As time progresses I find myself addressing little issues that we have on the cars and things around the house and yard. At this time I addressed a small issue on the Tracker which even though it's a small issue, has caused some rather inconvenient issues. In this case the small issue is the fact that the fuel pressure regulator is bad on this vehicle. How do I know? Well when I try to start the car, instead of it cranking a couple of times and coming to life, the thing will crank and crank and crank until it finally gets the pressure up in the fuel line to allow for enough fuel to spray from the injectors. One of the tricks we've adopted was to turn the key on and let the system sit a few seconds, allowing the fuel pump to cycle on a few seconds and prime the system enough to allow for the quicker start we seek. Sometimes we have to cycle the key off then on again to get another fuel pump cycle on to get some more prime before the engine will start. This is due to the fuel pressure regulator failing open, its not allowing for fuel pressure to stay in the fuel line when the system is off.
Well then its obvious to just go to auto zone and get a replacement fuel pressure regulator right? Wrong! At auto zone that motherfucker was over $100! How the hell does something so small and simple in its design and construction cost so much? I have no idea! Well when we see stuff like this we go to our favorite standby, Ebay! I found one on Ebay for $13. Now that is way better than over $100! Its obvious that I ordered that thing immediately. Well after a week of waiting it finally came. And because it was so simple in its design, only being held in by two bolts and having a vacuum line going to it and the fuel return line clamped to it. The thing literally took me a total of 5 minutes to put in. After putting it in I cranked the thing over and it started right up after a few cranks, not after 15 seconds + of cranking like it would when you just turn the key on and try to start it. With that it looked like it was a success. Hopefully this replacement part will help out with some of the other problems that we've had with how this thing has acted in the past. We will surely see. Another thing that I decided to address was the idea that the hood on the car has an issue with fluttering at the left front corner of the thing and catches enough air as to make us nervous at times. This is all because of some cracks in the structural member on the inside of the hood. After having to make repairs from a past deer strike, bending the hood to straighten it out, that structural member got weak at a couple of spots and cracked enough that the sheet metal of the hood is no longer supported like it needs to be to keep it from just fluttering when driving. The next little job was to weld these areas up. This was simple enough in its own right since all it involved was just grinding the areas to knock the paint off then just go ahead and weld it up. Since this metal is relatively thin all around, I had to use the lowest setting on the welder to keep from burning right through the metal. With that I donned the mask and welded everything up quick and easy. I had to use the grinder again to knock a little slag off in one spot but other than that, it was all done. Now in addition to the new fuel pressure regulator helping the engine to start up and run better the hood is patched up so it doesn't look like it's going to fly open on us. As time progresses I will be addressing some other issue on this vehicle so as to make it be a more effective car and hopefully last us a lot longer.
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