Daughter home from college.

[frkelly74]

Our Daughter was home from college yesterday. She is only over in Kalamazoo but has a job and other obligations on her time so we don't get to see her much. At Christmas she was home to buy a car and insurance and her price range was kind of meager, but we went out to a local dealer who I had gotten good service from previously and succeeded in getting a kind of rusty but seemingly mechanically sound PT cruiser for an amount within her budget, Barely. I knew it needed tie rods and the watts link on the back axel. It klunked pretty bad which contributed to getting the price down. I ordered the parts and had them here waiting. The replacement went really well and the klunk was gone..... but now there was a nice grinding sound from one of the rear wheels, bad wheel bearing. So back to the computer to see how to do the job and then order a part. The part was on hand and only took about 30 minutes to get it changed. So now she is rolling nice and smooth and doesn't have to keep the stereo quite so loud. I liked doing the work. She happened to see a pair of pewter shot glasses that I had got to melt and wanted to hold them. They are nice and shiny and i could see she liked them so I told her to keep them for me so I wouldn't melt them. They are nice heavy ZINN marked and with three reliefs of old German cathedrals on each. It was good to see her.

[Winger Ed.]

That's great.

My sister was like that- when the car made offending noises, she'd turn up the radio.
It always worked for a little while.

[bikerbeans]

Always a good day when a child comes home to visit.

BB

[jmort]

Good job dad
Daughters are super-special
I rarely see my college-aged daughter
She is nearby
Works full time
Goes to school full time
Hard being an empty-nester
But she has always exceeded my expectations
BTW
Watch that timing belt
My daughter had PT Cruiser and it is a science project to replace

[lightman]

It sounds like you had a nice visit. Glad to hear that she is doing well.

[jsizemore]

I hope she helped with the repairs especially after getting part of the pewter stash.

[Arkansas Paul]

That's the good stuff.

I'll be down this road sooner than later.
My daughter is going into 11th grade this year and is already visiting colleges. It seems they do it earlier and earlier these days.
Baylor University was last week. Next month, Ole Miss. God, I hate Ole Miss.

[frkelly74]

There is not even room to get a flashlight beam into where the timing belt replacement happens, let alone a hand or two, or a wrench. I have done a 3.5 V6 with double overhead cams once and that was quite the learning process. The 2.4 chrysler looks to be straight forward enough, once you get your hands in there.

[jimlj]

I second thinking about the timing belt. I've had a couple of Neon's that I did the timing belt on. Before it goes is a lot simpler than after it goes. After it goes head gaskets and valves will likely need replaced as well. I think the PT has the same engine as the Neon. If you end up doing the timing belt I'd change the water pump, belt tensioner and engine mount. If you order all the parts on line you can get them for about $80. Buy them at the local parts house and you will spend at least tripple that. I bought the same brand engine mount on Amazon for $10 that Autozone wanted $53 for.

[David2011]

So now she is rolling nice and smooth and doesn't have to keep the stereo quite so loud.

A friend's sister just kept turning up the radio to cover the noise. She said she thought the oil pressure light would do something different if it was really serious. She was driving a classic Mercedes.