Guess I'm A Mechanic Now

[jrodda]

So I bought the 02 Toyota Highlander about a month ago, expecting to pay mechanics to change an o2 sensor, front brakes, and tires, and I would be rockin'.

Learned I had to pay $900 in penalties from a previous owner. Pleaded with the DMV and they were able to peruse the fees and drop it to something like $580. Still cut into my mechanic budget.

Learned I could do the o2 sensor myself, it was the easiest one right in front thankfully. Felt proud of myself to be the one to turn off the engine light! Before it hit the 50 mile mark after that in order to reset the computer's memory, the engine light came on again...

Checked it out, 3 codes!!! I'm f@cked! Looked them up. P0441 and P0128 (x2...).

P0441 COULD have been a loose gas cap, an expensive charcoal filter on the sub frame, or a loose hose. It was the loose hose. Thank god.

P0128 was either going to be the thermostat, which based on youtube videos looked like an intermediate job beyond my current confidence, or a thermostat sensor which was another 2 minute plug-and-play. It was the sensor, phewwwww.

Took a drive down the freeway and back this morning to put on the 50 miles for the computer reset. Light didn't come back on. Rushed over to a 7 day smog place and passed. Wooooo!! Thermostat job would have run me a few hundo I'm sure.

Gonna get the registration tomorrow. But I've got one more mechanical thing I need to figure out. If the car sits for more than a day, it takes several cranks to get the car started. I'm being told it's either the fuel filter or, less likely, the idle air control valve being dirty. Probably the fuel filter, which I have to remove the back seat to access the gas tank and pump assembly. Gonna replace the fuel pump while I'm in there as well, more expensive but I would feel stupid not replacing the original pump at 163k while I'm in there, then having it fail at any point.

Just thinking out loud. Trying to take advantage of the Highlander being infinitely more possible to work on than my old Volvo. Looking forward to saving money on fluid changes, and hopefully no more repairs for a while after this week.

[Tim524]

The cars today are so frustrating, every sensor has a sensor and the computer seems to create a headache for every issue.

Good job on doing your own knuckle busting 

[Latimeria]

Man, my days of being a mechanic are over.
I pick and choose now since my old body doesn't contort like it used to. 

Keep us posted as this brings back some memories.  I hope you get it all dialed in this week boss.

[jrodda]

Got the registration officially, I guess I already paid for it last month which is a nice surprise.

Transmission was acting badly the last couple days, slow to shift etc, and when I went to put in additive I realized it was grossly overfilled. I'm talking when I was done siphoning it out, I filled a 52oz OJ bottle to get the fluid back between the dipstick lines. So a quart and a half? f@ckin A....hopefully I caught it before it did any real damage. About 150 miles. I never saw frothing on the dipstick though. Fluid looks good overall. Added that additive so hopefully that smoothes over this mess...

[jrodda]

Engine light came on again, this time for the thermostat. I expected this after reading two P0128 codes last week and I was surprised the engine light stayed off for the smog. Thankful that it played along to get smogged but bad news. This is the kind of job I'm not ready for, with tight spaces and disassembling multiple things and several near-blind bolts and a coolant drain on top of that. Looking for somewhere or someone to go to, hopefully after work. yourmechanic.com is trying to charge $70 for a gallon of coolant as a necessary component? Get the f o of here!

Dropping off Volvo for state retirement tomorrow.

[Latimeria]

I feel your pain....

[vdisney]

Man, my days of being a mechanic are over.
I pick and choose now since my old body doesn't contort like it used to.

I'm  with you Tom, I was a mechanic for the State of California for 32 years, I'm waaayyy over it

[jrodda]

Ordered tires online from walmart and had an installation appointment for today. They said it would be an hour. 30 minutes into them having my car, car is up on the lift, and they call me back in to tell me that the tires I ordered were wrong (shipper's fault). So I have to initiate the tire refund and replacement. Idk why they couldn't tell me before the appointment, or less than 30 minutes into the appointment, or at least they put my car up on the lift? Idk why I expected anything more, in fact that might have been the best thing that could have happened.

Just ordered another pair off Amazon and I'll take it to a local shop for mounting. Probably more expensive but at least I don't have to worry about the 999 ways Walmart could f@ck up the next attempt.

[jrodda]

Also replaced the fuel filter this weekend. That went about the way I thought it would. Fuel filter/pump assembly is all in the gas tank with a door under the rear passenger seat. Remove the seats, pull up the carpet, pretty much every connector was 10x more stubborn than tutorial videos show,

I realized I had no great tutorial on actually pulling apart the assembly.

Got it back together, back in the car, started it up, and...still needs the accelerator to start the car. Good to have the experience and confidence of seeing the fuel pump assembly, but damn.

I figure now it's the Idle Air Control valve that I gotta put some carb cleaner through to get the car started without the gas pedal assist.

[Latimeria]

I tremble from all of my experiences I had fixing cars, boats and motors.  The knowledge is awesome to have, but my days of that crap are slowly going away. 

Keep up that great work boss!

[jrodda]

Hired a mobile mechanic to do the thermostat, finally. Was contemplating doing it myself for a while and ultimately it seemed like a little too much.

Mobile mechanic was an interesting experience. Really good chill guy. I tried to stay out of the way but I didn't walk away from the car, saw a little of what he was doing, explained a bit of my DIY findings and confusions, and he gave some of his knowledge and opinions on stuff. My boss was telling me to drill a hole in the new thermostat wall, meanwhile this guy (Frank) said yeah it works but you will probably still have the engine light afterwards. Got to the Idle Air Control Valve and he was like "so what did you wanna do here?" and I just pulled out my carb cleaner, sprayed it, wiggled it, and said boom we're good on that, thanks. Collaboration...good with me! Very good price on 2 hours of labor. He pointed out that I should change my air filter which might actually explain some of my AC noises, so I will actually do that today. I will definitely call that mechanic again if I ever need him. Hopefully not any time soon!

But overall, this car is pretty much up to snuff. No engine light for the past 150 miles, drives fine, and got a bunch of rubber mats in with the back seats down, so I have basically a full bed to work with all the time. Price for car, DMV fees, and repairs, ~$3400. A little hard work and a lot of luck.