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Chris Kulbaba

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Well, as most of you regulars know ive had a probem with my ST stalling... You may also know I took it in today to have it repaired if it was my suspicion of a torque converter problem.



Well I went to pick up my truck today after work, also my first day of no smoking! Not a good combo right there.



Anyways, when I first came to the tranny shop I was thinking, TAKE OUT YOUR IPOD. TAKE OUT YOUR IPOD, but I didnt, I have a ton of audio equipment in my ST... Anyways... I didnt take it out, I unhooked it, and hid it in the consoe 'bag' under that shelf thing thats inside (the black fabric/foam thing)...



So after I talked to the peope they stil said they didnt beleive it was anything to do with the tranny, I asked them to go ahead with a tranny service, fillter, etc.



I get back to the place after work (back to this point, lol) and I go in, pay my bil, chit chat for a min about what other things it coullld be.



I get into the ST, and the first thing I do is see if my IPOD is stil there so I coud pug it in for the drive home.... ITS GONE!



I go inside and ask if anyone knows what happened to it, and they al seemed realy suprised. The one guy said wel the guy that was working on it went home for the day, and they woud ask him tomorrow... I was pretty calm about it at this point...



SO I agreed to wait until tomorrow.



I go to get in my ST, and I go to step on the brake to start, and it hits the floor. Im thinking, woah, wtf, I changed my brakes on the weekend so I thought maybe I had something wrong with the brake lines up front from that.... I inspect, no fluid, no leaks noticable up front.



I peek to theb ack and I see fluid leaking off the sway bar. I then get a litte mad, I was thinking, these guys first stealll my ipod, then now are trying to kill me!!!



SO this time I go inside, calm, then they start arguing with me, saying they didnt do anything with the brakes, etc, and im thinking, wel they were fine all weekend and al the way there, the only thing that happened today was they had it and took it for a test drive.



I blew up. I called the police about the ipod, but beleive it or not I had to leave a message!



I went back into pissed off mode, saying I wanted it towed to my house cause I cant trust it there, etc...



Finaly, I agreed to have them et me take it inside so they coud put it on a hoist and we coud see what was up.



It wasn`t thier fault! My swaybar was rubbing on the drivers side rear brake line which was evident by the worn away swarbar paint, and there was even a divot where it was rubbing.



I then appoligized for blowing up and agreed to leave it overnight to be fixed. But I am stil furious about the stolen ipod!! They said they would corner the guy that wokred on it, and review the cameras they have around the shop to see who may have stolen it. They seemed quite concerned that this happened at thier business, and said if didnt lay charges, they would. So I hope they can get it back, before the police return my message ( I stil cant beleive I had to leave a message!)



Moral of the story is, if you have an EE swaybar, re-route your brake lines, because eventualy it wil run right through were they are! Im glad now it happened OFF the road, and not ON the road.



Long story, but had to vent ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This was posted about 2 weeks ago... Some one had the same problem..

Todd Z
 
Man dude. Sorry to hear your problems. That really sucks. Hope everything works out for you and you get your iPod back. Good luck and keep us posted. By the way, I have a .45 that always seems to work wonders for relieving stress. Road trip?:D;)



Just kidding all, don't hi-jack the thread to tell me how bad it is to resort to gunplay.:D
 
Yes its installed correctly. Where it bends to go into the collett at the bushing is barely rubbing on the brake line. Ive had the swaybar installed for almost 2 years now. Its taken that long to cause a problem... Check yours if you have one.







 
Which side does the bar go on. Does it bend over the differential or under the differential?





Tom
 
geeze... that sucks man. What shop down in cow-town (calgary) was this?



TJR, I'm having a riot modding... and I will never stop... ever!... mark my words... hahaha
 
I hear you Big D....it's just sad when people put so much time and money into mods for them to be stolen (not that an iPod is a mod, persay) or to come back and bite them in the butt.
 
Big D, was Quality Transmission Ltd...



I never would have went there but I talked to quite a few people in the past with rebuilding my tranny, and they said it was an excellent place to go.



I do understand the company itself is not to blame really, but the punk who works there sure is in my opinion.



