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Jan 21 2017

Why I became a DIY mechanic

We’ve had our Mercedes GL320 for nearly eight years now, and it has accumulated about 130,000 miles to date. For the most part it has been a good choice for us but as it ages I am faced with a harsh decision. That decision is whether to continue paying Mercedes repair shops exorbitant amounts of money to keep the GL320 on the road, or to start the ownership process over again with something new.

I’m not really crazy about the idea of buying a new tow vehicle. The GL is in excellent shape overall (thanks to lots of new parts and meticulous maintenance), and let’s face it, tow vehicles are expensive.

But neither am I crazy about our tours of America becoming tours of Mercedes service centers. This summer we were forced to visit dealership service centers in Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, and California, and that’s a reminder to me that the trusty steed is no longer a youngster.

For now I’m choosing a third option: Do-It-Yourself (DIY). It’s impractical for me to do large repairs on the road but while we are parked at home base over the winter I have the opportunity to do routine maintenance and certain repairs in the driveway. The Mercedes “Service B” interval costs about $500-700 when done at a dealership; last winter I did it myself for about $150. In October I replaced the rear brakes for about $220 in parts and supplies, which was about 1/3 what the dealer would charge.

Not only is DIY a big savings but it is an interesting opportunity for personal growth. For most of my life I would have described myself as “not mechanically inclined.” That was my father’s special ability, not mine. But entering the world of Airstreaming gradually forced me to pay attention to how things worked, and ask questions, and acquire tools & skills.

It has been frustrating at times. There have been many times when I would never have persevered without the support and advice of friends like Nick, Colin, Brett, and Super Terry. When a vital part slipped from my fingers and disappeared, when I accidentally cross-threaded a bolt in the engine block, when I mis-wired something and blew up part of a circuit board, when the wheels literally came off the Airstream … all those times when it seemed there was absolutely no hope and I was about to drown in self-doubt or confusion, my friends have been there to help me get perspective.

One of the places where I buy parts, Mercedessource.com, provides a single Lemonhead candy in many of their parts kits. This is so you can “seek the wisdom of the Lemonhead” when things get difficult. In other words, step away from the problem for a while. In those moments of frustration when things seem bleakest it’s extraordinarily helpful to simply stop working and let your emotional chemicals subside. I usually go seek advice from friends or reliable documentation for a while. Eventually the path forward becomes clear—and the problem that seemed so utterly impossible before gets resolved.

Over the past ten years this learning process has been so empowering for me that it has literally changed my life. I’m still cautious about tackling new mechanical or electrical things (because the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know) but the knowledge and confidence I have gained has led me to things like:

literally “writing the book” on DIY Airstream maintenance
doing all my own Airstream maintenance, even while on the road
presenting workshops and seminars on Airstream maintenance at our Aluma-events
maintaining a 33 year old car as a daily driver, just for fun
customizing the Airstream Safari’s interior cabinetry
fixing 60 year old kitchen appliances
replumbing the Caravel with PEX

I look back on those accomplishments with amazement, because ten years ago I would never have seen myself doing any of those things. If you’re thinking the same about yourself, well, don’t sell yourself short. You can learn anything.

And it feels great to have more self-sufficiency. Most of us are constant victims of our modern “disposable” consumer products system. The system says that more durable items (appliances, vehicles) must be serviced only by a qualified technician, and like our semi-broken healthcare system, you aren’t allowed to question the cost.

Well, that’s baloney. Sure, I can’t DIY every car repair. I don’t have all the tools or all of the abilities. The dealership service centers are still collecting their toll from me every year. But we can all push back on the system a little, empower ourselves, reduce inconvenience, and avoid being chumps if we bother to understand how things work and take some time to do what we can by ourselves.

I almost lost my resolve over the latest car issue. The “Check Engine” light had popped on again, this time indicating a failure in the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) treatment system. The dealer quoted $2,400 to fix this problem and (on top of several other expensive repairs earlier in the year) that was enough to make me seriously consider pitching the car in a river and signing up for a new car loan.

A technical aside here: DEF is a fluid that gets injected into the exhaust stream to combine with nitrogen oxides chemically to produce much cleaner exhaust. The output turns into water vapor and free nitrogen. Mercedes calls DEF “Adblue” when they are feeling romantic (e.g., selling cars) and they call it “reductant” when they are feeling technical. Whatever, it’s all the same thing: a mixture of dionized water and 32.5% urea.

