Congratulations! I am impressed, and I'm sincerely glad this worked out.

Regarding the weird turn the conversation has taken, let me see if I get this straight: Some of the forum members on a board full of do-it-yourselfers are actually suggesting that if you don't know how to do something, you shouldn't try to learn? I think she just proved that that's BS. For a newbie, ALL repair jobs are initially a challenge, and the only way to overcome that challenge is to tackle it head on with the right attitude, even when the whole project appears to have gone pear-shaped. You don't learn if you don't do it.

Our friend here handled these setbacks with extraordinary patience and not only came out the other side with a working vehicle but also with a huge bump in skill and experience. I'm glad she didn't give up.

 

Congrats on the fix. I read all 15 pages in one sitting. Shew! It appears in your pic as though your XJ is on it's side. I'd start a new thread for that fix.

 

NO>NO>NO new thread!!!! A lot of XJ's wind up on their sides and on their tops. Just roll them over and dust them off, they still roll on their wheels.

 

While I agree with this statement, I also disagree to some extent. This is her daily driver and only car. Yes, some jobs can be tackled by a beginner and turn out fine. Broken bolts are a whole separate can of worms. By all means, learn what's involved, but if you've never extracted a broken bolt before, and have zero knowledge of how to do so, either have someone with the knowledge help you with it, or take it to someone who can get it done. You can really screw things up badly if you don't know what you're doing, and even if you DO know what you're doing, you can STILL screw it up. There's KNOWING how to do something, and actually DOING it. With broken bolts, chasing and tapping threads, there's a "feel" to it, and if you don't have that feel, things can go south in a BIG hurry. I'm all for learning, but in this case, to get her ride back on the road in a timely fashion, and working correctly, it had to go elsewhere. Seacrest OUT...

EDIT: BTW WNJE, glad things are back to normal. You did the right thing here.

 

Well, as we used to say back in the CB days: "Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down".

All's well that ends well.

Congrats, WNJE.

 

If you put out the lights Fire, I'll close the door on our way out.

 

Good work.

 

Congrats Woman!..................................

 

Oh, I know. It's happened twice, but it wasn't a big deal. And I'm expecting it to happen again soon.

I expect to have to learn how to deal with it some day. I hope it's a while down the road, though. Maybe after mastering more basic skills like 'the use of a volt meter'.

I was just...glad that I didn't end up in a 'well, you need to replace the engine' situation when I first started earlier this year like I feared I would.

In general, and I'm sorry I'm going wildly off topic, but I think this forum is a great place. It's full of knowledgeable, patient people willing to help those of us who are getting in over our heads. Even when 'over our head' is something as simple as replacing the thermostat.

Places like this are, to me, the best use of the internet. The free exchange of knowledge for the betterment of all.

 

Learning from the best. ;-)

 

Thats great.
I guess what amazes me most, is how this took almost 14 pages and 200 posts to get(you) to the point of having replaced a cap and broke a bolt.....andthen, all of sudden, within the next few posts you did that whole list yourself? Without any further questions/guidance/advice!?!?....

Wow.Magic.That's some awesomely steep learning curve there....

 

I read this entire exchange out of curiosity as I just replaced my fan clutch recently. Holy cow! What's strange is that there seems to be a chapter missing from this story. How did a trip to Firestone for a bolt extraction turn into a "local mechanic" using PB Blaster to magically remove the bolt? For $10?!?! Hell, if you know a local mechanic who does cheap favors, why didn't you enlist the mechanic for help from the start? Would have made this post a lot shorter. I need a drink after reading this mess!

 

And that's exactly what she did. When the bolt broke, there were people suggesting that she had been in over her head from the beginning and that we shouldn't have encouraged her to take on a job she didn't know how to do. Well, she WAS in over her head, but you never learn if you don't try.

I have broken things while working on them and made the situation worse. In doing so, I usually learn something valuable, like how not to break things. Even if that ends up costing me more time and money, that's okay, because what I'm really paying for is an education.

I know exactly how that happens. You don't have time to dive into the whole job because of work and life getting in the way, and then suddenly you DO have time to dive into the whole job and get it all done in a weekend. I think I recall her saying that some of the delay was time related, and some of it had to do with waiting for her paycheck so she could go buy parts. I don't think the timeline is really that unusual, just that some of the posters here are impatient.

 

Congrats WNJE!

 

I don't believe people thought she was in too far at the beginning, I feel they were frustrated with the fact that she wasn't listening to what was being said. The very first response said fan clutch, but then we have leaks and her wanting to change thermostats. As far as never learning if you don't try, if it were a broken shock bolt, or something similar, I would say try to do it, even for a beginner...but start screwing around with a cylinder head, if you mess up there, it could be a VERY costly mistake. It is obvious she isn't at that skill level yet. She is learning, and that's great, and someday, if she keeps at it, she'll have mad skills. Some people can't afford to have it take more time and money, education or not. That's just reality.

Impatient? I think most people were very patient. Just frustrated by the absence of ear canal reception. The important thing here is she listened to advice at the right time, did what she needed to do, and is all smiles now.