With that said, the $50,000.00 worth of my big mouth bad mouthing thier shop (lost business) would make me as a business owner buy someone like me a new one just for the hassle, and to show they are a good place to deal with.



However, this morning I called, of course I got the news that the brake line is being replaced as we spoke, and the person they figured might have taken my ipod has claimed he did not.



Its kind of a crappy situation. I mean for all they know im making a huge stink about somethign that wasnt even there to begin with (TRUST ME IT WAS)....



The way I see it however is. When I left there, the door was locked. They drove it around, did what they needed to do, and even if someone else stole my ipod, the door should have been locked when it wasnt being supervised in any way. I dont know that it was locked before I got in, because I hit the unlock button on the pad before I was even close to the truck.



They did state that wherever it was during the day, it was on video. They were to review the tapes, but they never mentioned anything about it today. Id really like to see these tapes. Because if I left the truck locked, and they had survelance on it at the front of thier shop, and then had it while it was in thier chained yard as they stated... if someone that wasnt an employee was in it, then it should be on tape, correct?



Which leads me to beleive there is no mysterious thief out for ipods only. It either happened....



A.) When thier manager took it for a test drive

B.) While it was inside the shop bay



 
I know of a guy that used to smoke weed in his car.



One time, he had a brand new joint in ashtray while he was getting his car fixed. When he went back to pick his car up, the joint was gone. He was not happy.



He went into the shop, made an announcment that he was going to kill everyone there unless someone returned his item that was stolen. He walked outside for 5 minutes, came back, and the joint was right where it was originally.



You can't do that today, but it sure would be nice.





Tom
 
Well, I went to get my ST yesterday, was ready to go, suprise, suprise thier tech didnt admit to stealing my ipod. I am at a $400 loss there.



They did however replace my brake line. I didnt look at it before I left, because I just wanted to get my baby home, where she is loved!



I get home, peek under to see thier brake line install... Wow, what a mess. I think my 2 year old son could do better. they used some generic flexible metal line that just looks like its dangling there. I will have to replace this myself.



I swear I will never take my baby to a mechanic ever again! I am way more compitent then any one of them has been.



Anyways, I went shopping at Ford when I got her back. I picked up the new Vacuum line and albows ($14.00), EGR Valve ($118!), PCV Valve ($20).



I installed the elbows and new plastic pipe only last night. I drove around and immediately I could tell the truck was more alive, way more alive. I was quite suprised. I think although there was not a crack or any evidence of what could be wrong with it, I know what it was, because its not stalling now, after i put 100k of stop and starts on the new vacuum line.



What do I think?



Let me tell you ;)



When I took off the elbow after the truck was out drivin around I noticed that it was really soft... I brought it in the house, and cleaned it out. It got hard again. So after thinking about what the truck does when it stalls, I realized (IT THINK) what happens.



I think once the tube got hot it got soft. Under high vacuum load when braking it would pinch the tube because it was no longer rigid. The RPS would just up, then immediately drop down, sometimes recovering (tube regained its shape) and some times it wouldnt, and just stary compressed until I put it in neutral and the vacuum pressure subsided.



The new elbows seem more rigid than the original, making me beleive this solved the problem because it wasnt sucking the tube closed (which I heard happens when you use a 5/8" rad hose on this elbow)



I will keep people posted, but I beleive this has solved the problem. The truck has way more pep than it did, making me beleive it was crushing this tube quite a bit all the time. WHen coming to a stop now my RPMs come down to about 1000, and after im at a stop or just before I completely stop it drops down to the 800RPM area (where I tuned it to idle) without bouncing or even dropping below at any time. Its running great.



Thanks all for your advice! I owe you all.



Can someone confirm that the truck would run better if I didnt have a crushed elbow? Or am I just thinking its better after driving my wifes Pacifica for 2 days?



 
Well he just stole my $400 ipod, not my $5.00 joint.



However, if it was the joint, id be knocking some heads too!



hahahhaa...



 
XST, great to hear you may have found the problem. Unfortunately it had to happen, but it's something to think about when someone else has the same problem and can't figure it out. I never would have thought about when the tubing got warm, it would also get soft and maybe be sucked closed. I think it would think that it would run better when the tube wasn't crushed. It's causing a drop and increase (even ever so minor) in the vacuum system.;)
 

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