Went and drove the car. It does not pull to the left. The street he lives on is all fucked up and it is angled, therefore the car pulls to the left a little. If you were driving the opposite way, it'd pull to the right. Did the starter solenoid, and she told me she doesn't have the cash to get the A/C fixed on the Durango for now. Yesterday or the day before I did rear struts on a '00 Escort 5spd, as well as rear brake lines. Thought I was gonna end up putting wheel cylinders in it too since they were pretty rusty, but I got the bleeders loose without them breaking. Torch for the win. Can not figure out the problem with my cousin's car (the Civic with the LSVTEC in it). The motor ran good when it was pulled out of the Integra. It's getting fuel and fuel pressure, getting spark... but it runs like shit, somewhat intermittently. Sometimes it will run good above 3000rpm, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it idles, sometimes it doesn't... sometimes it idles real shaky like it wants to die. It feels like a misfire, if anybody has driven a car with the timing off, that is honestly what it feels like to the T. But, we checked the timing and it is dead on. Tried a new ECU, an external fuel pump, new plugs, tried a new TPS, MAP sensor, checked all the vacuum lines. I originally thought it was the TPS because it felt like a faulty TPS by the way the car would buck and not respond well to giving it gas, but it isn't throwing any codes. Went to try another distributor but didn't have a B-series VTEC one laying around, so we're gonna try that today. Honda puts the ignition coil and the ICM in the distributor, so if one of those is bad, replacing the distributor will fix it. It may be a bad ignition coil... but if not, the only thing that would really be left is the wiring. I'm thinking "ehhh" about the coil too though, since it is getting perfect spark. But there's a few laying around in the garage, so it won't hurt to try I suppose. Also haven't done a compression check, but the motor ran great in the Integra so I doubt it is that, but can't hurt to check now that we've done this much diagnosis to it. If all that checks out, we'll have to throw a spare harness on it. Could try to find the problem with the harness, but by the time we disconnect it and check all the wires we could have a new one in. Hooked the Snap-On scanner up to it and looked at the live data... nothing out of the ordinary. Anybody have any ideas? Intermittent problems are a bitch to diagnose.
sounds like ignition coil on a benz.. but i wouldn't know about the lsvtec.. i'd try cleaning out the iacv and the air filters.. i'm guessing fuelpump is good too? my daily beater 98 mirage for some reason is spending a ton of gas, even with me driving slow.. i'm gonna need a new cap and rotor it seems, but the gasket between the distributor seems to be toast too... my #1 worry is a ton of oil is seeping out of the distributor (probably the inner seal) but i've never took apart a distributor my benz.. finally got it working somewhat, needs a tune up though and it needs a new pulley but freaking bolts are frozen.. and i have a new ps pump leak.. gotta get rid of this thing
So this weekend we worked on a pretty profitable job (removal of two Crape Myrtles, a fairly large White Oak tree, and another small shrub that I can't pronounce or spell). The Crape Myrtles and shrub were easy, no issues at all with removing them. The Oak tree was maybe 60' tall, and in a fairly small back yard with poor access. We got everything on the ground, and were working to load the wood into our dump truck (with the tractor). We got down to the 3rd from the last log, and I was running the tractor to drop it into the dump truck. I dropped the log, and it caused another log to flip up and over the tailgate of the truck. That log weighed somewhere near 400lbs, and slammed into the customer's nice insulated garage door (which was bought new just a few years ago). So, I looked it up and it appears to be a $300 hit (plus our wasted time). Then, the customer began questioning cracks in the pavement (some of which he knew existed before, but we might have possibly made worse by the log dropping). My partner and I argued that the pavement was obviously damaged before (had dirt pressed into most of the cracks, and was discolored from being damaged so long). Jah, people can be a pain in the ass at times! But, work has been good. Have another $2500 worth of work set up for the next week or so, which will easily cover the damages today. Life goes on! ~Will Courtier~
It sucks when something gets damaged, but that stuff just happens... my company does a good job, but there are always accidents. Just gotta let it go.
