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Kimchi: my 2005 Kia Optima, V6, low miles (54k, inherited her from my mom, the proverbial granny who only drove it to church) but Kimchi used to live in upstate NY so she's got some significant undercarriage rust from the salt on the roads. She started making noises a few months back, and a friend correctly diagnosed low steering fluid. I've been topping it off as needed, but never noticed any leaks on my driveway. Yesterday, out of nowhere, Kimchi starts screaming the same noise she made when I first found out about the steering fluid leak. Sure enough, it's low, no problem, I limp her up to the Autozone a mile away and buy more fluid. Add fluid, start her up to get some in circulation, and she's still screaming. I look underneath, and poo poo's dripping out like mad. Tried to take her around the block on a test, and completely lost power steering. If it's just a hose, I can probably do that myself. But I've been looking up other forums' posts, and apparently I could potentially fry the pump if it's not getting fluid? How do I find where the leak is without causing more damage?
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May 16, 2015 19:28
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some texas redneck posted:You will absolutely ruin the pump if you drive it like that. Safety Dance posted:Clean everything really well with degreaser, add more fluid, run the car for a few minutes, and see where it's leaking from. You very well might be looking at a new power steering pump, especially if you're noticing power steering fluid being slung all over your engine bay. Fuuuuck. I'm unemployed, broke, and finally got a temp gig on Thursday --- that's not on a bus line, and 20 miles away. As they say, if it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. I'm hoping Safety Dance is on the money, bc the fluid's not all over the place, very specific drip from under the front passenger seat side. Though I think that's where the pump is, so... fingers crossed. So just to be clear: if I top her up to the brim, and just run her in the driveway without turning the wheels, am I okay trying to find the leak? Like, if the pump's not shot, I don't want to do any more damage, as texas redneck's suggesting. Thanks for all advice, I try to work on my cars myself as much as I can since I'm pretty good at fixing poo poo, and I hate being "stupid woman being taken to the cleaners because chicks know nuffin' 'bout cars". Any recommendations on good websites for schematics? Normally I'd run up to the library and grab the Chilton's (why I never just bought a Chilton's for my '89 Probe, I dunno, I practically owned that copy), but... yeah. Not going anywhere today, it seems. "Just curious" side note: I've never driven without power steering before, and holy poo poo did I have to haul on that wheel to do the hard right back into the driveway. Is that what driving an old, non-power car is like? JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 13:23 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 13:21
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some texas redneck posted:awesome effort post Thanks so much! So when I went out yesterday to try to better assess the leak, the reservoir was totally empty.  It's been low in the past, well below min, but never just empty. Filled it back up, turned her on, and did my best to get underneath. She's now gone from drip-drip-drip to straight up pissing from two spots, that seem a little more central than passenger side. Ran her for all of 15-20 seconds before shutting her off in a panic over all the fluid draining onto my driveway, and when I looked back under the hood, the reservoir was empty again. This does not bode well. I'd need to get her up on ramps to get a better look, I really can't see poo poo (especially when the ground's soaking wet from 2 days of thunderstorms, I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos, and quickly became terrified I was gonna run the pump dry and have it explode or something). I have a great mechanic just over a mile away, but at this point I don't think having her leave my cul-de-sac without a tow sounds like a good idea. And between this, the fact that her evap canister has been held up solely with one of my MacGuyver-style fixes (some aluminum pipe, bungee, and duct tape) after that support rusted out, and Slavvy's opinion on her overall worthiness... might be time to start shopping around. Anyways, thanks again for everyone's advice, as well as explaining power vs non-power steering; I feel less like I was a weak little kitten when it came to trying to crank that wheel with power failure!
