Recently, while performing my latest automotive fix-it task I had the opportunity to experience some of the miracles of modern life. Then later, I encountered somewhat the polar opposite of that first experience.
Both things happened within the same week.
This story starts with an addition — which is really intended to be a replacement — to the home fleet. I’ve likely mentioned that one of the vehicles over here is a 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited. That’s the gold one in the photo above.
The 2007 Highlander has served us well over the past 18 years. It’s my wife’s daily driver and was purchased new for what has always seemed to me to be an obscene amount of money. It was, and continues to be, the most expensive vehicle we’ve ever purchased. No-doubt we paid more for it than we should have, but it was one of those decisions made while a 9 year old and a 6 year old were seriously melting down in a parking lot. The Chrysler Town & Country AWD minivan (the second most expensive car I had ever purchased) which had been their daily (many many times daily) transport had recently broken faith with its main driver by starting to make disturbing noises from its transmission (etc.).
Perhaps many of you have had young children and have made very similar decisions under similar circumstances.
Spending that much money on a vehicle, we were darn well going to get our money’s worth out of it; and that is in fact what happened. The 2007 currently sits with about 250,000 on the clock and I’m pretty confident that if I were to go out there right now it would start up (assuming I attached jumper cables because one of its persistent problems over 250K miles is that its tiny little 12V motorcycle battery regularly goes completely flat). Once started, I’ll bet I could drive it another 30,000 miles. Actually, that would be nice, since I replaced the rear brakes about 500 miles before I parked it and really would have liked to get some value out of that particular work.
But that’s not going to be since the 2007 has fallen from grace/broken faith due to the one thing that I cannot readily address. Rust. (Have you heard? It never sleeps.) Mind you, not “terminal” rust quite yet (although I know enough to know that would be the case in another 3 or 4 years), but that kind of bubbling stuff around the wheel arches and on the dog-legs of the front fenders.
Ok, you’re saying — since I know that many of “you” are much like me — just replace the fender! Uh huh. Sure enough, I currently have in my basement a replacement fender sourced from a local junk yard in just the right color. Nevertheless, in order to attach that, I have to remove the front bumper, and due to a multitude of broken tabs, that front bumper is barely holding on. Nope, 2007 also needs a new front bumper cover…and these are nearly impossible to find for an 18 year old vehicle unless I want to buy a new cover, and then get that painted, and well, that minty $25 fender (what can I say, I got a good deal) now is part of a $400+ job.
Without spending more time with this tale of woe and intrigue, I’ll just get to the chase and say that the powers that be over here decided that an 18 year old vehicle that has “rust”, and has thus fallen from grace, is done.
Plus, the inner wheel well liners (that are all tied up to that bumper cover thing) periodically fall down and get kind of ground up by the front wheels while making a loud scraping noise (that’s the clincher). Nothing, by the way he says, that simply removing the wheel well liners wouldn’t solve.
Yes, perhaps you’ve been there too.
What better to replace a beloved 2007 Highlander Hybrid with 250K miles on it than a newer generation 2009 Highlander Hybrid without rust (yet) and only 125K on the clock? I should note that these Highlander (and I also think Camry) Hybrids apparently routinely rack up 300K miles and retain value on the (very) used car market. Not quite Volvo 240 league, but approaching that.
I’ll re-post once the “new” Highlander catches up with my Volvo’s 305K. I swear that the 2007 would have equaled the Volvo if not for all of the broken interlocking plastic bits — which are practically more of an issue than rusting metal. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The 2009 Highlander Hybrid Limited I found to replace the 2007 Highlander Hybrid Limited is a well-preserved car. All of its plastic bits were intact (note “were”…more on that in a moment) and whoever owned it prior to me apparently decided to periodically clean it and did not choose to breed weasels in the interior.
One should not expect a 16 year old vehicle with 125,000 miles to be entirely free of “issues”, and I had no problem knowing that the 2009 Highlander had suffered a minor accident at some point in its past. Everything was straight enough. (But the more astute among you may argue. Keep reading.) It seemed as if the front bumper cover may have been replaced at some point along with maybe a front right fender and a headlight. That headlight is the one in the top left of the collage above, and upon arriving in my driveway it clearly had moisture in the housing. This became more obvious in the increasingly cool mornings of Fall. An even closer inspection showed that while the left headlight unit was clearly OEM Toyota, the fogged right was aftermarket.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except when there is.
Online, I learned that while a genuine Toyota fixture would be around $280, aftermarket ones could be purchased in pairs for as low as $100. Better aftermarket ones run around $100 each. At this point in our collective economic reality, there’s virtually no end to what has been reproduced in endless variations for the most common vehicles (etc.) in our households. For those interested in fixing things on their own, this bounty of resources is as close to you right now as this CC article is at your fingertips.
Naturally, I decided to go with the really cheap ones, figuring that if they didn’t work, all this would cost me is the time to reinstall ones that did work (after returning the non-functional cheapo ones). But if they did work, great. And if they last at least a couple of years before leaking, that’s fine. I’ll either have gotten rid of the car by then (riiiiiiight) or will have in the meanwhile kept more of my limited amount of money working for me versus some vendor and thereby still ready for me to spend on another set of Highlander headlights if necessary.
This is the cheapskate’s logic, and economically it generally works out for me so long as I don’t value my time in the way that society encourages us to do nowadays (which is all about conserving time so as to have more of it within which to spend money on someone else’s potentially harebrained idea, but I digress). And really, for me what’s a better use of my time than taking apart one of my cars, something that’s on my short list of preferred activities.
