place, to the gas station, to my house. I think I might have hit some dumb luck and if it has been leaking this bad the whole time, definitely could have been peeing away his coolant every time he drove it. I ended up flushing the radiator, there was almost nothing in the system and the reservoir tank has a bunch of sludge floating around in the top. I'm thinking that there is probably a bunch of air in the system which might have saved him from pulling all of that sludge water into the radiator in the first place. It would also explain why the heater doesn't work. I want to either pull the reservoir tank or flush it out in place to get any remaining crap out of it before I run the engine and properly purge the remaining air, though. I'm going to re-drain the radiator and see how much rust comes out of it when I do this as well. I noted after doing my flush and tightening the drain plug it hasn't leaked since so if the flush and air purge ends up being the fix then talk about dumb luck. I really don't want to have to replace that thermostat, I was looking at the location of it and man that looks miserable:  I also made the mistake of using the washer while checking out his windshield wipers and what came out of those sprayers I can only describe as rancid piss. He told me that he never has filled it himself so there's either water in there or the blue stuff broke down into some horrid pee concauction. I sat there in the driveway running the pump until empty while spraying the car down with a garden hose because I was not about to drain that tank by hand and get it on me! I also made the mistake of going to the Junkyard yesterday. It was indeed 105 degrees outside and the storm that was supposed to happen arrived that night so it was a beautiful, cloud free hellhole:  Naturally the Fit was totalled and thus the interior was full of garbage and parts of the OTHER car from the wreck so it was almost a total writeoff in there:  However, I finally found my weird rubber under-hood air dam! It's soft so it contoured to the smashed hood.  I did find a few other good things though. Just for laughs I grabbed the spoiler since it is only held on with two bolts. I was hoping the rocker panel covers would be in good shape but one was already missing and the other had damage to it. My thinking is replacing my damaged blue ones with white ones and putting white wheels on it will be snazzy (and a pain in the rear end to keep clean). I also grabbed the driver side wiper arm to replace mine which has a rust spot. I ran over to the other side of the yard to see what Centuries were there and ripped a door apart to get the regulator and motor out as fast as possible. If I've still got the car later this fall or when the weather is nicer I might go look and see if I can find him some better non-faded headlight housings.  This is the layout of the yard and it is my least favorite of the four (now three because I think Dallas West is closed permanently) P&P yards. Ft. Worth has trees lining the lot and South Central is a square shape, but this is a long lot with trucks in front and domestic cars in the wayyyy back. Makes for a death march back to the checkout. Upon getting home I tried the spoiler out, you can see just how much my paint has faded on the Fit. I'm going to buff and polish the hell out of it this fall:   The white spoiler looks kinda goofy but I'll leave it on because why not? I realised as I was leaving for work this morning I might have the clips I need to install that air dam, but I did replace the wiper arm, you can see the rust spot that was dead center in my eyeline as I drove:  I found the energy to put the window regulator in the Buick, he said it had been taped up for almost a year and having passat horror flashbacks, was amazed at how easily I ripped out the Buick one. I mean, it couldn't be that hard to install, right?  He had already had his door taken apart, not sure what he was doing in there but his regulator was trashed:   I found that the motor I got from the yard was not only smaller but was burned out. It got real hot when plugged in. The yard didn't charge me for it so oh well! The original monster Buick motor worked just fine and I slapped it all back together. I really like how there's slot holes for pre installing the bolts and just dropping it in:   I spent more time trying to get the duct tape off than I did doing the install! https://i.imgur.com/extQ26S.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/QFQZE0u.mp4 A year long problem solved and put back together in two hours and $17.99 I've got a long shift this week but I'm going to try to pull the coolant reservoir and start doing the deep dive into the engine issues come Thursday. I'll try all of what you recommended STR but I'm hoping dumb luck is on my side and after clearing out the crud in the tank, flushing it again, burping it and verifying the fans all work that the issue will be resolved. He told me the AC works but I have yet to try it myself. I keep forgetting that P&P has more than just parts that are on the lot. I need a cheap spare for the Tracker and I know I'm going to end up needing it at the worst moment so I should really go down there on a slow morning and pick one up, same with the Squire now that I think about it. That spare's original to the car and half deflated and I can't be taking these Austin and Chicago trips with no spare! I'm looking at the keys and that resistor is pretty blunt, such a weird looking key, too, I'm hoping that it doesn't pull any ignition shenanigans on him anytime soon!  I might sneak him some new headlight bulbs on the house and not bring it up in the parts prices, he said his partner complains they are super dim and trying them last night I can believe it. Also try to buff those lenses later. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 17:09
