What are you working on today?

[BrianF]

@D60 Its ridiculous, really. At the very minimum, those cheap bstards at Chrysler or whatever they call themselves these days, could have at least used some sort of rust inhibitor. Or, dare I say, take a page from GM (im not a gm fan boy) and have the stub shaft internal, so its oil bathed and the outer diameter of the cv shaft rides inside a seal. This is the method my old Trailblazer uses and by god the stupid things pop out when you need them to.

Ok, I'll end my ranting, I'd end up yelling around about fords and such.

This evening I'll do the transfer case on the 1500 classic, I picked up some Co-op ATF SL for this. I also plan on rolling the jeep in to do a once over of the brakes and a bleed.

We jokingly call the jeep, "Yeep." As in how a simple minded folk would try to say it. I told a young guy I work with it is said how he would pronounce it when he was a kid, if he was maybe deprived of oxygen.

 

[wander2039]

Did a clean up-evaluation of the 86. Not seeing any broken bolts in the timing cover but one was broke in the thermostat housing. Maybe I just wasn’t smart enough to use a puller for the harmonic balancer, back before YouTube. Next steps is pull that off , dump some ATF down the cylinders, and see if I can pull the oil pan to change the gasket. Might turn it over via a key to lube up the cylinder walls. Will need a new timing chain and cover, have to look if any bolt kits are out there. Had a USA made Puralator and fairly new, too bad mice got to it. Think I’ll go with the black steelie and white letter 225/75/15’s look.

 

[D60]

Did a clean up-evaluation of the 86. Not seeing any broken bolts in the timing cover but one was broke in the thermostat housing. Maybe I just wasn’t smart enough to use a puller for the harmonic balancer, back before YouTube. Next steps is pull that off , dump some ATF down the cylinders, and see if I can pull the oil pan to change the gasket. Might turn it over via a key to lube up the cylinder walls. Will need a new timing chain and cover, have to look if any bolt kits are out there. Had a USA made Puralator and fairly new, too bad mice got to it. Think I’ll go with the black steelie and white letter 225/75/15’s look.
View attachment 335319
View attachment 335320
View attachment 335321

I didn't realize '86 was still v-belt. If it works out would be cool to find an '87+ FEAD to gain serp. Bonus points for E-series to get a Sag

 

[meep]

1 quart each amsoil 20w-50 hydrostatic transmission oil into the entry level units in my little ariens zoom 34 ZTR. This is there second change in 13 years. I can’t remember what I used last time, it was some 50 weight synthetic, but the amsoil juice is Great. They are smooth and notably quieter. @Pablo.

Being more of an entry level machine, the old lubricant was suctioned out the top; no drains to work with.

 

[D60]

2020 Land Rover Defender: rear brakes

I used a DFC kit from RA which seemed nice. As is increasingly common with all makes these days -- and especially so with boutique marques like LR -- there's three different possible rear rotor diameters

I found an online site that broke down the VIN and it was incredibly comprehensive right down to front and rear brake size.

During assembly my Spidey sense said something was weird about how the rotor center hole interfaced with the axle shaft register. Indeed, OEM was flush:

The DFC rotors sit proud:

I measured wall thickness and OEM is about 99 thou!! That's like 12ga sheetmetal for your rotor hat, folks. Or, in metric world 2.5mm.

OTOH the DFC rotors were 236 thou, which of course is 6mm. Some cursory measurements from WMS to rotor face suggested the braking surfaces were in the same place, so I guess you effectively get ~1/8" wheel spacers.

It drove great with no noises, so ok.

The pads use an adhesive on the backer, which honestly seems like a high schooler's solution for anti-rattle clips. OEM uses this, too, just with fancy Land Rover logos. I peeled the 3M film off once installed:

The OEM axles are apparently GKN @slacktide_bitog :

The rear diff is Dana, so that's good:

@RooflessVW

 

[BrianF]

I burnt a few hours today going through the Grand Cherokee L. Its a 2021 with what, 84,000km maybe.

Started on the rear brakes. Came apart easy enough. Used antiseize on the rotor hats, bled the brakes and lubed the slide pins. Everything looked good overall. I pulled one ABS sensor and found they are external from the bearing. Ok, not an issue.

