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I took my 1995 Lexus SC400 to the tire shop because one of the wheels had lost a weight and gone out of balance. Then I turned around and took my 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS to the tire shop to have it aligned again under its lifetime alignment I bought last year. I was expecting to pay $10 or something for shop supplies but it was completely free! Thanks Firestone! And they aligned it to my specs. (max out negative camber on the front wheels, -0.5 dgree on the rear, zero toe all around).
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May 29, 2009 23:45
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On saturday (July 4) I went to the junkyard in the morning and picked up a pair of Mazda MX-3 GS control arms for my Tracer to replace the set that I mangled in an effort to get the Ford sway bar end links to fit. I have had nothing but problems with the end links so this time I will not alter the control arms at all and will instead use either Nissan Altima end links which have a drop link end on one end and are threaded on the other end, or I will make something out of threaded rod and Heim joints. I got the knuckles and rear arms from the same car to convert my brother-in-law's MX-3 to rear discs. I also grabbed the MX-3 V-6 rear sway bar and the lower tie bar from the same car. Also in the JY I got the stuff I needed to convert my 1992 Accord to rear disc brakes. I have a grand plan to use a combination of Acura Legend Type-II , 97+ Prelude , 92-93 Accord EX, 6th gen Accord V-6, and 1st gen Honda Odyssey parts to upgrade the front brakes, convert the rear to disc and convert everything to five-lug to open up different wheel options. It was my dad's car and he passed away a month ago. He had wanted to put some bigger nicer wheels on the car so I am going to. This also going to make future service much simpler since the retarded hub-over-rotor design will be no more, and the rear will be easy discs instead of fiddly drums. On Sunday I got started on my brother-in-law's car. We had to replace the master cylinder because it had gone bad. Since all four corners would require bleeding I cracked open all four brake bleeder screws. The bleeder screw on the passenger front caliper broke off so we had to go back to the junkyard for another caliper. This cost us time and I had a birthday party to attend so the car was put back on the ground and will have to be finished tonight. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jul 6, 2009 |
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Jul 6, 2009 17:53
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A couple of months ago I was driving my brother's 1995 Acura Integra after replacing the rotten factory exhaust pipes new factory-style replacement parts when the timing belt started coming apart. In the process a piece of timing belt punched a hole in the valve cover trying to escape. I got the car pulled over right away and had it towed to my mom's house where I replaced the timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner, and water pump. I ordered a replacement valve cover on ebay and finally got it installed yesterday. Also yesterday I pulled the starter to replace the pitted and gouged contacts inside the solenoid. I put the fresh parts inside and put the starter back in and everything is hunky dori dori. I also guided my younger brother through his second oil change. It took a lot less guidance than the first time. I think he has gained a lot more confidence about automotive tasks from helping me change the timing belt.
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Jul 13, 2009 23:58
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I pulled the exhaust off of my 1991 Mercury Tracer. I knew the flex pipe had gone bad, but it was a surprise to find that the midpipe was broken in two. In addition to this the muffler rattles like a maraca when shaken.      
PBCrunch fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jul 15, 2009 |
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Jul 15, 2009 03:47
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I put new exhaust from the manifold all the way back on my 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS. The flex pipe had holes in it, the catalyst was welded onto the resonator section that was rusted in half, and the muffler was full of rattly pieces. The new exhaust is Bosal factory-style replacement pieces with a Walker 'SoundFX' muffler. Everything went fine except I snapped one of the studs that holds the exhaust manifold to the flex pipe (surprise surprise on a nearly twenty year old car in the Midwest), so it leaks just a little from up there. Any experience with replacing exhaust studs like that on FWD inline four cylinder motors, especially Mazdas? A bunch of parts for the five-lug/rotor-over-hub/Acura Legend twin-piston caliper/rear disc brake conversion for my 92 Accord came in.
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Jul 24, 2009 03:59
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I bought a 1991 Mercury Capri for my mom. It had colder air conditioning than my 1995 Lexus and my 1992 Honda (dealer-installed R-134a system from 1994). This made me mad so I bought one of those aircon recharge hoses with the integrated pressure gauge at Wal-Mart. Maybe next summer I will have the system evacuated and refilled. I pumped a can into the Lexus and one into the Accord and now both cars air gets colder than I can handle.
