Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 10/04/18> When you know something isn’t right… but you just can’t put your finger on it.
Just can't figure it...
I know I am not the only who has ever had the situation before, something is wrong but you just can’t figure it out. I have had that situation for the last couple of days and on Wednesday I was finally able to figure out just what was going on.
The old Ford...
This has to do with the old Ford pickup truck I drive for work. It has really been a good reliable truck and it won’t be long now before I should be getting a new truck if things go like they normally do. The company usually rotates the trucks out when they reach 200,000 miles and the old girl has 206,000 on her right now, so her days are numbered. She hasn’t been a problem; she is as reliable, if not more, than that bot named Gina but in her own way.
She hasn't ever...
She hasn’t ever left me stranded and even though she decided to silence the radio there wasn’t much on it worth listening to except the traffic reports. I can tell you that when that radio went out I thought it would be miserable not having the radio, boy how wrong I was.
I don't miss...
I don’t miss listening to Rush Limbaugh one bit and as much as I hate to admit I listen to that guy for over twenty years. My guess is that he is probably still talking about the Russian election interference crap and how that was all a big setup by Dems and the Clintons.
I have thanked that Austin, Texas radio guy named Dale Dudley more than once in the Daily Dose for teaching me about confirmation bias and I’ll do it again, thanks Dale. Had it not been for him I would have wasted no time seeing about getting the radio fixed.
So here is...
So here is what is shaking, or a better term would be “sloshing around”. When I left town on Monday it was as rainy a day as we have had in a long time. I don’t mean just a steady rain; I mean the kind of rain that has you with the wipers on high and slowing down well below the speed limit because the water just can’t get off of the pavement fast enough and it starts pooling up along the edges of the road.
Here in Texas...
Here in Texas we refer to those types of rain as a real “turd floater”. I am not 100% sure on just how that term came about but I think it has something to do with those cow patties that cows leave in the fields while grazing and if it rains hard enough and long enough those patties just up and float away. I can’t swear to it, as I have never actually seen that happen, but it sounds about right.
Just outside of...
So on my way down to Brownsville, Texas I had to stop off just outside of Corpus Christi in the town of Robstown to fill the gas tank up. As I pulled up to the gas pumps I heard a sloshing sound as I stopped. I figured it was just the water in the bed of the truck so I didn’t think much about it.
Seeing that it was still pouring down rain I got the gas nozzle in the truck and then jumped back inside and waited for it to fill the tank. As soon as it was done I put the nozzle back in its holder, got my receipt and I was back on the road. I heard the sloshing sound again as I took off from sitting still but I didn’t really give it much thought as I needed to pay close attention on trying to get back out on the Highway 77.
A couple more times...
On Tuesday I heard that noise a couple more times when I would start and stop. Now I was getting just a little concerned. I was beginning to think that is was the gas in the gas tank sloshing around and I was already down to just about a half a tank of gas.
So on Wednesday I wasn’t needing gas yet but I saw a Shell Service station that was involved in what was evidently a price war with the Exxon Station across the street from it and gas was about 40 cents a gallon cheaper than what I had paid for it in Robstown. So I decided to go ahead and fill up since I would have to fill up before I would leave the Valley anyway so why not save the company some money.
This time when...
This time when I heard the sloshing sound it wasn’t raining and it hadn’t rained in a day so I knew it wasn’t water in the bed of the truck. When I opened the driver’s door to get out the door felt kind of heavy but the wind was blowing pretty good so it could have been just the wind making it feel ‘heavy’ is what I thought.
I ended up...
I ended up leaving the driver’s door open because I was going to put the credit card back in my secret hiding spot as soon as I got the pump started and I noticed a small drip of water coming from the lower corner of the door. I hadn’t run thru any water coming into the gas station so that was strange.
Then it hit me...
Then it hit me, the damn door was heavy because it was full of water or by my best guesstimate about half full of water.
At the very bottom of the door, at the very back end of the door, is a little weep hole to let water out if it gets in the door. That weep hole had gotten plugged up and that door had plenty of water in it. I took a small screwdriver and pushed in that weep hole and it looked like I had just broken a water pipe, as the water came pouring out.
Take a picture...
So I took a couple pictures, I probably should have taken a video of it but as you can see even from the still photo, that is a pretty damn good stream of water coming out of there and at that point it was at least three minutes had gone by before I got the picture.
No telling how...
It hadn’t even emptied out by the time I was done pumping gas, there is no telling how many gallons of water was in that door but I can tell you there was a pretty good pool of water on the pavement when I left out of there and it was still coming out.
I am really amazed...
I am really amazed that all power options for the door still work; the locks, the windows and even the power mirror all function so it will be interesting to see if rust ends up corroding the electrical connections in the door before I end up getting a new truck.
That rain on Monday was a gully washer or turd floater and also a good learning experience. I had never had anything like this happen before. The truck has never leaked before now or if it has the weep hole has been open and allowed the water to just pass on thru the door but not this time.
So if you ever hear a sloshing sound in your vehicle be sure and pay close attention to how the door feels with regard to the weight of it. You may just find you have water in the doors as well. I checked the other doors and they were all fine, no signs of any water in them.
My guess is...
My guess is that since I mainly only roll the driver window down that the felt that keeps the water out has worn down on the door. Between the hard rain and the speed traveled it just forced the water into the door with no way to escape.
My tip for...
So I guess this is my automotive tip for the day, sloshing sounds are not good and if you hear them, chances are you have a problem.
