A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to State Inspection

My Freestyle's due for PA inspection.  In my county, I'm required to get both a "safety" inspection and an emissions inspection.  The Freestyle was in need of new front tires due to very poor alignment and problems with the outer tie rods, so I had that done at the same time.  I take my cars to a local, trusted mechanic -- his guys do a great job when I need repairs when I don't have the time, tools or ability to get them done myself.

My car was finished -- but the dead battery resulted in the engine not being ready for emissions inspection.  Apparently, the way dead battery resulted in the emissions information being cleared from the computer and I hadn't driven it enough for the engine to accumulate enough data for the emissions testing equipment. This problem was easy to solve, I just needed to drive the car a bit.

That Burning Smell

And that's where my troubles began.  As I rolled up to a red light, I could smell something burning and that's when, in the still morning air, I could see the smoke pluming from the right side of my hood.  And the smell, it wasn't oil, it wasn't electrical components burning it was... I just didn't know. So I parked it and headed off to work.  That night, when I started it, the battery light was on and no power steering. A little more riding around and the smell and smoking returned.

Sniff again.  I've oft heard smell triggers memories better than any other sense.  Thanksgiving's

Not the problem

melody of sage, rosemary and pepper, the cheap perfume cacophony of your grandmother's friends at her funeral, the scent of your wife's hair on your wedding day: just one whiff transports you there, like it was yesterday, like it was the present.  The scent of a car's electrical system self-immolation puts be back in 1998 when, with a toddler and a two-week old, a flashing check-engine light and a small puff of smoke preceded the one-alarm destruction of our trusty Mazda Protege.  This smell was similar, but new, and not the odor of impending flames. Maybe.

Overflowing Power Steering

Leaking power steering
reservoir

Once in the garage, I popped the hood and noticed first, the power steering fluid was leaking from the cap.  Then a close look at the accessory belt made it clear the source of the problems: it was broken.  The belt drives the alternator (resulting in the battery light) and the power steering pump.
Without the power steering pump running, the fluid overflows the reservoir and leaks over the top of the engine (according to the experts at myfordfreestyle), producing the burning smell and smoke.

Broken Belt

Removing the belt was easy enough, just grab it and pull.  But... before doing that, I made a diagram of the belt's route around the various pulleys. Since the belt was broken, I needed to guess a little, but with most of the belt in the right position, not much was left to the imagination.

The access to the front of the engine would be excellent if it not for an air conditioning line running over the top of the engine, so I don't think I could install the new belt from the top, I would need access from the bottom of the engine.  The next best way to get enough access to the pulleys would be through the wheel well on the passenger's side.  So up went the car and off came the tire.

Easy as 1,2,3!

Plastic Rivets: Defeated!

To get reasonable access to the pulleys, I would need to remove the inner fender, affixed to the car with my nemesis fastener. This time, I would not succumb to frustration and decapitate them, but I would figure out how to remove them -- there must be a way.

After a little futzing, I had an answer: slowly back out the screw, pry under the screw head to pull it away from the fastener base, then pull the fastener out by the base.  Some of the road grime made this a little difficult, but I managed to remove them all in this manner, saving me a few bucks at the auto store for a new set of fasteners.  Not sure if this is the "official" method of removal, but it worked.

As the Pulley Turns

Inner fender removed

Inner fender out and with access to all of the pulleys, I tested each to see if they spun freely, with the exception of the crankshaft pulley.  Alternator was OK as well as the power steering pump.  The AC however didn't want to budge and this was cause for concern.  If the AC unit's pulley froze, that would have broken the belt.  Depending on the AC unit, even if the compressor clutch is disengaged, the pulley takes more force to turn than expected.  I just hoped this wasn't the problem and went ahead with the belt installation, which lead to the next problem.

Belt diagram I made earlier

To install the belt, it looked like the plastic guard over the AC pulley needed to be removed. The bolts wore 8mm heads, easily reachable with an extension. Started turning, and turning when it became clear the bolts were stripped.  The bolts ran through plastic and the prior mechanic just kept tightening until the threads disappeared.  That means, I should have been able to apply some pressure to the back of the bolt and it would slip out, but for me, no luck. Strange. I tried wedging a screwdriver between the two plastic pieces secured by the bolt, no luck there either, this was sort of weird, I wonder what's holding that bolt in place?  When I reached for a cutting tool I knew it was time for a break. So I went biking with my kid on the Butler-Freeport Trail.  Did all 42 miles! 

Belt Installation, No Cutting Required

Looking at the problem with fresh eyes, I saw enough room to push the belt between the pulley and cover, using a prying tool to do the job. Then it was on to the rest working counter-clockwise: power steering, alternator, crankshaft and then a slack loop held by the tensioner. 

