I’ve spent the last few weekends working on some of my colleague’s vehicles. Go figure that as soon as I stop working full time at a mechanic shop, that frees up more time for me to work on other peoples vehicles. I also worked on the battle bus, and added a roofrack upgrade (+5 horsepower).
The first vehicle I worked on was a 2019 Nissan Rogue that had low brakes. Brakes are not difficult to repair; Even doing a caliper swap and a bleed and flush requires minimal tools. My friend opted to do a pad and rotor slap; we replaced just the pads and rotors. This required us to remove the wheels, remove one of the slide pins mounting the caliper to the caliper mounting bracket, and finally removing the caliper so the rotor could be replaced. Finally, we replaced the anti rattle clips, greased the clips and the brake pads, and reassembled in reverse. My friend did not opt to do a bleed and flush, but it would not have been difficult to accomplish.
The second vehicle I worked on was another friend’s Nissan Altima (2013 if I recall correctly). We did an oil change, which is nothing complicated, and I’ve written about oil changes extensively in the past. The only part of the oil change that threw me through a loop was the placement of the oil filter, which was located on the passenger side of the vehicle, above the control arm. I’m unsure of why the engineers mounted the filter there, as opposed to some place easily accessible near the drain plug. The filter’s placement above the control arm meant that oil from inside the filter dripped onto the control arm. I managed to hold a drip pan underneath the control arm, and kept the dripping oil from creating a mess. I hate engineers.
The last vehicle I worked on was a 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. I did a general inspection, and noticed that oil was leaking out of the exhaust side valve timing solenoid. I did not have the parts on hand, so this will be updated when I complete the repair.
As for the battle bus, I upgraded the oil change procedure, and added a roofrack. The oil change upgrade involved pulling out the old drain plug (a glorified bolt covering a hole), and replaced it with Valvomax oil drain valve. How the system works is that the valve has a check valve on the drain, which will not drain unless the other side of the check valve is installed. Once the other side of the valve is installed, the check valve will open, and oil will drain out through a tube. This is a cleaner way of draining the oil, as opposed to removing a drain bolt, and having oil splash out of a hole. With the oil draining into a tube, this allows me to direct the oil directly into a drain bucket, and is less likely to spill onto the ground (or on me). I’ve heard some complaints about this system, namely that because the drain plug is never fully removed, sludge that builds up at the bottom of the oil pan will not drain out. This does not matter for two reasons:
-
The sludge at the bottom of the pan does not drain out. Most oil pans are fairly flat, and some amount of sludge/silt settles at the bottom of the pan. Unless the vehicle is angled such so that the drain hole is below the rest of the oil pan (which for some vehicles is not possible as the drain hole is flat on the bottom of the oil pan).
-
The oil sucked up from the oil pan is first sent through the oil filter, so sludge and silt is filtered out anyways.
The best way to prevent sludge and silt from being built up in the engine is to change your oil as often as you can. Engine oil has all sorts of detergents that clean and suspend contaminates from inside the engine. If installing a drain plug that allows me to drain my oil more often, with less of a mess, I’ll have a cleaner engine, and less sludge in the engine overall.
This is not the first time I’ve installed a drain system like this. Working at the shop, I installed/encountered these systems fairly often, and they were always something that made me happy, as I knew the oil change would be less of a mess. Finally I installed one on Zhuul’s 2017 Chevy Silverado, and he installed one on his aunt’s Toyota Tacoma. Both said that they love the system, and that it made their lives easier.
Finally, I installed a roofrack onto the battle bus. I did zero measurements, and ordered an 84’ (7 foot) long rack. The rack fit perfectly on my roof, and it looks like it was designed for my roof. Not only do I plan to fill this rack full of random crap (thus leaving the interior empty so I can turn the battle bus into a suboverland camping vehicle), but I also plan on mounting a light kit of some sort onto the rack. I have yet to figure out how to do that, and likely is going to involve purchasing a torch, a vice, and possibly a welder of some sort.
I’ve also been testing out a new tool: I purchased a Quinn Preset Torque Wrench from Harbor Freight. I would have like to purchase a split beam torque wrench, the same style I used at the shop to torque down torque wrenches. However, this torque wrench was only $50, and it was basically designed to torque wheels, complete with preset torque settings for basically every passenger vehicle on the road. The main issue with standard click type torque wrenches is that they’re basically just a regular socket style wrench, and trying to fit them into wheel wells, especially a deep wheel well with high negative offset, usually leads to the wrench rubbing up against the tires. This is what happened with my Tekton torque wrench, and it made torquing wheels frustrating. I had to add an extension onto the wrench, which affect the torque setting of the torque wrench. The preset torque wrench is designed with an extension built onto it, and is also designed to be used with deep sockets that are typically used when removing lugnuts.
Using the new torque wrench, I’ve been satisfied with the results. My knuckles don’t rub against the tire while torque the wheels down. For anyone who is getting into repairing their own/family and friends vehicles, I’d recommend this as a tool in their beginners level tool box. Even for a more seasoned mechanic such as myself, having this in their toolbox is useful as well, as you have a tool that’s dedicated to torquing lugnuts, and you’re going to have less wear and tear on other/more expensive torque wrenches. My Tekton torque wrench I mentioned earlier is likely beginning to fail, as I think some of the internal gearings/pawls are probably busted. The Preset Torque Wrench has no gears inside, and is a simpler overall design, which means it’s less likely to have a part break. Especially with trucks, you’re putting 140+foot/pounds of torque on the tool. Doing that repetitively will eventually cause parts inside the tool to fail. The only major downside with this wrench is that because it has no internal gearing, you have to pull the socket away from the lugnut if you need to reposition the wrench. This is a minor downside, and honestly does not get in the overall process of getting a vehicle back on the road.