Genius I tell you; a damn genius.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
Photo Credit: All photos are the property of @sultnpapper
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My beloved Ford Pickups. It's really kind of comforting to hear that the doors still collect water. If you are into buying old Fords, particularly pickups you want to check the lower edge of the doors pretty carefully. Use a screwdriver or pocket knife and give it a pretty good push. It's liable to push right through. A little dust collects there, a little moisture and you got rust.
They didn't even have a weep hole until this century :)
We had an abnormal amount of rain this week, too. Hurricane Rosa blew her self out just about where I live, but she had some rain in front. Sunday we got an official 2.5 inches in an hour followed by 24 hours of steady rain.
Our annual average rainfall is under 3 inches. 2018 had been behind schedule until Sunday :) Yes, there was some flooding, and a lot of dirt and rocks and stuff moved. I hope to get out tomorrow to look into some of the rugged country to see the changes.
I've gone off and on trying to get sounds on my MC but in truth I like the silence. Let's my imagination soar. Plus I get the radio station in my head. It knows all my favorite songs.
I'm glad you got your slosh solved. You really are a genius!
Three inches isn't much, I know that to be a fact. I would almost bet if you looked at those years past it was mainly from on big rain each year just like you had this week.
I know far west west Texas is pretty much the same way with regard to rain. I was at a meeting one time that was discussing water and the guy from the state agency was trying to tell the ranchers that it hadn't been that rough of a past year for the drought at the time.
The state guy said "you've gotten almost four times the average annual rainfall this year, how can you say you are hurting for water?" The old rancher looked at him and said, "Yes, I remember that morning, it did rain really hard."
Well, yeah. We got about 6 inches from Rosa total, not a big deal, but way more than normal. We can't have a drought here, because we don't get enough rain to start with :) NWS has like 5 categories of drought and we can only be category 1 at worst "Abnormally Dry".
Even 17 drops sends people into a windshield wiper buying frenzy. The rubber rots in the sun between rains and you need fresh wipers almost every time.
I can believe that on the wipers rotting out from the sun,they would have to make them black too, absorb all that heat. If I lived out there I would think about just having them in the trunk and putting them on when I needed them.
I have only had that happen once in my life with an old Peugeot (French piece of 💩). It was great when it was new but give it a year or two and they start falling apart. I had water start leaking in around the side mirror and the Bleeping sunroof. Sunroofs may look cool but they do leak as they age. It got so bad that it was either spend $$$ fixing the problem or replacing the vehicle. I went with the latter.
I never have been a fan of sunroofs or those T tops that were popular back in 80's those gaskets didn't seem to last long at all that were supposed to keep them sealed off.
I have never owned a Peugeot and don't know many that have, it might be for reasons like yours, a couple years isn't much time when it comes to cars to have them start falling apart.
My car makes so many weird noises it would be difficult to recognise a new addition to the collection - though water sloshing would be a worrying sound. Then again, we have so much water sloshing around in Scotland, I'd probably just think it was something going on outside.
Well the good thing is that it was in the drivers door and I didn't have the radio to mask the sound. Otherwise it may have been a while until I discovered it, I actually don't really know how long it has been building up in there but it may have been happening for quite a while since we have a bunch of rain the last couple of weeks.
I have heard the water sloshing in the bed of the truck before and knew that was the case in those instances because you could see the trail of water when I took off behind the truck; like after a night of rain and leaving out in the morning.
I had a drain tube on my car get clogged and so water was leaking from my roof/sunglasses case area. Apparently it was pollen. Nasty surprises.
Yes, I bet that would be, I am sure it probably will have ruined the headliner in your car as well. It would be nice if they gave you some at least a hint at where all these drains are and so you could periodically check and make sure the are not clogged.
FOR TSE:
I'll keep that in mind.
No argument here.
I am glad to have been a service with that tip and thanks for being so cooperative by not arguing my statement, very much appreciated.
Will definitely listen out for those sloshing sounds
As it has been raining here pretty bad too
Thank you for the tip @sultnpapper :)
Your are most welcome on the tip, chances are you will never need it, but it is good to know anyways.
Genius yes genius :):)
Hubby's quite paranoid about rain or any water for that matter, getting onto the window controls in the doors as it can cause a short so there's a fire risk. You were lucky you drained the water when you did.
Now if it was a lady driving your van she would have noticed the weight of the door getting heavier!
But you're right, strange sounds in anything mechanical should not be ignored. In my younger days when I drove an oldish car I used to hear funny noises immediately and try and explain the sounds to my dad, he used to be quite amused at times by my attempts at describing strange noises, but I was terrified of breaking down on the side of the road, being an avid reader of murder mysteries!
Mrs. Papper is the one with good ears, she hears everything and even somethings that aren't there. We go through it all the time, "The van is making a funny noise". I'll get in it and drive it and I can hear anything out of the normal. But heaven forbid she break down because when that has happened I get a butt chewing for not having taken care of the problem.
I told her I can fix any problem with her van, she won't like they way I fix though, I'll just take the keys away from her.
Like that genius remark eh? I was feeling a little cocky about myself last night for some reason. But sometimes I could classify as that on certain things, not all things, but certainly a couple.
It, the water, may still cause some issues even though it has drained, it can rust the electrical connections or at least cause them to corrode.
I read your post because I was curious of what you have to say. I don’t own a car because I don’t need a car here in NY suburbs, but I must agree with you on weird noises, those are not good signs.
That is one thing about me, I am liable to say anything and more than person has told me that is what they like about reading the Daily Dose. You never know what is inside until you open it up and read it.
I am curious too, have ever owned a car and driven before? I can see not having one if you don't need it, but even if you don't it would be good to know how to drive in case you ever do move away from there.