"bwp240" (bwp240)
11/16/2014 at 17:02 • Filed to: parking lot mechanic, the fun of car ownership
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"bwp240" (bwp240)
11/16/2014 at 17:02 • Filed to: parking lot mechanic, the fun of car ownership | 2
| 7 |
I have always wanted to be more hands-on with my car maintenance, but living in an apartment complex makes it kind of difficult to do many repairs. So when my inner fender well decided it didn't want to be attached to the car anymore, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to play parking lot mechanic.
After finding a place in the parking lot far away from the prying eyes of management or anyone else, I set to work.
This piece had been hanging of my car for a while, but it finally got to a point where it was dragging along the ground (made a lovely grinding noise) and I wanted to avoid breaking it (or anything else) by hitting a large pothole.
So I had my hammer and duct tape in hand ready to get all Red Green and Jeremy Clarkson on this... After some inspection it looked like someone had not fastened the bolt that held the piece back on after a repair or the plastic broke around the bolt. Thankfully it was the former and I didn't need to run to the ACE to get a bigger washer. A quick unscrewing, repositioning, and replacing the job looked done. Then I saw the second bolt that had come loose.
What the heck is that? Since I was lifting my car on the spare tire jack, there was no way I was sticking my head in there to look. So like any good techy person I stuck my phone in there and took a picture of the hole to fasten the bolt back in.
What the f**k?
What? That is most definitely a square hole for a round bolt. Of course the bolt has a square fastener as seen in the previous pic. However I really had no way to fasten it on, nor any confidence that it would hold (thanks northern winters). The only option was to use some Jeremy Clarkson ingenuity and hammer the bolt back in. And that worked.
To make sure that the piece wouldn't fall off again I needed to use something to hold it up. Luckily for me I had duct tape on had; however, after digging through my toolbox, I found some wire ties. I thought those might work better.
And here is the end result. I was pretty proud of myself.
Now I am just waiting for the power steering pump to explode, I don't think I can replace that in a parking lot.
Update: I performed this maintenance a week ago and so far it is still holding up, yay.
Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy
> bwp240
11/16/2014 at 17:09 |
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Did the same to the jetta back at the end of August.
signintoburnerlol
> bwp240
11/16/2014 at 17:11 |
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How old is this car?
And don't ever go under a car without a jackstand, those scissor jacks aren't safe and are meant for emergencies.
Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
> bwp240
11/16/2014 at 17:18 |
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The square holes are for carriage bolts
Stupidru
> bwp240
11/16/2014 at 17:22 |
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What are you driving? How do you like your DWSs? Had an opportunity to test them in snow?
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bwp240
> signintoburnerlol
11/16/2014 at 17:24 |
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It's a 2000 Saturn LS with 172k miles, it's been a great car so far.
And, yes I would never stick my body underneath this without the car on firm supports. I just needed the car raised by about ~6 in. so I could get better access, but still probably not my smartest decision. I made absolutely certain that if for some unfortunate reason it fell that I wouldn't be harmed, it made this seemingly 10 minute job take about 30-40 minutes.
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bwp240
> Stupidru
11/16/2014 at 17:44 |
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It's a 2000 Saturn LS. To be honest I had no idea what you were talking about (I only recently became interested in maintenance, parts, and stuff), I figured it was something related to the tires, but I had to Google what it was lol.
Maybe that is a positive sign. I haven't noticed anything much different while driving in the snow. Your not going to be rallying through a snow cross course, but they have worked well for any season (when this car wasn't weathering winters in the Great Lakes, it was surviving through Oklahoma everything lol).
Birddog
> bwp240
11/16/2014 at 18:23 |
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Nice work!
I'm pullin for ya. We're all in this together.