Thinking about automotive air conditioning. Part One.

The old fashioned "hang on" swamp cooler. This one looks pretty spiffy!
photo from web.

To be more specific, thinking about the a/c in my vehicles.

The hottest days of Summer are here, and it is now that you'll focus on how effective your cars a/c system is working. What seemed adequate in 80 degree weather isn't cutting it at temperatures of over 100 degrees!

Automotive a/c has been one of the most appreciated developments that has come from American manufacturers. American a/c was renowned for years, as it was so effective in bringing down high temperatures quickly and effectively. 

Cute, but not very effective.
photo from web.

A lot of people lived in homes that were not air conditioned, but at least they could find blessed relief during their commute home. Cooler drivers are not only more comfortable, they are also much calmer and practice much better judgement.

All of my current fleet have a/c, a few of my cars are pretty old, and my '96 Mustang needed some work shortly after I bought it. It developed a leak in an a/c hose, and they were replaced and the system recharged  over ten years ago. It still blows cold, but it's not as cold as it once was. 

I would guess that some of my cars need to have the a/c recharged. This was a common service years ago in many corner gas station garages. Now there are fewer places to have this done. My regular mechanic retired, and his replacement recently went into another line of business. 

So I've been looking for a local place that could handle this for me. 

I happened to be driving my truck and I was thinking that it wasn't as cold as it used to be, though I didn't find it's performance to be particularly lacking. 

I had found a shop along White Rd. on the East side. I had some tire work done at this shop years ago. There was a big sign indicating that they did a/c work, so I stopped to ask about it. The technician, a serious looking, older Indian gentleman, named Sunny, advised me that they could do it, but that he should first hook up the gauges and take a pressure reading as a diagnostic test. I asked him how much this would cost, and he said that it was free.

gauges and a vacuum pump.
photo from web.

He hooked up the gauges and told me that the system was a bit low

He advised that it needed a flush and recharge, at a cost of 157.00.

I asked when he could do it, and how long would it take. 

Sunny said he could do it right then and it would take around twenty minutes. 

I have several cars that might need a/c service, and I needed to find a  shop that would do this at a reasonable price. I decided that I needed to trust someone. I've been dealing with my Ford dealer for some extended warranty work, and really don't trust them, or like dealing with them. 

So I let Sunny do his thing. Her told me to sit in the passenger seat while he performed the service. The engine was running and the a/c was on during the process. Once completed he told me that I should clean the condenser when I got home, and I would feel a bigger improvement. I saw him use compressed air to blow through the condenser fins before he charged the system. He told me to just use compressed air and a garden hose, nothing more powerful than that. 

On the drive home I didn't feel that the a/c was any cooler than before. I parked the truck in the driveway and used my compressor to blow debris from the radiator condenser area. 

This isn't my radiator, but you really should check and clean
 this area once in a while!
photo from web.

I hadn't cleaned under the hood of my truck since I bought it, but it wasn't too encrusted with dirt and bugs. Then I sprayed some Castrol Super Cleaner on the core, let it sit, then flushed it with the garden hose spray nozzle. I should have used the compressed air to blow the excess water out of the area, instead I just decided to let it dry with the engine running.

Bad Idea.

I fired up the engine with the hood open and water started spraying up, out of the area. So I closed the hood and decided to drive the truck around. It was okay for the first few minutes, then it started to misfire. After a minute or two, the engine would only run at part throttle and the CEL lit up! All that water had wet something electrical, and resulted in the misfire. I decided that I would keep the speed down and hope that things dried out on their own. A few miles from home I pulled into a parking lot, opened the hood and let the engine continue to run. It seemed to be a lot drier! 

After another ten minutes I closed the hood and headed home. Luckily the CEL had gone out and the engine seemed to be running normally, so I continued my driving and entered the freeway. I added another ten miles or so and returned home.

During this drama, I'd forgotten about the a/c, but switched it on during the final miles home. It was working, but didn't seem any cooler than when I started. I knew that the shop had done the service, I watched them perform it. I didn't think that they had cheated me. But I didn't have any objective measurement that could demonstrate an improvement. I hadn't tested the system beforehand.

I went online and asked, "how cold should my a/c system cool the air.?"

Most of the initial responses indicated that it should cool the air a minimum of twenty degrees cooler than outside temperatures. That made sense, as even home a/c systems can only be effective up to certain temperatures, once it gets hotter than 100 degrees, maintaining a low temp like 68 degrees isn't possible. Our old home system couldn't maintain the temp at 78 degrees under those conditions, and would run constantly. Recently we had a new HVAC system installed which performs much better, and is capable of maintaining that temp more consistently. Hopefully this will reduce our energy bills, but when the heat exceeded 100 degrees like it did recently, it had it's work cut out for it in our old, not well insulated house. 

