While out driving today, my thoughts returned as they often do to a nagging noise from the back half of my daily driver that I have lived with for quite some time. It’s a kind of low level, quiet, grinding sound – pronounced only when turning left – that has persisted despite my changing rear wheel bearings, bushings, axles/CV joints, driveshaft (including the universal joints) and center bearing. As part of that driveshaft job, I also changed out the wonderfully-named “giubo” or driveshaft flexdisk. I mean frankly, at 230,000-some miles, all of these things might as well get replaced anyway on a car that I intend to keep relatively forever. Still, the noise persists, and after this fusilade from the parts cannon, there’s really only one thing that I can imagine that could still be responsible for that noise…the differential.
And yes, I’ve changed and checked the differential fluid…a stinky, annoying job that in my car involves using a pump to extract the fluid through the singular orifice BMW provides for filling and draining. BMW has essentially designed the cnidarian of automotive devices.
“Cnidarian”…sounds like a a good name for a new Buick crossover/SUV.
Fact is, changing out the differential is not a particularly difficult job on a BMW E91. It’s a far easier DIY task than several of the other things I’ve done on that end of the car. I’m looking at you, rear wheel bearings.
Here’s the part where I discovered that both the bearings and axle nuts I was sent in fact DO NOT fit my car, since the RWD wagon has a larger diameter axle than any of the other E90s. Oy vey…
I use that DIY job to gain cred from normal/real BMW mechanics. “Oh man, you did your own rear wheel bearings in the driveway? Cool.”
So, why have I dithered around and not just done the differential job so as to hopefully resolve my noise issue once and for all? What secret pleasure does procrastinating on this task hold such that I’d clearly rather more think about the job than actually do it? Is this a personality flaw unique to me, or do other CC readers have some version of the same, lurking in their automotive lives? That’s my question of the day.
Well, if you know me, then you know that part of what’s behind my irresolute way of dealing with certain automotive repairs relates to their cost and my general fear in spending more than about $25 on anything at one time. (For some reason, I am happy to spend $25 10 times on the same thing…but never $250 all at once.) A new diff for this car is north of $2K. On the other hand, a good junkyard replacement is probably about $400 tops. Add another $100 to ship that honking piece of iron from wherever to salvage-yard-challenged New England. A much better solution, to me, would involve a road trip to pull the part myself in a junkyard in some part of the country outside of the Northeast. Texas, for example, seems flush with salvage yards containing BMWs, or maybe I could go back down South where I originally went to purchase the car.
That “plan” is of course entirely economically bananas, but that’s how I roll when it comes to thinking about these things. The upside of course to the plan (see, I’m not letting go of this) – besides the opportunity to wander around one or more junkyards – is that I’d be able to inspect the part before it shows up in my driveway. The ability to shop in person might help resolve some of the hesitation I have around just ordering up a used part online.
So, that’s ostensibly the reason why I’m putting off and procrastinating on the BMW differential repair. It’s obviously more than unbolting the differential and bolting a new one on. Not when there could be a road trip to Texas, North Carolina, or some other place with good barbecue – I forgot to mention that part of the plan – involved. Heaven forbid I ever just suck it up, do the job, and then “only” have constant oil leaks and random computer/electrical problems to deal with. Somehow, it doesn’t seem that I deserve that kind of automotive luxury.
Some readers may recall that I went through a slightly foreshortened version of this same dithering when it came to replacing the BMW’s starter. That issue resolved quickly enough because the starter mostly worked until it didn’t…and then I had no choice but to commit to the repair. This low level rear end noise has gone on for a couple of years and potentially could run on relatively indefinitely. Just in case you’re thinking that this is exactly the sort of thing that a fussy European car (with an under-resourced, overly prone to research, owner) might do, I’ll note that the other 3 cars in my fleet all find themselves in similar situations.
In no particular vehicular order these are:
2015 Honda Fit LX (34,728 miles) – Headliner
A headliner that is periodically full of rodents. Right now, they’re on Spring Break, but soon enough they’ll be back scampering around over my head as I motor along. I’ve asked them to belt up, but they won’t as they must be New Hampshire mice. Evicting the mice involves pulling down the headliner, which requires disassembling the many things that get in the way of dropping the headliner.
The fellow in this video is a Fit enthusiast who specializes in making these videos where he races the clock to perform common tasks on his car. Apparently removing the headliner is a common task on a Fit. He notes that he’s done his 3 times recently. Hummmm. I’ve watched this video many more than 3 times as I attempt – unsuccessfully – to jazz myself up enough to do this job on my Fit.
After removing the headliner, I then need to clean out whatever mess (I can only imagine…) Mickey and Minnie have left up there and probably fix the wires they’ve chewed through. And that’s just until they come back. Which will be soon. Peppermint oil, dryer sheets, cats. I’ve tried everything. I’ve come to terms with the fact that mice were here long before humans. They will certainly be here long after my Fit and I are gone (particularly if I contract hantavirus).
Actually, I don’t need to imagine since this is what the Fit’s cabin air filter looked like when I inherited this car. As I said, the mice were here before me.
Nuts!
Just for comparison, this is what my Toyota’s cabin filter looked like on the same day that I changed the Fit’s filter (above). I live in a rodent-rich environment.
Anyway, I could do all of that Sisyphean extermination within the Fit’s headliner…or I could just wait until the little buggers chew through the brake light wiring. I’ve made my choice. I’m waiting for the mice to magically disappear.
1976 Volvo 245 (300,590 miles) – Cracked Dashboard
This one in particular kills me since I have actually replaced the dashboard in this car already! Finding a minty, un-cracked, pre-1982 240 dashboard (it needs to be earlier than 1982 for maximum compatiblity with my older car) is – was – quite the feat.
The 245 during its first dashboard transplant. I’ll also note that replacing the dashboard requires conjuring the demons of ancient Swedish electrical systems (and fiddly/fragile vacuum-operated heater controls). This is not for the faint of heart or fat of finger.
Unfortunately, the new 45+ year old dash I scored through one of those old-Volvo-guys parts swaps (if you’ve done that, you know what I mean) up and cracked over the past year. Yeah, I know, most of them are cracked by now. There’s probably a way to fix it…it’s only one long crack (unlike the many long cracks the car came with when I got it 5 years ago). But geeze, again? It’s just depressing. And yet, it’s even more depressing to look at the crack, or to try to ignore it even if I don’t look at it. So I’m stuck. Meanwhile, the dash goes un-repaired while I wallow in my interior-related misery.
In fact, just now I took a 30 minute detour from writing this post to learn about “plastic welding” and the various products I could employ to melt something into the crack (said something seems to only come in 15′ lengths…and at best I only need about 6″ of the stuff) and then some other spreading goop stuff to cover that. And then sanding and painting. Cool. But if I keep Googling, there turns out to be a variety of other products that promise to do the same thing. It looks like I could easily be into this thing for $85. Or just $35 if I forego the melting stuff and go straight for the spreading goop stuff. And so it goes on and on.