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May 19, 2015 08:50
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The car: 2001 Cavalier, 2dr, no power windows or locks. The problem: Last Thursday, I rolled the window all the way down to show my ID while going thru the gate at work (I work on a military base). The window did not want to roll back up, which was distressing as 1) it was already pouring and 2) we had Hurricane Joaquin rolling up the coast, so it wasn't gonna stop raining for four more days. The temporary solution: It wasn't that the handle was just spinning; it would stop, and so would the window rolling up. Rolls down fine, but keeps sticking going up. Through a repetition of rolling it down an inch, then it would go up 2 inches, down an inch, up 2, repeat, etc, I finally got it back up so I wouldn't have a soggy rear end car. So the handle's catching something, but you have to do this back and forth motion, and pressing against the window slightly seems to help it keep moving up. I haven't rolled the window down since, which is a bit of a nuisance since now I gotta open my door every time I roll through the gate at work while sheepishly explaining to the MP "sorry, my window's broken!" Not to mention the inability to use a drive-thru ATM or fast food... What I want to know: I found a great Youtube video showing how to take the door panel off, which looks easy-peasy, requiring only a Philips head and a paper clip. I can't however, find any info on what to do next. Every video or article I find is about power windows. What should I be looking for? Is it just off the track, or should be looking for something that's broken/worn out? Will this be obvious when I take the panel off, or by taking the passenger panel off and comparing the two? Is this something a goonette with some degree of fix-it skills and a healthy collection of tools can do herself? It came completely out of nowhere, there had been no problems prior to this. Thankfully the rain has finally passed, and I can work on her tomorrow bc it's my day off (and the weather's gonna be great for the next few days, even if I gently caress it up).
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Oct 6, 2015 03:45
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Safety Dance posted:Oh, okay. I always took "regulator" to be an unnecessary word for "motor". I learned something! As did I! I kept seeing regulator in all these sites talking about powered windows and figured that didn't apply to my situation since I got good ol' hand cranks. In the couple cases of non-power windows walk-throughs I found, though, it seemed that a bad regulator would mean the handle (or in the case of power, a motor) would just turn and turn without "catching", so that's why i was hoping to get some insight into my particular problem. Also, still looking for a nice Chiltons-type diagram of what I should even be looking for once I pop that door panel off. (I have full confidence in getting the panel off/on, it doesn't seem hard at all) Edit: again, would it be helpful at all to pop off the passenger side panel as well --- can I see a difference there? My driver door had an issue with not closing thanks to a funky latch a few weeks ago, and just looking at the difference between the bad driver side and good passenger side, I was able to fix that poo poo with 5 minutes of "OH, that's what's wonky" and some elbow grease. JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 06:31
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The Car: 2001 Chevy Cavalier, 4 cyl 2.2 automatic The Issue: She's making this weird... gurgling noise. Like, it sounds like water being poured into a glass, or a drip coffee-maker. The Details: From the driver's seat, it sounds like it's coming from the defrost vents or dash; whatever it is, it's real close to the firewall/cabin. Happens most often when first starting her cold, and doing low speed in the few blocks it takes to get out of my neighborhood. Once she's on the main drag and doing 40+ mph, it goes away. Only happens while pushing the gas, not while idling/coasting/braking. She's running fine, but the noise has gotten more prominent in the past few weeks, and if it's a sign of something about to keel over, I'd like to nip it in the bud before winter hits. The weather has gotten a bit chillier here in Virginia, but nothing near freezing or anything, for what that's worth. Any ideas? edit: just scrolled up the thread and saw the Cavalier chat (what up, Gray Matter? [Cav owner fistbump]). Reviled and underbudgeted she may be, but my girl's been nothing but a champ for the 12 years I've owned her.  (Of course, I live in a state that doesn't do emissions testing...)
JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Nov 4, 2015 |
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Nov 4, 2015 01:52
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rdb posted:How is the coolant level? Is the carpet (usually on the passenger side) wet? Any unusual sweet smell or fog on the windshield? Coolant level's fine (in fact I just got a coolant flush job done with my last oil change since the poor girl hadn't seen some fluid love in forever). I'm pretty hyper-aware of any smells, dripping, or leakage after driving my previous car, a Ford Probe nicknamed "The Sieve" because.. well, you can figure that out. She ain't leaking anything I'm aware of. But now that you mention it, the interior windshield has been pretty assed-up, but I chalked that up to the fact that both my bf and I smoke, which will make the inside part of the windshield schmutzy and slow to de-fog, depending on the weather. What're you thinking?
