Trust me, I am not a mechanic!
There may be a few things that I know about vehicles. Usually, I can tell if a vehicle is a car, truck, or van. Also, I can tell what color they are most of the time. However, that is about all that I really know about vehicles. These days, as I try to save money and be more self-sufficient, I'm trying to learn and apply. Here is my recent attempt to fix an issue that I was having.
MY PROBLEM
My recent issue with my vehicle is that my brake lights went out. Thankfully, the brakes still worked, but no warning lights would come on. This can be dangerous, so I got right to work.
Under the dash is a whole mess of wires. Honestly, I have no real idea what I am looking at under there. I can see a lot of pretty colors, and they almost look like little snakes, but, other than that, I'm pretty much clueless.
I wasn't about to let my ignorance stop me, so I got right down there and started messing with things. As it turns out, when you press the brake pedal, not only does it engage the brakes, it also presses a brake light switch that sends a signal to the brake lights.
I bought a new on and began to figure out how to take the old one out. It took some effort, but eventually I got it and we were on to the next step.
Hooking the new one up was basically the same process as unhooking the last one, I just had to do it backwards... but, this did not solve the problem. Actually, I only ended up swapping a good switch for another good switch.
Plan B?
Since that did not solve my problem, I needed to figure out something else to try. Having used electricity before, I knew that light bulbs could burn out. Since the brake lights had light bulbs, I thought that maybe they both burned out. The problem was that the bulbs were hidden by a plastic cover that almost acted like a force field to protect the bulbs and obstruct my vision.
A direct path seemed like the best one to take, so I busted out the cover. Unfortunately, this did not solve my problem either, since I could now see that all of the bulbs were still good. However, not wanting to risk anything, I replaced them anyway.
I also had to replace the cover, since the last one got broken somehow. wink! As a last resort, I checked the fuse box. Sure enough, the fuse was blown, and I had to replace that too!
As I said earlier, I an not a mechanic, but I think I figured out how some auto shops make so much money! Does anyone out there need some work done on their vehicle? If so, I can work for STEEM, but we may have to replace a few parts and it could take hours to "diagnose" the problem.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-i-am-not-a-mechanic
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
the last time I did that thing on my car, I reversed the liquid cooling, and the liquid washer glass .... since I stopped to open the car hood !
LOL! Oh no!
You also know that you need toput some gas in your truck, from time to time.
And sometimes, you forget ...
Thank you! Almost forgot again!
Looks like you are more of a mechanic than Ill ever be!!
Tried that too. It was still there.
You are always doing a great job....good one indeed bud.
Feel free to see my post on the latest scam and phishing going on on steemit..Wish you a blessed day.
Funny but informative... note to self, check the fuse before you bust out the tail light cover!
LOL - It's best to start small.
Wow that was alot of work to replace a fuse. My father and grandfather taught me to always start at the cheapest and easiest solution first and work your way up from there. As someone who has been doing the majority of his own mechanic work for a decade and a half at least, this has never failed me. Add this to your list of mechanic knowledge.
Also in the future feel free to call me any time with mechanic questions. You have my number. Did you ever sort out that loss of power when excellerating you were telling me about a week ago?
Yeah, that one was a cable leading to spark plug that had burned through. Fixed now. Thanks Brother!
Awesome. Plugs and wires would have probably been about 4th on my list to check in that instance. Replacing the distributor cap and rotor (not the same as the ones behind the tires) and plugs and wires can got a long way with enhancing the performance of an older engine that might be running like it's "worn out.". Glad you got it fixed.
Tomorrow I think I might tear in to @beardo's brakes on his pickup. They went out the other day trying to haul almost 2 tons of water up @mericanhomestead's hill. I discovered a suspicious shiny spot on the inside of the right rear tire and the brake pad is almost gone. Gotta tear it apart to see how bad the damage is so we can fix it.
My brake rotor is all chewed up in St. Louis, so I will be getting it fixed tomorrow and then returning home. Shooting for stopping out by y'all on Tuesday. We will see.
Well I'll be at work Tuesday but everyone else will be here. Come on out brother!
oppssss.... sad position
Gotta do what you gotta do!
Way to shimmy up in there to make the fix ;-)
Thanks!
I'm not a "car fixing type" myself, so I can appreciate the effort.
Yeah, effort is exactly what it took! Thanks again!
nice car buddy ,,
what causes the car can be damaged buddy ....
@papa-pepper,
you are awsome and do everything, your every article is cool amazing and impressive.
Thank for Sharing
Thats a nice idea for cost cutting you save a lot @papa-pepper
nice work thanks for shareing。anyway if my car is break down I can do nothing but look for help.😳
I know that feeling!
Ha, this is partly the reason why I don't like fixing odd things like toys and gadgets anymore. They would end up working fine, but I had to break too many things while trying to fix them. And I would be too lazy to replace the broken parts.
