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InitialDave posted:I put Mobil 1 0W40 in the Panda, as while the spec calls for 10W40, I'm really not that worried about it in a modern engine. All the 0 means there is it flows better at low temperature, so the worst case is that is changes literally nothing
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Dec 24, 2019 01:39
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I finally broke down and took my Ranger to a mechanic. Well, it broke down and forced my hand, getting it towed from work at noon on Friday after I was 6 hours deep into my two week vacation. I was on the right track but the stuff they diagnosed was just over my head as far as time I can commit to diagnosis and my equipment at home, but they changed my heater control valve and my MAF (I had cleaned the MAF and it ran like a normal car for a month prior, I was already considering that changeout soon). I paid a convenience charge, for sure, but it's finally running reliably again and not randomly losing engine power in traffic for 20 seconds-10 minutes. poo poo was a wild ride, glad to finally have my truck back after months of fighting with it and nearly getting creamed at 6:30AM going home from work.
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Dec 24, 2019 07:22
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Not what I did, but what the dealer did... 2012 Acura TL Advance/Elite SH-AWD. Oil consumption issue. Waited 7.5 months for parts after they gave the warranty repair the green-light. Was supposed to just be new pistons and piston rings. The 3.7L engine was drinking oil at about a quart per 900-1000 miles. I'm the 2nd owner, bought it at 55k miles so who the hell knows how the first owner (lessee) treated it. When they pulled it apart, they found that the engine was just trashed. Toasted lobes on both cams, bad rocker arms, bad bearings, scored cylinder walls, the list goes on. So, under warranty at no cost to me, what is essentially a new engine was put in. Looks like I'll be driving this for a long, long while.
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Dec 24, 2019 21:49
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OEM floor mats for the EP3. Not exciting I know but the car is so well sorted that it doesn’t need much. I am considering an AEM true cold air intake to replace the in-bay K&N unit but that’s not a necessity. 
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Dec 24, 2019 22:13
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VERTiG0 posted:Not what I did, but what the dealer did... 2012 Acura TL Advance/Elite SH-AWD. Oil consumption issue. Waited 7.5 months for parts after they gave the warranty repair the green-light. Was supposed to just be new pistons and piston rings. The 3.7L engine was drinking oil at about a quart per 900-1000 miles. I'm the 2nd owner, bought it at 55k miles so who the hell knows how the first owner (lessee) treated it. is this an issue that affects lots of J engines? asking because I have a 2013 and uh...it's fine as far as I can tell but surprises can happen
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Dec 24, 2019 23:55
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Continuing on the new floor project, now with real wood Ended up needing to make more cuts, since I mixed up radius and diameter for the kerf bending calculator. I cut 1/2 inch off each side of the area between the seats so it will clear the seats with carpet. Subwoofer is going to be a tight fit. taqueso fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Dec 25, 2019 |
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Dec 25, 2019 05:17
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Darchangel posted:Annoyed that both of my currents take 6 quarts. The 5 qt. jugs were on sale, but the additional 1 qt. bottles were not. Plus, I buy an extra just in case (which I shouldn't have to do next time, unless I have a leak the Subaru has a leak. I think you know where. Mine takes 4.2 quarts. According to the owner's manual anyway. The internet says anywhere from 4.4 to 4.8. Either way, very much an  and I just throw 4.5 in it. It's hard to eyeball that with a 5 quart jug, and it leaks enough that I'm sure I'll use that remaining bit between oil changes.Mine doesn't leak from the head gaskets... yet. Just the rear crank seal.
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Dec 25, 2019 15:13
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STR posted:Mine doesn't leak from the head gaskets... yet. Just the rear crank seal. Most likely the oil separator plate and not the rear main seal, unless someone already got confused about that and hosed up the rear main seal trying to “fix it.” https://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-seperator-plate-explained/
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Dec 25, 2019 16:09
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STR posted:Mine takes 4.2 quarts. According to the owner's manual anyway. The internet says anywhere from 4.4 to 4.8. Either way, very much an Mine’s the rocker covers. It’s a mess mostly hidden by the belly pan, but occasionally smokes when oil gets flung on to the exhaust manifold on the left side. I am not looking forward to replacing those gaskets.
