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The things you do


Sniper

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Got a friend in the AF, noob with limited time in and essentially broke.  He's driving an '07 Civic hybrid that was gifted to him.  His AC didn't work so I offered to look at it for him, I have a license and the tools.

 

What a .... snowball, family site, remember family site, lol.

 

Turns out the compressor was bad.  Ordinarily a simple job, even on a non-hybrid Civic.

 

On a hybrid it starts with pulling the rear seat out to open the breaker for the battery pack and it gets worse.  Especially when you think you are done, start to write this and remember you forgot to put the rear seat back together then slice a chunk off your finger int eh obligatory blood sacrifice all cars seem to demand.  ?

 

Since we went ahead and replaced the receiver drier and condenser I had to pull the front bumper cover.  Yay, not.  The RD is attached directly to the condenser, since hit managed to hit a log playing Mario Andretti some time it he past the bumper itself is bent, enough that it bent the condenser and the radiator.  No leaks though, just no pressure differential between the high and low side gauges.

 

I pulled the condenser, the radiator, a bunch of plastic covers, top and bottom and finally the compressor.  This compressor is unique to the hybrid as it uses an electric motor to spin the compressor when the hybrid is in battery mode, uses the engine when it's running.  Not cheap.  Just under $500 reman and that was the compressor only.  The rest of the stuff ran to maybe $100, including condenser/RD combo, Freon, O rings, new antifreeze, etc.  Replaced the driver's side sun visor as it was broken.

 

Started at 0700, put in a solid 12 hours and still fighting with getting the rear seat back to seat properly.  Temps today when I was putting in the freon?  100F.

 

Next payday?  A new bumper, bumper energy absorber and bumper mounting bracket, he's buying them.  I'll probably buy him new headlights as a present.  He really needs them.  Hopefully, I can get everything unbent and aligned too. 

 

Sometimes I take this mentor thing a little too far, lol.  But someone has to teach the new guys how to work and spin wrenches.

 

What he doesn't know is that when I pull the transmission in the 51 he's gonna help.  Time to bench press it the old fashioned way. 

 

 

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Hats off to ya, not easy working in this weather. Been ~100 temps for 2 weeks or more now .... I am just finally getting use to them.

Get up at 5:30 am and drink my coffee in the shop while cool & wait for it to get daylight to start work.

Slowly one day to the next I have been getting accustomed to the temps. Able to stay in the shop just a little longer each day.

Just today am out here at 7:00 pm and cooling down, think I am finally ready for summer   :)

 

AC is important if you live in West Texas ... Not impossible to drive your car, not very convenient either. Same as if you lived in Montana or North Dakota, your car must have a heater to defrost the windows to drive.

In Texas you could shrivel up and pass out while driving with no AC   :P

 

That is one of the issues correcting on my 1991 chevy truck. I have to replace everything. Original issue when they replaced the engine, not right wrenches and they twisted the hard lines to the heater core looking thing under the dash ... it leaks. They never unplugged the compressor so it is bad, I was told the radiator looking thing should be replaced when the compressor is. So basically just replace everything. At least is a 1991 cheby truck and easy to work on. Parts may be less then $500.

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Los, I think your truck was originally R12.  Not cheap these days and you need a license to get it anymore.  You might look into what an R134 changeover would take since you are essentially replacing everything anyway, no license needed out here for R134..

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Just now, Sniper said:

Los, I think your truck was originally R12.  Not cheap these days and you need a license to get it anymore.  You might look into what an R134 changeover would take since you are essentially replacing everything anyway, no license needed out here for R134..

Ohhh you are so correct.  I just popped the hood and looked at compressor and tag says R12. I never thought about that.

While replacement parts are readily available ... I will have to look into a conversion kit.

I appreciate the heads up on this. I just thought 1991 was new enough to be R134 ... but I have basically zero experience actually working on ac.

When I was in Albuquerque it was rough with no ac but not to bad. Texas is a different story.

