Your recent repair? 2013 - 2020

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover DW just told me the garage door opener wasn't working and I was actually secretly pleased, as this garage door opener was installed in 1971 (I have the paperwork from the original owners) and I've been waiting for it to die. It has huge clunky remotes that have cracked and have been taped and glued. One had a door bell button installed in the side when the original button collapsed. I removed the opener's metal case and saw that a wire had just vibrated off. Pushed the connector back on and it is good to go.

Sounds to me like it is just a matter of time, so that is what I would tell your DW.

Besides, if you shop for one now, you can take your time and maybe even get it on sale. If you wait until it breaks, chances are that will be at exactly the wrong time, such as when recovering from surgery or heading for the airport for a long trip. Might as well do it now rather than deferring this maintenance issue.

[Ronstar]

DW noticed that our refrigerator was roughly room temp on thanksgiving. Freezer was fine. So we put our food in the garage(one good thing about living up north in winter). I took it apart today and found that the fan wasn't running. The fan blade would not turn freely. So I cleaned the contacts on the fan and cleaned/lubed the fan shaft with wd40. Put it back together and it's running fine.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R ........ Might as well do it now rather than deferring this maintenance issue.

What? And not wring out every last minute of its useful life?

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar ........ cleaned/lubed the fan shaft with wd40. .......

Might want to lube with light oil. WD40 isn't much of a lubricant.

[bjorn2bwild]

The washer resevoir cap on my newly aquired Honda CR-V was in rough shape. Instead of traveling to the dealer for that headache, I decided to make one out of sch 40 PVC pipe. After cutting a 3" section lengthwise, I heated and flattened the piece, then turned it on my lathe for a snap-on fit. I find PVC to be a very versatile material for these kind of projects.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjorn2bwild The washer resevoir cap on my newly aquired Honda CR-V was in rough shape. Instead of traveling to the dealer for that headache, I decided to make one out of sch 40 PVC pipe. After cutting a 3" section lengthwise, I heated and flattened the piece, then turned it on my lathe for a snap-on fit. I find PVC to be a very versatile material for these kind of projects.

Wow, that is some impressive craftsmanship - never saw such a fancy WW fluid cap!

I probably would have used a plastic bag and a rubber band. No points for style though!

-ERD50

[bjorn2bwild]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Wow, that is some impressive craftsmanship - never saw such a fancy WW fluid cap! I probably would have used a plastic bag and a rubber band. No points for style though! -ERD50

Thanks -
I wish the previous owner would have thought of that solution. Enough debris had blown through the cap into the reservoir to support quite the algae bloom. The entire line to the rear washer nozzle was clogged and the front just barely worked. After spending an hour flushing the system, I opted for a more permanent fix. I tend to keep cars a long time.

[M Paquette]

Christmas tree lights... And many words were said which cannot be found in Christmas carols...

But, they are all lit now. I declared victory and moved on to the traditional victory celebration of a turkey sandwich.

[ls99]

Last week my car would crank but no start. Today after getting home decided to figure out the problem, Had spark. There are a few causes of no strart, so next check for fuel, cracked the fuel hose fitting at the regulator high pressure side, no fuel squirt after sitting for a week. THere should have been some pressure, as the system runs around 50 psi.

Diagnosis, leaky pressure regulator. Just happen to have one left over from from my 88 jag for which I got it as that one had over 200K miles and it would leak down after a month of being parked. But sold that, without ever changing it.

The 95 Jag uses the same fuel pressure regulator. 10 minutes to replace it. Key on/off for three cycles to pressurize the fuel system, Turn key to start, engine fired up and ran smoothly. Test drive with a few cycles of WOT. Not a hiccup.

All is well in the automotive division.

[Dave_S]

Fixed the window regulator in the tailgate of my '90 Suburban snowplow rig. It had an electrical problem and the rollers in the track were wasted. Took a couple of hours and about $15 for parts and working like new again. I totally enjoy that kind of stuff.

[BruceinGa]

One of the 4' fluorescent fixtures stopped working a couple of months ago. I decided to troubleshoot it. I found the problem was the connection inside the wire nut. I guess when the electrician installed it there was enough contact that it worked for three years. Problem fixed at zero cost.