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Oh poo poo, I didn't realize they still used the pellet in the key by then. The newer style uses a resistor in-line with a second switch within the ignition switch. That puts this at the early end of what you thought it was, I think, if not late 90s? Most of GM had switched over to the secondary switch by 2000ish...ish. Heater not working is not a good sign, radiator leak or not. Check the belt routing - the water pump may be spinning in the wrong direction (I've managed to do that... wrapped the belt around the wrong end of the pulley on my Altima). I don't suppose (A) the pump was replaced or (B) the belt was replaced around the time it started running hot? It sounds more like a blown head gasket or water pump spinning the wrong direction, at least to me - that radiator leak isn't good, but it doesn't look bad enough to cause the heater not to work - that's damp, not super wet, it should be holding enough water if you leave the cap loose. For that to leak enough to let the engine overheat so quickly, I'd expect a waterfall. And it's stupid easy to run the belt the wrong way around the water pump on a lot of cars. This is where you put down the deposit for the "sniff the cooling system for exhaust" kit and buy a bottle of the test fluid at AutoZone, and do the needful. There's no point in going further if it's popped a head gasket, IMO. I know GM cooling systems are kinda weird, but you can still do the sniff test from the surge tank. A protip on that - start the engine after sitting overnight, pop the hood, remove the surge tank cap. If it's already pressurized, it's popped a HG. Use the surge tank as your sniff point for the sniffer; it's basically the radiator cap, but on a plastic tank, and plumbed so that it's the highest point in the cooling system (so generally, but not always, self-bleeding). You can try filling it up completely with water and driving it immediately, but leave the surge tank cap off. Just drive it around the neighborhood. Or hell, just let it idle for 5 minutes. The surge tank is usually the highest point in the system, so you should be able to get heat. e: FWIW, my Subaru was leaving the radiator looking like that within 1-2 minutes on a cold start, with steam pouring out from under the hood after a 5 minute drive (enough that neighbors became concerned on Nextdoor). Heat worked fine, engine never ran warm. Just had a crack in the top tank. tl;dr check belt routing to make sure the water pump is spinning the correct direction, check for exhaust in the coolant randomidiot fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 17:29
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Since I'm at work with the owner of the Buick I was able to get some more information out of him. The water pump has been replaced, but according to him it was done before he took ownership of the car and before any of these temperature issues started happening. I sent a message home and asked for some pics of the belt routing and verified the water pump is correctly belted. I had to google image how it went because the diagram on the car looks like this:  I also grilled him on specifics about the engine temp and the heater. He told me the car won't completely overheat to the point of killing the car; it'll start climbing at idle and sit around 3/4ths the top range of the gauge and sit there, he says he could usually hear fans turning on so I'm assuming that's kicking on the fans as a failsafe. He said when he'd drive it it would drop back to that middle dead zone you mentioned and stay there until another light where it would repeat the cycle. I'll pick up the test kit and see what I can do later this week with it, as well as check the fans and go from there. Another minor side thing I forgot to mention is his car has some bizarre wiring for the radio. It has an aftermarket head unit that doesn't come on when the car's on accessory nor does it cut power when you start the car. And only two of the four speakers work. He said it was a paid job at an actuall radio install place so if I get time after all of this engine work I might go dig around in the back of the radio and see what's up. Might as well hit some of the quality of life stuff while working on it. I'm sure it's going to be a mess inside there. Late Edit: I ordered him new headlight bulbs since they were $2 each for the preferred Phillips ones. He says he's interested in going to the parts yard with me so if he really wants to I might go back with him and see about pulling these headlight housings: 
Luxrage fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 19:50
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Luxrage posted:I really don't want to have to replace that thermostat, I was looking at the location of it and man that looks miserable: No you don't, and yes it is. Still haven't replaced mine.