Getting the belt around the the camshaft and tensioner proved to be somewhat difficult.  The tensioner is a pulley on a spring, that applies force to keep the serpentine belt taut.  When changing belts, you need to push against the tensioner's spring that effectively reducing the length the belt needs to travel, giving slack for installation or removal. I have a tool designed for this purpose, a 1/4in square drive end on a thin piece of metal.  I drafted my youngest kid to apply force so I could loop the belt over the tensioner and camshaft, but the new belt was tight enough that I needed to use the back my pry bar to slip the belt over the crankshaft pulley. Done!

Mark on AC pulley

Fired-up the car, and listened for the squeal of a stuck belt.  Turned-on the AC, heard the clutch engage and the extra load on the engine, no tell-tale stuck-belt squealing.  Just to make sure, I stopped the engine and put a little whiteout mark on the AC pulley so I could see if it turned.  Engine running again and white dot gone, I convinced myself the old belt just wore-out at an opportune time.

Put the inner fender back into place, with some satisfaction that I was able to re-use the fasteners and back on with the tire.  Took the car out for a few rides, let's hope it has enough miles for the emissions test to be run.

Dead battery

While in my garage for a few days, I left the map lights on in the car.  The result: a dead battery.  Not just a "sort of dead battery" that has enough current to run some of the electronics in the car, it was a "really dead battery" that didn't have enough juice to do much of anything.

Push then Jump

The Freestyle was in the garage, head first and my jumper cables couldn't reach from my running car to the dead battery.  To get the Freestyle within jumper cable range, I needed to push it out of the garage, which meant I needed to put the car in neutral.  For your safety (no sarcasm, this is a great safety feature), cars include an interlock between the brake and shifter, requiring your foot on the brake before you can shift into gear.  The interlock is a switch and a solenoid on the shifter to release a pin to allow the shifter to move -- a classic design requiring electricity to work, and, as it happens, my car was absent enough electrons to do the job. 

Sure, disassemble the dashboard

No problem!  Cars include an override for just this event.  Most of the time, it's next to the shifter accessible with a valet key or screwdriver, kept under a little panel held in place by coffee and Cheetos residue.  After searching, and searching, I resorted to an act of true desperation: I read the manual (gasp!).  Whereupon I found instructions on page 198 that seemed to be telling me to disassemble the center console.  Really?  Yes.

Here's what I needed to do.  Took about 15 minutes, about 14 minutes longer than it should have.

1. Safety
Before you start, belt and suspenders!  Apply the parking brake and put a chock on both sides of a wheel.  This keeps the car from drifting forwards or backwards.  This is the wrong time to discover the slope of your garage/driveway faces the house/pool/orphanage as two tons of car rolls about uncontrolled.  If stuck on an incline, this is one of the times I'd recommend seeking professional assistance. Also, I feel the need to point out once the car starts rolling, just get out of the way, you're not going to stop it, you'll just get run over.

2. Removing a trim panel from around the shifter
For this job, I deployed my Harbor Freight nylon prying tools.  There's a set for just interior trim, but the "all purpose" set live up to their name.  

3. Removing the console (use two hands, pull upwards!)
Looks dirty under there.  I also found some receipts and a debit card hiding in this area. Not really sure how these got to their final resting spot, there's not much of a gap between the console and the rest of the dashboard.  But stuff has a habit of getting where it doesn't belong.

 

A bunch of plastic clips like what you see below hold the center console in place, they look like they're designed to tolerate occasional removal, so somebody in the depths of the engineering department expected this to happen over the life of the car, or maybe this is what they had in the CAD system's collection of fasteners and the valued engineering resource responsible for this part just did a cut/paste before heading out to lunch.

4. Loosening a screw to remove a safety cover over the switch, press button
The safety cover with a screw underneath the center console seems like the result of some regulation, or lawsuit, or maybe I'm witnessing some serious over-engineering.

There's the button!  Just press while also pressing the release on the gear shifter and we're in neutral.  From the pictures, you might notice it being a bit dirty, this picture fully documents the crud hiding in the center console gear shift:

I sprayed with liberal mounts of LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner I used for the rest of the interior and put my best efforts into making this cleaner.  

Off we go

Removed wheel blocks and pushed car out of the garage after releasing the parking brake.  This is a two person job, have somebody sitting in the car ready to press the brakes. Jumping the car was uneventful.  (Yes, I was very careful to attach the last cable far away from the dead battery.)  Re-assembly didn't require much effort and my car's just a little bit cleaner as well. Might want to stash a cheap Phillips head screwdriver in the glove compartment, just in case you need to do this in the field.

Down on the Junkyard

Been doing lots of brake replacements in the last 6 months (including the back brakes on my Freestyle), leaving me a bunch of rotors in the garage. I took them over to the local recycling plant, my first trip to a little slice of industry that's been in my town for 10+ years.

