knowing when to say when (give it up to the pros)

this is embarrassing, but true…

…i bought a part for betty back in october of 2018 and just got around to trying to install it. i made light reference to it a while back. back then i was annoyed because, when i bought her, i was talked into (“forced into” would be a better way of describing it) a warranty to the tune of almost two grand that covered “all the drive train including the turbo” which was several DOZEN pages so, of course, i never read it.

when i had the “mystery drive train light” i brought up in the bit above, a smoke test was done and it was found to be an air pressure release valve on the turbo. but because it was ON the turbo (as in “attached to”) and not the turbo itself the warranty wouldn’t cover it. the repair was $700, which i couldn’t swing that close to xmas, and i just said, “fuck it – i’ll get the part and do it myself”.

i got a part made by the OEM manufacturer (basically a factory part without the three letters on it) and did what i always do – hit google and forums and such to find the diy on putting it in…except there WAS none. anywhere. i couldn’t even find a pic of the part installed to show me where the fucker was. and looking down into the engine bay from the top you can’t even see the turbo, let alone anything attached to it.

that sucked.

eventually i just gave up and dealt with it – it just meant anytime i accelerated i got a warning light and engine performance dropped. i just adjusted my driving style toward being more conservative, but since the turbo gets hot under normal conditions it gets even more so under texas summer conditions, meaning now the light goes off almost every time i drive. i had finally found the part location by looking at an actual photo of my car’s engine NOT installed in the car and ascertaining where it was on the turbo. all signs pointed to it being easily accessible from the underside of the vehicle. i had planned on taking a pic of the damn thing before i swapped in and doing a triumphant bit about me conquering this demon several months later. the bit was to be entitled “don’t put off several months what you can do today!”.

you’ll notice that’s NOT the title above. that’s because even from the underside it can’t be seen or reached, which sucks.

fortunately my birthday is this next week and i am notoriously hard to buy for, so the ufc is just throwing me some cash, which combined with my emergency stash covers the $335 i’ve been quoted to install the part, which cost me $65, so all in i’m at $400 for the $700 repair. not ideal, but fuck it – if it fixes the problem it’s a happy birthday for me!