New compressor/clutch for the car

My car is over 9 years and has over 180k miles on it. It has treated me rather well - and in return I've given it an oil change every 3000 miles (approximately), performed 30,000 mile maintenance, and replaced what has needed replacing (tie rods, control arms, front struts, wheel bearings).

Last week I drove into work as normal, but when I went to grab lunch, the A/C didn't turn on. About 4-5 years ago, the A/C suddenly stopped working, and it turned out it had run low on coolant. After adding more (enough to get me through), I brought it in for service to check for small leaks. Nothing was found. Since that was all a while ago, I figured the same thing happened - after another 4-5 years, enough coolant leaked out that it stopped working.

When I got home, I hooked up the pressure gauge to the low side of the compressor, and it registered 100 PSI. It should register around 25-30 PSI. Something was wierd. When I turned on the A/C, I saw that the compressor was not engaging - the portion of the air conditioning system that spun along with the serpentine belt was not spinning.

So I checked the A/C fuse to see if maybe that was blown. Looked ok. I swapped the A/C relay with a like one that was known to be good. No problem there. I jumpered the hi/lo pressure switch in the refrigerant line - the compressor still didn't engage.

By this time, I had (obviously) been doing research into the system, and determined that it was the clutch that was not engaging - that was why it wasn't spinning with the belt. After verifying that the pressure switch was ok, I checked the voltage on the wiring harness connector to the clutch. It showed positive voltage (this was essentially a downstream check of everything else - pressure switch, fuse, relay, etc). Lastly, for the nail in the coffin for diagnostics, I checked the resistance through the clutch coil. It should have read 3-5 ohms - it read nothing (no continuity).

Within the clutch is a thermal fuse. It appears that the design of the system is such that if the clutch is slipping (wearing out), the whole contraption will heat up and blow the thermal fuse. This results in the clutch disengaging to protect the compressor. Since there was no continuity through the coil, I suspected that the thermal fuse was shot. I looked around on saturnfans.com (a great how-to reference site and message board for fixing Saturns), thinking that maybe instead of replacing everything, I could replace the fuse for a few bucks. If it blew again, then I'd know the clutch was shot. But no sense in replacing a whole compressor/clutch assembly if it just happened that the fuse blew for no real good reason.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. The thermal fuse is epoxied inside the clutch mechanism, and there was too much at risk in my trying to disassemble things. First of all, I need the car on a daily basis to get to work - so if I fouled something up and couldn't get it back together - the car wouldn't run. (remember, the serpentine belt is expecting the A/C clutch to be present!). Second, I didn't have any special tools that may have been necessary to remove the clutch for disassembly - some times not having special tools make a job take significantly longer then it would otherwise. Third - this was a refrigeration system. If I were to cause a leak by my banging around, not-so-environmentally-friendly gases would be released.

All in all, I ended up deciding that it was best left to professionals. I ended up going with a used compressor/clutch assembly because it was much cheaper than aftermarket new (about $170 vs about $500), and truthfully - the car may only be around for another year or so. So $170 for a new part, about $140 for a couple hours labor, and another $40 or so for a recharge.

If it was just the thermal fuse - I'd have rather just spent the $5 to replace it. But nowadays, things are not built to be repaired, they are built to be replaced. But at least now I have A/C.

Been absent from this blog, but I've not been stagnant

It has been quite a while since I've posted anything here (duh!). The major reason is that aside from work and sleep, my other main priority in life has been exercise - marathon training, running races, competing in triathlons, etc. As a result, my other blog has seen quite the flurry of activity over the past few months whereas this one has not had much to post about.

However, I still have things that need to be done, lessons to be learned, etc that are worthy of putting into this blog. Unfortunately, I've been putting them off. But I can't do that too much longer - some things just need to get done.

With the warmer weather recently, the lawn has shown signs of waking up from its winter slumber. The main thing I have wanted to watch for was how the overseeded portions of the front lawn (that was done in the fall) have fared. This overseeding effort was written about in this post last fall.

In re-reading that post, I realized I failed to mention one important part of the strategy. Not only did I use grass clippings for mulch, but I also had about 1/2 to 3/4 of a yard of top soil and compost. So after mowing the grass real short, I spread the material over the old grass. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough material to cover the entire front lawn. Always looking for the bright side - I figured that having only half the front lawn using this 'treatment' would give me ample comparison to see if it would actually be effective at keeping the old undesirable grass from growing while giving a foothold to the new grass seed. By the time the last mowing in the fall came, I was pleased to see positive results - the grass was nice and thick and it appeared to be a majority of the new grass that was growing.

