Ever have one of those situations where you’re making yourself crazy or stressed over an issue then suddenly a light bulb goes off in your head and BAM, you try what popped into your head and that was the solution? Then you go “could it really be that easy?”

I have an old Mazda5 which has van-like sliding doors on it. They started getting balky on me last year, hard to close and not cooperative.

I looked up the fix which was to replace the door rollers and after that they were fine. Over the past couple of weeks, the doors have suddenly developed another issue where they basically will not stay latched shut after I shut them, like the mechanism won’t stay latched shut. I’ve been having them pop open on me while driving and have had to more or less force them shut with a lot of force.

It’s gotten to the point where I don’t feel safe with my kids in the car when I do have them there and I’m about to take it to the Mazda dealer and I know they are going to charge a fortune to even look at it.

Then last night it hit me: LUBE!

I walked out with a can of WD-40 and sprayed all of the latching mechanism and parts I could see and also the closing mechanism really well. Let it sit for a few minutes and then push the door shut and it cleanly closed and latched with no effort whatsoever. DOHHH!!! Could it be that easy? Apparently so.

I plan to pick up some lithium grease and hit them again because I know the WD-40 is only a temporary measure. But it’s good to know that’s what I needed.

Have any of you ever had a situation like this?

Had an F150 lightning (old school SVT one) and the cigarette lighter port died (used as a charging port not for a cigarette lighter but that wouldn’t work either).

I went to the Ford dealer and got a new port/part. It was like 5 bucks. I asked casually how much they would charge to install for me. They said something like 1500 bucks, maybe a little less but it was astronomical in comparison to the part. I scoffed and said I’ll do it myself. He smiled and said “you’ll be back”. Pffft says I.

Well let me tell you getting the sucker pulled and changed basically required tearing down to the firewall. I was starting to think their charge was a bargain. Well I am basically a day into doing this and figure I will finish the next day. I go to bed.

At 4:12 in the morning I literally heard a voice say “check the fuse asshole!” I sat bolt upright in bed. Got up, went to the garage in my boxers and ………it was the God damn fuse!!! While I had done a fair bit of work I had more to do and this actually saved me some headache.

I am convinced some dead relative or friend was watching from the beyond and finally had enough of my stupidity and “broke through to our side” so to speak.

I loaned my brother a pickup truck long term. He had it for a month and then said it was running bad. Wouldn’t idle. No power. I drove to his house, set up my tools and was prepared for a couple of hours in the cold to figure it all out. I opened the hood and took one look. Could it be that easy? Yep. I re attached a vacuum hose and started it right up. Didn’t even put a tool in my hand. He had accidentally unplugged it while checking the oil. He’s not mechanically inclined so he didn’t recognize what was wrong.

Yep, several women that I was going to marry. An epiphany happened each time. “You don’t have to do this! You can say fuck this and never deal with this bullshit aggravation again!” That’s just what I did. Been happy ever since! Never seen a divorce judge. Never had to pay alimony or child support! Winning!

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Had an F150 lightning (old school SVT one) and the cigarette lighter port died (used as a charging port not for a cigarette lighter but that wouldn’t work either).

I went to the Ford dealer and got a new port/part. It was like 5 bucks. I asked casually how much they would charge to install for me. They said something like 1500 bucks, maybe a little less but it was astronomical in comparison to the part. I scoffed and said I’ll do it myself. He smiled and said “you’ll be back”. Pffft says I.

Well let me tell you getting the sucker pulled and changed basically required tearing down to the firewall. I was starting to think their charge was a bargain. Well I am basically a day into doing this and figure I will finish the next day. I go to bed.

At 4:12 in the morning I literally heard a voice say “check the fuse asshole!” I sat bolt upright in bed. Got up, went to the garage in my boxers and ………it was the God damn fuse!!! While I had done a fair bit of work I had more to do and this actually saved me some headache.

I am convinced some dead relative or friend was watching from the beyond and finally had enough of my stupidity and “broke through to our side” so to speak.

Been there, done that! Can't tell you how many times stepping back and taking a break, or even sleeping on a problem has led to a solution that I struggled all day to find! Often I get so targeted on a specific course of action that it takes clearing my head and re-evaluating the whole situation to see what's right in front of my face.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Been there, done that! Can't tell you how many times stepping back and taking a break, or even sleeping on a problem has led to a solution that I struggled all day to find! Often I get so targeted on a specific course of action that it takes clearing my head and re-evaluating the whole situation to see what's right in front of my face.

Definitely a truism right there. Stepping away for a night (or day) hardly ever hurts but often times helps. True in my career as a software developer and true in my amateur career as my own Porsche mechanic. The stupid car had a "oil/air" separator that was almost impossible to get to. I was going to lower the engine to replace it. A night's sleep made me think there might be an inspection plate. Well there was one. Took about 30 minutes to complete the job. The "Official Porsche" shop manual never mentioned the inspection plate BTW.

Many years ago in my gearhead days, a friend bought an early Toyota pickup. Got it cheap because it ran rough. Sounded like a burnt valve and running on three cylinders. Was a 22r engine. We were standing on either side of the engine bay with it idling choppily. He was telling me about his plans to rebuild the top end and do this and that and the other. As I listened to him I noticed the reed valve hose was off. I reached down and stuck my thumb in it. The engine smoothed right out and quieted down. He jerked his head up at me and did the middle-aged man march over to my side. “What. Did. You. Do?” In time with each step. While he looked down there I unplugged my thumb and slipped the hose over the reed valve body. We looked at each other. His mouth agape and mine forming a Cheshire grin.