2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid V6 AWD (213,266 miles) – Your Guess is As Good As Mine
There’s stuff wrong with this vehicle, but we don’t know what it is, and can’t even begin to diagnose it. While that may sound terrifying it’s actually not, since the car’s Toyota genes are strong and it continues to rack up the miles as a 5-day-a-week daily driver while making various weird noises and periodically doing bizarre random stuff such as fully and unexpectedly discharging its (normal, non-hybrid) battery overnight. Despite the fact that doing something as simple as changing the coils and spark plugs requires removing the intake manifold…or the engine…this car has soldiered on remarkably long.
The OTHER 3 plugs/coils are back there underneath the manifold and throttle body and maddeningly nearly under the cowl. The big orange hammer was just there for good measure and for tapping off the manifold. This job wasn’t really hard to do. Nor was changing the radiator. It’s just the whole layer of stuff that is in addition to the normal V6 ICE that is the problem. That’s the black box.
This is the car that even the local Toyota dealer pretty much refuses to service. The last time we had it in for a set of seemingly-dire warning messages (something along the lines of “Stop Vehicle. Hybrid System Service Required Now”…sorry, I don’t recall specifically since the car is so often warning me of one seemingly catastrophic thing or another – “Moonroof OPEN!!!” — that I pretty much tune it out) the dealer had it for 2 days, took most of the hybrid system apart, and eventually found “a loose wire”. Upon returning the car to us with a $1000 labor bill and a $3 parts bill, the distinct message of “Don’t bring this thing back unless you’re trading it in” was conveyed.
Taking the car to anyone else to work on something other than the most basic mechanics is pretty much out of the question since no one seems to have knowledge of how this thing functions. Seriously, it’s a total black box. I think I can find more YouTube videos on how the Patriot Missile system works than I can find about how to diagnose and service an early-generation, built in Japan, Toyota Highlander Hybrid.
In particular, no one can explain the little buzzing noise made from somewhere deep inside roughly the middle of the car at random points during a drive. It seems to be some kind of pump that is priming/starting up. No one can explain what “pump” would be making that noise just as no one seems to actually know what’s inside of one of these magic Highlanders. I sure would like to know if it’s the harbinger of something more dire. Or not. Hence, we just worry about it and wait to see what happens; hung betwixt and between. Would getting a real diagnosis (if possible) wind up with a multi-thousand-dollar repair bill and therefore a terminal Highlander experience? Or might we find out that it’s a $10 repair? Best not to ask, I say.
So, there you have my current list of procrastinated auto repairs. All things that could potentially be fixed, and maybe in some cases really oughta need to be fixed but for one reason or another have not been addressed.
What are you driving around with? Ticking time bombs, nagging details, things that are just too much of a p.i.t.a. to address until you have to…or get rid of the car?
Do tell.
BMW differentials? Ha! I work at the largest AutoZone in their 6K chain, and we have them in stock
At one time in my life, finances forced me to put off repairs causing me to have to part with one of my favorites. Not being mechanically gifted, I have been fortunate enough to have had the same independent repair shop for over thirty years. Would not consider any other. At this point, whenever I have the slightest clue something is wrong, it gets checked and repaired IMMEDIATELY. Also schedule periodic maintenance. My 2007 Town Car will likely be my last. Fortunate to have it, so will make sure I take good care of it 😊!
30 years! Wow, that’s great/fortunate.
You’d best not ever get rid of that car as you’d probably put that shop out of business 😉
Had an ’83 Cutlass Supreme Coupe with a leaking rear seal at the 80k mile mark. Instead of having it fixed, just kept a case of oil in the trunk. Would add a quart every 300-400 miles. Eventually, it was a quart every 250 miles. Having the seal replaced would have been relatively easy since it was rear wheel drive. Once the A/C crapped out, I let the car go.
Major regret!!
Happy to say my 2003 Accord is nearly flawless at 235k. Or perhaps l’m so good at ignoring the sketchy drivers’ side power window switch(part for my EX is 3x the cost of a DX) or the flaky a/c clutch- thanks for crapping out on the hottest day with my wife in the car-only to manically function every other time since.
You done screwed up now, buddy. Now that you said something you’ll soon have a SRS light and a Check Engine light throwing code p0420. Both Hondas I had of that exact year eventually showed me those same codes.
I never truly “fixed” either condition. I took care of the SRS light with the infamous paper clip trick and the code by pulling the battery lead and going just far enough to pass PA inspection before it came back on.
You’ve of course now touched upon my greatest fear in relation to writing this article…that just by talking out loud about these things in my cars I am going to summon the auto repair incubus (bloody mary, bloody mary ….) and will wake up tomorrow to all 4 of the vehicles in my driveway being inoperable.
Anything that threatens the health of the car I usually get on pretty quickly. But I never got around to fixing the drooping headliner in my last car (even though I bought a can of 3M headliner adhesive spray), and I decided against spending $1,000 to repair a leaky valve cover or some such and just lived with a small oil stain on the driveway (and frequently checked oil level lest it get worse, per mechanic’s advice). I also put off getting a minor dent repaired that insurance would cover as long as I got it repaired in the next 3 years; I waited about 2 years 11 months.
I need to take my current car in for warranty repairs, the worst issue being exhaust noise I don’t think is normal. But dealership is 45 minute drive away and I just haven’t had the time.
Just a chip in the windshield, I received a few months after buying my DD in 2010. It is well above the driver’s view, and is not a distraction. If it ever spread as a crack I would have seen to it. 13 years later, it’s still there, unchanged since it first occurred.
Chips…grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Here in MA, comprehensive insurance means no-deductible windshield replacements and I typically let the number of chips get above 3 before I go in for new glass. It’s also possible to get chips “repaired” instead of the whole windshield replaced, and the last one I got on the DD, (right in front of my line of vision) I decided that a whole new windshield would be wasteful, so I opted for the repair. Not only was the repair still visible (less than prior-to-the-repair, but still obvious if you knew it was there), but the VERY NEXT DAY I was on the road and picked up another chip. One more, and I’m headed in for what has got to be the 3rd or 4th windshield on that car.
3 months after I bought our 4Runner, brand new and shiny, someone decided to drive down the street popping vehicle windows with BB gun. 4Runner was facing the street and received a nice little concentrated spiderweb dead center in the windshield. Cars parked parallel had their side glass shot out in to piles of little square bits, so we were lucky.
7 winters later and no cracks have spread from the impact point. If they ever do, I’m paying for another OEM windshield.
2018 Honda Fit with a small rainwater leak entering the rear passenger door that dribbles down and wets the floor mat. I checked all the drain channels (clear), window seals (sealed) considered removing the door panel to see what’s happening behind it (chickened out).
If I close the door with a small towel over the sill, it wicks up rainwater and keeps the floor dry. But it doesn’t solve what might be happening with electronics for the window and speaker. It’s like that back tooth I keep ignoring.
Dealer wants to charge $200 minimum to fix it and I’m getting ready to bit the bullet any day now.
I take it that this happens only when the car is parked? Otherwise, I’d suspect the door seal itself. And even so, that might be a good thing to take a look at as the way that seal works (at least on mine, see pic) seems kind of funky. Non overlapping pieces, and no seal at all on the front edge of the door. Odd.
“If I close the door with a small towel over the sill, it wicks up rainwater and keeps the floor dry.”
