When simple repairs go bad- common sense out the window

[slag]

Replacing the right front motor mount on a 2000 maxima should in theory take about 30-45 minutes. I screwed up, broke a bolt off in the assembly. I then drilled most of the bolt out, but in my attempt to remove the bolt, broke off the HARDENED STEEL easy out in the hole. GRR

45 minutes later had removed the hardened steel easy out, drilled a bit deeper and wider, hammered in another easy out, and using mapp gas and pb blaster, was able to remove the broken bolt (AMEN)!

Quick trip to Ace hardware, $6.00 later with two bolts, I was able to put it all back together and it fixed the problem. Ended up taking me almost 3 hours to do a simple repair and I figured out why the bolt broke. The "new" mount was much thinner steel instead of aluminum and the gap I was seeing was where the bolt had bottomed out. I ignored common sense and kept cranking on it and broke the bolt off flush in the bracket. Felt like such an idiot for ignoring my gut feeling that it wasn't correct.

 

[gururu2]

I don't go into car work anymore thinking I can dance in and dance out. Nuts and bolts in particular have added many hours of unanticipated crying, headaches, blood, sweat and muscle.

 

[C1]

Just a warning too about motor mounts if they employ flexible material. Sometime back I attempted to replace one on an older vehicle, but it would only last a month or so. Find out that the "rubber" like material being used as vibration damper is trash and just wouldnt hold up. (Might be environmental laws about having to go to different materials.) Had to go thru about three or four different brands till I found one that would work/hold.

Otherwise, good luck.

 

[slag]

Just a warning too about motor mounts if they employ flexible material. Sometime back I attempted to replace one on an older vehicle, but it would only last a month or so. Find out that the "rubber" like material being used as vibration damper is trash and just wouldnt hold up. (Might be environmental laws about having to go to different materials.) Had to go thru about three or four different brands till I found one that would work/hold.

Otherwise, good luck.

So true. I checked maxima.org before buying this mount as there were cheaper options that people said weren't worth the time to put on. This one had generally good reviews.

Tomorrow I tackle the rear trailing arm bushings on the M3.. It's supposed to be cold and my garage floor is not heated.

 

[SearchMaster]

I don't go into car work anymore thinking I can dance in and dance out. Nuts and bolts in particular have added many hours of unanticipated crying, headaches, blood, sweat and muscle.

Ain't that the truth...I mentally block off at least 4 hours for something even as simple as replacing brake pads. If it just takes an hour, I have 3 hours of free time! If something goes wrong or something is stuck, I can take a break and walk away without the stress of having to get it done by some deadline.

 

[T2urtle]

I don't go into car work anymore thinking I can dance in and dance out. Nuts and bolts in particular have added many hours of unanticipated crying, headaches, blood, sweat and muscle.

Agreed. Anything in the rust belt that is out of general warranty (4years/50k) can take a lot more time then it should. I might reconsider having worked on a few cali,tx,az cars tho. But still anything i see around here can be a pain.

Plus you never know what the person before you did. A had a few 15 minute oil changes turn into a headache due to stripped plugs.

 

[Subyman]

Haha, gotta love those mythical "15-30min" vehicle repair jobs. I tend to block off a whole afternoon these days.

 

[natto fire]

Haha, gotta love those mythical "15-30min" vehicle repair jobs. I tend to block off a whole afternoon these days.

I had a '92 Integra that went through 3 main relays. I worked at a junk yard at the time, so kept a spare after the first one failed. Second one failed, and I grabbed the third one out of the glove box, was on the road in less than 10 minutes.

 

[Sabrewings]

I've learned better. Even in my profession of aircraft maintenance, nothing is ever as easy as it is supposed to be.

I liked it better at the house when we had a spare car, but since I sold my weekend toy I no longer have that luxury. Of course now is when more things than ever seem to go wrong.

 

[MongGrel]

Why would you hammer on an easy out to begin with ?

Probably why the first one broke.

 

[master7045]

Ha, I changed the oil in my wife's car today and didn't realize the oil filter didn't come with a friggin O ring attached. Was scared shitless when I started it up and looked underneath to see it pissing oil.

 

[MongGrel]

Ha, I changed the oil in my wife's car today and didn't realize the oil filter didn't come with a friggin O ring attached. Was scared shitless when I started it up and looked underneath to see it pissing oil.

You should usually rub a little oil on the gasket when installing it to begin with so it doesn't tear when you tighten it up.

Just a FYI thing, you would have noticed it then.

 

[master7045]

You should usually rub a little oil on the gasket when installing it to begin with so it doesn't tear when you tighten it up.

Just a FYI thing, you would have noticed it then.

I did spread a bit of oil around the rim, I was just in autopilot and didn't register that it was missing. But thanks for the friendly tip

 

[slag]

I did have a pleasant surprise on Saturday. I went to replace the rear trailing arm bushings on my M3 and found they had been replaced recently by the previous owner. I did install the limiters and will get the vehicle aligned just to be safe, but it was nice to not have to put new bushings in and just install the limiters. My 8 year old son assisted by handing dad the air impact wrench, torque wrench, and sockets needed to do the job as well as holding the flashlight in my poorly lit garage.

