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Just you and the worst porta-potty in existence. This is so cool. Glad to hear your wife is okay.
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Feb 29, 2024 15:54
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 19:21 |
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This'll be fun today. quote:Closure on Richardson Hwy Both Directions from mile marker 19 to mile marker 46 That's the highway leading into Valdez. There's some talk of just heading to Anchorage, but we can save that decision for this afternoon.
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Feb 29, 2024 17:48
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This thread is so good.
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Mar 1, 2024 03:43
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Safety Dance posted:It's supposed to get down to -31 F tonight in Fairbanks. I have my battery tender plugged in and a battery warmer loosely draped around the engine to hopefully keep the oil liquid in the morning. The Cayenne's temperature sensor was registering -18 F when I went to crank it in the morning, so I guess the battery warmer did a little. It cranked for a few seconds and started right up. It's mostly been a champ, except: - Washer fluid tank cracked (my shop filled it with -20 degree fluid. I tried to add -40 degree fluid, but too little too late it seems) - The Cayenne thinks one of the right turn signals is burnt out, but only under -20 degrees - I probably need to pull the stereo amplifier and spray it down with deoxit at some point - it needs a new bumper cover and windshield Safety Dance posted:This'll be fun today. We made it to Valdez!  When we left Fairbanks this morning, the weather was pretty good. As promised, it snowed a little around Delta Junction, but not hard at all. Just a little sparkle to the air. I actually wound up dumping one of my fuel cans into my gas tank, just to empty it out in preparation for shipping the car home. The drive from Delta Junction to Glenallen was amazing. Just one jaw dropping scene after another.  The wind was intense at times, blowing snow over the road.   Then the clouds gave way and revealed these shiny rolling hills dotted with small trees.  The FJ Cruiser following us almost hit a Volvo front end loader doing snow clearance in the only small town. But they didn't die, and I'm glad because they're cool dudes.    We're reasonably sure this was Mt. Wrangell  We drove to Glenallen and found that Alaska was going to open the pass from 3pm to 6pm and allow groups to go through behind a pilot car. Some people opted to head straight to Anchorage. It's not 100% guaranteed the pass will be open tomorrow morning, so we might be stuck in Valdez until the afternoon. We'll see. The road through the pass was slick and visibility was garbage. Unfortunately I had gotten my navigator talking about the difference between classical music and folk music, and he just kept going while I was trying to will the car to stay in its lane facing forward.  Just a shocking world of chocolate chip ice cream   My odometer hit 155555 miles.  Then we met up with the group behind the pilot car. Visibility went from bad to worse.  Then back to good.  When we got to Valdez, we got six of the seven Porsches together for a photo. The seventh Porsche, we saw them in Glenallen and knew they were coming through the pass, but they must have gotten a later pilot car. 
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Mar 1, 2024 04:45
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Safety Dance posted:- The Cayenne thinks one of the right turn signals is burnt out, but only under -20 degrees The plugs the headlights go into are a constant soure of pain. I've had to spray the hell out of them with deoxit multiple times in the last whatever number of years I've had this thing (almost 10) to avoid cold weather gremlins with headlights. It's on my list to really get in there and do something with it, but the occasional touch up has done the job well enough for long enough.......
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Mar 1, 2024 04:51
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I think I'll try to kick the can down the road a little bit by just not being that cold again. Oh yeah! Cybertruck in Fairbanks! At -26 degrees! Rumor has it Tesla is testing cars up there to help make batteries that handle cold weather better. 
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Mar 1, 2024 04:59
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Alaska DOT will post an update on when they plan to reopen Thompson Pass out of Valdez by 8 am tomorrow, so, you know, hopefully. I have a couple days in Anchorage before my flight just in case.
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Mar 1, 2024 07:12
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20 points on this morning's TSD. I feel like we're finally operating up to our potential. Here's a video of the Glacier Stream Bridge in Valdez. It spans a narrow gap, so it gets a lot of wind. Whiteout conditions for like 800 feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tp1KcbBGl0 Alaska DOT says to expect an update on the pass at noon. We're all twiddling our thumbs in the hotel.
