Automotive Fix?

 

The last time I took a picture of our HHR was December of last year on our way home.  Back in the middle of March, a check engine light came on and every week it seemed to run rougher and rougher.  Knowing we would be at Sandy and Arny's house within the month, and knowing the vast amount of knowledge, experience and tools available there, I decided to chance it and wait until we got to Citrus Heights to do the work.  We bought it in early 2011, it was a 'rental' which was put up for sale at a car dealership.  Not sure what work they might have performed on it, but over the past 11 years we have put around 130,000 miles on it, pulled it behind motorhomes for at least another 100,000 miles, and it has been very reliable for us with just a few problems prior to now.

Thinking that it was just the Spark Plugs, I went to O'Reilly Auto Parts and picked those up and put them in on Monday.  $45, and it seemed to be better...but only short lived.  

(Black things are coils, spark plugs under them)

Monday afternoon I took it to O'Reilly Auto Parts where they ran check engine codes. Not only did it need the Spark Plugs, but also Ignition Coils (one for each spark plug), Throttle Body cleaning or replacing (this gadget allows the air into the cylinders), an Oxygen Sensor (we put that in back in 2016 so I skipped putting that in even though I bought it), Mass Airflow Sensor (which works in conjunction with the Throttle Body).  Ok, that's another $325, not including the Throttle Body which we decided to ignore for now, and all of the parts would be available Tuesday morning.

(O2 sensor left, Mass Airflow sensor right)

By Tuesday afternoon it was working much better, and I even went over to visit mom afterwards.  But on the way home, it started acting up as if I never did anything.  So we decided to take out the Throttle Body, and it was DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY.  Arny soaked it in some 'stuff' all night, and I put it in Wednesday morning.  Worked like a charm again...until it the engine warmed up.  Arny's friend Steve has a code reader which works on his phone, real neat, and the top code was Throttle Body and O2 sensor.  We still held off on doing that O2 sensor...but got a new Throttle Body.

(Throttle Body)

So I went back to O'Reilly Auto Parts and ordered a new Throttle Body, $220.  I 'almost' turned the O2 sensor in for credit, but thought I could do that later just in case (smart thinking that time).  Thursday I picked up the new Throttle Body, put it in and the HHR worked better than ever...until it warmed up.  Steve came over late afternoon and ran his code reader again, and it pointed to the O2 sensor...which I had but did not put in due to how hard it was to get to it.  

(Code Reader, sends info to your Smart Phone via bluetooth)

So far I had done all the work except cleaning the Throttle Body.  With the O2 sensor, I was going to have to rely a bunch on Arny.  So Friday mid-morning we first cleaned the engine (Arny likes to work on clean engines).  Around 1 pm we started on the O2 sensor which took us about an hour.  WOW, now it was really working like a charm.  Took it around the neighborhood, let it get nice a warmed up, and it was working perfect.  Took it for a 12 mile run north on the Interstate, got off and right back on headed south...perfect...until the check engine light came back on...but it still worked flawlessly.

Did a bit more research and found that the computer can take awhile...even up to a few hundred miles, before it relearns everything.  So for now we are claiming victory...but there is a chance we might need to do a bit more work if I want to stop this one check engine code from popping up.

I never finished our trip...here are just items.   With the loss of our GPS/Music, we "HAD" to have something.  I remembered that I had a speaker which is powered by USB and/or Solar, which would connect via bluetooth to my Kindle Fire.  Speaker box above, Kindle below (I have a keyboard attachment with this Kindle)

 

I downloaded some tunes to the Kindle so it would work with or without Internet, and we enjoyed some tunes the final few days to Citrus Heights.

I guess our Amazon Prime was up for renewal, and Amazon hunted us down, twisted our arms, and now, after another $120, we are good to go for another year.

Typical view of Mojave Desert, I-40 headed to Barstow

Gee wiz Dorothy, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore....  Gas price in Barstow (thank goodness we filled up our tank in Arizona)

Gas price on Highway 58 near Kramer Junction.  This station has been open for about a year.  We stopped and let Indy play in their Doggie Park...she enjoyed that a lot.

Joshua Tree in bloom as we head toward Tehachapi Pass, and then Bakersfield

One of MANY rough bridges we had to cross...only 150 miles to put up with....

 

Pictures taken Friday Evening

Yes, they had the tree cut back

She just LOVES this yard...as did Skruffy and Bubba

Lots of Hummingbirds this year

Fewer Doves due to Cats

It is Spring, Finches Looking for Action

Fewer Squirrels, again Cats

I'll Keep Them Fricken Cats Away!!!!!

From Joshua Trees through the Mojave Desert to Needles, Ca

 

It did not take long to get over Tehachapi Pass, a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains, a principal connector between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, also known as Highway 58 through the mountains. We left at 7 am, filled up at the Flying J in Tehachapi at $4.39 per gallon ($150 for 34+ gallons of gas) and soon we were in the western Mojave and coming into patches of Joshua Trees.