Thus, upon availing myself of the global supply chain that reaches that piece of pavement in front of my garage and ordering up my $100 pair of replacement lights — the left side was just sand blasted from 16 years of driving, so I might as well replace that too instead of what I have determined through experience to be an entirely unfulfilling half day spent “refinishing” the plastic lens — I popped them on the 2009 Highlander. At most this is a 60 minute job. Half of that time is spent destroying the dozens of little, brittle, plastic fasteners that hold the front of the vehicle together.
This was looking like $100 well spent until it came time to adjust the misaligned right side unit. No amount of cranking on what seemed to be the adjuster (the thing circled in red, above) resulted in any actual adjusting. The thing circled in green, above, was immobile. It was just a grey knob bolted uselessly onto the fixture. The adjusting mechanism was attached (red circle) to a location that on the OEM fixture has no adjuster. Bottom line, this thing was put together entirely wrong and there was no way to adjust the light. The left side light seemed to be aimed properly, so the fact that it too cannot be adjusted (recall that I bought two of these things) was functionally inconsequential.
What to do? Particularly when you’ve procrastinated on a job long enough that you’ve missed the return window on the product? Well, you write a bad product review, suck it up, and shell out $100 for one of the “better” aftermarket units to replace the unusable right side unit. That would be all that happened except that I somehow managed to cross paths with what turned out to be an incredibly honest maker of poorly manufactured aftermarket parts. After a day of back and forth with some very polite folks on the other side of the planet (their work day was ending each day when I woke up) I received a full refund on the bad units, and got to keep both fixtures. Which is fine because the left side works for me despite it being un-adjustable. So I have now spent $100 on one that works, and have another that serves its purpose for free (I did offer to pay for it, but was turned down).
I’ll note that I’ve now gotten the Highlander headlight replacement job down to about 15 minutes a side. Which would be the rather boring end of our story except…
Through the course of this fix-it adventure, that thing circled in red was found to be cracked. It was a Toyota OEM part — so clearly whatever accident the car was in had left the piece in good enough shape to be re-used — but my wrenching on it (removing a nasty rusted bolt) had finally exposed its weakness, and this hunk of plastic needed to be replaced.
I know this, because the equivalent piece on the 2007 Highlander gave up the ghost some time ago after regular administration of the Camry dent.
When you don’t have that hunk of plastic (aka Toyota 52145A or 52146A) — either because you didn’t think to order it or because frankly after a while there’s just not enough left under there to attach it to — you wind up up resorting to more creative solutions. Such was/is the case with the 2007 Highlander.
That’ll fix it, but obviously this level of repair wouldn’t do for the shiny “new” 2009. At least not for a few more years. So I dipped back once again into the global supply chain’s vast river of flotsam and jetsam, and quickly found what I needed for a proper fix.
Toyota wants about $35 for this thing, but fortunately other people even further on the other side of the planet will sell me one for $10. It would be delivered — if I ordered before 2pm — by the following day.
So here it is. Which I think is pretty amazing. Amazing that someone roughly 7,000 miles from me is able to realize economic gain by printing one of the literally hundreds of different pieces of plastic that compose a 2009 Toyota Highlander and then place enough of these things in the supply chain such that it can be delivered to me overnight (meaning that in fact, it was sitting in a warehouse probably all of 10 miles from me in the greater Boston area).
We used to think that flying cars and food made out of Edward G. Robinson’s surrendered husk would be the fabulous science fiction stuff of our future. No, as it turns out, I believe we might actually be living somewhere even better — a future where home auto repair can be facilitated by the overnight delivery of nearly any arcane part directly to your doorstep. I realize that this arrangement has some serious downsides (don’t get me started about whether the environmental impact of all of this may portend for a potential need to call out the scoops), but if the upside allows me to have functional headlights and a bumper that doesn’t fall off, well, that’s something useful.
But wait! That’s not all. For another $10 ($9.92, actually) I could get 240 of the little plastic clippy-button things, that hold on at least most of the giant pieces of plastic on the Highlander’s front end. Oh, and another set of plastic “bone” tools thrown in for free.
Just like 10mm sockets, you can never have too many bone tools (aka, panel removal tools).
I didn’t count to see if I actually received 240 of these things when they washed up on my front stoop, but it doesn’t matter since ultimately they will be added to the other several hundred of these that I have from a previous order. The issue of course is that of the 10 different styles of these things that come in the assortment, I probably only need one or two styles. I could buy just the right kind from Toyota (yeah, sure) and if I got 10, it would cost about 4 times what I paid for the box of 240. Surely there will be some use for these things some day.
My son has already called dibs on about a dozen to hold on the under-engine shield and the plastic wheel well liners (and the front bumper and grill) on the Honda Fit that he drives.
What remains may join the 113 tubing connectors I have, after having used the two that I actually needed for a rodent-related repair on the Volvo.
In this case, since no one (in particular, no one of the rodent persuasion) is going to stop making rodents any time soon, there will be many more chewed pieces of tubing in the future. I’ll get through these things eventually. If I ever run out, there’s a seemingly endless supply already headed my direction from 7000 miles away.
The plastic clippy-button things, tubing connectors, butt connectors, spade terminals, sheet rock anchors, and the like can join their kindred devices that I keep in their own backwater pool on the vast river of repair things.
That’s right, the live tank of fastener goodness…in this case, the cardboard box of screws and bolts and stuff.
This behavior of course might be expected of someone who keeps a copy of this storied publication on his coffee table.
And who has maintained this washer and dryer longer than any of the cars in the house. (They too have their own Curbside post.)
And practices the somewhat arcane craft of growing and canning vegetables.
