John's Blog

Here’s an update.

Oil Change - Done. It took Kim about a minute of tapping on her cell phone to find a store in town that was selling 24 mm sockets for just under $6 each.
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As for that socket, here’s why it’s needed. See if you can find the oil filter cover in the picture to the left.
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Found it yet?
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Here’s the oil filter cover with the socket and wrench ready to go.
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Kim and I both remember that the salesman at the dealership we bought the car from proudly stated that Ed Morris Chevrolet had not only sold the car when it was brand new, but that their service department had done all of the service to the car. After living with the car for a few months I think the sales personnel should be more aware of what’s goin’ on back in the bays. Their service department isn’t very good.
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* - The owner’s manual says to change the cabin air filter at 30K miles. They ignored that. I hope they didn’t charge the prior owner for work they didn’t do. The cabin air filter was so full of crap the blower motor burned up, taking the resistor network along with it as well as a short length of wiring harness.

* - I’m almost positive they did at least one oil change. Reason why I say this is because the oil drain plug was soooo tight that it I nearly destroyed the thing while breaking it loose. And that was in spite of the fact that the torque value for the drain plug is embossed on the oil pan right right next to the drain plug. In large font. So you can’t miss it. 14 Nm. That’s just 10 ft-lbs. Ten! A second-grader can deliver that.
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This is the first car I’ve owned where the torque value for the oil drain plug is embossed onto the pan. It’s that important. See for yourself. The plug is aluminum for goodness sake, not steel. By working very carefully I managed to break it loose without destroying it. Bastids.
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The oil filter cover was also over-tightened.
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Anyhow, it’s done. Most of our miles will be local, it’s gonna be interesting to see the mileage when the engine computer tells me it’s time to change the oil.
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Let’s see… what else happened. Oh. Coffee. I changed the oil on Friday the 19th. Coffee was the next morning. Three of us. At 10 AM the piano player showed up right on schedule. As usual, we took our things outside to sit on the patio to avoid the racket, walking right past the sign that says something like ‘Don’t bring glass out onto the patio”. A short time after we sat down Paulette walked out to our table carrying paper cups so we could trade our glass mugs for those. Yea, we know glass isn’t allowed out on the patio but we did it anyway. Dick Move.
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Ahn, a Vietnamese neighbor who was once a Lieutenant in the Vietnamese Army, stopped by yesterday afternoon. Through broken English and my being patient he described a phone problem. None of the neighbors he went to, he said, were willing or able to help him. It took us about an hour to get it sorted. It would have taken a lot less time if we had just walked around the block to his place and worked on it there. Oh well, another lesson learned. Good neighbor.
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I spent the rest of Saturday trying to wrap my head around some basic concepts on my workstation, I never did figure it out. I’ll work on it later.
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Today started with me solving a different problem on the ole’ workstation. Took almost two hours. Long story short - I woulda figured it out much sooner if I had a younger man’s brain.
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It’s warm outside this morning. I know this because I have had to step outside a handful of times to talk my dogs down from their agitated state, tons of barking at something only they knew about. Must have been important.
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With the higher temps I doubt we go to Vander Veer today. I need to spend some time in the wood shop in the basement. Getting that in better shape is top of my list. Once that’s done I can start on the wreckage that’s in this room I’m currently sitting in. Cheers.