Switching gears for a sec...

Since I'm considered an "essential worker" (read: my job is considered grocery store), I have to make sure that my car is in decent shape.

There were a few things that I needed to take care of.

• A check engine light with a P0420 code
• The "Brake" light (the one that turns on when your parking brake is on) flashes now and then when I'm driving.
• Rear defroster not turning on.

I started with the easier one: the brake light issue. That was just because my brake fluid reservoir was right at the minimum level. I added some fluid back in ($2.00 bottle) and now it doesn't turn on randomly. Easy fix.

The P0420 error was the harder one. The error pulled says that the Catalyst system efficiency below threshold. I've been rolling with it for several months now, but the check engine light was starting to rack on my nerves.This happened, I'm thinking, from an oil change that I had done several months ago.

The shop that I went to get my oil changed did a fuel system cleaning treatment even though I didn't request it. Apparently, you should have a full tank of gas for this treatment to work properly; I only had a half tank at the time. I didn't think about it until the check engine light came on, giving me the P0420 error when I had the code read at an auto parts store nearby. The 2 possible fixes were changing the O2 sensor or replace the catalytic converter. The O2 sensor was the cheaper option, so I went with that first.

Now, the thought process I had was that whatever was in the fuel treatment gunked up the O2 sensor.  My car has 2: a pre-catalytic one and a post-catalytic one. My though was that the fuel treatment stuff gunked up the pre-cat one. So, I tried changing that O2 sensor up. It wasn't an easy task...Let's just say that I had to contort my body in ways that I haven't done in, like, 30 or so years. Regardless, after removing the old, gunked up O2 sensor (pic pending), I put in the new one, not before I disconnected the battery from the car.

After getting it all installed and the battery connected back in, all looked good...for now. I simply undid the battery to, hopefully, reset the ECU and have the O2 sensor working and not have that check engine light pop on in a few weeks or a month from now...fingers crossed...

As for the rear defroster...I didn't get around to that. I'm hoping that it's something easy like replacing the fuse; I am hearing the rear defroster relay click on when I press the button, but nothing working on the window. That's another project for another day.

As much as I like working on cars, I'm really hesitant on working on my daily driver. I'm hoping that the fixes that I did work for a long time. I really don't want to revisit the P0420 again.

Gaming wise, I just bought a hot air rework station. That should help me with some of the other projects I'm trying to get completed. Stay tuned.