Mr. Fix-it's At It Again

One annoying fact of life is that given enough time, every device breaks down. Some things, however, usually take so long to break that we take their ability to function for granted. Major appliances fall into this category. Unfortunately, these days when one of them breaks people usually do one of two things, both of which are rather expensive: they call a repair guy or they throw it out and buy a new one.

But not me.

I'm old school, which is ironic given my career as a computer programmer. I grew up in a house where things were replaced only once they were broken beyond repair. I remember taking our cabinet TV to the repair shop more than once, until its rather expensive power supply died. Our dishwasher was older than me and still in use to this day. It'll be replaced soon but only because the bottom is rusting out. Our dryer was even older and is also still in use. Every five years or so my Dad has to take it apart to fix a break in the heater coil but it doesn't cost anything.

Needless to say I absorbed a lot of the do-it-yourself attitude and this past weekend I put it to use again. You may remember back in December when I fixed an awful sound in our washing machine. This time it was the dryer's turn. One day Lori turned it on and it didn't produce any heat.

On Friday I was out but Bill came over to visit and started taking it apart. He determined there was nothing wrong with the heater coil, which was unfortunate because that meant the problem was not as obvious as I had hoped.
When I returned home we searched the Internet for a wiring diagram and once it was found, grabbed our multimeters and started tracing. First we started at the obvious points like the heater sensors but when they tested in working order we followed the schematic. Starting at the main power we worked our way along until we found a resistor near the controls that was reading zero continuity.

Problem identified!

But the celebration was short-lived. It turns out the resistor had such high resistance that our multimeters read it as a continuity break but when we settled down and actually tested its resistance it was in the proper 5 kΩ range. The hunt continued.

Eventually we found a sensor that looked like its connector had melted to it. In fact, it was the sensor's internals leaking out. It read zero continuity and infinite resistance. Problem identified! This time it was for real. Luckily Whirlpool is very organized and not only do they have part numbers on everything as expected, they also have all those parts catalogued on their web site available for direct order as well as a list of local parts dealers. The part I needed was listed at $31.96 so I called Reliable Parts and they said they could get it by Tuesday for the same price plus tax.

Tuesday couldn't come fast enough. When there's a baby in the house laundry becomes very important.

When Tuesday finally rolled around Lori picked up the part and I installed it. Success! We had our dryer back in working order and it only cost us $35 and some elbow grease.

Now it's just a matter of time before the next major appliance stops working.

The Cleanest Button

I don't like buttons. Here's why:

• Zippers are stronger.
• Zippers are easier to undo quickly.
• "Buttons" is a bad cat name.
• It's also a bad pop song.
• I was at war with a button today without knowing it.

Let me explain.

On Christmas morning there was a lot of laundry to do so after opening our presents we put a load on. It was an uneventful load until the middle of the spin cycle when a horribly loud, high-pitched scraping sound filled the house. Luckily the spin cycle was almost over so we pulled the still-wet clothes from the washing machine and started drying them while I had haunting visions of Boxing Day shopping for a washer/dryer combo.

The next day I woke up and remembered the washing machine. I was determined that I was not going to let some problem get the best of me without at least trying to diagnose what caused it. So, after visiting whirlpoolparts.ca and printing the complete exploded parts diagrams for our model I grabbed my tools and started dismantling the washing machine. At first it was a tough puzzle: the dryer hose was in such an inaccessible location that I couldn't figure out how it was installed. The side panel had one screw that was in an impossible-to-access location. The top seemed to not have any accessible screws. All problems had easy solutions that I only discovered after devising my own inferior approaches. The dryer hose was easily reachable after opening the large service panel. The side panel screw was in-your-face accessible after removing the front panel. The top was held on by two giant retaining clips.

Once I had the panels all off I found the three bolts holding the motor, gearbox, clutch and water pump (sounds like a car, doesn't it?). Armed with my socket set I removed the three bolts and everything came apart. I removed the basket and carried the motor et al. out to the garage for some serious surgery. At this point the machine looked like a floating dryer with a supporting frame below.

