So… today was interesting. It started off with a fight with my family about automotive stuff… then turned to me getting degreaser to see if a wheel was leaking. Then a call from my friend David saying he had time to try to attempt my overdue 60,000 mile service on Devil…
I’d bring my box ‘o crap to his home and we’d get cracking on what we could. The forces of irony were quick and merciless…
Mishap #1: I apparently didn’t order the top and bottom main radiator hoses. It will cost me about $38 locally. Not really too bad…
Mishap #2: When trying to remove the top radiator hose from the top of the radiator… It apparently snapped off a rather large chunk!
Mishap #3: On removing the radiator from the engine bay… David noticed that the primary fan blades had popped off the fan motor.
Numbers 2 + 3, David hopes to score parts from a local Miata tuner shop in Dallas. Hopefully, the radiator and primary fans can be had for not too much out of pocket. O’Reilly’s was asking $150-ish for the radiator and then $70 some for the fan motor and not the fan assembly (which I need). I hope I have some vestige of a prayer out there…
There’s also the matter of my AC compressor pulley that was damaged… Not really my biggest concern, but I would like to have AC again. The pulley should run about $25, which is no big deal… the bolt-up is easy enough too, so I am not in a panic. Hell, if that has to be done later, no hurry. There’s also the matter of checking out my rear calipers for potential leakage. My father said there was some fluid dripping, but a few visual inspections revealed some moist grease on the inside of my wheel. If those bastards are leaking… I have yet another repair to expense out.
So what happens now?
With Devil in David’s garage, I will have to wait and see if he can successfully get the major parts (radiator and radiator fan) without too much trouble and procure the hoses. Hopefully that should resolve the major issues and get my car patched up with all new 60,000 mile parts. My family has offered to let me borrow the jade chariot or be chauffered to work… we’ll see what happens. Hopefully tomorrow, Devil will be back and ready to rock out with new parts and new journeys.
The next issues from there are brake calipers and new tires again.