I’ll admit, the bulk of this post’s title was lifted from a very popular and long-lived thread over on a marque-specific car site that I frequent. I have subsequently discovered that a similar thread, with the same title, exists on several other automotive sites. Regardless of where the thread lives, the basic idea – if you’ve not encountered it in your online travels – is that people post things that they’ve recently done to their cars so far as modifications, maintenance, whatever. Posts are often quite short and are sometimes intended to spur commentary about the modification/repair, but just as often no comment is sought. Instead, the thread exists as an on-going commentary on things that owners do for the vehicles they love (or sometimes hate) and care for.
The posts that I enjoy most are those where it’s obvious that there’s more to the story of something like “Replaced grill after original was messed up.”. Unfortunately, many car sites do not seem to favor long-form narrative, and therefore seldom do I get the satisfaction of the rest of the story. For that matter, any sort of story is usually missing. That’s where CC comes in. There’s always more to the story here, and on top of that, more stories always seem to emerge in the comments.
So, sit back, put on your best rabbit hunting gear (because there are a few holes to fall into), and here’s the story of what I did for my car today. You are encouraged to add your own stories in the comments.
The tale starts with my daily driver, the last car in my COAL, and a car that from what I can intuit may not receive so much love here in the CC community. I cannot recall the last time I saw a quasi-modern BMW covered on these virtual pages. Well, that’s ok. Vive la différence! I love it, and have managed to keep it plugging along far longer than may be typical for many of its breed. We’re at 230,000 miles and 13 years (in my driveway…15 years since it was European Delivered to its original owner). Over the roughly 210,000 miles that I’ve driven it, I’ve steadily grown my abilities and tool box in order to take care of it (I do not name my cars. Never have. Fine if you do, but it’s simply not my thing.).
Over time, I have developed my own approach to auto maintenance and repair that involves experiencing mechanical issues…or perhaps more accurately, experiencing what I may wonder could be mechanical issues…and then engaging in a considerable amount of research, soul-searching, and planning before I actually dive in to address such issues.
That’s right. I procrastinate. Hugely.
Over the course of the past six months, I’ve noticed that pushing the START/STOP button hasn’t produced a particularly vigorous start of the engine. Here I’ll note that I can count on one hand the number of times that pushing the START/STOP button has resulted in flat nothing. Yes, I still count on my hands. This is despite being in a profession where I frequently need to exhibit/feign familiarity with higher mathematics. It all comes down to the fact that humans typically have 10 fingers. I’m not sure which of the previous three sentences is more surprising to readers. I guess it depends on your opinion on a) BMWs, b) statistical analysis, c) the state of mathematics education in American public schools, or d) all of the above.
Anyway, my car has overall been remarkably reliable. Most of the issues I’ve experienced have been things that more bothered me for aesthetic reasons than would result in flat-bedding it home. Which is not to say that I have not had constant worries about one thing or another. Still, there are few things which I convince myself might be a problem that cannot be addressed through my replacing a hose, changing a sensor, or more often just cleaning something and resetting the computer.
So, in this case, “less vigorous starts” – which frankly sounds like the story of my life in the 21st century – has been one of the recent issues with my car and has therefore inspired many months of Internet and forum research. I have reviewed videos and BMW N52 forum threads that run the gamut of pretty much any possible issue with a car designed by humans (not to mention incredibly sophisticated Bavarian and global automotive engineers) in the late 20th century. The synthesis of all of this information comes down to:
“It could be the starter unless it’s one of many chassis grounds or more likely various computer modules that prevent starting although possibly it’s the cables to the battery that perhaps have had their various sensing functions triggered because of potential issues involving the starter, battery, or computer modules.”
Shirley someone knows, but many people don’t and they too make YouTube videos and forum posts about their opinions. All of which is to say that what ought to be a fairly straight forward diagnosis of a function/repair that stretches back over 120 years into automotive history is about as clear a process on my car as haruspicy. (There you go, your word for the day. I encourage you to use it regularly, as do I.)
Not an actual ISTA+ screen from my car, but on any given day mine is pretty close.
Ah, you say, isn’t diagnosis of modern cars done via software that reads out the various error codes and points the mechanic to the failed component and proper repair? Yeah, except for when the issue could be one of several things, and the error codes might be nested and masking each other. Thus something akin to “Your starter isn’t getting power” could mean that the starter itself is broken and/or that several things upstream (downstream too?) from the starter could be broken. I’m sure that there are engineers in Munich who have figured out the “correct” way to utilize the diagnostic system they created; but for most mere mortals – including unfortunately a lot of the folks who work in the customer-facing parts of the automotive repair industry – the solution is the tried and true “No issue found.”…sending you on your way until something more obvious breaks and brings the car back on a flatbed.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My version of playing DIY auto mechanic is to spend my free time puzzling over the meaning of the software – just like the real mechanics do – and to essentially offer up to my customer (me) the same solution of just drive it and hope that what you know could be a problem doesn’t unavoidably become an actual problem. In the case of the wimpy starts, I did this for six months – during which time I addressed any number of other clearly/maybe/who-the-heck-knows unrelated issues like coolant leaks, suspicious vibrations, etc. All of these issues were (are) operating on their own timelines of “It could be a problem, but maybe not so let’s just see what happens.”. To me, this illustrates the fact that the modern car is sort of a symphony of ongoing issues…all being monitored by the ever-vigilant diagnostic systems. It’s kind of fascinating and probably something you’d never know about unless you bothered to monitor the software. Oh, and something that you hope isn’t also the case with other complex mechanical systems such as passenger airliners and nuclear power plants.
As the above diagnostic software screen capture shows, there are eight different modules on that guy’s car that have an error code present. Some of these are likely important, some not. And don’t get the idea that whatever vehicle that screen comes from is a failing bucket of bolts. It’s probably running just fine. My car’s diagnostic screen looks like that too, and it also runs just fine. Until it doesn’t.
So it was months down the wimpy starting diagnosis trail – which included at least two single-day 900 mile round trips to Western NY, several out-of-state overnight business trip drives, and a good amount of daily commuting – that I found myself needing to fly to Chicago. No worries. I was still following the trail, and most importantly, the car was still starting. This represents a perfectly fine status quo in my decidedly non-perfectionist automotive universe.
Since this was a personal trip – i.e., not one where I could expense the insane price of on-site parking at Boston’s Logan airport (it’s not uncommon that I – or rather, a client – pay more to on-site park than the price of the airplane ticket) – I chose to park off-site at one of those ride-the-little-bus from the lot to the terminal places. Sure, it’s outdoors, but my constant churning on wimpy-start issues said that if the problem was weather dependent (yeah, why not?) then that wouldn’t matter since it wasn’t actually supposed to be that cold over the several days where the car would be left in the PreFlight Airport Parking lot (I love their name, although someday I’d be interested in learning whether there’s “InFlight” parking as well).
Buongiorno! Welcome to Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day! I absolutely love this view of the H and K Concourse at O’Hare. It’s what arriving at a big airport is supposed to look like.
Well, Chicago was entertaining as always, fulfilling its role as one of my favorite cities to visit in the US.
