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Yes gloves, all the time, changed out frequently, buy my own.
The dirtiness isn’t what bothers me, it’s the chemicals, oils, and road crud that causes my cuticles and knuckles to shred apart and bleed not long after working on anything anymore. I work on my own cars in my garage and take “hand” breaks with a fan to dry them out because that’s the only negative I have with using them any longer. I’ve long since gotten used to handling near anything, small or that will catch and tear the gloves, and it’s really just a learning curve that once you get used to you don’t think about or become annoyed with.
I know from experience that for the past 15 years now the chain retail store employed commercial asset guys who went to any and all shops that work on cars and offered “discounts” and “deals” on sourcing parts through them effectively killing other distributors, and even taking over “in house” parts/replacement procurement.
On top of that I worked a year in one of these stores in the late 90’s when this was starting, and in these stores, the pay, benefits, and part training was top notch. Two years ago I went back to work at the same chain (left on good terms in the past) for part time work, and it’s a whole different atmosphere in there. Minimum wage only to start, always have to push lucas, bulb grease, etc.. and saw guys LIE to customers to push these over priced packets because store metrics require they meet a minimum sold of each type in order for the store to be considered “performing” well. No more parts training, NO benefits to working at all. Revolving door of kids who only know how to work on their one type of (beater) car they drive with no experience in anything else, and it was a revolving door of “sales associates”. I lasted 3 months before I called BS and walked.
Now I cannot stand to walk into these places, they’re clueless from floor guys to managers and if you receive the wrong thing it’s like pulling teeth to get it returned and get the correct item. Makes my blood pressure go up considerably when I resort to walking into these places.
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=95342]
window regulator issue (window wont go up or down.)
your windows not going up or down, GM window regulators are natorious for failure, too prevent this try avoiding the window regulators as much as possible during the winter after you just got done scraping the windows off, this is what commonly kills the regulators, when they are killed replace them usually the motor burns out or gears get stripped, and replacing them should fix the issue…
[/quote]Great write-up, but wanted to add something to this part.
This all relates to the 4-Door versions of the cars mentioned in the write up.
On the front windows small white clips that hook onto the cables controlled by the regulators will break. One breaking will cause the window to cant (go crooked) when operated. If both break the window will fall into the door itself. Replacement clips are much more inexpensive than a regulator replacement and can be found at most auto parts places.
Here is an example of these clips:
The rear windows on these same 4-door style will fail in a similar fashion, except it’s the cable guides that will break first. With the design being different than the front this means they will require total regulator system replacement.
Here is an example of the rear regulator with all 3 possible fail points marked:
Almost all the regulators for these cars come with tracks, cables, mountings, ie: the works as seen in the pic above. If your regulator still operates but doesn’t move the windows some of these systems can be rigged or repaired to work depending on the type of failure without needing an all new regulator system.
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=95342]
window regulator issue (window wont go up or down.)
your windows not going up or down, GM window regulators are natorious for failure, too prevent this try avoiding the window regulators as much as possible during the winter after you just got done scraping the windows off, this is what commonly kills the regulators, when they are killed replace them usually the motor burns out or gears get stripped, and replacing them should fix the issue…
[/quote]Great write-up, but wanted to add something to this part.
This all relates to the 4-Door versions of the cars mentioned in the write up.
On the front windows small white clips that hook onto the cables controlled by the regulators will break. One breaking will cause the window to cant (go crooked) when operated. If both break the window will fall into the door itself. Replacement clips are much more inexpensive than a regulator replacement and can be found at most auto parts places.
Here is an example of these clips:
The rear windows on these same 4-door style will fail in a similar fashion, except it’s the cable guides that will break first. With the design being different than the front this means they will require total regulator system replacement.
Here is an example of the rear regulator with all 3 possible fail points marked:
Almost all the regulators for these cars come with tracks, cables, mountings, ie: the works as seen in the pic above. If your regulator still operates but doesn’t move the windows some of these systems can be rigged or repaired to work depending on the type of failure without needing an all new regulator system.
I’ve tried pulling codes with a unit that does ABS and didn’t get anything. But this (ABS light deal) happened before my inspection and re-bleed yesterday. After all that work yesterday I got the car out after midnight and drove the hell out of the car and braked super hard and wasn’t getting any more ABS light on. But one of the things that did bother me was that the way under a year old fluid coming out of the car’s brake system yesterday sure was dark GREEN. It’s funny how I drove the car daily for so long with it acting like a new car, park it for 3 months and now that and a few other strange issues are popping up.
Ugh, it’s starting to look like I’m going to just part out this car instead of selling it whole. There’s a few Grand Am and Alero clubs around that would probably take the engine and brake parts and w/e else off me and I’ll just junk the body. It can join the other 3-4 dozen Alero’s/Grand Ams at the local yard close to me. These cars don’t really scream quality on much of the parts.
I’ve tried pulling codes with a unit that does ABS and didn’t get anything. But this (ABS light deal) happened before my inspection and re-bleed yesterday. After all that work yesterday I got the car out after midnight and drove the hell out of the car and braked super hard and wasn’t getting any more ABS light on. But one of the things that did bother me was that the way under a year old fluid coming out of the car’s brake system yesterday sure was dark GREEN. It’s funny how I drove the car daily for so long with it acting like a new car, park it for 3 months and now that and a few other strange issues are popping up.
Ugh, it’s starting to look like I’m going to just part out this car instead of selling it whole. There’s a few Grand Am and Alero clubs around that would probably take the engine and brake parts and w/e else off me and I’ll just junk the body. It can join the other 3-4 dozen Alero’s/Grand Ams at the local yard close to me. These cars don’t really scream quality on much of the parts.