Jay Gaulard

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Blog posts the fall under the Automotive & Mechanical category. Read all I have written about this topic.

About That Drive in the Snow…

Well, that didn’t turn out like I thought it would. It was actually much more difficult. All I wanted to do was to bring my lady for a nice 4-wheel drive in today’s snow storm and things turned into a fiasco. I’ll tell you all about it.

It was still light outside. I don’t know what time it was, but I know it was light because I wanted to get in the truck before it got dark so Laura could get some nice photos. I went out and cleared the snow off the truck. Then, I sat inside of it, turned the key and waited for the glow plugs to warm up. When that was done, I tried to start it. Click. Click. Click. That’s all I got. I was actually really surprised. I never had a problem with this vehicle before and to find an issue just two days after it ran perfectly to the vet and back was a shocker. Very strange.

I suspected something was going on with the battery terminals. Well, first, I thought the batteries were dead (there are two). But after testing the headlights and the blower fan on high at the same time and having no issues, I concluded it was the battery terminals. Or, just one terminal.

I popped the hood, jumped out of the truck, lifted the hood and began twisting the terminals to see if any were loose. Low and behold, the negative terminal on the passenger side moved fairly easily when I turned it. I gave it a nice twist until it was seated a little tighter and tried to start the truck again. Nothing. It has exactly the same problem. I decided to run inside to get my tools so I could properly tighten it. I did that and tried to start the truck again. I got the same issue. This was perplexing.

Since I was standing in a blizzard and the snow was flying sideways, I thought I could make better use of the time I had by looking around online for answers. I found what I expected. The battery, the solenoid or the starter itself. I didn’t think it was any of these things, but I did want to go poke around under the hood one more time, just to see if any connections on the solenoid were loose. So, I got all dressed again with my boots and all that and headed back to the truck. I popped the hood and couldn’t even find the solenoid, much less see if any of the wires were loose. It was getting darker and I had already told poor Laura that she wasn’t going to go for a ride. I was so disappointed.

While I was out there, I decided to give the truck one last headlight/blower test, just to see if the lights would dim when there was another load on the electrical system. I did this and turned the ignition key to find the truck start up wonderfully. It was very odd. I turned it off, let the glow plugs warm properly and started it again and everything was okay.

I hightailed it inside to tell Laura she was going to get to play in the snow after all. She got her gear on and we headed out to the truck for our drive. Man, that took a lot out of me.

Anyway, as she was sitting inside the truck waiting for it to warm up, she snapped a pretty cool photo. Here it is.

Ford F-250 Interior Lock Switch

She got a bunch of other ones, but I didn’t want to post too many interior shots here.

We got going in the snow after everything was warm. I would say we only had about four inches on the ground, but no plows had come by yet. Here’s a picture of us climbing the first little hill.

Maine Back Road During a Snow Storm

After we made it to the end of the road, we turned around and started to head back. That’s when we saw the plow coming. Our road is pretty narrow being dirt, so we knew it was either him or us – not both. I decided it was him, so I backed up for a while until we made it to our good buddy Dave’s driveway. I backup up there and waited for the plow to pass. Here it is.

Plow Truck Plowing Road During Snow Storm

As you can see, it was him who was going to get by, not me.

That was pretty exciting. We made it back to the house and I concluded that, yes, this is what you’re supposed to do when it’s snowing outside. It makes you feel alive. I haven’t run around like that in a while. I’ve been far too civilized. I need to get back at it.

Anyway, I have to pick up some stuff from the auto parts store. I need to get some tools for the truck, a battery terminal cleaner, a battery charger and some electrical grease for the terminals as well. I need to quit messing around and get stocked up.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny After that, between Saturday and Monday, we’re supposed to get upwards of thirty more inches of snow. That will add to the three inches we got on Tuesday and whatever we get tonight. Add all that to the foot and a half we already have and we might actually have almost five feet of snow on the ground. I find that insanely fun. I will surely take photos for you.


Cub Cadet Snow Blower Not Throwing Snow

I had a potentially very bad and annoying morning. I say “potentially” because I fixed a small issue that was causing me to want to throw my beautiful new snowblower off a cliff. Either that or run it over with a truck or drag it around the town by a rope. Boy was I annoyed and I don’t really ever get like that. Well, I do get annoyed, but not to the level of annoyance I was getting to this morning.

Please allow me to explain. Yesterday was very cold. I think we were in the sub-zero range again. It snowed all day and because of this, I didn’t bother to clear the snow from much of anything. Today’s forecast told me that the warmth would return and we were looking at the low 30s. Snow blowing a driveway and shoveling a sidewalk is a much simpler task when it’s warmer versus when it’s colder. Trust me on this.

There is one dangerous aspect of waiting too long to clear away snow when the temperature rises though. When you do this, you run the risk of having the snow become very heavy and wet. If you add rain to the mix, like we experienced today, things can quickly turn into a nightmare.

If I were to give advice to someone right now about whether to clear snow during the moment or to wait until the next day, I’d probably say that the sooner it’s done, the better. Just do it and it’ll be out of the way. It’ll be fluffier and lighter too. That’s always good.

