fix my car

I never posted about this. :) I was awarded a scholarship for TAM7. This means driving to Las Vegas. I took the car in last March. I don’t like telling people how much things cost because folks on one end, primarily friends and family living in the larger cities, think I’m lucky to have paid so little because I live in Bakersfield where everything’s a lot cheaper, while folks on the other end believe I’m an idiot for paying so much for workign on such an old car when Billy-Joe-Bob down the street would have done it for pocket change. I’m in the middle – I’d rather pay for work that’s warranted, and the same work would have cost double in Oakland. And, I’d rather maintain an old car than replace it and add one to the landfills. :) So I keep the numbers private. Cost is relative to one’s life experiences.

With that said, what is now repaired are all the seals underneath for the oil pan and transmission, all of which were old and deteriorating which was why things were leaking. The transmission was serviced, and the fluids changed. Oil was changed. While they were under there with everything taken apart I told them to call me if they saw anything else that would cause a driving hazard or breakdown in the desert if not repaired. (It’s more labor costs in the long run otherwise.) They called suggesting hose repairs, the heater and radiator hoses. They were both deteriorated to where the fluid was just sweating right through. They also replaced the rear shocks (the car did not have any installed, which I knew when I bought it) and the serpentine belt, which was fraying.

And yes they had all the old parts to show me when I picked up the car the next day. :) I did not keep any of them, I have no use for that stuff, and mechanics have access to toxic waste disposal.

Since picking up the car, I have had no major electrical problems, knock on wood. It is possible that the hot leaking oil was damaging the other parts which is what caused the stalling. Car still needs a tune-up and a valve cover gasket, and once and a while the indicators will blink at strange intervals or the wipers will come on by themselves, but other than that, she’s good for Vegas.

It actually happened during the smog test. I narrowed down, to a small degree, the possible cause of the chronic flat tires. You see, during a smog test in California, they put the pair of wheels which drive the car on a conveyor so that the wheels turn while they rev the engine to measure emissions, as though the car were actually being driven.

During this part of the test, my car’s front wheels were planted motionless on the ground while the rears (because it has rear wheel drive) were on the conveyor. While moving, the whole car began it’s shimmying. So that shimmy that I’ve been talking about since I bought the thing, is in fact happening in the rear axle. (I watched the next car after mine and it had no shimmy, ruling out the conveyor.)

What would cause this? The shimmy kinda feels like a warped rotor when riding in the car. Or if your car has ever had bad alignment or unbalanced tires, it’s like that. It’s particularly noticable at freeway speeds and when braking. But would a warped rotor wear the one tire unevenly and make it go flat?

For having six cylinders, it seems this car ought to have a lot more power than it does, uphill especially.

Fix one thing, something else breaks! LOL Much of this list is actually just maintenance. Not listed in any particular order.

Get new (used) tires all around.

Oil dipstick tube.

Finish the chassis overhaul. I did the ball joints before my Vegas trip, now I need to do the rest.

Driver side door handle.

Driver side arm rest.

Radio. (It didn’t have one when I bought it. Which is ok in a way, everyone’s converting to HD now. It’s not needed in order to drive, but would be cool to fill that hole in the dash with something.)

Radiator flush.

Passenger side lock.

Tailgate lock.

Tune-up.

Oil change.

Smog/register next month.

Figure out, if not also fix, the reason why no matter which rim is on the passenger-rear, that tire always goes flat.

What do you call those things that hold the hatchback window up when you open it? I need to replace those, the window likes to fall on my head.