Some of the responses indicated that the car a/c should ideally cool the air as low as 35 to 45 degrees in moderate temperatures. Then I found a couple of videos explaining how to measure the effectiveness of the a/c system. It involved using a probe type meat thermometer placed in the center air vent, after closing the other dash vents. 

There are other factors that can affect the system, like a blocked or dirty cowl vent, or cabin air filter, as well as a dirty or blocked condenser. It makes sense to change the filter if your car is equipped with one, and to clean the condenser prior to testing the temp. You might find that the system is working well enough without a need for service. 

I did perform a test of my truck's a/c system, I''ll describe my findings in a future post. I will also detail how I cleaned and tested the a/c on my other vehicles.

 

 "Vintage Lite." Part One.

Tastes Great, Less Filling!

A new approach, or just a return to my regular old ways? 

Back in the Good Old Days I never would have thought of buying some used up, thrashed, old car as a "project." 

First of all, I was planning on using the car as transportation, so it had to be running well enough to inspire some confidence. I had places to go, like work or school. I had people to see, or hopefully to meet. 

Second, I wasn't looking for a rebuilding project. I didn't have the time, the money, the space, or the interest, in restoring anything, but I was willing to fix the car as needed. 

Luckily, my parents were always cool with what I was doing.

I directed my attention to "newer" cars, between ten to 15 years old. They were what is known as "used cars." They weren't considered rare or collectible, just old.

I bought my first car in 1975, a couple of years after I had graduated from high school. I was still primarily a motorcycle rider and I was still living at home. 

My first car was a '66 Mustang, it was nine years old at the time.

My second car was a '64 Cadillac, it was thirteen years old.

My third car was a '66 Lincoln it was eleven years old. However I did buy this car as a bit of a project, it definitely had some problems that I was aware of going in. In hindsight, buying this car was clearly a mistake.

You get the idea, these were cars that I expected to use as daily transportation, and I expected them to keep on running them for a couple of years.

I was  pretty busy at the time. I was going to Community College and I was usually working full time.

It was the best of times, I had my motorcycle, an old car, and I could always count on my Dad to let me borrow one of his cars, if the need arose.

After the Lincoln, I bought a 70 Coupe de Ville which was about eight years old. That was followed by my first almost new car, a two year old  '76 Pontiac Astre. The Astre was the Pontiac version of the Chevy Vega. Chevy had a lot of problems with the linerless cylinders of the aluminum engine, and they improved on it by installing iron cylinder liners and GM extended the warranty period. That boosted my confidence, just like when Hyundai went to a ten year warranty. 

The little Pontiac looked kind of like a shrunken Firebird, with a split front grille and dual horizontal "slit" tail lights. Mine was silver with a red plaid interior. It had a manual transmission and I thought that it looked pretty snazzy. I had bought it because I was planning on quitting my full time job at General Motors, to concentrate on finishing up my college education. I thought that a car with good gas mileage would be a smart choice. 

This idea didn't hold it's appeal for too long. I sold it to a friend of mine, and went out and bought the oldest car that I'd owned up to this point. A 1957 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Even so, this car was only twenty years old at this time! The '50's style that made it cool to me, also made it look dated to others. The car was in very good condition, remember, I didn't buy junk at this point. Straight body, good chrome and trim, clean intact interior and it ran well for a couple of years. 

As I mentioned above, the '66 Lincoln was the first car that I bought that needed substantial engine work, as the valves were clearly burnt when I bought it. That engine ended up shaking like a paint mixer! I had made a little money on the '64 Cadillac, and thought that I could come out ahead by buying a cheap car that needed some work. As long as the body and interior were good. That Lincoln had a perfect black leather interior and an arrow straight body with okay paint. I spent a lot of time with rubbing compound and wax in those days! I pulled the heads, replaced a few burnt valves, lapped the rest and put it back together. Machining? We don't need no stinking machining!  The shaking engine had broken the motor mounts so I replaced those also, The ball joints were bad. Instead of replacing them, I bought a used set of lower control arms at a wrecking yard.  Why? I can't tell you why, the hard work was in pulling the springs and control arms, the cost of the ball joints themselves was minimal. The exhaust system was toast, typical back then. I popped for a new, four muffler, dual exhaust with glass packs. It looked good with the slash cut chrome tips and it sure sounded good. 

After spending all that money, I got into a minor wreck that damaged the left front fender. The Lincoln had welded on and leaded in front fenders, no unbolting dented parts. So I tried to straighten out the damage. Didn't come out too satisfactory and after a bit, the Lincoln was sold. 