Fixing broken parts is always a pain.
nice
I assume you don't have an owner's manual for the vehicle? Next time, ask me before busting the lens. I bet that cost a pretty penny. If the lens doesn't have and screws on the outside, then there has to be a way to access the bulbs from the inside. I bet those plastic bulb-holders just popped out from the inside.
Another option would be to look up the make and model of your vehicle on the Internet and see if there is an on-line manual for it or if others have asked and received answers for what you need to do. Google has answers for nearly everything. I guess you already found out that the first thing to check would be the fuse. If the fuse keeps popping, then you likely have a ground or short in the wiring. That might be hard to find.
I think that the ground or short issue in on my trailer, so I'll be taking a look at that next.
The wiring on trailers is generally quite simple and easily accessible, so look for obvious signs of corrosion at connection points. Look for where the insulation could have been worn out by rubbing against something. If all else fails, just run new wires to replace the old wiring. Note that the metal frame of the trailer /vehicle is often used as the ground or return wire.
Such a nice post.....
nice post
Looks INTENSE! lol
Great
As a mech, your story had me rolling! As a mech, I hate troubleshooting electrical issues. Which reminds me...one of these days I need to fix my air bag warning light. Probably a loose or broken wire somewhere.
Anyway if you have issues, let me know and I can guide you in the right direction.
Glad that you enjoyed it. I had fun typing it up anyway.
I bet! Have a good day!
Thank you for sharing
Papa you are no mechanic but you did great. Once you thought of the mess of wires like little snakes I knew you would come out victorious. Henry Ford would be proud of you😃.
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If it is the bulb the clicking sound of the turn signal will flash faster inside your car than what it does when it works. When they are not working and sound normal it is normally the fuse.
FIRST THING....anything electrical gives a problem.
CHECK THE FUSE!
You know what @papa-pepper You might not be a mechanic but you are a total BOSS!!! You can do anything man!
It was so nice to read how you fixed the brake lights. I'm just a beginner when it comes to fixing things you never fixed before, but I'm learning and it gives so much satisfaction when it really works. It was also nice to read the reactions of people who know how to solve the problem you were facing. That's also Steemit, you get help from all kinds of people from all over the world!
Kamu papa yang baik dan pekerja keras
Your approach to access to light bulbs hidden by the red covers was spot on! The intended access method is like the one seen on fire alarms in buildings: Break the glass with hammer and pull the alarm handle. :)
I'm glad that you understand.
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Hey, @papa-pepper! Glad to see you can see the humour in the situation. Here, I need to be a jack of all trades or at least know enough that I am not bled to death by other want to be mechanics...Thank goodness my husband had taught me enough to be aware of small problems and to be able to fix them myself. That alone has saved me a lot of time and money with the vehicle in a repair shop. Sometimes being female has it's disavdvantages...
It's hard to describe how much I sympathize with you. I once had a flat tire when abysmally broke. I ran into this from time to time, as my method of replacing tires that went flat was to go to places that replaced tires and asking if I could have one of the ones they were throwing away. They usually had a dumpster full of tires I was allowed to pick through to find one that had no obvious leaks, and had the right little numbers on the side, like 'THX-1138', that let you know it was the right size to replace the one that had failed.
This happened on the side of a busy highway, and I had no spare, nor even the $10 to remove the old tire from the rim. I wandered around like the Israelites in the desert until some tire guy was moved by my plight, and let me scrounge a tire from their dumpster, at which point I rolled it back to the promised land.
Not having the $10 was a problem, as tires need to be full of air to do much good, and bolted to the car, as well. A couple questions to the tire guy revealed that with a crowbar and large hammer, it was possible to 'break the bead' which sealed the tire to the rim (the part that bolts to the car), and then using the crowbar, one can pry the rubber off the rim.
Sounds easy!
Welp, it's not. I learned lotsa stuff, such as that TWO crowbars are really necessary (but a big, big screwdriver can stand in for one of them), and the biggest hammer you can swing is the hammer that is big enough to bust the tire loose. It's also easier to chop a cord of wood than it is to break down one tire. so the next time you spend $10 to swap a tire on a rim, thank capitalism for getting folks to invent tire machines that do in a few minutes what used to take three hours of backbreaking labor.
Once the old tire is off, you beat and pry the new tire in place. Then, you need an air compressor to fill it, and as I seemed to have misplaced mine, back to the tire guy - who had one, for sure - I rolled the unlikely assemblage of rubber and steel.
Good thing air is free!
Eventually, the tire was full of air, bolted to the car, and I was ready to roll!
Good times =)
Moral of the story: If you don't have $10 to pay for the tire machine guy to swap your tire, sell enough kidneys until you do, and, remember to keep a spare tire on hand, like you do kidneys. If you have a spare couple bucks someday, it might be smart to install a couple extra kidneys to have on hand should you ever run out of spare tires.
ah that position reminds me of changing a matrix heater in a Mk2 Golf GTI, ah the memories, next week we attempt an ABF conversion in another Golf this time a 16V