I blew an axle seal on my truck a couple of weeks ago. A common issue for the brand I drive as the axle vent design is lacking. The vent clogs and the axle builds pressure as it gets hot, can't vent the pressure and it is axle seal time.

While waiting for a new axle seal, Timken bearing and some new non-gear oil soaked parking brake shoes to arrive, I pulled my "extra" car out of semi-retirement to drive for a couple of days.

It has been driven recently, but I have not personally driven it in 2-3 years. That one drive to work and back led to replacing a screaming rear hub bearing and both front lower control arms as the rear bushings in the LCA's had torn and expired.

After doing the LCA's, on my test drive I still had a strange jingling noise in the passenger side front over large bumps even though it otherwise drove pretty much "normal". I also noticed when doing the rear hub that the rear brake pads were pretty worn and the caliper bracket was rusty enough that the inboard pad was pretty much seized in place.

So now I've got a set of rear brake pads on order. I checked the fronts as well and they were also worn enough that I warrantied the pads this morning. It pays to save receipts!

In searching for the remaining noise in the front end I dropped the passenger side front strut Wednesday after work and found about 1/2 of the first coil on the bottom broken off and sitting in the spring cup. So now I'm doing front strut assemblies.

FedEd dropped off the struts this morning and when I dropped the drivers side strut to replace it, it also had a broken piece of coil sitting in the spring cup. Strangely there was also a mangled Snapple cap in there too that must have bounced in off the road.

So now the new struts are installed in the front and I'm replacing the front brake pads. Naturally one of the caliper guide pins is stuck turning a 10 minute job into an hour.

Since the front struts that I just replaced were last changed at the same time as the rears that are still on the car, I check the rear struts while I've got the wheels off and of course they are leaking. Replacement complete rear struts will be here late next week.

While I had the front end up, I also took the front bumper cover off (all four clips for the grille were brittle and broke, naturally) and gave my buddy the Bodyman $20 to buff out a big scuff from a parking lot incident from a couple of years back. Then I remounted the new license plate bracket and front plate I've had since said parking lot incident. While I had that off, I also polished the headlights and sealed them with the Sylvania kit I've had sitting on my workbench for a year or two. Changed the oil and filter as well. Front bumper cover is back on, broken clips replaced and all is well there.

I could easily have gotten away with doing only the rear hub assembly and and oil change in the immediate moment, but a spare car that is not ready to go for a couple of hundred miles at the drop of a hat is useless in my opinion. With that in mind, no Band-Aid repairs, and just bite the bullet and do it all.

To be fair, other than gas and oil, I have not spent much on parts for this car for the last 2-3 years so it really doesn't bother me. Just glad I can do it myself. Would not be worth paying someone to do with parts markup and labor.

On the upside, projects like these really help alleviate the boredom I've had most weekends for the last several months.

Luckily, my parts came in and I fixed my truck and was back on the road last Tuesday allowing me to take my extra car back out of service for the above listed maintenance.

So that is how you turn an $80 job fixing your truck into about a $600 job fixing your "extra" car and from the looks of things, I'll need tires on this car before winter too.......

I'm reminded of RoseAnne RoseAnnaDanna "If it's not one thing, it's another".

quote:

So that is how you turn an $80 job fixing your truck into about a $600 job fixing your "extra" car

Been there . I'm currently dealing with an evap issue in the Suburban that is throwing a code. Lost a fuel pump on the way back from WY last month, and had to pay a wrecker to get us off the highway...and since I was 1000 miles from home and didn't have the tools or a place to do the job, I paid them to change the pump, too. I got raped...$1275 for the tow and the pump...but I didn't really have any other options.

That was painful enough in itself, but now I'm going to have to drop the tank to locate whatever it is that they screwed up and fix it. I hate paying people to do things that I can do myself...especially when I know I could do them better than the people I'm paying .

My extra car has 400,000 miles on it.
I'm not to worried about little noises out of it.
Though it does need tie rod ends but they're not quite gone yet.

Noises don't bother me generally as long as I know what they are. The odd creak or rattle is no big deal.

In this case, I was already deep in and had things apart, might as well change broken and worn parts at that point. The rear bushings on the LCA's being as bad as they were let the toe and to a lesser extent the caster change while driving which made going around corners a little interesting.

