Let There Be Light - Healed the Cars - Blessings All Around

If you are reading this post as a family or friend, all you probably want to know is how the car looks after hitting the deer, getting it back from the mechanic and me taking a hammer to it! 


The rest is details but I did want to share two things with you. I wanted to update you on Princess Two's car and the part search situation. 

If you remember I posted this week about spending weeks calling all over the country for a used part for Princess Two's car. You can't get a new part for this car that works, it has to be a used one and since everyone has the same problem about the same time on the car, there are NONE available. (Click her to read about that post.)


Here is how that worked out. I called a few more shops and waited a day for them to get back to me but I found one that had only been wrecked since March and the part didn't leak that I need for Princess One's car and the air flow meter that I needed for Princess Two's car was actually on the main part! YEA

I wanted to send you the link for the guy's blog where he posted about the problem. Click here for the link. The reason I am doing this is to share with you what an amazing blessing it is having the internet. 

The problems Princess was having were similar to a bad spark plug. The car would stall when stopped, would run jumpy and sluggish when in motion. The code that showed up on the sensor when they had it read were varied but said something about air flow. So, I typed those things into the search along with the car year, make and model. With that information, his site came up second or third in the search. I clicked on it and every thing he said was exactly what was with her car. 
 
If I hadn't searched the internet, we probably would have purchased a NEW after market part for almost $300 and found out that it didn't work. Or, like him, I would have tried eBay and found that the after market doesn't work. Or, I could have spent $1,500 on one from the manufacture which is more than the car is worth.

So, what I am trying to share with you, is that if you car isn't working, before taking it to the shop, try typing in the symptoms, with the year, model and make of car and see if anyone else with your car is having the same problem.

My dad, brother and mechanic all thought it was something different and would have had to take time diagnosing it and we would have had to tow it somewhere. 

Because of his post, I was able to know it was that due to the codes that were showing up on the reader at the car parts place as he even shared the codes that kept showing up. 

Here is the post about me hitting the deer a few weeks ago. When I took my car in to get the ball joint replaced, Big O some how dislodged my battery after putting the new joint on and then pushed it into the shop to do the alignment and told me I needed a new starter. They put in a used one even after I told them over and over the starter had no problems and that I knew it was a battery issue. I asked them twice to two different workers and the manager if they had bench tested the starter and they told me they had. The had my car five days! I pick it up, pay them for everything (he didn't charge me for the used starter) and I leave and just after closing after an errand or two, guess whose car didn't start? ARG!
 
I tow it with Princess Four pulling me with a tow rope to my regular mechanic to find out it was the battery terminal that I didn't replace a few weeks ago. I guess I should have replaced them both! However, Big O should have figured that one out and when they tested my old starter, guess what? Yes, it worked! So, Big O wants to tow it to their store to fix it and I tell them I want my mechanic to fix it as they shouldn't have lied and I want them to pay the bill since I asked TWICE if they had tested the starter!

So, now, my car is struggling a bit starting and I think I want them to put my starter back in! Oh the fun with Mechanics! 

On a plus note, Princess Two's part came this week, she was home with friends on the day the part came. She put on facebook if anyone could help her put the sensor on as it was only a few screws so her landlord helped her put the part in and reset the battery to turn off the "Check engine" light and guess whose car is running fine with a $100 dollar used part!?! Actually, it was less as the same part is going to fix Princess One's car which has a small leak in that part so technically, it was $50 fix for her car!


I really think that the air flow sensor broke due to Big O new rotors and brakes as she said it was smoking and stinky on the way home from the shop and then she heard a "pop" and then the car stopped working.

She had her tires rotated at the same time and when she pulled the car out from Big O, she heard a grinding in the back of the car. She had to stay for an extra hour after closing for them to find that they had bent a piece of metal when they were putting the tires on in the back and it was rubbing the tire. It is a good thing she made them check as she was going to be driving from there for two hours and could have had a blow out on the highway! 

The time before that when I took my car to Big O, they forgot to turn off the air shocks in my car and they wouldn't pump up after as it created a vacuum and they spent a few hours trying to figure out how to fix the problem after I returned with my car about on the ground and ever since then, the car has to pump more and more as I think they sprouted some leaks due to the pinching it caused and me driving it out of the shop that way. 

A few times before that, I sat there for at least and hour and maybe more and was just getting my tires rotated and all these other people went in and out and come to find out , they forgot to put my car in the rotation so the guys were just hanging out while I sat there. 

Guess who WON'T be going to Big O anymore!


Anyway, how I fixed my car, first, I got any damage I couldn't fix done. The alignment etc. Then, I ordered the new light off eBay. New after market were anywhere from $140 to $160 and I got a used one in great shape for $80 shipped off eBay. 

I then took pliers and a rubber mallet/hammer to the hood. I used a handle off a screw driver against the car and then hit the mallet. It was good to pound out the larger dents but I didn't really want to take lots of time as it looked ok with a few ripples in it and I wasn't sure how much better I could get it to look anyway. 

I then used plumbers tape that I show in the video above and screwed with self tapping screws through the plastic bumper and pulled it together before screwing it all the way down. As you can see in the top two pictures, it worked well. I did it just under the light on the top of the bumper where you wouldn't be able to see it unless you were looking. You can see it clearly in the pictures down a few. I did both sides of the front bumper under the light and here is a post of the car the week I got it and you can see that the drivers side had a crack in the bumper when I got it and now, it is fixed.

The top fourth picture is just showing you how to take the plastic black cover off by sliding it out from under the clips. 

To get the light fixture out, you just pull two or three little clips handles straight out. Watch the video to see how they come out. Once you have the tow or three clips out, the entire light fixture will come out by unclipping the main light clip. If you need to replace one light bulb, you need to unclip that specific bulb but you can see me pointing to the different bulbs in some of the pictures.

I used painters tape and newspaper to mask the chrome and other parts of the car I didn't want to paint. I then used regular spray paint that will work on metal and plastic. It covered the parts well and I was happy with it but it was a bit whiter than the car color so I purchased some car paint from the auto parts store that I thought would match better and it actually looked worse and bubbled in spots. 


It still looks ok but I spent almost $10 on the car paint for a small can and I don't think it looks any better so you can do whatever works for you but I am sharing my experience. 

The light came about a week after I bought it from eBay and it was great. I just slid it in and slipped the two or three clamps down into the slots and it was done.


One thing on the crack in the bumper. If you spray some spray paint on your finger first and rub it into the cracks, it will fill in the cracks and make it seal up even more holding the bumper more into place. You can see that in the pictures, the cracks don't show up as much since I did that. 

Also, if you get overspray on the chrome or light, you can take fingernail polish remover and cotton balls and clean off the over-sprayed paint. I show this in the two pictures above, there is paint on the chrome and then the next one, the paint is taken off. 

The deer hitting cost me about $350 but most of that was the alignment and new ball joint. The light, paint and parts were just over $100 so I was blessed as if I got a new bumper and hood, it would have cost so much more! Of course, if you have a new car, you would want that but my car wasn't worth that much expense. 

I'm getting new tires today so I am praying it will be good as new!