Let’s see. So far this summer, our dishwasher needed a new motor, our refrigerator needed a new fan and other parts, our air conditioner crapped out, and now one of our cars died. It’s probably the timing belt. So, now it towtruck time!! So awesome. Someone say a prayer for our washer and dryer. They must be feeling nervous.
Did I mention that Finny has hidden both my iPhone and my AAA Card where I can’t find them. This was quite helpful to me today.
Much sympathy!!! working on prayers for the washer and dryer
What kind of car? Usually a timing belt is something you can replace yourself. Unless there is something else wrong that caused your belt to break, like a broken tensioner or pulley.
I’m about as useful as a car mechanic as I am as a Space Shuttle engineer.
Boo Man, you’re a one-man stimulus package.
tell me about it.
Well, let’s see. Our water started to go south a few months ago, which we thought was related to an old softener. Replaced the softener, added a filter and a UV disinfection system. Didn’t fix the problem. Turned out to be our great old artesian well, which is no longer artesian enough to push shitty water out and we were getting water not unlike that you find in a anaerobic zone of a wetland, in both odor and color. So yesterday we sunk a new well and will have it hooked up to the house tomorrow. Plus our toilet is leaking and we can’t seem to fix it.
My sympathies. We had the water conditioner and heater go in the spring. It went way before its time, too. We have well water, too, and it’s acidic, so it needs treatment or it will destroy the pipes.
Mrs. ID’s dental bills are approaching the value of a new car and I ran over her reading glasses with the mower after she lost them in the grass while picking flowers. Other than those, its been a pretty nice summer so far, political antics aside. Our cordless phones tend to move themselves to strange locations when we’re not paying attention, but they have pagers, so no problem. Good luck with yours.
Can I just add that my iPhone is back to not holding a charge again?
Sheesh.
.
Early in the morning in July, walked to my car (Peugeot 206) and seemed someone had covered it with shampoo or a full wax job. Coming closer it became clear someone used paint stripper … luckily insured, damages € 4,500 [$6,300]. Happened to be on my birthday too! I made the best of it by using the insurance money not only for a new paint job, but also get my 1995 Voyager repaired with a new automatic transmission. Should be OK for another 80k miles now. A great car, would have been difficult to part with so soon.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."My Nokia Twist cellphone split in half a few weeks ago. Just when I was receiving an emergency call too. The boran2 boy was laughing as I attempted to answer the call by attempting to hold the two halves together. I put my 7 year old Kyocera flip phone back into service but, thankfully, Verizon move up my upgrade and I got a new one.
As some of you may know, Andi & I took this summer to do several neglected home maintenance projects. One of which led to a 4 day hospital stay. Well, yesterday our 21 year old AC was put on life support until Thursday. So add some more on to the Booman Tribune Stimulus Plan. And we’re not done with the planned stuff yet.
Oh, I forgot the best thing about the new AC is it really will stimulate local economies. The unit is made 60 miles away. But it wasn’t shipped directly to our dealer from there. It was shipped, employing truckers and truck stop workers, to the company’s Tennessee distribution center, and then shipped back to Indiana.
Booman Tribune Stimulus Project: Doing more for America’s workers than the politicos in DC.
With timing belts, if they break, there is one question: interfering or non-interfering. “Interfering” is another way of saying “rebuild engine”.
I’ll find out soon. Probably tomorrow.
It just stopped suddenly right as I was lightly applying the brake.
The engine cut off, but not the power to the air conditioning. There was a little decelerating jerk, like when you downshift too quickly. But there was no other noise.
The car is perfectly willing to try to turn over. It has a healthy effort. But it won’t turn over.
I think the timing belt slipped rather than broke, but who knows?
if it’s a honda…and the timing belt broke…kiss the engine goodbye.
total rebuild…cost me $2500 and that was quite few years ago.
here’s hoping it’s just a fuel pump/relay or something electronic.
More often than not it is an electrical malfunction. We always hear the anecdotal stories about the catastrophic timing belt failure. But, in reality, it is much more rare than the stories lead us to believe.
I keep cars until the wheels fall off. And almost every car I have owned eventually has a similar symptom as BooMan’s car. And I am still on ZERO timing belt failures in almost four decades of owning cars.
I’m placing my bets on electrical.
If it is electronic it is usually best solved by replacing the ECU (Engine Control Unit) — the brain/computer that runs the engine. They fail a lot less than they used to but cost more than a high end laptop. I lost one on a Bronco II about 1988 and it was more than $500 then.
Lost a timing belt in a Civic w/120+/-K miles around 1997 and had to rebuild the top end of the engine (head and valve train) at about $1500, but that was cheaper than a new used car.
