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As the others said, you need to verify the amount of oil. Also, you do not want the total amount of oil in just one spot. Add it as you have been shown in your service book to individual parts. This is for two reasons.
1. You do not want to hydrolock the compressor by having it full of liquid oil which will not compress. You will need to rotate the center on the compressor a dozen or so revolutions by hand after all is installed to make sure this is not going to happen.
2. You do not want to run your system dry of oil. Oil is carried by refrigerant , so if it is all in one spot then it will take time to come back through the system. Eventually it spreads out, but your compressor may not last long enough to survive that without damage. So by having bits of oil in multiple places you have made sure it will remain lubed at all times and live a healthy life.
I hope you are using a brand new compressor. Remans are junk and when they blow up they contaminate the entire system. I refuse to install them myself.
I am a bit biased. I don’t care for the way they basically stick a deeply opinionated guy on camera, give him a guest and when that guest has a different opinion than the host they basically spend the whole time shouting them down. That’s not news. You do have a good point on MSNBC. Everyone has their own bias. Unfortunately that means to have even a general idea of what all the facts are and be able to interpret them I would have to watch 3 different broadcasts from 3 different news companies who will slant it 3 different directions. That gets time consuming and it makes my head hurt.
I singled out Fox due to the Alex Jones reference. Seen him on there more than a few times and boy is he out on the deep end. Sad thing is, if he did find something big that was true, so many people view him that way that he would never have credibility to bring it to the forefront.
I think we’re kinda diverging from the original topic of being unable to work on our cars. If you want to talk more with me about news companies and political parties, maybe we should do that through PM’s instead of the forum posts. Feel free to send me a message if you like, I do enjoy your opinions and I’m getting a kick out of your new avatar.
That’s a nice tire you have there. Even with rotating it to the back I would say replace it. The belts in it are broken and it is ready to blow with no notice. When it does blow its going to be one of those explosive blowouts that want to yank the car into another lane before you have time to react.
That local gas station is bidding high. It doesn’t take long on a wall mounted unit when someone brings you the parts. But they are losing out on their parts markup since you have your own parts, and they are losing the labor to install your new parts into the car so maybe they’re just trying to make it a little more worth their while. Call a few other places and see what they say. If you drive to them personally, and it isn’t some big chain store type of place, tell them you are paying in cash. Might sway things your way if this isn’t something you need a work order generated on the books for. Back before I bought a hydraulic press I had a deal with a local shop who would press wheel bearings for me. I paid cash to the owner and all was good.
Appreciate the thanks. I didn’t learn the things I know without someone else helping me out or by trying to go it alone and royally screwing the pooch. I prefer the former to the latter. As I’m laid up with a torn knee at the moment I have some free time and figured I would help others not get in over their heads without a lifeline to get help. That was the whole reason Eric got into this, and its the same motivation that a lot of the guys on here are posting to help people. Not like we get paid to do it, its a freewill offering of knowledge. Even when you find a guy who seems to have all the answers and has been doing this stuff for 40 years, that means 40 years ago he was a newbie and didn’t know how to do much. He needed somebody to help him learn. We all start somewhere.
Another quick check to do is just a quick voltage test at the alternator stud. If the line going from it to the battery got damaged you could have a perfectly good alternator and just a damaged cable. This thing has already seen two disasters. The first was being in a crash, the second was when a bodyman played electrician.
I’m glad this isn’t in my bay. I feel for you man. If this thing turns out to be done by them, save up some good used diapers, put them in a box and mail them to the body shop as a thank you package. Feel free to leave the box in the sun for a few days first to let it become appropriately fermented.
Try NAPA PN# MRC B335
Heres a link to it.
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Leaf-Spring-Bushing-Rear-Susp/_/R-MRCB335_0234300145Looking at the dimensions it looks like it might be your baby there. I’ve seen the poly ones out there too, but you have to reuse the outer steel shells of the old bushings with them. Wish they would sell them in new shells.
Not sure if LMC has a catalog for the baby Blazer. I do like them for my Bronco and F-series parts and they were helpful back when I had my Suburban. very comprehensive catalog.
With Buod on this. Pump likely a dud, and Iowa does get hot enough to damage that new pump if no cooler is there.
[quote=”thisisbuod” post=135550]The worst part is, no matter what you say to the contrary they think they know better just cause they read it on some forum.[/quote]
I’m chuckling with that as I’m typing back on some forum.
Technically your friend is right. You don’t have to change your oil after 80,000 miles. But you won’t be driving the damn car anymore at 100,000 either. Ask the guy if that is true, why do they market oils specifically for cars with high mileage that no longer need changes?
I think all of us run into the google wizards and know-it-alls too often. I try to show them they are wrong and sometimes I do succeed in correcting their ignorance. I think that is the difference between ignorance and stupidity. An ignorant person can change their opinion when educated with knowledge and is willing to change their views in light of that evidence. Stupid people will not change their mind, they simply reject the evidence. They do not want to change their mind so they won’t, even in the face of blatantly contradictory and verifiable evidence. Kinda like when Galileo proved that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe nor was it flat the catholic church imprisoned him for the rest of his life as a blasphemer who dared to contradict scripture.
