Wrenchin... Adventures under the hood... Put em here.

[gravitylover]

@Mcphee - ya know I was thinking about that when the rotor had some room to jiggle when I put it back on but figured it would be pretty much locked in place once the wheel was bolted on. Guess I'll find out tomorrow

[mcphee]

@Mcphee - ya know I was thinking about that when the rotor had some room to jiggle when I put it back on but figured it would be pretty much locked in place once the wheel was bolted on. Guess I'll find out tomorrow

Ok, but, You’re gonna die

[warthog]

Or not, but definitely one of the two.
Good luck.

[gravitylover]

So bike parts and working on cars cross paths again. The rotor retention bolts I need are a special order and at least 2 months out so a creative solution was necessary. You guys were right, the bolts don't serve any purpose but that shoulder is important because the rotor shifts a little without something there. It turns out that chainring bolt spacers fit absolutely perfectly so I used long ones that won't be able to fall out because there isn't room. Rotors are snug, everything went together nicely and the truck stops. �� I couldn't figure out how to take apart the parking brake though, I have new pads and hardware but I'm dumb.

[mcphee]

So bike parts and working on cars cross paths again. The rotor retention bolts I need are a special order and at least 2 months out so a creative solution was necessary. You guys were right, the bolts don't serve any purpose but that shoulder is important because the rotor shifts a little without something there. It turns out that chainring bolt spacers fit absolutely perfectly so I used long ones that won't be able to fall out because there isn't room. Rotors are snug, everything went together nicely and the truck stops. �� I couldn't figure out how to take apart the parking brake though, I have new pads and hardware but I'm dumb.

Nice!

How badly worn are the park brake shoes? I would skip that job if there’s life left. The adjustment and bedding process is confusing. Have seen an LR3 have the parking brake burn up at highway speed because an Indy shop replaced and didn’t adjust and bed properly. I don’t remember the whole process so I can’t be of assistance here.

[MontuckyFried]

I just want to say how much I appreciate this thread. As the prices of used cars keeps getting ever further out of reach, you guys inspire me to keep on keeping on with my geriatric car. Just gave one up due to yet another bad trans where the math just did not pencil out to replace again or repair with about 200K on the clock, but I'm motivated to keep my old Volvo going for the foreseeable future barring any catastrophic problems. Thanks to some of the solid advice and motivation I've gotten here, I have easily saved thousands of dollars on the old girl.

Been looking at cars lately on lots and holeeeeeeee shnikeys are prices absurd. We are now a 1 car family. Haha.

[unitofstuff]

New project:







Pile of parts has some M3 brakes, axles, and trailing arms. H&Rs and Bilsteins. DS1's need to be refinished (3/4 of them are pretty nasty), but I have some style 42's I'll probably use until the GT3582 stuff is all pieced together.

[uglymoney]

Stepson and I replacing another blown strut mount...rear 02 Outback and the brakes on that side. Strut top bolt wouldn't budge, stripped the 6mm allen inside the kyb strut. Tried torching it and soaking it everything. Gave up and cut the fucker off with a wheel. New strut ordered 2 day express.

Caliper blew its seal when the puck was almost back in. Local parts store for free replacement under warranty.

Jesus christ.



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[MontuckyFried]

^^Oh man. What a PITA. Although you gotta admit that sometimes it feels REALLY good to destroy something that's being a bastard to deal with like that. Very cathartic.

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[uglymoney]

^^Oh man. What a PITA. Although you gotta admit that sometimes it feels REALLY good to destroy something that's being a bastard to deal with like that. Very cathartic.

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True that Austin. The sense of satisfaction when I managed to free that spring was great. Running that grinder on the end of a compressed spring which is kind of like a loaded gun was no fun at all though.

My stepson has some relative that he found out is on some race pit crew the last time he was in Cheekago visiting his dad (who has never owned a car). And his roomate last year in college has an old BMW and is a car kid. So he has quite suddenly gone from stepdad having to drag him into the garage to deciding working on cars is cool and jumped out of bed the last couple times we wrenched to make this happen. Definitely fast and furious sort of taste but he's 19 so I'll take it. Which suddenly makes keeping this old Subaru alive fun rather than a huge pain in the ass. And he is now actually learning something. Because him. Not me. Stepdadhood is hard and often goes completely unrewarded so I'll take the last couple three days wrenching with him as a long overdue reward. No guarantee this will ever happen again but nobody can take it away from us.

It also helps that old lifted manual Subaru's are cool in the circles he runs in.

[MontuckyFried]

True that Austin. The sense of satisfaction when I managed to free that spring was great. Running that grinder on the end of a compressed spring which is kind of like a loaded gun was no fun at all though.

