[DMCForum] I now know why...
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[DMCForum] I now know why...
- From: Samuel <samuel_yahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 01:25:14 -0500
This is going to be long but I just want to vent about tuesday..
I now know why my car was in a barn for 10 years. It is stubborn. It
refuses to be on the road. I just have to vent about today.
Took the day off as it rained all weekend. Planned to only work on the
car. Got up at 9, out the door shortly there after to pick up
antifreeze, a tube of black silicone, and a can of 3M super adhesive for
gluing back in some of the carpet.
Got back to the house, had some breakfast and was out working on the car
at 10. Walter was going to come by 11ish, or possibly a bit later
depending on what happens at the jet ski shop that he needed to goto.
First thing on the list, scrub the fiberglass and get rid of any last
bit of smell and crap in the car. Used some oder remover and water, with
a bit of febreze on top after the scrub. By 12, Walter had not shown up
to do the trailing arm bolts so gave him a ring and found out that he
had been delayed due to a few wrong turns, hoped not to be much longer.
I had finished scrubbing the car about 1, ready to start to put the
carpet and seats back in. Walter called to say he was finally going to
be leaving soon, we talked about lunch and figured on doing something
once he showed up.
By 2, Walter had shown up, both large carpets where in the car, and the
passenger seat was in place. We grabbed some subs and were out working
on the car around 3.
Now the fun begins. Walter got the trailing bolts out and the rubber
bushings, the wrong size bolt had been used in one spot for the
bushings, and the correct size bolts had some damage on the threads so I
headed out to find new bolts with lock nuts. Not 1 of the 5 stores I
went to had locknuts for 8mm bolts. Carquest, napa, discount auto,
bumper to bumper, or autozone. Did manage to find 4 replacement bolts
though. In the meantime, Walter and my brother Wesley disconnected the
AC lines and were getting ready to pull them out of the car when I got
back. Pulled the AC lines out, stuffed them into a bag to have new ones
made. Walter continued working on the trailing arms, my brother put the
driver seat in, I did some more cleaning under the metal shelf on the
driver and passenger side.
By this time, it is 7pm. Had the trailing arm bolts in with new bushings
and torqued properly, had removed and put back the metal holder for the
relay comparment and had the metal holder on the driver side completely
removed. Wanted to make sure everything was fine after plugging and
unpluging the various electronics. Stuck the key into the ignition,
turned to the on position, and the front fans came on. Great... Havent
started the car for a week and the fans are running. After a bit of
troubleshooting, we determined the relay had faulted out (I may have
damaged it when removing the middle grounding pin), put another relay
in, fixed the problem. Time to swap the coolant hoses that go to the
water pump as the ones I had were improper. Got them off, swapped them,
one of the clamps wont tighten, it is stripped. 8pm, at least discount
was open. Get back, finish it, realize I bought the wrong antifreeze
this morning. Back to discount, couple jugs of the right stuff.
Everything should be great.
Fill up the coolant system, start the engine and let it run to make sure
I got enough in. We start to see a bit of smoke coming from the engine
area, but it was determined to be oil on the block that was left over
from an old leak. We then notice that I have alot of smoke coming out
the front. Everyone freaked and the car was turned off. We are starving
and the car is smoking. After looking around for awhile, we realize it
is brake fluid that we spilled when doing the brakes awhile ago, just
havent ran the car enough to get hot since the brake job to let it burn
off, after awhile, it did clear up. Fans are working, we are hungry,
talk starts about going to get some dinner in the car. Toss some tools
into the trunk comparment, clear the driveway, hop in the car (note, it
has been running for awhile at this point as i have a hot start problem
that isnt fixed yet), temperature guage is reading 235. CRAP! I kill the
engine. Walter is wondering what i'm yelling about and looks, odd, the
fans were working. turn the key to the on position, no fans.
Swap relays, no fans, short circuit the circuit breaker, fans come on.
We pull the circuit breaker out expecting a 35 amp, but to our surprise
it is 40. Hook it back up, fans come on then cycle off. short circuit,
fans come back on. The breaker has gone bad and the engine overheats as
a result. Just when I thought the car was ready to go for a drive. It is
9:30p, we are hungry, head out to denny's for some dinner, get back
around 10:45 or so. Pay walter for the tabs and new coolant hoses and
his time and start picking up parts on the car. Got most of the car
parts picked up when I realize a new spot on the ground. My first
thought being coolant leaking or from when we may have spilled some. No,
coolant isnt leaking, it is in the center and the leak we had was over
to the driver side. I look and see it is at the main pulley (one right
behind the heat shield). Water pump must be leaking coolant, probably
dont have the connection tight. Take a look, completely dry above the
pulley.
I fixed a large oil leak on the driver side (plate behind compressor
pulleys had it's bolts not even finger tight), fixed leak on the
passenger side (oil pressure sender was finger tight), the car was not
leaking oil after the other weekend after doing a large oil change. This
is brand new, and had just started. By the time I finish cleaning up and
getting everything put away, it is 12:30a. Of course I just spent the
last hour typing all this. Guess it is time for bed. No wonder the car
sat in the barn, it doesnt want to be on the road.
Samuel
#5096 - Has Road Phobia
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