Anyway, I pulled the snowblower out this morning and started it up. So far, that’s been great. The thing runs like a champ. I backed it from its parking spot and engaged the blades. I then turned it and engaged the wheels. As I began to move forward, I noticed that the snow wasn’t really coming out of the chute very well. I also noticed that I was having a very difficult time moving forward. It seemed as though the snowblower was acting more like a plow than a snow “thrower.”

After about a half hour or pushing, shoving and wrestling the snowblower, I was able to make about three runs up and down the driveway. By this point, I was at the annoyance level I described earlier. I was thinking that I was on video somewhere and someone was playing a practical joke on me. All I needed was that funny Benny Hill music to go along with things.

The end of the driveway is always the toughest. That’s where the plows leave all the really heavy and packed snow that they remove from the roads. Today, trying to get the snowblower through that mess was nearly impossible. I pushed and struggled until I couldn’t anymore. That’s when I stopped, leaned on the handle of the snowblower and blamed everything on the weight and density of the snow. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long to do my chores. I was extremely disappointed in myself.

I decided to take a look inside the front of the snow blower. I’m not sure what this thing is called. It’s the big scoop part where the blades and the axle live.

Cub Cadet Snow Blower Scoop

As I started to look around, I noticed that there was some snow stuck in one of the auger blades. I pulled the snow out with my hand (the snowblower was off by this point). As I was doing this, I noticed that the blade spun freely. I have never inspected this area of the blower before and I noticed that the auger was constructed with four distinct blades. Three of these blades had gold pins that went through their centers and through the drive shaft. It was these gold pins that turned the blades as the shaft turned.

Snow Blower Shear Pin

One of the center blades didn’t have this pin. This is the one that spun freely. A light bulb went off in my head and I deemed the pins as “shear pins.” Lawnmowers have similar pins near their blades that shear, or cut, when an object is struck. I must have struck a rock or something the last time I used the snow thrower and broke one of the pins. Either that, or the machine never even came with one of these things installed because the more I looked at the hole, the less wear I could see. Actually, there was no wear at all, where there should have been.

I ran into the garage where I had the owner’s manual and a few other odds and ends that came with the snow blower hanging in a bag from a nail. I noticed that Cub Cadet was kind enough to include two additional shear pins with my purchase. I pulled one from the bag, attached it to the auger and started the blower once again.

Cub Cadet Snow Blower Shear Pin

Boy did that make a difference. The reason I said that the machine may have not come with one pin is because with this new one installed, the blower was tearing ass through that snow like it was no body’s business. I was going through the deepest and heaviest snow we had with no problem at all. Actually, it was the best it ever ran.

It was quite the adventure, but it was also a learning experience. I learned the snow blowers are meant to move snow. If they don’t, something is wrong and things need to have a looking at. Don’t push it and don’t get mad at the world. Just fix it.


Replacing the Battery in a 2009 BMW 328XI

Laura and I purchased this vehicle in 2009 and we’ve yet to change the battery. I was very nervous last winter when the temperature was below zero. When I went to start the car a few times, I noticed that it had just a tad more difficulty turning over than it did during the more mild months. I knew the battery was getting old and I made a note to buy a new one. The thing is, winter was almost over and the car continued to start just fine. I decided to ignore the issue until it got warmer outside.

Let’s fast forward to earlier this week. The nights are getting chilly once more and I still haven’t changed the battery. Things seem pretty much the same when it comes to starting the car. Now I’m getting more nervous than I was last winter because it’s going to get damn cold real fast and I don’t want to be stuck somewhere with a dead battery. It’s also seven years old. How long do these things last anyway? From what I can gather, about a year and a half if you live in Florida and anywhere between five and seven if you live in Maine. It’s the hot weather that kills batteries.

It doesn’t matter. It’s got to be done. I don’t like surprises.

Now, let’s fast forward to today. Laura and I took a trip to Sam’s club on Monday and purchased some food. I also grabbed a Duracell battery for the car. I had intended on them installing it, but the kid behind the counter made me think twice about that. He said he never worked on a BMW before and before he could even finish his second sentence, I told him that I’d simply purchase the battery and do the job myself. They offer free installation, but I was under the impression that someone who knew what they were doing would take care of things. I didn’t think it would be the kid behind the counter. I bought the battery and brought it home.

Since today was rather warm in the mid-fifties and was wasn’t raining or anything, I figured it’d be a good time to work on the car. I’m so used to doing things in the dark and at 20 degrees that this was a treat. And after watching a few videos to warm me up for the task, I didn’t think I would run into any issues.

From here on out in this post, I’ll be talking about the installation of the battery in the car. Towards the end, I’ll discuss an option you have when it comes to registering the new battery with the vehicle.

In most BMWs, the battery is located in the trunk. If you look at the photo below, you’ll see that in our case, it’s in a compartment at the passenger side corner.

Battery Compartment in 2009 BMW 328XI

I twisted the small black knob and pulled the compartment cover loose. I placed it in the trunk somewhere just to get it out of the way. This next photo is the original battery installed in its proper location.

Original Battery

There aren’t all that many things to unscrew when it comes to changing a battery in a BMW. It looks intimidating, but from what I found, the biggest challenge was keeping the wires out of the way when it came to actually pulling the old one out and dropping the new one in.

This is me unscrewing the bolts that hold the top bracket into place.

Removing Top Bracket

In this next photo, I removed the distribution panel (red cover) with a 13mm socket. If I had it to do over again, I would have left this attached and simply disconnected the negative terminal first and then the positive. There’s no need to remove this panel independently.

