Cell phone repair on the cheap

[greg vess]

I have a perfectly good cell phone. Everything works perfectly the camera takes excellent pics but the charging port pins all broke off and I couldn't get it to charge. I called around to a couple of cell phone repair shops and they wanted $100 to over $100 to repair the little charging port. So I got online and found the charging ports for 10 bucks which are supposed to show up today. It's these phones are not like the old ones where they just slide the back off you have to heat it up with the heating gun and melt the adhesive and then pry the back off. A little bit of a time consuming process but not that big of a deal. Then take off the small cover on the lower part of it with four screws and unplugged two little connections. Then two screws hold the charging port in. Then the little charging port board snaps right out. So a little time with the heat gun and $10 and my $400 cell phone is repaired. Some of the repairs on some of these electrical items are so freaking crazy for what little bit of work there is it's insane. You can see the heat activated adhesive around the perimeter of the phone. Once I put the charging port in and replace the cover just have to heat it up again and slap together. PROBLEM SOLVED! And only 10 bucks I might add.

 

[4ssss]

I have another example of a ridiculous price quote. My old Ford Excursion (I love this truck by the way) has a 7.3 diesel in it. I didn't drive it the last year because of the price on fuel, but started it every so often. About a month ago I went out to start it and the motor started surging, finally just dieing and wouldn't start. Talking to a mechanic, he said it would probably be the injector pressure regulator, and there would most likely be a couple other sensors and plugs to replace while you were in there. With the tow in he estimated around 1K or so for the fix. I wasn't going to put that kind of money into a 350K mile truck, so I looked at a lot of YouTube, and found original Ford parts that I needed for it for about 200 bucks. Yesterday I went searching for the regulator on the motor, and found out why he wanted that kind of money. It's in a spot well hidden, and unreachable without taking half the top of the motor junk they put on these trucks. I started by unplugging 2 sensors, and moved the wire around to see a piece of the regulator that needed replacement. But there on the top of the well on the motor was another plug just sitting there. I fished it out with a hook, and started looking around to where it went. I didn't think Ford would pay for a connector just to let it sit. With a mirror I finally saw it went into the rear of the fuel filter case, plugged it in, and started the truck, and that was my problem. I'm figuring someone or something at some time got in there and pulled it out and broke the lock clip, but now I'm going to put a new connector on. I think I'm pretty sure a mechanic wouldn't have just plugged the connector in without doing some other major surgery to it to make a buck, though I am stuck with the new parts that I can't take back.

 

[greg vess]

I have another example of a ridiculous price quote. My old Ford Excursion (I love this truck by the way) has a 7.3 diesel in it. I didn't drive it the last year because of the price on fuel, but started it every so often. About a month ago I went out to start it and the motor started surging, finally just dieing and wouldn't start. Talking to a mechanic, he said it would probably be the injector pressure regulator, and there would most likely be a couple other sensors and plugs to replace while you were in there. With the tow in he estimated around 1K or so for the fix. I wasn't going to put that kind of money into a 350K mile truck, so I looked at a lot of YouTube, and found original Ford parts that I needed for it for about 200 bucks. Yesterday I went searching for the regulator on the motor, and found out why he wanted that kind of money. It's in a spot well hidden, and unreachable without taking half the top of the motor junk they put on these trucks. I started by unplugging 2 sensors, and moved the wire around to see a piece of the regulator that needed replacement. But there on the top of the well on the motor was another plug just sitting there. I fished it out with a hook, and started looking around to where it went. I didn't think Ford would pay for a connector just to let it sit. With a mirror I finally saw it went into the rear of the fuel filter case, plugged it in, and started the truck, and that was my problem. I'm figuring someone or something at some time got in there and pulled it out and broke the lock clip, but now I'm going to put a new connector on. I think I'm pretty sure a mechanic wouldn't have just plugged the connector in without doing some other major surgery to it to make a buck, though I am stuck with the new parts that I can't take back.

Unbelievable! And answer this question. Did you think if the mechanic saw that unplugged that he would just plug it in and give it back to you or do you think you would replace that $1,000 worth of crap or spray it off with brake cleaner and charged you for the whole amount? I think we both know the answer to that question. On these new cars YouTube and the internet can be your friend. When I was teaching myself HP tuners to tune LS1 modified engines I looked on tuning forms religiously. It's how I taught myself how to tune. I originally had the tune done and had 400 and three rear wheel horsepower. After I got done tuning it the correct way it got over 450 rear wheel horsepower not including the nitrous obviously. The nitrous was another 200 horsepower on tap boy was that fun. But yeah man way to go excellent find sometime just a little computer search and a little bit of looking around in the engine bay can reveal quite a lot. I learned that early early when I started fixing cars. And I know you feel real good about getting that truck on the road again especially without spending the whole heap of load of money. That's like hitting the jackpot. Nice job buddy well done glad to hear it!