I like GM, but last night sucked.

My friend has a an 01 Chevy Malibu that has been over heating and pissing coolant for about the last week. Well yesterday it overheated backing out of the parking lot of the subway in town that my friend works at/I used to work at/grew up with the owners son. He doesn't have the money to get it towed, and a few other friends decided it was most likely the thermostat sticking.

So at 3pm yesterday afternoon, it started to be taken apart in the parking lot. He was finally able to drive home at 9pm last night. For a thermostat. A $15 piece of metal. The 3.1 V6's have the thermostat on the side of the block, between the block and the intake housing. There are also all sorts of things in the way. We kept having to get the girl working in subway to come out to get bolts started and stuff because our hands were all too big. Needless to say between the 5 of us rotating out, we got it done, and he fed everyone. It was kind of chilly out and luckily the car was under one of the lights in the parking lot.

yup. malibu's suck to work on. :mrgreen: there pretty good cars though

i just got dun putting on a steering rack and doin an alignment on one. wish gm would start making some caster/camber adjusters on the cars instead of having to move the motor rack around for 2 hours to get everything lined up :evil:

I am not a car guy, but I am one of those thinkers. I had a friend there that I could ask questions there.

Nice coming to the rescue :beer:

I had a "friend" leave me in my driveway once with no brakes. :shock:

Loggerhead Mike said:

wish gm would start making some caster/camber adjusters on the cars instead of having to move the motor rack around for 2 hours to get everything lined up :evil:

Click to expand...

geeeez, that's insane!

For those who have "full-coverage" insurance....look at your card, many times you're paying for towing & aren't told.....otherwise you might just use it.

ST

SlimeTime said:

For those who have "full-coverage" insurance....look at your card, many times you're paying for towing & aren't told.....otherwise you might just use it.

ST

Click to expand...

Unless you have some sort of supplemental insurance, why would a liability policy cover towing if your car breaks down?

The Saturn Vue awd we have alternator went south last Friday night. While taking it off the car I noticed huge piece missing in the alt's housing, guess something smashed it since its the only part under the car not covered by the skid plate!

Captain Ahab said:

SlimeTime said:

For those who have "full-coverage" insurance....look at your card, many times you're paying for towing & aren't told.....otherwise you might just use it.

ST

Click to expand...

Unless you have some sort of supplemental insurance, why would a liability policy cover towing if your car breaks down?

Click to expand...

My USAA policy covers me to have my vehicle towed to the nearest repair facility. But they don't just arbitrarily add it, I had to ask for it. Of course they won’t tow it to my house or a friend’s place if I want to do the work myself.

All cars suck to work on at some point. Every manufactorer seams to have a line that is junk. Then again, some car manufactorers have nothing I want to work on. If I had a nickel for every drop of blood I shead trying to make a living in this industry, Id be set. I had a doc appointment and the nurse was taking my BP, she stoped real quick and stepped back. "Is that poison ivy all over your arm"? "No", I said. "Just occupational hazard". Lets not even get started on the burns from hot engines when people just have to wait for the repairs to be made.

Captain Ahab said:

SlimeTime said:

For those who have "full-coverage" insurance....look at your card, many times you're paying for towing & aren't told.....otherwise you might just use it.

ST

Click to expand...

Unless you have some sort of supplemental insurance, why would a liability policy cover towing if your car breaks down?

Click to expand...

Hence the "full-coverage" statement :wink:

ST

PS-I drove a flatbed for a buddy of mine, you'd be suprised how many people I'd asked to see their cards, and showed them they had towing coverage. It was just automatically included for a few extra bucks a month, they didn't request it....they were given it & charged for it......which was the reason for my statement about them not knowing they had it, just a way to inflate their premiums.

So happy I quit being a mechanic.I have to many vehicles I'm currently working on.