Remove Distribution Panel

After this, I removed the negative terminal and then the positive. On the positive side of the battery, there’s a small tube that sticks into the battery itself. I pulled that vent tube out. I also unscrewed the bracket that holds the negative side of the battery down. I don’t have photos of these two things, but I’ll share some similar types later on in this post.

Finally, since everything was unhooked, I pulled the original battery from the car and placed it on the ground. After that I grabbed the new battery and placed it next to the old one, just to make sure they match up in size and features. It looked like a perfect fit to me.

BMW Exide & Duracell Car Batteries

I knew the specs matched up, I wanted to make sure the physical size matched up as well. In the photo above, the original battery is an Exide and the replacement battery is a Duracell. I bought this Duracell for $130. Here’s a photo of the front of the new battery.

Duracell 49 H8 Car Battery

This is a Duracell 49 H8 car battery. It’s got 900 CCA and has 100 AH. That’s cold cranking amps and amp hours, if you aren’t in the business. It also weighs 58 pounds, which feels like a ton when you carry it.

After holding the wires out of the way with some bungee cords, I placed the new battery in its new home. I connected the terminals, the vent tube and then attempted to reattach the bracket that holds the battery down. This is where I had a bit of difficulty. Take a look at this bracket:

BMW Battery Bracket

This bracket needs to get bolted down all the way at the bottom of the battery, on the negative side. To get my hand in this tiny area, I experienced some challenge. Eventually though, I managed to get lucky and I began turning the bolt into the hole. Once it was in somewhat, I finished with the socket. Here’s a photo of the narrow area. I circled the bolt hole in red.

Battery Bracket Bolt Hole

I also want to mention that I unhooked one wire that led from the distribution panel to another cluster. In addition to that, I unhooked the two wire harness plastic ties that held the wires to the side of the car. All three are visible in this photo below.

Battery Accessory Wire

I then reconnected the terminals, positive first.

BMW Positive Battery Terminal

I finished up by basically working in reverse. I reconnected everything that I disconnected. After that, I was finished.

Replaced Battery in BMW 3-Series

The entire project took me about twenty minutes. Not challenging at all.

There’s some buzz on the internet that claims you need to have any freshly replaced battery in a BMW “registered” with the car. To do this, you either need to bring the car to the dealer or purchase a diagnostics tool yourself. All this registration does is tell the vehicle that a new battery is installed and that it should recognize that. To be honest, I’ve read a lot of competing feelings on this topic. I read a good article that was written by a BMW mechanic that said you actually don’t need to undertake this task and that the car will recognize the new battery after it drives for a while. Others say the world will end if you don’t.

When I first started the car after I installed the new battery, everything was fine. The only issue was that there were a few warning indicators lit in the instrument panel. The brake light wouldn’t shut off and the 4×4 indicator warning lamp was illuminated. When I drove the car, all that was needed was about 100 feet for all the warning lamps to turn off. This is just what I experienced, so things may be different for different folks.

I may go ahead and buy what’s called the “Carly Adapter & App.” Basically, you plug the adapter into the car’s computer and then, with its wireless capabilities, you read the diagnostics on your phone or tablet. Of course, you’ll need to download the app, but I think it’s worth it. I believe the cost of the adapter is around $80 and the app is something like $10. I’m not too sure about these prices.

This app is really cool. You can register a new battery, clear error codes and do some basic diagnostics. This can potentially save you tons of money and you might learn something about cars as well. This is in the future, so I’m still considering it.

I hope you enjoyed my post about replacing the battery in a BMW 3-Series. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks for reading!


How to Reset the Tire Pressure Monitor (TPM) on a 2009 BMW 328XI

It’s that time again. Time to watch the small low tire pressure indicator light flip on in the instrument panel of your BMW 328XI. When this happened to me just a few days ago, I was like, “Uh oh. That’s not good.” I think my first reaction was to think I had a flat tire. Then, I remembered what month it was. October. It gets chilly in October and that chill reduces the air pressure inside tires. I remember this happened in my pickup truck as I was driving from Florida to Maine. Right in the middle of Virginia – bam – the low pressure light came on. It took me around a year to fill the tires up to the recommended 70 pounds. I always thought that was a lot for a tire, but that’s what it wanted. As soon as I began driving around, the indicator turned off by itself with no action from me.

BMWs are a bit different when it comes to things like this. Because the computer needs to know when the tires have proper pressure in them, it’s not advised to reset the indicator without first filling the tires with the correct amount of air. If you do reset when the tires are low, you just told the car that whatever it is currently inside the tires is right and when you do get around to filling them, the light will come back on. That’s because the computer will think they’re overfilled. Moral of the story – never reset the indicator light without property inflating the tires first.

Here’s a photo of my current instrument panel in my 2009 BMW 328XI. That’s right, only a little over 35,000 miles. Not bad for a 7 year old car. I keep thinking if we didn’t take this car to Florida, it would have even less. Oh well.

Instrument Panel of 2009 BMW 328XI

Here are the instructions you need to follow when attempting to reset the indicator light in your 3-Series.

1. Fill the tires with the correct air pressure. The rears call for 36 pounds and the fronts call for 32 pounds.

2. On the left side of the steering wheel is your turn signal. Inside that control is a toggle switch. Push the switch up a few times until you see the RESET indicator appear on your instrument panel display screen.

