Thread: Gasman's Car Deal and Repair's

(From an earlier thread, Mar 25th)


About a year ago my stepson (32yrs) got a 2005 Chevy Equinox given to him by his grandmother. He replaced the water pump with my direction and all was good. Two days ago he said it overheats and has no heat. I drive a 08 Nissan Altima Coupe and only drive 12 miles to work whereas he drives 110 miles to work. I told him that the blue book value on my car is about 4k but I could sell it for more because of the used market right now. And with the fact that I don't need a car for the next 5 months (according to the doctors), let's trade. So he gave me the Equinox (146k miles, worth 2k on KBB) with overheating issues plus the 4k cash (in payments) for my Nissan.

It took me 5 hours just to clean the grime, gunk, and trash from the Equinox before id think of driving it. I did all the major cleaning before I took pictures so imagine how it would look if you dumped half a soda in the center console. Added a few smokes and trash including french fries and pickles. Then toss in 6 or 7 bucks worth of change and let it get hard over a years time. Spatter coffee and sode onto everything and not remove your trash for a year or so...


I also found a little Coke Spoon under the seat that I'm not going to bring up to him or his mother. Dumb-ass. The Struts and Shocks are shot, trim missing, door panel falling off, a quarter glass shattered, and many other little issues. The overheating problem was a simple fix. Bleed the system as he didn't get all the air out when he replaced the water pump. Dumb-ass again. I warned him about that. Now he is really excited with my Nissan and I know he will trash it soon or demolish the trans being a dumbass but that's on him. I warned him!

I sat up late last night and ordered 800 bucks worth of parts that need replacing or were just torn off (damn kid). Today I'm going to shampoo the hell out of the interior as it's covered in gunk and stains and smells bad. In the end, this gives him a nice little car to drive that is in great condition and me a project to do (being I'm one-handed. One-armed still from surgery, and off work for a few months). I can take my time doing it and will make him help when I need it. I will drive this one to work for a couple of years and then sell it. It won't be worth anything by then but it will drive, be clean and everything will work so what the hell. He gets a nice little car to zoom around in, for now, and I get a little project to spend time on.

Nice vehicle Jerry! Wish i had that auto mechanic ability. Just bought a used van that as it turns out has a rattle in the rear sliding door. My wife thinks it's not that bad but it's anoying to me. You wouldnt' have experience with taking the inside panel off a 2014 Nissan Quest would you?

Getting all the air out of the system is a little tricky as Equinox doesn't have a radiator cap. So you have to fill it with the overflow bottle. BUT, they also made a way to drain the air with a bleeder screw on the opposite side of the engine...



As you can see the two-part brass bleeder screw is mounted onto a round section that is just about the same size as the neck of a plastic water bottle. And yes, it's a perfect fit. So I cut the bottom off a water bottle forced it onto the round part, removed the brass breeder screw completely, and filled the bottle with coolant. After running the engine for a minute, squeezing the radiator hoses over and over air was burping out like crazy. I had to keep adding coolant to the water bottle. After about 10 minutes I had hot heat coming out from the vents in the cab. I dropped the brass screw back in the bottle as it still had coolant in it, and with a long extension and deep socket installed the screw without letting any air in.

My guess for no heat was the heater core was full of air. And with a lot of air in the system, the temperature is going to be erratic.

Hi, Vern.
Most door panels are pretty simple after you have removed a few. But without seeing it...

Normally where a door handle is for grabbing, not unlatching, you can find a piece of trim. the trim covers a couple of screws. The screws are needed because you have to get serious about opening a door. And if the panel is only held on by clips it wouldn't last long before coming apart. Use a small screwdriver and pry off the trim at one end and work it to the other. Also, you may find a piece of plastic covering a screw at the part of the handle you use to unlatch the door. Besides those screws, you will find if you start at one corner like the bottom and pry out the panel is attached with plastic retainers that just pop loose.

BUT, Go to youtube and type in what you are trying to remove and what vehicle. Odds are you will find a video on how to do it.

(Copied from another previous post)

So I did get the carpets and seats shampooed today. I was afraid I was going to have to put seat covers on the list but 90% of the mess came out. Good enough for me for non-leather seats. Only a couple of stains won't come out, although the back seat has a huge stain. I'm thinking a blanket tucked in on the bottom of the rear seat will be good enough. I mean I never have a carload of people with me.



I think the small spots on the driver's seat may be blood as I tried about everything to get them out.
I hate seat covers as they never look good in my opinion.

I took out the cabin air filter. It looked like the original. greasy and dirty. It had leaves and dead bugs in it.



I got it and the engine air filter changed. Changed the oil and filter. Ordered a few more parts. The exterior doesn't look too bad except it will need a couple of pieces of glass replaced. I can see I may be in as much as 1100 in parts before I'm done.

One part I just can't seem to find is the seal that rubs against the outer door glass. It's very odd-shaped. A small part of it is attached to the exterior of the door, then it goes down inside the door about 3/4 inches then back up to rub against the glass to keep out wind and rain.



These last two pictures are how it should look as the backseat doors are not tore-up...



On both front doors, these seals are shredded and fall inside the doors. So if you are any good at finding parts I could use the help. I just don't want to pay dealer prices.

Ha. I see in this first pic you can see my bandaged and braced hand. At least my fingers still work. lol.

Are we sure it wasn't a soap snurdler?

Man, you sure are keeping yourself busy. Don't forget to rest.

Enough for today. I'm behind by a couple of days but since I was asked to do this... it's not like I got much else to do.

Hey, Tom. Do you know where to find those window seals being the repair guy that you are?

Snerdler for a mouse maybe.

I could try to pull some parts for you, but the only thing that would probably be worth the trip is the rear glass and I don't have any experience with that. If that glass is too expensive though let me know and I'll see what I can do.

My truck had been smoked in by the previous owner, but thankfully the smell wasn't that bad. Pulled the cabin filter and let some Ozium circulate with the A/C full blast. That made a big difference.