But not the craft of knitting for dogs. Although one of my dogs is of the type that produces sufficient “wool” that some people gather it and then proceed to use it to knit clothing. For humans, not dogs; because that might be kind of distressing to whatever poor dog is made to wear a dog-hair coat.
I have drawn the line at knitting dog hair sweaters. At least for now.
This brings me to that second fix-it related experience I mentioned when our story first started. Yes, if you’ve stuck with me this long, this is now “our” story. You deserve the shared ownership.
It turns out that fixing things has become something of a craft as well, or a cottage industry. Within the sustainability community, the repair cafe is growing in popularity and taking hold in many areas. Perhaps it’s mostly taking hold among people who do things like keep boxes of old fasteners and can their own vegetables…you know, the people who would have a copy of the Whole Earth Catalog on their coffee table…but taking hold it is.
So when one of these things was organized near me, I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer and participate. My participation included spending time figuring out just what to pack into the toolbox for that day. Mind you, I have about a dozen tool boxes — many of them brought home from the dump where they have been cast off as “what the heck are we going to do with this useless crap in Grandpa’s garage??” by next of kin. I can put together a specialized collection of tools to carry to whatever the occasion may be. In this case, I knew little more what to anticipate than what was posted on that sign in the photo above. I figured that people could show up with anything needing fixing from a pressure washer to an antique music box.
Both of those things actually did show up.
The key therefore to proper tool selection is to have tools that have the widest range of possible uses. For example, the burned valve from my 1971 Buick (the only physical part of that vehicle I still have) could be handy. Countless things have been “adjusted” and pounded into and out of shape over the years with this unlikely “tool” plus a hammer. The Buick pounder goes most anywhere one of my toolboxes go.
November’s Repair Cafe was a blast. There were about 15 of us repair volunteers. Men and women. Most of us were of the white/gray/transparent hair generation, if you get my drift. Over the course of the morning’s event, my personal fix-it tally was three lamps, a battery-operated clock, a shop vac, some kind of garden sprayer thing, and that aforementioned music box. I never needed to use the Buick valve, but the screw drivers, vise grips, and wire clippers saw good use.
Most of the electrical appliance fixing was related to things such as replacing plugs and cords and applying some lubricant.
The guy next to me ended up spending all day fixing this lady’s home-made (!) 3D printer. He “offered” to let me help and I politely declined. It’s not that I couldn’t do it (the issue seemed to be one of x-y-z axis adjustment and out of date drivers) but I was happy to spend the day with stuff that didn’t require any amount of messing with a laptop. That is other than to look up the part for the guy with the broken shop vac; although I should note that I did get him back to vacuuming at least temporarily with some bits from the big box of fasteners (pictured above) that came to the event with me.
Alright, doing something like fixing someone’s floor lamp is not exactly Repair Hall of Fame material (no, there’s not one, but there should be), but it keeps stuff out of the waste stream and takes perfectly serviceable devices and allows them to continue to serve their intended purpose.
Even an ugly lamp is someone’s lamp and there’s no real reason why it can’t continue to go on lamping with a bit of new wiring and maybe a switch that was floating around in the bottom of my toolbox. Drawing down the plastic supply in China doesn’t feel quite as bad when I am able to use my know-how to keep someone in my community happy largely with stuff that is already sitting around.
To wit, it turns out that the now-replaced 2007 Highlander still has a functional afterlife. It’s headed, zip ties and all, to the community college EV training program I work with. There it will provide a couple of semesters of kids with hands-on practice doing things like safely removing and disassembling the battery pack, understanding an EV’s CVT, traction motor diagnosis, etc.. Should they choose to drive it around, they could do that too; but they may need a few more zip ties for that.
And the “new” Highlander, it’s loving its latest donations from the supply chain. I will note though that I’m thinking that I probably have a screw in the cardboard box of fasteners that will fit where I’m about to take out that kind of rusty one inside of the wheel well. Who needs Toyota 75392-42030 when there’s a perfectly good candidate in the live tank of fasteners?
I especially smiled broadly at your pickled okra! DIY guys are all the same. Your piece was great but rather long. I enjoyed every word of it. During the lengthy reading experience I was able to sharpen my advertisement battling skills. I know this is how you receive compensation sorry. When I revised my thinking from a battle to a game, it became more enjoyable.
Sorry about the length. Sometimes (often) I do let that get a bit out of control. But thank you for noticing the okra! I’m happy to have provided you with a smile and all of the hand-eye coordination exercise you need for the week.
Don’t worry about the length. Not all are so fortunate as to be able to make things interesting the entire time.
I’ve got something later this week that is only 2100 words; short, in other words. Like you, I don’t limit myself to just one topic, which makes it more fun that way.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable piece – especially the pickled okra.
Great write-up, Jeff. I mourn our 2007 Highlander which was the same color, though not a hybrid. I just got $800 for it as a trade-in 2 months ago – it was leaking multiple fluids but perfectly reliable with 217k miles. It just needed its fluids checked and topped off every 2 weeks. Like yours, the plastic clips and the places they clipped into were chewed up and destroyed by years of parking lot bumps/bashes/teenage driving etc. My son and I replaced so many things and I wanted it to make it to 250k, but the wife put her foot down. Ours had no rust to speak of though.
The dealer I traded it in to told me that these often get shipped overseas to Africa, where they are valued and will likely be kept running for some more years.
They are fine and pretty robust vehicles. While I love our hybrid versions, I do sometimes wish for the non-hybrid version just for the slightly improved simplicity and better online support for things like parts diagrams. And hybrid specific issues such as why the standard battery is always draining are pretty much a black box to the DIY-er community I’ve found. In the regular Highlander, you’d just eventually replace the alternator (there isn’t one on the hybrid) and/or regulator and call it a day.
