The New Car Story

It looks like i got no other choice but write the car story. In the first day or 10/13 when i went to see the car, i tried to drive it @ to see if there's anything wrong with it on a total distance of maybe a quart of a mile. There was a splash guard touching the tire on the front left side, or where the wheel has been hit. There was a clunking sound on the right side. I briefly put the car on a jack with the help of the guy in the body shop who gave me tools and i looked and saw the right CV shaft (passenger, longer) was bent, in the rush of events at first i thought it was just wobbling (knew it was not hit on that side in the recent accident) from articulations when turning the hub by hand, only realized it was bent weeks after or on 11-08, when i also realized there is nothing on my car that could have caused those abrasions.

Went the next morning at AutoZone on Dartmouth St and picked one for 150. It seemed a good deal, but when i put it on i saw it was 30% thinner then OEM one. One of the consequences of being thin is it twists maybe half turn when i put the car in drive or rear. Also when i drove it a few days ago on I5 to Wilsonville to test the mpg, i heard a vibration. I raised the car on the jack and saw the newly installed Autozone shaft got a big play at both ends. First i tried to order a used one at B&R for 65 bucks and Wednesday i went to North Portland to pick it, but was damaged and rusted and refused it and asked for a refund. In the same day i ordered another one at Autozone, similar with the one that's on on the right, just to measure it. With a cheap caliper, by comparison only, it seemed smaller than my bent OEM (they probably use looser tolerances than OE manufacturer), both the outer diameter in the splines area and distance between 5 teeth. I measured it like 20 times just to make sure and returned it though there was this annoying music in the store, people talking aloud, overwhelmingly overly polite, etc.. Now i'm trying really hard to find both shaft online as OEM parts. I found them on a site for 250 each but now i sit and wonder if the site is legit (here at dealerships is between 380 and 400 a piece, it is true, on the same site the Korean built ones are 330+shipping, my car is US built). On driver side again there is a badly rusted one which could not have been only 4 years old with no other rusted parts on the vehicle. Now i remembered i asked the guy at the store (who is not a mechanic but did some struts replacement in the past why the shock absorber is not in the middle of the spring, he said because the car is on a jack and spring is extended all the way, can't wait to go and take a picture now that the car is on wheels.

Never touched the left shorter rusted axle.

It is for the first time that i realize that the strut is also bend towards the end.

By comparison with the one on the passanger side, with the much thinner (Autozone) shaft which is still on the car, is seems this one is bent

Today i got called again by the guy at B&R (the same voice as the 855 number) and he told me the part (again right shaft, OEM, used) is waiting for me in North Portland, i told him i went there two days ago and refused it, again for being rusted and one of the boots popped in and making a sound when rotating that end.

Got the number for B&R from a guy from Hillsboro Auto Wrecking. I went there for a hub (at the time i believed the noise coming from the front wheels is from a bearing). The bearings had too much of a play and the hub was rusted so i just drove back there and returned it. In that day i drove more than 100 miles for that hub.

11:00 13 On November 4 in the evening i went to pick the car. Drove it here, took Angela with me (both had very little sleep the night before), drove back over there to pick the truck. Both in the car, we agreed that there was a weird smell. We stopped at an Autozone store and bought an engine air filter and a cabin air filter. I replaced the engine air filter in the parking lot, but when i tried to pull the cabin air filter (the one on top of the fan), a couple of pounds or more of rancid dog food came with the filter, some falling on the car's floor, most in the fan. So we went to a carwash (a mile away next to O'Reillys), tried to vacuum but the hose would not go in the place where filter was. Finally vacuumed enough of those for the fan to work. Went to pick the truck, Angela drove the car home. Next morning, after i wrote about the whole story i went to Lowes to pick a dishwasher drain hose to adapt to the vacuum cleaner. I dropped the blower fan and with one more shorter flexible hose on top of that, i went and picked the remaining pellets from the heater core housing.

The only way that dog food could have gotten in there was by removing the grill (between hood and windshield) from outside. I felt that smell in the first day i went to see the car or when i discovered the CV shaft on right side was bent. While i was vacuuming, the guy upstairs came and parked in his spot next to me. It was then when i asked him if he ever cleaned the filter of his drier and he seemed puzzled. I explained to him how to do it. After that he stopped using the drier altogether but he started again and i looked and the flow of the steam from the vent is very low and he just restarted drying the same load.