The problem with this stuff is that it freezes when it gets below 12 degrees F, and it crystallizes if exposed to the open air. So to comply with Federal emissions requirements which say that the system must work under all conditions, Bosch designed a fancy system that keeps the DEF warm and sealed. Then they sold this system to a bunch of car manufacturers.

While I’m all for clean air, the DEF system has been a hassle. We’ve had nearly a dozen incidences of “Check Engine” lights attributable to this system over the past eight years, requiring numerous overnight stays at the dealership while the engineers back in Germany huddled together to figure out yet another software update or component upgrade. The frequency of these problems has not decreased with time. In fact, this summer we had to stop in Pennsylvania to replace a failing NOx (nitrogen oxides) sensor for $600, so this the second emissions-related Check Engine light this year.

When the Mercedes service center said it would be $2,400 for a new DEF tank heater, I began to weaken. It seemed to be too complex a job for me to tackle. Perhaps it would be a good idea to start over with a new car warranty (and massive new car payment). My doubt began to grow. Then I did a little research and was reminded:

trade-in or resale value of our existing car would be ridiculously low. I wouldn’t sell it for the going rate of about $13,000—it’s still a nice car!
the new diesel I’d want is temporarily off the market thanks to fallout from the VW/Audi scandal. All the manufacturers are being very cautious right now.
if I could get a few more years out of the GL, there might be interesting electric vehicle options. The electric car industry is rocketing forward and it’s not unrealistic to expect major developments in the next 5 years. Then I’d be free of these nightmarish emission-control systems and “Check Engine” lights.

With that bit of Lemonhead perspective, I dug in to the expensive repair I’d been told was needed. It turns out that the service center solution for a failing DEF tank heater is to replace the entire tank, pump, heater, and temperature sensor as a single unit. The heater is not offered as a single replacement part.

I can see why they do that. Removing the whole thing is a pretty easy job, taking about 60-90 minutes. Drain the tank, remove eight bolts, disconnect a few wires and a hose, then pull the tank out and swap in a new one. A dealership technician can do that quickly and not worry about the customer coming back for another problem in the same system, since everything has been replaced. And happy-happy-joy-joy, the dealer makes a pile of money charging $1,800 for the tank and about $600 for labor and supplies.

On the other hand, replacing the heater alone is cheaper but requires some additional work for disassembly, a few more tools, soldering, etc. That’s the kind of thing I can do myself if it saves a pile of money. I found a company that sells an upgraded version of the tank heater for $300, and with some help from Nick, installed it in a few hours. Eleanor helped me re-assemble the car afterward. Bottom line: The “Check Engine” light is off and all is well.

It’s funny how the elimination of that little fault indicator can suddenly make the car seem like new again. Having the satisfaction of fixing it myself (and saving a pile of cash) makes it even better. I took the GL out for a test drive and everything is humming along just as it should. Now I’m perfectly happy with the GL—why was I ever considering selling it for a pittance and taking on a massive debt load?

In the next week or so I’m going to tackle a major Airstream electrical upgrade with my friend Nate. It’s the kind of thing that an electrician could do for $500 or so, but by doing it myself I know it will be done exactly the way I want—and once again I’ll probably learn a few things (from Nate) in the process. You can read about it here soon.

Jun 21 2016

Repairs in Jackson Center and beyond

In the last blog I talked about the wheel bearing replacement we did while in Jackson Center, and it occurred to me that you might wonder why I don’t just take the trailer into the Airstream Service Center for this sort of routine stuff.

The reason is simple: no time. We arrive for Alumapalooza set-up usually on the Friday or Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The Service Center is booked up solid for at least a week or two before the event, and a week or two after Alumapalooza is over. Everyone always thinks that Airstream will do me special favors like building me custom trailers and opening the Service Center on a weekend, while the reality is that I have to book appointments just like everyone else.

Besides, going into the shop for work anytime before, during, or after Alumapalooza is a non-starter for us. We’re already too busy at that time, and losing the trailer for a day while working an event would really screw us up. So although we have utilized the Service Center many times in the past, it never works out at this particular time, and that’s why Super Terry (an experienced Airstream mechanic) pitches in.

We have had an odd little problem for the past couple of years, which had gradually gotten worse. When using the water pump, the LED lights flickered—to the point of strobing in a very disconcerting way. We’ve also been getting massive interference on the TV when the pump runs.

