Midas Has Lost Their Touch

Today's post is all about a weekend spent doing brakes on K'Lack, and me left wondering if they needed to be touched at all. To my fellow Oregonians, if you have not received your November ballot yet, it ought to be arriving very soon. To everyone/anyone living in a representative democracy, I hope you exercise the right from which all other rights spring: your right to vote.

 

K'Lack Background

oh, the irony

In my last post, I said that I was waiting for parts to arrive for me to to K'Lack's brakes. For some brief backstory on K'Lack, it is a 2004 VW Jetta TDI Wagon (BEW engine) previously owned by our son Kai. He drove it for years, put a lot of miles on it and when the transmission started acting funny (the auto is notoriously bad) he wanted to unload it. Well, no car lot would give him more than a few hundred dollars for it because the transmission was going bad. So, me and Ang stepped in, bought it for Kelly BlueBook value and sent it into a transmission shop. They spent 3 months rebuilding it (got the wrong kit the 1st time) and we had it back for a couple of weeks before Krista needed a replacement car. At the time, we had a couple of extra cars, but they were all manual transmissions (she can't drive stick). So, we wold her K'Lack for what we paid Kai plus I think about half the cost of the transmission rebuild. That was before CoViD, so K'Lack has really served her well.

 

Oh, we named it "K'Lack" because it has that annoying issue in the turn stalk where it makes a nearly constant "clack-clack-clack" noise. Eventually , it gets to where you don't notice it anymore, but that's where the name came from.

 

K'Lack Brakes

I did the brakes on K'Lack not too long ago. I looked back into the blog history, but I can't find a reference to it other than saying I was going to do it in April (See Building a Shop - Doors). Regardless, at the time, the brakes were making noise. I determined at the time that the right-side rear caliper was leaking. So, I replaced it, but did the pads and rotors. I believe that at the time I also replaced the front pads, but I didn't document it anywhere so maybe I didn't. Well, a summer later, when it spent at least a month sitting under a tree waiting for it to get fixed and through smog testing, Krista grew concerned about the brakes making noise. I suggested that she take it to Midas and get a professional opinion, but recognize they are all liars and thieves, so anything they say we'll take with a grain of salt. Or a 5 pound bag of it.

 

Midas

So, Krista took K'Lack to Midas and told them the brakes were making a funny squeal/squeak noise. They gave her a listing of things that needed to be done, including replacing the rear left caliper (said it was sticking) and replacing all pads and rotors. Their price? $1200US. They also said a bunch of other stuff needed replacing that was not showing any reason for concern. New steering pump $1700US. I stopped reading then, but it was a laundry list that totaled over $5kUS. I don't know if they had her pegged as a mark or what. I told her that we would ignore everything except the part that she went there to talk to them about.

 

K'Lack Rear Left Brake 

there be meat on that inner pad

I knew that I had done the rear rotors and pads a few months back. So, when Midas said all of them needed to replaced, I wanted to see what they saw, so I took the right rear tire off and sure enough the pads have almost all of their meat still on them. Then, I shifted over to the left rear. Those pads and the rotor were so new-ish that the part number printed on the top of the pads was still visible. The brakes had not been used enough to produce enough dust to cover / fill in the part numbers. Still, I had the replacement caliper, so I separated the caliper from the bracket (13mm socket, IIRC) and looked at the caliper. The seal around piston did look mis-shaped Perhaps I was too aggressive when I set the piston back into the caliper when I did the brakes in April and messed it up.

  

Regardless, I got after replacing the caliper. I started by pouring some brake fluid into the fluid-line hole in the new caliper. While this doesn't eliminate all of the air, it does eliminate a lot of it, making the bleed a little bit faster. Then, I removed the emergency/parking brake cable with a slotted screwdriver and then the brake line with a 14mm spanner from the old caliper. Fluid immediately started leaking out of the line, so I quickly set the old caliper down and threaded the line into the new one. I put the emergency brake cable on, and then set the caliper on top of the still-in-place pads. After sending the slides back on, I tested the brake pedal, noticed a small leak at the hose-caliper junction and tightened it. The next test of the brake pedal cause the brake line to rupture, shooting brake fluid straight up right next to the top slide. Great, hose failed.

