Catalytic Catalyst
On Thursday, I was driving my sister to Anime club, when all of the sudden I noticed a strange noise and vibration coming from right under my feet. On Friday, I was delivering my papers when my car got loud. Real loud.
So I pulled my car in, jacked it up, and with the help of my dad, figured out the problem. The exhaust had rusted through where the pipe coming down from the exhaust manifold meets the catalytic converter.
So we ordered a new cat from Saint Paul Park Auto Parts, and went and picked it up on Saturday. Saint Paul Park Auto was...weird. I'll try and get some pictures on Wednesday to show everybody when I go and return the old cat. Total cost for a new direct fit cat: $121.97
Ooooohhhh...Shiny
O.K. now lets try and pull off the old exhaust. First, I've gotta pull my car back into the car hold, and jack it back up. Heres the thing I hate about jacking my car up: you're not supposed to use anything but the knuckle scraping jack that comes with the car, and there are NO JACK STAND POINTS! What the hell was Suzuki thinking when they designed this car? So to jack up my car, I just put a piece of wood on my dads 1 1/2 ton Sears floor jack, and I have created divots in the rocker panels in the shape of the jack stands.
So then I started undoing the exhaust. The two bolts that attach the catalytic converter to the muffler: come off just fine (we had replaced the muffler on my car last summer, and we made sure to put Never Seez on the bolts). The O2 sensor: comes off just fine. The two bolts that connect to the exhaust manifold: hmm, they arent budging. Well, lets Tri-Flo 'em, let it sit and see what happens. Hmm, they still aren't moving. "Hey dad, can you give me a hand with these?"
So then he gets under the car. First bolt: comes out just fine. Second bolt: SNAP! The head came clean off:
Well, that was all we could do for that night, so we closed up the garage and headed out the next day to try and find some bolts. Pep boys? Nope. AutoZone? Nope. Checker? Nope. Napa? Nope. Shit. Well, those are the only auto parts stores around, and dealerships are closed on Sundays, so were out of luck.
To get that stud out, my dad went across the street and borrowed a stud remover from Howard, which did the job beautifully.
This morining, I went and picketed with my dad. Then we went to the court house so I could contest my ticket. Ticket? Yep. Remember that seatbelt I told you about that broke in Wisconsin? On about May 27th, I drove out to the M.O.A. to drop off a job application, then I went to the airport to see the picket lines, since it was the National Day of Solidarity, and there were supposed to be a bunch of people on the picket lines (there were). But on the outbound road from the main terminal, I got caught in a sting, and the cop that pulled me over wouldn't let me show him that my belt was broken ("That's no excuse"). So right after that I drove to UPull'r, and got a buckle. My Hearing Officer appointment was today, and I got her to throw the ticket out.
Anyways, after I got my ticket thrown out, we went to Lupient Chevrolet of Bloomington, to try and track down some bolts. We went to the parts department, told him what we needed, and he said "Huh. I'm really surprised that we have these." Great. How much? $9.13. A piece. Without tax.
So we go home, Never Seez the crap out of the bolts, hang the new cat, bolt everything up, and I try and start my car. It runs for about a second and then dies. I try again: no joy. Again? Nope. Once more? Third time's the charm. Neither my dad nor I can figure out why it wouldn't start. And then I pulled my car out, went back into the garage to clean up...and saw the gasket that goes between the muffler and the cat laying on the ground. I know I put it in there, I know it was on there, so how did it get on the ground? It's a mystery. So the I pulled my car BACK into the garage, jacked it up, threw the gasket in, tightened everything up, and finally closed up the garage.
After it was all over, my dad told me that this actually wen't fairly smoothly for this type of job.
Awesome.
So I pulled my car in, jacked it up, and with the help of my dad, figured out the problem. The exhaust had rusted through where the pipe coming down from the exhaust manifold meets the catalytic converter.
So we ordered a new cat from Saint Paul Park Auto Parts, and went and picked it up on Saturday. Saint Paul Park Auto was...weird. I'll try and get some pictures on Wednesday to show everybody when I go and return the old cat. Total cost for a new direct fit cat: $121.97
Ooooohhhh...Shiny
So then I started undoing the exhaust. The two bolts that attach the catalytic converter to the muffler: come off just fine (we had replaced the muffler on my car last summer, and we made sure to put Never Seez on the bolts). The O2 sensor: comes off just fine. The two bolts that connect to the exhaust manifold: hmm, they arent budging. Well, lets Tri-Flo 'em, let it sit and see what happens. Hmm, they still aren't moving. "Hey dad, can you give me a hand with these?"
So then he gets under the car. First bolt: comes out just fine. Second bolt: SNAP! The head came clean off:
Well, that was all we could do for that night, so we closed up the garage and headed out the next day to try and find some bolts. Pep boys? Nope. AutoZone? Nope. Checker? Nope. Napa? Nope. Shit. Well, those are the only auto parts stores around, and dealerships are closed on Sundays, so were out of luck.To get that stud out, my dad went across the street and borrowed a stud remover from Howard, which did the job beautifully.
This morining, I went and picketed with my dad. Then we went to the court house so I could contest my ticket. Ticket? Yep. Remember that seatbelt I told you about that broke in Wisconsin? On about May 27th, I drove out to the M.O.A. to drop off a job application, then I went to the airport to see the picket lines, since it was the National Day of Solidarity, and there were supposed to be a bunch of people on the picket lines (there were). But on the outbound road from the main terminal, I got caught in a sting, and the cop that pulled me over wouldn't let me show him that my belt was broken ("That's no excuse"). So right after that I drove to UPull'r, and got a buckle. My Hearing Officer appointment was today, and I got her to throw the ticket out.
Anyways, after I got my ticket thrown out, we went to Lupient Chevrolet of Bloomington, to try and track down some bolts. We went to the parts department, told him what we needed, and he said "Huh. I'm really surprised that we have these." Great. How much? $9.13. A piece. Without tax.
So we go home, Never Seez the crap out of the bolts, hang the new cat, bolt everything up, and I try and start my car. It runs for about a second and then dies. I try again: no joy. Again? Nope. Once more? Third time's the charm. Neither my dad nor I can figure out why it wouldn't start. And then I pulled my car out, went back into the garage to clean up...and saw the gasket that goes between the muffler and the cat laying on the ground. I know I put it in there, I know it was on there, so how did it get on the ground? It's a mystery. So the I pulled my car BACK into the garage, jacked it up, threw the gasket in, tightened everything up, and finally closed up the garage.
After it was all over, my dad told me that this actually wen't fairly smoothly for this type of job.
Awesome.
posted by AP at 5:26 PM
1 Comments:
You seem to have an exciting life. And what I mean by exciting is not exciting at all. But that's awesome, I wish my life was boring for a while. Congratulations on having nothing pressing that you have to do.
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