This happened in a car of mine two years ago and the driver’s side rear seat well was soaking wet after a rain. I put a towel over the driver’s sill and directed water out. Seems that if the car isn’t perfectly level then it seeps in through there. The parked car leans slightly to the passenger side just enough to create that gradient.
Current deferred maintenance involves a leaking K car rack and pinion. Replacement part is only $125, but do I really want to wrestle with the roll pin that connects the steering shaft to it or challenge the k frame bolts that were last installed/touched 40 years ago? It’s now leaking so badly that I drive the car with armstrong steering.
Headliners aren’t so bad as long as the vehicle has a rear tailgate or hatch. With those, you can drop the headliner down and take it easily out the back. Sedans are a totally different story. Usually involves removing a front seat and then contorting the headliner out one of the doors. One must remember that the headliner was installed at the factory BEFORE the windshield was installed, so windshield removal is another option.
Mice wiped out a cloth headliner (remember those) on my 73 Dart. But the only part they dismantled was directly over the sun visors. Then they went down the A-pillar freeway into the glove box to store the remains.
I have a Chevy Celebrity with 308k. Runs great, but steering rack blew a seal in 2012. Fluid runs out in a day. I’ve done racks on these and it ain’t fun. So I just cut off an old pressure line and looped it back to the pump return, so I don’t burn up the pump. Only time it’s hard to steer is tight parking lots, but living in a rural area I almost never have to deal with that. Who knows, the unpowered steering might outlast the rest of the car.
Things like brakes, tires, things that could get me killed or leave me stranded, always get fixed well. Anything else can just be, for a high mileage car that owes me nothing. I’ll have had the car 20 years next month.
Another thing on the car is something in the HVAC linkage that puts warm air where it’s supposed to go, but cold air out the defrost only. It’s too quick to be a vacuum issue, it’s something in the linkage or maybe a flapper door. Regardless, it’s not worth tearing the dash out. Been that way since 2006. I don’t need AC here in Michigan anyway, I just open windows. That is if the AC even still works haha.
Yeah, the mice in my Fit have a regular Habitrail going in there. They come in through the HVAC system and then go up the A-pillar into the headliner, and then for exercise – and possibly extra privacy – go down the C-pillar into the trunk where they’ve built a veritable rodent pleasure pit in the spare tire well.
I let the oil leak (from a slightly warped head) go close to 100,000 miles on my Eagle Talon before the leakage got excessive. Ran it over 60,000 miles after the head job. Fuel gage on my Jeep has been inop since I bought the Jeep in 1985 (it might work if I ever installed the sending wire). Speedometer on the Jeep quit in 2015. I’ve swapped the cable (twice), replaced the speedometer drive gear in the transfer case and tried a known good speedometer. I use WAZE on my phone as a speedometer.
None
Those nuts look familiar. I found a few of them on top of the 91 Mazda intake and Focus valve cover this past winter. First time ever but I am thinking squirrels since this place is crawling with them.
It might be squirrels in the Highlander, but mice in the Fit. More room in the Highlander.
I’m religious about changing engine oil and filter, as well as air and cabin filters. But very lazy about other stuff. When I replaced the front brake pads on the Tacoma at about 85K miles, I bled a bit of fluid out of the calipers to ease retracting the pistons to fit the new pads, and I then sucked out more fluid from the reservoir and replaced it with new. Voila, fluid flush. At 90K miles now I really need to replace coolant, diff and transfer case fluids. Probably do a trans fluid drain and fill … Internet wisdom warns not to do a complete trans fluid flush after 90-100K on Toyota’s and other modern transmissions. And then there’s the rear brake linings (yes, the Tacoma, until the just-announced 2024’s, still has rear drums). I’ve never looked at them. No noise, so they must be good. Oh, and there’s an outstanding recall for the Tacoma’s third brake light. I went so far as to call the dealer and they want an appointment to replace the gasket. No swapping it while I wait, they want it all day. So that’s on the way-back burner. I HATE going to the dealer.
I’ve always been good about taking my cars in to the dealer for recall items, even those that have little to no safety impact. Only that pleasure has been diminished recently by the full court press I get from the service advisors for various things I don’t need (like, “YOU NEED A NEW CAR!!”) or do need and intend to do myself.
Somebody in the marketing department might want to have a chat with the branding department at the FAG bearings company…
Eh, they’ve done fine with it for something like a hundred and forty years now; I don’t reckon they’re about to change it any time soon. It’s for Fischer Automatische Gusstahlkugelfabrik (Fischer’s automatic cast-steel ball factory).
But lookit this.
(Also, your disassembled-dashboard pic shows the housing where resides the blower driven by the blower motor, which is the central component around which a Volvo 240 is notoriously constructed.)
Daniel! That’s great! Even better than the toilet tissue oil filter 🙂
But given that I could lay my hands on all of the stuff necessary for that repair in the next 15 minutes (I have a glue stick gun somewhere….), maybe I oughta try. Hummmmmm.
And yes, the next time the dash comes off, the blower motor gets changed. Just for good measure. Really removing the dash isn’t in itself a horrible job, what’s horrible is having to disturb all of the wiring to all of the switches in the dash. On a 47 year old car that spent its first 4 decades in the desert, that’s a lot of crumbly insulation.
Yeah, the wires, and »gulp!« the vacuum hoses. More to the point, the hard and brittle plastic nipples the vacuum hoses attach to.
I had been driving around in a ticking Pentastar for several months but just traded it in. The repair was too big to justify for me.
My Jaguar X-type leaks at the crankcase. Removing the crankcase means the 4WD transmission thing needs to be removed which is a job I am not looking forward to. This is needed just because one crankcase bolt is hidden behind that 4WD thingy. A cheap alternative is to grind away some of the that 4WD thingy so that the bolt is just accessible. I have the new crankcase gasket seal just need the courage to actually do this.
The new-type Mini we had for a couple of years showed its ABS light. Also a code came up that the ABS unit was faulty. I changed the ABS unit (that thing with the many brake lines coming out of it) and had fun (not!) bleeding the bloody brake system. Resetted the codes but still the ABS light would come up. Had the car at a Mini specialist for its yearly inspection sticker, and asked him what was needed to have the ABS light go off. He did not know the answer but said it was a common Mini issue but that this was not keeping the car from getting a new sticker. He tried with his special BMW / Mini equipment to reset the codes, none were left but the light still was on. It annoyed me – one of the pet hates of newer cars – it was one of the reasons to sell the car. The new owner did not mind the light and said a previous Mini he had also had that light always on. Grrrrr.
Ours was leaking a bit as well, and yes that removal process is daunting. Instead I just snugged everything that was accessible a little tighter with a 10mm and it hasn’t leaked in over a year now.
That seems the most logical first thing to do. Now why did I not think of that? Will have a go at it tomorrow.
I debated whether or not I should mention it as it’s too obvious 🙂 The bolts did not seem to be particularly tight when I started, they were very easy to tighten using just a short 10mm as I recall. It seemed like the gasket just kind of swelled up and loosened the bolts over the last 17 years and then allowed minor seepage to occur. I also tried to snug down everything under the car that I could reach, not just the pan. Good luck!
I’d suspect the gasket has shrunk, thus making the bolts which had been tight, now loose.