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Jul 27, 2009 21:28
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If you plan on keeping the car a long time and doing your own suspension work investigate a lifetime alignment. You pay more money up front (it was $150 at the local Firestone, vs. $50 for a one-time align) and they align whenever you bring it in. The Firestone down the street from my workplace will align to my specifications (lots of negative camber, zero toe) and they re-do it completely free whenever I screw around with the car. I was shocked that the re-aligns were totally free. I thought they would at least crack me $5 for a "shop rag fee" or something.
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Jul 28, 2009 18:34
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I went to the junkyard at lunch and found a fender in the correct color to replace the damaged driver's fender in the 1992 Accord I inherited from my dad almost two months ago. The last time I saw him alive he had given me some cash to find him a replacement fender.
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Jul 28, 2009 22:01
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My SC400 has a vibration above 60mph. I swapped tires on and off the car to determine that both tires that were on the front are bad. I had already taken the wheels to the tire shop to have the balance checked.
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Jul 29, 2009 15:51
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On Saturday I installed an OEM spoiler on my wife's 2000 Honda Accord EX Coupe (4cyl manual). I also replaced the prototype full-range class-D amplifier that had a nasty electrical whine with a less exotic class-AB amplifier with no perceptible noise. I used my friend's vinyl plotter to trim out the center caps of her wheels with body color (red) vinyl with a reverse-cut Honda logo. I also soldered the broken battery terminal in her remote start alarm so that it works again. She had lost the battery door and the terminal was broken loose from rattling around in her purse. Yesterday I changed the oil, vacuumed, washed and waxed her Accord, my 1992 Accord DX and my 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS. I ran out of time and only changed the oil and vacuumed my 1995 Lexus SC400. I also sold the summer wheels and tires from my Lexus since they had to be used with a spacer because of my big brakes. I ordered a new set of tires and some Konig Again 5 wheels in 17x8 with 40mm offset, so they should clear the brakes without any spacers. For now the L-train rides (sits) on some ugly 1995 LS400 wheels with 16" Blizzaks.
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Aug 3, 2009 14:23
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I put new wheels on my Lexus. The old ones didn't fit my big brakes without spacers, and the spacers caused vibration at interstate speeds.  
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Aug 7, 2009 15:36
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The car wasn't sitting on completely flat ground in that picture. The passenger right wheel is on a slope and is down a little bit relative to the other wheels. The suspension has been brought up a little bit since the last time I took pictures of the car. It scraped too much and the ride was just a little too jarring at nearly-full droop. Despite being the same nominal size I think the new tires (Hankook Ventus V12 evo) have a little more sidewall. I liked the wheels I had before but they just didn't fit over the big brakes. These fit with just a little bit of clearance and allow the car to ride smooth on the interstate. I didn't want a larger wheel since I can already tell a difference in the ride between the ugly sixteen inch winter wheels and the seventeen inch summer wheels.
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Aug 7, 2009 20:08
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jammyozzy posted:I changed the camshaft cover gasket after the old one decided to start pissing oil down the front of the engine and gearbox casing. Probably the easiest thing I've done to my car yet, primarily because all the bolts weren't rusted to poo poo. Took it for a long drive and there's no sign of any more oil leaking. Oil leaks keep things from rusting.
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Aug 8, 2009 03:13
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zamin posted:Went through 4 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and a lot of Woolite scrubbing down every piece of vinyl and plastic in the interior. Went back over everything with the Meguire's stuff (forget what it's called, but it's amazing). Then I went down to the car wash, took out my seats, scrubbed every inch of upholstery with a carpet brush and vacuumed. Went over it a few more times with Resolve heavy duty carpet cleaner, Woolite w/ Oxy Clean and aforementioned carpet brush and vacuumed a few more times. Went back over some spots of plastic/vinyl that I couldn't get to easily with the seats in with the Meguire's. Where are the before and after pictures?
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Aug 11, 2009 01:04
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Timage posted:AI, I like turbo noises so I would keep it.
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Aug 11, 2009 14:22
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I replaced the ignition coil in my brother's 1995 Acura Integra so now he can drive his car and I can have my 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS back.