I’d LOVE to know more about the afterlife of the vehicles we Americans trade in as old used cars. Never having been to Africa, I can’t say if it’s crawling with ex-American SUVs and other vehicles. I’d heard similar things about minivans. Perhaps that 2001 Chrysler Town and Country AWD I had before the 2007 Highlander is still at work somewhere.
Arrrgh! I had a similar headlight experience a few years ago.
After many years of dealing with clouded headlights, I finally bought replacement units for our 1995 Thunderbird (this was about 10 years ago). Like you, I thought the “genuine” parts were awfully expensive, particularly considering they don’t seem to last long before clouding up. So I bought the cheapest replacement units I could find… figuring “how much worse could they be than the factory units?”
All went well until I went to adjust them, and… nothing. Figuring that I was overlooking something obvious, I even asked my mechanic, who confirmed that the “adjusters” actually adjusted nothing. Oh. So, I just dealt with poorly adjusted headlights on that car since then. During the daytime they look great – no clouding at all. It’s just at night that they become an annoying hazard. I try not to drive that car at night much.
Incidentally, one of our other cars is a 2009 Odyssey, which has a parallel story to your Highlander. We bought it new, when our kids were young, for what seemed like an obscene amount of money, but after 177,000 mi., I feel like we’ve gotten our money’s worth. It’s now developing rust bubbles, needs new rear brakes, and (pretty soon) another timing belt, so we’re at that point of deciding whether all those repairs will be worth it. But we’ll probably do the repairs and keep driving it. ANYWAY… a few years ago, the Odyssey also developed clouded headlights, and I just caved and bought factory replacement units. And I even had a body shop install them because I have PTSD over the previous issue. It cost a lot, however it’s kind of nice having a car with functional and properly-aimed headlights.
One final note is that we’ve decided to give up on the Thunderbird. Too many little issues, and the cost-per-mile of that car has been pretty bad in recent years, particularly given the overall cost-of-living issues we’ve all been experiencing. Sadly, keeping that car is just not worth it to us any longer. Like you, we’ve decided to donate it to an auto tech program – in our case at one of our local public schools. We’re planning to deliver it there next month. And I’ve decided I’ll never ever try to keep a car “forever” again.
Yeah, I’d think that Odyssey with under 200K is probably still a keeper. Especially with its new OEM headlights. Hopefully another timing belt job will be all you need before you keep on rolling to 250K.
Too bad about the Thunderbird…but I totally get it. Unless you have the space (and the inclination) to keep a car that virtually never gets driven, it’s tough to hang on. And after a while, you’re spending more time fixing the stuff that just naturally deteriorates and that can be less than fun for sure.
Finally, re. non-functioning headlight adjusters, you’re the second person today who upon reading this piece has told a tale of headlights with non-functioning adjusters. That, combined with my experience, makes me wonder if this is a common flaw in aftermarket (i.e., crappy) headlights. As we know, relatively few drivers actually ever adjust the aim of their headlights (Daniel Stern once wrote an article here on CC about that very fact), so many of these issues with improperly-constructed fixtures may never be uncovered.
And I thought it was just my bad luck with non-adjusting headlights. I guess it’s more of a widespread plague than I’d imagined.
Fascinating article Jeff! Although I’m a transplanted New Englander, I must have absorbed that “how do I fix, not replace, this item?” Yankee gene. Granted, it appears your mechanical ability skills are 5X mine, but it’s the ‘trying’ I enjoy (replacing the headlights on my ’13 Outback was a whole I Love Lucy episode in itself…).
I also wanted to compliment your OG Highlander. As they’ve grown tremendously in size and mission, the 1st generation Highlander was always my favorite with its simple, purposeful design and not-too-big size. Once our Volvo S70 crapped out we bought a 2002 4 cylinder base model. The only upgrade I wished we had sprung for was the power driver seat. That said, it was a great vehicle with nary an issue the 7 years and 125k miles we had it. My then-wife wanted to upgrade to a fancier car so we got a loaded Ford Edge; always wished we had kept the Highlander for me or as a spare. Kudos that you had the hybrid as well!
Thanks! Yes, they’ve continued to grow. The 2009 is actually slightly bigger (a few inches taller and a few inches wider) than the 2007…and I expect (notice from seeing them around) that the current “Grand Highlander” is noticeably larger than the 2009. The extra size of our “new” one is actually a bit problematic. Getting it into and out of my very small garage is a bit challenging (Camry Dent, here we come….) and the added height is JUST enough to make it exceedingly difficult for my partially-wheelchair-bound 93 year old mother in law to get in. She could manage getting into the 2007 much better. Subsequently, she’s getting a lot more BMW E91 rides (ground clearance about 6″) as of late.
Soylent Green ~ what a blast from the past .
I too have replaced those plastic headlamps, what I did was research the correct factory part numbers then beat the bushes until I found N.O.S. ones at greatly reduced prices .
As far as all those little plastic fasteners, I guess we should be happy we’re not trying to piece together a 1959 Caddy grille right ? .
-Nate
It’s People. 🙂
Despite the fact that his histrionic outbursts (“Soylent Green! IT’S PEOPLE!!!!” and who can forget “Get your hands offa me you DAMN…STINKIN’…APE!”) anchor some of my favorite films, I’m not a huge Charlton Heston fan, but the man sure knew how to sweat in these dystopian epics that start to look more likely every day. (I think the jury may still be out if we’d be better off when the damn stinking apes are finally running things)
I have to imagine that piecing together the 1959 Caddy grille would be rather satisfying what with the use of screws versus plastic buttons. On the other hand, removing and reinstalling the bumper would probably require a crane.
