Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Pub Talk). This thread is read-only.
It’s been bad for me in the world of mechanics over the past 24 hours. Some of it self inflicted with the remaining just bad luck I guess. Actually it started on Thursday but continuing into the New Year.
Started the day yesterday with needing to change the oil in my car. Had everything ready to go and I’ve changed the oil on this car since I’ve bought it. Crawl underneath the car and the drain plug strips the head off. This is a known issue with the Chevy Cruze. GM uses a 10MM drain plug on the pan and is known for stripping. So I had to use vice grips to get it off. I’m home by myself with my daughter with no means of getting a new plug so I had to reinstall the stripped bolt.
I fill it and put the fill cap back on the valve cover. My daughter and I go down to the Polaris dealer to grab some parts for her sled. As I’m on the highway, I can smell burning oil and then the check engine light comes on. I pull over and open the hood to find the majority of the engine compartment covered in oil. The fill cap didn’t seal correctly and oil spewed everywhere. So we had to find a self serve car wash bay to clean it up before we both choked to death on fumes. Check engine light is still on from it registering a massive vacuum leak.
I get the parts for her sled and we then head home. Spend the rest of the day installing the parts. Once done, I go and start her sled only to find out that it’s low on compression on the magneto side and running on one cylinder. Somehow the sled went from running absolutely great in August when I moved it around in the garage to being on life support in 4 months.
I need a beer.
Dude u need a 12pack! I’m sorry to hear about the bad day bro….
murphy’s law…..sorry to hear of your crappy 24 hours….
Sorry dude that sucks
Jimbo
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Sorry to hear your pain brother. A few beers and a new day hopefully will bring better results. Good luck.
That sounds like one of those days were you just want to crawl back in bed and beg for a do over!! Hope tomorrow is better 🙂
I just walked away from it and crashed on the couch and fell asleep to the ongoing Mythbusters marathon. lol
Love mythbusters
Jimbo
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Me too. Love the show, hate the channel.
They play the same 4 commercials that promote upcoming new segments. It’s very maddening
Days like that are the worst, hope tomorrow is a better day…if not there are plenty of other days in the new year to make up for it.
Sam Adams. White Christmas. And you might need two 😉
Good luck dude, sorry to hear about the misfortune.
After thinking about it. I have a theory on what may be causing the dropped cylinder on the sled. Going out to the garage to check it out.
fuel issue, stator?
I believe that either the choke plunger or the needle and seat is hanging up. All signs point to that the cylinder was suffering from flooding. I just removed the magneto side drain plug from the case and a bunch of fuel came out. I pulled the pipe and plugs and I’m going to let it dry out and then try it again with the fuel shut off and see if it clears up.
The root issue on the sled was a hanging choke plunger on the magneto side carb. It was pulling excess gas into the mix and causing it to choke itself off. Fixed that and slapped everything back together and it’s running like a champ again. Now all we need now is some snow!
Check engine light went off on the car today too.
Well what a difference 24 hours make. 🙂
You didn’t run the car out if oil when the cap didn’t seal did you? Glad to hear everything is better though.
NicholasShetley wrote:
You didn’t run the car out if oil when the cap didn’t seal did you? Glad to hear everything is better though.
No, it probably sprayed about 1/4 of a quart out. I checked the level and it was still within spec.
Just so you know it’s very illegal to do what you did at the carwash. I had a guy threaten me legally because I was using engine degreaser at his carwash. Apparently they get tested for contaminant runoff and can be fined by the EPA, and according to him they’re very serious on the subject. He took down my LP and told me to skedaddle.
Could make a shit day a whole lot worse.
Interesting,
The car wash that I went to had a setting on the dial marked as engine degreaser. Not sure what else you would use it for.
That’s what I was thinking but I see where Hugh is coming from though. The epa has some very strict regulations when it comes to automotive fluids.99_XC600 wrote:
Interesting,
The car wash that I went to had a setting on the dial marked as engine degreaser. Not sure what else you would use it for.