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Sep 2, 2009 16:49
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I bought a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 to replace my 1991 Mercury Tracer LTS a few days ago. I am selling the Tracer to my friend's son Cody. On Saturday Cody helped me swap the seats and strut assembles from the Tracer to the ZX2 and vice versa. He also helped me remove my stereo from the Tracer so I can put it in the ZX2 at a later date. After the suspension and seat swap my wife and I drove to Lincoln to watch the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers open up the season against Florida Atlantic University. Then we had Raising Cane's and went home. Raising Cane's is awesome and I wish there was one in Omaha.
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Sep 8, 2009 20:31
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Here are the pictures of my now-lowered 1998 Escort ZX2. The struts are special units made for the limited edition ZX2 S/R from the Ford Racing catalog. They are shorter than stock and have more aggressive valving. The springs are something I bought from ebay. This set of strut/springs has been used on my 1991 Escort GT hatch, my 1991 Tracer LTS sedan and now they 1998 ZX2 coupe. Each car has been progressively more difficult to get the rear struts into. The rear strut mount bolts on the ZX2 are hard to get to in particular. The seats are from a 1995 Mazda MX-3. They are much more aggressively bolstered and they sit about two inches lower than stock so I can wear a helmet and still have headroom under the sunroof. This sunroof goes OVER the roof instead of inside like my old 1991 Escort GT hatchback. I was worried the navy blue seats would look really out of place in the tan interior but it doesn't. It is kind of like a navy sports coat with khaki pants.   
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Sep 10, 2009 17:54
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Does the car chime when the ignition is set to accessory and the tailgate is open? If so I bet the previous owner liked to set the key to accessory, pop the tailgate and listen to the stereo.
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Sep 11, 2009 18:19
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The other day I bought a 1995 Toyota Avalon for $700. It needed brakes, struts, exhaust work, and tires. It was missing one of the fifteen inch factory alloys so the fourth wheel was a fifteen inch full-size spare. Friday morning I ordered new struts and new brake pads for all four corners along with some other maintenance items like radiator hoses and a new serpentine belt. On Friday afternoon I dropped it off at the muffler shop down the street from my work to address the exhaust leak. The flex pipe was bad. On this car the flex pipe and the pre-cat are one piece. I don't weld, so I had the muffler shop weld in a new piece of flex pipe for $150.  After the exhaust repair the engine was extremely quiet just like it was supposed to be. The car was still borderline scary to drive between the tires with belt showing through and the completely blown struts. I mentioned earlier the car was missing one fifteen inch alloy wheel. I had a spare set of sixteen inch Bridgestone Turanza tires from a set of wheels I bought. I found a set of sixteen inch alloys from a 2000 Lexus LS400 for $70 on craigslist so I had the used tires mounted on the Lexus wheels and then put the Lexus wheels on the car. I have another set of these wheels for my 1995 Lexus SC400 for snow tires and they look ridiculous on my SC, but they fit this car very well. I think its because the general design of this car so closely mimics that of the LS400.   During my lunch break today I went after some stains on the carpet with some spot cleaner I bought at the store. I must say I was impressed with the results. Spot cleaning products have come a long way since the last time I used them years ago. I need to finish that up and then scrub down the interior with a Magic Eraser. The car now drives much better with the biggest improvements yet to come. I still need to check the engine codes and fix whatever is wrong there, have my friend PDR a couple of dents out of the fenders, and fix the brakes and struts using parts that should be here the tomorrow or the day after. Wish me luck!
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Sep 14, 2009 23:39
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I did a front and rear brake job on my newly acquired $700 1995 Toyota Avalon. I was afraid the rear calipers might be bad, but they compressed with no problem and they definitely hold the car in place. My least favorite aspect of working on disc brakes: rotor surfacing. I drove across town to my mom's house where my tools are. I took all four rotors off the car. I took the rotors to O'Reilly Auto because they turn rotors. The fronts were okay but the rear rotors were out of spec. They did not have the rear rotors at any of their stores in the city. I called Autozone. They had one rotor at the nearby location and two other locations each had two rotors, but of course both stores were across town (about twenty minutes). I spent more time driving to buy rotors and drop off and pick up rotors for machining than actually putting the parts on the car. I had the pads already from Rockauto.com. If I was smart I would buy rotors online in the first place, but I'm a cheapskate and I hate throwing good parts away so I never buy the rotors and always take them in to be checked for machinability. It all got done though, in my mom's driveway with OMG 1000W halogen lights allowing me to finish.
