[Coronita]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Business is business. Whatever the market will bear.
Take all the conditions into account and act accordingly.

Your costs are not a factor. The price should be what the conditions call for.[/quote]

So the conditions allow me to raise prices because I’m well below market. My question is it worth adjusting closer to market at this point…..

[Coronita]

I think the lesson to learn is extreme viewpoints are hazardous to one’s economic health..

[Coronita]

Got both bolts off… Now I can double check my timing alignments and make sure my gears are set correctly when I’m at TDC…..

I feel like I won the lottery…

[Coronita]

Update….

Dremel grinder + cutter + vice grip + bolt out + breaker bar + hammer + useless weak torch

…Resulted in……

And a big FU to this bugger….

Previous stealership coated this with loctite, when specifically spec says do not use any sort of loctite thing on these…. Jerks…

I ended up slicing and dicing it bit…. Like my pseudo hex-bolt shape with a notch in the middle?

One down, one to go….

Thanks everyone so far for the suggestions….

..Oh and here’s something of an irony…

Here’s a nice german part….

But, looking at the box…. Hey now…..

[Coronita]

Audi… The gift that keeps giving…….

So…. I was at UTC yesterday to run some errands… I thought I’d pay Sears a visit….. 🙂

Got these… Made in USA.

Salesguy says they are really tough and I wouldn’t be able to to strip these…And if I did, I can return them for a refund…. While I was there, I also picked up an 200ft/lb impact wrench….

…..The results….

Seized bolt: 2
FLU+ Craftsman Bolt Out+Impact Wrench: 0

Oh… And I did manage to strip/flatten the bolt-outs slightly too.. So they go back to Sears, along with the impact wrench, that didn’t do jack to remove the crank nut too.

Oh, this is going to be a long journey……

Next stop… Drill, baby drill!

[Coronita]

[quote=infoseeker]Just pinging to see if folks have any inputs[/quote]

I think you probably need to do some research and calculate if a particular property(ies) works out for you in terms of your objectives.

No one will know better than your own due dilgence.

If this is your first time: some pointers would be

1. Figure out the cost of the home looking at comparables that sold recently.. If it’s a SFH, figure out how much maintenance you think you’ll need to do based on the specific condition of the home (consider likely repair of big items such as roof, plumbing)…

2. Figure out how much taxes (including any special bond assessments, mello ruse(sic)

3. Figure out how much it will be to insurance the place…

4. Figure out how much your mortgage would be given how much you plan on borrowing and at the rate you will be borrowing at…Add .50% for an investment property to the rate you normally would get for a owner occupied home.

5. Get a good estimate of how much rent you can get…The best way. Use craiglist and either figure out what people are asking for comparables rentals AND how long that rental is staying on craigslist. OR do a fake test post offering rent to see how much interest you get at the price you are advertising…

6. Do the math and figure out how much cash flow you would be generating per month…
Calculate your return on that positive cash flow versus how much money you will be putting in….

If you’re near break even, figure out if you are playing more so with appreciation from this price point on….. Some people don’t mind having $0 cash flow because they figure they are buying in an area with that will appreciate more in the future…
It also depends on your net worth/financial situation. Personally, recent price points, I wouldn’t count on appreciation alone, and wouldn’t want to buy something with a $0 cashflow, with the except of maybe something in Carmel Valley, and even then it would have to be something compelling for me.. But that’s just me.

[Coronita]

[quote=moneymaker]Why did you need to remove the pulley to begin with flu?

When I was fresh out of college my transmission went bad on my Toyota station wagon, so I took it in after opening the drain pan and closing it back up. They told me I needed a new transmission for like $800 or so, so I said go ahead. After getting it back I later (like almost a year later) checked the drain pan and found the same filter with a tear in it inside. I wanted to sue but then thought I had agreed to the price and it was working (kept working til I sold it many years later), still feel like I was lied to and cheated though.[/quote]

Unfortunately, there’s a timing belt cover must be removed to get to the crank pulley where the belt sits, and in order to get the cover off, the pulley has to come off first.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Did it damage the engine, or was it a case of empty, flush, refill, refill again, keep fingers crossed? Interestingly, several cars that I’ve owned specified 10W30 oil in the gearbox instead of GL4 or ATF.[/quote]

I don’t remember. I think the person noticed the color of the fluid not being correct, and then had it towed somewhere else and drained and refilled it.