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Dec 25, 2019 16:23
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The taillights on my BRZ have started to leak, after looking for a while I finally found a set of the 17+ version at a decent price. As I had off yesterday I finally swapped those as well as a wingless trunk lid I've had for a while. In addition to the condensation seen here water was pooling in the tire well:  The trunk lid was off an FR-S so I had to debadge, first with floss:  I picked off this remaining goo with my finger nails:  I used some Scratch-X to get most of the rest off:  You can still see a faint outline, especially when wet, but for the most part its invisible. End result:  I also wanted to install a backup camera but ran out of light. The taillights were pretty straightforward, just four bolts and the wire harness on each side. The lid was a little more complicated, mostly because the Scion did not have a trunk release button, so I had to swap the entire wire harness off the Subaru one into it, rather than just the lock like I was hoping to do.
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Dec 25, 2019 19:36
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Those are such great looking cars. I think they're going to age very well.
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Dec 25, 2019 19:38
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DrChu posted:The taillights on my BRZ have started to leak, after looking for a while I finally found a set of the 17+ version at a decent price. As I had off yesterday I finally swapped those as well as a wingless trunk lid I've had for a while. Funny to see other clean PA cars in winter. It’s been a pretty mild one so far here so the roads have been reasonably clear.
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Dec 26, 2019 19:27
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Panty Saluter posted:is this an issue that affects lots of J engines? asking because I have a 2013 and uh...it's fine as far as I can tell but surprises can happen It's a major problem with the 09-14 TLs with the J37 motor (and similar vintage MDXs and ZDXs as well I think). If your TL is FWD with the 3.5 your car is unaffected, this is a 3.7 litre issue only. You would have gotten a letter in the mail at some point over the last year from Acura asking you to come in and start an oil consumption test regimen. They extended the warranty on the motor to 8 years or 125,000 miles/200,000km from the original in-service date of the car. If yours isn't consuming oil at an abnormal rate, count yourself lucky as hell and watch it like a hawk from here on out. VERTiG0 fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Dec 26, 2019 |
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Dec 26, 2019 20:19
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It's a V6 Accord with a J35 that consumes absolutely no oil at 120k, so I guess Honda only goofed the J37. Good to know, maybe I can get a cheap intake manifold from a munched one 
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Dec 26, 2019 23:26
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Installed a seat heater in the Vibe. Was tired of having one in my car that I rarely drive in the winter but not my winter beater. Wasn't too horrible of a job all things considered. Worst part as expected was getting the fabric off the seats, but mercifully very few hog rings were involved. The biggest shocker is that this was a Dorman kit (this guy: https://www.amazon.com/Dorman-628-040-Universal-Seat-Heater/dp/B002U6IL9O/ref=sr_1_4 ) and I was actually really impressed with the quality of all the components and assembly. Really nice beefy wiring harness with relay and switch all put together really well.    
opengl fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Dec 27, 2019 |
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Dec 27, 2019 20:52
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my tire winnings for the last three months showed up today
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Dec 27, 2019 21:04
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opengl128 posted:Installed a seat heater in the Vibe. Was tired of having one in my car that I rarely drive in the winter but not my winter beater. Wasn't too horrible of a job all things considered. Worst part as expected was getting the fabric off the seats, but mercifully very few hog rings were involved. After experiencing seat heaters on our Outback, I think I’d like to put them in my Crown Vic. Texas, so not a lot of winter, but, man, they feel so good when needed.
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Dec 27, 2019 21:11
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The Outback's are just a taste of real seat heaters. Mine take for-loving-ever to get warm, and don't get that hot.
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Dec 28, 2019 22:15
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STR posted:The Outback's are just a taste of real seat heaters. Mine take for-loving-ever to get warm, and don't get that hot. Yeah, I know! And I’m fairly happy with that, so good seat heaters should be awesome.
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Dec 28, 2019 22:58
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Mine take a while too, but I'm more displeased with how stiff the bottom of my seat is now. It's a 10 Outback with leather, I can get the seat foam OEM for like 75 but IDK how involved it is; I'm comfortable with disassembly but less so with having to do any techniques beyond spraying an adhesive. Any tips?