 

[gururu2]

Ha, I changed the oil in my wife's car today and didn't realize the oil filter didn't come with a friggin O ring attached. Was scared shitless when I started it up and looked underneath to see it pissing oil.

I was changing oil at a parking lot one weekend and the darned FRAM O-ring on the old filter stayed stuck to the car. I put the new filter on top of it without realizing it. It sprayed oil all over the lot! The biggest mess I have ever done with a car. Never bought a FRAM again and always check the O-rings.

 

[nakedfrog]

I was changing oil at a parking lot one weekend and the darned FRAM O-ring on the old filter stayed stuck to the car. I put the new filter on top of it without realizing it. It sprayed oil all over the lot! The biggest mess I have ever done with a car. Never bought a FRAM again and always check the O-rings.

I've never experienced it, but have heard the tales, and thus it's something I still check for every time. Even specified it as one of the things to check when I was instructing someone on the oil change process a couple weeks ago.

 

[mrblotto]

Hooray for me, I get to try to open my drivers side door today. The lock mechanism became 'disconnected somehow', and I envision a long song and dance just trying to get the door panel off of a closed door lol

/rant: off

 

[kn51]

I've never experienced it, but have heard the tales, and thus it's something I still check for every time. Even specified it as one of the things to check when I was instructing someone on the oil change process a couple weeks ago.

I did it a year ago. Learned a valuable lesson that day...what a mess.

 

[Sabrewings]

Why would you hammer on an easy out to begin with ?

Probably why the first one broke.

That's how you use easy out screw extractors. They have a surface intended for ball-peen hammers. All of our screw extractor kits at work come with various easy outs, matching bits, ball-peen hammer, and adjustable wrench.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMrDYJvY0Ts?t=3m21s

Though, I usually pair some light tapping with simultaneous torque to achieve the same effect with as little impact as possible. Punching a hole in aircraft skin will ruin your afternoon.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Replacing the right front motor mount on a 2000 maxima should in theory take about 30-45 minutes. I screwed up, broke a bolt off in the assembly. I then drilled most of the bolt out, but in my attempt to remove the bolt, broke off the HARDENED STEEL easy out in the hole. GRR

45 minutes later had removed the hardened steel easy out, drilled a bit deeper and wider, hammered in another easy out, and using mapp gas and pb blaster, was able to remove the broken bolt (AMEN)!

Quick trip to Ace hardware, $6.00 later with two bolts, I was able to put it all back together and it fixed the problem. Ended up taking me almost 3 hours to do a simple repair and I figured out why the bolt broke. The "new" mount was much thinner steel instead of aluminum and the gap I was seeing was where the bolt had bottomed out. I ignored common sense and kept cranking on it and broke the bolt off flush in the bracket. Felt like such an idiot for ignoring my gut feeling that it wasn't correct.

Nissan was quoting something like 6 hours labor to replace all 3 motor mounts on my 2003 Maxima. Cost me close to a grand to have all 3 replaced. They are expensive too. One of them is fluid damped IIRC.

 

[Harrod]

I used to have a saab 9-5 that had a leaking exhaust at the header. I ended up taking all kinds of crap off of the car to get to it. Only to find out that 3 of the studs had fallen out and ended up using time certs on them instead of helicoils. I think this took probably 3 days to get done on my spare time after work.

I know for a fact that when I traded in the car, it was in much better shape than when I got it. I ended up trading it in, because I didn't want to see it again after doing all of that work on it.

 

[slag]

That's how you use easy out screw extractors. They have a surface intended for ball-peen hammers. All of our screw extractor kits at work come with various easy outs, matching bits, ball-peen hammer, and adjustable wrench.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMrDYJvY0Ts?t=3m21s

Though, I usually pair some light tapping with simultaneous torque to achieve the same effect with as little impact as possible. Punching a hole in aircraft skin will ruin your afternoon.

Those were exactly the kind I had.

 

[slag]

Nissan was quoting something like 6 hours labor to replace all 3 motor mounts on my 2003 Maxima. Cost me close to a grand to have all 3 replaced. They are expensive too. One of them is fluid damped IIRC.

There are two electric fluid filled ones, a front and rear. In lieu of replacing them, you can just disconnect the wiring harnesses to them. If you don't, they run a risk of frying your ECU when they go bad. I only paid 1k for this car, so I disconnected them and we can't tell the difference.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Worked on my cousins 2000 Chevy S10 Extreme recently,simple U-joint job took well over a hour cause one of the end caps simply refused to come off the drive shaft.

Using a good sized socket,a big hammer and over half a hour of banging and they FINALLY came loose then off.Cleaned off the drive shaft and putting the new u-joint on was as easy as pie.Was certain the old end caps got fused to the shaft for good.

Good way to get a headache,living at these apartments i was certain someone was gonna complain about all the noise but somehow i got lucky having the coolest bunch of folks ever living here.🙂

 

[Sabrewings]

There are two electric fluid filled ones, a front and rear. In lieu of replacing them, you can just disconnect the wiring harnesses to them. If you don't, they run a risk of frying your ECU when they go bad. I only paid 1k for this car, so I disconnected them and we can't tell the difference.

What a retarded design. Electric fluid filled motor mounts?

I'm all for progress in technology design, but some things seem like dead ends with needless complexity.