You should always at least try politely to correct these people, and you’ll find out fast if the person you are dealing with is stupid or just ignorant. If ignorant, clearly offer evidence to support your side of things and count them as another person saved by gaining knowledge. If stupid, skip straight to the highlighted disclaimer on your work order. I cannot stress enough that you need that signed before you do the work. Save your shop a lot of BS, and you know the stupid one will be all over the internet trying to bad mouth you and the shop you work at. Nip that in the bud. Sometimes you will see the stupid ones hesitate a bit when they are going to have to sign that disclaimer. It plants the little seed of doubt that maybe they really don’t know what they are talking about.
The fact the Scotty Kilmer has a You Tube channel and a website is proof that even a fucking moron can dispense bad advice on the internet and make it look like the truth to someone who is ignorant of the facts.
All those examples and you leave out zombies? Now you’ve pissed off the undead (not advisable).
Yes, I remember Y2K. Was pretty drunk with a houseful of people and apparently that’s the night my first kid was conceived. When planes didn’t fall out of the sky and nukes obliterate the earth we kept partying like is was.. well… 1999. I also grew up in the 80’s living in Alaska, where we had our missiles at the ready for the reds who were pointing them right back at us. Of course, the great apocalypse idea behind Harold Camping and the people who believed it had me rolling on the floor laughing. I liked the parental advisory thing too. Hell, I didn’t want to buy a CD that didn’t have an advisory label on it after the fuss those idiots made about it.
I also am in no way shape or form a fan of Fox News. The preach about freedom but it seems they only believe in it if you are a white conservative evangelical Christian who is inherently racist and likes to be told what to think. They also don’t seem to care much about even the most basic things in journalism such as fact checking.
Is there a guarantee that the cars of today will remain available? In the name of environmental protection they could simply require vehicles to meet more stringent tailpipe emissions than the older ones were ever designed to or capable of meeting. Or simply stop making parts. The only reason the aftermarket is allowed to make parts for cars is that they are licensed to do so. For instance, if you own a 6.0 Powerstroke you need to get injectors directly from Ford. You could buy remans from other places but they can’t fully reman them because Ford doesn’t allow it. You see, those solenoids on the injector are made for Ford by Seimens, and the agreement with Seimens means they cannot make them for anyone else. If a different company chose to try reverse engineering them in order to produce them they would be guilty of patent infringement. Now that is simply one component on one engine by one make, my point is that it can be done and the manufacturer is allowed to do so.
The thing is that the door cannot be left open for these companies to go through. By allowing them to be ruled in court that the software in our cars is actually theirs, the door is left open. Hilter didn’t gas 6 million Jews on his second day of office. He wouldn’t have had support to do it. But start chipping away at small things bit by bit, slowly get people to go along with small changes and get used to them, you set the stage for bigger things to happen. Large corporations hire some very bright people whose only job is to figure out how to make the most possible money for the shareholders. Not how to make the best cars, not how to ensure that the owners are happy for a long time, and certainly it is against their best interests for these vehicles to have a long lifespan.
Now I certainly know scanners change. I used to have a generic, then a red brick, then a Solus Pro, then a Modis. Eventually not only do you need a different machine but also Snap On quits supporting updates for earlier machines, rendering them obsolete for newer vehicles. Yes, even my beloved SO does it.
But if they can consider the software theirs, they can also require how it be transmitted. Maybe you have to link up your car to your paypal, allow advertising, everything they want. Look at how some store chain got in trouble for tracking people’s cell phones in their stores to track them and spam them. Our wireless devices are considered fair game by people who will not tell you they are doing it or allow you to stop them, and now they are making cars wireless! There needs to be a clearcut line set that spells out for these companies exactly what they can and cannot do, or they will be sure to do only what is in their best interests.
[quote=”ScorpionFiko” post=135546]Canadian prices are about 2 or 3 times higher than the US ones, so I chuckle a bit when you say it get’s expensive :-). [/quote]
Don’t you guys get your stuff from China just like the US does?
I realize there are no codes. I am asking what readings are in the datastream for the IAT and ECT when compared to ambient and the engine is cold? If the ECM sees a problem it throws a code. If it is getting bad readings but believes them to be right it will make bad decisions.
A 3.1 GM? That’s gravy DIY work. Takes you longer to burp the air out than it does to change the pump. Break loose the pulley bolts first before you pull the belt off. Might want to give it a new belt when going back together. Coolant soaked ones like to be noisy later. Pop off the radiator hose to drain the coolant. After you take the pulley off you can easily see what you need to do. Look at the new pump (which is dirt cheap) and make sure you have all the bolts off. Get all the old gasket crap cleaned off the housing. I like to use a thin layer of black RTV on both sides of the gasket, and I put it on the pump to gasket surface first so while I am working on the rest of it I can let it set up a little. Holds the gasket on in place for you easily. I do mean a thin layer, I’m talking a bead you are rubbing on with your finger. Same thing on the gasket to housing side just before install.