least your making money will... well i had to drive about 600 miles today and about 25 miles away from home right after i saw my gf, check engine light came on, i immediately pulled over and turned off the engine either its that distributor leak getting worse or i have a blown head gasket i checked the oil and it looked kind of milky so i was like shit.. head gasket.. but i waited a bit for the engine to cool, and checked the stick again doesn't seem milky.. just light for some reason (i got an oil change 1500 miles ago) (10w-30 dino) but it seems lighter than usual, and not watery at all.. drove the car home very slowly after, but it seemed fine wondering if you have any ideas nidex i checked the oil cap as well on the engine, oil seemed fine no milkyness at all. i'm thinking about getting a leakdown test for the hell of it tomorrow 1st pic is the dipstick 2nd pick is the distributor i think with the cap and rotor off i was planning on changing the cap and rotor anyways because the rotor seems to be a little cracked and its not in the greatest shape also i was planning on changing the oring on the distributor to stop the leak hopefully? but i noticed the distributor cap seal i think? its not a oring (little rubber thing) but its the shape of the distributor in between the rotor/cap and i can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet for parts i've never took apart distributor nor even dared attempted a headgasket but i just might need to :X its a 97 mirage btw (1.5L) (dipstick) (leaky distributor?) (cap and rotor is off)
What does the coolant look like? If there's oil in your coolant you probably do have a bad head gasket. Compression check it as well... if there's 1 or 2 cylinders that are lower than the rest, you have a bad head gasket. Compression check will not always tell you if a head gasket is bad though, so if it's good it doesn't necessarily mean your HG is good. Pick up a hydrocarbon tester/test kit and follow instructions (you check the coolant with it), that will give you an answer on your head gasket if the compression test does not. Check engine light is on? Scan the codes! And post what codes it is throwing once you do that. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today: doing timing belt on a CRX that has been pieced together and worked on by 3 different people. He called saying it had won't start and had no spark, went over to look at it, and it had spark. Checked for fuel, didn't have fuel. Fuel pump wasn't turning on, checked for power, and it was getting very weak power. Figured since he said it had no spark before and now the fuel pump was acting up that it was the main relay, replaced that and now it was getting spark and fuel. Although it still wouldn't start... just kept cranking and cranking. It was backfiring out of the intake, so I pulled the timing cover off to check if the timing was on... and the belt was loose as hell, and had jumped like 4 teeth. Crazy... but at least I'm getting paid for diagnosing it and doing the timing belt today; because the person who looked at it before me said it was a bad distributor. Don't know how he came up with that diagnosis... but more money for me.
I finally got around to calling back a bunch of people that called over the last few days. Got another 7 people lined up for estimates over the next week. Also got another job setup which carries us out past 2 weeks of solid work. Went over to the guy's house yesterday that has the broken garage door. Finished up the job, and replaced his garage door. I need to adjust the gaps on the door and reset his garage door opener and it'll be good to go. This guy is making such a huge deal out of the fact that I am inconveniencing him by him not being able to use the garage door opener (although it opens/shuts manually fine). Go figure... I give the guy a brand new garage door and he still complains.... Anyway, just gotta do whatever I need to do to collect on the job! Not getting paid until the garage door is fixed again. ~Will Courtier~
Didn't end up doing the timing belt. Spent 4-5 hours working on this thing though, getting it to run right. The timing belt wasn't all that bad, so I set the tension and the timing without changing the belt, so I could be sure the timing was on. Found 2 vacuum leaks, one in a line and the other was because the guy who installed the motor didn't put the damn throttle body gasket in. Replaced the idle air control valve, and noticed the idle adjustment screw was turned all the way out. Found 2 grounds that were off, the one from the valve cover to the body and the one from the harness to the thermostat housing. And after all that was done, I thought I found everything that was wrong with the fucking thing. Went to start it... still ran like shit, although it was a lot better than it was when we started. Tried a different ECU... still no improvement. Checked the plugs, and when I was doing this I followed the wires back to the distributor. The guy who installed the motor had #1 and #4 switched. Switched them back, fired it up, and it ran smooth as could be. The guy who owned the car paid somebody $150 to install the motor. He said it ran fine for a day, and then just stopped wanting to start. My cousin and I put the harness in this car about a year ago, and the guy who installed the new motor totally fucked up our harness. It was completely destroyed... connectors everywhere, wires hanging off, 2 idle air control plugs... just a complete mess. I told the owner "you get what you pay for", and he said he was going to have us install the motor but neither of us "answered our phones". Yeah right... you just wanted to go the cheap route. Don't lie. Got paid for it, was going to charge him way more because I hate trying to fix somebody else's fuckups. If he would have just brought it to us in the first place, none of this would have happened. With the money he paid for the motor install, and the money he paid us to diagnose and fix it, he spent more than what he would have if he would have just had us install the motor to begin with.
