Helping the shop mechanic diagnose a severe engine de-rate issue on a Freightliner w/ Cummins ISL9 engine. DEF warning lamp flashing and pulled code 1686 for DEF Quality sensor short circuit. Emissions junk failing lol.
What are you working on today?
- Thread starter Amkeer
- Start date
ls1mike
$50 Site Donor 2025
Sunday did the brakes on the wife's Malibu. 68,000 miles.
All GM parts.
Did the rear wheel cylinders on the 1997 K1500. Man, the old ones were leaky and not doing anything. The new ones are AC Delco and what a difference in made in that truck.
All GM parts.
Did the rear wheel cylinders on the 1997 K1500. Man, the old ones were leaky and not doing anything. The new ones are AC Delco and what a difference in made in that truck.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
Worked on my garage door. Bought some white lithium grease and went to town. My rollers are in good shape and got the pin rollers quieted quite a bit. No finger in the ears to preserve your hearing. Ill bet I knocked off 20db. Watched a YouTube video from a professional "handy man" and he was quite detailed showing the spray white lithium grease pushing out the old grease. Tightened all the screws and replaced one missing one on the wooden panels. The most satifactory outcome of a project in quite a while. Its so quiet
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2021
- Messages
- 2,216
Valve cover gasket, lower transaxle mount and an oil change on a 2015 Hyundai Tucson. Later on I went over to a neighbor's house to check a no start condition on his sons 1999 Dodge Ram. They only live a mile and a half away, in the country, so we towed it to my shop with my truck and a chain. I'll be replacing the crank sensor on it tomorrow.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2025
Dealt with this lol. Customer states they have oil leak in driveway and uses two quarts of oil every month. Drain plug had no gasket and was finger tight. I told them about it they said their son changed the oil. Judging by how dirty this car was it’s a wonder you could even know it was oil leaking haha. I spilled a bit of washer fluid and looked down and thought it was like the orange GM coolant or rusty water but it was the dirt falling off this car. They said if it’s not leaking around the filter or drain plug don’t change the oil because we will have the Mitsubishi shop do that. We had to special order a gasket even though Mitsubishi is one of our franchises we don’t stock the copper washer type gaskets for them. Only reason it was dispatched to me is because it was a waiter and the two Mitsubishi guys were busy. I cleaned off the oily area with brake clean and put oil in it and sent it just what the boss said to do lol.
Also done a wheel stud and lug that snapped off on a Subaru Legacy. I was happy to do that because I wanted to use my extra long Husky ratchet it done great. And had to do a complete fuel system flush and somewhat pretty much rebuild a Subaru Forester fuel system had a customer put diesel in it instead of gas. I feel bad for them said they had never had to do it before is what the advisor told me. I thought the diesel nozzles were a different size than gas to prevent that from happening but it’s not all of them that are different sizes I guess. I replaced the plugs, injectors, flushed the fuel tank and used lots of fuel system cleaner, cleaned the lines. I spent practically all day doing that because I got it all together and it still would not fire for anything had to take the plugs back out and clean the ends as they were getting diesel residual on them still. Customer declined new fuel lines, pump or tank otherwise I would of done those too. Finally got it to fire up and then drove it around about 40 miles to make sure everything was good. I had fun doing that when I seen that in my bin and on my computer screen as assigned I was excited lol. They said this is one exception that you can drive it longer than an allowed test drive and you can take it past the test drive route if needed. So even though it kicked my tail a little bit with the plugs I got it done and am happy with it. It will go to the customer tomorrow. Good thing we aren’t flat rate anymore or I probably would of lost money lol. The customer had filled it up and it done ok but run rough then died and would not start back up and they kept cranking it with the diesel in it. So it probably was mixing with the gas at first then the gas completely ran out leaving just the diesel in it is my guess. Just glad the issue is fixed now hopefully.
That was the best day I have had in a long time I love big jobs and we seem to be picking back up so it’s always good news to hear that. Now if we could get certain parts we would be doing excellent.
Did 4 22” tires on a Escalade today. Then a oil pan on a older Hyundai Elantra. Not a bad day. AutoMechanic: we see mudded/ trashed vehicles daily. We send them to be detailed and customer foots the bill 
13 hours of Honda PDI training. Can’t complain as I’m getting paid 
We had a friend come by yesterday and mentioned that his van was leaving a big oil stain on his driveway. I told him that I know exactly what it is without looking at it,….of course I did anyway. Sure enough, visible oil under the intake, all around the filter housing/cooler assembly. It had filled the valley up to the point that it was running down the transmission and down to the bottom side.
He asked if I could help him with it and I told him that I could make time for it. So this is my leisurely Friday morning job.
I tore it all down and got it done, along with the oil change, coolant, etc. in about 2 hours or so. This is with me taking calls and dealing with a few tire kickers at the car lot since I was the only one there today.
I didn’t snap pics of the upper intake and the clean cover when I finished, but they’re there, I did put them back on.
I washed most of the oil off with a heavy degreaser when I was finished.
The victim,…I mean vehicle is a 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan. Cheers!
He asked if I could help him with it and I told him that I could make time for it. So this is my leisurely Friday morning job.
I tore it all down and got it done, along with the oil change, coolant, etc. in about 2 hours or so. This is with me taking calls and dealing with a few tire kickers at the car lot since I was the only one there today.