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Sep 16, 2009 05:02
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I set out to replace all four struts on my $700 1995 Toyota Avalon. To access the strut mount nuts for the struts you must: Remove the back sear bottom Remove the back seat back Remove the third brake light Remove the rear parcel shelf trim Then you can access the nuts for the rear struts. Also, Why on earth did Toyota decide that the sway bar end links should connect to the strut body instead of to the lower control arms? I only got the rear struts done but the fronts should be a piece of cake since there is more room and no trim to remove to access the strut mount nuts. The car has a much smoother more controlled ride so it was worth it.
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Sep 17, 2009 04:11
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When I replaced the rear struts on my $700 1995 Toyota Avalon all the bodywork under the rear package shelf and back seat was incredibly dusty and dirty. I hate the idea of bolting parts on top of a mess so last night I cleaned the bodywork and installed the back seat.
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Sep 23, 2009 20:26
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Thanks for the kind words. The struts are done and the car is liking riding on a cloud. The gold badges look better in the pics than they do on the car. I have another set of those same wheels for winter wheels for my SC400. My SC400 wheels have gold emblems on the center caps so I think I'm going to switch them over so everything matches. The gold badges look extra tacky on my SC so everybody wins. I am selling the car to my brother since he needs it. He has a six-year-old son that stays over on weekends plus his live-in GF has a four-year-old son and is eight months pregnant with my brother's second child, a daughter. I have no kids and need no back seat or back doors. I haven't been able to do much to any of my cars since I moved into my first house September 19 and helped my brother move into his first house September 26. My garage is a disaster area and the inside of the house has been taking all my attention. Plus its football season and I've been to all three Nebraska home games and some of my friend's son's high school games. I did buy some great big steel shelves that are rated to handle like 4500 pounds each yesterday. I need to assemble them though.
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Sep 28, 2009 16:59
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LloydDobler posted:I read this link on how to swap the guts, and tried it out. I picked up two mirror assemblies, one with auto-dim and one with a mechanical dimming toggle. I figured that if the autodim mirror tested bad, or if mine tested good, I'd just put in the mechanical one.
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Oct 2, 2009 18:24
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I put one of those little S2000-style stubby antennas on my 1998 ZX2. It had a huge long chrome thing that looked retarded. Also, this isn't TO my ride, but FOR my ride. I had my contractor friend come out and pour a third parking pad on the driveway at my new house. Now I can pick between cars without having to park something on the narrow street. I have been hit-and-run a couple times and it street parking makes me paranoid.
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Oct 2, 2009 23:11
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I mostly installed a remote start and a pair of door lock actuators in my 1992 Honda Accord DX five-speed with a little help and guidance from my friend James. Keyless entry and rempote start on a nearly twenty year old base model is awesome.
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Oct 4, 2009 06:57
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I was driving my 92 Accord DX back to work from lunch and the manual transmission stopped working. It made a noise like grinding gears and now the shifter won't go into any gears.
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Oct 6, 2009 14:20
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Yesterday I helped pull the transmission, clutch and flywheel off my 1992 Honda Accord DX. This morning I dropped the flywheel off at the machine shop to be turned. Tonight I will return to my friend Brad's garage to assist with installing the new clutch kit, rear main seal, new transmission seals, and used transmission.
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Oct 12, 2009 15:49
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I helped my friend Brad finish putting the new clutch parts and junkyard mantran in my 1992 Accord DX. A couple small teething problems: the power steering doesn't seem to be working, and the speedometer cuts out sometimes, and when that happens the CEL comes on a minute later. But at least the car moves under its own power again!
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Oct 14, 2009 04:13
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When my friend Brad helped me replace the transmission and clutch in my 1992 Accord DX we used the speed sensor from the "new" transmission. This didn't work out. So last night we swapped the sensor from the old transmission onto the new one. Now my speedometer and cruise control work and the check engine light is gone. I also replaced the valve cover gasket and the associated plug well gaskets. It had been leaking pretty bad onto the exhaust manifold heat shield and got pretty smelly.