I have bounced this problem off numerous people in the past, and their suggestions have always been around the idea that the pump is drawing down the voltage, and that therefore the solution is some sort of capacitor or filter to smooth out the voltage drops and spikes. Another popular theory is that the battery is weak, but we eliminated that as a possibility when we replaced the battery in January of this year.

I’ve resisted the voltage theory even though it is appealing. No question that LED lights are very sensitive to low voltage, but at worst they should be dimming a little, not strobing on and off rapidly. Also, we didn’t need a capacitor when we first got the LED bulbs in July 2012, so clearly something has changed. And I needed to find out what it was before we all went nuts from living in a disco.

While in Fort Collins CO at the Denver Unit’s “May-tenance Rally” I had a chance to ask Von Campbell, an electrical engineer, and he immediately suggested that the brushes in the water pump’s motor were wearing out. This would cause electrical arcing, he explained, and that would definitely cause noise in the 12 volt DC power lines. This struck me as the winning answer, so I asked Super Terry to bring a new water pump to Ohio and install it for me.

Bingo! Problem solved. Now the lights dim slightly when the pump is running, but they do not flicker or strobe. The interference on the TV is also now barely noticeable.

I guess when all the parts are 12 years old and have been used for … what? maybe 2,000 nights? … we’ve got to expect to replace a few things. As with the wheel bearings, I can’t really complain.

Another issue we had was with the MaxxFan in the front bedroom. It often whines or makes an annoying resonance at certain speeds now. It used to be very quiet. Since we sometimes run this fan on hot nights, it’s important that it be quiet. I noticed that the fan seemed to be slightly out of balance, and attributed the problem to that, but replacing the fan blades didn’t help (it still wobbles). Now I’m thinking the problem is the motor itself.

Super Terry brought me a broken MaxxFan, for parts. I stripped it down one afternoon, keeping the motor, circuit board, and a few other small parts. Later I plan to swap out the motor and see if that resolves the issue. It’s a lot easier to swap a motor than to replace the entire fan assembly (and hey, the motor was free).

You may recall that while traveling through Colorado we had some trouble with the refrigerator, and my theory was contamination in the propane lines. I asked Super Terry to bring his air compressor along and we used that to blow out the lines running from the refrigerator to the propane regulator up front. No surprise–we collected about a teaspoon of dark brown oil on some paper towel in just a minute or two.

This verified my theory that we had gotten some contaminated propane. This is a known problem, although I’m not sure how commonplace it is. According to the Propane Education & Research Council:

Oil Residues and Heavy Hydrocarbons … This type of potential contamination can vary from very light oil to a very viscous tar-like substance. Sometimes it is a waxy material like paraffin, or it may be similar in consistency to axle grease. Sometimes it is transparent (no apparent color) while at other times it is light brown, dark brown, or even black. It usually has a strong odorant smell, as the ethyl mercaptan used as an odorant in propane appears to concentrate in the oily residues.

Source: The oils in propane can come from many sources; from processing, pipelines, pumps or compressors, piping systems, and flexible hoses.

The refrigerator had been running on gas without problems for a few days, so it was interesting to note how much oil was still left in the lines. I suspected we hadn’t seen the last of this problem, and sure enough it cropped up again about two weeks later in Plattsburgh when we finished one tank and switched to the suspicious one. The fridge gave me grief for a few hours but has been fine since. I may blow out the lines one more time at the end of this summer, when that tank is nearly empty.

There was one more repair item along the way. While driving through Pennsylvania the GL’s “CHECK ENGINE” light came on. I didn’t even have to pull out my new engine diagnostic tool (code checker) to guess that it was once again a stupid emissions problem. The car is great but the complicated Bluetec diesel emissions system has been the cause of most of our service stops, and usually it’s not a real emissions problem but a sensor or software update needed.

We made a stop at Mercedes Benz of Lancaster (PA), where it just happens we know the general manager Chris through Airstream circles and he made sure the dealership took excellent care of us. The problem was a NOX (nitrogen oxide) sensor, which is an expensive part but fortunately replaced fairly quickly. Chris arranged for us to be able to drop the Airstream in their parking lot and offered use of his house nearby for overnight parking. Sweet.

Clearly it was not a bad place to spend the night. Too bad it was too chilly to try the pool!