The fronts started easy, until I found both side lower pins were almost seized in. I managed to smack them out using vice grips and a hammer. Thankfully caught them early and they cleaned up fine. Everything buttoned up and I went to pull it out.

Ok, so, as my world turns, the service stability control message was now displayed. I had used the parking brake retract and I played a but more with that but no dice. The e brake sounds like it is functioning fine. A test drive showed the ABS was still functioning. I'll do a battery reset and then move onto rechecking any wires I may have touched and whether that ABS sensor is not seated correctly. If nothing, it has some warranty left.

 

[ripcord]

I just did a no parts, carb cleaner carb rebuild on my Husky weed whacker. Running good again.

My 20 year old Dolmar just keeps in going. The only thing I've ever had to do to it was replace the fuel lines. If it only has just a little more oomph.

 

[zhaarnak02]

@D60 Its ridiculous, really. At the very minimum, those cheap bstards at Chrysler or whatever they call themselves these days, could have at least used some sort of rust inhibitor. Or, dare I say, take a page from GM (im not a gm fan boy) and have the stub shaft internal, so its oil bathed and the outer diameter of the cv shaft rides inside a seal. This is the method my old Trailblazer uses and by god the stupid things pop out when you need them to.

Ok, I'll end my ranting, I'd end up yelling around about fords and such.

This evening I'll do the transfer case on the 1500 classic, I picked up some Co-op ATF SL for this. I also plan on rolling the jeep in to do a once over of the brakes and a bleed.

We jokingly call the jeep, "Yeep." As in how a simple minded folk would try to say it. I told a young guy I work with it is said how he would pronounce it when he was a kid, if he was maybe deprived of oxygen.

But, but, That would be about .002 cents per stub shaft, multiplied by "X" (quantity of stub shafts per vehicle), multiplied by "Y" (quantity of vehicles produced, giving the shareholders "Z" (a cash surplus that they can invest in their private estates, located on their private island) I find it hard to believe that other people would be so callous in depriving them of their just rewards for all the stress and hard work that they put in.............

 

[wander2039]

Decompression valve went out in one of the riders. Swapped the 17.5 with the 17.5 in the parts mower. Easy peasy 3hrs ish and didn’t know what I was doing… Not sure this one is much better but hopefully last a season.

 

[BrianF]

@zhaarnak02 bingo!!!!!! You win a toaster!!

Ok crew, after some more reading, seems these new fangled Jeeps will throw random abs, esc and brake codes after a service.

I'll note a few observations that I did not add prior as I did not have context. When bleeding the system, I had the master cylinder cap off, started a gravity bleed which was flowing nice. I went and pumped the brakes slowly, which had weird pedal feel. It did not work as no extra fluid came out. I continued to gravity bleed successfully.

On test drive, I said the abs was functioning, well there was the telltale pulsing. This was on our dirt driveway. What I see now is the brakes were very weak, feeling as if only the backs were working.

Upon reading into this, these faults "may" clear themselves or I may need the dealer to do some sort of reset. Great.

 

[D60]

The '20 Land Rover Defender returned due to a knocking noise. I had briefly noticed this on my test drive after brake work yesterday but it seemed to subside and I don't like looking for problems -- especially on a Land Rover!!

Anyway, I HAD checked the oil yesterday while I had the hood up, and I thought it looked "weird" ....but somehow the oil level seemed ok and I left well-enough alone. I'll often check oil on customers' vehicles if I have the hood open because we know so few people monitor this.

For the Land Rover I was afraid of timing chains as they're apparently infamous, even on the new Ingenium engines. However I was able to find no noise at the rear of the engine where the timing chains live

The noise seems to be primarily from the valve cover. I smelled the oil -- smells like gas This would also explain why I thought the oil looked "weird"

I said the first thing we should just TRY is an oil change. Got about 12.5 qts from a 9.3 qt sump! Yikes! Was there three quarts of gasoline in there??

The owner couldn't seem to pin down when the last oil change was. Apparently LR recos intervals of 15-20k miles, which we all know is dumb. This one may have been 11k ago. Maybe. But she can't be sure.

Refilled with 5W30 rather than 0W20 and the noise seems a little better, but still there.

