As you are aware, from yesterdays post, I had a little bout with car trouble and required a tow. On Friday I left work, skipped the cigar shop, and got some things together to meet up with my father so that we could try and tackle this car problem of mine.
In the image above is the culprit of my woes. The piece of equipment is a crank position sensor out of a Volkswagon Jetta. I was a little concerned about getting it out of the car due to all of the reading I have done. Some people said that it required removing the starter, oil filter, and several hoses. Others said that all of the above needed to be removed with the addition of a motor mount and the motor would need to be supported with a block of wood.
I’m happy to report that with a little contorting, it can be taken out without removing anything except the shroud that covers the motor. The catch is that you’ll need a second pairs of hands when it comes time to break the bolt free holding the sensor in place.
While my father was under the car getting a 5mm allen wrench onto the bolt, I took over from above the motor and broke it free. From down below you have to twist around a bit, which makes it difficult to turn the wrench, so the extra set of hands comes in handy as there is more room to maneuver from above. The reason you can’t just remove it from above is because you can’t really see the head of the bold to engage the wrench.
Once that 5mm bolt was removed, it took a little finagling to pop the sensor free. The most difficult part was removing the plastic connectors from a rail holding them in place. When it was all said and done, it took us a little over an hour to get the car finished up.
Once the new sensor was installed, I used my OBD II reader to reset the error code then took the car for a spin. I drove it long enough to get the engine up to normal temperature then brought it back. Everything seemed to run just fine. A few hours later I took the twenty-five minute drive home without issue.
To sum things up, the repair costs me roughly $200.00 and about an hour and a half of my time. I’d say it was well worth doing it myself as I can imagine a mechanic would have easily charged me more than $300.00 to do the job.
What was the last vehicle repair
that you did yourself?
2 thoughts on “Car Trouble Resolved, For Now”
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“What was the last vehicle repair
that you did yourself?”
Does filling the tank count or checking tire pressure count? That’s about as close to mechanical repair as I get now days.
I used to do repairs myself but found out specialty tool purchases multiplied by the agravation factor made it cost prohibitive.
well I just finished replacing the heater core in my pick-up. actually wasn’t as bad I as I thought it would be. congrats on your success with your wifes car. just be glad Murphy’s Law didn’t rear it’s ugly head and mess up the entire program.