I don’t know what it is about Charlton Heston, but he was the right guy at the right time in film. For some reason, he was the obvious epic choice, bigger than life, the best of the overactors. Heck, he played Moses, Michelangelo, “Chinese” Gordon, El Cid, and he was about the only redeeming part (as Marc Antony) of the early ’70s film version of “Julius Caesar.” He was surprisingly good in Shakespearean roles considering how hammy he was.
He’s also quite good as Cardinal Richelieu in the Richard Lester Three Musketeers movies.
Thanks! I’m going to have to check that out, as it seems to star many of my favorite actors from the time… Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Michael York (Basil Exposition! “It IS sh*t, Austin!”), Faye Dunaway, and of course Chuck. How ever did I manage to miss this?
That was good fun, and I really like the end images of the elders communally breathing back some life into things that were likely thought to be at their end.
I have similarly absteemious attitudes to throwing things out, but what I don’t really have is the ability to successfully fix the broken and heal the sick things. It never ends well. (“Thanks, dad, it’s great, but, umm, clocks turn the other way” “Oh, bugger, look, just throw the stupid old thing, would you out!”). However, the latest major repair I had to effect was more urgent.
Youngest son had wedged the Corolla quite comically across the (admittedly tiny) garage whilst reversing into it, and somehow pulled off the back bumper. Now, in a modern-ish car, if the bumper cover comes off, it looks as if the entire back of the car has come off, so he called me down from the flat looking most concerned. It looked SO ridiculous when I got there that my only reaction was a huge, very useless attack of the uncontrollable giggles, which was absolutely no help to un-wedging the car and unblocking the communal driveway, not to mention possibly startling as a scene to neighbors edging by. Eventually, however, after a lot of revving and “no, no, the other left”, etc, we did unwedge it. And incredibly, all the sort of dastardly clips you mention stayed functional enough to continue their previous tasks, a piece of luck for which I was most grateful. Also a lot of heaving and hoving and pulling on the damn thing to get it back into its assigned role. (Yes, the paint is a bit gouged: it’ll be called patina one day, you know).
Thanks Justy!
The scariest thing to me about removing (or otherwise detaching) the whole bumper cover on one of these modern Toyotas is seeing the huge piece of white styrofoam that sits between the cover and the metal rail under it. Usually that thing just falls to the ground, and my fear of course is that it’s going to snap in half.
My 2011 Toyota Camry had three bad power door lock actuators. First attempt at Chinese parts did not go well. Those were returned, then bought a rebuilt one from eBay, worked fine. Still needed two more, so a trip to Pull-a-Part and got the actuators (and a classier gear shift knob). All fixed for about $100 and some of my time (which is now “FREE”). If the bean counters at Toyota hadn’t decided to eliminate the lock on the passenger side door I wouldn’t have bothered to fix the locks at all because I am perfectly capable of unlocking a door with a key…
It’s a great thing sometimes to have a very common vehicle…and one of those times is when you can easily find the bits you need at Pull-a-Part. Sadly though, salvage yards are an increasingly rare thing around me, and those that do exist tend to hold on to cars for very short periods before they pull the major components and crush the rest. Of course, for someone like me – and you in your door actuator example – it’s “the rest” that we really need.
I really like these Highlander hybrids, and yes, they are keepers.
I clicked back to your washing machine (and more) post and was deeply impressed how you kept your Whirlpool Duet going. We bought a new one of the first generation too, and Stephanie loved it. But the little “computer” that tells it what to do crapped out some years back. I tried in vain to find an exact replacement; eventually I bought on eBay what looked to be identical although the part number was very slightly off. You can guess the outcome…it’s still sitting in the basement as getting it back up the narrow stairs with a 90 degree turn would require a couple of weight-lifting ballet dancers under 30.
But I did find a very low mileage high efficiency Whirlpool top loader at the curb. It looked like new. The woman who lived there was working in her yard so I asked if it was available. Yes. What’s wrong with it? It won’t start. Ok. Got my truck and hauled it home. It turned out that the little plastic tab that triggers the lid safety switch had it little barb broken off. A New one cost $2.70. Cheapest almost-new washer ever. And Stephanie came to like it, although she still mounts the Duet sitting next to it.
I have replaced both the computer and the control panel (the latter twice) and frankly, if I were being properly proactive, I’d go to eBay and get another computer if I could fine one since those will surely become unobtainium soon. It’s definitely by now become the Washer of Theseus and every so often I wonder how much longer this can go on. And then I look at what a new washer costs…and I answer myself with “forever”.
Excellent work finding the Whirlpool with the broken switch! I see washers (generally decades newer than my Duet) like that at the dump regularly and am very sure that they’re there with something similar to a broken top switch (I’ve replaced that equivalent part in the Duet about 4 times and in the dryer 2 times)…or even perhaps nothing more wrong with them than the fact that they were owned by someone who is under the impression that machines need to be “changed out” every few years, or because the new homeowner just wanted his own new machine.
All I need is the cool old truck to drag home likely candidates from the dump. And then I can complete my total transformation into Fred Sanford.
No matter the subject, your writing is always enjoyable Jeff. It’s a bonus that I can relate to a lot of your repair adventures and “recycling” mentality.
Thank you!
This is what I call keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity. I, too, am a repairer but that is obvious from other stories of mine about my fleet. Given the amount of cars I have it seems that those around me who have an issue or question come to me for an opinion or aid. Even patients will now ask me about their car and if a repair sounds right? Anyway I always would try to fix an object before giving up on it.