Er, yes, that makes more sense, thanks! 🙂
Just an uninformed note…but make sure those bolts are not aluminum. I have no idea what an X-type block is made of, but in my car, most of those bolts are aluminum and can be easily over-torqued to the point of breaking unexpectedly.
That, as they say, will make your day go bad very quickly.
Here’s a practical fix for your headliner. Take it out…and leave it out. No place for critters to crawl, no fuss or muss with reinstallation, and easy access to any chewed wires. Where’s the downside? And, yes, I have done similarly on my ’91 Dodge pickup. The headliner was sagging and it’s now hanging on the wall of the garage. In that most awesome Dodge ever one needs not encumber their brain with such trivial matters reinstalling a headliner to as insulation to dull the noise.
Speaking of the Dodge, yes I have deferred maintenance on it, too. Like you, I’ve got a bearing noise. Greasing the front u-joint (the rear had no grease zerk, go figure) took the edge off the noise but it persists. Naturally, the fluid in both differentials is likely the original (it’s only 32 years old, I’ve ran older stuff with the original fluid without problems) and I haven’t yet changed it due to a) I have other things to do and b) while I can take the differential cover off in the rear, knowing how things go for me, I’ll be lucky enough to do it a second time as it will undoubtedly start leaking.
Other things need to occupy brain space. That Dodge also has the “anti-lock” brake light activated…Dodge, thanks for reminding me these are anti-lock. I’ve replaced the shoes so I know all is good. It also has the “check engine” light illuminated…I opened the hood to the check on the engine and, yes sir, it’s still there. Don’t know why that rig is getting so persnickety about such inconsequential things.
Only downside I’ve had with no headliner is heat loss. In my Jeep XJ which has marginal heat to begin with, I decided to put it back in.
I do mine my own way. I refuse to put the same thing back in that fell apart in the first place. I remove all the old fabric and foam with a stiff brush. Get enough yardage of polar fleece in the color of my liking. And a gallon or two of contact cement. Brush on the contact cement and unroll and seat down the fabric, and let it dry overnight. Or maybe a couple days until it outgases. Trim off the edges and reinstall.
Done many vehicles this way and it never came back down. Even on said Celebrity which I did around 2004. Windshield has leaked since, and while it stained the fabric a bit, it never came loose again.
XJ also has marginal AC as well. That’s my concern in Houston. Redoing the headliner on my 2001 is climbing on the priority list.
That’s a good point about simply removing the headliner. That may well be what I would wind up doing if/when I finally get up there and discover that the existing one is just too nasty (it’s beginning to get discolored on the visible side. blech!) to put back. A new one costs several hundred dollars…and that’s not going to happen for something that you can’t really see from the driver’s seat and which the mice will get to work on the first night after I install it.
ABS and Check Engine (SES) lights? I’d probably have to address those. For one thing, a Check Engine light (and likely the ABS light) will wind up causing me to fail the annual state inspection. Funny noises, not so much.
I’d just pop off the A-pillar trims and stuff the lower ends with steel wool. That’ll stop them going up there, you just need to be sure they really are on spring break first. Then figure out where they are getting into the HVAC system and close that opening up with fine wire mesh (finer than the garden fence 1/4″ square hole stuff, you want more like screen door mesh but metal).
I wouldn’t leave the headliner off, not with the rolled up side curtain airbags up along the sides. But you should remove it if only to be able to check that. If the mice got into the wiring of that you may have a very valid insurance claim, it’s potentially a huge safety issue. I’m not saying you are qualified or should be the one to examine it, airbags are not to be messed with.
There’s actually a 2015 Fit in my closest junkyard, I’m pretty sure the headliner is perfect, minor-ish front impact damage to the car, they charge $10 for a headliner. Come on out, it’ll be a fun day. Drive the Fit, we can swap it in the parking lot…
My mom got the sunroof drain tubes in her Escape covered by insurance. Mice had chewed them up. Was considered an act of god. More like the character deep below, but hey whatever works!
🙂
I was going to call you and CO junkyards out for my “travel west and pull the part myself” thing. I’ve not seen too many BMWs in your junkyard posts, but I’m suspecting that they’re there.
Plus, I’d love an excuse to travel to CO.
Shirley, a Fit headliner would fit in the back of the wagon if I chose to come out for both.
There are plenty of BMWs being junked out here…Everything from a 2002 a few months ago to the 760Li and seemingly every permutation of 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, wagon, coupe, and cabrio ever made, never mind the SUVs… Most are AWD if offered as such but plenty of people relocate here from Texas and SoCal with their rear-drivers and then have a little winter boo-boo with them their first season…The newer ones aren’t as much fun to write up due to their digital odometers, I’m not quite sure why they are perhaps underrepresented as a whole, maybe due to them being one of a few marques I’ve not owned myself?
We also have Volvo wagons, a sometimes surprising number of them in fact, it seems to ebb and flow but they get picked over fast. But being a mile closer to the sun makes a big difference in the dashboard survival/loss rate…
Just head west on I-80, then hang a left on I-25 at Cheyenne, WY. We’ll leave the light on for you…
ABS light is not a safety failure in MA, but the red brake light on is. Also anything over 15 years old is emissions exempt.
Procrastination sort of goes along with long time car ownership. Unless it’s something safety related, or that makes the car refuse to run, then it can be easy to put the task off. The problem is that you start to lose various functions of the car. For example, the instrument panel lights start to burn out and you can’t read the speedo as well at night. The radio has an intermittent fault and cuts out occasionally. Or the a/c quits, the vent function gets confused, the blower goes out, and when the heater core leaks, you bypass it and now there’s no heat in the cabin. You could open the windows but they start to go out one by one. Argh!
Over my ten years of ownership, my “94 Seville lost the driver’s window function, the a/c, the rear air suspension leveling, and developed a terrible oil leak from the rear main seal. It smelled like burning oil for several years before I sold it off.
The mechanic told me that they would have to drop the subframe, pull the motor, flip it over and pull the pan. He suggested that I just replace the motor with a rebuilt unit. The labor alone was over a couple of thousand dollars at the time. I’d already had two 1,000 dollar starter replacements and a radiator. Once it passed 100K the problems had started piling up. It still looked and ran great, but it had depreciated to the point that I didn’t want to put any big money into it.
The biggest problem I had with my two Jags (XJS and XJ6 )was that the front suspension was worn out, the control arm bushings don’t last very long under the best of conditions. This caused a misalignment of the front wheels which caused accelerated tire wear on the inside of the front wheels. I wasn’t averse to rebuilding the front end, but did you know that the coil springs are over two feet long? Removing the springs safely was the biggest problem. The factory tool cost over 300.00. Guys on the forum came up with home made spring compressors made from three foot sections of threaded rod. Warnings about how dangerous these springs could be were constant. I’d removed front springs to rebuild front suspensions before, I knew that it was an iffy job even with the proper compressor, doing it on jack stands at home. I had replaced the suspension arms on my ’96 Mustang a few years back. I couldn’t find a local mechanic that would do the job. The local Jag indies didn’t want to do the job. They told me that they didn’t work on cars more than twenty years old, or that didn’t have a “documented service history.” In other words, they just didn’t want to do it! It was kind of funny that my regular mechanic just flat out told me that he wouldn’t work on either Jag.