When you go to fill the system, there are 2 bleeders. One up on a black pipe closer to the pump side of the engine. The other is on the thermostat housing. Let them soak in penetrating oil before you try to turn them. You can buy a new bleeder assembly if you break it but try not to get into that spot. If needed a small propane torch can be used to heat it up to help get it open. With both bleeders open, start filling coolant. When steady coolant comes out of a bleeder, close it. Not just little spurts, I mean a solid stream.
Then put the cap on the radiator and run the engine. Let it start getting to temp, cracking the bleeder open and shut to see what you are getting out of it. The one near the pump is the first one to do, the thermostat one is last. Turn your heater on high so you can reach a hand in to feel how much heat you are getting. If there is an air pocket in the heater core it will blow cold. You may need to rev the engine a little to give it the flow surges needed to get the air moved out.
Your vid didn’t show on my POS computer, but I see what you are working with and its an easy one. Good job to get some DIY wrench time in on.
You are already telling them what we are telling them. You can’t do any better than that. Go find a dartboard and where the numbers are write up a bunch of names of car parts. Post one in each spot. Show them the dartboard and tell them if they really hate having money, you will use that to figure out what expensive repair to try next with no guarantee of it working. If it isn’t acting up, everything tests fine. You can’t fix a good running car.
Then you will probably have them come in after doing some Google search and have an answer that some guy who had a 98 Blazer with the same problem put xxxx part in and it fixed it, so that is what’s wrong with her 01 Caravan. Yep, the internet know-it-all whose phone company saw fit to sell a smart phone to a dumb person. When you get those people you need to be very up front and tell them that the odds are way higher that throwing a random part at it will not fix it than that it will. If they choose to proceed and insist that you install the part anyhow it must be very boldly documented on the RO that this is against their best interests and you do not recommend it, nor do you guarantee that this will fix the issue. Highlight this and make them also initial right at the note, not just sign the RO on the bottom. This way when it doesn’t fix the car they cannot ever come back on you in court or something. It is full disclosure at that point.
I try to think of their perspective too. In their eyes, they cannot trust their car. It acts up all the time and they cannot afford to buy a new one. They do not think working on cars is complicated (after all, we just plug in that expensive doohickey to that thing under the dash and it tells us exactly whats wrong). They think when we do not have an answer that we are just not very good at what we do and someone else has the magic bullet. They also do not realize the contradiction between the fact most of them perceive us as shady, deceitful people who do unneeded repairs to steal from them yet also get mad when we tell them we DON’T want to just throw perfectly good parts out in a giant and expensive guess.
If you can convince them that you understand their frustration, but you cannot in good faith change out parts on a hunch and waste their money you have gained some trust. If your shop has a loaner car ask them to leave the car with you. Drive the thing around for a few days. Hell, if you have to take it home with you and use it to commute instead of your car do it. Get as many specifics about when it does it so you can make it misbehave.
Love the story Buod has with the car pulling. Sometimes it is that simple but the clueless customer just can’t wrap their head around it. It makes sense to us but that’s because our brain is tuned to this line of logical thinking and common sense. Its not like the customers are in mensa or anything. They make busses in more than one length for a reason after all.
I don’t know how tight you are with management, but if this is a certain group of people that are always a problem, always bickering and seem to have “ghost” problems in what they drive that nobody else can hear, then the only defect in their car is the loose nut behind the wheel. If they are difficult enough to deal with, it might be better to fire the customer and move on to someone that is a good customer. Firing customers is fun.
Could be airlocked. Pull off the return line and turn on the motor. Are you getting good flow?
Some vehicles are easy to bleed the air out of and some aren’t. Check back over what you did for the line. Easy to get it kinked and not always easy to see at the angle you are at. I like to lift the tires off the ground and turn the wheel lock to lock a few times to try to get the air out. Have had one that just didn’t want to bleed until I drilled out an old reservoir cap and put a nipple in it. Hooked it up to my vacuum bleeding tool and pulled some vacuum on it while the wheel was being turned. That got the pocket out.
There is also a slim chance that the new pump you got was crap out of the box. Was this some Chinese part off e-bay? Need to confirm pressure and flow to confirm or deny the pump being junk but worth looking at.
Once they get to that point it gets expensive. Then again spilling gas is too along with the already mentioned fire hazard. When I end up with cars like this I get a new tank, lock ring, sending unit and build new lines from the tank up to the motor. Once that rust gets in there it leaves very little choice and not much that will come apart nicely.
Be prepared to do brake lines. Once you start moving fuel lines the rusty brake lines are liable to break and as it is if they are crusty you wouldn’t want them. Last thing you need is to have the pedal drop to the floor and end up crashing the car.
I feel your pain. Wisconsin dumps as much salt on the roads as Ontario does and it eats everything.
Do a voltage drop test on the ground wire of the ECM. I had a vehicle once that wouldn’t even run. But when I hooked up my scanner it would. found out that the ECM ground was screwed up and the way it was set up it was finding a way to ground with my scan tool. As you can imagine I did a lot of head scratching before I found it.