I notice in a picture above that you have a cassette player in the background. Couldn’t tell the brand. I also have two with one from Akai and the other Sony. They play through a restored 1968 Pioneer receiver along with a Teac turntable. All vintage equipment. In the garage are more receivers for swapping.
Yamaha K-200. Periodically I replace the drive belt and it does what it needs to do.
I have ventured into repairing the CD changer, but I can generally pick up a “new” CD changer almost any day of the week at the dump. Fully functional equipment, but people are just throwing out audio equipment left and right. Most of my audio equipment though is stuff I have had from new (e.g., the tape deck) and I just don’t need any more than I already have. Although I passed up a really sweet TEAC reel-to-reel deck recently…I just don’t have room for more stuff (particularly in an audio format that I don’t otherwise have). I hope someone else snatched that TEAC.
You should write up the article about giving advice about fixing things. I have had for some months a title saved on the CC dashboard for just that article that I was going to write…but I deleted it (unwritten) the other day once I finished this article.
Fun article. Lots to unpack
It feels like we are going in two directions with repair now. I managed to source the limiting switches for a countertop icemaker that was malfunctioning as it turns out they were generic. It worked until something else, non-generic broke and then I had to throw it out. I certainly consider repair more now, than I did a few years ago.
Pretty sure I dislike all makers of big appliances now. I keep fixing them and they keep breaking.
I may yet to be proven wrong by galvanic corrosion or frame rot but so far, I am a big fan of my F150s aluminum construction. I figured it would look like an old boat by now, but it is remarkably unscathed despite a bunch of to the metal scratches. I do rinse the frame out.
It may be just me. And I have owned and liked Toyotas and know they last forever. But taking them apart for some reason is not fun. Corrosion takes place in the most stupid places imaginable, or it did, Nothing, that means one-way trip to the scrapyard. Same with the connectors. I have better luck with Fords and Hondas in that regard.
I was chatting with a former Toyota master tech recently (he retired from Toyota and now teaches at one of the colleges I work with) and he confirmed that almost all of these more or less modern Toyotas will die from rust well before the rest of the mechanical bits give up. And rust they will/do. I swear that our 2007 Highlander came with rust and that just kept progressing (oil spray rustproofing helped some).
That’s good to hear about the F150.
Those little plastic clips can cause so much trouble. A year ago my 2010 Infiniti G37 developed an annoying rattle coming from the right side into the front passenger compartment when the car was idling in gear at a stoplight. The dealer’s answer was to install a software update of the electronic valve system for $200. Didn’t work, noise still there on the way home. After weeks of frustration I Googled the problem. Up came a 2019 two-minute YouTube video with an owner recording the same noise and asking for help. In the 37 comments below he revealed that it was related to a plastic push pin connector that joined the windshield washer filler tube and tank to inside of the right front fender. Sure enough that deteriorating piece was loose on my car (and why wouldn’t it be – the car was 14 years old at the time). I went back the dealer, they fished through bags of these 97-cent pieces to find the right one, snapped it in place and bingo the connection was now tight and no more rattle. Good idea to have a batch of these pieces on hand.
Oh yeah, those things look familiar. I have a couple dozen of them 🙂
Such a fun read Jeff! I too am amazed how someone on the other side of the world was thoughtful enough to reproduce interior door handles and the clasps for the door storage compartments on my 04 Town Car – in the correct color no less.
I love the concept and implementation of the repair cafe and the treasures of the town recycling center.
Thanks! You’ve captured my fascination with the economics of aftermarket parts manufacture. How many 2004 Town Cars are still around and in need of door parts?
Some of this may actually be a function of the mysterious (to me) world of “interchange” parts. I’m sure that there are people here who know much more about this than I do, but I wonder if those door storage compartment clasps on your 04 Lincoln might in fact turn up elsewhere in other cars….perhaps not even other FoMoCo cars.
As to the Repair Cafes, if you’re interested, I’m sure that you can find something similar in your area. They’re really spreading all over. And if there’s not one, well, you can start one!
Another fixer here. But I will confess that I am in danger of having my fixer card revoked because I find myself growing more impatient/lazy and just paying to replace broken stuff.
Oh yes – I really, really miss sealed beam headlights.
My goodness, so do I. Being able to go down to K-Mart and purchase one of 3 or 4 sizes of Fisk headlights, and then to just pop them in is simplicity that we will never see again. I can still do this for the Volvo 245 (well, not the K-Mart part…and sealed beams are getting kind of thin on the ground at AutoZone as well). And the adjusters are just a couple of screws with springs under them. It doesn’t get easier than that.
Of course, I recall struggling with rusted hardware on the chrome trim rings on a bunch of those cars with sealed beams. That may have been part of the genesis of the big box of miscellaneous screws over here (circa 1984).
Well, JP, I have a couple of cases of GE 4000 and 4001 bulbs and can send you a pair to hold. In their original paper covers.
Man, I HATE typical sealed beam headlights, but on the other hand, there are upgrade options that can make them better than most pre-2000 integrated headlights. We had an ’87 Civic with the “better” headlights that actually got downgraded to sealed beams because that’s what was available from the wrecker (I think ’87 was a facelift year; not sure if they just didn’t have any of those, or if the newer ones were a hot commodity). The irony is that you can get better headlights and future-proof a vehicle with such a downgrade where available – I think there are a lot of late-80s and early-90s cars that have that option. That said, better headlights are a huge upgrade in deer country – good headlights are the difference between spotting the deer in time to stop or avoid it and hitting it, in many cases. Jumping from a car with good headlights to one with typical sealed beams is pretty jarring.