The following picture is of the front lawn. The grass closer to the front is the section that was overseeded after a very short mowing, whereas the grass closer to the road is the section that was mowed short, had soil spread over the old grass, and seeded on top of the soil:

From Ryan in Framingham

Close-up view of an area where the old grass and new grass seem to meet:

From Ryan in Framingham

Extreme example of what I dont like about the old grass. This is the side lawn, and I'm thinking that this fall I'll continue my experimenting and till the whole section.

From Ryan in Framingham

Back yard with sections that I'd like to redo. I'm waiting to perfect my technique a bit more before I chew on a piece of lawn this size.

From Ryan in Framingham

The back yard includes an extra challenge - the dog and the path he takes to get to his area where he does his business. The extra traffic really does a number on the grass, and the front of the picture shows the area of heaviest wear:

From Ryan in Framingham

A close-up of an area of heavy wear shows that some soil is showing.

From Ryan in Framingham

So - whats in store for this year?

First - considering the success I had last year with crabgrass - I figured I'd review the timing and what I did. It was around this time last year that I started seeing my first signs of crabgrass, and so I put down the Halts crabgrass preventer. The phenological indicator I used was seeing the first emergence of crabgrass, as I hadn't yet seen the forsyhtia bloom (which is the other common phenological indicator)

And wouldn't ya know - today I saw a few early crabgrass emergers. Instead of using the Halts, I decided to use Jonathan Green's Crabgrass Preventer Plus Green-up Fertilizer. The reason I wanted to try this particular product is that it uses Dimension crabgrass control - which acts as both a pre-emergent (as Halts) and an early post-emergent. I put this product down in areas that I knew I wasn't going to be overseeding, and also where the dog generally doesn't spend any significant time. That basically meant the front and side lawns - about 10,000 sq ft worth.

For the back - there are definately some areas that are going to need some reseeding/overseeding. The best time to put grass seed down is in the fall - but with some of the bare patches the size they are - I just cannot wait until then, because those patches will just fill up with weeds. Plus, I'd like to try and get a more resilient grass in those heavy traffic areas. I had considered doing something like planting annual grass seeds in those areas every year, but I'd rather experiment and see if I can get something more permanent in place.

I also got a small bag of Jonathan Green's Heavy Traffic mix, which is a mixture of about 70% tall fescues that are more hardy. I also got a bag of pure Kentucky Bluegrass mix - which is known for aggressively filling in bare spots. Whereas the Tall Fescue grasses are bunch type - the bluegrasses spread via rhyzomes. My idea with this is that once it takes hold, it can be a little more self repairing when holes in the turf are created. Having a hardy grass (such as those in the heavy traffic mix) is great and all - but when the ground is wet and the dog is running around, it can be a bit like a golfer on a fairway. Divots get created. Unlike a courteous golfer, the dog doesn't replace his divots.

Sparks of Life! (new alternator)

I was hoping to go for a bike ride this afternoon, but my suspicions of the alternator on my car going bad came to fruition when I needed a jump start at Target today.

At this point, I figure its official - most people would be trading in my car (9 yrs old, 178k miles on it, with recently done front suspension work as well as new wheel bearings) and saying it is no longer worth keeping. It seems that the discussion always goes that with an older car, you fix this, replace that - but then the alternator dies on you and at that point, some threshold has been reached and you're resigned to having to ge ta new car.

While a new car would be nice - I'm not prepared to give up my car! Nevermind the fact that we just purchased a new car this weekend to replace the wife's PoS Hyundai that can't pass inspection and has transmission issues. When I first bought my car, part of the reason why I bought a new one was that after the 5-6 year mark - I could have a vehicle that could be used as practice for repairs. It'd be more difficult to do this with a used car, because the history is not as known and clean. So now starts the time I cash in on that wisdom (or, lack thereof - depending on your point of view).

Anyhow - the main reason why I was suspicious of the alternator is that over the past few months, I've noticed that at stop lights, the electrical systems (lights, blower, power windows) seemed really sluggish. Once moving and the engine going over about 1500 RPM, things would pick up and be lively again. Then, at the next stop light, things would get sluggish again. With the newly replaced battery, it made little sense that that would be part of the problem. Then there was the fact that the existing alternator is 9 years old.

What threw me for a little bit of a loop was that I had the alternator tested at Autozone right after I replaced the battery, and the voltage and diode pattern checked out ok. However, that was at 2000 RPM. I asked about checking it at idle, but the guy with the machine didn't really seem to get what I was trying to say. For whatever reason, I didn't push the issue - I should have.