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]So they stole your parts, basically? Leave them a piece of your mind on Yelp and report them to the Bureau of Automotive Repair. One complaint won’t do much, but if there’s a pattern, B.A.R. might be encouraged to fine them.

Thieves suck.[/quote]

It happened 7+ years ago, and since then the stealership has changed hands, and I don’t have any proof of it happening. So at most, it would become a he said/she said thing. Also, unrelated, I had a nice long discussion with my insurance agent about posting social media web review sites and the potential of it exposing oneself to personal liability claims from the business owner when the reviews accuse the business of something shady without proof to back up that claim.

Apparently, that’s one of the reasons why some homeowner’s insurance have been excluding or capping personal liability… some people are getting sued over it…. While it’s still murky how the courts will find things posted on these review websites, I for one don’t want to be the one pioneering and testing this unchartered area..

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Could be worse — quick-lube place actually stripped the oil drain nipple on my sister’s car.[/quote]

It could be way worse then that. Some guy on the VWVortex made the mistake of going to the quick lube place despite everyone telling them not to.. The “tech” filled the engine with transmission oil instead of engine oil…..(wrong lube gun I guess)

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]

It often ended up costing me more to do it myself – especially factoring in my time and tools I had to buy.

At least you’d do it right, though, unlike some HS dropout mechanic’s assistant.[/quote]

Funny you should mention that…..Because about 50k miles ago, I bought the entire timing belt package (belts, water pump, t-stat,etc)..Then I took the parts over to the stealer that at the time had a coupon and was willing to do the labor for about $750-800 since I was in a hurry back then.

Now that I have my front disassembled and can see everything…it appears, they left the old water pump, timing belt roller and tensioner, and idle pulley..I know because the ones currently on my car still have the Audi logo on it, and the ones I bought years ago were all aftermarket.. So someone on the stealer basically charged me labor for work they didn’t do AND kept my parts that I bought…. Of course I didn’t notice because one can’t tell without taking the front off to look. And for them, if things did break, they already stated “customer parts: no warranty”.

Oh, and also, things they were suppose to replace under warranty, they only did a 1/2 ass job… I had a few vacuum lines that were cracking that I asked them to replace under warranty. Since the vacuum lines were so hard to access without taking the front off, the previous tech cut the old vacuum lines and spliced in new vacuum lines only in the locations that I could see them when the engine bay is open. So from the top, it looked like the replaced the vacuum lines when they didn’t…. Nice….

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte]Oy. Thanks for the post and especially the pics.

It is bringing why I quit working on my own cars flooding back to my brain. Things like this happened to me too.

It often ended up costing me more to do it myself – especially factoring in my time and tools I had to buy.[/quote]

Yeah I think i am starting to learn this the hard way myself… My original thought process was book value was almost = to price to get someone to do this… Hence why I was thinking to do it myself. Now, I am thinking what I should have done is gone with the #2 “drive car until belt snaps and engine blows up, then junk car” approach…. I guess that’s still a possibility, since I doubt the two stripped bolts are going to fall off 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]
Middle bolt is removed by a socket connected to a long bar which is (almost) braced against something immovable. Then hit the starter with the spark plugs removed. *clink* chugga-chugga-chugga. Poor man’s impact wrench.[/quote]

Interesting…Never thought about that… You really should do something more with your hands 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=CDMA ENG]Holy Fuck Flu…

Man you have no luck…

Lastly… are you sure these threads aren’t reversed?

CE[/quote]

Yes, because two of the four I removed and replaced with a normal hex bolt . Stupid german engineering for over-complicating something as simple as a bolt…

[Coronita]

Ok shop hobby vacation is almost over so this car goes into storage until I have time to work on it.

I think I’ve decided what to do next.

1. I’m going to get a larger drill bit and drill until the head of the stuck bolts fall off. Then the pulley should come loose. Hopefully I won’t damage the pulley because that’s $300.

2. After I have the pulley off, I can try to use a screw extractor, since hopefully the pressure from the torque of the bolt will be off.

3. In the worst case scenario that I cant extract the bolt, I’ll then just take the camshaft gear off and replace it.. It’s $90 for OEM, $30 for german 3rd party maker, and $20 used from ebay… I think I can borrow an impact wrench from someone to take that camshaft nut off.

Thoughts?

[Author]

Posts