What with the integration of trains into the urban landscape.
Here’s looking at you. We’ll never know what she was looking at.
The art.
And the miles and miles of vibrant walkable streets.
I did notice that it was a whole lot colder in Chicago than it had been apparently for the week or two before. Oh well, it probably wasn’t like this in Boston. After all, it was in the high 50s when I left the car at PreFlight.
Uh huh. You by now know where this is going. And you’re at least partially correct. At least partially.
After four days of a perfectly lovely – although cold – long weekend in Chicago, all that was left was to spend a little time at my favorite O’Hare bar/restaurant…
…and to get some rest on the arriving-just-before-midnight flight home. Something that I’ve done many dozens of times before. Often involving some measure of adventure, and stories for another day.
This brings us to the part of the story of What I Did for My Car Today that you’ve no-doubt been anticipating for quite a while. Upon arriving in Boston, and making my way from the bus to the car…
Nothing. I mean, no ineffective grunt, no click. Just dash lights and the faint sound of the in-tank fuel pump.
I can say this about the fuel pump as I’ve become very attuned to the whine of an in-tank fuel pump through always listening for it when I drive my ancient Volvo…a vehicle where the circuit that runs that pump frequently commits hari-kari, or whatever the Swedish version of that might be. My first thought in that regard is “Viking Funeral“, and this is why I carry a fire extinguisher in the Volvo.
In the Volvo, a failed in-tank fuel pump means that the car will start, it just won’t drive without lurching every 100 feet as the main fuel pump attempts to accomplish the equivalent of sucking a golf-ball through a garden hose. You could drive around like that for quite a while in the Volvo. I once drove through much of Oklahoma that way. It wasn’t fun. But it’s possible. I now know that there’s a trick that I can accomplish with a bent paper clip that would prevent the lurching….and therefore I carry a supply of paper clips in the glovebox.
Well, no need for paper clips in the BMW as that fuel pump was humming along just fine. There are other purposes for paper clips in BMW diagnosis, but I’ll spare you that for the moment. You can look it up on YouTube if you’d like.
It now being about 1am, and after several unsuccessful attempts by the very helpful PreFlight van drivers to jump start the car (I know…I have one, but I keep that jump start device in one of the other vehicles at home whose itty-bitty batteries frequently need it.), I gave up and decided to wait for daylight to try to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, I live about 30 miles from the airport. At 1am I was not going to get anyone to come get me and not only would an Uber be expensive, but it would be time consuming to have to come back down here the next morning. For some reason, I’m a bit self-conscious about sleeping in my car in the airport parking lot. I really need to get over that.
Fortunately, there’s a hotel across the street from the parking lot and once I walked over there I was able to convince the hotel guy that he really could check me in to an open room even if I didn’t have a reservation and it was – as he kept repeating – “already tomorrow”. Right dude, so where’s my flying car? That last point seemed to cause great confusion, but we were able to negotiate our way through that. The universally-understood phrase of “I have money. Take it.” ultimately did the trick.
Yep, that’s the PreFlight Parking lot there at the bottom of the picture.
As day broke on Chelsea, MA (where the parking lot is), I walked across the street and got busy figuring out what was really going on with the car. A brief review of one of the many (many) YouTube videos I’d bookmarked over the previous six months indicated that there were a few tests I could try to determine the basis of my newly-developed “No Crank/No Start” situation. You see, once the car was officially dead, it becomes a lot easier to narrow in on the cause. And sure enough, I quickly landed on the fact (yes, a paper clip did figure into this diagnosis) that my problem was almost certainly what I probably should have figured out was in the process of dying over the past six months. The starter. The only thing that made me believe that it might not be was the fact that my whacking the starter with a big metal breaker bar did not result in it springing at least temporarily back to life.
The whacking thing is said to nearly always work, even on the Ultimate Driving Machine.
I carry a pretty good collection of tools in my car (among other things, they’re useful for taking apart and stripping parts from appliances that I find at the town dump and along the side of the road); but I did not have what I needed to confidently extract the starter from the innards of an E90-series BMW in the airport parking lot. I was also pretty sure that the nice-ness of the parking lot folks would dissipate quickly if I were to start disassembling my car in their lot. This left me with a couple of options – get it towed to some shop, or get it towed home. The first option would likely cost me the same as the second option for the tow, but then I would still be on the hook for paying someone to do what I would presume is pretty costly work. Further, a not inconsequential aspect of this is that I totally did not spent six months of research and cogitating on fixing starting problems (when fuel and spark were present) only to forfeit the opportunity to actually do the work myself.
Thus, towing home was my decision, and I spent the next two hours standing in the parking lot, monitoring the status of the tow truck on the GPS-enabled roadside assistance app, and watching the ever-fascinating Chelsea Street bridge in operation.
This vertical lift bridge allows barges to pass from Boston Harbor into the various tank farms and facilities that hold nearly all of the natural gas, gasoline, and fuel oil used throughout New England. It’s a pretty busy bridge and replaces a rickety 1930s drawbridge that had rather frequent “issues” of getting stuck and either disrupting traffic to the airport or the delivery of vital energy supplies to the region. Anyway, for bridge-fans (and I know I’m not the only one here) it’s fun to watch in operation; even if one rarely gets to observe wacky occurrences such as the time a few months ago when the bridge operators mistakenly (?) raised the bridge with a car stuck on the span. They were fired.
I watched that thing go up and down a couple of times while awaiting the tow truck driver, who upon arrival formed the next part of this tale of automotive woe and intrigue.
I know nothing about operating a flatbed (or any other kind) tow truck; but I can imagine that it’s no small feat to extract a car out of a parking space in a full parking lot where the space between rows is only about two-thirds the length of the truck. Within 10 minutes of arriving in the lot, the driver had maneuvered the truck into position within inches of other cars in the lot, and had my car cranked up on the flatbed. Moments after that, we were on our way through multiple Boston Harbor tunnels and headed for (my) home. Taking a loaded flatbed tow truck through the Boston tunnels without Storrowing is exhilarating, I’ll just say. Fortunately, the driver of my tow seemed paranaturally calm and in incredible control of the situation.
Just like a bus driver. Which makes sense, because it turns out that’s exactly what he was.
In making chit-chat with Ramon the tow truck driver – I was going to be riding in the tow truck for at least 45 minutes and since I was paying good money for this service, I was going to extract maximum joy from the experience – I discovered that he’d been driving for this tow company for about 10 years. He specializes in long-distance tows. One would be surprised (well, I am at least) just how often people require their disabled cars to be towed from say Boston to NYC…or Maine…or Virginia. He does one of these interstate tows about once a week. I found out all of that, and got some pretty good towing stories, before we had fully cleared Boston. At this point my questioning turned to “So what did you do before starting to work for this tow company?”. And that’s where the really good stories started.
It turns out that tow truck driving is a retirement gig for Ramon. The man put in a full career driving for Greyhound, and let me tell you, apparently interstate bus drivers have A LOT of good stories. Go figure.