 

While my wife car electrical transmission been acting funny, I was going to start on that Monday. Today Saturday her fuel pump just decided to quit working. Sunday morning when cool will tow it home and start working on it.  Either way will have it in the air to work on the transmission, now is just an extra $200 for a new fuel pump to get it to run to work on the transmission  :D

 

You just have to love life.

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53 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

You just have to love life.

 

Yes, this is the philosophy to follow, lol.

 

Since my triple bypass a couple years ago I have gotten into the habit of weighing myself in the morning before I get dressed and after my shower at night.  I weighed 233 this morning, 226 this evening.

 

All sweat.

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Sniper,

Way to go paying it forward and in the heat. I worked in that Texas heat often and remember it was no fun, even worse in the back seat of a car. We had one man on the team that would have salt stripes on his t-shirt by noon that looked like white crystals.      

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N.A.V.Y.  Lol. Too funny.  Good acronym. 
 

That A/C work sounds like a real, uncomfortable PITA. You’re a good man for helping out a friend. I’m careful and only go so far. Some people get themselves into these positions by making multiple bad decisions. I put up a little defense sometimes about bailing people out in these scenarios. Depends on the situation. Good friends, family, yes.  Good things, mojo comes back to you. My wife’s, son’s cars and my mother-in-law’s cars are all added to my list of responsibilities. 

 

I turned in my company truck last week. I asked to change roles in the company. I took on a M-F, desk job that I can walk away from every night and weekend. I had to buy a little commuter car for year round travel to work. Its only about 4 miles to work. I’m not flashing up my Dodge Cummins diesel truck for that commute.  As much as I would enjoy the daily drive in my ‘38 Plym sedan, the winter roads and de-icing agents would eat it. In little time. 
 

I bought a 2006 Mazda 3 wagon. Great shape. Low miles. Parts readily available and cheap. Many are being scrapped and parted out weekly. Peppy. Cheap and the A/C works!  She’s a little bomber. Surely there will be some blood letting over the next few years with it. 

Edited by keithb7
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Addendum to the story.

 

Last night he was leaving to go home and it was driving funny.  So we parked it and I drove him home in my vehicle. 

 

Acted like a trans low on fluid and while we did lose a bit when I disconnected the trans cooler lines from the radiator it was much less than a pint.  Not sure what a pint would equal in the metric system, lol.  Half a liter?  The Honda has a Continuously Variable Transmission, which I know the theory of operation and that is about it.

 

So this morning when I picked him up we swung by the parts store and bought some CVT trans fluid.  I bought a new code scanner that reads all those engine codes as well as ABS, trans codes, body computers, etc.

 

We were getting codes for basically no speed sensor readings from the trans.  Turns out I didn't fully seat one of the connectors on the transmission that I pulled during the job.  Check the trans fluid level per the manual and it was fine.  Test drove shows everything works as expected.

 

 

 

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Nope, not touching a hybrid. 
lots of years in the automotive business, i know where to draw the lines. Too many times i got bit, VW’s being one. Most diesel trucks i refuse to let in my shop. Everything is big and heavy. 
i make a decent living by choosing my battles,where my skills will prevail. 
 

im slowly going back to the beginning,old stuff with carburetors and rear wheel drive. No abs no air bags no efi. Im getting worn out,and time is running out, im going to do what i enjoy. 
 

a friend/customer brought his fargo for some pre-inspection work. Hes a tough old guy,not the brightest light,but good intentions. 
crashed his motorcycle,had to be airlifted and was critical for 3 days. His friend figures he will lose his left leg from the hip down. 
i hope not,but now i wait. Im thinking its going for sale. I will get it under a roof until a decision is made. 
If i had the time and money i would get it done for him.

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Technology, in general, is something that fascinates me.  Years ago I used to work in a semiconductor R&D facility and I was in the middle of figuring out how to build the next gen chips and beyond.  Crazy stuff, lot's of prototype one off machines, poorly documented and even more poorly supported that I had to keep running.  Half the fun was figuring out how it was designed to work, then making it work as it was expected to.  So production automotive technology isn't something I get the willies thinking about, lol.

 

I just don't really want to spend the money on the tools needed to work on them.

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