So I resorted to “sacrificial tires”. They would wear out and I’d replace them with a decent used tire. Nothing to be proud of here! But I went through a couple of sets until I just sold both cars. I just couldn’t work up the gumption to do the job, and I couldn’t even pay someone to do it.
2′ long front coil springs??!! Yikes. And yes, I decided that I’ve done my last at home spring compression 4 or 5 years ago. It’s a young man’s job…in that when I was young, I didn’t think so much about what would happen if that janky crank it down evenly to compress it thing that I brought home for free from AutoZone wound up not working out. Once I started thinking about that, replacing struts became one of the “it has to go somewhere for that” jobs.
“3′ sections of threaded rod”? Nope. Not doing that.
I can’t decide if the brakes on 1 of 2 cars is “mushy” and 1 is “wooden” feeling, that is: which has better feel. I have put off having the braking system on my Fusion repaired by trying a system fluid flush until it is repaired under a pending recall. (Still awaiting parts for repair to the flex hoses.)
The headliner of my 2001 Nissan XE Frontier started drooping after about 5 years and coming loose at the edges. For the edges I used straight pins to just keep it in place, and when the center drooped really bad, I found an old steel pinned button (like for campaigns) of my fun aunt’s that said “I’m not worth a damn in the morning!” (sounds like Aunt K) and pinned it back to its backing. Haven’t had to readjust it in 15+ years. And the interior light still doesn’t work … usually. It’s finicky.
The ABS light is constantly one and has been for maybe 7 years now. No change in braking whatsoever, and the ABS seems to work fine whenever it engages. The one time I tried to get it fixed (likely a sensor issue), it befuddled even my independent mechanic of 35+ years–he tried two different types of code readers and got no code reading for the ABS system. He retired after that and I hope this wasn’t what caused it. He did say that if my truck was behaving normally, then if it ain’t broke, don’t go looking for trouble.
I just switched out the starter with an OEM Denso. After 23 years and 290,000 miles, it started not to turn on the first turn, then not the second turn, and it wasn’t a battery issue. After it not engaging at all, I waited an hour and then it turned. Time to get another before I took a 400 mile road trip. New one works fine and it still starts on the first turn. Now about that cabin filter …..
I have the same truck as you, just 3 years older, but with only 106,000 miles.
My headliner started to let go at the edges in 2007 was drooping badly by 2013. So I took it to a local auto and furniture upholsterer who replaced the headliner as well as the sunvisor covers, which were starting to get threadbare from use and sun exposure. This was done in July 2014 and cost only $210.
The new headliner still looks great after nearly 9 years, and the sunvisors have a deluxe feel (more padding) compared to the originals.
I was in a carpool in the mid-late 1980s where one of the drivers had a tired AMC Matador coupe. She used giant safety pins to hold the headliner up. I have no idea where such huge pins were available back then.
TPPS sensor error on my Focus. I’m pretty sure it’s just a dead battery on one of them but I’m not fixing it until I get new tires, I can check my own air thank you.
Exhaust leak in the Cougar after the converters. Easy fix but I have another project in mind where I’ll be dropping the exhaust for it so until then I’m just living with it
Indeed, the TPMS system in my car drives me nuts. In my car, the batteries are not replaceable, so when one goes, I tend to replace them all on the theory that if one goes then the rest – which were installed all at the same time – are sure to go soon. All of this of course involves mounting and re-balancing all 4 wheels.
I just cannot deal with the constant “DING!” and red warning lights from the system which is confused as to whether the sensors are bad or the tire is actually flat.
Oh my, where to begin… most of the time, my procrastination is with my Mustang as it’s the oldest car in the fleet, and only used for pleasure driving anymore, so stuff can be put off.
But my supportive wife encourages me, saying “If you want to keep the old girl, you’re gonna have to give her what she needs.”
True that. One thing I did recently to her was to have a new interior installed. Most would think I’m crazy, because new leather and carpet for a 2007 V6 Mustang definitely fits the definition of BER… Beyond Economic Repair. especially with 184,963 on the clock as of my last drive a week or so ago.
That said however, I love the car, and will continue to give it what it needs. Like others have said, the safety and drivability issues are handled immediately, and the more want than need stuff, as well as the niggling little issues are sometimes put off.
For example, the car kept throwing a ground fault code that I put up with for over a year. Sure, if the car sat for more than ten days I needed to jump it, but it was no biggie. I’ve got one of those GOOLOO batteries for that. but finally, after trying to trace this issue to no avail, I gave up and took it to my neighborhood mechanic. It was the alternator. There must’ve been a short inside somewhere. Thing is, I had replaced the original alternator only a couple of years prior to this, and refused to believe that was the cause.
Similarly with a faint coolant smell and nearly no evidence of a leak, other than an extremely slow disappearance of coolant. Like the above alternator issue, it was a repeat repair… the thermostat housing assembly, which is a known problem on a 4.0L Mustang. I refused to believe it. Swapped out, the problem went away. BONUS POINTS: After dealing with this for a couple of years, I didn’t need to do a drain and refill… I kinda got that by default!
I also put up with a very annoying buzzing electric trunk latch for about 5 years. One day, I looked up a YouTube video, and darned if there weren’t more than a few folks who had this same issue. I repaired this myself! YouTube is a wonderful thing.
Other than the “hobby car” listed above, the Honda Civic (my DD), and my wife’s new-to-her/us Mazda CX-5, will always get the proper timely attention, as those cars are more than just for fun, like taking my avatar Molly to the park… in HER car!
It’s not a great shot of the new interior, but here’s the old girl (Molly), sitting on the new seat in the old girl (the Mustang)…
Molly appears to feel that you’re doing the right thing. 🙂
I have a minor belt sequel on the Cadillac when starting from cold only. It a little annoying the cause likely is the power steering belt not being tight enough. I have a new belt for good measure but the fix is more annoying than it needs to be as you have to unbolt a bolt through a hole in the power steering pulley. So you need to turn the engine over by hand to line it up. So realistically removing the spark plugs which are harder to get to than one would suspect given the huge engine bay. Really? Who thought that was a good idea?
Plus always to possibility of making this worse. I mean .. its not so bad now. 🙂
That said I will probably do it one day this week. Wish me good luck.
Good Luck! 👍
Good grief. Turning the engine over by hand to line up the pulley? I guess I’m spoiled by having belt tensioners on 3 of my cars, and being able to leaver the accessories (alternator) on the other with a giant pry bar. So yeah, I’d likely let that PS pump belt squeal for some time if that were mine.
Good luck!
Regarding your resident mice. I suggest buying a small jar of generic peanut butter and a live trap. Buy a trap because you will likely need to use it several times. The peanut butter will draw them out for sure. Then just release them a couple miles away in the woods and they should be fine.
