Tag Archives: repairs

Unexpected vehicle maintenance

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Sunday was a nice day for February, 70 degrees with the sun peeking through the clouds. I figured it was a good time to rotate the tires on the truck, as the last time I did that was the end of summer. The boys were hanging out with me on the driveway as I started with the drivers side. Nothing out of the ordinary, it goes a lot quicker these days with the jack stands vs putting on the spare. As luck would have it though when I got to the passengers side front, the last wheel, something was a miss. The bolt connecting the stabilizer bar to the lower control arm had broken and I thought to myself “I wonder how long it’s been that way“. None the less it seemed like something I could take care of. And with a little work, it was.

From s10

I did a little research online and found AutoZone had front stabilizer bolt kits, $7.99 a piece. I called just to make sure the were on the shelf, as it’s about 15 minutes away, and they were. With parts in hand and back home I got to work replacing the bushings and bolt. First problem was getting the old stuff off. A little more difficult than I thought. With the bolt broken and the bushing spacer seemingly attached to the bolt I had to rip and tear the spacer from the bolt. With that done I decided to replace the other side, that wasn’t broke, but was just as worn.

Pliers in hand on the other side now I got a hold of the top washer and with a quarter turn of the bolt, it broke. I should have expected that but unfortunately I wasn’t prepared. The bolt was still long enough that I couldn’t pry it away from the mount and I wasn’t having any luck with the spacer. After way to long with the pliers and vice grips I headed to Home Depot for a Dremel attachment. I needed to cut the spacer and the bolt, the Dremel was just the tool but I didn’t have anything that would cut. After finding what I needed and back home it was getting dark. The Dremel did the trick but the next problem was the kit would fit. The stabilizer bar was to close to the lower control mount and I needed to collapse the wheel to get a little more room. I’d have to leave that for tomorrow.

After work this evening I was able to install the drivers side by jacking up the passenger side. The test drive was good and the front end felt tighter for sure. With any luck these will be good for another 225,000 miles like the originals!!!!

Brakes squeeking at low speeds

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A few weeks ago I replaced the front rotors on the truck and the pads I chose where ceramic. My thought process at the time was not to go with metalic pads and thus avoid any squealing. The rotors I got were steel, nothing special, so it was the metal to metal I wanted to stay away from. Needless to say ceramic was not the route to go. After the rotors warmed up any low speed stop would cause squeaking. I lived with it for a while but Friday I needed to do something. I picked up some cheaper semi-metalic pads for about a third less and put them on this morning and wouldn’t you know it, no squeal. Lesson learned high quality is always the best choice.

I’m sure ceramic is good for the right application just not for what I was doing. So for me and regular old steel rotors don’t use ceramic pads go with semi-metalic. I’ll try to remember that next time.

S10 transmission woes

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The ’99 S10 ZR2 I’ve had for 5 years now has been pretty much bullet proof. Replacing the water pump is all I’ve had to do other than regular maintenance. But I may have forgot about the transmission. A trip to Charlotte, NC the first of this week I knew would be an interesting one, and it was. The reason was I had noticed some clicking noises coming from around the transfer case when shifting in and out of park, not to mention rapid clicking when accelerating. Of course I did not take it in to get looked at and I’m thinking now I should have. If something was going to go wrong I figured that was the time.

The trip was somewhat eventful on the way as the transmission would not shift down out of overdrive when coming to a hill. Once in Charlotte I had the transmission flushed at a Valvoline Oil change for $100.00. At least they did a flush and not just drain the pan and refill. That did help but there is still a problem. The clicking noises went away but now the humming came about.

A humming noise at about 55 mph seems to be what’s going on. When that happened to the wife’s car it was a bearing and a $1,200.00 bill. None the less the $100.00 at Valvoline was worth felling better about getting back to Nashville but the damage is done, I think.

I can only hope it is not a new trany that is needed.

Note: Gapping spark plugs correctly can also help with getting the most (power) out of ones engine. Check twice, gap once.