There are just some days I wish I didn't turn wrenches

[OR VietVet]

Last night, about 6, got a call from landlord and asked if I could help a golf buddy of his. Turns out the guy is a vet and was 1.5 miles from me. He has a 2015 Ford Escape SE with a 1.6 eco-boost engine and he got it hot and shut off in his driveway on Friday. He saw it getting hot and made it home but set a CEL and the gauge was in the red for 1/2 block. I threw my floor jack and some equipment in back of my Tahoe and my girl and me went to see what is going on. Jacked up, set a jack stand for safety, crawled under and saw coolant leak dropping thru a hole in the splash shied at back center of engine. Buried from bottom but saw a way in from top if remove cowling. It ran fine with no smoke at tailpipe and stayed at 1/2 gauge with reservoir full. My girl drove my Tahoe and I drove the Escape and got home, 1.5 miles, quick as could. Only hit one stop light. This morning I took cowling off and air snorkle tubing at back of engine and none of my pressure tester adaptors fit reservoir. Had to fill with water again and I started it and let run at idle. Then I saw the leak. Broken plastic hose that comes out of rubber hose at back of head, snakes to driver's side and up to front at radiator and tee's off to driver's side of radiator and a quick connect and from the tee goes to the passenger side and attaches with another disconnect at the coolant reservoir. Dealer had part today. I will be doing it tomorrow. With the tear down and diagnosis of this and the complete inspection of the 98 Sidekick and running to dealer and Auto Zone and day getting hotter, at my retirement age, I shut down and will do the hose crap in the cool of early tomorrow morning. Then reassemble all I took apart to get to the culprit. In the brightest part of the light you can see the rusted looking end of the rubber hose and the pulled to the side, rusted looking end of plastic line that broke completely when I laid hands on it. Also, in the last pic you can see the positive cable end that I will be cleaning too. Seems like every vehicle I touch needs that work at the minimum.

 

[OR VietVet]

Got failed part removed/installed this morning for the Escape. PITA back in there. Easiest part was the cowling replacement. Turns out that the badly corroded battery cable was the negative cable. Surprised me. 4.5 total hours labor for teardown, diagnosis, part replacement, refill and road test, battery cable cleaning. Labor money in my pocket was $340 plus a $50 house call.

 

[OR VietVet]

Unfortunately, I had a problem with the 98 Suzuki Sidekick 1.6 SOHC work. Valve cover gasket went smoothly and found 4 of 6 hold down bolts just finger tight. 4-5 hoses over the top that easily unhooked and a bracket that is a support for the snorkle from throttle body to MAF/air cleaner. Had an old style/smaller size oil pressure sender and my sender socket would not fit. Had to use a deep 6 point socket to remove. Then cut off the badly corroded cable end and installed a new cable end. Found that the plugs should be changed every 30k and had 36k on them, so did them too. Installed new pcv valve. The old one was severly clogged and would not rattle at all when shook. It was a pleasure to work on something older for a change that had easy access to components.

Then the shoe dropped. Sorry but have to get back at it tomorrow to figure out my problem. Details and repair/fix tomorrow.

 

[OR VietVet]

The Escape owner said he wants me to change the oil and filter on it soon. I told him 25+ on labor because not all oil filters are the same. He said he was told it is a PITA on the filter. The turbo plumbing is in the way. I told him I would be fair. He said no problem paying whatever. The recent coolant leak work went ok and he gave me a $50 tip. He is a vet and I will work with him. I usually figure out a way that is pretty easy to get at the filter. At least it is a spin on filter and not a cartridge.

 

[OR VietVet]

Ok, mystery problem with the 98 Suzuki Sidekick is solved. I did the all the listed work a couple posts back, but when I went to back off the ramps, the engine started and ran for 2-3 seconds and then sputtered and died. Strange. I checked new plugs and they were fuel soaked. I checked spark with an old plug and had good blue spark. Obviously had fuel. I took about 15-30 minutes rechecking my work and found nothing wrong, at all. I then looked at the fuel pressure regulator, that I never touched in the previous work, and when I unplugged the vacuum feed hose, fuel came out. Turns out that the regulator diaphragm blew on the 25 year old vehicle. See video and that was me just turning the key on and no crank. Replaced with a new regulator and it took a bit to restart but was definitely a different cranking sound and then fired off and ran at a higher idle for about 10 seconds and then idled down and was smooth. In gear, still smooth. That damn regulator failed in my driveway. I showed the owner and he agreed that was not my fault. Collected my payment and he said he still wants me to inspect his 86 Nissan Hardbody Pickup. In all the years I have been working on vehicles in my driveways at home, 40+ years, I have only had a vehicle towed 2 times that was towed to me and the repair was more than the vehicle was worth and so was towed away. I had to sleep on it but I figured it out.