2009 BMW 328XI Turn Signal

3. After the RESET word appears, on the same control, push the BC button in and hold it there for 5 seconds. The word RESETTING will appear in the instrument panel.

4. Once the vehicle is in RESETTING mode, you’ll need to take the car for a cruise. I’d say it only takes a few miles. Once the tire pressure monitor has been reset, the warning lamp will automatically turn off. And that’s it.

Do you have anything to add to this post? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!


Assembling a Cub Cadet XT1 Enduro Series Riding Mower

I have an interesting story for you. When I think about it, I feel a little strange. I’m not sure if it’s because of my impulsiveness or my odd online purchasing habits. I’ll let you read it to get your thoughts.

It’s getting pretty late in the lawn mowing season. Even though we’re growing cool season grass, I’d say it stopped growing about a week ago. It’s probably the cold snap we’re going through right now that put the brakes on things. It’s actually supposed to warm back up in a few days, so perhaps they’ll be some new growth soon.

I haven’t mowed the lawn in months. Since we had such a dry summer, if I had to guess, I’d say I mowed no more than five times in all. I started some time in May and ended some time in July. I think I may have done half of it in September sometime but I can’t be sure about that. The fact of the matter is that I avoided it like the plague because all I have is a push mower and a fairly large yard. In mid summer, even after the sun begins to go down, my face gets all red and I become very annoyed. I end up overheating and I can’t seem to get “unhot,” if that’s a word. Using a push mower to mow a big lawn pretty much sucks. Actually, using a push mower for anything is terrible.

For three years, I’ve gone back and forth in my mind with whether or not I should buy a riding mower. I knew I should. It wasn’t that. I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to drop bank on a yard tool. At times, I even convinced myself that I enjoyed mowing with a push mower. I told myself it was good exercise and that if I ever did purchase a new mower, it would just be a better push one. Most likely one of those expensive Honda’s everyone raves about. I was planning on that next year some time. I was going to find a Honda out there somewhere and bring it home.

A few weeks ago, I was walking around the grass, looking at it. I was outside for around 10 minutes before I walked inside, visited Home Depot’s website, looked at riding mowers for another 10 minutes and bought one. I figured they had some in stock at the closest Home Depot and that someone from the store would drive up in a day or two to drop it off. They offered free shipping, so once it was done, I didn’t think too much about it. The only thing I did do was visit Laura in the living room to tell her I just spent $1800 on a mower. She was a little surprised, given all the ranting and raving I did about these things. She was probably expecting me to get a push mower if I got anything at all. Surprise!

Here’s where things get weird. Apparently, Home Depot didn’t have any of the mowers I purchased in stock. Anywhere. When the order was processed, I received a tracking number in my email. The mower was being shipped out of Tennessee somewhere and it would be here about a week and a half later. If I had known it was coming from so far, I would have simply called around and drove somewhere to get it. A simple idea turned into a long process.

I wondered how in the heck Home Depot could be making any money off this sale. I mean, how much is it to ship a riding mower from Tennessee to Maine? Probably a whole lot. I guess they had to bite the bullet and do it. After all, they were the ones who offered. I just took them up on it. They used a private shipping company though, which made me feel even worse.

Anyway, what’s done is done. I mowed the lawn a few hours ago and I have to tell you, as I was riding around on this little piece of heaven, I decided that this was the best $1800 I ever spent. The thing rides like a dream and has tons of power. I plowed through the highest grass without hesitation. With my push mower, I would have had to stop and clean all the clumped up grass from the chute. That is, if I didn’t bog down and stall a thousand times like I usually did. That was miserable.

The purpose of this post is to introduce you to my new riding mower and to show you what one looks like when it’s in the crate. I know folks don’t get to see this type of thing very often so I thought it would be fun. I’ll also offer some details on how I assembled it. After all, it didn’t come completely put together. Later in the week, I’ll go back out and take some more photos of it and talk about some of the features and so forth. Today, it’s all about getting it out of the box.

Let’s start off with a photo of the mower in the crate right after the fellow in the delivery truck left. It sat on the driveway and I wondered where I was going to begin.

Cub Cadet Riding Mower Still in Crate

After about a half-hour, I managed to unscrew the sides with my new Dewalt screw gun. The great thing about this step was that the company used about 20 really nice screws. I kept them and added them to my collection to reuse at a later date. I also unwrapped the mower from being confined in that huge bag.

Cub Cadet XT1 Mower in Crate

As you can see, there is no hood attached as well as no steering wheel, among other things.

Luckily, there was a quick set up guide that only consisted of a few steps. I’ll show you both pieces of paper below. These are the steps for assembly.

Cub Cadet XT1 Enduro Riding Mower Assembly Instructions - Page 1

Cub Cadet XT1 Enduro Riding Mower Assembly Instructions - Page 2

If you’d like to actually read what’s on these pieces of paper, you can right-click on either image and choose “Open Image in New Window.” That will give you the larger version.

The first thing to do was to attach the hood. No tools are required for this step because it snaps right on. All you need to do is line up the clips. Here’s a before shot:

Hood Missing on Cub Cadet Riding Mower

And here’s the hood after it’s been installed:

Attaching the Hood on the Cub Cadet

In case you’re interested, this is a close-up of what one of the clips that holds the hood in place looks like:

Hood Clip

The next step is to attach the dash. Again, that snaps right into place.