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Mar 1, 2024 19:49
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Alaska DOT says they'll be sending people behind pilot cars at 1:00. The second tsd of the day was cancelled, so the plan is to proceed straight to Anchorage.
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Mar 1, 2024 20:46
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We made it to Anchorage. We finished sixth (of 12) in the SUV/Unlimited class and 13th (of 39ish) overall. I need to scramble to get the car to the shipper, so photos from the last day may need to wait. The summary, however, was that Thompson Pass was some of the worst driving conditions I'd ever seen, and the highway into Anchorage revealed yet another way that Alaska can be stunningly beautiful.
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Mar 2, 2024 10:09
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At the end of the TSD section yesterday, one of the teams called up on the radio that they were pulling into Whispering Spruce St (or something like that) because they had a flat tire. We had just used Whispering Spruce to turn around, so we did a U-turn and headed back. Sweep got on the radio to ask where that was. We told them it was about a mile past the end of the TSD. When we got there, we found a perfectly fine looking Tacoma with its TPMS light flashing. The driver thought he'd broken the bead, but all the tires looked okay. I started checking pressure. All tires were 32 - 32.5 psi. While I was doing that, the Sweep truck and the #40 Ram truck pulled up, so some poor guy had three trucks and one idiot in a Cayenne parked in front of his house. As I pulled away the homeowner came out. He seemed really nice and understanding from the snippet of conversation I caught. The driver of the Tacoma thinks a TPMS sensor just went bad for no reason. We were stuck in Valdez until they opened up the pass at 1. We wound up heading over to the pass around 11:30 because there's nothing better to do. I tried to take a photo of how windy it was. Trust me, it was windy.  Eventually at 1 a snowplow showed up to pilot us through the pass. He's the blue light in the distance, maybe six or seven cars ahead of me.  I didn't take a photo of the worst of the whiteout, but imagine driving through a blank piece of paper. The road was coated with a solid inch or two of ice. The car was moving around under me far more than I liked. After what felt like an hour, we got through the pass and conditions improved. I had to pull off to the side because I was exhausted. I felt like I was about to fall asleep, but stretching my legs for a minute and cracking open a redbull made all the difference.  As an aside, I drank probably two dozen sugar free redbulls in the last 10 days, vs my normal zero. I'm going to go through withdraw. We wound up following this truck back to Anchorage.  The drive got progressively more and more beautiful.    Seriously, if you get a chance to drive through the Talkeetna Mountains, do. We got into Anchorage around 6, and there was a reception around 7 for everyone. It was mostly a chance for the organizers to tell stories about previous Alcans, but I think that's half the point. I'll strongly consider signing up for 2028, and think about the summer Alcan in 2026 (they're running one in 2025 as well, if anyone's interested) I'm going to drop my car off at the shipper today and catch an 05:00 flight home tomorrow. In a couple weeks when the car gets home, I'll start assessing damage. Safety Dance fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Mar 2, 2024 |
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Mar 2, 2024 18:08
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THe most unbelievable thing of all of this is that someone did that, and made it, in a 20+ year old Discovery 2. I'm sure it blew head gaskets along the way, but I guess it was cold enogh to not matter.
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Mar 2, 2024 21:38
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I think, despite all, every car made it this year. Even the poor guys who started half a day late because of the thermostat in their Cayenne and spent three days catching up to us.
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Mar 2, 2024 23:12
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A few years ago I did a lot of car renting in europe and got Gold status with Sixt. I got a pretty good deal on a rental until the Porsche gets back. Hopefully the weather will justify the drop top once or twice.
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Mar 4, 2024 06:14
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Safety Dance posted:Hopefully the weather will justify the drop top once or twice. Top down all the time. Go fast enough that the rain goes over you. Always. If it's cold, put on more layers and put the heat on MAX. It's a BMW, the cooling system needs all the help it can get.
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Mar 17, 2024 19:36
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I've been finding excuses to stretch my 15 minute commute into an hour or more. If there's no rain, the top goes down. The Porsche should be here sometime between the 20th and the 25th, if I remember correctly.