Our next major stop was Plattsburgh NY, at Colin Hyde Trailer Restorations for a long-anticipated major repair and upgrades to the Airstream. That’s quite a story, so I’ll save it for the next blog entry in a day or two—along with extensive photos.

Jun 19 2016

Brake and wheel bearing maintenance

Since I wrote a book about Airstream maintenance I feel a certain pressure to keep my own Airstream reasonably presentable and in good condition. Had I realized I would feel this way before I might never have written the book, since once in a while it would be nice to be lazy about things. But now if something catastrophic happens that I could have avoided with proper maintenance, nobody will ever let me hear the end of it.

So with this mind I planned ahead for our trip. It has become routine in the past few years for Super Terry and I to do a few light maintenance items on the Airstream in the days leading up to Alumapalooza. This year we decided to repack the wheel bearings, a job we do about every two to three years. The industry recommendation is to do this service annually, but since we tow our Airstream a lot (using the bearings is better then letting them sit) and we are mostly in a dry climate (water contamination is a common problem for the grease) I choose to let it go a little longer.

This time Super Terry decided the bearings looked a little worn and he called for total replacement. This was probably overkill, as really only a couple of the bearings looked slightly questionable, but my philosophy has been not to economize on maintenance issues. I could probably get a couple more years out of the bearings without a problem, but it wouldn’t seem like much of a savings if a bearing failed on the road. The result could easily be that we’d need a new tire, axle, bearing set, and possibly some body work if the wheel came off.

As it was, we have gotten 12 years and probably over 140,000 miles of service out of these bearings. They were original equipment. I can’t complain about not getting my money’s worth out of them.

A full set of bearings (8 pieces in total) plus races was about $120 at the local parts stores in Wapakoneta OH. Pulling the wheels and replacing the bearings took half the day. It probably would have taken Super Terry only about two hours at his shop, but we had a lot of people dropping by to ask questions.

The brakes, by the way, looked excellent. We are getting absolutely amazing service from the Kodiak disc brakes with semi-metallic pads. We installed these pads in January 2010 and since then have only replaced one set in May 2013 that wore out prematurely due to a lubrication failure. No service was needed on this inspection, which is great news. Likewise, I’ve been super pleased with the Dexter brake actuator we installed in January 2012—absolutely flawless.

There were a few other minor maintenance items we covered that weekend, but I’ll talk about them in a separate blog this week.

May 21 2016

Rallying in Fort Collins, CO

I hate to leave people in suspense. We left off with the refrigerator being balky on propane back at Sylvan Lake, so let me start by saying we have a good theory as to what happened with that.

By the morning the fridge was running well again and our trip to Fort Collins was thankfully uneventful. When we got parked at the campground and settled in for the three-day rally that’s going on here, I started calling the Brain Trust and local propane suppliers to try to get an answer as to why we had trouble.

The leading theory is that oil and heavy hydrocarbon contamination (from a variety of sources during processing, transportation, and storage) has formed a gooey clog in the line. This clog usually has a strong smell because the ethyl mercaptan used as an odorant in propane concentrates in the oily residues. So people assume it is the odorant, but it’s really oil. Whatever—I just want to get rid of it.

Since things are currently normal, we’re going to keep an eye on it for the next week and then do a preventative service in Ohio with Super Terry. We’ll disconnect the propane line and blow it out with compressed air, clean the refrigerator jet if it needs it, and inspect the pigtails that attach to the propane tanks. I’ll be interested to see what comes out.

Meanwhile, we’re at a rally, and it’s a good time. We haven’t attended someone else’s rally in years, and it’s nice to kick back and be a customer for a change. The Rocky Mountain Airstream unit is composed of some really great people, including quite a few folks who have been friends for years (but who we haven’t seen in a while) so it’s also a sort of reunion.

We’re just doing the typical rally stuff: eating, socializing, exploring Fort Collins, eating, Open House, and eating. I joined Luke Bernander on Saturday morning to present a little seminar about all kinds of Airstream maintenance stuff, but that’s the limit of my effort here. (I’ve got other “real” work to do back at the trailer between meals and social gatherings.)

What I really like about these events is the opportunity to see some exceptionally rare Airstreams, or just interestingly modified ones. The pair above is a polished Argosy 20 motorhome pulling a polished Argosy 24 trailer. Argosy trailers had galvanized steel roof end caps, which doesn’t polish up nicely. That’s why the owner (Patrick Phippen) painted them black.