You would think that after that car I would have learned a lesson, a cheap car doesn't always put you money ahead. I did learn something, and stayed away from cars that obviously needed serious repair. I was making pretty good money working at GM, and could have bought much newer cars, but my main emphasis was on my motorcycle, and I was finally able to buy what I had wanted for years; a Harley Davidson! My first Sportster was like the Lincoln, a bad idea that cost me a lot of money to fix up. I was also saving up money for when I transferred to a four year college full time. I thought that I would quit working and concentrate on school work. 

Didn't work out that way.

For the most part I didn't keep these older cars for very long, usually just a year or two. 

In fact, I took a hiatus from car ownership for several years and just depended on whatever my Dad had lying around as an extra car. That was usually his '75 Chevy short bed pick up. 

It was during this period that I completely rebuilt my first Harley Davidson. A chopped 1970 XLCH. I thought; it already had the hard work done, this should be easy. I had a nice Honda CB750 as my daily rider, so I wasn't in a hurry. Didn't I learn anything? I guess not. This thing had a totally thrashed motor, and terrible wiring, among other problems. It was my first Harley and I was still wearing those rose colored glasses that I should have thrown away years ago. But I had a "can do" attitude, extra money, and I thought that I would make it mine. 

An interesting observation. When I was hired at GM there was a girl in my group of new hires. She was driving a little old VW Bug. Several of the other guys in my group had older muscle cars. With their new job they started putting some money into their old Chevelles or GTO's. They finally had the money to make them nice, and they did. That girl just kept on driving that little VW. Then one day we saw a brand new, white Trans Am in the parking lot. Of course it was hers! She had just waited and saved her money until she could afford a nice, brand new car. That seemed to be the pattern among the girls. 

We guys were kind of jealous. A short time later, a lot of those muscle cars were either sold or retired, and then the guys bought their own new cars. 

I don't know why we were surprised, most people would prefer to have a car that would be reliable and make their lives easier. It's the same thing when you think about getting a hobby or collector car, you can make your job easy or you could pick something that would make the process incredibly more difficult and complicated. 

My recommendation is to take the easier route and buy something that is newer and in better condition. Find something that you think is kind of special. Hobby cars are primarily for fun, and it's your opportunity to buy something that suits your fancy. It could be a muscle/Pony car, Luxury car, 4x4, or sports car, There is a huge selection available at agreeable prices. Especially in the ten to fifteen year old bracket.

I'll continue this discussion in a future post.

 An ongoing Great Garage Massacre?

It won't be quite like this!
photo source CarMax.com

I'm going to be moving forward with the premise that all of my hobby cars are for sale.

If I locate an interested buyer, then I can decide whether or not I will actually sell one.  So my initial prices will be a little higher. But not so high as to scare off a prospective buyer. 

This seems to be a reasonable strategy.

Especially if I take different cars to various Cars and Coffee events. Maybe that's a good way to locate a potential buyer.

It was kind of liberating writing that post about who are we saving our cars for?

Sometimes, I wonder if we are even saving them for ourselves.

Oftentimes, we are just dealing with inertia, it's easier to just maintain the status quo, until outside events necessitate action. 

I don't feel that I'm running out of time especially fast, I think that I've still got a good number of years left  to play around with cars. But I would like to pare down the number of hobby cars, as I age. 

It also made me realize that there's no real reason for me to hold onto any of my hobby cars. I should move them along if I lose interest. It's not like I'm buying expensive cars, so any loss is pretty reasonable. Also, maybe I can cut down on the number of hobby cars that I currently own. 

However I don't plan to just give my cars away. 

It's not like I hate any of my cars, and currently they all run pretty good. But big expenses will come along soon, like new tires for my Navigator and then for my '96 Mustang.  I just paid for a new battery for the '96, tires for the '06 Mustang, and registration for a couple of them, totaling 1,500 bucks. Registration, insurance. and expensive maintenance items have to be taken care of even if you don't drive the cars that much. 

Like most car guys I'm always looking for the next car that I'd like to own. 

I test drove that Lincoln MKC and I liked it. Maybe I should try a later model MKX?

I'm thinking that I should also test drive the two other cars that I've been seriously thinking about; The Cadillac XTS and the CTS.

The XTS is a bigger FWD car that is focused on traditional luxury. It is very quiet and smooth riding. It comes with a 300 hp V6 which seems more than adequate. From what I've read, it can achieve close to 30 mpg. on the highway. 

The reviews that I've read indicate that the CTS is a driver's car along the lines of a BMW. I sat in a 2008 model and it was nice, though a bit tight. I prefer the 2008 and up models. Though I would be looking for a 2014 model as I want it to have built in Navigation and a back up camera. 