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Mar 17, 2024 19:41
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I got the Cayenne back and mostly unpacked! Roof rack: the powder coat held up well, but the black oxide cap screws I used rusted more than I would have liked. It's removed and leaning up against my garage. I'm proud of building it but I don't love it and might wind up taking it to a scrapper. Radio: removed. I do like having a mobile ham radio, but I might go for a setup with a remote display rather than hanging the whole thing from where the sunroof controls go. I need to: - remove the power cable and antenna cable - repair my sunroof controls - replace my sunroof controls Tail lights: I took a big chunk out of one of the tail light lenses backing into a pole a few days before I even left.. Ordered a replacement tail light. Aux lights: removed. It was only four bolts and one plug. I like that setup. I might remove the wiring too; it doesn't take too long to replace. Bumper cover: I need to call the body shop my mechanic recommends Windshield: also should be replaced Washer fluid reservoir: I should disassemble it to see if the reservoir is cracked or if the pump just popped out or what. Replacement is only a hundo I noticed the insulation on the wiring for the sunroof controls is pretty far gone. I'll post photos later.
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Mar 26, 2024 22:45
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Grody wiring. Is there any salvaging this, or should I start unwrapping and butt splicing?
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Mar 27, 2024 06:14
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Yikes, that's bad. I don't thinik you're salvaging any of that nor would you want to. Depin those connectors and remake the harness. Butt splices aren't gonna cut it.
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Mar 27, 2024 13:05
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Roof consoles. On the Cayenne, it's screwed to the roof by a pair of plastic brackets hidden behind the map lights. I screwed myself by yanking on my roof console hard enough to break the brackets. The roof console has the following features, all of which may or may not exist: - tiny little sun visor - map lights - dome light - map light buttons - dome light slider (mine was broken) - a button that I don't know what it does - HomeLink - a microphone for the security system - sunglasses holder - Park Assist button - sunroof controls - panoramic sunroof shade buttons - probably some more stuff I bought a new roof console on eBay with intact plastic brackets. It had most of the same features, but I had to move the sunroof controls, a mystery button (the PCB has a microswitch for it, I suspect it dims the dome light), the little sun visor, and the microphone. The new roof console's sunglasses holder is more intact, and it isn't cracked in a couple different places. About a hundred tiny torx screws later, I have one complete roof console!
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Apr 13, 2024 07:11
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Mystery button controls the level of the footwell lighting. Because it's critically important one can set that to their exact requirement. The footwell lighting dimmer module is also one of those "forever codes". Doesn't matter what you do or how many times you clear it, that module always has some code in it. It doesn't matter, it still works.
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Apr 13, 2024 14:50
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jesus christ that is a level of patience with interior plastics i didnt know was possible. i'd have just gotten annoyed at it and never fixed it lol
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Apr 13, 2024 18:47
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I never claimed to be smart.¹ On Friday, I went to the junk yard and pulled a washer fluid reservoir off a VW Touareg that should fit my Cayenne. I did that because my windshield washer stopped working while I was in Canada/Alaska. I assumed the washer fluid reservoir had cracked and dumped washer fluid all over the place while I was on the road. This assumption went unchallenged for a month and a half. Today, I got my wheel liner pulled off and started looking at my washer fluid reservoir. It didn't look cracked, and it looked like there was fluid in it. I tried pouring some water in, and nothing leaked. Sensing another one of my classic blunders, I started my car and tested the washer fluid. Sure enough, it worked. I guess fluid just froze in the lines, and I never bothered to test it again once I got back above freezing. Oh well, at least I got my winter tires put away. 1: false. I frequently claim to be smart, and I frequently suffer from my hubris. These might be related.
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Apr 14, 2024 22:11
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 19:21 |
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 For future reference, my cornering lights are H7U bulbs, and they're buried wrist deep under the motor that adjusts the headlight angle, behind about ten screws. I really don't feel like rebuilding the light tonight only to take it apart tomorrow. Strongly considering driving to work like this and rebuilding it in the office.
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Apr 17, 2024 06:34
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