• Fixing cars

    From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to All on Tue Oct 27 07:12:00 2020
    I sold my wife's 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, as much as I liked driving it,
    I preferred my 2014 Prius Plug-in. Gets twice the gas mileage too.

    I'd bought my wife a 2011 Mazda CX-9 a while ago, as we needed a
    bigger car for trips, and wanted something with AWD and a third-row
    seat. I found one that needed lots of little fixes, which I like
    doing.

    Found a local auto shop that specialized in Mazdas, they replaced the
    diff oil, brake fluid, did an oil change and flushed the radiator.

    It was missing the pull handle on the tailgate, found one onling for
    $12.

    The driver's side window started making an awful noise and shaking
    when rolling down, found a YouTube video documenting the likely
    problem, teeth shearing off of a $7 nylon gear. I took the motor out
    and spotted the exact same issue, the new gear is arriving tomorrow.

    There was a small hole in the dashboard, a little big of Sugru fixed
    that. I used another piece of sugru to match the texture, once it
    dried pressed it into the soft sugru patch to match the texture of the
    rest of the dash. Looks pretty good.

    I had an interior detail done when we bought it, looks brand new
    inside.

    Next, the bane of 201-something cars, fogged headlights. I've got some polishing compound that'll clear it up, this time I want to apply a
    clear coat to it afterwards.

    I *like* these little fixes. Saved a ton of money in the process, my
    wife was looking at the 2-year old model for $12K more than we paid.



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  • From Kurt Weiske@1:218/700 to Kurt Weiske on Thu Oct 29 06:50:00 2020
    Kurt Weiske wrote to All <=-

    The driver's side window started making an awful noise and shaking
    when rolling down, found a YouTube video documenting the likely
    problem, teeth shearing off of a $7 nylon gear. I took the motor out
    and spotted the exact same issue, the new gear is arriving tomorrow.

    Postscript: I'd put the old motor/gear back, minus the debris, and it
    worked OK, with a little "tick" when it slipped against the missing
    teeth instead of horrid grinding when the debris jammed between the
    gears.

    I should have quit while I was ahead.

    I went to install the new motor, and the bracket on the inside of the
    door that the motor installs to cracked and fell inside the door.

    I punted and took it to my repair shop, who got a replacement part
    and installed my new motor for $280.



    ... Abandon desire
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  • From Bob Roberts@1:218/840 to Kurt Weiske on Mon Dec 14 18:09:02 2020
    I sold my wife's 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, as much as I liked driving it,
    I preferred my 2014 Prius Plug-in. Gets twice the gas mileage too.

    Did you get a good price for it? I read that used cars are really in demand right now since people don't want to use public transportation during the pandemic.

    Glad you kept the Prius, based on your earlier emails you seemed to enjoy it.

    ... A critic is a legless man who teaches running.
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