Missing Dash Board

Attaching Dash Board

After that, since the dash was popped on, I could screw on the steering wheel. I actually did this once before, before I realized the dash board was missing. I had to undo and redo. To install the steering wheel, the center piece needs to be removed and the steering wheel needs to be slid down the shaft. Then, I believe a 1/2 inch socket will tighten the bolt.

Cub Cadet Mower Steering Wheel

At this point, all that was left was to bolt on the seat and attach the wires to the battery. I did that. Simple enough.

Bolting on Seat

Connecting Wires to Battery

The instructions say to be sure the little plastic clip for the battery wires is attached to the metal fender under the seat. It also states that the shipping bracket for the grass guard should be removed before operation as well. I did both of these things. All these steps are in the instructions I shared earlier.

After about an hour, everything was finished. I pulled the tractor off the pallet, which was a real pain in the ass. The wheels were wedged between the boards. Being out there in the cold was no party either. The sun was going down and I was getting chilly. Lucky for me, I’m strong and the mower wasn’t too heavy. I got things the way I wanted them and snapped my final photo. This is the beast.

Cub Cadet XT1 Riding Mower

I’m not sure you know this, but I used to have a pretty sweet John Deere X300 ride on mower. That was a 17HP with a 42 inch deck. At first glance, I’m thinking I like this one better. For sure, the engine has more power. That’s a definite. The mower deck is also wider on this one at 46 inches. I didn’t really notice that when I was mowing this evening, but I’m happy those few extra inches are there.

Again, I’ll take more pictures later in the week. I also want to show off the aluminum ramps I bought to load this thing into storage. They’re just as awesome. Until next time!


Undercoating My Truck With Fluid Film

I’ve been working on this project since spring. For some reason, it’s taken all this time to get off my butt and finish things up. But now that both the truck and trailer are undercoated, I feel much better – especially living in Maine.

I wrote about Fluid film before. If you’re interested, you can read the posts here:

Fluid Film For Rust Prevention

Arising Industries Enclosed Cargo Trailer

Basically, the deal is that rubberized undercoating is no good for a good majority of parts on a vehicle that tend to rust because of salt use on the roads. If your car or truck has been undercoated with rubber, you’re in decent shape as far as floorboards and all that goes, but as far as axles, drive shafts, front and rear ends and all parts in between, you’re unprotected. From what I’ve seen around here, if that’s the case, you’ve got some issues that need to be corrected. Especially with rear bumpers. I can’t count how many rear bumpers I’ve seen that are rusted through.

The problem with rust is that it doesn’t just go away by itself. Actually, it doesn’t go away at all, unless you mechanically remove it. If that’s the route you decide to take in an attempt to save your vehicle from being eaten, you better get something to protect the parts you removed the rust from. And the truth of the matter is, it’s virtually impossible to remove rust from all parts of a vehicle. I wouldn’t even bother trying. That’s why I use Fluid Film.

I initially bought a gallon thinking that I’d have enough for both the truck and trailer. Unfortunately, I used about three quarts on the trailer alone. I did manage to finish almost half the truck with the remaining quart, but sadly, I ran out and needed more. When I went inside to order another gallon, I noticed that Amazon had 5-gallon buckets of this stuff available for the price of three gallons and some change. Since Fluid Film needs to be reapplied periodically, I felt that the 5-gallon bucket would be a wise investment. I bought that and it’s now sitting in my trailer.

5 Gallon Bucket of Fluid Film Undercoating

Since today is about 70 degrees outside, I thought it would be a perfect time to finish undercoating the truck. It’s not a difficult job, just one that needed to get done. So, I went outside to peeled the lid of my new bucket of undercoating back to unearth that distinct smelling material that looks like turkey gravy. Mmmm. It’s actually a wool wax material that, once spray on to metal surfaces, soaks in and protects from oxidation. It also penetrates and lubricates.

Fluid Film

I had my undercoating spray gun at the ready and it was begging to be filled up.

Undercoating Spray Gun

Now, I think a regular paint gun would have been fine with applying Fluid Film. It’s not all that thick. And it does thin out with heat, so if you decide to undertake this type of project and have a paint gun, go ahead and feel free to take advantage of it. Just be sure to clean it well before you use it for painting because I’m sure you don’t want oily undercoating to mix with expensive auto paint.

I learned a long time ago that attempting to pour material such as this out of a large bucket into a small opening doesn’t work too well. I now use a large spoon.

Scooping Fluid Film into Undercoating Spray Gun

I also had a spatula and a towel nearby to clean up any mess I made.

A while ago, I purchased a nice DeWalt air compressor just for occasions such as this. It’s come in very handy.

DeWalt Air Compressor

The last time I applied Fluid Film, I set the compressor regulator to 60 pounds. Since that created a lot of over spray and wasted product, I lowered the pressure to 40 pounds. That seemed to work well today.

DeWalt Air Compressor Pressure Regulator and Gauges

By the way, the reason I went with the DeWalt compressor is because the motor doesn’t burn out with lower voltage receptacles and extension cords like my previous compressor from Home Depot did. That was a disappointment.

