Too cold and snowy to ride, but ok to wrench on cars!
I finally got my schedule to match up with my friend's father's. On Saturday we zipped up to Spokane, WA to snag a car for my GF. 1989 Toyota Camry, seen a lot of use and had 238,000 miles on it. The price was very low, a perfect fit for my GF's budget.
We begin the trek north with great weather for picking up a car with known issues:
We arrive at my buddy's parents' place and do the paperwork. We head back south and make it 65 problem-free miles with a completely worn front strut.
It's 75 miles between Spokane and home.
I'm driving the Camry in front, which had no fan so very, very little heat. I come up a grade and the engine has no power and the transmission won't shift. I curse automatic transmissions and wonder what to do. I drop it into 2nd to let it get a bit more power but that just causes a good amount of compression braking.
There's a turnoff at the top of the hill and I coast over. I open the hood and poke and prod at things. Not a single thing happens when the key is turned. No clicking from a dead battery not operating the starter solenoid. Lights seem to work ok and the automatic shoulder belts keep moving. Since we didn't bring any tools we applied the only item we had, jumper cables. We moved the vehicles close together and my buddy's Ranger has a tremendous load on the electrical system.
We let it sit for a minute, fire the Camry up and away we go. Until the car dies putting it into Drive. The Ranger gets moved back up, hoods get propped open and out come the jumper cables again. Next time I end up two-footing it and keeping a good amount of throttle open. I plop back onto the highway with all lights, radios, etc... turned off. Still no heat and our vehicles were ice-beasts. That made some cool designs, though:
The car dies again about a mile outside of town and we do the ol' jumping sequence with more two-footing to get the car moving. I ended up shifting into neutral at red lights and neutral-dropping into Drive to get home, but it makes it. I park the car and call it a night, buying my buddy dinner for helping me.
I hit a Toyota forum with an active second generation Camry subforum and find lots of good information. All my research pointed to a dead alternator and the local Schuck's has one in stock and is open on Sunday. Score!
This morning I started work in the snow and wind at 8 AM. Now, I am no mechanic (I just play one on the Internet), but I have a good idea what's wrong with this alternator wiring:
The wires were insanely corroded. Stiff, discolored and brittle. I went to work fixing it:
I installed the new wiring and almost all the issues went away. The fans worked, battery kept a charge, defroster works, brake lights work. Takes care of a lot of the big ticket items!
The Camry handled a very snowy test drive superbly. I still need to get used to the automatic transmission, especially in the snow. I've never owned a car with an auto before, so it's interesting.
Next up: getting new plates ($75), oil and filter change ($10), brake fluid flush and bleed ($6), coolant flush ($20) and more replacement light bulbs ($10).
Total spent on the car is under $60. A hundred or more so dollars in maintenance and it should be a great beater for the GF.
Oh, and the worn struts in the front? There's new-in-box replacements in the trunk, free with the car.
[url=http://www.motoblag.com/blag/]Practicing the dark and forgotten art of using turn signals since '98.[/url]
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