Well, our first camping trip with the camper was a success. Everybody said that we should go somewhere local to work out the bugs in our setup. But, we decided to defy everyone's advice and travel cross-country. Everything went well. We made it back with the same number of kids, camper intact and some great memories. And best of all, my feared complication (a tire blowout) didn't happen!
But despite the good time and traveling success, we uncovered a few mechanical issues with our truck. Specifically, somewhere in Kentucky I noticed that the passenger, rear tire was significantly overheating. All the other tires were running within 10 degrees of ambient temperature. But this particular tire was heating to 100-140F. I wasn't sure the problem, but it was definitely on my list of things to work on before our next trip.
Going into the project, I had 2 thoughts about what could be causing the wheel overheating. It was either the brakes or the wheel bearing. After taking off the rear wheel, I inspected the brakes and found that they had seized, completely wearing down the the brake pads. When I took off the caliper, I found that the piston boots were torn. So, I suspect that this is like the cause of the wheel overheating.
After changing the calipers and pads for both rear brakes, I flushed the brake fluid. We took a test drive and I noticed that the brake pedal was very soft and the vehicle came to a stop deep in the press of the pedal. My wife noticed that something was squirting out from under the vehicle - but not near the wheels. Upon brief inspection, I found a pinpoint hole in the break line where the line had corroded over the years. So it was time for a new brake line, a new project and a new learning experience.
Materials Needed
1/4" brake line - I bought a 25' roll of nickel-copper tubing
Fittings - sized for 1/4" tubing
Flare kit - I picked up a kit on Amazon for about $30
File
Flashlight - Mine happened to have a magnetic base which was really convenient under the vehicle.
Appropriately sized wrenches
Steps to replacing a brake line
Step 1: Remove the old break line
Step 2: Cut and bend the new brake line to match the old brake line
Step 3: Flare the ends
I won't go into detail here about how to flare the brake line other than to say that you need to perform a double flare. If you want more information about how to flare a brake line, there are a bunch of great videos on YouTube on the subject.
Step 4: Install the new line
Step 5: Flush brake line
This is a very important step. The new line will be filled with air. But since air is compressible, it makes a very poor medium to have in a brake line. So you need to open the downstream bleeder valves on the brakes and bleed the fluid. To do this, I installed a 3/8" plastic tubing on the bleeder valve, ran it up above the level of the valve and back down into a collection container (making sure that the end of the tubing was below the level of brake fluid in the collection container. Then I pumped the brakes until I stopped getting air out from the bleeder valve. I bled each rear brake this way.
So what did I learn with this project and what does it teach about excellence?
I have heard it said by some physicians that they they like to hire others to do tasks that they are not skilled at or don't want to do so as to be freed up to focus on what gives them joy and meaning as well as to leverage other's time and experience.
At some level, I don't completely disagree with that sentiment. There are a lot of projects and things in my personal life and professional practice where I apply this principle. At home, I hire someone to come clean my house. Do I know how to do it? Yes. Could I do it if I needed to? Sure. But, frankly, I just don't enjoy spending my time dusting, vacuuming a scrubbing toilets.
However, for the most part, I take a different perspective from those that hire out the things they don't want to do or are less skilled at doing. I like the DIY ethos. And for many projects I like to do a lot of my own work. Why? Well let's explore those reasons?
Reason 1: You get to learn something
Over the years I have had a variety of interests. I have often wondered why I bounce from one thing to the next. But a few years ago it dawned on me, the one consistent thing is that I like learning.
We often think of learning in the context of education. And that the bulk of our learning happens from K-12, college and whatever degrees come after. But learning should not stop when we switch the tassel on our graduation hats. The ability to read, learn and expand our knowledge in the way that we do is one of the things that sets us apart from all other creatures. Learning helps us grow as humans. It expands our cognitive horizons beyond what is immediately surrounding us. It allows us to create networks of knowledge that are cross-applicable to various life encounters. It lets us more fully comprehend the beauty of the world around us. In short, learning is life!
As physicians, we talk about being life long learners. Our medical licensure is dependent on the idea of continuing medical education. But why stop there? I enjoy learning about all sorts of things. My book list serves testimony to that. And YouTube had opened up so many doors for learning.
