Thursday, April 29, 2010

I Love My Beater

Beater:
A car used for daily transport to avoid damage or wear on a nicer car.
I drove my beater to work today, it's raining too hard to take the Z.

Since my two batteries in the Honda's went toe-up I thought I should check the battery in my beater. The sloth that I demonstrated in battery maintenance with the Honda's became a teachable moment. Now, I put the last battery in the Old's and it was a real treat. That was at least five years ago and although I'm sure the Wal-Mart battery is better than OEM batteries I thought I should at least check the fluid level. I had enough forethought to bring a litre of distilled water home from work.

This is what it takes just to reach the battery in a 93 Old's Cutlass Supreme
1) remove strut
2) remove air-box
3) remove starter relay
4) remove + cable from battery (cable passes through hole in reservoir)
5) remove windshield fluid reservoir

It was harder than usual because one strut bolt comes out in the wheel well at the strut tower and was rusted. Finally, some WD-40 loosened it up before I snapped it. It was all worth it because each cell took a few ounces of water. When I was done it started right up and since I didn't break anything I consider it a success. In five years I'll do it again.

1 comment:

D- said...

GM: "Mark of Excellence"
Your Olds must have been designed by the same former Ford engineer.
Just be glad you don't own a GMC or a Chevy pickup w/stick shift. The hydraulic slave cylinder for the clutch is inside the bell housing. The transmission has to be removed to replace the failed part. Had I known that prior to buying the vehicle, I wouldn't have bought it. $600 fixed a leaking slave cylinder. This happened in the winter several years ago. Good truck just very poor engineering practices.