The next hour — it took longer than usual to get from the airport to my house due to the fact that we were in an enormous and very low geared truck that seldom exceeded 45 mph – was spent with one story after another about driving between Seattle and places in Idaho, or how the Canadian border crossing works on a Greyhound traveling the NYC to Montreal route, and what it’s like to drive between Oklahoma and Dallas several times a week for a year.
Photo of Central Prison from “Vanished Raleigh” by Mike Legeros – https://legeros.com/vanished-raleigh/
If one can judge from Ramon’s recollections, some of the best (depends on your definition of “best”) bus driver stories seem to relate to prison. He had stories about driving newly-released ex-prisoners in a number of states. Apparently he did a regular run in North Carolina that made a stop at Raleigh’s Central Prison to pick up recently-released inmates, taking them to the Charlotte area. On more than one occasion, his recently-liberated passengers decided to settle up various inside disputes on the trip to Charlotte; one time, this necessitated radioing ahead to State Police who pulled alongside the bus, stopped it, and provided the unruly passengers with a state-sponsored do-over back in Raleigh.
This was the view of Central Prison I saw every day of 6th grade in 1972/3.
I particularly resonated with Ramon’s North Carolina stories. Central Prison was a daily landmark on my school bus rides with the 16 year old driver, across Raleigh for 6th grade. We drove by the prison every day and invariably one of my bus buddies, Curtis, would notice the prisoners out playing basketball in the prison yard. His comment was always “Maybe prison isn’t so bad if you get to play basketball every day.”. Right. I sometimes worry about what might have happened to Curtis.
Other Ramon stories involved the inevitable sadness surrounding the bus bathroom complete with drug overdoses, mental health crises, and more prison fights. I think/know that I only got the Cliff Notes version of Ramon’s Greyhound career, and every story no matter how horrific ended with something along the lines of “The passengers got back on and we went on to the next stop.” or “It wasn’t until we got to the final stop that…”.
My main take-away here is that I someday want to write a book about Greyhound bus driver stories; and that if I were to go on a book tour for that book, I’d be damn happy to be able to take the plane and not a bus from stop to stop.
Upon arriving at my house, Ramon navigated my lengthy up and downhill driveway in reverse and dropped my car into my garage’s parking space as neatly as if I’d driven it in there under its own power. Then, with a virtual tip of what I imagined to be a bus driver’s cap, he was off. And my car was now ready for me to do something for it. After the parts arrived a week later.
Yes, I know I need to change the power steering reservoir. I’ve been researching that for a couple of months and the part is actually arriving today. Along with the special pliers necessary to remove and re-install the German-auto hose clamps.
Starter extraction on my car involves removal of the intake manifold, which in itself requires removal of a whole bunch of other stuff such as braces, breather lines, the airbox, throttle body, and numerous sensors.
You know it’s a special kind of car when the best tool for removing a particularly troublesome plastic junction box on the side of the intake manifold is an oyster knife. I didn’t figure that out from YouTube or a forum post…I just came to it on my own, knowing a thing or two about prying open organic material that does not want to be pried open.
Ultimately, about a third to a half of the engine bay was emptied of parts and the starter was exposed. Ironically, the starter itself is held on with only two bolts. OK, one of them is wedged between the bottom of the firewall and the transmission bell housing, necessitating some very awkward wrenching; but the whole thing can be done from the top of the car (except you’ll end up going under the car anyway to remove the splash guards that trap various sockets and bolts that you’ve dropped down there and that won’t come out on their own).
Once you take out the two bolts, all that’s left is to whack the thing with the big hammer.
And you have a liberated starter. This one, original at 230,000 miles, was toast. Something inside rattled around when I shook it.
I do not imagine that I’m going to have to replace the starter again for another 200,000 miles. By the time I do, it probably will be ok to whack it with a hammer because it will be an inert piece of metal. But apparently the folks in Hungary where this one comes from are familiar with the American fondness – as documented on YouTube – for hammering on their starters. We have been warned.
I suppose that one of the advantages related to my excessive amount of reading/viewing about what could have been the cause of my car’s wimpy starting was that I had become familiar with the idea that a corroded ground strap could be one other thing that was causing this problem. Therefore, when I ordered the starter, I also ordered the main engine ground strap that resides kind of sort of below the starter. Sure enough, upon inspection this thing was not looking very healthy, so I performed the contortionist act necessary to change it too.
Its time had clearly come.
After about six hours of work (spread out over two days), I had everything replaced and buttoned back up. All told, I think that I’d probably spent at least double that amount of time “researching” the repair than it actually took to do it. Oh well, next time I’ll be able to accomplish the job in probably two hours. And money-wise, aside from the cost of the tow (Ramon did provide some tips for how I could beat that “next time”), the extra day in the parking lot, and the unexpected stay in a hotel…oh, and yes, the parts…I probably still came out ahead of what it would have cost to have the work done in a shop. At least that’s the story that every DIY mechanic tells themself. I’d also add that if I’d fixed the car months ago when I first started to research the issue, I’d never have heard Ramon’s stories, reflected first hand on what a cool experience it must be to drive a Greyhound professionally, or been reminded of 6th grade Curtis and what hopefully has not been his lifetime of state-sponsored basketball.
This time, when hitting the button…no more wimpy start. If I’m not mistaken, the car hasn’t started with this much vigor for some number of years.
I may well be mistaken.
After a quick wash to remove four days of airport parking lot dust, all is good. Several days of driving indicate that I can let go of the wimpy starting issue, and focus instead on possible coolant leaks and the perennial favorite question of “Wait, was that oil spot on the floor before I parked the car there?”.
So, what did I do for my car today? As far as the forum is concerned, the answer is “I changed the starter and washed it.” But the whole story has to do with a lot more than a car and some wrenching. It always does.
I patiently waited for it. my Oldsmobile has been in the shop for a week, getting its subframe replaced as my mechanic fits it in the schedule while keeping the flow of faster jobs moving through. I also stopped to look at an identical white ’98 “88” I passed at a garage a few towns over. It was like ogling a woman who is a doppelganger for your girlfriend while she’s away. It felt just a bit dirty.
Ah, but yours will have a new subframe, eventually. That other car? Who knows where it’s been? 🙂
Oh my, there is so much goodness here. First, you describe (in excruciating detail) the mental processes I go through with my car. Is that bumping noise something in the suspension? Or is it the muffler that the Japanese workers carefully affixed to my car in 2006? One can be ignored for awhile, one cannot. (I have decided that it’s the muffler. Unless it is actually two different kinds of bumping that I have not yet tried to separate).
Second, this is the reason I pay those dues to AAA every year – the plus-level membership has an unlimited-miles towing benefit. I don’t use their maps or travel services, so I suppose this is really just a pre-paid towing service. And I have to commend you on your dedication to a job like this – There are fewer and fewer jobs of this depth that I am willing to do these days, but I can absolutely understand the satisfaction you get.
Lastly – It is my goal to work haruspicy into my vocabulary for the next week. A grandfather had a practice of randomly picking 10 words from the dictionary every week. “If you use a word in everyday conversation for a week, it becomes part of your vocabulary” he advised. I don’t think he ever picked haruspicy, but I will.
