Ground subcontractors, Listen to your drivers!

[OrioN]

22 year old ground driver died on I4 and 75 in Tampa today. Tire blowout and he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. Made me think of this thread. Not accusing, blaming or putting fault on anyone, but just a reminder to pretrip and wear your seatbelt.

Wow, sad news, RiP to the driver... a blowout can happen after the pretrip, but not wearing a seatbelt is just plain dumb on the driver's part.

Click it or ticket in my area, but I've seen soooooo many ground and HD drivers in step vans, both pocket doors opened and no seatbelt!

I just don't get that they will be ejected if they get in an accident. Yeah, cargo vans and box truck have airbags, but that's still not an excuse to have a seatbelt on...

As far as the belly pan, sure it has many functions, sound dampening is one of them. They do serve additional features though, like what you see when an unknowing car buyer purchased a jaguar with oil leaks...

Going to do his first oil change & boom! No leaks were evident on his driveway or garage floors... he returned the vehicle to the stealership that sold him the car to fix those leaks.

It's a cumbersome shield for oil change places since it cuts into the productivity, but they're there for a reason

 

[MAKAVELI]

Wow, sad news, RiP to the driver... a blowout can happen after the pretrip, but not wearing a seatbelt is just plain dumb on the driver's part.

Click it or ticket in my area, but I've seen soooooo many ground and HD drivers in step vans, both pocket doors opened and no seatbelt!

I just don't get that they will be ejected if they get in an accident. Yeah, cargo vans and box truck have airbags, but that's still not an excuse to have a seatbelt on...

As far as the belly pan, sure it has many functions, sound dampening is one of them. They do serve additional features though, like what you see when an unknowing car buyer purchased a jaguar with oil leaks...
View attachment 194927

Going to do his first oil change & boom! No leaks were evident on his driveway or garage floors... he returned the vehicle to the stealership that sold him the car to fix those leaks.

It's a cumbersome shield for oil change places since it cuts into the productivity, but they're there for a reason

Yes and that reason is not to catch and hold oil.

 

[OrioN]

Yup, it's a side benefit... they're non-flammable material too.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Pig-Universal-Absorbent-Shop/dp/B004I665XS

Similarly like that...

Other uses of the belly pan:

When my mechanic removed my STR's belly pan a family of illegal immigrants jumped down and scurried away

- it is an elaborate socket / screw catcher to keep these things from damaging your delicate garage floor making recovery of said sockets and screws a drawn out effort.

The belly pan doubles as a cot for when ya broken down and it becomes an over nighter.

Heh

 

[Fred's Myth]

Again my thinking was these guys that I see replacing rotors at 50-60k miles on their cars were pissing money away. I can't imagine 4 OEM rotors for my car would be cheap.

$25 new AC/Delco vs. $17.50 to have turned for my vehicle. Easy decision.

 

[OrioN]

Yup, once turned, those rotors are now primed to warp due to less metal.

 

[Oldfart]

$25 new AC/Delco vs. $17.50 to have turned for my vehicle. Easy decision.

Yep. I can actually get them turned a little cheaper but it takes most of the day to get them done. I can get 4 new rotors and have them installed in no time versus pulling the old ones off, driving to the shop and waiting and then driving back home. 2 hours versus spending most of my day getting old ones turned.

 

[OrioN]

Some auto parts stores had in-house brake lathes since the car shops are busy working on other projects...

I used to do them & show/ measure the existing ones in front of the customers. Then provide the prices on new ones in case they are below minimum thickness.

Metal to metal contact on the rotors = automatic replacement highly recommended. I won't even bother putting a micrometer on them

 

[donthatetheptpds]

Look, we know that we're not supposed to mark anything on the post trip inspection on the powerpad, but to report any potential vehicle problem s directly to the ba bc or manager of the investor class...

So listen to your drivers! I've driven for past contractors that doesn't fix the package car inn a timely manner & moved on to better ones.

This new manager is over his head, or lazy...

I'm one with my vehicle & no one else drives it since I'm the only one on my line that's rural enough to use this boxtruck
View attachment 193315

Brakes are squealing, brake fluid level down to the halfway mark...

View attachment 193316

View attachment 193317

View attachment 193318
I tried the c clamps, butt I like the specialized brake tools better

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Wheeeeeeeee, I saved another day from being stuck in a rental truck.

View attachment 193320
With ~ a thousand of stops a week, I guess the caliper bolts got dried out, dust boots were intact.