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Dec 29, 2019 00:51
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Bennys Custom Works did a video on re-foaming your seats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZGQu72yEbY Im thinking of doing that to my now 15yr, 380k old seats in the front of the landcruiser, but im also thinking of getting a set of late model Sahara seats which are all electric adjust and have an adjustable height seat base for maximum comfy. I finally replaced the CV shafts in the landcruiser. They've had torn boots for about 18 months now- I would have done the boots except they failed mid outback trip and had 3000km of sand, dust other various poo poo blown into them while working hard offroad, so the joints themselves were a writeoff with the wear in them. They've also been fully submerged a few times since then too. Its amazing how much nicer it is to drive when there isnt 1/4 of a turn of slack in your cv shaft! But of course, being a 15yr, 380K km old vehicle, I discovered the lower ball joints are shot, And of course, to do them properly you have to remove the lower control arms. And if im going to do that, I may as well replace the 380K old bushings in those arms too. And if i remove the arms, Im going to need to get an alignment because the 100 series uses torsion bars to adjust the ride height, and they install into the lower control arms, and if i change the ride height be even a small amount on reinstall, it changes the wheel alignment! So thats another.... $4-500 worth of parts and a whole weekend to fix.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:04
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I mean... isn't it usually faster to just buy the lower control arm once you're at the bushing and ball joint stage anyway? I'd rather just swap the whole assembly and be done, vs swearing at it too long trying to get the new bushings and ball joints in. Even if it means spending a bit more.
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Dec 29, 2019 17:01
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STR posted:I mean... isn't it usually faster to just buy the lower control arm once you're at the bushing and ball joint stage anyway? Turn of the century Fords didn't even give you the option. "Entire assembly must be replaced. Bushings cannot be replaced." Which is just fine because new Ranger LCA's and UCA's with ball joints already installed were like $250 for all 4.
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Dec 30, 2019 06:53
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STR posted:I mean... isn't it usually faster to just buy the lower control arm once you're at the bushing and ball joint stage anyway? Eight. Hundred. Dollars. Each. Trade. Genuine only. then once you get them, you have to grind off a heap of the E coating and weld up all the seams and add reinforcing plates to fix a few design flaws where the arms can crack where the torsion bars bolt on after a lot of heavy offroad use, especially in the diesels.
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Dec 30, 2019 09:44
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Just put full floor liners in the Sierra. Which, in retrospect, is insane. My main issues is those areas outside of the floor mats that collect dirt that gets ground into the carpet. So now I have full carpet covered by a full layer of rubber plastic. For less money I could have bought full vinyl flooring. Harder to take out and scrub clean though. And I can swap back out in the summer.
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Dec 31, 2019 01:26
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Ferremit posted:Eight. Hundred. Dollars. Each. 
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Dec 31, 2019 20:52
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Got the shitbox AE86 inspected and registered for yet another year, hopefully the last. Passed no problem (safety only in TX after 25 years.) I intend to sell the damned thing this year. Please buy it?
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Dec 31, 2019 22:57
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Decided I was tired of the not-great headlights on Brokeback. Yanked the housings (super easy on these, nice surprise). Driver's side had a very well worn bulb (metal on the bulb was blued, glass starting to haze), with a very clear HELLA marking on it.  The passenger side had an Osram bulb, possibly OEM? Passenger side also had junkyard pen on the housing. I knew it'd been smacked on the FR - the foglight is new, bumper is damaged, and the RR door and RR quarter are scraped up - didn't realize it was bad enough to require a headlamp replacement. Not sure if the body got painted with the fender bolts already in place or not at the factory, but both sides have paint on the bolts; passenger side fender looks like it's been shifted very slightly (tiny bare spot around the bolts), probably from whatever the PO hit. If there's been body work done on it in the past, they did pretty decent work, everything still lines up fine and the paint is in great shape. Either has the original hood or a matching junkyard replacement, same with the radiator support - all the stickers are still there, and match the model year.The driver's side headlamp housing shows a lot more heat damage around where the bulb goes in than the passenger side, though the Hella bulb shows the proper 55W rating. I know the FR suspension has been replaced too, so whatever they hit was mostly taken by the suspension. Assuming it was probably a deer (since TX), but no telling. It looks like it got a new headlight, foglight, and RF knee at some point. With a Hella bulb being in there, I'm kinda surprised how dim the headlights are. We'll see if they're any better with Osram Nightbreakers. The wires are stupid thin too, I might do relays at the lights with heavier wire to help them get a few extra lumens.
