Cheaper than doing it twice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/69785841

She called me because she couldn't get her car started after work. We had to get it towed out of the underground parking which is quite a pain in the ass apparently.

I spent a couple hours troubleshooting the issue (smoky exhaust, barely started, ran like shit) and I burned out the starter in the process and had to put a new one in. Starters in these little 3.7L engines are pretty pathetic.

At some point in all this she mentioned she had filled up before driving to work, so I figured out how to jumper the fuel pump and pumped out this piss-colored junk. Feels oily like diesel, doesn't burn explosively like you'd expect with straight gas.

Fresh fuel and some Seafoam snake oil to maybe clean injectors. Since I didn't drop the tank to clean it perfectly, she's going to put small amounts in for a few fills and burn it off completely between fills because the solution to pollution is dilution.

Her receipt showed she uses the gas pump, not the diesel, so I'm wondering how many people got to deal with this bullshit since I'm guessing the station got an entire compartment contaminated. Haven't bothered to talk to the company, since I did the work myself and they certainly aren't going to reimburse me for my time.

Ah well, it's an excuse to do a pile of other maintenance I'd planned anyway and had parts for.

Wife is happy she isn't buying a new car. Happy wife, happy life.

Check engine light on. Take a guess at the problem.

Whole wiring harness burnt out, they said they had looked at it and there was nothing wrong.

Title: oil cap is gone. Either lost in the car or on the road.

Bought a new one for 9$.

My engine is COVERED in oil. It's gonna stink for weeks now.

I'm not concerned about the oil - as - I used my other cars used oil since this car burns through it in 3 months.

Edit: hey this sub let me post. Thought I needed a picture. Tifu wouldn't even tell me what I was missing to post.

Ps. Do we still call them sub reddits?

The chain sprocket here is supposed to rotate the keyed shaft below. At some point the 1/4" sq key came out. Instead of replacing the key, someone decided to try to just tighten the tiny set screw in the sprocket until it bottomed out on the keyway floor. It didn't end well and the keyway got trashed.

I cleaned up the keyway and installed a new key.

Then I milled a 1/4" slot into one half of a split shaft collar, and installed the collar over the part of the exposed key where the keyway in the shaft was damaged. Finally I installed a regular split shaft collar to butt against the end of the new key to keep it from backing out again. Final pic

It’s a bit shocking to see what some people do to their vehicles. Scared at the notion of sharing the road with these folks.

Great channel as well, similar to “daily dose of internet” but for car mechanics.

I forgot what this one was.