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Oct 21, 2009 15:41
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Continuing with the ZX2 talk I started stripping the very crappy window tint off the inside of the glass. So far the driver's window is tint-free but I did put a couple small scratches in the glass with the razor blade. I pulled the tint off the back glass. The outer layer came off but the inner layer is still stuck to the glass in some parts. This is going to be trouble I can tell. I know that you have to take it easy with the razor blade on the back glass because the blade can tear up the rear defrost element.
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Dec 2, 2009 20:00
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GET EM SLUGGER posted:I know auto parts stores sell some sort of spray that's supposed to help remove tint somehow. I don't have any idea whether it works or not, though. I DO know that peeling off old tint is a very stinky job. I need some stronger ammonia-based cleaner and a big pack of razor blades to finish this job up.
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Dec 2, 2009 23:58
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I continued my tint removal project. Removing the tint a square inch at a time from the back window while trying not to gouge the defroster lines really sucks rear end. My front driver's side window is now free of tint and adhesive. I have about half of the back glass free of tint but there is still adhesive all over it. I have been going outside and spraying the tint with ammonia-based window cleaner every hour in an effort to weaken the remaining tint and adhesive. Remember kids: life is too short for lovely window tint. Pay for the good stuff and have it installed at a reputable shop with a lifetime warranty and a history of stable management.
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Dec 4, 2009 17:42
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FogHelmut posted:Does Goo Gone work on tint adhesive, or will it just gently caress everything up? The tint on the side windows in the back seat came off real clean with no delamination.
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Dec 5, 2009 00:32
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I went to the junkyard to test fit a fifteen inch Maxima wheel on my sister's 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S. The Maxima wheel did not clear the front brakes on the new Altima. I cleaned the windows with my new triangle on a stick window cleaning tool and then applied Rain-X on the outside windows. My brother-in-law had never seen Rain-X before and he was amused. While I was there I spotted a 94 Mazda MX-3 with a perfect driver's seat. My 1998 Ford ZX2 has MX-3 seats already but the driver's seat is all ripped up and the foam is bad. I took the seat home, swapped the seat belt buckle off my existing seat, and bolted the new seat in. Perfect. I also finished up stripping all the old tint and adhesive off the windows. The car is going to the shop for 3M tint on Monday morning. Then my wife got home and we cleaned the house a bit so it is nice when our guests come over to watch Nebraska hopefully beat Texas in the Big XII Championship game. Go Big Red! Tomorrow I'm taking it to my friend's shop to put a remote start on the car for all the cold mornings ahead. If I have time I am going to swap in my Alpine deck with iPod controls and my four-channel amp.
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Dec 6, 2009 00:37
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Yesterday I put a remote start in my mantran 1998 Ford ZX2. I also swapped all-season tires onto my ZX2 and snow tires onto my mom's AWD CR-V (she delivers mail and HATES snow). It came in handy right away since it snowed a couple inches last night but the car was toasty warm and ready to go. Unfortunately the rear window defroster on my ZX2 doesn't work anymore after stripping the window tint off the back window. Grr.
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Dec 7, 2009 16:29
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I put winter wiper blades on my 92 Honda Accord and my 98 Ford ZX2 and my wife's 00 Accord EX. After work my sister is coming by to have her new snow tires put on her 08 Altima. She bought steel wheels from The Tire Rack so the tires are already mounted and balanced. I was going to drive my 92 Accord to work today but the doors were both frozen shut. I took my wife's car to work instead. Eventually it warmed up enough to get the old car open so my wife put it in the garage to defrost. And speaking of defrost I had a local glass company come out and replace the back glass in my ZX2. The tab broke off for the defroster so I have to take it into the glass shop tomorrow so they can fix it. Then it goes to the tint shop on Monday to have the glass tinted correctly.
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Dec 11, 2009 00:22
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It wasn't my car, but on Saturday I helped my sister and her husband decide on a used car to buy. They ended up getting a 1999 Nissan Maxima GXE five-speed with about 170k miles on it for $2200. The car has aftermarket wheels and a Fidanza flywheel. The previous owner was a very meticulous type, a pharmacist by trade. The car is very clean and the drivetrain is strong.
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Dec 15, 2009 15:34
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 23:31 |
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I treated the rubber boots on my doors with WD-40 and sprayed some lithium grease in my lock cylinders. Hopefully the car is not so grumpy in the cold now.
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Dec 28, 2009 19:37
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