 

The rear brake lines, at least on this make/model/year are a combination hard line rubber line where they are fused together. So, when the rubber part fails, you need to replace the whole line. Neat. We got very lucky in that a friendly local auto parts store (FLAPS) had one in stock on a Saturday. The hardline joins another rubber line on top of the rear axle and can be loosened with a flare wrench. Then, the line can be popped free from the 3 plastic holders. I held the replacement next to the original, and the bends were in exactly the right spots. You would think that's not newsworthy, but nowadays it is.

 

The other end of the new brake line is the same banjo fitting as the old one had, but there was one major difference: the through-bolt was held captive in the fitting. The old brake line ended with a hole through which a separate banjo bolt would pass. To me, this creates greater flexibility during install and allows you to replace the bolt (usually a wear-part) independently. Enter another banjo-bolt nightmare that was not nearly as awful as the banjo bolt in the steering in Flash. I can't believe I didn't blog on that. I spent literally 2 days of a Christmas break trying to get a banjo bolt to align. Anyway, this was more like 15 minutes, but 15 minutes can feel really long. I believe the captured bolt makes this 100 times harder.

 

With the brake line attached, I re-tested the brakes and there were no leaks. I realized that lots of fluid made it onto the shop floor so I went to engine bay to add brake fluid... and... discovered that Midas had barely set the brake fluid reservoir cap on. It was not secured at all; it was just sitting on top of the reservoir. What a bunch of hacks!

 

K'Lack Front Brakes

front meat too

After seeing the state of the brake reservoir, I had to take a break.I returned a few hours later to look at the front brakes. These also looked barely used. I replaced the pads and rotors anyway. Why? I could not remember if I had done them last Spring, and while Midas is a den of liars and thieves, maybe they saw something I didn't. At least that was how I felt on Saturday. Today, maybe not so much. Regardless, I saved the old rotors and pads in case this set gives up at a time when Krista doesnt have money for new ones. Looking at them in the image on the right, they do not appear to be wearing evenly. That may be a case of the slides not greased sufficiently which I will take to heart on my next brake job.

 

The pads on the front right wheel had what looked like a small chip chunked out of them. Like what would have happened had a rock gotten in there, which is what I concluded happened, and was the source of the noise: a rock got in there, screamed a bunch and then shook loose, but not before Krista got worried about it. 

 

Replacing the front brakes was relatively uneventful. One wheel and rotor did not want to come off, so I needed to use a sledge-hammer blunted with a wooden 2x4. This looks much worse than it really is. Sometimes, a wheel will surface-rust to the rotor. That's totally normal. I set a 2x4 against the wheel where the rubber tire meets the alloy rim and then swing the long-handled sledge from about a meter away straight into that piece of lumber. The wheel usually pops off after a smack or 2. To reduce the recurrence, I will usually put some anti-seize on the backside of the rim before I put it back on. Since I had to get physical with the rim, clearly Midas did not remove it for their "inspection".

 

Once the rim is off, remove the T-45 slides. Yes, the fronts use one kind of fastener-type for the slide and rears use something completely different. VW engineers are a sadistic bunch. With the slides removed, the caliper comes right off. I set it up above the wheel so no tension is placed on the rubber brake hose. 

 

Next, I remove the old pads, and clean the caliper with brake cleaner. Next, with the correct brake tool, send the piston back into the caliper. Take care not to force anything. Before I put in the new pads, I give them a slight scuff with a flat file and then shoot them with brake cleaner. The slight scuff is something I picked up from an old car guy who said the pads break-in much faster when you do that. With the pads in, I set the loaded caliper back up out the way.

 

Then, I remove the rotor, which is held in place with a small Phillips bolt. For install, I first shoot both sides of the rotor with brake cleaner to get the shipping coating off. I then hang the rotor with a couple of the rim bolts so it is aligned and then send the Phillips bolt in. When the rotor is on, I grab the caliper from above and fit it into place. It is important to put a little bit of brake grease on the slides to they do not hang up in anyway. Then, set them in place with the T-45.

