Yet another blargh post.

[greatbear]

A shout-out to danthered who, tonight, helped me see the light.

In other news, in yesterday's rainy nastiness mom got rear-ended at an intersection near the road the house is on. She was not hurt. A quick survey of the damage it looks like the bumper fascia, the energy absorbing spacer, the metal beam w/supports and the muffler will need replacing, along with painting and miscellaneous hardware and the license plate frame. Fun. At least the man who did it was courteous and concerned and took responsibility. Some would have tried to turn it around like the worthless motherfucker that hit me last year. Cars can be fixed, though, loved ones are not replaceable.

Speaking of Mom's car (an '00 Dodge Stratus), it has been actually trouble-free mechanically, as in nothing broken or any problems whatsoever except for a burned out tail light until a couple months ago. That is when the heater control broke. You could no longer set the temperature and it was 'stuck' at the coldest setting. Problem turned out to be a small lever arm that a cable connects to to set the temp. The tip broke off, and the cable disconnected, and gravity moved it to the coldest position. In the meantime I blocked it up in the highest setting so mom will have heat in the car. The fun started when I went after a replacement part.

Turns out there is a service bulletin out on this problem. It seems there has been an issue with this little two-dollar part breaking. In turn, the heater box which this arm is attached to has been redesigned, using a different style of arm. SO! Instead of being able to replace the little, cheap plastic arm in a few minutes with something that could have been simply beefed up in a redesign, instead the repair entails an entire, redesigned heater box with attending components at a cost (to me) of over 240 dollars, requiring the entire dashboard to be removed from the car along with the steering column, console and everything attached including wiring, instrument cluster, radio, EVERYTHING. I have to blow the airconditioner, dump the coolant, in short spend an entire day tearing down and reassembling this stupid car because of a FUCKING TWO DOLLAR PART.

That aint gonna happen. I am simply going to take off that little arm, fashion a new 'tip' for it and put it back in, hooking up everything and going with it.

My other issue with the car is the paint. A section of the roof and the trunk lid have suffered from a nasty fade due to insufficient clearcoat. My guess is that the car might have been retouched after delivery after probably getting scuffed in transit (this happens more than you know, to all makes), and this repaint did not hold up. When the body work is done (I will do everything but the painting) I am not sure if the car will hang around much longer. I have the sinking feeling that it will collapse into a heap like the Bluesmobile once it made it to Daley Plaza.

Some days I hate cars. Like some days I hate coding. And test equipment. Today was a day I hated all three.

I hope tomorrow is better.

Comments

[clickboo.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about Mom's car but I'm glad she's okay and wasn't hurt.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

It had the potential to be really nasty. This intersection (not a real 'intersection', but instead a veering off to the left when the main road makes a sharp turn to the right) is a scene of constant accidents. The only way to fix it is to reroute the roads a bit, which might happen soon. It's no longer a quite country road.

[inqueery.livejournal.com]

That aint gonna happen. I am simply going to take off that little arm, fashion a new 'tip' for it and put it back in, hooking up everything and going with it.

Exactly - that's what I was going to say. That's where good 'ole "homebrew" is gonna come in. Assuming you can get to it without completely ripping the whole dash and column. Perhaps even use some duct tape. :-D

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

All I need to do to access the arm is remove the radio, heater controls and a duct, then I am staring right at it. A single screw holds it in place. I will more than likely come up with a metal 'extension' to patch it up. I was willing to spend a couple bux to make it an easy swap. Instead, it's gonna be a MacGyver job. lol

[inqueery.livejournal.com]

Here is a teaspoon and a piece of ABC chewing gum. Do your darndest!

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

Excuse my impudence, but doesn't the presence of a Service Bulletin usually mean the (sometimes hidden) presence of a warranty/recall? If it's a known problem, shouldn't Chrysler be fixing this?

We had a rash of accidents here yesterday, too. 3 within a block of each other on our busiest street, but with clear weather and above freezing temps.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

In this case it is sadly not a warranty issue, (that is long gone anyway), nor is it a recall, since it is not safety related. The TSB details the parts needed to 'update' the whole shebang used in the newer cars to alleviate the problem they discovered with the older ones. In this case, it's stupid not to simply beef up the single part used in the old assemblies. Instead, you have to replace a bunch of parts that are not defective.