First weekend at home in over a month, and the covid fairy came to visit.
All projects are now sidelined in favor of laying on the couch.
First weekend at home in over a month, and the covid fairy came to visit.
All projects are now sidelined in favor of laying on the couch.
Today was a sad reminder that there will definitely come a time- likely far sooner than I'd like- when the physical cost of wrenching on my vehicles will make it not worth doing. After changing the rear shocks, sway bar ends, and sway bar bushings on the QX4 today- a job which didn't entail nearly as much raw muscle as many things I've done in the past- my shoulders are very unhappy, my wrist was a constant problem (I'm beginning to wonder if I somehow unknowingly cracked something in it a few months back, though I never had anything happen that I thing could have caused it), and my back was pretty unhappy for a few hours (pretty certainly from using the breaker bar to break fasteners free).
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I'm 34. I think I'm there already. Between a bad right wrist and other injuries, I'm likely farming out 90% of the wrenching on the biscuit.
My dad was right. I should have taken better care or myself. Knee pads were so lame when I was a teenager, and you can berk right off with your wrist guards...
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I can't remember, does the center of your garage have enough ceiling height for a lift? Having used wae's mid rise lift, I can say it helps immensely.
eastsideTim said:In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I can't remember, does the center of your garage have enough ceiling height for a lift? Having used wae's mid rise lift, I can say it helps immensely.
QFT. I've had the Titan mid-rise lift in the shop for a little over a year now. In that time, I've been able to work on things on the lift as well as with things that couldn't use the lift either because it was occupied or, in the case of the Excursion, because it was too heavy. Being able to put the work at an ergonomic level is a complete game-changer. Even just rotating tires is so much easier on the body: for the Neon or Miata I can just put the car all the way up and it's easy to just lift the tires in to place; for the Mercedes, I can put the tire on a dolly, wheel it up to the car, and then move the car up and down until the hub is lined up, taking 73.6% of the evil out of wheel bolts.
I've also found that a large portion of the fatigue and the after-action soreness comes from having to get up off the ground and then back down. A good creeper can help with that, but being able to sit at a natural level and wheel around means that I can do all sorts of work under a car and not be stiff.
When I bought the thing, I thought the big reason was just to make it easier to see stuff and to get to it. That's nice and all, but the real benefit is that it lets me enjoy my hobby without it taking a toll on me physically. Best $1800 I ever spent.
Local chain parts store only had the outer front wheel earring for a 2wd pickup, WTF?
Why only have the outer, or is it just a strange coincidence that I'm shopping for a set of wheel bearings after someone that was only replacing the inner bearing?
Also, train your employees or at least make the app on the computer at the counter work well enough that they can select proper part even if they've never turned a wrench.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Roger that. I just turned 38 but I think it was around 32 that I realized I don't bounce back as quickly. I'd wonder why my wrist is sore on Tuesday then remembered I was messing with the car on Sunday. Now I need to remember to do my stretches before wrenching.
When I was in the 20s I didn't think I'd spend money on power tools but now the cordless impact comes out just for lug nuts. I'm also making more money to afford such tools.
We canceled the racing today due to crappy weather and a forecast that said it was going to get worse. Then the weather cleared up.
I don't regret our decision, we made the best choice we could with the information we had at the time but, dang it I wanted to race and the sunshine is adding insult to injury.
No Time said:Local chain parts store only had the outer front wheel earring for a 2wd pickup, WTF?
Why only have the outer, or is it just a strange coincidence that I'm shopping for a set of wheel bearings after someone that was only replacing the inner bearing?
Also, train your employees or at least make the app on the computer at the counter work well enough that they can select proper part even if they've never turned a wrench.
It is probably shared with something more common, whereas the other bearing is not. Most bearings are some form of standard size so this is really common.
In reply to eastsideTim :
There's likely enough room to use one on everything except the QX4 (and the Colorado, but I disnt touch the previous one and part of why we traded it for a new one was so I wouldn't have to for a few more years at least). So the BMW & DMC would work. The QX4 might if it didn't go up terribly high. I may have to look more into that when the DMC is either done or further enough along where it would be useful on it.
Asking a group to make a big decision, then having the moderator give a heavily slanted presentation isn't my idea of "mediation". It seems the decision has already been made and we're just being told to go along with it or else. I'm leaning towards "or else" just to see what happens.
Early this afternoon when we were chilling on the couch The Dancer asks, "Does it feel warm in here to you? The AC has been running for a while but it still feels warm...". Pull out my phone and pull up the Nest app- AC is set to 70, temperature is 77. Walk around and feel vents- most notably in the basement where it's usually like 10-15 degrees cooler l- and yup, air coming out isn't cold. So apparently something with our AC is on the fritz.
Earliest we can get someone out to try and fix it is tomorrow afternoon- so we have to go through the second half of a high-80's day and likely a muggy night with no AC.
Making matters worse? This also means that there will be someone else in the house... so she freaks out about it not being clean enough and we have to clean up in the heat. It's been a while since I've spent a night without decent climate control (and most previous times were winter nights)... it's not going to be a fun night.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:Early this afternoon when we were chilling on the couch The Dancer asks, "Does it feel warm in here to you? The AC has been running for a while but it still feels warm...". Pull out my phone and pull up the Nest app- AC is set to 70, temperature is 77. Walk around and feel vents- most notably in the basement where it's usually like 10-15 degrees cooler l- and yup, air coming out isn't cold. So apparently something with our AC is on the fritz.
Earliest we can get someone out to try and fix it is tomorrow afternoon- so we have to go through the second half of a high-80's day and likely a muggy night with no AC.
Making matters worse? This also means that there will be someone else in the house... so she freaks out about it not being clean enough and we have to clean up in the heat. It's been a while since I've spent a night without decent climate control (and most previous times were winter nights)... it's not going to be a fun night.
I spent two weeks kickstarting my condenser fan with a stick. See if the outside fan spins or is trying to spin. If the compressor is running give the fan blade a spin, it should start if it isn't locked up. Not a fix, but it gets the cold air pumping again.
At the end of a family gathering that had gone very nicely, I watched an older relative back into my car. I had arrived early, and parked in what should have been a safe place, away from where most of the parking action would be. She had arrived later and crammed her car in what wasn't really a parking spot. Leaving, she very slowly backed, creeping along, farther, farther ... right into the front of my car. Her car was new enough to have a rear camera, but I didn't bother checking to verify that it did.
I kept my cool and was outwardly civil, but it was about all I could do. "No, I don't need your information. No, I don't need you to pay for it. I'll take care of it. ", I said. Inside it was something from Napoleon: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence".
Conscience doth make cowards of us all - Hamlet
TLDR: Old lady relative hit my car and I felt I couldn't chew her out, curse, or otherwise display my displeasure.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
That makes sense.
The bigger frustration was having to explain the front wheel bearing wasnt a hub assembly multiple times to the guy working the counter. Although most people in the auto business under the age of 25 probably haven't had to deal with separate inner and outer front wheel bearings.
In reply to slefain :
The fan was spinning- it was the first thing I checked since I think we're on demand conservation with the power company and wondered if they'd shut off the compressor because they needed to power. Everything looked like it was working properly except no cold air was coming out.
We've not had anything done to ghe AC system in the 8 years we've lived here though, so I can't really complain...
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
They won't be in your house much.
Check the status of your A/C unit. This happens for us, and 9/10, the issue is that the condensor vents are clogged with dogwood fuzz, and I need to spend 20 minutes cleaning it out really good.
In reply to Beer Baron :
I've checked the unit out side and can't find anything visibly wrong with it.... unfortunately I'm guessing it's something that is beyond my ability to fix.
