-3 isn't a bad temperature for working on your car

"CB" (jrcb)
12/18/2019 at 15:13 • Filed to: Jolly Rancher

Considering I’ve only ever changed tires, a battery replacement was the next step into working on cars. Yeah, it isn’t much, but it feels like a pretty solid accomplishment. The Jolly Rancher starts and goes! Now, to finally fig that damn foglight.

DISCUSSION (24)

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:19

I hate changing the battery in the ST. Tight squeeze for it. I know other cars are worse, but my only prior experience was the truck and there is so much room under that hood that I could comfortably live in it.

Kinja'd!!!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:20

Nice! I had to change mine in the Accent earlier this year....also, batteries are damned heavy! 0_o

CB > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
12/18/2019 at 15:22

The pre-formed cables are a pain in the ass. I had to use a screwdriver to help lift the old one out since it was so tight.

CB > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/18/2019 at 15:23

After a year and a half at Crappy Tire, I’m good with lifting batteries.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:32

Compared to some of the horrible temperatures you'd posted a couple of weeks ago, -3 Celsius may as well be summertime.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:33

It isn’t a bad temp, it’s a terrible temp. Or at least, for changing glow plugs on a diesel VW it is.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:33

I imagine! Luckily it’s not too hard to change in Humdrum...decent space to do it.

CB > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/18/2019 at 15:35

Any temperature is a bad temperature for working on a VW diesel.

CB > gin-san - shitpost specialist
12/18/2019 at 15:35

It was -20 yesterday, so I gladly waited for today.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:45

Until you try and loosen something and hit your frozen hand on something,

CB > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
12/18/2019 at 15:51

I had to chisel things off the battery, which I would not have had to do in positive temperatures.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CB
12/18/2019 at 15:59

You got me there.

Kinja'd!!!

Derpwagon > gin-san - shitpost specialist
12/18/2019 at 16:06

It feels like -3 here today. but that’s Farenheit. Wind chill is a bitch.

Mercedes Streeter > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
12/18/2019 at 16:16

....also, batteries are damned heavy! 0_o

Ugh, tell me about it. Every time I’ve needed to change a battery in a smart it was in the dead of winter. A smart’s battery sits in a tiny well INSIDE the car and has to come out in a certain direction. No, you can’t just lift, but you gotta get it at an angle and drag it out. Sucks when the fecker weighs like 25 kilos.

Mercedes Streeter > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/18/2019 at 16:18

Wait, aren’t glow plugs in similar positions that spark plugs would be? I admit I haven’t checked my glow plugs since buying the thing. lol

MoCamino > CB
12/18/2019 at 16:19

Years ago we had a 98 Chrysler Cirrus. On that car I had to remove the driver side wheel and remove the wheel well arch to reach the battery. Fortunately when I did that it was inside the garage of our house and nowhere near -3. :)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Mercedes Streeter
12/18/2019 at 16:37

This was an ‘82 Rabbit (aka Golf), and with that, 2/4 or so of the plugs are straight up behind the injection pump (something a gas engine doesn’t have), one was kind of behind some brackety thing for that, I think, and #1 was behind some of the support brackets for the AC compressor. All bad and some worse than others - and if you were to drop them or a tool, it was hard to get things back out again.

Not identical to this, but similar (wasn’t a York compressor, for example):

Kinja'd!!!

You can tell how great it is by how you can’t see the glow plugs in this picture and how there’s cooling equipment in the way.

Ash78, voting early and often > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
12/18/2019 at 16:59

Yeah, but you won’t feel the pain for hours.

I won’t share my story about bashing my pinkie nail on an exhaust bolt when it was 30 degrees outside, then having to get the nail surgically removed a few days later because I didn’t notice the initial injury quickly enough.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Ash78, voting early and often
12/18/2019 at 17:17

In my experience, especially with sailing in the cold, one little bang on the hand hurts like a mofo!

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > CB
12/18/2019 at 23:25

It’s great until you deal with these godforsaken things.

Kinja'd!!!

These little hooks go into tiny holes bored into the metal underneath the tray, and they will slip if you so much as attempt to try and keep both screws level.

pip bip - choose Corrour > CB
12/19/2019 at 04:27

better than working on one at 41C like it will be tomorrow

CB > pip bip - choose Corrour
12/19/2019 at 04:44

Give me -40 any day.

pip bip - choose Corrour > CB
12/19/2019 at 04:49

too cold

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
12/19/2019 at 16:13

I would agree. Last week when it was 34F I pulled the injector pump and glow plugs from mine (with the first iteration of the 1.6 NA). This week I will pull the head because shit’s still seized up and it’s torch time. I hope it’s not 20 like it is today.