I kicked it out the door because the owner actually uses a second shop which may be willing to open up the top end of a Rover motor. Seems like a potential can of worms to me. Can you even get individual lifters or camshafts for these? Can you even get a complete head in a reasonable time?

@GMBoy do you have any experience with oil dilution on the 2.0/3.0 gassers in this newer platform? Apparently the 3.0 diesel is notorious, but that's not this.

@RooflessVW

 

[GMBoy]

The '20 Land Rover Defender returned due to a knocking noise. I had briefly noticed this on my test drive after brake work yesterday but it seemed to subside and I don't like looking for problems -- especially on a Land Rover!!

Anyway, I HAD checked the oil yesterday while I had the hood up, and I thought it looked "weird" ....but somehow the oil level seemed ok and I left well-enough alone. I'll often check oil on customers' vehicles if I have the hood open because we know so few people monitor this.

For the Land Rover I was afraid of timing chains as they're apparently infamous, even on the new Ingenium engines. However I was able to find no noise at the rear of the engine where the timing chains live

The noise seems to be primarily from the valve cover. I smelled the oil -- smells like gas This would also explain why I thought the oil looked "weird"

I said the first thing we should just TRY is an oil change. Got about 12.5 qts from a 9.3 qt sump! Yikes! Was there three quarts of gasoline in there??View attachment 335564

The owner couldn't seem to pin down when the last oil change was. Apparently LR recos intervals of 15-20k miles, which we all know is dumb. This one may have been 11k ago. Maybe. But she can't be sure.

Refilled with 5W30 rather than 0W20 and the noise seems a little better, but still there.

I kicked it out the door because the owner actually uses a second shop which may be willing to open up the top end of a Rover motor. Seems like a potential can of worms to me. Can you even get individual lifters or camshafts for these? Can you even get a complete head in a reasonable time?

@GMBoy do you have any experience with oil dilution on the 2.0/3.0 gassers in this newer platform? Apparently the 3.0 diesel is notorious, but that's not this.

@RooflessVW

I have not experienced or heard of that but then again I mostly see the Sport models (3.0 and 5.0 SC gas motors) and the little Evoque models lately. The 2 defenders we see don't have the issue. You did right by skipping on that can of worms!

 

[AutoMechanic]

Only picture I have but had to do a A/C condenser in a 2020 Highlander today. I diagnosed it last Friday and didn’t get to fix it till today because I’ve been so busy but also didn’t have the part till Wednesday once we finally got it approved through extended warranty. Screwed me on the time but at least it’s done and going to be gone Monday. It normally pays 4.6 hours if customer pay for the condenser but warranty company said absolutely not and said 2 hours for the repair and .7 for the diagnosis and no pay for the evac and recharge with dye because it’s included with the diagnosis. My boss was able to talk an extra two tenths into them because they wanted to only do 2.5 and he said no you can do better than that they said they can’t approve over 2.7 so it’s 2.7 take it or leave it. Thankfully customer was ok with leaving it for a bit. Also doing the recall for the passenger airbag may not deploy on it as well as an oil change which everything is already done just have to finish out the RO and send it out on Monday. I lost my tail on the condenser but warranty times never work in favor of a flat rate tech. That means next week is catch up week so I’ll be staying at the shop working till about 8 or 9 because I want to hit my 100 hour goal and get $450 on my check like I do every pay period lol. Honestly I’ve never replaced a condenser in a modern car and I couldn’t believe how complicated they are nowadays lol.

Also had a Prius C that I diagnosed last Thursday that they left there it was a coolant leak diagnosis but had no leaks when put under pressure so tested a good radiator cap and same problem then found a very thin hairline crack in the filler neck and the customer requested to go ahead and replace the cap and the small hose as well so did that. It took about 5 days to get the filler neck because it was on back order.

 

[D60]

I have not experienced or heard of that but then again I mostly see the Sport models (3.0 and 5.0 SC gas motors) and the little Evoque models lately. The 2 defenders we see don't have the issue. You did right by skipping on that can of worms!

Thanks man. Also allegedly these motors are well known for oil consumption, so the really scary version is that it's been burning oil but "refilling" the crankcase with gas. But of course I have no proof it's been burning oil.