Oh yes – I remember when replacing a starter was a 10-minute job in my 71 Scamp with its slant six. It ruined me for starter replacement for the rest of my life.
I hear you re. AAA. Ramon was singing the praises of plus-level AAA (that towing company hauls for AAA and any number of other insurers). I tried to rationalize my cheapness by saying that the last time I needed to have a vehicle towed due to breakdown was at least 5 years ago. So, I would have had to pay $600 some dollars for AAA versus the $200 this tow cost me (since I only have the nearly entirely pointless “roadside assistance” associated with my auto insurance company). But yeah, I do know now that I said that I will probably have 3 more towing incidents this year. So I’d be wise to pony up for AAA. I just wish it could shared (with AAA’s knowledge and permission) within a household instead of being restricted (technically) to use by whoever’s name is on the account.
I used to really really love those TripTiks and have a set from the 1970s that laid out a cross-country trip (that I got the TripTiks for, but didn’t do the trip ;-( ). Also the guidebooks. Sadly, I guess those sorts of things would be pretty worthless as benefits nowadays in the age of the smartphone and GPS.
I had to put new starters on both my Honda and my wife’s this year. Hers went slowly, with the solenoid getting stuck on random starts at about 120k miles. Mine started crapping out at around 175k. Whacking it with a hammer got it to start perhaps a half dozen times more for me. Hers, I changed myself; mine I opted to pay a shop to do. Both were PITAs, tough to access, and the regular tools I have wouldn’t get it done on my car; it needed extensions and swivels I didn’t have at the time.
Not having owned a car for almost 4 years now, I have nothing to contribute other than to congratulate the author. I’ll confess that while I do find the photojournalistic stories of repairs and restorations a`la Aaron65 quite interesting, I generally look at the photos and captions and merely skim the text, as the description of anything more complex than an oil change is pretty much the written equivalent of Charlie Brown’s teacher to me. This one kept me riveted. Good stuff!
Thank you! I specialize in sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher in many aspects of my life. I’m glad I skirted that issue this time around.
Hey, I resemble that trombone! 🙂
During my two-year ownership of Cosworth Vega #2196, I had exactly one repair, which was replacement of the starter solenoid. Initial symptoms were multiple key turns to get the thing to engage, upon which it would stick “on” after the engine started. The third time this happened, it never de-engaged, requiring a frantic search for a wrench to disconnect the battery.
A replacement solenoid was purchased for less than $15 off the shelf at the local auto parts store.
On a standard Vega engine, replacement would have been super-easy, as the engine has both intake and exhaust on the driver’s side, with the starter easily accessible on the passenger side. On the Twin Cam, the intake (dual Webers in my case) effectively caged the starter, so the whole setup had to come off. Naturally, one of the solenoid mounting bolts snapped off, requiring use of a spare nut and a hit with the MIG welder to extract the remnants.
Everything went back together easily and it worked perfectly for the rest of the time I owned the car.
Your mention of the snapped bolt is exactly the kind of thing that occupies my mental space about these sorts of jobs, and therefore adds to the “will I or won’t I or do I need to?” stewing that I describe in the article.
In this case, the bolts that hold in my starter are aluminum (as are all bolts that go into the magnesium alloy block on my car). Hence, it’s not uncommon for not careful/not lucky wrenchers to end up over-torquing a bolt and snapping it off. I have a set of extractor bits that have saved me before (when I did just that with a valve cover bolt). IF that were to happen with the bolt that threads into the starter from under the firewall… yeah, you don’t want to think about that.
I will be spending this afternoon replacing a broken wheel stud on my trailer. A tire had a slow leak and the stud broke when I pulled the wheel for a session in the dunk tank.
“Any ten-minute job is only one broken bolt away from becoming a two-day ordeal.”
I repaired the solenoid in my non-Cosworth Vega. As I recall, a contact was broken and I “welded” it back together with 12V from the battery. It lasted several years and was still working fine when I sold the car.
My 2007 Audi A4, I’ve been chasing down a throttle position sensor error code and a lean code, along with an associated very bad hunting idle when at temp. They came together but seem to be unrelated. I fixed the throttle body errors by replacing the connector and pins to the throttle body. For the lean code I spent some time on Sunday replacing the entire PCV system (valve, breather hoses, and turbo breather pipe) as well as the valve cover gasket. Hoping I won’t have to replace the valve cover as apparently only the original Audi part will do and it’s not cheap. Everything seems ok now, but, as you are, I’m monitoring my software to keep an eye on the long term fuel trim to see if new issues arise. I’m beginning to suspect the fuel injectors need a cleaning as well
Photo got eaten
Yeah, I’ve got that too (the lean codes and periodically hunting idle). It’s one of the “threads” I am currently chasing. When I had the intake manifold off for the starter job, I also replaced the PCV breather hose – known on N52 and N54 engines as “The Hose That Always Breaks” (and which runs from the back of the valve cover to two attachment points under the manifold…so replacing it also usually requires pulling the manifold; or the alternator, but that only works if you’re left-handed.). This part was sitting around as an extra from the last time I did the valve cover replacement…which maybe has started leaking from “somewhere” again. There was a moment when I was doing the starter that I thought “You know, I probably should just do a valve cover gasket when I’m half way in there.”. But I didn’t….so I still get to spend time thinking about that.
Nice A4!
Last week I had to take my ’03 Crown Vic Sport into the shop. It was running rough. With 220,000 on it, I was expecting to hear some expensive news. Nope. Just needed new sparkplugs and a coil. This month, I will send it back for a ne O2 sensor and a purge plug cleaning or replacement. Total bill: $495.00.
What I’ve learned over the past 13 years with this car is that there are good things about buying a commonly mass produced domestic car. It is cheaper than sin to fix. What I thought was boring and uninteresting was what keeps saving it – it can be fixed because it isn’t expensive to fix.
Not just that – but it is also such a sweet cruiser. My kids think it is a museum relic, and they are correct – but they also enjoy driving it. No – I haven’t named it – I don’t do that. I also don’t fall in love with a car – but this one is getting tough not to.
On a Ford that I currently care for – but don’t own – I reset the clock to summer time, and tried in vain to cancel the tyre pressure warning….. The Ford owners’ manual was not any help.
At least 25 years ago we had a cheap under-cabinet clock radio and CD player in our kitchen. It had a button to do a single press from standard to daylight time and back. Our new Ford requires multiple menus and button presses. Ditto the VW. The Toyota with nav knows which timezone it’s in and prompts to accept the change, when needed, both for daylight time and timezone crossing. On the Ford I haven’t tried tire pressure reset, but I think it involves facing Mercury and muttered incantations over the bones of a dead mustang (horse). Or perhaps a fox skeleton.
I knew mostly what was coming due to the pre-CC effect.
About 2 weeks ago I was the forklift operator/one to meet the truck for one of the events the non-profit I’m apart of. The driver was able to drop off early and because he is one of our regular drivers I wanted to accommodate him and get him home early. So even though I hadn’t had lunch I hopped in my van, loaded with my team’s gear and set off to meet him. I was greeted with a less than enthusiastic starter which gave a bit of concern, but I had places to be.