So, when some guys have a problem crop up out of the clear blue sky after doing some work, remember, some components/systems pick their own time to fail.

 

[OR VietVet]

Thought I had till next week before having a vehicle to look at and then I went for tacos today and a fav place and the manager, Denise, that I have known for 15 years, approached and said she has a CEL on and a VCS light flashing. Had it a week ago too, took to the dealer. They were booked solid and did pull the code and cleared it and sent her on the way with no paperwork for the code to know what it was. Now same lights on again. No running problems. She is buying me lunch tomorrow, they have a double stacked Stumpy Burger, like White Castle size, with Canadian bacon, cheese and a sauce that is killer, called a Concrete Cutter. Gonna have one of those and some tots for free. All I am doing for that is bringing my scanner for codes retrieval. It is a 2008 Toyota 4Runner Sport Edition and has the 4.0 engine, same as the 4.0 on the recent 2010 FJ Cruiser I worked on. I told her that after that, I unlock the toolbox and the charges start. Done some research and found some info about the lights. The VCS pretty much comes on every time the CEL does.

Me and my friend go to the bar she manages, called Sonny's, and they have taco Tuesday and Thursday. $1.50 for meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato and sour cream. Crunchy shell and red or green sauce. Big shell too that is stuffed just right. I usually have a Concrete Cutter and 2 tacos when I go.

 

[OR VietVet]

More news. I told you that my friend that was in the other shop here locally and we would use lift at night sometimes when I did my build thread. Well he split off and now has his own shop and is in a small town that is about 12 miles up the road, called Junction City, Oregon, and he is partners with a car lot guy that helps every now and then but mainly works out of the office when not at the car lot. My friend is really the only tech. He asked today if I still meant it about my earlier offer to help in the shop if he ever needed more hands. He does not want a 9 to 5 tech. He just wants help 1 to 2 days a week, no more than 3 days and not 8 hours a day. A lot like what I am doing now at home on my back in the driveway. I can leave my tool boxes home and use his tools. I said, "Just say the word and I am there". This is his boxes on the delivery truck when he moved in to the new shop:

 

[Tahoe14]

Keep this going as I just read all 11 pages. Very interesting and it sure tests your mechanical skills and knowledge at times.

 

[OR VietVet]

Sorry, the last two posts are in wrong place. I meant to post at the "I am at work....entertain me", thread. Hopefully @Fless can delete them.

 

[OR VietVet]

On to updates now.

The 2008 4Runner had codes P0441 and P0455. Turns out there is a Toyota TSB about when these two codes show at the same time. Failed gas cap that was not sealing properly because the ratcheting mechanism in the cap was failing. I did replace the gas cap and cleared codes and she will drive till I see her Tuesday when I go to Sonny's for tacos. May need to eventually replace a purge valve but will wait and see. On Tuesday I am going to pull and clean the MAF and if is filthy enough, I will recommend a throttle bore cleaning. The MAF is easy access, so I will do the cleaning where she parks her vehicle. I am also going to re-align the air filter housing cover. The dealer did not hook in the back hinge correctly when they last did her new air filter.

 

[OR VietVet]

Now some bad news: I worked on the next door neighbor's 2010 Toyota Camry and did the two tensioner assemblies, both serp belts, water pump, thermostat and housing, alternator and new front pads and rotors and an oil change. Just this last week the wife was involved in an accident about 3-4 blocks from home and the vehicle will be towed away this coming Monday as a total. I want to get the hood up and take the alternator off but I don't think the neighbor will allow it. Up close, it looks worse than the pic. It twisted the body and the passenger side rear door will not hardly open. You have to really pull it to get it open enough to step in to sit. Fortunately, their new baby was at home with dad. They plan to buy a used SUV in a couple of months. They have a beat up Corolla that he is going to have me inspect and just get reliable enough for a couple months.

 

[Fless]

That'll make a good parts car.

 

[OR VietVet]

More good news. The neighbor lady that drives the 98 Suzuki Sidekick just came down to give my girl some fresh vegetables and blueberries out of her garden. I let them talk for a while and then interrupted them and asked if she wanted to see the video of the surprise failed fuel pressure regulator. She had crawled under the vehicle with me when I did the complete inspection before the work was scheduled, so I knew she would want to see the video. Then I showed her in pics of the work where the regulator was in reference to me gaining access to getting the valve cover off. She agreed that I would not have touched the regulator to get the cover off and besides, the failed diaphragm is internal anyway. She thanked me a couple times for it all happening and getting fixed before she was stranded on the road somewhere. Crazy things happen when working on vehicles and it is the shyster techs out there that lead to the mistrust that the public has. This whole thing could have gone south real quick with a neighbor that my girl has known over 10+ years. She assured me that her and her husband trust me and he will be calling me to schedule his 86 Nissan Hardbody pickup for an inspection and needed work. He had been waiting to get it back from the body shop and it came back to him today. I am sure he is going to ask me to inspect the body work and paint that was done. It was not in a wreck, he loves the truck and wanted to freshen it up a bit. More tales to follow.