Re timing belts, if the manual says to replace it at 90K, replace it, even though its not cheap — the front of the engine has to be disassembled, usually including the water pump. When it slips or breaks — and it will eventually, at minimum it will leave you stranded without warning. At worst it will trash you valves and possibly pistons and create a real mess inside the engine.
Good luck Booman. Call me if you have questions about the car doctor’s diagnosis.
We’ve been through periods like that.
On the dishwasher, I cleaned ours out a few times (taking all the pieces out, opening up motor, etc) and that helped but ceased doing much after a while. Was about to get a new one (figuring the water pump was dying, at which point a new one is more economical) when I read a web site suggesting we run an anti-lime cleanser – Dishwasher Magic or similar.
Well, it worked beautifully. The inside looks like new and dishes are clean again. Apparently you should use these once every 6 months or so. Keep that fact in your maintenance file.
Finny is clearly the future head of a new back-to-the-land movement.
Try
or
– your other pair of pants…
You can add me to the list of people who had to replace their air conditioning system this summer. That’s 5k+ to the local small business that takes care of my heating and air conditioning, with equipment green enough to earn me an 800.00 rebate and a 500.00 tax credit.
See, global warming is good for the economy!
My parents were small business owners, so I make a real effort to shop locally and always go to the little guy rather than the retail chains.
So the 700.00 to fix my oven last winter and the money to fix my dishwasher (fixed yesterday, no bill yet) also goes to the local small business. I really don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do this.
I would love to have a store where everything sold would be made in the US. Even if I had to pay more, I would do it in a heartbeat.
As a (perhaps) interesting aside, I think what you are experiencing is a good example of a kind of “hidden inflation” that permeates our economy, and makes us significantly poorer than the GDP figures suggest.
As products get less and less reliable, one effectively has to pay more for the same product, because one has to buy it more often. This fact is never taken into account when calculating GDP figures, which measures “quality” only in terms of technological advances. Thus, if you buy a new telephone and it has a few more buttons on it compared to your old phone, this counts as a technological advance, and you are considered wealthier because you got “a better phone” for the same money. The fact that the new phone only last a few months before breaking whereas the previous one lasted five years is never taken into account.
This was definitely the case with the dishwasher I had to replace. Some years back the repair guy, who worked for the company that made it, told me they don’t make them to last like that any more.
Just computer collapse in my world, using even older laptop to put off the inevitable as the Mac hospital could do nothing for it. Household appliances are doing fine for a change (dishwasher problems earlier in the year, had to replace unfortunately). But hoping CathiefromCanada has some ideas how I might find my really good summer hat that I’ve now spent hours look for (for which I’ve now spent hours searching).
We need a new washer and dryer. They both absolutely suck but they do actually work. I wish they would quit so I could justify replacing them. Same with our ugly refrigerator. It’s fucking ugly and small and old but it just keeps working. Pisses me off.
Water heater was a problem for a while until I educated myself on them and replaced the thermostats on it. Now it’s like brand new. Our furnace and air conditioner unit are like 30 years old and they run like champs. I used to think we’d want to replace them for more efficient models but even in the summer, we don’t spend more than $50/month to cool the house full time (or heat it in the winter.) I doubt newer models could do any better.
But I have gone through 6 printers in the last 5 years. (Fucking Inkjets!) My current one (HP Color Laserjet CP1515n) has lasted 3 years so far and I predict we’ll be happy together for a long time to come, despite the outrageously expensive toner cartridges. But I only have to replace them every year or so and thanks to the Internet, I can find decent (but still expensive) prices on those cartridges. Just don’t go buy them at Staples…
maybe you need kitchen appliances that are more energy-efficient and water-efficient?
We have a relatively new, super-efficient dishwasher that makes like no sound at all. That thing is awesome. New stove/oven range thing. Nice. New built-in microwave. Refrigerator’s gotta go, though. It’s old and that “almond” color and small for the space it’s in. Everything else is Stainless Steel and it looks funny in the kitchen.
But I would really love to replace that inefficient (by all measures) washer and dryer set. They suck. And they don’t even do a good job of the laundry without lots of attention – sometimes having to repeat cycles that they failed to do right.
Trust me though. As soon as one or the other fails, I’ve already got the model numbers picked out and I’m ready to place that HomeDepot.com web order for delivery the next day. Maybe I should actually sabotage one of them to justify ordering the new set.
We have a couple of local not-for-profits that collect furniture & appliances for fire, flood & otherwise needy families. That’s where all our used stuff goes when we’re ready to trade up. We don’t have to pay a disposal fee and sometimes even get a little tax write off in the bargain. Just another way to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:-)