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Jan 2, 2020 23:37
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Swapped to a stiffer rear sway bar today. I'm not a great wrench so I'm pleased that I was able to manage the install.
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Jan 2, 2020 23:45
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  Now it's not embarrassing!
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Jan 3, 2020 02:38
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Much better. Amazing how just that one bit makes the whole thing look a little shabby.
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Jan 3, 2020 16:47
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KakerMix posted:
Did you repaint or whole new piece? Looks great!
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Jan 4, 2020 05:02
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Now that end of year stuff is settled down, new floor work continues. Haven't glued anything yet but the curve is completed, cracked a little from my diameter/radius mistake, shouldn't a problem for the final result but it hurts to see it. I haven't notched the end to fit over the driveshaft tunnel so it is raised up 2" in these pics:   Bonus shot of the rear AC ducting that could go away but I'm not sure what use that area would be for anything but some cables. ' 
taqueso fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jan 5, 2020 |
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Jan 5, 2020 00:10
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taqueso posted:
Doesn't that ducting go to the C pillar AC vents? Maybe you could make a chiller/warmer box by routing some ducts into that to that center console like structure.
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Jan 5, 2020 02:14
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They do, rear AC to c-pillar vents. I think it would be possible, but I'm going to put a subwooder between the seats. However, a cooler on one of the sides (behind the 2nd row) or between the front seats I would be in to. The idea I had was to make the c-pillar vents intake & outlet for cooling the electronics. Which, now that I'm thinking about this more, is not mutually exclusive with keeping the cooler. You've got the wheels turning now. The tunnel console between the front seats comes out so I could just extend the tunnel cover and build a cooler chamber there. The console is horrible, made for holding CDs, and the leather on top is hosed, so this could be good. e: closer to the evaporator is better, so maybe behind the left 2nd row is the best spot or on top of the wheel well taqueso fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jan 5, 2020 |
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Jan 5, 2020 03:09
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Realized I could use the face of the old cabinet and save myself a bunch of time. It fits, barely. It's going to need a channel so the driver can actually be taken in and out once it's glued: Donor cab:  It looks like it should be a good size and be reasonably comfortable once the corner gets rounded and there's something covering the plywood.   Cut out the door to the trunk area;  Simulated trunk open: 
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Jan 5, 2020 08:04
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Cool. I replaced the tailshaft seal in a my 2001 GMC Sierra this weekend, it wasn't too bad but it's a two piece shaft so having someone else there really helped as I didn't lift it up that far off the floor. Seal tool only really helped when we got the seal started by levering it out from the outside, and put a nice nick on the inside of the tailshaft, but it wasn't touching anything and the RTV looks like it went in good. No leaks so far and it looks like we didn't mess up the balance or anything. 135k miles on it right now.
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Jan 5, 2020 20:51
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Took a bit longer than I was expecting because it started raining, then hailing, but I put mudflaps on my Explorer. A small touch, but I'm happy with how they came out. 
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Jan 6, 2020 00:11
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You're a good person.
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Jan 6, 2020 03:09
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Replaced a headlight bulb on an '05 Montego today. I don't know what jackass designed those headlights (the whole car really), but what a pain. From what I gather, you're supposed to pull the bumper cover and core support cover so that you can then remove the headlight, to undo the 6! screws holding the rear housing seal on, to finally access the bulb. I said gently caress it and left all that in place and mangled my hands a bit, but I got it out without taking anything out. Did you know the replacement bulbs are $100 at the cheapest from any of the auto parts stores? I had no clue a light bulb could be so expensive these days
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Jan 10, 2020 22:30
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