The funny part is that he was a hardcore gearhead. He restored classic muscle cars for a living. He was at a much higher level of ability than I. But after that, he considered me to be a guru. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I just stumbled on the unplugged hose…

It was either last winter or the winter before I couldn't reassemble the blade edger (i.e. edges the lawn along driveways) after installing a new blade. I tried and cussed repeatedly, but never could get the bolt to start threading on the nut. I grumbled about it talking to Dad at the end of the weekend, and my assumption was stripped thread. My tap and die set didn't have that size so I contacted 2 people I know with lots of tools, my retired buddy and P250, and neither one of them had it (good thing in hindsight). Next weekend, I unsuccessfully tried again knowing that past times swapping the blade had been easy.

Then, I had an epiphany - what if it's reverse threaded? 30 seconds later the new blade was securely attached. At the end of the weekend, I told Dad about it and he did something uncharacteristic - he called me a dumb ass. He was right.

I can't believe that brain fart spanned 2 weekends.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:...sit for a few minutes and then push the door shut and it cleanly closed and latched with no effort whatsoever. DOHHH!!! Could it be that easy? Apparently so.

I plan to pick up some lithium grease and hit them again because I know the WD-40 is only a temporary measure. ...?

Get Red-n-Tacky.

(It's a lithium grease, and its tackiness "pulls itself" back into the bearings, so it does not move out of the bearing and leave the friction areas "dry" after several cycles)

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:...sit for a few minutes and then push the door shut and it cleanly closed and latched with no effort whatsoever. DOHHH!!! Could it be that easy? Apparently so.

I plan to pick up some lithium grease and hit them again because I know the WD-40 is only a temporary measure. ...?

Get Red-n-Tacky.

(It's a lithium grease, and its tackiness "pulls itself" back into the bearings, so it does not move out of the bearing and leave the friction areas "dry" after several cycles)

My basic go to grease.


I’ve told young engineers for years now, “When nothing else makes sense, go back and validate your assumptions.” Like, you know…assuming the door is already lubed.

Yes

When I was doing my degree in mathematics a group of us realized that we could shortcut calculus by recognizing the kind of problem we were looking at and remembering they all had standard form solutions.

It got to the point where we could write down the basic solution in one line and then simply do the algebra to solve for the coefficients.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
re attached a vacuum hose

My own best "could it really be that easy" moment is not exactly my own, but similar to a couple mentioned here. My turbodiesel VW spent 15 months at the dealer, waiting for a new turbo. Once the parts finally arrived, the service manager looked over the diagnosing tech's shoulder as the tech began the replacement job... and found that the intake pipe was disconnected. It was, truly, as easy as that.

It was not a great day in the service department that day.

I worked in a bakery when I was high school. When the owners realized I could fix stuff, I became a jack of all trades. I was a baker and a mechanic. The bakery was family owned and the oldest son, Nick, become somewhat of boss/mentor.
One day a pretty young woman had car trouble in our parking lot. Nick found me and assigned me to the task with the parting words: "first, check if the car has gas". 50 years later I still hear Nick's words when I start anything.

And yeah, the young woman had run out of gas.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:


Get Red-n-Tacky.

(It's a lithium grease, and its tackiness "pulls itself" back into the bearings, so it does not move out of the bearing and leave the friction areas "dry" after several cycles)

Thank you! I love this place

Will hit the wife's Odyssey doors while I'm at it too

quote:

Originally posted by SPWAMike0317:
I worked in a bakery when I was high school. When the owners realized I could fix stuff, I became a jack of all trades. I was a baker and a mechanic. The bakery was family owned and the oldest son, Nick, become somewhat of boss/mentor.
One day a pretty young woman had car trouble in our parking lot. Nick found me and assigned me to the task with the parting words: "first, check if the car has gas". 50 years later I still hear Nick's words when I start anything.

And yeah, the young woman had run out of gas.

My dad was a svc mgr for a Saturn store in the 90s-00s.
He had a lady come in complaining that she had run out of gas "because the low fuel light didn't come on"
He pointed at the E on the gauge. "When the needle goes there, you need more gas"

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

Stepping away for a night (or day) hardly ever hurts but often times helps. True in my career as a software developer

Many, many, times I would go to bed at night, thinking about a software design problem, and the solution would pop into my head, next morning in the shower.

In my former work I found quite a number of car problems in a few minutes, things like wires disconnected, oil fill caps or dipsticks left off, switches turned off that should have been on and vice versa, etc.

When I was a little kid, I had occasion to solve a number of maze puzzles. I just drew a straight line between the entrance and exit and felt proud of myself for acing them. "These things are a cinch."

I, sometimes unfortunately am the guy who gets the ?, WTF!
I had a guy call me once about not being able to get the tracks off his dozer to install new ones.
I asked him if he had a torch, silence followed by a "Shit".
I believe in K.I.S.S., learned it over many years.

Posted by P250UA5:

quote:

He pointed at the E on the gauge. "When the needle goes there, you need more gas"

No, the E doesn't stand for Enough.

I've lost track of how many times people brought cars in for service low on fuel. True, much of the time I only have to drive the car into the service bay, but many services require at least a short road test. One car ran out in the middle of one.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Posted by P250UA5:

quote:

He pointed at the E on the gauge. "When the needle goes there, you need more gas"

No, the E doesn't stand for Enough.

I've lost track of how many times people brought cars in for service low on fuel. True, much of the time I only have to drive the car into the service bay, but many services require at least a short road test. One car ran out in the middle of one.