Friday, June 28, 2024 – Tire and Mail Pickup, Shopping and Truck Maintenance

Hey Babe,
Ended up being busier today than I had planned, but it's a good thing! After chores and breakfast, I headed out to do some running around, first to the truck tire place in the town of Odessa, where they had a new Roadax tire that I guess will work with my other tires. The tread pattern is a bit different, but it's the same depth and tread size, so I guess it will work. It's the spare, anyway. I had noticed that my motor was making a kind of funny noise, and since they didn't do that kind of work, I stopped at their sister office in Monterey (where we bought a tire many years ago), but even though every bay was empty, they said they didn't have any technicians available (looked more like they didn't have any technicians at all!), but could schedule me for next week for a $149 diagnostic if I wanted. All I really wanted was a quick code test to see if anything showed up, and/or a capable mechanic that could listen to the sound and figure out what it might be, but I wasn't to find it there! Another customer overheard, and after we went outside, he suggested I stop at one of the parts stores, who would do a basic diagnostic for free, which I did. Two stops later, I found a shop that instilled a lot more confidence, and they did the diagnostic for me, and it was a couple of small things having to do with fuel, air and egr. I checked and figured out I was overdue for a fuel filter change, and probably an air filter too (which I already had on hand), but I don't know what to do about the egr. Anyway, I picked up a fuel filter at NAPA before heading to Walmart for some light shopping, and then I checked my email and found that my package of tools had arrived at the post office, so I swung by there and picked those up, finally making it back to camp. After putting the groceries up, I went to work on the truck. The air filter change went very quickly, and even the fuel filter change went a lot faster than the last time I did it (practice makes perfect!), but after doing my usual youtube research, I couldn't find anything really helpful on the egr sensor. Fortunately, the shop that I went to said they could slip me in on Monday at 10:00 (though they were fully booked for nearly two weeks!), so maybe they can figure out what the noise is. It was coming up to 5:00 by then, so I turned toward settling down for the evening. Made a big batch of dirty rice, which I haven't done for awhile and watched a movie. Soon to bed! Good night, my sweet! Love you!