Saturday, Dec 26th, 2016
Any normal Saturday you can find a mechanic or too today. But since it was Christmas Eve, no one was working! Luckily, Parts stores were working and can run diagnostics to see what the problem is. They helped Tony determine it was the Coolant Temperature Sensor, and sold him the part. Now to replace it! His mechanic friend sent him a picture and told him it was fairly easy to do, so Tony decided to tackle it.
And, to someone with a little more experience in automotive workings, it might have been a 30 minute fix. We hummed and hawed over things mainly because we didn't know what to expect. We knew done coolant would come out, but how much? The instructions found by googling said to drain some fluid beforehand, which was a complicated process. Instead, we opted to prepare for a leak and make the switch quickly.
Removing and replacing the sensor turners our not too hard to do, but the torque wrench failed to stop us from over-torquing the threads and snapping the part in two! So off to the auto parts store I went this time to get another part. Second time went better and soon Tony had it back together and good to go. So it takes at least 3 trips to the auto store (one for diagnostic, one for parts you don't have after decided to do it yourself, one to replace parts you broke) to work on a vehicle!!
We loaded up and hit the road much later than planned, about 2:15, but still with time to make it to our planned destination, Amarillo. We drove half of it in the dark if Christmas Eve, but that was ok. Tomorrow was going to be a very windy day and not good for traveling. I'm reminded of Mary and Joseph and their adventures that day/evening before the baby Jesus was born!
We had absolutely no issues with the coolant sensor on our trip to Amarillo, and arrived about 8:30pm. -- then got settled in for the cold weather coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment