Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Kingcreek on April 15, 2024, 10:27:45 AM
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Unfreakinbelievable timing.
The new vehicle we ordered last year is on the dealers lot 50 miles away. Supposed to get it tomorrow 10 days short of 1 year.
I hand washed our ford fusion for the private buyer that wanted to get it yesterday and paid cash.
My wife picked me up in the rubicon and I drove home. Right away I said what the hell is going on with the Jeep? When did this start? She had no idea a brake is locking up and it’s like driving with one foot on the gas and one on the brake. Engine is working hard and tranny is downshifting.
I’m guessing it’s a brake hose collapsing when hot. It was fine after it cooled off and this morning.
ABS and TC lights came on briefly a couple times but I’m hoping the wheel drag triggered that and not the other way around.
Got it in the shop. If they can’t get it right today I’ll be renting a car to get home tonight and to go get another car tomorrow.
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Embrace the chaos. Let it feed the darkness festering in your soul. Yes... good... I can sense your anger...
Seriously, that sucks. Glad the Fusion sale went through, and that the new ride is ready and waiting. Fingers crossed the Jeep is something simple.
Brad
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Unfreakinbelievable timing.
The new vehicle we ordered last year is on the dealers lot 50 miles away. Supposed to get it tomorrow 10 days short of 1 year.
I hand washed our ford fusion for the private buyer that wanted to get it yesterday and paid cash.
My wife picked me up in the rubicon and I drove home. Right away I said what the hell is going on with the Jeep? When did this start? She had no idea a brake is locking up and it’s like driving with one foot on the gas and one on the brake. Engine is working hard and tranny is downshifting.
I’m guessing it’s a brake hose collapsing when hot. It was fine after it cooled off and this morning.
I had exactly that happen with out Ford Escape earlier this year. Would drive OK for a little bit, then start dragging hard. Was high time to get the brakes looked at anyway.
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My wife is of the strong opinion that we sold the wrong vehicle.
I said we can manage with one vehicle for a couple days. What could go wrong?
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My wife is of the strong opinion that we sold the wrong vehicle.
I said we can manage with one vehicle for a couple days. What could go wrong?
Is she getting the Kia as her new primary driver?
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Does the wheel get Really Freakin' Hot? And does it pull to that side? Then it is the caliper piston not releasing, likely due to a bad hose. Been seeing that more and more. I'd almost guess that someone made the rubber all better...
If it is doing it on both sides, then you got more bigger troublems... Unless... problem with the parking brake?
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No problem with the ebrake. I used it instead of the foot brake driving home on the backroads and the brake drag improved by the time I got home just driving slow and avoiding brakes. Pretty hot day and wife had just driven on the highway and in town.
The left front felt hot but didn’t seem to pull to one side.
When it cooled off it was ok.
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Well it’s off to rent a car.
Jeep left front brakes dragging but needs rotors x4 pads all around front brake hoses, and a front wheel bearing.
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Well it’s off to rent a car.
Jeep left front brakes dragging but needs rotors x4 pads all around front brake hoses, and a front wheel bearing.
She got that brake HOT.
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If you're doing it yourself, O'R will do 15% off on brake/rotor packages... Get the ceramic pads. You'll likely end up going with a new hub assembly, since most mechanics these days don't like dealing with bearings and hydraulic presses.
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I would do it myself but with picking up the additional part time job I don’t even have time to mow the grass.
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Cars and houses are aholes with ears and they know when you come into extra money or into inconvenient circumstances and react accordingly.
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Cars and houses are aholes with ears and they know when you come into extra money or into inconvenient circumstances and react accordingly.
Amen, Brother Boomhauer, Amen.
Has me really wondering because I put new ceramic coated rear rotors, rebuilt calipers, new pads and hoses on the rear 12,000 miles and 3 years ago. How does this happen?
This shop has been great. They sent me a link to pics and video and a checklist of critical, recommended, and good in the inspection report. I have had no complaints with the service in the past.
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If you're doing it yourself, O'R will do 15% off on brake/rotor packages... Get the ceramic pads. You'll likely end up going with a new hub assembly, since most mechanics these days don't like dealing with bearings and hydraulic presses.
Doesn't matter. Jeep front hubs haven't been serviceable since about 1989 or 1990.
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Apparently it has become common for shops to always do rotors with pads. The rear rotors shouldn’t need replacing. Fronts are probably original and I won’t argue with that but I’m going to have a conversation with them this am.
Front wheel bearing is a hub assembly and I can do that myself once we get another vehicle. It’s not urgent and I haven’t checked it for myself yet.
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Well it’s off to rent a car.
Jeep left front brakes dragging but needs rotors x4 pads all around front brake hoses, and a front wheel bearing.
Well that's about a billion dollars. Ugh.
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My wife is of the strong opinion that we sold the wrong vehicle. . .
After reading this thread, I'd have to say that maybe, just maybe, she has a point.
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Apparently it has become common for shops to always do rotors with pads.
Unless you have some kind of super-specialness high end rotors, it's cheaper to replace than resurface.
Brad
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Unless you have some kind of super-specialness high end rotors, it's cheaper to replace than resurface.
Brad
For the do-it-yourselfer without a lathe, I can buy that. For a shop (assuming they have a brake lathe) it's an hour of the guy's time, and $0.15 or so of consumables and they can charge $100 or so for it. I have no idea why it seems most shops no longer bother to resurface. I guess brake lathes are rarer in shops than they were when I started. There may also be some OSHA/EPA regs around machining rotors I'm unaware of.
That said, I have a lathe, and most of the time can't be assed to pull the gap bed and dial rotors in on my 3-jaw to turn them. I just slap new ones on every 60k or so. A Brake lathe makes it quick and easy though.
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For the do-it-yourselfer without a lathe, I can buy that. For a shop (assuming they have a brake lathe) it's an hour of the guy's time, and $0.15 or so of consumables and they can charge $100 or so for it. I have no idea why it seems most shops no longer bother to resurface. I guess brake lathes are rarer in shops than they were when I started. There may also be some OSHA/EPA regs around machining rotors I'm unaware of.
That said, I have a lathe, and most of the time can't be assed to pull the gap bed and dial rotors in on my 3-jaw to turn them. I just slap new ones on every 60k or so. A Brake lathe makes it quick and easy though.
Many of the newer rotors are thin enough that it precludes turning them.
An hour of labor = cheaper to replace. Turn rotors for $120-160 or replace them for same cost and the mechanic can’t grind them wrong either.
There are plenty of things that used to be rebuilt that don’t get it anymore. And most of them aren’t missed in the least.
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I did the rear brakes last time. Rotors, rebuilt calipers, and pads, and hoses. If’n I had the luxury of doing them again myself (like if this wasn’t the only vehicle for 2 people going different directions with different schedules) I would replace pads and let them ride the premium rear rotors I put on 3 years ago. Lathe be damned let the pads seat themselves. That’s the old guy in me.
I did not have the luxury this time.
I just paid $1500 for brake work and new front hoses. But I have it back on the road and I can manage it from here.
Returned the rental vehicle and got my Jeep back.
We got the new vehicle today and wife drove it home with me following her in severe storms, lightning, wind and rain but got it in the garage before the hail thank you baby hey Zeus.
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Kingcreek - are you using a "local shop" for your brake work or a "national chain"?
If it's a chain, which one? My 2011 Elantra has almost 77K on the original brakes.
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We charge $25 each for resurfacing - both sides at once,dedicated brake lathe... New ones are gonna run about $75 each. If they are warped, resurfacing them may get a bit of time, but it doesn't make them new. You probably do not NEED rotors.
There's no such thing as a ceramic rotor unless you are driving a supercar. You want the ceramic pads, because the cheap pads wear fast, and munge up the rotors. And you can still padslap with groovy rotors.
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I've had the same happen with my two motorcycles over the last week.
The weekend of April 6th, I went on an offroad moto trip that required about 50 total miles of highway and another 30-40 miles of rugged jeep trail in the Superstition Mountains. I opted to ride my old XR600 for that trip since it had so little highway travel, and it was a single day trip. Somehow on that trip I imparted damage to the front brake rotor and noticed it oscillating loudly and even bouncing the caliper a bit on the highway jaunt back home at the end of the day. I was beat and didn't do anything to investigate the damage, figured I'd save it for another weekend since I had my Tuareg going fine.
The weekend of April 13th, I went on a 3 day camping offroading trip that required several hundred miles of highway and probably 200 miles of varied forest road and two-track, in the Crown King and Prescott areas of Arizona. I took the Tuareg because I needed camp gear and it was supposed to be less aggressive trail than the previous trip that I took the XR on, and I couldn't take the XR anyways since it had a messed up front brake setup.
There's a stretch of forest road called Old Senator Highway that is anything but a highway, and suffers frequent washouts and condition changes. It was more rocky than I was hoping for and I hit a pretty good sized rock at about 20mph or so, and dented my front rim on the Tuareg and knocked a spoke loose. The front wheel design of the Tuareg has the spoke heads in the sidewall/rim area of the tire and the nipples in the hub of the tire, and the loose nipple rattled loose and got lost through the day. I was able to recover the spoke undamaged but the nipple was lost. There's a tangible dent in the rim. I've dismounted the tire from the rim and the bike is up on blocks. I've got a local shop that does rim repair, but he won't begin work until I have a replacement nipple for the spoke. I've spoken to my Aprilia dealer and have a nipple on order, but I'm irked that they don't have it in stock. It's a $1.50 part that I'm now paying $12 in shipping for, and have no concrete lead time on its arrival. The last time I needed Aprilia parts, I waited about 4 months for something as mundane as a kickstand spring mount.
I'm down to 0 motorcycles right now, and I loathe commuting in a car (Jeep). I should have parts for the XR by the end of the week or this weekend, and it's a quick fix for that one. But that bike doesn't even have a keyed ignition, is barely street legal even by Arizona standards (and those are low), and I always worry riding it around town either for my safety or for its security if I go in to any store briefly, or leave it in my work parking lot for hours.
I do have my Wrangler right now so I'm not without transportation. Knocking on wood as I post.
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AZ, Is the spoke nipple OEM weird or what? Can't you just get a replacement from Buchanans or some other wheel builder?
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AZ, Is the spoke nipple OEM weird or what? Can't you just get a replacement from Buchanans or some other wheel builder?
Appears weird to me. I was looking for alternative options to get the nipples but I can't find specs on them. Dealer parts drone on the phone didn't know the spec for the nipple.
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It's a tough week here.
So my XR was taken offline due to a warped rotor. I ordered parts earlier this week and they arrived today. I replaced the rotor and brakes, and made a couple other tasteful upgrades (better mirrors, a 30mm riser on the bars to make standing more comfortable) and went for a test ride to Ace Hardware about 3 miles from home... I noticed a missing bolt on my luggage rack and headed there to get a replacement.
On the way back home, my bike died a mile after leaving Ace. There happened to be a gas station at that intersection, so I walked it into the gas station. It was low on gas and maybe the pickup in the tank wasn't getting fuel, so I topped the tank off and sat there trying to kickstart it for awhile. It would sputter and then make some metallic noises from the top end. Not a good sign. I seem to get odd resistance in the kickstarter as I cycle through the 4 stages of the piston's operations (suck squeeze bang blow), but I haven't isolated exactly which stage is getting the odd resistance. Two valves for intake, two for exhaust, so my thinking is one of the two valves on one of the cycles is fubar, which would allow for the half-hearted attempts to start and the engine running for a few burbles and then dying. Hopefully the metallic noises are pissy cam surfaces or valve springs/tappets rather than piston damage. Sigh.
Back to 0 motorcycles, and now I have to decide if I'm going to tear down the XR600R and figure out whatever valve train damage/drama it has going on, or do I want to shift gears entirely and dive into a BMW F650GS Dakar I bought awhile back, that has a blown head gasket but does actually run (terribly).
No word on the spoke nipple I'm waiting on from the Aprilia dealer for my Tuareg. I figure I'll call them Tuesday for an update (moto shops are closed Sun/Mon traditionally).
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I've recently gotten past an automotive headache. I have a 1997 Honda CR-V. Good little car, but has recently developed a bit of a stumble. Figured I'd start with the basics - ignition parts. They were old anyway, so even if not the problem, it's a good maintenance item to do.
Spark plugs usually usually break free then spin out easily. These didn't. I had to fight them out. The first that came out clearly had aluminum smeared on the first couple threads. Not sure what happened there. Same on the next two. They had been in there a while, the gap was way out of spec.
We'll never know what number 4 looked like, because it broke off. The ceramic came out, but left the steel shell behind. Down in the bottom of a hole, about 1 inch in diameter and 5 inches deep....
Well suck. So I ordered Lisle part 65200, a deep hole plug repair kit for that thread size.
I drilled out the old steel shell, then started threading the combination drill tap tool from the kit. Which, once it started engaging, broke off down hole. :facepalm:
So now I've got HSS stuck down there too.
Really didn't want to pull the head, so as a last ditch...
I the broken tap back out by slipping a piece of 1/2 ID cold roll steel tube down there, over the broken tap, and then slipping a 6011 down the middle of that and welding the tube to the broken tap, and turning the whole mess out. I got lucky. HSS does not weld nice. It probably would have cracked apart as it cooled.
I bought a real tap of the appropriate size for the insert and used that to rethread. I'v generally had good luck with Lisle tools, but that kit was terrible.
Cylinder required some cleaning to get chips and debris out. However the car is back on the road, so good enough. Still has the same stumble though.
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"Still has the same stumble though."
Is it worse when it's cold and damp?
Could it be a crack in the high voltage coil block?
I ran into that with my 1997 Subaru. Once I figured out what was going on I pulled the ignition coil, cleaned it really well, and paved the cracked areas with JB weld.
Reassembled everything and it ran like a freaking champ until the day I got rid of it.
The other time it started to stumble on me was a right pain in the ass because it was a bugger to figure out.
It turned out to be the acoustic anti-knock sensor. All of a sudden it just started randomly deciding that my car was knocking up a storm and it would start messing with the timing to "cure" the knock.
Once I figured out what it likely was I had to order the part and then install it... which probably would have been easier had I hung upside down in the engine compartment from the hood. By my toes.
But once I got it plugged in... no more phantom knock problems.
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That's a good thought. The coil is relatively new, but was not an OEM part, so that's certainly possible. Off brand coils can be pretty bad.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the TPS, as it seems to happen at a particular percentage of throttle input.
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That's a good thought. The coil is relatively new, but was not an OEM part, so that's certainly possible. Off brand coils can be pretty bad.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the TPS, as it seems to happen at a particular percentage of throttle input.
MMmmmm yeah... if you could go ahead and have that TPS ready for us by the end of the day, that would be great...
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And yeah, after market coils can be a real shitshow. Coworker of mine had that issue with his F150, which has a coil pack for each individual plug.
He put on an aftermarket set and within 6 months they were all failing in different ways.
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Took an initial look at the BMW F650GS today.
Charged the battery for a few hours, then checked radiator and oil levels. Topped off radiator and oil, then cranked the bike. Labored start, but it started up. Revved fine. Puffs white smoke as expected, water in combustion. Also getting a chocolate milkshake in the oil sight glass, indicating water in the oil.
However, I am NOT getting the same chocolate milkshake in the radiator when I open it. Green tinted coolant, no murk or oil sheen.
I'm hoping to clear up enough room in my little shop to tear down the bike's top end tomorrow, hopefully to deliver the head to a machine shop for flatness check and valve servicing by Tuesday and to get a gasket from a BMW dealership.
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"However, I am NOT getting the same chocolate milkshake in the radiator when I open it. Green tinted coolant, no murk or oil sheen."
That's... odd.
When the head gaskets let go on my 1997 Outback I looked like I was throwing a Wendy's chocolate frosty party.
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"However, I am NOT getting the same chocolate milkshake in the radiator when I open it. Green tinted coolant, no murk or oil sheen."
That's... odd.
Double-plus confirmed. I drained the engine oil, got chocolate milk from both the oil reservoir (on top of the bike, it's a dry sump system) and from the bottom of the engine. I drained the coolant, pristine green-blue coolant. Either from the radiator, or from the drain/weep hole under the water pump.
I haven't finished tearing the top end of the engine down, I'm learning this bike as I go through it and taking photos of all electrical connections as I get deeper to make sure I can put it back together. I've got the airbox, oil reservoir and battery off. Throttle body is exposed, but not removed yet, I'm reading up on best ways to do this and minimize total parts removed and keep reassembly as simple as possible. Hoping I can have the head off by tonight but it may not happen.
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So that tear-down was a bear. I don't think I want to do that ever again. I even had to half-disconnect the rear subframe from the main frame, and I'm probably going to have an interesting time reconnecting that when the time comes.
I'm still unsure exactly how you wind up getting water in the oil but no oil in the water... all I can come up with is a pressure differential where oil flows at lower pressure through its various channels, but water hits higher pressure due to temperature and phase change to gas.
All my rebuild gaskets are ordered, and routine consumables. Probably a week for shipping for all of it.
I still haven't found a place to have the head checked out though.
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Yeah it’s sounding like a one way failure. A gasket could maybe do that?
Keep us posted. I love this troubleshooting stuff if it’s other people’s problems.
I’m still dealing with my issues. $1500 so far and not as much fun.
Front brakes are dragging when warmed up. Thought for sure they overfilled the brake fluid but doesn’t look like it. Front wheel bearings seem fine to me (68k miles), no ABS light since brake work. Front wheels only mildly hot compared to rears but there is definite resistance somewhere when I coast to a stop. And my usual 16mpg dropped to 11 but is now 13. ???
Crazy busy with no time to actually pursue this right now.
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Did you find any evidence of where it was leaking when you pulled the head off.
I've never heard of a 1-way leak before, but I supposed that it's possible...
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I've seen one way leaks before. It sometimes depends on how much oil pressure is at the spot of failure, and how much pressure the water pump/high temp it putting out.
If a head gasket goes into the combustion chamber, it's almost always two way, because champer pressure is always higher than coolant and when you shut down the engine, coolant pressure is always higher than crankcase. If the gasket leaks between an oil passage and a water passage wierder things can happen.
Also, if you change the fluids (to check for a leak) and don't run it very much after that, it's more likely you will get a one way leak, because you didn't necessarily run it through all variations of differential pressure and oil viscosity.
Finally, and I hope this doesn't end up prophetic for Redhawk: Cracked heads almost always leak water into the oil, but no oil into the water, because the pressurized water is going into the intake tract, where there is little to no pressurized oil, and when you shut the engine down, the coolant leaks past the piston rings into the pan (or sump pick-up in this case) to be mixed up next time the oil pump turns on.
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Did you find any evidence of where it was leaking when you pulled the head off.
I've never heard of a 1-way leak before, but I supposed that it's possible...
Yep. Back side of the cylinder, probably where heat is highest. I see marks on the gasket where the breach happened, between water cooling channels around the cylinder jacket and the cylinder itself. I had crystal-clear blue coolant in the piston when I opened it. Rings seem good, water isn't leaking through piston.
I've seen one way leaks before. It sometimes depends on how much oil pressure is at the spot of failure, and how much pressure the water pump/high temp it putting out.
If a head gasket goes into the combustion chamber, it's almost always two way, because champer pressure is always higher than coolant and when you shut down the engine, coolant pressure is always higher than crankcase. If the gasket leaks between an oil passage and a water passage wierder things can happen.
Also, if you change the fluids (to check for a leak) and don't run it very much after that, it's more likely you will get a one way leak, because you didn't necessarily run it through all variations of differential pressure and oil viscosity.
Finally, and I hope this doesn't end up prophetic for Redhawk: Cracked heads almost always leak water into the oil, but no oil into the water, because the pressurized water is going into the intake tract, where there is little to no pressurized oil, and when you shut the engine down, the coolant leaks past the piston rings into the pan (or sump pick-up in this case) to be mixed up next time the oil pump turns on.
I'm having a hard time following the bolded bit here. In my case, coolant is escaping the coolant channels either by suction of the piston, or by pressure of water vapor as the cylinder warms the coolant. It is entering the cylinder and being vaporized more by combustion, escaping as water vapor in the exhaust. It is not leaking through the piston rings as far as I can tell, because I had standing water in the cylinder on top of the piston once I reached that point of the tear-down.
Are you suggesting that the coolant moving upwards from the block to the head could have cracked the head and that is the source of water in the oil? Coolant seeping through a crack in the head into the cam area is how I'm getting mixing of water into oil but not in reverse? How do I check a cylinder head for cracks? Can I have such a thing happen and ALSO have my clear breach of the cylinder gasket as I have visually seen?
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I'm having a hard time following the bolded bit here. In my case, coolant is escaping the coolant channels either by suction of the piston, or by pressure of water vapor as the cylinder warms the coolant. It is entering the cylinder and being vaporized more by combustion, escaping as water vapor in the exhaust. It is not leaking through the piston rings as far as I can tell, because I had standing water in the cylinder on top of the piston once I reached that point of the tear-down.
Are you suggesting that the coolant moving upwards from the block to the head could have cracked the head and that is the source of water in the oil? Coolant seeping through a crack in the head into the cam area is how I'm getting mixing of water into oil but not in reverse? How do I check a cylinder head for cracks? Can I have such a thing happen and ALSO have my clear breach of the cylinder gasket as I have visually seen?
No. I was describing one of the other common ways you get water in the oil, but not oil in the water. A cracked head (or cylinder liner in some designs) will leak coolant into the intake tract (or cylinder), which will be burned as you described (assuming it's not a big enough leak to put out the spark). but when you shut the engine off, the cooling system is still pressurized for a while and sprays coolant into the cylinder through the crack. This coolant can leak past the rings and get in the oil. That's how you get a one way leak. The "I hope it's not prophetic" part was me hoping your head isn't cracked, and that's not the cause of the one way leak. Which it sounds like it iasn't, so thumbs up there.
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Per post #36.
I took it back today and told them I drive it 5 miles home and had mildly hot front brakes. Fine when cold but starts to drag when it warms up. It coasted just fine this morning when cool.
The floor manager (family owned chain of 5 locations) looked really puzzled. They flushed the lines and changed brake fluid. Came out after an hour and said I need both front calipers.
The mechanic swears they were working when it left the shop and no explanation how they could both fail in the first 5 miles.
I told them that something smells bad and it’s not just the hot brakes. I said put it together and if I can limp home with it, I’ll decide what I do with it.
I’m going to at least argue the labor cost because they had it all apart. I met one of the owners when they first opened and I might give him a call. Seemed like a straight up guy.
I’m not liking the idea of another $460 for calipers and $435 for the wheel bearing hub assembly on top of the $1500 brake work last week.
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They don't know what's wrong, and are throwing parts at it to see what sticks.
To be fair, I've done that myself, but only with the Army's part budget.
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Spoke nipples came in for my Aprilia Tuareg's front wheel today. I rushed over to the dealership to pick them up, then rushed the wheel over to the local wheelsmith, and he said he can have it done by tomorrow.
If that holds true, I can have the repaired rim and tire over to the actual tire shop to be remounted by Thursday, and I can have a bike again by Thursday evening!
I might even be able to put the XR600 in the middle of the garage and tear into its heart to find out what went wrong with it, while waiting on parts for the BMW. Dare I hope to have THREE functional motorcycles at one time?!?
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Well, AZ has a cracked head, but that's an entirely different problem... :rofl:
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Per post #36.
I took it back today and told them I drive it 5 miles home and had mildly hot front brakes. Fine when cold but starts to drag when it warms up. It coasted just fine this morning when cool.
The floor manager (family owned chain of 5 locations) looked really puzzled. They flushed the lines and changed brake fluid. Came out after an hour and said I need both front calipers.
The mechanic swears they were working when it left the shop and no explanation how they could both fail in the first 5 miles.
I told them that something smells bad and it’s not just the hot brakes. I said put it together and if I can limp home with it, I’ll decide what I do with it.
I’m going to at least argue the labor cost because they had it all apart. I met one of the owners when they first opened and I might give him a call. Seemed like a straight up guy.
I’m not liking the idea of another $460 for calipers and $435 for the wheel bearing hub assembly on top of the $1500 brake work last week.
Tail light warranty? Seems if they did a brake job and it crapped out that soon, they should absorb at least some of the cost. And shouldn't the parts have some kind of warranty on them?
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The front calipers were not replaced. Rotors and pads and front hoses were replaced.
Now the mechanic says the calipers are bad.
I talked to one of the owners today. Good conversation, nice guy. He apologized, thanked me for bringing it to his attention, and said there would be no labor charge if they do the calipers. He is going to look at the pictures and video pre work also. He didn’t have an answer for why my rears had to be replaced with only about 12k miles on them. I don’t drive in heavy traffic or high speeds. And I put new calipers and hoses on at the same time. The reason for that work was a caliper actually failed and the piston shattered and tore hell out of the rotor so I did complete incl ebrake pads.
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The owner sounds like a good man.
Sucks you've got to go through this.
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I haz one bike. >:D
Life is much better than it was yesterday and the previous two weeks. Aprilia is operational again. Rim truing came out very well.
BMW's cylinder head is definitely warped, but not cracked, according to the machine shop I dropped it at. Also has a faulty exhaust valve preventing full vacuum/seal. They should be done with it by Monday or Tuesday of next week. Reassembly is likely to be slower than disassembly though; I'm going to need to clearance the valves on assembly and I don't have any of the 29mm shims this bike uses. I'm trying to not buy a $125 box of all available shim sizes. The local Kawasaki shop has 29mm shims and has a $5 trade deal, bring in your shim and $5 to get whatever size you want. At worst I'm out $20 if I need 4 that way, but it'll slow my reassembly since I will have trouble getting to them in evenings when I'm likely to be working on the bike, and my weekends are spoken for the next couple of weeks. Still stewing on maybe just eating the $125 for a box of shims, just for the convenience factor.
Haven't torn into the Honda yet. I might start into it Sunday, but I don't really even want to start unless I am committed to having funds to fix it. With the acreage purchase coming up in May, it's probably wiser to hold off until that is finalized. The Honda can take the cobweb collector role that the BMW had for awhile... and I'm not likely to ride the Honda in the Arizona summer since it's air cooled anyways.
And honestly... I've got to focus on the brakes of our two 4-wheeled machines. Alexis needs brakes changed and lines bled on her Subaru Forester, and my Jeep could stand the same. I've done motorcycle brakes recently but it's probably been 10+ years since I've done car brakes, so I told her I'd practice on the Jeep first before taking her car offline. I can get by with a motorcycle (if I have one!) while the Jeep is on jackstands if anything odd comes up... she cannot, and doesn't like driving my Jeep either.
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If you have an air compressor, and bleed brakes even semi regularly, I highly recommend a pneumatic brake bleeder. $50 well spent.
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AZ, Is the spoke nipple OEM weird or what? Can't you just get a replacement from Buchanans or some other wheel builder?
Aprilia's wheels on the Tuareg are tubeless spoked, with the nipples in the hub and the head of the spoke in the side of the rim. I'm sure other builders use similar or the same components, but I didn't know where to source one other than the dealer and my immediate google-fu was insufficient to the task.
I happened to luck out and the dealership only took a week to get the parts.
It may only be commuting to work, but the day is SO MUCH BETTER when I start it on 2 wheels instead of 4. I loathe traffic so much, and the motorcycle makes it so much less painful. Add the raw glory of an Arizona morning in April or May, and it's honestly just a great way to wake up. I missed it quite a bit, and today felt wonderful. =D
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If you have an air compressor, and bleed brakes even semi regularly, I highly recommend a pneumatic brake bleeder. $50 well spent.
So I bled my brakes this last weekend, using a hand pumped bleeding unit. Wasn't too bad, but it's be nice to have a more automated solution.
I've been looking at a suggested pneumatic brake bleeder, but I'm confused how they actually work. How does positive pressure from an air compressor turn into vacuum at the bleeder device?
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So I bled my brakes this last weekend, using a hand pumped bleeding unit. Wasn't too bad, but it's be nice to have a more automated solution.
I've been looking at a suggested pneumatic brake bleeder, but I'm confused how they actually work. How does positive pressure from an air compressor turn into vacuum at the bleeder device?
Venturi effect.
It blows compressed air across a venturi in the top of the large bucket, which creates low pressure inside the sealed bucket, and sucks fluid out the bleeder, down the hose, and into the bucket. The bucket is big enough you can suck quite a bit of fluid before needing to empty it.
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Venturi effect.
It blows compressed air across a venturi in the top of the large bucket, which creates low pressure inside the sealed bucket, and sucks fluid out the bleeder, down the hose, and into the bucket. The bucket is big enough you can suck quite a bit of fluid before needing to empty it.
Depends on the unit. Some use a sealing cap and pressurize the fluid reservoir.
Brad
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Depends on the unit. Some use a sealing cap and pressurize the fluid reservoir.
Brad
Those suck. Do not get one of those.
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Those suck. Do not get one of those.
Sounds like they blow. The ones you described suck. :P
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Sounds like they blow. The ones you described suck. :P
=D =D Indeed.
The issues with the pressure bleeder, is if they don't work right, you end up with brake fluid everywhere. A vacuum bleeder, if it doesn't work, it just doesn't pull any fluid.
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Depends on the unit. Some use a sealing cap and pressurize the fluid reservoir.
Brad
In my experience those are really good if you want to cover your garage floor in a sheet of brake fluid.
For anything else?
No.
Am I the only one here who's nostalgic for the days when bleeding your brakes took two of your friends, plastic tubing, a mason jar, several bottles of brake fluid, and a case of beer?
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In my experience those are really good if you want to cover your garage floor in a sheet of brake fluid.
For anything else?
No.
Am I the only one here who's nostalgic for the days when bleeding your brakes took two of your friends, plastic tubing, a mason jar, several bottles of brake fluid, and a case of beer?
That's how I used to do it. One person pumping the brake on command and the other opening/closing the bleeder valve.
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Am I the only one here who's nostalgic for the days when bleeding your brakes took two of your friends, plastic tubing, a mason jar, several bottles of brake fluid, and a case of beer?
Yes, you are. =D
I like just hooking the tube up, opening the bleeding screw, turning the air, and scrolling Instagram until I get a solid line of lean fluid, then closing the bleeder.
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On an old school bike? 10 minutes. Not even enough time for a beer.
On a modern anti lock system? Some seem easy, and some are a nightmare of hoses and pumps and odd fittings. Especially when the pump is the highest point in the system with no bleed point on it.
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Got back the cylinder head for the BMW today.
This weekend is looking tight to work on it though. Commitments Saturday and Sunday are likely to preclude much wrenching on the bike.
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Yes, you are. =D
I like just hooking the tube up, opening the bleeding screw, turning the air, and scrolling Instagram until I get a solid line of lean fluid, then closing the bleeder.
No he isn't. A friend and neighbor used to help me with that on my vehicles. He even helped me drop the crankcase bottom when my block cracked on my Toyota 4WD p/u and to weld the cracked exhaust pipe when one of the 2 tubes right off the manifold cracked just above the flange.
He taught me how to use oxy-acetylene to weld.