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Aug 30, 2020 20:04
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The headlight housings will be a better upgrade than the bulbs. The housings on my Tacoma were pretty clouded, and I've had polished/ renewed headlights last about a year so I just got new ones. The difference was utterly ridiculous, and I didn't think the housings were that bad.
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Aug 30, 2020 22:18
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Luxrage posted:
I've done that job, it sucks. My grandparents '04 (I think), and every bit of cooling system plastic I touched just crumbled. gently caress Dex Cool.
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Aug 31, 2020 03:17
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So a huge development happened after work today, I can't really wrap my brain around why this happened but here's the story. I have some videos of what is going on. So I fired up the car after work to see how the temperature would hold and to run some of the coolant around in it and noticed it climbing much more rapidly than normal, like I was told it stayed up in the 3/4ths range of the gauge but it was climbing fast past that. I did verify the fans all work and the AC works quite well during this time. I had the vents running full blast on hot and they were not blowing hot as it has been. So I shut the car off and noticed something, when I was doing that initial radiator only flush I had put a little bit of dexcool in that water filled overflow tank to skim off some of the floating gunk and mix the water up before just deciding to dump it all later, but between messing around with the car then, my coworker bring it over from when we initially looked at it, and now the level never changed. Hot or cold it was always almost to the top of the reservoir where I had topped it off last. I had the radiator cap off of when I did the initial flush, so I knew nothing was in there and I had gotten most of the gunk out of the reservoir so I just pulled and massaged the hose as much as I could. I found a pinhole leak on top of everything else that has been weeping, so first thing thursday I'm replacing that hose as well. But wouldn't you know it,  This hose, the leak was somewhere in that plastic surround. I did that and waited for a while to fire up the engine, when I did in the span of a few minutes it sucked up half the coolant tank and the temperature wasn't going very far above normal! I topped it off and saw it stabilize and drove it around the block. I saw it was lower again, filled it some more and drove it around the block with the AC on a few more times and took this video (it has sound): https://i.imgur.com/gKgXACV.mp4 And the vents were blowing hot as hell!! I then went out after having dinner and letting the car cool a little bit and found that purge valve and ran the car for another ten minutes to see if it would still stay stable while I dicked around with it trying to get it to suck in more coolant: (it also has sound) https://i.imgur.com/H882xpD.mp4 Have any of you heard of having a blocked coolant reservoir return hose and it causing all of these issues? It just seems bizarre that as soon as I get this thing unclogged all of a sudden the engine's temperature is staying right where it should be. I'm still gonna check everything as I'm sure that running with that clogged line for all that time he drove it caused all sorts of pressure problems in the system and probably killed the water pump gasket or other things, but come thursday I'm also gonna replace that hose and start diving into it! All that driveway idling also let me know it's burning oil somewhere. I also purged all of the smelly pee water out of the washer and filled it with fresh blue stuff. Luxrage fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Aug 31, 2020 |
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Aug 31, 2020 04:32
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Every 31, 34 and 3800 should have died in Cash for Clunkers, god loving drat.
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Aug 31, 2020 05:40
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I guess something could have been blocking the hose but I think it’s more likely that you burped an air bubble out of the cooling system. Dunno if those cars are especially hard to bleed for some reason but having some air trapped in the system would definitely explain some of the issues.
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Aug 31, 2020 05:56
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Crunchy Black posted:Every 31, 34 and 3800 should have died in Cash for Clunkers, god loving drat. Not the 3800.  And yeah, someone didn't burp it. And it probably got more and more air trapped in it as it leaked coolant. That first vid it looks like it's running a little warm (it's a touch past 1/2), the 2nd it looks good. GM calibrates the temp gauge to stick a touch below the middle to dead center when warmed up. Fix the coolant leaks, check the oil to make sure there's no milkshake action, take it up on the highway for a bit, see if it heats up beyond that first video when you get off the highway and come to a stop (it might rise a little, but shouldn't rise much). If not, fuckin send the drat thing. Slap a new radiator cap on it too; that has a big part to do with whether or not it pulls/pushes anything from that overflow (on top of the possibly clogged hose). Play the Rockauto "mix and match to get everything out of one warehouse" game for the parts.
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Aug 31, 2020 13:58
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There's another purge valve, above the water pump.
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Aug 31, 2020 18:23
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