This afternoon I did a couple quick tests, by checking the voltage across the battery under various conditions:
Car not running: 12 V (no surprise)
Car at idle, no blower motor running and no head lights: 12.2V (quite low - as it should be 14.2-14.6V)
Car at idle, blower motor and head lights on: 11.7V! (WAY low - thats not even recharging the battery at idle!)

So after a couple hours of removing the wheel, splash guards, and figuring out how to actually get at the damn thing, I got the old alternator out and put a new one in. I intended to replace the serpentine belt while I was at it, since everything was disassembled - but I just couldn't get the new belt on. I have no reason to believe its not the proper size, but the old belt has > 30k miles of stretching on it - so I'll have to look into how to get a new belt on (if there are any special tools or techniques).

After getting the new alternator in, I retested:
Car at idle, blower motor and head lights on: 14.4V

Thats more like it!

EDIT: I recently found that a normal electrical system should show around 12.6V, not 12V, across the battery when the car is off. So with it only showing 12V, I'm not quite sure how the car started in the first place, because only showing 12V is a darned near dead battery!

Also, what is interesting (but obvious and explainable in hindsight) - the car had been pinging when under load and low RPM (< 2000) for about a year now. That problem is gone with the new alternator. Apparently since the original alternator wasn't generating a normal amount of current, the spark plugs weren't generating a solid spark (in terms of either strength or timing). I had attributed the pinging to an old, tired engine.

Who knew that the initial sign of a failing alternator could be a ping from the engine?!

Book Review: What happened (McClellan)

For those who don't necessarily recall based on name, Scott McClellan was the White House Press Secretary for GW Bush from 2003 to 2006 (or so). Those who know me may be interested why I'd be interested in reading a book by him, since he had to publicly defend people and policy decisions I found fairly undefendable. The truth is I probably wouldn't have bothered with this book, except for the fact that McClellan had the guts to appear on The Daily Show one day to promote the book. During that appearance and the interview, I knew right away that this book would be an interesting read because it would provide an honest insider view of some of the more controversial things done during W's presidency.

You may recall that when the book was released, the existing White House staff immediately started to discredit McClellan, saying things like 'This isn't the Scott McClellan we all knew', etc. The ironic thing was that by discrediting him, they were basically proving one of the several points he makes in his book.

This book is difficult to summarize, to be quite honest, because it is very very detailed. It is one of those situations where to provide a summary, you feel you either have to go overboard with detail, or keep things very general. Knowing that 6-12 months down the road, the minutae will becoming irrelevant in what I will take away from the book, I'm going do the latter and keep things very general.

Permanent Campaign
The first major point McClellan makes, and the consistent theme throughout the book, is the idea of the permanent campaign. This is a term given to the idea that the overarching goal in politics is to control the news as opposed to governing policy. Quite simply it is about winning the day to day battle of the news cycle for short political gain, at the sacrifice of long term vision and solid governing policy. The permanent campaign takes many forms, but the most ubiquitous form it took in the Bush White House was that it (the White House) would organize a campaign to drum up public support of their policies, which would essentially strong-arm congress into passing whatever legislation they wanted. Think of No Child Left Behind, the Patriot Act, prescription drug coverage for seniors, etc. That is not to say these programs are inherently bad due to their method of conception (that is another discussion), but these are examples of policy that the White House campaigned throughout the country in order to get general public support for.

While this may sound like politics as usual, it only seems that way because we have become so used to the permanent campaign in the political landscape that we (the public) accept it without question. While it has always been around to some degree, the line between politics and governance started becoming blurry in the Nixon presidency, when the White House was then trying to control the information that got out to the public, in order to shape public opinion due to Watergate. It gradually seeped into the political culture and started becoming flagrant during the 1988 presidential campaign, when Bush Sr ran an almost entirely negative campaign against Gov. Dukakis - the first election that was won by bringing down the other guy rather than bolstering ones-self. The Clinton campaign in 92 and his subsequent White House in the 90's took it one step further. They basically saw what Bush Sr did, and did it better.

I believe, and this is a sentiment that McClellan echoed in the book at various times, that a major reason for this permanent campaign culture is due to the vast difference in news nowadays, as opposed to 100 or even 50 years ago. In fact, McClellan makes a point several times that the 24 hour news cycle that inundates the public is a large reason why politics has become a permanent campaign - as the news tends to 'keep score' of who is winning and who is losing.

The Bush White House in 2000-2008 inadvertantly continued this permanent campaign atmosphere (after claiming to 'want to change the tone in Washington') by insisting on always doing 'the opposite of Clinton'. Ironically, this further injected politics into governing - the exact opposite of what they wanted to do - by basing their policy decisions partly on how a prior politician would have done things.