I did pull a sample and will send off for UOA

Oh, and she got the vehicle from Carvana with about 50k freedom. Now at 61k. But I gotta wonder if it hit the used market and got effectively laundered through Carvana because someone knew something was going south. Maybe not, but I'd never buy a boutique badge from Carvana or Carmax etc

 

[clinebarger]

2012 Chevy 2500HD L96/6L90 with 280,000 miles. Engine is worn out.....60% leakdown on cylinders 1-7 & 100% leakdown on #8.

Got a used L96 coming from a wreaking yard Monday & I'll check it out, Picture of #8......

 

[wander2039]

After done with the motor transplant sharpened all the blades on the mowers.. 4. Then smoothed the edge on the brush hog. Did a hour of mowing to test things. After that tractor things.. tilled the garden area. Fitted the 3 point hitch and ripper. Ripped a couple lines for potatoes, watermelon and broccoli. Hoping we’ll get volunteer tomatoes from some I buried last fall. Kinda late but maybe get something. Sunflowers tomorrow and tree transplanting. Took a couple days off work to come down for extra time, feeling pretty accomplished so far.

 

[RooflessVW]

Thanks man. Also allegedly these motors are well known for oil consumption, so the really scary version is that it's been burning oil but "refilling" the crankcase with gas. But of course I have no proof it's been burning oil.

I did pull a sample and will send off for UOA

Oh, and she got the vehicle from Carvana with about 50k freedom. Now at 61k. But I gotta wonder if it hit the used market and got effectively laundered through Carvana because someone knew something was going south. Maybe not, but I'd never buy a boutique badge from Carvana or Carmax etc

Has this Defender had the recall performed?

 

[Trav]

The '20 Land Rover Defender returned due to a knocking noise. I had briefly noticed this on my test drive after brake work yesterday but it seemed to subside and I don't like looking for problems -- especially on a Land Rover!!

Anyway, I HAD checked the oil yesterday while I had the hood up, and I thought it looked "weird" ....but somehow the oil level seemed ok and I left well-enough alone. I'll often check oil on customers' vehicles if I have the hood open because we know so few people monitor this.

For the Land Rover I was afraid of timing chains as they're apparently infamous, even on the new Ingenium engines. However I was able to find no noise at the rear of the engine where the timing chains live

The noise seems to be primarily from the valve cover. I smelled the oil -- smells like gas This would also explain why I thought the oil looked "weird"

I said the first thing we should just TRY is an oil change. Got about 12.5 qts from a 9.3 qt sump! Yikes! Was there three quarts of gasoline in there??View attachment 335564

The owner couldn't seem to pin down when the last oil change was. Apparently LR recos intervals of 15-20k miles, which we all know is dumb. This one may have been 11k ago. Maybe. But she can't be sure.

Refilled with 5W30 rather than 0W20 and the noise seems a little better, but still there.

I kicked it out the door because the owner actually uses a second shop which may be willing to open up the top end of a Rover motor. Seems like a potential can of worms to me. Can you even get individual lifters or camshafts for these? Can you even get a complete head in a reasonable time?

@GMBoy do you have any experience with oil dilution on the 2.0/3.0 gassers in this newer platform? Apparently the 3.0 diesel is notorious, but that's not this.

@RooflessVW

Not sure but this appears to use this style HPFP these are prone to leaking fuel into the oil and also can make knocking noises from the vacuum pump if it is driven off it and follower inside. This is a common failure on all engines that use this style hpfp.

 

[D60]

Not sure but this appears to use this style HPFP this uses are prone to leaking fuel into the oil and also can make knocking noises from the vacuum pump if it is driven off it and follower inside. This is a common failure on all engines that use this style hpfp.
View attachment 335652

Thanks Trav! Funny because I almost mentioned it had a P26CB-72 which is apparently for the "aux" fuel pump. I also found noticeable knocking at the valve cover and at the the FEAD on the passenger side. I wasn't sure what to make of it and honestly couldn't tell exactly which accessory I was near and I convinced myself lifter noise was just traveling through something somehow.

I was about to pull the belts and then briefly start it, but it looks as though the fan and shroud has gotta come out to service the belt? In the end I decided to kick it but now I wish I had pulled the belts!

edit: will it fire with no HPFP?

 

[Trav]

It may fire but run like crap, the VW EA888 will but I cant say about the LR. Worth a try.