 

Bleeding Brakes By Yourself

I have tried and failed to effectively bleed brakes by myself... until this time. I am not really sure what I did wrong in the past, but I'll detail what I did this time. To do this by yourself, you need a MityVac or similar hand-held vacuum pump with a brake-bleeder attachment kit. I assembled and confirmed solid vacuum from pump to canister to fitting. Next, I set the flare wrench onto the bleeder first and in the right position to have full range of travel for loosen/tighten. Then, I set the end of the vacuum contraption onto the bleeder and applied 10 to 15 Hg of vacuum. With the vacuum holding, I loosened the valve just enough for some fluid to pass, and watched the vacuum dial. As it got below 5Hg, I closed the bleeder, applied more vacuum (up to 10-15Hg) and repeated. On the right rear, it did not take long to get steady fluid with very few bubbles. The left rear, because of the replaced hard line, took considerably longer. Still, once I was finished, the brakes felt much more firm than they were before I bled. Now that I have had success once, I will try again with Oliver's brakes. Hit spongey brakes have been the reason we have not driven him for literally years.

 

Wrap Up

I test drove K'Lack up and down the lane-way to confirm they were decent. Then, I ran the car back over to Krista, collecting Frankie (2009 Saturn/Vauxhall Astra). K'Lack ran great, stopped very well and for the first time that I can remember, it didn't "clack-clack-clack" once the whole drive. Color my stunned.

 

Well, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along. I'll update on the farmhouse progress next time. It's been busy around here. 

Plumbed

Continuing where my last post left off, today's post is about getting that additional bathroom rough plumbing done.

 

Rough Plan

under sink piping

I haven't really described this bathroom thing much other than where it would roughly go and what we demolished to make room for it. Ang and I intend to age-in-place in this house. That means, as we touch things, we consider how an old person might need things, and make plans accordingly. For example, I have heard that most home injuries happen in the bathroom. This is probably because you have wet tile, many obstacles and hard surfaces. To address all of this, we are pursuing a "wet room" concept that does not have a tub nor even walls around the shower. This means fewer obstacles and nothing to step over. To keep water from going everywhere, we will have a curtain, but there will be a floor drain and a hand-held nozzle too. In this way, if one of us is wheelchair-bound, the bathroom is ready. Otherwise, it is a simple lavatory with a toilet and sink, with a sink vanity that has more counter than sink. When the shower is not in use, the curtain will be pulled all the way to one end of the rod, leaving a large(-ish) open floor space. With that concept, we started demo, and then some construction and now the plumbing.

 

The Dig

toilet, floor drain

I spent 3 days digging my third trench this year, with this last one in the crap space. The others were the grey-water from the shop and the electricity/internet hookup from the house to the shop. Still, when the plumbers arrived, they needed to go to a different part of he crawl and expose the sewer. I knew that, and while I could have probably guessed where to dig and such, I also knew that it was highly probable that I would guess wrong and they would have to dig under there anyway. So, the first few hours on the first day, one of them was on his belly, digging out the original sewer line. At the end of the work, the spill went back into the cleared out space so for the most part, it looks the same as it did before they started. I think. I really don't like going under there, so I haven't checked. Yet.

 

The trench that I dug, however, ended up working out great for them. The photo on the bottom shows the waste pipe in the trench as do some of the others. Because of how little the pipes need to slope, however, I clearly over-dug. The flooring was still gone so they were able to do almost all of the work without having to get under the house, too. That last bit of sewer line and the hot/cold water feeds needed to be tied in, though.

 

Plumbed

routing under floor

The original plumbing estimate was for 3 days, and they were done in 2. They indicated that the trench plus all the flooring being gone made the work considerably faster. At this point, the rough-in plumbing is complete, supporting a toilet, a sink and a shower, with a floor drain. We had concerns that the main water feed would need to be upgraded. It was not needed, at least not yet. There was a concern that some of the original galvanized pipe might need to be replaced, leading to a much larger re-pipe effort. Similarly, that was not needed. In fact, because this galvanized pipe is from the late 1940's rather than the cheaper stuff from the 1960's and 1970's, it is holding up to time very well. The exterior of all of the pipe is rust-free and that pipe they needed to cut for tying in the new plastic to the new bathroom had no rust inside either. So, we will not need to do a full re-pipe for a long time. Honestly, since the kitchen and laundry behind it were re-piped a few years ago when we did those room upgrades, the only pipe remaining are the main feeds and the original bathroom. So, the scope of a re-pipe may not be as bad as your typical horror story.