Iraq War
Another major point McClellan makes is the situation surrounding that of the Iraq War, which is where he feels the White House really started to significantly veer off course. He states that the president, possibly subconsciously, had pre-determined that war with Iraq was going to occur. Apparently, George Bush feels that the greatest leaders are born out of wartime, when drastic changes in the world occur. He feels that a free and democratic Iraq would provide peace and stability to the middle east, and that in this way he could become known as a great leader in history.

However, this does NOT mean that he or his cabinet intentionally deceived the country to go to war. McClellan is very clear about this point.

Instead, it was an honest belief that another attack on the US was emminant (largely fear that was solidified with the Anthrax attacks), and at the time, there was reason to suspect Iraq had WMD. Afterall, Hussein had used WMD on the Kurds in the 80's, and with his erratic behavior regarding the UN inspectors, it could logically be concluded that he (Hussein) was hiding something. Now, whether you believe that rushing to war vs more diplomacy was the right course of action - that is another argument, and a valid one.

Another aspect of this that McClellan touches upon is that the Iraq war did have a large amount of public support initially - partially thanks to the permanent campaign efforts. A major factor in this was the so-called '16 word controversy' - where Bush stated in the 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking Uranium from Africa. The facts and the story behind this is somewhat convoluted, but the main point is that the intelligence was false and that statement should not have made it into the speech. In fact, the person responsible for that aspect of the facts in the address resigned, even though CIA Director George Tenet took the public fall for it. The 16 word controversy ultimately ended up in the leak investigation and indictment of Scooter Libby.

The subtleties of all the various factors that led to the rush to war with Iraq are numerous, but the primary focus that McClellan makes is this: Due to the permanent campaign, the Bush White House did everything they could to try and deny, stonewall and put up barriers instead of being forthright and honest about what was going on. Many of their misjudgements could have ended up more positively for them had they addressed the issues and been honest right from the start, as opposed to being so secretive and so press averse. Some people may retort by saying 'Well, he had a lot to deal with that wasn't his fault - 9/11, Anthrax, Katrina, etc' - but McClellan's response essentially seems to be 'While that may be true, the administration did not help themselves in the court of public opinion by the way they handled some of these events.'

The book covers a lot more subject matter than the Permanent Campaign and the Iraq War (such as Katrina and the botched response, 9/11 and the immediate response to that), but those are the primary focuses of the book, and the two most common themes throughout. It is definately an interesting read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in how the Bush White House operated, and what their motivations were at various points in the presidency. It also gave a bit of a peek into the kind of person George Bush is - at least how he came across to most of the country (charismatic, down to earth, governs based on gut instinct rather than any intellectual curiosity [McClellans own words there]). I still dont agree with his politics, though.

February 2009 Flight

For a few months now, I've been trying to go flying with a friend of mine who has recently been expressing interest in learning to fly. Actually, he had taken some lessons back in college, and had solo'd - but never finished up the training.

Without going into all the details (and there are quite a few of them), we decided it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to experience a small plane ride before investing too heavily on a project of his to restore an old Aeronca Champ. We almost went last month (January), but the day I had a rental scheduled turned out to be too windy.

However, yesterday was perfect. Actually, the weather was saying 15-20 mph gusts - but it was really smooth. Normally things smooth out once you get over about 3000 feet. The texture of the earths surface typically results in somewhat more varied and unpredictable wind gusts near the ground. Once you get above the effects of those swirls, there may be winds aloft - but they are consistent, and result in a really smooth ride.

We started off heading up towards Chelmsford, where he lives. A circle around the Lowell area, and he was able to get a couple shots of his house. We then headed over towards the Quabbin - always a nice scenic ride. We made a quick full stop, taxi back to the active, and take off at the Orange airport, so that I could log the flight as a cross country (landing at a point >50 nm from the point of departure).

As we got to the southern end of the Quabbin, it was about 3:45 - and I thought I had the plane until 5pm. But we wanted to head out towards W Mass - Tyringham, specifically. There was a site we had talked in the past about seeing from the air - and although we hadn't really planned on getting out there this time, we looked at how much further it would be, and whether we would make it back in time. After some quick distance and groundspeed calcs, we decided we should just about be able to make it. So we crossed by Westover AFB, and saw all the C-5's parked on the tarmac, which was pretty cool. At some point, I still want to land there - the idea of a 10,000' runway, where a 172 only needs about 1000 ft to stop - sounds like fun :)

Once we got to Tyringham, we found the site, circled around and bee-lined it straight back to mansfield. At about 4:50, we were still about 20 minutes out - so I started thinking of what the best option was to let the FBO know that I was ok, but just going to be late. One option was to just do nothing. However, I tend to finish up early - and so the person at the desk might start to freak out if I'm not showing up when my reservation time ends. Another option was to use my friends new cell-phone to headset connection, and call the FBO. We tried that, but just as we got connected, the signal dropped.