For some reason, when I talk about undercoating with Fluid Film, those who I talk to still don’t quite understand what I’m under there spraying. Because of this, I decided to take some photos of the finished product. I think these are all pictures of the front end of my truck. That’s not for any particular reason – I just happened to be laying in these locations with my camera at the time. Basically, everything gets sprayed.

2008 Ford F250 Frame

2008 Ford F250 Front End

2008 Ford F250 Front End Stabilizer

2008 Ford F250 Spindle

2008 Ford F250 Torque Bar

2008 Ford F250 Front Spring

As you can see, you surely can’t protect these areas with rubber undercoating. Fluid Film works wonderfully for locations such as these.


Fixing Rear Turn Signal on a 2009 BMW 328xi

From the title, this may appear to be a weak post. Let me assure you, though, that there is trickery involved. What I thought was a simple tail light repair turned into a semi-ordeal.

About a month ago, I noticed that the passenger side blinker of our car was blinking fast. I’m sure you’ve experienced this before if you’ve driven for any length of time. A fast blinker means that a light is out. What folks have been doing for years when this happens takes only a few simple steps. They:

1. Turn the blinker on
2. Hop out of the car
3. Walk to the front and then the rear, and
4. Determine which light is out

Then, they start thinking of all those bulbs they used to have hanging around in one toolbox or another. “Man, if I had only saved that…” It’s typical. When this happened to me during this little episode, I went through all the motions. I drove around hoping the light would fix itself. I waited about two weeks before giving it any serious consideration. I stopped using the right side blinker all together. I looked in my rear view mirror more than I ever have because I knew cops were bound to start following me. After I admitted to myself that I actually had to fix the light, I started wondering what size the bulb was. Would it be easy to get to? Was it a normal bulb? How much is a bulb anyway? And like usual, I really started looking inside the trunk during a visit to the hardware store. They probably had bulbs and it would be really spiffy if I could pop the old bulb out and stick a new bulb in. It would probably cost $2 and take 2 minutes. Yeah – no.

While I was in the hardware store parking lot, messing around in the trunk, I started pulling out light bulbs. I wanted to see which one was burnt out so I could run inside for the replacement. The way I usually determine which bulb is out is to hold the bulb up to the light and look at the filament. If it’s obviously toasted, all the better. If it’s not so obvious, I give the bulb a flick with my finger and look to see if the filament bounces around. If it does, bingo.

Well, in this case, it seemed like both bulbs on the right side were good. No burnt marks and no wiggly filament. Just for giggles, I pulled out the driver side bulbs and did a quick swap. Strangely enough, the blinker was still out on the passenger side. I’ll admit it – I scratched my head a bit at this.

Since I couldn’t really figure out what was going on and since I had Laura with me, I decided to put everything back together and leave the problem for another day. Plus, I wanted to look online before I went any further. Obviously, there was a deeper issue at play.

Well, guess what. There was a deeper issue after all. It appears that the driving lights and the brake lights on our beloved car use regular light bulbs, but the turn signals use LED lights. Also, BMW apparently has a problem with these LED lights getting moisture in them and corroding. In order to fix the turn signal, I would have to purchase an entire new tail light. Isn’t that fun?

After realizing this, I did my usual avoidance of the entire situation (again). I figured that since I hadn’t been pulled over yet for recklessly breaking the law, I could get away with things indefinitely. And if I did get pulled over, I would just play dumb. It’s not really a big deal.

Then, I started thinking about the vehicle registration renewal and inspection that’s coming up and got pushed into a corner. I realized there was no escape from my little problem and decided to face it head on. I started looking online for answers and suggestions from others when they were faced with the same situation.

Many folks had to bring their cars to the dealer. Various BMW repair shops charged upwards of $500 to complete the job. There was the part itself – the light – that costs around $250 and then, of course, we have the labor. That’s gotta be around $250. Cars these day…

If you know me, you know that I’ll dance in the street in pink underwear before I pay that kind of money to fix a turn signal. I decided to keep on looking. I did and that’s when I found a website called, Parts Geek. They offered an aftermarket replacement tail light assembly for $60. I ordered it and received it in about three days.

I’m happy to report, our turn signal is fixed. What a sweet sound it was to hear the normal (and relatively slow) click – click – click of the blinker after I completed the project and tested it out.

Since this post was all words, I’d like to take this time to show you some pictures of exactly what I’m talking about. I’ll narrate to make things more fun.

2009 BMW 328xi Rear Tail Light Assembly Removal
2009 BMW 328xi Rear Tail Light Assembly Removal

It only took a few minutes to remove the tail light assembly. Three nuts from three shiny new threaded rods and I had the whole thing out. Well, after unplugging the electrical harness.

2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal Inside Trunk
2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal Inside Trunk

This is a picture of what the inside of the tail lights look like from the trunk.

2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal LED Electrical Board
2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal LED Electrical Board

For everyone out there who is wondering what the electrical circuit board looks like for this turn signal assembly, here you are. I read online that a few folks took the liberty of disassembling the entire assembly to re-solder the connections. In many cases, they were successful and avoided the expense of having the replace the unit. I’m keeping the old light because if I ever get my father up here, he can have a go at it. He’s better with electronics.

2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal Unit
2009 BMW 328xi Rear Turn Signal Unit

This is a picture of the old light after I pulled it out. I figured I’d make a memory out of it.