I agree with your Wife Retro Stang, if you want to keep a hobby car, you’ve got to keep it in reliable condition. If not, it becomes another” thing,” just taking up space. I’ve been good with my ’96 Mustang GT. So far I’ve got about twice what I paid for it, into it, New convertible top, a couple of intake manifolds, hoses and belts, brakes, a/c work, front control arms, rebuilt oil cooler and recently a new stereo w/ Bluetooth and a new radiator. Not to mention regular maintenance stuff, like tires and batteries. I got it with 155K, it just turned 217K. This level of commitment was easy when it was my only hobby car, and probably the reason I couldn’t really commit to my Jags. Mileage is going to accumulate pretty slowly now, since I’m retired, and have other cars to drive. My hope is that I’ll never have to do a full rebuild on it. I decided that I’ll hold onto it since I couldn’t very much if i sold it. I’m not going to give it away. It’s got a spot in my garage.
Dave, can’t you just move the motor enough by bumping the starter a bit at a time?
Wow, lots of great replies here .
I want to flush the brake fluid in my twenty year old Ford Ranger but have no idea how to bleed out the ABS brakes so I simply suck out and replenish the brake fluid any time I notice it getting dark .
-Nate
Nate, if you perform a regular brake system bleed (actually bleeding from all 4 calipers in the designated order), you’re probably doing what you need to do. A Motive (or equivalent) pressure bleeder is a good idea.
I went through just this type of worry with the Highlander, which online sources seemed to indicate needed some sort of special juju in order to activate the computer to bleed the brakes and deal with the ABS. But that turned out to be nonsense. The need to bleed the ABS unit (the thing with all of the brake lines coming out of it) itself is generally not necessary unless you actually change that unit. Otherwise, a standard brake bleed actually changes most of the fluid…which is what you want.
I agree with Jeff.
Keep the master cylinder fluid level up while bleeding the brakes and you’ll be OK. I bleed without using a pressure bleeder. Just have a friend pump the brakes at your command.
One thing you DO NOT want to happen while performing regular bleeding on an ABS system is to let the fluid level get so low that air gets into the ABS motor. The pedal will respond like you have a bad master cylinder, which you don’t, and no amount of bleeding will work. You will need “that special juju”
Thanx Jeff & Phil ;
I do indeed have a Motive pressure bleeder, I’m just leery of screwing it up .
I also have a mechanical foot for those bleeding jobs that can’t use the pressure bleeder .
I wonder what special tool the Ford dealers have / had for the Special JuJu jobs…
-Nate
That “special juju” is really a scan tool that is able to cycle the ABS system to bleed the brakes. Phil’s statement about keeping air out of the ABS motor is key. Any repairs downstream can be bled easily using traditional methods. Dealers and most professional repair shops have the scanner to do the job. When I had to replace the master cylinder on my Lucerne, the local garage bled it for $75.
Thank you ~ I figured as much and I expected some D.I.Y. trick to it on you tube but no….
So far every garage I’ve asked says ” ! DON’T TOUCH IT !” .
-Nate
As mentioned you can bleed it w/o a scan tool as long as you are careful to not introduce air into the ABS unit by letting the reservior go empty. However there is an inexpensive DIY to do the “ABS Service Bleed”. The program is ForScan with versions for lap tops and phones. You’ll need a wireless or wired adapter, which can be had as low as $20 but a decent one isn’t that expensive.
I’ve used it on several of our vehicles and in the case of my daughter’s car that had a softer pedal than I’d like I did get some more air and the pedal got a bit firmer.
It pretty much gives you the full Factory Ford scan tool capability.
Thanx Scout Dude ! .
I don’t have those fancy-schmancy tools but if I need this I’ll ask my son who knows modern things far better than I .
I’m sitting in the Micky D’s awaiting the BEAR Mechanics to do their magic….
-Nate
2010 Fit needs manual transmission fluid changed and I bought two quarts at the dealer a couple of years ago. Cannot for sure locate the fill plug. Tight space and lots of bolt heads, one of which is supposedly the plug. The other thing is the trailer hitch kit that requires taking a hole saw to the rear subframe area.
K2500 pickup has ABS light on and I plugged in a scanner that told me the left front wheel sensor is bad. Bought the sensor, but to change it requires removing the rotor, which requires pulling the sealed front wheel bearing assembly. Youtube videos show this can be difficult and will probably ruin the bearing. So, no ABS until the front brakes need replacing, have the parts. Why does a 23 year old American truck have sealed front wheel bearings?
Pickup also has had intermittent CHECK ENGINE light for years, but it is always out when I take it for biannual smog checks, so it passes. Maybe a lazy O2 sensor?
My 2007 Camry has a bad RF power window motor. I’ve been putting off replacing it because I hardly ever have a passenger, plus the cost of a new motor and time. Then I discovered on the RA website that the RF and LR window motors are the same. Since I’ve never have had back seat passengers, why not swap and save $$?
Every time I was going to tackle this relatively easy job yet another unyielding and harder repair materialized. The latest involved my pulling and rebuilding a 4T65E in my wife’s Park Avenue. I should now say MY Park Avenue as she has claimed the Camry as hers.
When am I going to replace the window motor in her car?
Never.
Your experience with your Camry brings up the point that some vehicles are much better documented than others for the DIYer. The BMW actually has excellent documentation (at least up to and including my E90 series) and most importantly there’s a website called “RealOEM” that presents images (the lede image for this post is from there) of all major systems with parts lists. You can go to RealOEM and actually figure out something like what you found with the Camry window regulators. The BMW diagnostics software (readily available through a variety of sources) also contains very detailed troubleshooting and wiring information.
I have looked hard, but found nothing like that for my Toyota or Honda products (other than dealer parts department diagrams, which are woefully inadequate). Maybe it’s all in the Toyota or Honda diagnostics software…but I’ve not even found a reliable source for that.
For Toyotas, it’s http://www.toyodiy.com . You have to go through a bit of an unusual legitimation process to be able to see the parts diagrams, but it’s not difficult.
Too many to list, but I did just knock several off my list in the last couple of days.
The driver side nerf/step bar rusted out on the F-250 back in Nov and partially collapsed when I went to use. To be fair I did try and take care of that shortly after it happened and had ordered up a new set on Amazon. For whatever stupid reason Amazon decided the final mile on that oversized box should be done by USPS, instead of the delivery station that is 3 blocks away. The USPS claimed it was undeliverable and sent it back on a slow boat. So it took some time and fighting to get a refund and then it was my busy time of year. Of course I could still use the truck and I also didn’t want to do in the driveway in the rain since it does not fit in my garage. Ordered up a different but similar set last week and put them on Fri afternoon.
Then there is the F-150 and some long and loooong put off repairs. There is a known problem with an intermittent Odo display. It is a 30 sec re-solder of a pin on the instrument cluster circuit board, of course that is once you get it out of the truck and dissembled. All told it is probably a 45min job. However since it comes and goes, I don’t really need the odo and I don’t drive it that much it was very low on the priority list, so were the light bulbs in the HVAC controller, not a difficult or long job, but again I don’t need the lights to use it and again it doesn’t get driven that much and even less at night. So yeah those have been put off for several years.
The shorter term procrastination was the heater core started weeping last fall. That of course is not a quick and easy job. At that point it was just the occasional whiff of the smell but come lat winter it would fog up the window instead of clear it. I did put some stop leak in it but it never took much coolant. However it is the season where it will get put to work so I finally broke down and did it. Since I was messing with the dash I decided that I might as well take care of the odo and lights while I was messing with the dash even though those components don’t have to be removed to pull back the dash. All in all not that bad of a job when you don’t follow the directions and just pull the passenger side of the dash back far enough to get to the HVAC box.
