Rich's KN of DOOM was: Rich's 2016 FiST of d00m

[speedpimp]

The hubs, pads/rotors, AS sensors arrived yesterday. O2 sensors came today.
My dad took the car to a highly reputable garage(seriously) and had the cooling system flushed. He also told the guy to check the tranny fluid and about the turn signals turning off after a few seconds. I guess the guy didn't feel like fucking with either thing because he told my dad he wanted $195 to fix both problems. That's $195 per issue. WTF? Pretty sure the turn signal issue is just a faulty relay that is under the dash. It's a $7 part and a semi-easy fix once you can get squeezed under the dash. I plan on picking up the tranny filter/gasket and fluid when I pick up the car.
I'll have the guy check the rear brakes and hubs as well. When it's all said and done I may end up taking the car if my dad decides to get rid of it. About the only other thing it could use is a decent set of seats as the ones in it now are pretty ragged.

[speedpimp]

Picked the car up after work and got right to work digging the flasher relay out from under the dash. There is not a lot of room under there.
dads car 1.jpgdads car 2.jpgdads car 3.jpg
Went to Advance Auto to get the relay as well as tranny filter/gasket/fluid. To echo the sentiments posted elsewhere "Where do they find these people?" The young lady who assisted me in finding the filter/gasket kit got was dumbfounded when I asked her what the fluid capacity of the tranny pan was. "I don't understand!" I repeated the question again. "Oh, how much fluid fits in the filter?" "NO! In the pan that the filter goes in!" "Let me ask somebody!" She goes and finds a guy in his 50s who shows her how to look up the info on the computer. Turns out its 6.9 qts for a refill and 12.9 qts for a rebuild. When I was checking out the guy ringing me up asked if I needed any filters for the oil I was buying. I pointed out that it was tranny fluid. "Oh, I didn't notice."
Fucking really?

[speedpimp]

Finished it up yesterday. In addition to everything else it also needed a right front caliper. Thank God for Advance Auto and $18 calipers. After it was all said and done the ABS/Traction Control lights are still on, which means there is probably a problem in the harness or the ABS computer itself. Not even going to touch that one. Checked the rear brakes. The shoes are in good shape but the OE drums have seen better days. They should be good enough to get dad through the winter. The LR drum is out of round from being smacked by a mallet or something like that. During the test drive I noticed a "thump" from the left front while turning. Front struts are shot. And probably most disheartening of all is the idle. When it comes down to its normal idle(6-700 rpm) you can hear a bit of a "fluff"/hesitancy in the idle. Also I noticed while the LF hub was going on that some of the splines on the cv axle are a little chewed up. Probably due to the wonky hub.
I think it took maybe two to three hours tops to get everything off and the new parts on. The tranny fluid was very black and there were some metal shavings on the magnet but nothing out of the ordinary for a car with 130k miles on it. This was the original fluid. I drove it over to my dad's and there weren't any noticeable issues other than the strut "clunk" and "fluffy" idle. Come spring it will be interesting to see what dad decides to do with it. On the plus side, replacing the flasher relay worked as the turn signals didn't go out when I hit the brakes.

[thesameguy]

Nice thing about cars like this is that *nothing* is too expensive to fix, so if you drive it broken for too long and something gets *really* broken, it doesn't actually hurt that bad. My ex had a '99 or '00 Cavalier and she would just make yearly trips to her mechanic to fix all the broken stuff. Sometimes problems would emerge a month or two after her annual trip, and she'd just wait 10 months until she was back there again. Didn't seem to ultimately matter much - yeah, maybe the hub takes out the CV, but you're in, what, another $30? Hardly worth worrying about... and you *really* get your money's worth out of parts like that!

[speedpimp]

My dad's '03 Taurus has been sitting at my neighbor's since Sunday. Left side hub was bad, as were the lower ball joints on either side. Replaced the right side hub as well. There was a loud whine coming from under the hood. Turns out it was bad bearings in the alternator. Tried replacing the bearings but they had been so bad for so long that the rotor had overheated. Local shop rebuilt it for $150. As of half an hour ago it was back on the car. Only thing left to do is the left side hub/ball joint. What started out as just a set of new tires on the Cavalier has kind of mushroomed into a lot more. Hopefully when the Taurus is finally done this will be the end of it.

[speedpimp]

'03 Taurus is back at the neighbor's. Problem this time is it is leaking gas. Neighbor brought it over on a trailer. When he was loading it the bumper cover dragged against the trailer deck, busted loose and destroyed the AC condenser. Now the cover is attached to the car with a bungee cord. The front struts are toast, they are so toasted that when they tried driving the car the right side CV joint broke. Where is the tipping point to where you just say "fuck it" and move on to another vehicle? She moved onto another vehicle, a Ford Expedition. If there was ever a vehicle that my niece didn't need it was that. Considering that she has a habit of running the gas tank bone dry until it dies. As fate would have it she let the Expedition run out of gas, when she came back to put gas in it it had been towed and impounded. The main reason she bought it? Because she thought it had 4WD(which it doesn't).

[thesameguy]

But it's a truck, they're all 4WD!

[speedpimp]

No shit.

[speedpimp]

Oil changed on the rear diff, transfer case and tranny on the Suzuki. The oil out of the diff and transfer case were very black. What came out of the tranny was a nice golden color. It shifts a lot nicer now.

[thesameguy]

Does it use motor oil or gear oil on the diff & xfer case?