There was no ignoring the hub.

I think I still have one original balljoint and the TRE's and CV axles are still the original, though I rebuilt one of them when a boot tore after I did the 2nd clutch job.

I would guess this will be the last brake job and last struts this car ever gets. Sadly, road salt will likely see to that before they wear out again.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

So that is how you turn an $80 job fixing your truck into about a $600 job fixing your "extra" car

Been there . I'm currently dealing with an evap issue in the Suburban that is throwing a code. Lost a fuel pump on the way back from WY last month, and had to pay a wrecker to get us off the highway...and since I was 1000 miles from home and didn't have the tools or a place to do the job, I paid them to change the pump, too. I got raped...$1275 for the tow and the pump...but I didn't really have any other options.

That was painful enough in itself, but now I'm going to have to drop the tank to locate whatever it is that they screwed up and fix it. I hate paying people to do things that I can do myself...especially when I know I could do them better than the people I'm paying .

That sucks. I hate paying people to do things I can do as well, especially when they end up doing a sub par job and I need to clean up behind them.

I also maintain my own personal fleet of cars. Your experience sounds exactly like what happens to me! I've got my 2010 Tahoe daily driver with 117,000 miles, my wife's 1999 4Runner with 207,000 miles, my 1998 K2500 plow truck and my 67 GTO. Not included are my 67 4-4-2 and 69 GTO that haven't seen the road in a few years. My current project is my 1975ish International Harvester Lo Boy tractor that needs a new pilot bearing. It's currently torn apart in my garage. the bearing came in yesterday, so I'll spend Saturday changing that.

It never ends.

WIth da 'rona going on you probably could have rented a Chrysler Imperial for half the cost of repairing the old car

Rear struts are now done, trunk is reassembled and the rear brakes are all back together. Even siliconed the trunk seal while I was in there.

I'd have power bled the brakes too, but the master cylinder cap adapter I ordered for my pressure bleeder showed up and was the wrong item. Correct unit (hopefully) gets here tomorrow. Once I get that settled, the wheels go back on and then it is time to test drive. Hopefully be back on the road tomorrow.

The frustration of having to the job is usually somewhat assuaged by completing it and knowing it's done right. Good work!

Saints be praised!

My master cylinder cap adapter showed up today and was the correct unit. All four calipers are now power bled and I didn't even have any trouble cracking the bleeder screws open for a change.

Wheels are on, lugnuts are torqued and I can finally clean off my workbench from the detritus related to this project.

Test drive tomorrow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: M1Garandy,

Test drive went well, I forgot how much fun this car was to drive when everything was nice and new.

Got a little noise out of one strut as the top nut needed to be just a skosh tighter but that was an easy fix and is now quiet.

Final total for this project:
2X Monroe quick struts - front
2X Monroe quick struts - rear
1X SKF hub assembly - rear
1X Delphi LCA - drivers
1X Delphi LCA - passenger
1X Wagner brake pads - front
1X Wagner brake pads - rear
4X OEM grille brackets
1X trip to my buddy the bodyman
1X bottle of Super Tech DOT 3 brake fluid

All in, about $645 including tax and shipping. I could have spent less, but I don't install no-name off brand parts to save a few bucks and then end up replacing them again because they were cheap garbage and failed. Could have spent a lot more too....

That does not count the Sylvania headlight kit and license plate bracket or the oil, filter or drain plug gasket which I also had in stock or a few misc. fasteners and cotter pins I had on hand.

$80 axle seal job, no problem....

Dropping it off at the dealer tomorrow for an open recall. Ought to be interesting to see what they try and sell me as being worn out/broken/needed besides tires.

quote:

Originally posted by M1Garandy: Dropping it off at the dealer tomorrow for an open recall. Ought to be interesting to see what they try and sell me as being worn out/broken/needed besides tires.

Quoting myself here.

Dropped the car off at the dealer about 7:45AM yesterday morning for the 2nd or 3rd round of Takata passenger airbag recalls. Got the call at about 10AM that the recall was done but there was "an issue".

The vinyl or plether covered foam padded dash started coming apart in chunks when they went to put everything back together.