My stepson has some relative that he found out is on some race pit crew the last time he was in Cheekago visiting his dad (who has never owned a car). And his roomate last year in college has an old BMW and is a car kid. So he has quite suddenly gone from stepdad having to drag him into the garage to deciding working on cars is cool and jumped out of bed the last couple times we wrenched to make this happen. Definitely fast and furious sort of taste but he's 19 so I'll take it. Which suddenly makes keeping this old Subaru alive fun rather than a huge pain in the ass. And he is now actually learning something. Because him. Not me. Stepdadhood is hard and often goes completely unrewarded so I'll take the last couple three days wrenching with him as a long overdue reward. No guarantee this will ever happen again but nobody can take it away from us.

It also helps that old lifted manual Subaru's are cool in the circles he runs in.

Dude. That is awesome. You definitely win the dad of the year award for that one. Keep it up! We need more kids of this next generation to know their heads from their asses when it comes to getting under the hood. An increasingly rare skill. Even if everything eventually goes EV, it'll STILL be good to know how to work on stuff, as even Teslas still have suspensions and bunch of other standard components, and it's guys like you and your stepson that will keep them going for the long haul. I 100% plan on learning how to work high voltage crap some day, though. Been pondering on getting an old, dirt cheap Leaf with a shot battery someday just to learn on. Keep up the great work, mang, and make sure and post pics of that badass little Subaru post-op! Should put on a Brumby decal!

[Fofo]

True that Austin. The sense of satisfaction when I managed to free that spring was great. Running that grinder on the end of a compressed spring which is kind of like a loaded gun was no fun at all though.

My stepson has some relative that he found out is on some race pit crew the last time he was in Cheekago visiting his dad (who has never owned a car). And his roomate last year in college has an old BMW and is a car kid. So he has quite suddenly gone from stepdad having to drag him into the garage to deciding working on cars is cool and jumped out of bed the last couple times we wrenched to make this happen. Definitely fast and furious sort of taste but he's 19 so I'll take it. Which suddenly makes keeping this old Subaru alive fun rather than a huge pain in the ass. And he is now actually learning something. Because him. Not me. Stepdadhood is hard and often goes completely unrewarded so I'll take the last couple three days wrenching with him as a long overdue reward. No guarantee this will ever happen again but nobody can take it away from us.

It also helps that old lifted manual Subaru's are cool in the circles he runs in.

That's great! On both accounts. A friend of mine has a son that just couldn't find his footing in life (it didn't help at all that his older sister is the kind of person that excels at school and interpersonal relationships, so his self esteem was constantly getting hits), and then he figured out that he is really good at fixing cars, father and son bonded with this, and now he is repairing and modding cars for his friends, that's probably what he'll end up doing long term.

[gravitylover]

I wish that back in HS or even college someone would have given me a chance to learn this stuff. I was great with bikes and skis but didn't really know anyone that worked on cars. I'd be out riding my bikes and see dads and sons or groups of guys fixing cars on driveways and in the street and always though how cool it would be but my dad, the CPA, didn't know people like that other than maybe he did their taxes. Over the years I've picked up enough to be dangerous and now there's Youtube to really teach me the wrong way

[frorider]

Great memories bonding with my dad working on cars, lawnmowers etc growing up. Starting around age 13 I guess. I remember trying to dial in the twin SU carbs on the Volvo 145.

In college most of my buddies also worked on their cars, so always had help on the bigger jobs.

We all fantasized about one day having a garage to work in.

[Todd Zander]

Wrenchin under the bed, 98 tacoma. They messed up and used 7 AND 8 mm hardware (wtf?) but they made up for it by putting them in blind holes so no rust in the threads!

[warthog]

My friend in H.S. built this when he was 15 and 16. Wish I had gone over and helped more. This was originally 3 different 70's Camaros that he made into one nice one. Lots of cruising in this and my other friend's '69 SS.

[shafty85]

Replaced the glow plugs on my 06 LBZ today. Had a P0675 code - which the google informed me was the #5 circuit. Decided to replace them all as this was #2 or 3 I've done and don't want to do it again. With 405k km I'm hopeful none of them will need to be done again.

Started with the passenger side. Would have been easy peasy if I hadn't dropped a nut. Where did it go? No-one knows. Back to the dealer for another $5.90 nut. That's right. $5.90 for a tiny 8mm nut. Do any automotive shops around here sell them? Of course not. Pick up some copper anti-seize as I couldn't find mine and a couple torque wrenches @ 50% off that have low enough settings for this job. Must have just torqued them down to 'yep, that's tight' last time. Re-do the 2 I'd done without anti-seize and at proper torque and back into it I go. Immediately drop new nut. Where did it go? No-one knows. Again. Off come the bottom shields. This sheds no light on the matter. Off comes the tire. There it is - stuck on a pan 3/4 of the way across the truck. Thing must have had a mind of it's own. Passenger side done.