I got there and found the parking spaces that had been blocked with cones for him to place the trailer. I pulled the van ahead on the access road and shut it off, right in front of the fire hydrant. Jumped out, tossed the cones aside and instructed the driver where I wanted the end of the trailer. He unhooked and pulled away. I hopped back in my van and nothing. I had my team’s mutli-meter and found a charged up battery. Grabbed the hammer, crawled under and gave the starter a couple of whacks and still nothing at all.
Since I had the forklift and no one available to help I dropped the forks and pushed it back into a spot. Which wasn’t easy as the wheel needed to be cranked hard and as it moved it would want to go back to center. I was able to get it nicely in a spot. After that I texted my son and asked him to pick up a starter and grab my tool box from my pickup and told him to also bring a light since I wasn’t going to be able to do anything until my job(s) for the event were done.
Now I had my team’s tool box in the van but of course they aren’t metric. Once he got there is was a ~30 min job accessed from under the van. Thankfully that didn’t require jacking up the van nor removal of anything other than the 3 starter bolts and the nuts securing the two wires to the starter.
It was strange that the only warning was that 1 slow crank. Overall I was quite happy of the time and place it choose to die as it wasn’t that far from home and it wasn’t raining or particularly cold that day/night. At 190k I can’t complain about its life and come to think of it that was about the time the starter in my also 4.6 powered Crown Vic had given up the ghost. Of course it gave a warning with a couple of those less than enthusiastic starts so I was able to do it at home on my schedule.
The placement of the starter on your car sucks, but that is becoming more common. What does surprise me is the fact that they still used the un-insulated braided wire for the ground. I haven’t seen one of those cars anywhere as new as yours. Great that you got it done and all is well again.
There is much – so much – to be said for a vehicle where you can get underneath it to reach up and do work…without jacking, jack stands, or a full-on lift. One of the downsides to working on my car is that it’s only about 5.5″ off the ground, so I have to jack it up to even do an oil change.
As for that braided ground strap…yeah, odd, right? I guess BMW employs whole villages of crafts people in tiny European nations who specialize in braiding wires “the old way”. 😉
I should have be clearer a lot of newer cars still use a braided ground strap but they are small engine to body connections not the main connection. I’m guessing they would equivalent to something like a 12ga wire. They also are usually tinned so they don’t end up corroding, at least in my climate.
Jeff ;
That’s why curbstones were invented .
Two wheels on the curb and you’re ready to go to work .
-Nate
Thanks for the story! It was thoroughly enjoyed this morning, gave me a few laughs, and brought back some not-so-fond memories of self-inflicted car repair.
My only comparison to your airport story is the time I took a borrowed 86 Ford Taurus to the airport. As I backed into the parking space at the cheap off site lot, the engine died and the starter made no noise or otherwise effort to turn the engine over. So I just got out and pushed it into the space, figuring I’d deal with it when I got back. A co-worker on the same trip gave me a ride home after the trip, as I didn’t feel inclined to play mechanic at 9 PM. Not having any mechanics clothes or tools were key factors in that decision. Went back the next day with another car, my former U-haul tow bar, and another driver (my dad) and towed the car home. The trip was uneventful since someone like Ramon wasn’t in the car with me, but dad did complain that he could have used some heat during the trip (he was in the dead car).
Diagnosis and repair were much easier than a BMW. if you know anything about the 3.0L Taurus engine, the valve cover seals will leak oil directly onto the starter. Over time, that pesky oil gets inside and fries the starter. Fortunately, the starter is easy to access and can be removed in about 20 minutes.
The CC Effect is strong: I had starter on my xB was getting erratic. Not slow, but inconsistent, even while turning over the engine. I cleaned up its electrical connections, and fooled myself into thinking it was better. Not for more than one or two starts.
It just wouldn’t turn reliably, and one day, in my driveway, didn’t at all. Bought a “remanufactured” (trigger alert, DS) starter, and swapped it out, which on the xB is laughably easy. Ten minutes, at most, on my ramps. It’s right there.
New starter roared to life beautifully. But then it started to get erratic too. WTF?
I finally tumbled to the fact that it must be the clutch safety switch, because when I push the clutch down really hard, it works fine. If not, it cuts in and out.
So presumably I wasted $110 (or whatever it was) on a new starter. Oh well.
Yep, one of the things I’d thought about with mine was that it was the clutch safety switch that was maybe starting to fail. Although in my car that may have had its own unique error code…which I never saw.
Boston still has a town dump ? .
I used to walk the streets of Boston in the 1960’s, they weren’t safe I was told but I enjoyed them, same when I last visited ‘The Windy City’ .
Good to read stories of others still carrying out road side repairs – I thought that was a thing of the past .
I wonder why they put starters in such hard to access locations, like in the valley between the cylinder heads on a V – engine ? .
You have not lived until you’ve changed the starter on a Y block V8 Ford on a hot day….
In my filling station days I had to do in out by the pumps on the island .
-Nate
The streets of Boston are much safer now than they were in the 1960s.
Fortunately, Boston’s city dump closed more than 75 years ago. The last dump in Boston-proper was on Columbia Point. Anyone who’s ever visited the JFK Library or the UMass Boston campus has actually visited the former site of the city dump.
The dump I’m referring to is the one in my town about 30 miles outside of Boston. Truth be told, that’s not technically a dump either; rather, it’s a so-called “transfer station” where we take our trash (and lots of other cool stuff like appliances and electronics) for transfer to various recycling facilities. The remaining trash is sent “elsewhere”. I’m pretty sure that there are not any actual dumps anywhere in the state anymore.
With mechancs costing over $100 per hour of course I fix my own cars, Ive had to teach myself diesel engines in the last 18 years, steep learning curve too thanx Toyota refusing to supply either information or parts for an ex JDM diesel Corona, Thats why lots of us avoid ex JDM cars theres zero parts backup for them and yes they break down frequently, the scrapyards are overloaded with ex JDM cars, I know I drive past Pacific steel on my way to and from work and see the pile waiting to become rebar.
Brice ;
Do you love junkyards as much as I do ? .
I never know what will be in there .
-Nate
I vacuumed three cars yesterday late afternoon. One was my wife’s car and I challenge anyone to beat that.
As for you Jeff, I do hate start/stop buttons, and will never own one. Oh, by the way, extended coverage with AAA gets me 100 miles free towing and have used it twice.
“One was my wife’s car and I challenge anyone to beat that.”
Ever peered into a farmer’s truck?
One of the main reasons I made the very odd leap from a Prius to a Silverado is serviceability. Sure, the truck eats a lot more fuel, but I can fix it myself instead of going to the dealer $$$$ or a Prius specialist $$$.
I totally understand that. It’s one of the beefs I have with the Highlander Hybrid that I have. I can fix probably about 60% of the things that could go wrong in that vehicle, and have done stuff such as suspension work, cooling system stuff, and plugs/coils…but the electronics are a black box. What’s maddening to me is that there seem to be plenty of sources for DIY info on conventional-engine Highlanders, but when it comes to the not-really-uncommon hybrid ones, very little. And things are just a bit different on the hybrid even when it comes to basic/theoretically common systems such as suspension or the ICE parts.
