Monday, September 22, 2008

Fixing the van

Our right headlight had been out for about 6 months before I fixed it. I had replaced the lamp and it didn't take care of the problem. One time while in WV, my dad and I thought we traced the problem back to the front end module (front computer). I bought a salvaged replacement for about $40 with shipping. I finally got around to switching the module out and it still didn't take care of the problem. After doing more research and understanding the wire diagram a little bit better and getting additional help from my dad I was able to track the problem down to a wire coming out of the lamp harness. There are 3 wires that come out from the harness, 1 wire is always hot. Well my wire was hot but it was reading about .03 compare to 12.4 to the left headlight. I was able to test the wire and found out that there was a break in the wire somewhere within 1 foot of the wiring harness. I bypassed the break in the wire with running a parellel wire from a known good spot in the same wire. Long story short, I was able to fix the right headlight. It was a gratifying moment for me.

The rear brakes had been making a grinding noise so I decided to take a look at them. My initial thought that there was some kind of debris causing the grinding. I was right. I cleaned the brake pad and the brake drum and took the van for a test drive........ no grinding was present.

It feels good to fix something yourself.



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