Taking these off should not be part of this process.



Onto the driver side - where the bad plug lies. It is easily accessible - staring me in the face. To the right of it is #7 - not too bad for access once I figured out to come at it while lying under it. 6 down. 2 to go.



#3 is directly behind the steering column. This was a battle I have fought before. Why, oh why, didn't I purchase a 3/8" drive 12mm deep socket instead of a 1/4" drive last time??? Wouldn't have solved everything but sure would have made it easier. The harness nut comes off fairly easily. The steering column is too close to allow use of a deep socket so I had to use a standard socket not fully set onto the wrench and partially on the glowplug lug. 1/16 of a revolution at a time it comes out. Why was this one so tight? Oh yeah - I couldn't get a torque wrench in so I just did it 'that's not going anywhere' ft-lbs last time. I brute force the torque wrench in this time and it seems to be torqued properly.



#1 is behind what I believe is an aluminum radiator hose. Not as bad as #3 but not easy access, either.



4hrs later, I'm done and cleaned up including an oil change and trip to the dealership and hardware store. Winter tires go on tomorrow. For my future self I hope any plugs that go bad are on the passenger side and I will continue to wonder what some designer engineering are thinking and whether they have actually ever worked on a vehicle.

[fatnslow]

Went to look at a beater to consider buying to fixup. The owner told me his front driver side brake pad (outer) fell off while he was driving and he parked it. What could cause something like this ? It's not drivable right now as is and I'm thinking about offering him $8-900. It's a Saab 9-3 aero that needs a little TLC but it idles very smooth and the guy seems pretty honest about everything. I'm thinking I can make it drivable for a couple hundred bucks and take my time tightening it up.

[snowaddict91]

Went to look at a beater to consider buying to fixup. The owner told me his front driver side brake pad (outer) fell off while he was driving and he parked it. What could cause something like this ? It's not drivable right now as is and I'm thinking about offering him $8-900. It's a Saab 9-3 aero that needs a little TLC but it idles very smooth and the guy seems pretty honest about everything. I'm thinking I can make it drivable for a couple hundred bucks and take my time tightening it up.

Could be anything from it not being put together right to needing a full caliper and new rotor. Id just plan on it needing new caliper and rotor at a minimum.

[fatnslow]

Could be anything from it not being put together right to needing a full caliper and new rotor. Id just plan on it needing new caliper and rotor at a minimum.

That's what I was thinking as well. It's worth considering if I can get the car dialed in for a total of $1500 with me doing all the work. $300 for caliper, pads rotors and a few other bits it needs. My second kid will be finishing college this year and could probably work well as a 2-3 year solution. It's a 05 Saab 9-3 aero with 125k miles.

[uglymoney]

Could be more. Faulty wheel bearing will eventually fuck the brakes. Bad strut mount. Broken suspension parts. Ask me how I know or just read some of my past posts.

Probably something simple. Just a word if warning.

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[fatnslow]

Could be more. Faulty wheel bearing will eventually fuck the brakes. Bad strut mount. Broken suspension parts. Ask me how I know or just read some of my past posts.

Probably something simple. Just a word if warning.

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I appreciate it. Only willing to pay what I don't mind losing. Not even sure if I'm going to make an offer. The beauty of looking at Saabs is there is a limited market for them . High point of that car would only be $3k if it was drivable, as is $8-900 is my high water mark. In cases like this I usually shop for parts at the junk years over time. I'll see if it's still around in a week or so, if I brought that thing home wife probably would kill me since she's out of town with the kids.

[MakersTeleMark]

I find it admirable posting about a Saab in the wrenching thread before actually owning it and posting in the wrenching thread.

[fatnslow]

I find it admirable posting about a Saab in the wrenching thread before actually owning it and posting in the wrenching thread.

I'm a repeat offender with Saabs , my sanity and intellect is obviously very limited.
If you understand their quirks not a bad car.

[MontuckyFried]

Alright, wrenching buddies. I need your help on this one. Getting ready to order my components for front end strut assemblies on my Volvo. Thought I'd replace the springs while I was at it so I can get them pre-installed to the new struts for an easier swap as I'm down to one vehicle and can't make a run to a shop to have anyone do that for me when the car's torn apart. Anyway, go to FCP Euro and there are a million variants for the factory springs. Official Volvo parts website shows the same thing. Apparently they're "marked" with variant codes or something? WTF does this mean and where can I find said markings so I can get a perfect replacement?

Look at the list here and you'll see what I'm talking about: https://usparts.volvocars.com/a/Volv...GR-412645.html

Now I understand why nobody has an complete strut/coil assembly available for my car. I'm confused.