In the garage I was pleasantly surprised to find the whole assembly was held together with just retaining clips. I removed two and the gearbox fell off. I removed two more and the water pump fell off. I spun the motor's shaft and it felt like a brand new motor. I turned the gearbox and it turned with ease. Neither made a sound so I moved on to the water pump. I couldn't grip it to turn so I pushed it back on the motor and spun the motor in reverse. The unit spun and then I heard a snapping sound and a rather large black piece came out of the water pump. Great, I thought I had broken the water pump. However, looking closer at the piece that came out changed everything. It was a button, and it had scuff marks on it where it was scraping against the impeller. Holy crap, I had fixed the washing machine.

After announcing this most excellent discovery to Lori I proceeded to re-assemble the motor, gearbox and water pump and put the machine back together, this time making full use of the proper assembly procedures I had discovered during the disassembly. I took some time to clean everything as there was a considerable amount of "washer gunk" that built up over the years. Everything went back together and when I started it up it ran perfectly with no horrible sound.

I asked Lori about the button and she remembered it had come off a jacket she washed a couple days ago. I'm surprised it took that long to cause a problem.

Jetta stories: Mechanic For A Day...Or Two (part 2)

(This is part two. Part one can be found here)

On Sunday I was up at nine, elated to see the sun shining in the window. Once outside I noticed just how hard it was to work in the low light of an overcast, rainy afternoon the day before compared to the bright sun of today. It was going to be a good day.

I started by draining the water from the flush which took no time at all since I knew each step intimately. Then I dried out the inside of the block and detached and cleaned out the coolant reservoir so that no remaining water or leftover dirt was to be found. I reinstalled the thermostat, carefully paying close attention to its direction and alignment, and bolted on its cover using my IKEA wrench.

Once that was done I moved on to the coolant flange. It was another two bolts but this time they were both readily accessible. I removed both of them with ease and was surprised to find that one was a bolt and one was a nut. I thought that was weird until I saw the reason the dealer wanted $250 to do this job: a metal coolant line was running right over one of the bolts and was bolted directly to the flange. If the hose was rubber this would've been a moot point but it was metal and wrapped around the block to the thermostat and I didn't know what type of seal it used so I was hesitant to disconnect it. Lori walked out and was seeing how things were going so I showed her the existing flange and the new one and... wait, this didn't look right. The new flange was different from the existing one. The dealer gave me the flange for a slightly different engine configuration which promptly ended the flange replacement job.

After this disappointment I needed some success so I started on the spark plug replacement. I knew this job should go fairly smoothly as I could see all four plug boots and they seemed to be fairly accessible. The first plug lived up to this and was replaced in a few minutes. The remaining three were somewhat harder to get out but I eventually found the awkward positions to contort into to manipulate the boots and the job was done. The old plugs were completely black which told me the fuel mixture is too rich and supported my O2 sensor diagnosis.

For another cheap success I replaced the air filter too.

To finsh off the day I hooked all the hoses back up and refilled the coolant with new stuff. After following the Haynes manual for refilling I headed up to Cobs for bread while watching the thermostat more closely than the road. The temperature headed up to 90 degrees and stayed there right in the middle like it should.

After one weekend the car only got new plugs, a new air filter and a coolant flush. Now I know why shops charge what they do. However, doing thee work myself forced me to learn a lot about the car and saved me money at the same time.

What's next? I did nothing for the misfiring so that still needs to be addressed. I ordered an OBD-II reader from eBay and I have the instructions to test the O2 sensor with a multimeter so I'm going to do that next. I'll also talk to the dealer about a method for replacing the coolant flange - I may do it myself another time once I get the right flange and know how to remove and reinstall the metal coolant pipe. The saga continues...

Jetta stories: Mechanic For A Day...Or Two (part 1)

This weekend I discovered that it's somewhat dangerous owning tools. On one hand, they give you many mechanical advantages that the human body is just not built to deliver. On the other hand, they give you a false sense of knowing how to take on jobs that require them.