Te final thing that has also been going on for way to long is the headache rack kind of thing holding up the emergency lights was poorly installed when new. They bolted it to the front of the bed with only a small washer backing it, when that tore through they added some fender washers that were starting to tear through when I bought it. Again it didn’t keep me from using the truck and to fix it was going to require pulling back the bed, which isn’t actually that hard or time consuming.
Topped it off with an oil change as it had been 54 weeks and just under 4K miles since the last change, so hopefully good for another year, with fewer minor annoyances.
Now on to the other vehicles and the things I’ve been putting off doing to them for too long too.
I need to replace a leaky, but not catastrophically so, differential pinion seal in a 1953 Packard. This seems to me to be both a difficult (in that it requires significant muscle and a press to free the u-joint, and similar if not as much muscle to free the pinion nut, all of which is best done on a lift which I don’t have) and a delicate job (in that one must be careful not to change the bearing preload, or perhaps obtain a new crush sleeve and employ that very carefully) in a 1953 Packard. Something I haven’t felt up to yet. For now I just monitor the differential oil level pretty closely. Maybe some day I can talk a shop I trust into doing it, or just get up the moxie.
Deferred maintenance no none of that though I may do a transmission service before any heavy towing takes place I finally hunted down an aircleaner element today so thats in genuine part again nobody makes knock off parts for this model or I’d fit a K&N washable unit, this is turning out to be a rare model the 2.2 HDI 173 wasnt in Mondeos here only Jaguars Landrovers and occasional Peugeots and Citroens, and a lot of the service parts are unique to that engine the trans is easy lots of companies shopped at Aisin Warner.
My Hillman is mostly up to date the only things that need fixing have rendered it immobile its in Napier some of the exhaust and the weber carb are with me in Auckland.
What a great thread! I have a couple of them to contribute.
The Honda Fit is well along the way to beater status. There is a clunking where the (factory original) exhaust system thumps on the floor of the car. I keep meaning to take the car to my local muffler shop (because I long ago put in my retirement papers when it comes to working on exhaust systems) but, well, yeah. The bigger one is an airbag light. You get mice, I get squirrels. I got it diagnosed at the dealer, and am told that it is a rodent-chewed bit of the wiring. The dealer, of course, will only fix it with a brand new harness. I should pay the money, but 1) I keep thinking that the car is on the verge of going away for something else and 2) I survived an accident in a 1983 Colt with no air bags just fine and this is so much safer than my lap belted 66 Fury III or my no-belted Model A, so I just look at the light every day.
I replaced one broken exterior handle on the rear sliding doors a year or so ago, now I need to do the other one. I disassembled the old broken one and think I can use my painted parts with new guts, which would save most of the cost (and another trip to Maaco) but I can’t seem to get around to ordering it, because it’s on the driver side and easy to open using the inside handle through the open driver door.
On your Fit headliner, maybe you can put some kind of mouse poison up there with the re-install. Do they make Eau de Cat you could spray in the entry spaces?
I too stopped working on exhausts a long time ago. Unfortunately, a leaky exhaust is yet another thing that get one the scarlet R (“Rejection”) inspection sticker here in MA. Fortunately, exhausts last much longer nowadays than they used to and I also have found a local old-school exhaust shop that can fix stuff for a song. Oh, and they actually know what they’re doing 😉
Has the dealer told you which bit of wire the squirrels have chewed? I’d probably just get to splicing and fix that…unless (and here again is the issue I mentioned in a reply to a comment from phil re. his Camry) you need a detailed wiring diagram to actually find the proper wire and/or you need to perform a software reset to actually make the light go off after the wire is repaired (that would be how a BMW works). The answer to those sorts of questions seem pretty scant in Honda/Toyota world…and so yeah, I’d probably wind up just leaving the light on.
Oh, and I’ll just add that having lived in a house with cats for around 40 years, I have a pretty good idea what Eau de Cat smells like, and not only does it not seem to bother mice, but it’s not something that I want to introduce to any car. Most days, I’d tell you it’s worse than Mickey Musk.
I’m going to say as soon as I know there’s a deficiency, I ask my local mechanic to sniff it out. We have a great relationship – I’m frustratingly incompetent when it comes to mechanical items, but he lets me know what the issue is so I can buy the parts for him to install. It makes me feel like part of the process in the smallest sense.
I’ve been dealing with an issue with my 10 year old, 200k mile Outback; on long highway trips it acts ‘off’ after around 50 miles….poor gas mileage, a slight tremor on deceleration…I even took a Subaru tech on a long test drive to show them the issue and of course the car was on perfect behavior. Finally last weekend it failed emissions testing; the suspect is now the evaporator system which makes complete sense. Oddly no codes were thrown.
I greatly envy any and everyone who can self wrench on their cars. I wish I had that skillset.
It’s great that your mechanic allows you to purchase your own parts! My current person, who I take the BMW to for things that I don’t do myself seems willing to allow that as he’s a “I don’t need this hassle…” guy who would just as well let me deal with getting the right stuff. But, I have to say that this I’ve found is a rare thing among shops.
As one (who I no longer use) said to me, “Well, that’s like me running a restaurant and you coming in with your own steak for me to cook, right?”. I thought to note that there are in fact some restaurants that do that (I used to frequent a “we cook your catch” restaurant in the USVI), but I could tell that there was no winning that discussion. So I moved on.
Anyway, I don’t begrudge any business owner setting policies that allow them to make money. I’ll just choose to frequent those that allow me to bring my own parts.
I can easily see both sides of the BYOP coin. If I’m buying, I get to pick the brand and quality level (and it’s difficult and complicated for the shop to offer a proper warranty on the work). And I get to shop around for the best price (and the shop doesn’t make what they’d usually make on markup). I used to like to supply my own parts. But now I’ve quit driving cars old enough to make a nuisance for whoever is sourcing parts, if I prefer to have or avoid a particular brand or variant of a given part, I’ll make that known to the shop. Usually there’s no friction. Occasionally they’ll offer a good reason why I should reconsider, and once in awhile they’ll flat-out refuse.
Just so Jeff ;
As a Journeyman Mechanic and one time shop owner I didn’t like the bottom grade cheapo parts the Customers wanted me to install .
As a Gear Head I want the very best parts I can find even on my jalopies, these days this takes more time and effort than any shop wants to involve in .
Tomorrow I hope to have my old timey BEAR Frame & Alignment Shop install new German made factory Mercedes tie rods into my 1985 Mercedes graymarket 300TD, normally I do all the grunt work then take them the vehicle, we’ll see if they’ll do it or not, I don’t mind paying a little more labor co$t .
Remember : no Alignment shop will ever warranty the alignment for longer than your test drive ’round the block ~ they’ll ass-U-me you carelessly smacked a curb and upset it, IMO a reasonable assumption .
Finding a competent alignment shop these days is close to impossible .
-Nate
I totally agree about the difficulty of finding a competent alignment shop. Actually, this is something I’m looking for now.
