What are you working on today?
- Thread starter Amkeer
- Start date
Cleaned up my garage, now my wife can actually walk around her car 
Needs more jerry cans!Cleaned up my garage, now my wife can actually walk around her car
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Well done. How long before the rest of the family fills it back up for you?
My gut wants more cans, my mind says since we swapped my wifes car for an EV, we need less. Who knows who's right! just don't tell the city!
It doesn't really cost me anything to have 72 gallons of gas on hand, and it never hurts
Just me and the wife, and its usually me making the mess
It doesn't really cost me anything to have 72 gallons of gas on hand, and it never hurts
Just me and the wife, and its usually me making the mess
Still working on a power steering pump replacement on a 2008 Ford Focus. I've been working on it intermittently since Wednesday and finally got it done tonight only to have the high-pressure line leaking. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I think I had it tight enough but who knows. It is supposed to be torqued to 45 ft lbs but I don't have any way to torque a nut that is on a line.
First of all, Ford uses a Teflon seal on this line which is a one-time use seal and requires a special tool to install. Of course, no one has one and I discovered it is super expensive online. I found a hack on Youtube where a guy uses the lid of a larger oil sharpie pen to slide the seal on. You have to cut off the piece that attaches to a pocket and smooth it down. It worked great and I got the seal on with no problem.
The other issue with this install is that you have to remove the pressed-on pulley on the pump to remove the high-pressure line because there is no room to easily get a wrench on it with it installed. Getting the serpentine belt off has to be done from below since there is not room to do it from the top which means removing a plastic cover underneath.
So tomorrow I'm going to have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to this line again and replace the seal again even though I have no idea why it's leaking. It seems like nothing ever goes right when I work on stuff these days.
First of all, Ford uses a Teflon seal on this line which is a one-time use seal and requires a special tool to install. Of course, no one has one and I discovered it is super expensive online. I found a hack on Youtube where a guy uses the lid of a larger oil sharpie pen to slide the seal on. You have to cut off the piece that attaches to a pocket and smooth it down. It worked great and I got the seal on with no problem.
The other issue with this install is that you have to remove the pressed-on pulley on the pump to remove the high-pressure line because there is no room to easily get a wrench on it with it installed. Getting the serpentine belt off has to be done from below since there is not room to do it from the top which means removing a plastic cover underneath.
So tomorrow I'm going to have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to this line again and replace the seal again even though I have no idea why it's leaking. It seems like nothing ever goes right when I work on stuff these days.
14 Forester, 133K.
Drain and refill CVT fluid. 5.5 qt of Genuine Subaru CVTF-II went in. This was the second service - the first one was done at 93K.
Apparently the transmission has been displaying signs of valve body failure for the last year or so (shudder upon takeoff, a/t temp warning light, etc.) but one day, the symptoms miraculously disappeared. So far they have not returned, even after servicing the fluid.
I tried to be a decent human being by leveling the trans before performing the fluid level check at 95F. And yes I did a better job of leveling after taking that picture.
While the car was here I also upsold a free oil change and tire rotation, because why not…
Drain and refill CVT fluid. 5.5 qt of Genuine Subaru CVTF-II went in. This was the second service - the first one was done at 93K.
Apparently the transmission has been displaying signs of valve body failure for the last year or so (shudder upon takeoff, a/t temp warning light, etc.) but one day, the symptoms miraculously disappeared. So far they have not returned, even after servicing the fluid.
I tried to be a decent human being by leveling the trans before performing the fluid level check at 95F. And yes I did a better job of leveling after taking that picture.
While the car was here I also upsold a free oil change and tire rotation, because why not…
I have been working on this car since Tuesday. This is my fiancé's son's car. He hit a deer at 3am on that day and busted out the passenger side headlight, broke the grill, bent the fender and hood and broke off the rest of the passenger side bumper that was already destroyed from him hitting things several times in the past.Such has been my experience....I usually don't post the details of my jobs I do but most times there's some sort of issue.