got lucky today, recovered a failed raid1 setup from a server, and did 2 motherboard swaps.. news on the mirage, headgasket is good, got a compression test, and knew it was weird cause the car didn't overheat or stutter or anything, pulled up the codes, it has a bad cat.. gave it a oil change just for the hell of it, almost no water from the bottom.. but it turned out to be a damned crack in the timing cover gaskets allowing water in.. sitting on jackstands now, timing cover gaskets are ordered, so is a distributor cap/rotor and the inner o-ring.. looks like i have to go to dealer for the outer o-ring
This is more of a "what did you work on the past 1.5 months": 1. Did the "big 3" upgrade in peperation of installing a new audio system in my car (upgrade ground wires and positive wire from battery to alternator with 0/1 gauge cables) 2. Ran 3 pairs of RCA cables from my dash to my trunk under my center console. Ran 12 ga speaker wire from trunk to front speakers (pain in the ASS to fish these to the doors) along the right side of my car. Ran the amp power along the left side of my car. Mounted the tweeters to the OEM location and then mounted the speaker crossovers behind my dash. 3. Mounted some MDF to my back seats and then mounted my AMP to that. I then routed all the cables behind the felt stuff covering the back seats for a clean look. 4. Installed 1 layer of sound deadener and 1 layer of closed cell foam over my two front doors and my rear deck. To do: same thing in my trunk and trunk lid. I have never done anything like this but it really was not that hard, just extremely time consuming since I wanted it done right and I wanted to hide everything for a clean look. I didn't take many pictures but here are a select few: OEM/New speakers comparison, my trunk, door after sound deadener and then door after closed cell foam.
I'm guessing since you said that it was a pain to run the wires through the doors, that you actually ran them through a gromit or where the body harness comes through (the right way), and not just sticking out of your door panel, then through the door jamb. Correct? The latter is usually done when people half ass it, and when the wire insulation wears off from the doors opening and closing a certain amount of times, it can start a fire; although chances of that are somewhat slim if you have it on a fuse, with the actual correct size fuse in it.
Yeah, I ran the speaker wire through the rubber gromit with the wire harness. It might have been easier if I actually had a proper wire fish thing but I just used a wire coat hanger and some soapy water to get it through.
looks great ali.. man i've always been interested in car audio.. but never been able to do it alone :/ how much did the big 3 cost anyways? and where'd you get the little black cover for the doors?
I assembled some Wal-Mart furniture yesterday. Working on getting my apartment into somewhat working order. I'm preparing to install a new suspension on my Ford Escort. In the next week or so.
