Upcoming repairs

 "Science progresses one funeral at a time." - Planck's Principle

Much to say coming up in the near future about some rapidly changing narratives... Vaccine and War, mainly.  But for right now, things are beginning to look up!  The days are getting noticeably longer, which is always welcome.  Winter months tend to be very overcast and the nights are 16 hours long at the solstice.  Between that, sleeping during the day, and work, there isn't a great deal of opportunity to get some sunshine.  

We all eat vitamin D, because most people are deficient, it's supposed to improve your mood, and it's a powerful immune regulator.  We also have light panels for light therapy to help with reducing SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Anyway, the end of the dark is in sight, and that's cheering.

I had mentioned in a recent post that the new car has slowly settled down onto the suspension stops as  hydraulic fluid has bled out of the struts, and back into the oil reservoir.  I'm happy to say that nearly all of the parts needed for the repair have arrived.  I was able to get the seal kits from eBay even cheaper than Amazon offered them, and so paid just $100 for both - saving $50.  Really there isn't much to the kits, some split PTFE (Teflon) retaining washers and some O-rings.  The box was tiny!  I decided to spread them out so the O-rings would not remain deformed.

The money that I saved on the seal rebuild kits unfortunately was lost again when I had to buy a jug of hydraulic oil to replace the inevitable losses when I break into the system.  The hydraulic oil is a special synthetic blend made by German company called Pentosin.  A 5 liter jug cost $105.  OUCH!  That's about $20 per quart or liter. 

The only remaining item that has not yet arrived is the pump suction filter, which was a mere $37.  I can already see where this Benz ownership thing is going LOL.  Expensive to maintain and repair, much like the old Corvette, which is what this car is replacing.

I don't anticipate getting to this project before spring.  The driveway is still pure ice, and the Benz doesn't do ice very well, at all.  We also have snow and some really cold weather in the forecast, so it would be silly to attempt to move it anyway.

 Once the plow is off the truck, it will be time to think about doing the repair - which should be pretty fun and not terribly difficult.

UPDATE 28 January 23:  The filter arrived, along with a tubing wrench set that will be needed to uncouple the hydraulic lines.  One nice thing about doing this work myself if that I end up with tools (and skills) that can be used again later.  It's possible that once I retire, I'll do minor auto repairs for people at church - assuming they would want an amateur to work on their car(s).  As it stands, I barely have time to repair my own vehicles.