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Opted out of going for a bike ride this morning so I could do some maintenance on our PT Cruiser. The first thing to was replacing the multifunction light switch – the module for turn signals, headlights, emergency flashers & wipers. Andrea discovered that the switch went bad a few weeks when she came out from work the battery was dead. Turns out the fog lights would turn themselves on, thus draining the battery. I did some search on the internet at that time, and discovered this was a common problem. Suggested fixes are to remove a fuse and never have the fog lights available (which is was a tech did for AT for the short term), or turn on the left turn signal when you turn off the car – some how that shorts it out. Well, the new switch is in, after about 20 minutes of tinkering around.
Then it was onto the rotating the tires. This led to two points of frustration. First, I noticed that when the tires were last rotated (last Oct by an auto repair shop) they ‘replaced’ one of the standard chrome lug nuts with a standard brass looking one. The other issue was that they over torqued the lug nuts, on the passenger side anyway – way over 200 ft/lbs, as I was putting all my weight on the wrench and it wouldn’t budge; they would let out a little squeak if I lightly bounced on it. Using a 1" socket and a 6" extension as a ‘breaker’ bar (extending the leverage of the lug wrench) I was able to eek them loose.
Once the tires were all done, it was time to move onto changing the oil & oil filter. To facilitate this, I put a couple 2 x 4’s under each front tire during the rotation process, to give a couple more inches clearance underneath for accessing the drain plug & filter. It was a little bit of effort to get the drain plug out – using the ¾" socket drive and the same socket/extension used on the tires to break the grip of the plug, and it is an additional challenge laying on your back with hands ‘above your head’ and trying to get leverage in a horizontal position – thus the extension. The filter was easier (and I thought it would be the hardest thing of the day) with a little influence from a strap wrench it came off in no time. Then it was just a matter of pouring in 5 quarts of oil.
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