Last night wasn't terrible, but it was difficult getting to sleep- The Dancer was kind of regretting not letting me go and grab a small window unit to put down in our bedroom if for no other reason than it helping dehumidify the room. Our bedroom is in the basement, so while it wasn't terribly hot down there it was far more humid than usual- ironically this is usually the opposite problem that we usually have what with the HVAC also being in the basement (in the next room over) so it's usually drier than ideal- as such we have 2 humidifiers but not a de-humidifier. Didn't sleep the best, but likely slept enough. I saw an article recently about a discovery that some people have a genetic difference that allows them to get by perfectly normally on 4-6 hours of sleep- I'm pretty convinced I'm one of those people.
They're supposed to come by between 2-4 today to try and fix the A/C- I don't expect that I'm going to have any problems today- my office is on the top-most floor of our house where the HVAC system does a horrible job of reaching, so I'm used to it being in the low-80's in my office during the day. And it's supposed to be about 10 degrees cooler today than the last few days, so I should be pretty good with the windows open and fan running.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Speculating wildly, my guess is low refrigerant. Our unit does the same thing every couple years. You don't really notice it until one day it seems a little warm in the house and you realize that the AC hasn't cycled off in a long time. They'll come out, put a pound or so of Puron in the system and it's all good to go for a while. There's a small leak somewhere but the consensus is that it's cheaper to top it off than to hunt the leak, much less fix it. Hopefully that's all yours is!
“Everyone makes enough money to become rich. What keeps us living paycheck to paycheck is that we spend more than we make on stuff we don’t need.” - David Bach, originator of the ridiculous idea that you can make a major difference to your finances buy avoiding a daily coffee.
If there were any justice in this world, this guy would lose his house, make minimum wage for the rest of his life, and be saddled with a midrange sports car's worth of student debt for good measure. Let's see him save his way out of that.
I haven't kept careful track but it really feels like I've spent more time hunting for bolts and tools that I've dropped into the engine bay than I've spent actually working on the engine.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Sounds like weatherman in a 3 piece suit saying how its nice and sunny at 89 degrees with 87% humidity.
Motherberkeleyer, come outside and hump this wheelbarrow full of concrete and them hustle to screed it off. You'll be unconscious in less than 20. Eat E36 M3.
In reply to wae :
Nope, though that was my initial guess too. It was a blown (honking huge, the size of a beer can) capacitor on the compressor. There was a very crispy wasp on the top of it that presumably shorted it out. Still a $400 repair, but it's back working and we have a 3 year warranty on the part so if it happens again they come out and replace it for free. And I know to put up a wasp trap on that side of the house.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
I know nothing of that author, and he may very well be a jackass. But for most middle class Americans, it really is the discretionary spending that keeps us living paycheck to paycheck. Plenty of people make good money but blow it all on new cars every three years, lunch and dinner out every day, coffee, etc. They might make $80k/year but don't have two pennies to rub together once the bills are paid. I suspect the "lattes keep you down" is an over simplification intended to turn attention to that fact.
By way of example, I used to eat lunch out every day until I realized that I was blowing a ton of money on that habit. If you can save $10/day on one habit - which you totally can for something like lunch out versus a packed lunch - and you invest that money, at an average 10%/year, that's a half million dollars after 30 years. Actually $592,178.50.
So while cutting avocado toast isn't going to make you a millionaire tomorrow, getting a latte on the way in to work every day and getting lunch and dinner out every day while making payments on a $50k car is absolutely going to keep a middle class person from becoming a millionaire.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:In reply to wae :
Nope, though that was my initial guess too. It was a blown (honking huge, the size of a beer can) capacitor on the compressor. There was a very crispy wasp on the top of it that presumably shorted it out. Still a $400 repair, but it's back working and we have a 3 year warranty on the part so if it happens again they come out and replace it for free. And I know to put up a wasp trap on that side of the house.
FWIW: You can buy that cap for about $20 on Amazon. I found a replacement locally for about the same. I put the Amazon one on the shelf as a spare.
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