"I can fix that... I think." Topic

This morning as I was taking my son to school, we both noticed some vapor rising from the engine compartment. Given that it was cold and had been wet the night before, I was hoping that it was just some water that had been splashed into the engine compartment. However, the defroster brought with it the tell-tale smell of anti-freeze.

A quick check of the onboard computer showed that the engine was running within nominal temperatures, but a little hot for the short drive.

When I got back home, I popped the hood and easily found where it had been leaking – a hose at the back of the engine compartment and relatively easy to get at. However, when I checked the hose for cracks, it turned out that there was a T-coupling connecting three hoses – and the plastic literally disintegrated. I was left with a plastic "L" pieces of frangible plastic tubing stuck in two hoses and a warm refreshing scent of Eu de Prestone. Fortunately, I'd let the engine cool a bit before I futzed around in there.

Now, normally I have a spare car. But my wife took our son's vehicle and borrowed my key ring which had the keys to that car – as well as the only other copy of the keys to her car (she, of course, kept her keys with her).

After borrowing a friend's car to not only get my daughter to school, but to also allow me to go get car parts, I've been wrestling with removing two of the hoses (pretty nasty) and, in the process, finding why mechanics charge $80 USD an hour. It's either for mental treatment to fight the stresses caused by having to fight a major battle to remove a single hose with the clamp located in an inaccessible area, OR, it is to pay for the genetic mutations that allow them to bend their arms into impossible shapes to reach said inaccessible areas.

Wyatt

That and BandAids. I've never worked on a car where I did not leave some skin (or blood) behind.

My dad's a TV repairman. He has an ULTIMATE set of tools! We can fix it.

The mechanics I work with, I'm a parts department manager in a government fleet maintenance facility, get the $80 USD per hour because they know the shortcuts to do the job in 15 minutes. Actually $80 USD per hour is pretty cheap, the going rate in a flat rate shop is over $100 USD per hour.

Tom

I'm convinced that car engineers, plumbing engineers, and electric ceiling fixture designers are sadists, having done (or attempted) repairs/installations of systems/parts created by all three.

Duct Tape my fiiend, the universal fix-it -- to get it to the garage to pay the $80. USD Always have a roll in the car, it's worth it's weight if gold for hose repair -- that and a couple of clamps.

I bought a second hand car and drove it for years. Then one day, while getting a smog check, the guy said it was just over the limit, but he thought he could make some quick adjustments and get it to pass. He and his buddy traced all the hoses in the diagram on the underside of the hood, followed hoses with their fingertips, and finally pulled out a half-inch hose that was plugged at the end with a golf tee. No one could figure out where it was supposed to go, so back it went, tucked in somewhere. They adjusted the idle or something, and the car passed again. Worked great for many years. Maybe it was supposed to have a golf tee in it.

These guys always fiddled with that car to make sure it passed smog and never charged me extra. When we replaced our twenty year old cards with two new ones I kept taking them there for smog, as I figured they'd earned the easy business. The place is gone now.

Andrew

Hobby tools strike again! I had to slit the balky hose with an Xacto to get it off.

After driving around town trying to find matching hoses, I wound up at the Chevy dealership (this is an 89 Cadillac Eldorado) and they special-ordered the parts – and gave me the wholesale price.

Getting that one hose back on is going to be a challenge, I can tell.

Wyatt

My Dad finally bought himself a Cadillac (used) back in the late 70's and quicly discovered you can't do your own repairs on them because you have to have a special set of tools.

"Getting that one hose back on is going to be a challenge, I can tell."

Yup. The awkward arrangement you figure out to get leverage to remove it won't work for putting the new one on.

Those knuckles needed skinning anyway…