Comparing OEM and Aftermarket Rear Tail Lights
Comparing OEM and Aftermarket Rear Tail Lights

There was one review on Parts Geek where a guy said the aftermarket light was slightly darker than the OEM one. The red plastic, that is. I decided to hold both tail lights up next to one another for comparison. I couldn’t see a difference. If the light was blue, I wouldn’t have cared.

Installed Tail Light
Installed Tail Light

And here we have the finished product. The whole thing really took no time at all. I could have had it finished faster if I didn’t avoid the issue so much. But, what the heck. We only live once.


Fluid Film For Rust Prevention

I’m not sure if this is specifically a Maine issue or not, but I am sure that now that I’m here, I’ve got to start dealing with rust. Rust on the truck, rust on the trailer, rust on the tools and everything else rust ruins. And I’ll tell you that it’s an annoying something to deal with because rust goes on behind your back. And it’s quiet.

Rust Underneath Enclosed Cargo Trailer

It’s only about 10 months old. I made one trip with my Arising Industries trailer. All I did was drive from Florida to Maine. We hit snow in New Hampshire, but I’m fairly confident that the state or town didn’t treat the roads with salt or the equivalent. Nothing contributed to the frame of the trailer rusting besides the fact that the paint job was not up to snuff and that the material the frame is made of is steel.

Rust Under Trailer

Looking back, I ask myself if I should have gotten an aluminum trailer. Then, I remember that aluminum would have cost me twice as much. There is a company out there (ATC) that I was pretty much sweating over while I was in the market to buy. They make awesome trailers, but they’re expensive. I suppose you have to make the choice while purchasing – are you going to own the thing for the rest of your life? Do you have that kind of money? If you aren’t and if you don’t, you buy steel. Especially when it’s enclosed. Snowmobile trailers are a different story. Buy aluminum. They are a much simpler beast. But even with aluminum snowmobile trailers, and other aluminum trailers for that matter, you have to concern yourself with the steel axle rusting away. Don’t forget about that. As you have your trailer in storage over the Summer, the moisture from the ground is eating away at the axle and hubs. Ugg.

Before Winter rolled around, I took a look under the trailer. I was surprised to find rust. Considering the trailer was brand new, I was taken aback a bit. I remembered the whole steel thing – blah, blah, blah. So over the Winter, I thought about the best way to tackle what I knew wasn’t going to fix itself or stop on its own. I initially thought about undercoating the trailer (and the truck which, of course, has the same rust issue) with rubberized undercoating. I couldn’t shake the horrible recurring nightmare of going outside to check on the underbelly of the truck or trailer one morning to see undercoating flaking off, with rust growing underneath. And once you’ve got that rubber on there, it would be a pain of monumental proportions to remove it and undercoat with something else. So, unless your vehicle or trailer is brand new, you can’t undercoat with rubber.

I found a pretty nice product after searching exhaustively online. Many, many sources pointed to a rust preventative derived from lanolin, otherwise known as wool wax. The product is called, Fluid Film and it sprays on metal like an oil. The spray never dries and should be reapplied every year or so, depending on how much the item you are spraying is used. If you drive a plow and salt truck, undercoat once a year. It you put about 10 miles a year on your truck and trailer like I do, undercoat once and call it done. Forever.

Fluid Film Spray Can

Check out this video. You’ll see what I’m taking about.

Fluid Film Car Applications

Yesterday, I decided to begin this project in earnest. I had already received three test cans of Fluid Film from Amazon and had to pull the trailer around, from the back year to the driveway. I really wasn’t interested in crawling under the trailer in that tall grass. Or grass of any height for that matter. There are bugs out there – lots of them.

Truck and Trailer in Driveway

After I was finished parking things in their new homes, I found some rusty areas on both the truck and trailer and sprayed them a bit. I wanted to see what this lanolin based rust preventative looked like.

First, I sprayed the hitch receiver of the truck. Those are notorious for rusting.

Rust Proofing Truck Hitch Receiver

I’m trying to think back to how I handled this in the past. I think I either gave my hitches and receivers a coating of grease or I sprayed WD-40 on them. Grease wasn’t so hot. The WD-40 worked for a while.

As I was hooking the trailer up to the truck, I noticed that the trailer hitch was looking pretty bad. The guts of the thing were rusted up, so I coated everything with Fluid Film. I know this picture is dark – you’ll have to use your imagination.

Trailer Hitch

After that, I wanted to see how the treatment looked on the trailer suspension. It’s areas like this, and especially areas like leaf springs on trucks, that can’t be rust proofed by anything other than a product like this.

Trailer Suspension

And lastly, I sprayed some areas of the truck’s front end. Try rust proofing this area with rubberized undercoating. Yeah right. You can see where I sprayed because the areas look wet.

Ford Super-Duty Front End

This afternoon, I grabbed a spare piece of paneling and placed it on the ground under the trailer. I thought I should treat a few steel beams in the rear of the trailer, just to see how it goes. But before I did that, I took some photos. I knew I was going to be writing this post.

Here are two pictures of what the frame looked like before I coated it:

Rust on Trailer Frame

Arising Industries Trailer Frame Rust

And here’s what those areas look like after I treated them. I only did two beams.

Treating Metal with Fluid Film

Fluid Film on Rusty Metal

Coating Rust With Fluid Film

I think it looks pretty decent. It goes on clear and stays wet looking. I think it’ll be perfect for my purposes, which is to drive the truck only when necessary and really never use the trailer.