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Nov 4, 2015 02:51
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Backstory: fell on hard times, moved across the state, living with my in-laws, just got a job, need car. In-laws have a plated and inspected '93 Dodge Caravan sitting here with her tires going flat. According to FIL, all she needs a fuel pump. If I can get it fixed, I can have her. So my questions are: 1. Ballpark figure, what am I looking at if I get a pro to do this job? Is it worth it? Everything else on the van is solid. 2. Is this something I can do myself? I currently live in the land of pick'n'pulls, and am not too shabby when it comes to minor service/repairs (oil, brakes, thermostat, etc), but this might be out of my wheelhouse. I heard noises about having to drain the whole fuel line and dropping the tank on this job, y/n? 3. Not really a question, but: If any SW VA goons wanna help out, holler at me.
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Feb 13, 2017 20:26
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So one of the back tires on my 2001 Cavalier has been looking squishy. I went to put air in it, and found the source of the leak: the valve tube has cracked away and was slow-leaking. Wrestling the air hose onto the valve has just made matters worse, it's now an audible hiss and only 15 minutes later it's clearly visible that she's going flat. I managed to get her up to 30 psi and raced her home Is this something that requires a whole new tire, or is it patchable? I ask because I have "I'm a woman and the tire shop is totally gonna rip me off because of that" paranoia. I know my way around under the hood, but I've never really messed with tires aside from putting the donut on once in the middle of a blizzard.
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Jun 3, 2019 23:22
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This an extremely stupid question, no doubt. My husband's 1990 Chevy G30 van got broken into. He just went out to fetch the Xmas tree he had in the back, and was surprised to find both front doors unlocked. Thieves stole his two tool boxes (but funny enough left the bomb-rear end Pioneer stereo). We currently live in a, shall we say, rough neighborhood, so 1) we are crazy vigilant about making sure the front, side, and back doors are all locked, and 2) it was probably some methheads that know how to break into a standard cargo fleet van and steal power tools to pawn and buy more crack or whatever. My dumbass question is: aside from buying an alarm, is there any way to make a van of this model more secure? Obviously we're going to make more pains to not keep anything of value in there, but I'm just wondering if there's anything we can do to tighten her up. If someone broke into in her once, they obviously know how to do it again. At least those fuckers didn't steal the tree.
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Dec 15, 2019 22:19
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Thanks for the replies! Puck lock is a great idea, we used those for our storage unit where I used to work, wouldn't have thought about incorporating them onto a van. Thing is, they didn't come through the back or side --- those were still locked. I'm trying to figure out how to shore up the front doors (driver and passenger). It's also got a sliding side door, but I can easily see us putting a puck on that, too. (well, easier if they hadn't stolen all our drills.  )It's panel on the driver side, and has a window on the passenger side (in which I am going to put up some cardboard or something so you can't peek inside and say "hey! a 42" flatscreen!)*. Used to be an AT&T fleet van. Does NOT have the metal/window between cabin and storage, so they just got in the front and shuffled what they wanted out of there. *Yeah, they took a TV, too. Jokes on them, the tv was busted, we just used it as glitchy visuals for our wacky avant garde electronic music performances. Plus, recent news stories have informed us that it used to be owned by a guy arrested for putting up YouTube videos that told ISIS members how to make bombs**. **Dude used to live in the rental we're in now and left the tv behind. Saw his very distinct name on the local news, and yyyyep. We dubbed it The Terrorist TV.
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Dec 16, 2019 00:17
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:58 |
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Long story short, some asshat parked in such a position that in order to get my car out, I ended up rubbing on a plywood barrier in the parking lot, painted with what I'd guess is latex house paint. Not a deep scuff (I didn't even know I rubbed it until I got home and said "aw, gently caress!" because I was doing 0.0004 mph getting out of this insanely tight spot). But now I got a big white schmear on my navy blue car. Saw some youtube videos saying I can remove paint transfer with wd40 and a magic eraser. Bought magic eraser on my way from work today, and looking at the box now, it says "NOT FOR USE ON CAR BODIES". Yes? No? Advice? It's a 2001 Cavalier, I'm not terribly concerned if I gently caress her up, but she does look good for age and I'd like to keep her that way.
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Sep 6, 2020 23:02
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