On the way in, there was some of the equipment used in the operation that doubled as set pieces for the Matrix trilogy.  Never saw one of these close-up, I never fully appreciated the mechanical complexity of this machinery.

Weigh In

Rotors went on a scale in the building, I didn't have enough to qualify for the big scale outside.  Scrap dealers seem very concerned about collecting identifying information, my license was required at weigh-in and I signed something to the effect the scrap being presented was, in fact, mine.  I had eight rotors: two from the Freestyle, four from a VW bug, two from a Jetta and the last two from our minivan.  Lots of brake work this year.  I must say, the brakes on the Freestyle were the easiest to service, with the minivan being the next, the Bug gave me the most grief and frustration.

The output of the weigh-in process is a receipt. My eight rotors became 103 lbs of TMNT-esque "shredder feed" (if not pizza, I guess scrap metal would be next reasonable foodstuff).  I then took the receipt to the receptionist to get a card for the ATM.  Lots more paper work than I expected for such a simple transaction. My spare rotors earned me $4.60, rounded down to the nearest quarter.

It's all about the Washingtons

The ATM dispenses only dollars, so I got my four bits from the receptionist and after inserting my ATM card, the machine produced four dollars. No PIN necessary, just inserted the card and the machine produced four not-so-crisp bills. From what I could tell, the ATM was a security system to keep the cash box from being skimmed or stolen.  Although the money wasn't
much, it was a nice boss feeling to have the ATM just produce cash without the formality of having to enter any identifying information.  This must be how kids conceptualize an ATM before the hear their parents bickering about money.

Pink CTS

I was taking the dog out for her evening walk (we have a Captain Dick /  Moby Ahab thing going on with a loitering ground hog in the park) and what do I see: A pink Cadillac.  Not some subtle, "is that really pink?" I-sold-my-former-friends-a-bunch-of-Mary-Kay pink, we're talking loud and proud Dunkin' Donuts pink.

This is how I came upon the car.  The LED ground-effect lighting slowly pulsated, drawing your attention, just in case you missed the rest of the car.  Note the chrome door handles and pillar trim.  I didn't test if these were plastic or chrome, judging by the condition, I'm guessing the car was opened with gloved hands.  I was hoping the owner was close by so I could get some shots of the interior and ask about the paint job and other mods, but after waiting fifteen or so minutes, no luck.  I was disappointed, because I wouldn't be surprised if the engine bay had its share of chrome as well.

Not just ground effect lighting, but grill effect lighting as well.  My cell phone camera doesn't do justice to the front of the car and how the lighting came through the grill.  Notice the upgraded headlights (with LED eyebrows), I wish I could have gotten a picture of with the head lights on for the full effect.  The grill probably wasn't stock, and the all chrome Caddy shield definitely wasn't.

Everyone has chrome / alloy wheels these days.  Chrome wheels inserts exactly matching the car's paint. Now we're talking unique!  The camera might not catch this well, the inserts were plastic and from what I can tell, not painted, so I'm guessing this is part of a kit where one can get the rims with inserts and the paint.  Also note the ground effects.  From here it's easy to  see the car was lowered a few inches as well.  I was tempted to crawl underneath to see if the owner had an adjustable suspension installed, but I think I would be demonstrating some boundary issues.

Too bad I couldn't get a few words with the owner of the car.  The dog was getting restless -- squirrels aren't going to chase themselves up a tree -- so we had to get moving along.

Transmission Fluid Change, part 3

I paid $15,000 for our first house; purchased it from a family member who sold it to me as a way of evicting the current residents, who were, from my estimation, auditioning for "Hoarders: Buried Alive!"  The house needed some work, with a good roof and and a functioning kitchen, I figured "why not?".  To make the house habitable, I needed to empty it of several years of garbage (Who needs a garbage can? The floor's right there!), which required a dumpster. Before I could get a dumpster, I needed to clear the yard so the dumpster would fit, which meant I needed to clear the driveway so I dumpster could fit there to hold the flotsam from the yard.  Getting the picture?  No one "simple" task could be started, because several other things had to be done first.

My $500 car experience echoes my 15K house experience.  Small tasks mushroom into multi-day projects as stuff just falls apart or has been mis-handled so that proceeding requires fixing a few additional things along the way.  This makes any job unpredictable in terms of expense or time, as my CVT fluid change has shown.

This is the last installment of changing the CVT fluid, after a number of problems, I was able to get this done as well as replace the high-pressure filter. The biggest fly in the ointment: a broken transmission cooling tube.  As the photos clearly illustrate, the thick coat oil and road grime evidences a leak, somewhere, just not sure where, yet.  When replacing the water pump, I found what looked to be a leaking camshaft seal, having replaced that, let's hope the remaining oil leaks can be handled through a quart between oil changes.

