Our car has been a lot of “fun” since we moved to Houston (it was a lot of “fun” before, too). Right before the move my car died out and I had to have my alternator replaced (yay $300 + oil change while I was there) on a Saturday morning. There was a lot of fun with that… and a lot of tweeting from my phone.

After getting here I had to run some diagnostics on it at a local shop to find out why the car was dying while running, and why the battery kept needing a jump. It turns out that a previous owner had a problem “fixed” by working around it. The CCRM was bad (controls the A/C compressor, fuel pump, and some other things) and instead of replacing it, a wire was put in place to allow the A/C compressor to bypass the CCRM. The problem with this? The A/C compressor never turned off.

The shop gave me a huge quote for the repairs but it turns out that they were definitely going the most expensive way possible. The wire was removed and I was able to replace the CCRM myself for right around $100 for the part (and a lot of frustration with the car). Another part was the PCV assembly, but I found that one for about $38 and popped it in.

There are still a few kinks to work out but fixing it myself was nice (and cheap). When people ask me where I learned what I do know about cars, I tell them I learned from all of my car problems. =P

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Filed under: Life
Tags: « Car »
by N.G. Woosh