 

[OR VietVet]

Turns out my girl's landlord is a great work flow manager for me. Another golfing buddy of his, in his 80's, has a 2020 Acura RDX and he hit something with his passenger side outside mirror and is very loose at the pivot/fold area and can hear crunching when move it and the painted cover has a hole in it. Landlord called me and I walked up to his place to inspect. Gonna require entire mirror assembly and they are listed with the different option painted covers. I have to wait till dealer is open tomorrow to make sure I get the correct one because this vehicle does not have the "power fold" option. I have looked at two different Acura oe parts supplier web sites and found what I need and my cost is over $500 for the assembly but I want to make sure I order the correct one, if the lack of power fold option makes a difference on the harness plug ins. More info coming as I progress.

 

[OR VietVet]

The neighbor with the wrecked 2010 Camry will have the vehicle towed away tomorrow by the insurance company and then he wants me to inspect the older Corolla to get it road ready for the 2 month window before they get a replacement for the wrecked vehicle. That will likely happen this coming week.

 

[OR VietVet]

The landlord's golfing buddy, that I have worked on his wife's Honda Pilot and his daughter's Lexus RX350, wants me to inspect his vehicle for supposed steering and suspension problems, that a local tire shop said they noticed when doing tire work. He had no known problems before or after this approach by the tire shop. The tire shop had also told them that his wife's Honda Pilot had steering and suspension problems, again out of the clear blue sky, and my inspection revealed no problems at all. He had even told me to order in and fix whatever is needed. If I was a shyster, I could have pocketed many $ but I am not made that way. I told him that even if I again find no problems, it is not a bad idea for a complete inspection every now and then.

Turns out that the same "tire shop" had told my neighbor with the wrecked 2010 Camry, that they would not warranty the previous brake work on that car, because the lower control arm is cracked and that contributed to the brake problems. They did not say which control arm or where it was cracked or even show him or document that statement on the invoice. I found no cracks anywhere, at the arms or frame mounting. I did see, at full droop, very slight surface cracks in the rear bushings from age but the bushings were still fine. See pics of that in previous posts in this thread.

 

[OR VietVet]

I also have a complete inspection coming up on the neighbor's 86 Nissan Hardbody, that I just did the work on his wife's Suzuki Sidekick.

So, to sum up, in my future, I have work coming in on a Corolla-unknown year, Acura-unknown model, Acura RDX and a Nissan Hardbody.

Plus, it looks like I am going to be wrenching at my buddies new shop that he just opened recently. I will be doing that just 1-2 days a week, no more than 3. I wanted to stay busy to stay active and now I am getting buried. All good in my book.

 

[OR VietVet]

On to updates now.

The 2008 4Runner had codes P0441 and P0455. Turns out there is a Toyota TSB about when these two codes show at the same time. Failed gas cap that was not sealing properly because the ratcheting mechanism in the cap was failing. I did replace the gas cap and cleared codes and she will drive till I see her Tuesday when I go to Sonny's for tacos. May need to eventually replace a purge valve but will wait and see. On Tuesday I am going to pull and clean the MAF and if is filthy enough, I will recommend a throttle bore cleaning. The MAF is easy access, so I will do the cleaning where she parks her vehicle. I am also going to re-align the air filter housing cover. The dealer did not hook in the back hinge correctly when they last did her new air filter.

Ok, no CEL since replaced the fuel cap. I went ahead, while I was out yesterday and had needed tools and cleaner with me, stopped where she works and cleaned the MAF. The side of the sensor wire that faces the air cleaner was filthy with buildup and the backside was clean. Cleaned to like new again and reinstalled. Very easy to do this MAF cleaning. Can be done in 5 minutes easily. I showed her the buildup and explained why the throttle bore would need cleaned to address this concern and again, while I was looking I found corrosion build up at the positive battery cable. She is gonna bring to my home for this work. Hope the CEL stays out as well. While I had the time, she had all her paperwork for repairs and maintenance done at the dealer in the glove box and I read thru it all and got it in chronological order. She had the diffs, transmission and transfer case fluids done at 90k but the rest was all about oil changes, one air filter and 2 cabin air filters. By the way, I did release the air filter cap and realigned the J hooks at one end, the way they should have been done when the dealer replaced the air filter, and reattached the spring clips at the other end. I did also show her an oil leak at the passenger side valve cover.

 

[Fless]

Is that a crack in the coil?

 

[OR VietVet]

Is that a crack in the coil?

View attachment 405168

It sure looks like it is and she had plugs done by dealer about 20k ago. I will contact her.