| MDXplosion |
Its been sometime since my last visit to this forum...yet it has helped me time and time again since I purchased my MDX back in 11/01.
I want to tell you the story of my MDX and what has occurred in the past several months.
Ok it all started coming back from a Paintball/Skirmish trip I attended in PA. I took the MDX there, solid 2.5 hour ride...nothing to it coasted just fine and comfortable. On the way back, by then a solid 80 degree summer day we saw a car in front of us smoking...I mean smoking and it stunk...funny enough right then and there (my girl who was driving at the time was in the fast lane) the call suddenly started to slow down, I looked over and asked her why was she slowing down, she I am not my foot is on the gas pedal and its just not going. I look up and sure enough the Tac is up to like 3.5-4K RPM, next thing you know we are smoking ourselves...pull over smoke not that bad but present...open the hood smoke clears but the heat was immense!! Look under the car and something was leaking, for sure I thought a hose busted or something, but it was leaking for sure. Sat about 20 minutes wiped everything down, coudnt identify the leak or the substance almost as if it was just steam, fired up put it in gear nothing. Had it towed to the Dealer (Bill Vinces on Rt. 22) parked it left the key in the service box. Dealer calls me and informs me that yes the transmission is shot. Mind you I brought it to them 3 weeks before my breakdown wanting them to look into a strange noise and possibly the tranny slipping again (they had serviced my Trans for the first recall). They said all checked out well and that nothing was wrong....so anyways...the service manager on top of reporting the evident he also mentioned I needed: Struts, Tires, Motor mounts, timing belt(s), brakes, wheel alignment, and there was something else but I cant remember. Dang I wish I would have saved the estimate he faxed over, which I didnt cause you had to see this estimate it was just written on a piece of paper and faxed, not even a professional estimate or even on letterhead...weird I thought....the total $4650!!...This price was excluding the Tranny since he said he would call Corporate and let them know of the situation and possibly get me a free tranny ONLY if I were to give him the work he quoted me (listed above). I thought this guy is smoking CRACK! I didnt get crazy or mad at him at all....I simply said it sounds like your not giving me any alternatives at all, and the prices for the items he diagnosed were heavily inflated. I called a day later and said I will have a flat bed swing by and get my car. I rolled the dice and decided to get my MDX back up and on the road on my own and definitely not being serviced at a dealer whose prices are set to rape customers/clients. For the timing belt change alone he was charging me $1178!!! Well I took it to a volvo mechanic for over 25 years who has his own shop now. He changed one motor mount, flushed all the fluids, spraid/cleaned the entire engine (to check for the leak), took the engine cover off drove it for several days and nothing, shifting/riding just fine...charged me close to $400...this was 2 months ago...I since then bought tires(balanced & aligned), struts, brakes (front & back), timing belt (all the belts), water pump, & did all the work/service myself with the assistance of my cousin who is a certified mechanic. Altogether I spent $1200 to get my ride back on the road...nearly $800 for the parts I purchased and the $400 for the service the volvo mechanic provided. Which is darn good in comparison to what I would have paid had I went with the dealer for the service/job. It has been a learning experience for sure, I now know how to change the timing belt, brakes, etc. on my own ride which before my extent would be changing a flat tire and the oil... LOL
I will provide some pics I took during the timing belt and water pump process since it was a big help to me when advarkus & Bruce aka Psychoknight aka Paul provided in their threads.
A big thanks to Paul for the tool needed to get the crank pulley off...without that tool I was unable to finish the job. A super big thanks to Pete who assisted me and was patient enough to take me through the whole process while I made sure I got the hands on experience I was looking for (as well as the knucklebusters too!! lol).
Pics to follow |
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| MDXplosion |
| Here is a pic of the timing belt...it was in great condition. I am not a mechanic by trade but it looked like it could have last some time...my car has 105,200 miles on it. |
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| MDXplosion |
| Sorry about that..here it is... |
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| MDXplosion |
| Here is the crank pulley...dont quote me on the titles of these parts exactly since I just learned them and I might be mistaken. |
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| MDXplosion |
| Pic from the top with all the belts off. |
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| MDXplosion |
| Another one....anyone know how to attach multiple pics? Perhaps a moderator can put these pics into one post... |
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| MDXplosion |
| Flushing out the anti-freeze |
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| MDXplosion |
| Pic of the old water pump |
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| MDXplosion |
| Water pump location: |
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| MDXplosion |
| Here are pic of the marks one would go by in case the wheels would move, which mine didnt move at all so I didnt have to be concerned about lining them up again, but if they did I wouldnt have had any problems lining them up again. |
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| MDXplosion |
| Another one.... |
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| G. COLTON |
You need to resize (downsize) your pictures so that they are viewable within one monitor frame. Too difficult to see pictures and read text with these pictures.
G |
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| oilchange |
| Thanks for the pics. Good to see DIY repairs that succeed. |
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