What was I thinking?
We’ve all had those moments when we knew that we were making a mistake, but went ahead with it anyway. Even though fixing the mistake would be much harder than just doing it right to begin with. We kid ourselves into believing that it’ll probably work, then kick ourselves afterward.
My latest what was I thinking moment came when I was replacing the water pump on my ‘91 BMW 750il a few months ago. (Why it needed a water pump is another entertaining story.)
It’s a pretty involved process, involving the removal of both of the accessory drive belts, both tensioners/pulleys, and the main crank pulley. Believe me; that pulley was happy right where it was. Oh yeah, I had to remove the radiator to get enough room to work. By the time I had the water pump out I had been working for 3 or 4 hours, and was ready to get it put back together.
This water pump mounted differently than most cars. There are two metal pipes coming forward through the ‘V’ of the engine the slip into the back of the pump. The pump has o-rings in grooves to seal against these pipes. The new water pump didn’t come with those o-rings.
I’ll repeat that - the new water pump didn’t come with those o-rings.
Not to worry, the friendly neighborhood Napa was just down the street. They had no idea what size o-rings were needed, of course. But they were happy to look at the new pump and find some that seemed to fit. total expenditure - $1.00 plus tax, plus about 15 minutes of my time.
Fast forward about two hours and there’s coolant pouring out of the front of the car - behind the water pump.
Fast forward another 1.5 hours (I’m getting faster) and the pump’s back out and I’m on the phone with the local (ha!) BMW dealership ordering the right o-rings. Total expenditure - $10.00 plus tax, plus gas for the drive, plus several hours of extra labor.
What was I thinking?
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June 20th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Nice article to read.it tell’s How to fix the car?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
you were thinking you would save time and money by avoiding the dealer. the same thing I do every time i work on my cars. still not learning from mine or even your mistakes.
Case in point. I have a 1997 lincoln mark viii, it has 188k miles on it and still will kick that bmr’s tailpipe :)…. Anyway every 20k or so I’ve had to replace the individual ignition coils on the front cylinders 1,2,5,6 at $40.00 each because buying and installing a new head gasket that would stop the very slight oil leak into spark plug cavity….
head gaskets $160.00 ignition coils 40.00 each, all replaced at least twice… (well you can do the math.) Oh yeah Plust spark plugs.
luv your blog man…
June 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
@Cemseller,
I had a Mk VIII for a few days. Didn’t run. I’ve always loved those cars. Maybe one day I’ll get a nice one.
Let me know when you wanna race.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Hi,
Good article.To fix a car is a big problem.