 

Fixture Fixation 

shower, floor drain, toilet

Ang and I had been focusing on the foundation and wall locating and not on fixtures and such. So, when the plumbers arrived, they logically asked "where is the sink going"? Absent clarity on what we would use for a vanity, much less where we would acquire it, we went with "probably around here?", pointing at a spot on the North wall. We explained that we planned on something about 5 feet across with a single sink in the middle. They plumbed accordingly while we went looking in craigslist, fbmarketplace and the rebuilding center for a vanity that fit what we had just said. While we could have looked at brand new stuff at the big box building centers, we were skeptical of a new glue-board vanity withstanding a wet-room style bathroom. We were not really financially ready to take on the cost of a retail-priced all-wood piece either.

 

We were unable to find anything suitable, but at the rebuilding center we did score a functioning toilet ($35US) and a shallow overhead cabinet ($25US) that could be useful. If your reaction to a used toilet is "ew gross", you are not alone. We washed it with bleach water the moment it left the bed of the pickup truck. Add in $10US for a seat and another $20US for the inner workings (not going to reuse those either) and a wax ring, we will have a functioning toilet for around $75US. The cheapest toilet at HomeDespot is $100US, and this used one is much nicer.

 

rebuilding center vanity

Still without a vanity, we looked at the limited cabinetry that we still had in the garage from when we did the kitchen. When we bought that set, the rebuilding center included a few things which were not part of the "kitchen" but they deemed were part of the set. This included a 40" wide bathroom vanity and some overhead cabinets which looked like they were from a laundry. The overheads were attached to the south wall in the tiny attached garage. We had planned to use that vanity in the shop for a kitchenette or something, but we had a definite need now, and that was a maybe later thing.

 

Car Accounting

K'Lack: I am waiting on parts to do K'Lack's brakes. I expect to chase that in the next couple of weeks.

Hapy: still broken, sitting outside my shop waiting for me to have time to work on him. Honestly, I am waiting for the weather to turn because yard cleanup is so much nicer when it's not raining.

Frankie: I just got the O2 sensor. I will be replacing that soon. We are now getting weird errors about the driver-side tail light. I think the ground is bad.

Cedar's minivan: he did the gas vapor recovery system and started replacing the thermostat. We will return to the thermostat and maybe the sparkplugs before we call it winter road-ready.

Cedar's Subbie: we got it to pass smog (replacing o2 sensors) and now it's back to being his daily driver.

 

Wrap Up

pipes in trench

With the rough-in plumbing now complete, our friend Ray will soon return to install a floor. I will be staying out of his way. With the nice weather soon coming to an end, I have to paint the south-side barn doors or that exposed wood will get soaking wet all winter. I also have to get that bathroom vanity cleared from our overloaded garage, but I think that can delay a week or so while other work completes. Regardless, we are like many others this time of year: pushed hard by the boss-man all week and then on our days off we try to get a weeks worth of personal work done. It can't be. Even working your off-hours on work days has limited returns. Ultimately, I need to start setting lower expectations.

 

That's it for this time. Thanks, as always for following along- 

Digging Again

It seems that 2026 has become the year of the shovel. At least around here, it has. The latest chapter of farmhouse renovating has turned. So, today's post is about my participation.

 

Back Story

rough as-bought floor plan

For this part of the city / county, our house is old, built in 1948 it is one of the original buildings in this area. It was one of the farmer's original houses for one of the kids, and it is the oldest remaining house from that old farm. The house next door was built a few years later for another of his kids, but all the others, including the original house, are gone. This was a 2 bed / one bath house then. At some point in the 1960's, one of the bedrooms was blown out, making for a larger living space and 2 bedrooms and a connecting hallway were added behind it. It was in this configuration we found the house: 3 bed / one bath. That rear hallway ran from a bookshelf in the eastern wall west to a door into one of the bedrooms. Early in the house improvements, we removed that bookshelf on the east wall and put in a back door. Ang and I sleep in the original bedroom and our respective offices / guest sleeping are in the additions. After living in this formation for a few years, and completing lots of other things, we decided that getting a bathroom added would be a good idea. As the economy continues to erode, this looks more and more like a dicey idea, but we are in it now.