Let me back up for a sec. Two weeks ago our car started behaving badly. Maybe "badly" is not strong enough. It started misfiring when idling and it was not at all subtle about it. Looking back I should have clued in that it had been trying to tell me something for a while: gas mileage was getting progressively worse to the point that my Mach 1 burned less; at a long red light I could start to smell gas; on rare occasions when starting it'd go from zero to 1000 RPM and then back down to zero just as fast; the check engine light had been on for the better part of six months. I know what you're thinking - it's the same as I'm thinking while writing this and it rhymes with "dumbass".

The misfires happened on the way to work which prompted a quick diagnoses from me while riding shotgun: "Honey cut it out, that's hard on the car!" I don't remember the rest of that day.

When I finally came to, I decided, through a meticulous diagnoses process consisting of Google and my Haynes manual, the O2 sensor was to blame. However I wasn't sure enough to just act on it so I took the car to the VW dealer last Monday for a routine wallet raping and bonus diagnostic check.

I was at work when I received the call: "There are many problems..." They said the main problem was a vacuum leak which was causing bad O2 readings which was causing the misfiring. However, during the one-sided conversation I was sure the guy was making up names for parts that need to be replaced. What's a 'coolant flange' anyway and why would it cost $250? After turning down all the quoted work I hung up and did more research. It was then that I decided I could do much of the work myself. How hard could a coolant flush and flange replacement be?

I showed up at the dealer the next day and got the parts I needed. Standard rectangular air filter? Check. Special German-made pre-gapped spark plugs? Check. Special German-made Audi/VW coolant with big warnings against using the domestic green stuff? Check. Real-life not-making-this-up coolant flange with o-rings? Check. Vacuum hose? Not quite. They said the technician that did the diagnostic replaced the vacuum hose on the spot so I didn't need it. I found it hard to believe that the main problem was a free fix but the secondary problems were extensive. Besides, the car seemed to run worse than before I took it in.

The rest of the week was uneventful and the weather was really nice every day so when Saturday rolled around and I woke up to the sound of rain I should have realized that auto repair just isn't in my deck of cards. But who was I to go this far and not actually do anything?

I waited until the afternoon to see if the rain would stop but it just kept pouring. At around 2:00 I nosed the car into the garage door and started at it. I like to tackle the hardest jobs first so the work gets progressively easier as I go. In this case that meant the coolant flush and flange replacement. I started by draining the radiator which was so easy I began praising Germans and their intelligent engineering. This turned out to be a premature celebration.

The next step is to drain the block which required the removal of a clamped-on hose without cutting or ripping it apart. It's those minor details that can really ruin a good day. I thought I was hooped because for all I knew the hoses had been clamped in the same place for six years and weren't going to be easily coaxed off. After developing a technique for removing spring-loaded clamps and performing some very technical hose-jiggling, the hose released its grip and started sliding off. Disaster averted.

I learned that a thorough flush requires the block and heater core to be flushed as well. The heater core is easy since it's part of the whole system but the block has a major annoyance in the way that needs to be removed: the thermostat. "The what? Oh crap, I didn't sign up for this!" It felt like I was at the entrance to a rabbit hole and I had no idea how deep it went. Dutifully, I forged ahead and after finding the thermostat (you know you shouldn't be removing a part when you don't know where it is) I broke out my socket set and started disassembling. The first bolt came out easy but I wouldn't be writing this if the second one wasn't the hardest bolt to access. Due to the alternator and air conditioning pump being in the way it took me an hour and some harried searching through my garage looking for a magic tool I didn't think I had. But I did! Thanks to IKEA furniture and my insistence of keeping every tool that comes with them I had the exact box wrench I needed. I couldn't believe my good fortune. Ten minutes later I had the second bolt off and the thermostat was out.

Now I was ready for the flush so I rolled the car back, hooked up the garden hose to the radiator and flushed that sucker until the only thing coming out was clear water. Than I flushed it some more for good measure. It took me so long to get to this point that I wasn't going to do a half-assed job of it. At this point I was losing light so I put the hood down and packed things up for the night.

Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.