This is a one-of-a-kind trailer. The Wally Bee was a prototype fiberglass trailer from the early 1950s, of which two were made. Only this one survives, and it was just a ragged shell when Luke Bernander saved it. The outside is done, beautifully, and he’s at work on the interior. It’s kind of neat to see in the context of Airstream’s recent announcement about launching the Nest fiberglass trailer, which resembles this slightly. Over 60 years later, they’ve come full circle.

And of course you don’t just see cool trailers at these things. In the foreground of the photo above is a 1972 Lotus Europa. It’s absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t stop looking at it. Never seen one before! Behind it is a customized 50’s Airstream turned into a mobile bar. There are two mobile bars at this event, which kind of gives you a peek into the party-hearty nature of this WBCCI unit.

I’ll be sorry to leave tomorrow. This has been a great opportunity to catch up and relax a bit, and Fort Collins is a cool town with a lot going on. We could stay another day or two but it’s a choice between that and some other things in Nebraska or Chicago that we are considering, so I think we’ll be moving onward. I’m not sure where we will be the next couple of nights, but one thing is certain: we must cross the vastness of Nebraska. Might as well get a start on it.

May 17 2016

Eleanor earns her paycheck in AZ

It’s always nice when the first day out goes well. We are trying something new: Eleanor is driving. For the past 11 years I’ve done all of the towing because she just wasn’t psyched. That was OK with me, because I like driving and I’ve taken some pride in wrangling the big Airstream into and out of tight spots.

The past few years I’ve been getting a little bored with the long drives, where we are just logging miles across the Plains or in a hurry to get somewhere, and with the prospect of 10,000 miles of towing ahead this summer, Eleanor stepped up and volunteered to learn the mechanics of towing a 30-foot trailer. That will make my life much easier, especially on those days that work is blowing up and I need to be responsive on email and phone to my associates.

Since she has prior experience with our 17 foot Caravel and she’s a pretty good driver anyway, the transition hasn’t been too hard. Yesterday she did over 250 miles up I-10 and I-17 to Flagstaff, and then east in I-40 to our overnight stop in Winslow AZ.

The real trick to learning to tow a big trailer is not the technique of getting it around a corner or backing in (although those are real skills). The hardest part is the psychological challenge. It all seems fine on a flat Interstate, but then there’s that moment with the construction zone, Jersey barriers and rough pavement on an 8% downhill grade—and that’s when the driver earns his/her paycheck. The sensation of a heavy trailer pushing you down a hill as you fear losing control from braking too hard, with your family’s lives depending on what you do next, separates the timid from the brave.

Eleanor got a good taste of all that yesterday and it scared her as much as it should have, but she also gained confidence from the experience and you can’t put a price on that. In fact she seems to have doubled down on the whole towing commitment, so when we arrived at Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow AZ she insisted on backing in to the campsite. That took a few attempts but when things looked bleakest and I offered to take over, she decided to tough it out. She got the trailer into the space after two more passes, and I was impressed. She has definitely acquired the right mindset to succeed at towing. That’s going to make this trip a lot easier for me.

The Airstream has performed perfectly, which was expected but still nice to confirm. Super Terry has been asking what service we might need to do on the trailer when we meet in Ohio but so far all I can come up with is a little bit of touch up on some sealant and possibly replacement of the Hensley hitch bushings. Otherwise, all systems are go.

Last night at Homolovi we decided to take advantage of the new battery and inverter we installed in January, and get a non-electric site for $7 less. It’s still a geeky thrill to be able to run the TV, coffee pot and microwave oven using just the battery. The price for such extravagance (plus some furnace time—it’s 6,000 feet elevation here) was that our battery got down to 61% after the coffee was made, so we broke out the folding solar panels to augment our roof panels and watched as the combination pumped 16 amps into the battery all morning. Awesome.

By the way, I’ve written a review of those folding solar panels with much more detail about how they work and what you might want to consider. That review will appear in a future issue of Outside Interests, so keep an eye open for that in the next few weeks. If you aren’t subscribed to Outside Interests, check it out—it’s free.

Today we plan to take a fairly leisurely drive up through the Navajo Nationa and perhaps end up somewhere near Moab. Not sure yet, but in this region of the country you can’t go wrong. Virtually every route is beautiful and relaxing, so I am looking forward to the drive—especially if Eleanor drives.