So, they offered to have their interior guy "fix it" on Monday. Sorry, no. Even though this is a 12 year old car, it is a nice and generally well maintained 12 year old car and you just damaged it at a factory service center doing at least the second replacement of defective/unsafe factory parts. No Band-Aids please.

The dash is showing as still available new and I can buy it for $400, I'm sure dealer cost is less. Please replace with a new factory dash that is undamaged......

I was afraid this was going to happen, so I took pics of the dash before I dropped it off.

I swear it is always something.

After a few phone calls and texts with the dealer and Corporate, I just pulled back into the garage with a brand new dashboard that didn't cost me a dime.

Glad that is over with.

I had a customer bring in his wife's car after his son-in-law did a pad slap on the front brakes. My customer said it sounded like metal on metal. IT WAS! The dip shit son-in-law put BOTH right pads on backwards. The metal backing plates were against the rotor instead of the friction material. It would be funny if the new pads hadn't tore up the rotors.

The wife, daughter, and son-in-law all drove the car and didn't notice any noise. The poor guy had to pay for new rotors, pads and labor for is dip shit son-in-law's screw up. I was worried I'd hear about a murder on the news after work.

quote:

Originally posted by Rotndad:
I had a customer bring in his wife's car after his son-in-law did a pad slap on the front brakes. My customer said it sounded like metal on metal. IT WAS! The dip shit son-in-law put BOTH right pads on backwards. The metal backing plates were against the rotor instead of the friction material. It would be funny if the new pads hadn't tore up the rotors.

The wife, daughter, and son-in-law all drove the car and didn't notice any noise. The poor guy had to pay for new rotors, pads and labor for is dip shit son-in-law's screw up. I was worried I'd hear about a murder on the news after work.

That took some talent.

I have an older cousin that bought a Porsche 944 new off the lot back in the 1980's. It sat for a number of years and as he had no mechanical aptitude at that point. I woke it back up circa 2002 or so and did some minor servicing (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, belts, etc.) on it so it'd make it to his old Porsche mechanic for an age related timing belt service. That was fine, though shortly thereafter it was vandalized to the point the Ins Co totaled it.

Shortly thereafter he replaced it with a used 5 Series BMW. I wasn't around, so he did the front pads and rotors himself and told me how proud of himself he was for doing the job. He said it did not stop real well initially and I asked him why he thought that was. He'd put the CRC Disc Brake Quiet schmoo between the friction material and the rotor rather than the caliper and the steel backing plate of the brake pads.........

I've got a "mission creep" of a sort going on a 2007 Nissan Murano I'm working on. It came in for an engine light on and an intermittent stalling problem. I gave it a quick initial road test, and it wandered all over the place, pulled and "nibbled" at the steering wheel when braking and had a bad pedal pulsation and a sinking pedal. Nothing was ever said about that. For intermittent problems, sometimes extensive road testing is needed, and it wasn't safe to drive, so those problems needed to be fixed first.

The wandering and pulling was from lower ball joints ready to come apart, as well as a badly worn tie rod end. This has been fixed. The brakes had had a "pad slap" on all four corners as well as a rear caliper replaced. I bled the brakes and got air out of - you guessed it - the replaced caliper. The rest of the brakes are still crap. The owner probably got what she paid for, but when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. I'm pretty sure the stalling is from a bad cam sensor.

Currently experiencing it

Took the GTI in for new springs and a thicker rear sway bar. Also a windshield as I caught a major rock the day before I was scheduled to take it in.

Got a call last Wednesday, " um...the bracket holding the rear axle broke when we went to test drive it, it will be a week to get the part...."

But since it happened there it is covered under warranty at least.

quote:

Nissan Murano

Just stop! Anything that butt ugly is bound to bite you repeatedly, you signed up.

quote:

Originally posted by dewhorse:
Currently experiencing it

Took the GTI in for new springs and a thicker rear sway bar. Also a windshield as I caught a major rock the day before I was scheduled to take it in.

Got a call last Wednesday, " um...the bracket holding the rear axle broke when we went to test drive it, it will be a week to get the part...."

But since it happened there it is covered under warranty at least.

You should see my reply in the car salesman thread.

A similar innocuous trip to a dealer for warranty work once resulted in a new 6 speed manual trans, new drivers door gasket, center console lid, painting the entire side of the car, both front fenders and the hood plus a couple of visits with a lawyer.