I didn’t snap pics of the upper intake and the clean cover when I finished, but they’re there, I did put them back on.
I washed most of the oil off with a heavy degreaser when I was finished.
The victim,…I mean vehicle is a 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan. Cheers!
Fabricated an engine stand adapter to mount 6.0/6.4/6.7 PSD to hold engine from the side. Not quite finished, waiting on some 1”x1” round spacers to weld on the holes I drilled, have some extra real estate I have to trim off once the plasma cutter gets repaired as well. Then going to grind all the splatter off and paint it. The square stock is 2.5”, the street is 3/16” plate steel doubled to make 3/8”. I have about 8 hours in this to make it. Everything was cut with a hand held plasma cutter (Miller 625) or a 5” cut off wheel. Only thing I wish I had was a 1” thick torque plate to hold things in position when welding. The welding warped the 3/8” thick plates about 1/8” end to end. Will still work fine though.
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AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2025
Not much today. Had to go to a customers house and clean their driveway as I apparently changed their oil sometime about two weeks ago and it was a Chevy 5.3 engine that has the filter like right directly next to the pan so you can’t get a good grip on the filter to tighten it and it vibrated loose and slightly leaked a little bit. The big boss is a retired Chevy tech and is aware that this is a common issue so he wasn’t mad and was very understanding regardless of who done it. Had to clean up a spot about the size of a baseball. Though I don’t believe I’m the one that done the oil change, someone put my number on it so I’m responsible for it. Not a big deal my boss wasn’t mad or anything he just asked me to pick someone and go clean it up to keep the customer happy. So spent the whole morning driving there and got back just before lunchtime. At least I used the shop truck and not my personal vehicle. After lunch not much of anything for anyone. At my shop after lunch is when we start winding down. We just all stood around and talked about old tv shows we watched growing up lol. We talked about that for probably 2 hours in a circle.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
I have owned many 5.3’s - in fact, two now - have always used the filter wrench to get a bit more turn in them
Never a leak or stuck filter later …
The trick is to have dry hands & a clean filter, Or do as 4WD suggested & use a Cup Socket....Just don't go crazy & overtighten it.
Those nylon filter strap wrenches also work to just snug it a little more.
4L80E-HD rebuild, Unit is a carry-in out of a 2005 Isuzu NPR-HD Roll Back Wreaker, Unit was rebuilt 30,000 miles ago according to the owner.
Forward Drum, O/D Carrier, & Input Shaft trashed because the Bushings weren't changed. All that was done was a Case Bushing & Frictions.
Pump & Pump Gears also trashed.
Customer paid $1,900 for this trash, I'm charging $2,200 & it's getting....
*Good used pump with new gears & Sonnax Boost Valve.
*Durabond Bushings throughout.
*Rollerized Output.
*Rolerized Forward Hub.
*TH400 Intermediate Spring Retainer.
*TH400 Direct Clutch Piston.
*Raybestos HD Waffle Graphite Frictions (Allison 545 Style) in the Forward, Direct, & Intermediate clutch.
*Borg Warner OE Overrun & O/D Frictions & Lo/Reverse Band.
*Sonnax TCC Regulator Valve.
*3rd & 4th Accumulator delete plate.
*New Separator Plate.
*Blueprinted End-play & clutch clearances.
*All new Borg Warner Sprag & Roller Clutches.
*New Delco Solenoids.
*Rostra Internal Harness as the OE one was leaking at the connector.
Got it stacked to the Direct Drum, I'll get it buttoned up tomorrow.
Forward Drum, O/D Carrier, & Input Shaft trashed because the Bushings weren't changed. All that was done was a Case Bushing & Frictions.
Pump & Pump Gears also trashed.
Customer paid $1,900 for this trash, I'm charging $2,200 & it's getting....
*Good used pump with new gears & Sonnax Boost Valve.
*Durabond Bushings throughout.
*Rollerized Output.
*Rolerized Forward Hub.
*TH400 Intermediate Spring Retainer.
*TH400 Direct Clutch Piston.
*Raybestos HD Waffle Graphite Frictions (Allison 545 Style) in the Forward, Direct, & Intermediate clutch.
*Borg Warner OE Overrun & O/D Frictions & Lo/Reverse Band.
*Sonnax TCC Regulator Valve.
*3rd & 4th Accumulator delete plate.
*New Separator Plate.
*Blueprinted End-play & clutch clearances.
*All new Borg Warner Sprag & Roller Clutches.
*New Delco Solenoids.
*Rostra Internal Harness as the OE one was leaking at the connector.
Got it stacked to the Direct Drum, I'll get it buttoned up tomorrow.
Yep, you can’t get a good grip on those filters stuck up in that little “corner”. I always have one of those red “grease rags” under there with me to grab the filter for that final turn. The rag gives me the extra grip on what oil filter surface I can grab and then I wipe the area clean with it after.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Yessir - I’m not a glove guy and have to go in the backyard to wash up - but have a nice T handle good for GM, the Pentastar, and the Lexus turbo …
That's Dex III in an Impreza.
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2021
- Messages
- 2,216
You mean atf in the brake cylinder? Just waiting for the next thread "just flush it out a couple of times it will be fine" LOL.