Recommended to use synthetic good quality brake grease annually to help keep pad wear evenly

This gmc boxtruck takes a whopping 74 ft lbs of torque those sliding caliper bolts, Geezus!

8 Lug nuts per rim are at 140 ft lbs, butt the previous mechanic over tighten them... my 22mm impact socket got broken trying to remove the rims for that brake job, using a breaker bar with a 2 foot pipe.


I don't mind doing brake pads, though. easy $40 in my pocket.

Off to the rentals for yard work!

is daily when I work on trucks at Ground... most drivers don't give two s.. we had one that said his brakes didn't work and he added fluid.. was metal to metal.. we replaced them and rotors... next day. It's leaking.. no idiot.. you can't just add fluid when your pads are gone.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

is daily when I work on trucks at Ground... most drivers don't give two s.. we had one that said his brakes didn't work and he added fluid.. was metal to metal.. we replaced them and rotors... next day. It's leaking.. no idiot.. you can't just add fluid when your pads are gone.

Pistons fell out?

 

[donthatetheptpds]

Pistons fell out?

was leaking from the booster from having pushed the pistons back into the caliper.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

was leaking from the booster from having pushed the pistons back into the caliper.

You open the bleeders to avoid that, unless the master was overfilled to compensate for the low level caused by the pistons being that far out. Never seen a booster have that problem yet from push back. Interesting.

 

[Fred's Myth]

You open the bleeders to avoid that, unless the master was overfilled to compensate for the low level caused by the pistons being that far out. Never seen a booster have that problem yet from push back. Interesting.

Opening the bleeders also helps eliminate contaminated fluid.

 

[bbsam]

Opening the bleeders also helps eliminate contaminated fluid.

What would be contaminating the fluid in a closed system?

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

Seal materials...rubber and stuff.

 

[Fred's Myth]

What would be contaminating the fluid in a closed system?

Water.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Water.

You're not going to get water out of a braking system by opening up the bleeders. You have to flush the entire system.

 

[Fred's Myth]

You're not going to get water out of a braking system by opening up the bleeders. You have to flush the entire system.

No argument here. But simply pushing the brake fluid at the caliper back into the master cylinder only distributes contaminants (moisture, rust, brake dust, etc.) throughout the system. It's not hermetically sealed. Better to bleed it off and replace with fresh fluid. Better yet, and required at regular intervals, is to flush the system.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

No argument here. But simply pushing the brake fluid at the caliper back into the master cylinder only distributes contaminants (moisture, rust, brake dust, etc.) throughout the system. It's not hermetically sealed. Better to bleed it off and replace with fresh fluid. Better yet, and required at regular intervals, is to flush the system.

Sometimes I just open the bleeders and let it go if the fluid is dark and go do something else. Just be sure to know where the level of the master cylinder should be when you refill and don't let it run dry.

 

[OrioN]

On passenger cars, yes... suvs, some pickup trucks and cargo vans though... the bias valve is set to use the rear brakes sooner so those vehicles won't nose dive when applying the brake pedal

I seen the rear pads wore out faster than the fronts on an Acura mdx, Ford expedition, and the Ford transit cargo van I had last year as examples

Update. Wifey Acura MDX just had that infamous brake squeal... good thing I'm off today and the weather is nice.

Both were the same price! $20 But the eBay seller gave me BOTH front and rear brake pads!

The fronts were AutoZone top of the line ceramic pads, so they still have 60% left.

Shows that suvs and other similar vehicles have that proportional valve set up differently than cars... rears wear out faster so u don't nose dive when applying moderate pressure on the brake pedal

2005 model still with original slabs of iron. I'm going to get new ones with the next brake job a year from now.

I did lubricate all sliding caliper pins since I also did a front to back tire rotation.

 

[Mutineer]

Shows that suvs and other similar vehicles have that proportional valve set up differently than cars... rears wear out faster so u don't nose dive when applying moderate pressure on the brake pedal

I've owned many vehicles foreign and domestic. Model years ranging from the mid 60's to the late 90's. Cars, trucks, wagons, P1000 XG vans.

In my experiences, the pad/shoe, front/back wear ratio has always been that the rear brakes will outlast the fronts by at least 3 to 1.

Excluding XG vans, I've only replaced rear brakes once. On a '67 F250 which has been family owned since new, and that the odometer had turned over twice.

And THAT was ten years ago.