Besides satisfying my curiosity, it also provides me with some interesting content for my blog. I'll stick to cars offered by dealers.

My present goal is to buy nothing older than ten years. Mileage would have to be lower, 100,000 miles maximum, but preferably less. Of course, they would have to be in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition. That will make it easier to preserve and maintain them, which is my favorite part of the hobby. 

So where does this leave my interest in older cars? 

Good question. I don't really have an answer for that...yet.

I was at a Burgers and Cars event in Santa Rosa last week, and was speaking to a young guy who had showed up in a Fox body Mustang GT Hatchback. He had recently bought the car, which had already been restored. I told him that I'd bought most of my old cars back in the 1970's, and that I don't see myself backtracking and buying the same models today. Been there done that.

As I get older I don't relish the thought of doing a lot of mechanical work on my cars. I had a bunch of "fun" redoing my truck's brakes a few weeks back.

I was thinking that it might be fun to have an older, simpler, car to work on and drive, one that I wouldn't try to restore to perfect shape. Then I realized that I've already had that! My '70 Mustang coupe. It wasn't a bad car, but I didn't really enjoy driving it, and lost interest in it after a couple of years. 

So maybe I'm not being honest with myself.

Well, I don't have to explain my choices to anyone. I'm free to move on to enjoy a different type of car, and as I get older, my preferences are likely to change.

I'm curious to see how this plays out.

 Fixing the loose driver's armrest/door pull on my F150.

You can see the gap that opens up when I pull
on the armrest/door pull.

The driver's armrest/door pull of my F150 was loose at the front. As you can see, a gap opens up when I pull on it. Something had broken or come loose inside the door panel. I didn't want to break the remaining portion of the arm rest. I had put off the job for several months. just being careful when closing the door. Finally I decided to do something about it. I checked out a couple of videos on how to remove the door panel. This job calls for some very small sockets or nut drivers. 10 mm will be the biggest size needed. 

I bought this set of nylon trim removal tools at Harbor freight. These will not scratch the finish of the door frame. You can use regular screw drivers, but I'd wrap the tips in some kind of tape. 

First of all, carefully pry one side of the speaker grille off.

Remove the four screws holding the speaker in place and disconnect the speaker wire plug. These are very small bolt heads.

You only need to remove the two bottom nylon inserts. Work them out gently with a needle nose pliers. The video I watched said to remove all of them, but that's not necessary. 

The video also said to pry the crank knob off before you unsnap the plastic covering. All you need to do is to unsnap the cover off at the back end, and rotate it out of the way. You will see a small hole with a screw inside.

It takes a small torx head screwdriver. I bought this set at, where else? Harbor Freight. It contains torx bits, some small sockets, and a set of pozi force screwdriver bits. The pozi force screws look like Phillips head screws, but are a bit different.

Under the door release lever you'll see a small "door." Remove that by partying it off, then remove the two ten mm bolts.

There are two very small bolts holding the bottom of the panel on, take those off. Keep all the bolts separated so that you don't confuse them.

The door release lever unit is just snapped in, carefully pry it loose. There's no need to remove the assembly from the cable, it will easily fit through the opening.

Go ahead and unscrew the lock knob. To remove the panel do not try to pry it off! It won't come off and you'll break something! Bump it up by striking it up with your palm on the bottom edge, under the door pockets. The hooks on the back of the panel need to disengage before you can remove the panel.

This is the hook that holds the front section of the arm rest to the metal door frame. Those two screws go into the back of the arm rest. Remove these and keep them in order these bolts are not all identical.

These four bolts hold the back part of the arm rest on. Note: The two bottom bolts are a bit longer. Once I had the armrest free I could see that the front bolts had broken the plastic pedestal that they screwed into. That's why the front end was loose. The bottom of the pedestal was still intact, a set of longer screws should reach the intact portion and secure the arm rest. I have a large collection of miscellaneous screws that I've accumulated over the years. I looked through my collection and came up with these. 

You can see the intact pedestals on the front of this replacement arm rest. I've never had any success trying to glue the broken plastic parts back in place, This OEM replacement armrest costs over 90.00, a good reason to keep your eyes open for replacement when you're in the wrecking yards.

These screws are almost an inch longer and should do the trick. I screwed them through the black backing hook bracket and into the arm rest. I could feel them bite into the remaining pedestal and tighten up. Don't over tighten them. That's good advice for this entire job. All the crews tighten into plastic, so just snug them up.

Assembly is reverse of disassembly.  

Before you replace the speaker grille, be sure to check that the speaker wire is connected securely and the speaker works.