My sister finally sold her Highlander Hybrid after too many instances of even the dealer not knowing the car well. Though maybe that was her dealership; she had a very good relationship with the Honda store and her previous Element, which she had far longer. She’s in a non-hybrid Subaru with turbo 4 now … we’ll see.
Reading this is why i love my BRZ.. It’s been the only car i’ve ever had where you can lay eyes on the starter just by opening the hood.. But the spark plugs on the other hand… 🙂
I just watched a video on starter replacement for a BRZ (sure, why not? I have excess bandwidth now that I’ve resolved the starter problem on my own car), and that’s sweet! Piece of cake … assuming one ignores the Subaru advice of doing it from below and removing exhaust to access it. Hummmmm.
Although I can indeed see how the sparkplugs would be insane on that boxer engine.
“Yes, I still count on my hands.”
That makes you digital, never to be analog. There is no checking out if you can never leave.
CCeffect 5×5 the only major part Ive had to replace in my C5 Citroen has been the Mitsubishi made starter motor yes its at the front as you face the engine and no its not visible looking in the engine bay once found its quite the mission to get it out and replace one done the car fires up as its meant to, I also replaced the Mitsu starter in my previous Citroen at roughly the same 350-380,000 kms but over xmas last my mates Citroen C4 broke down, same problem @ 245,000 kms smaller size car but updated 1997cc diesel to mine and an absolute nitemare to remove and reinstall the engine bay is smaller, but wait…
I have two cars the other is a 66 Hillman Superminx I recently fitted a twin choke weber carb and headers along with a self fabricated 50mm exhaust system, had to change the starter motor back to the original inertia type to fit the headers, car went great, pulled well easy speed limit cruising and good acceleration from that 62mph, then the starter died so another weekend run to Napier at least hwy 5 is now open after recent cyclone damage, remove manifolds modify original manifold to fit with Griffith motors twin choke manifold reassemble and test drive still goes well and the pre-engaged slant OHC Bedford/Vauxhall starter is back in place, now I need to fabricate a new set of headers, the fun never stops.
Strangely enough the only other time my daily has refused to proceed it had me completely stumped but a quick phone call to Bishops the no genuine Citroen specialists with the symptoms resulted in a over the phone diagnosis, bad terminal in the ECU for the in tank lift pump easy fix.
Alright, you motivated me to make an appointment for 12:30 today to finally have the very slow leak on the left rear tire of the Subaru repaired. It was just slow enough of a leak that I didn’t really mind filling it up again every few days with the portable compressor that lives in the car whenever the TPMS lit up over the last month or so.
The brand and model specific forum I follow has a thread whose title reads “what did you do to your truck”, not “for”. A significant difference I think 😀
Lately I’m just doing the easy stuff. I sold all three of my Jaguars, and most of my hobby cars are from this Millennium. I used waterless car wash on my Navigator, and fitted the new car cover for it. It’s kind of cool how those come vacuum packed. It takes quite a while for the wrinkles to smooth out, but it’s a bear to cover such a big vehicle by yourself.
I installed a new front spoiler on my ’06 Mustang a couple of days ago. I had to replace the MAF sensor, last month, because it got fouled by the oil in the open K&N filter element. I don’t like this mod, but the previous owner added that.
I kinda hate the push button start in my ’17 Ford Flex. (only 50K on the odometer)I think the car hates me. It frequently tells me that it doesn’t detect the key fob, but that never happens to my Wife. I end up waving the fob around so that it will unlock the door and once inside I sometimes have to wave it around until it lets me start the car. Just give me a darn key, but I know that old fashioned keys aren’t going to be around in the future.
I’ve got the long range AAA 200 mile tow, once a year, and unlimited tows of up to 100 miles. It’s definitely worth it, though most of my cars are much newer and have lower mileage than they used to have. I’m not working on my cars on the side of the highway.
Have car manufacturers reduced the quantity or quality of copper used in main ground cables over the past 20 years? I’m suspicious because copper prices increased six-fold over five years’ time right around the turn of the century. On the car forums I frequent internally corroded main ground cables are considered prime suspects for no-crank situations. Luckily a quick diagnosis is to clamp one jumper cable between the negative battery post and a bare metal engine part.
That’s certainly possible about less copper. I did do the exact diagnosis you suggested and got nothing out of the starter, which is what convinced me that it was most certainly the actual starter that had failed. Still, I suspect that my situation wasn’t being helped by that crispy green ground strap.
Most vehicles since the advent of the 12 volt electrical system have under size battery cables .
Often poor chassis to driveline grounds / straps .
I usually replace the battery cables and ground straps on every jalopy I buy, I never use less than 0 gauge cables and others often comment on how quickly the starter cranks the engine .
Cables are easy to make, you simply measure the length you need, get the correct ends from NAPA and have any Welding shop solder them up for you .
I like flag typ battery ends as they’re more compact .
I also like adding a siamese cable to what ever end the factory cable _didn’t_ go to, this helps cranking cold or hot and improves charging and lighting .
-Nate
I spent a warm Tuesday diagnosing the starting issue on my (new to me) Travelall. The starter is fine, the coil is fine, but the P.O. kludged up the distributor so we’re not getting spark anywhere beyond there. So I think I’ve got to buy a new one and replace it.
Beyond that, I spent the rest of the day grinding rust out of the roof and around the perimeter of the drop rail, sealing, skimming and sanding it.
It’s worth the tow. Back when I was 19, my dad asked me to drive to a gas station a half hour away and install a new alternator on my sister’s ’89 Probe. At one point, I realized that I had to drop the exhaust system down from all the hangers to extricate said alternator, and that’s when I knew it was going to be a bad job. I got it fixed, and nobody from the gas station bothered to cuss me out!
I need to go see “American Gothic” in person. It’s only a five-hour drive.
Good call on buying that ground strap ahead of time!
Absolutely! Because you can also see Nighthawks in person as well!
Also true! I have a print of Hopper’s “Gas” in my living room; few do loneliness (even in groups) better than he does.
Modern cars have so many parts, which brings the potential for ever so many failure points, and yet they seem to be more reliable than they used to be. I’ve had some mighty strange things happen to my cars over the years, but I never had to replace a starter motor, though I’ve certainly heard of them failing. I’d say ‘touch wood’ but I’m not driving these days and pretty much past wrenching too.
Only thing of an automotive nature happening here today was this. I put the wheels on the ’61 Chevy, and fixed the body to the chassis. Bruce wasn’t much help, he just likes to pose. 🙂
Rest of the day was taken up with grocery shopping, organizing a book launch at the library for later this year, doing a bit of weeding and going to the Mens’ Shed to chat to my mates.
Oops – I was so busy fixing all my typos that I forgot the pic.
I love your models! You need to do an article featuring those!