And BEAR. One of my most favorite company trademarks/images/logos of all time.
Along with Cat’s Paw Heels. It’s a very close second in my book, and for some reason, I always think of those two logos together.
My Dad worked for that company for a long while. The caps and jackets were great!
I live in the sunbelt, which does a number on rubber or plastic parts. Plus, my only car is going on 23 years old (I’m in denial, my next car needs to be an automatic plus I like cars rather than crossovers or SUV) but there have been a number of things I haven’t fixed.
Mine is a VW Golf, and it seems to have a number of lights that aren’t common in the US, in particular there are a set of lights inside my headlight that have gone out, probably city lights or something like that, I started to look at one with an eye towards repair but the insulation on the wiring has gotten problematic….I really probably should replace it, but don’t want to pay the $250 per side for a new one. I pass inspection now since the high and low beams work fine, probably should do it anyhow, but on a 23 year old car, it is tough to get enthusiastic about doing it.
Other things….the window regulators are notorious on these, they’ve already been recalled, plus the power locks have also gone out (probably bad solder joint on board, another notorious problem for these) and I’m too chicken to remove the window to get to the locks….so the locks stay the way they are. Can still lock and unlock the door, but have a single working mechanical cylinder (the rest rely on the remote and no longer work).
Plus, a funny one for an old guy…my OEM radio is stuck on high bass setting…other settings work OK…but it is as if my car still thinks I’m 50 years younger and won’t let me dial down the bass. Not yet ready to get a new radio just for that but it is annoying, yet it makes the car my own.
Yep, the “if I start messing with it, I’ll make it worse” problem. Looking at what is involved in working on the mk4 Golf’s headlights, it’s a shame that you have the brittle baked wiring thing happening, because otherwise it seems pretty simple to change out those bulbs. The article I saw advised simply taking out the whole headlight unit to change bulbs. https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Volkswagen_Golf_GTI_Mk_IV/05-BODY-Headlight_Assembly_and_Bulb_Replacement/05-BODY-Headlight_Assembly_and_Bulb_Replacement.htm
That’s better than my car the easiest way to change headlight bulbs is to take off the front wheels (I kid you not).
I like your point that these neglect-able repairs make the car your own.
These what you’re calling the “city lights” are the car’s front position (or “parking”) lights. Their main job is to keep showing other drivers you’re a two-track vehicle rather than a motorcycle, even with a burned out headlight. Weird and unfortunate that the insulation has failed on those particular wires; they’re just dinky 5-watt bulbs that wouldn’t heat up the wires enough to cook the insulation. Wouldn’t be the only case of inferior insulation from the factory. There’s a workaround: move the parking light function to the turn signal bulb with this set of modules to operate the existing single-filament turn signal bulb at sub-rated power to provide the front position light function, while passing the full-power turn signal current through unimpeded. The maker’s website is a little sparse, and mostly in German, but gives the relevant wiring diagram.
I’ve definitely become more relaxed about maintenance for both of our vehicles, a 2015 Toyota Camry Hybrid and a 1998 Nissan Frontier 2wd regular cab. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”
I change the oil and filter on schedule (every 10K miles or 1 year), as well as the cabin and engine air filters. I also replace the tires as needed (only once so far in 83,000 miles). The brakes have never been touched, but they are checked annually as part of VA’s inspection process. I haven’t touched the brake fluid or coolant (the former is checked via “test strip” each year, and so far I’ve received no recommendation for changing it). Fortunately, there are no drive belts and no power steering fluid to worry about.
On the Frontier, which has only 106,000 miles and is driven only about 2K miles a year now, I have the oil and filter changed once per year (no longer do it myself because the filter is VERY difficult to access from below and impossible from above. The parking brake warning light not been functional for years (the “brake” warning bulb still works, so it could be a switch). I had been on a 5-year schedule for replacing the brake fluid and 8 years for the coolant, but have started thinking about stretching out both timelines.
The a/c belt can squeak very loudly during hot weather with the a/c on — my mechanic recommends replacing it as well as the 2 other drive belts in front of it. But with my very short driving sessions, I’m putting that off as well.
The manual transmission oil was changed once at 60K miles; both the differential and power steering fluids are original.
The front brake pads and rotors have been replaced once; the rear drums are original.
I’m on my 3rd set of tires in the nearly 25 years I’ve owned the truck — they age out rather than wear out.
If this were my vehicle, I wouldn’t think about stretching out that brake fluid interval…in fact, I’d shorten it as brake fluid is one of those things that just goes bad from sitting there, Hygroscopic substance that it is.
Probably because it’s easy, all of my vehicles get a brake fluid flush every 2 or 3 years at minimum. Coolant…well, maybe that gets older. (Not in the BMW since that tends to get a radiator replacement every 3 years)
Old-car owners who think they’re clever by running DOT-5 (silicone) brake fluid because it’s not hygroscopic—doesn’t absorb water—sometimes get to learn very harshly that it’s still necessary to flush the brake fluid periodically. Water will get into the system; seals are imperfect and condensation is a thing. If the water can’t be absorbed and held in suspension in the fluid, it will coalesce into slugs at the lowest points in the system. Let the car sit that way for a prolonged time, and that’s where the brake lines (or whatever other component) will rust.
I forgot about the non-hygroscopic specs for DOT-5. Still, to your point, I wouldn’t trust that it can be just left indefinitely. I’d change still change it every several years.
@ Jeff :
!YIKES! .
Are the BMW radiators made of tin foil or what ?! .
My old Mercedes BEHR radiators are aluminum with biodegradable tanks that like to fail at the hose nipples without warning but THREE YEARS service life ?!? .
-Nate
Well, actually in my most recent BMW radiator replacement (March, 2023) I gave up on the Mahle and Behr OEM versions and went with a Nissens. I will see if that lasts longer than three years…the average for the OEM ones. Nissens seems to have a good reputation among the Volvo set, so I’ll see how well their part lasts on the BMW.
In the BMW radiators, the issue is the plastic tanks and hose fittings and the poor seals between the tanks and the aluminum radiator housing. The plastic fittings get brittle and break, and the tanks start to leak. I buy these things from a supplier that has a lifetime warranty on parts purchased, so I do get them replaced for free (aside recently from shipping), but still, it’s a pain. Fortunately, I can now do a radiator replacement on my car in about 30 minutes.
I too went to NISSIN and have been well pleased .
BEHR quit production on W123 radiators a few years ago .
-Nate
I have a few minor jobs that need attention in the spot between freezing cold weather and blazing hot weather.
2002 Ford F150: redo the glue on the pickup’s sliding rear window latch since the factory foam tape is failing and I have the glue. Find a reflector fo rthe driver’s side door panel and get the torn upholstery fixed
2016 Mazda CX-5: the one good car needs to be thoroughly cleaned. I also have an appointment to install new all-terrain tires in place of the Blizzaks.
2003 Buick LeSabre: Having successfully repaired the exhaust hanger that broke off, silence the clunk in the right rear and source a replacement tail light since the last place wanted more in shipping than the part cost. Also fix the RF door panel and figure out why the driver’s side AC is weak.
The motorcycles also need some love but nothing major