You know your way around a car, you can easily do it yourself without difficulty. It just requires a lot of reading and research on the gear and putting together the best system that works with your budget. My car is probably easiest for this stuff (honda civic) since there's a huge community online that has already done everything/figured out everything for you. I found complete tear down guides and everything for my specific car. The big 3 upgrade is not expensive and honestly might have not been needed for my setup since I am only pushing ~540watts RMS but I did it anyway since it was cheap and a fun little project. All you are buying is some 0/1 gauge copper stranded cable, ANL fuse holder, fuse and some ring terminals. That's all really. Google your car model + big 3 upgrade or something to see if anyone has a guide with some pictures but even without a guide or pictures, if you understand the theory behind the upgrade its easy to figure out. That black foam stuff is: PS Ensolite(peal and stick) is a superior high frequency acoustical and thermal barrier. It breaks up and diffuses unwanted noise incredibly well and helps decouple acoustcial energy from resonating other parts of the vehicle. http://www.raamaudio.com/products/Ensolite-IUO-Peel-and-Stick.html The actual sound deadener product is this: http://www.raamaudio.com/products/RAAMmat-BXT-II.html The real way to do it is lay some sound deadener (50-60% coverage or so), then put a layer of that foam over everything and then cover all of that with some mass load vinyl to sound proof your interior. I didn't bother doing the 3rd layer since MLV is stupid heavy (around 1 pound per sqft) and expensive to ship, plus I didn't really care about blocking outside noise because my car is not really all that loud. I just did the first two layers by buying 3x the PS Ensolite and 1x the RAAMMat BXT-II for about $162 total.
thanks.. yeah i had my stuff professionally done and felt like an idiot after cause its simple not to mention they did it improperly i'm guessing that stuff is equal to dynamat? (i hate the smell of dynamat) bet you enjoy driving alot more now huh i sure as hell did i'll do it alone for sure when the time/opportunity rises i'm riding the motorcycle more than usual so later when i drive more i will
Had a pretty busy week this past week. The job where we damaged the customer's garage door turned into a complete bust. We replaced the guy's garage door with the exact same model as he had before (BRAND NEW), and he complained that the doors had small variances in the mate-up lines. The door was a bargain bin model from Lowes (exactly what he had before).... Anyway, we hung it using the hardware he already had to match the gaps and seals the same. He complained, and afterwards called in a professional garage door company. OF COURSE, they claimed the entire installation was fucked up (even though it is exactly as it was before), and said the door panels were warped from the factory. So, the customer had them tear out everything we installed and hang a new garage door of their brand. Total cost out of our paycheck came to just over $850. We just barely broke even on the job after we paid the help. But, not worth us fighting in court so we're just moving on. We did a decent sized Tulip Poplar tree removal that was surrounded by Azalea bushes (~2 feet away from the trunk). We warned the customer that we would do our best but couldn't guarantee that the bushes would come out unscathed. The customer said he wasn't worried about the bushes and that he understood we could only do so much (without transplanting every bush out and back in which would have significantly increased the cost of the job). Finished the job, the customer seemed happy and paid us. Afterwards, he left us feedback on our advertising service that we did "extreme damage to the bushes and didn't clean up the neighbor's yard good enough." The neighbor's yard had a few stray leaves and we used the leaf blower to blow them behind her flower bed (as she asked). Guess you can't please everyone.... Then yesterday, we had a Silver Maple tree to remove that the customer built a deck around ~20 years ago. Needless to say, the tree kept growing and caused the joists to buckle and flex. So, we spent all day yesterday roping down the tree carefully and preventing damage to the deck. Got it all down without issue then had to pull the decking to get below and cut the stump to below the joists. That turned into a nightmare. Tree grew insanely big below the deck. Had to cut it out in tiny pieces since there was very little room to swing a chainsaw under the deck. But, got it done and got paid. Tomorrow we are cutting down a nice sized White Oak tree that is in a hedgerow in between two houses (but leaving a 8-10 foot tall pole standing to keep the barrier between houses). Shouldn't take too long, and should be a pretty profitable job. Thank God, as I need the money after taking such a big hit from that garage door job! ~Will Courtier~
Yah, some people are dicks and it sucks how online reviews give them a voice to lie and hurt your reputation...
