Spring Surprise
Spring Surprise
You never know...
So today began with a trip to the gas station to fill up the tank and get the car warmed up in anticipation of changing the oil and filter.
The fuel gauge indicated 1/4 tank so I figured I would fill it up and get some fresh fuel in it. I put the nozzle in, stand back and start entering the details in my maintenance software, and the pump clicks off. Strange. I check, and sure enough, it’s full. Only took four gallons. Hmmm.
Check the gauge and sure enough, it’s still at 1/4 tank indicated. Once I got back to the house a quick check at the sender connector with a jumper and the gauge went full travel, so the gauge sender must be wonky. The tank is totally full, so there’s no way the sender is coming out until I put some miles on the car and run the level down a bit.
Get the car on ramps and shove the drain pan under it (I’m draining the pan this time, not using a vacuum extractor) and start to assess the undercarriage. For the most part, other than years of accumulated grunge, it looks pretty good. Very little in the way of leaks, mostly some filth from a porous power steering low pressure return line. That’s on the engine compartment survey for replacement anyway.
As I’m looking around, I notice spring spacers in both front springs. Hmm. Two per spring, looking like they’ve been in place for some time. I get a 1/2” socket and short extension and with some effort get all four of them removed. I suspect the front springs were getting tired and someone inserted these to avoid a spring replacement. Too bad, as springs are relatively inexpensive.
No real surprises with the oil and filter change. Yes, the oil was pretty nasty, mostly from condensation. The car had a Wix brand filter in it. Got an MB OE filter in the housing, buttoned it up with all new o-rings and sealing rings, and filled the crankcase with six quarts of Brad Penn 20W-50 semi-synthetic. Great stuff, very good for these older engines, especially the high levels of zinc that keep the top end happy.
As a part of the detail work, I replaced the sealing ring on the oil dipstick. Of course the one on it had to be the original and was really worn out and hard as a rock.
With that done I fire up the car and it sounds noticeably quieter. No doubt that old oil was not making it happy. Moving along...
I used my vacuum extractor and suctioned as much of the oil out of the injection pump that I could. Of course it had years of accumulated oil in it and was quite overfilled. When I took the dipstick out of the pump initially, oil flowed out of it. Not good, but not uncommon. About 200 ml of Brad Penn and the dipstick was reading right where it should be.
Since I had some social obligations later in the day my time was somewhat limited, so I did a few minor things, like cleaning out the areas under the trunk hinges. As one might expect, they were packed full of years of detritus, clogging the drain holes. This is what typically causes rust in these areas.
I use a bamboo skewer from the kitchen along with a shop vac and just pick and scrape as much as I can while the shop vac sucks all the crud away. The bamboo skewer won’t scratch the paint and allows you to get into all of the corners and probe the drain to make sure it’s not clogged. I do the same on the windshield wiper recess drains and the hood hinge drains on later models.
Since I didn’t have pictures from yesterday for the left rear taillight cleanup I thought I would include them today. I took a picture of the right side as well for comparison:
And yes, I got those old Stamford parking stickers off the bumper as well.
Looks like transmission fluid to me. It was below where the differential was located. Very interesting. I’m hoping the differential doesn’t have ATF in it..... it didn’t smell like gear oil, as it didn’t have the characteristic odor.
I also discovered that the reason for my sloppy steering was due to missing bushings in the steering coupler. Fortunately, a set of bushings is under $10, so I’ll need to get some on order with the dealer. Not a fun job, but it’s got to be done, for sure.
And lastly, a picture of the car showing its new stance. Al little lower in the front, but closer to level:
Tomorrow - valve adjustment!
Saturday, December 22, 2018