The next option was to send a text message to someone on the ground (since text messages can be quicker than a phone call - and the signal was pretty shaky), and have them call the FBO. As we were selecting a contact to write a text message through, the FBO called my cell - likely thanks to either reverse dial, or a cross reference from caller ID. My friend picked up the phone (I was flying, so I didn't want to get distracted) and, to the relief of the person on the other end (who was apparently like 'WHATS WRONG!?'), told them that we were going to be about 10 minutes late.

Talk about anticlimactic! (in a good way, though).

Anyhow - we got back to Mansfield, touched down and apologized to the person at the desk for freaking her out like that. Funny thing though - as it turns out - the reservation was actually until 5:30 - so we were fine! Whoops!

If you want to keep water OUT of a basement - why would one build a dam?

To contain a leak, of course!

In a previous post, I mentioned that while I had fixed one crack in our basement wall, there was a second crack that was going to need repair. I wanted to wait and see how the fixed crack performed before spending the money on another crack repair kit. At $150 a pop, they're not exactly cheap - but when you are talking about water in a basement and a way to keep it out - $150 is as close to free as you'll get.

So earlier this year - sometime in November, we had snow on the ground followed by a night where we had a LOT of rain. When we went to bed, there was a small amount of water coming through the unrepaired crack, but nothing else. By morning, we had probably a few gallons that had leaked through and spread all over the basement floor. Fortunately, it was no more than a nuisance - some vacuuming with a shop vac, and drying out of a rug that had absorbed most of the water was all that was necessary. It was worth noting that the previously repaired crack, which historically started leaking sooner but with less volume, was completely dry. So I was sold that the resin injection kit I had used before was working. Another kit was ordered up.

Anyone who lives in the northeast knows that this year we've had a LOT of snow. While I love the snow, the whole time I was thinking how the existing crack was going to leak again when it all melts. So I began to brainstorm on how I could minimize flooding until such time as things dry out in the spring/summer when I could repair this crack as well.

My first thought was to get a water sensor - something that would alarm when water is present. I found one at Harbor Freight, and bought it.

From Ryan in Framingham

I figured that if things flood when we are home, we can at least catch it before it goes too far. However, when I brought it home to test it out, I discovered that it would need about 1/4" of water in order to set off. With a flat wide open floor, chances are getting that depth of water was going to be tricky. But the water sensor was not a waste of money - I can repurpose it to keep tabs on the water heater in case it goes. Ideally, I'd find something that senses water and can engage a water shut off valve - but until I find such a device, I'll have to do with a loud alarm.

Anyway - back to the wall crack - I started brainstorming on how I could minimize flooding, and came to the conclusion that building a containment reservoir would probably be the best thing. We had plenty of 2x4 scraps (ranging from like 12" to 16" in length) that I could glue/caulk together, and I could build a box out of it that would contain water. This obviously wouldn't be a permanent fix, as wood is porous, but should stem the tide for a while until attention could be paid when the melting starts.

The next challenge was finding a way to create a watertight seal between the wood and the floor. I could nail the wood to the floor using a powder actuated nailer, but that would leave a permanent mark on the floor. I wanted to find something that would be cleaned up relatively easily once the permanent fix was in place. I was thinking of using caulk, until Laurie suggested a better idea:

BENTONITE!

Quickly described, bentonite is a clay that swells when in the presence of water, and is used in her industry as a water blocking substance. This should work really well - because it'll block what it can - and if any water does start to seep through the joints, eventually the bentonite inside the joint would swell the leak shut.

So with all the pieces in place, I started off:

Scrap pieces of 2x4's that were glued together with liquid nails:

From Ryan in Framingham

Bentonite plugs and water were put into a bucket, and left to sit for several days until we got a nice clay mixture:

From Ryan in Framingham

Bentonite slopped onto the wall joint between the dam and the basement wall:

From Ryan in Framingham

Final product:

From Ryan in Framingham

It's not pretty, but it ended up being effective. It took a couple iterations of hydro testing with a few gallons of water, followed by evacuating the reservoir when a leak was discovered, followed by slopping more bentonite on the leak area. In the end though, testing has shown that it'll be reasonably effective - especially if it is checked in the morning before work and in the evening before bed time.

Then, once things dry out, the proper permanent fix can be put in place.