You just have to post good reviews to counteract the bad ones! Have been kind of slow with the work lately. Did a knock sensor on a 2.2 liter Subaru Impreza, an ignition switch on an '02 Impala, and a few brake jobs. Have sourced a 4L80E transmission for a new customer, and will be removing & installing this weekend, if it isn't too hot/humid out, since the truck is too big to fit in the garage with all of the crap in there... not that it's much cooler in there, anyways. Speaking of that, I should probably set aside a day for cleaning one of these days. A four car garage, with no space inside to work on anything. One side is filled with (mostly) tires, motors, trannies, ECUs, a couple heads, and a CBR600, other side has a Supra with stuff piled on top of it, toolboxes, a couple more motors, the engine hoist, tools laying around everywhere, some radiators, some more tires, and a bunch of random stuff. We're slobs.
I setup a new stereo in my bedroom for my computer. Still waiting on a few parts before making a full thread.
Yah, my boss is totally out of date and doesn't understand that businesses have to seriously manage their online rep, and has no idea how to do it either. I've thought about trying to help work on it, but fuck, I don't think he wants to change
This past week has been another pain in the ass. My business partner ran our dump truck out of oil and it sounds like a main bearing let go (nice knock at all RPM's, but doesn't sound like a broken rod). This was in the middle of a job I explained above (Oak tree in between the two houses). We got everything chipped up but couldn't run the dump truck the second day for the wood loadout so we had to use the tractor to load all wood (well over 5000#'s in all) onto our car trailer with the tractor and offload everything by hand. Managed to bust out one tail light lens in the process, and my business partner wasn't paying attention to where the tractor bucket was and dropped it onto the fender creasing it. Guess crap like that's going to happen from time to time, but it's still frustrating. He's paying for half of all of the repairs, so it's all good. I found a local junk yard here that has a 1981 Chevy 350 (4-bolt main) out of a 3/4 ton truck with ~70,000 miles on it. Great compression, complete motor minus the carb. He wants $350 for it with a 30 day warranty. I can easily swap the motors out in a day and we should be up and going again. Picking up the motor tomorrow and getting everything swapped over throughout the week. Already have work lined up for next weekend, too. Was originally scheduled for this weekend but couldn't do it without the dump truck. We're doing a Class III pruning of 3 fairly large Oak trees. Easy job, not a lot to worry about (aside from power cables on one side of two of the trees). Doing some estimates either this evening or tomorrow and hoping to keep things rolling as they have been. ~Will Courtier~
Oh yeah, and this past job I got into some pretty bad Poison Ivy. It's never affected me thus far (and I've been shoulder deep in it, and have chipped it on several occasions). But, I now have a good healthy rash from my inner elbow to my knuckles (sporadic, not too bad) and a few spots on my neck and behind my ears (guessing from sleeping after getting into it). Picked up some Teknu soap and have been washing nonstop. Seems to be getting better. Also started taking a steady regiment of Ibuprofen to kill the inflammation before it starts. I've only had Poison Ivy once before, and that was before I joined the Navy. Gah, I hate this shit! ~Will Courtier~
teknu soap works alright! don't forget the benadryl.. ha thats funny.. i never got poison ivy till the freaking marines.. seems like you know how to deal with it.. heard from some of my marine buddies that the marines let you buy ivy dry from the px now.. i never seen it.. but whenever i got it i'd use dawn dishwashing soap to dry em out so they don't spread or anything then i'd get some anti-itch cream or lotion or whatever (i forgot what it was called but its kind of pinkish) speaking of do poison ivy shots still exist? some guys from kansas were talking about it when i got it well.. i think i'm going to junk the benz.. not sure.. cause its such a waste.. probably $180 in parts can get it to run.. but i don't have space to work on it.. landlord gives me crap picked up an es300 for my mom, great condition cept the paint $1300.. which isn't bad at all going to give the struts and bushings a refresh, maybe 1 day paint later since it drives and my buddy is like a lexus expert we can do it on weekends also picked up a infinity basslink2 for my beater, already put the head unit in, waiting on speakers/amp