[travelover]

I finished my radon mitigation fan installation. Total cost was about $250 vs a typical installation cost of around $1200. It is not technically difficult, but requires some grunt work making a hole in the basement floor and routing a 4" PVC pipe up the wall, into the garage and out the garage roof. I'm hoping that it will reduce the basement humidity somewhat as a trade off to the continuous 75 watt electricity cost.

[ls99]

Cold weather seems to bring automotive hassles this year. My beater 98 pickup threw a check engine light. Hooked up my scangauge, code P0507. The GM manual says high idle condition. It was not really noticeable. Spec 700 +/_ 25 RPM. Actual 780.

Cleaned Idle air control motor, passages, throottle plate of intake of EGR crud and grime. Cleared code and extinguished the light. So far so good.

Next

[rockymountainhigh]

Samsung French door refrigerator. The arm that turns off the ice maker when the tray was full broke a year ago but I could not find just the arm had to purchase the whole ice maker - $99, so I just manually turned off the icemaker when full but occasionally had an over flowing tray. A few weeks ago I tried to find the arm again and did, approx. $1.90 for the arm and $7 for shipping, bought two arms just in case. Easy fix.

[John Galt III]

Removed and inspected the cartridge inside the shower handle, to make sure it wasn't stuck, like the cartridge in the kitchen faucet is. Lubed it with plumber's grease, replaced it. The grease should prevent it from seizing up later.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover I finished my radon mitigation fan installation. Total cost was about $250 vs a typical installation cost of around $1200. It is not technically difficult, but requires some grunt work making a hole in the basement floor and routing a 4" PVC pipe up the wall, into the garage and out the garage roof. I'm hoping that it will reduce the basement humidity somewhat as a trade off to the continuous 75 watt electricity cost.

I've been thinking about doing the same. We're at approx 6 pC/l now (so, at the "should do something" borderline). First I'm sealing joints, sealing the block walls, and adding a porcelain tile floor over the slab. Did you find gravel under your basement slab? Our house was built in the late 1950s, I'm concerned there's no gravel or it is all silted up by now and I'll have trouble getting good pressure reduction across the whole 1600 sq ft basement.

[NW-Bound]

We just repainted the exterior of our home. Used good Dunn-Edwards paint, of course. Cost was $3400.

No, the paint was not that expensive. The above included labor costs. No, I did not do it myself. You want me to kill myself painting a 2-story home?

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem I've been thinking about doing the same. We're at approx 6 pC/l now (so, at the "should do something" borderline). First I'm sealing joints, sealing the block walls, and adding a porcelain tile floor over the slab. Did you find gravel under your basement slab? Our house was built in the late 1950s, I'm concerned there's no gravel or it is all silted up by now and I'll have trouble getting good pressure reduction across the whole 1600 sq ft basement.

My 90 day measurement came back at about 5, but test was at DW's request. You know what that means - get crackin'.

Soil under slab is kind of a fine powdery yellowish brown - not exactly sand nor clay. I did not encounter any gravel when I took out the recommended 10 gallons of dirt. The anecdotal stories that I was able to find on the web seemed to have high success regardless of soil. Some systems are just tapped into a sump hole cover or the foundation perimeter tiling.

[Spudd]

Recently while out for a walk, we found a sink by the side of the road that someone was throwing away (presumably renovating their bathroom). The faucet was a lot nicer than the faucet we had in our basement bathroom, so we took it home. This weekend we installed it successfully, and it makes the bathroom look a whole lot nicer!

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjorn2bwild The washer resevoir cap on my newly aquired Honda CR-V was in rough shape. Instead of traveling to the dealer for that headache, I decided to make one out of sch 40 PVC pipe. After cutting a 3" section lengthwise, I heated and flattened the piece, then turned it on my lathe for a snap-on fit. I find PVC to be a very versatile material for these kind of projects.

Another Honda washer reservoir repair here. DW hit a feral hog a few weeks ago. The damage to her Honda Pilot was cosmetic only - a few scratches to the paint on the corner of her front passenger side bumper, or so I thought. Turns out the impact resulted in a small half-inch tear to the bottom corner of the wiper fluid tank.

Once I figured out what the problem was I cleaned the area around the tear and stuck a piece of Eternabond over it. So far, so good...