As I am passing by tree after tree I think about the many old Western movies and/or TV shows where they show Joshua Trees in places like Kansas, Montana, Colorado, even the Dakotas.  Fact of the mater is that the Joshua Tree is found primarily in California, and small parts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona....along with parts of north-west Mexico.  A similar occurrence happens with Saguario Cactus.  It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California...yet can be seen in episodes of Wagon Train crossing through Kansas or Colorado, various movies not set in Arizona, etc.  It's kinda like watching a movie of Custer's Last Stand with the background of Sedona or Monument Valley as the backdrop to the movie.  Back when those movies and TV shows were shot, they did not expect people to have the Internet or that so many would have the ability to visit these sites in person.

Here in the Mojave Desert the tree brings a bit of life to the dreary desert.  Let's face it, except for a few areas, the Mojave Desert is a bit of a boring drive.

We drive through the newly upgraded Highway 58 through Boron (all four lane, two each way now) and through Barstow, and hit the Rest Area just 20 miles east of Barstow...one we seem to stop at each time.

Seems we stop at the Desert Oasis Rest Area area going either east or west on I-40.

Above you can see the west rest area on the other side of the freeway.  Tears came to my eyes as I told Marcia that just 9 1/2 years ago the view was from the other side of the freeway...

Here they are, Skruffy and Bubba...looking at the east rest area right at where we are parked 9 1/2 years later, right where I put this red arrow into the picture.  Perhaps they knew something...or perhaps they were thinking just what I posted about this picture way back then.  "Who stole the #*%*@&* grass?"

Over the next 120 miles there are only a few distant mountains in which to enjoy, along with a few cactus species.  At 59 miles per hour, which is 4 miles over the speed limit but slow enough not to attract the attention of the three highway patrol officers monitoring the patch of highway, it is a long long drive...  

We finally make it to an RV Park we have stayed at many times before...Fender's River Road Resort in Needles, right on historic Highway 66, with part of the park right along the Colorado River.  It is a Passport America park and cost just under $20 for the night's stay.

As we drove the 'back way' to Fenders RV Park from the Interstate, we came across a number of rock displays, all with flags.  I told Marcia that I would need to unhook the car and come back to check it out...it is about a mile away from the park.

All of the displays seems to correspond to a Veteran's Day celebration.  There was a display for the Army, Navy (above), Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, along with a VFA display and this Vietnam POW/MIA display.  All together there was around a dozen displays.

The sun made it hard to get good pictures on the southwest side of the road, and threw shadows on the other side of the road.  It was a real special, inexpensive display of Patriotism that I really appreciated.

Tomorrow we will enter Arizona where the time changes by an hour, and gas prices drop by 25%.

Another Blow Hard

Got up, walked the dogs, paid our bill ($15 plus change) and we were on the road by 8:15.  A fairly easy travel day from Needles to Barstow…then it got very exciting, again.  I could not tell you which of our travel days had the hardest wind.  I do think that today we had the hardest wind gusts, that is for sure. 

  

Before the winds started to blow us all over the place, we were enjoying the view of the Mojave Desert…there were lots of yellow flowering plants, more green than we are use to, and the clouds made for a spectacular view.

Just east of Barstow we always stop at the Desert Oasis Westbound Rest Area.  Here Skruffy and Bubba look out again, and in their minds they are wondering “Why does dad always stop at this rest area with no lawn, no greenery, nothing by sand and rocks?”

And each year they search and search for green grass…anything that is green.

Bubba, LOOK, we found some!   Bubba?  Bubba, is that you actually raising your leg up to pee??? (A very rare thing with Bubba, and first time on camera too)

As we get ready to get back into the motorhome, Bubba faces to the Northwest, looking and smelling for that familiar sign…Arny’s house.  I figure his body is faced in the actual direction of where Uncle Arny and Aunt Sandy live.  Yes, getting very close now Bubba.  It was also here at the rest area that I noticed the first signs of wind.  Twenty minutes later as we get close to Barstow, I can start feeling it on the steering wheel.

At Barstow we picked up highway 58, which at times is a two lane road, but mostly a four lane, divided highway.  At the intersection of highway 58 and 395, there is a Pilot Gas Station which is very busy (busier than this google maps image above)…and I normally stop there since I last filled up in Arizona.  California gas is so much higher than what we have been paying…a dollar more than in Kingman Arizona.

As we travel along highway 58 there is a nice stretch where there are Joshua Trees. Some stand alone, while others are in small groups.

     

As we get close to the town of Mojave, one can see windmills which seem to go one forever.  Up over those hills, down near Bakersfield and we are done for the day.

    

The Orange Grove RV Park, just east of Bakersfield, is a popular stopping site for us, and for many of the snowbirds.  As we drove down our “street” after visiting the California Fruit Depot (that’s a secret, enough said), we noticed many RVs from British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon, and at least one full-timer out of South Dakota.  I went out again later, and another twenty RVs have arrives since us, but it should be quiet on our end…I think later arrivals will be put on the other side of the park…which has nearly 200 very large sites.  Most  of the pull through sites are 65 or 90 feet in length. And yes, it is in a Orange Grove, and you can pick Oranges (no ladders) and/or visit the California Fruit Depot around the corner.

Today, many of the trees still have oranges on them, and blossoms for the next crop.  I sure hope they don’t have any more freezing weather this spring.

Tomorrow we have a 300 mile drive up to Sacramento and into Citrus Heights.  Then we will be with family for a good month or so.  I think that will make someone very, very happy.