I would be totally intimidated by this engine compartment. I am really impressed that you could do it all in 6 hours. Last fall I had to replace the starter on my Citroen 2CV. At first I thought I might have to take off the air cleaner, but then I realized that all I needed was a couple of extensions and that was it. I did not time it, but I am guessing it took 10 minutes. What was really fun was that when I bought the car in 1991 I also bought a load of parts, including a used starter. So 31 years later I got to use it.
Nothing today because it has been so rainy all week, but as soon as it dries out my ’04 LeSabre is getting a front wheel bearing & front brakes. I will probably swap back to the summer tires at this point as well.
When I bought this car, I flew to Alabama to get it & had 3 days to drive back to Michigan. On day 2 it began to act like it didn’t want to start. Tests at a parts store were inconclusive & since I wasn’t seeing any other signs of a bad battery I bought a starter and enough tools to replace it if I needed to. It was the battery. Did make it home, but it cooked enough to smell like sulfur the last couple of hundred miles. Four years later, the starter is still in the box in the garage.
Starters do seem to be a part that lasts nearly forever, until they break. And then they’re done. Hang on to that starter in the box. You’ll need it eventually.
Murphy’s Law, Dan .
-Nate
I’ve only had the start stop buttons on a couple of rental cars, and while I don’t trust them, in my brief use they worked flawlessly.
BMW starters. I’ve been driving BMWs for decades, always 4s and 6s, and starters on them have always been a bear. Although I have to admit I haven’t had to replace one on anything newer than say 1990, including driving them up and over 250K.
Complexity? Remember the engineers mantra, especially German engineers, if it still works, it’s not complicated enough yet.
I actually don’t have an issue with start/stop buttons per se, rather, it’s how they may be implemented in the whole process of starting and stopping and parking more recent (than my) cars. But that’s actually a topic for an upcoming article 🙂
Excellent mantra. I’m sure it’s on a motivational poster that hangs in the workspace of the engineers who designed the cup holders in my car.
RE : German complexity :
Yes, this is so .
The flip side is : you can usually take things apart far beyond the ability to get new parts, this makes tinkering either more fun or frustrating depending on how you view things .
I find with most German things I touch (old VW’s & BMW Motos) often I can take a thing apart, clean, lubricate it the re assemble and properly re adjust it and Lo ! it works AS-NEW again ready for the next twenty years of daily service .
Voltage regulators, switches, wiper motors and linkages, on and….
I think my ’59 VW Bug has been following this thread as it’s starter is suddenly cranking slower….
-Nate
Nate, I believe you are correct about the the ability to work on “most German things”. At least, that’s been my experience as well with much of my current car, and previous BMWs. I do wonder if that holds up for the current generation of BMWs and VAG autos. Even in mine, there was a strong creep toward more and more stuff being made of plastic that basically fails and that is that.
I drove a new 4 series the other day, and that wasn’t very encouraging.
Thanx Jeff ;
? Do you remember people in the projects on Columbia Point shooting at the MTA elevated cars going to the University ? . strange times those were .
I suspect you’re right about the newer German products, even the 1950’s switches were riveted together, a simple thing to drill out and take apart, clean and polish the contacts then reassemble using 4MM screws….
At one point I had a supplier for those nice ‘cheese head’ screws .
Many of the relays and things had either metal tabs I could unbend or the plastic ones weren’t glued together, they had little tabs I could gently depress to get the covers of…
For me “late Model VW” means Rabbits and A1 chassis variants .
Peter, I LOVE your dioramas ! .
-Nate
What have I done for my car lately?
Consider the 2008 Toyota Camry we bought new. The car now has mileage approaching 300,000. Until last years repairs to this car, other than maintenance items, were limited to small items like the HVAC blower motor, brake pads & rotors, and that’s about it.
Last year I treated it to a set of 4 new hub/strut assemblies, all new brake hydraulics [except for the ABS control]; 4 calipers & rotors, pads, flex lines & master cylinder. My ace mechanic and I agreed, as the engine was still running beautifully with the original coolant system, original ignition, exhaust system, and the steering system. we said don’t fix what’s not broke.
This year I began hearing a slight buzz that told me the timing chain and related items needed replacing, especially as it is the variable valve timing engine. so for the last couple of months he’s been concentrating on the engine. As the oil pressure is exactly where it should be, & oil use was nil, plus there was almost no crud in the oil pan — hell the insides of the timing case cover and valve cover had no oil residue — and the compression was exactly where it should be, we only changed the plugs and wires. Also did all the cooling system as well, and discovered the radiator had recently starting seeping just a few drops, so a new OEM radiator is coming in from Amazon. Since the A/C compressor had to come out, I elected to replace both the A/C aluminum and flex lines, as they can be troublesome with high mileage.
When I owned my repair shop I used NAPA for most of the modern parts I needed, so I checked with the NAPA store near me, where I still have a shop discount. Last year I found the difference with NAPA and Amazon was huge, for the same OEM quality. Again with this year’s repairs, I used Amazon, but kept track of what NAPA [and another supplier] charged for the same parts. Everything was 3 to 4 times as expensive as Amazon. In some cases, the difference was even bigger. For example, the VVT 2.4 engine has a special top timing chain gear that allows the camshaft to slide in & out to vary the timing. Cost for an OEM quality gear from Amazon was $24. NAPA was over $250. The other supplier was even more. Ordered the radiator from Amazon last night, $86, original OEM spec, USA made. Arrives on Saturday morning. The $269.00 NAPA radiator would have come in on Saturday afternoon. Also USA OEM spec. I wonder where they are getting it from — Amazon?
Next he’s gonna work on my 2001 Ram 2500 utility bodied pickup that I bought with 1,800 miles. It’s now done just over 80,000 miles. So far that truck has used up 3 sets of brake pads & rotors, replaced ALL the badly rusted steel brake lines in 2018, all 4 ball joints & steering system overhaul at 40,000 miles, 2 total exhaust systems, fuel injectors, And most of the plastic dash pieces, they all fell apart around 2017. I rarely get 10,000 miles between tune-ups.
This time the truck’s work will be a total brake replacement, rotors, calipers, master cylinder, wheel cylinders, flex lines, pads & shoes. This year the brake parts will total over $600 on Amazon [USA parts], I didn’t even try to order from the other suppliers.
Note that my truck has been “babied”, never driven offroad, no towing big trailers [I have a 6X10 box trailer, nothing bigger], yet the “sealed” ball joints failed at under 40,000 miles.
A couple of thoughts:
At 300k miles, although the basic internals of many well-built engines like the Camrys are still good for more, many of the peripherals are going to be going bad, as you found out. Meaning, 300k is a good time to sell a car like that.
As to varying parts prices, I’m not an expert, but “OEM” as used in parts from Amazon means one thing only: it will fit and work, but its quality very much will not necessarily (or likely) be comparable to what the manufacturer originally put in the car or what would be in a genuine OEM part.
The huge price gap that you’re seeing is because these Amazon parts typically come from various other countries and are built to a price point. I’m a cheapskate, and that huge gap in prices is why I often buy from Amazon too. But there’s a risk. The plastic body radiator I bought from Amazon for my F100 sprung a leak in the plastic near the opening at the radiator cap; the plastic was just too weak or thin.
