One Bit Of Color

[mn90403]

Well, I had a day.  I got up at 4 AM and headed for the nearby goldfields about 3 hours away.  My days there have been few recently but today was a chance to do some exploring and 'go overs' on some heavily worked areas.

There was a stop about an hour and a half out for gas, breakfast pizza and coffee.  Upon my return to the freeway I was greeted with a thump and loss of power on my 4Runner.  I had to pull over.  No loss of fluids but an awful valve noise.  Ah, has it blown up after my trips to Wyoming for the Eclipse and norther Nevada?  I limped along the freeway out of traffic and made it to a safe place and contemplated my fate.  A long tow truck?  Call a friend? Is it fixable?  I just happened to have a code reader and it said #4 cylinder was not firing.  Made me feel better so I looked up the Toyota dealership only 7 miles away.  I made it there about 7:30 AM.  I knew it was going to cost me but no choice.

About 3 hours later I had my bill and answer.  A spark plug had broken.  They charged me $650 in labor costs and $200 in parts for plugs, coils and wires and gas cap!  I was on my way.

I got there about noon and went to the new spot as planned and nothing to be found.  It was time for the work over location.  This was similar to my Saturday outing.  A heavily worked place.  I found a .25g then.  This time I got a bit better.

Just about sunset I finally got that mellow Zeeeeeee sound.  I dug and dug and was pinpointing and lost it.  What?  I went back to the hole and it was still there.  Down about 10-12 inches was this nice chunky 2.08g nugget.  What a day.  I need to go back tomorrow and use the 19!

Mitchel

[Norvic]

MN, bummer of a day but you fired back positively WTG.

[Northeast]

$650 labour for 3 hours work???  $216 an hour.

$846 Australian dollars?  

I'm learnin' to be a grease monkey and movin' to the States y'all!!! 

Nice work on the gold Mitchel

[IdahoPeg]

What a day! Glad you got your wheels fixed and a very nice nugget too!

[Swegin]

Mitchel sorry to hear that.  Congrats on the gold.

 

[Lunk]

Perseverance pays...way to overcome the odds, Mitchel!

[Swampstomper Al]

Yup yup yup.. Same issue and fixes here too (minus the ol' "bad gas cap" replacement scam,) so far.. Difference being I wasn't on the road so could work on it at home instead of needing to call a dealership and pay top-$ to be back on the road ASAP..

Another difference though is that you were back on the road and running fine three hours later whereas I'm now at it well over three months and still not running 100%; am at about 85% to maybe 90% in that dep't.. Still haven't found the last niggling little bit of missing performance gremlin, which is really beginning to pizz me awph..! The fact I only have about 25% as many $$s invested to this point has already been chewed up by the Law of Diminishing Returns and replaced by the Law of Ongoing Aggravation..

Like you, I know if I take it to a dealership odds are there's no way I'm getting out of there for under a grand regardless the problem.. One thing that really churns my butter is these days a dealership won't work on a vehicle without first running a diagnostic.. Well, I 'could' be in agreement with that philosophy, if there was a way to run a full-readout Dx on my van -- which there isn't.. Can't even run a 1st gen much less 2nd gen Dx, but don't even try to talk them into giving up their guaranteed $119.95 + tax digital hoodoo freebee-for-them $$s -- cos it ain't gonna happen.. Doesn't matter there's no under-dash pig-tail of any sort much less the correct sort nor digital readout capability anywhere within the dash cluster (which they could get around simply by saying the codes will be on the printouts,) they aren't about to give up that free buck-twenty for any kind of reason -- even if that reason is they can't actually run a diagnostic on my vehicle.. Truth and honesty have never gotten in the way of billables before and they damm sure ain't about to now..! So there's that..

Anyhow, at this point I've replaced and/or cleaned everything except the charcoal evaporation canaster, which I can't even find ('95 RAM Van 2500, not a RAM truck.. Should be in the same place, but isn't..) I also didn't replace all the injectors, which in hindsight I probably would have been better off buying a complete set of refurbs instead of one new replacement for the troublemaker the way I had things figured (wet cylinder..) I really should sniff for vacuum leaks too but don't believe that's the problem since performance continues to improve as I continue to run better quality injector cleaners through the system..

The one thing I have not and refuse to check is the in-tank fuel filter / pump combo, because I did replace it a few years ago and if that would happen to be the problem I'm afraid I might push the damm van off a cliff.. Good thing I live in FL, since if I did that I could probably fix everything with a quick trip through a car wash..

Swamp

PS: Sweet Au.. 
And -- Something is wayyy not right about $650 labor for 3 hours book.. Even adding the diagnostic to that line it's still about $200 over..

[mn90403]

On the car ... they have their 'shop rates and times' to do certain jobs.  As it turns out there was more than one working on it.  It was still too much.  I'd take it to my mechanic about 2 blocks from where I live and they probably would charge me $100 less?  I had no idea the problem and they could have told me the engine was trashed and I'd have no way to test it but then I'd tow it and get a second opinion.  I have a 100 mile auto club tow that I could have used.

Enough about wheels ...

Went back out to the same location today with the 19 and it 'got to me' for the first time in a way it had not before.  I'm out of shape for swinging it and after about 3 hours I had to put it back and go to the 14.  What a light little coil that is!  haha

Bottom line ... nothing to add to the poke but I don't have to wonder if I missed something.  I'm good.

[mn90403]

Thinking back on last week ... everyone must have a budget for vehicles.  Sometimes you can fix it yourself and sometimes you can't.  My situation is not that unusual.  It is just part of the adventure, part of the story.