True that, as a totally practical matter. Let’s just say that the Volvo with its easily replaceable traditional sealed beam headlights is not the car of choice to drive after dark.
I dislike mice…I fear deer.
Jeff, I’m really impressed by your ingenuity, resourcefulness and service to the local community; I very much enjoyed this article!
Unfortunately, when things go bad in our house, it’s usually time for replacement (I’m thinking appliances large and small, but not cars). However, we’ve had good luck with keeping items for a long time. For example, our clothes dryer is 33 years old, while the refrigerator and stove are 21 and 22 years old, respectively. Dishwashers have had the shortest lifespan, lasting only about 10 years, so we’re on our 4th now since moving into this house in 1992. And my 1998 Nissan Frontier has passed the 27-year mark at our place.
When I was working for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, I managed to keep a wide selection of scavenged small parts from vehicles that were destroyed in crash tests. After retiring 5 years ago, I kept the parts that I thought would be most useful and bought one of those compartmentalized storage boxes to keep them organized (photo below).
When we owned the two Volvo 240s, one bought lightly used and the other with over 100,000 miles, I used to frequent the junkyards for replacement parts, mainly plastic trim items that were still in perfect condition as well as more substantial items like a window regulator. You are so correct about the current availability of aftermarket parts at very reasonable prices, and this has been especially helpful now that Charlottesville, Virginia salvage yards have abandoned the pick-and-pull model.
Another option no longer available to me was that IIHS employees were able to purchase parts off the crash test vehicles for a fraction of their list price before the cars were sent away to the salvage dealer.
Thank you 210delray.
You raise a good point about appliances. I believe – although I have no actual data to back up this pure belief – that major appliances built more than 10 – 15 years ago (so, my washing/drying machines and refrigerator, as well as your dryer/refrigerator/stove) were intended to last and were engineered to be serviceable. Unfortunately, similar devices made more recently are not. This is not just a recycling of the old “designed obsolescence” trope, but really, it’s about economic reality which I think is market-driven. If I were Whirlpool, why in the world would I make a device that was intended to last a dozen years or more when the majority of my customers would be tossing the device in 3 – 5 years? Perhaps it is the case that customers have been conditioned to throw things away in under 5 years, but it’s also a sort of chicken-egg proposition. From what I see around me, people WANT to toss stuff regularly. If that’s your market, why spend the money to engineer something different?
The irony is that we now live in a reality where devices could be made to last longer. Recall how cars from 40 years ago simply deteriorated in less than 10 years. Modern materials could be made (and are in some cases) to last much longer. But why bother when there’s a consumer desire to turn over their cars every 3 to 5 years?
On a separate note, I love the idea of your being able to acquire bits and pieces (I would emphasize both “bits” and “pieces”) of wrecked crash-tested cars! They sold you these instead of just making you pick up the bits from the scattered debris? This warrants a CC article in and of itself!
@Jeff: Enjoyed reading your entire episode, as well as clicking on the Soylent Green/washer off ramps. Why am I NOT surprised that you still have vinyl records (EW&F, no less!) as well as what appears to be a cassette deck and other stereo components (I don’t see a turntable, however?!) I, too fit the same mold as you, AND I have ALL my stereo components, as well as a VHS to DVD recorder, AND a CD recorder as well, LOL!! Seven or eight commercial sized cans of assorted nails, screws, fasteners, etc. various sized zip ties, assorted (duplicated) wrenches and sockets, well, you get the drift!! 🙂
🙂
I need to get into this as a repair since the powering off function is not working entirely as designed. It automatically brings the tonearm back to home at the end of the record, but it will not shut off the turntable until eventually it does. I’m sure that it’s a relatively straight-forward fix.
Ah, Technics! That is my turntable. Why I thought Teac is beyond me. It is an SL-D2.
Yes, I’ve had this since I think 1984. I have the receipt somewhere.
Jeff, you are just like my family. When my Dad passed on in 2004 I found things in boxes like this receipt for our first color television purchased in 1965 – an RCA New Vista Color set! He and his repair guy kept that set going until 1981. BTW, loved this piece, length and all. Keep up the good work.
That $509 would be $5,248 today. Good thing mass production and technology came along.
CA Guy, I still have the 19″ Zenith color set I got in 1985. It still works and should I have any desire to watch low-resolution television, I suppose I could hook it up to something (like, maybe one of my betamax machines? 😉 ).
I remember when the big analog to digital conversion happened in 2009 (?) and the FCC was sending you digital-analog converter boxes for free, I snagged a couple of those figuring that it was a chance to get gear that would allow me to continue to operate the several analog TVs I had. But then I tried to use the boxes and discovered that my off-air reception was so poor that it was a waste of time. No big surprise since I live 30 miles outside the major metro area and also in the shadow of a giant radio telescope facility that is very RF un-friendly. Oh well…some technology just dead ends and that’s that.
What a fun article. I see myself in this. Particularly, having bought the 240-piece plastic fastener set for an upcoming bumper fascia removal project, where I’ve previously broken too many. We also have a repair clinic time to time in my town of Redmond, WA, that I’ve planned to avail myself of, and also one in nearby Kirkland.
I believe that your part of the country (the Pacific Northwest) is kind of ground zero for things like the Repair Clinic. You have a critical mass of people who have the STEM skills as well as those with an interest in sustainability.
I try to fix things, but I am having less success with appliances recently. The cooling fan in our built-in oven chirps if you set the temperature too high, but I am having trouble finding a replacement.
