So after some swearing, a vacuum test, and the advice of the good people over at the Ford Forums it turns out to be a bad hose. One of the hoses in the picture (though you can’t tell it) had a nasty crack down the side on the end that connected to the sensor. After getting new hoses, and another new sensor then putting it all back together, it has run flawlessly. I’m really quite relieved, I was afraid the the cat converters were plugged and would have to be replaced, but it was just a simply hose.
Archive for August, 2009
Aug
11
2009
Car trouble…
I hate cars, I really do. I know that mine is getting up there in age and miles really (10 years old with nearly 150k miles) but it still drives me crazy when things go wrong. This time, it’s the DPFE sensor. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that is, I didn’t either a week or so ago. Though now I have learned FAR more about the EGR system than I ever really cared to know.
Really, it’s not that the sensor has gone bad, it’s that it’s been melted, rather badly. This picture will likely show a bit better what has happened (click the image for a larger view):
Yeah, not cool. I’m still trying to track down the problem but at this point, I believe it to simply be one of the two hoses pictures, more specifically, the one on the exhaust site of the orifice. I bought the hoses and another sensor at NAPA but before I install it, I wanted to make sure that the cat converters aren’t plugged. That could also cause excessive back pressure and do the damage shown.
What makes it worse, my car actually qualifies for the “Cash for Clunkers” program and I would get $4500 on a trade in. The problem with this is that I can’t find the car that I really want….a black Jetta TDI, manual transmission, with a sunroof. Really my car should run a fair bit longer so I really hate to give it up over a repair that costs a few hundred dollars. Of course, if I do end up having to replace the cats, that’s another $350 or so if I do it myself.
It’s just driving me crazy….I laid awake for a while this morning just thinking about it and going over all the possible scenarios in my head. I really believe it to just be the hose, but I don’t know that for a fact, and at $100 a pop for the sensor I don’t really feel like melting another one. Tomorrow I plan to check the vacuum pressures to see if the cat converters are bad. My hope is that they aren’t, and that simply putting everything back together (with the new hose) will solve the problem.
Anyway….just what I have been thinking about for the past few days….
Aug
06
2009
Dot World Technologies…..What the hell
So I got this email today, from a company called Dot World Technologies. This email is such as follows:
Dear Webmaster,
We have visited your site http://www.dansrantcorner.com and found it quite impressive.
Our site is in a similar vein to yours and we are seeking high quality and related sites to help get our site off the ground and get some initial page rank happening. If you could provide us with a link back then would be much appreciative.
While there isnt a hugely tangible benefit to you linking to us our site will develop strongly over time and prove very useful to small and medium business owners who will benefit from finding a suitable tech to assist them with their business.
I would really appreciate if you add my site with this information.
Link Details:
Title: Dirt Cheap Airline Tickets
URL: http://www.dirtcheapairlineticket.org
Thanks & Regards,
John B.
dirtcheapairlineticket@dwtseo.com
http://www.dirtcheapairlineticket.org
Please note, all the links have been broken to AVOID actually linking to the site. The only thing I left was the mailto email address with the hope that it will get spammed to hell. My response is a follows, and I think it sums up my rant rather nicely:
Nice to see such a lovely auto-generated message…. The short answer is, piss off. The long answer is, how in the hell is my rantings ANYTHING AT ALL like airline tickets!?!? I deal with stupidity on a daily basis but you have without a doubt taken the cake. Just thinking about how stupid you must be give me a splitting headache. I truly hope that you burn forever in hell and that your very existence is nothing short of painful. Please, kindly, remove my site, email, and anything else tied to me from any and all databases, email lists, web sites, etc. Thank you and have a wonderful day,
–
Dan
Anyway, I don’t really have anything to add to that, so that will be all.
Aug
04
2009
My Daughter…My Children
Whether or not I am ready for it, it won’t be long at all before I become a “family man” so to speak. I am marrying the most wonderful woman in the world who also has two children…a son who is 3 and daughter who is 6. While the debate still seems to go on about my fitness to be a parent, there is something that really made me smile this morning.
Shannon, 6, was staying with her grandmother overnight as Shelley had to work. Since her bio father doesn’t have a place of his own, he stays here as well. This can, as one would imagine, cause some tension.
While I don’t know the whole story, this I know. Shannon and her bio father had a bit of a….well….”falling out” this morning….more than what is usual. As I understand it, she stated that “he was mean but I wasn’t and she wished she was with me this morning” That of course has been tweaked to reflective the fact that it’s coming from me and not from her. Not being a grammar major, nor really being all that great at grammar, I don’t really know the proper term here.
What makes this better still, is that he was more that a little upset with this. He promptly left, didn’t say goodbye, didn’t stop at the stop signs, and just took off. I know I shouldn’t find this nearly as amusing as I do, but I cannot help it. I really don’t know how to describe it. I’m overcome with a strange sense of proudness (shut-up, I know it’s not a word!)….for her standing up to him. The voice in the back of my head telling me that I will be just fine as a parent also seems to be getting stronger.
I don’t know….I don’t really know how to define this. While they are not my bio children, I have this connection that seems to be stronger than any physical connection could ever be. I really don’t know how to describe it….I may never be able to honestly. I feel like….I know that I love them, that I am proud of them, that I truly value our time together. I….I really cannot explain it.
I know it’s not what would be expected…bit sometimes it really takes a rather odd event to really shed light on the situation. Meaning, I have always been proud of the….my children that is….but I don’t know that I really realized how much until today….
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