I'll Be Your New Transmission Cooling Line

New hose

Nice and clean, delivered in just a few days from Tasca parts.  I wasn't expecting to get so much additional hardware, as the line included a the mounting bracket holding the hoses to the transmission.  The ends, covered by little red gnome hats have the additional o-rings, so I don't need to use the ones included in my oil change kit.

Removing the old line

Line looks to be leaking

Since this was removed from the high pressure housing, most of the work of getting access and disconnecting the old lines was completed already.  To access the refill plug and disconnect the old lines as part of a "normal" transmission service, the air intake and air filter box were already out of the way.  There's a few electrical lines attached to the harness, so off they came, then two remaining 8mm bolts. Once those were off, I removed the lines from the cooler with my handy adjustable pliers — making sure I had a catch basin for the fluid still trapped in the radiator and the old line.  No stripped or broke bolts.  Not so bad!

Note the circled part, from where the metal line meets the metal hose, there's a large amount of oil and dirt accumulation.  Maybe this is the source of the leaking in this part of the engine?  I hope so.

Install New Line

Where the trouble began...

I started the process at the high pressure housing, because I didn't want any damage to the mating surfaces.  The bracket went back on the transmission, this was easy as there was really only one way for it to be positioned.  Then the second fastener of the loop in the line and connecting the lines to the radiator.  I used some adjustable pliers to release the tension on the clips and the dripping fluid from the radiator served as lube.  Again... Not so bad.  I must be getting better at this or I'm experiencing a great stroke of luck.

Refilling the Transmission

Measuring old fluid

First, I measured the remaining fluid and used that to figure determine the amount for replacement. Measured 4 3/4 quarts, that's what I'll replace and check check the dip stick after going out for a drive or three and the fluid has warmed.  I've captured a picture of the old fluid in a measuring cup, it rivals the muckyness of the brake fluid.  Doing a little reading, Ford does add some red dye to this fluid, you can see from around the rim how the fluid looks a bit rouge.

New fluid looks just a bit cleaner

The new transmission fluid is a nice shade of honey, it doesn't look to be dyed any color.  I happen to have one of those extended funnels, making adding the new fluid very easy.  Not knowing how the fluid would flow into the case, I was careful to pour slowly and look where the funnel meets the case to watch for overflow.  The transmission slurped-up all of the fluid as fast as I poured.

Square Drive, Imperial Measurement and ISO 1174

The transmission filler plug has a square 3/8 head.  This is the same size as the drive head on a socket and, for a car with metric fasteners, decidedly out of place.  Why not metric? This transmission, a ZF design, hails right from the heartland of metricness, so why pick something imperial-sized?  This caused me to realize that no matter what the fastener type, the interface to the tool applying the force is complements of the Crown.  Torx, Metric, English, TP3, ZXN?  No matter what, these fasteners attach to to an 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 inch square drive head on your ratchet.  Why not 5mm, 10mm and 15mm interfaces to the sockets?  The world has moved on to metric, except, it seems, for square socket drives.  Or has it?

Somebody should know about drive socket sizing.  I contacted the Hand Tools Institute asking the the question, why are the drive sizes still imperial.  The answer, yes people actually reply to my emails, was that they're metric, just "soft conversions" from imperial measurements and that all this can be found in ISO 1174-1 for hand-driven sockets or ISO 1174-2 for power driven sockets.  What we really have are 6.35, 9.53 and 12.7 square drive sockets conveniently labeled as 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch.  That means the 3/8in square drive for the transmission refill plug is really a 9.53mm sized square drive, labeled as 3/8in for convenience.

I was curious about the term "soft conversion" and doing a little more reading revealed that there's actually three types of conversion methods: hard, soft and adaptive.  A hard conversion means changing the measurement when converting, for example a 1/4 inch fitting would be specified as a 10mm fitting.  Adaptive means the measurements are approximations of each other, in this case a 1/4 inch fitting would be converted to a 9.5mm fitting.  So, while "soft" conversion is least precise sounding, that's the opposite in practice.

All Done

After rust removal and a bit of paint

All that was left was putting the transmission mount back on the car and replacing the inner fender. Recall the poor shape of the transmission mount.  I removed the worst of the surface rust and with a little paint, it's in much better condition.  The surface rust on the part didn't affect the performance or integrity, I'm hoping the little bit of extra effort keeps this part from becoming a problem for the remainder of the car's life.

In the process of removing the inner fender, I broke the many of the plastic rivets holding it in place.  I stopped down at my local auto parts store and found a pack of replacements for a few bucks.  With these, I was able to re-secure the plastic inner fender and I was done.  If I think I'll be doing more work on the car, I'll probably figure out how to order a bunch of these from Amazon, as I think I ended-up paying about $.25 for each and from the looks of the part, the markup was 10x.  There's no reason why I couldn't get a bag of 50 on-line for just a few bucks more than I paid for six at a my local store.