I think your global supply chain might be in for some problems. I have an old Citroen and my friends in USA are having some problems getting parts from Europe. Apart from the cost, the tariffs have added a lot of complexity to things. Several large Citroen parts suppliers in Europe will no longer ship to the USA because it is too aggravating. Do you know how much aluminum is in that 40 year old steering rack? As I live in Canada it is not directly affecting me.
Yes, the end of the de minimus rule here in the US has meant that a lot of parts that cost under $800 (i.e., many of them) that used to be mail-able into the US is no longer possible, and so small vendors are simply not shipping things into the country. It’s bound to be a growing problem for keeping something like an old Citroen on the road. And then there’s tariffs that are adding price onto larger shipments that form the core of the supply chain into the US.
As for your oven, the issue of finding parts for newer appliances more than a few years old is a problem for sure. This goes to what I was saying in response to several above…older appliances seem to have much better parts supply than newer ones in many cases.
What a great read! Years ago my father in law owned two hardware stores. He had his brother in law (not the sharpest tool in the shed) run one while we ran the other. I was 21 when we met and he took me into the business. We were always fixing something for our customers. We did both re-screening and built new screens (we were in Fort Lauderdale where some homes still didn’t have A/C), rekeyed lock sets, etc.
Then I’d wrench on my cars. We usually leased one vehicle and drove one older one.
I did the timing set in our 1980 Park Avenue, power windows in our 85 Marquis, and actually changed a standard column for a tilt column in a 1979 Caprice we had. Then, about 7 years ago my back started to give way. After seeing 33 doctors (because they just want to inspect and inject and not give other options) it was told to me that my spinal canal is too small for my spinal cord (stenosis) and I’m the anomaly as mine is top to bottom. My doctor said to be very aware that paralysis is a very real threat.
I have two classic cars that I desperately want to work on but cannot. And no one will do the job the way I would!
Enjoy what you do. Do it for those of us who can’t but want to. And keep writing! These are great!
Thank you so much Chip. I forgot your hardware store background. This put you at the DIY nexus!
At my local hardware stores (all of course branches of one of the big franchise chains) I am counting the days before they abandon the aisle of drawers of lose fasteners and just offer packages of 20, along with $2000 pizza ovens. Pizza ovens seem to be a big draw at the hardware stores near me. Oh, and home decoration items that proclaim things like “THANKSGIVING” painted on pieces of wood from China. Or candles in jars that say “It’s a [fill in town name] thing!”. In other words, decreasing amounts of serious hardware.
I totally know of your back issues. Stenosis is a thing in my household (fortunately, upper spine not lower) and while I haven’t been diagnosed with that, I do have a habit of doing things that wrench my back out of shape. I’m careful and try to be attentive to maintaining core strength (so as protect my lower back as long as possible)…but you’re right, inevitably I won’t be crawling under cars forever.
Have you thought about exploring the role of being an adjunct faculty member in a voc-tech or community college? You can share your expertise with another generation and be around strong young bodies who can do some of the wrenching under your guidance that you can’t do yourself. At least around me, these programs are often looking for help.
That’s an idea I haven’t researched. But I’ve been dealing with a serious cough since July. That’s led to several bronchitis treatments which didn’t work. By last Sunday, i could hardly breath. So I drove myself to the local ER thinking I’d be in and out. Nope. In fact the doctors found lots of blood clots in both lungs and one 90% blocking my left leg. A fun two days in ICU with a heparin drip before they finally got me up and walking. I’ll have to ask my doctor what restrictions I’ll have going forward. And I’m only 62!
Had a chance to sit and read your story and all the comments tonight, thoroughly enjoyed it all! We run a small farm and that, combined with 30 years of fixing trucks, I fix/build everything! i.e. We pulled a trailer with a ’79 K10 for 40 years, ’till every time we went out, we wondered if this was the last trip. Replaced it with an ’18 RAM 2500, should have kept the Chevy! The only rub in being the fix-it guy is times when my wife will bring me a bucket of parts and ask “can you make me a widget puller out of this?” after sorting through it I’ll say “ya, I think so, when do you need it?” the reply is usually “right now!”
Your “too long” article has obviously struck a nerve and inspired so many comments. Alas, my ’94 Chevy pickup (short, narrow box, V-6, manual transmission; dang, I should never have sold it) was the last of my own vehicles to seriously self-wrench. I can’t imagine trying to fix anything on my wife’s new Lexus.
We have a set of top-load Whirlpool washer/dryers that are 35+ years old and running. Our repair guy is the third generation in business here in Vancouver (WA) and has talked about how proud the workers were “back in the day” when he attended repair school at the factory. Now, there. is no such thing.
Here’s a project: fix this CC website. It’s the worst of all my readings.
I salute your Whirlpool repair guy; and even more I salute you for (wisely, IMO) choosing to keep something running for 35+ years. Frankly, if more people decided to keep appliances longer, there may be more of an industry in support of helping people keep appliances longer.
OK, I am a capitalist optimist…
I should try a repair cafe if there is one near me. I like tinkering, and could kit out my rolling tool box. I have older cars and between eBay, Rock Auto and Amazon I can get almost anything, although Fiat 500 trunk release buttons require either tinkering or too much money. The forum fix is a Dodge Caravan part with a resistor soldered in.
I’ve also done some appliance repair since my screaming Samsung dryer was fixed by roller kit from Amazon. I have learned not to buy the cheapest part, the $30 window regulator for the Buick failed after a few months, and had to be replaced by a $60 part. It is a sign of the times that a lot of formerly specialist tools are available, AlfaOBD will let me talk to all the modules in our Fiat although this now means I have four OBDII scan tools.
You should definitely try a repair cafe. And I’m sure that there is one – or could be one – near you.