I’m not sure I would put in cheap Amazon engine parts inside an engine, as the labor is what’s typically the most expensive item, especially if I was planning to keep the car long term.
As to your Dodge truck, that is almost mind-boggling. Two exhaust systems? Repeated ball joints. But the most bizarre one is “I rarely get 10k miles between tune-ups”. Tune-ups? What’s that? What’s there to tune up on a modern car? I’m stumped.
Paul,
On the truck a tune-up is replacing plugs, wires, cap & rotor. Except for the fuel injection system, it’s still the old basic 361 V8. I’ve replaced only one set of ball joints, but they failed just after the warranty period [one failed quickly –less than 100 miles from when it became noisy over bumps and actually popping out of it’s base!] The general opinion was that one ball joint [right lower] didn’t get any lube at assembly by the MoPaR supplier, and the other 3 had very limited lubrication. All 4 were sealed units, no zerk fittings. The replacements have fittings.
As for the exhaust failing, I think part of that is from the truck not being used on a regular basis. But my previous Dodge trucks that also saw similar mileage had exhaust systems lasting much longer. My 1973 Dodge B-200 still had it’s original system at 250k miles when it was junked due to it being totaled when a drunk hit it. However the Camry’s exhaust is still going strong. That said we just replaced the 3 rubber hangers last week. They were still connected, but as the set was under $10, it was best to replace.
When it comes to using Amazon parts, I am fairly choosy, and check listings carefully for spelling & grammar, and where the part is made. For the radiator the listing said USA made, and it was not the cheapest available [that was $66]. I’ve often sent messages to those who list items, asking questions.
If you think you’re cheap, I have friends who have said I’m so cheap that when I pinch pennies, they can be used as feeler gauges! When I restored my last couple of houses, I used to raid dumpsters [with permission] on building sites for materials I can re-use, saving me tens of thousands of $. After closing the shop and retiring, I went to work with Lowes so I could get stuff really cheap! Even today my truck wants to veer towards job site dumpsters as I drive past. The dashcam on the Camry seems to recognize the words “Yard Sale” because it tries to stop the car when it sees those signs.
But you are correct, for most things there comes a time when you need to cut & run. For the 3 of us, Nikki’s parents are both elderly and in very poor health, and we will inherit their low mileage car and SUV in the near future. They both agree it’s best to just keep the Camry running for now, not replace it.
I agree with what you say, it’s a risk in using internal parts because of the labor costs. However I’ve either been very lucky, or very picky in who I buy from. So far I’ve had zero defective parts from Amazon. I think one part of the decision process is experience. I’ve been installing used, rebuilt, and NOS parts on vehicles, on both my own cars and those of my customers for 55+ years. I’ve been able to visually check parts [sometimes by using micrometers or other measuring devices, to see if they are in spec. In the case of the timing chain kit, the chain marks, plastic guide mold ID marks, were identical to the original Toyota parts marks. That special variable valve timing gear assembly was definitely USA made, and it was highly finished. The replacement solenoid to change the valve timing had the identical Toyota emblem, but it was 1/4 the price from Toyota.
In the case of these 2 vehicles I have an advantage: I’m not in a hurry for the repairs to be completed, as I have other vehicles to drive. Last year I sent back the Camry’s 2 front strut/hub assemblies to NAPA because of noisy wheel bearings [never even put them on the car, in turning the hubs by hand we could feel the bearing movement], and the replacements, while not as bad, were still noisy, with the left front failing within 5,000 miles. Those units were marked “Made in Viet Nam.
While the Camry is one of the most popular cars and easy to obtain spare parts most of the time, those front hub/strut assemblies are very hard to find [I can get struts alone anywhere, but it’s best to replace as a set if possible. I ended up buying bearing/seal sets on Amazon, so I replaced both R & L. NAPA did refund $45 for their cost of the bearing/seal on the one side.
In the 1970s I was buying and selling Packard Parts. Even 15 years after the company closed their Detroit assembly plant, obsolete parts suppliers were still offering me various Packard factory parts [from suppliers who scrapped unneeded parts] dirt cheap. For example, the 1956 Clipper line has a chrome piece that hides the trunk lock assembly, and it has a red plastic hexagonal center. I was offered 55 GALLON DRUMS full of these parts for pennies apiece if I bought them all. I was offered a pallet load of NOS Packard straight-8 engine oil draft tubes [it doubles as the oil fill tube], for under 5 cents each, provided I bought the whole pallet load that was about 8 feet long and 4 feet tall. I turned the offer down due to limited storage, and they were sent for scrap.
A long time friend of mine Dan K, used to work for Ford as an archivist. On his retirement, he made arrangements with Ford to buy ALL their obsolete literature and parts/service manuals, year after year. His agreements with Ford said he could not sell the items until 10 years later. Dan ended up with similar agreements with GM and Chrysler. He made a good living selling obsolete paperwork for many years, and could be found at the Carlisle & Hershey shows selling literature.
I use the above examples to show your readers how some suppliers are able to buy excess and unwanted inventories in huge numbers, and then turn around and offer them far cheaper than the original cost of manufacture.
Bill, I really appreciate your historical perspective as a long-time participant in these matters. 55 gallon drums of Packard parts? Taking up that offer pretty much insures that one would spend the rest of their days standing in the mud at Hershey.
My 5 cents on the Amazon parts thing is that I have no issues buying off of Amazon so long as I have a reasonable expectation about what I’m getting. For the BMW (and my Volvo too), I have a pretty good understanding of what companies are OEM suppliers. If I can find a URO, Lemforder, Rein, Pierburg, Erling etc. part, then I’ll buy it and frequently find the BMW logo sanded off (or still there in the case of non-sandable parts). Sometimes those parts are on Amazon. But often I can do just as well with another supplier. Point is, I don’t care where I buy it from so long as I know what I’m getting.
The problem with Amazon though is getting entirely counterfeit parts. But as always, it’s buyer beware and buyer be willing to return stuff that does not meet expectations.
Unfortunately though, I really have no good experience buying non-manufacturer Toyota (or Honda) parts. It seems that there’s just a lot less info on OEM suppliers for Toyota. Or maybe I’m just ignorant. Either way, I have a very hard time finding non-suspicious parts for my Toyota and Honda than I do for the two euro cars. Hence, I tend to spend a lot more on the Toyota and Honda parts than I do the BMW and Volvo parts.
What did I do “today”? Holy crap, it takes me a week or two to change a valve-cover gasket.
Here’s what I did on-and-(mostly)-off for FIVE MONTHS on my ’97 Chevy K2500 plow-truck. I am the king of “Hanger Queens”. This project finished about two weeks ago.
I bought the differential and bearings two+ years ago, took that long to work up the ambition to start disassembling stuff.
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/10-5-full-float-truetrac-differential-installation.61321/
Good deal Schurkey :
I too work far more slowly than I wish I did but as long as you’re getting things done it’s all good .
I’m retired now and I always worry about loosing what little mind I ever had so I’m always out tinkering and problem solving…..
I like the physical movement too although it’s pretty painful these days .
-Nate