Have You Ever Been Grilled?

Before last weekend i went to wash the car, knowing it had accumulated some invisible dust on it. I assumed the dust went with the water, in the grill and then in the drain under the car. However, it settled there and dried.

In my way to Spirit Mountain, Lincoln City i noticed some shortness of breath. Symptom that has accompanied me for a long time in the last 30 years or so, on an off with times when it lead me to... mental hospitals (cause it was all in my mind, they said). Like the LPN on the SUB Я U in the picture below.

From Lincoln City to Florence i started to feel weird while driving, had some mild hallucinations (i called them fantasies) in a parallel process in my brain. I thought i was under the influence of dog poo at home, tired, because i didn't sleep enough the night before. In Florence it woke me up a fire engine flashing and sirening and everything. I pulled on the right in a pile of broken glass i failed to see. When i got at the casino, no matter how tired i was, i checked the tires, then i went inside. After seeing all kinda weird scenes, including the digital guy with a hamster on his hat who died the next day in the news, i went back in the car and tried to get some sleep. I was awakened about ten times, like in the second i fell asleep, someone put the headlights in my eyes, walked by, looked at me to see if i'm dead, etc., yelling, trumpetting exhausts. Then i called Angela and told her i wanted to go home. To my surprise she came right away and we left.

However the car started to make the sound that i now associate with gasoline contaminated with water. Water in gas clogs the fuel filter, reducing pressure at the injectors, which in turn don't get enough gas to wash the valves that get blow-by-oil from the PCV and the valves start to stick, squishing the lifters, foaming the oil and giving you bad emissions which translates in vibrations, poor driveability and temporary pulsating opening at the exhaust manifold seal, which may end in the cabin through leaks by the grille and seal.

All these made possible by lower than normal voltage at the fuel pump, due to a badly designed battery connector.

On the road, on a hunch i stopped to check the cabin filter and besides being dirty and stinky, it had some engine oil on it. Which i have no idea how could had gotten in there. Removing that one but mostly driving with the windows open got me to Lincoln City. On the right, the previous filter which i saved with the box to find a new one easier in the store. However i started to order it on Amazon, and i already got it, because there you can know when you bought it last time.

Angela said she wanted to go to the restroom, it was half hour before closing time, however she went in and played and lost a couple of hundred dollars (my estimate). Then she drove to Spirit Mountain. Then she went inside, lost some more money and i slept in the car for 4 hours. It's been two days and i still feel weird. Today i found an almost microscopic piece of wood in an invisible area of my belly skin that i extracted with some tweezers using some old lens as magnifying glass. The infection around it started to subside.

Tonight i remembered about the hole in the grill with the missing retainer i saw yesterday when i finally washed the dust on the grill last night. I saw it before and ignored it. Went outside to put some tape on it, checked the symmetric area of the grill and what do i see.

The plastic grill is interrupted, and there is some sort of lid that allows you to feel the master cylinder brake reservoir (When i did brakes, i added some fluid, from under the grille, no problem, didn't even notice that lid). Dust around it, the foam seal has melted long time ago allowing the area from under the hood to communicate with the cabin through the grill. The whole plastic grill is brittle because of heat, i broke a retainer when i tried to close that lid but that doesn't make a difference (foam seal melted anyways, thing was leaking), especially for the 2+2 miles Angela drives to work and back. Tomorrow i need to study the whole area and add some silicone, but that grille is toasted, needs replacement.

What else do i need to say. The engine filter that was changed in the same time with cabin or before, looks like new.

Day after. The thing has a foam seal but it does not seal by design and/or installation. You open it and  you're done. How can you prove it wasn't you who caught that foam in the edge when putting it back? Can see in the left the heat shield of the exhaust. Heat radiated by that side of the engine will ensure cooking of the grill.

Carbon monoxide from tiniest exhaust leak, oil and dust burning on the exhaust would have you daydream from Portland to Coos Bay and back.

Here it is visible it wasn't done recently. I didn't know of when i've done brakes, and i was the first to do it at this car. Design. The small area by the retainers is not sealed because of the shape of the retainers, not being solid. Why use two different materials, foam and rubber to seal the same area?

The day after i complained about dust they started the work across the street from the parking lot at Eaton which continues to this day. Don't know what that soil is but try to imagine what it does when it burns on the exhaust.