I went to the pick n pull to just get a headlight and ended up finding an entire bumper that was intact so I got all of that as well. Spent the rest of the day pulling off the rest of the bumper, headlight, grill, and bending back the fender and hood as best as I could.
Spent most of the day Wednesday putting that all on. The power steering pump had been making noise for a while, but it was really loud and louder than the last time I had seen the car. Fiancé decides we should replace the pump, so he doesn't break down and so here we are. I'm tired of messing with this thing and it's all free labor so I'm not too happy. They say no good deed goes unpunished and this is a perfect example of that. I told her that if this line leaks again, I'm done with it, and she will have to take it somewhere so someone else can deal with it.
I feel the same way sometimes. Take a look at my earlier post.
Looks like you did way more work than I'm doing. I have worked on this car many times in the 4.5 years that he has owned it. He doesn't take care of anything and has beat this poor car to death. He definitely is a moocher and always calls us when he has car problems because even though he is 22 years old, he is not a problem solver or critical thinker.
Funny, I did the same ~4 years ago for my non-profit
That's an antler hole in passenger door-- "NOT A JOKE!"
New mirror, door, fender, hood, grille, core support, radiator and headlight. It went back together surprisingly well. Salvaged the bumper valance.
Had a local indy body guy repaint the new panels to match for $375
edit: I also took the opportunity to order little things like the clip that holds the hood prop rod when stored (always breaks) and new washer pump and reservoir
Very similar damage to his other than yours looks a little more serious. His fender is only slightly bent and only the lip of the hood was curled under. No damage to the core support, mirror, radiator, or coolant reservoir. The door has minor damage where the fender went into it, but the door still opens. I just bent the fender back in and uncurled the lip of the hood with some pliers. His car is gray and the bumper I bought is silver so while it doesn't match, its good enough for him. We are not having it painted. I'm sure he will have it torn up anyway.
This car was hit about three years ago in the left quarter panel and insurance totaled it out. We bought it back for $900 and had the bent suspension fixed because it still had fairly low mileage, ran well, and at that time, used cars were very expensive and it was hard to find decent ones. The bodywork was not fixed since the front bumper was partially torn up back then from hitting a stop sign. He doesn't take care of anything, so we are doing the minimal work to get it back on the road.
Agreed.
For the most part I've found '08-11 to be easy to work on and they're quite reliable.
Watch the plastic coolant manifold on driver side of engine bay, they eventually get the classic condition of the plastic walls that house the seals collapsing, and then a major coolant leak.
I've seen two of these pop up here with manual transmissions, and if I had any use for a car I'd be all over that for a beater daily driver.
Yes, this car has been pretty reliable. We bought it from some friends with 89,000 miles and it now has about 173,000 miles on it. I had to do a valve cover gasket, spark plugs, and coil boots when he first got it. Plug wells were full of oil from the valve cover gasket and it had a misfire. We did have to put a steering rack in it due to leaks a couple of years ago and two thermostats after the first replacement failed. The driver's side door latch also had to be replaced a couple of years ago. Other than that, it's been pretty reliable.
I will keep an eye on the coolant manifold. Thanks.
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The circulator pump on my hydronic heating system bit the dust, so I ordered some parts and got to work replacing the pump, automatic air vent for the boiler, and boiler relief valve. After I bled the system, it fired right up and ran like a top.
Old pump
New pump (yes, it's right side up)
New air vent
Old pump
New pump (yes, it's right side up
)New air vent
Installed a K&N oil filter on the Ford for the first time,
I usually use Mobil1 oil filters and 20k miles EP oil, changing it out at 10k mile intervals.
Hopefully it flows and filters long intervals.
What do you think?
I usually use Mobil1 oil filters and 20k miles EP oil, changing it out at 10k mile intervals.
Hopefully it flows and filters long intervals.
What do you think?