You may have heard a rumor that the New England area is getting riggidy-rocked by a snow storm right now. I would like to go ahead and confirm that rumor. I know it’s true because I was outside in my dark driveway pegging my snowblower off the rev limiter at 6am. Luckily, my neighbors like me……well, they used to at least. Anywho, I assume that some of the 1A Auto blog readers are probably sitting on the beach right now in the hot sun with a margarita in 1 hand laughing at us New Englander’s, and I wanted to show off how much fun snow is. Please excuse the dark pictures. Again, it was 6am and I’m not 100% sure that I was even awake when I took them.
So that is what about 6-7 inches of snow looks like, but its raining down on us at an amazing rate. By the end of today we will have to dig 15 inches down to find the earth again. I’m just hoping that it stops before I clean my driveway again so that I won’t have to do it tomorrow morning as well.
Yay snow. Ugh….
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Recently, I did some work on a 2001 Toyota Tundra because it had begun spitting antifreeze through the grille with the force of 1000 agitated llamas. I swapped out the severely cracked radiator and took it for a test drive to make sure the thermostat and heat were working properly again. Fortunately, the heating & cooling system worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, somebody had replaced the brake pedal with a partially deflated water balloon. It quickly became apparent that braking was not one of this truck’s finest features. It didn’t grind, but it didn’t stop either. I ever so gently coasted it back to the garage and pulled the wheel to see what what the rest of the night would look like for me.
What did I find you ask? Well, two things actually.
1) About 1/3 of the brake pad surface still touching the rotor and an inner pad that was almost down to the metal. Fun times.
2) Hey look! 4 piston calipers and 12.5″ rotors!! Sweet!
The automotive lesson today is:
“Needle nose pliers have two uses. The first is to pick up things that you drop into that deep part of your intake manifold. The second use is to pinch your fingers hard enough to make you squeak like a chipmunk. If you open these things up more than 1/16″, you are announcing to the world that you want to be injured in a strange new way.”
I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like one of the more fun things that I do between December and March is kicking off these…….um……what do you call them……. dirty…. snow….things. Anybody else absolutely love doing this? What about running them over after? Doesn’t it make you feel like a champion? It does for me.
Admit it. You feel the same way.
Coming from a guy that has been on fire more times than I’m willing to admit… (when I was young and foolish of course.)
The Automotive lesson today is:
“Always keep a fire extinguisher, water hose, and / or a 5 gallon bucket of water nearby when you are playing with fire & sparks. Fire gets out of control faster than you can yell “denim inferno”, so always look around at your surroundings before sparking up the torch or turning on the welder.”