So, when it comes to projects at home or in the garage, the same principle applies. I love the idea of learning about how my truck works and its various systems. You never know when you will need to call upon what you have learned.
Reason 2: You get to save money
It is often said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. It is a metaphorical way of saying that there is a cost to everything. Whether you choose to do your own projects or hire them out, it will cost you something - either time or money. So in one sense, you can make an argument that by hiring projects you are trading money for time. But on the flip side, there are an endless number of people who would love to free you of your money, so finding the right balance is important.
For a lot of projects, arming ourselves with a little knowledge can go a long way to saving money. And the only reason that we pay as much as we do, is because we don't take the time to learn and do the project. The brake line project is a good example.
I spent $375 for the 2 rear calipers, brake pads and a gallon of dot 3 brake fluid. Once the old calipers were returned, I was refunded $85 for the core charge. When it came to the brake lines, I spent about $90 for the line and fittings, and about $30 for the brake line flare tool. So all told, I was able to replace the brake calipers, brake pads, brake line and flush the brake fluid for a little over $400. To take the truck to a shop for the same level of work could have cost easily I a lot more. I am guessing the bill would come close to $800-1000.
This is just one example (and, yes, a rather large example). But if we start adding up the savings from this plus other projects, the total will start adding up. And this is money that can be repurposed for other things that we enjoy or provides meaning in our life.
Reason 3: It builds Self-Reliance
One of the unique aspects of modern life is the interdependence we have on others for efficient functioning. Think about it, it wasn't that long ago that people had to be much more self reliant because they didn't have the luxury of outsourcing aspects of their lives to others more specialized in different things. This specialization and interdependence is one of the things that propelled our nation out of the era of the subsistence farming to the thriving, growing and innovating economy that we know today. Each person, focusing on their specialty, can advance the knowledge and abilities of our economy beyond what each individual can do by themselves.
We know this intuitively in medicine. Compared with medicine a century ago, our hospitals and clinics are filled with physicians focusing on a broad array of medical specialties. And this specialization allows the house of medicine to care for patients in some pretty amazing ways. But what happens when you put an ophthalmologist on a plane and ask, "Is there a doctor on board?" Suddenly, a broad based understanding of medicine becomes really important.
The same is true in other areas of life. Being able to do your own project or repairs builds a broad understanding of the environment in which we live. We never know when we will be put in a resource limited situation. So, developing a redundancy of ability is an important aspect of developing self-reliance and resilience.
Reason 4: It gives you a better ability to troubleshoot things
Knowing how something works is the best way to figure out what is malfunctioning. Think back to how we learned medicine. It started with anatomy - learning the building blocks of the human body - how each part is fit together. Layer on this physiology, histology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology and all the other courses that we took in our M1 & M2 years. It is this foundational knowledge of how the body is structured and how it functions that allows us to approach the bedside today and listen to our patient's stories. They don't lead with the diagnosis when they start talking - rather they give us a constellation of symptoms, and with our mental model of how the various body systems work, we arrange a differential diagnosis and begin the process of troubleshooting our patient's complaints.
The same principle is applicable to other areas of our lives (though certainly to a less intricate degree). Doing your own projects or repairs (in this situation on my truck) builds that anatomical and physiological understanding of how my truck works. So, when I am driving and I begin to experience various road symptoms I have a better understanding of what is going wrong and how to fix it.
Reason 5: It is a change to teach excellence to your kids
Part of my responsibility as a father is to train and develop my children - to teach them how to be successful adults who can interact intelligently and winsomely with the surrounding world. This certainly involves teaching the tenants of my faith, how to live with virtue and the 3 R's of K-12 education. But if that was all, it would be a rather myopic focus on teaching my kids to successfully launch. An equally important aspect of training my kids is giving them the practical skills to function in day to day life: how to run a budget, how to mow the lawn and, yes - you guessed it, how to fix the brakes. While on the theological and scholastic front, I may sit down with them, open a book and engage in formal didactic training, on the moral and practical front, training happens in the day to day activities of life. How do I respond when given the choice to do the right thing or do the expedient thing? Or how to repair the various things that succumb to the forces of entropy on a day-to-day basis. DIY projects provide great training grounds for passing on practical skills.
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