Fluid Film comes in spray cans, small cans with a brush applicator as well as gallon and 5-gallon buckets. Now that I know how this applies and feels, I am going to purchase a gallon container. I think the gallon costs around $60. After that, I can choose to brush it on or spray it on with any paint sprayer. I can even use a house paint sprayer.

Also, I wanted to quickly mention what someone can do if they are concerned with the insides of their frame rusting, which surely does happen. Fluid Film offers a rigid tube and flexible hose that you can attach to a spray can that snakes down the inside of the tubular frame. The spray comes out in all directions at the end of the hose. Some drilling may be required, but this is the real deal. Instead of having the inside of your frame or doors rust out, treat them. Take a look at this video. This technician shows you exactly how to do that.

Fluid Film Undercoating by Jeff’s Undercoating


Keeper Four Inch Recovery Strap

Since we arrived in Maine last November, I’ve knew I had to begin stocking up on my truck emergency items. The last thing I wanted was to have a really great pickup truck, that handled the snow with ease, stuck on the side of the road because of something stupid I, or someone else, did. If I was going to get stuck, I wanted to be able to get unstuck. That’s when I began making the list of items I would need to stock away in the back seat.

First was the metal shovel to dig any snow away from the belly of the truck if I ever got stuck. Check. Next was the shackles to use if someone needed to pull me out of a snow bank. Check. Next were some blankets, some tie-downs, some tools. You get the idea. The only thing I needed up until yesterday was an actual recovery strap. Can you imagine me sitting up on a snow pile waiting for a fellow Mainer to drive on by? When someone finally did stop to help, can you imagine my dismay when they told me they had no strap, chain or rope to do what we needed to do? Can you imagine how stupid and annoyed I would feel?

Very early on, sometime back in December, I put a Smittybilt recovery strap in my Amazon shopping cart. The strap was 2 inches wide and 30 feet long. It was rated for 20,000 pounds. I believe it cost almost $40. The price is why it sat in the cart for so long. I was procrastinating.

Last week, I started going through my checklist of summertime projects I need to finish up. The recovery strap surfaced, so I bit the bullet, logged into Amazon (this is after checking the local stores for straps ad nauseam) and almost purchased the strap I had stored in my cart. As I was looking through the pages, a Keeper recovery strap popped up. This one was 30 feet long, 4 inches wide, rated for 10,000 pounds and only cost $20. I bought the Keeper. I figured I really didn’t need the extra 10,000 pounds. If I ever do, I’m most likely doing something that would justify the extra $20. Yes folks, this is how my brain works. I think about things for months before I buy something. I just mull it over, and over, and over.

Anyway, I figured I’d take some pictures of this strap. While I was shopping, I really didn’t find any great pictures of what I was about to purchase. If someone else wants to buy a strap like this, they can get a feel of what they may be getting by checking out my photos below.

Keeper 30 Foot Recovery Strap

Keeper Recovery Strap in Package

Keeper Recovery Strap

Recovery Strap Hooked to Shackle

Recovery Strap Hooked to Tow Hitch

Double Thick Recovery Strap

Four Inch Wide Recovery Strap

Wide Recovery Strap

Folded Over Recovery Strap

End of Recovery Strap

Keeper Recovery Strap Stitching


Replacing Starter Rope on Stihl MS 250 Chainsaw

Last week, I was in the middle of a wood cutting project. I had a tree on the ground. I was cutting right along when I ran out of gas. The saw died, I walked out of the woods into the shed and filled her up with gas. When I went to pull the starter rope – snap. I held the chainsaw in one hand the the starter rope handle in another. It’s times like these people wish they had more starter rope on hand.

I began wondering what type of rope I had laying around that might get me through this troubled time. I remembered that I had dozens of feet of magnificently strong paracord, so I went ahead and replaced the starter rope in the chainsaw with the paracord. I really thought I was onto something. It worked and I continued cutting for another day.

Unfortunately, after about 10 or so pulls with that rope, it began to shred. The outer layer broke and all that was left was the inner strands. Lesson learned – don’t use paracord as starter rope.

A few days later, Laura and I happened to be at the hardware store in Madison. I figured that since I was there, I would pick up four feet of real starter rope. I did and then replaced the paracord with the starter rope. So far, it’s been working great.

Stihl MS 250 Starter Rope

Now, I’m not sure how long that rope is going to last. I’m already starting the chainsaw a bit differently in attempt to keep these things from breaking. The original rope lasted almost seven years, so I’m probably not doing anything wrong, but instead of throwing the saw to start it, I’m now resting it on the ground and holding it with one foot and my hand. With the other hand, I’m pulling the rope.

I don’t want to have another occurrence of not having starter rope on hand, so I ordered 100 feet of “True Blue” starter rope from Amazon. It showed up yesterday. I think it’s good stuff. As long as it’s solid and isn’t made with strands in the middle and an outer shell like the paracord, I should be in good shape. Here are a few pictures:

True Blue Starter Rope

True Blue Starter Rope Spool

Starter Rope

Wondering how to change the starter rope on a Stihl MS 250 chainsaw? If so, I’ve got the perfect video for you. Have fun – it’s really easy.

Pull Cord Repair On Stihl MS250 Chainsaw