 

Demo

before the demo started

Once we got the doors on the shop, and I moved everything car-related out there, that created space in the garage for.... all the stuff that was in our offices to be stored. Yeah, that's not what I thought was going to happen either. Once we got most of the stuff out of the respective spaces, we covered what remained with sheets. The biggest areas to vacate were the closets which were pretty full. The actual demolition of the north-side walls of those 2 offices came next, and then we learned what old-skool wall work was like. They double-dry walled everything, but with thinner sheets. So, like today, the drywall is maybe almost a half an inch thick. This stuff was more like 3/8" thick, but double sheeted. The inner sheet is more like today's gypsum drywall. The outer sheet is more like a sheet of plaster that then has a light skin of plaster mud on top of that. The second layer is offset so the seams don't appear on top of one another. The result is why the house is so quiet and why a voice does not carry around a corner. This also makes demo more than twice as time consuming. The plaster stuff goes everywhere. There is chicken wire (or similar) in the corners and all of is is super dusty. For the actual demo plan, we eliminated both of our closets and that rear hallway.

 

Foundation Again

post-demo, walls gone

Early on in our adventure with this house, we brought in some foundation experts to stabilize the house. The main beam running under the original house had become compromised, so a new beam was put in. The 1960's addition was "bouncy", so we had them solve that too. As effective as the main solution was, the addition solution was not. That part of the house remained bouncy and having them perform a lifetime guarantee adjustment did not solve the problem either. So, since so much was getting demolished already, we took up the floor and added an access to the joists by removing some subfloor. And then removing some more. We soon realized that the "expert" work was not that great. They had added a beam right next to the original, but there was nothing wrong with the original beam. The added one was significantly smaller, however.

 

We got a few bids to resolve, but ultimately we saved literally thousands of dollars with a contractor simply firming the original beam. With the flooring removed we could also see that a couple of joists were missing and one was under-sized so it didn't even touch the beam. Once those shortcomings were resolved, the floor, even a floor that was simply plywood sitting on top of the joists, was far more stable underfoot. During this time, we all noted just how little crawlspace there was in the crawlspace. There was literally 7 inches between the vapor barrier and the bottom of the joists for most of it, and even less space over where the bathroom was going. There was barely room for a child to maneuver under there much less a grown person, and there was no way plumbing could be run. Enter me and another round of digging.

 

Dig It

A crawlspace is supposed to have at least 18 inches (half a meter) of clearance. Ideally, it is closer to 2 feet (2/3 meter). Rather than dig out over a foot of material for the entire crawlspace, I dug a 3 foot wide by 2 foot deep channel that ran from the access into the main house crawlspace southwest (diagonally) to the midpoint under the original beam, before turning straight west. I felt this would create sufficient space for the waste pipe while also creating enough room for someone to crawl around under there for maintenance.

 

My method was somewhat simple. First, I peeled back the vapor barrier and ultimately reused it. With the dirt exposed through the joists, I dug down with a post-hole digger, filling 5 gallon buckets, 2 at a time. I would then haul those buckets to the wheelbarrow sitting outside the back door (and down 3 steps). I would move 4 buckets of dirt and then take the wheelbarrow either behind the shop where the grey water pipe was done in my last post, or over to the location where we hope to grow food eventually. I lost count of how many barrows I moved, but I was able to fill a wheelbarrow in about 20 minutes and I dug hole for 3 days, at least 6 hours a day. The picture below on the right provides some perspective of how much dirt got moved: more than the height of a 5 gallon bucket.

 

Ang helped when she wasn't working, carrying the buckets and moving the barrow. When that was rolling, we were moving a barrow more often. Ultimately, we moved a great deal of dirt, digging to at least 22 inches of clearance, sometimes more, 1 meter (3 feet) across and perhaps 8 meters (25 feet) long. I took ibuprofen for 3 days, but after that, the pain subsided and I kind of enjoyed feeling my muscles to acutely. I feel reminded of when I used to go to the gym and has me thinking of going back again.

 

Wrap Up

With the access trench dug, our contractor could return and frame some walls. The inner wall of my office has been sheet-rocked so I can return to working in an office again. I had been working with my laptop wherever I could find space for a few weeks. The plumber is due in a few days to do the rough plumbing and the main contractor will return after the plumbing is in. We hope to have a usable bathroom by the end of the year, but we are at least partially managing the calendar by budget.

 

As for cars, I have found that historically October has been really hard on our cars. The first few colder days bring the barely-working things down. Case-in-point, I will be returning to K'Lack's brakes, Cedar is working on his fuel vapor system and Frankie (new Astra) needs it's bank 1 O2 sensor replaced and new wipers. None of these are blog-post worthy, but it is that time of year when things need to be looked at.

 

Thanks, as always, for following along.