How long will this repair last?

Who knows?  The original armrest stayed intact for 17 years. If it breaks again, it can be repaired by adding a metal plate that is attached to the armrest on the inside edge. The repair won't be unnoticed, but could be neatly handled. I think that the best option is to try to secure a replacement from a wrecking yard while you are there. 

I have several little repairs on my truck lined up for the near future, and will cover them in future posts.

 The Avenue of Broken Dreams.

There's a lot of heartbreak parked around this shop.

Or perhaps it should be called, the Avenue of broken down cars!

I have never seen so many Lamborghinis in one place.

This is probably a customer's car.

I've seen worse.

Right across the street from my Wife's hair salon is a foreign car repair shop. Not just a foreign car garage, but a high end foreign car shop. Parked on the street alongside the building, as well in front, are nose to tail fancy furrin jobs. Besides the Lambo's (mostly sedans), there are Jaguars, Porsches and even an occasional Bentley. Not to mention scores of Bimmers and Mercedes. What surprised me is that these cars are left parked on the street. 

Some of them are obviously wrecks that were probably totaled out and put to auction. I suppose the garage owner bought them and is considering fixing them up? 

The Boxster looks to be in good shape.
But let's take a look at that Bentley.

Ouch!!!

What's going to happen to all that glove soft leather inside?

The Bimmer is not as bad as the Bentley?

Quite the row of derelicts.

I know from experience that most of these cars only appear to be valuable, they are mostly ten years old, or even older. From what I've seen, first gen Bentley Continental coupes are only going in the high twenty thousand dollar range. 

Well, that obviously is not chicken feed, especially to a cheapskate like me!

I guess/hope that the shop keeps the really valuable cars in the shop, or in their razor wire fenced yard. As I was taking pictures, the employees were leaving the building at the end of the work day. A man asked me what I was doing. I asked if he was the owner of the shop and he told me yes. I told him that I've never seen so many European cars in one place, and did he mind me taking pictures? He said no, and answered my next question, were these his, or his customer's cars? He said that most of them belonged to customers.

It doesn't surprise me that so many high end foreign cars are in need of servicing, but I find it hard to believe that those are all customers cars. I would be worried about my Lambo being vandalized or broken into.

I lived on that street myself, at one time. Along with the posers, the dreamers, and the enthusiasts. Our binding desire was that we were hoping that we could beat the odds and buy and maintain an earlier example of some fancy Euro car. Some of us might have been successful, at least for awhile, but usually the hassles wear down our resolve, and pretty soon the car is listed on Craigs's List!

Of course there are lots of broken down American and Japanese cars parked on other streets. What makes this different, was that the owners are probably a lot like me. They bought these cars with such high hopes. These were special cars. The owners could have bought more plebian models and come out ahead in many ways. Better off financially, with less hassles, more reliability, and better re-sale. But they would have missed out on that opportunity to sample the reflected glory of a prestigious marque. Sometimes, that alone is well worth the price. Even if it doesn't last.

Oftentimes, that's the only appeal and motivation.

Oh, to pursue dreams of grandeur. But that path has many hazards!

His Dad told him to stay in his lane!

Perhaps like Icarus, we flew too close to the Sun.

We would succeed for a time, then we were struck by the inevitable.  I'll come right out and say it, the poor engineering of these vehicles results in a series of expensive repairs, that we just can't accept and afford. That statement may offend some of you. These cars are supposed to be viewed as the paragons of automotive engineering excellence and achievement, then why can't they run as good as a Camry?  But the primary purpose of a car is transportation, that means that it should run reliably for years, and maintenance and repair costs should be reasonable. Or at least manageable. If you follow any enthusiast forums you'll read tale after tale of woe. I followed the Jaguar forums for many years, and any sane person would have stayed far away from any old Jaguar, they're only worth taking a chance on with a full warranty. Then you'll only be out the inconvenience.

Call me old fashioned, but in my mind, superior engineering should equate to superior durability and longevity. But as all of us aficionados are well aware of, durability is not something that these high end foreign makes are well known for. 

On an earlier occasion I saw a Jaguar XJS parked along the curb. I know that those can have problems!

However, there were some nice looking cars also parked around the shop. Looking nice however, does not always equate to up and running.

Vintage but still stately.

This Benz was in quite nice shape.

As was this Alfa.

This one also looks pretty good.

Well, as enthusiasts we all have our own individual dreams. Many of have chased this path of the Euro car and crashed and burned. Many more after us will engage in the chase oblivious to other's counsel, warnings, and our own good sense!  But the heart wants what the heart wants, and what would life be like without romance? I wish all enthusiasts the best of luck!