April 2015 | 181,200 miles
Putting the Brakes on Things
On the way into work one morning I noticed smoke coming out from my passenger-side wheel well while sitting at a stop light. Since it wasn’t on fire, and I was pretty close to the shop, I figured I’d just limp into work to see what’s what.
Once I’d gotten the wheel off it was pretty obvious that the brake caliper had locked up. The rotors were pretty scorched as were the pads. I’d replaced the calipers two years previously with parts store units that came with lifetime warranties, so after a quick stop at the nearest store I had a new part. By the end of the work day I was back on the road.
If only things were so easy…next lesson, the mutant cousin of the While You Are in There mindset, aka Project Creep.
There are more than just one reason why a brake caliper can seize, as I was to learn when my brake continued to grab despite the new part. Long story short on this particular case, I found that the reason my brakes were hanging was in the old rubber brake lines de-laminating on the inside. It prevents the hydraulic brake fluid from escaping the caliper, thus keeping it bound up. Looks like I’d need to replace those…
And when looking at the soft lines I caught sight of the sorry nick the hard lines were in too. Because of the rust, they’d better be replaced as well, sooner than later.
And on the subject of brake lines, what about those fancy stainless steel kind that the race cars use? My Jeep is kinda a race car, right?
And if we’re gonna go that route, how long do the fancy stainless steel lines need to be? If I get ones just long enough, what if I lift this Cherokee some day? Am I going to lift it someday? Hmm…always kinda wanted to do something like that?
And so it goes and goes until you have Project Creep.
Poor Accounting for Poor Decisions
How far one descends down this route depends in part on their financial history. Here’s a basic financial timeline…
2007-11: earned two incomes, but lived on a one income budget so we could pay down our debt.
2009-15: drove a (mostly) reliable, payment-free Cherokee.
2010: had kiddo #1.
2011: had kiddos #2 & #3 and dropped to one income so Mrs. Super Amazing Wife Lady could stay home.
2014: got out of the rental rat race and bought a fixer-upper house.
Jan. 2015: had kiddo #4.
Jan. 2015: bought the greatest minivan ever created to fit the four kids and dominate the daily duties.
Feb. 2015: paid off all our debt sans the mortgage. Dave Ramsey thumbs up.
Apr. 2015: sold the old blue minivan AT A YARD SALE for thousands more than I paid for it (since it was originally free).
For purposes of this build thread (reality isn’t so neat and tidy), I was batting a thousand in Monopoly monies, so you would assume the next move would follow suit. Nope.
Let the stupidity ensue…
Summer 2015: rather than replace a caliper and brake line for less that $100, why not dump thousands and thousands of savings into a moonshot Jeep project.
Brilliant!
…but didn’t you say you had a fixer-upper house? Shouldn’t you have put those thousands into it? Nope. Jeep!
…do you know how to completely reconfigure the suspension, transfer case, interior, and all the other parts that you’re planning to modify? NopE! JEep!
…and didn’t you say you had four kids? Can you fit four kids in a Cherokee? NoPe. JeEp!!
…and with four kids, when do you plan to do all this work? NOpE. jEEP!!!
…and what about… NOOOPPPPEEEE! JEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPP CHEROKEEEEEEEEE PROJecT TIIIIMMMMEEEEEE!!!
It’s all downhill from here, and we’ve already established that the brakes are shot. In the words of Joe Exotic…