For this blog I will deviate from the topic of home construction and talk about something that often happens during a renovation project. The vehicle that you depend on to transport your building supplies breaks down. This happened to me recently and its not like I have a ton of time on my hands to deal with this nonsense. I have a full time job and almost all the rest of my time is spent working on renovating my house. It was not surprising that when I was jacking up my car out in the street because my driveway was torn up due to the construction that my neighbor said, "you know its not like you don't already have enough to do" And I said to him, "ya that's why I'm taking it to the dealer"
The car I have is a 2005 4WD Tahoe and I love it so much. It can haul a lot, pull my boat and provides comfortable ride. The car does get only about 15 miles per gallon but it is a big vehicle and which makes it more likely to be the winner in a crash thus being safer to drive on the road. That's what I call real insurance.
What was ailing the car? Two things: 1) the airbags were out and 2) a strange unidentified noise was coming from the drive train.
Once the car was jacked up I shook the wheel from top to bottom. It was very loose. It was then that I realized that I probably shouldn't drive the vehicle to the dealer to get repaired because the wheel might fall off. Yes wheels fall off! My sister will attest to that fact which happened to here twice. She had been in a car accident but the car seemed ok after the accident. Unknowingly to us the axle was bent. After a week of driving a part broke in the differential allowing the wheel to walk its way out luckily hitting the fender which stopped it from completely dislodging itself form the vehicle. I replaced the parts in the axle and it happened again and then we got the mechanic to replace the axle. See this Video for a car driving with wheel about to fall off.
I considered calling a tow truck to take the Tahoe to the dealer but after talking to dad who does all his auto repairs him self and after watching youtube videos, I became more interested in fixing it myself. It looked pretty simple. But since my driveway was torn up where would I work on my vehicle?
For my home renovation I had expanded my single car garage into an oversized two car garage. It was not obvious to me that I should put my car in there and work on it. I have always worked on my car in the driveway and not only that there is quite a big step between the dirt driveway and the concrete pad so getting the car in and out was not practical on a daily basis. But the issue with the vehicle necessitated that I test my garage out for the very first time.
I stacked a bunch of cutoff two by fours next to the lip of the garage pad and drove the vehicle into the garage. The vehicle fit! Wohoo! I was very happy. I even got a comment from my neighbor who has been watching the agonizingly slow paced construction going on at my house. He said, "wow that was amazing, you almost got your whole car in the garage". When he said almost he was referring to the bumper hanging out the entrance. There was table blocking me from pulling the car fully into the garage.
With the car in the garage I proceed to repair the car. To repair it, I assumed it was the cv axle that was bad. What is a CV axle? CV axle stands for constant velocity axle and it is needed to transfer the torque from the transmission to the drive wheels at a constant speed, while accommodating the up-and-down motion of the suspension. See this Link for more information on CV joints and how to tell if they are bad. I was able to purchase one from the autozone.
Once I got into the repair I realized that the wheel bearing was bad. Why did I not think it was that in the first place? A loose wheel is a typical symptom of a bad wheel bearing. The reason was because on all the videos I had watched I had not seen one where I could see that the car had one. The explanation for this is that it is hidden in an assembly. The wheel bearing itself was not replaceable but the assembly is and I was able to get one at autozone. When I was buying it the guy at autozone said, "you might was well as replace the cv axle too while your at it." I said, "I've already got one"
Below is a picture of the old CV axle. Notice that I have got it out without having to take the caliper, rotor and wheel bearing assembly off.
Below is photo of the old and new wheel bearing assembly
Probably the hardest part of the repair is getting the bolts off that hold the calipers on. I see videos of people using long cheater bars to get these bolts off. And after breaking bolts off with this method I try to avoid it and use the pneumatic impact wrench. These bolts will still give you trouble with the impact wrench and in this case they did. So I cranked the compressor up and that did the trick. (You run the risk of blowing out your air tool if you exceed the max pressure for the tool) If that doesn't work then heat from a torch is often used which if your not careful you ruin some parts.
Here is video of a wheel bearing assembly repair that is similar to what I did. For the CV axle this video shows how the CV axle is replaced.
Once I had finished the repair I could now take the car to the dealer to get the air bags fixed. I thought about repairing the air bags myself but I felt that this was one area of repair that I would be better off to get the dealer to do since they are so dangerous. One typical accident that occurs is the mechanic is using tools like a screw driver near the air bags and the airbag accidentally deploys sending the tool into the mechanic and killing him
Once the dealer had looked at the car, he told me that the sensor in the front of the vehicle was bad. Replacement cost $450. He also said the rear main seal and oil pan is leaking and that he could give me estimate on that repair. I was incredulous. I usually go 5000 miles without adding oil to the car and I hadn't seen any oil on the pavement or driveway. I couldn't help to think that this was a pretty nice scam they are running at this dealership taking advantage of peoples lack of knowledgeable about car repair to relieve them of their pocket book. I decided not to go with the seal and pan repair but I did let them do the air bags.
When I picked the car up I asked the dealer to show me the leak on the seal which he had offered to do when I had talked to him on the phone. But now there was no lift available. He did say that as long as there is oil in the vehicle it would continue to run.
So the question is after having taken my car to the dealer for the air bag repair and almost having lost a hefty chunk of hard earned savings for an unnecessary rear main seal repair, how much did I save by doing the cv axle/wheel bearing repair myself? Here is the break down.
Dealer Cost
CV Axle $578
Wheel Bearing Assembly $426
Labor $350
Total $1354
My cost
CV axle $70
Wheel bearing assembly $110
Labor 6 hours (2 hours with experience) No charge
Total $180
A whopping $1174 or 87% was saved. And now you know why the dealer loves you when you bring your car to the dealership. Why not do the repair yourself and then spend the money you saved on a cruise? If you don't the dealer will. Cue the cash register sound.
Happy Building!
The Dr
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